Whims of Kiraan

Lord of Zastraria

Ithan was alone in a small room, with Dhurik and Unit 17 nowhere to be seen. The room was bare, save for a panel in the wall in front of him. He stepped up to the panel and tried to open it, but it was too tightly fastened to the wall to do so with his bare hands. He summoned his glaive as he felt Kiraan enter into his mind.

That was your chance to escape the terran, Kiraan spoke.

I couldn't have escaped Irse, Ithan replied. Her magic is too strong.

Perhaps for now. I must admit, I did not expect to encounter someone of her skill in Averion. He grew silent for a few moments as Ithan started to try and pry the panel open. What is it you seek here?

I thought you would be interested in having an army of terrans at your disposal. Was I wrong?

You intend to take the terran's place? Are you prepared for what you must do to succeed?

Yes, Ithan grunted as the panel separated from the wall, revealing a darker room beyond. I'll show you I've still got what it takes to do this.

Good. Then take the terran's key and use it to be rid of him and that cleric. His presence faded, allowing Ithan to relax as he dropped his façade. Of course, he did not truly plan to compete against Unit 17 in this trial, but instead keep his master entertained for as long as possible. The more time he gave Taer'inar to do his research the better.

The room in which Ithan now stood was much like the first, bare save for a plaque in its center and a door centered on each wall. Its pristine white walls bore no features except for the faintly glowing doors on each wall. The room was dimly lit, but Ithan was able to read the inscription on the plaque: "Find the three pillars before thrice the bell tolls." Ithan strode past the plaque to the door directly behind it. It had no handles, but as he reached out to touch it his hand phased through it as if it were air. Just like the dwarves' illusion. He stepped through the illusion and into a similar room to the last, except there was no plaque in the center. He proceeded through to the other side, passing once more through the door in front of him. The same room again; perhaps this was some kind of loop. He went through the door to his left instead of straight forward, but again he was in the empty room. Confused, he turned around and stepped through the way he came. But the empty room was replaced with the room with the plaque. Perhaps the rooms were shuffling as he walked between them.

He started over, going again through the door behind the plaque. This time, though, before proceeding through the next door, he summoned his glaive and made a mark in the middle of the floor. When he passed through the next door, the mark was gone, confirming that while these rooms were identical, they were distinct. Yet it had certainly been some sort of spatial magic that sent Ithan back to the first room. He continued forward through the rooms, but he stopped at the toll of a bell. He had used up a third of his time and had found none of these pillars that the plaque spoke of.

Frustrated, Ithan continued walking forward. The bell tolled again before he finally reached a room with a pillar in the center. To his dismay, there were no inscriptions nor additional clues as to where the other two pillars might be. He decided to continue on his original path until, finally, he heard the third bell. After passing through the next doorway, he was once more in the first room.

Time seemed to stretch on into eternity as Ithan tried several different paths in his attempts to find these pillars, but he only ever found the one. He started keeping track of his routes by carving out a sort of map in the floor of the starting room using a knife. It was not until his sixteenth attempt‍—he had started marking those as well‍—that he made an important discovery. The bells did not toll at regular intervals‍—they rang only after Ithan had passed through ten rooms. Whenever he passed through a room after the third bell tolled, he always returned to the starting room. If he went straight forward in any one direction, he could traverse through thirty rooms before ending up back at the beginning again. He knew by now that the first pillar was eleven rooms straight forward. That meant the other two rooms had to be within nineteen rooms of the first; the trial would have been impossible to complete otherwise.