Chapter 11

The Puzzle

“What are you doing here?” Vivian’s shrill voice echoed around the chamber. In the stands, her supporters were talking amongst themselves in fretful gossip. Max was just twitching back and forth, monocle jiggling.

“I would ask the same thing, except I’m well aware of the family legacy,” Emil answered.

Meredith scowled, wanting to pinch herself and awaken from what could only be described as a total nightmare. Eddie’s lips were puckered next to her, as if he wanted to say something, but concluded that doing so would send his head flying. He likely wasn’t wrong, she felt, and neither said anything while Emil crossed the sand to stand before the blonde girl.

“And yours as well. Is there a reason you’re here, Emil? I’d rather not have your ugly face distracting me during the trial. I can’t afford anything less than an S-Rank.” Emil scoffed, shaking his head before he smirked at the girl.

“You never change, Viv.” Just as she had when Meredith used the nickname, Vivian’s features twisted. That prompted another laugh from Emil. “Always need to be the best, everyone else was a distraction. Sorry to say, but I’m sure if you thought you left your own ‘legacy’ in Lacardia, it’s probably well-forgotten by now.”

“Oh, nothing could beat your legacy,” Vivian said. She put a finger to her lip, and the visible twitches on Emil’s face informed the nature of her taunt. “How many times did you lose to me during my tenure at Lacardia?”

“You lost just as many times as myself, and don’t you forget it,” Emil snapped to the girl. She threw her head back and laughed. “I wouldn’t find it funny; you were hardly more than second best. Enchantment magic is good and all, but if you find an opponent that overpowers you, it’s worthless. Didn’t B-Class prove that to you? Well, I heard they’re A-Class now.”

“Those losers?” Vivian looked utterly displeased by the notion, her nose wrinkling like a rank smell had invaded the place. “Is Lacardia going down the tubes?”

“I don’t think so. They just got rid of their worst student.”

“Oh, so you recognize what you are?” Emil’s smirk never dropped, sloughing off the obvious attempt at insult. Meredith’s eyebrows had nearly disappeared into her hair while she observed. Nightmare though it was, she took solace in the fact that at least Emil and Vivian weren’t on good terms. However, when the blonde girl spoke again, she once more commanded attention. “You never answered my question, Emil. Why are you here at a trial?”

“Figured it’d be fun. I don’t take everything seriously, you know.” Emil, like usual, had slung his hands behind his head. Vivian scoffed, a twitch of annoyance coming to her lips. “That’s right, you don’t understand that, Viv. Always have to be the best at everything you do. I have to wonder what daddy would do if you got anything less than an S-Rank.”

“What would your parents do if they found out where you were?” Emil lunged forward at Vivian’s words and grabbed on to her arm. The smirk had disappeared as the two brought their faces together. To an outsider, it looked like they were going to kiss, with Emil just slightly taller than the girl before him. “Struck a nerve, Emil?”

“Shut up, Vivian.” It was Vivian’s turn to smirk, clearly holding something over him. “You may have beaten me a number of times at school, but don’t forget I wiped the floor with your ass more times than I can count. Do not test me.”

“So scary!” Vivian said, jeering. Her free hand reached up and patted the boy on the cheek. “Oh, Emil, you never were the most threatening. Just a sniveling pathetic wreck who hated mommy and daddy. It’s a wonder you passed at a-Hey!”

Meredith suppressed the snort that garnered some attention from Vivian’s party in the stands. Emil, having let go of Vivian’s arm, had caused her to float upward, flailing about in midair. She didn’t take it well, but Meredith enjoyed the momentary look of panic on the blonde’s face before Emil released her gravity. Vivian hit the ground, clasping at the spot where Meredith had kicked her some days ago. By now, Meredith was certain her eyebrows had left her face.

“You look pained, Viv. Someone get the better of you in a fight?” The giggles that elicited from the crowd could not be stopped, while the other trial candidates regarded their conversation with disappointed head shakes.

“Quiet!” the blonde snapped as she stood. She, herself, kicked at Emil, but the boy dodged it with ease. “I don’t want to hear about getting the better of someone in a fight when you’re so pathetic! It was just some loser grease monkey that got lucky!”

