While Definitely Bad Guy continued questioning Sewer Bard (which didn’t speak terribly well of his ability to stay focused on the task at hand, which seemed to be a common leader trait, if the Chosen One’s leadership style was anything to go by) Qube continued trying to find the pattern to get to the next room.

After some more staring and thinking, Qube found herself wishing that one of the other party members would chime in with their observations.

While, yes, she was the best at puzzles in the group, she wanted the others to have a chance at puzzle solving, too! It wasn’t just that she was totally and utterly stumped, no! She just really liked sharing!

Having tried to convince herself of this, she focused on the rest of the group. They were all just idling around. Sexy Screamy Spider Lady was bouncing, Squiggles was dancing, and Sewer Bard and Definitely Bad Guy were deep in discussion.

The Chosen One had started rearranging his collection of feathers from smallest to largest. He must have sensed her looking at him, because he glanced up as she stared at him. His eyes were slightly red, and he had the paleness that comes from exhaustion.

“Chosen One, are you all right?” Qube asked, her Healer instincts kicking into gear.

“Yeah,” he said, dismissing her concerns with a wave of his hand. “I’m just tired, is all. I didn’t take a break at the last Save Point, so it’s wearing me down a bit.”

“Should we go back, and let you rest?” Qube asked worriedly. She wasn’t sure they would be allowed to leave the Light Temple once they’d entered it, but she didn’t want the Chosen One collapsing from lack of sleep, or a deficit in Save Point time.

The Chosen One shook his head, and gave her another, tired, smile.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, making shooing motions at her. “Get back to solving this ancient—” he covered his mouth as he yawned, “—Temple.” He gathered up all his feathers, and roughly shoved them back into his satchel, thus defeating the entire purpose of organising them.

She wasn’t even sure where he’d gotten the feathers from.

Once he’d finished destroying whatever organisational task he’d been on, the Chosen One sat back on the sandstone floor, resting his back against the wall, and closed his eyes.

“Wake me up when you’re ready to move on to the next room,” he said, with another yawn.

Qube had never seen someone go to sleep outside their bed before. She hadn’t even known it was possible! Unless he was just resting his eyes? It felt like an oddly private moment, so she quickly looked away to the rest of the party.

They had to get through this place as fast as possible, so that they could find somewhere to get some proper rest.

Something was different about the others. Qube frowned as she tried to place it. Sexy Screamy Spider Lady was bouncing slower, Squiggles was stretching rather than dancing, and even the conversation between the two men seemed to slow down.

It was as if the Chosen One deciding to close his eyes, and start going to sleep, had made the others relax.

How strange. Unless they felt more secure, knowing that their at-all-times-except-for-right-now leader felt safe enough in this place to go to sleep?

No. Qube had also felt a part of herself relax once she realised the Chosen One was going to sleep. It was silly. They’d known all along that the Chosen One was different from them, that he’d been directly touched by the Devs in ways they couldn’t possibly comprehend. It shouldn’t have made this much of a difference. Especially to the party members who had never known the original Potential Chosen One.

But the fact that he was a being from another realm did make a difference. It was subtle, but each of the party members had started treating the Chosen One with a bit more caution since he’d broken the news. It was so subtle, in fact, that Qube hadn’t even noticed the increased tension until it was gone.

The whole thing was honestly rather upsetting. So Qube did what she had always been trained to do when uncomfortable. She slapped a smile on her face and became even bubblier.

“Well, Chaos Crew,” she said cheerfully, “does anyone have any ideas on how to solve this puzzle?”

The others looked at her blankly.

“We should disable the traps, and move on,” Sewer Bard said.

“I can’t wait to see what the rest of this Temple holds,” Sexy Screamy Spider Lady said breathlessly.

“We should exercise all due caution in proceeding,” Definitely Bad Guy said.

Qube suppressed a sigh. It seemed like none of them had any clue about what the puzzle was, either. Rather than embarrassing them by forcing them to admit as such, she turned to Definitely Bad Guy.

“You’re right,'' she said brightly. “We should be cautious as we go forward! Good thinking!”

The Mage blinked then puffed up a bit.

“Precisely what I meant,'' he said. “Now, Bard, disable those traps so we can continue.” Sewer Bard gave him a brief bow.

“You wish is my command,'' he said mildly. As Sewer Bard started carefully picking his way through the room, stopping and fiddling with several patterns on the floor, Qube was struck by how different the party was compared to when they’d tackled their first Temple. That trap room had been a mess, with lots of screaming and running.

Mostly by her.

But now they've formed a real team! And the only screaming would be of happiness! Even Definitely Bad Guy and Sewer Bard were getting along, now that they’d found a mutual interest in research! Or curses? Something about defeating Evil Devs, anyway.

The Mage was actually following along after Sewer Bard from a safe distance, asking him questions about the various traps as he disabled them. Even Sexy Screamy Spider Lady was getting in on it!

“It looks like you just need to carefully finger those holes,” Sexy Screamy Spider Lady purred to the Bard as he attempted to disarm the traps lining the wall. “Watch out, though; those arrows look like they could do some serious damage if they pierced you.”

Qube wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about the Hunter trying to explain trap disarming to someone who was clearly an expert, but she still supported everyone being interested in their fellow companions’ skills! And given the smirk on Sewer Bard's face he seemed pleased by the Hunter's interest.

