22 – Loot Distribution

Lisa looked at the dice in Haley’s hand and chuckled, shaking her head. “I will forfeit my chance at the first choice, as I’ve already consumed one of the prizes. If you two wish to settle it by chance, then by all means.”

Ward cleared his throat. He thought about arguing with Lisa, being magnanimous, and saying she had a right to make a case for the first choice—any of them might have needed that healing potion, after all—but he didn’t. His loyalties were firmly aligned with Haley, and he wanted to see her come out of the challenge ahead. “Nope. Haley, you pick one.”

“But, Ward—”

“No, seriously. You’ve yet to win a prize in these damn challenges—I mean anything meaningful. You go first.” Ward closed the chest and set the potions atop it so they were displayed clearly. Haley looked like she wanted to argue, but though she clenched the little muscles along her jaw and inhaled several times, about to speak, she ultimately remained silent. The three of them stared at the potions, and while Haley pondered her choice, Ward started prioritizing them in his own mind.

Of course, the refinement potion was a known quantity. The orange “R+” potion was, without a doubt, tempting, but what if they were wrong and it wasn’t a special type of refinement? The silver “B” potion was intriguing, but was he really interested in awakening his bloodlines further? Thinking about them—Lycan, Aetherborn, or “unknown”—he wasn’t sure doing so would be a net positive. Then there were the mana and the fortitude potions, both of which sounded quite beneficial for someone like him.

Logically, he figured he should put the refinement at the top, then the mana or fortitude potions in second place, and the bloodline on the bottom, simply because he was afraid of awakening something negative. He’d had a few discussions with Lisa while they traveled over the sea, and the one thing he’d been able to glean from her expertise without tipping his hand about his potential bloodlines was that they were often mixed bags of benefits and detriments that sometimes sounded like curses. That left the orange potion as a wildcard. He supposed, if he were feeling lucky, he’d pick it first, but logic said to pick the known refinement first.

Haley reached toward the chest, her hand hovering over the potions. First, her fingers lingered over the refinement, and Ward saw her eyes narrow as she contemplated picking it up. Then, she let her hand drift to the right, hesitating over the orange one. With a quick shake of her head, she decisively reached further to the right and snatched up the green “fortitude” potion.

Ward smiled at her. “You sure?”

Haley nodded. “Certain.”

He glanced at Lisa, and she only smiled, her expression unreadable, so he held out his hand. “Let me see those dice.” Haley huffed an amused breath and picked them up from where she’d set them on the ground, passing them to him.

“You can’t decide?”

“Not exactly…” Ward shrugged and nodded. “Yeah, I guess I can’t. I know the refinement is a safe bet, but I’m curious about the “R+” one.” He shook the dice in his fist, enjoying the way they clicked against each other. “So with three of them, the highest number I could roll is eighteen, right?” He didn’t wait for an answer, treating it as a rhetorical question. “Three would be the lowest. So, I guess the average roll would be around ten. If I roll ten or below, I’ll take the refinement, and if I roll higher than that, I’ll take the orange one.”

“Fun!” Lisa shifted to see the area of the floor in front of Ward’s folded knees more clearly.

Haley nodded emphatically. “I’m glad I brought my dice!”

“Right.” Ward shook the dice for another couple of seconds, then threw them down so they bounced off the chest and clattered over the hard gray-green metal floor. He counted the dots on their faces: six, six, and four. Suddenly nervous about his cavalier use of random chance to make his decision, he chuckled awkwardly. “Well, I won’t back out now.” He nodded and scooped up the big orange potion.

“Three more!” Haley thumped the top of the chest. “Now, how will we choose?”

Lisa pointed to the potions. “It’s only fair that you choose first again, Haley. My choice was made—the healing potion.”

Haley held up a single finger, wagging it back and forth. “That’s actually not right. You were forced to choose the healing potion first. I chose second, and Ward was third.”

