“She doesn’t trust us,” Elwin shouted.

“Yes. But perhaps we can defeat her without the use of lethal force.”

“The inner lining of her tunic is woven from Unbreakable Thread. The same thread is woven into defensive enchantments that enhance her physical abilities. How are we going to hurt her at all?”

“You are the enchanting expert, Elwin. You will know better than me.”

Blue was forced to swerve again as another one of Phee’s thrown daggers came up from below.

“We don’t want to hurt you!” Elwin shouted down.

Below them, Phee threw another dagger. Blue reacted by swerving yet again.

But as Elwin watched, Phee disappeared in a flash of white light.

“What the-” Elwin blurted in confusion.

Elwin felt gravity take hold of him as Blue suddenly let him slip from her grasp. His eyes widened and his instincts took over, manipulating the rapidly approaching dirt beneath him to break his fall safely.

From above, Blue screamed out in pain as something heavy struck her from behind. A beam of golden metal burst through the silvery skin of her belly and angled down towards her feet. Phee had run her rapier through the High Priestess’ shoulder and out her abdomen, piercing through her friend’s entire torso.

“I can’t trust you!” Phee vociferated through gritted teeth. A trail of wet tears streamed from her eyes as she and Blue plummeted towards the island below. With her feet planted on Blue’s back, Phee gripped her rapier tighter and slashed through Blue’s body in one fell swoop. Her enchanted weapon cut through the morphic metal of Blue’s body like it was soft tofu from Myzin. One of Blue’s wings was torn off, tumbling through the air to land heavily in the flower-carpeted dirt below, quickly followed by Blue. Phee glided to a safe landing some distance away.

Unlike a creature born of flesh that may have been crippled by pain and shock, Blue kept her wits about her even after being mortally wounded. The gaping wound across Blue’s body was mended in an instant as the metal rejoined, driven by electric fields. Rather than waste time getting up onto her feet, the silver metal of Blue’s body swam and shapeshifted into a snarling lynx. A four-legged form with a lower centre of mass was more unpredictable and manoeuvrable. Better for fighting against an opponent trained against people.

Meanwhile, Elwin had gotten to his feet, regrouping with Blue in the open. Some twenty paces away, Vulana simply watched from behind the bar.

Phee had disappeared, cloaked by some technique, just as she had been when they had first met.

“Elwin, stay back,” Blue warned him.

“No. She’s using her thrown daggers to teleport; she’s woven and tied magic circles made of Unbreakable Thread to them with reagent attached.”

“I see. And she has scattered these daggers all over the place.”

“I… don’t want to fight her.”

“Elwin… we have to defend ourselves.”

“…No,” Elwin said in rebuttal. Then, in a louder voice, he shouted into the night sky: “Phee. We’re telling the truth! Don’t do this, please!” As he spoke, Elwin held up his hands in a gesture of passivity. If he had any weapons, he would’ve thrown them aside.

Something sharp poked the skin of his neck. A delicate golden blade revealed itself from thin air. Phee, head lowered, looked up at Elwin. Her brilliant orange eyes swam with emotion.

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Elwin gulped. “Phee. Blue and I have done our trials, that’s why we know what’s happening-”

“Shut up.” She said to Elwin. “Don’t move,” she warned Blue, shooting the lynx a glance. She took a deep, shuddering breath. “If you’re telling the truth, how do I know what to trust? If Rolynd was an illusion, you could be an illusion. Blue could be an illusion. Anything could be an illusion.”

Elwin’s mind raced, searching for some answer to Phee’s question. How did one know what to trust? Was there a correct answer? How could he convince her, when she had convincingly used his own argument against him?

The tip of Phee’s rapier nicked Elwin’s skin as she tightened her grip on its handle. Elwin’s life flashed before his eyes.