“That so, Viv?” Meredith called out, no longer able to restrain herself. Her voice garnered immediate reactions from around the room. Vivian’s posse erupted into giggles again (this time directed at her), the candidates shuffled further away and Eddie slapped his forehead. Of greater note were the two whose conversation she was intruding on. Vivian’s scowl became immediately apparent while Emil blinked rapidly to the point Meredith wasn’t sure if his eyes were open or closed.

“Oh, wonderful…and then she followed me to fill this place with her pathetic stench. I thought I left you crying in the oasis,” Vivian said. Meredith walked forward, feeling the sand in her shoes, and joined the arguing duo.

“I’m not someone to give up so easily. You just put me on a momentary pause, but I bounced back.”

“I’m so happy for you…want a letter of congratulations?” Vivian’s sarcastic drawl didn’t go unnoticed while Emil continued looking between the two girls.

“Wait, wait, Mera is the one that kicked you?” he said eventually, putting two and two together. Vivian’s scowl got even worse, her fingers twitching, like she wanted to prove who was the better of the two of them right then and there. “Oh goodness, Viv. Ha ha! You got your ass kicked!”

“I won that fight, thank you very much. Utterly obliterated the poor girl,” Vivian said, practically biting her lip. When Emil didn’t stop laughing, Vivian chose to stomp her foot on his. Other than a grimace, it didn’t put a dent in his jubilation. “Seems she’s up for a second round, though. Guess I’ll have to humiliate her again.”

“I’m right here…”

“Ha, yeah, Viv…I know you,” Emil said, wiping the tears of mirth from his eyes. “If she got so much as a scratch on you, that’s a loss in your book. Tell me, what level of enchantment did you use? Four? Five? Max? Scratch that, you always refuse to go all-out. Though, a simple hit would’ve been enough to make you lose control, so-”

“Shut. Up. Emil.” Her foot crunching continued while Meredith watched. They seemed completely oblivious to her.

“Wait…are you two…er, were you two an item?” she finally decided to ask. That did the job of angering them more than they were angering each other.

“Hell no!” The reaction was so vehement that Meredith took a step back, bumping into Eddie. The two blondes realized their shared reaction and turned away from each other at last, ceasing their conversation.

“Forget this. I just want to ace this trial and move on to the next. Everything else is inconsequential, including peons like you. Make sure you stay out of my way,” Vivian said. She walked over to the water cooler at that point, refusing to speak anymore. Emil was much the same, but he remained rooted in place, arms folded.

“They clearly have a history,” Eddie laughed out. He patted Meredith on the back. “I wouldn’t think too much on it, Mera. Though I’m surprised that she attended Lacardia. Wonder if she has any stories…”

“As if she’d tell you. And why do you care? Developing a crush, Eddie?” Her friend rolled his eyes to that question and said no more, but walked over to the water station to refill his own canteen. Meredith sincerely hoped he wouldn’t try to talk with the girl who took pains to dismiss them at every turn. “Seriously, why is she even trying to become a Guardian?”

“Doesn’t seem the type, right?” Emil said. “I don’t think she cares about the ‘guarding’ part, to be honest. More the ‘high station in the Corps’ part, and she’ll take any path she needs to do it.”

“What she needs is an attitude adjustment.” Emil had no arguments against that claim. The two remained in silence, the air awkward. Meredith clapped her hands together. Masters hadn’t yet returned, and the trial had yet to begun. Boredom was beginning to set in, and for a moment, Meredith considered talking with Emil about…something. Anything, really. Eddie returning shortly after put a stop to that, and the trio stood in awkward silence together. Vivian kept shooting them haughty death glares from her station.

“So, Emil, how hard is it to get into Lacardia?” Eddie asked, striking on his favorite topic.

Whether the boy would have answered Eddie or not, Meredith never knew, because movement drew all of their attentions away, towards the entrance into the chamber. In this case, she wasn’t surprised to see Masters striding through, accompanied by a whole group of Guardians, most of them looking rather green, for all the room she had to talk. They appeared to be protecting someone else, though. No one got a good glimpse at him, however, especially when he began ascending the stands. There was a brief pause where the new arrival spoke with Masters, and Meredith saw his face in shadow and profile. That was all before he made his way with his own companions to the very top of the stands, barely lit by the torches there.

