Mom had been running around the place, saying stuff like 'WE'RE DOOMED!!' and 'THE END IS NIGH!!'. When he tried asking her, she was talking too fast for him to catch everything, but there was something about the moons and a temple in the sea. She and the goddess Angela were in charge of whatever they needed to do to make this disaster stop, which was a perfect opportunity for Belen to convince his friends to tag along. Cyril would come along if he was going, and talking Chrys to get her brothers to come was a cinch. The Eytelia ziggurat was amazing, like being in an aquarium. It was kind of dark outside, and he was sure he saw some lights blinking out there, but he stayed on the path. Once everybody was inside, he pulled them over for a group huddle. 

"Alright, so there's six doors and five of us. I'm thinking we should try splitting the challenges up so we can get the six keystones for the last door quicker. Who wants to volunteer?" Chrys was next to speak up. Pulling her hood down, she thought their options over. "What are the challenges? We can start by having each of us take whichever door focuses on our strengths and figure out how to tackle the rest later." Nodding, he agreed. "That's the plan. So from what I remember mom telling everybody, here's what we need to do: run a gauntlet of traps without getting hit, complete a maze with people rolling boulders after us, solve the puzzles in a room that is slowly filling with water, work a way out of room designed as a giant puzzle, play a memory game, and figure out the order of some buttons without releasing the hounds…figuratively."

"All of which sound incredibly dangerous. So what's next, running across the surface of molten magma on a time limit?" Efrain commented sarcastically. "Efrain…" His older brother gave him a look, and he turned his head crossing his arms. "Well he's not completely wrong, per se. It's just that some of the trials are more dangerous than others. Are we going to roll dice or draw straws?" He said with a smile, looking at everybody here. "I can take the puzzle box room!" Chrysanthe raised her hand. "Ok, so we have one already taken. Next?" Belen pointed, scribbling down her name and number. "Bel, I can do the escape room." His twin brother said. "Wait…are you sure Cyril? You'll be put on a time limit, and you can't hold your breath that long." He was a bit worried, and was hoping he could convince him not to do it. "We can ask mom to help, I'm sure she'll be ok with it."

The silver-haired boy shook his head. "I can do it. I'll be ok. I brought something so I won't drown even if I start running out of time." He pulled down the collar of his shirt to reveal a suit of armor he'd seen before. "Hey, it's that diving suit mom had! When'd you ask her to lend it to you?" His brother beamed as he fixed up his collar. "She bought one for me, so you don't need to worry." He was still reluctant, but he decided to give Cyril the benefit of the doubt. "Alright, the escape room's all yours. That's two out of four now. Anybody else?"

"About that maze, could you give us a few more specific details on what we're supposed to be avoiding there?" Lys asked. His older brother Belen was more than willing to tell. "Sure, sure. While you're trying to find the exit, you'll be running away from little guys with masks rolling boulders and holding pointy sticks. There's more than one of them in there, so that'll make it more complicated. Are you volunteering to take that one?" The brunet asked with a mischievous grin. The blond Rosenite boy's face paled at the thought. "What? No, no I was just wondering." He was nervous; Cyril could tell because his eyes kept trying to avoid looking at Bel after that. 

"I'll take the gauntlet run. It's not any easier with two people anyways." Belen said. "So that leaves three left: maze run, memory sequence, and the room of trial and error." Bel snickered to himself at the pun he made, and Lys let out a sigh. "Efrain, which one do you want to take?" He asked the black-haired boy beside him. The Rosenite looked at him, as if asking why he assumed he wanted to participate, but decided not to say it. "…Trial of Memory. I can handle it on my own." Efrain didn't like talking much unless he absolutely had to. Sometimes people thought the way he talked sounded mean, but Cyril didn't think so. Maybe he just didn't like wasting words, like mom. He must still be mad that he wasn't allowed to stay home. But in the end Efrain decided to help.

