Tale of Four

”This guy is the worst.” Alice groaned and slumped onto the floor. She couldn’t have been sure how long she was at it, trying to break through the second half of the puzzle, but outside, she heard the sound of the animals awakening as the sun slowly rose.

Unlike the first puzzle, there was nothing that existed that hinted at what could be the start of the puzzle. After hours of careful investigation, the only runes she had found were stop, split and transfer. Nothing else existed, but not wishing to leave and be defeated, all she could do was fall backwards and crash into the ground, lying down and staring at the crystal ceiling.

From atop her Chesh jumped and sat on her stomach, making sure not to actually hurt her at the last moment and looked down, staring into her eyes. Those deep black eyes, with a mysterious purple glow, playfully curled as Chesh’s smile widened. ”What should we do after this? You wanna go straight back to the Mad House or explore the outside world for the first time?”

Alcie shrugged and sighed, leaning her head back and letting it rest on the cold crystal, ”What do you think? That old guy said something about a king. We could go see him or soemthing. I dunno.” Letting out a loud, annoyed groan, she huffed and slammed her hand on Chesh’s shoulder, ”You tell me.”

Chesh tilted her head for a second, making her hair dance on Alice’s face. Maybe we could try to find a nearby city.” Looking at the paper behind the crystal walls, her black and purple eyes lit up, ”After all, we need to study all these papers, and why should we go back and do it. Those old men will just steal it from us.”

Alice looked at the paper with excitement. Although she could understand all the runes that were carved into the walls, actually able to pull off soemthing like that was hard, soemthing she couldn’t do. The chance to learn how the Magi beneath her did it was exciting.

Her gaze wandered to the quill in the skeleton’s hand. Beyond the papers, the quill was what she looked forward to most. She had yet to create an Aretfact for herself that could be used to amplify and control her power. Seeing the quill, the realisation that it was one of the tasks she had to come to mind.

”Something had to be used to draw these runes, don’t you think?” Alice greedily said, her gaze darting between Chesh and the quill. Chesh smiled and rubbed the side of Alice’s cheek, nodding.

”And isn’t it only fitting that instead of a staff like those old men, you have soemthing more refined, elegant. A quill,” Stroking Alice’s cheek, Chesh pinched the cheek of her cheek and tugged at it, ”Would suit you perfectly.”

Alice smiled and then frowned. Staring at Chesh and her beautiful, refined looks, she couldn’t help but think of herself and remember her freckled cheeks, still baby-fattened, and her eyes, lacking the sharpness of Chesh’s. ”You should take it. I don’t think a quill suits me. Only if you promise that I can use it, however.”

”WHAT?!” Chesh cried out, surprising Alice. Chopping Alice’s forehead, Chesh looked away and huffed, ”Why not?”

”Although it’s only sometimes, you look cooler than me.” Chesh rolled her eyes and leaned back, letting Alice sit up. Once she did, she shot forward and wrapped her arms around her and tightly squeezed.

”Alice, you’re cooler than me. Your hair is like fire, and you are chosen by the Arcnae. How could I ever be cooler than you?”

”But your eyes and hair. And your clothes.” Alice rubbed her face with two hands, ”Look at my cheeks, I have freckles still. Even that old man thought of me as a child when I became an adult.” Chesh squeezed tighter and shook her head.

”They are all wrong. So are you.” Leaning back, Chesh grabbed her cheeks and stared into her eyes, ”Why do you care what some old man says about you? And why do you think yourself worse than me? You are perfect how you are.”

”but...”

”No buts. Weren’t you the one who found out the puzzle? Aren’t you going to be the one to figure this one out?” Grabbing Alice’s fiery red hair, Chesh brought it to her cheek. ”Your hair is cool, like a warm fire. But if you ever get bored with it or think of a way to look cooler, you can always change its colour.” Clicking her finger, the ends of Alice’s hair changed, becoming black, before turning back to normal with another click.

Letting go of her hair, Chesh grabbed her chin and forced her to look at her again, ”No more buts, Alice. You’re perfect as you are. You never need to change.” Chesh smriekd, ”And if you want to do so, do it not because you’re imperfect but because you’re bored.” Alice meekly nodded but smiled, trying to hide it from Chesh. Finally getting out of her, the girl stretched and looked around, ”So when are you going to solve this?”