“Who’s that?” Eddie asked, changing the topic of his question. Emil gave no answer while Meredith squinted, trying to make out the details in the darkness. He seemed to be a well-armored man with clean-cut hair and an alert posture, but that hardly offered anything. She did think she saw shrewd and intelligent eyes, but couldn’t say. Her steps took her a little forward.

“Trial candidates, line up!” Masters’s voice boomed. Meredith tore her attention away and fell in line next to Emil and Eddie. Vivian joined their line next to Eddie, as well, throwing the other two a dirty look. To Meredith, it was akin to a challenge, which she was more than willing to accept. “Hmm…so few for my final administration at this trial. Shame.

“Ahem! Candidates, welcome to the Trial of Desert, one of six you are partaking in to become full-fledged Guardians. Before you, lies a labyrinth of sand, stone and devious puzzles, meant to test more than just your mettle, but your wit!” As Masters began to introduce the full nature of the trial to them, other Guardians walked down the line, handing out pieces of paper to each and every candidate. Meredith took hers, but didn’t look right away, too focused on the man administering the trial. “For that is what the Trial of Desert trains you to be as Guardians. Not just strength or terrain, but about using your mind to reach an end goal in the most efficient way possible.”

“And what are the terms?” Vivian’s question was as biting as ever. One of the other candidates shushed her, but Masters held his hand up to silence all of them.

“Patience. There is an order to these things, and as temporary administrator I will see it done right, to ensure only the finest candidates will be the ones to emerge victorious,” Masters said, leveling his sharp eyes at Vivian. She didn’t bother to flinch or bow her head in reverence. Meredith wasn’t surprised, and she decided to not react, either. “That said, explanation is necessary.”

With the flourish and geniality that had made Royston Masters such a popular public figure, the commander withdrew his rapier to draw a flaming diagram of four different things in the air. It remained there, shimmering with heat none of the candidates needed, but endured. “You will enter the trial with but three things: a weapon you possess, the map of the ruins we have given you, and a single canteen of water. No more.

“The goal of your trial is simple: within the ruins are many puzzles and traps laid for unwary travelers. Beyond those puzzles is a great collection of stone slabs with ancient writing upon them. You are to collect just one of these slabs and return it here. There is no explicit time limit.” The hesitation hinted at the caveat that Masters soon delivered with a grin. “This does not mean you will not be judged on time, of course. It merely means that time is not the only factor, because make no mistake: this is not a quest, but a race.”

“So, our rank will be determined by who arrives here first?” another candidate asked, throwing up a salute.

“Not quite,” Masters said. The candidate shrunk back, embarrassed for speaking wrongly. Masters still offered his genial smile. He motioned to his diagram next. Meredith could now identify what the four shapes were: an hourglass, a medal, a stone slab and (ironically) a water droplet. “There are four criteria you will be judged on when it comes to an S-Rank. The order you come in is, indeed, one of them, but will not disqualify your rank if you do not come in first. Beyond that, you will be judged on the time it takes you, whether you’ve succeeded in your task at all, and how much water you have left in your canteen.”

“Our canteen?” Confused murmurs passed through the crowd with this statement, but Meredith wasn’t questioning it. Nor were the three candidates she knew; either they didn’t care because it was just part of the trial, or they had already guessed at the reasoning behind it. In this case, it was a reasoning that Masters did not share.

“I believe that’s all you will need to know on that front. I’m not here to give you all the answers; a Guardian must work them out on their own,” Masters concluded. With a wave of his hand, the flaming diagram disappeared. “So, it is time. In observance with the Guardians around you, proceed into the ruins, choose your path from your maps and return here. You may team up, and you may interfere with your fellow candidates. I wish you good luck. You’ll need it by the time I’m done judging.

“Let the Trial of Desert begin!”

“Good luck, Vivian!”

