Lyda thought over Cyrus's question, then shook her head.

"No," she answered. "Don't tell me which is which."

"Okay," Cyrus responded. "Which do you want to do?"

"I feel like," she said. "The waterfall cave is the obvious thing, that it's what everyone finds as they explore. It makes sense people would figure that out, exploring this area. Stories are full of caves hidden behind waterfalls. It would make sense for the easier one to have the longer route, too. Let's go the stream route."

"Okay," Cyrus said

"Then again," Lyda looked around. "Actually, I think the stream route would be more obvious. The path ends right on it, and it leads away from where the trail went. So it would make sense that people who are looking for signs would think that's one and not even think about the waterfall. Let's do the waterfall."

"Are you going to change your mind again?" Cyrus asked.

Lyda looked at the stream, then at the waterfall, then at Cyrus.

"No," she answered. "Let's go with the waterfall."

"Okay," he said, then used his magic to float them through the waterfall and protect them from its spray.

They landed in the cave hidden behind it, Cyrus using light magic to illuminate it. Resting at the back of the cave was an altar, behind which stood a twice-life-sized white marble statue of Cyrus, stark naked, hands on his hips, proudly standing with his erection on display for anyone who came back there.

"That was not here last night," Cyrus told Lyda as she looked at him in amusement. "Rynovar must have had it put in while we were sleeping. I noticed it when we woke up, but… didn't think much of it."

"Rynovar has a thing about nudity and sex, doesn't he?" She asked.

"Considering he has sex at least once a day, sometimes as many as eight times?" Cyrus asked. "Yeah, he's got a thing about sex. Knowing Rynovar, he plans on having Kylnar put that in my private workshop after we leave the ruins, too."

"Well," Lyda gave him a kiss on the cheek. "It captures your looks perfectly, so don't feel embarrassed."

"It's more frustrating than embarrassing," Cyrus sighed. "Come on. Let's get this over with, shall we?"

Lyda nodded, then the two of them knelt in front of the altar, appearing on a platform of thin, blue-green light in a vast darkness illuminated by blue-green lights in the distance. Several platforms filled the space, connected by pathways of the blue-green lights.

Cyrus groaned

"Is this bad?" She asked.

"In a way," he answered.

"How come?" She asked.

"This is the route less traveled," he said. "You're right about that. And it's the one that takes us nearly to the end of the ruins. I forgot to check which version of this stage we were going to end up on, it depends on several factors at entry. If we'd waited, we probably could have gotten a better variation."

"What's this one's thing?" She asked.

"I can make it a lot easier," he muttered. "But Rynovar wouldn't like that. I wouldn't put it past him to get rid of the token before we arrive just because of that."

"Cyrus," Lyda said. "What's this one's thing?"

"There's no way out," he said, and she gave him a horrified look. "I mean, not that's obvious. It's intended on confusing adventurers, making them wander around until they, well, decide to rest. All present people need to be asleep to activate the dreams."

"The dreams?" She asked.

"Yes," he said. "The dreams. There, that's where you face another puzzle. If you fail it, you won't be able to try again until at least twelve hours have passed upon the last person waking up, and everyone has to pass before the actual exit appears."

"So you and I need to-"

"You," Cyrus cleared his throat. "It doesn't register gods and Blessed Ones. So just you. The problem is that the puzzle is annoying complex and I can't help you with it. I don't even know what it takes the form of, and the dream spell is shielded from outside interference. I literally cannot assist you with it."

"Oh," she said. "So I'm on my own for this?"

"Yes," he answered. "I'm sorry, Lyda. I should have remembered to make sure it wasn't this one we were going to end up in."

"It's fine," she smiled. "I just woke up, so it'll take me a little while, by why don't you get out a bedroll for me?"

Cyrus pulled out a bedroll, blanket, and pillow for Lyda, and she lay down. He sat beside her and watched as she relaxed, eventually falling asleep. Knowing it would be awhile before she woke, he pulled out a book and began reading.

Seven hours passed before the stage of the ruins changed, shifting until there was only the single platform they were on left. An altar appeared in the center of it as well, and Cyrus put away his book.

A few seconds later, Lyda opened her eyes and looked at Cyrus.

