Trial of Fates

Chapter 16

It was a bit of a drive and a long hike to the Hall of Fates. The building was sequestered away from main trails. They ended up having to use a GPS with longitude and latitude, along with a compass, to find their way to the entrance. A tall stone archway confirms they are in the right spot.

Natania bashes her nose as they try to walk through the archway. "Guess this is as far as I go," she growls as Gretchen passes easily through. Gretchen glances between the wolf and the large stone pyramid that hadn't been visible before crossing the arch.

"I guess so."

"Stay safe." Natania orders, pacing back and forth in front of the threshold, already agitated.

"I'll be fine. Wait somewhere out of sight." Without another word, Gretchen walks briskly into the pyramid, gaping slightly at the intricate work. It looks like the building was carved out of one giant stone. There are no seams or joints that she can tell, just artistic carving.

The entrance is a long stone hallway, with runes etched into the walls. Several of them light up as she passes, but she has no idea what they mean. The hallway seems to go on forever, dark except for the glowing runes, but eventually she reaches an empty chamber. She's expecting someone, or something to greet her, but there's nothing except a shiny silver chalice in the center of the room, atop a simple stone table.

There's some sort of blue liquid in the chalice, Gretchen picks it up cautiously. She's seen too many movies where moving the magic chalice causes the room to rapidly fill with quicksand. But nothing happens.

No other exits are visible in the room, just the way she came. There's nothing else in the room. She doesn't see any oddly protruding stones that might indicate an exit, but she moves around the edges of the room, hand against the wall to check for an invisible path. Nothing.

Either she drinks the chalice, or she turns back. There are no other choices. Well, Gretchen thinks, if this is poison, hopefully Natania won't wait too long before moving on with her life. Who was she kidding, the wolf would probably sit there, still as a statue, for weeks before giving up, if she ever did.

With a grimace, Gretchen raises the chalice to her lips and takes a tentative sip. It tastes like fresh spring grass. Not exactly pleasant, but not awful. She waits a moment, seeing if anything happens before downing the rest of the blue liquid.

Gretchen places the empty chalice onto the table, and immediately another path opens in the stone. Nothing had moved as far as she could tell, the entrance had just appeared. Without allowing herself to hesitate, Gretchen walks into the new path.

She comes to another almost empty room, but this time there's a seat in the center. Gretchen takes the seat and a stone table appears in front of her. A ragged looking old book with a broken spine sits atop it. Gretchen flips to the first page.

Immediately, visions assault her.

"Tell me more about what you plan to do?" Natania sits opposite of Gretchen at her kitchen table. It's only a few days after they'd met. Once they'd been free, the wolf had slept for several days, only waking to eat. Gretchen had waited until the wolf recovered her strength before bringing up her goal.

"I want to find out who killed my parents, and then I want to kill them."

"Revenge then," Natania murmurs. "I can respect that. Why do you need me?"

"I don't," Gretchen says, leaning back in her chair. "But it would be helpful to have someone else, especially someone with super strength and speed. It's not like I was going to search someone out, it was just convenient that we shared a cell."