The trio followed Master Warbler through the door, they appeared into a long torchlit corridor with walls made of rough stone and floors made of what appeared to be green marble. They walked in silence but Jason could see Diana casting him a curious look every now and then.
“You gonna ask whatever it is you wanna ask or are you gonna keep staring at me like I am gonna blow up or something?” asked Jason as he finally returned her gaze.
Diana blushed as she met his gaze, “First of all I wasn’t staring.”
“You were,” interrupted Jessica.
“Not talking to you,” snapped Diana, “Secondly you said that you only found out about all of this magic stuff.”
“Yeah and?” he responded now confused as to where she was going with this.
“Well if you were so new to magic and just found out how the hell did you manage to summon that armour and knock out a giant stone monster?”
“I don’t know,” he answered with a shrug.
“You don’t know?” questioned Diana, “How could you not know!?”
“I just don’t,” says Jason, “I just closed my eyes for a second waiting for impact and then boom I had magic stone armour.”
There was silence for a few moments where the only sound that could be heard was their shoes making contact with the floor and the gentle ribbits of the frog perched on the bald head of Master Warbler in front of them.
“I gotta ask,” says Jessica breaking the silence, “What’s the story with you two?”
“There’s no story,” answers Diana with a blush creeping up her cheeks which didn’t go unnoticed by Jessica, “We know each other from school. That ass-hat Marcus as well. My question is why were us four in particular selected for these Trials.”
“There are other trials happening at the moment as well my dear,” says Master Warbler, “You are just one group out of many. If you are fortunate enough to pass these trials you shall make it into a very elite academy in which we will teach you to hone your abilities in a controlled and structured environment.”
“Academy?” asked Jason, “Like a proper school?”
“Yes,” answered Warbler, “The Merlin Academy for Sorcery. Which you can guess was set up centuries ago by the great sorcerer Merlin himself. His first students would go on to do great wonders in the world. We aim to carry on his legacy. To teach the next generation of sorcerers to make the world a better place.”
They finally reached a rather large and heavy oak door, Jason was about to offer to open it for Master Warbler but the old man simply gave the heavy door a light shove making it open with ease.
The three looked at the man with curiosity, how could someone who looked so frail be able to shove open such a heavy door with little to no effort? They entered a room that was rather large and square. The walls, floor and ceiling were completely white, you would almost think you were floating in the middle of non-existence if it wasn’t for the white table in front of them with three golden chalices.
Master Warbler turned to face the three, “Here before you is three cups. Two of which are filled to the brim with a potion that will transport you from this room and onwards to the final trial. The other is a poison that is rather fast acting. This is a trial with simplicity at heart. You allow fate to take charge and accept whatever outcome occurs. Good luck children.”
Before they could argue about how unfair that this was Master Warbler disappeared.
“That motherfucker,” growled Diana, “They just expect us to drink a mystery drink and hope to live!?”
“Seems to be exactly what they expect,” says Jason approaching the chalices and looking at the contents, “They’re not going to make it easy either. They all look like water,” he commented as he gazed at the clear liquids.
“This is ridiculous why don’t we just go back the way we came?” asked Jessica.
“How we gonna do that when the door just vanished?” pointed out Diana. Jason looked around and sure enough the door they had entered was gone leaving them with no possible way to exit.
“Why can’t you just open a portal like you did earlier?” asked Jason as he stepped closer to Diana, “Then we can just walk outta here.”
“Worth a shot,” she muttered as she held out her hand, her eyes were scrunched up in concentration, “It’s like there’s some form of magical interference. I can’t portal.”
Jessica let out a groan, “So we are literally trapped here unless we drink that stuff and risk dying. Yeah no thanks. Can’t you do that stone suit thing and just punch a way out of here?” she asked with impatience.
“What part of I have no idea how I did it do you not understand?” snapped Jason, “Look we need to think this one out carefully. Obviously we can’t just drink some random drink and just hope we don’t die.”
“What are you suggesting?” asked Diana as she sat down on the ground, “You want us to just sit here and hope that they’re nice enough to just let us pass on to the next trial? Because news flash if they were happy enough to allow Marcus to nearly get himself killed I doubt think they’ll just let us go.”
“I don’t know,” groaned Jason as he sank onto the ground next to Diana, “But I just don’t want any of us to make some rash decision that will end up with one of us dead.”
“Well in life we don’t always get what we want,” grumbled Jessica as she too sat down opposite Jason and Diana.
They sat in silence for a while. Jason found his thoughts wandering from the trial to the girl who was now leaning against his shoulder. He looked at her and this time he truly took in her features, there may have been black eyeliner and lipstick hiding her natural beauty but he still thought she was the embodiment of what would happen if an angel decided to make a human.
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“Why did you give me your number?” he finally found himself asking.
“What?” asked Diana confused by the out of the blue question.
“When I was outside the Principal’s office you left your number,” he said.
“You’re a good guy,” she answered looking at him with her dark chocolate eyes, “Those aren’t exactly common in our school. I just thought it would be nice to have a decent friend. I thought you could be, so I left my number.”
“Huh. Well I think after what we just experienced with everything back there we can definitely be considered friends,” he said with a warm smile.
