The Bright Elemental floated above Zalan for a few tense seconds. Zalan almost wanted to rescind his acceptance in the time it took for it to tell him what the challenge was. He wondered if it was even possible to rescind an Elemental’s challenge once accepted. It felt like the creature was taking extra time thinking about how to make the challenge more difficult. It would be Zalan’s second Elemental Power, after all. He felt it scrutinizing him, like it searched his soul for weaknesses.
“I see you, Zalan,” the Bright Elemental said slowly.
Zalan shuddered. He didn’t even want to ask how it knew his name. Zalan looked over himself, completely illuminated by the light. He was wondering if the Elemental meant its sentence literally. It would be kind of hard to miss him when they were less than three feet in front of one another in enough light to feel like broad daylight.
“My challenge is as follows: In the three darknesses, you must find the light,” the Elemental declared. Its diamond fingers danced in excitement at having given the order.
The Elemental stared at Zalan closely from its blinding eyes. Zalan waited for more instruction. None came. Zalan shifted in place uncomfortably.
“What are the three darknesses?” Zalan asked.
The Elemental watched and did not reply.
“Okay, ummm… is there a time limit on this challenge?” Zalan asked.
The Elemental said nothing. Zalan took it as a good sign. It really was an exception that the first Elemental he met gave him a challenge with specific time constraints. He was comforted by the fact, but still felt like it was just his luck that the first Elemental he met would be one of the worst. This one wasn’t much better in terms of challenges. He had no idea what he was supposed to do.
“Three darknesses,” Zalan mumbled to himself, looking around the cavern.
The cave path being so visible brought him distinct ease. He could remain down here a lot longer if he wasn’t worried about being blind in darkness. But he remembered that the cave was normally pitch black. He wondered if that had to do with one of the three darknesses. Zalan tried to make quick connections and offered them to the Elemental.
“Okay, what about this? Something like the darkness of the cave is one of the three darknesses? And then the Island of Remains is another darkness? And the third one… I escape at night? Or…” Zalan scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. He had no idea where he was going with the idea.
The Elemental’s bright robes flowed slowly around it. Zalan had no indication that he was on the right path. He started to wonder if the Elemental’s challenge was a riddle more than it was a physical ordeal like most others.
“Okay, I got something. This cave that I fell into is called the Three Darknesses. Is that something? And I just need to find a way out and get back into a place that can get light, right?” Zalan asked.
The Elemental said nothing.
“Okay, well that’s a start. This is the Three Darknesses, and you’re the light. Or maybe I need to break out of here and the sunlight will be the light?” Zalan reasoned.
His audience remained silent.
“Let’s… go find a way out then.”
He began to walk further down the cave path. He knew he could walk right through the Elemental like a ghost, but was afraid he might offend it by touching it again. He ducked under the Bright Elemental and looked to see if there was a light at the end of the cave. Some sort of mouth that he would find his way out from. The light at the end of the Three Darknesses.
He took several steps before looking behind him. The Elemental was floating in the same spot as before. It wasn’t following him like he had expected it would. It had only pivoted in place to continue watching him. Zalan felt like an animal in a zoo.
“Is the solution supposed to be something around here?” Zalan asked. “I’m supposed to stay in this area?”
The Elemental did not reply. Zalan realized how unhelpful it was to have a light source that wouldn’t move. He was stuck in this area. He also realized how obstinate it was being to all of his questions.
“I’m getting the sense that you aren’t even listening,” Zalan mumbled.
“I will watch closely until you complete my challenge,” the Bright Elemental replied.
Zalan was startled to hear its voice again. It was listening. It just had nothing to say to any of his earlier questions and guesses.
“What if I fail? Does that also count as ‘completing’ your challenge?” Zalan asked.
The Bright Elemental had nothing to say.
He walked a bit further down the path, until he started to reach toward the end of the Bright Elemental’s radiance. If he kept moving, he wouldn’t have the benefit of the light illuminating his way. He would cross the edge of the light and go back into the pitch black darkness beyond. He turned back to look at the Elemental. It was still watching from a distance.
“Am I supposed to leave your light and then come back to it?” Zalan guessed.
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The Elemental had no reply.
Zalan took a few steps away from the light, keeping an eye on the Elemental. He felt silly trying to guess his way through the challenge. He didn’t know where the massive difficulty spike lay. Maybe simply understanding the riddle was enough to solve it. He walked until his feet weren’t so brightly illuminated, placing him in faint darkness. He turned away from the Bright Elemental, taking in the black abyss before him. Definitely darkness. Maybe so dark it could be considered three darknesses. Zalan knew it was a stretch. He turned and jogged back to the Bright Elemental.
“There, I went to the darkness and found the light, right?”
The Bright Elemental said nothing.
“Okay, okay,” Zalan sighed.
He began spinning in a slow circle, trying to analyze the area as closely as he could. The Bright Elemental wasn’t following him, so it made sense that the challenge was supposed to be completed in a space where the Elemental could see him succeed. He kicked over a few rocks and even shifted bones at his feet looking for clues. He tried not to think of the skeletons as dead people, but just more debris to get out of the way. It made him feel less like there was a possibility of joining them. Nothing looked particularly out of place on the path near him.
“Did any of these people die while trying to complete your challenge?” Zalan asked.
No response. Zalan shrugged, growing used to his mostly one-sided conversation. It was actually beginning to comfort him in some way. It was nice to have someone to talk to. Or something for that matter.
