Choices

Your decisions don’t really matter much in a game. No matter what, the consequences of choosing wrong aren’t dire. At worst, you just have to start over. But, in real life, choices can be a life or death matter. So, choose wisely and choose quickly.

. . . . .

The door opened and Orion stumbled through, wearing a loose grey robe. It came down to his calves and was secured by a white belt around the waist. Graham tilted his head. “Why’s he wearing that?” he wondered.

Orion began coughing, hunched over with his hands on his knees. Graham looked at Robin, who seemed stunned, then he approached Orion and slapped his back a few times. Orion smelled strongly of ash and soot. “Are you alright? What happened in there?” Graham asked.

Orion coughed a bit more then stood, wiping some soot from his cheek. “Nothing good. That’s what.” He leaned back against the wall and slid to a seat. “I was attacked by these fire lizards, just wave after wave of them.” He shook his head. “Who’d have thought my luck would be that bad?”

Robin approached and knelt next to Graham, in front of Orion. “Luck?”

Orion nodded. “I had to flip a coin.” He reached into his robe and pulled it out.

Graham quirked a brow. “You took it?”

Orion grinned. “Well, yeah. After all the trouble it put me through, I figured I deserved it. Here, look.” He held it up so Graham could get a good look. “That’s the Last Empress, isn’t it?”

Graham squinted. “Yeah, I think it is. Damn, these are rare.”

Orion chuckled. “I thought so. Anyway, if it’d landed on heads, I wouldn’t have had to do anything. I’d just get a reward and go on my way. But I… I just kept getting tails! Five times in a row! Every time I got tails, these lizards that lit themselves on fire would come out of the walls to attack me.” He leaned his head back, closing his eyes. “The first few waves were alright, but after that I got tired.”

He pulled back his sleeve, revealing a number of burns. Robin gasped.

“So, I slowed down a bit and ended up with this,” he said.

Graham grimaced. “That looks awful.” Most of Orion’s arm was red and there were patches of bulbous blisters, liquid hanging from his arm in sacks of skin. Graham rubbed his mouth. “And he didn’t have a scripture to help him heal afterward…” He grabbed the scripture from where it lay on the ground and handed it to the big man. “Here. This might help.” He frowned. “...and if it gets to be too painful… well, you can have the last fruit.”

Orion cracked open an eye, meeting Graham’s gaze. He nodded slowly and took the scripture, spreading it out in front of him. “How do I use it?” he asked.

“Place your hand on the sigil. It’ll draw energy into your body and help remove the impurities. It also seems to help heal wounds… though I’m not sure if yours are too much for it to handle or not.”

Orion nodded and busied himself with circulating.

Graham glanced at Robin. Her eyes were pinched shut and she’d covered her mouth with her hands. He tapped her on the shoulder. “Are you okay? Robin?”

She shook her head. “No, I-I’m sorry. It’s just… his arm! It’s…” She wobbled and stretched her hand out to catch herself. But she didn’t touch the wall. She touched a door. She snatched her hand back with a gasp and fell. She stared, aghast, at the mark on her arm.

“Oh, no. Oh, nonono.” She gulped and looked at Graham. “I-I have one minute.”

Graham stood in front of the door Robin entered, chewing on his thumb. She’d been frantic, and it’d taken nearly half her time for Graham to calm her down.

Remember, you’re not the same as before, he’d said. You’re a Seeker, now. You’re stronger. You can do this. Then, he handed her Orion’s shield and the last fruit and even two of his spikes. He figured he wouldn’t need all four. Take these. I hope you don’t need them but take them.

Robin cried and thanked him. She gave him a hug, her hands clinging desperately to the back of his shirt. Then, she took a deep breath, thanked him again, opened the door, and disappeared through…

Graham bit his thumb hard. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like that. I thought I’d have time to get her ready.” He sighed, removing his thumb and wiping it on his shirt. “I hope she’ll be alright.” He glanced over at Orion. He was flipping through the spellbook, eager to learn it so he could have water whenever he needed it.

Graham frowned. “Shouldn’t he be a bit more worried? He’s acting like nothing happened.” He sighed and scrubbed at his face with both hands. “No, getting upset at Orion won’t help anything. There’s nothing I can do to help Robin now, but there are still things I need to do.”

He picked up the scripture and started circulating. In all the fuss, he’d forgotten to give it to Robin. She’d probably have a hard time without it, but there was nothing he could do about it now. “I don’t know how long it’ll take, but I need to be able to circulate without the sigil. Once I can do that, I’ll go through another door and get one of the books we need.”

Graham circulated twice in a row before taking a break. The stiffness in his joints made it hard to move and seemed to prevent Qi from flowing properly. No matter how he tried, he couldn’t begin the third circulation.

He tried to push himself up from his cross-legged position, groaning with effort, but lost his balance and fell onto his side. He grit his teeth. “Orion! C-Can you help me up?”

