The Stubborn Light of a Dying Flame

The next couple days passed in a blur of endless traps and towering hedges as Rayna made her way closer and closer to the center of the maze. The traps were growing increasingly bizarre as time went on.

The most interesting one that Rayna had come across was a giant metal ball rolling down a slope Indiana Jones style. The ball had been easy enough to dodge. The trap gave off a substantial amount of magic and Rayna could feel it for a good ten minutes before she finally found the source. On top of that, the clanking of old gears and rusty chains had been loud enough to wake the dead.

What made it interesting was the fact that, to disarm it, Rayna had to climb to the top of the slope, squeeze into a narrow space and pull out a magical doohickey that looked suspiciously like a power cable.

In fact, as she neared the end of the trial, the traps started to look less like feats of magical prowess and more like machines taken straight out of the steampunk aesthetic. One such trap had consisted of stone and metal patchwork robots that the System had called ‘Soulless Golems’.

But despite the strange look of the traps, they were more than enough to give Rayna a challenge. She had been stabbed, sliced, beaten and bruised in every way imaginable over the last two days, and only her sizable Mana pool and fast reaction time had kept her alive through the ordeal.

Emma would be furious if she knew how many risks Rayna was taking, but it seemed like a waste not to at least try to clear the maze. As far as she could tell, there were no monsters anywhere in the vicinity, unless you counted the machines.

On the morning of the last day, Rayna was preparing to enter the last area. She had played enough video games to know that every quest ended with a final boss. She wasn’t particularly psyched to meet it head on, but she really wanted to keep the dragon’s hoard she had collected over the last four days and she wasn’t sure if the System would let her do that if she didn’t finish the trial.

Before heading out, she took stock of her weapons. She had picked up everything from crossbows to broadswords—even the giant metal ball had counted, so she brought it along as well. Some of the weapons were in odd places, and Rayna had come to the conclusion that she was not the first person to take this trial. From the state of the weapons, it didn’t look like the other participants had as easy a time with the traps as Rayna had.

If it weren’t for the reward she would get in exchange for the weapons she brought back, Rayna probably would have left them. She felt like she was stealing from the dead.

At least some of the throwing weapons were useful when dealing with the traps that moved around. There was a drone-like trap that shot lasers at Rayna while hovering thirty feet in the air. It was only thanks to her Dexterity which increased her hand-eye coordination, that Rayna was able to force the drone low enough that she could finish it off with her pike. Her aim back on earth had never been stellar; now it was almost terrifyingly easy to hit exactly where she wanted every single time.

Rayna took a second to pull out her notes on monsters, just in case the thing that awaited her in the center of the maze was organic instead of a machine. She would have to make a run for it if the monster was more than a Level 5, her stats were just too low to win that fight.

Next she changed into a clean pair of clothes—or at least, as clean a pair as she could find. Most of her clothes were torn or stained from her less-than-successful handling of some of the traps. She threw the old pair into her Inventory, even though a particularly nasty acid trap had recently turned the front of the shirt into a frayed crop top.

There probably wasn’t a law about littering in a death maze, but it seemed rude to leave rags everywhere, so Rayna had kept all of her useless outfits to dispose of later.

She pulled a set of rations out of her Inventory, even though she had already eaten breakfast that morning…

Okay, now you’re just stalling.

Rayna stowed the rations back in her Inventory and stood up, taking a deep breath. She had worked her tail off over the last four days to complete this trial, and she wasn’t going to let some third-rate magical technician take that away from her in the last quarter.

She walked for an hour to reach the center, her anxiety growing with every step. The buzz of magic in the air was getting stronger as she got closer to the end, but she didn’t run into any traps, not even a simple Flying Dagger trap. It was like the person who set the traps had gotten lazy, and decided to skip the last few miles to focus on the finale.

The maze ended abruptly, and Rayna’s anxiety turned to confusion.

The inner circle housed a massive garden, way larger than it had been on the map. Topiaries were sprinkled throughout the garden, their shapes vaguely reminiscent of animals, though Rayna had a suspicion they depicted species that were native to Ember. The buzz of magic that Rayna had felt building in the air seemed to be caused by whatever was keeping these topiaries healthy, since they should have withered and died from centuries of neglect.

