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As they stepped into the Dimension Room, Sophie realized that Trom wasn’t with them.

Elva rolled her eyes. ”Great, now we have to wait for that lazy imp, too.”

They both turned to look in through the third door, where they saw Trom handing the old book back to Loki.

Trom walked through the door up to Elva and Sophie, looking very pleased with himself.

Elva looked skeptically at him. “What did you just do?”

Trom smiled proudly. “I just made our lives a heck of a lot easier.”

Elva crossed her arms with a look of distrust on her face. “And how did you do that, exactly?”

”You wrote something in the book, didn’t you?” Sophie asked.

”Just to help us with the next door. I mean, how else are we gonna catch a lightning bolt, right?” Trom let go of the padlock, and it floated up next to the two other objects. Sophie and Elva looked over at the fourth door, which did indeed have a drawing of a lightning bolt on it.

“I still don’t think it was a good idea, Trom,” Sophie said worriedly. “We don’t know how bad the consequence is gonna be.”

Trom seemed surprised. ”I know – that’s why all I wished for was a hint about one single door. That’s all. We should be able to handle a tiny wish like that, considering how much it’ll help us.”

”But you’re not just putting yourself at risk, you’re doing it to all of us!” Elva replied angrily.

”And how’s that different from when Sophie decided to grab the chest from the slime hydra!?” Trom stared furiously at Elva and Sophie. “She risked my life, just because she was curious, so why can’t I do this to help us?”

“That is so not the same!” Elva answered angrily. ”The slime hydra would never have been life-threatening. Even if we’d been eaten, Nimum would have been able to save us. But with your dumb wish, we have no idea what the consequence could end up being!”

Sophie bit her lip awkwardly. Elva was right that the slime hydra hadn’t been as dangerous as their current situation, but Sophie hadn’t really thought about the consequences when she grabbed the chest. She didn’t want to say that out loud right now, though.

”And like I said, Elva, I only wished for a hint for one door, so how bad can it be? But oh no, just because it’s my idea, it’s suddenly the worst thing ever. I bet that no one would even blink if Sophie had been the one to do it! But you know what? I have my own ideas, and they’re good ones, too! It was even me that solved the challenge behind the second door! Me! Not Sophie. So stop pretending that everything I do ends in disaster!”

Just as he said that they heard the sound of a lock turning and felt a cold gust of wind blowing through the Dimension Room. Sophie, Elva, and Trom all spun around, and looked out into the snow-covered landscape of Northfire. The Dimension Door had opened, all on its own.

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All three of them froze. Outside, Nimum was surrounded by members of the Order of Terram. The ice troll, General Frigus, was still forming icy weapons out of thin air, but half of his troops were on the ground. Nimum was badly bruised and burnt. It looked like her left shoulder had been dislocated, but, without even wincing, she pushed it back into place.

As the Dimension Door opened, there was a brief moment where everyone stood perfectly still, like statues nailed to the ground.

Sophie was the first one to move. She ran towards the door to close it, with Elva right behind her.

”Don’t let them close that door!” General Frigus roared.

The hooded figures immediately turned their attention away from Nimum and raced towards the door. Nimum was quick to react, shooting out her vines which wrapped around the feet of one of the hooded figures, who she then grabbed and swung into several of the others, tossing them off the cliff.

Sophie and Elva were struggling to close the door. It moved painfully slowly. Trom just stood where he was, petrified and white as a sheet.

“But… it was only supposed to be a small consequence…”

”Trom! Come help us, already!” Elva yelled furiously.

Sophie peeked out the door. There were still three hooded figures heading straight for them. She turned her head to look around the Dimension Room. Was there anything there that could help them? All she could see was bookshelves, books and furniture.

”Elva! Get the shelves to help us! They’re made of wood!”

Elva let go of the door and rushed over to the closest bookshelf. She put her hand against it and the wood formed into giant hands, which reached out to the door and started to push. Sophie looked back out of the door. Two of the three hooded figures had been caught in one of Nimum’s thorn bushes, but the third one – a fearsome being with swords instead of arms – was almost at the door.

She pushed as hard as she could. The door was almost closed. But almost wasn’t enough. The figure leaped through the door, then ran towards Sophie, swinging its razor-sharp arms at her. At the last moment, Sophie was pulled to the side by Trom, and the being’s sword arms slashed the floor.

The Dimension Door closed shut with a loud clang. The hooded figure laughed triumphantly and looked at Sophie and Elva.

”A magic user and a human,” said the figure with a cruel smile that bared its sharp teeth. “I’ve searched long and hard for such rare abilities. You will make me much stronger.”

Trom pulled at Sophie. ”Hurry! Get through the door!”

They darted off towards the fourth door, but the figure leaped and cut them off. It aimed its sword arms at Sophie and Trom, but a wooden beam grew out of the floor, smashing into the being and sending it flying through the air. It crashed into a bookshelf and fell to the floor. The bookshelf wobbled back and forth before falling over on top of the figure.

Sophie saw Elva breaking her contact with the floor and getting to her knees. Sweat was dripping from her forehead, and her legs shook beneath her.

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Sophie and Trom ran over to her so she could lean on them. They each grabbed her by one of her shoulders and started to rush towards the door. The hooded figure snarled as it started to eviscerate the bookshelf that was on top of it.

”I’ll slice you into little pieces, you brats!” Even free of the bookshelf, it struggled to get to its feet. Apparently, having swords instead of arms could have some practical downsides as well. Which gave Sophie, Elva, and Trom just enough time to escape through the fourth door.

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