Chapter 24
Twenty-Four
It would’ve been ironic to survive the Elemental Plane of Fire for nineteen years, only to get burned to death in the Core after a few months.
But three things saved me.
My old crawler charm—which was designed to protect Red miners from extreme heat—activated.
The enchanted band I’d taken off a dead pirate, bearing the mark of Aarhobad, created by the vile elf who’d shelled my barge and murdered half my family, also triggered its protective magic.
And most of all, I’d gotten really fucking lucky.
Everyone is born with a bit of natural resistance to the magical element native to their home realm.
As powerful as this spell was, if it had been based on any of the other elements, I would’ve died instantly.
If it had been any of my companions who’d trigger this fire spell, they would’ve been immolated and burned to a crisp.
Since it was me, it just really, really hurt.
It happened fast, but when the heat hit, I’d flung myself backward hard as I could. It was instinct from years of working around spitting lava and fiery plumes. This burned just as hot as one of those, but thankfully only for a few seconds; otherwise, it would’ve cooked everyone in the room.
I landed on my back, skidded a bit, and promptly had to tear off my burning cloak and fling it aside. Core clothing wasn’t nearly as fire resistant as what we wore back home!
The other Outcasts had been far enough back to not get scorched, but it still rocked them. Krachma had temporarily turned his skin to stone with Impervious. Azarin was shielding her eyes, and called out, “Oz!”
Swift Trax rushed to my side, coral sword at the ready, which was very brave of him because fire magic was notoriously unforgiving against creatures from the Plane of Water.
As he stood over me, the cobwebs above us burned away into sparks.
Then all the dust that had been blasted began to rain down in a choking cloud.
“Hold your position!” Rade shouted. “If anyone runs, you’ll just set off another trap. Carnavon, are you alive?”
“I’m alright.” I stood up and began stamping the fire from my burning cloak before it got ruined entirely. “Fuck, that was hot!”
“Is anyone else injured?”
From the responses to Rade’s question, I’d been the only one struck, and magic and natural immunity left me with nothing more than a reddened face and some of my beard and eyebrows charred off.
When I checked my protections, the metal of my old crawler charm broke apart and crumbled to pieces.
This hadn’t been the first time it saved my life, but it would be the last. Farewell, old friend.
“My condolences on the loss of your bracelet,” Trax sent solemnly.
That trap had been a lot flashier than the previous ones, and easily been ten times nastier than the biggest Shroud of Fire I’d ever managed to cast. Even a few seconds of burning had raised the temperature in the gigantic room dramatically.
The other humans had surely begun sweating, but for me, it was a taste of home.
At least I wasn’t cold anymore!
Luckily, my light charm survived, and it revealed that the blast had struck the dust from the oddly shaped tiles. They were in various colors, and upon each was carved a different symbol. There were a lot of symbols.
“Well, that’s just lovely. It’s even more complicated than I thought. There’s got to be a pattern to this.”
“That one didn’t work, so just poke a different one,” Rufus shouted helpfully from where he was safely away from Korthican’s incredibly destructive magic. “You’ve got this.”
“Picking wrong once cost me a charm and nearly ended my life. There’s surely a bunch more spells ready just as dangerous or worse waiting, and I’d only need to guess about a dozen more right in a row to make it across safely, assuming that’s even possible at all.
How about we think this through instead? ”
“But that’ll take all day,” Rufus whined.
“Poking things until I die is a fine idea, but oh, look at that, the end of the sword got melted off.” And being at the center of the blast, that wasn’t even an exaggeration to shut him up.
The tip was gone entirely, and the rest of the blade still glowed orange.
“Sadly, we’ll just have to use our brains. ”
“Huh… I suppose I’ll stay over here, then.”
“Why don’t you go check on Danny and Bognar?”
Rufus left after that, and the other—less stupid—Outcasts carefully retraced my steps so they could get close enough to see the puzzling tiles for themselves.
There were dozens of highly stylized symbols, used repeatedly, across different color tiles.
The one I’d touched was red, and carved on it was some lines with a sun on top.
I recognized many of the symbols from the Encyclopedia Ettymus, while others were a mystery, and it all seemed too random to make any sense to me.
