"Each door leads to a puzzle of that type?" Alarion guessed. "And I have to complete all three?"
"You know, it really takes the fun out of it if you cut me off." Valentina's scowl didn't quite reach her eyes as she glanced sidelong at him. "But no, you need to complete eight. "
"Alright. So, three of each, then? Or, three of two and two of the other, I guess."
"Not quite." She drew his attention to the gems set into the door. "These rank the difficulty and threat of each challenge. When you complete one, you will return to this room to pick another, but the type and difficulty on offer will be shuffled. Depending on your progress, you will have up to four options."
"Four?"
"There are endurance challenges as well."
She snapped her fingers, and several gems beneath the doors shimmered and filled with crimson light. The puzzle door had two glowing gems, the arcane door had one, while the gems in the combat door remained unlit.
"You are welcome to choose any type you'd like, but each time you complete a room, the base level of that challenge increases by one."
Alarion eyed the unlit gems as he considered her words. "It only goes up to three, regardless, right?"
"Correct. Unlit gems indicate a base challenge. You can leave these at any time and select a different challenge if it is not to your liking, and you cannot fail these. In a combat room, if you are defeated, you'll be sent back here and allowed to try again. A single lit gem shows that the room, and thus the dungeon, can be failed. Two removes your ability to retreat. Three introduces the risk of death upon failure. Each is also markedly harder than its predecessor."
Alarion nodded along as he reviewed the options before him. The obvious option was, well… obvious. Later, assuming he racked up some wins, the setup could force some hard choices, pushing him into a less favorable encounter to avoid ranking up an already difficult alternative. For now, it was a straight selection, and if there was one thing Alarion felt he was at least competent at, it was combat.
"Of course, a higher difficulty increases the rewards," Val added, almost as an afterthought.
Alarion stopped in his tracks and turned a less-than-enthusiastic glare her way. "Anything else I need to know?"
"Mmm. You cannot loiter; you'll need to attempt at least one challenge every two days, or you will be removed. Though given your rush, I don't imagine that will be an issue. More pertinent to your case, you also cannot re-enter the dungeon as a whole should you leave. I'll provide rewards after each successful lesson. Obviously, the overall rewards will improve the deeper you delve, as will the difficulty, but if you aim to maximize your results, taking the hardest room you can is probably best." The woman's smile was far too sweet as she spoke. "Assuming you survive. Knowing your limits is an important part of confronting any challenge."
"Has anyone completed your lessons?"
"Not recently! Though I have high hopes." Whether those 'high hopes' were for him, the once goddess left unsaid. "While your empire came after my time, I will say that your Awakened do not disappoint."
"It is not my empire," said Alarion.
"Oh? You wear their colors, I would have thought…" Again, the woman's head tipped skyward, and she visibly winced. "Ah. Yes, that would explain it. All the more reason to root for you, then. If you would like, I can change the exit location when you leave."
Alarion's head snapped in her direction. "You can do that?"
"I can, though I doubt your owners were aware, or they wouldn't have sent you in. One of my many titles in life was Mother of Liberation. I am not fond of slavers."
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"I am not a-" Alarion bit his tongue rather than continue that line of argument and shifted to a more pressing one. "Can you send me anywhere?"
"Well, not anywhere. It would have to be to the exit of another of Mother's dungeons. Preferably, one that is in a safe location for you. Is there somewhere you wanted to go?"
Alarion thought about the question. There were many places he longed to be, home chief among them, but few that still existed in any meaningful sense. Even so, one name at least broached his lips. "The city of Null. Do you have a dungeon near there?"
"Within a hundred miles or so. Did you want me to send you there?"
The young man looked at the door and frowned. "Can I think about it?"
"As long as you need," the woman smiled. There was a gentleness in her eyes as she gestured back to the doors. "Or as long as your time limit allows, in any case. Have you decided where you wish to begin?"
"This one, I think," Alarion answered as he advanced on the puzzle door.
Valentina chuckled. "Ambitious. Mother is impressed! Good luck!"
With her words at his back, Alarion pushed open the door and entered the same bright light that had greeted him when he'd entered the dungeon.
However, the brightness did not fade this time as the room resolved around him. Gone were the old hardwood floors and dusty tomes. In their place stood columns of pristine white marble, floors inlaid with gold and black. Above him were vaulted ceilings that stretched off into the distance and arched staircases that led to upper floors.
It reminded him of the strange room at the bottom of the pit. Sierra had guessed it was a throne room, or perhaps a temple. This place carried the same air of opulence and extravagant wealth without the grim undertones of that subterranean chamber. If anything, this place reminded him of the woman he'd just left. It certainly had Valentina's colors.
Everything was white or gold. The stairs were white, the ceiling white, and inlaid with gold. The chandeliers, the statues, the seating, and even the lighting held a golden incandescence that flickered off polished surfaces.
Ahead of him lay two columns. Behind those were a double-arched stairwell to a second floor and an open foyer that contained yet more intricate columns, chairs, tables, and priceless-looking pieces of art. At the center was a pedestal upon which rested a dark statue of a dancing man playing a stringed instrument as he was attacked.
"Puzzle room," Alarion reminded himself as he slowly turned in place.
He was certainly puzzled. On first glance, the areas to the left and right of him appeared similar. On a second, he realized they were almost identical. Looking in all four directions, the only meaningful distinction were the statues, each playing a different instrument: a tambourine, a flute, a trumpet, and a violin.
Did most people have to deal with this level of extra-dimensional weirdness? Or was he just lucky?
With no one direction any more tempting than another, Alarion set off at random to his left. He walked between the two stairwells and approached the pedestal, careful not to get too close to the dark stone statue. It depicted a man in mid-dance, a violin held to his chin as a woman tackled him in a loving embrace. The woman was Val; her features perfectly captured, though the man was unfamiliar.
It was beautiful, borne of endless patience Alarion could not even imagine. As though it were not a figure carved of stone, but one the carver had set free with his chisel. The boy had little understanding of art, yet he could not imagine how one carved stone so that it looked soft. The way Val's fingers dug into the man's skin, her carefree expression, and the baffled confusion on the subject's face.
Was this a real place? Some palace plucked from the real Valentina's life to serve as a fixture for her dungeon? Or was it some fiction she'd concocted simply for his trial? That she could do either felt surreal. And somehow invasive. Almost as though he were in a place he did not belong.
With nowhere else to go, Alarion continued past the statue, his steps echoing off the empty halls as he moved deeper into the palace. He passed two columns topped in gold and looked ahead to see… the statue of a man playing a violin, dancing as Valentina tackled him from behind.
Alarion turned to look back and saw that the statue behind him depicted not a violin, but a flute.
"What…" Alarion murmured as he walked back toward it. The statue was clearly different. Its basic proportions, design, and theme were all the same, but the position of his arms and the instrument at his lips differed. Alarion wouldn't have mistaken one for the other.
Worse yet, as Alarion looked back toward where he'd arrived, he could see the violin player on the far side of the room, where the flute player should have been.
Concerned, but not yet truly alarmed, Alarion moved toward one of the nearby staircases. Following it up to the second floor, he found it no less opulent, with the same gold filagree, elegant furniture, and tasteful railings as the floor below him. He noted an opposing set of staircases not far ahead. And identical stairs not far off to the left and right.
More worryingly, with nothing obstructing his line of sight, as the various walls and stairs had done on the ground floor, Alarion could see into the distance. Far into the distance.
Miles into the distance, with nothing but white marble, gold-tipped columns, and arched ceilings as far as the eye could see.
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