“Show ‘em who’s boss!” Meredith sucked on her lips, ignoring the blonde’s incessant fans. Not that Vivian paid them any mind. Like a few others, she was striding through the spot where Masters had once stood, descending into the old fortress after having discarded her bag. Meredith couldn’t even be sure if Vivian appreciated the cheers or not, but for the first time since meeting her, the black-haired teenager was determined to ignore her presence. Instead, she looked down at the map she’d been offered, removing anything else not required for the trial from her person.

It wasn’t that complicated, showing various rooms and offshoots of tunnels or halls that were interconnected. Most of them seemed to lead straight to the room they were gunning for, marked on the map with a giant red X. Eddie was reading his own map next to her, while Emil watched the two of them, whistling as he waited. Their lack of departure garnered a small amount of attention, but Meredith placed her finger to the map and began to trace a route. Similar to Frostfall Cavern, it looked like there were many diverting paths that one could take, each connected to an ever-sprawling and labyrinthine connection of hallways. What Meredith really took note of were the paths with multiple connections. They were the rooms that she knew provided an ease of getting from one place to the next, as opposed to just a straight path where a single block could mean automatic failure.

“Second from the right,” Eddie said, holding his own map up. Meredith nodded. She’d come to the same conclusion, as that hall led to a room with three different directions, and ended up having very few rooms in between the start and the end goal. “We’ll want to hurry, though, if others have already started.”

“Then what say we split the work in half and form a team?” Emil asked, grinning. He was floating again, and Meredith knew he was thinking highly of himself. She grabbed his arm and yanked him back down to the ground. “We’ve worked pretty well together, right? Clearing these ruins will be a piece of cake if all three of us are together.”

A pause. Eddie looked to Meredith, leaving the decision to her. She sighed. “Well, it’s not a bad idea.”

“Sweet! Let’s roll!” By this point, Meredith wasn’t even surprised when Emil had grabbed on to both her and Eddie to begin floating through the air at max speed. Even Eddie was bored as they descended through the halls. In no time, they arrived in the main hall, lit with braziers as usual and offering a number of paths forward. Per their advice, Emil turned, floating down the hall until he arrived at the appropriate room entrance and dropped them to the ground. “And here we are; though let’s be careful. No telling what kind of traps are set.”

“We’re aware, Emil, thank you,” Meredith said, unafraid to tack a snort on at the end. Eddie patted the blond as he walked by. The trio entered through the darkened portal that deposited them in the room.

Shunk! Clang!

Meredith whipped around and ran towards the door, only to bang into a metal surface and rebound off it. She rubbed her nose while her brain came to the obvious conclusion. Eddie didn’t concern himself with that, and instead brought a blossoming flame to his hand that illuminated the entrance where they stood. It didn’t quite cast a light on the whole picture, but Meredith could at least glean some form of idea regarding the puzzle that was before them, the room consisting of colored blocks and tiles.

“Up here. There are torches,” Emil called from the air, knocking on a wall. Eddie turned, throwing his fireball straight over. It hit the torch and exploded, lighting that corner of the room. It was enough to make the next torch visible, and Eddie fired, barely missing Emil. “Whoa, Eddie! Chill! You’ve got a lot of power, so there’s no need to make it so big. Focus on making it like an arrow, taking shape. Remember?”

“Visualize it?” Eddie asked. Whatever movement Emil had made was a confirmation, because Eddie scrunched his face. It took a few seconds, but Eddie formed a concentrated, burning arrow in his hands and aimed it. Meredith walked forward into the room, which was almost fully revealed when Eddie’s arrow struck. He continued, getting more precise with every shot at the torches until the entire room was bathed in a golden light.

“Emil, take me up,” Meredith called. Unlike before, Emil just applied his magic around her body, and Meredith found herself floating upward, though it became difficult to maintain her balance. Her arms snapped out to her side, giving her some equilibrium, and she stared down at the room.

As her earlier observation had indicated, there were six colored blocks present in blue, red, green, brown, yellow and black. Likewise, there were snaking tiles on the floor in those same colors, all coming from the walls, intersecting and clashing on their way until they joined in the center to what looked like an altar of sorts. In the middle of each of the paths were darker squares that Meredith wasn’t quite sure of. She nodded to Emil, and felt herself drop to the ground.