“Anybody good at puzzles?” I asked.
“Krachma hates puzzles.”
That wasn’t a surprise. “Thanks, big fella. Anyone else?”
“The Squalo do not understand the concept of puzzles. It appears to be a complicated ritual designed to burn oneself to death.”
“A puzzle is more like a game, Trax. It’s a problem you’ve got to persist at until you figure it out and get a reward. They’re supposed to be fun.”
“Land dwellers are very confusing.”
“I didn’t say they were all fun.”
Rade was coming at it from a different angle. “Perhaps you could use your Ascend and jump across?”
I’d considered that myself. “There’s still the matter of picking which tile to land on by the door.”
Sifuso was looking at the ceiling, which was now more visible with the cobwebs burned off. “I could climb. Stick to walls. Reach the door and slip inside. All without touching the floor.”
“You’re welcome to try, but you really think Korthican took the time to fortify this place this much, to hide his greatest enchantment, and he didn’t think of that?”
“Before Carnavon jumps or Sifuso climbs to blow themselves to bits, give me a second on the puzzle.” Azarin squatted at the edge and studied the tiles. “There’s seven colors. Red, blue, white, brown, green, black, and gold. Same as the elements.”
“Korthican was on the Council. They love their sevens. Seven gates, seven realms, seven days of the week.”
“Assuming they’re in the usual order, red should be first. Only you touched red and got roasted for it.
” Azarin scowled as she looked over the first row of tiles.
“There’s four red ones in reach, but each of those tiles has got a different sign on it.
Circle. Mountain. Hands pushed together.
And the one you pushed already, tower with a ball on top of it. ”
“That’s a lighthouse,” Rade said. “Probably this one, I’d assume.”
“And the hands are palm-to-palm…” I noted. “Praying, maybe?”
“Interesting.” Azarin got so dangerously close to one of the tiles that she had to hold her hair with one hand to keep it from falling and touching the dangerous floor.
“That’s not a plain mountain. It’s the Great Machine.
The Nexus is the center of all the realms…
” She squinted toward the next line. “From there is there a blue tile with a cloud on it? And yes, there is, assuming that’s what the swirly thing is supposed to be…
I think I’ve got it.” She rose and took a deep breath. “Everybody, stand back.”
Azarin was alarmingly impulsive, but this was a really bad idea, even by her standards. Her saint blessed those who acted without hesitation, but that was ridiculous. “What’re you doing?”
She demonstrated she had a good memory, by repeating back the password exactly.
“At the center of the matter cloud, across all realms entwined, shines forth the beacon. Pray to the gods and saints while the enemies of the council despair. There’s a symbol for each part of that.
We just need to match the next symbol in the password to the colors in order. ”
“Let’s consider it a bit more, and then I should be the one to—”
Except she did it anyway.
We all winced as she hopped onto the red tile with the mountain, but she didn’t immediately explode.
“Oh, thank Naanwalla, I was only half sure that was going to work! But see? It’s the password. It’s not just to unlock the door, it’s the key to make it across the floor too.”
“What’re you doing?” My heart was pounding. “You could get killed!”
“Sure, but it’s not fair for you to take all the risk.
We’re in this together. But we’ve got it now.
It’s all in the password. At the center.
What’s the center of everything? The Nexus within the Great Machine.
Of the matter cloud, which is all that everything of all the realms rolled together, and there happens to be a cloud, on a blue tile, and water is next after fire. ” She lifted one foot.
“Wait, wait, wait! You don’t know if you’re actually right, or if the fire trap just hasn’t recharged yet.”
“Then logically, if I’m wrong, when I step on this next one, I’ll be promptly killed by some manner of water spell. Welp… I’m sort of committed now.”
“I am resistant to that form of magic. May I?”
“Hang on! Trax says he’ll do it. If you’re wrong, water spells won’t hurt him as much.”
“An excellent point.” Azarin put her foot back down on the red tile and breathed a sigh of relief. “After you, Master Bloodtrail.”
Trax jumped smoothly onto the indicated blue tile. He landed without incident.
