"What happened?" Therus looked scared.
That was a good question. He had used his qi sight. Then everything went to hell. He took a deep breath. Then another. He hadn't noticed, but his heart had been racing. It was slowing down, thankfully.
"Tried to look at the qi here." Seth was looking at the temple as he said that. He couldn't be absolutely sure, but the temple was the only thing that came to mind. He heard Therus swallow.
"No use sitting here," said Seth. He put his hands on the stone that used to be a passage. Therus just nodded his assent, and they started their descent.
It took Seth and Therus a couple hours to make their way down the winding path. The temple loomed in the distance, like an angry god waiting to devour them. A gentle breeze blew through, carrying the scents of citrus, cinnamon, and smoke.
A field of waist-high grass and wild plants greeted them at the bottom of the path. Most of the plants they saw were edible. Even more fortunately, there were small ponds all along their path. They didn't need water now, but at least they didn't have to worry about running out. Small, six-legged rabbits made their home in the plains. Therus was reasonably certain they were edible. Seth wasn't eager to find out. He didn't know how to properly clean a wild animal, and he suspected Therus wasn't a master huntsman.
It took them three hours to reach the temple. Looking from up close, Seth couldn't see the top from their vantage point. Up close, the walls pulsed in time with a beat they could not hear. What had once been faint hints of citrus and cinnamon were now a choking stench.
Six initiates were present when they arrived at the temple. One of them was Johan's man, Aaron. The unruly mop of red hair flowing down his back made him hard to miss. The group didn't react to their approach aside from a quick glance. Two initiates were training. Another was painting the temple. Aaron was glaring at them.
"Finally left the library?" Aaron asked.
"Well, someone had to come rescue you, and the only ones your leader could find who cared enough were us." Seth didn't give Therus a chance to answer the question.
"I'm doing just fine..." the man started.
A man with a goatee and a pencil moustache started laughing. "You were bragging about how 'Lord Johan' would get us out of here. Why are you whining now that the help has arrived? Granted, they don't seem like powerful elders, but you never know..."
"Unfortunately, we're not elders. Johan did hire us, though."
Aaron shook his head with a frown, "Just great..."
The man with the goatee came up and said, "Welcome to our new prison! Name's Xiaobo, and you?" he asked, addressing both of them.
"Seth. Pleasure is mine. Any idea what's going on? I'd ask Aaron, but..."
"He's an asshole, ain't he? And who might you be, friend?" Xiaobo said, turning to Therus.
"My name is Therus. A pleasure..."
Therus was interrupted by Xiaobo barking out a laugh before saying, "You're the guy Aaron won't shut up about. Something about a 'lesser noble stooping to dirty tricks in an honorable duel.'"
"I was unaware of any dueling formats were multiple attackers take a smaller group unaware. Is this a new fad in the central worlds?" Therus' loud, sing-song wondering drew Aaron's attention. If glares could kill, Therus would have been dead a hundred times over. Cheerfully ignoring the glare, Therus turned to Xiaobo to ask a question.
"Has anybody explored the temple yet?"
"Haha, nope. Shut tighter than princess Arletta's chastity belt! Feel free to give it a try, though!"
"So, I noticed nobody here's trying to kill each other. Thats..."
"...unusual, right? Wondering why we're not trying to break each other? We've come to an understanding. If we waste energy fighting each other, it would leave us weakened for a third party to kill us."
"Not that showing you your place would take any real energy..." said Aaron, still glaring.
Xiaobo led them on a walk around the temple. They passed five other initiates, leaving them at thirteen total. Not an ominous number at all. On the other side of the temple was a wall that differed from the rest. There were two dark grey panels about twenty feet high next to each other. Despite the lack of a knocker, hinges, or any other visible indicator, Seth was certain this was a door. Seth tried pushing the panels; it was like touching dry ice. The burning in his hands was already starting to go numb by the time he pulled his hands back.
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"Fuck, that's cold," said Seth, trying to keep his exclamation down to a whisper.
Therus stepped up to give it a try as well. He was defeated as quickly as Seth had been. After he turned around, an ethereal, feminine voice flooded into Seth's consciousness.
Thirteen seekers have assembled
To climb the seven peaks
To brave the six chasms
Enter to be tested
Or face eternity
The rest of the cavern had gone dark. The only light was the blinding white coming from the now open temple doors. The cloying cinnamon and citrus had been replaced by pungent rot and smoke. Seth fled toward the door as fast as his legs would carry him. Therus was right behind him.
