Ch: 21 The Path left Forgotten

I stood there glancing at the unassuming wall that was suppose to be a door. The pixies quickly bored of my intent staring and flew around the room with chatter about anything and everything that drew their attention.

Finally, I turned to Zalia.

“So, I guess your search for why the stars had connections to the Sky Circles got some answers, huh?”

Truthfully, I was trying to make small talk as I tried to figure out how to go forward.

Zalia on the other hand appeared completely engrossed with the mystery of it all as she only said,

“I did! Now, each of these represent a different constellation in the sky. It means, that if we look to each corresponding pedestal, we might find, well something.”

I glanced to the five circles and as the pixies drifted by one, different glyphs than without their light sprung up.

Quickly I ran across to the pixies and kept my face straight as I asked,

“Why is it that there are glyphs lighting up as you fly by.”

The tiny pixies turned to me.

“I don’t know if we should tell you.”

“You are suppose to find it.”

“Yes. He is! He can see. So, he can find it.”

“Indeed, he shares her light.”

I sighed. So there were things that either meant I had to have higher charisma to glean more information, or it was suppose to be discovered by trial and error.

Purposefully, I turned away from them as I racked my brain for a way to get some useful hints.

“I bet he is scrunching his face again!”

“That would be so facinating! Indeed.”

I spun around, normal absolutely boring face and asked,

“So, do I need anything outside this room to open that door?”

The pixies regarded me, and I could see their faces get little frowns of their owns. Finally they said at the exact same time.

“No!” ”Yes!”

About to slap my forehead in a facepalm. I, thankfully stopped short. That would have been a no-no in front of them. So, I calmly asked.

“Which is it, it can’t be no and yes at the same time. In fact, you are contradicting yourselves. It wouldn’t do if you want me to find the way, now would it?”

Both the pixies suddenly looked anxious, as they quickly conversed with each other in low tones. Then, they turned, clearly happy about something as they said,

“You are right!”

“We are sorry!”

“So, we thought we would clarify it a bit.”

“Yes, we did. It is definitely a no. But, since there is something that needs to happen that is outside, it does have a yes.”

“But you don’t have to strictly speaking leave the room for it to happen. But a quick walk from this chamber is very advised. You need to see.”

“So, no but a small yes.” The other pixie finally said.

Hmm, definitely useful.

“Can I open that door today?” I asked thoughtfully.

The pixies looked at each other and happily nodded.

“Thank you,” I said, “Sorry to have bothered you two.”

“Oh, that is fine.”

“Very very fine. We enjoy this a lot.”

“Indeed. Riddles. Puzzles!”

“Yes, many secrets, but all can be found.”

With that, I left the two and walked back to Zalia, who busied herself studying one of the five circular structures. The one with the red glyphs to be specific.

“Zalia, I think I got some information out of those two.” I said.

She turned to me.

“Good. This puzzle is very intricate. It’s hard to make up or down.”

I nodded and said,

“So, we know the Pixies reveal different types of glyphs in the room when they go by. And I found out now that everything we need to solve it, is either within here or at the very least a quick walking distance from here, except for one thing, but we don’t need to leave the room for that other thing to happen.”

Zalia sat back and tapped her bottom lip in thought. Then she said,

“That is useful information. But, what do you think needs to happen outside? That can be a lot of different things, and the timing could make that so much more.”

She was right with that. That is why the next part was necessary.

“Thing is,” I said, “I asked them if I could open the door today and they nodded yes. But did advise me to take a quick walk to see something. What ever that means.”

Zalia’s eyes lit up and she happily said,

“Smart! That narrows it down by big margins.” Then her eyes dropped in concentration. “It still doesn’t give us much to work on. The different set of glyphs, and on each these circular things is definitely a star constellation. Though, I can’t make up or down to how it fits. But... the pixies' information definitely helps.”

I looked around, and she was right, there were five star constellations represented. Okay, so there were natural glyph carvings, then there were a few glyphs that lighted up as the pixies flew by. But the big kicker here was, everywhere with a glyph there was a stone circle that accompanied it. So, they needed to turn...

But there were so many of them. It didn’t help at all to know they could be turned. It was like having a vault tumbler have more than a hundred strong combination and only one complete set in the sequence opened it. Insane! That was what it was.

What was worse, as I tried turning a few to start seeing if I could maybe do it by process of elimination, the dials reset to their first default placings. Only after five turns to boot!

Zalia checked my experiment and as it reset, she threw her hands up in frustration and blurted,

“That makes this so much worse! How are we suppose to find the right combination if they reset with too many mistakes. Ugh! This is crazy.”

With that she stomped off and started fiddling on her own.

She was absolutely right. I couldn’t fault her for showing the same frustration I felt.

Three hours later...

“Let’s see if we have to start a certain constellation first. Maybe that would work.” Zalia called from the other side of the room.

“Could work. We haven’t made any progress yet, so we might as well try.” I said.

We started with the closest to the door and turned its dials. But again, after five turns it reset. All five did the same. So, nothing.

