Chapter 28: Fire and Ice
Honeydew once more threw up noisily into the stream that ran by the foot of the hill at the center of the Skyhold. He spluttered as he wiped his mouth with the back of a gloved hand.
"Urgh, Xephos..." he groaned. Xephos turned from facing the house where Lysander knelt next to his grandfather's remains to Honeydew, crouched at the grassy bank of the previously clear water, retching up his stomach.
"Are you alright?" Xephos said flatly. He'd been hard-pressed to keep himself from emptying his belly as Baako died, but Honeydew had only just managed to bowl his way out of the door before vomiting noisily into the stream. Lysander hadn't moved from Baako's bedside, where his stripped skeleton still lay, surrounded by his flesh and eyes filled with sand. Xephos sighed and glanced back at the windows. The candles had burned low and were now winking out, leaving the room dark, and Xephos unable to see Lysander any longer. "Do you think that we should go check on Lysander?" he looked back at Honeydew, who was climbing to his feet. "He's been in there for a long time."
"I don't want to go back in there." Honeydew slurred. They'd been outside now for nearly an hour and a half judging by the rate at which the tallow candles had eaten away at their wicks, and Honeydew had gone through intervals of settled to heaving out his innards into the stream the entire time span.
They were tired. They were always tired. Tired, and yet unable to bring themselves to sleep, knowing what had occurred in the room behind them, and for want of not abandoning Lysander once he exited. Thankfully the cold bite of the air that drifted down from the whistling skies above was enough to keep them awake, but not unable to halt the wariness that seeped into their bodies. As Honeydew lay down on the soft, dark grass to rest his aching joints, Xephos sat across from him, rubbing his hands. He found his thoughts turning momentarily to Madame Nubescu. He knew that she was not in the room with Lysander, as he'd not seen her whilst he'd looked through the windows to check him, so he deduced that she'd slunk off while Xephos had followed Honeydew outside. He wondered if she'd gone back to the Carnival Ship or was hiding somewhere on the huge flying fortress. For not the first time the possibility that she, or even the Carnival itself was in league with Israphel came to Xephos' mind.
All thoughts were suddenly disturbed as there came a sound behind him. Honeydew sat up and Xephos turned as Lysander stepped out of the doorway, tying his scarf neatly about his neck. He looked as though he'd just stepped off of his airship; his clothes were not in any way disheveled, his hat was straight and his face was clear, if not somewhat grimmer than usual, which is to say he looked as though he was on a warpath. "Heroes." he said before either of them were able to speak. "You heard my grandfather's last words. You must complete the Trials and become Skylords." he spoke the words as if the news were plain and were of no abnormality in their acquisition.
"Do we get goggles?" Xephos said dryly as he stood. "Also, what do these trials entail?"
"There are a set of rare items held on the three elemental areas on the edge of Skyhold." Lysander explained, glancing at Honeydew as the dwarf tried to sit up, suddenly lunging for the stream again and vomited some more into the water as he got to his feet.
"Do we get goggles?" Xephos asked dryly as he helped Honeydew back to his feet. "Also, what do these trials entail?"
"They are full of danger," Lysander replied in the same flat voice. "I should rest before I attempt them."
"Where can we do that?" Honeydew said. "And what are we gonna do about . . . Baako." he added, avoiding Lysander's eyes.
"There are many houses around here that you could use to rest." Lysander replied, gesturing absently at the path behind him, ringing the outside of the hill, small houses scattered outside it. "I will have to remove my grandfather's remains as soon as I can." he stated this without a flicker of emotion, the unnaturalness of it was like watching a flame that did not stir, even if blown.
"We can handle these trial, I'm sure." Xephos said, turning to Honeydew. "You've got a nice empty stomach, Honeydew." he added.
". . . Yeah?" the dwarf replied groggily, still looking ill.
"Fancy a Jaffa Cake?"
"No! Not now!" in spite of his condition, Honeydew looked shocked at his own words. "I'll 'ave one later. I can't even look at one now."
"Find me after you have all three of the items." Lysander interjected, handing Xephos a small grey satchel, made from soft strong cloth. "You will need this to carry the items." He said simply, and then slowly walked past them, following the path counter-clockwise around the hill.