That left the two most difficult challenges: the maze and the paneled room with trapped beasts. "For the last two, we should probably work together." Chrysanthe suggested. "If we go in a group, we'll have better chances at finding the exit with more of us distracting the masked gremlins. Plus, the same goes for the panel room too. There's safety in numbers, after all." Everybody seemed to agree, and he nodded as well. "Sounds good. So, everybody clear on the plan?" Belen asked them all. When the answer was unanimous, they broke off to take on their respective trials. They agreed to meet back in the nexus once they finished, then they would take on the last two challenges together.

Going off to the door leading to the escape chamber, Cyril checked that he had everything he needed before waving to his brother and friends. He nervous too, but he knew if anything happened his parents would make sure he would be ok. The Goddess Angela was here too, so nobody would be hurt. Reassuring himself, he entered and prepared mentally for whatever the trial was planning to throw at him.

Efrain went into the door for the Trial of Memory, disgruntled like usual. It was smaller than expected, with an assortment of buttons with unique symbols etched into them. Crossing his arms, he stood back and began by memorizing the individual buttons' symbols and their placement. The sooner he formulated a method to speed up the process, the sooner he could leave with the keystone. After spending a good twenty minutes in preparation, he stepped forward to start the challenge. "Let's see what you've got here. This better be worth the time and effort." In response, the room began with the starting sequence. A symbol flashed, and he pressed the correct button without missing a beat. Then two symbols flashed. That was too easy. He kept this up, noting how the pattern was building upon itself one new addition at a time. He was keeping up well, and had made it up to ten. 

Then it happened. So far it had been going easy on him, then it upped the ante by placing two similar symbols right beside each other in a repetition of three. He must have misread what he saw, for as soon as he hit what he was sure was the right button, there was the sound of a shrill whistle as all the symbols flashed before him at once. The unexpected error made him freeze. What? That was impossible! He knew it had been that one, why was it wrong? It should be right. He knew it was right! Frustrated and annoyed, he frowned as he had to start from the very beginning. Repeating the sequence he worked his way up, all the way back to where he had made his mistake earlier. He passed it this time, and the frown on his face eased. Good, just as it should be. He had no time to waste.

It was now that Efrain was starting to wonder just how long the sequence would go. He had passed the fifteenth symbol in the pattern, and it was still going. Sure it wasn't exactly difficult, but there was a limit to how tedious something could be. Again he made a mistake, and was sent right back to the start. He hoped that wasn't the second to last one, or else he'd be seriously miffed. But something in the back of his mind doubted that it would be over so soon. Again, he was back to where he had failed. Passing it, to his dismay he had to keep going. This was madness. No, it was stupid. How long was this supposed to continue? Was that the point of this entire challenge? In that case it should be renamed to the Trial of Long-Suffering.

Finally, and indeed finally–he finished. He had lost count of how many times he had restarted, and to be fair he had stopped bothering to note how long the chain had grown by then. He was done and it was over; that was all that mattered. A panel opened up on the wall, revealing a small etched piece of stone with symbols carved on its sides. Reaching in warily, he retrieved the object and looked it over. Thankful that it didn't choose to throw a curveball at him at the last moment, he left and reentered the nexus muttering under his breath: "Good riddance…".

Now it was her turn to shine. Chrysanthe had been waiting in anticipation while they discussed their strategy to take on the trials, and naturally when she heard one that she felt was possible for her, she took the initiative and claimed it. It was for the best–she'd have trouble handling the gauntlet, and she didn't want to gain a phobia of water while under pressure. She'd never expected Cyril to be the one to volunteer for that challenge though. Opening the door to her selected trial, suddenly the world began to spin. The girl lost consciousness, and woke up inside a square room. "Ugh, my head. What happened? Where's the door?" Rubbing her forehead, a quick look around showed no possible way she could have entered. It had to be magic, something that sent her here after she came in. Well, no time like the present. Might as well get going.

