Ember found herself in a pine forest buried under a pile of snow and could not remember how she got there. Never before had she seen that much snow before. And never could she have believed that this soft material and anything to do with the half-melted slippery snow she used to have back home. What the hell was that place?
She could help but play with that new texture, pouncing left and right with no rhyme or reason, just enjoying the feeling. She felt so small compared to the big snowy forest that she almost felt like a puppy once again, albeit without the clumsiness.
'This place is amazing! Merida! Can you believe it?'
But only the wind answered her call.
'Merida?' Ember repeated anxiously, realizing something was wrong.
There had been precious few times that she got so wholly separated from her partner that she could not respond. And each time it happened, it had involved diving too deep into herself in her quest to further her magic.
So it had to be one of those places.
It wasn't a dark, creepy corner of her mind or a projection of her own body. But this place could not be real, either.
The realization was instantly sobering for Ember.
She was there for a good reason. If only she could remember why...
So she took a deep breath and tried to find the faintest hint of a clue in the surrounding air. It was sharp and freezing, and the smell of the forest was faint as if it was far away instead of all around her. But even further, she felt another familiar distant smell: the scent of cooked meat. And so she proceeded to follow that lead to wherever it would get her.
It took her about excruciating half an hour to get closer, during which she kept second-guessing herself about the elusive smell. But finally, it got stronger, and she saw with her own eyes the tiny wooden lodge and the column of smoke rising from its chimney. Tongue lolling, she started running faster toward her goal and its promises of warmth and food.
As she got closer, however, she realized her mistake as the building grew bigger. It was even more massive than the police station. But the esthetic was closer to the home she had grown to know and love, with the warm light of a fireplace glowing from the inside out and the rich wooden exterior that felt more welcoming that whatever the other humans had been using for their buildings back in the city.
She rushed to the wooden door and proceeded to scratch on it while whimpering softly, following the technique that she had perfected over her first night healing shift with Merida to convince people to open their doors. And this time again, it worked the charm, and she continued with disarming wagging tail before the figure of an imposing man faced her before the open door.
The man was tall, broad, covered in pelts, and had a lot of facial air making his expression hard to read. But more than anything, he had big dark eyes staring down at her with an intensity she never felt before.
"Greetings Traveller, and Welcome at the Crossroads!" He shouted, shifting just enough to give her a path inside before inviting her in. "May I offer you a nice place by the fire and a good piece of meat in exchange for the story of your travels?"
That's when it finally hit Ember that she understood every word the man was saying without Merida being there to translate. And so she grew a little suspicious as the man before her was definitely not what he seemed, pointing her at all the details she previously overlooked that made the man all the more menacing. This was a wolf pelt the man was wearing over his top right shoulder as Ember finally recognized the fur of a fellow canine.
However, the man seemed as practiced in reading her emotion as she thought she had been about humans so far. So the man took a few steps back and raised his hand slowly in what Ember had learned was the typical human display for humans meaning no harm.
"It's okay." The man said, soothing. "I'm a mind reader and illusionist, much like your friend, and all those people here are my guests for the night. Everything around you is a construct born of your imagination, so I can assure you that nothing would come to harm you and that you will be as safe inside as you were outside."
Yet, Ember had a distinct feeling that the man and his guests were not a product of her imagination.
"Oh!" The man exclaimed. "So you noticed already! Yes, that's the point of the Crossroads." He said before explaining in great details:
"A place where wanderers come to gather on this plane. There are also inside their own mind and yet, here with you in the here and now. That's the magic of this place. So let me ask you once again: may I offer a nice place by the fire and the finest piece of meat you ever ate, all fidgets of your imagination, while you tell us what brought you here?"
Ember did not know what to think, but if none of this place was real, she would rather have a place by this fire than freeze to her death in the snow.
"Fantastic!" The man approved, escorting her to a nice napkin by the fire where a nice piece of meat was already waiting for her on a nicely decorated plate, displaying all kinds of animals from hare to deer, the details so fine that Ember almost expected the paintings to come alive.
"So, would you be so kind as to tell us what brought you here on this fine night?"
Ember was surprised that the man kept insisting that it was night as outside, the sun was still shining low on the horizon despite the ever-falling snow.
"You finally noticed, uh?" The man said, unimpressed. "Yes, that's absolutely right. In the Realm of the Dreams, it is always the night, whatever the sun might tell you."
That's actually explained a lot, and yet very little, as Ember could not remember falling asleep. Actually, the last thing she remembered was running back home as fast as she could, as Merida was excited to get to work after their previous successful trade with the humans.
"Oh, I see!" The man exclaimed once again as if he had finally figured out a tricky riddle. "You should be careful little one. Bad mushrooms are not a good way to reach this place, you know?" His warning caused an outburst of raucous laughter all around them.
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Ember felt the sudden urge to hide somewhere while also feeling paralyzed by fear for the first time in her life.
"Oh yeah!" The man exclaimed, "You probably did not realize it before, but none of your magic is working here, only mine. That is the perk of being the ruler of this Realm, after all." He explained before turning around, "And stop laughing like hyenas, all of you, the boss is talking with a new customer, and I won't mind kicking you all out."
And so the place turned dead silent.
