Chapter 198

Others had made it past the stone block and into the basement long ago. Jay had gradually become more and more frustrated as time continued to pass without him being able to locate the mechanism that would move the block aside. Others had done it before him, why couldn't he do it now?

Jay let out a frustrated sigh and Sha'li looked over at him with a smile. Jay raised an eyebrow at her.

“If you let out scents like I do you'd smell like pear right now I bet,” Sha'li suggested, an allusion to her earlier pear scent that had followed one of her moments of frustration.

Jay laughed, “Agreed. I'm getting frustrated. How did other groups find out how to trigger this and I can't?”

The others weren't much help – Jay was their main secret finder. And trap finder. And treasure finder. Jay found things, that was the point, and he currently couldn't.

M'redith was the one to finally stop them. “This isn't working. Either the trigger is incredibly well hidden, or we overlooked it once already. Let's start over and go slower this time.”

Jay nodded and everyone else agreed. It was a better idea than just continuing to examine the featureless slab of stone. A moment later he took a couple of steps back and began to examine the floor tiles around the stone block. If the stone block didn't have a trigger then perhaps the floor around it did?

Jay was right and only a moment later he managed to locate a floor tile with a slight indent along one of its edges. He had overlooked it earlier in his haste.

“Hey, Jay found something!” Norri said excitedly and the others all stopped what they were doing to gather around him as he carefully went to slide his trap tool into the indentation. The tool slid smoothly under the tile and with a careful motion Jay popped the tile off of a trigger mechanism inset in to the floor.

As the tile popped off the group behind him startled and took a few steps back away from Jay.

Jay laughed and turned his head to face the group behind him. “It's safe – the trigger has a pin in it that is preventing it from moving. See?” Jay said as he pointed at a tiny metal nub that might be a trap pin. The others weren't sure, but Jay was.

“Should you be doing that?” Aiden asked hesitantly as Jay pried loose a tiny metal trap pin that someone had inserted sometime in the past in to the trigger mechanism. It was clear just from Aiden's comment that Aiden had barely passed traps class at the Guild.

Jay nodded, “If you want to get in to the lower level, then yes,” Jay said as he finally set the pin into one of his pouches and reset the tile back on top of the mechanism. “Ok, here goes nothing,” Jay said and stepped on to the tile. It depressed just the smallest bit but it was enough to trigger the device. A loud click was heard from the stone block.

Then nothing.

“That's it?” Sha'li asked as the scent of lemons and sulfur mixed together in the room. It wasn't a great mix. The group all made pinched faces at the strong odor but it quickly dispersed. Sha'li looked embarrassed for a moment but since no one else commented on the scents she didn't say anything else.

“Maybe? Let us see if we can move the block now,” Jay pointed out and M'redith gave her side of the stone block a push. The entire block slid back smoothly as if on rails although Jay couldn't see any.

The stone block revealed a set of stone steps that descended in to the darkness below and M'redith motioned towards the group, “Form up everyone,” as she made sure her lantern was still lit and that everyone had a lit torch. It looked dark down there. M'redith took her spot at the head of the line and proceeded down the steps. “Moving,” she said to the group behind her as she began her descent.

The stairs didn't bring them down to the basement level. It brought them down multiple levels – how many was impossible to tell as the stairway didn't stop on a landing but instead continued downward in one long and uninterrupted flight of stairs.

There were brackets on the wall for torches, but none were lit, and some were missing their torches entirely. The lower they descended the more oppressive the darkness became. They could no longer make out where they had come from, only a dark haze remained. Their destination was likewise hidden in darkness and the featureless gray stone stairs appeared to go on forever.

Their light sources lit only a shifting area around them that was enough to see where they were, but not where they came from or where they might be headed.

No one spoke as they traveled down the lengthy stairway and it was with some relief that they finally reached the bottom.

The lights they carried with them were more than up to the task of lighting the room they found themselves in. There were doors going in each of the cardinal directions and Jay had a sudden urge to get out some map paper and start mapping.

If only he had some blank map paper.

The group stopped on the stairway and traveled no further. Sha'li almost continued to walk past the group but M'redith reached out with one hand and grabbed her arm gently before she could move past her. “That's far enough,” M'redith stated gently, “let's have Jay check the room for traps first.”

