Myles counted eight champions, each lying on a separate bed. They were writhing in place. Some of them were moaning, others screamed incomprehensible words. He was the ninth champion.

One was missing.

‘I woke up because of sheer dumb luck,’ he thought as he inspected each champion. ‘At this rate one of them will die before waking up. Damn Marons!’

Myles was thinking, trying to remember how their captor managed to put them all to sleep at once. ‘She must have slipped it in our food,’ he thought, pacing between the sleeping champions. ‘But it doesn’t make any sense. The food we are provided isn’t real. This place isn’t real. How did she – ‘

Myles stormed out of the room. Whoever was manipulating them retreated somewhere else. Besides, he managed to escape her clutching grip. The only way for her to subdue him again was to show up at the mansion. He ran to the dining room.

They were held in a guest room at the right corner of the mansion. The dining room was located in the middle. Myles ran past plain corridors. There were but gray brick walls surrounding him. If he’d wandered alone in the mansion before, he would’ve surely found the few paintings that hung here and there particularly strange.

In fact, the whole building had a strange air about him. Some walls bent to an “S” shape, others didn’t even connect with the ceiling. The dining room on the other hand was perfect. The solid oaken table on which they dined felt real. The painting of the mansion by the hill didn’t move about like the others. Myles checked under the table.

“Classic!” He exclaimed, cursing himself for not thinking about it earlier. There was a trap door underneath the table. Myles cleared the dining room then made to open the door. As his hand approached the handle, a feminine voice behind him spoke.

“I wouldn’t do it if I were you.”

Myles turned around. He couldn’t say a word. He was too petrified, perhaps even too shocked to speak. The woman who stood in front of him was someone he knew. He never expected the impostor to be hidden in front of him, in plain sight.

“What? Cats got your tongue?” the woman asked.

The question seemed to slap him awake.

“How did you do it?” he asked after he finally regained his speech.

“That’s your question? Really?” the woman walked toward a chair, pulled it near Myles then sat. “I’m but a copycat, a poor one at that.” She crossed her legs and leaned back against the chair. “Of course, you know who it is I’m talking about, don’t you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Myles lied.

“How about we have a little chat?” The woman was playing with her long black hair. “You answer my questions and I answer yours.”

“I’m afraid I’m as boring as they come. There’s nothing I can help you with, woman pretending to be Greta.”

“On the contrary Mr Stalwart, you are the very person I seek.” The woman flicked her hand and a chair appeared behind Myles. “Please, sit. I’ll tell you about me, myself and I if you tell me a little bit about yourself.”

Myles took a seat. He adjusted his clothes then gave Greta a calculating look. He looked her right in the eyes. A flickering red light shone from time to time within her light brown eyes. Her hair had grown longer too.

“How about this?” Myles raised his index finger and pointed it at Greta. “I’ll tell you what you are, and you guess who I am. The winner – Well the winner gets nothing. Let’s not make this a contest shall we?”

“Afraid you’d lose Stalwart?” Greta was grinning. Her ears had miraculously grown back. They were longer, and pointy this time around.

“I’m afraid we’d involve powers that can’t be trifled with,” he retorted. He didn’t want to enter a lost game either. He wasn’t sure what the woman in front of him was. “Let me take the first guess.” Myles leaned forward, grinned back at the impostor then went on.

“You invoked the Holi Tribulations, didn’t you?”

Greta looked away. She bit on her lips, as if struggling to keep her mouth shut.

“You can’t lie during the Tribulations,” Myles said, as if reading through her mind. “Or are you trying to bite your lips to keep them from opening up? You know you have to answer Greta!”

“What gave me away?” The woman asked. She looked saddened.

“Luck I guess,” Myles answered. “I really thought you were a Maron at first, but now I’m not so sure.”

“Even if you’ve figured it out, you can’t leave this place, not without a key.”

“A key that you must have! In fact, you have two of those.” Myles stood up then walked near Greta. “You’ve broken the rules, you know that,” he whispered to her ears.

“You thought you’d make short work of us. If I hadn’t woken up, perhaps you would’ve succeeded!” Myles went back to his chair then sat down. “Release my friends, impostor. You can’t keep them locked up when somebody’s figured your little charade.”

