BXBX NOVEL Chapter 87: The Wall
Chapter 87: The Wall
Green stepped back and examined the area trying to see if there was anything noteworthy in the dead end other than the mural. Scanning the grey not-stone walls and flooring Green looked for even small inconsistencies but nothing could be found. *Hmm… must be the wall then, I doubt you'd need higher level observational abilities… well I what if I'm not good enough though.*
No Green that's silly, this is the first round, you are one of the best scouts of your age. Then again… Thyme seems more powerful than a normal examiner, most of them have crews of people and build the sets ahead of time. They don't just raise them from the ground with a wave of the hand…
Green gripped her head in her hands and rested it on the wall. Shutting her eyes and letting her thoughts run wild in her head. Doubting that she'd found all the clues, that she'd missed something.
What snapped her out of it was an errant thought, Wait, can't everyone still see me? Green instantly recovered her posture and started pacing back and forth in front of the mural and pretended she had calmed down somewhat. *Is this a history question? Should I know more about the war? I mean… I wasn't really trained for this, this is Nixilei's job she knows all this sort of stuff. I mean really why are there riddles in the scout test.*
Green slammed her fist into the wall to try and let out a bit of frustration. She wasn't normally someone who used violence to lower her stress levels, but she couldn't cuddle up in a corner to sleep or munch on some nice food so violence it was. As Green's fist made contact with the wall the section of the mural that was hit slid into the wall and faded. Green panicked, thinking she'd done something wrong and hit it again causing the stone to return to its previous state.
Green let out a long breath. *Is that the real reason father always advocated to hit things when stressed over a puzzle? Surely not…* Green moved to the other side of the mural and tried again, being gentler with her press and found the wall slid in easily dimming as it did over the first section.
*Ok, so I can make the wall dim… but what can I do with that?* Green tried the simplest thing which was dimming all of the wall sections. After she did that they all pushed themselves back out again resetting the puzzle.
*Right, um that's something? Progress right? So… I guess I need to push them all done in the right order maybe? But what order? I really don't know that much about the war. Um, could he be who came off the best? No… we sort of all lost I think that was the point. Um… who started it? I don't even remember… well plan B.*
Green got close to the wall and slowly pressed in the section depicting the forest clan. Green felt the mechanism behind it shift and applied a bit of wind energy to try and get some information about what was behind it. Green wasn't really proficient in trap making but you pick up a few things from trap disassembly. *Hmm, I think this one isn't quite locked in place.* Pushing it out again Green went and tried the others.
It was the fourth one, the sea tribe that seemed to be different. When it locked into place the mechanism behind it seemed to be completely pushed in, just a fraction of a centre metre further than the rest. Leaving that one pressed in Green repeated her process from the start, finding out that the forest tribe clicked further in this time.
Green repeated her testing, eventually pressing down the humans, and the beast clans as well, leaving only the mountain clan. *Ok, this is the last one. Let's hope this is right.* Green slowly pressed the final part of the mural down. Clicking and whirring noises sounded from the mural and the various pieces of it started to shift around to follow the order Green had indicated.
A final click resounded, but then nothing happened. Green strained her senses for any change in the mural. Finding nothing she was just about to scan the rest of the room when the sound of pressurised wind resounded from the centre of the mural. Focusing on the orb Green watched it shoot out towards her. Catching it in her left hand she let her momentum carry her in circles and dissipate the energy in the orb hoping not to crack it.
Green held the orb up to her eyes. *Good it looks like it isn't damaged. I suppo-* Green's thoughts were interrupted by another pressurised sound turning back to face the wall to witness a second orb flying towards her Green threw the first orb into the air and repeated her spinning trick to catch the second one. Green then cast the only spell she could actually recall without the help of her enchantments.
Calling forth a light gust of air under her control she buffeted the orb above her head and she scrambled to place the second orb into her satchel so that she could free her hands to catch the second one. The bag opened easy enough and the orb disappeared into it without hesitation. As Green was closing it though she had another idea. Holding the bag open and in front of her she let the orb fall down into it avoiding any unnecessary issues of how fragile these orbs may or may not be by letting it fall straight into the bag.
Green released the breath she didn't know she was holding and leant against the wall sliding down until she reached the ground. *I'm glad the ground is clean at least.* Eyeing the ground Green realised it wasn't just clean though, it was spotless. *I suppose that's to be expected though, this place just came into existence like what an hour? Two hours? Ago. Nice for taking a breather though.*
Green decided to use this as a chance to meditate a little and restore her mana. She hadn't burnt much but without being able to see what lay ahead it was the safest course of action. Nixilei would be proud… as long as she didn't fall asleep instead of just meditating a little.
Five minutes of recovery later and Green was ready to continue on. Returning to the forward march through the twists and turns Green eventually found herself at a four way intersection. The first of its kind. Though having already established that agonising over choices was pointless she continued to march forward without stopping.
This promptly lead her to a dead end, but a quick backtrack and a left turn changed that quickly. *Grey stone there, more grey stone there, still more grey stone. Wait this is wood isn't it? Does that matter though? It looks like stone, feels like stone, just happens to be wood.*
While Green pondered this question she entered into the first wide open area she had posted. Shaking herself out of her thoughts she examined it and found it to be a neatly ordered garden. The hedges that lined the edges of the path and obstructed her vision didn't seem like maze walls, beside she could see over them a little making her more confident in the guess.
At the end of the garden path was a large stone building with a wide-open door and pillars of stone lining the edges. *Though I bet it's wood as well.*?Torch sconces could be seen at the corners of the building, but they weren't lit at the moment. In all it looked a little like a monastery to her eyes, one of the simpler ones but with intricate carvings done over time by a diligent workforce.
Walking closer to the building reinforced Green's idea that it had to be a temple of some sort. The fey didn't really worship any of the gods like the other races but she could at least recognise the sort of reverence and care those races liked to put into their sacred places. *Except dwarves of course, those guys go all out for everything if they can. They truly abuse their long lives… though I guess I can't complain.*
Just as Green crossed the threshold and started to examine the inside of the temple the torches lining the walls lit up and the door slammed shut behind her.
A booming voice echoed through the halls and it said "Welcome to the temple of riddles. Here is your first challenged"