Raine regained control of himself once they were standing in front of the temple’s doors.
The cotton in his brain gradually faded away, putting him at the full mercy of the tsunami that was Nikolay’s worry and concern. He physically staggered backwards, surprised at the intensity of the emotion.
I’m fine. No need to broadcast your worry across the entire vessel, Raine laughed quietly. But I appreciate the sentiment.
In response, the stream of anxiousness gradually subsided into a small trickle. Whether this was due to Nikolay’s conscious effort to hide his emotions, Raine wasn’t too sure.
It was merely an attempt to break the mysterious hold on your mind.
A sly grin crept its way onto Raine’s face. Hmm, that’s strange. I never knew a reserved person like you could fake emotions so strongly.
Stop teasing me and get to work, Nikolay grumbled.
As His Majesty insists.
Raine focused his attention towards the doors before him. Like the rest of the temple, the double doors were made of white stone. Curiously, there were no handles to be seen on the flat surface. Instead, there was a large crystal embedded in between the two doors.
Raine experimentally tried pushing on the doors, to no effect. The rough stone was as unmoving as if the temple wall was a cliff face. Or maybe he was just weak — that was also a possibility. Either way, brute strength didn’t seem to be the correct answer.
He examined the crystal next, attempting to solve the impossibility of its colourless nature. Inexplicably, the crystal refracted the light in a way that didn’t show a clear colour — not quite transparent, but not any colour that he had seen before.
Have you seen this colour before? It looks weird.
You’re right. If I had to guess, there might be a piece of the puzzle that we cannot see — that being the magic inside it.
Raine reached out to tug at the corners of the crystal. At least, he intended to. Instead, the instant his fingertips touched the crystal, he was completely paralysed.
Tendrils, almost vine-like, wrapped tightly around Raine’s consciousness. As hard as he tried to rip himself from its grasp, the binds only tightened in an unforgiving answer. The probing tendrils drilled further into his mind, sinking their sharp points deep into him. Raine was helpless before its inspection, only able to broadcast distressed signals while trapped.
An agonising few seconds passed before the tendrils released Raine from their cruel embrace. Almost immediately, Nikolay’s consciousness rushed to inspect him for any harm.
Ack! I’m fine, Raine hastily said, backing away from Nikolay. No need to put me under another inspection or anything.
Are you sure? It could have planted something without you knowing.
I can check myself later. Don’t worry.
...Fine.
Raine couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the reluctant admission. The intent behind his worry was endearing, sure, but the guy could learn to calm down. It was overpowering, to the point that Raine wondered whether he was missing something important about Nikolay.
While Raine was busy ruminating, the crystal dimmed and faded into a colour akin to regular glass. Almost immediately after, a loud rumbling sound caused Raine to jump backwards. The stone doors in front of him slowly began swinging inwards, grating along the concrete floor.
It seems like the crystal granted you access because of what it detected. Nikolay pondered. There’s a high chance that it’s related to the prophecy.
Behind the newly revealed entrance lay a towering set of stairs, continuing high up into an unseen area. Placed along the hallway were large, conspicuous lanterns hanging from both walls.
They really wanted to make it clear where we were going, huh? Raine dryly commented as he squinted upwards. Maybe what the crystal detected was a shit ton of idiocy.
There aren’t any windows in this building to utilise natural light, but I agree. Putting this many lanterns is a little insulting.
Raine looked behind them to give a thumbs up at Rascal before stepping inside the temple. He felt bad for leaving Rascal again, but bringing her into an unknown temple didn’t sound like a terribly profound idea.
Inside, the stairs were just as infinite as they looked a few seconds ago. Even though there were lanterns placed every metre, the stairs converged at a pinprick point high above where they currently were.
Another grating sound prompted Raine to turn around. He stumbled backwards in alarm, just barely missing the two doors closing again. With a resigned sigh, he turned back to face the stairs.
Good time to pick up our training routine from earlier, Raine muttered sarcastically. Because everybody loves cardio.
Nikolay snorted. We haven’t even stepped on the first step yet.
Brilliant eye, Sherlock. That’s because I really don’t want to.
Stop wasting your breath on insulting me and get to work.
Raine gritted his teeth and reluctantly began his arduous ascent. Each individual stair was much taller than a normal step. Either the architect hated their job, or they lacked an understanding of the human body. Though, looking at the endless staircase told him it was probably something more sinister.
