Chapter 54: The Trial of the Celestial Spheres
Through the portal she entered another plain white room. The walls, when examined closely, were covered in runic script that Nara could read but didn’t bother too, feeling the same unwillingness to read as when faced with a full, unbroken page of Raskolnikov’s ramblings in Crime and Punishment.
Specter stood beside the next portal, where another plaque was inlaid on the wall. She would not make a rubbing of the full wall, but she made one of the plaque again.
“Deliberate upon one path of two: The first path beckons with ease, though winding and with no guarantee. The latter, arduous and brief, guarantees safety in its embrace. The boon of the second provided to the first at its ultimate end.”
She turned to the guide of silver cloth.
“What’s this in plain words?”
“I surmise to say the eloquent is not your chosen company, Miss Edea.”
“Yup. Simple is best.”
“The test this time around has chosen to organize itself in a choice of two paths. The first path is easy at first, but difficult later. The second path is immediately difficult, but participants are provided with something to guarantee their safety. The safety denied by those of the first path is relinquished until the final test, where it then will be provided in an alternate form.”
“You do not choose the tests?”
“I do not, Miss Edea. I am a but a humble guide for those who may lack the faculties to guide themselves.”
“Oh okay, ouch.”
She deliberated for a moment, as the plaque told her to. If the first path was easy at first then more difficult later, and provided the backup then, it would help Nara go as far as possible in the trial. She wanted to make it to the end, enter the library, and obtain what information she could about astral magic and dimensional crossings. What the library of a mystical cult of some outer-god of knowledge provided may be her best shot on this planet of obtaining the information she needed. Her other option would be to try to learn dimensional crossing magic from the magic more publicly available on this world, then try to invent or learn her way up to the magic to cross dimensions, but she wouldn’t be able to do that before her parents croaked of old age.
“The first path then.”
“There is no use telling me, Miss Edea, I am just a specter long forgotten in the ruins of knowledge. The door will hear your choice.”
There was no need. The portal had already processed her voice, the same white paper surface breaking away as she passed through it.
*****
She stepped into an expanse of green. Rolling fields of wildflowers and grass swayed gently beneath a placid blue sky, much the same as the Windows XP default wallpaper.
A stone dropped from the sky, plunking into the grass at her feet with a soft thud, cushioned by the tall grass.
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Item: [Awakening Stone of Judgement] (unranked, legendary)
Classification: Awakening Stone, Consumable
An awakening stone that unlocks the power of judgement.
Requirements: unawakened essence ability
Effect: awakens an essence ability
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“Why do I feel like this is a judgement of the information I provided? Am I being insulted by a trial?”
The stone didn’t seem to correspond to the contents of the trial. She had expected an Awakening Stone of Knowledge, but that was not the stone bequeathed to her. Was there meaning to the stone, or was it random? Surely it couldn’t be just a snide comment?
For now, she pocketed the stone. She could use it now, but there was value in waiting for her companions’ haul. If she felt she needed immediate power, she could use the stone then. The nifty ability of an outworlder to absorb an awakening stone without a ritual meant it was an option for her.
She looked back towards the portal. No further people followed her, which meant that they had been transported to different locations. Or the path she chose was individual. Maybe both paths were individual. She had no way to know.
On the ground, there was the same plaque, the only clear patch were no grass grew. She placed a paper over it, and made another rubbing of the engraving.
“To traverse the labyrinth of knowledge the persistence to pursue that with no clear path is paramount. For those that cannot, surrender lies in the periphery.”
Nara looked over the rolling green hills which disappeared over the horizon.
“Doesn’t look much like a labyrinth, does it Thanatos?”
Thanatos barked, his tail brushing back tall grass but not catching them aflame.
Nara deliberating having Thanatos set the whole place on fire with his flame, but decided she would not like to sit and choke on smoke, crying with burning eyes of soot, for the foreseeable future.
“It’ll be our last resort.”
