Legacy Rewritten

The First Trial

I whirled around, turning to proceed to go down the staircase as I passed a whole row of books that were just strewn about. If I would've had more time, maybe I would've grabbed them for the Room to read at some point, but I just decided that if I really wanted to, I'd come back for them at some point. As soon as I descended the last set of staircases, familiar wisps of magic began floating up and rushing towards a wall, the wall on the far side of the tower, bottom floor, just like Rackham said. As soon as I got right next to the wall, the door just 'poofed' into existence, and I didn't hesitate for a second to walk right in because as soon as my foot passed through the threshold, it closed. I looked around at yet another dark, ominous corridor; apparently, ancient magic wielding wizards really like shadowy places, dully noted. "I've seen this before...in Gringotts, and the Restricted Section," I muttered in awe, looking around the room as yet another glass door with the ancient magic wisp lit up in the middle of it. "Ready or not, here we go," I declared loudly as I pushed open the heavy doors. 

The room was massive, reminding me of the map chamber a bit, just a lot bigger. The walls were like glassy water, golden intricate designs tracing up to form different archways and patterns alongside the walls, and along the path I was going on. It was a little trippy if I'm honest, being able to look down and see a stretch of darkness through the glassy stone floor. It was actually such a surreal feeling, and I did find myself grateful that I had already seen this a couple times so that it wasn't as overwhelming as it could be. I came to a large archway and my heart nearly dropped into my stomach as I halted immediately, noting that there was a massive gap in between my current archway, and the rest of the platform across from me. Great, another puzzle. I came into this adventure loving puzzles, but the amount that I've had to complete? I can only imagine that this love of puzzles will have decreased, if not died out altogether when I was finished with this adventure. I turned a couple times, trying to find a well of magic or a rune maybe, before I noticed a twin set of staircases descending to a space below me. 

Sure enough, the wisps of magic met me halfway as I jogged down the right staircase, it guiding me to a well of magic that revealed a bridge in the gap above. Easy enough. I went up the left side this time, noting the shimmers of gold along the stairs and the waterfalls that flowed seamlessly down the cavernous walls. After I crossed the bridge, I found another staircase that seemed to lower as I walked forward, kind of making me feel a little uneasy but still, somewhat awestruck by what it was doing. Magic is so creative. "More traces of ancient magic. Something must be different in here," I mused, looking around yet another room I'd wandered into, exactly the same as previous ones. All except for the unmistakable presence of those sentient guards around the room, and I braced myself for the attack I knew was coming. "Confringo!" I shouted towards one of the smaller guards, and an 'Expelliamus' to the other one, before panicking momentarily when I didn't see the slightly bigger one anymore. I then dove out of the way, just barely in time as I noticed the familiar crawl of blue fire, indicating that there was one that had jumped and tried to smash me. 

Unfortunately though, the sudden crawl of fire combined with a steep slice on the side of my cloak had caused it to become more of a hindrance than a help. I tugged it off, rolling out of the way of yet another attack as I put it away in my satchel, determining that I would just mend it at a different time. There was, after all, no point in not trying to fix it, I just didn't have time at the moment...for obvious reasons. I heard a swooshing sound beside me just as a sword came dangerously close to my face, the guards trying to be-head me just like they had done to Jackdaw, but I cast 'Expelliamus', only to use my own magic to grab it and fling it back towards the guard, be-heading it instead. I did the same to the larger guard, hitting it square in the chest as it stumbled backwards and seemed to just, fall apart. I stood with a blank look, wondering how in the world it ended up being that easy to defeat them. Either I've gotten stronger, which is possible, or they were merely a test to prep me for a bigger fight. The thought had me shiver slightly in nerves, but also surprisingly, in excitement for the anticipation.