“I see neither of you thought to bring your own weapons,” I grunted between swings as I hacked away at the shed. “So now I have the privilege of opening the shed on my own.”

“Like my bow and arrows?” November laughed. “How do you think they would have helped?”

“Truly, I didn’t expect to find myself in this situation when I touched the orb!” Reed’s tone was defensive. “Even if I had brought my sword, I’m not certain it would do well at this job.”

“Better than that rock, surely,” I muttered.

The wall I was striking was thick and sturdy, and took quite a bit of effort to bring down. Still, compared to the maze, it felt as soft as butter.

“Well, perhaps,” Reed replied, “but even so, I worry about damage to the blade if I used it for…that.”

The hole my axe had put in the wall was growing larger with each hit. I scoffed. “Well, I have some shocking news for you, Reed. Damaging your weapon is a fate preferable to being stuck in this forsaken place forever.”

“Good thing you brought your axe, then,” November quipped. “Now you can use it for exactly what it’s for.”

“This is not what it’s for.” I brought my axe down hard on the wall one last time, and the hole became large enough for us to enter through. I quickly returned my axe to its place on my back and hurried inside with November and Reed just behind me.

With the roof of the shed shielding the contents from the bright starlight, the inside was dark and hard to see. Regardless, I could identify the outline of a chest roughly half as tall as my knees sitting on the floor in the middle of the small building. Not wanting to waste any more time, I rushed to grab it, and was surprised by how heavy the thing was when I lifted it up.

A shrill, piercing laugh boomed in my ears the moment I held the chest. “Congratulations, Mr. Rouden!” the specter’s voice howled. “You win the trial!”

Suddenly, another flash overtook us, and we were back at the mansion in an instant.

“They’re back!” Lynx cheered. He rushed to embrace Reed. “We were so worried about you, my friend. What happened?” As he released Reed, his eyes made their way to the chest in my arms. “And what did you find?”

I couldn’t speak – not immediately, anyway. Now back to the relative safety of the mansion, I tried to process what I had just experienced. I tried to process it. I couldn’t.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Reed shook his head. “I don’t even know where to start! We had to find the treasure before the specter would release us. I couldn’t open the shed, but Arrow broke it down!”

“What…?” Lynx’s expression grew more puzzled, though his gaze didn’t wander from the chest. “Find the…treasure?”

“Indeed,” I replied, setting the chest down on the nearest table. Maybe if I focused on the treasure, I could forget the horrific specter I had just encountered. “Let’s see what’s inside.”

The lid was heavy and somewhat stuck to the rest of the chest, but I managed to open it firmly yet gently, revealing the treasure inside. My jaw dropped as I took in the sight of more coins than I had earned in the past year.

“Amazing find!” Lynx marched up to the chest beside me. “We’ll be able to fund the guild’s treasury for months!”

“What!” I slammed the chest shut. “What do you mean, the guild’s treasury? I didn’t see the guild in that…place! Do you want to know who I did see? I saw Reed, November, and myself. And that’s why these coins will be divided up between the three of us, and no one else!”

Lynx glared at me. “You wouldn’t even be here without the guild. You wouldn’t have found that money without the guild. This mansion belongs to the guild, so the money belongs to the guild.”

The distress I had felt over my chilling experience was swiftly replaced by anger toward Lynx’s attitude. “This mansion belongs to whoever could defeat the maze and reach the building.” I stepped toward him, so close we were nearly touching. “And I was the first one to get through the maze.”

“The guild defeated the maze, Arrow. You couldn’t have destroyed it without Echo’s spell and everyone else’s help. And you probably would have just lied there and died without Finch’s potion he injected you with.” Lynx wasn’t backing down. He didn’t even flinch.

“Come on, stop it!” November looked at Lynx earnestly. “Lynx, Arrow’s right. He didn’t want to go after Reed, but he did anyway and brought him back. You wouldn’t go at all.”

“I needed to stay back and oversee the guild.” Lynx answered November, but he didn’t take his eyes off me. “Besides, this isn’t for me, it’s for all of us.”

We stood in silent tension, glaring each other down, for a long while. Reed was the one to eventually break the silence. “What if we split it four ways? Each of us three could take one-fourth, and one-fourth can go to the treasury.”

Lynx tilted his head to the side and raised an eyebrow. “I could agree to that. Arrow?”

“One-fourth seems like a pretty steep cut for doing absolutely nothing,” I spat. “But fine. Take your portion. I’ll be back for what’s mine.” I whirled around and began my march toward the stairs. I yelled over my shoulder, “And the chest is mine!” and stomped off.

I was about halfway to my floor when the sound of sprinting footsteps caught up to me. “Wait!” Reed cried. “I have a question.”

“Make it quick.” I didn’t slow my pace. If Reed wanted to speak with me so badly, he could keep up with my speed.

“I heard that specter call you Mr. Rouden.” Reed had caught up and was trotting beside me now. “Is it ‘Rouden’ as in–”

“Yes, as in ‘rodent’. How clever of you.” I walked faster.

“No, not that! Of course I wouldn’t say that.” Reed kept up. I wasn’t losing him. “I was going to ask, is it ‘Rouden’ as in ‘Sage Rouden’?”

I froze in place. Slowly, I turned to face Reed, and when I did, a grin had overtaken my face.

“Yes,” I said. “As in ‘Sage Rouden’.”