After being begged by Taury again, I finally made it out of the gym early in the morning.

I climbed down the stairs and found the directions that Astella gave me.

“Alright, so turn here and… Oh…”

I saw a massive cave, apparently this was where her lab was.

I read her note that came with the directions.

[Please note that there are several locks guarding the way, you’ll need to complete each puzzle in order to get it.]

“And this would be a reason to have Taury.”

[I can’t tell you many specifics as I haven’t been through this entrance in a while, but it’s still the best way to where I need you to place it.]

I sighed and walked forward, into the cave, when immediately, I fell into a hole.

I screeched like a little girl and landed into water.

I reached the surface and gasped.

“If only I could find that dang goblin.”

I found the book I needed a while ago, but when I tried the nexus, Dee’s realm wasn’t unlocked for me. Taurael told me that she likely forgot to open it.

“Okay, so how do I do this?”

It was clear that to get past this puzzle I’d need night vision, and water breathing. Night vision came naturally to most fey, but water breathing had to be taught.

…

“SO HOW THE HECK AM I SUPPOSED TO PASS!!!”

I swam and saw a sign.

[I am what I am, and I can only plan. Down in the depths I lie, down in the sun I die.]

“… What?”

I looked underwater, but could find nothing… because I couldn’t see, the sign was glowing, but there was no light in the water.

Luckily, I had a solution.

I wrapped myself in glowing pixie dust, causing the area to begin glowing.

As I dove down again, I could see various inscriptions of sea animals, buttons below each one.

There were a few I angled towards, the angler, starfish, and the sea anemone.

I resurfaced and considered the options.

“Anglers lie in the depths, but they don’t only plan… Starfish can be rehydrated after being dried out, but so can anemones… Starfish plan as they’re predators.”

It had to be starfish.

I swam back down, reaching towards the button and was pushed back.

A forcefield?

I reached again and, this time, I was launched out of the water, straight back into it.

Then the tank started filling.

“Oh crap.”

What’s good against forcefields.

High speed objects?

I grabbed a rock and angled it at the button, then I threw it with some force and magic, and it broke straight through the field and the button, triggering a mechanism, and causing a whirlpool to open.

“Oh crap.”

It pulled me under, as strong as I was, I didn’t have water magic yet.

I thought I’d be drowning, but instead, I was suddenly over a chasm.

“Oh crap.”

I began falling again, but I saw a sign falling with me.

“Are you strong enough?”

I was falling, then I saw a bar.

I reached out and grabbed it, using earth magic to bend it with me, then I slowed and nearly hit spikes, before the rock face returned to its normal shape.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

In front of me was another passageway.

“Okay, so far, we’ve had a test of knowledge, a test of strength, what next, do I need to catch a key while flying on a broom?”

I opened the door at the end of the hall and sighed.

“Okay, wrong part of the reference.”

Before me sat three goblets.

“One is poison, one is pain, one is freedom. Which one will bring you further? Drink the solution.”

Though, the part that confused me was that each one was labeled.

On the left was a golden goblet with a skull design and ‘poison’ written in silver.

On the right was a silver goblet with a design of a field and ‘freedom’ written in gold.

In the center was a bronze goblet with a fiery design, labeled ‘pain.’

At first I thought that it’d be easy. Freedom was the goal, then I realized that there was likely a reason they were labeled.

“It can’t be that easy… Can it?”

I looked at the riddle.

“Which one will bring you further… What…”

Then it hit me.

“No pain, no gain.”

I picked up pain and downed it.

Then unimaginable pain fell on me. I winced and fell over, but then the door opened.

I stood and passed through the door, moving down a hallway, then I noticed something.

The floor was covered in traps.

Pressure plates and numerous other things.

Then I realized what the fourth challenge was, get through despite all of the pain.

I winced and avoided a lot of traps, then I tripped and fell on one.

“Oh crap.”

A giant rock swung down and clocked me, knocking me over the next set of traps.

“Crap… that hurt.”

I stood up and felt blood falling from my face.

“Got to be careful.”

I moved slower, but the pain made it unbearable to be slow, so I sped up again, and after ten minutes of agonizing pain, I made it to the door.

I opened the door and found some of what looked like milk.

“Take this to stop the pain.”

I looked around in suspicion, then I reached out and froze. I wasn’t sure why, but every muscle in my body froze when I reached.

It was like it recognized death when even I didn’t.

So, I walked past it.

