⸂This is awful,⸃ Gale said, their voice sounding completely relaxed, if also pissed off, despite the heaving breaths she was sucking in. There was something profoundly unfair about locals being able to speak normally while they could barely breathe—and none of them, save Astra, could breathe at this point.
One more challenge—they had one more challenge to go before they reached the heartcore. It was so close they could see it, glowing at the centre of a nearby pool of iridescent water. It was beautiful—more beautiful than any of the previous heartcores she’d seen. Wisps of red aether snaked off it, reflecting over the liquid beneath it—the hopefully not poisonous liquid.
Seriously, they’d come this far, working through three challenges that had been a mixture of painful—thank you, Caro, for having a hobby of walking around with bare feet and trying to find the most painful things to traverse over, challenging their friends to see who could make it the furthest—and ridiculous. Gale had insisted that she was not a fan of puppet shows. No one believed her. They’d spent nearly two hours putting on a play for the labyrinth, the story intricate and winding. It had seemed impressed and bestowed them with food, which had been nice.
This challenge was just terrible. There were eight individual sections of the challenge, set out like numbers on a clock around a central net platform. Each of the sections was an obstacle course of sorts, which had to be traversed to grab pieces of a puzzle. Individually, the obstacles weren’t particularly difficult, and the challenge would have been fine, except for the first time since the water slides, they had opponents.
Shadows had risen out of the aether as they examined the challenge, the same host voice from the kitchen challenge popping in to taunt them as it explained the rules: they each had an opponent, and if they wanted out of here, they needed to beat them in completing the puzzle.
At the very least, their shadow opponents were the same size as they were, with seemingly the same physical abilities and coordination. The only thing they lacked was the drive to win, and their group had been forced to drag up all their motivation and desire to not be disappeared by the labyrinth out in order to compete.
And fucking stars, did they have a desire to win. Where Emilia had years of experience in dragging out her best on the battlefield, Gale seemed driven by pure rage, and while both of them had originally worried about the smaller members of their team, Caro and Astra were both holding their own. Actually, truth be told, their smallest members had done better at the physical part of the challenge than either Emilia or Gale.
Caro, wild child that they were, had briefly frozen, when faced with their tiny, grinning shadow. For a moment, Emilia had worried they would fall apart—that the tenuous threads that had been holding them together since meeting Conrad’s brother would finally snap. They hadn't, and instead Caro had thrown themself through the obstacles without fear. They’d fallen off a few times, and strangely, Emilia had spotted flecks of blood lingering over the spots they’d bled on—their injuries had healed under the influence of the system, but for some reason, their blood had never returned to them.
Now, they were struggling with the puzzle, but they were far ahead of their slower, more cautious shadow. Unless the puzzle was truly too difficult for them—unlikely, as everything Emilia had seen suggested that the labyrinths wanted those within it to succeed—they would be fine.
As for Astra, she was already done. Emilia wasn’t sure why she had been carrying the child through most of their days together because the child was fast and strong. Gale had suggested it was magic. The child had already shown she was a prodigy, and while she had only ever shown them her ability to activate arrays and gems, it was possible she was capable of using magic independently, which was terrifying.
The shadows had no magic, as far as Emilia had seen, and Astra’s shadow was still making its way through the course at the speed one would expect from such a small being.
Instead, it was Emilia and Gale who were struggling to win. Many of the challenges had been designed for smaller bodies, and for both they and their shadows, moving through several had been difficult. Their feet were too big for steps, their bodies too big for tiny tunnels. They still had a lead, but it was much slimmer than Astra and Caro’s.
Emilia landed with a thud on the final platform, hands reaching out to work the knot of the bag containing her puzzle piece loose. Her nails had, unfortunately, been making this whole thing more difficult than it should have been. A product of the system, they couldn’t break. Useful if she wanted to claw someone’s eyes out, not so useful when they were too long for easy knot untying. Rather unfairly, her shadow had no such problems with their knots.
The bag slipped free and Emilia was already turning, grabbing for the first of a series of vertical ropes that she would need to swing between to get back to centre. Her hands already burned from the jump over, but burning hands were clearly better than whatever fate awaited her in a labyrinth disappeared me land. Locking her teeth around the bag, she pushed off.
Each transfer between ropes burned. Her hands, her cheek—stars, even her thighs had begun to burn by the time she landed back on the netted centre. Nearby, her shadow was just starting on its final obstacle, its black body clamouring through a mess of beams and ropes. She passed Gale as she took bounding steps over the net, the teenager heading back for her final piece as well, her shadow unseen until it popped up after having fallen off a rope bridge.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Emilia couldn’t help but snort. Aside from the whole you’ll be disappeared if you lose thing, this was actually pretty fun. None of them could be sure whose skills this challenge had been based on, although Astra had neither confirmed nor denied it could be hers. It could have been a unique design of the labyrinth, though, meant to challenge them all equally. If so, it had done a bang up job, even if Emilia could do without the host.