"Where are you going?" Xephos called after him.
Lysander didn't stop walking, nor did he look back. "To find out who committed these terrible crimes and avenge my grandfather." his voice was grave, his stride slow and purposeful. They watched him reach the foot of a huge stairway that led up the hill to the thick tower. As he started up the trees, thick on the hill's sides soon hid him from sight.
Xephos and Honeydew then started along the path clockwise, where a group of small houses were spattered along the wall of the Skyhold. They made their way to a larger house built in the same style as the one where Baako had been killed. The door was unlocked, and the interior dark, as though uninhabited for weeks. Honeydew lit a tallow candle and they pressed into the house, quickly finding a bedroom and living room with a couch. Rushing ahead, Honeydew quickly claimed the bed as his own, leaving Xephos to the couch, which he piled up with as many pillows as he saw fit. Xephos wondered if Honeydew had even bothered to take of his equipment, as while he was doing so himself he heard his friend say: "Sleepy, sleepy dwarf!" loudly followed by a loud thump as he fell into the feather bed in the next room. This was followed by a sound of extreme pleasure, then shortly after, snoring.
Xephos found himself marveling at how quickly Honeydew had fallen asleep as he lay down, but only moments after lying down he was too drifting into blackness.
"It's been a long time since I've had a good sleep." Xephos yawned as he and Honeydew headed out of the doorway of the house they'd stayed in. The two of them had slept in well past midday, and Honeydew would likely have gone on much longer had Xephos not tired of waiting and woken him. "That was very refreshing." he gave a start as he stepped outside, large flakes of snow falling everywhere about him.
"God's it's been ages since we've seen nice snow instead of the horrible icy rain." Honeydew breathed in deeply through his nose. "Reminds me of winter at the Yogcave." he finished with a air of sadness.
"We should probably get going for these elemental areas." Xephos stated after a brief silence. Without another word they started around the edge of the Skyhold, until they found at one of the quarters of the main platform a gateway in the wall, leading out to one of the platforms.
"I think this one is the fiery one." Honeydew stated as they exited through a gateway identical to the one they'd come to the Skyhold on, and out over a railless bridge to the outer ring-wall of the center platform, the lattice-work of stone beams weaving either side of the bridge. The wind had died overnight, and while it still gusted, it carried no ice, and occasionally a ray of sunlight would shine out of the clouds that hung overhead, shedding snow down onto the Skyhold. They crossed the bridge and through the gate in the outer wall, coming to a small room that contained a large chest and another exit, above which a sign reading The Trial of Fire hung. "See, what did I tell you?" Honeydew said as he looked past the exit. Another bridge led out to the second platform, a sort of squashed sphere of soft red rock. Atop the huge red structure there stood the ever-burning trees that they'd seen from the air, the platform was also ringed with the same stone lattice-work and wall as the rest of the Skyhold. There was an opening in the red structure ahead, gaping like a wound and dark, foreboding as the lair of a sleeping dragon.
"This here says: Just in case." Xephos read as he opened the chest next to Honeydew. Within sat two small buckets the size of a very large tankard, their tops plugged with a lid, and their sides adorned with swirls.
"Is this water?" Honeydew said, picking up the buckets. Each fit easily into each of his large hands. "Oh gods, water. Oh no. It's the trial of fire and we need water..." Xephos took one of the buckets from Honeydew, turning it and studying the markings about the brim. He smiled suddenly.
"Don't you recognise this?" He asked Honeydew, who answered only with a confused look as the wind moaned outside. "It's the same kind of bucket that Lysander used to get us into Jasper's house ages ago. The ones that create a thick noodle of water of whatever. I think it's called a Charmed Bucket or something?"
"Oh gods, I think you're right." Honeydew looked at his bucket, It was nearly exactly the same as the one that Lysander had used on the Sky Platforms in Mistral City over a weeks ago. "This could definitely be useful."
Xephos turned and looked towards the entrance to the Trial. "Get some torches ready, it looks pretty dark in there. And get ready to have something just attack you, Lysander did warn us it was dangerous." he punctuated his point by drawing his new sword, it's blade curved and moody in the dark light. He stowed his bucket in his pack. "Are you ready for this?" he asked.
