NOVEL NEXT Ch. 42: Raid
The remainder of the way to the Temple of the Deep was uneventful. Cass never shook the feeling something else was following them, but if there was something there it never showed itself.
There were a couple more patrols of cockroaches. Cass slunk around them with Stealth. Salos was silent the whole time except for his directions at each turn.
Cass’s cheek had scabbed over by the time she stood in front of the temple’s entrance.
It was built in the same style as the structure she’d found the Centipede’s treasure. It had Ancient Greek-looking architecture but was made of dark, almost black stone instead of sun-bleached white. Wide pillars stood at the top of imposing steps, hiding the temple proper in shadows.
She climbed the stairs and entered the temple proper before she lost her nerve. As she crossed the threshold, a line of runes running just below the ceiling lit up, casting the room in a dim but uniform blue-green glow. Almost like being underwater.
Across the room from the entrance, the wall was split by three arches, each leading deeper into the dark of the Temple. Above the center one and between each was a statue, carved from the same dark stone that tiled the walls and floor.
The one above the door was of a crouched figure, their head obscured by a deep hood, a long dagger held in reverse grip at their side. The one on the right was of a woman in a billowing robe, a staff held high in one hand, a crown with curling horns resting upon her head. To the left was a wide man in heavy armor, a long sword crossed in front of his body, huge, bat wings half folded behind him.
None of them looked friendly.
“Who are they?” Cass asked.
Salos winced.
The creators of the Trial, he said slowly. I do not seem to remember any of their names now. Apologies.
Cass shrugged. It didn’t really matter. “You okay?”
Yes. I’m fine. You should get going though.
“Sure, sure. I don’t suppose you have any idea which one we should go through to get to the boss room?”
As I mentioned before, it is a maze. And unlike the Deep, this maze is always changing. Its corridors and rooms move every season. There are hundreds–thousands–of potential combinations.
In theory, if I knew how long it has been since I was sealed, I could probably calculate which pattern it was in now, given an afternoon and some parchment. But, I don’t, so I can’t.
What I can do, is recognize some of the important rooms and give you directions based on that. Several of the complexes move together in only a few predictable patterns. Additionally, the Lord’s chambers and the Safe Zone beyond cannot move. Between those two things, I should be able to guide you in the right general direction once you get started.
“But you need to see at least a little of it to give me any directions?” Cass said with a sigh.
Exactly.
“Alright. Well, any preference in corridor?”
Left?
Cass shrugged. Left was as good as any other. There was the old saying that if you kept a hand on one wall and kept walking you would eventually find your way out of any maze. She didn’t really want to end up in a situation where that was her only option, but it was a start.
She walked down the left path, her Stealth still flared. Her personal wind swirled around her, silencing her steps and subduing her presence. She still didn’t understand how that worked, but her gut assured her that it was very effective. Salos did too, so she tried not to question it too much.
A click pulled her from her thoughts as her foot planted on the tile ahead of her.
Dodge screamed for her to step back. She threw herself back at its insistence.
A blade swung from the wall through the space she had just occupied.
“Salos…” she whispered, watching the very deadly blade slide back into the wall, leaving not even a seam in the stone walls behind.
Oh.
“That was a trap.”
Er. Yes. It was.
“Were you going to tell me about the traps?”
Um. There was a long pause. Yes. But. I didn’t expect them so soon.
“When were you going to tell me about the traps?” There was an unflattering amount of panic rising in her voice. It wasn’t helping, but there it was, right alongside the unhelpful amount of panic rising in her chest. Also not helpful.
The feeling wanted to run off into the sunset with her imagination, cooking up all kinds of terrible traps for her to fall into.
Pit traps. Spike traps. Wires that exploded. Falling rocks.
Each one more deadly than the last. Each one more bloody, her insides finding their irrevocable way onto her outsides.
I was going to tell you as soon as I saw the choke-point where they start appearing. They aren’t supposed to be by the front door.
“Aren’t supposed to?”
No, it should be a series of combat rooms. Generally, they get stronger as you go deeper. For the traps to be first… He trailed off.
Fear and doubt bubbled up inside her. Could she trust him? What could he possibly have to gain by getting her killed by temple traps? He didn’t need to do anything to get her killed. If he wanted her dead he only needed to sit silently and wait.
What could he possibly get out of her dying now anyway? If her death was the goal, he’d missed his chance when she’d nearly died to the rats. No, her death couldn’t be the point.
But malice wasn’t the only reason not to trust. He could just be incompetent.
But, he had navigated her this far. And he had warned her that the layout changed all the time.
I can narrow down which family of potential arrangements from this. He said, breaking her from her thoughts. There was a strained optimism in his tone. Like he was trying to convince himself as much as her. This is a kind of blessing, depending on how you look at it.
“How?”
Well, on the upside, you should only need to fight about a quarter of the monsters I thought you would need to. Which is good.
“And the downside?”
I don’t suppose you know how to disarm traps?
Cass shook her head. “Are all the corridors going to be trapped?”
If they are not I will be able to narrow the arrangement down to one family.
“Which means?”
That there will only be about a hundred possible arrangements instead of thousands. This good news failed to excite her.
“You want me to go back and check the other passages, don’t you?”
Well, it would be good information.
“Do I get to walk down the not trapped one if it exists?”
Ah, no. I would not recommend it. Unless you want more combat practice.
Cass sighed but, carefully, walked back to the entrance.
The middle passage she walked about three yards down before she heard the click of a trap and the scream of Dodge. She leapt backward, mentally prepared for it this time.
The ceiling dropped on the space in front of her.
If not for her super-human abilities she would have been crushed. If she had been any slower she would be paste.
Her imagination wasn’t letting go of that image. It had prepared a slide show of her body splatting into nothing from a dozen different angles. Again and again. Splat. Splat. Splat.
“Please tell me that isn’t a common trap.” Cass squeaked.
No. That—that wasn’t one of the traps I was expecting to see here. That kind of instant death makes poor training. You don’t learn from sudden and instantaneous death. He was quiet, but if he was concerned his feelings were lost underneath her nausea.