by Andrew Rowe
“I’ll go first.” Sera stepped up. “Ready?”
“Yes, yes.” The sphinx yawned again. “Go ahead, make your effort.”
Sera bowed and began. “I have words, but no voice. I have no eyes and ears, but I spread wisdom to each that holds me.”
The creature paused for just a moment, closing its eyes. “A book. Somewhat pedestrian, but an appropriate choice. I will permit it.”
“Then, will you offer us a riddle in return?” Sera asked.
Without preamble, the tiger-sphinx began. “Harder to catch than it is to hold, I cannot be seen unless it is cold.”
Sera smiled. “Thank you for giving us an easy one to begin with. The answer is breath.”
“Very good. It seems your answering abilities exceed your questions. Who is next?”
I stepped up to offer one of my own. “I am the beginning of the end and the end of time and space. I stand within creation, but I surround every place.”
“A slight variation on a classic. The answer is the letter ‘e’. I care little for linguistic riddles such as this, but I will reply regardless.” The sphinx paused for a moment, then began his own query. “It is dark and cold, and your window is broken, allowing in a chill wind. You stand alone in your home, bereft of magic. You have a candle, an oil lamp with minimal oil, and a wood-burning stove. You have but a single match. What do you light first?”
I frowned, thinking.
Well, with the candle, I could easily light the others…except for the wind. That might put it out right away. If I could get the lamp lit, I could light the others, if the oil lasts. Lighting the stove would provide the most heat, but I feel like it would be the hardest to…
Oh.
It's a trick question.
I sighed. “It’s the match, isn’t it? You have to light the match before you light the others.”
“Well-done.” The tiger-sphinx nodded. “Who shall go next?”
Mara stepped up, and I hoped she had a harder one. We were rapidly running out of chances to stump him, and I wasn’t sure if Meltlake was going to intervene if Mara and Patrick failed. “Air is my chariot and water my guard. Earth is my mother, but by fire I’m scarred.”
“Ah, I always appreciate an elemental challenge. Yours is quite broad, however. A leaf would be the most obvious, given the line about air, but perhaps a seed or sapling could also work.” He didn’t wait for Mara to acknowledge that his answer was correct, he simply launched into his own riddle in reply. “Perhaps you would appreciate something similar? I am born of the earth, but my bones are frail. I am molded by flame, but bear no heat. From wind I protect, and water shines beautifully against me in the light.”
“Think I know that one. Glass, yeah?”
The sphinx nodded. “That is the traditional answer, yes. Certain gems or crystals are valid answers as well. Anyone else?”
Patrick stepped a little closer. “Uh, hi, Mr. Tiger-Sphinx. Do you have a name?”
The tiger-sphinx stared at Patrick. “I…what an interesting riddle. I do not believe I’ve been asked that before. Allow me to contemplate.”
That was definitely not intended to be a riddle. Patrick, to his credit, played along marvelously and puffed up his chest contemptuously.
“As with most spire creatures, I am a copy. I know the name assigned to my original self, but is that my name? Dare I to call it my own? It is a perplexing question, one with no simple answer.” The tiger-sphinx nodded to Patrick. “Well done, young one. You have succeeded, and I owe you a reward. You may ask me a single question, and if it is within my ability, I will answer.”
I’m going to be honest, I thought we were going to have to go with my backup plan of “summon Researcher to out-riddle the sphinx”.
Who would have thought that a little common courtesy might accidentally solve our problem?
“I would like a moment to confer with my friends.” Patrick was wise enough to not phrase his request as a question.
“Of course, go ahead. I will nap.” The tiger-sphinx lowered his great bulk back to the floor and closed his eyes.
“I can’t believe that worked.” Mara nudged Patrick. “Good thinking, there!”
“I, uh, thanks Mara. But it was kind of an accident.”
Sera shook a finger at him. “Solved is solved, Patrick, deliberately or otherwise. Give yourself some credit.”
“I…uh, thanks.” Patrick blushed a little, looking away. “So…what should we ask him?”
