Before Death

Mrs. Xiang cast the spell to dispel magic, and finally something changed. Elijah was buffeted by flying shards of bone, but whatever his defensive ability was, it seemed to shrug off most of the shards that were striking the front of his body. Seeing as how the shards striking his back had lost a lot of momentum and came in from awkward angles, I didn't worry about the kid too much while the ability held. Mr. Xiang was groaning, but moving, which was good enough for me.

"Again. Keep casting it, over and over until it is dead," I said to Mrs. Xiang.

And that was how it ended. I didn't expect that she had much mana left after her spellcasting, but the giant skeleton bone storm thing lay inert and smoking on the ground, swiftly disappearing in the white sand, as eyes slid off the individual shards and saw the open white field as a totality.

"You alright there, Elijah?" I shouted. "I- Yea- Yes, sir," he said. He seemed happy about something, which was better than the alternative, so I moved on. "Mr. Xiang, can you hear me? How many fingers am I putting up?" I said. "Oof ouch, that was unpleasant, but I didn't hit my head. Counting fingers is unnecessary," he said. "Kristen, all good?" I said. "It didn't touch me, thank you," she said. "I did it!" Elijah said, confusing the rest of us. "What is it?" I said. "I didn't run. I stood in front of the monster and didn't run away," he said, which, I suppose, was a good enough first step. "Well done, next time try to think about where you should go and what you should do," I said. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right," Elijah said.

Then we all dropped down to check our Journals. I'd gained a decent chunk of experience since defeating the Bone Golem, but not really enough to get me to 11, what was interesting was…

Log

Bones of a Hero laid to rest. Experience to level 11 3325/7500 Echoes of the Past revealed 2/4 Keys to the Atrium Umbrarum 0/1 Arcane Theory skill challenge active. Resolve the Arcane Theory challenge to gain a large amount of Arcane Theory experience, as well as a special reward.

"Did all of you get those things about echoes of the past and what not?" I said. "I did," Mrs. Xiang said and the rest joined in with her in affirmative. "I got two levels. And a Vanguard challenge, but it doesn't tell me what it is, just that I have to be prepared," Elijah said. "Maybe put one of your points in willpower, right?" I said. "Yeah. Yeah, that's a good idea," Elijah said, and started picking his options. If he'd gained two levels he couldn't be much above level five, which made sense. I was more surprised that the rest of us were apparently high enough level that the injection of those 2000 or so experience- suspiciously massive for the challenge, by the way- points didn't level us up right away.

Chat

Enemies are a risk, we just fought a skeleton monster thing. No casualties. -Alex

Same same. -Zack

Any strange updates in your Logs? -Alex

Lemme check -Zack

I think we're underwater. I have a thing in my log that says we have to pass through four airlocks. The rest of the people with me have the same. -Chimo

I'm just about to go in with the last group. The Kyrt insisted on going in their own group, except for Kryn who's coming with me. -Artemis

Alright, looks like we're each getting a unique challenge. Everybody stay safe. -Alex

Good luck all -Hannah

What does Kill the Walpurgisritter mean? -Zack

I didn't know, and I didn't see how I could figure it out, so I left them to discuss.

"Looks like we're getting a different challenge from the others, but everyone is getting something odd and specific. We've already made some progress according to the Journal, so probably it's for the best if we just keep going," I said. This time there wasn't even a discussion or agreement, they just followed my lead as if I knew what the fuck I was doing. "Do you know what any of this means?" Kristen said. "I'm hoping we'll learn more as we go farther," I said. "It's just that I don't understand any of these stats and abilities. I like puzzles, but I could never get my head around video games," she said. "Don't think of it as a game then, okay? In many ways it's not, we're in real danger and have to solve real problems. Think of how you would solve some problem at work," I said. "Ha, as if, we don't get problems like this in the soap store," she said, but it looked like she knew what I meant. "Mrs. Xiang, could I copy that dispelling spell from your spellbook? I hadn't thought about it, but it's obvious we should both have it," I said. "Yes, good idea. We can take a short rest in the meantime," she said.

It was really quite a short rest, because I had gotten really quick at copying spells. Mrs. Xiang gave Mr. Xiang a shoulder massage, which seemed to help more than it should have, so either he was so much of a wife guy that her touch placeboed him to health, or that was one of their recovery abilities.

Spells

Dispel Magic I, Metamagic, Tier 1, Rank 1

Below is the sigil for the Dispel Magic I spell of the Metamagic school. When performing the standard casting procedure with the incantation nul-ka-velk, you disrupt and destroy ongoing magical effects, immediately stopping their effects. Does damage to creatures animated by magic. Effective against spells of equal rank or lower. This spell comes in several versions of different ranks, all sharing a Tier.

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Requirements to upgrade the Spell to Rank 2:

0/15 spells of equal rank disrupted; 0/5 magical constructs damaged

Which was definitely going to come in handy, though I really would have liked a second rank version, so that I could remove my invisible barriers when they became unwieldy. Recently I had been facing so many monsters that dealt massive damage, that the 10% damage transfer started becoming really risky. Still, I was sure there were many abjuration spells of higher rank or varied utility, I just had to find them.

After our rest we ventured further into the House of Alsarab, with most halls and squares being more or less identical. Some had a few scrolls or slabs, and reading those gave me small amounts of Arcane Theory experience, but they didn't have any obvious clues. Some had monsters, but they were even weaker than the 'hero' as the Tower called it. All in all we spent twenty minutes and passed through four or five squares before we saw anything change.