She wasn't sure if there was a time limit for this trial too, but she wasn't too keen on finding out. Chrys chose to take a careful look at her surroundings before touching anything. All that was there was some sort of panel which looked like it should open, but wouldn't budge. "Isn't this a handle? So why isn't it moving?" Pulling it every which way, she relented and flopped onto the ground with a sigh. Leaning her back against the wall, she looked at the lone panel which was her only clue on how to find her way out of this room. She'd pulled up, down, left, right, out, and in–but nothing happened. Everybody else was still waiting on her to finish this one, so she couldn't just sit here. Standing up again, she pounded her hand on the panel. "Come on…how do I get you to work?" Venting her frustrations a little, she pushed a little harder than usual, and heard an audible 'click'.

To her surprise, the panel with the handle went in rather easily! Pushing harder, the panel recessed into the wall, and some mechanism hidden inside caused the entire wall to roll away. That left her with a foot more space than before, but still not much closer to exiting. However, to Chrys any progress was great progress, so she started pushing and pulling on anything she could get her hands on. With that method, she was able to roll away the other four walls to reveal a set of new walls and partitions, interlocking in odd ways. Now this was puzzling. She tried the push-pull method again, but no response. Putting her hands on her hips, she studied everything more closely. Whatever she was supposed to do, it wasn't obvious.

She noted that there was a small gap in between the interlocking portions. That meant they had to separate somehow, but what would she have to do to achieve that? At this point there was no harm in trying whatever came to mind, so she tried various ways in prying them apart. Finally, she tried pushing the pieces in opposite directions simultaneously, and then that did the trick. One by one the second layer rolled out of the way, giving more space and a new section to solve. If solving a puzzle cube from the outside was difficult, imagine trying to do the same from inside–without any idea on what your objective looked like! That was what the Trial of Perception was, in a nutshell. Trying to figure things out while not being able to see the big picture wasn't easy.

Just when she thought she had the room all figured out, there was some other twist or way that she hadn't thought of. And at times methods she had used in previous layers were brought back to be integrated with new solutions. By the time she was almost out, her head was spinning. She had never tried to visualize something that she couldn't actually see in three dimensions. But if there was one good thing that came out of this, it was that everything was significant and future layers were based off what she had learned from the past ones. Spatial thinking like this was something that could be gradually learnt with time. 

At last, the final layer was unraveled and she pushed the walls away to find herself greeted by the outside–only to stumble upon another shocking realization. The room she had been in wasn't a room at all; it was just a giant puzzle box inside of the real trial chamber! Before she could dwell on the strangeness of it all, a light appeared before her eyes and took the form of a keystone. It fell into her hands, and the real door out appeared. Putting it in her pocket, she gave the room one last look before going back to the nexus to share her experience with the others.

"Ok, it's just a gauntlet. All you need to do is go through the traps and not get hit. Easy! …Right." Belen mumbled to himself as he stared down the corridor at the exit waiting for him down at the far end. He was kind of nervous, but it should be fine. He could teleport and had a dozen other spells at his fingertips without worrying about injuries being permanent, so this should be easier than the Trials of Memory and Insight. Even though he was fired out and ready to go, he wasn't that eager to test the traps out himself. Conjuring doll-like familiar, he directed it towards the other side. "Alright little guy, just walk on that way. Take your time." The half-fey boy said waving at the exit. The hastily formed familiar did as told, and ambled over–only to get impaled by a series of spikes that suddenly emerged from below.

"Ohh….that's not good." He grimaced as his familiar dissipated into a puff of smoke. From the looks of things, they weren't holding back when they said it would be gauntlet. "On the bright side at least I know where that one is. Let's try that again." Was using a familiar a cheap way to figure out the terrain without actually experiencing it? Yes. But it worked, and that was what mattered. If he was going to be sent back to the beginning every time he made a mistake, then he might as well just stay put and wait until he saw everything. Using a scarab pendant, he was able to monitor his familiar's progress down the path. After a while it was getting pretty repetitive with sending a familiar back down the same way again and again, but he couldn't complain too much. Thanks to his little test dummy, he had worked a way to get around a handful of traps up until it ran into a series of crushing walls.

