Chapter 57: Year Four: Challenge of Words and Knowledge P4

Causing wounds, yet I cleanse.
History dies in my rinsing.
Life or scars are my blessing.
Remove one of my triad,
and I cannot exist.

Aileen hummed thoughtfully as she thought over the puzzle. If she considered the puzzle in context of the whole, that left her with only two elements: Fire and Wind.

Working backwards through the riddle, fire only existed with a triad of elements: oxygen, heat and fuel. If one of those three elements weren't in place, then the fire wouldn't burn. Then 'life and scars' referred to the fact that a burn regularly left scars on survivors, and to escape fire could be seen as a blessing, such as the stories of 'baptism by fire'. Rinsing, a word normally used to refer to water, would throw the thinker off if the riddle was thought about sequentially. However, fire had been known to destroy or 'rinse away' history, like it had destroyed the Library of Alexandria so many centuries before. The first line referred to fire's ability to injure and to sterilise.

"Fire," Aileen sighed, her wand already up and ready. Fire was the room she was dreading – the element that went against her very nature.

Stepping into the room, she found herself on a platform; between her and an exit, a chasm full of fire. Her goal was a platform on the other side. From the ceiling more fire was burning, with columns shooting down at random times and in random thicknesses to reach the floor.

So, this room presented her with two problems she needed to solve. She needed to create a way of getting to the other side, and she needed to protect herself from the fire.

Narrowing her eyes, Aileen looked around for any control or starter runes, but with the thickness of the fire and the smoke she couldn't make anything out. The smoke had already started to build up, which was preventing her with a third problem – she needed oxygen which hadn't been contaminated by the Carbon Monoxide. Thankfully, she had looked into many different ways of breathing underwater, and many of those methods could be transferred to breathing through smog and smoke. A quick air bubble bought her the time she needed to work out how to defeat this room.

Pulling the last of the stones she had kept in her bag, Aileen fused them together and created a bridge which she rested between the two platforms. That solved her problem of getting to the other side and protected her from the fire below, but it didn't protect her from the fire coming from above. Unfortunately, there were limits to the extent that an object can be transfigured and she had reached the limit for her stones. If she wanted to make a dome, she'd compromise the integrity of the stone she was walking on and run the risk of falling into the fire.

Aileen decided to fall back to her two strongest magics: runes and defence. She had a shield which would keep her safe from the fire, but she couldn't hold it around her entire body and move forward. So, she needed to create a rune combination which took her shield and held it around her, anchored to the bride. Then, she needed to extend the shield and anchor it to the other side, which would involve rotating her bridge – it was a good thing she decided not to anchor the bridge to either platform upon creating it.

Settling down into a seated position, Aileen pulled out some paper and started sketching different ideas. This wasn't something she had done before, so she needed time to work out the right combination of runes to achieve the result she wanted without it blowing up in her face.

Inguz formed the second centre of her rune set, joined with Fehu. Inguz to store the magical energy she would be entering, and Fehu to circulate that power. The first centre of her rune set took a little working, but she eventually settled on Thirsaz, Berkano, and Kenaz, meaning defence, sanctuary and controlled fire respectfully. She had thought about including Algiz for protection or Uruz for endurance but they ended up destabilizing the rune set and so she had cut them out. Joining the two rune centres was Isa, for stasis and focus, Jera, to ensure an orbit of her shield, Raidho and Ehwaz to connect and anchor her two points on the bridge because Raidho meant Journey and mobility while Ehwaz meant partnership. Finally, connected to Inguz, she had the rune Laguz to establish what her shield was to be made from.

Once her runes were carved into both ends of the bridge, Aileen placed her wand on the tip of Laguz and cast her spell: "Vartej."

The water from her whirlpool shield (a powerful water-based shield that was typically held in front of a person, spinning clockwise), travelled into the rune for Water. Her runes glowed blue for a moment before it burst out and over her into a dome before shooting across and to the other runes. Aileen held her rune and continued pumping power until her water dome was thick enough to stop the random burst of fire from getting through.

Cutting off her power, Aileen stood and waited a moment to make sure the shield dome was full. Once she was sure she was protected, Aileen walked safely to the other side.

What moves before the sun but does not leave a shadow?

Edited: 10/03/2021

Word count: 928

Author Note: Thank you horsesandpercabeth for going through and editing this chapter.

I've had two reviews commenting on the shortness of these chapters. It's probable that once I finish writing the second task, that I will double up these short chapters so that P1 & P2, P3 & P4 are together. For now, I'm separating them so that you get an update, and so as to give my readers and opportunity to engage in the story and work through the riddles. no point having you think through the riddles, and then immediately giving you the answer :)