Here, instead of open-air hallways and squares, or, as I had to remind myself, well lit rooms that appeared to be open hallways and squares, there was a door of heavy wood and wrought iron. On either side of the door there was a statue. The left was of a woman, and it had a metal mask, it looked silver, carved into a beautiful face and covered in intricate runes. The right was a man, face hidden behind a veil and cloak of feathers painted black, hunched and leaning on a staff.

Just seeing the statues updated our Echoes of the Past to 3/4, whatever that meant, and we gathered around them.

"Well, what are we waiting for, let's go in," Mr. Xiang said. "That looks really ominous," Elijah said. "Yeah, that's definitely where we're supposed to go. It'll also definitely be the most dangerous place in here," I said. "What can we do to prepare," Kristen said. "I can't do anything myself. I need a dark enclosed space, and we haven't come across anything like that here," I said. "Right, you like to hide in cupboards," Mrs. Xiang said. "It's my recovery ability," I said. "So, we just go?" Elijah said. "If you're afraid that you might get in the way, or just too scared in general it might be best if you stayed outside. That applies to everyone," I said.

Kristen and Elijah seemed to consider it. But when the kid stepped forward she followed. I went in first. The doors were just as heavy as they looked and opened with a dry creak. Before me was a field of what appeared almost complete darkness, with a few sky-lights shining down beams of dramatic lighting, dust flowing through the light. I walked in. The contrast in lighting blinded me for a few seconds, then slowly the much darker room came into view.

Here there were a hundred shattered stone lecterns in various stages of destruction. The walls of the room were dark wood, and the floor was tile mosaic of abstract geometric shapes. At the center of the room there was a chair, a throne really, made entirely out of what appeared to be silver. It sat amidst the rubble left behind the shattered lecterns, which appeared to have been in a circular pattern around it before shattering, though now were strewn about in a much more haphazard arrangement. The woman in the silver mask sat in the throne, and the man in the crow feather cloak stood behind her.

In their strange, dramatic appearance and bearing they reminded me of the apprentices we had faced before in the main Tower, but there were no runes on them anywhere. I looked around the hall, and seeing no other points of interest I ventured to walk towards the two figures. I noticed that the shadows weren't moving right. As I moved, the shadows cast by the broken lecterns moved in a circular pattern, almost like sundials, each step of mine eating up around a third of a cycle. A sense of dread came over me and I went to the chat.

Chat

Second airlock passed. We're fighting a lot of fish things. Didn't we have a fish related encounter already? -Chimo

Keep going, keep safe. -Artemis.

Brandy's injured. Pretty bad, we're going to try moving quickly, no healer. -Zack

Get her out safe. -Artemis.

We will. -Hannah

Hey, everyone, how long has it been since I last checked in? -Alex

About half an hour, why? -Artemis

Nothing. Some weird shit going on here, was afraid it might be time related. -Alex

I let out a breath and put the Journal back into my pocket. It was too dangerous where we were for polite sign-offs and I was sure everyone would understand. The metaphor- as Elijah had called it- was really obvious. Each time I took a step, the clock advanced by three hours. Thankfully, it didn't literally advance three hours, but it would mean something.

I kept walking, keeping my focus on the three figures and I saw it. It was subtle, but each step I took they moved. Not a lot, but, well, If I had to stand in the exact same position in the exact same spot once every three hours, I figured that that's how close I would get. With a lot of help and reference pictures. In the bad lighting it might have been tricks of shadows, but they weren't. I also noticed that that was the only way that the figures reacted to our advancing.

I took another step. Suddenly, there were horrible screams, the room was full of smoke, wind and heat, and my eyes stung with smoke. I felt my entire body erupt in flames and screamed for a few seconds, before remembering that I had the fire resistance spell on me. As soon as I realized that I fire couldn't be hurting me, my vision shifted, my sight blurred and I was standing back at the entrance, my companions writhing on the ground as if having a bad nightmare. I loudly proclaimed: "You are not on fire. The fire resistance spell is active. It is impossible for you to feel burning," not really expecting it to work. But it did.

"The, I guess, Illusion stops working as soon as you realize that it is impossible, I think," I said. "So, like, what? We're back at the entrance, did we figure it out?" Elijah said. "Nothing in the Journal," Mr. Xiang said. "I think we have to get to those two before 'time' runs out and the fire starts," I said. "What are you talking about?" Kristen said. "Ah, the sundials, right? When we take steps, the shadows move like hours had passed," Mrs. Xiang said. "That's what I'm guessing. So, maybe it's as simple as taking big enough steps," I said. "Let me check," Mr. Xiang said.

He leaped immediately towards the two figures. He must have cleared ten feet from a standing jump and was getting ready for a second one. This seemed like a good idea, so we all watched, but three leaps in- just about as far as we had gotten before- there was a flash of light and Mr. Xiang was next to us, twitched in pain and horror for a second, before clearly remembering that he was seeing an illusion and standing up with a "Well that's unfair."

"Yeah that was definitely a lot fewer steps. Anyone, any ideas?" I said. "The dispel magic spell?" Mrs. Xiang said. I felt stupid for not thinking of it earlier, and tried it out. It definitely hit something, but it was clearly not powerful enough to break it. "Must be too high a rank," I said. "So, like, I was just thinking," Elijah said, "Well you see, if it is sort of a metaphor, then what is it about?" "The obvious illusion stops when we notice that it is an illusion. Something about that?" I said. "Seeing through lies could be it," Elijah said, "I guess." "Well what the Hell, let's try just walking up and calling out everything that doesn't seem possible," I said. "Could you please not swear, sir?" Elijah said. "Right, sorry, kid," I said.

And we walked into the damn hall of illusions with utmost care and attention.

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