The Guildmaster led their group through the winding halls of the Ashdale Adventure’s Guild at a rapid pace — so much so that Jill found herself slightly out of breath after a moment. She turned to her left to see that Jack was in a similar state. He also turned, met her eyes, and raised a brow.
The Guildmaster, on the other hand, looked as fresh as a spring chicken despite her slightly slouched posture. As if sensing Jill’s stare, she turned and smiled. “Hurry up now, youngin’, not too far now. Be sure to keep up. Wouldn’t want you to get lost. This place can be a bit of a maze if you’re not careful.” She barked out a laugh and waved as she turned a corner.
As She did, Grim, who had been silently floating behind them, froze. When she spoke, it was in her voice, but the words came off as slightly… flat.
//Warning! Spatial Anomaly Detected! Users are advised that overlapping spatial expansion fields can result in suboptimal and potentially catastrophic results. Please proceed with caution.//
Jill stopped and squinted at Grim. That was… new. What was this about overlapping spatial expansion fields? Was she talking about her storage? It was well known that putting a spatial storage device inside another spatial storage device could have devastating consequences.
But why would the strange artifact spirit they had befriended mention that now?
Slowly, something that had been bugging her for a while now crystallized in Jill’s mind. She frowned and slowly turned around, staring at the long hallway and various doors on either side.
“Jack…” she muttered, her eyes still scanning the area.
“Ya?” her brother asked, huffing as he took the chance to catch his breath.
Jill was silent for a moment, then asked, “How long have we been walking?”
Jack paused and tilted his head. “Uhhh, I don’t know? Like, maybe ten minutes? I wasn’t really paying much attention to the time. I was more focused on keeping up with the old lady.”
Jill turned to Jack. “Was… did Guildhall seem that big when we got here?”
Jack opened his mouth to respond, but froze. His brow furrowed, and he looked back down the hall the way they’d come. It stretched behind them for about a hundred meters before suddenly turning to the left. He then turned to look in the direction they were headed, and he saw another twenty meters of hallway and another bend. Dozens of plain, unmarked wooden doorways lined the hallway.
“Now that you mention it…” Jack whispered with a frown.
Jill suddenly rushed down the hallway toward the nearer bend, turned, and stared, her eyes wide. There, extending into the distance, was an identical hallway filled with the same unmarked plain doors.
She slowly backed away and turned to see Jack jogging up behind her, Little Red, Mr Gopher, and Grim following close behind.
Jack peeked around the corner and frowned. “Huh… well now… that’s… strange.”
Jill didn’t bother to respond and instead rushed toward one of the nearby doors, throwing it open wide. Inside appeared to be nothing more than a simple storage room packed with sealed crates, various weapons and armor on stands, and numerous everyday items strewn about randomly.
Jill almost let out a breath of relief until she noticed another plain, unmarked door on the far side of the room. She carefully approached the far door and slowly reached for the handle. In one smooth motion, she pulled the door open to reveal… another featureless hallway, more unmarked doors lining either side.
Her heart now beating heavily in her chest, Jill rushed toward the door opposite the one she had just opened and threw it open as well. This time, the room appeared to be a training or repair room of sorts. It was filled with rows of dusty weights and half-destroyed target dummies. Most of the equipment had been pushed to the side, as if awaiting repair, but a few items lay out next to various pieces, as if whoever had been cleaning them had just… stepped out.
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Like the last room, another unmarked door sat on the opposite side. Jill rushed toward that door as well, cursing to herself as she kicked on the heavy weights in her haste and threw the door open.
Another hallway and more doors.
She ran to the opposite door again, nearly hyperventilating, and threw it open. Another room, and another door.
Again and again, Jill passed through room and door, until finally, something strange happened. After nearly a dozen rooms and identical hallways, Jill opened the last door to see something she hadn’t expected.
Or, maybe some part of her had been…
“Jill?! How the hell did you get over there?!” Jack spun around as Jill opened the door, his eyes wide. Jill stopped in the doorway, breathing heavily as sweat poured down her brow.
Jack turned back around to face the way he had been. His eyes went even wider as he saw, far in the distance and past a dozen open rooms, the back of… Jill?
