“Wait.”
Calista turned around to look at Nylvani.
The young Gothic woman had a vulnerable and worried look on her face. Behind the tangled black hair and the dark mascara stains, two big, blue eyes looked up at Calista. “Do you ever wonder …” she started but then her voice trailed off. Seconds went by as Nylvani studied Calista, almost as if she were trying to read her. “Do you ever wonder if any of this has any meaning at all?”
“What do you mean?” Calista asked.
“I mean, do you wonder if any of this is real? Like do any of us really exist? Or are we just imaginary beings who float through an imaginary reality where nothing really has any meaning except that we might find something or someone to have pleasure in. Like what if we’re just figments of some sadistic god-like thing whose only interest is to watch us suffer and die? Like, what if I’m that god and I don’t even know it? What if I’m the only person that really exists and you’re just a figment of my imagination? Sometimes I lie awake at night and wonder if that’s the reason I don’t succeed, that I’m not being held back by any external force, but by my own self-contained will that simply cannot conceive of a scenario where I walk into a room like this where there’s a bunch of treasure that I can actually take.”
She then paused for just a second and then continued, “Or even worse, what if I’m only one little thing? What if I’m a singular person in a stack of billions or even trillions of beings and I’m no more important than any one of them? What if I’m just a single pebble on a beach filled with pebbles and it makes no more difference if I’m sitting on the beach with the other pebbles or if I’m tossed deep into the water where I sink to the bottom, never to be found again?”
Calista let the silence hang in the air for a moment before she answered, “So, what you’re saying is that you’ve never been in this room before?”
Nylvani blinked and shook her head. “Uhm … something like that, yeah.”
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Now is not the time to be having an existential crisis, honey. We’re about to be rich. Calista pressed her shoulder to the door and put her full weight behind it. Slowly, the door swung on silent hinges until it revealed a room full of glittering wonders.
The first thing Calista noticed, of course, was the big heaping pile of gold in the middle of the room. However, that was not all. There were swords, some with golden hilts with gems and jewels inlaid, others more plain but clearly deadly, and one that sat near the middle of the pile that had a blade black as night with veins of silver and gold that shimmered in the torchlight. There were also several staves and rods sticking out here and there and several of them looked magical as well. She thought she spotted at least one that looked like a Rod of Worldly Wisdom. That might be my first choice, she thought as she stepped into the room.
Then an emerald went whizzing past her head and she ducked. As she raised her head she spotted a second precious stone humming through the air and so she quickly stepped back to let it pass. Quora Stones. Those deflect spells, grant special abilities, and add straight bonuses to attributes. Those are rare. Other things were hanging in the air. A giant golden fish that she ducked under and then an ornate silver chair that she walked around and two daggers looked down on her from high up near the ceiling. She stopped next to an amulet that sat at the top of a small pile of silver. It was a golden disk on a chain with a green jewel mounted at its center. That might be an amulet of life or an amulet of health and resurrection, not really sure. Standing still, she looked around the room in wonder. I can’t believe we’re here. If I loot this place, I’ll have enough gold to buy my own kingdom. There were jokes on the forums that certain villains had enough treasure to collapse the game’s economy. This place looks almost big enough too.
Then something caught her eye. It was a small gold thing sitting on a shelf. Stepping over to it, she found it was a gold key with a yellow gem set into its bow. She glanced back at Nylvani who was still standing in the doorway, staring at the room in wonder. So she picked it up and placed it in her inventory.
Nylvani then cautiously stepped into the room. Her eyes were wide as she ducked under the precious stones still zipping through their orbits on the room’s outer edge. “I honestly didn’t think we’d get this far,” she mumbled.
“We probably can’t stay that long,” Calista said. “They’ll be looking for us the moment they find the bodies in that torture chamber.” She thought she saw a look of fear and rage pass behind the other woman’s eyes, but she wasn’t sure. “Anyhow, grab what you can, and then we’ll see if we can find a way out of here.”
Calista then spotted a staff leaned against the wall, walked over, and picked it up. It felt cold in her hand, but not prohibitively so. She lifted it so that it glimmered against the torchlight. A staff of frost, most likely. This would fetch a pretty penny in Port Hollow.
Then a sensation struck her, something between excitement and nerves that made her look around. Torches. Gold. A jeweled sword. Another staff stuck in a pile of gold. But that’s not it. It’s something else. She traced the bricks along the wall. There! A button! Setting the staff back against the wall, she stepped over to the small, concave spot set at the junction of four bricks. It’s a button meant to be activated from this side, and hidden buttons only ever mean one thing.
She pressed her thumb to the spot and pushed. Stone slid against stone as the button activated.