Both girls tried to promote what information they could in order to sway things into their favour, but neither Sryine nor Vwyx were having much success in that regard. Desperation was building in both girls, realizing just how much they were at a loss.

“Wow, Vwyx, come on, work with me here, I thought we had a deal. Between stuff we already know and stuff I can tell you’re just making up, it's almost as if you’ve got nothing more to offer. Come on, I’m trusting you here. You made me worry you were backing out on us before back at the observatory, don’t make me feel like I’m misplacing my kindness.” “You jerk, stop being so unreasonable. Why do your deals always suck so much, like the one you broke with my family. You’re the one who is so difficult to trust here, I’m just doing my best.” “Wow, so it’s like that, huh? Vwyx, you wound me, I really thought I could count on you for something more. Well, if you’re going to be like that, then I’ll be honest with you, you’re going to be in for a world of hurt. Poor Riyxia and Sryine are going to suffer so much because of you. If you’re not going to save them working with me, maybe you had best run off and save them by yourself.” Fhyernx’s threat was very alarming for Vwyx, bringing her to a defensive stance urgently. Once she was gone, Fhyernx went into another nearby room and found Ieqyisa waiting for him already. Ieqyisa hadn’t had much more luck either, but at least the arena was set. Ieqyisa opened a portal for Fhyernx and herself, Liyuzhe waiting for them both on the other side.

“So I assume both girls have been set into the maze, things going all according to plan.” “Except for the total lack of useful information, everything is fine. Both girls really wanted to know more about Riyxia… What exactly became of her anyway?” “Oh relax, she’s waiting comfortably at the end of the maze for when she is needed.” Liyuzhe tossed forwards a small wooden talisman onto a nearby metal shelf, one that was very familiar for Ieqyisa. Ieqyisa picked it up concerned while Liyuzhe went to get some water to deal with a sore throat. Liyuzhe didn’t feel like using her voice again for a while, and it didn’t help that they had some pretty warm arrangements to look forward too. Fhyernx passed around some diving gear, a replacement for their power armor that would be fairly useless where they were going. Ieqyisa had already confirmed that their equipment in the observatory was still waiting in position, it could be warped over the moment they reached their destination. With a maze like arena such as this, the girls would be far too busy to try to catch up to them, so they wouldn’t need to worry about stuff such as defenses or being followed, they could simply invest their complete attention to the flame. Liyuzhe pulled out the magnificent void crystal they had just procured with the help of Riyxia’s blood, it was the last thing they had required in order to make their dream a reality.

Sryine ran from hall to hall, seeing very little that distinguished one place from another. It didn’t take long to figure out either that the design of this place was built to make sure someone inside got lost. Passing around a corner, she noticed what appeared to be a blossom blowing in the wind, fluttering to the ground. It had caught her off guard for a moment, the only distinguishing feature of the place, but it seemed to be nothing at all. That was like something straight out of a storybook tale, following a blossom that tried to take her where she would need to, completely nonsense. She had tried earlier to use her acceleration too to get around the halls.. only to figure out that she was probably walking in circles and wasting her energy in the process. At the very least, walking in circles in normal time didn’t drain so much out of her, but it also allowed her to resolve footprints on the ground that she might be able to spot sooner. When she walked into what honestly looked like an old fashioned laundry room, she fell to the floor in tears. This place wasn’t just confusing, it was huge, she didn’t have a clue where she was, where anyone else was, or where she was going.

Vwyx was certain that she had just walked into what could have only been a jail block. Damp dark spaces with chains and shackles littered the dreary environment, expanding into the unlit darkness before her beyond the reach of her glowing arm. It looked exactly like the best place to keep someone captive, which could very well be exactly where one or both of her friends were being held. Certainly, nothing about these bindings looked like it could actually contain either of them, but she was really running out of options here. Still, she could feel such a foreboding presence in the area, like something wanted to tell her she didn’t belong here, not at this hour of the night at least. Finding the place to be sufficiently abandoned, she decided to take up such advice and find another place to visit instead.. a path that quickly led her into what appeared to be a very rudimentary sleeping quarters. Vwyx wasn’t one to believe in ghosts, but somehow this place was starting to feel haunted from phantoms of another age.

Sryine eventually found herself in what appeared to be a very old and run-down library, totally devoid of any books too. It was a shame, a place like this looked like it would deserve a book or two too. Another blossom fluttered around and fell against one of the bookshelves, foolishly adding itself instead of an actual book. Sryine sighed and went to clean it up, her hand brushing over a very carefully hidden switch in the process. A stairwell going down was revealed, leading into a really dirty hall that clearly hadn’t seen people in a long time. The whole thing looked like the raw interior of some kind of instrument, unmoving gears stiff everywhere like time had stopped. At the other end, on a platform marred by what looked like a series of lightning strikes, sat a single book abandoned to the ages, exactly what she had asked for. The book was even written in old elvish, a language she actually wasn’t all that good with. It was a book, but it didn’t seem to be for her, the only label on the cover that made sense being the word “Lwyn”. Yeah, this was creepy, she didn’t want to have anything to do with it. Putting the book back where she found it, she fled the room, making sure to seal it back up behind her.

