perizou
patreon
MAZE - Chapter 1054 - A Starlit Trap
🕑 Added 2025-05-11 02:56:47 +0000 UTCAfter leaving the lake and getting enough distance between the waters and herself, the Empress stopped and asked Filigree to activate the [Gates of Mana] on her. The skill worked as it did before the title blade became part of the court. However, Filigree herself had a bit more control over the size or positioning of the trap. What she couldn't control was the actual riddle. That was still something that was simply created, not made by her. As a matter of fact, the Weaver would only be able to tell if the answer given was correct or not once she had heard it. Then the information about the real answer of the riddles would be given to her by the skill.
It was a somewhat good setup, but it could cause some problems. And the only reason why Hera was doing this now was so she could get Lurize back. The Royal tutor had sacrificed himself to protect her, and she didn't want to wait the 2 days that would take for him to get back before thanking her title blade. So, as soon as she was inside the barrier created by the [Decipher me or I will devour you] skill, she heard the question.
But instead of the same bodiless voice that she heard the first time she used the skill, now that was Filigree the one responsible for it, she saw in the backdrop of this starfield barrier the Weaver's face taking shape and asking.
"What has four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?"
Hera paused, thinking that she had just struck gold. Of all riddles, she got the one that was possibly, the most famous one.
"It's a human. Or a person. They have four legs in the morning because they are babies and they're crawling. Two in the afternoon as they grow older, they become able to walk around and three in the evening since they usually need a cane when they become a senior."
Filigree smiled with her face but dropped it right away, realizing the answer to that was incorrect.
"The correct answer is the Stringless Puppet of the Shimmering Veil," the Weaver said in a worried voice.
"Wait, why?"
"The correct answer is the Stringless puppet of the Shimmering Veil," Filigree didn't really know how to react and her face just stood there in the barrier, staring back at Hera. Her second reply was just to confirm the first.
"Okay, what the fuck is the Stringless Puppet of the Shimmering Veil?" Livy frowned.
"Give me a minute," Nimbus said as he started tapping on Hera's tablet. Which she had left outside in case she was stuck in the barrier. Which now was very much the case.
"Hera, are you saying the Stringless or the Lifeless because there are two of them," the Sentinel asked.
"Stringless," Filigree replied.
"Right, so apparently it's a monster that exists in the room called Benna Forest and lives in a specific area called the Shimmering Veil. It is a puppet like creature that is always searching for more pieces to add to its body. During the day, it walks on two limbs consuming wood and other materials in the surrounding area to maintain its form. Basically, it's eating to keep itself alive. At night, it creates an extra limb, which is usually a tail or an arm or something like that. It functions kind like a food storage for the night because this creature is always consuming food. If it ever stops, it will die. And in the morning, this extra limb splits into two, making the puppet wake up. It only does that when all the food stored in that limb is over, so it knows that it has to start eating again to survive." Nimbus explained.
Hera could still hear her court and what they were saying, but they sounded very much like they were speaking on a phone and they were far away from the microphone. She could still understand them and it wasn't as terrible as being completely alone in a place like this, but it wasn't a good situation either.
"Can you drop the skill sooner?" Crimson asked, turning to Filigree.
"I can't. She's going to have to stay for the full 8 hours inside the barrier, sorry, My Empress," Filigree was oozing guilt from her body.
Hera shook her head. "Don't worry. It's not your fault. We know that this skill is weird. Just let everybody know what happened and I guess we're going to be here in the forest for a while. Are you okay with that?"
She got a confirmation from her Court with Daskka specifically saying that she wanted to stay with Hera inside the barrier. The Empress didn't see a reason to say no and just allowed the herald to return to the necklace and then call her back out now inside of the barrier. This was something she could do with everybody in her legacy. Bringing them from the outside to the inside of this star field prison. However, that was not the truth for the other way around. Meaning that once they were inside, they would be stuck there with Hera until the skill had run its course.
"You know, we can try to break it," Vulcan suggested.
"We could, but that's going to hurt Filigree. We tested that before, remember?" Hera said.
"When?" Forge asked while crossing his arms, feeling annoyed.
"When I first became a title blade. I think you were too preoccupied on checking my bladed strings when we were having that discussion. But if the barrier starts to break, I get hurt." Filigree raised her arm. The bladed strings from her left hand were all connected to the barrier. In essence, those strings were creating the barrier itself.
"So I'm staying here. At least I have food. Can someone please tell everyone what is going on? Maybe Shane, since I think she will be the one to reply the fastest," Hera asked.
"On it," Nimbus replied, and quickly sent a message. Less than ten seconds later he got a reply, "I think she's with her tablet in her hand," the Sentinel shook his head. "Anyway, she's asking what happened with the lake. What should I tell her?"
"That we don't know exactly what's going on. Feel free to give as many details as you want. And mention the poison gelatin just so she knows the type of danger we have here in case she has any ideas of rushing here to see if she can start exploring." The enchantress quickly realized that's exactly what she was going to do or at least to see if there were any changes to the environment. It was very on brand even though it was a very bad idea. She could handle herself and do whatever she wanted to do. Nimbus wasn't going to be the one saying that she couldn't do one thing or another.
In the end, the Empress spent the next several hours trapped inside the barrier made by her own title blade. The prison created by the skill wasn't particularly tiny. And since it gave her the feeling of swimming in the sea of stars, it was nowhere near claustrophobic. Not to mention that it was very peaceful to be there.