Orion looked up from where he was drawing imaginary numbers on the ground and nodded. He pulled Graham up and helped him hobble over to the fire. “You injured or something?” Orion asked.

Graham shook his head, his neck popping audibly. “No, it’s… I circulated too much. Now, I can hardly move.” He sighed. “It should go away soon.”

Orion shrugged and sat back down, staring into the fire with his brow furrowed. “So… what happened while I was gone?”

“What? What makes you think anything happened?” Graham said. He grimaced. “Should I tell him about what happened to Robin? I’m not sure she’d appreciate that…”

Orion shrugged. “I don’t know, I just have a feeling something did.”

Graham scratched his cheek. “Well, uh… I found out Robin is a pilot. I mean… wouldja believe that?” He laughed. It petered off. He cleared his throat. “And, uh, I had her use the scripture, so she’s technically a Seeker now. But, besides that… nothing much…”

He frowned, looking at Orion’s robe. “I’ve been wondering… why are you wearing that? I didn’t imagine that would be the reward you’d pick.”

Orion leaned back. “Those fire lizards left my shirt in tatters. I needed something to wear. Wasn’t much choice.”

Graham nodded, scratching his cheek. “Well, if you try another door, I’d recommend the book on sigils. Seems like it’d be useful.”

“Sigils?”

“Yeah. I mean, this place is crawling with sigils. They’re like… programmable spells. You draw them, give them a certain effect and an activating condition, then wait until something triggers it. Like, how the door disappeared after we entered the tower or the mark on the scripture that lets you gather Qi after placing your hand on it. They’re both sigils.”

Orion leaned forward, a brow raised. “So, all the mechanisms in this place were made of sigils?” He nodded. “That does sound useful. Extremely so.”

“I’m pretty sure that even the marks on our arms are sigils. I never knew you could put them on skin, but all the evidence points to it.”

Orion rubbed his jaw, mumbling to himself. He picked up the spellbook, flipping through the pages with interest.

Graham furrowed his brow. “Y’know, you can’t perform the spell without circulating. You’ve got to get Qi moving to get it to your fingers.”

Orion hummed. “I just want to learn the spell quickly, so I can go to the next door. Besides, that may not be the case.”

Graham quirked a brow. “What does that mean?”

Orion glanced at him. “I think you can move Qi without circulating. Though, it’ll take a lot longer to perform the spell. Look here…” He pointed to an entry in fine print. It read, ...in desperate circumstances, you might need water without being able to circulate. In this case, you can perform breathing meditation to slowly direct your Qi to your arms.

It was just a footnote at the bottom of a page full of equations. “I must have skipped right past it,” Graham thought. He frowned. “But what’s breathing meditation?”

Orion frowned and snapped the book shut. “It’s just a type of meditation to clear your mind. Or, at least, I thought it was. It seems it has more utility than I was aware.” His face looked sour, like he’d swallowed a lemon whole.

Graham raised a brow but didn’t ask about it. Orion seemed like the sort to keep to himself. Being pushy would probably just irritate him. He cleared his throat. “So, you can do the meditation thing? Gonna try it out?”

Orion nodded. “Yeah, I’ll give it a shot. Stay quiet for a while. I need silence for this.” He stood and moved to the wall, as far from the fire as he could get, and sat cross-legged. Graham nicked the spellbook and started flipping through the pages for any other tidbits of knowledge that might help them out.

After poring over the pages for a few minutes, he gave up. “That’s just too boring. Is every spell going to be this detailed?” He stood and stretched his arms out, getting out some of the kinks. “Oh! Maybe I can try circulating again? This time without the scripture.”

A glance at Orion told him that the man hadn’t accomplished anything yet. He sat in silence and took deep breaths. “How long does this meditation take? And why does Orion know a technique that Seekers use?” He decided to go to the other side of the room, to make sure he didn’t disturb Orion somehow.

He copied Orion’s posture because maybe it would help? Furrowing his brow, he tried to recall the feeling of absorbing Qi from the atmosphere. The way it expanded his senses and made him feel like there was so much more to the world that he was missing. The strange fragile yet powerful sensation that spread through his body. “This time, I won’t stop until I do it. I need to accomplish this.”

The door squealed shut behind her, cutting her off from Graham, Orion, comfort, safety… “I really don’t want to be here,” she thought. If she were a cat, her ears would be flat against her head, her fur standing on end.

Hot pins stabbed her arm as the message changed. It read, Decisions should be made quickly. Making the right choice too late is the same as making the wrong choice.

She furrowed her brow. “What’s that supposed to mean. Decisions?” Graham had received some kind of message after entering his door, as well. She couldn’t remember what he’d said it was, though. “Maybe it has something to do with what I’ll find in here. So… I’ll have to make decisions? And quickly…”

She took a deep breath and headed up the stairs, huddled behind the shield. “At least I have this… and the fruit. Maybe I can really make it out of here?” The stairs went up and up, but Robin took her time. Graham’s room had had traps and she didn’t want to be caught unawares.