It didn’t help that the pixies were over the moon each time one of us got so frustrated that we shouted into the room and pulled a very weird face. If fact, I screamed just then,

“AAAAAGH! This is useless.”

“Oh joy! He’s making a new face! I wonder what it means.”

“It is a scary face!”

“Oh, yes it is! Should we tell him that.”

I glared at the pixies, on the verge to go throttle them.

But then Zalia, stood up next to me said,

“We haven’t gone to check the standing stones, I mean, the Sky Circle yet. Maybe that will hold a clue. I just remembered there were constellation markings on them!”

I immediately clapped my hands smiling broadly.

“That’s brilliant.” I beamed. “The other room had nothing in it, but a quick walk could mean the Sky Circle. Well done!”

Zalia smiled back and with that we rushed to the mount of snow that laid just below the opening. We scrambled up and I lifted Zalia by her hips onto the stone circle that ringed the opening. She hefted herself up and gave me a hand.

It was a bit tricky. But I got up.

The blizzard had lessened, but the gusts were still strong enough that my exposure metre maybe had twenty minutes in it before I had to go inside again.

We trudged through the thick snow towards the Sky Circle.

Almost immediately, I noted there were five stone rocks pointing towards each other.

Of course! The puzzle in the room below had something to do with the Standing Stones.

Why didn’t we think of it earlier...

Anyway, I shook my head.

The wind between the stones weren’t so bad, so at least the markings were clear. And like Zalia said, each one had a constellation on it! This was it.

I walked up close to one of the rocks and the star constellations had nothing of note about them. So I fiddle around, before my eyes locked on a small square in the middle of the rock. I pushed on it and within seconds I watched as small glyphs slid into the gaps of the constellations.

“Zalia!” I called, “Come look. I found something.”

She hurried over and said,

“Yes! We needed something like that. However, not all the gaps are filled for some reason...”

I nodded in agreement and said,

“Still, it does give us something to work from.”

The next ten minutes we each memorized a set of glyphs and we slipped back down into the chambers before the exposure starting getting too bad.

We each sat in front of a constellation below and I starting turning my dials into place. As I hit seven without it resetting I jumped up and did an air pump.

Then the giggling exploded from behind and I slumped my shoulders. Those pixies...!

But then I saw Zalia giggling as well and I smiled.

Alright, back to work. I encouraged myself and started filling in the rest of the glyphs I had memorized.

It took about half and hour to get all five constellations set up like they were above, taking that we had to go back each time we forgot a glyph or two.

But then the last one clicked in place, and both of us jumped up and looked at the door with expectation.

Can’t say disappointment didn’t bubble up in me then. But, I sighed and said,

“I expected as much with the several gaps we still have. There is a hidden layer and I’m betting it has to do with those pixies. Ready for it?”

Zalia glanced at me, her features tight.

“I guess we have no choice.”

I shook my head sadly.

As cute and bubbly as those little pixies were. They simply never stopped talking once something caught their attention. So, we both breathed in deeply and I called, barely managing to keep myself from squeaking like with the bear.

“Oi. There is something we have to ask.”

Immediately the pixies came fluttering close.

“Yes?”

“Of course!”

“Do you think they want to ask us about their faces?”

“I do think you are so right!”

Both Zalia and I put our heads in our hands before we looked to the new set of glyphs glowing on the closest constellation.

“But there are like fifteen for each empty one!” Zalia exclaimed.

“Indeed there is!” One pixie said.

“We counted!”

“Okay, let’s see if we can do it by trial and error like before.” I said and started to try turning the dial to try one of the glyphs. But it immediately reset even after my first try. So, I tried all fifteen, yet each time it went back to its default setting.

I looked to Zalia, and she clearly realized it too.

“But, how then?” I asked utterly confused. I didn’t even worry about the pixies seeing my face like that.

However, they didn’t talk about my face then.

“He doesn’t know!”

“They both so don’t know!”

“I wonder if they will know!”

“What a puzzle!”

“Indeed!”

I blanched. And stared at them.

“What don’t we know?” I asked.

The pixies gasped in unison.

“He doesn’t know what he needs to know, so he asks what he doesn’t know!”

“How scary!” The other pixie chirped and I slapped my forehead.

“Look! It’s so scary, he is even hitting himself!” The closest pixie stared with big eyes.

“Fascinating!” The other one almost shouted.

Finally, Zalia, stepped between the pixies and I before she said,

“That is not what he asked. You said we don’t know something, so we wanted to ask you what is it that you thought we didn’t know.”

“Ohhhh!” The pixies drew out the word. “That is a secret.”

“A big secret.”

“One we can’t say.”

“Oh, no we can’t. It would spoil the fun.”

Zalia turned to me and sat down against the one circular structure.

“Well, it seems we have to figure out what we don’t know, then.” She said to me in a lower tone.

I just sat with her and replied,

“It looks like it.”

“I’m getting hungry.” Zalia said, touching her midsection.

“Yeah me too. If we had wood, then I’d make us some of the last Sabre-Tooth Steaks.”

“That would have been lovely.” Zalia said with longing.

Then I heard a whisper in my ear.