"I-"

"Passed, I know," he indicated the altar. "We have just one more stage left before the end."

"Just one?" She asked.

"Yes," he told her, handing her a few granola bars and a bottle of orange juice. "Just one. And I'm not allowed to help you with it."

"Why not?" She asked.

"Because Rynovar forbid me from doing so," he told her. "There are four stages total I'm forbidden from helping with, and everyone has to go through at least one to reach the end. And before you ask if there's a way around it, the answer's 'no'. There's a geas on you preventing me from properly helping."

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Okay," she said.

"Eat up," he told her. "Then let's go."

Lyda ate the food Cyrus gave her, then he sent the trash away before they stood and he sent the bed items back as well.

"Oh, and something else," he said as they approached the altar. "There are two failure possibilities. In one, you're returned to here."

"And in the other?" She asked.

"You're sent all the way back to the beginning," he told her. "That one's rare, so don't worry too hard about it happening."

"Okay," she said. "And if I get that bit of bad luck?"

"I'll rejoin you," he told her. "But I doubt you'll get it."

She nodded, then they knelt in front of the altar. When they appeared in the next stage, Lyda became aware immediately that it was different.

Though they were in a chapel, it was whole, undamaged, and there was far, far more space within it. Twenty-four stained-glass windows lined each side wall, with several more on the wall behind the altar and the wall with the chapel's exit.

Surrounded by green panes were images of a man who looked quite similar to Cyrus, naked and at full-mast, in various positions. Each facing pair on the side walls were identical, but no two windows on the same wall matched.

Four rows of pews filled the chapel as well, leading nearly up to the slight dais the altar rested on. Upon the marble altar sat two pairs of candelabra, each with six gray candles set into them, lit. On the center of the altar was a scaled-down marble statue of the figure in the windows, taking the same pose as the status of Cyrus behind the waterfall.

"Before you ask," Cyrus said. "That's my father."

"I can see the resemblance," Lyda told him. "Why did… Rynovar do that for this stage?"

"It was not like this last time I was here."

"It wasn't?" She asked.

"It was Kylnar," Cyrus walked over to a pew and sat down. "I can't help you with this stage, Lyda, but I can tell you that you can't leave the chapel until you complete it. The door out is sealed, and the windows and walls and ceiling and floor are impervious to any damage even a Divine, a Tier Twelve, could manage."

As a god, Cyrus could if he bothered using a larger fraction of his power, but he wasn't going to do that, and wouldn't even if Rynovar hadn't ordered him not to assist her. It would ruin the point of the ruins, of the stage, and cause damage to the ruins that would be a hassle to fix.

Lyda began walking around as Cyrus watched. She inspected every mural, the miniature statue, the candles set into their holders and on the altar, the pews, and the walls. She examined the floor, the doors, and the ceiling, the latter of which possessed a painted mural of Cyrus's father.

For three days, Lyda looked around the chapel, before she began rearranging the pews, and Cyrus didn't sleep a wink. Cyrus would have offered to help her, except he knew Rynovar would consider helping her for anything outside of eating and sleeping as breaking the rule. He was grateful there was a bathroom through one of the back doors of the chapel, the other of which led to just an empty room.

Things might have been a lot more frustrating for him, having to use magic to deal with their needs.

"Lyda," Cyrus groaned after the second day of her shifting pews around. "Why are you moving the pews?"

"Just let me work," she told him, then thought for a few moments. "Is that groan indicative of something?"

"No," he told her. "It could just be that I'm frustrated over this stage, or you're doing it wrong, or moving them is unnecessary, or any other number of things. You wouldn't have received the hint due to Rynovar's geas if it were indicative of something, I've already checked it. But seriously, why are you moving the pews?"

"You're going crazy, just sitting there, aren't you?" She asked. "Only able to watch because of that rule Rynovar put in place.

"Yes," he admitted.

"Just give me another day," she told him. "I think I'll have this figured out by then."

"Alright," he told her.

He returned to watching her, still not sure of why she was moving the pews around. Based on her thoughts, she didn't actually have a reason for it.