Sera beckoned Meltlake over to join in the conversation. We huddled up to discuss ideas.
“If there’s any secret treasure on this floor, he probably knows about it,” Patrick suggested. “Might be worth asking. Could be something valuable.”
“Secret passages, too,” Mara offered. “Might be willin’ to tell us where that weird portal goes. If it skips a few floors, could save us a lot of time ‘n trouble.”
I nodded at that. As much as I liked looting the spires, we had a specific goal, and expediting that goal was probably wise if it was possible. On the other hand, if the portal was useless, we’d just wasted a question. “We need to weigh the value of the information, the likelihood he has the information, his willingness to share, and the utility of any possible responses.”
Sera rolled her eyes. “As pretentiously as he phrased that, Corin is right. Something more open-ended might be better, like treasure located anywhere in the spire, rather than on this floor.”
Patrick grimaced. “But too broad could get us, ‘oh, yeah, there’s this crazy sword up on the fiftieth floor. This guy named Keras is carrying it.’ He’s not going to give us a trick answer like some kind of elemental or spirit might, but if we ask something too open-ended, the answer may not be useful.”
“Fair.” Sera nodded. “Wait, is Keras that high up in the spire now?”
Patrick laughed. “No idea! He was slowing down a lot for us, though. Admittedly, some problems couldn’t exactly be brute forced. ‘Survive until sundown’ or whatever. Doesn’t matter how strong you are for that sort of thing, gotta spend the time.”
I briefly pictured Keras punching out the sun to try to meet that requirement faster, but didn’t comment on the mental image.
“We’re gettin’ a bit sidetracked here,” Mara pointed out. “Professor, any advice?”
Meltlake shrugged a shoulder. “Doubt the sphinx has anything particularly impressive to offer. We’re on the first floor. Don’t overthink it. Could ask for the simplest method to solve whatever is in the skull room, for example. Miss Callahan’s suggestion about the portal isn’t a bad one. Yes, it’s a waste if the portal doesn’t go somewhere we want, but if it does, it saves enough time that knowing it has considerable value.
I couldn’t disagree with that. “Fair. We just have to weigh a question with a guaranteed useful answer against things like that. And honestly, I don’t know if any guaranteed answer is going to be useful at all.”
“Actually, if we’re talking about gambling on something that may not have a useful answer, I might have something more valuable than the portal to ask about…but only for me, personally.” Sera frowned. “Would you all be willing to give me the question as my split of the treasure for this floor?”
“Uh, sure, Sera.” Patrick frowned. “I don’t think we really need any kind of formal treasure splitting rules in general. We’re all friends here.”
I frowned, thinking back to my conversation with Sera about my stricter definitions of “friends”. I certainly didn’t consider Professor Meltlake a friend, but I supposed Patrick probably did. She was more of an acquaintance to me, but one that I looked at positively. And she clearly didn’t care much about the sphinx’s question, so… “I’m fine with that.”
The others quickly agreed as well, then Sera went to ask her question.
“Honored tiger-sphinx, I have my question for you.”
The sphinx opened his eyes, blinking and stretching in a surprisingly human-like yawn. “Hm? Question? Oh, right. Yes
, go ahead, ask.”
Here it goes. I had a pretty good idea of what she was about to ask, but the phrasing was going to be relevant.
“What is the easiest way I could safely contact Byakko, the God Tiger, to arrange for a summoning contract without climbing any higher than the fifth floor and without requiring the help of anyone outside of my present climbing group?”
The sphinx blinked at her. “…What? Really? You do know that you’re less than an insect to Byakko, right? And that he’ll probably just, say, eat your face?”
Sera smirked. “I do have a delicious face, but I’m reasonably confident that he’ll choose to talk — if, of course, I can approach him in the right way. And I did ask for a safe method.”
“You did, you did.” The sphinx growled, but not in an aggressive way. It sounded more like he was thinking, maybe. “There is no safe way to speak to a god beast.”