Ward nodded. She was right, and if they were going to be truly fair, then it should be Lisa’s turn again. “That’s right, Lisa. Your turn; take your second potion.”

Lisa smiled and surprised him by reaching out and snatching up the blue mana potion without further argument or hesitation. He tilted his head. “I thought you’d go for the refinement.”

“It would certainly benefit me, but believe it or not, they’re considered one of the more common awards in the challenges. It will give a person’s entire vessel a general boost, but this mana refinement will significantly increase my spell-casting attributes. Not that I’d turn down a refinement, but I think this is the better choice.”

Ward nodded. “Makes sense.” He didn’t say what else he was thinking—that it would have been nice for her to share that little tidbit before they started selecting prizes. He supposed he couldn’t hold it against her; it might have been something she assumed they knew or just a bit of trivia she hadn’t thought would fit into their earlier conversation. Even so, Ward filed it away, glad to know the fact but also adding a tiny bit of weight to the scales, increasing his mistrust of the green-eyed woman. He looked at Haley. “Well?”

Haley looked from the bloodline potion to the refinement and glanced at him out of the side of her eyes several times. “I think…” She trailed off, clenching and unclenching her left hand nervously.

Ward knew what was bothering her. She was trying to think of what he would want. “Take the refinement, kid. Unless you’re eager to see what your bloodlines are about.”

“Don’t you want—”

Ward held up the orange potion. “I had my chance at it and took this one.” Still, she hesitated, and Ward nudged her shoulder. “Take it!”

Haley snatched up the milky white potion and smiled at him almost nervously. “Thank you.”

Ward nodded and grabbed the tiny, silvery bloodline potion. He looked from Haley to Lisa. “So, do you two know what happens when you drink these things?”

Lisa nodded. “I’ve read that a refinement of any kind will purge your body of impurities and bring out more of your potential.”

“Right, well, I’ve lived through that once, and it was a hell of a goddamn mess. I won’t be drinking either of my potions until I’m near a bathtub or a shower.”

“Oh, that’s right!” Haley chimed in. “He smelled awful!”

“So.” Lisa pulled her pack close and began shifting her belongings, clearly looking for a safe place to stow her potion. “Are you saying we should leave?”

“I think it’s a discussion we ought to have.” Ward mimicked her behavior, digging out some of his clothes so he could wrap each of his potions in soft wool socks before nestling them among his other garments.

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“If we leave, we can’t enter again for a year, right?” Haley asked, still clutching her potions.

Lisa nodded, slipping her arms through her pack’s straps. “That’s right. The spire puts up a sort of psychic barrier; you’ll find it impossible to walk through the door.”

“So, we either take what we’ve got, call ourselves lucky, and head on out—” Ward started to say, and Haley finished for him:

“Or we push on and risk everything we’ve got.” Ward picked up Haley’s dice, rattling them in his fist, but Haley laughed and grabbed his wrist. “No games of chance, Ward! What do you think we should do?”

“I don’t know. Shit—Lisa almost died in this room. If I’m honest, I guess I did, too.” Ward reached a hand up to feel the still-tender, scabbed-over puncture wound on the back of his neck. “If that spider had stabbed me an inch to the left or right, I’d be a goner.”

“Maybe not. I might have gotten it off you and got the potion in time—”

“Then I’d be dead,” Lisa finished.

Ward shrugged. “Well, dead or at least hurt badly enough that we’d have to hurry out.”

“So, what are we saying?” Lisa arched an eyebrow.

“You tell me,” Ward replied, grunting as he stood, slinging his pack over one shoulder and stooping to pick up Blazewitch. “What do you want to do, Lisa?”

“I want to press on.” Her reply was immediate, and Ward glanced at her quickly, catching a hungry glint in her eyes. She had it bad—the desire for more. She wanted knowledge and treasure at least as much as he did.

Haley nodded. “I’m not afraid, Ward.”