"Mate, I was born ready." Honeydew answered as he lit a torch. He led the way toward the mouth of the cave, cocked crossbow in one hand and torch in the other. "It's bloody dark." Honeydew stated as they entered, even though some sunlight still poured in behind them. The walls of the tunnel they stood in were deep pinkish-red and grotesquely soft looking, as though made from meat, and the floor was covered in a fine dark grey silt that sucked them in ankle deep and made walking a slow affair. They continued walking for down the passage until it sharply turned left, they followed it, and with the light from the entrance gone the darkness flowed about them, the torch the only source of light now. By it's flame the misshapen walls seemed to squirm and writhe, as pulsating to the beat of some creature's heart. Xephos walked behind Honeydew, the tunnel was wide enough for two abreast, but he did not wish to get any closer to the walls than he needed to. Xephos slowed his pace, for through their footsteps he'd been sure that he'd heard a noise. He called Honeydew to a stop. "I heard something..." They both listened, and after a moment there came the sound of a dull grunt of squeal through the wall on their right.
"Oh gods. What's that?" Honeydew moaned. They listened again when there came another sound, one of steps moving through the silt down the passage towards them. "There's something here." Honeydew turned and held his torch high while he raised his crossbow and Xephos stepped forwards, sword ready as on the edge of the torchlight a large dark silhouette stepped forwards. The light glinted off of the beast's sword, shining golden in it's huge hand, the rest of it's body was of a man's, covered in thick dark hair, save patches where hair and flesh had fallen away, leaving raw bloody tissue or bone bare. The creature's head was identical to that of a boar; it's long snout, tusks and small eyes. One of these bare patches stretched from it's nose over half of it's bestial face, leaving a part of a skull grinning back, and an eye staring from a bony socket. But it was not murder that shone in the chimera's eyes, more curiosity or surprise.
"Oh my gods!" Honeydew shouted. He gave a start as he fired his crossbow at the undead pigman, the bolt flying into it's shoulder. The beast squealed in pain, falling back into the shadows.
"Why did you do that!" Xephos yelled, pulling Honeydew back. "That was a zombie pigman! They don't attack you unless you hurt them you idiot-" there then came a high pitched squeal and from the dark there came several others to answer it. The pigman Honeydew had maimed leapt back into the torchlight, eyes flaring and mouth hanging open as it swung it's crude sword at Honeydew. Xephos grabbed his friend by his bandoleers and hauled him out of the way of the strike. The pigman tried to run forwards, but Honeydew kicked it backwards as Xephos dragged him back down the tunnel, the sound of at least half a dozen pigmen following them. "Get back! Come on!" he yelled as they rounded the corner and the sunlight shone down the tunnel. They had gotten fifteen yards back down the tunnel and Honeydew had loaded three bolts into his crossbow when the roar of zombie pigmen sounded and they burst around the corner, throaty squeals issuing from their raw mouths.
"You've angered the pigmen!" Xephos yelled. Honeydew fired his crossbow into the throng, dropping it immediately to draw his sword. The quarrels all struck a target, two into the breast and neck of the first assailant, the pigman that Honeydew had already shot, felling it, and the other sticking deep into another's bicep. Xephos leapt forwards as a pigman tried to rush them, he stepped past it's striking radius and swept his sabre across it's belly and brought the blade up to catch another's sword, where Honeydew stepped forwards and stabbed it between the ribs. They quickly stepped backwards as the next three pigmen attempted to catch them unready. Honeydew leapt back towards one of the beast men, catching it's wrist as it tried to slice at him, stabbing through it through the stomach and pushing the body into it's partner as he wrenched his sword free. One of the two last pigmen tried to stab at Honeydew while he was occupied, but Xephos stepped in, swinging his sabre as best he could in the confined space, bringing it down on the pigman's forearm before it could reach Honeydew, hewing it off. As it squealed in pain Honeydew swung his short-sword at the pigman's open kneecap, sending it sprawling on the silty floor, now muddy with blood. The last pigman in the throng was now pushing off it's brother's body that Honeydew had pushed at it, and rushed at them in the corridor. It's swing was wide enough to kill both of them, but Honeydew stepped forwards with his sword braced, catching the sword hard. The pigman's other hand swung in and forcefully punched Honeydew in the gut. The tall dwarf crumpled, wheezing, but Xephos' sword sung through the air and into the shoulder of the last pigman as it started to recover to finish off Honeydew.
