The stairwell to the top floor wasn't a spiral. Since we'd figured out the whole point of that was to confuse people when they tried to figure out a way up that made sense, but it was still interesting enough to note as we followed the construct up to the last floor.

Yvette (as she informed us she was called) had been here for a LONG time, but had spent most of it in stasis. She seemed excited to meet new people and filled us in on lots of trivia about the tower and its functions. Once we reached the top floor, she made a beeline for the center of the room where a pedestal sat empty in the middle of another room filled with bookshelves. Pressing several symbols on the black and gold surface, she opened a compartment in the top and gingerly removed the chest inside, setting it atop the pedestal once it closed.

After she removed it, she pressed a hand against her chest and the ivory skin became...like a gel? Her hand passed through and emerged with a black and gold key set with an unsettlingly glowing ruby. She inserted the key into the lock without fanfare and twisted, the lid springing open to reveal a rolled up piece of parchment.

"So, this is a map?" I said cautiously. "Or a ritual diagram?" She hadn't been super specific about that, though I couldn't tell if that was by design or she was just really lonely. I got the impression she didn't have the chance to chat often and she seemed to have gotten side tracked.

"Both." She said as she withdrew it and handed it to me. I unrolled it, placing it down on a nearby table half covered with books (which I would definitely be examining soon). Looking over the parchment, I could see what she meant, and I sighed in relief. This would make finding the locations of the other conduits a non issue. I frowned in confusion. "Wait, what are these lines?"

She cocked her head. "The conveyances. They channel the power along the lines of the ritual and during the awakenings they reach through the distortions to allow transport."

"Wait...those are the starlight slides?" I hadn't considered they were part of the ritual, but it made some sense. This whole place was a trap from the start, including the distortions. Of course the entrances were part of it.

Yvette seemed impatient. "Obviously. The conveyances will be the mechanism of the ascensions, as well as the harvest. They'll connect the conduits to the moon herself. As you can see, the conduits must ascend in a certain order for maximum effects. Once they've all ascended, the conveyances will attach to the primary temple, and the moon's light will descend in full."

"Primary temple?" I asked. I'd forgotten the temples were called subtemples, I supposed a primary made sense. "Is that on the mountain? We know that's some kind of remnant of her divine body."

She pointed to a symbol in between the other seventeen. "The primary temple accepts the lunar blessing and focuses it through the lens of the gathered power. It's redirected to the mountain. The moon is the mind, the temple is the spirit, and the mountain is the body. This is an important factor in stopping the goddess. Should she attain her fully functional form, even hobbled as she might be by rank, you will all die."

That...wasn't ideal. It pretty much blew up our whole plan. "That doesn't really work for us. The plan was to kill all of her conduits and then gank her physical form when it limps in through the ritual, underpowered from the lack of energy. We thought she would be weak. The conduits are."

"The conduits." She sneered. "Are remnant ghosts possessing their own rotting corpses. They are pathetic demi souls hollowed out by the ritual. They can barely string together coherent thoughts, much less wield their Skills with precision and finesse. The goddess is the mind behind the ritual. She sleeps, her dreaming weaving the webs you see before you. When she wakes, she will wake whole, if diminished in scope."

"Fuck!" I snapped, turning to kick a chair. We'd had a plan! We'd had hope, had a real shot at this. "So what? You brought us up here to tell us we're screwed and there's nothing we can do about it?"

Shaking her head, she pointed to the temples. "No. I said when she wakes. The ritual is in its infancy. If you can disconnect the conduits in a specific order, or close to it, given your mention of killing them, you can force her to manifest as a spirit alone at the central temple. Without her flesh to act as a material, her created form will be much weaker, and she will lose access to many of her abilities."

Oh. Ok. That...sounded good. I let my shoulders slump, allowing the anger and frustration to drain out of me. "I'm...sorry." I said woodenly. "This has just been a lot. We came here expecting to run around literally flower picking, with the occasional quick fight among our peers. In no universe could I have imagined we'd be fighting a vanished god. I didn't even know those were a THING until I got here."

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

She just smiled reassuringly. "I understand. Now, the disposal of the conduits must be done in as exacting a manner as possible. The deaths of the already vanquished can be accounted for in the sequence, but it would be best to minimize the deaths until preparations can be made."

Callie spoke up. "I'll call back to base and let them know to spread the word. Those mapped lines, the places they lead wouldn't happen to be the landing points, would they? Because we could use those."

