MAZE - The Endless Quest

Hera was still in her private room, surrounded by the guides. But no one was talking. Not right now. They watched as one by one, the members of the court appeared on the screen in front of them. They were in a unique room. One with various stained glass pictures of weapons. The old members of the court. Hera herself had created this. Since the rest of the court wanted a throne room, she made sure that the members that were no longer around still had their place.

From the point of view shown on the screen, they couldn’t see the actual throne, only the several pieces of artwork all around the walls. Hera had scaled up those pictures to cover everything. She didn’t want empty space that would remind the court some of them could one day be on that wall.

Daskka was the last one to appear in the room and after a quick look around, her eyes turned towards the camera, “Oh man. Mum’s going to hate that.”

“I know, right?” Livy chuckled, “How do we show it to her?”

“It’s just unfair. I’ve been with her the longest,” Nimbus crossed his arms.

“No, you haven’t,” Daskka protested.

“How can they show what they are seeing?” Hera turned to the guides.

“If this is working as we hoped it would, they can use their tablets. They should’ve appeared with one,” Fritz said.

Capri pointed his wing to the screen, “Indeed, they have them. Just by their waist. The court has one following them.”

“Then all you have to do is send them a text. There should be a new app for this, specifically. That will work everywhere and it’s a way for the court to talk to you while inside. It’s not really an app, just an interface the System created.” Kelp explained.

Hera pulled her tablet and saw the new app. She quickly sent a message to all the court members. It was just a ‘What are you talking about?’

In the end, it was Clay who answered it. He only came back a few days ago, after being destroyed during the fight against the Soldier of Strength. Ever since then, he had been quiet and introspective. Hera did try talking with the chain whip to make sure he was doing well. In the end, he was sad for not being able to be there for the entire fight, even if his actions allowed Hera, Livy, and Nimbus to deal the final blow to the two humans. He was trying to figure out how to improve his endurance, but unlike the titled blades, the regular court members had a harder time improving their capabilities.

The reply was simple, ‘We are looking at a statue. I’ll show it to you,’ Clay simply willed his tablet to move and chose the camera option. The screen in front of Hera shifted, and they were now watching everything from the chain whip’s point of view. On the opposite side of the door was a simple wall with a simple arch and a window to the garden outside. In front of that was the throne, one that seemed to be made out of scales. Maybe hundreds of snakes formed that chair? No, it didn’t take long for the Ophidianite to realize that wasn’t the case. Instead, the throne was supposed to be her own tail. A much, much, much, longer version of her tail that would go back and forth several times.

The reason why she could tell that, is that sitting on the throne was a statue of her with a neutral face looking over the blades. She was sitting perfectly still, with her clawed hands and feet and the webbed ears. Her hair was a single long braid going almost to her stomach, which wasn’t a style she used often. The marbled figure was imposing, and bigger than Hera herself. And by the position, she wouldn’t be able to sit in something like that, since her tail would be in the way. Which confirmed that her tail was the throne itself. Around her neck and shoulders was a white snake winking towards the screen, with only its green eye showing.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Hera huffed, “I agreed to a throne, not a full statue! What the fuck is that?”

“That should be your Empress core. It’s the heart of the skill, so it makes sense that it should be there. The representation ended up being something that fits the area, a statue, in this case,” Nina said.

“It is quite a fitting display of your power. Sure, it lacks a certain charm or a sense of nobility. Both could be easily solvable if you swapped the display of a snake on your shoulders to my magnificent self on your lap,” Capri nodded, feeling as if the Empress already accepted his offer.

Hera turned to the sheep guide, “Capri, you are amazing, but I’m not swapping you for Daskka. I’m not even trying to do anything. It will either stay that way and hopefully I can ignore it forever, or I’m changing it so you can only see me with a microscope.”

Capri shrugged, “Suit yourself.”

A text came through the court group chat. It was Daskka, ‘Mum? Did you see that?’

‘I did. It sucks,’ Hera replied.

‘I think it looks great, Empress,’ Sun’s message came first, but right after it, all court members started to agree and asked her not to change that.

Hera wasn’t entirely sure if she could even change it. Since it was her [Empress Core] maybe it was something that was stuck like that. Either way, she decided to table that for later, ‘Ok, ok. Fine. How about a house tour? I want to see how this place looks.’

“Of course!” Crimson spoke up and started moving out of this room. She started speaking in her best British documentary voice, which wasn’t good, “We delve into the new home of the strongest force of the MAZE. Follow along as we discover its magical wonders.”

“That’s not going to get old soon,” Viper rolled his eyes, getting only a shush as a reply from Crimson.

