Strena Quester Part Three

 The Temple’s Traps

After spending time in the shade Chashathrophogh stood up and looked at the group.

“Right, time to get into the temple. So what should you do during this time?”

“Look for the way in?”

He looked at Cerpheres, deadpan.

“What!”

“Access the temple door. It seems to have no doorknobs. So there must be a way in by a puzzle so-” She spoke as she looked at the door and lightly stroked it, looking for anything out of place. “-all we need to do is find any gaps.”

She looked at each edge but found nothing. She would have huffed at noticing very quickly that it was a dead end, until she saw the waves that she recognized engraved into the doors. Yet she walked away and walked to the side and looked at the doors at the left wall. To see that it was writing of her native land!

“‘Let the royal speak their title to enter.’” She translated.

“What’s that?”

“What it says here. So-”

“All royals must declare what we are as royals.”

“Prince!” Said Cerpheres.

Nothing happened.

“Are your parents alive?”

“No. I killed my mother and stepfather when they got boring. See, they never were never bright and interesting as you are. In fact, my stepfather never paid much attention to me and my mother never seemed to have any love for me. The only one that ever showed me parental love was the court jester.”

“Then would you not be a king?”

“Never was coronated. In fact I ditched all of that for simpler things so the crown went to my uncle. Not that he did anything good with it!”

They nodded.

So not that.

“Why not use this country’s native tongue?” Leonardo suggested.

They all looked at him with wide eyes.

“Look, as this is a different land then using your native language may not be a good idea.”

Chashathrophogh raised his eyebrow.

“Both you and Strena and Bash have the heart of a Quester.”

Then Cerpheres used the language to open the door. This was followed by the rest. That was when Leonardo became scarlet in the face as he too opened his mouth and spoke in the language of Strena and Zaryb’s native language “Last Prince.” and the doors flew open. They looked at him shocked as Cerpheres draped his arm around him. He noticed that he smelt like sweet wine as he looked at the man like he was a cute animal. This made him want to step away but he was pulled in closer.

“You never told us that you’re a prince.”

“Last prince. As in, the last one to be born of twenty before mother became infertile and I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Oh! It sounds so interesting!”

He looked on and hurried in the doors. This was followed by the rest. Chashathrophogh gripped the back of his collar.

“Do not push him. If he wants to tell us, then he will. So do not push him too far.”

“Oh, please keep looking at me like that. You do realize that I’m going to find out sooner or later! And like you’re in the position to judge little old me!”

He huffed as he let him go.

“Now off we go! The sooner we get the whole journey to the destination over with, the sooner that I can see you all work you magic.”

They all walked on until Cerpheres stepped upon something.

“Oops.”

Then the wall shot out and hit the wall opposite. Then, beneath them, mushrooms started to glow turquoise. They all looked at the walls as Cerpheres looked around at the walls.

Both Bash and Strena tried to use their magic to push the wall out but it did not budge! In fact, both girls could not even feel their magic at all!

“Interesting…”

“What is it?”

“The walls are made of antimagi.”

“What?”

“Meaning?”

“We won’t be able to use our magic here.”

“Right.” Bash said as her eyes darted all around the place. Her eyes dropped down to the ground to see a crescent moon mosaic spanning from her to Cerpheres’s feet.

“Cerpheres, move!”

“Please!”

She pushed him out of the way.

“Ooh! You know, you don’t have to be as rough as your uncle to impress me!”

“Shut it!” She snapped as she spotted the star symbol that he was standing on. At the left was a symbol of a cloud. In front of Cerpheres was symbol of a single raindrop with the point pointing at the man with Chashathrophogh behind him. She looked at the tiles and in the centre was a gap.

“All of you, stand on one of these at the same time!”

They did and the centre of the room flicked open revealing a staircase.

“Leonardo, you first.” Chashathrophogh said.

He did.

“Now!” 

Soon they raced down the stairs as fast as they could, before the slab returned to it’s place. Then the roof tiles lit up bright green. Strena looked up to see that the tiles were made of glowing crystals. As they reached the bottom there were glowing turquoise and teil mushrooms, flooding the place with green, teil and turquoise. Yet there were several amber fireflies flying around the place like tiny amber stars.

“Now what?” He asked as they all heard another click. They all looked to a sheepish looking Strena.

“Sorry!” She squeaked.

Then the roof in front of the staircase started to descend.

As Strena took a closer look she could see, to her horror, blood and bones on stakes. She then looked further around and saw the whole floor was covered in bones and rags to a point that she could not see the bottom! Then she looked up to see that the roof was descending as the crystals turned red and were now all pointy. 

Her eyes widened as they darted around to look for a door and saw it. To her utter dismay, she saw that it had no doorknob. Quickly she rushed to the left to see that was the pointy position. So she rushed to the right and looked up. She could see it getting lower and lower. It was touching the top of the door frame.

Calm down, clam down, clam down, there’s writing on the door. Read it. Just read it!

“Name the forbidden one who must not be worshipped!”

“Anubis!” Shouted Bash and the door opened.

They all dived into it. Chashathrophogh then pulled Leonardo in as fast as he could as he was not as fast as the rest. Soon the roof hit the floor of the room and glowing powder fell in front and soon the bones were starting to grow mushrooms.

“Bash!”

“Here!”

“Zarry?”

“Here!”

“Strena?”

“Here!”

“Good.”

“Hold on, aren’t you going to ask about little old me?”

“No need.”

“Oh! That’s cold.”

They all looked around to see that they were in a corridor. At the corners were the glowing mushrooms. Yet there were scratches in the centre of the floor, walls and ceiling.

“Great! How are we going to get out of here?” Snapped Leonardo.

“The next point will reveal itself once we get to the other end.”

“Does it naturally?”

“Yes.”

They all walked on and then they heard the click. They looked at Cerpheres. He had a raring look in his eyes then the whole room shook. The next moment they saw a ball the size of the room dropped in front of them. Then they all ran and ran.

“Why did you do that?”

“You didn’t say my name!”

“Well, maybe if you were possible to work with, I might have.”

“Come on! Don’t you care about me?”

“Well, as you have made it clear of your intentions towards us and their motive, then why would I?”

“Because I’m your only dear white mage here? Please, have some respect.” He spoke coyly.

“This is not helping.”

They raced on and on. They all tried their best to keep running until they saw the door. Strena looked back and then at the mushrooms. She ran on and on and on. She then looked back at the door. She dived at the corner and flattered her body into the corner. They did the same. Then she saw the writing.

“What is the name of the one above all?”

“Exodustice!”

The doors opened and the ball turned a corner and fell into a hole. They had to take a breath.

“Learn your lesson?”

“Shut up Cerpheres!”