Sha'li nodded and then frowned as the room filled with the scent of pears. She wasn't used to stopping at the bottom of a stairway without entering the room. She scolded herself for not paying better attention.

M'redith chuckled and raised an eyebrow, “Was that frustrating? Is that what that scent meant?”

Sha'li laughed in embarrassment. “Maybe a little? Again, I don't have much control over those scents – don't take them personally please.”

M'redith nodded with a smile as Norri giggled at Sha'li calling M'redith frustrating, even if indirectly.

“Do people ask about your scents and what they mean a lot?” Aiden asked as Jay went to work on searching the room for traps.

Sha'li smiled and shook her head, “Most people are too embarrassed to ask – people tend to feel that subject is either off limits or too intimate to talk about. Others aren't aware that they have any meaning at all, and those that do know that they hold meaning are often confused over what that meaning is exactly.”

Jay found a trip wire and followed it in one direction until he reached the wall where it had been anchored with a simple eye hook screw. Jay gently pressed against the line and it barely moved. It felt extremely tight.

Line under tension.

Jay knew not to cut the line and followed it in the other direction as Sha'li continued to explain herself to Aiden.

“What does it mean? The scents?” Aiden asked a bit artlessly and missed Norri roll her eyes at him with a grin.

“Guess you don't feel my scents are off limits or too intimate to talk about,” Sha'li observed dryly as she watched Aiden in order to gauge his response.

Aiden's eyes widened and he waved with one hand, “Am I being too pushy? I'm sorry if I'm prying, I just think it is really interesting.”

Sha'li nodded, “You're being a little pushy but I forgive you. I'm somewhat used to being 'interesting.' As for what the scents mean I'm sometimes confused myself. Some are based on what I'm feeling, others on what I'm thinking, and still others on my subconscious. And sometimes a scent is unconnected to any of that – those are the ones that confuse me.”

Jay had taken the cover off of a trap housing he had located thanks to the tripwire and was in the process of disabling the trigger as he continued to pay attention to the conversation.

Norri was standing next to Sha'li and was looking up at her with wide impressed eyes. “What else can you do?”

Sha'li laughed, “I'm just me. I don't have any abilities that I know of. I just make scents, that's all.”

Norri shrugged, “That is pretty amazing all by itself,” she pointed out and she seemed no less impressed than she had been a moment ago with Sha'li.

“Sure, as long as the scents are agreeable!” Sha'li pointed out with a laugh.

“Can you really not control the scents at all?” Norri pleaded.

Sha'li laughed again and shook her head, “Not really. I suppose I could put out a single scent if I really tried – but that is really tough to do and can tire me out if I'm not careful. I try to save my energy for managing the strength of my scents – and even that can be too much for me at times.”

Jay finished disarming the trip wire trap and moved further in to the room. He found no other traps but did manage to discover something new about the doorways.

“These doors are all stone and are shut tight, except the one on the north side of the room which is only half open and appears as if it slides sideways in to the wall.” Jay pointed out to the others who were all focused on Sha'li.

M'redith nodded, “We good?” she asked Jay who hadn't mentioned if the room was clear or not yet.

Jay looked sheepish for a moment and apologized, “Room is clear, sorry.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Everyone in,” M'redith said and shooed everyone off of the stairs and into the room itself. “Not much of a choice here, let's head north,” she said and cajoled everyone back in to line. “Moving,” she said and led them just up to the edge of the next room. “Jay?” she asked as her lantern sent shadows careening through the next room.

Jay nodded, “On it,” he said and moved up past her. He examined the floor, the walls, and then the ceiling before he would move any further. Each time before he took a step he thoroughly examined the space first. He managed to reach the middle of the room before things went bad.

With a click Jay felt a floor tile he had stepped on depress in to the floor slightly.

He had missed a trigger.

As Jay heard the click he threw his body backwards. Or at least he tried to. He managed to get his head out of the way just as a bolt shot out of the ceiling and hurtled straight towards the tile he had stepped on. With a crunching sound the bolt embedded itself in to Jay's thigh.

The leather armor was tough but it wasn't made out of steel and the bolt managed to pierce the leather enough to wound Jay and he went down with a scream. He clutched at his leg as it spurted blood across his armor and the floor around him.

