Battle of Wits
Jigano smiled at Samuel kindly as the bookmaker held out the rope. He was doing the best he could – very well, really, he’d even thrown something at the gorgon, even if it had bounced off! But jumping large holes over deep chasms in a single bound was, admittedly, a different kind of bravery. A kind that Isla had in spades, apparently. The sorceress grinned at her diminutive friend and how well the newly-Ascended was taking to their adventure. ”I’m carrying quite enough unfamiliar weight right now,” he dryly rejoined. ”But I doubt even in my regular form I’d be able to carry you across that span. Remi, now…” She turned to raise a brow at the knightly young man, but her attention was distracted by Kalt’s low, sweet voice.
The eyebrow went up, smile falling away. ”’Jigs,’” she repeated flatly. ”What a… puerile nickname.” The staff took on a red glow for a moment as her knuckles tightened on the shaft. Taking a deep breath, her pleasant expression returned as he focused on the content of the dwarven woman words and not simply the moniker proceeding them. ”Though if so many of us weren’t in such unfamiliar bodies, that would probably work.” Blue eyes shifted briefly to Sam, then away again as she smiled apologetically at Kalt once more. ”Even with Isla to help me I’m not sure the two of us could hold our end of the rope with you in that, ah, strong new body of yours.” It would have been nice if the lorekeeper had been given biceps in proportion to her new breasts, but apparently the story had very stupid ideas about what elves should look like, even if they weren’t entirely off from his previous experiences with the race.
Remi’s suggestion was met with another raise of The Brow, but this time in pleasant surprise. ”That’s not a bad idea,” Jigano complimented. ”We’d only need three or four, really, for you two, and it can be simple and rough.” She tapped the foot of her staff on the stones of the bridge thoughtfully and a new glow – blue this time – wreathed its top. Blinking, she looked up, and then at the gap that was giving them such trouble. A grin split her lovely face and she pointed the staff grandly at the hole, gathering her will. ”Bridge!” she commanded—
--and bridge there was, right where it had been, still with a six foot chunk missing from the middle. Frowning, Jigano shook the staff and tried again, aiming down into the chasm this time. ”Light!” he cried out—
--and a shaft of brilliant white shot downwards in a straight line, piercing the mists and briefly illuminating the jagged stone depths.
The grin was back in full force as she turned back to her companions, fading only slightly as she saw Remi trying to strip. ”Remi… what are you doing? If you’re going back to the woods you should probably keep the armor on in case there’s anything waiting for you. In fact…” Jigano looked around, taking note of her friends’ strengths and weaknesses. ”Kalt, you and Remi are the strongest and should make the fastest work of the trees. Isla, you can help keep watch while they work? Sam, let’s put our heads together and think of what we’ve read in other books – try to come up with what command words activate the spells in this staff.” She glanced at the gap in the bridge and the tower beyond, a silently determined promise to return – and soon – in her steely blue gaze. ”Best not try to split up – we don’t know if the book can handle that. It might not let us get too far away… or it might freeze one group while the other acts. I’m all for testing their limits more thoroughly at some point, but for now we should prioritize rescuing the people still trapped.”
And so, despite Remi’s intentions, the group all trekked together back to the trees, which did indeed fall swiftly to the dwarven fighter and the human paladin, while Isla’s Halfling eyes saw none of the forest’s drifting shadows come close enough to threaten. Samuel and Jigano discovered another few words to activate the staff, though after the third the bard had to call a halt to their experiments as a weariness stole over her shapely limbs.
There was no sun in the leaden sky to move, but a lessening of the light indicated that it was approaching evening as they returned to the bridge with their makeshift patch for the gap. It was more than sturdy enough for the lighter members of their party to cross, though as Remi made his way over the wood cracked ominously, the hasty construction coming apart and falling into the abyss even as he stepped onto solid stone once more.
The gates that they then reached had been unguarded, opening to a hefty push once they’d made it across. Jigano had been uneasy about the entire situation – it screamed of a trap to him, but what choice did they have but to press forward? And the entrance hall that greeted them was still, dim light streaming in through the door and a few clerestory windows. There was no sign of guards. The castle might as well have been deserted, but there was also no dust within.
That didn’t mean it was empty, however. There was a small door at the end of the hall, likely leading to some sort of throne room. And between them and it…
Five large metal constructs stood, two on each side of the hall and evenly spaced, and one at the end. On the left, a gryphon gleamed, brass and gold, with eyes of topaz as it sat on guard, standing as tall at the shoulder as Remi. Beside it was a unicorn of similar size, silver and steel, with a horn of gleaming diamond. Across from the gryphon coiled a sinuous wyrm, all verdigrised copper scales and ruby fangs. A manticore crouched, red gold and iron, bat wings folded across its back and lips pulled back from rows of wicked teeth. Last but certainly not least, perched in a large alcove above the small door, was a bright-copper and gold-feathered phoenix.
Peering in, Jigano frowned, her sharp elven eyes picking out something strange on each of them. ”I think there are harnesses or maybe… plaques? On their chests. With writing on them. Do you think…?” Glancing back to her companions she gave a grim shrug and then stepped inside, pausing—
And then continuing forward when nothing happened. The elven woman padded silently between the first four statues, drawn to the phoenix – not least because her last journey in a book had involved a firebird. She hummed softly to herself as she stopped to read the inscription on the plaque that was indeed bound to the construct’s chest. ”It’s… a riddle,” she mused, glancing back to her companions with a curious brow arched. ”They’re all riddles. You don’t suppose…?”
What she supposed was interrupted by the sudden slamming of the doors behind the last one to step inside. Jigano jumped – and the five constructs creaked and groaned, shifting on their pedestals as jeweled eyes blinked open and focused on the intruders. Heat began to emit from the firebird and dragon, while the unicorn pawed the stone beneath its metal hooves and the gryphon and manticore flexed their wings.
The elven woman dodged barely in time as a razor-sharp beak flashed down at where she’d been standing a moment before, a metallic cry echoing throughout the chamber. The unicorn reared, then lowered its horn at Remi, preparing to charge. The inscription on its chest read:
Grey my mantle and white my gown
The old tremble and fall when I come nigh
And I come round to claim my crown
When wise things sleep and weak things die.
The wyrm uncoiled from its perch, sliding to the ground and holding itself low as it approached Isla with a mesmerizing sway of its neck, but its placard was still visible:
My leaves hold tight, never falling
Not in autumn, snow nor spring
Thickly my coat of wood is made
But in time my tracks will fade.
What am I?
The gryphon crouched, tail lashing as topaz eyes focused on
The wind runs through my fingers,
Yet my hands can grasp no sword;
My toothless mouth yet bites and tears
Girt full round in shafted horde.
The manticore’s grin widened, nearly splitting its face in two as it prowled off its perch, slinking like a hunting cat towards
Fragile paths betwixt the graves
Elegant in execution
Woven without loom
These are the finest threads
Worn only as a shroud.
”A lantern!” Jigano yelled out – not at her companions, but at the phoenix as it flared its wings above her, glowing red-hot. At the word the construct paused and then shuddered, settling back down to its perch and shrinking collapsing in and itself and twisting—
Leaving behind a glowing staff, more intricate than Jigano’s and radiating power. The sorceress grabbed for it and spun to face her comrades. ”Answer the riddles!” she called desperately, raising the staff and focusing on it with fierce intensity to try and unlock its secrets as her team battled on.