“Please inform your female that I am happy to take it from here, because if something goes wrong, my reflexes are far superior to hers. I do not intend offense, but humans are rather sluggish when compared to Squalos.”
“Trax says he’ll do the rest. He’s fast enough to dodge a trap.”
“But air is after water, and—”
“Azarin… please. You’ve shared enough risk already.”
She must have heard the fear in my voice, because she relented—which was rare—and stepped back onto solid ground. “Alright, Trax, what do you see?”
He bombarded our brains with all the choices.
The white tile with seven strings wrapping around each other had to be next.
And when Trax moved to that one without incident, we knew we were on the right track.
Then there was a brown tile with the sun on it, and Trax stepped to it without getting crushed or smashed.
Azarin went through the next set of images. “Green tile with a lighthouse. That’s got to be the beacon mentioned.”
Worrying about my friends in danger was a lot worse than being in danger myself. “Step careful, Trax. Green tile. Lighthouse.”
Trax stepped onto that one, muscles tensed, ready to leap for safety. Squalo’s had no expression to read, but he seemed to be having a fine time. “You were correct, Carnavon. Puzzles can be fun.”
Black tile, hands in prayer. Trax made it safely.
Then there was a gold tile with the crown and throne for the assembly of gods.
Appropriate that, combining the religious with the element representing the eternal.
Then we got into a debate over the next one, as the eighth time was in theory back to Red, and there were a couple of those to choose from which both made sense in context.
“If the password lumps gods and saints together, then the monster-looking thing is the enemies,” I argued.
“But why separate out the two in the password?” Rade pointed out. “The circle on the other red tile is surely a halo. In the paintings, saints always have halos.”
“Or it could just be a circle.”
“This is very exciting,” Trax sent.
“If we choose wrong, you could die.”
“Correct. That is why it is exciting. I have decided that I like puzzles. But please, do not chose incorrectly because dying would be most unfortunate. I have a lot of things to do.”
“We’re trying our best… There’s nothing on the tile he’s standing on now for saints, just the gods.
And if he goes to the circle one, from it, there’s a logical path for the next few to get him to the end.
” Rade and Azarin were probably right, but the uncertainty gnawed at me.
Fire was the element Trax was most vulnerable to, and if he got hit by the same intensity of spell I had, he’d surely die.
“You guys are probably right… Ready, Trax?”
“Yes. If I am burned to death, I want you to know that I have enjoyed my time among the land creatures and you have been the best friend I have ever had who is a mammal.”
“Thanks, Trax. And you’re the best fish man thing I’ve ever known. I really mean that. Now go to the red tile with a circle.”
Trax stepped onto it, and nothing happened. I breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out even Krachma had been holding his breath.
Someone called down from the top of the stairs. I could barely hear them, but it sounded like Bognar. He was probably trying to tell us that Morton and Dathka had finally arrived. Now that it seemed we were past the truly dangerous bits, Morton’s timing was perfect.
There was only one blue tile that could possibly represent enemies.
The Council had their own well-known symbol, which hadn’t changed over the last five hundred years, and then, of the four tiles which touched the secret door, only one was the right color, and had tears beneath an eye, symbolizing despair.
Which seemed an appropriate last step, since Korthican had hidden his shining beacon during an invasion when all seemed lost.
We all cheered when Trax reached the door without dying.
“Splendid. We should do puzzles more often.”
The door swung gently inward, and an extremely bright light spilled out. Trax slipped inside.
“There are a few things in here. What would you like for me to retrieve first?”
“Do you see the lamp?”
I heard a commotion behind us. Someone was running down the stairs, yelling, but I couldn’t understand what they were saying.
Trax sent me a mind picture of a rusting metal container, which contained a light charm so bright that even what slipped between the gaps in the seams was blinding. “Is this it?”
The noise was getting louder. It was Rufus, and he was really upset about something.
“Yes, Trax, grab it.”
“I have obtained the device.”
An ominous rumble surrounded us. Dust and bits of rock rained down from the ceiling.
With its prize given up, the chamber no longer had a need to exist, and the magic which had been keeping out the relentless barrage of the sea for five centuries cracked.
Seawater began squirting from the walls.