The old wall-crushing trap. This wasn't a surprise–it was one of the oldest traps in the book, next to a large rolling boulder sent to squash you flat and walls lined with dart traps. It wasn't considered a classic without a good reason. Like what he heard his mom say time and time again: if it isn't broken, don't fix it. The design was simple but effective. You didn't need to change anything. Even if someone used short-range teleportation in short bursts all the way down, they still ran the risk of missing the timing by a fraction which led to…you know, becoming paste on a slab of granite. There was no way he could wriggle his way out this one, or that's what they wanted him to think. If there was a will, there was a way through anything. 

Through slick maneuvering and some close-calls with teleportation, he was in front of the wall-crusher. He  wasn't going to just wing it this time. After all that work in figuring out how to get here in the shortest amount of time? Not a chance. Taking out a set of magical immovable rods, he threw them in and made them freeze in the air forming a gap just large enough for him to fit through. Waiting for the trap to trigger, he watched as the walls came crashing in. BOOM! With a grin he saw they held, but decided to watch a little longer. The rods were holding well, but then came a horrible creaking noise. His smile fell as he realized what was happening–the rods were starting to get compacted and he wasn't going to risk losing one. "Ok that's enough. Time out, time out." Summoning them back, he the walls that had been forced apart smashed together with increased force, causing him to cover his ears. With a sigh of relief, he checked that the rods were undamaged as the trap resumed functioning like normal. 

"Time for plan B…" If holding the walls open wasn't an option and he couldn't jam its mechanisms, then he really would have to make a break for it. Still, who knows if there was another surprise trap waiting for him right at the end? Not taking any chances, he conjured a spherical familiar and pulled his arm back. Throwing it as hard as he could, it sailed and bounced through just making it to the other side–before being incinerated by a blast of flame from the ceiling. "Are you kidding me? That's cheap! You can't just make it impossible!" He got around it with his second pitch using some portals, and found the 'safe spot' where he could move to.

Now more than halfway there, things were heating up. Flame geysers, impaling spears from the side walls, a series of razor sharp pendulums, rigged floor tiles… This whole place was keeping him on his toes. He almost panicked when he stumbled forward into the door to the exit, jumping back while half-expecting a stone fist to hit him in the stomach, sending him back to the beginning. But it didn't, and to his relief a keystone appeared. Grabbing it and going, he was glad it was over. Maybe this would make him thing twice about going treasure-hunting in abandoned ruins for a while.

Cyril wasn't sure if he was ready, but he still went on ahead anyway. He had his ocean armor on, and thought about what his parents would say if they were standing next to him. His father would tell him to just do his best and not to worry too much. His mother would say the same thing, but add that he should be careful anyway. The biggest danger in this room would be drowning, so he only had one thing to focus on. "Solve the puzzles, get a keystone, and then the door opens." The half-fey boy repeated to himself. "Everybody's waiting for me, so let's start." He found himself in a room. There were many things here: panels that required codes, symbols that probably were important for the puzzles, and likely hidden items to find. He wasn't like his brother, who could figure out everything after looking at it for a while. And so, Cyril started by doing a search of the room to see what he could find.

Combing the room as is turned up a few wooden plaques with symbols paired with numbers, a tool for something, a key which wasn't for the door, and a red marble. The first thing he did was try the key on everything. It opened a drawer, which had a wooden box with four missing panels. That was a good step in the right direction, and he had the plaques already. What he needed was a hint for the order. Unable to find anything relevant after looking under every nook and cranny, he decided to leave the box for now. Taking the tool, he inspected it. It resembled some of the items from his mother's toolbox, and what the workers used back home. This particular tool had a chisel-shape end, for turning screws.Was there anything that needed this? Feeling underneath the table, he noticed some extra screws present. Their placement told him these weren't holding the furniture together, and he went to work on seeing what it was hiding.