"Oof! Fuck!" the dwarf grunted as the large body fell onto him. With help from Xephos he was able to push it off of him and get to his feet. He leant with a hand against the wall, which felt uncomfortably squishy through his glove, sucking in air after being winded.
"It's okay, we're good." Xephos said, taking a step forwards between Honeydew and the darkness. "I think there's no more for now. But I think there's a lot in there, and they'll be coming for you."
"What!?" Honeydew yelped, standing straighter.
"You were the one who hurt the first one, so they'll try to kill you first." Xephos stated, glancing back at Honeydew. "We should push on, they must be coming from a spawner, so the longer we wait the more there'll be."
"How do you know this stuff about zombie pigmen?" asked Honeydew as he picked up his dropped torch and crossbow, hanging it from his belt. "Did you read it somewhere?"
Xephos gave a start. He didn't know how he knew that either, it had just come to him at random. He'd noticed that happen before occasionally, gaining random knowledge of something. It was like he was remembered something, but forgetting where from.
"I must've." he replied, trying to sound absent.
Swords still drawn they continued back into the passage, the heat surrounding them and glueing their clothes to their bodies. They came to the stretch where the first pigman had attacked them, and they stopped, listening quietly. There came a noise through the right wall, the same low grunting that they heard before. As quietly as possible, Xephos led the way down the hallway, silt sucking onto their boots and hot air causing runnels of sweat to flow down their foreheads. The left wall soon ended, and they stopped, Honeydew quietly cocking his crossbow as they listened once more.
The grunts sounded more numerous, but further away than back down the passage. Xephos peered around the corner and saw that the path split, one passage led left of them, a dull light glowing at the end, and the other ran back beside the tunnel they crouched at the end of, divided by a wall of the soft red stone. At the end of this one came another glow, cast by what Xephos made out to undoubtably be a monster spawner, the isolated flames occasionally flickering in and out of existence behind the dark iron bars. All about it stood the eerie forms of the undead pigmen, staring idly at the cage. Xephos witnessed a sudden burst of flame beside the spawner, a pigman suddenly appearing where one had not been previously. Not making a sound, Xephos eased back around the corner, unseen by the pigmen. He relayed the sight to Honeydew.
"Ah shit, a spawner." Honeydew whispered. "Is there any point in trying to sneak past to the other passage?" he asked.
Xephos thought on this. It's only a six yard gap, but there's no chance of getting past them without being seen. he thought. There's around five of them, and they have better night vision than us. No, we'll be seen. Wait, how do I know they have night vision? He pushed the thought from his mind. He did not want to think on this now. "We can't just sit here or more will spawn." he whispered. "We need to just go for it."
Honeydew gave a nod and a grin. He unhooked his crossbow and stood straighter, his back to the wall, throwing down his torch softly behind him. The torch hit the ground with a dim thud, and from around the corner there came a unanimous grunt of surprise and then silence. Xephos glared at Honeydew as the sound of sets of bare feet walking through the silt towards them.
"Fuck's sake!" Honeydew roared, pushing Xephos aside and rounding the corner. The pigmen gave a furious squeal at the sight of an aggressor and with ten yards between Honeydew and them they charged. Honeydew wasted no time in loosing his crossbow bolt, which came to rest in the chest of the first pigman, dropping it as it's brothers trampled over it.
"Oh no." Xephos sighed as he too stepped into the new hallway, sword at the ready. The second pigman was already on Honeydew, a third not paying attention to Xephos in an attempt to get to the dwarf. Xephos made a wide cut, slicing open the abdomen of the third and slicing into the thigh of the second while Honeydew grappled with it. The beast gave a cry of pain and loosened it's grip on Honeydew's sword arm, allowing him to bury the short blade underneath it's breastbone. As he did so, Xephos brought his sabre around to divert a stab by the fourth pigman, it's right arm flying past Xephos's right with the block. Grabbing it's arm so that it was unable reform, he stepped to the pigman's left, bringing his own sword swiftly under it's arm, stepping aside as the fifth punched at him.