There was no sun in the sky, despite the illumination of a clear sky. Her shadow was directly beneath her, unstretched and un-spilled by the despondent, missing, sun. With no way to figure out direction, Nara strolled through the grass off in a random direction, walking in what she figured was a straight line based on the path forming behind her.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
As she strolled, the grass flattened and disappeared, forming a trail of brown in the sea of green.
“I see. So I can always turn back to the portal and leave?”
She turned back towards the infinite sea of green, as if an ocean had been overrun with algae.
“If you want me to walk for infinity, I’ve done it before. At least this time, I have a partner.”
Thanatos barked in agreement.
*****
The team, minus Nara, stepped onto a scenic outlook over a massive circular city. At the very center of the city was a massive mechanical orb, rings of magic and machinery illuminating the rest of the city.
“Wait. Where’s Nara?” Encio said looking around for her, “She didn’t teleport with us?”
“Pardon me for the interruption. Your team member, Miss Edea, has selected the first path. You have all selected the second path,” Specter said, appearing before their group.
Sen sighed. As the unofficial team leader, he was the most concerned with team safety. At least he had every confidence Nara had the most abilities to escape a dangerous situation. Nara may have used that very logic in her selection of the first path.
As Specter had said, other teams where surprised by their missing members. Their team had gotten lucky, with five of the six members choosing the second path, but others were missing more, or none at all, depending on size. Other identical spectral robes floated by each group of people, explaining the trial and clarifying the situation.
“I see. She no longer has to take this trial I take it?”
“That is so.”
The sleeve of the robe lifted; a blurry hand formed of silver dust pointing towards the basin.
“That is the Trial of the Celestial Spheres. You will all shortly be provided with a token of escape. At any point should you want to leave the trial, you may activate the token to immediately escape harm. Any injuries at the time of activation are healed, and you will be ejected from the trial space, unable to enter again.”
As she said, a token the size of a spirit coin floated down from the sky, landing in their hands.
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Item: [Realm Escape Token] (iron rank, legendary)
Classification: Consumable, artifact
Effect: Restores the holder’s condition upon use or destruction. When the token is used or destroyed, the holder is sent out of the trial, unable to re-enter. The token is automatically destroyed upon leaving the Trial of the Celestial Book. The token can only take effect within the Trial of the Celestial Book.
Uses: 1/1
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“Additionally, rewards from the previous trial are dispensed.”
Yelps of surprised resounded as awakening stones thudded onto heads and onto the floor.
Other teams headed into the city, but John stopped them.
“The name of the trial is suspect to me.”
“Ringing your so-called detective instincts, is it?” Eufemia asked.
“It is, actually. Do you have the concept of the solar system in your world?” John asked.
“Solar what?”
“Alright, I should have known. No gravity, no solar system, no planetary motion, no celestial spheres. Magic really boofs it all up. I’ll whip up a quick explanation.”
John conjured a piece of paper and pencil, quickly sketching out a concentric ringed solar system on top of it.
“This is a model of my world, this circle here, this is my planet Earth. It’s not to scale, so don’t use that as a basis for conclusions. This large one in the center, that is the sun. These planets—worlds—orbit around the sun in a roughly circular path.”
It was more an ellipse, but it was a model for a reason.
“Why is that?” Aliyah’s eyes sparkled, “That raises so many questions. The sun is in the center? The world orbits it?” What causes the world to orbit the sun?”
John gently pushed Aliyah back, who had been leaning precariously closer with expectant eyes, “I want to explain, but I don’t think it’s the time for that. The point of this example is that they do.” He pointed back towards the giant mechanical orb at the center of the city. “I think that models the sun.”
He then pointed to the circular structure of the city built in rings, tracing his finger around the city in the distance.
“And there, those largest streets are orbital paths.”
Aliyah’s mind churned, forming connections off of incomplete information, “You think there may be something dangerous about those circular streets? Perhaps, something traveling in a circular path?”
“Something like that,” John said. “Whatever it is, I don’t know.”