“Guess you’re stuck with me now dumbass,” she said with a grin. Her grin slowly disappeared and her gaze went back to the three chalices. Her brow was furrowed in concentration almost as if she was working out a complex riddle.
“What if there is a clue in the title of the trial?” pondered Diana, “Think about it. The first trial was about courage and finding it in dangerous situations. What about fate? What is the purpose of fate?”
They sat in silence contemplating her words. Jason stood up and approached the bench once more staring into the goblets as if an answer would suddenly appear before him, “What if fate is exactly what the frog man said? Simple,” he pondered quietly whilst inspecting the strange rune patterns on the rim of the goblets.
“What do you mean?” asked Diana from the floor.
“Remember what he said,” says Jason with a frown, “This is a trial with simplicity at heart. Meaning what is the simple meaning of fate.”
“Facing your fate I guess,” said Jessica with a shrug, “But that could mean anything.”
“Not exactly,” says Jason as he turned his back on the three drinks once more and faced the two girls again, “Fate could be simply acceptance. Accepting that the situation you are in is not ideal and moving forward.”
“So you’re saying we should just accept this and drink that stuff!?” asked Diana as if he had lost his collective marbles, “One of us would die dumbass.”
“But two more would survive,” he said, “But…”
“But what?” asked Jessica.
“What if it’s about more than accepting fate...what if the answer isn’t just this trial,” he mused over thoughtfully, “What if the answer is having the courage to challenge that situation you are in and not simply accept your fate.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” says Jessica.
“I think you’re right,” says Diana jumping to her feet completely ignoring what Jessica had said, “Think about it if sorcerers across the globe had accepted their fate with witch trials and all other atrocities we would have all died out by now. But we didn’t we challenged fate and pushed through.”
“That’s great and all but how the hell are we gonna challenge fate if we are trapped in here with no escape and only these three drinks? Will we just try to dig with our bare hands through the solid walls?”
“Easy,” says Jason with a grin towards the two girls, “We completely confuse the magic of the room.”
“Oh you are clever,” says Diana with a smirk, “You are really, really clever.”
“Have I missed something?” asked Jessica looking between the duo.
“Yep,” says Jason as he and Diana lift a goblet each, “Grab the last goblet. I think the spell on them means it needs us to lift one each.”
“Fuck it,” muttered Jessica as she lifted the remaining goblet, “Now what? Should we say a toast and down the hatch?”
“We remove the only obvious option,” says Jason as he threw the goblet across the room with a crash sending the contents of the goblet splashing over the floor. Diana threw her goblet sending the liquid contents all over the white floor.
“Hope you guys are right about this,” murmured Jessica as she too tossed her goblet across the room making the clear liquid splash all across the floor.
The affect was instantaneous. The walls began to crack and the floor began to rumble. A single slim red door appeared across the room but the ceiling began to fall in, “RUN FOR IT!” yelled Jason as the trio made a mad dash for the door. Just before they could reach the door it disappeared and reappeared on the opposite side.
“WE’VE CONFUSED THE MAGIC TOO MUCH,” screamed Jessica, “NOW WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!”
Jason pushed Jessica out of the way of a massive chunk of rock that fell from the ceiling. They all bolted for the door. Which seemed to be flickering in and out of existence. But it was too late, the ceiling completely collapsed. Jason threw his arms up in panic to protect himself from the debris, but the impact never came.
Looking up in surprise the ceiling seemingly was being held up with an invisible force.
“JASON!”
He looked over to see Diana and Jessica had managed to make it to the door and had it open. They were both waiting for him. However he could feel the weight of the ceiling pushing against him. It sent him to a knee making him groan in pain, “GO!” he yelled knowing he wouldn’t make it, “CLOSE THE DOOR!”
“I AM NOT LEAVING YOU!” yelled Diana in a frantic state, “THERE HAS TO BE ANOTHER WAY!”
Jason let out another groan of anguish as the ceiling pushed further down upon him and the walls began to crumble around him. He could feel the floor rupturing beneath him. He dropped to his second knee feeling the weight pressing him into the crumbling floor.
He managed to look over to Diana and Jessica, “I-It’s okay. T-This was supposed t-to happen. F-Fate.”
Managing to remove a hand from holding up the ceiling Jason threw his hand out towards the girls forcing them through the door making it shut and disappear. Jason closed his eyes accepting that this was how it was supposed to be, he smiled to himself knowing that his last act was saving the lives of his new friends.
The room crumbled around him sending him into darkness.
Meanwhile, Diana and Jessica were laying on the floor of another corridor on the opposite side of the red door. Diana scrambled to her feet and grabbed the door attempting and failing to open it, “JASON!” she screamed while slamming her hands against the door, “JASON NO!”
“He’s gone,” whispered Jessica staring at the sealed red door from the ground.
“He’s not gone!” yelled Diana as she grabbed the handle trying to force it open once more and yet again failing.
Jessica slowly got to her feet placing a hand on Diana’s shoulder, “He’s gone Diana.”
Diana began sobbing almost hysterically as she dropped to her knees still holding the door handle like a lifeline, “I could have done something.”
“Like what?” asked Jessica, “He sacrificed himself so we wouldn’t die in that room.”
“It should have been me,” she sobbed in response, “He didn’t deserve to die.”
Their shared moment of grief was interrupted by approaching footsteps.