Sha'li looked on in shock as Aiden attempted to run to Jay's side. M'redith grabbed him by the arm before he could do so.

“Traps! The room isn't safe!” M'redith pointed out.

Jay knew what he had to do and half crawled and half dragged himself back to his group. He had to reach them before he bled out – they couldn't come to him, it wasn't safe. He left a trail of blood on the floor behind him as he went until finally he collapsed in front of everyone at the room's entrance.

M'redith and Aiden grabbed him by the shoulders and dragged him back in to the stairwell. Aiden tugged the bolt out of Jay and thrust a hand under the leather armor in an attempt to reach the wound. It was close enough and Aiden triggered his Class Ability, Patchwork, until Jay's leg had been covered in magical bandages.

The wound had bled profusely and Jay's bottom half was a bloody mess by the time Aiden had stabilized the wound. Aiden was covered in blood spatter as well as he had gotten the closest to the wound in order to heal it.

Jay sighed as he took a drink from his canteen. “That hurt,” he said a bit breathlessly.

“Are you ok? What happened?” M'redith asked in a worried tone of voice.

Jay nodded, “I'm good, thanks Aiden,” he said as he turned to face his friend for a moment. “I must have missed a trap. I was being very careful too. I need to learn more about traps it seems,” he said in a joking tone.

M'redith slapped at him and hit his bandaged leg by accident. “You worried me!”

Jay winced in pain and Sha'li made a low noise in the back of her throat as the scent of wet laundry and the sense of impending violence filled the room. That got everyone's attention and Sha'li shrugged with an embarrassed look on her face. “Sorry. Worried? Protective? That one is a bit complicated,” Sha'li said and didn't explain further.

“Don't do that again!” M'redith insisted as she glared at Jay with a mix of anger and worry.

Jay smiled as he realized that she had just been worried for him, not angry at him. “I didn't mean to do it the first time!”

Norri giggled and that was enough to break up the tense mood as the others slowly laughed as well.

Sha'li looked at them like they were crazy, “He just got shot! Aren't we going to stop here?”

Jay looked at her, surprised. “I'm fine. It hurt but Aiden healed me. Is it the blood? I can get rid of the blood,” he said as he activated his Tropical Island Aura and let it run for thirty seconds.

The group watched as the blood rose off of him and turned in to little motes of light. It was quite the show – there was a lot of blood to remove – and afterwards Jay turned the Aura off. He looked spotlessly clean. Aiden, who had been closest to him while the aura was active, was also cleaned and now looked quite fresh.

“So you just... get shot and keep going? Patch it up and forget about it?” Sha'li asked in shock.

Jay nodded with a smile, “Ya! Just like that!” To Jay that had become just normal behavior. Everyone was healed and they'd even cleaned the blood off of their armor. Why would they go back?

To Sha'li however things looked quite different. She spent her days either at home, in the city, or in Redgrass. She was not used to people being shot, healed, and then walking on as if it had been no big deal in the first place.

Aiden was inspecting Jay's armor. “You'll need to get that repaired when we get back. Went straight through!”

Jay laughed, “Yes, I'm aware. It went into my leg if you recall?”

Norri giggled and that was enough to settle down Sha'li a bit.

M'redith smiled at Sha'li. “You thought I was really angry at him?”

Sha'li shook her head, “I knew you were upset at the thought of losing him but as I've said, I don't control my scent responses usually.” A scent of pear wafted through the air.

M'redith got the message and dropped it. “Right, well I'm glad you're ok,” she said as she turned to Jay. She held his hand for a moment and gave it a squeeze. It was as great of a display of affection as she was comfortable with in front of everyone in the bowels of a ruins. She let go of Jay's hand and he smiled.

“Ok, I'm going to give this another go, wait for me here,” Jay said and he carefully made his way back in to the room and scanned for traps. As Jay cleared the room he was able to make out more and more details.

In the center of the room stood a square block. Something had been written on top of it but Jay was too busy to investigate it further at the moment. The left and right walls were covered in tiny closed cabinets, much like a room full of safety deposit boxes might look like. There must have been hundred of them.

The room had two exits – they'd entered through one and the other was on the opposite wall roughly twenty feet away. The room was a bit narrower than would be usual but still had enough room for the four of them to walk side by side.