Alice groaned and rose, looking around, ”It’s annoying. All that is around is these stupid skeletons. Nothing on the wall makes sense.” Alice said, kicking one. The skeleton rolled, and with its she saw a rune on the back of its skull. Pausing, she let out a pained, angered groan and clutched her head, slamming her feet on the ground, ”THIS DEAD MAN IS THE WORST!”

”What?” Chesh came over and laughed, seeing the skull.

”All of it was fake, none of these people who died investigating but pieces of the puzzle. This guy didn’t want to test anyone but annoy them.” Going to the other skeletons, Alice slowly stripped their clothing and flipped them around, finding the runes marked on them. Separated, they were useless, but looking at the crystal wall, she saw a few places where the wall indented. At first, it looked natural, but holding the skull in her hand, she finally saw that it was wide enough to fit the back of the skull in once it had been broken off.

Putting it to the side, she laid out every piece of clothing, paper and bone that had a rune on it, and took out her notepad. ’Even if he is the worst, this Magi was really good.’ Looking around, she sincerely said to herself, ’To have a functioning system even when pieces are separated shows he mastered the craft. I wonder what type of artefacts he made in his life, if he could do all this just as a prank.’

The greed flashed through her eyes as she thought about it. With a shake of the head, she cleared her head and refocused, watching the circuit run across the wall. ’If the wall is frozen, then to get through, I need to melt it.’ Alice looked at the runes on corpses and their possessions, seeing a few that related to fire and heat.

Following each rune, with the new knowledge that parts were missing from the circuit, it quickly became clear where the start point was. Unlike before, each circuit had a purpose in the circuit’s final goal; it was simply missing the connecting parts. ’Heat, fire, warming. None of that would be at the centre. And he gave a few extra runes that don’t apply to anything.’

Croshing down by them, Alice scanned through the rune sthat didn’;t truly apply to her theory, befroe finding one related to wind. ’Wind can blow out a fire, but in a controlled environment, it can make it grow.’ Looking around the cave was enough proof to justify her theory.

Taking the skull, the wind rune was carved on, she slammed it on the wall over and over until it broke and carefully put the rune in place. Using the arcane, she pushed some power into the runes surrounding it to make it stay in place without shrinking and smiled when it did.

Knowing what to do, Alice went around for the next hour, slowly filling in the gaps until she reached the final part. Pushing a piece of paper into place with a fire rune on it, she activated the arcane power in her body to make it stick and complete the circuit around the wall. The blueish white power filling the runes finally connected, and in a moment, an inferno erupted around her.

The crystal walls burst alight with white flames. The sound of cracking and shattering echoed as the flames dug into the ice wall in a second and destroyed it. Alice stayed still, trusting the power not to devour her alongside the wall, and watched as the final layers of crystal were gone. All that was spared was the floor. Although melted ever so slightly, it left a ground for her to walk on, bar the section just above the skeleton.

With the flames gone, Alice smiled and ran over to the skeleton, grabbing the quill. The grip holding it was soemthing she never expected from bones, and with a grunt, she slammed her foot on its arm, and pulled, snapping the skeleton’s hand and freeing the quill.

”Wow.” Looking at it, she saw deep into the quill. At first glance, it was normal, but the roughness of its touch and the small dents on it showed that over the entire metal body, there were numerous runes carved into it. ”Chesh this thing.” Holding it up, she got a good look at the thing.

Its tip was black, darker than Chesh’s hair, darker than the midnight sky, absorbing light and turning it into nothingness. It felt otherworldly but beautiful. The body in certain light was a deep crimson, deeper than blood, more spectacular than any jewel, yet in another lighting it was an orange, brighter than her hair, brighter than the sun, burning prouder than any fire.

Finally, the feather, the only section free of a rune. It was a single feather, but golden in colour. Touching Alice could tell that that gold wasn’t just for show, each strand of feather cut so thin and stuck to one another to create the illusion.

Looking at it, Alice got lost in its beauty, only snapping out of it when she felt Chesh clear her throat. ”The books and papers, Alice. We need to get safe before someone steals them.” Alice nodded and carefully tucked the quill into her belt, making a mental note to get something proper to hold it. Going around, she carefully shoved things into her bag. When her bag was filled, she grabbed the bags of the corpses around and filled them.

With three bags full of books and papers, she waddled out of the cave, not sparing it another look, and walked back to the old man’s hut.