When they woke up the next morning it only took them half an hour to reach the first temple at the base of the mountain. It was a modest building, low stone walls with narrow windows and no door. Artemis stood regarding the building for a long moment her hands running up and down the strap of her messenger bag, her eyes had a far off look and her head was tilted to the side like she was listening to something. Amphiaraus had the same look on his face and Autolycus groaned. "There are two of them now…" He muttered.
"At least I know Artemis hasn't been into his stash of goodies lately." Tracey commented, smirking a little and shaking her head. "Artemis... Oh Artemis, do you have a solution to our dilemma here or am I going to have to fly around and scope out the place?"
She slowly waved a hand in front of her face and then poked her in the cheek.
"You're so lifelike..."
Artemis blinked and jerked batting at Tracey's hand then looked at her, her pupils were dilated so far that it looked like her iris had engulfed the pupil. "Only one of us can go in at a time… Seven travelers, seven temples, seven ways to die, seven hearts to make the trek and upon the summit fly. Seven challenges to test the mind, weaknesses in every heart to find." She swayed and Hercules had to grab her before she collapsed.
Amphiaraus looked sick to his stomach but his grip on his staff kept him upright. Tracey made a move as if to catch Artemis but was glad that Hercules was able to move faster than she could have. She was a little weirded out by the whole situation that it took her a moment to sift through everything that Artemis had said, or whether what something had said through her.
"Well this is all rather self-explanatory..." Tracey said, taking her waterskin and a rag from her satchel and dampening it so she could run the cloth over her skin. "There's seven temples and seven of us so we're each going to be chosen to play our part and if any amount of gaming in my world has taught me anything than we're all going to have to beat our challenges for any of us to move forward. Of course I didn't think that any of this was going to play to our strengths because that would have been far too easy."
Artemis shifted and groaned. "Who hit me?" She grumbled.
"Well that's a slight mystery to us at the moment my dear." Tracey tried to explain. "We don't know who just popped in to play The Riddler with your voice, but the message was clear enough, but you might get a headache soon. Any other questions because I have one because the Riddler didn't tell us who would be the lucky person would be to go first."
She shifted her satchel on her shoulder to a more comfortable position. Amphiaraus cleared his throat and they looked over at him. "Iolaus has to go first." He said. "I've… I've never had the Gods sound so clear in my head before… even in riddles they are faintly heard and harder to understand."
Artemis stood up patting Hercules arm which was almost as big around as her waist and rubbed her temples. "It was like a loudspeaker in my head."
"What's a loudspeaker?" Iolaus asked.
"Iolaus is not going in there alone." Hercules said motioning to the unassuming temple.
"Unfortunately that's not up for us to decide and I'm sure the Gods would try to stop us if we went in there with him." Tracey answered, pushing some black hair out of her face. "I would think that after everything that's happened that you would see Iolaus is ready for this."
Resting a hand on the younger man's shoulder and nodding to him in encouragement.
"You're ready for this, but you should still be careful."
He swallowed hard. "Are you sure Amphiaraus?"
Amphiaraus gave him a long considering look, his dark eyes looking ancient and tired. "It is not often that I do know for sure but this time I do. You must walk in alone and come out the otherside."
"I know you'll be fine." Tracey said with more encouragement. "As for the rest of us... I think we should try to figure out what our greatest weaknesses are and try to find a way around them. For example, Iolaus, avoid women and drinking."
She glanced at Autolycus and smirked.
"I think you should try to resist women, drinking and most importantly any gold that's offered to you or that you come across... Best of luck Iolaus."
Hercules watched Iolaus walk towards the temple before he gave Artemis and Tracey a hard look. "If he doesn't come back we are going to have a problem."
"Cool yourself Muscles..." Tracey replied, crossing her arms under her chest and turning to watch Iolaus enter the temple before slipping into her usual Elvish speech and didn't care how strangely her words sounded to the others. "Remain strong and steel your resolve, we're counting on you Iolaus."