Why, even Squiggles was barely hissing at Definitely Bad Guy!

“That was the last trap,” Sewer Bard said, straightening up and dusting off his hands. As he did, a door slid away, revealing the next room.

“You’re all doing great!” Qube said with a sudden burst of affection towards her team. “Now we just need to solve the main room puzzle and we can move on!”

The others looked at each other and then back at her, each a picture of perfect confusion.

“Honey, we can just go into the next room,” Sexy Screamy Spider Lady said kindly. “There’s no puzzle here.”

“Oh!” Qube said, turning bright red. “Of course! Silly me! Teehee!”

Internally she felt like dying of embarrassment. She’d been so fixated on puzzles that she’d forgotten that not every room had to have a puzzle! She was seeing puzzles where there were none.

...but it would have been really amazing if this room had been a puzzle.

Banishing all puzzle-related longing, Qube pivoted on one foot and started walking towards the dozing Chosen One. She was just about to nicely demand he wake up and continue on his quest to save the world when she felt a hand on her arm.

“Fair, uh, woman of worth,” Sewer Bard said, looking surprisingly serious. “I think it would be best if we let him rest, don’t you?”

Qube blinked at him in silence.

“But we need him to continue,” she said blankly.

Definitely Bad Guy was suddenly next to Sewer Bard, nodding along.

“I agree with the Bard,” he said. “We should clear the way, and let him take a longer rest, rather than awakening him only to have him move a short distance before resting again. This way is more efficient, and we won’t be travelling so far as to make it difficult to reach him if needed.”

Qube looked at Sexy Screamy Spider Lady. She could feel the others watching her as the Hunter thought. It wasn’t unfriendly, or hostile in any way. More… it was approaching the kind of cautious awareness they would occasionally direct towards the Chosen One.

It was uncomfortable. It made sense why they would sometimes be wary of the Chosen One, especially lately. But why would they look at her that way? She didn’t hold any power! She didn’t report to anyone!

She was just Qube.

The resident expert in interpersonal affairs hid her many eyes beneath thick lashes. “I think,” she said slowly, “that it would be best if we let him rest, dear. He did seem exceptionally tired.”

Qube flushed as she realised they were right, and her desire to have the Chosen One with her had been stronger than her empathy for his condition. To think that everyone else was being more considerate of the Chosen One’s tiredness than she was! Just because he was puppeting the corpse of her best friend since childhood was no excuse for her to neglect her duties as the party Healer!

“Of course!” she whispered as cheerfully as she could. “That makes perfect sense! After all, we’re the ones in charge of this Temple, not him! Let’s go to the next room and see what it holds!”

The others relaxed. Qube tried to project caring even harder, so that they would know that she knew they were just trying to do what was right.

As soon as they crossed the threshold into the next room, Qube was struck by the feeling that she was incomplete. Shaking the sensation off, she carefully noted that this room was not, in fact, likely to be a puzzle room.

Instead she was reasonably certain that this was meant to be a test of their combat skills. Her keen deductive reasoning took in the following facts:

A: There were no mirrors, or beams of light.

B: The others had reacted to the new room by getting into their battle stances.

C: A bunch of giant beetles were trying to bite them.

Qube instinctively tried to [Lesser Shield] the Chosen One, only to realise he wasn’t with them. Quickly switching mental gears, she cast it on Sexy Screamy Spider Lady. Following the giving-everyone-a-chance-to-be-in-charge-and-grow order, this was her room, after all. The Hunter didn’t hesitate, rushing forward with her daggers out and stabbing through the back of the foremost beetle.

A wall of fire sprung up as Definitely Bad Guy acted, catching several of the giant beetles. There was a high, piercing shrieking sound, and any beetle he touched instantly caught alight.

“Oh no!” Qube cried, suddenly remembering the Chosen One’s argument from earlier that day. “What if they’re like Squiggles?”

Squiggles, who was busy enveloping one of the big bugs in a web of tentacles, looked up at her name.

Sewer Bard hesitated, his rapier still vibrating from where it had parried one of the insect’s pincers. He gave Squiggles an anguished glance, then looked at the dying enemies.

“I see no beauty in them, but then… that means not there is none to be found,” he said, his expression almost as tortured as his sentence structure. “Lady Squiggles alone is proof of that.”

One of the beetles attempted to rush through the wall of fire, screaming as it caught aflame. Sewer Bard’s face hardened as he rammed his rapier back into its sheath.

“Everyone, stand back!” he called, pulling out his lute. “And cover your ears!”

The whole party jumped back, except for Squiggles. Still grappled with the beetle, she became tangled, wildly flailing as she tried to break free without getting bitten. Without thinking, Qube rushed forward and grabbed the tips of Squiggle’s tentacles, clamping them against her ear holes.

“[Lesser Shield]!” she cried, dropping the shield on Sexy Screamy Spider Lady to protect Squiggles. The beetle bit down, but the magical force protected the sharktopus. Qube went to cover her own ears. She wasn’t sure what spell Sewer Bard was about to use, but if it was designed to take out an entire room of enemies, it had to be powerful.

She almost made it.

The first notes of a song she had never heard before reached her, just as her palms slammed against her ears.

“[The Bard’s Ballad],” Sewer Bard said, and played.