"Come 'ere!" Honeydew yelled as he wrenched his sword free from the pigman carcass and made towards Xephos and the last pigman. Xephos allowed the momentum of the pigman's punch to carry it past him, and he stamped at the creature's knee as it stumbled by. There was a loud crack as the knee broke and it's squeal was only cut off as Honeydew's sword ran through it's throat, spilling blood over his front.
"I had that one." Xephos panted, slicking back his sweat laden hair.
"Can we just get out of this sweat-box? I need a fucking bath." Honeydew wiped his bloodied forearms on the hairy chest of an upturned dead pigman.
"Just light up the bloody spawner before more spawn." Xephos grunted. Honeydew hurriedly ran back to where he'd dropped the torch, coming back past Xephos and placing it on the spawner, now cast in some light other than it's own and unable to work. He lit off another torch off of it's flame, staring at the spectral pigman likeness inside the cage.
"How in hell would a single person get through here?" Honeydew asked. "I assume they send only one would-be Skylord in here at a time."
"I'd think most of them would look before they shoot." Xephos answered. "This trial is likely more about keeping a level head than killing everything."
"Oh." Honeydew said, starting back down the passage. "We probably shouldn't mention this to Lysander in that case."
"Probably not." Xephos laughed. "Well this is a lovely place, this." he commented after they started down the other corridor.
"Actually," Honeydew spoke. "I've been wondering: What's the point of all of this shit; trials and a giant fucking sky fortress for the government of one city. That's what Lysander said the Skylords were, didn't he?"
"You'll probably have to ask him yourself."
They continued to follow the paths, many led to dead ends or gouts of magma, forcing them to turn back. As they continued the heat did with them.
"Gods' sake." Honeydew said, taking off his helmet as he held his torch up. "If we don't find the way out soon I'm turning back. The heat's gonna cause me to faint in a moment."
"Let's just check around this corner here and then we can try head outside and cool off." Xephos agreed, pointing ahead to a corner that turned sharply right.
"Alright, but what are the chances of the end being there? We don't even know what we're looking for." Honeydew led the way ahead, groggily, yet as he turned the corner down the passage ahead of him was a doorway of bright white light, a cooling breeze blowing down the corridor. "Well fuck me." he grinned.
They ran for the opening, and in moment found themselves out in the open between the bulk of the structure they had exited and a sort of gazebo made from the same red stone. But they paid no mind, taking the next minute to lie down on the snow covered walkway, not noticing nor caring that either side of them loomed a long drop onto the hard sea ice below. They merely lay in the cold as the heat was sapped from their skin.
"Oh gods, this is heaven." Xephos moaned, rubbing wonderfully cold snow into his hair.
"It's so cold." Honeydew's voice was muffled as he lay face down. "It's so good."
Xephos looked up, wiping snow from his beard. There was still some light snowfall, the flakes floating down and settling onto his and Honeydew's heads. He got himself to his feet, looking ahead at the covered platform before him. He had hardly noticed it before, and had not at all noticed the altar at it's center.
"Come on, friend." he said, nudging Honeydew with his toe. The dwarf made a refusing noise and did not move. Xephos chuckled. "Come on, Honeydew we've got to get the treasure now."
Honeydew suddenly looked up, staring at the altar. "Treasure!" he yelled, scrambling to his feet. They stood before the red altar, it's shape round and it's surface curved inward like a bowl. Inside the bowl sat five fist sized balls of the same red rock, all of them burning with a bright orange flame.
"What kind of treasure is this?" Xephos asked as Honeydew walked around the other side of the altar. "Is it supposed to be the fire itself? That's a bit weird."
"Not at all." Honeydew said, reaching out and grabbing one of the balls at it's base, avoiding the flame. He held it balanced on his palm. "It's like the secret of this place is fire. So that's it - The power of Fire."
Xephos opened the bag that Lysander had given him, finding three pockets at just the right size for the ball of fire and two other items of the same size. "Are we sure this won't burn the bag?" he asked.
