A/N: New update. Chapter 58 has been edited by my amazing beta horsesandpercabeth, but the changes are minor. My current system is to upload a chapter and then upload the update around a week later, but I'm a bit behind this time and manage to write this chapter before I looked for the edit. I'll probably upload the edit for this chapter within the week depending on my beta's work schedule – my next chapter will take me a while to write. Be warned, lots of canon divergences ahead, along with some Percy Jackson. The last piece of canon that I will be including is the Portkey to the Graveyard, but things will be different.
Chapter 59: Year Four: Challenge of Words and Knowledge P6
You can't see me during the day or when there is light but when it is night, I am always there. What am I?
This riddle was the hardest of the ones Aileen had been faced with that day, and as far as she could tell didn't have anything to do with the elements like the previous ones had done – indicating that the last room would have tasks independent of the previous rooms. Without any clues, Aileen was forced to work only with the words in the riddle.
So, what could she see only at night or when there was no light? It couldn't be a shadow, because that required a light to be seen in the first place, even if it couldn't be seen in the presence of greater lighter; there was a difference between shadow and darkness. Darkness was an absence of light, while a shadow was when light had been blocked by an object. With shadow out that left her with moon or stars.
After a moment of thought she ruled out the moon since it could regularly be seen during the day, in the presence of light. Leaving only the stars, which could only be seen at night and when there was no light. It was quite often that people in areas of large populations, where the light population was very high, wouldn't be able to see the stars because the light reflecting from the cities would prevent them from being seen.
"The stars," Aileen spoke aloud, hoping that she wasn't wrong because she hadn't learnt what happens when she guessed the wrong answer; and she assumed that there was a punishment for getting it wrong.
The door clicked open, allowing her entry into the last room.
Just as the riddle implied, the last room was very different. There was absolutely nothing to do with the elements inside – instead there were five podiums lined up and numbered from left to right. On top of each podium was a box. Written on the door leading to the exit were the words 'Speak the answer to my riddle to leave the gauntlet'. There was no riddle, which implied the words to her riddle could be found upon completing whatever tasks were on top of the podiums.
Approaching box number one, Aileen found her first obstacle was a piece of parchment stuck on top of the box lid. Drawn onto the parchment was a large box split into nine squares, which was in turn split into another nine squares. Randomly filled into the smaller squares where the numbers one through nine.
"A Sudoku," Aileen snorted in amusement. When she was in primary school, they used sudoku's to help them learn pattern recognition and sequencing. The idea was to fill in each of the squares using only the numbers 1-9, while not doubling up a number in a box, or in a line horizontally or vertically; of course, in school they started with 1-3 and work up to 1-6 since the 1-9 grids were harder.
Pulling a pencil from her bag, Aileen got to work.
Since the middle box only had a 2 and 5 (middle top and bottom), she wasn't able to start there. Instead, she focused on the number which appeared in the box – 2. Since there was a 2 in the middle box, and the middle bottom box she was able to work out which row the 2 belongs to in the top middle box. The top right-hand box also had a 2 in the bottom row, and with a nine in the upper right portion of the middle box, she was able to determine that the two went in the middle box of the left row of the middle upper box. From the 2, she moved onto 7 because there was a 7 in the top middle and top right box, as well as the left middle and left bottom box meaning she could work out where the 7 belongs in the top left box.
With how few options she had to work with, Aileen was forced to work without a system. She focused on working on a line instead of a box, on the far left she had three numbers in a row in the bottom box and the 7 she had just filled in. since there wasn't a 1 in the row, she looked for which of the two remaining boxes didn't have a 1, which was the top box, and there was only one place where that could go without clashing with the one in the middle box on the same row. Next was the 2, which she couldn't fill in because there were two potential boxes for it to go into, so she marked them as potential and moved onto 3, which didn't have any elimination options. 4 filled in the space in the top box because there was already a 4 in the middle box. 5, 6, 7 and 8 were already in the row, living here with the 9. So, she needed to find a place for 2,3 and 9 in the middle box on the left row. The 2 couldn't go in the top box, the 9 couldn't go in the middle row, so it was a guess that the 9 was bottom, then 2 then 3.
Once she had the one row, and the 2 in the top middle box, she was able to work out the rest by process of elimination. It took time, and she had to make note of a couple of boxes were more than one number could be, but in 33 minutes she managed to complete the puzzle. After she put the last number in, the box clicked open and inside she found a slip of parchment.
When it's raining, the cat is in the room or in the basement.
