Empyrean 36: Riddle Me This (Patreon)

Amelia, here! :) Please enjoy another chapter of Empyrean's Flight.
I played around a bit with the idea of how this dungeon works, keen to hear any feedback. Thanks for reading!

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“I suppose that suits us,” Soren said, the first time he spoke since we faced Arinna. “We wanted to leave anyway, didn’t we, Elana?”

“We did,” I said. “But we don’t know how to do it through the dungeon.”

“That little artifact around your neck should help you,” Arinna said. “Either that, or you die in here. I am happy with both options.”

“What do we get out of this?” I asked.

“You get to live,” she said simply.

I traced a small path back and forth between Adalinda and Soren. After everything we had been through, this felt like the final hurdle before we got our true revenge. The plague of players in the poor quarter gave the Devils more power than they ever deserved, and all in all, I truly believed that is what caused Alon’s death. Yes, we got the opportunity to continue forward without Arinna’s intervention, but that’s what we already came here to do. She was trying to paint that she would allow us to do what we were already doing.

And I was tired of letting people use me and my family as pawns in their games.

“I will leave Mesina, but you have to give me more than that,” I said, stopping in front of the goddess. Just a little closer than before. “We were already on Alastair’s trail, so you cannot wave that in my face as an advantage in this deal.”

Arinna narrowed her eyes at me, but she did not attack. I slowly let out a breath I had been holding. It was a risk to demand more from the goddess, but the fact that we were still standing meant that she was at least considering what I had said.

“I underestimated your courage,” she said. “I can appreciate that. What do you want?”

I put my thumb and index finger against my chin and stroked it slowly. This was all coming along very quickly, and I had not thought about what a Power could give me. Information? Something to help me become a stronger player? There were many options, but I did not have a lot of time to make my decision.

“Ask her for information,” Adalinda said.

“What?”

“Ask her about your family,” the celestial suggested. “She clearly knows something. If you have the information she possesses, it’ll help you forge your path as a player. There is a reason she has been vague about your Class.”

“You’re right,” I said. Turning my head back to the goddess, I opened my mouth to start speaking.

“I heard,” she said before I could get any words out. “You get one question.”

I said nothing at first. One question—that’s all I had. What did I want to know? It was a difficult thing to decide. Not only was I not sure of what Arinna knew about me, about my lineage, but I wasn’t sure how to ask it so crudely that I didn’t get anything new at all.

“Well?” the goddess asked impatiently.

“Tell me,” I started, giving myself a few more seconds to think of my words. “Why are you so interested in a lowly player like me?”

Arinna rolled her eyes and let out a frustrated sigh. “Clearly you do not know what your Class represents,” she remarked. “But it has to do with that. The fact that Empyrean comes from an ancient line of players, something not everyone had access to. In today’s age, it’s impossible to find a stone with that Class. I would comfortably say you are the only one with it.”

I looked at the goddess, waiting for her to continue.

“Empyrean means something more than a mere Class you can configure as a player,” she said. “It means something more dangerous. But I am not going to give you any more than that, since you did not ask.”

“But you haven’t really answered my question,” I pointed out. “Sure, my Class is rare, but what does that have to do with you wanting to kill me?”

Arinna put her palm against her forehead and closed her eyes. “It indicates that you may grow into something far more dangerous than I could ever deal with,” she said. “I truly hope you are wasting your potential, so that this isn’t the case.”

“So then why let me go?”

“Because I don’t have a reason to kill you right now,” she snapped. “Believe it or not, I am not a bad person. I don’t usually kill without reason. And looking at you now, knowing what you represent, I can prepare for a worst-case scenario. I cut down your people once, I can do it again.”

I nodded, hiding a small smile. “Can we go now?”

“Yes, please,” she said. “And remember, if you return to Mesina, you will die. You will find no safety here.” She looked around at Soren and Adalinda. “None of you.”

I turned around promptly and started walking toward the main door. But, before we could enter the next part of the dungeon, a silk voice called from behind me. “Elana, wait.”

Turning to face the voice, I found Celeste had walked up to us.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I just wanted to thank you,” she said. “For what you did for me with Eoman.”

Saying nothing, I folded my arms. I wasn’t sure what to say to the silver-haired woman. As much as I understood that she had her reasons for what she did, I couldn’t bring myself to forgive her for playing a part in Alon’s death and the Devil’s takeover of the poor quarter.

“If you would allow me to explain,” she continued, “I have been sworn to Arinna for decades now. She saved my life. I felt, I still feel, that I owe her everything I can give her. I truly thought I was working toward the greater good.”

I stared her down, still saying nothing.

“That’s why I told her about the players coming here,” she said awkwardly. “In my own way, I was trying to make amends. I hope you can forgive me.”

I unfolded my arms and felt my face soften. “I don’t know if I can, Celeste,” I said. “But I hold no ill will toward you. I hope you have a better life.”

The silver-haired woman grew teary-eyed and scratched around a pocket in her pants. “I have a gift for you,” she said. “As a thank you. It’s been in my family for generations, but I have no real use for it. I hope you do.”

She handed me a small purple amulet and walked away without saying another word. Turning swiftly, I walked through the door to the next part of the dungeon.