"Lysander knew where we were coming, so I assume that it's magic like those buckets. It's probably a good thing that we didn't need to use those, either." Honeydew answered as he dropped the ball into the bag. Xephos held it at arms length for a moment until he was sure that it was not burning a hole in the cloth. "I think it probably won't hurt to hold onto those buckets, though." the dwarf chuckled as they headed back into the Trial of Fire to return to the central platform.
By the time that they had exited they were sweating again, Xephos more so due to the fireball at his side, and the snow had stopped falling, the wind dying with it. They walked back across the railless bridge to the center of Skyhold, when Xephos, looking over the left side of the walkway saw something between the floating stone beams, frozen in the thick sea ice nearly a mile below.
"What the hell is that?" he said, stopping and peering closer. He looked up at Honeydew, ahead of him who had stopped now too. "Can you see this?"
"What is it?" Honeydew asked, walking back over to Xephos and looking down onto the frozen sea. "What can you see, man?"
"Down here in the sea, look," he pointed to the strange green dome like shape, roughly half a mile away from Skyhold.
"It's an island?" Honeydew said questioningly.
"No, it looks like a turtle or something,"
"A turtle, that's it!"
The shape did appear to be that of a huge turtle half frozen into the ice, it's shell was a bluish green and the size of one of the smaller Skyhold platforms. Facing towards the center of Skyhold it's dull coppery head was raised just above the ice, one fin was also raised up, stuck in a permanent salute.
"It's weird." Xephos commented.
"It's kind of sad." Honeydew said. "You don't think that it's alive, do you? That it's stuck?"
"Have you ever heard of a turtle that big?" Xephos started back down the walkway. "It might be a rock that was carved or something. You're a dwarf, you know about stones. Have you ever heard about people doing this?"
"I don't know what they do here. I've never heard of a small island being carved into a turtle let alone be painted."
"We'll just have to ask Lysander about it as well." Xephos said as they walked back through the ring-wall.
The sky was now beginning to turn a bruised colour, and they headed to the next trial, located on the opposite side of Skyhold than the landing strip.
"Do we want to do do the next one now?" Xephos asked, looking up at the sky as they stood at the gateway of the main platform. "Or should we sleep until morning?"
"I think that we should just storm ahead." Honeydew stated, shrugging as he looked down the floating path. "Do you think that this is the ice one or the other one?"
"The mossy one?"
"Yeah."
"I don't know." Xephos sniffed. "Let's get on with it then." he walked through the gateway, Honeydew in tow.
They walked beneath the ring-walls, a sudden coldness hitting them as they neared the next platform. Darkness was beginning to creep in as the two realised that the walkway ahead of the room they stood in was made of a translucent blue ice, and the entire platform beyond it.
"Trial of Ice." Xephos read on the sign above the exit onto the dark and icy walkway. He glanced over to the large chest to his right, a sign above which he could only just make out in the half-light. He read this too. "No torches permitted or recommended."
"No, 'cause it'll melt the ice." Honeydew sighed.
"Gods." Xephos said as he cautiously stepped onto the walkway. It was firm, and while not slick, it would have proved treacherous in the growing darkness. "This is ridiculous."
"Maybe we should wait until daytime, Xephos?" Honeydew said.
"Do you think so?"
"Yeeaah...I think maybe." Honeydew lightly continued. "I don't fancy going through an ice labyrinth in the dark."
"Well in that case we should try and find our house, I guess." Xephos turned away from the walkway and turned back towards the center of Skyhold.
They wandered back around the central hill to the house that they commandeered the last night. At Xephos' insistence they swapped beds, Honeydew taking the couch and Xephos the bed. They ate out of their supplies of dried meat and hard tack given to them by Isabel, finishing with a few jaffa cakes each for afters. Yet the two adventurers, unused to such consistent sleeping patterns took a long while to fall asleep. Xephos found himself lying on the feather bed, the feeling unfamiliar and nearly uncomfortable after months of sleeping in the wilderness. He listened to the world around him - Honeydew was beginning to snore quietly, there was the sound of foliage gentle being tousled by a passing breeze, but he could hear another sound too. Just beyond the familiar noises, there came another: a hum, distant and constant. Xephos closed his eyes and attempted to focus on the hum, pin-pointing it's location. But before he was able to do much else, he was asleep.
