“Ah!”

The Belua were inches from me, but I suddenly felt myself shoved painfully to my right, and I tumbled over, crashing against one of the hedges. I quickly spun, my head a dizzying dance of sparkling stars, and had to shield my eyes as a burning sun filled my vision. I heard a loud whistle of blade through air, followed by multiple anguish-filled screeches. Something wet and rancid splattered against my clothes and upturned arm.

The light faded. As my eyes adjusted, I saw a horrendous sight. Dozens of body parts lay in visceral piles on the stone of the Labyrinth’s floor. Black blood oozed along the cracks in the stone and dripped down from the hedges. The Belua had been decimated--almost instantly it seemed--and I spotted several heads still slowly rolling along the rock. It was a woeful scene, and my stomach began to burble and wretch. I closed my eyes for a moment, and took deep breaths. I could feel that telltale salty taste of saliva before a purge, and I focused on an image in my mind of trees in the cool wood of autumn.

I didn’t draw breath through my nose, only so that I wouldn’t catch the disgusting scent of the mess. Slowly, I opened my eyes again.

There, in the center of the carnage of the hedge’s corridor was my savior.

It was a woman. She stood, sucking in deep breaths, encased in shining, white armor. Her long, pale blue hair was plastered with black ichor and other remains of the creatures that had been ripped to shreds. She turned to look at me, and I watched as she wiped some of the blood from her subtly pointed ears.

Helene Artemis.

I stumbled to my feet. I looked down and saw that I was covered in the same black goo, and began trying my best to wipe it off of my recently-acquired attire, but it just caused the stains to sink deeper into the fabric, and I gave up after just a moment.

Helene had not said anything to me yet. She regarded me with her steely gaze, and I smiled wryly, still confused by what had just transpired. My climbing hook had been thrown from my grasp, but I spotted it a pace or two away. As I reached for it, I tried to thank the woman.

“I appreciate that,” I said, “I wasn’t expecting my first foe inside here to be a whole fleet of those creatures.”

Helene tilted her head and then shook it in the negative.

“I wasn’t intending to rescue you,” she said evenly, “I had gathered them together like that to destroy them all at once. You were in the way, and if I hadn’t moved you, you’d have died as well.”

I nodded.

“I see. Well, I’d still like to thank you anyways,” I said, “I’m Hutch Carthage.”

Helene looked away from me, down the same direction the Belua had emerged from. Her attention seemed to sharpen with a scowl, and I could tell she’d noticed something I hadn’t. She held her hand up to silence me. Not wanting to be caught unaware again, I lifted my weapon defensively, and moved closer to her.

“More,” she said simply, and lifted her hands into the air.

“More Belua?” I asked, and squinted far down the path, where the line of hedges turned the corner.

“Something,” she said, and then tilted her head again, “I do not think it is the same creatures as before.”

Not Belua? I suppose it would have been naive to assume they were the only animated danger here in the Labyrinth, but Waldo hadn’t mentioned any other Trial monsters when we’d spoken.

“Iustus anguis,” Helene said, and the same shimmering wheel of magic energy that had given me my details appeared in front of her. She spun her finger over it, and the wheel turned, revealing more detail. Helene then quietly mouthed something inaudible under her breath.

Instantly, a wall of white-hot light appeared at the end of the corridor, and I winced. It was her magic that had been what I’d seen a moment ago tearing the Belua apart. I didn’t have time to consider anything further, because suddenly, a huge form crashed into the barrier she’d just created at top speed.

At first, I thought that part of the hedges had been loosened and had fallen on the barrier. But, as I looked closer, I realized that what I had mistaken as the dense boughs of boxwood, was actually some sort of creature. Covered in leaves and moss, a hulking corruption of wood and dirt strained against the magical barricade. The monster’s eyes were sunken hollows, and its mouth resembled cut-away wood. A ferocious howl escaped from its jaws and sent a chill down my spine.

“What is that!?” I demanded.