“You can’t catch me!” Greta shouted. Her voice had changed. There was a strange ring to it. It was as if many people, men and women, spoke at once. Greta shot her arms upwards then a bright blue light emanated from them. Myles had to close his eyes to shield them from the blinding light. When he opened them, Greta had gone.

He remained seated, observing the trap door, their way out. Footsteps echoed in the distance. Soon enough, eight champions stormed inside the room. They all looked panicked, scared out of their wits.

“What happened?” Vivian asked. Her emerald cloak had fallen off. She was wearing a ruby red blouse which only covered her shoulders and bosom. Her abdomen was bare, revealing a silver bird brooch attached to her belly button.

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“I was chased by angry chicken all night!” Cane said in between huffs and puffs. “I couldn’t use me legs or arms. I was like a worm, running from giant chicken with teeth. Scary stuff!” Cane shuddered then continued. “Almost got devoured by one, I thought I’d died. Then I found myself sleeping on a bed.”

“You got off easy,” Karp spoke this time. “I was chased by these strange insects. They were humongous, covered the sky, even hidden the setting sun.”

“Hang on,” Rose intervened. “I was running away from walking frying pans. But it was all during the night.”

“That’s because you were dreaming!” Myles spoke loudly enough for everybody to hear him. “We were drugged, put to sleep then imprisoned in our worst nightmare.

“Our worst fears materialize in front of us, chase us until it kills us. Fact is, if you die in a dream but don’t wake up, you die for real. I thought I was a goner too, but I saw something – something that proved it was all a dream.”

“What did you see?” almost all champions asked at once.

“I saw a painting, a lion, with wings that covered the entire sky. The majestic animal was roaring as a volcano was erupting behind it.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Guss asked, frustrated.

“I saw the same painting in Ulmir’s Castle, down to the smallest detail. There was a crack on the painting’s frame. I don’t know how I saw it, but that somehow helped me wake up.”

Vivian noticed the trap door next to which Myles sat. She approached him, pointing at the contraption on the ground. “Does this mean what I think it means?”

“What does it bloody mean?” Guss screamed.

“Look around you old man,” this time it was the silver haired woman, Rose, who answered. “How many of us do you see?”

“Where’s that earless woman?” Karp asked.

“Nah,” Cane blurted out. “She must be held somewhere.”

“Do you honestly believe that?” Vivian paced around the room. “It all makes sense now.”

“What does?” a tall and slender man asked. “We’ve been looking for a way out since we got here. Everything seems to be getting more and more complicated around here. Can somebody please explain what’s happening to us?”

Myles got up, dragged the long oaken table across the floor then sat back down. “It’d be better if everybody sat down. The situation’s far worse than you think.”

The eight champions obeyed. Cane didn’t take his eyes off of Myles. In fact, all champions’ eyes seemed to be fixed on him.

“I have good and bad news, which would you like to hear first?” he asked after everybody was seated.

“Let’s hear the good,” Rose was the first to answer. Her voice was like a shrill, difficult not to wince at. “I don’t think my heart can take any more bad news.”

The others nodded.

“Good news is, I know how we can get out of here, the trap door beneath the table.” Myles pointed at the secret hatch. “As you may have all noticed, we are missing a champion. I’ve had the chance to speak with her while you all slept. I convinced her to release you from your nightmares.”

“It’s that earless woman, Greta.” Vivian pointed out.

“Impossible!” Cane shouted. “That woman fought Queen Mushroom with me. She couldn’t use any magic then. Could’ve saved her life, instead of lying on the ground, bleeding.”

“That woman is no longer Greta,” Myles intervened. “A dark entity inhabits her body now. Which brings me to the bad news, we’re in grave danger.”

“What d’ya mean inhabits?” Cane still couldn’t believe Greta was the impostor.

“Have you heard of the Holi Tribulations?” Myles asked the people in the room, not paying Cane any heed.

“I’ve read something about it in some book,” Karp answered. “But I never understood what the whole thing’s for.”

“Oy!” Cane stood, pounding on the table. “What d’ya mean inhabits?”