Leaving the throne room, made them arrive in the central area of the palace. The large circular room where all four staircases lead up to the next floors. One thing Hera refused to add was a basement area. Crimson talked about how this was a place for them to rest, but she didn’t linger too much on that area. To the sides, she showed the kitchen, which already had a stove, a fridge without any food, and a pantry.

Next came the three game rooms that only had a pool table, a darts board and some tables, the library that was still empty, the dining room that was mostly empty, but it had a pile of clean dishes for some reason. There were also two large rooms that were completely void of any furniture. Both of them had mirrors along one of the walls. Those were supposed to be the gym and a training room. Lastly, was the ballroom that could be used for parties and large events. But even then, the place was empty. The only thing that made the palace look like an actual palace was the decorations on the walls. Everything was a mix of white and gold, with details in purple, red, green and silver. Unfortunately, this was just a bland pattern and not the intricate drawings the Empress had created in the blueprint. Maybe she could change that in the future, but for now she wanted to see the rooms.

On the ground floor, there were only two court members who would be sleeping. Vulcan, the court’s forge master, and Clay, the chain whip. They decided to first head to Clay’s room, since it was closer to their location. Each of the court members had their own rooms, with a bed, a nightstand, a dresser, and a closet. In addition, all rooms were suites, with a bathroom attached to them. The main difference was the lack of a toilet. The court members didn’t have to relieve themselves like that, so it left more space for a large bathtub and the sink. However, all the doors were still closed, meaning they couldn’t actually see how they looked. As a matter of fact, the doors couldn’t be opened by anyone except its owner.

Clay took a bit of time to allow everyone to go inside his room, which was also something they had control over. Once the door opened, they saw a modest bed on one side, a desk with a few drawers on the side, some shelves and empty frames, ready for pictures or paintings. Curtains that were of an earthy brown color and a wallpaper depicting a large arid desert like that of a western movie. All that was clumped on half of the room. In the middle of the place there was a divisor and on the other side was a large mud pit of orange earth. That was what Clay asked for, a place for him to be more connected to his element. Unfortunately, they couldn’t use actual clay since it was too solid, but the mud pit was a very good approximation.

Sun, Robin, and Storm gasped while seeing the place. They were the only three court members that had never seen this place in the blueprint. Everyone else had more or less an idea, but even then, seeing this in real life, or as real as they could, made the blades even more excited about their own rooms.

Next came Forge’s quarters. Like everyone expected, it was an actual blacksmith. Including a furnace, an anvil attached to the ground, a water battery attached to a wall, and various areas that were already allocated for a specific object or piece of equipment. Vulcan did have a bed, a queen-size one, and a wardrobe. But that was it. Since they knew what had just happened, none of the court members teased the forging hammer, which only served to make him even more annoyed about the situation.

He quickly ushered everyone out of his quarters and to the next floor. If he could change the focus of the conversation, he wouldn’t have to deal with all that crap. In less than a minute, everyone was standing in front of Shadow’s room and the blade gave everyone permission to enter.

“We must stay quiet now, as we enter the lair of the dreaded angst scythe,” Crimson said to the screen as they started moving ahead.

“Hey!” Shadow protested.

“If you close your eyes, you might even hear his voice as he sings the emo hits of the last ten years,” Crimson continued, holding back some laughter.

“Those are good songs, fuck you,” Shadow huffed and removed Crimson’s permission to enter his room.

While everyone walked inside, the Spymaster stayed out complaining and slamming her fist against the invisible wall. Hera couldn’t hold back her laughter anymore, and the others soon joined in. She had to admit. It was nice seeing her court members interacting with each other like that, and even the guides seemed to be enjoying the banter.

Shadow’s quarters were very dark, and it did look like the bedroom of an angsty teenager, but there was also a very powerful light that he could use to practice using his powers to fight off that type of illumination. The bed was single, and it wasn’t that big, but it still had human proportions, which also meant they were massive for individual weapons.

The next room was the Spymaster’s quarters. Since they were twin daggers, their room had a more medieval theme to it, but everything was in a darker and colder color palette, mixing red and green. The room had a fireplace, a writing desk, and a few bookshelves. And a pair of beds, each in opposite corners of the room. Lastly, it also had an enchanted curtain that stopped sound from traveling to the other side dividing the bedroom in the middle.

They continued exploring, showing each and every room. Once that was over, some decided to continue there, while a few returned to Hera’s side. Now, her court wouldn’t simply vanish as they were recalled, and Hera could hear their thoughts about various subjects at any moment.