Ward worked to reload the spent cartridge in his gun, mulling things over. They’d earned a significant pile of treasure, and the various refinement potions they’d claimed were certainly prize enough for any outing. What if the next room held a spell page with new words of power, though? What if they found an artifact as powerful as the tongue resting comfortably in his mouth? It seemed like the challenges had an endless supply of powerful surprises for the people brave enough and strong enough to face them.

He clicked his tongue, amused at the slight irony, and shook his head. “Sometimes bravery and stupidity are pretty hard to tell apart.”

“Don’t forget to throw greed into that mix,” Lisa chuckled.

“So? Are we being brave? Or are we foolish and greedy if we continue?” Ward looked at Haley. “You decide.”

“Why me?”

Ward folded his arms, looking at her down the length of his nose. Should he tell her the truth? Should he tell her that he cared about her well-being more than his own? That, of the three of them, he’d only really be upset if something happened to her? The thought was sobering, and it made him wonder when it had happened. When had he started viewing her as family? When had he decided she was pretty much the most important thing in his life? Was it guilt? Was it pity? Was it admiration?

He knew he wouldn’t find the answer, that it was probably a combination of a hundred different factors, but it didn’t matter. It was what it was. “Because I’m happy to head out or continue, and I’m hoping you have a stronger opinion,” he bluffed. He nodded to Lisa. “She wants to go on, but nothing says we have to go with her. Right?”

Lisa’s eyes locked onto his, and she licked her lips—a nervous tell—and slowly nodded. “I suppose that’s right. The spire will know if I’m with you or alone. I hope.”

Haley shook her head. “No, we should keep going, Ward. The next room is likely to be a puzzle. If we’re careful, it shouldn’t be too dangerous.”

“All right then. That’s settled.” Ward hefted Blazewitch and walked toward the row of doors on the far wall. He looked inside the open ones, where the clockwork spiders had emerged, but they held small, empty, closet-sized spaces. When he stood before the center door, his gun held to his shoulder, he nodded to Haley. “Open it.”

As before, the door opened onto a new section of stairs, and they climbed up to the next level and repeated the process. When Haley opened the door this time, it revealed another identical spire room. It was empty, the only object in sight being the closed door on the opposite side of the circular, metallic room. Ward took a step inside and shrugged out of his pack, dropping it against the wall. Haley and Lisa did the same, and then Haley, holding the door handle, asked, “Are we ready?”

Ward nodded, readying Blazewitch. “Close it.” She did so, and Ward heard the lock engage with an echoing click. Nothing sprang out at them, but he felt the floor vibrate faintly, and his ears picked up the faint click-clack of clockworks under the floor.

Lisa knelt, pressing one of her palms against the metallic floor. “It must be a puzzle.”

“Look at the floor.” Haley moved to Lisa’s right and pointed. Ward’s eyes traced her finger and saw what she meant. There were circular plates in the metal floor—a pattern that hadn’t been present in the other rooms they’d passed through. They were each about the size of a tea saucer, and he counted thirty-eight of them. None were more than a yard apart from any other.

“Yeah. Hang on.” Ward had stuck Haley’s dice into his pocket, intent on messing around with them the next time they took a rest, and he dug them out. “Are these sentimental?”

“What?” Haley looked at him askance. “Are you going to ruin my dice?”

“I was going to toss them close to that plate right there to see what happens.”

“Oh, go ahead. They’re nothing all that special. I mean, they were my brother’s—”

“Jesus!” Ward jerked his hand back, barely stopping himself from releasing the dice in a toss. “Haley, dammit, it’s not okay to destroy your dice! Not if they’re your brother’s! Not when I could just as easily throw a pair of my underwear out there!”

Lisa snorted. “I wouldn’t mind seeing that, but I might have a better idea.” She turned toward the door and dug through her pack, pulling out a small handful of tiny black beads. “They’re glass, see?” She held one up to the light, and Ward saw that it wasn’t black but dark blue, and it had a tiny hole in it. “A necklace of mine that broke.”