Vwyx continued along the halls, absolutely hating the layout of the place. Somehow the dark corners of the halls started to seem to glow a faint and dreery red. It was really feeling like the halls were trying to actually terrify her, like she was supposed to be afraid of the darkness. She wasn’t, but if things kept up.. that might eventually change. A faint hiss of the wall sprung beside her, startling her.. but she had just imagined it. She still regardless threw herself against the opposite wall, uncovering a hidden container of the wall, the unit labeling itself as the fifth of.. something. Inside, she found what actually appeared to be a map of the whole place, having clearly been forgotten about for quite a long time. The map was still a challenge to get used to, so it wasn’t exactly perfect. Worse, she didn’t really know where she might be on the map. Vwyx took it with her, evaluating things as she went along, trying her best to figure things out.

Sryine was finding everything to be really creepy and haunting. While trying to stay aware of footprints, she found what seemed to be footprints on the ceiling.. which didn’t even seem logical. You don’t walk on the ceiling, people stay on the floor. Eventually, she found a stairwell that went upwards in a sharp spiral. At the top of the spire, she found a door standing so very obviously important. Opening the door, she saw an interior that appeared almost blanket in white, hauntingly so. She slammed the door, then tried to open it again, realizing she was just being silly. The door however didn’t move, like it was locked and sealed. Yup, back down the stairs. She travelled again until she found another stairwell going upwards in another spiral, footprints of a variety looking much like her own heading carefully towards it. She poked her nose around the corner, finding the entire area ending in a dead end, the path up appearing long removed. Sryine was quickly coming to the realization that she really didn’t want to be here anymore.

Vwyx was gradually coming to terms with how her map worked, though a lot of it was smudged after being so old. The whole place was split into twelve different sections, with an expanse that covered all twelve as a series of rings. The halls and corridors however were so obviously designed to take you exactly where you didn’t want to go, so she still had no idea where she might be according to the map, the map was almost effectively useless. She walked through a doorway into another dark room. Wandering around, she followed a passage leading into another room, a faint glint and rumble glaring at her through the darkness caused her to jump in fear again.. until she figured out it was just some sort of convoluted laundry.. thing. Wow, it made the village look modern. She really couldn’t believe such a thing had terrified her, one couldn’t be afraid of something as ordinary as laundry. As she left, she found another set of footprints nearby.. someone else had been here, or had she already done this before?

Sryine came upon a six-way intersection, finding footprints going in all five other directions. The worst part was, she was certain the most complex intersection she had faced had only been of four-ways. On the ground, looking like familiar deja-vu, was another one of those floating blossoms, looking to still be exactly where she saw it before. But wait, didn’t she see it at a four-way intersection? Looking carefully, she could even see the pair of footprints nearby even had gone towards the blossom, just as she had remembered. However, if that was true, that would also mean she was almost back where she had started. Exasperated, she fell to the floor, looking up at the ceiling.. seeing more footprints. Yup, she was losing it, this place was taking her sanity away from her. She just laid there for a time, not wanting to move, her blood dripping on the metal floor as she just laid there, still having singed it but leaving no lasting marks. She felt hopeless, nothing she did would matter, she was just trapped here, alone. The blossom got caught in another gust of wind and brushed right up beside her leg.

“Ha, you make it seem like I’m not alone. Oh by the divines, now I’m talking to a blossom like it’s an invisible friend.. I’ve really lost it now. Fine, if we’re going to sink into madness, might as well go all the way, right? I should let you know, I’ve been there before.. though it was very different. Back then, I felt far less in control of myself.. here I’m just helpless about everything else. I’ve got a couple of friends I’m trying to find, you see, and so it hurts being unable to do anything for them. I’m really worried one of them might even be in trouble… What do you think?” Sryine picked up the blossom using the gift of her own wind and just had it flutter there for a moment, dusting herself off. Brushing the dust inspired the irrefutable need to sneeze, disrupting her concentration and sending the blossom fluttering off. She rushed after it as it stuck to a nearby sign, beside an arrow indicating a turn to the right after passing three corridors.. the label for where that went being meaningless. Oh well, she had no idea where she was going anyway, it’s not like she could do any worse.

Vwyx went up another flight of stairs to yet another level of the entire facility.. after having gone down two flights to get there. She followed the corridor to a suddenly wide and long stairwell, going up what would be another three floors in the process. She continued onward, no sign at all where she might be, which is why she had put the map away a long time ago. However, while everything about the layout was confusing, something was just giving her the feeling that she was in a very central location.. and that she was also near the upper level. That was a rather specific feeling, not exactly like her, but one she really couldn’t help. She also had the feeling she was exactly where she needed to be finally. Of course, that just proved how foolish such feelings were, because there was nothing of importance here. To fulfill her statement, she looked around, spotting a door suspiciously off to the side. So, was her feelings an implication that she should see what is on the other side of such doors? Of course it was. At this point, if a ghost jumped out and made a weird sound, she wouldn’t be surprised. Utterly terrified, yes, but not surprised.