It revealed a panel with some code, but it was a bit dark. Using light-weaving, he illuminated the underside of the table to see '2749' burnt into the wood. There were the same symbols he had seen on the wood plaques. Crawling out from under the table, Cyril sat on the floor as he got the box open. Inside was a lever for something, leading him to search for where it belonged. He found its place on an odd machine covered by a sliding panel. Once it was secured, he pulled on it to test if it was working and heard a loud click. There was the sound of water gurgling through pipes. He couldn't tell where it was all coming from, glancing at the ceiling and floor. There was a slow dripping noise in the room but he couldn't figure out where. Taking in a deep breath, he remembered his parents' advice. Stay calm, and move on.

His brother and friends were waiting for him. He had to keep going. The red marble fit in the strange machine with the lever. It ran down the tubes, zipping around the loops until it stopped at the bottom. It weighed down some sort of button there, but it wasn't nearly heavy enough to press it all the way. He'd have to find more of these soon, or he'd be floating. Trying to open another drawer, he realized there was no handle. Luckily he found the hidden screws on the side keeping it closed, or else he would've tried breaking into it. Inside was another marble, blue this time. With a plunk it rolled down to join its friend, but it still wasn't enough. More panels opened up in the walls, revealing a panel with nine squares and another requiring a color code of five. None of these made sense to him at the moment, so he continued working at finding solutions to what he understood.

"Nine squares…so something should have dark and light ones right? I didn't see a chessboard or checkered design anywhere. Maybe I missed it?" Again, he was back to looking underneath everything and checking for false walls and hidden compartments. He didn't find a three by three design anywhere, but he did notice a few of the solved puzzles had white squares and black ones. Figuring out the nine-square puzzle through trial and error, he swung it open to find a green marble. All he needed was two more, if the color code was an indication. Rolling it down the tubes, Cyril started to notice that his feet were feeling wet. Nervously looking down, he saw there were puddles growing on the floor.

Two more to go, then he could solve the color puzzle. His next obstacle was a puzzle box that had something inside when he shook it. The water was at his ankles, and he could feel it rising by the second. It was one that had to opened the right way, or you'd just break the thing. While trying to find the 'key' to moving the wooden pieces loose,  he fumbled and almost dropped the box but caught it just in time. Taking in deep breaths, Cyril was still trying to keep calm. He knew he could do it, but the water wasn't pouring in any slower. There was a lot of pressure, but he was glad that at least it was just him in here. If Lys or his brother were with him it would be hard to think. Fully focusing on prying the puzzle box apart, it was finally dismantled. A purple marble was waiting for him and it was added to the rest. Now there was one final marble he needed for the machine.

Something in the room moved, but he didn't immediately see what it was. The water was at his knees, and walking was becoming harder. Nothing in the floor, nothing new on the walls. He looked up, and saw a turn-dial on the ceiling. There were symbols from each of the previous puzzles he had solved to get to this point. However, right now he couldn't even reach it if he jumped. With the water continuing to rise, he came to a grim realization: he would have to wait for the water level to rise high enough to swim upward to access the dial. 

This was one of the hardest decisions he was forced to make. All this time Cyril had been trying to solve it as fast as he could, but this puzzle's placement told him that he had to wait and let time pass or else risk not being able to finish at all. He couldn't use levitation, or manipulate the water to move himself up. With nothing to grapple or enough contact with the floor for a jump, this really was his only option. Standing in water rising to his waist, he fidgeted and tried not to focus on the room filling with water. He couldn't panic, panicking wasn't good. He had to keep calm or he'd use up all his air.His feet weren't touching the bottom anymore, and he had to start kicking to keep afloat. Throwing his arm up, he was still a few inches short. The machine for the marbles was almost completely covered with water, and soon he would have to dive down to access it.