About two minutes in, the lanterns became more spread out across the wall. With each step, the distance between the lanterns exponentially widened. Another two minutes passed, and the next lantern was just barely visible from the previous lantern’s spot.
Strange, but not weird enough to stop and ponder the lantern situation. They continued climbing the stairs, ignoring the fact that they were drawing further and further away from the closest lantern. Soon, it was too dark to make out the silhouette of their surroundings. Each step taken was purely based on the several dozen that they had already made.
Is it just me or is it getting eerie in here?
I suppose it wouldn’t be much of a magic temple if there wasn’t some magic-based trickery involved.
Nikolay’s words were a foreboding precursor to what immediately happened after.
The transition happened in the darkness without them knowing. It only registered when Raine lifted his foot and didn’t immediately stand on a step.
Raine stumbled forwards. What-?
Below them, the stone ground had disappeared and was now replaced with a black abyss. Strangely, they were still standing on something invisible.
Too afraid to move in case he suddenly fell to his death, Raine oscillated his head awkwardly around them.
It looked like they were being surrounded by uncannily clean mirrors. Infinitely repeating reflections of them were visible from every side, each repetition getting smaller as they appeared further away.
Raine moved his hand upwards. The reflections followed suit.
Other than the reflections, it was still dark just as before. The only illumination came from strange, twinkling lights that only appeared in the mirrors.
No way that just happened without us noticing anything.
For once, Nikolay seemed as disturbed as Raine. Being unable to see magic is a major disadvantage on our part.
Trying his best not to look down at the reflected void below them, Raine cautiously took a step forwards. His foot met solid ground.
Thank god I’m not afraid of heights. But the infinite reflections are creeping the shit out of me.
Instinctively, Raine flailed his arms around him, trying to feel for some support in the endless abyss. His floundering proved useful, as his right hand cracked painfully against a wall. After cursing under his breath in annoyance, Raine attempted to reach for the left wall but was met with empty space. It seemed like they were in a wide area, where the walls were far away from each other. That didn’t bode well for them, given that they could hardly tell the floor from the ceiling.
Thankfully, having one hand on the right wall served decently as a guide. It didn’t look like they were in an enclosed room, because Raine walked parallel to the wall and didn’t seem to hit a corner.
The path ahead was relatively straight-forward, barring an intersection that they only detected because Raine’s left hand bonked the other side during some absent-minded shenanigans. Other than that, the strange hallway was largely unbranching otherwise, consisting mainly of sharp turns and abrupt stops.
Neither of them realised that something was off until Raine suddenly stopped.
This intersection looks familiar, Raine frowned. The right turn is a little more crooked than the left, just like the last intersection we passed. And the one before that.
Leave a mark on the mirror and see if it’s still there next time. Do the same for whichever path you take.
Raine distinctly remembered that they had chosen the right path last time, so he quickly left a smudged handprint on the intersection before turning the same way.
The road took them through a distinct zigzag that felt familiar to them. Raine felt around for any possible openings or alternate pathways, but the odd pattern was simply for the sake of discouraging them from running headfirst through the hallway.
Once they were through the winding section, there was a sharp, right-angled turn to the left. Less than a few steps after, there was yet another left turn.
Raine followed one last right turn before he halted abruptly.
In front of them was the same forked road, the same crooked right path... and the same smudge on the centre mirror.
Alright, it took us way too long to figure that one out.
Now that we’ve established the trick, solutions should appear soon.
We’ll go left this time, I guess.
The left path started out slightly different — it wasn’t crooked like the right side. However, it led into a zigzag section eerily similar to its counterpart.
They turned a full 90 degrees left and then left one more time.
I’m not crazy, right? This is the path that we just took on the right side.
We’re missing a right tur- Ah, there it is.
As soon as they turned the corner, a familiar smudge met their eyes. Raine didn’t need to feel around to know that it was the same intersection.
Okay, what the fuck.
Conversely, Nikolay seemed deep in thought. A possible explanation is that the maze consists of moving parts.
Where did that come from?
If something is looping, there are two main ways that it happens. One, the person is being teleported to the start when they reach the end. Two, the maze itself is rearranging so that repeating sections are looped. The first hypothesis is incorrect in our case, because the looping section — and the smudge — is identical in both the left and right pathway. This means that the same section is moved to whichever side you pick.