“Ah- wait,” Elwin said, speaking instinctively out of fear. He rambled to keep himself alive, not confident that what he was saying was necessarily true or logical. “Neither Blue nor I are illusions, we’re protected by Universal Law, aren’t we? B-but you don’t have to trust what I say… If you can’t trust what anyone says… then, uhhhh-”

“Then you must stop to look at the evidence and reach your own conclusion,” Blue said, finishing Elwin’s thought.

“What evidence?” Phee asked stiffly. It was clear that she was seriously questioning whether she should be spending any more time listening to them.

“Y-you don’t remember drinking the potion that creates illusions, but you were under the impression that we had disappeared to do our trials first, which is true.” Elwin stuttered, sweating profusely. “And then, you couldn’t see us watching you until Rolynd’s voice told you to kill us.”

“And, if you recall the words Rolynd spoke, he was not willing to instruct you unless he knew that you were alone. In other words, we needed to be imperceptible in order for your trial to start. You were unable to see us until your trial had begun!”

Phee seemed to be thinking, but the point of her blade did not waver in the slightest. She realised that there was an easy way to clear things up. “Rolynd…?” Phee asked into her bracelet… but no reply came.

“There are two possibilities, we are telling the truth, and Vulana is testing the strength of your loyalty to Rolynd, versus the strength of our friendship and your reasoning. Or, we are lying, and you’ll easily kill us both. Then Vulana will supposedly subject you to a trial.” Blue continued.

“Shut up and let me think,” Phee ordered.

Minutes passed and neither Blue nor Elwin dared to move a muscle. Just as Blue had said, they were outmatched by the Bloodstone. Blue supposed that it had to be so. If Blue or Elwin truly had a reasonable chance of overpowering Phee, it wouldn’t be much of a test for the three of them.

“Rolynd has said that ADAM tests the character of those who desire his power,” Phe said, lowering her weapon. “I definitely feel tested. And, if you are lying then you can go ahead and kill me, I don’t want to do this anym- oof!” Phee exclaimed, cut short when Elwin enveloped her in a hug full of relief.

Blue returned to her humanoid form, now shrunken to the size of an adolescent child with the lost mass of her wing, which remained laying somewhere among the flowers. She strode over to join Elwin and Phee’s embrace. “I am glad you were able to see things the way we do. But you should not be so careless about the value of your life.”

“Ah, there are some things even you do not know, Blue,” Phee said cryptically in reply.

“Aspirants!” resounded a powerful voice. Vulana, with her six opalescent draconic wings spread elegantly, glided over to the trio with a single flap, coming to a stop right beside them. She placed her left hand on Elwin’s shoulder, and with her right, she made a claw, reaching into the distance. With motion reminiscent of Blue’s use of Wrighting, the wing that Phee had severed from Blue’s body flew into Vulana’s hand. The Elder Fairy caught it like a ball, the metal instant reshaping into a sphere of rippling, undulating liquid metal. She passed the ball to Blue, who received it from the giantess graciously with both hands held above her head.

The metal reformed with Blue’s body, restoring her to her prior stature.

“Come. Let us hurry and finally open the Labyrinth. I have waited thousands of years for this.” Vulana beckoned, rising into the air.

The round, silver monolith used to lift the Labyrinth seal awaited at the top of the hill in the dead centre of the island, silhouetted against the starry night sky, lit dimly by luminescent red-and-yellow flowers that surrounded it.

Elwin, Phee and Blue ran after the Elder, towards the top of the hill.

Blinding light overwhelmed the scene like a glance from the midday sun. Elwin and Phee blinked, clearing their vision as best they could, looking around in confusion for the source of the disturbance.

“Look, to the east!”

Far over the horizon, there was a most unusual scene. Dark red storm clouds cleared away by some great force from the heavens. A glittering mushroom cloud of sand and vitrified dust was slowly beginning to rise, already towering over the storm like Ellenia’s prime moontree over the canopy of the forest, only on a far grander scale.

“An orbital strike,” Phee said. “But why would Lucina fire on her own forces…?”