Seconds passed, and he tried to grab the dial again. Still not enough. The machine was almost completely submerged, with only a foot of space from the room's ceiling. Again, he tried. At last–he got it. Quickly he started spinning the dial in the order of the puzzles he had to solve once he entered the trial. Ducking his head when the dial swung open, he grabbed at the air when a marble fell out. With the final yellow marble in hand, he held his breath as he dove below the rising water's surface. Reaching the marble machine, he fed it into the tubes and hoped the water wouldn't affect its ability to sink. It was falling slower in water than in air, and he was running out of time. At last, the marble settled, pressing the button completely down. 

The roar of rushing water echoed through his ears as a force was pulling him down! Suddenly all the water in the room was being rapidly drained, and he struggled for air. Breaking the surface, he fell onto his side moments after, coughing and sucking in as much air his lungs could get. Soaked, but having succeeded, the danger period was over. Having recovered from fighting the currents in a miniature whirlpool, he wrung out his clothes as much as he could and squeezed water from his hair. Wiping his bangs out of his face, he went over to see the last puzzle yet to be solved. A color code, set for five colors. He could now confidently say that he knew what the right answer was. 

"Red, blue, green, purple, yellow." Moving gears and grinding stone caused a platform to rise out from the ground, revealing a keystone. With a smile of relief, he picked it up, and turned to see the doorway in reappear. Running back to the nexus, he waved to the others with the keystone in hand.

With Cyril running out of the Trial of Knowledge like a rabbit at the sound of a popper, everybody was back together again. They had four keystones so far, and the two hardest trials were left. "Good job guys! Now we have two more to go." Belen said. "Easy for you to say." Efrain grumbled. "Should we split into groups or should we all go at once? There's five of us." His older sister asked. Belen crossed his arms and looked up at the ceiling, as if deep in thought. "That's a great question. But I think that also depends on which trial we'll be tackling next. For the maze, the more of us that go in the better. But for the Trial of Insight, only those of us who don't mind fighting should go. Remember, the trials might get harder with more people, so we can't expect greater numbers to make it a cakewalk."  

"Well, are we all going or not?" Efrain wasn't the type to just sit around twiddling his thumbs. "We're going, Efrain. But Belen's right, we have to make our choices carefully. How about a show of hands for who wants to participate for each trial?" His elder brother Lysandre spoke. "With a show of hands, who wants to take the maze run?" Chrysanthe asked, raising her hand in the process. Belen, Lysandre, and Cyril raised their hands. "Efrain wants to sit that one out." Cyril said. "Alright, so four of us for the Trial of Celerity. Now, who wants to join for the Trial of Insight?" Chrys asked next. This time he raised his hand, along with everybody else. "It's probably better if we all go for that one." Belen insisted. "Cyril can keep us healed and we can all pitch in with putting the monsters down whenever we press the wrong panel."

So it was decided, everyone except him was going to run like rats through a maze filled with hostile, tiny masked men. He thought that his siblings would give him another set of glares and faces, but Cyril stepped in before they could have a chance. That was one of the few things that Efrain respected about the twin, even if everybody else thought he was some naive daydreamer. It wasn't like he didn't understand what was going on, Cyril just marched to the beat of his own drum. Personally Efrain preferred him to his twin, whom he thought was a bothersome busybody.

"We'll be seeing you soon Efrain! Wish us luck!" His sister waved, before going off with the other boys. Now it was just him here, and the rest of the people who weren't taking a stab at the trials for keystones. They left the keystones from the completed trials with him for safekeeping.

One by one they all filed into the trial chamber, the door shutting behind them. She let out a long exhale, and pulled her hood up while putting her hands on her hips. Mazes weren't her forte, but she had a decent sense of direction. Hopefully that would be more than enough to get at least one of them to the endpoint. The first thing she saw on the wall was a set of crude pictographs. There were drawings of small figures with oversized tribal masks and spears, pictures of them pushing rocks like snowballs, and a depiction of a large boulder with the gremlin-like beings plastered all over it. That was weird. A compass wasn't going to do them any good here, so they had to pick a direction to start. No sounds of footsteps or sign of the masked men anywhere, so they had a little time to plan.