“The Mazestalker,” Helene said, holding her hand up, and frowned in concentration.

The beast--the Mazestalker--roared and crashed again against the barrier, bringing two branch-like appendages thundering down on the blockade. The magical material began to crack against its force, and Helene’s arm shuddered as if she were directly connected to the barrier itself. The beast rebounded against it again, and more cracks appeared.

“Are you able to do anything?” Helene asked sternly, never taking her eyes off of the barrier, “I will not be able to hold it back much longer.”

I looked down at my climbing hook.

“If you drop the barrier, I can attack it head-on,” I said, “maybe climb onto its back and… I don’t know, chop away at its flesh?”

Helene narrowed her eyes.

“Do you have any magic?” she demanded, “fire, ice, anything that could damage it?”

I suddenly felt very small and useless.

“I can only fight Giants,” I said solemnly, “my Adventure Class is Giant Eater, so I think other than striking it with my hook, I won’t be of much use.”

Helene relaxed her scowl, and closed her eyes, sighing. She gave me the impression of one at the limits of their energy.

“Alright,” she said, “that is bad luck. If the Mazestalker gets to us, it won’t just eject us from the Labyrinth. It will kill us.”

“What?”

“I won’t repeat myself,” she said, “the Belua were designed to overwhelm, this beast was designed to destroy. It is only deployed when time runs thin inside the Labyrinth. That means the First Trial is coming to an end. Soon.”

She clenched her fist, and the Mazestalker continued its assault on the barrier and more of the surface crumbled away.

“Anyone who hasn’t reached the Second Trial by the time the First ends will fail.”

It suddenly hit me why she seemed so exhausted. If she was still in the First Trial, she’d have been fighting in here for hours.

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I nodded.

“What’s the plan, then?” I asked.

“My plan is to run,” she said seriously, “and try to keep myself from being devoured by this beast while I get to the center of the Labyrinth. You’re free to do as you wish.”

“We should stick together,” I said, “I’m not exactly weak, and there is a chance I could potentially beat the Mazestalker. But even then, I’d be wasting my remaining time in the Labyrinth, and get dismissed anyway. If we work together, we can both get to the next section of this Challenge.”

She didn’t say anything, so I pushed further.

“You’re drained of mana, but I just got here,” I continued, “there’s strength in numbers, and we are both potential recruits in the same order.” It was a lie of omission. I had just gotten here, but I hadn’t slept in almost a day-and-a-half, so I was feeling quite run down at the moment.

Helene nodded.

“You’re Nightsign Libra as well?”

“I hope to be,” I said. It didn’t seem important to share the particulars I’d arrived under.

“I suppose that will do,” she said, “there’s a shifting passage back near the entrance. That is where I emerged from to circumvent the Belua. If we can reach that, it will buy us a moment.”

“That seems like a fantastic plan,” I encouraged, “let me know when we are going to run--”

“NOW!” Helene exclaimed, and dropped her arm.

Instantly, the magical barrier dispersed in a flash of light, and the white-armored woman turned on her heel and shot off in the opposite direction.

I hadn’t been fully prepared, and had still been staring ahead as the Mazestalker began to give chase. I turned in a panic, and saw Helene making her swift retreat down the corridor. I took off as fast as I could, the roar of the Mazestalker just behind me.

I kept running until I reached the end and rounded the corner. The Mazestalker thundered behind me, gaining speed and getting closer. My heart fell as I got a glimpse of the passage beyond.

Empty.

Suddenly, I felt myself jerked to the right, my feet leaving the ground, as something grasped me by the lapel of my coat and thrust me straight into the hedgewall.

Instead of the resistance of the flora, I passed through it as though it was made of smoke, and fell in a heap on the cold stone of another identical corridor. Helene stood before me, and without waiting, she turned and began running down the path. I leaped to my feet and gave chase, aching from the hard fall I’d just endured.