“I know, but—”
“Cease speaking, I will answer your question to the best of my ability.” The sphinx took a breath. “Your conditions are too restrictive for me to give you the type of answer you truly wish, however…there is one method that technically meets your criteria.”
“Oh?” She raised an eyebrow. “And that is?”
“Take a second Judgment.” The sphinx closed his eyes. “That would not technically require external help or going higher than the fifth floor.”
“And this would…be a reliable way to find Byakko?” Sera asked, uncertain.
“No. But as a Summoner, there is a high likelihood that Byakko would appear in your Judgment in some form.” He winced. “Speaking of a Judgment is forbidden knowledge. For this transgression, I must leave you now. I bid you luck in your journey, and thank you for the meal.”
With that, the tiger-sphinx lowered his head.
“Wait! Could we discuss a co—”
The sphinx vanished.
“….And he’s gone.” Sera sighed. “Oh well. It’s not like I needed another mental mana focused summon.” She turned to the rest of us. “Thank you all for permitting my question. I know it was selfish, but…”
“No, it was amazing!” Patrick raised a fist encouragingly. “You’re really set on getting the most dangerous contracts possible, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” Sera smiled. “I most certainly am.”
***
We did a quick check on the room that the tiger-sphinx had come from, removing the wall of ice. The boar-monster charged us again, but Mara grabbed it by its gigantic horns, flipped it over her head, and slammed it into the ground so hard that I heard something crack. Then, a moment later, it vanished and left a tiny crystal behind in its absence.
“Huh.” I reached down and picked it up. “Class 1 Gray Mana Crystal. Not bad.” I tossed it to Mara and she deftly caught and pocketed it.
The room itself had three more monsters in it, all variations on ordinary animals that had slight magical modifications. A bird with metallic feathers. A wolf-like creature with paws of ice. A gigantic metal bee.
A hail of offensive spells from our group obliterated them before they could get anywhere near us. Our group lacked a few things, but ranged offensive magic was not one of them. Between Sera, Patrick, and me, we had all the basic elements covered — and these were some of the weakest monsters available.
Patrick and Sera each claimed a mana core. I took the remains of the mechanical bee.
Beyond the bee (heh), the chamber didn’t have much of interest. There were two more doors, but we didn’t bother checking them. We had the key to the spire guardian room and didn’t feel like it was necessary to go any further.
We did, however, have one last thing to check before we made our way to the next floor. We went back to the Crowns room, then reopened the door to the giant treasure chest room. We stood in the doorway for a little while, just scanning the room for any obvious signs of traps.
“We’re being too paranoid.” Sera retrieved the key from her bag. “I think Keras’ tragic past with mimics is getting to us. Even if that thing is trapped, we can handle it. Let’s do this thing.”
I drew Selys-Lyann, just in case. Patrick already had Bright Reflection out. Mara just took a combat stance.
Behind us, Meltlake just looked a little amused.
“Levitate.” The key floated out of Sera’s hand and into the lock in the front of the chest. With a twist of her wrist, she manipulated the floating key to turn. There was a click, then the key vanished.
“So far, so good.” Sera frowned. “Was hoping the box lid would just pop off once it was unlocked, though. And I can’t levitate the lid from here. Corin, think you can hit the lid at the right angle to open it with a transference burst?”
“Depends. The weight of the lid would influence how much force I have to use. Let’s see, assuming it’s a wooden chest that’s a couple inches thick on each side…it’s about eighteen feet away…” I knelt down, angling my hand and gathering transference mana.
One…two…good.
I released the burst of mana. It hit so hard that the lid did flip open, but also slammed back shut again. The whole box slid back a few inches.
“Too hard, huh? Okay. One more.”
My second blast got it open properly.
It was tough to see the contents of the box from the doorway, since it was so abnormally tall. To accomplish this without going inside, Sera levitated herself up a few feet, then looked downward at an angle. “Huh. Just a sack inside. Much smaller than the box itself. Nothing else I can see in there.”
“False bottom with more treasure, maybe?” I suggested.