Then she saw some words beneath the pictographs on an engraved plaque: 'YOU SHOULD PROBABLY START RUNNING NOW'. Faraway sounds of ritual chanting came from the distance, but nobody else seemed to be aware. "Hey do you hear something?" She poked her older brother's arm. "No? I don't hear anything." Lys said. The twins had the same feeling written on their faces. "Oh…never mind. I just thought I heard some chanting." Looks like she'd have to keep an ear to the ground. While the boys were trying to decide which way to split up, she peeked around the corner. Hopefully this maze didn't have any of the traps from the Trial of Forbearance. 

"Me and my brother'll go left and you guys take the right." Belen suggested. "That way we can cover more ground. Plus siblings work together better right?" Cyril was fine with whatever everybody wanted, so it was up to her brother to make his choice. "I'm fine with it, what do you think?" Her brother wasn't entirely on board with the idea. "Well, if everybody else agrees then let's go with that." He finally said. Putting on her gloves, she grabbed her brother's hand and started down the right fork. Belen and Cyril waved as they headed down the left side. "So what was it that you heard earlier?" Lys asked. "Chanting–I swore I heard some sort of chanting from somewhere else in the maze. I'm not kidding, we have more than just rolling stones to worry about in here. I saw some pictographs on the walls earlier with little imps wearing masks and holding spears."

He nodded, but she knew she'd have to make him see it to believe it. Her brothers were both so stubborn sometimes. "Anyway, if you see anything coming after you, shift into bat form and make a break for it. Don't try to save me or anything. If we can, let's try to finish this trial on the first attempt. Redoing it won't make things any easier." Crossing her arms, she gave him a reassuring smile. "You might be my big brother, but it's not fair if you're the only one looking out for everybody else."

With his twin in tow, they went left. "By the way Cyril, if you see anything or anybody that isn't Chrys or Lys–tell me right away, ok?" "Ok." His twin replied. "And the same thing goes for weird noises, traps, boulders…" He continued. "Mhm." His twin nodded in agreement again. The next few minutes were filled with an awkward silence as they puttered around finding dead ends and backtracking through passages. "Hey Cyril, find anything yet?" Belen asked, boredom written all over his face. Turning to look in his direction, he saw his twin shake his head. Sighing loudly, he rubbed his face as he tried to find ways to stave off the monotony. At least with the Trial of Forbearance he had something to do. "We've been walking around forever. How big is this maze supposed to be?!" Cyril shrugged, and he let out a groan.

While they wandered around, he heard the pattering of feet close by. His brother was intently staring at a wall, so he went to see what that was. Moseying over, he caught sight of a small midget-sized thing scampering away. "Weird…was that a monkey or something?" Cyril probably wouldn't go anywhere soon, so it should be safe for him to leave for a few minutes. Tiptoeing after the midget, he followed its steps until he saw it with several others of its ilk. Casting a spell of invisibility, he spied on the strange figures to see what they were doing. They were very short, shorter than halflings even. With tribal carved wood masks comically large in proportion to their bodies, they didn't look threatening at all. A few had some sticks with feathers tied at the head, but those could barely reach longer than three feet. 

The masked midgets were making noises, hooting and hollering at each other. They made hand signals, and were greeting each other. Maybe these were the ones that Chrys said she heard earlier? The little men weren't as interesting as he'd hoped, so he was ready to go back and see if his brother was still there. Then he smelled smoke, like somebody was trying to start a bonfire. Fanning the air with his hand, the smoke was getting stronger fairly quickly causing his nose to get irritated. Pinching his nose, he tried to suppress an incoming sneeze. Holding his breath, the tickling sensation inside his nose abated. As he was walking away, it suddenly came back–and before he could stifle it, it happened.