He squinted, but the strong light of the false sun created strong shadows, obscuring what was within the circular streets. He conjured a pair of binoculars, looking through them.
“What can you see?”
“Nothing yet,” John said, shaking his head.
“Does this all even matter? Can’t we just fly over the streets and be done with it?” Eufemia suggested.
“If I may append, there is a barrier above the city preventing flight,” Specter said, “You cannot cross between the circles of the city by flying or climbing.”
“Figures my idea failed immediately. What now?”
“Nothing much to do but push on,” John said, “Take a gander at the city, see what’s rolling about inside.”
The five stood at the first outer ring. The street was extremely wide, like main streets of which empires marched their armies across in parade. John knelt down and touched it, feeling the smooth material. It was stone-like, not marble. From the brush of his fingertips, he realized it was ever so slightly curved.
“Drainage purposes?” John muttered to himself.
They did not step into the road, and instead waited. Other adventurers crossed to the other side safely with nary an issue, slipping into one of the many alleyways that led towards the center of the city.
“I don’t see enough adventurers,” Sen recounted, “There should have been more.”
“You kept track?” Eufemia said.
“Roughly. Based on the missing team members from other groups, less than half selected the first path. There should be more people here, by my estimation.”
Eufemia shook her head in disbelief.
“If the trial is circular, perhaps they’ve been portaled to start from a different direction?” Aliyah suggested, “The initial position should make no substantial difference, assuming the trial is fair.”
“Expecting fairness is folly,” Eufemia muttered.
They waited for thirty minutes until they heard the sound of a low rumbling, it was like static—pervasive and constant, a background drone that was easy to forget. The sound grew louder, and they felt a shift in the air.
The rumbling grew louder still. It was so loud their thoughts melted away, consumed by the noise in their mind.
Finally, they saw it, for but a brief moment. Flashing past them like an express bullet train, a massive boulder fit perfectly within the curve of the streets and even the curve of the buildings, built to leave only enough gaps to allow the passage of air. That fast moving mass whipped their hair up in a frenzy, leaving only the woosh of air in its wake.
No adventurer was stupid enough to stand within the path of the street when confronted with such a massive sound. The street was clear, no dead bodies in the passage of the sphere, nor unmistakable smears of red.
“While we have the chance, we should cross,” Sen said.
“If John’s model is right, there should only be one sphere per circle,” Aliyah said, “Right after is certainly the safest moment.”
Aliyah’s proposal was supported by the roar of the boulder fading as it continued its concentric path.
They crossed into the first section of the city, sprawling alleyways in a maze of buildings that reminded John of Shanyin.
“One moment,” Encio said. He clamored upwards, scaling the buildings with deft speed, a clear mark of his parkour mastery. At a touch, he confirmed a barrier lay across the top of the buildings, preventing any further ascension.
“That’s it? That’s the trial? Make it to the center? It can’t be that easy. Isn’t this supposed to be the harder path?”
“It is only the first trial, maybe it is that easy,” John said.
“Second, technically,” Encio said, “Since we were rewarded for the first.”
“Anyone can pass this. Just don’t stand in the streets when you hear the rumbling of thunder! What is the big deal? You’d have to be deaf not to pass. You don’t even need John’s fancy outworlder knowledge.”
“I hope so,” said John. “I really hope that’s all there is to it.”
“You know I don’t like it when you say things like that,” Eufemia said.
As they moved from the outer edge of this ring of the city to the next, the buildings began to transition from stone to a darker material. As they moved forwards through the maze-like alleyways, the stone grew darker still. Light itself seemed to pull and lengthen, shadows stretching over buildings in warped figured like gum stretched to its limit.
A screaming instinct arose from within John’s mind, an instinct Sen shared, his normally stoic expression turned into a frown.
“I don’t like this,” Eufemia said, “These black buildings are giving me the creeps.”
“We should slow down,” Sen said, stopping the team.
“What?”
“Let’s stop here,” Sen said firmly, “We can observe the street from here.”