Her feet had barely touched the ground before she ran forward to one of those darker spots and placed her hand inside. It was an empty space, no doubt for where to place the blocks. The objective of the puzzle was becoming much clearer to her, though she hadn’t figured out every detail quite yet.

“We have to move the blocks into position, but which blocks where…?” she said aloud. Emil continued to float lazily in midair while Eddie joined her in thought. Her eyes tracked across the room, absorbing all of it. Where the lines intersected were definitely the places to put the boxes, but that answered nothing. She walked a little farther in, kneeling down to observe the colored tiles and running her hand over them. “Artwork? Or arrows?”

The more she stared, the more it became apparent to Meredith that they were arrows, pointing along the path to the altar. They were like energy conduits to power the room and the door on the other side. A grin stretched her face.

“It’s a wiring puzzle! Connecting the right wires to the right places,” Meredith said, turning to her two companions with a smile. “We just have to place the boxes in the right locations to power everything up. Emil, you can help with that. Eddie, help me figure out where to place them.”

“Does it really matter?” Emil said. He touched back down to the ground and one of the nearby boxes, touching it. It began to float in the air. “Long as it’s close enough to the colors on the floor, we can do a bit of trial and error if we’re wrong.”

“I’d rather get it right the first time, Emil. Time is sort of the most important factor here,” Meredith said. He didn’t agree, and was already pushing the blue box through the air, over to where the blue and green lines intersected. “You’re ridiculous.”

“I’ll still get us out of here no problem.” The box fell, inserting itself cleanly into the space that had been prepared for it. The side of the room suddenly glowed, electricity pulsing along the ground through the blue and green lines. Meredith tracked them until they hit the box, before splitting along the green line. Except it wasn’t green, but yellow. Once that yellow line hit the altar, the room began to shudder. “Or not.”

“You idiot!” Meredith said, feeling her eye twitch.

“Well, come on, blue matches blue!” Emil pointed out, gesturing wildly to where he’d placed the box. She couldn’t fault his logic, were it not for the fact that the blue line appeared to also intersect with red, while the green line intersected nothing else. “Fine, I screwed up. How do you want to fix this?”

“Get all the boxes in the center of the room and-”

The shuddering stopped. Emil sighed in relief, but Meredith kept her body posture tight, worried that it wasn’t quite done. It took a few seconds, and then the yellow light shot upwards, tinging the ceiling. Emil’s eyes widened, and he instantly faced the other cubes, levitating them into the air and shoving them over to the center, including the one he’d just placed. That wasn’t enough to stop what happened next, but at least Meredith felt there was a chance to fix things.

“Everyone split!” Eddie yelled, and Meredith barely saw him dive to the side of the room. Emil kept himself to his side while Meredith jumped forward, pressing herself against the altar. The ceiling opened up and, from there, something fell, magnetically attracted through the traces of sand on the stone floor.

The spike, as tall as she was, crashed into the floor. It wasn’t the only one, as more soon rained down, covering the room and separating her from the boys. Even the three exits were separated from each other. The stone floor was kicked up as the gleaming spikes remained, looking sharper to the touch the closer that she got.

“Mera, Emil, you guys all right?”

“Define all right, ‘cause I think that spike caught my scarf,” Emil said. He sounded more annoyed than pained, and a ripping noise soon followed. “Yup. Torn.”

“Stop whining. You got us into this,” Meredith said. His silent response communicated his acceptance of that fact. She took the minute of peace to look around the now changed room. She was completely blocked off, yet the lines that were leading to the altar remained undamaged and usable. The architectural plan was too well-thought. “Looks like we’ll have to meet up in the tablet room!”

“Well, at least our three paths will get us there eventually,” Eddie said. His voice was close to one of the spikes, and Meredith looked to him. “Shouldn’t be too hard if Emil doesn’t pull any more impulsive stunts on his own.”

“You’re never letting me live this down, are you?” Meredith and Eddie’s simultaneous reply of “nope” was enough to make him sigh. “I’ll be fine. First, we gotta get the exits to this room open. Maybe I’ll try moving these spikes just in case.”