As we ran, I could see a fortification over the rise of the wall. It was the same rampart I’d seen the bald man leap off of earlier from the catwalk. All around me I could hear the sounds of fighting still. It didn’t matter at this moment whether or not they knew there was a time limit. I couldn’t worry about the other Appointed. If I wanted to see Father again, I would need to get to the center of the maze before everything ended.

I was able to catch up to Helene, but stayed a few paces behind her, to watch which direction she ran through.

“How did you know about the Mazestalker?” I asked, panting with the effort of my run. We turned a left corner and encountered a fork in the path, but Helene didn’t pause, she just began racing down the right fork. I was reminded of Father, and the way he’d seemed to know exactly which route to go to get to the Giant inside the cavern beneath the dwarvenkind fortress. The day this journey had begun.

“I’m a tenth generation Capr--uh--” she began, and then corrected herself, “tenth generation Equites. I’ve been training for this day since I was a girl.”

I recalled her stepping into the Harbinger Arch during the Appointment Ceremony, turning expectantly for the Capricorn passage to ignite. I had felt bad for her. It had seemed that she’d disappointed a lot of people when the path had remained dark, but the Libra had lit up instead. If she was from a long line of Capricorn, perhaps that would indeed be a grievous blow to her and her family’s honor.

“Not to seem rude,” I said, “but if you have been training for this for so long, how come you haven’t moved on to the next Trial already?”

Helene shot a scowl at me over her shoulder. I grinned back sheepishly. She didn’t say anything until she turned back to the path.

“I was… waylaid,” she said. She shifted her weight, and took a right corner as we approached a three-way intersection.

I didn’t press further. Her reasons were her own, and it was no business of mine to try and pry out information when I’d only just met her. However, my attention shifted as I followed her around the turn.

Two Belua stood in the path ahead.

Their backs were turned toward us, and they shambled slowly in the same direction we were heading. Helene glanced over her shoulder and caught my eyes, and I nodded. We both slid to a stop, pressing ourselves against the hedges as we examined the creatures.

“Do you have enough mana left to fight?” I asked.

Helene stared at them and shook her head.

“I won’t need mana for this,” she said seriously, “aim for the neck or limbs. They separate easily. They don’t die like us, but they’ll be out of commission for a time.”

Somehow, that information didn’t make me feel any better about being covered in their gore.

Helene made a slight gesture in their direction and said, “I’ll take the left, you take the right.”

I grunted my approval, and raised my modified climbing hook.

We counted to three, and then together we acted. Racing along the corridor, we each barreled down on our opponents. I reached mine first.

Using my momentum, I raised the climbing hook, and leaped high into the air, bringing the razor sharp flukes singing down through the back of my Belua’s neck.

SLORP!

It passed through the creature’s spine like a heated bread knife. The head tumbled to the stone, landing with a wet thud. Its featureless face was turned toward me, and I shuddered. I glanced behind me, and saw Helene land next to me, the Belua she’d attacked slumping in neatly parceled pieces.

I was impressed with how quickly she was able to slice these creatures to bits, but I had not seen her use any weapons. I hadn’t seen the flash of light that her magic had made before either. As we continued on, I let her take the lead again, and I examined her person to see if I could discern any mode of weaponry.

Her armor was still shining, even with the faint streaks of the blackened Belua blood spattered across it. It was uniquely crafted, I could tell, though I had not an eye for smithing. But, as a craftsman’s apprentice--well, former apprentice-- I could appreciate fine detail. The fit was close to her frame, something you didn’t often see, and there were intricate symbols tinkered into the flesh of the metal, all around the trim. Her pauldrons were forged into a seashell-like shape, and the empty clasps on the back of her shoulders--where a seafoam cloak had once flown-- were shaped like waves.

Still, I didn’t see a sword, or knife, or anything like a weapon. She’d said she hadn’t needed mana to take care of the Belua. Was it possible she had some sort of enchantment on that elaborate armor of hers?