Jack furrowed his brow. “Well, that’s… weird.”
He leaned over and was surprised when another figure also leaned past Jill’s double, far in the distance.
Jack squinted and made eye contact with… himself?
Instantly, an intense headache overtook Jack, and he nearly collapsed to his knees.
“Ow, ow, ow! What in the nine hells was that?!” Jack yelled as he clutched his head.
As he backed away from the door, Jill stepped away as well and started to pace. Mr. Gopher took their place, glanced back and forth between the open doors, and frowned. He raised a finger, and the surrounding air swirled. Dust from the area was sucked in as if stuck in a vortex, and after a moment, a grey stone the size of a fist floated in the air over Mr. Gopher’s hand.
With a flick of his wrist, the grey stone became a blur and shot through the rightmost door. A few seconds later, a grey blur shot out of the leftmost door, crossed the hallway in the blink of an eye and passed through the rightmost door once more.
A few seconds later, it happened again. And again. And again, each pass taking less and less time until a grey line formed in the space between the doors.
Mr. Gopher stared at the sigh with a smile and chittered happily.
Jill — on the other hand — paused her pacing.
“I’m glad to see you’re having fun, but this is a serious matter,” she said with a frown.
Jack, the pounding in his head settling down, stood from where he sat on the floor. “What the hell is going on?” he asked. “Some kind of spatial trap? Why? And where did the Guildmaster go?”
Jill shook her head. “I don’t know. But we need to get out of here.”
Jack looked down the hallway and frowned. “But how? I have no experience with spatial magic at all. I couldn’t begin to tell you how… whatever the hell this is, works.”
Jill furrowed her brow and followed her brother’s gaze. Yes… that was the question, wasn’t it?
—————————————————————
“Was that really necessary, Aunt Cel?”
The Guildmaster smacked the grey-muzzled wolfman in the back of his head.
She glared down at him and said, “That’s Guildmaster while on campus.”
Beastmaster Stark Ashdale rubbed the back of his head and muttered something under his breath, but didn’t dare backtalk. The old — former — matriarch of the Ashdale clan and Stark’s great-great aunt was known to be a woman who rarely tolerated any lip.
So the Beastmaster was rather surprised when the old woman actually answered his question. “Yes. It was. These children are looking to stick their noses into matters they barely understand. If they can’t even solve this minor obstacle, then they have no chance of surviving what’s coming. If that’s the case, better to send them away now than let them run off to their deaths pointlessly.”
The Beastmaster raised a brow and smirked. “That’s rather… pragmatic of you. What happened to the stone-cold Guildmaster that wouldn’t think twice of letting some fool Adventurer run off to their doom?”
The Guildmaster scoffed, “There’s a difference between letting idiots learn the hard way after you’ve already warned them and letting children wander into danger needlessly. Besides, my grandfather always mentioned his regret at not being able to help Progenitor Rubyseed’s descendants. The old squirrel had been adamant that his people be allowed to flourish or fail as they would. If what grandfather said was correct, Ol’Rubyseed held a firm belief in the tides of fate and chance. Maybe that comes with the territory of a Treasure Hunter. Either way, the Ashdales have always respected Rubyseed’s wishes.”
Stark shook his head. “So why help now? Is that a bit of nepotism I’m seeing?”
The Guildmaster barked out a laugh. “Boy, the world runs on nepotism. Don’t you ever think otherwise. Often, who you know is just as important as raw power. But no, I’m not playing favorites here. Not really. Think about it, though. Think of all the little things that had to have happened to bring these two to us now, of all times. For them to cross Morgana’s path. I can’t say I hold such faith in the whims of fate as Progenitor Rubyseed did, but what else would you call it?”
Beastmaster Stark turned and grunted. He’d never considered things like fate before, so he couldn’t say much on a matter like that.
After a moment of silence, the Guildmaster stood from her seat and spoke. “Be it fate or chance, at the end of the day, I don’t really care, if I’m honest. What matters most is the results. If they can get through this, then maybe — just maybe — they have what it takes to go all the way.” With those words, the old woman raised her eyes and stared into the distance, where a gargantuan tree towered over the valley.