Tale of Four

”Girly.” The old man from the hut’s voice echoed through the cave entrance. Looking up at him, Alice frowned and grumbled at being interrupted, but the old man said nothing, dropping a bag down near her. ”You Magi always get lost in your work. Now, if you starve here, it becomes my problem”

Looking between the bag and the old man, Alice nodded and turned back to her notepad. The old man sighed and walked off, understanding that Alice’s personality was just a quirk of those from the Mad House. ”Chesh.” Calling out, the girl appeared from the end of the cave, rubbing her eyes, staring at the bag.

”Food.” Like a child, she squealed and ran over to the bag, tearing it open. Alice didn’t glance at her, instead staring at the pages spread acorss the floor, trying to decipher the text. Only when she felt something poking her cheek did she groan and look up. Chesh stared at her and smiled, ”I’ll feed you. Keep working.” Rolling her eyes and pretending not to care, she opened her mouth and smiled to herself.

Chesh happily chucked and stuffed dried fruit and veg into Alice’s mouth, barely leaving her a chance to swallow. After ten minutes, the contents of the bag were gone. Throwing the bag to the side, she leaned back on her shoulder and rubbed her head.

”What have you found then?” Chesh said, yawning between words. Alice took a deep breath and tapped on the first page.

”I was right. It’s all a puzzle. I had thought that I couldn’t power the carving becuase I lacked Arcane power, but I was wrong.” Tapping on a rune she had drawn, Alice smiled, ”This rune, when powered, absorbs the natural powers of the world, to sustain itself and anything it is connected to.” Getting up, Alice nearly fell over her body asleep from having sat for so long.

”Go on.” Chesh smiled and lifted her hands, making fists and waving them, cheering her on. With a grin, Alice continued to move and arrived at the start of the cave, staring at the rune she had just shown Chesh.

”Somewhere here, there is the start. It’s only a matter of finding it, but if I’m right, then all I need to do is activate that alone, and then everything else should work itself out.” Chesh nodded.

”You’re tired. You should have a potion.” Alice paused and felt her lip twitch, not expecting that in reply, but thinking about how she nearly fell over just now and the weight under her eyes, she nodded. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a glass vial filled with white liquid. Pulling the top, the overwhelming smell of dirt and herbs flooded her nostrils. With a gag, she threw its contents down her throat and covered her mouth to stop herself from throwing up.

Only when she knew it was fine did she move her hand, ”Are you not going to have one?”

”I already did,” Chesh said and shrugged and walked over to a cave wall, placing her hand on it. ”Whilst it’s no surprise you found this out, it’s a bit strange if none of those old guys at the Mad House did. After all, it’s not that confusing to understand it’s a puzzle.”

”Yes, but even I haven’t found where the puzzle begins.” Chesh nodded in agreement and grabbed her chin.

”I’m sure you can solve this, but I hope you do it quicker. It’s getting colder.” Chesh smiled and sat down, leaning against the wall, staring at Alice with a penetrating gaze. Looking at her for a moment, Alice turned away and held up one of her notes and followed it. Reaching the midpoint of the cave, she looked up at the Runes that matched her drawings.

’Most of these runes have no purpose other than to let Arcane power flow through. Transfer, transfer, transfer.’ Repeating the rune meaning in her mind, she clicked her tongue and looked around, ’Split, transfer and transfer. Left split follows a series of transfers before stopping. The right one is the same, but reaches the rune, making it dark in here.’

Alice frowned and followed the carving towards the rune. ’Why darkness and cold. They don’t protect from anything. At most, they are an inconvenience.’ Watching them, Alice opened her diary and carefully drew the rune, making sure not to miss a detail.

’Darkness, darkness, cold, cold... COLD!’ Screaming in her mind, Alice turned to Chesh, who continued to stare at her with the same smile, ”You said you’re getting colder?”

”We both are,” Chesh said as a matter of fact and nodded towards Alice’s lips. Taking out a mirror and holding the fire to her face, she finally saw the colour having left her lips.

’Wait. If I’m getting this cold, then how come I haven’t noticed any pain in my hands? Looking down, she clenched her fingers and realised her hand was stiff, soemthing that should have been obvious if she wasn’t absorbed in the runes alone.

’If that is the case, then it is a protection, but there is something more; there has to be.’ Alice followed the rune, not letting a single one be overlooked. All of them were the same, either transfer, split or stop, but with the new idea in mind, Alice saw what was being made.

’The starting point is the cold and darkness. Everything else is just a track to lead it...’ Alice followed, staring up at the ceiling, in her notepad, drawing the route, scribbling when she made a mistake and fixing it. Following it down on the floor, she looked at the floor where the runes all came to an end.

’Only one route made sense; the rest were distractions. This isn’t all woven together but crafted to give the illusion. In fact, most of it is useless.’ Her lips curled wide as she began to chuckle. ”YESSSS!” Crying out in victory, she held her hands to the sky and took a deep breath. Behind, Chesh, rapidly clapped for her.

”Chesh. Come.” Her grin was infectious, making Chesh form one of her own. Standing at the rune to cause the cold, Alice injected her arcane power into it and watched as the rune lit up with the bluish white glow, slowly funnelling down the path. Having to control it to follow the path she wanted, the rune stopped at one of the sections that used the energy of the world to power itself and stopped.

Pulling away, she saw the rune not stop even when she had finished, but instead noticed the chill in the air get ten times worse. ’I need to be quick.’ Running around the cave, she imbued power into each of those checkpoints, guiding the transfer runes between them to connect each point.

Reaching the floor, she took a deep breath and made the final connection. The chill in the air vanished instantly along with the darkness. Instead, the floor of the cave changed. What was once stone slowly morphed, being overloaded with the power of the runes. Alice felt the change in the air as the entire mechanism sucked the energy of the world into itself. Outside, she saw the grass slowly turning brown, and couldn’t help but gulp, wondering if it would use her next as a food source.

Without a chance to think, the stone floor became ice, the grey walls now clear crystal. The darkness washed away, revealing the true nature of the cave. Looking around, Alice froze. ’It wasn’t normal darkness but a darkness you can’t notice even when looking at it.’

The empty cave slowly filled. Bones littered the floor, each body still wearing the clothing they had died in. Alongside them, each one had the work they desperately tried to solve regarding the cave, all of them telling the same story of failure.

Covering her chest, Alice took a deep breath, feeling her heart race and couldn’t help but laugh in excitement. ’This is it.’ Telling herself, she madly smiled as the walls around her began to reveal their true form. ’An adventure. A story.’

The grey walls became ice, but behind them, numerous papers, scrolls and books. Beneath the ice on the floor, she saw a skeleton resting, its hands crossed over its chest, a quill in one hand. Despite her excitement, her lip twitched seeing the wall change once again. Part of the wall melted, with it creating a new set of runes all over the walls and floor.

On the back wall, a large section melted, creating a table with a sentence written on it.

’Before could have been a fluke.’

Alice could hear the dead man’s laughter in that sentence and sighed, staring at the runes, forgetting the corpses of Magi and adventurers surrounding her, watching her complete the prize they could never get.