Hera spent a few minutes lying on the ground that was also covered by the barrier, and just watching the stars together with Daskka while talking with her court through the connection. Then she got up and started practicing some combat styles. She had enough space to move around, but not enough to do everything she wanted. Anytime she tried casting or creating a larger weapon with her venomous arsenal and pointing it forward, she would reach the end of the barrier and be forced to pull back. At some point, the group decided to listen to an audiobook. A strange story about someone who had died and been reincarnated as a slime, of all things. It was funny, although a bit weird in some aspects, but it was a good way to kill time. Especially since there wasn't much they had to do right now.
During that process, Hera also started working on new spells. Magic that could potentially fight off against poison or that could just improve her repertoire, but she didn't have enough help or enough space to properly test some of the more violent creations. And the last thing she wanted to do was accidentally create a fire inside of this cage that she couldn't put out. And that's how she spent the rest of her day.
Once the skill was finally over and she was able to leave the barrier, the sun had already set. But stranger than all that, they were no longer hearing the noise that was supposed to be coming from the lake. All of that bubbling and waves crashing into each other all seemed to be gone.
They thought about what to do and decided to return to the lake just for a quick look, since they were already so close to it. Nimbus took in his Griffin form once more, carried the Empress back to the shore of the water, and now the entire place was calm. Almost peaceful. A lot of the splashing was still visible on the surrounding ground and vegetation. But the lake itself was now still. Only gently being rustled by the wind.
Out of curiosity, the Empress created a light and made it approach the waters, only to realize that they were not as strong of a shaded green as they were before. Seems like the spell circle reversal really worked and was already slowly trying to purify the lake. It was very much still poison, but it looked to be less concentrated now. Even if by a small margin.
Testing her luck, Hera reached out and just gently touched the water, trying to see if the poison in her poison resistance combined with the poison resistance from the set was enough to fight off against it. And that seemed to be the case. Maybe, just like before, it would take a while for the poison to start to hurt her. But she could feel it doing less than it was earlier that morning.
Satisfied with the progress, Hera climbed on top of Nimbus again and they returned to Zaxalam to share the good news. Which, was something that Shane had already spoiled. The enchantress, of course, went back into the room and tried to look for the lake herself. She had bought a mount that could travel the land and was able to reach the lake just a few hours after Hera's message. By then, the lake was still running and reacting to the spell circle. But it was less violent than what Hera said. And the waters already seemed to be less dangerous. Even if it was too far from being enough for someone to just swim across it.
Shane was so excited with this prospect that she came back forgetting completely to tell Hera about that. Which made the Ophidianite a bit frustrated, but she wasn't going to complain about anything. What they did know was that the lake was not yet free of corruption. Or whatever was causing it to become a problem for the room. After all, Hera had a quest that would tell them when the problem was truly gone. But they already had the sensors in place to confirm if changing the lake had any effects on the rain. Which was the main point of it all.
The rain was too strong for pretty much everyone except Hera. And even the Empress wouldn't be able to handle it indefinitely. And turning the lake into clear water could dilute the rain enough, to allow people to traverse the room without being killed by the poison that fell from the sky.
In the next day, Hera went there again, trying to see if there was any change. But unfortunately, it didn't rain, and the lake was still the same color. It was not as strong as it originally was, but she couldn't tell if it was any weaker than she had seen the night before. Because of that, they decided against diving deeper into the room. They could only do so once they were sure they would be safe.
The next morning, same thing. No rain and the lake still looked like it had before, maybe a beat clearer, but it was also a more sunny day, which could mean the sun was just simply washing away some of the color. Especially since the previous day was a cloudy, which made everybody hope for rain. Even though that didn't happen.
On the third day, everything seemed to be just the same once more and Shane stormed into their meeting room with an annoyed expression.
"We're all idiots. We are all morons."
Hera frowned, not really knowing how to respond to that. "Why?"
"Because we are waiting to see if the cube of reversal did its job. Because we don't know how to do this spell." Shane continued.
"Yeah, but where are you going with this?" Bonnie tilted her head.
"We're trying to figure out Naga spell crafting on our own. When we have Naga, that can teach us."
"What are you..." Hera paused, realizing what the enchanter meant, "oh fuck. You're right. We are stupid."
"We are," Shane nodded.
"What do you mean?" Alex frowned, not really following the conversation.
"We know a dungeon where Naga still live. Like real Naga. It's back in the Wailing Valley. There's a version of it that there's an entire city ruled by them," Hera explained.
"Yep," Shane nodded, "and I'm going there. I'm going to look after Casks and have her teach me everything she knows about spell circles and how Naga cast spells. Who's coming with me?" Shane asked.
Bonnie spoke up, "You know, that sounds like a lot of fun."
Callena and Farica were also interested in the idea. And having a whole group of mages do that sounded like a good plan.
Unfortunately, Hera couldn't go. She had received the message from Queen Typhera early that morning asking the Empress to not make any big travel plans. There was a situation in development and they might need her assistance with it. In the end, a group of the Royal explorers, most of the mages along with Trillion decided to head back to the Wailing Valley so they could visit the city of spiral inside the Hard Mode of a dungeon. While Hera, Milo, and Alex stayed behind to continue exploring Deakoshara or at least the surrounding area of that room until the queen confirmed if the hero would be requested or not.