Great, so now we know how the maze works. I don’t see a way that we can exploit it, though, Raine frowned. The mirrors make it virtually impossible to tell when the maze parts are moving.
Trial and error is our best bet at this point.
I was hoping you wouldn’t say that.
Raine sighed at the prospect of aimlessly traversing the reflective maze. He turned to the smudge of his own — more so Nikorai’s — handprint that marred an otherwise perfect illusion.
“Hey,” Raine said to the mark. “See you soon.”
And he upheld his word, because the path on the right was exactly the same as it always had been.
Raine once again stood in front of the smudge, less than a minute later. He looked to either side at the two functionally identical paths that lay before him. Even though his choice wouldn’t make a difference, Raine still found himself hesitating.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Regardless of what he thought, it was only wasting their time if he stayed still. Maybe they missed something along the way — it wasn’t hard to imagine, given that they couldn’t even see the walls and floor.
So Raine merely followed what was already laid out in front of him. He followed the loop.
Again, again, and again.
After a certain point, Raine didn’t even need to keep his hand on the wall anymore. The pattern was burned into his mind, the desperation and panic further fuelling his mind to work overdrive.
They would never get out of the maze at this rate. The path would infallibly loop back to the intersection with the smudged mirror, no matter how many times he repeated this meaningless task.
Somebody once said that the definition of insanity was repeating the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. But in the face of desperation, it was the only option. If he didn’t keep moving, the thoughts would catch up.
Were they destined to loop this maze forever? No, that wasn’t it. The meaning of ‘forever’ merely extended to the end of their pitiful existence. They’d slowly die of dehydration and exhaustion, trapped in the endless loop of the same intersection and smudged mirrors. It would be far from quick, a gruelling and torturous dwindling of life. Weeks would be spent aimlessly wandering through the darkness, with nobody but his own mocking reflections, laughing at his own incompetence-
Raine? I’m losing you again. Can you hear me?
I- I- I’ve already had a panic attack yesterday. There’s no way I’m going to have one now. There should be a cooldown or something, Raine muttered in response, mostly to himself.
I... don’t think that’s how it works, Nikolay said in a bemused tone.
Yeah? Well, I’m rambling to distract myself, and it’s working pretty well, I’d say. Splendid, even. Brilliant. Superb. I might be a thesaurus, with how many words I can use to describe how incredibly FINE I am right now. I’m actually so incredibly normal that you don’t have to worry about me at all. You could go and take a vacation to the other side of the world and come back and I would still be totally fine.
We’re going to get out of here alive, Raine. The maze wouldn’t be designed to be impossible. Here, I can take over. Maybe I might think of something.
Uhhh sure, Raine paused in his tracks. So do you wanna like... count to three or something? Switch on three? I’ll start at one. I mean, obviously, but sometimes people say ‘on three’ and then just say three, which is-
You’re hopeless under stress, Nikolay sighed, pushing Raine’s consciousness out of the way.
On his way out, Raine retorted, It might be hard to believe, but not everyone is a talking rock like you are.
Nikolay absent-mindedly hummed in agreement with Raine while he inspected the wall with his hand. He reached upwards and tried to touch the ceiling, but it was either too high or non-existent.
Hey, are you even listening to me?
Nikolay didn’t even bother to respond this time, too focused on inspecting the wall. Annoyed at the lack of reaction, Raine pouted and did the mental equivalent of plopping himself down in a petulant manner.
To his satisfaction, Nikolay momentarily paused in his search.
Shh. I’ll give you some attention once we get out of here.
Before Raine could reply in indignation, Nikolay had already turned his attention back towards the maze.
I’m going to retrace our steps. Backtracking might reveal something, since the maze is filled with moving parts.
It was a clever, yet simple idea that Raine hadn’t thought of. Though, he wouldn’t say as much — besides, it would only fall on deaf ears. Raine was stuck passively watching Nikolay turn and walk in the opposite direction. Unlike him, Nikolay confidently strode through the maze without touching the wall.
Show off. I hope his dumb face gets squashed by an incoming wall.
This ‘dumb face’ also belongs to you, if you’ve forgotten.
