Chapter Thirty
A Voice from the Dark
Turning, we saw the rest of our friends. Melima fell to the floor and let out a deep sigh. They hadn't had a light lit, and turned to face us. "Turn it off!" Sindus said.
Melima turned out her staff, which revealed symbols faintly glowing on the ground and down a hall. They looked familiar to me. It was dark at the end of this corridor, so dark I couldn't see past the last symbol.
Melima regained her composure. "These look like glyphs of warding, much like the arrow glyphs we saw at the church. A form of arcane trap. They are either set off by proximity, touch, or some other means. Whoever set them could make them be anything."
"What do these wards do?" Keothi asked.
"I don't know for sure, but if they are connected to the arcane schools indicated by the glyphs I could tell you approximately what kinds of spells they might be."
Of course. These were the symbols of the arcane schools. I had learned them at one point, but didn't know them well. I focused more on the origin of magic, nature in my case, not the school.
Melima read aloud a phrase written in arcane lettering on the floor in this same glowing substance. "One will go, three will stay. Let thy fate be chosen this day."
It sounded ominous, almost like a threat rather than a promise. From what it seemed though, we wanted to choose the one that would go, otherwise we might be trapped.
The other option was to try to get across the entire corridor without touching a glyph, though none of us could jump that far, not even Keothi. The goliath tried to figure out how to use the immovable rod to get across, by swinging and releasing it, locking again at the apex of his swing, or some other way.
I suggested that I fly it to the middle of the corridor, tie a rope around it, and we swing across, but between the low ceiling and Melima reminding us again that the glyphs might be set off by proximity, it was determined that those routes wouldn't work.
It now came down to which slab to step on, or jump to as the case may be. Melima explained to us which schools they represented. "The first one is Abjuration, it has a lot to do with protection. The second one is Conjuration, that one is used to produce items, creatures, or elements. Tawariell's Hail of Thorns and Naidaroe's Cloud of Daggers are both from this school. Third is Enchantment. That one has a lot to do with the mind.
"The last one is Evocation. I would be most afraid of that one. That is where you get spells that create things like fireballs, some paladin smiting spells, lightning, and magic missiles. It is also the school that most healing spells come from, but any harmful spells from that school are usually of the more powerful type."
After a moment of discussion, a voice echoed from down the hall. It was deep, but feminine. It laughed. "Fools!" The laughing continued another moment and trailed off.
Sindus looked around. "I'm okay with looking foolish. Should we run?"
"Sindus, please don't," I said. His impulses were likely to get he or all of us killed.
"Hello!" Naidaroe yelled down the corridor. "Are you friend or foe?"
"Indeed, you are wise to come through the maze. Yet you do not dare enter. Why?" The voice was powerful, yet soft.
"Can you tell us of these glyph wards?" Naidaroe asked.
"Indeed, they are glyphs. But you must choose." The deep laughter continued.
We continued to discuss which glyph to activate. The voice returned. "Are you not strong as you are wise?"
"I am strong, but I know little of magic," Keothi said.
"You've gotten this far, large one," the voice replied.
Sindus encouraged Naidaroe to continue conversing with this voice, and the rest of us had no objection. "Was it you who set these here?"
"I am not the creator."
"Who are you?"
"Enter my domain and I will show you myself." It sounded like a dare, a challenge.
"Have you gone through these before?" Naidaroe's question remained unanswered.
Someone went back to the mirror and looked at it. The voice returned, laced with a touch of amusement. "You cannot go back, so forward you must go."
I thought about each school, and which one we may want to trigger. One had healing spells. "I'm almost thinking the opposite of Melima, I kind of like the idea of Evocation, or Enchantment. Enchantment ends with a different sound than the rest."
"This message says that three will stay, what is meant by stay?" Keothi asked.
"Your mind will decide," the voice said.
Melima mentioned that teleportation spells were usually in the school of Conjuration, we might try that one. The laugh started again. Sindus looked at me. "Dragon!"
"Sindus, don't even kid about that!" I said. Even with my extensive study about them, and changing views, I still didn't want to see one.
Sindus laughed. "It's a dragon! Are you a dragon?"
There was a pause before the voice answered. "No. Though a dragon may suit you better the longer you delay."
Ari'yasa stepped onto the first stone, Abjuration. After several steps, she started coughing and hacking, stopping in her tracks. The glyph underneath her glowed brightly as she coughed, then slowly dimmed. She stopped her coughing fit and was able to breathe normally again.
I made a running jump to reach the third stone, Enchantment. My leg didn't quite give me the push I was looking for, and I landed a couple strides short. I landed on the second stone, Conjuration. The glyph started to glow, then was gone.
I was no longer with everyone else. The place I now found myself in was dark, and I couldn't see far. The stone beneath me was also dark. I walked forward, but everything looked the same. My footsteps echoed, though there were no walls that I could see.
I paused, and waited for the others to come. If this was the stone that went somewhere the others would follow soon. Though it must have only been a minute or two, it seemed like an eternity. No one came. The dark and the stone were starting to create a sense of gloom. Where was I? What was I to do in this place?
Suddenly I was back in the corridor. Naidaroe was next to me, and Keothi was on the fourth stone. The immovable rod was floating in the air just above the first stone. That must be how Keothi got so far. Keothi seemed relieved to see me. "Tawariell! You have returned."
I nodded my head, sadly. "It was a dark room. There really didn't seem to be anything there."
I stepped forward, onto Enchantment. Nothing happened. I stepped to the side so that Sindus could try to reach that stone as well. He jumped off of the rod, but landed a few hands away from the third stone. The Conjuration glyph glowed, and Sindus disappeared.
Naidaroe stepped forward with me. Again, nothing seemed to happen. The voice spoke again. It was louder from where I was standing, closer to the darkness at the end of the corridor. "Now only one must choose. Or will she hesitate?"
I looked to the others. "Did any of you have harmful effects? I just got pulled to another room, there wasn't anything harmful."
"You should skip this one, Melima," Ari'yasa said.
"You should avoid this one as well," Keothi said. "Tawariell, do you think we can carry her to the stone you are on?"
I shook my head. "Not if it is a proximity thing like Melima thinks it is."
Melima moved her arms in a spellcasting motion. She disappeared, then reappeared next to Naidaroe and I. The glyph beneath us glowed. Nothing seemed to happen to our pirate friend or myself, but Melima stood for a moment with a blank stare before looking around again. The glyphs all began to dim.
Sindus appeared again where he had landed on the second stone, now holding his lamp. He had been to the same place that I had been sent to. We all walked to the end of the corridor, towards the darkness beyond. Not even Sindus' lamp could pierce more than a stride ahead. The laughing began again. "Finally! Choices made! Choices made. Welcome!"
We paused for a moment before daring to step into the darkness, waiting for everyone to be together. "Step forward." The voice laughed.