Finally, she reached the top. She was faced with two doors. There was some kind of timer between them, ticking down. It looked like a sundial mounted on the wall, and it spun slowly, moving towards a large notch in the wall. When it hit the mark, it likely meant time was up. But what would happen when it did?

Robin chewed her lip. “So, I have to choose one of the doors? What if I choose the wrong one? What if I don’t choose?” She shook her head. Not choosing wouldn’t be a good idea. There’d probably be some kind of penalty for failure. She might just die, outright!

She examined both doors, looking for clues that might tell her which was the better choice. They looked the same, both gray with chipping paint. There were no words or numbers that might tell her something more. Their handles were dingy and black, maybe made of cast iron?

She tiptoed closer to one and brought her ear just before it, afraid to actually touch the door. It might interpret that as a decision and make her enter. She slowed her breath, trying to stay quiet as possible. She began to make out a slow, steady breath that wasn’t hers. Something was in there.

Her heart seized up and she backed away from the door. “Not that one. Definitely not that one,” she thought. She frowned. “Unless the other room has something in it, too? What if there isn’t a right choice?” She wouldn’t put it above this place to lie to her. Maybe the message was meant to throw her off rather than help her? How could she know?

The timer’s ticking grew louder, as if it were scolding her for taking her time. She took a breath between grit teeth and approached the second door to take a listen. Nothing. She waited a while more, trying to tune out the ticking. More nothing. She sighed. “Maybe this is the right one? I don’t hear anything…”

Her eyes flickered between the doors, but the choice was obvious. She took the second door. As soon as she opened it, the timer clanged and shot straight to the notch. A click rung out from the first door. Robin paled. “So, if I didn’t choose in time… I’d be locked out?” Trapped in this hallway, unable to move forward and likely unable to go back. She’d rot in here.

Her hands trembled as she pushed the door open. A hallway lay behind it with sconces on the walls to light the way. The hallway wasn’t made of stone like she expected. It was floored with polished hardwood and the walls were decorated in red and gold wallpaper. It looked more like a hallway in a hotel than anything that belonged in this dreary tower.

This did not put Robin at ease. She hugged the shield and moved forward. The floor creaked at every step. She wouldn’t be able to move about quietly here. She came to a fork, two paths leading in opposite directions. She groaned. “Oooh, which one…” She looked down both sides, but the sconces on the walls were unlit and she couldn’t see far into either.

A click came from behind her. She looked back to see a portion of the wall swing open. She froze, unable to breathe. The sconces behind her went out and a red eye peeked out of the opening of the wall, fixed on her. Her legs were moving before she knew it, carrying her down the left path. Loping thumps followed her, growing closer.

She glanced back and saw the red eyes growing closer in the darkness. She screamed and ran faster. An opening appeared before her, faint light filtering through an open door. She scrambled in and shut the door behind her. Her pursuer slammed into the door, trying to break through. “No! Stay away!” Robin yelled, putting all her weight into keeping the door closed.

It kept ramming and the door began to crack. Robin covered her mouth and backed up, but she couldn’t find any purchase behind her. She turned. “Where’s the floor?!” A giant hole existed where the floor should have been, as if it had collapsed and fell into an abyss. The hole was dark as night on a new moon.

The door creaked audibly as a large crack spread from corner to corner. Robin shook her head. “Nononono… I have to… I have to jump down there?” The door broke with a crash and Robin screamed. She jumped into the dark chasm, her shouts trailing as she fell.

Graham watched as mist gathered in Orion’s hands, swirling in eddies as it tried to congeal into water. Sweat poured from Orion’s forehead as he focused all his concentration on maintaining the vortex and drawing more water in.

Graham shook his head. “It took him hours, but he’s actually doing it.” He frowned. “That’s really… incredible.” He threaded his fingers together as he observed. “But, this is probably his limit. He won’t get it right the first try, right? That’s just… unreasonable.”

Orion grit his teeth, his breath hissing in and out. The cloud of mist spun faster, but Orion was visibly trembling. At last, his hand fell and the mist scattered. He slouched over and lay against the cold stone.

Graham nodded. “As I expected. Though, he did well for his first try.” It seems the breathing meditation really did work, but spending a few hours just to cast a single spell was ridiculous. It was just… completely impractical. Especially out here where remaining in one place, defenseless, for hours could get you killed. It was lucky this room was safe from intruders, else he would never have been able to do it.

Graham shook his head and focused on what was important. Learning to circulate without the scripture. He was close, he felt it. This time, he would do it. Then, he would try another door and see what was on the other side. It could be an opportunity to test his new strength.

He smiled. “After being rejected by several sects, I thought I’d never be a Seeker. But look at me, now. Coming here might have been a blessing.” He snorted and focused on feeling the world’s energy.