“Pretty.” Haley smiled and shrugged when Ward arched an eyebrow, stuffing her dice back into his pocket.

Lisa clutched the beads in her hand. “Should I throw them all at once?”

“Nah, start with one. Roll it over that close plate.”

Lisa pursed her lips, and Ward saw her left cheek sink a little, and he realized she was biting it. She leaned forward and, with careful concentration, rolled the bead of glass over the metal floor directly toward the first metal plate about four feet away from them. It tinkled almost musically as it went, catching a ridge in the floor before the plate. It bounced, landing directly on the plate, tink-tink, and, with an ear-splitting explosion of steam, the plate shot upward, revealing a metallic post that snapped out three sword-like blades and began to spin, whirling the blades through the air and up and down on clouds of steam as the post sank and extended.

“Shit!” Ward cried, stumbling back against the wall. He snatched Lisa’s shoulder on the way, pulling her with him just as the blades began spinning. Haley didn’t need any help; she’d danced back adroitly. They watched, horrified, as the blades spun, pumping up and down, ensuring that anything near the pillar, from six inches above the ground to five feet in the air, would be sliced into tiny bits.

Ward scanned the room, counting the plates again and noting that two were within striking distance of the far door. There wouldn’t be any sneaking around the perimeter; the only safe area was just inside the door, where they all cowered. Ward was about the edge along the wall, away from the gathering steam and the menacing, whirling blades, but then they slammed home into their slots in the post, and it sank to the ground with a metallic clink. Suddenly, the room was quiet and still again, though the steam lingered, slowly dissipating.

“Well,” Lisa shook her head and stood, “I don’t think I’ll throw the rest of these beads.”

Ward frowned, scanning the room. “What if the way across is to find some posts that don’t activate? Maybe some of the plates are inert.”

“Maybe they have to be touched?” Haley added. “It didn’t shoot up until the bead touched it.”

“Maybe. Or maybe it was just convenient timing.” Ward frowned, studying the pattern of plates. “Stay back, close to the door here, but roll one of your beads between those plates there.” He pointed to the gap he was thinking of. “If you roll it straight, it’ll pass by two plates before it hits one.”

Lisa held out her hand. “Take my hand, please; I’m terrified I’m going to panic and stumble forward into one of those blades.” Ward took her hand in his, but he thought it was a little out of character for the nimble fencing expert. He doubted very much that she’d stumble forward. However, he supposed something about the noise, the steam, and the whirling blades might make her unsteady. Whatever the case, he held her hand tightly as she leaned forward and carefully rolled her glass bead over the metal floor.

It passed the first metal plate and approached the second before the post beneath the first shot up, startling Ward into cussing again as he pulled Lisa back. A second later, the second post erupted out of the floor, then the third, sending the glass bead flying into the air, and Ward lost it in the steam from the three spinning, pumping, bladed posts. The air grew hot and thick as the steam gathered, but the three of them held still, pressing against the wall near the door, and Ward counted aloud, “One, two, three…”

When his count reached one hundred and fifty, the first of the posts sank into the floor, closely followed by the other two. “Gods!” Lisa gently pulled her hand from Ward’s, and she brushed at her forehead. “It’s positively sweltering in here now!”

Haley turned and tugged on the locked door’s handle. “I don’t know how we’re supposed to make it unless we’re just meant to sprint for the far door and pray it’s unlocked.”

“I dunno about that.” Ward squatted, rubbing his chin, contemplating the pattern of plates. “It seems the rods have about a two-second delay before they fire. I guess one fast person could stay ahead of that and yank the door open, but even then, you’d be playing with fire, hoping the door opened and you could get it wide enough to charge through before you got sliced up.”

“Any ideas?” Lisa asked.

Ward nodded. “I think I might have one.” He stood and threw Haley a quick wink. “How about we cheat a little? Let’s see what kinds of secrets this room is holding.”