Unless this whole place is an illusion.

Rayna pulled out a dagger and held it at the ready, continuing down the path at a more cautious pace. She refused to be lulled into a false sense of security by the deceptively pleasant atmosphere.

At the center of the garden stood a fountain. The statue of a woman stood in the fountain’s center, her hands held out in front of her to catch the water as it fell. From her head, a pair of antlers grew to almost a quarter of her height, each tine draped with silver beads carved from stone by some master craftsman of the distant past.

Above her outstretched hands, a sphere hovered a few inches above her palms, glowing with a light almost too dim to see in the afternoon sunlight. This was the object that was giving off the magic that Rayna had been feeling for the past hour.

“Magnificent, isn’t it?”

Rayna spun around and threw her dagger in reflex.

It flew right through the speaker without so much as slowing down, embedding itself in the tree behind her.

“Rude,” the incorporeal woman said.

It was the same woman that was depicted in the fountain. The beads hanging from her antlers were a deep ruby color that contrasted with her plain white clothing. She walked forward with the grace of a swan as she daintily sat on the edge of the fountain. She patted the spot next to her, inviting Rayna to sit down with her.

Rayna hesitated, trying to determine whether or not this was a trap. After nearly a week in this death maze, she was inclined to think that nothing was what it seemed.

“Oh, do sit,” the woman said, sounding more amused than angry. “You’ve ransacked my garden, all but cleared my maze of traps and just now you threw a knife at my head without so much as a proper greeting. The least you can do is grant an old woman a decent conversation after a few millennia of solitude.”

Rayna sat down. Her brow crinkled as she regarded the strange woman with suspicion. “Who are you?”

The woman laughed. “My name is Phira, though I believe I have more right than you to be asking that question. I’m impressed that you made it this far, though I knew you were coming, what with the path of destruction you carved through my life’s work. I’ll admit, I’m relieved that my pets have long since expired from age. I should hate to see them skewered by that glorified pig-sticker you call a pike.”

“You’re the Magical Technician?” Rayna asked with surprise. Whenever she had pictured the one who made the traps, her mind had gone to the Greek god Hephaestus—the more modern depictions of him, that is; bulging muscles and a greasy apron on a man that slaved over a blacksmith’s forge with sweat dripping down his bare chest…

Rayna blushed, banishing the image from her mind.

Phira tsked. “I’m an Arcanic Tinkerer, thank you very much. Though I wasn’t one for long, I suppose. It’s a dangerous Class and I’m only one in a long line of casualties, but that is neither here nor there.” She smiled. “Now that you’ve made it through my maze I can finally talk to someone. It’s been nearly three millennia since I’ve had news of the outside world. Is the Historical Society of Azanel still active?”

Rayna blinked. “I don’t know. I haven’t actually been outside the tutorial.”

Phira’s face fell. “Right. I forgot about that. Perhaps you saw mention of it in the System Preview?”

“The what?”

“The System always gives new species a glimpse into what they’re agreeing to before offering them a chance to join Ember,” Phira explained. “It varies from world to world, so we just call it the System Preview. On my world, we were put into a dream state and allowed to live a year on Ember before truly moving here in person.”

“And you just went along with it?” Rayna asked. “Even knowing what the System was planning?”

Phira looked perplexed. “Why not?”

“It took you from your families!” Rayna said. “The System forced you into a war that had nothing to do with you. Why would you just go along with that?”

Phira shook her head. “The System gave us instantaneous travel, a magical store that holds everything we might ever need, and power beyond anything we could imagine at the time. The Administrator delivered on every promise he made. Sure, I left my family behind, but they understood. Every bird must eventually leave the nest.

“My only regret was that I never figured out the inter-planetary communications relay I was working on before I died. Though I suppose everyone I knew was long dead by that point, in any case.”

Rayna stopped to consider Phira’s words. She could understand what the woman was saying. Hadn’t Rayna moved to South Korea for that very same reason? She had better opportunities there than she had back in the US.

“So you knew,” Rayna said slowly, the gears turning in her head. “That coming to Ember was a one way trip; that what the System said was all true. You weren’t tricked into coming to Ember?”