“It means that Greta died Cane, perhaps before we got her inside that vat. Something dark lurked in the Castle, awaiting a chance. It appears we provided it by bringing an injured woman inside.”

Cane let his heavy body fall back to the chair. He looked dejected.

“What does this dark entity want?” Guss asked.

“That’s where it gets complicated I’m afraid,” Myles answered.

“What do you mean?” Vivian was worried when she asked the question. Her legs were moving up and down, she tirelessly tapped the table.

“I’ve only heard some stories from my master. I’ve never really taken part in any Holi Tribulation,” Myles said.

“What the hell are these Tribulations?” the tall slender man asked.

“They’re some sort of trials,” Myles explained. “Master told me that the host of the trials is the one who initiates it. Killing the initiator earns you some great treasure. He never told me what it was.”

“And if we don’t kill this so called initiator?” Rose asked this time.

“Then we all die.”

Everybody fell silent. They were watching the trap door that could potentially lead them out of the mansion.

“Why can’t we open it?” Cane asked.

“Because we need a key, you heard her say it at first. The Holi Tribulations are trials with strict rules. The initiator, or the host, puts the rules of the game. In this realm, rules are absolute, not even the host can break them.”

“Then how come she trapped us in our nightmares?” Vivian asked.

“She got us all believing it was part of the trial, bitch never even mentioned we were participating in the Tribulations. Technically, she didn’t break any rules. But when I miraculously woke from the nightmare, her charade could no longer exist. If she kept you asleep, she would’ve died herself.”

“And what would she gain from all of this?” Vivian asked once more.

“Life,” Karp answered.

“Life?” Guss cried out. “What do you mean by that?”

“Master told me these dark creatures feed on Life Force. It is an element like many others. But it’s the most unstable one, most complex. Understanding it is nigh impossible, which makes Life Force spells the most dangerous. Wouldn’t you agree Vivian?” It was Myles who provided the information this time.

“What he says is true,” the woman said. “I was trained in witchcraft. Although I never became a full-fledged witch, I know a thing or two about Ancestral Magic. Life Force is indeed an element that can be harnessed, even absorbed. But why does this entity need it?”

“It’s an old story,” Karp answered before Myles could. “I read that the Old Gods had their souls explode into different fragments when they died. It is rumored that one could use these Old Gods fed on Life Force. People soon realized they could absorb the Fragments, make them part of their soul. But maintaining a Fragment was costly.

“In order to activate a Fragment’s full power, you need to feed it Life Force. The Holi Tribulations were games played by the Gods in which the winner takes all Life Force in the realm. They’d wager their territories in a game that sometimes lasted millennia. The winner takes it all, while the loser gets forgotten over time. It’s rumored that these very games were the end of the Old Gods.”

“My master told me the same story,” Myles confirmed. “We can leave through this trap door. But we can only do so by finding the key holder, or the one hidden somewhere in this realm. If we die before retrieving the key, whatever’s holding us here will become immensely powerful. Good news is, she’s not a Goddess yet. We must kill her, retrieve our key and leave this place before it’s too late.”

“What are we waiting for then?” Guss blurted out. “Let’s go find her!”

“Where will we look?” Karp asked.

“I dunno,” Guss answered, dejected.

“Let’s split up,” Vivian proposed. “We split in two teams, search the entire mansion.”

“Excellent idea,” Myles pointed out. “There are two keys that open that trap door. We’ll have a better chance finding them if we split up.”

“What if they’re outside?” the tall slender man asked.

“We’ll worry about that later,” Myles said dismissively. “We still have six days to find that damned key.”

The champions split in two teams. One was led by Myles, the other by Vivian. They both seemed knowledgeable enough to know where to look. Cane was in Vivian’s team, he refused to join Myles.

Guss, Karp, Rose and Slender joined Stalwart.

Cane, a short stout man called Pip and a thin girl called Lillin joined Vivian.

“Listen up everyone,” Myles addressed all nine champions. “Stay on your guard. She knows we’re onto her. She’ll try to trick us by all necessary means. Look for abnormalities. Study the things that appear to be out of this world. We’ll automatically be sent here for breakfast. The rules are absolute. Stay alive until then. May Ulmir guide your way.”