The detail of her attire wasn’t odd, considering what little I knew about the Jade Province. A cluster of islands in the north of the realm, married to a far shore bountifully filled with plantlife. Mother had told me about it when I was younger, regaling me with stories about the sprites and other creatures that had dwelled there for thousands of years, and then had gone, long before the First Lords had ever shored their ships in Cygnus.

We kept moving through the Labyrinth, Helene effortlessly navigating the twisting maze of paths and false exits. She led me through several more hidden doorways in the hedges, and when the path began to morph and turn in front of us, she changed direction just as quickly, choosing an alternate route without a pause.

We ran afoul of another Belua, this one facing us in another stretch of hedge, and I was hoping I’d learn her secret technique of destruction. But, Helene flicked her head to indicate I should deal with it. Rather than argue, I leaped forward, swinging my hook under the Belua’s outstretched arms, severing on at the joint and ripping through its neck. I didn’t wait to watch it fall, we just kept running, time feeling very fleeting.

“Three minutes remain in the First Trial,” the disembodied voice announced loudly from somewhere above us, “all remaining Appointed must make their way to the center of the Labyrinth.”

Helene and I looked at one another. She grit her teeth and pointed ahead at another three-way passage.

Left.

We raced around the corner, and my heart began to soar. There, a hundred yards ahead was a stone archway. It looked like a miniature version of the Harbinger Arch. There was no mistaking that it must have been the passage to the next Trial.

“Two minutes remaining,” the voice declared.

We ran.

Two hundred yards. One hundred yards. Fifty feet.

Suddenly, I slid to a halt.

A man stepped from the hedges and stopped directly in front of the archway. I’d seen him before. His silver armor glinted in the dim torchlight of the high ceilings above, but he wasn’t wearing his helmet now. I could see both the volume of red hair that jutted in every direction and his piercing amber eyes.

Gaius Artemis. Then I recalled his Adventure Class.

Magebreaker.

Those yellow orbs found us, and his movements were fluid as he lifted a silver shield up while sliding a magnificent broadsword from the scabbard at his side.

“I am sorry, Sister,” he said, but he seemed anything but apologetic. His eyes narrowed, and those eyes became cold and angry.

“Gaius?” I heard Helene say, “what is the meaning of this?! Get out of the way.”

He shook his head.

“No.”

I looked back and forth from them. Whatever was going on, he wasn’t going to get in the way of me getting to the next Trial.

“Step aside,” I commanded, my neck getting hot with a slowly building anger.

He ignored me, his focus solely on Helene.

“You have embarrassed House Artemis, Sister,” he continued, “you cannot continue the Challenge. Not as a Libra.”

“What are you saying?” Helene demanded, stepping forward, “no, I was not Appointed to Capricorn. I am not happy about it, but I am not going to give up just because of that. I will still be an Equites, regardless of which Nightsign.”

“An Artemis cannot be anything but a Capricorn, you know this. It is a disgrace to be Appointed as anything else. I will not let you reach beyond here.”

“That is madness, Brother,” Helene accused, “it would be a greater failure to turn my back on our house’s lineage of serving the Crown. You will move aside, or you will be moved.”

Gaius snarled.

“The House cannot suffer this,” he said, “especially because of your... predicament. If I have to beat you into senselessness, I will.”

“We are getting through,” I warned, taking a few steps forward to stand next to Helene, “she and I are going into the archway. I have no qualms about pounding your head in.”

Gaius looked at me for a moment, and suddenly smirked, then looked back to his sister.

“Ah, if that is how you would like to play it,” he said, bringing his sword up, the point level with us, “then I will not hold back.”

I heard a loud crash behind us, and turned.

In the passageway, only a hundred feet back, the massive form of the Mazestalker lumbered into view. It spotted us, and immediately roared and began pounding toward us.

No…

I shot a glance back at Gaius just as he lurched forward at a run, his sword still out. Helene shifted, bringing her empty hands up, and I heard her mutter something indistinct under her breath as crackling magical energy began to form around her.

We were stuck between two swiftly approaching enemies, and now the odds didn’t seem so fair.

“One minute remaining.”