Inside the room, she found a large collection of some very unusual screens, not of any design she was used to. The stupid things didn’t even have the proper connectors for the gift, there was no way to actually power the things. She poked one of the monitors, which sparked with some faint static electricity, shocking her. Lightning, in here? That was strange. Actually, was it? Was anything normal? She looked over the collection, one of the monitors in the back standing out to her. Of course, she had a feeling she should shake it, makes total sense. The static charge she had built up earlier discharged when she touched the other monitor, an electrical current sizelling in the process. A picture formed on the monitor, without any color, the sounds projected were muffled by a static hum. In the picture, she saw two familiar faces, one sitting in almost a daze, the other carrying a really magnificent looking crystal.. one she strongly felt was black.

“Thank you Riyxia for your cooperation. I know, right now in your condition, you’re not capable of doing much, but soon you’ll snap right out of it and be ready to do what you need to. Even so, I’m surprised you walked right into this, not even seeming to be aware.” The Liyuzhe in the picture waved a tiny object in the air, before putting it back away. “This is one of our wooden talismans, you see, stuff we’ve had to make a lot of to meet with some of our goals, specifically around the use of beasts. The whole project required a lot of coordination, you know. It was my gift that entranced the beasts, made them open to commands and all that, and it was Fhyernx who made the instrument to ensure that control was sustained. Ieqyisa was important for transportation, her gift for warping around was vital for bringing beasts where we needed to make the whole process work after all. But even that wouldn’t have been enough. My gift, after all, really only inspires some compulsion, not absolute blind obedience. Every beast would have denied such commands, fought against anything that didn’t appeal to its nature, would have made the whole thing impossible. But we weren’t a team of three back then, as you know, we did have a fourth. Khyzae had brought us the last piece we needed, some wood that had some really interesting properties. We only figured out everything recently, but it seemed such properties were even itself caused by the flame too, over exposure having had a long term influence over its state. The very wood inside faced torment by the flame, a constant despair that made it surrender to the flame eventually, to give up on everything. Making use of such a fancy property allowed us to project this same impression into a beast wearing the talisman over an extended period, the beast’s will just faded away, making it very susceptible.” Liyuzhe cleared her throat at that point, her voice seemed to have been hard pressed for some reason, cracking slightly at some of the words near the end.

“Anyway, you really might be familiar with such wood, but you might not remember just how familiar you really are. Your father really has been a genius of his own right, making you such a realistic body to live in. So much had gone into that, you know, but of everything that was required, you might forget what Khyzae wrote as being the most interesting. It seems that having such a vessel that can be influenced by an artificial host needs a lot of elements that make it easy for the host to manipulate. There is so much wood element in the tissues of the body, so using a certain wood in the process.. it just makes sense, right? What better way to ensure that the host can manipulate their body than to ensure it was made with wood that made the body easier for it to manipulate? That sort of makes you also a living walking talisman, of the same sort Khyzae gave to us. Clearly, there was some shared inspiration going on, right? But there you have it, that’s why you’re feeling so strange after listening to my singing, after witnessing my gift for yourself. I’ve actually made use of your own construction to turn such subtle compulsion into what will eventually bring me outright control. I’m sorry Riyxia, I really am. I didn’t want to have to force you against your will like this, but you backed me into a corner, I had nothing else I could do. Don’t worry, I’ll restore you later, after we get back from the vent with our grand prize. At that point, I would owe you for it, maybe we could all work together on your star project at that point, see about making that happen next? Really no hard feelings okay? Anyway, you should get some rest, relax there as you adjust to things and let the control sink in. When you’re ready, it seems the first thing I’m going to need you to do is to keep the other two occupied and out of our way. Don’t need to actually hurt them or anything, just make sure they don’t leave, not until I get back, okay? Thanks.” Liyuzhe walked off screen at that point, footsteps fading into the distance. The camera stayed focused on Riyxia for a while after that, although she didn’t move or do anything at all for the entire duration. Then the screen flickered and the picture went out.

Vwyx had a feeling she had just watched a recording, not a live event.. and she was finding it really annoying that she kept having these very explicit and explanatory feelings. Beyond any such really strange feelings, there were some very logical facts obvious from what she had just witnessed. First off, Riyxia had fallen victim to Liyuzhe’s influence, which appeared to be of the extreme quality because of the properties of the wood that she was made from. Secondly, that there might still be time to do something about it, if she could at all possibly arrive before things actually kicked in. However, she was still getting a really bad feeling that things were going to get worse than just that at this rate. She started cursing such feelings until she clued in to a logical explanation for them.

Liyuzhe was trying to control Riyxia, much like she had tried to control beasts in the past. Vwyx had herself since witnessed just how much Liyuzhe remained in control when a beast was filled with the flame.