Yvette nodded and my girlfriend grinned, snapping a picture of the parchment. "Benny is going to be so pissed he did all that work for nothing. I can't wait to see his face." At my cocked head she just shrugged. "What? You're a bad influence on me. I was an angel before I met you."

"You're mispronouncing the word asshole." Drawled Nat with a smirk. At Callie's scandalized look she just winked. "Seemed mean to let you pick on poor Benny when he isn't here. Someone had to fire back."

My girlfriend's face broke into a wide grin. "I knew I liked you for a reason."

"Nope." I interjected firmly. "I do not prefer this. You." I pointed at my cousin. "Are enough of a pain in my ass without conspiring with her. Please bond with someone else. Jessie is available. She's excellent company, or perhaps I can interest you in an elf best friend? Maybe you'd like to make the switch to being a battle maniac for some strange reason, and then Abel might be less annoying to you than he is to the rest of us."

My mentor's middle finger was casual, so I knew he didn't take it personally. Nat just grinned smugly at me and I rolled my eyes, turning back to the map and the construct holding it. "Please give me more terrible news. I'd like to be distracted right now."

Yvette's ruby lips (not symbolism, actual rubies) twitched up in a smile. "Well, the ritual will take place relatively soon, so you'll need to begin your purge as quickly as possible. The order is also not based on power, so you will be unable to save the most dangerous for last."

I sighed. "The first time in my life someone gives me what I ask for and it's this. Is this why other people always say 'be careful what you wish for?' because I've never understood that phrase."

"Of course you haven't honey." Said Callie sweetly. "But at least you're pretty."

I shot a flat stare at Nat. "Look what you've done. Now she'll be making wise cracks for hours." Letting out a breath, it was hard not to smile a bit at the sensation of camaraderie. Banter was excellent stress relief. Not as excellent as punching things, but close. I loved Callie for being there for me, especially given where we were standing and how much she must be salivating over the bookshelves behind us.

"So." I asked Yvette. "Since we got the map, does that mean the rest of these books are for us too?"

"Indeed." She said solemnly. "The world's largest trove of cartography books are now at your disposal. The years of study needed to accrue the knowledge to make this map are all contained within their pages. They used to be spellbooks, but the tower master stripped the ink to write more map making notes."

I blinked at her solemn expression. "That's...are you fucking with me right now?"

Her small smile came back. "It seemed to be entertaining. I wished to attempt such witticisms. I find them to be very amusing." She looked at Callie. "Did I do that properly."

My girlfriend was nearly doubled over with laughter. "Yes." She gasped out. "You did great." At my glare she snorted, trying to control her laughter. "Sorry sweetie." She choked out. "It's just...your face. You looked so horrified. Plus the books are fine so there's no need to be all grumpy." Her laughter stopped. "The books...are fine right? They're all spellbooks?"

Yvette shook her head. "Not all, but several. They are, of course, yours to do with as you will. I do hope they will be helpful to you in your pursuit of our shared goal." She gestured expansively to the shelves.

I was pretty sure if it were physically possible Callie's eyes would have literally turned into credit signs. Smiling at her enthusiasm, I decided to follow her lead, spreading out along with the others to pore over the variety of books packed onto the shelves. Callie, being the responsible partner she was, forced herself to make that call back to base to let everyone know what was going on, but as soon as she was finished she dove into helping us sort through the books,

Granted, it wasn't exactly a quick process. Much like the downstairs library, the majority of the books weren't spellbooks. I'd expected this top floor to be packed with the things, but apparently I'd underestimated the value of the texts. We did find many more than the previous floor, and the non spell texts were still useful, and much more locally focused than the ones downstairs.

I was sure that Anna-Marie and her people would find this particular library endlessly useful, even moreso than the last. As for the spellbooks we did find, they ran the gamut. Some fire, some ice, some more esoteric spells like line of sight teleportation.

Most of them I passed on, despite my desire for new abilities, because I already had powers that could mimic their effects. My friends all found some interesting tomes to check out, but I was kind of disappointed with the options available, at least for myself. My mostly meta focused skillset wasn't exactly easy to complement. I was planning to look over them more carefully once the others had all chosen.

Finally, we finished stripping the place for books and it was time to head back. We had to make our way to the mountain and scale the damned thing in time to relieve Gabriel and his team. Bethy should have already switched places with the other group, and I didn't want to leave them stuck there too long, not to mention the new map and how useful it would be for our current project.

I felt much more confident than I had back at the mountain. Between the map and Yvette we were in a much better position than we had been before. Anyone tough enough to take a punch like that from Abel and barely get a nose bleed would be a welcome addition to the team. At this rate, we might make it out of this after all.