Aileen blinked in confusion at the very odd statement. Without context, or the rest of the riddle she had no idea what this was about.
Moving onto the next podium, Aileen found a crossword. There was nineteen question, nine words across and ten words down. Rather surprisingly, was the content of the clues: all of them were about the Roman and Greek pantheons. The magical world a few religious connections, including the celebration of the pagan holidays, and also the celebration and belief in the Gods. For generations, the Black family had claimed to be related to the God Hades, but in the last two hundred years or so, praying and sacrificing to the gods had started fading and dyeing outside of a few holiday celebrations and personal family celebrations. The pureblood families having retreated their belief with the introduction of non-believing first generations. It seems that Samul Grievance, the man who had created this task, had no trouble subtly introducing his faith to the world.
Aileen started with the words which went across. The first one was six letters, with the clue being a description of a 'Greek God of music, truth, prophecy, healing, the sun and light, plague, poetry and the bow'. Including the full description of the god's titles, made it easier for her to know they were referring to Apollo. Five letters across wasn't much harder since it described the 'Roman Goddess of love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity and victory', Venus. In fact, all of the words for across were easy because they gave descriptions of the Roman and Greek gods including: Aurora (goddess of dawn), Pan (god of the wild), Aeolus (king of the winds), Zephyrus (god of west wind), Juno (the roman goddess who is protector and special counsellor of the state) and Mercury (god of trad, thieves and travellers). Of the lot, the hardest was Juno since it didn't give her information on her godly domains, and rather described her position as why of Jupiter.
Many of the words down were similarly easy, except for words eight letters down, 'not a god but has a god father and a mortal mother'. There were many demi-gods in legend which that could be referring too, but fortunately she had three letters to work with already: R, U and E, leaving her to believe that Hercules was the demi-god they were referring to. With the last words written in, the box clicked open and she was able to read the next line of her riddle:
When the cat is in the room, the mouse is in the burrow and the cheese is in the fridge.
Podium number three had several blocks of different shapes. It took her a few seconds to work out what she was supposed to do, but in the end, she figured out that the blocks slotted together to form a whole. After a little bit of fiddling and a few false starts, she worked out that the blocks formed together to make a formless circle. When the circle was finished, she placed it on top of the box which confirmed that she had finished the puzzle and clicked open, giving her access to the third line of her riddle:
If the cheese is on the table and the cat is in the basement, then the mouse is in the room.
Podium number four was on a title board, and had a maze on the top. There was a small silver ball, which she had get to the other side of the maze by tilting the board in the direction she needed to go – and she was prevented from touching the board directly. Instead, she had to pull strings which were attached to each of the corners. Before trying to advance through the maze, Aileen got the hang of the angle she needed to tilt the rope in order to get a steady movement, and how to stop the ball. Once she had that down, she returned the ball to the start, and observed the maze so that she could mentally plot the route through now – so she didn't have to keep stopping and starting once she had the ball rolling.
Now, it's raining and the cheese is on the table.
The final podium held a logic grid, which was a very complicated logic puzzle that Aileen had always struggled to complete when she got her hands on the newspaper. It had gotten easier the older she had gotten, and the more knowledgeable she became, the easier they were but they were still something she would do for a challenge. The puzzle grid was 4 x 5, with a story and list of clues. She had to use the clues to determine which name was linked with which category, without crossing over. It took her nearly forty minutes to complete the logic grid – longer than it had taken her to complete podiums 2, 3 and 4 combined. But, in the end, she got her final line:
Where are the cat and the mouse?
Aileen placed the piece of parchment in order so that she could read the riddle in its entirety:
When it's raining, the cat is in the room or in the basement.
When the cat is in the room, the mouse is in the burrow and the cheese is in the fridge.
If the cheese is on the table and the cat is in the basement, then the mouse is in the room.
Now, it's raining and the cheese is on the table.
Where are the cat and the mouse?
Aileen hummed thoughtfully as she looked over the riddle. So, this was a placement riddle with words used to misdirect the one trying to solve it. The riddle told her that the cheese is on the table, which meant that the mouse was in the room, and since it's raining and the cheese was on the table, the cat was in the basement. Working from the placement of the cheese made it easier, since there were two possible locations for both the cat.
For the last time, Aileen placed her wand on the door and spoke the answer to her riddle.
"The cat is in the basement; the mouse is in the room."
Edited: 01/04/2021
Word count: 2,030
A/N: Sudoku puzzle used in this chapter was Evil Puzzle 10,259,070 on the website WedSudoku