Because he hadn't slept since they entered the chapel, Cyrus slept longer than normal that night. When he woke, Lyda had been up for a few hours, rearranging the pews. That time, however, things were different. The pews had been pushed into formations, and candles were pulled from their holders, resting on various pews in a seemingly random order.

Cyrus watched as Lyda finished shifting a few of the pews and pulling candles from the stands and setting them on the pews, then she walked over to the altar and grabbed the statue off. She took the statue to a pew, set it down, and placed two more candles beside it, before taking a third and melting it, using her magic to strengthen the flame, allowing the hot wax to coat the statue, covering every last part of it with the dark green wax.

Impressed, Cyrus watched as she finished, and a few seconds later, they both heard a click which echoed through the room.

"Wait," Lyda looked at the door, then at Cyrus. "Was that actually the way?"

"You didn't know? He asked, astonished.

"I was doing it on a whim!" She exclaimed. "Mostly out of frustration! I didn't expect that to actually do anything! That was way too obscure!"

"Which is exactly why I wasn't allowed to help you," he told her. "I don't know why Rynovar wanted it that obscure, but he did. Come on, let's go grab the Forest Token."

Lyda picked up her pack and pulled it on, then followed Cyrus to the doors exiting the chapel. She opened it and stepped through, the god following, and they found themselves in a clearing in a forest, the chapel having disappeared.

Resting in the heart of the clearing was a wooden altar with vines creeping up its sides, a pair of dark green candles sitting on it. A small moat surrounded the altar, only two feet wide and quite shallow, but still fully-encompassing the altar.

Lyda and Cyrus stepped over the moat and walked up to the altar. Sitting between the pair of candles was a black token with a tree raised on it, brown for the roots, trunk, and branches, green for the leaves.

Lyda picked up the token, then knelt in front of the altar, disappearing. Cyrus followed her out of the ruins, then immediately slapped his brothers' hands away from her.

"Hey!" Owen exclaimed.

"We just wanted to see if she was real!" Max responded.

"And to check out the forest token!" Lucas exclaimed.

"We weren't planning on trying to seduce her," all three responded, and Lyda gave Cyrus a look.

"She doesn't have the Mystery Token," Cyrus said, then pulled out all four of the tokens she did have, handing them to her.

"What does that have to do with them being here?" Lyda asked him as she examined the tokens.

"How long do you think it'll take?" Owen asked her.

"For the Mystery Token to appear?" Max asked.

"Now that all five of the others are in your hands?" Lucas asked.

"If you guess correctly, we'll give you a special prize!" The triplets said in unison.

"A special prize?" Lyda asked, then looked at Cyrus. "You said it would take less than a day if I had all five of these, right?"

"Yes," he answered.

"That's cheating!" The triplets exclaimed.

"Less than three hours," Lyda said.

"But more than how long?" The triplets asked.

Lyda looked at Cyrus, then at the triplets.

"Less than three hours," she stated. "More than how long it's been since Cyrus put them in my hands."

"That's cheating!" They said.

"You do know that confirms it, right?" Cyrus asked as Lyda laughed.

"Really?" She asked him. "How long?"

"Oh, thirty-eight seconds," he told her. "That's why they wanted an answer. I checked with my own powers of time as soon as I gave them to you to see. It's rather fast, but then, no one's ever had all five of those before, so it was a little beyond what knowledge alone could predict."

They waited out the rest of the time, and the final token appeared, a black token with a dark gray question mark on both sides. It simply formed in the air above Lyda's hands, hovering there until she took it and put it with the others. Then, she looked at the triplets.

"What's this special prize?" She asked. "And why were you waiting here for us? I get the impression your real reason for being here was an attempt to take me away from Cyrus before we go our separate ways."

"Oh, no, we definitely didn't want to do that," the triplets told her. "Well, maybe we did, but we know it's a bad idea. Cyrus is serious about you. More so than we expected. If we actually did try, he'd probably drop us into a Dungeon we can't just use our magic to escape."

"And the grabbing?" Cyrus raised an eyebrow. "You three were grabbing at her."

"Maybe we wanted to tease you a little," the triplets responded in unison, then looked at Lyda. "Lyda, the special reward you get is… the seventh token!"