“Very plausible.” Sera paused, contemplating. “I hate to say it, but I don’t think we can get the bag or check the bottom without going in. Any volunteers?”
No one volunteered. Not even Mara. Apparently, even her usual bravery was tempered by Keras’ tales of treasure box horrors.
Patrick looked like he was about to very hesitantly step forward when Sera spoke again. “Vanniv, I summon you.”
Vanniv appeared with a bright grin. “Ah, I knew you’d need me!”
“We most certainly do.” She gestured to the box. “We need the bag. We’re concerned the box is trapped. Can you check for us?”
“But of course! A trivial thing.”
He bowed and took one step into the room. The door slammed shut.
What followed was a cacophony of thunks, shinks, and something that sounded like a gigantic circular saw. I took an instinctive step away from the closed door, eyes widening.
Mara paled. “Should we…uh…maybe…”
“No.” Sera raised a hand in a warding gesture. “Just wait.”
We waited. More sounds. Thunk. Crack. The sound of a muffled voice.
Then finally, after a tense minute, the door reopened.
Vanniv stood in the doorway. Or, what was left of him, anyway. His shirt had been obliterated. Half of his hair was gone — hair that, I’ll remind you, was made of stone. His skin was broken in several places. There was no obvious blood, but some kind of sticky blue substance — liquid mana — was leaking from the cracks. He was dragging one leg behind him and standing at an awkward angle. He half-lifted the sack, shoving it at Sera.
She hesitantly accepted it. “Vanniv…are you…”
“I’m going to go now.” Vanniv shuddered. “Never again. Never again.”
Then he vanished without so much as a “Vanniv I dismiss you”. I didn’t even know he could dismiss himself.
We stared at the room in growing horror. Aside from the bag being missing from the box and a trail of blue on the floor, there was absolutely no visible change.
“…Are we still checking the box for a false bottom?” Patrick asked hesitantly. “We could summon Vanniv again and ask—”
“No, Patrick.” Sera stared into the chamber. “Some mysteries are better left unsolved.”
We backed away from the doorway slowly. I didn’t feel safe until we were all the way back in the entrance room.<
br />
***
I was almost too nervous to even ask what was in the bag, but eventually, I summoned up the courage.
Cautiously, Sera opened it. “Gems!” Her eyes widened. Cautiously, she levitated a finger-sized red crystal out. “Or, more specifically, I think these are mana crystals?”
My eyes narrowed as I looked at it, activating Detect Aura and inspecting it. “Fire Crystal, Class 2. What else is in there?”
She opened the bag wider. “Bunch of crystals of different colors.” She floated them out one at a time — none of us trusted that there wasn’t some kind of additional trap inside the bag itself, or some kind of evil slime coating one of the crystals. It only took a quick check to evaluate our find.
“One mana crystal of each base mana type, all Class 2. Not bad. You can put them back in the bag if you want, or I can box them.”
“Box them.” Sera said. “Assuming you’re willing to touch them.”
“Let’s rinse them off first?”
It may have been excessive caution, but after the last couple rooms, we were willing to delay a few minutes to clean the crystals before packing them away.
With that done, we burned the bag, wishing we could burn our memories of that room at the same time.
“What ever happened to that universal crystal of yours, Corin?” Patrick asked.
“Still saving it. Haven’t found the right purpose for it yet.”
“Was wonderin’ ‘bout that.” Mara gave me a curious look. “Could you use a universal crystal to copy somethin’ like Keras’ unique mana?”
I shook my head. “I looked into it a little more. Universal crystals aren’t truly universal — they can only copy base mana types, not compound ones or other weird stuff. And even if it could copy what Keras does, I doubt I could enchant with it. No runes of that type.”
“Fair.” She nodded. “Any idea what you’re savin’ it for?”
“No, but it’ll probably be one of the more obscure types, like light. We’ve got Bright Reflection, but we’re short on other sources of light mana.”
“Let’s get back on track.” Sera motioned to the room with the skull lock. “Any preparations we need to make before heading to the next room?”