Oh, so NOW you’re paying attention to me.
Nikolay suddenly stopped in his tracks. The maze has changed.
Great, and now you’re ignoring me again.
God forbid I get our sorry ass out of here, Nikolay grumbled. Next time, I’m letting us die.
Nikolay stretched out his arms on either side, making a surprised noise when his hands could touch both walls. Now that it was confirmed they were in a different section of the maze, he cautiously continued forwards with one hand in front of his body.
Too long passed before Nikolay gave up on keeping his hand there. They had been travelling in a straight hallway for the entire time. Even though this fact would have been disheartening, the hallway’s simple deviance from the maze kept them going.
After what felt like an eternity, something finally changed. Around them, the mirrors slowly fractured and cracked, revealing the stone walls behind.
We’re out? Just like that?
Nikolay looked around, eyes squinted at the sudden light. Just like that. I assume the maze was simply a loop of shifting parts. It only showed the exit when we walked backwards.
What a bullshit answer. We could’ve died because of that.
Regardless of what you think, we’re out of the maze now. Would you like to switch back?
Fine.
Despite the change in the hallway’s appearance, the unending linear structure stayed constant. Walking forwards seemed to do absolutely nothing, but they continued to do it regardless. Whether it was out of determination, curiosity, or something equally stupid, it was accompanied with the dismay of entering another never-ending, infinite loop.
When Raine was about to declare that they were in the midst of another puzzle, they finally reached a dead end. The flat stone wall taunted them, knowing full well that it had been placed there purely to inconvenience Raine and Nikolay.
“Alright, you’re not getting me with that trick again,” Raine rolled his eyes.
He whipped around and found a new room right behind them, completely replacing the long hallway that had been there seconds before.
It matched the rest of the temple, with its stone walls and high ceiling. A few metres in front, the floor gave way to a large pit. Looking over the ledge revealed vicious-looking metal spikes lining the bottom of the pit. Across the deep pit was a doorway, leading to another room.
At first glance, it seemed like there was no path across the spikes. Upon a second glance, it still looked like there was nothing else there.
Raine groaned at the implication of completing another puzzle. Was the maze not enough? Well, maybe the maze part was supposed to be easy — the answer seemed simple enough, after all.
Maybe there was a hidden lever somewhere. Raine scoured the walls, eyeing every suspicious gap in the stone. There were designs along the top and bottom of the walls, but the notches in each brick seemed to be random.
He was about to see whether the spikes were real, but Nikolay interrupted him with a sudden exclamation.
Wait! Listen carefully.
Raine stilled, ears perked for any sound. Quickly, he realised what Nikolay was referring to. Every few seconds, a tapping sound could be heard from alternating sides of the temple. It was easy to dismiss as background ambience, but the rhythm was too strict to be a random crack in the ancient temple. On top of that, the sound was suspiciously close to something made of stone hitting the wall.
Are there... invisible moving platforms?!
I’m glad we came to the same conclusion. It solidifies the hypothesis.
Don’t tell me we have to jump on them like a shitty platforming game.
I’m afraid that we may have to.
I hope you know that I have the musical ability of a rock. There is no way that I’m going to time this correctly.
I can tell you when to go.
Raine only frowned, intently squinting his eyes at the space where the platforms were supposed to be.
Do you trust me?
Of course, Raine replied immediately. It’s just... I don’t know if you’re aware, but it’s damn hard to jump straight into a death pit of spikes.
It’s better to go now. The fear is only going to get worse as you put it off.
Yeah, Raine sighed. I know, but...
With pursed lips, Raine walked up to the edge of the pit and cast an apprehensive glance at the spikes.
No need to act like you’re on death row.
Can you just hurry up and start counting down?
You asked for it. It takes the platform 10 seconds to cross length-wise from one wall to the other. I’ll count down from three. Jump on one. Ready? 3, 2, 1-
Nikolay shut his mouth as they lurched forwards in a sudden motion. It was obvious when they reached the platform, because their stomach painfully slammed onto its edge. Unfortunately, this also meant that they were still falling.
HOLY SHIT, I’M GONNA DIE-
Raine gripped the platform for dear life, trying his best to ignore his palms rubbing against the rough stone. He scrambled his way on top of the platform, realising that it was much wider than he expected.