“Not unless you want a bleeding stump of a hand. And where are you going to move them to, exactly?” That put the brakes on Emil’s attempt and he looked to play with his scarf, not unlike a scolded child. Meredith ran a hand back through her hair, retying it again while she approached the blocks. “I’ll figure this out. Just give me a minute.”

The boys shouted an affirmative (despite the room being small enough she could hear them anyway), and she observed the spaces that remained, limited though her room to work was. Before doing anything else, she moved to the green cube, finding it lighter than expected, and she dragged it over to the previously used slot. The green line lit up, and when it reached the altar, there was a soft humming, but no rumbling. Meredith cracked her knuckles.

She dashed across the room, shoving the blue block over to the spot she’d noticed earlier. This time it was a peaceful blue that lit up on the altar. Her body turned, taking note of each of the lines and where they intersected. The red line met up twice more, yet one of those it later intersected with didn’t at all. She grabbed the yellow and red cubes both, grunting with the exertion of moving them at the same time. In a matter of seconds, she’d delivered them to their locations, tinging the altar with red and yellow, leaving just the brown and black.

“It’s a fifty-fifty chance…great,” Meredith said under her breath. The two lines intersected twice…with each other. She pushed the last two blocks forward, still unsure where to place them. Eddie called out to her, asking if there was something wrong, but she ignored him. “Let’s take a chance, then.”

She pushed them into the slots with no regard to whether it was right or not. They sunk in, and Meredith waited.

Brown and black light shot upwards with the others, and at the ends of the room, all of the doors unlocked. Eddie took a drink of water in relief, prompting Meredith to reach for her own. She stopped, remembering the trial’s criteria, and instead decided to wipe away the sweat that had formed.

“Um…guys. I think this whole room is a giant trap,” Emil pointed out. Meredith spun on her heel, only to be faced with a chasm beginning to form as tiles dropped away. “We might want to run.”

Reality hit Meredith and she hopped back, gaining speed as she spun and made a beeline for the door out of this place. Emil and, to her surprise, Eddie were keeping an even pace with her as the floor fell away, all three of them aiming for their only ticket out of the death trap. The collapsing floor nipped at their heels, only the colored tiles remaining suspended, and Meredith bent her head low to pick up speed like a charging bull.

“Let’s not make the mistake of picking a room that tries to kill us even if we succeed again. Make it out and we’ll meet up on the other side!” Meredith called. Her door out was close. “Got it?”

“Got it!” The boys called. All three jumped in tandem, towards their doors. Eddie and Emil were soon cut off from Meredith’s view as she sailed through, rolling forward into a standing position. She faced backwards and watched as the last of the normal tiles fell away, leaving her with one option.

All alone now, she turned and beat a path down the darkened hallway, towards the next room that was on her map. Thankfully, it seemed to grow a bit lighter, enough to let her see and not fall to an inescapable death. Small shafts of light penetrated the exterior of the ruins, and the little tinkling noises told Meredith that metal had rusted, letting both sand and light through. The hall here wasn’t lit by any braziers, but she had enough light to see by. Her hand went back to pull out her map, hoping that Emil and especially Eddie would be okay on their own.

Her eyes finally adjusted, and she stopped just short of the chasm that spanned the room she’d found herself in.

“No way…this fortress is…a giant skyship…” Meredith’s awed words echoed around the chamber, heard by no one. It was a vacuum in the ruins, connected to no other rooms but the one she came from and the one she was going to. In a way, it was like the room was meant for her and her alone.

Broken catwalks crossed the space before her, sections missing or rusted while chains hung around. In the bowels below her, Meredith could see the inner workings of a now completely destroyed skyship engine. It was as if the entire fortress that had now sunken beneath the sands was the progenitor of skyships themselves. The engine was long in disuse, and certainly a model so old that no parts existed for it, but the very identity of what this place was excited the mechanic in her. Further down looked like maintenance tunnels leading through the fortress and beyond, if the map had been any indication.