He looked at the steep walls, wondering if he could climb up any of them. He continued his gaze upward and took in the ceiling. It wasn’t much more interesting than the cave’s ground, except that there were no human remains to be seen. It was rough and jagged like the rocks below. His eyes stopped suddenly, hovering over a single spot of the ceiling. It was smooth.
Zalan stared at it for a few seconds. It was a rectangular shape in the ceiling, looking as though it was deliberately carved. There was no way the mountain would naturally make something that square and smooth. Zalan realized it must have been a trap door! Another spot where you could fall into this dark abyss. Zalan never would have seen it had he not asked the Bright Elemental for its challenge. Without such a bright light, he doubted he would have seen the ceiling at all with his lightning. Not to mention being able to see the difference in texture.
“There!” Zalan pointed excitedly. “I think that’s a way out! That’s the light!”
The Elemental did not look up. It waited and watched.
Zalan had no better ideas. He would attack the ceiling and break through to an opening or exit. This felt like the rectangular slab was the most promising thing he had seen in terms of a way out. He aimed his arms high and fired a blast of lightning at the smooth piece. It withstood the blast, but jiggled independent from the rest of the earth around it. Zalan took that as confirmation that it wasn’t a natural part of the ceiling. He threw another bolt of lightning, leaving a deep scorch mark in the slab of stone. He wondered how long it would take. He turned back to the Elemental, hoping for some confirmation that this was the right thing to do. It stared.
Zalan sighed, accepting that it was likely done speaking with him. He zapped the ceiling again and again. It became dark with scorch marks. Zalan decided to focus all of his blasts on a single point. He was slowly growing exhausted, but didn’t want to let up on his potential way out. He was afraid that the Elemental would grow bored and fade away, leaving him in a place too dark to continue aiming at such a small spot in the ceiling. Imbuing himself wasn’t enough to brighten things that far away.
After about a hundred attacks, Zalan watched as a small chunk from the ceiling fell down. It smacked the floor and rolled to his feet. It was about the size of his fist. Zalan grinned. He was making progress. He redoubled his efforts, focusing all his energies on getting out, almost ignoring the Elemental in his concentration. If he could get out soon, there might still be a chance that he can find Rep and the others alive. Before they succumbed to injuries or starvation.
A hundred more blasts of lightning later and another, larger chunk fell down. Zalan gasped in excitement. There was now a small hole in the ceiling. There was a definite way out. The ceiling was about ten times his height, so there was no way he was climbing out. But any progress was enough for him to feel better in his situation.
“Hello!” Zalan screamed. “I’m down here! Anyone up top?”
Zalan didn’t wait for a reply. He continued to throw lightning to make the hole wider. He even sent a few smaller blasts of lightning through the hole, trying to grab someone’s attention that way. He had no idea what lay above him, but he was almost certain it would be better than continuing to be trapped underground. Zalan gave a glance at the Bright Elemental. It hadn’t even looked up at the ceiling, keeping a close eye on Zalan. Zalan didn’t care about it as much now that he felt closer to escape. He threw another bolt of lightning, then heard something reply.
There was movement near the hole in the ceiling above.
“Zidard?” he heard someone call from above suddenly.
“Nold!” Zalan screamed. “It’s me! I’m down here!”
“You live!” Nold screamed, ecstatic. “Let me try something!”
Zalan watched as the Bright Elemental looked up at the sound of Nold’s voice. It felt like the first time the Elemental looked away from him. After assessing the ceiling for a second, it turned its full attention back to Zalan. Without a word, it began to fade.
“Hey, wait!” Zalan said. “Did I do the riddle right? Is escaping the cave ‘the light’ I was supposed to find?”
The Elemental maintained eye contact as it continued to fade away. The creature disappeared suddenly, leaving him in the deep darkness. Zalan had no idea what that meant in terms of the challenge. He didn’t know what the right answer was supposed to be, but was rather happy that the challenge was the means for his escape. Getting out unscathed was a good consolation to his confusion on what he was actually supposed to do.
But now Zalan had the small hole in the ceiling above him to keep him company. In a quick motion, the smooth rectangle in the ceiling rotated open, leaving a much larger hole in the top of the ceiling. Nold had activated the trapdoor without falling through.. It was surreal to see a perfect square in his otherwise black surroundings, like a piece of the sky had fallen off. Nold stepped into view, blocking out the light.
“Is there anyone else down there? I heard you speaking with someone!” Nold called down.
“There was an Elemental down here, but it just faded away,” Zalan said.
“An Elemental?” Nold said excitedly.
Nold looked around, interested in any evidence of the creature in the underground space. It was too dark for him to see.
“Nold?” Zalan asked, feeling a little neglected.
“Right. Here,” Nold reached his hand out.
A small platform of sand began to form around Zalan’s feet. Zalan stared in shock. There had to be about a hundred feet of distance between the floor and ceiling, he had no idea how Nold was able to use his ability at such a distance. It was strange because it had to have been a higher Wisdom than Level 9 to reach that distance, but Enzo said he and Nold’s Elemental Water power was somewhat similar. Zalan felt that he would never understand the web of mysteries surrounding Nold. He made no progress in unraveling them in the days of traveling with him.
“Come along,” Nold said as Zalan began ascending on the sand platform. “I have located Rep. He is just up ahead.”