Raine glared at the spikes below him. No reason for the damn platform to be that high.
Less complaining, more moving.
Finally on the other side of the death pit, Raine could relax. His legs felt like jelly as he stumbled his way towards the doorway. Using his jittery hands to support his passage through, they emerged into a much larger room than previously.
The room was mostly empty, despite its large size. At the centre, a large monolith protruded from the ground. A perch extended from the side of the monolith, which supported a mechanical eagle statue.
Unlike its biological counterpart, the feathers of the eagle statue were unpainted — or the paint had simply weathered away from age — leaving a granite colour. Excluding the monotone pigmentation of the eagle, every other detail was strikingly realistic. But hidden beneath the feathers, Raine noticed a speaker on the eagle’s throat.
“Raine Atlas Moore,” a shrill voice suddenly screeched from the speaker.
Startled, Raine scrambled backwards to create distance between him and the menacing statue. Nobody in Kosira should know his full name — he didn’t even tell Navi, since his mind was preoccupied with other things.
In contrast, Nikolay seemed amused. Your full name is Raine Atlas Moore?
Does this look like a good time to poke fun at my name?!
Motors shuddered into motion as the eagle stretched out its wings and began preening its stone feathers. The unpleasant sound of its metal beak grating against its chiselled stone feathers filled the room.
“You have successfully entered the artifact room with minimal bodily harm. As protocol necessitates, I shall grant you the artifact of this temple.”
Artifact? So…
‘Artifacts of old, guided by the chosen one, will emerge from their resting places’, Nikolay quoted from the prophecy. This confirms our suspicions.
The eagle flew down from its perch and landed in front of Raine with a loud thud. The impact sent a powerful gust of wind towards him, blowing Nikorai’s untamed hair out of their face.
“Here is the artifact as foretold,” the eagle shrieked in its robotic voice. “The Ring of Space. Its effects will currently not be observable due to the co-inhabited status of your body.”
Disturbingly, the eagle’s chest opened up to reveal a small cavity. A tray slid out, revealing a ring. The metal looked to be brass — strangely not oxidised despite its age — and there was a deep blue gem set on the ring. While the colour of the gem resembled sapphire, it shared the same strange refracting quality as the crystal inlaid into the temple’s door.
Raine took the artifact and instinctively slipped the ring onto his index finger. The eagle’s chest closed again with a mechanical whirr.
“And Nikolay Alekseev syn Sokolov,” the eagle paused to stare down at Nikorai with one beady eye. “Remember that you are no longer alone. Your actions have consequences that affect others.”
And now I have your full name as well, Raine grouched. So don’t even think about making fun of me.
“I have no other commands to issue. Initiating shutdown protocol.”
As abruptly as it had sprung to life, the eagle flew back to its perch and deactivated itself within seconds.
Gave us lots of time to ask questions, huh? Raine muttered sarcastically.
Maybe you just ask a lot of questions.
Hard to keep quiet when bullshit like this is happening to me, Raine said, gesturing at the now-defunct eagle.
For the record, I’ve never seen this either. It must be run with a combination of rudimentary mechanics and magic. At the very least, we’ve gathered one of the artifacts — no matter how unplanned this was.
One out of how many?! The prophecy didn’t mention the number of artifacts we needed.
Three, if I could guess.
Alright Sherlock, mind if you inform a normal person like me? I’m afraid that mysteriously pulling answers out of your ass isn’t going to explain much.
The eagle called this artifact ‘the Ring of Space’. The concept of Space aligns with one of the three branches of magic: Space, Time, and Light. I’m assuming there’s an artifact — and corresponding temple — for each type of magic.
Hold on, was this always a thing?! Feels a bit convenient to bring this up now when we get an artifact.
Yes, it’s always been a thing, Nikolay let out a deep sigh. But it’s not-
Relevant? Raine quipped, annoyance tinging the edges of his words. You always say that.
I was going to say that it’s not common knowledge. All sorcerers are attuned to Space magic, which describes manipulation of physical objects. This is what everybody means when they refer to magic.
As for the two more elusive types, Time magic is strictly limited to a single Prophet nominated by the gods, and Light magic users are functionally extinct at this point. Even during my time, there were only a handful left — and they were also immortals, so they hardly count.
Wait. Back up, did you say ‘immortals’?