Meredith shook her awe and focused on what lay before her, the catwalks swaying in the draft running through the ruins. At the end of them was a softly burgeoning light, inviting her, welcoming her. It was the goal.

The catwalk became the major priority, the gap too wide to jump until she got closer to the exit. Meredith frowned; if Emil had been here, they’d have been in and out without problem. His impulsiveness and inability to listen brought an annoyed frown, which soon turned into one of concentration as she looked up to the chains dangling. She walked closer and her hand gripped at the chain, pulling at it to see what happened in the darkness.

The chain, itself, held fast, yet seemed to slide. She narrowed her eyes, and after enough time, the fading light gave way to the pulley system she saw running halfway across the catwalk before ending in a rather deadly drop. More sand came through, obscuring the light, but Meredith chose to pay it no mind. She yanked on the chain again, and the pulley itself gave too much sway for her liking.

“Job for a mechanic then, huh?” Without thinking, Meredith rolled up her sleeves and grabbed the chain, putting her entire weight on it. The pulley held, though it was strained. Sucking in a breath, Meredith began to climb up the chain, careful to not slip. It was rusted, though not nearly as bad as what was below, and she was able to get to the top without incident. Right away, she found the offending screw, and the wheel that was off its track, jiggling on its hold.

Meredith wiped her sweat again and leaned her body, careful to not put too much weight on the contraption. Her fingers got inside and wiggled the wheel around until she could take it out. It looked just as bad as the rest of the system, but Meredith chose to lift the holding for the pulley and insert the wheel back on its track. Once she had, she put the loose screw back as best as she could.

“Here’s hoping this works, then. Hold for me, ‘kay?” With those words and a pat, Meredith slid back down, holding fast to the end of the chain. She gave the chasm another look and she backed up. Putting a burst of speed behind her legs, Meredith ran forward, the chain traveling with her, and when she reached the end, she jumped. Her hands continued to hold to the chain.

The pulley shot forward like a zipline, carrying her across the great expanse, towards the light at the end. The contraption rattled on its hold, making her very bones vibrate and her skin ripple, but she passed over the first gap with ease, and then the second gap.

It was on the third gap that the pulley shook so violently, it began to get loose from its hold. The next platform was approaching, and before it could all give way under her, Meredith let go. Her feet flew out and touched to the end of the nearest piece of catwalk. It groaned under her weight, and Meredith spun her arms like a windmill to get balance. The creaking grew louder, and she could tell the floor beneath her feet was going to snap off any time. To counteract, Meredith put as much weight behind her movement as she dared and sped across the catwalk. Upon reaching the end, she jumped again and landed safely on the next piece.

She didn’t stop running, and the crash that sounded a few seconds later told her that it had been a very close shave. Her whole body was on fire as it ran, sweat pouring down. She jumped when she needed to jump. Ran when she needed to run. The light drew closer, more heat pouring upon her skin. Every step was wobbly, as though she would crash down at any moment amidst this piece of lost history.

However, just as the final catwalk threatened to toss her over, she made the final leap and ended on far sturdier ground. Unlike the room before, her movement wasn’t as graceful and she ended flat on her stomach, breathing heavily. The sweat didn’t stop coming, but she regained the rhythm in her breathing.

Meredith was alone, the crashing of the catwalks left behind her and the ruins having gone completely silent. Or they did for a moment. A different sound entered her head, like one she never heard before, or had never realized. She pushed up on the ground, curious as to where the noise was coming from. It sounded like voices, or the scattered remnants of one, buzzing around in her head. More sweat fell from her brow.

Meredith pushed on, through the latest connecting hallway, its luminescence flaring brighter and brighter the more she traveled along it. The noise got louder, too, whispers clashing in her head. She tried to shut them out by closing her eyes, yet that amplified them. It was burning inside, like a strong connection that told her she needed to see this.

And when she crossed the threshold and did see it indeed, her jaw nearly dropped upon realizing where she was. Before her was a giant chalice filled with fire that eclipsed the whole room, but burned nothing it touched, like a mystical illusion. Meredith, however, knew exactly what it was, if not the reason she was drawn to it. So, she uttered it aloud: “The desert’s magic core of fire.”