The urge to run left as he crossed the temple's threshold. The temple was large enough to seat a hundred thousand people, if there was any seating. On the other side of the empty room were twenty-two tiered steps leading up to an onyx altar. The altar was bare except for a rust-colored candelabra. The candelabra had thirteen candles, lit with a flickering blue flame. The floor, steps, and walls were a black marble with pulsing green veins. The smells of dust, burning candles, and rotten books hung in the space.
A ghostly, withered old man floated out from the wall, stopping at the bottom of the altar. He was mostly bald, with some ethereal wisps of hair clinging to his scalp. Flowing purple robes rolled off his body, rippling in an unseen breeze. His eyes were empty voids.
Seth jumped back and reached for a weapon. Surprised gasps and the sounds of weapons being drawn filled the room. The ghost just floated there, as if waiting for them to stop.
"Welcome to what remains of the Azurelight cabal. We were forced to flee due to...circumstances. Our hope is that you will prove worthy inheritors of our legacy. Or rather, that someone, someday will come along and prove worthy."
"You have thirty three days to claim this legacy. If nobody claims the legacy during this time, you will join them..." the apparition said. A river of spirits burst forth from the wall near the ceiling. Screaming, writhing human spirits. Seth plugged his ears to stop the sound. It burrowed into his skull anyway. Eventually, the river stopped flowing, leaving only the ghostly man by the altar. He floated back and forth in a mimicry of pacing.
"The room to your left contains a small library. The next room to the right contains supplies to keep the living alive for a month. To the right of that is a restroom. The last door leads to the trial proper. You are free to enter and leave the trial as you please. However, you will be confined to the temple for the duration of the trial."
"Finally, no violence against other successor candidates is acceptable. Violators will be immediately replaced."
Xiaobo asked the question Seth was thinking, "What do you mean by 'replaced'?"
"It means that one of the friends I introduced you to will take your place, and you will take theirs in the spirit stream. They are quite hopeful you are feeling violent."
Seth's skin went cold, and he swallowed a lump in his throat. Glancing out of the corner of his eye, he saw nervous shuffling all around. As the spirit vanished, a ring of thirty three blue flames appeared on the wall behind the altar. Inside the ring of flames was a smaller ring of twenty-four purple flames. The doors to the four paths threw themselves open.
A couple initiates rushed toward the second door that had the food. Seth went to the library. If the trial was going to give them information, it would be foolish to overlook it. Therus, Xiaobo, and a couple other initiates joined him.
The library was "small" only in relative terms. In the front were tables with enough seats for thirteen people. Behind the tables were thirteen stands, each with a massive tome on them. Behind the tomes stretched hundreds of bookshelves. The harsh fluorescent lighting came from small stones embedded in the walls and ceiling. The room smelled of dust, ash, and sulfur.
Seth went up to one of the tomes. When he touched it, a small electric jolt stabbed into his hand. When he opened the tome, he found it was an index. It wasn't organized in any way, just a random listing of books. When he wished the list was in alphabetical order, the list shifted, and was arranged in alphabetical order. Seth's eyes widened in surprise, and a grin spread across his face. He thought about books related to the trial, and the list shrunk. He wanted reading recommendations, and the list shrunk to forty-eight items.
Most of the texts in the list were spellcasting primers and rituals to bind spirits. He thought about wanting to find a book on basic spellcasting, and a tugging at his soul pulled him to the correct shelf. Thirteen copies of the primer were on the shelf. He pulled the first one off without any problems. Trying to lift another one was like trying to lift the temple itself.
Therus was two shelves over, holding a small stack of books. Seth waved and tried to say hello, but no sound came out. Yelling was just as ineffective. Therus didn't seem to even notice him, so he tried to tap Therus' shoulder. His hand pressed against an invisible wall an inch away from his friend's shoulder.
thought Seth to himself. He took his books and went to leave the library. However, as he crossed the threshold, the books stopped moving and fell to the ground. After picking up his books, he sat at a table across from Therus.
"Find anything interesting?" Seth's voice came out this time, but it was muted.
"Plenty. I'm grateful they left a library."
"Same here. You check any of the recommended reading out?"
"Recommended reading? I'll have to look into that later. I was just looking for histories."
"Might want to take a look. Lots of reading on sorcerous spells and rituals."
"I'm starting to think the library might be a bad sign."
"What makes you say that?"
"This is a sorcerous inheritance trial. They probably assume a general level of competence at sorcery...Seth, take a look at one of those books. Does it make any sense?"
Seth was confident they would make sense when he opened the book. They were introductory primers, after all.
Seth's mouth went dry, and he wiped the sweat forming on his forehead. He may have underestimated how bad this would be.
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