Yes. Gutha… Nikolay coughed awkwardly. Guthasar is an example. How else did you think I knew him?
I just assumed reincarnation, like you.
It was only me who got the short end of the stick, Nikolay sighed. But I digress. His golden eyes are a symbol of his immortality contract with the gods. I have a symbol for my divine contract as well, but it seems to have disappeared along with my magic.
What happened to the other immortals? If Guthasar is here, where are the other Light magic users?
They’re…
Raine raised his eyebrows at Nikolay’s sudden hesitancy.
They’re no longer around.
Are you really gonna make me ask for the context?
I’d rather you not ask at all, but I doubt that’ll happen anytime soon, Nikolay sighed, then took a steadying breath. I killed every immortal, excluding Guthasar.
The bluntness struck Raine in the face. What? Why? Was it a grudge, or…?
Nikolay pondered for a moment. I guess it was jealousy. Jealousy that they were granted immortality.
You killed several people… over jealousy, Raine said in disbelief. That was it?
He should have expected this, given how apathetic Nikolay was towards killing that guard in the Order of Truth. But a small part of him — the part that remembered Nikolay’s soothing words and gentle touch — still clung to the possibility that Nikolay had been acting out of necessity, and not shallow jealousy.
They weren’t great people either. Immortals seem to develop a twisted sense of entertainment as they get older.
That’s not an excuse.
…I know it isn’t.
Raine sat down on a nearby ledge, suddenly feeling as if his shoulders had gotten ten times heavier. Tell me about the immortals.
Nikolay emitted a pulse of curiosity, but obliged. There were five in total, Guthasar included. Each of them had formed their immortality contract under different circumstances. Most were pressured by war, lured by the promise of invulnerability. But once the war was over, they realised how foolish their divine contract had been. Suddenly, their reason for living disappeared before their eyes.
Immortality is a straightforward contract. It can be surmised into a single sentence: ‘you will live forever, invulnerable to life-threatening harm’. Of course, implications lie far beyond this sentence. For example, the circumstance in which the world ends. Assuming you are far beyond the reach of any other immortal, you are utterly alone. Insanity follows, naturally. You are destined to carry out an infinite, endless cycle of torment. All because of a single sentence.
Raine stayed silent. The idea of living eternally was a deceptive concept, for sure. Infinity was a vast concept that lay beyond any normal human comprehension. To accept a contract within mere seconds, yet having effects that lasted for eternity.
But I don’t understand, Raine pulled a concentrated frown. You said that you were jealous of their contract.
I was foolish. Short-sighted. I feared death — the idea of an abrupt end. Being suddenly cut off without seeing the end to your plans… The anxiety was debilitating. Immortality was my oasis in the desert that surrounded everything around me.
Nikolay laughed dryly, the sound completely devoid of humour. But even upon my death, I couldn’t obtain that. Instead, I was stuck with a much more complicated curse. Because that’s what it was — I realised that my contract was merely a self-imposed curse, masquerading as a divine blessing.
Raine rubbed his face with his hands. I feel like I’m still missing something. Did you personally dislike them? I can imagine being jealous, but surely somebody doesn’t wake up and decide ‘Hey, I’m going to try — and succeed in — killing some immortals’, right?
In that context, yes, I did ‘dislike’ them. But in hindsight, I cannot blame any of them for taking up the contract. They barely had a choice in the matter.
How? Weren’t they the ones to take up the contract?
Imagine that you are in the middle of a war, and you are on the losing side. If you had a choice to turn the tides by becoming immortal, almost anybody would accept. Besides, even if they refused… Nikolay grimaced, the distaste overflowing from his words. Those around you would not be very forgiving. A desperate person is not to be underestimated.
Do you think… You did them a favour? By killing them, and ending their contract? From your description, it sounds like they didn’t even want to live that long in the first place.
I try not to ponder about hypotheticals.
A pang of guilt contradicted Nikolay’s words.
Well, Raine exhaled. This is a lot to take in.
I’d hate to say, ‘I told you so’, but this is why I did not immediately dump all of my personal information on the first opportunity. We grew up in different worlds, and Kosira is a strange third one. I don’t need to be overloading you with even more information.
Nikolay being understanding? How strange, Raine said, the corners of his mouth lifting.
And he’s back to teasing me again.