When I opened the door I was sprayed by a strange gas, and the pain disappeared.

I sighed in relief and walked down the hallway. Then, after a while of walking, I made it to a door.

It was large and metal.

“Okay, what’s the puzzle here?”

Then something popped out and Astella’s voice rang.

{Is this thing working? Okay, if you’re not me and made it this far, good job, now for the final test. DNA. I love human science. Yep, that’s right, you need to insert some of my DNA, or you buddy are here until you starve.}

“… GOSH DANG IT, ASTELLA!”

I knew she didn’t remember the puzzles but come on! How do you forget this?!

Then I looked at the note, which was soaked and noticed something, a single brown hair on it. She gave the note to me before I left, so Taury didn’t see it…

“Well, it seems I won’t starve.”

I inserted the hair.

{Wow, it seems it was me… or some weirdo who has my DNA for whatever reason. If you’re not me, don’t snoop in my files!}

I sighed and noticed a slot.

I pulled the thing out of my backpack and noticed it had the exact shape.

“Okay, let me put this in.”

Then, as it got in, I heard a lot of sounds and a voice.

{System starting up. Lab enabled.}

I looked around, and it was interesting.

“Okay, now, how do I get out?”

{Alright, note in case I forget. Safe code is 53620928… Why am I leaving this on audio instead of writing it? Eh, I’ll delete it later.}

“Failed at that, I guess. What safe? Ah well, I shouldn’t worry.”

I walked around, looking for an exit.

{Roman is interesting, looking at his blood, it seems like he’s fully immune to infectants… I guess that makes sense, given that he’s made of fire. YAH Hot, his blood splashed.}

“It’s kind of hard to avoid seeing the files when they’re yelling at you.”

{We got a new member, that rabid bunny apparently got replaced. Her replacement is a wolf named Maven.}

“Wow, how old are these files? Maven joined the council 100 years ago.”

{Morgan doesn’t like me talking about Taurael, I don’t know why. I mean, apparently, she was the Lady of the Lake, kinda hard to believe just by looking at her, but I don’t see a problem with her. Wonder if I could ask Terinai about her.}

“Who’s Terinai?”

Then I seemed to find the most recent one, all while still looking for the exit.

{Alright, here’s each councilors’ weakness. Roman: His weakness is surprisingly not water, but air, if you can block off his air, he will nearly instantly be killed. Of course, you’d need to do it all before he could respond. Possible implements, large vacuum.}

I stopped.

{Morgan: While most would assume it’s the forest itself, it appears that spriggans have hearts. If I could theoretically burn or break the heart, Morgan should die immediately, I just need to locate it.}

I saw an eviscerated spriggan, an orb of wood split in two, then I also noticed a pile of ash…

{Maven: Wolves are self-explanatory, lure with meat and shoot the body.}

A dead and rotting wolf was strewn on a table, it was a fey wolf too.

“Astella, what have you been doing?”

{Terinai: Pixies are surprisingly hard to kill without their names, but if you cut their wings, then it seems that they’ll eventually kill themselves.}

A rotting pixie sat on the table, it’s eyes scratched out. I began shaking with horror.

“What…”

{New note: Terinai has been killed along with Lallakno by a mysterious source, to replace it, target Malkek. His wings are armored though, this will be challenging.}

I fell to the ground, shaking.

“I need to get out of here.”

Astella had plans to kill each council member and tested each strategy on one of the race.

Then I found a recording that gave the reason.

{Alright, Morgan did it again, she really thinks that she should be a god… at least she acts like it. I’m going to bring her down, but to do that, I’m going to need to kill each one of them. The Councilors support her, then the realms will finally have peace.}

I realized that she misunderstood many of the council, though I was slightly relieved that she wasn’t the one behind Taury’s parents’ deaths. If she was, I would have killed her the moment I returned to the gym. Here I only needed to confront her.

{I wonder, why people abide by morals in war? If you kill a king, the people will fight back, thus it only makes sense to kill the people and the king… Why am I thinking about this? Do I regret what I’ve done? No, it’s necessary to kill Morgan. Think of that… as long as Morgan falls, it doesn’t matter who dies… yeah… right…}

I could see why she didn’t want me to snoop in the files, she seemed to grow past it. I wasn’t happy with her killing, but… hopefully she’s better.

But, as far as I could tell, there was no safe in here, meaning it was one other place…

“Why am I doing this…?”

I had to know… was she still going to do it… Because… if she was… then I would have to stop her.