"Oh gods, it's beautiful." Honeydew gasped as they walked across the glass blue ice walkway. The platform was the same shape as the Trial of Fire, save the weaving beams of red stone. Here, between the squashed sphere and the platform walls there was and expanse of flawlessly clear blue ice. Topping the shining dome of ice was the copse of dark green fir trees. "Do you think that we can just go around the side?" Honeydew looked at the plane of ice surrounding the huge ice bubble.
"I don't think so," Xephos looked ahead at the entrance to the Trial of Ice. Beyond the doorway the space was filled with a dull blue light as the late morning sun shone through the ice. "It doesn't look very thick." he added as he looked to the ice rim. He could clearly see the turtle far off to the left, frozen fast to the hard sea ice.
"That's a point." Honeydew agreed, testing the ice with a foot. It was steady, but he still did not set foot on it. He sighed. "Let's get on with this, then."
Honeydew led the way into the Trial, the bite of the surrounding ice settling on their skin. The doorway opened to a narrow corridor, wide enough for only one man abreast, walls five yards high and carved from the same blue ice. The corridor immediately turned right, and then left again twice. The corridors continued their winding path until it began to branch out into several different path.
"Is this a maze?" Xephos asked from behind Honeydew, fog condensing on his breath. The light that streamed through the dome above them was dull and the same blue tone as the walls around them, making them nearly indistinguishable. The only way that the two were able to tell when a turn occurred in the wall was by keeping one hand on the walls either side of them.
"This is going to be tricky." Honeydew muttered. "We can't see a bloody thing."
"Just keep following the right wall." Xephos said. "That's the rule for mazes." Honeydew nodded in agreement.
They spent an hour twisting trough the expanse of the maze, often doubling back as they met with a dead end. The technique that they used meant that they never had to wonder if they were going in circles. Honeydew, still leading suddenly cursed and stopped.
"What is it?" Xephos asked. He'd been on edge through the entire labyrinth, anticipating mobs to attack any moment.
"There's stairs here, I think," Honeydew said painfully. "I hit my shin on them."
Xephos looked ahead, squinting in the flat light, but it did seem that before Honeydew were a set of shallow, flat stairs. "So there's an above bit?" he asked. "Well, let's head up there. It's clear that we're supposed to go that way." Honeydew grumbled, still rubbing his shin, but led the way up the stairway.
It reached above the walls of the below, and had no railing or walls of it's own, making progress slow and cautious. Honeydew suddenly gave another start, as after a straight stretch of fifteen yards the walkway dropped back down to the below level of the maze again. They walked down the stairway and back into the maze, continuing to follow the right wall. The path led them along unhindered for a while longer, before ending in another set of icy stairs.
"I can't believe this." Honeydew said at the top of the icy walkway. "It's a three-dimensional maze."
"Made of ice, too." Xephos added as they slowly walked over the slippery path. "And you can't bloody see." he glanced up to observe the room, which, to such a glance, seemed empty in the flat, coloured light.
The walkway once again led back down into the maze. They once more followed the right wall. The task became a monotony, and they didn't realise that they'd come to the exit until the bright daylight streamed in on them from the exit.
The light, white and shining, was blinding and euphoric simultaneously. And the staggering with which Honeydew and Xephos stepped from the Trial was only one part from shielding their eyes, and another from thankfulness to be outside. After recovering from their momentary blindness, Honeydew led the way to the altar beneath an ice gazebo.
"What's going to be in this one?" Xephos wondered sarcastically as he followed Honeydew up to the dipped center of the pedestal.
Within, there lay eight spheres of snow, perfectly white, perfectly shaped and smooth as polished marble.
"Snow?" Xephos said.
"Snow!" Honeydew cheered.
"I was expecting ice." Xephos said as he opened the grey bag at his side. The ball of flaming rock was still nestled peacefully in one of the three compartments, and he gently reached out to fill the second. At a touch the ball of snow was pleasantly cold, and it's surface, glazed by ice, smooth to feel. He placed it in the grey bag next to the flaming red sphere, a sharper contrast as black and white. He looked back up at Honeydew. "Well that's that." he said. "Now we just have to go back through the maze-"
"Fuck that." Honeydew said, walking over to the edge of the walkway where the brittle ice met the path.