⸂And~ Emilia has her final piece at her station! She is now free to begin putting those pieces into place! What a slow start! Those nails of hers have been causing her problems all~ through~ this challenge!⸃ it called in its too cheerful and yet still condescending voice. It was too loud, its voice distracting, and indeed, behind her, Gale swore as she was sent tumbling.
Emilia didn’t look back. As much as she cared for the girl, they had all agreed that they needed to take care of themselves as much as possible during this challenge. It helped that the host had been very clear that helping other competitors would be considered cheating, but Emilia wanted to help, and she still wasn’t sure what she would have done if the children had fallen behind.
Most likely, they all would have stopped and fallen behind together, hoping they’d end up disappeared to the same place. If luck were really on their side, perhaps they even would have ended up in the same place V and missing kids had. The world wasn’t that fair or lucky, though. Plus, they’d never fallen behind, so it wasn’t something they had to worry about.
⸂Caro is starting over! Looks like they’re thinking they put a piece in wrong! This is a complicated puzzle, so I can’t fault them for that.⸃ The voice laughed, a terrible sound that seemed suppressed, like they were pretending they weren’t actually laughing at a child struggling to complete something they had admitted they had no experience with.
⸂I’ve always been more of an outside kid!⸃ they had explained during the last challenge, one inspired by Emilia’s own love of puzzles. Neither Gale nor Astra had participated much, only organizing the pieces of the giant puzzle she worked to assemble into piles as she directed. Caro had helped carry the pieces for her, watching as she pointed out the things they were looking for on each piece—what bits of information they could glean to figure out where it belonged.
Emilia wasn’t sure how much they had learned, given she couldn’t actually explain any of the process to them, but hopefully, they had retained some of it—hopefully, the puzzle really was that complicated, and their new knowledge was making it easier. Their shadow was still behind, but eventually, it would catch up, and—
⸂Emilia has completed her puzzle!⸃ the host cheered, before adding in a snide comment about how her shadow hadn’t even managed to return with its last piece yet. It was a strange thing to do—to make fun of what seemed to be an emotionless shadow.
Emilia glanced back at it, finding it standing in the middle of the net, staring down at its last bag. For a moment, it felt like maybe it actually did have feelings—perhaps it actually had wanted to win, even if that want hadn’t manifest as motivation or the drive to push its body harder. Then it was gone, and Gale was rushing in, final bag in hand.
⸂Gale returns with her last bag! But~ she’s the last of her group to make it, and her shadow is catching up! Will she be able to make it, or—⸃
⸂SHUT! UP!⸃ the teenager screamed into the aether.
Caro froze, then, their wide eyes were turning on Gale. For a moment, Emilia thought they were about to start crying, or give up on the challenge, then they were screaming at the host too. Their hands and eyes turned back to the puzzle as they yelled every curse they had ever heard on the streets at the floating voice of their host.
Emilia smiled and went to go sit by Astra, who had tucked herself against the edge of the room. The child immediately curled into her. Long black lashes brushed over her cheeks and within moments she was asleep, despite the racket Caro and Gale were creating. Caro, Gale and the host, who quickly began trying to scream its narration of events over the children. It wasn’t working.
Gale’s arms shot up, their puzzle completed, just as their shadow was dumping the last of their pieces onto their station. That didn’t stop her screams—if anything, they grew louder now that she had nothing distracting her
Caro’s shadow skidded in front of their station, and the child swore as they fumbled a piece, the large, triangular piece falling soundly to the ground.
“Go Caro!” Emilia yelled, willing her belief in the child to resonate through the aether. Caro couldn’t hear her, but perhaps the universe would relay some of her confidence to them. “You can do it!”
Beside her, Astra stirred slightly, nose turning into Emilia’s arm.
“Go! Go! Go!” Emilia continued chanting as she readjusted Astra, tugging her about until the small girl was straddling her lap.
⸂It seems Caro has a cheerleader!⸃ the host screamed, momentarily distracting Caro from their task.
They looked up, wide eyes shifting between Gale and their shadow to—
They still couldn’t hear her, but Emilia took their momentary meeting of eyes to scream at the child. The kids had seen her talking enough to know she spoke with her mouth. Her hands flew through the air, silent cheers of support before they shifted into a more violent, “Get back to it! Focus!” She had no idea if Caro understood her signs, but they did return to their puzzle, and two pieces later the host was cheering them on as well.
⸂Caro wins! Just barely!⸃ the host screamed because both Caro and Gale were still screaming as they hugged and bounced like the children they were on the platform. Caro’s shadow melted into a pool of smoke, and finally, the host’s presence faded away. Apparently, it had realized the kids weren’t going to be shutting up until it fucked off.
“Woo!” Emilia yelled before breaking into a long yawn. Astra snuggled further into her lap, and she ran a soothing hand down the girl’s back. “Do you think we can rest awhile?” she sighed out as Gale and Caro came to sit beside her. She didn’t sign or write it out, but both children seemed to understand, and within moments they were all asleep in the suddenly silent room.