“So bleak,” she noted. “Let’s focus on the positives, yeah? Looks like he’s solving the room for us.”
Keras was, in fact, “solving” the room… by slicing the other pendulums in the same way he had the first. When he was done with those, he grabbed the swinging scythe by the bottom, stopping it without difficulty. He yanked downward, breaking the chain that attached it to the ceiling. The blade fell to the floor.
I looked back at Vera. “I’m pretty sure we were supposed to use those pendulums to break through the crystal sections on the walls.”
She waved one hand back and forth dismissively. “It won’t be a problem.”
We made it into the room, stepping over the rubble from the destroyed traps, and watched as Keras moved to the red crystal section on the wall. Another blur in front of him, with no obvious immediate impact this time.
When he kicked forward, a large section of wall fell away. Not just red crystal, the solid stone surrounding it fell away. Enough that a crude doorway had formed in its wake. I couldn’t see anything but blackness beyond it.
He walked through and vanished.
I looked at the other crystal sections on the floor and ceiling. “We could split up from him here.” I patted the dueling cane on my hip. “I think there’s a good chance I could blast through that floor section.”
She shook her head. “As dangerous as Keras is, he’s our best chance of making it through here alive. C’mon. Gotta follow him before the rooms shift.” She grabbed my hand, leading me forward.
While she led me by the hand, I processed her statement. Would the rooms change while we were inside them? I hadn’t seen that happen, but it wasn’t impossible. In fact, with a large enough number of people inside the towers, it seemed likely that it had to happen on occasion.
I’d have to research that more when I got the chance.
Vera vanished the moment she hit the boundary between rooms. It looked as holding hands hadn’t caused me to be included in the teleportation effect. I briefly wondered how Keras and the kid he was carrying had been affected, since they had appeared to vanish together. Was it based on consciousness? Or maybe proximity?
Either way, I was alone amid the shattered traps. Another window to break off from the group if I wanted to.
Vera had warned me about the shifting rooms, but I figured I could spare a few seconds to try to get some more information. I hastily pulled the book out of my backpack. I probably wasn’t going to get another chance at this.
You are in one of the tower’s holding chambers. Do not interact with the prisoners. Leave immediately. The people contained within the cells are not to be trusted.
I flipped to the next page.
That was a mistake.
You are risking a great deal, Corin, and I will not be able to protect you if you continue down this path.
No one is placed in a chamber like that one without a good reason.
And the next.
You are in the Room of Arcs, or what remains of it. You see now the power of one of the people you have freed. Recapturing them would be beyond your present abilities. Your best hope is to escape them.
That was not reassuring. I wrote a brief reply…
Thank you. Why are you helping me?
…and slammed the book shut. I would read more when time permitted.
I stepped into the next room.
I arrived in what looked more like a noble’s manor than another chamber of the tower. The walls were painted white and adorned with paintings and hanging weapons. At roughly equal intervals between the paintings were standing suits of armor with intricate etchings of silver and gold.
Three crystal chandeliers hung from a ceiling high above, each with a differently colored central crystal that bathed a section of the room with light. The way the lights overlapped made the room an effect that I imagined looked something like a rainbow. I wasn’t sure because I’d never actually seen a rainbow, but I understood the concept.
Pretty.
It was a fleeting thought, and one that was unusual for me, but the mixtures of lights pleased me in a visceral way. I shook my head to dismiss the thought. I had more important things to be thinking about.
I was standing on a plush red carpet, which covered a path with three branches. The left and right paths led to identical double-doors, tall and wooden. The central path led up a carpeted stairway.
The central chamber was huge. I was probably a hundred feet from the stairway or either of the other exits. Keras stood at the base of the stairs in a low stance, his hand on the hilt of his weapon. The unconscious boy was lying nearby. Four tall pillars reached toward the ceiling, and Vera was currently taking cover behind one of them.
I could see why. We were not alone.
At the top of the stairs was a figure in golden armor. He was at least seven feet tall, a crystalline sword held in his right hand. Feathered wings stretched from his back, flexing in the air, spanning a width greater than the figure’s height. A visible aura of scintillating light emanated from his body. His blonde hair was cut in a short military style, his face perfectly a sculpted image of masculine valor.
Katashi, the Visage of Valor, barred our path.
It could have been a trick. An illusion, a shape-shifting monster, a simulacrum. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t willing to risk confronting even the shadow of a god. I rushed to the same pillar Vera was standing behind.
“Might want to find a different spot, kid. We’re kind of making ourselves a target if we’re in the same place.”
Right. I’d just go right back out into the open… “Uh, maybe in a minute.” Maybe not. “What’d I miss?”
“Oh, you know, just a visage of the goddess appearing in a flash of fire and thunder. Nothing big.” Her voice was tense, despite the levity of her words.
“Any idea—”
The visage took a step forward. I felt the entire room vibrate as he moved. His presence hung like a shroud in the air, pushing me down and forcing the breath from my lungs. Vera and I braced ourselves against the nearby pillar.
Keras remained standing with no apparent difficulty, raising a hand to scratch his chin. “I would appreciate it if you’d stop that.”
“You are not welcome here, interloper.” Katashi waved his right hand toward Keras. I was barely able to discern the blur that appeared in the air as he made the gesture. Keras flew backward like he’d been hit by a train, slamming into one of the support pillars with an audible crack, and falling to the floor. I winced at the impact.
Keras picked himself up, dusting off his coat. It was only as he stepped forward that I saw thick cracks along the surface of the pillar where he’d struck.
How the…?
A collision with enough force to crack a pillar should have shattered a human’s bones into mush. I briefly considered the possibility that Keras was some sort of artificial construct made of a substance harder than stone, but he moved too quickly and smoothly for that explanation to be likely. Maybe he was protected by some sort of barrier…but that didn’t explain the damage to the pillar itself. Did he have some method of manipulating kinetic energy? I’d never heard of an attunement for that, but it wasn’t impossible.
I turned my head toward Vera. “You wouldn’t happen to have any way of protecting us, would you?”