“There is a fire through that door.”

“Yes there is. It is nice and hot.” Another whisper in my other ear and I practically leapt forward at the suddenness of the whispers from the pixies. I stood up, a vein throbbed in my head as I growled.

“That’s just great! Now we know there is a fire on the other side of the door, but we can’t get through the door.”

“Not yet.” A pixie chirped.

“But maybe soon. Once you see!”

“Oh, yes, maybe then!”

I just stomped off and started trying to figure the puzzle out again. Zalia joined me.

Another three hours later.

“That’s it!!! I can’t take this any more! There has to be something we are missing!” I shouted into the room that didn’t want to give up its secrets.

Zalia sat against a wall, just not saying anything.

I sighed and got out my furs and plopped them down next to her.

“It’s just about nightfall. So, we might as well get some rest.”

She nodded and said.

“I really hoped we could figure it out today. But you are right. Maybe the sleep would give us new inspiration.”

I certainly hoped so!

With that, I sat back on the one side of the furs and swiftly fell asleep.

Somewhere in the night I woke up. There was a humming sound. In fact, if felt musical in nature.

I got up. Zalia still slept soundly.

Glancing around, I didn’t see anything different. But the humming remained. It wasn’t irritating at all. It had a soothing effect. I looked over and saw the two pixies, silently kicking their legs. But, they just looked at me and smiled without saying anything. I almost got a huge frown on my face at that, but immediately caught myself before walking past the pixies. Touching my index finger to my lips, I motioned for them to be quiet and they actually nodded! I was floored!

That was weird...

As if to kinda gather my thoughts after that, I walked to the other room. The humming changed to a sound of a rain instrument, just less set in its uniformity and more with a change in flow and pitch.

I got up on the snow mound and jumped to grab the stone opening up above.

Grunting and groaning with effort, I got up and received a ping.

I quickly tapped it and saw,

+1 Grip

+1 Muscle Memory

That’s cool. The more the better.

Up top, I quickly realized that the blizzard had mostly passed and parts of the night sky had opened up and only a small breeze stirred the air. Good. Even if we couldn’t figure out that frikken puzzle, it meant we could move towards our other goal.

About to hop back in, my gaze crossed the standing stones...

Wait! What?

I ran towards them and there were lights drifting from each one with a trail of spark like essence following each. It looked like paint being pulled through the air, just without it falling and also that it glowed.

Stepping into the circle finally revealed something that I almost fell to my knees to sob.

The empty slots on the constellations were filled with glowing glyphs!

Ping!

I ignored the ping and ran towards the hole in the ground, not even stopping in time, falling with a huff into the snow and tumbling down to the bottom. With a loud grunt, I collided with the floor.

I disregarded the -10 health and scrambled to my feet. As I entered the other room frantically glancing around and saw Zalia.

I ran past the pixies who said,

“He realized!”

“He saw.”

And nothing more.

Getting to Zalia, still sleeping soundly. I didn’t even wait and softly shook her awake.

She groaned and swatted at me. But I was insistent.

Finally she sat up rubbing at her eyes and said,

“What!? And I was having such a good dream too.”

I looked at her confused then just shook my head and said,

“I found the clue!”

Zalia got more alert.

“You found it?!”

I nodded and said,

“No wonder we couldn’t do it before. It’s the way of stars! You need night for stars to show!”

Zalia slapped her hand to her forehead.

“Of course! Why didn’t we think of that! By the way, ouch, why on earth do you slap your forehead so often?”

Laughing, I pulled Zalia up and glancing towards the door, it actually had a tiny bit of glow to it.

I ran to the closest constellation and motioned the pixies over, saying.

“Please just give us a little light. It’s still night, so keep it down a bit if you can.”

Then they said together, though softer than normal.

“Of course.”

And then kept quiet.

Zalia, bless her heart, looked like her eyes were going to pop out of her head as she stared at the pixies. Her chest lifted with the intake of breath to say something when I gave her a pointed stare.

She quickly closed her mouth and nodded. Enjoying the moment rather than change it.

I turned the first dial with the glowing set of glyphs, and finally it clicked into place and stayed.

It worked! Both Zalia and I beamed. I quickly continued with the ones I could remember, but after about five more, we had to go back topside to memorize the rest.

Within fifteen minutes, Zailia and I dialed in the last two glowing glyphs and with a breathless pause, we waited.

Then, something shifted inside the floor. The sound travelled to the door, which by now glowed with intricate details. A beautiful masterpiece!

I huffed at my earlier thought of it being the most boring door I ever saw.

Then, in the middle between two imposing heads etched into door facing away from each other, a small hole with square in it opened. I touched it and it sunk in. With a loud tik, the door started opening.

Zalia and I both put our hands to a door side and pushed.

“The way of Stars is open.” The one pixie said quietly but with clear happiness.

“We have hoped. Thank you, so much.” The other pixie said shyly.

Ping!

Then we stepped into the hallway lit with glowing turquoise lights. At the end of the bright and colorful wall, a fire burned brightly.

Both Zalia and I smiled at each other and ran towards it.