"Marie, come with me hihihi." Elven said, feet tapping at the air, slowly flying backwards, holding eye contact with Marie.

"Sure," Marie laughed like a man deeply in love: happy, entranced, and wholly ignorant of content. Together they walked towards the left corridor.

She seems to have taken a liking to Marie in particular, I wonder why. Rast's thoughts were cut short by the fountains noise. It sprayed water into the air, almost touching the roof, and fell down swiftly and with elegance, the type of fall public fountains did not display, and created the ticklish sound of water dripping against itself.

The red carpet on the floor consisted of a touch of minimalism, a bit of gold embroidery, and a whole lot of blood. It screamed wealth in the same way the fountain did, and instead of being short and puny, like the type of carpet an ordinary man might have, the matt traced around the corridors, completely covering the floor, and completely made for the occasion.

Rast felt as if his dirty cheap shoes offended the carpet, and his feet thought they would throw away the shoes in a step to walk on the carpet. Afterall, it really felt comfortable and warm, and a ticklish urge in his stomach really wanted to explore the rest of the complex. And so they did. Annie and Loki went forward, whilst Björn and Rast went right.

Walk with audacity and clumsiness, turn the corners with such drama as if behind it were someone acting in shame, make sure to stare on the roof and on the paintings, especially the grim paintings, and you'd be exploring just like Rast.

"This entire thing felt wrong since the first time I saw it," Björn muttured. "And now, Skill, or whatever his name was, is saying that only one party can leave. What kind of bullshit is that?"

"That was weird. I still don't fully buy the explanation he gave us earlier to why he let us in. The other people seem to be of a completely different tier."

"He probably only said that to scare us," Rast said, "there's no way he'll slaughter us for failing."

"He killed that woman," Björn said.

"Yeah but she didn't listen to his orders," Rast said.

"And what if he orders us to kill ourselves," Björn said.

"Fair enough. This place is probably a gigantic mistake. Personally I still don't know why he let us in. I think his explanation was bullshit."

"Yeah, I agree," Björn sighed dejectedly.

Every door they saw, Björn tried to open but most of them were locked. The few doors that did open were toilets and other more communal rooms. The further they walked, the louder the sound of trickling water became, and a slight mist appeared, clouding against their skin and eyes.

There was a large bath there. The form of a circle in the floor filled to the brim with still blue water. A small statue of a siren stood on the edge, water running out of its open mouth, and into the bath. Is this for all of us? Rast felt the urge to jump in but felt too… hesitant. They turned around and walked back to the fountain, they were the first group to return.

They decided to go up, the way Annie and Loki had gone. That route quickly led them past a large area with target dummies, and uncut chunks of logs. A training area, finally something I'd expected. There was an armoury just beside filled to the brim with weapons.

They continued down, passing the occasional toilet, and found themselves in front of a kitchen alongside five different doors. The kitchen had a small spot that led to a room filled with various different foods. The smell made him drool. This was amazing.

They took turns opening each door. The first four doors opened to an empty room, but the fifth one opened to a smiling Annie hiding beneath the blanket with a Loki wearing many suck marks on his neck.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Well hello there boys! What did you guys find?" Loki said.

"A bath, a big one," Björn said, not in the slightest surprised by the sight.

"That's nice, we should take one together Annie."

"Haha, mayy-be," she answered.

"That's the weird thing," Rast said, "there's only one bath: Skill seems to not care about boys and girls sharing the same bath."

"Marie won't be happy about that," Annie said.

"Were is Marie?" Loki asked, confused.

"She went with the fairy," Björn summarized, "maybe there still having fun."

"I don't know. Something feels wrong about that fairy," Rast said. "I'm going to go check up on them."

"I'll tag along," Björn said.

Shutting the door on Annie and Loki, they heard rustling in the bed. They walked back towards the fountain in a leisurely pace, and this time, they entered the left corridor to find Marie. The first thing they heard was Marie's sobbing, and suddenly, they were running.

The area led to a library, and Marie was beneath a bookshelf, filled to the brim with books, they had fallen on top of her. And she was smothered beneath them, unable to get lose.

Tears were all over Marie's face. Björn instantly jumped in, lifting up the heavy bookshelf, releasing a grunt as he does so, and Rast pulled Marie out. Luckily, she hadn't been damaged.

"What happened?"

"Well…" sniff "I tried climbing up the," sniff, "because the fairy said," sniff sob sob, "and I was like really curious."

"Stop. Be more clear," Björn said with a stern note, and at the same time the little green Elven came flying in from deeper in the library, wondering just what had taken place.

"I got a bit lost," Elven said, "I was trying to find help."

"Of course you'd get lost," Rast said, "it's not like you know the place or anything."

A bit of shade passed over Elven's eyebrows, but she was so small that Rast didn't notice. She flew over to Marie, and sat on her head.

"At least Marie's well. That's all that counts."

"Yeah," Marie sniffed, "everything turned our well, don't get mad," sniff, "at Elven."

"Oh you're so sweet," Elven said and tapped her on the head.

"But now that the bookshelf is on the floor it should be easy to find the book on fairies you promised was here."

"Uhh," Elven said, "I must have made a mistake because it's not here but there must of been a book that looked similar."

"But you promised that you…"

"Yes, yes yes. But everyone makes mistakes, plus the books look so similar to the ones back home."

Rast looked over at the mess, he saw many different books flipped all over, and saw the title of some, The basics of magic volume I, The magic's beginning, Mana, Magic, and spells. They were all blue books with sharp titles, Rast gave Elven a sharp look. How could you mistake these books for books on fairies.

"No need to fester on that topic," Elven said, "let's get it cleaned up. You, big guy, please push the bookshelf up."

"My name is Björn," he said.

"Whatever whatever, lift it up."

Björn's arms strained and struggled, veins popping up, but he managed to lift it up with the aid of Rast, and Marie. Lifting the bookshelf up made Rast look up at the roof for once and he spotted something odd.

There was a sharp green eye, staring at them. As Rast noticed it, the eye floated back into the roof. This place is so weird.

Suddenly, the fairy twitched, a small blue snap of lightning appearing. She let out a quiet grunt, and told them something.

"Hopefully you got some rest, because now we have to begin our second test."