Phira looked horrified. “Has the System stooped so low as to trick new people into coming to Ember? It would have never done so when I was first brought here.”

“I did no such thing!” Eldar Cremble objected, popping into view and startling both women.

Rayna recovered quickly, glaring at the Administrator.

“You dragged us all here under the pretense of a game,” she snapped. “Most of those players wouldn’t even be here if they knew all of this was real.”

Eldar started to pace, running his fingers through his hair. “I don’t understand the reaction of your group. I told them everything. I clearly explained who I was and everything I was offering them. I understand your reaction since that was a bit of a spur of the moment thing, but they all had time to prepare for this. They all came willingly.”

All at once, everything clicked; the Administrator’s confusion, the game that led them there; the last piece of the puzzle finally settled into place. Rayna stared at the pacing Administrator, disbelieving that such a powerful being could screw up so completely.

“You don’t know what an isekai is, do you?”

Eldar stopped, his brows knitting together. “A what?”

Rayna rubbed her temples, her frustration rising after what had already been a terrible week.

“Isekai,” she repeated. “A genre of anime and video game in which the main character is transported to another world. It’s pretend. Make believe. Not real!”

Eldar took a step back, his eyes widening in alarm. “They misunderstood? But… I gave you all the chance to leave!”

“There are more than a few popular books on earth that start by warning the reader not to continue,” Rayna said. “It’s just a way to open the book that intrigues the reader and gets them excited for the rest of the story. No one takes them seriously.”

A chair appeared out of thin air and Eldar sat down hard, his expression troubled. “This has never happened before,” he said, rubbing his face.

He suddenly stood, the chair vanishing as he nodded at Rayna. “You have given me a lot to think about and I thank you for your assistance. You have succeeded in this trial. I’ll let Miss Phira fill you in on the rest. The tutorial will be postponed until further notice.”

Eldar winked out of existence, leaving them alone in the garden.

“Well,” Phira said, looking a little flabbergasted. “This situation is less than ideal.” She shook her head and turned to Rayna. “But as the Administrator said, you completed the trial. In fact, the key to passing was simply to set foot in my garden. It’s a rare few who actually manage that, you know.”

She stood, gesturing for Rayna to do so as well.

Gears screamed in protest as the fountain rotated, retracting into the ground and revealing a hidden set of spiral stairs.

Phira winced. “That was much quieter when I built it. Come along.”

Rayna followed Phira down the stairs. The path was lit by magical orbs placed at regular intervals along the wall.

“The prize for completing my maze is an item or two from my collection,” Phira said. “The number and rarity of items that you receive depends on your performance in the trial. I think you did well enough to pick out a few good ones.”

The stairs led to a large ballroom, its interior well lit by a magical chandelier that hung a few inches below the ceiling with no visible ropes or tethers. Despite its size, the room was filled to the brim with objects, ranging from the mundane to the fantastical. Common books and precious jewels were thrown together haphazardly with no discernible system of organization.

Some of Rayna’s concern must have shown on her face because Phira let out a laugh.

“I was never the neatest person when I was alive, but don’t worry, the System Administrator organized my treasures for me when he made my maze part of his tutorial. Any minute now you should get a prompt and—ah, yes.”

The promised prompt appeared in front of Rayna.

You have completed The Hidden Maze trial.

Current Trial Score: 41,745 Points

Treasures Collected: 545

Traps Disarmed: 540

Points From Collected Weapons: 10,000 Points

Additional points for assisting the System Administrator in his goal of integrating the humans: 100,000 Points

Final Trial Score: 152,830 Points

A store popped up, listing each item in Phira’s collection and a price for Rayna to take it with her. Some of the items were in the hundreds of thousands, while others were as cheap as a few points.

Phira’s eyebrows rose. “Oh, I didn’t expect him to add that little tiff you had to your score. Do you want some help finding the good treasures, or do you prefer to browse for yourself? You have until the end of the first trial to decide, so there’s no need to rush your decisions.”

Rayna gladly accepted Phira’s help, and together, they managed to narrow Rayna’s options down into a more manageable list. Once they had settled on the final items, another System prompt appeared.