"ACHOOO!!!" There was dead silence as his face fell. "Uh-oh…" The silence broke in to a chorus of war cries with tribal chanting, and he bolted. His invisibility had come off along with that sneeze, and right now he had to escape. Skidding to a halt, he found his brother where he left him, and grabbed him by the shoulders. Out of breath, he rapidly pointed in the direction he came running. "Bel what's wrong? Why were you running?" Cyril asked. Gasping for air, he choked out a few key words. "Angry masks…pointy sticks…RUN!!!" 

"SHAKH BAEYT OOH HAA HAA!! SHAKH BAEYT OOH HAA HAA!!" Came the enraged cries of the masked men, armed with spears and other crude yet effective implements of war. The two brothers were running as fast as their legs could carry them, throwing themselves around corners desperately hoping that they wouldn't run into a dead end. "Bel we need to split up!" Cyril yelled as they made another sharp turn. "What?!! No are you nuts?! They'll get both of us if we separate!" He shouted back. Then he heard something very heavy slam into the floor, something with a surface rough enough to make grinding noises when making contact with the floor. "Oh no, no no no no nooo!!" He repeated desperately like a mantra.

Cyril kept looking over his shoulder at the little masked beings who were chasing them down. Swerving to the side, he narrowly missed getting hit by a spear. He knew that they couldn't keep running forever, and they had to split up eventually despite what his brother thought. Wasn't that their plan from the start? Have as many people in as possible to spread out across the maze, so hopefully somebody would make it through? Bel was panicking, and when he panicked he sometimes did the opposite of what he'd usually do. He didn't blame his twin one bit–he knew Belen was just worried about him. The loud thud told him to look behind him again, and this time he saw one of the masked spear-throwers rolling a stone as large as itself. Just as he was thinking that things didn't look so bad, the a series of shouts from the armed tribal warriors caused the rock to glow–enlarging tenfold! 

"Bel, use a portal!" He shouted, eyes still fixed on the bigger and more dangerous boulder gaining on them. "The boulder's coming! You need to use a portal!" Knowing his brother wasn't going to listen, he had to think fast. "Bel–give me your magic mirrors! Quick!" His twin yelled back, confused. "What? Why? What for?" "Just give them to me, both of them!" He insisted. When he pressed hard enough his brother usually gave in. The brunet let out an exasperated sigh, and when they made another turn, he slowed down enough so they were side-by-side. Producing the mirrors in his hands, before his brother could ask him to explain–Cyril grabbed them and threw one as hard as he could over the closest maze wall. His brother whirled around to look at him in shock. "Why'd you do that?!" Taking the remaining mirror, he enlarged it to the size of a floor-length mirror and laid it against the wall. Roughly pulling his brother by the arms, he threw him against the mirror's surface. 

Instead of shattering glass, Belen was absorbed into it, and disappeared. Cyril then quickly shrunk it back down to size, and stuffed it into his clothes before the boulder caught up to him. Right before he was rolled over, he sank down into the massive stone's shadow and hid while the danger passed. It was a good thing the masked chanters weren't very attentive, or else they would notice they failed to hit anything. With both of them safe for the time being, he emerged out from the shadows when the coast was clear and leaned against the maze wall. Sliding down his back, he let out a long sigh. He had barely made it, by a hair's breadth. 

Moments later he heard the sound of his brother's voice in his mind via telepathy. 'Cyril? Cyril can you hear me?! Answer me, please! Are you still there?' Speaking to the air, he answered back. "I'm here, Bel. I'm ok. I'm sorry for throwing your mirror. I didn't have any time to explain. If you can, tell Lys and his sister that they need to hurry. The masked men are running, and they have boulders that can change size with magic. At least one of us needs to find the exit, and fast." Another telepathic message came in loud and clear. 'Got it, I'll do that right away. You don't need to be sorry about that, Cyril. After you pushed me in, I understood what you were trying to do. Thanks, you really saved me back there! Stay safe, ok?' 

"I will." With no more messages from his twin, Cyril got back on his feet and began running as far as he could from the sounds of the boulder. He hoped everybody would find the exit in time.