It was finally time to find and kill Alastair.

✵ ✵ ✵

You have acquired a charmed amethyst bracelet. This item gives you +2 to Faith and a 10% increase in faith resistances.

Strange, I thought, inspecting the amulet Celeste had given me. It seemed like it was a player item, but not something she could have used. She even mentioned that it had been passed down in her family…

If she was lying, I would never really know. All I could surmise now was that the bracelet was useful to me, and I was grateful for that. I put it on and admired it for a few seconds. It was a strange gift, but I loved how the purple color popped against my skin. It made me feel slightly better about myself.

“El?” Soren said, interrupting my musings. “Where to now?”

I looked up from my wrist and studied the area in front of us. We were standing in another corridor, not unlike the one that led to the previous chamber, but the gems seemed to fade slightly further in.

“Looks like the only way out is forward,” I said. “Let’s go.”

The three of us moved swiftly around the corner, and a few seconds later, we came across a staircase. Unlike the muddy floors we had been treading so far, the stairs looked like they had been crafted by the gemstones along the wall. They spiralled up into what looked like a second level of the dungeon.

Walking meaningfully ahead, I noted that the gems along the walls changed color as we ascended. What had previously been a deep indigo changed gradually to a lighter purple, and as we reached the top of the stairs, the light from the gems shone in a bright green.

The second floor of the dungeon was different from the first. Where we had previously travelled from one large chamber to the next, the floor here consisted of one long passage with doors on each side. I looked around, keeping still to listen for anything, and couldn’t tell if Alastair and his players had come through yet.

Adalinda and Soren followed me as I walked slowly down the corridor. All the doors were closed. I pursed my lips, unhappy with the fact that we couldn’t tell if they had opened any of the smaller rooms, or if they had just travelled down the corridor.

“I don’t know what to do,” I said, explaining to my companions my concerns. I did not trust that we had enough time to search each room, but at the same time, I did not know where to go next. We were facing a kind of maze.

“Let’s search a few of the rooms,” Adalinda suggested. “We can see if they’re standalone chambers, or if one holds another staircase. If we move quickly, I believe we will catch up to the players.”

“I think we should search the rooms,” Soren repeated unknowingly.

“Adalinda said the same thing,” I confirmed. “Alright, let’s try it out. But remember, we need to be reticent of anymore insects.”

I walked toward the first door on the left of the corridor and turned the handle slowly. As it opened, we were greeted with a small room that barely held all three of us. There was nothing in it but a small tea table in the corner.

Entering the room was a suffocating experience. But when I tried to exit, I found myself stopped by an invisible wall. Soren had not managed to walk in with me, but thankfully the celestial was by my side.

“Soren?” I said, panicked. “Can you hear me?”

No sound came from my brother’s mouth even though I could see him opening it. “Damnit,” I swore. “What now?”

“Let’s wait,” Adalinda said calmly. “There is surely a way out of here.”

I turned to my brother and held up my hand. Opening my mouth, I exaggerated the word ‘wait’ so he would know we were trying to get out. He nodded slowly when he saw and sat down in front of the entryway.

“Hatchling,” a voice said suddenly. “Your trial has begun.”

“Do you hear that?” I said.

“Yes,” Adalinda replied.

Thanking gods I didn’t believe in that I wasn’t going crazy, I stayed silent, listening intently for the voice again.

“You must answer three riddles to rid yourself of this spell. If you fail, you will remain here and perish.”

I took a sharp breath.

“What has four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?”

Scrunching my face, I worried about what kind of answers the mysterious voice sought. Nothing came to mind immediately, and I was scared to take a chance at talking to Adalinda in case any words I said would be taken as an answer.

“Elana?”

“Yes…”

The voice did not speak.

“I was worried to say anything,” I said to the celestial, sighing in slight relief. “Thankfully it seems mindspeak does not count in this.”

“I know the answer to this one,” Adalinda said simply. “It’s a human.”

“How do you know?”

“In the beginning of your life, you crawl on four feet. In the middle, you walk on two legs. When you are old, you use a cane,” she explained.

In awe of her intelligent thinking, I thought that this made the most sense. “A human’s lifetime,” I said aloud.

“Correct,” the voice said. “When you stop to look, you can always see me. But if you try to touch me, you can never feel me. Although you walk towards me, I remain the same distance from you. What am I?”

I know this one, I thought. “The horizon.”

“Correct,” the voice confirmed.

There were moments of silence that followed, and I felt uneasy. The voice did not speak again, but instead, a book appeared on the small table in the corner. Cautiously, I approached it, and picked the book up.

The Monsters of the Forever Kingdom.

The book had no author. Holding it proved to be quite challenging, as it was the largest tome I had ever seen. I flipped through the pages and found a myriad of pictures and descriptions of monsters and creatures that existed throughout the world.

“Your next riddle is your last. Are you ready?” the voice asked suddenly, pulling me out of my bewilderment.

“Yes.”

“I breathe, consume, and grow. I was and never will be alive. What am I?”

What the—

“Your task is to find the picture of a creature who uses the answer to this riddle and place it on the table before you. You have two minutes.”