You have chosen:

Hand Towel x15 (150 points)

Journal x6 (600 points)

Pen x8 (80 points)

Rune Enhanced Clothing Set x10 (3,000 points)

Rune Enhanced Armor Set x2 (10,000 points)

Rune Enhanced Shoes (pair) x2 (2,000 points)

Travel Boots (pair) x1 (1,000 points)

Travel Tent x1 (10,000 points)

Travel Supply Kit x1 (10,000 points)

Rune Enhanced Travel Cloak x1 (10,000 points)

Rune Enhanced Staff x1 (2,000 points)

Book: The Flora and Fauna of Ember (1,000 points)

Book: Edible Plants and How to Spot Them (1,000 points)

Book: A History of the First People of Ember (1,000 points)

Book: Basic Runes (1,000 points)

Mystery Pendant (100,000 points)

Would you like to confirm your choice and end the trial?

Most of the items they had chosen were focused on surviving once the tutorial was over. Rayna was a bit dubious about the last item on the list, but Phira insisted that she should take it.

“But what does it do?” Rayna asked again.

She was sitting on a plush chair, frowning at her screen.

“That’s just the thing!” Phira said excitedly. “I have no idea. I never got it to work. But if the System thinks it’s worth a hundred thousand points then it must be good, right?”

Rayna shot her a skeptical look. “If you couldn’t get it to work, how am I supposed to figure it out?”

“You won’t have to,” Phira said. “The System Administrator will have created an description for the item along with instructions on how to use it. I’m not privy to that information.” She was almost pouting and Rayna wondered how it was possible that a woman her age could act so much like a child.

“Why don’t you just ask him?” Rayna asked. “He seems pretty personable, besides the whole accidentally kidnapping thing.”

Phira scoffed. “As if he would deign to answer. I’ve been trapped here for three thousand years as a part of his tutorial and has he once bothered to come pay me a visit? No.”

“And you’re stuck here?”

Rayna felt bad for the Tinkerer. From what Phira told her, Rayna had been the first one to reach the center of the maze in the last millennium and the last person to make it through had only done so by flying over all of her traps.

Phira had not appreciated the man circumventing her life’s work and the trial taker had received nothing since he earned no points during the trial. It hadn’t been a pleasant conversation.

“Not for much longer, I suppose,” Phira said cryptically.

Rayna could tell that the woman was trying to bait her into replying and she obliged, hoping she could at least alleviate some of Phira’s boredom for the short time that she was here.

“Why’s that?”

“Well, you cleared out most of my traps,” Phira said. “It’s not much of a trial without them. My maze was supposed to be a way for one lucky individual to earn Experience and treasures proportional to their hard work. Until you, most people played it safe, picking up treasures at the edge of the map and avoiding the worst of the traps. But you went through like a damn Wallymun, leaving nothing but destruction in your wake.”

Rayna blushed. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Phira said. “It’s nice to finally see someone appreciate my traps, even if it was only for a short while.”

Rayna wasn’t sure ‘appreciate’ was the right word, but she wasn’t going to tell Phira that.

“I have an idea!” Phira said suddenly, grinning broadly. “Wait one moment.”

Phira closed her eyes, her brows furrowing in concentration.

They sat in silence for several minutes, and Rayna wondered if the woman may have fallen asleep.

Rayna was about to ask what Phira’s idea was when her confirmation screen disappeared and another took its place.

The Trial Organizer Phira Alderon has suggested an increased reward. Would you like to accept it?

There was no other information about the reward. Rayna glanced over at Phira who nodded encouragingly.

She shrugged. Phira had been nothing but helpful so far, she had no reason to think the woman would steer her wrong. She accepted the prompt.

Rayna fell to the ground with a surprised yelp as the chair she was sitting on suddenly vanished. She grimaced, looking over to ask Phira what she did, but the woman was no longer there.

Neither were her treasures. Not even a scrap of paper remained in the massive ballroom.

Rayna stood up, brushing off her clothes and checking her System notifications.

The final reward has been added to your Inventory. You will now be transferred back to the tutorial area.

“Wait, I didn’t say—”

Rayna was teleported out of the empty ballroom.