"I'm going to assume you came here for my challenge, so I will tell you what I say to all other candidates: The purpose of those challenges is NOT to unlock your magic or whatever crap you have been told. Your magic is yours to acknowledge, and you alone can accomplish this. My challenge, however, is also yours to figure out, but I must warn you that everyone only gets a single try, and no one has completed it in ages. So if you want an easy challenge, you should merely wait to wake up and pray for better luck with my brothers and sisters next time. So... are you sure that is what you want?"
It was a hard decision for Ember. It always had been Merida who kept pushing her to try harder, and the last time she underwent such a challenge, her own magic did not give her a way out and actively tried to suppress her, forcing her to fight back for her survival. But this time, however, she was issued a fair warning and an exit door before she even started the challenge, and so the offer was tempting. Especially since the man implied she could always come back and tried later.
But then, she realized that she knew nothing of the challenge and that there was nothing she could possibly prepare for. The man also said her magic did not work here, so it did not matter if she built up her strength before returning, as none of it would be available here. So coming back later would most likely not improve her chance of success, which was already slim to the point of none existent, according to the man. So there was only one thing she could do to improve her odds:
'Can I ask around for advice?' She asked.
"And we have a challenger!" The man roared to the crowd. "People, feel free to tell the poor mutt whatever you like. It would only make the challenge even more fun to watch." He said before turning to Ember. "You have five minutes. Be sure to ask the right questions to the right ones. Cause lot of people gathered here would enjoy seeing you fail." He warned her with a smirk.
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From what Ember had gathered, the challenge consisted of puzzles one could not solve, traps one could not see, and fights one could win. No one honestly bothered telling her anything helpful about how she was supposed to navigate around those to win that challenge. But that was probably because they did not know. One former challenger did tell her that she had not to worry about dying in that challenge. Another warned her that none of the obstacles were what they seemed. But anything else she heard was either too cryptic or plainly did not make sense.
Then, when a bell finally rang, telling her her five minutes had come to an end, she went back to the man who looked down at her.
"This challenge is different for everyone but has one single rule you need to figure out and follow to reach the end. If you wake up before reaching the end, you fail. If you give up, which you can do at any moment, you fail. If you knowingly try to break the rule, you fail."
He paused, and a shimmering purple circle appeared before Ember.
"This portal will lead you to the challenge premises where five tests await you. Each one will have a similar portal to enter and exit from. It doesn't matter in which order you complete the tests so long you do all five. Each portal will close once you complete its test. I wish you the best of luck."
While the man had been condescending all that time, Ember could tell the last sentence had been genuine. And he now invited her to come in with a kind smile. Seeing no reason not to after going that far, she passed through the white circle and, as promised, emerged to an entirely different place.
You have entered the Labyrinths of Nightmares. Find your way through all five Labyrinths.
Ember was inside a stone room with no doors or windows. With only six portals arranged in a circle around her:
Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and the Purple one she just came from. And so she just assumed that she could come in and out of any portal as she pleased, but going through the Purple one meant she gave up.
Not knowing what the challenge was all about, she decided to explore each and every one of them first. Starting with the yellow one.
You have entered the Labyrinth of Greed. Find your way through the labyrinth and retrieve the treasure at its end.
On the other side of the portal, she was faced with a straight alleyway going deeper into what the labyrinth was, and decided it was enough for now. So she came back and tested the orange one.
You have entered the Labyrinth of Madness. Find the answer to liberate the poor soul from its prison.
This time, she found herself on a leash in a different-looking city full of people. And before whatever man on the other side of the leash decided to pull, she went back from where she came from and tried the red one this time.
You have entered the Labyrinth of Resentment. Find the courage to face your fears head-on.
This time, she found herself in the middle of a battlefield, two armies charging at each other with her trapped in the middle. She quickly left that place before she ended up impaled on one of the warriors' pointy sticks. She was starting to see a pattern here and tried a more soothing color this time, going after green. There was no way green could be a nasty one, right?
You have entered the Labyrinth of Burden. Find the source of Evil plaguing your pack.
She found herself back in a primeval forest she knew too much already. A place she now knew did not exist cause the system made it up all for her. And yet, here she was. But the system notification immediately told her she would not like it this time around. It took her a lot of effort to leave that place behind, but she had to see what the blue portal would lead her to before she made a plan. And so she reluctantly left the second place her heart called home and went through the last portal.
You have entered the Labyrinth of Grieve. Find what you have been missing and find your way back.
Then, this time, she was back home. But not the home she left with the broken window, the bed covered in fur, and Merida waiting for her. No. She was back home in her open cage, and her late owner had just awakened in her bed, very much alive and calling her for breakfast.
She was so startled by this last one that she crossed through the portal backward without realizing it. This labyrinth of Nightmares was true to its name, and Ember had a hard time choosing which one she wanted to enter first.
The green and blue ones were too personal. Red was deadly dangerous, which left her to choose between Yellow and Orange. Yellow was the only one that resembled an actual labyrinth, while orange was the most familiar one, but also the only one where she wasn't sure what to expect. But given its name of Labyrinth of Madness, it could not be anything good.
And so she chose the most straightforward one and walked back to the Labyrinth of Greed.