"Don't try it!" Xephos yelled, but too late. Honeydew unceremoniously and uncautiously stepped onto the glassy ice, and to Xephos' surprise, it didn't shudder once.
Honeydew looked over his shoulder. He gave a weak laugh. "We could've just gone 'round the whole time." he tried to turn, but under his boots he slipped on the slick ice and fell landing solidly on his back. "Oh for goodness' sake." he said as he sat himself up, Xephos cautiously stepping onto the ice beside him. Making sure that his feet were firmly set on the ice, he reached down and helped him friend to get onto his feet.
They made their way around the Trial of Ice using a cautious half skating half shimmying movement, keeping close to the outer wall, as translucent as the ice under their shaky feet, sunlight glinting off of it's surface. They had made their way half way around the dome of the Trial when Honeydew pointed through the ice wall to the outside, calling Xephos' attention to the huge turtle. They were able to observe it here head-on, the huge face and carapace of the trapped reptile seemed to have the composition and presence of solid rock, the dull copper and green glowing in the clear daylight.
"He's amazing." Honeydew said. "He looks massive too. I'd like to find out who made it."
"Something looks wrong with his eyes though," Xephos shielded his eyes from the sun and peered closer. "Yeah, they're both different colours." he confirmed.
"Oh yeah," Honeydew agreed as he looked closer. One of the beast's eyes were a hollow, shining black, but the other, left eye was a dead white, as though blind." "he's a bit derp." Honeydew added, using the dwarven term for silly or clumsy. "A derpy turtle."
"Derp-turtle?" Xephos suggested as they continued onwards around the rim of the Ice Trial.
It was just past midday when they had circled around the ice mass and found themselves back at the gateway to the Skyhold, and it was with great thankfulness that they stepped back onto the firmer walkway. Walking leisurely back toward the center of the floating complex, Honeydew looked ahead and saw a figure leaning against the gate leading through the ring-wall.
"Xephos," Honeydew said. "Lysander's here."
Their pace quickened as they hurried towards Lysander, leaning under the archway, smoking his pipe and staring at the vapors. His thick brows were furrowed in thought and frustration. He looked up as the sound of their approach, and while his eyes spoke of no weariness, he looked as though he hadn't slept in all the time since they had arrived.
"I hope that we didn't keep you waiting." Xephos said as they approached.
"So, you've come to congratulate us!" Honeydew stated.
"Something ill is afoot." Lysander's voice rumbled like an oncoming storm.
"Oh," Honeydew frowned. "that doesn't sound good."
"Not at all." Xephos agreed.
Lysander stood up straighter, taking another draught of his pipe before he spoke. "I have questioned the carnival folk, and they are . . . good people." he sounded as though he wasn't content with the word good.
"Apart from that Bruno, of course," Honeydew said nonchalantly. "he's a right arse-hole."
Lysander looked at Honeydew with grave disapproval, quietening the dwarf's laughter. He continued. "I do not think that Vitali is telling the truth about what is happening here."
"Oh no," Xephos muttered.
"You don't think that he's a member of the Cult, do you?" Honeydew asked lowly.
Lysander did not answer, instead he continued once more.
"I need your help to find out what happened to the Skylords." he said. "Madame Nubescu tells me that a man arrived here last night, a prisoner of Vitali's."
"While we were sleeping?" Xephos moaned.
"He is held in a secret cell below the Hold." Lysander finished. "I will seek out Vitali, you shall speak to Nubescu."
"But what about the last Trial-" Xephos began, before he was cut off by Honeydew.
"Please!" he yelled. "Anything but that!"
"You must find out as much about this man as is possible, who he is and why he is here. Nubescu will be able to shed light on this." Lysander stated.
"I don't want to speak to Nubescu, please!" Honeydew begged as Lysander turned and walked back through the gateway, ignoring him. "I'll fight a dragon, I'll do anything! Please! She'll swindle us out of more gold and the stink of here weird smoke will hang to us for days!"
Xephos laughed as Lysander disappeared around the corner, Honeydew still calling after him.