Jay found no further traps and returned to the group who looked eager to enter the room.

“I'd like to look one more time before we all go in – just to be safe,” Jay said and no one in their group voiced any concern with that. Double checking his work was just the safe thing to do.

Jay again walked through the room but again found nothing that looked like a trap or trigger. Finally he returned once again to his group. “Looks clear to me.”

M'redith smiled, “Everyone in. Let's see what we have. I didn't mention it before but I will now. Do not touch anything until we know what we're doing in here.”

Sha'li nodded just as Norri did the same and the two shared an amused look before they glanced back at M'redith and nodded.

Everyone spread out throughout the room and the brightness increased considerably. Jay looked up and noticed that the ceiling was a polished metal that reflected their lights and bounced their brightness all around the room.

They inspected the tiny closed storage spaces. Each was four inches by six inches and was sealed by a tiny metal door with a single smooth knob set on the right side of each door. One pulled the knob and the door would open and reveal its contents. They didn't do that though – they just looked.

They were all alike. All the same size, shape, color, design. The only difference were small numbers, each different, written in the lower left of each door. The numbers were six digits long and seemed to be in an easy to predict series. The numbers ran from top to bottom and then in to the next row, increasing by one for each door.

Eventually the group grew tired of examining the doors and turned to face the stone square in the middle of the room. The words on it were easy to read.

“One and done or none.” Sha'li read out loud to the group. As she finished speaking the door they had entered through slid shut. Sha'li looked worried, “Did I do that?” A fragrance that reminded Jay of floral perfume and the smell of grass in the fall filled the room. It was strong and distracted the group entirely from their current activities. Sha'li winced and after a moment the scents became less overwhelming.

Before Sha'li could say anything Norri smiled at her, “That was a good one!”

Sha'li changed what she had been about to say, an apology, and instead went with gratitude. “Thanks Norri, glad you liked it, but aren't we locked in the room now?”

Aiden laughed, “Remember when you asked about getting trapped in rooms often? Here's a perfect example.”

Sha'li chuckled, “I guess that is funny as long as we are planning on finding our way out.”

“Oh we'll get out, don't you worry about that,” Aiden insisted with a comforting smile.

“So anyone have any ideas what we're supposed to do here?” M'redith asked with a smile. She knew what they needed to do but the whole point of their adventure was not for M'redith to show off her knowledge. It was instead to form a new friendship with Sha'li. The best way to do that was to include her, not solve things for her.

The group stared down at the words. One and done or none. It seemed pretty simple to M'redith but Sha'li looked unsure of herself.

“Go ahead Sha'li, no one is going to poke fun at your suggestions. What do you think we should do?” Aiden offered in encouragement.

Sha'li smiled shyly as a puff of the scent of spring briefly filled the room. “I think we have to pick one of these tiny doors – but which one?”

Aiden shrugged, “It might not matter. It didn't say to pick the right one – just to pick one.”

“And only one,” Norri pointed out.

Sha'li nodded as she got more involved in the discussion. “Do you think they have anything in them?”

Jay smiled, “Quite possibly. If groups are only allowed to choose one door and only one before moving on to the next room then it is possible that there are tons of tiny doors that have yet to be opened with who knows what stored behind them.”

The room filled with the smell of butter on a cast iron pan and the scent of a pillow when you first lay your head down. Jay sighed as he felt his body respond to the scents and relax. That was confusing. It was butter and a pillow – his body shouldn't have responded as strongly as it had.

Jay was beginning to learn that Sha'li's scents were far more than mere smells. She exuded scents but also emotions and memories, often without warning or prompting. Jay shook himself out of his reverie and refocused on Sha'li.

“Sorry!” Sha'li said as she noticed the group's eyes momentarily glaze over. She furrowed her brow for a moment and the effect faded.

Norri sighed. “That was a nice one Sha'li.”

Sha'li smiled, “You're welcome, and I think I know what we should do!”

M'redith grinned at Sha'li's excitement. “Awesome! Tell us!”

“It's easy – you all probably already figured it out but it was sweet of you to wait for me to figure it out,” Sha'li said with a grin. “Here's what we do,” she continued and explained quickly.