Magical Engineering

“Honored mother,” Elody immediately replied to the voice, bowing low. I had no idea if she wanted us to do the same.

“Oh, it’s so nice to see someone who knows the pleasantries. As much as I enjoyed Timon’s unique style of humor, he just had no idea how to treat someone of my age. He was downright rude,” the voice replied.

“I would never dream of treating someone of your position with any sort of rudeness,” Elody continued.

“Oh, really? That’s wonderful. It’s been so long since I’ve gotten to play a riddle game. Since there are so many of you, I think three riddles and three guesses should be fair,” the voice’s tone changed. There was a hint of amused hunger to it.

Beside me, Elody suddenly stood back up, ending her long-held bow. There was a look on her face I had rarely seen there. It was one I recognized, having made it myself many times. She was worried she had made a mistake.

“Honored mother, may I have a moment of privacy to explain the rules to my allies? They have never been involved in a weaver’s web,” Elody asked, a bit of nervousness in her words confirmed my earlier suspicions.

“Of course. I will seal the doors, and once you are ready, please choose your paths,” the voice said moments before the two opened doors slammed shut.

“You look more worried than I’ve really ever seen you look. What’s going on?” I asked, turning to Elody.

“I’ve made a large mistake. One we will now have to deal with. In the moment while I was questioning to myself about exactly how Timon could have even gotten a weaver mother here, I just naturally assumed he already had the standard game they play in action. It should have occurred to me that the way Timon speaks and carries himself would have naturally avoided triggering their game. It still doesn’t fully explain how he would get her here, but now we have no choice but to play it through,” she answered.

Several books appeared floating in front of her once she stopped speaking. They didn’t look like her usual magical class books. Instead, they appeared to be a series of reference books. While I had seen Elody actively studying many times before, I had never seen her do it in the middle of something like this.

“Based on her words, does this mean we have to answer her riddles? What happens if we don’t?” Rabyn followed up, still holding his cleaver.

“We won’t leave here unless we play. And unless we win, we won’t all leave here either. She gave us three guesses. I believe none of us can answer wrong more than once, either,” Elody answered, not taking any of her eyes from her books as she did so.

“What happens if someone guesses wrong? Or if we don’t get the correct answer at all?” Pryte asked.

“I’m not entirely sure. From what I can quickly gather, if we answer wrong, we are removed from the game. Whether that persists after the completion of the game or not, I can’t find an answer to. If we win, one of us, of her choosing, will be told something she considers important about their own future. This is the reason why their universe, despite the incredible dangers they represent, is kept as part of the Spiral. They are a boon of information for those willing to risk it,” Elody explained.

“I still don’t understand why we can’t refuse to play. Just how powerful is she?” Rabyn asked, pushing the idea.

I somewhat agreed with him. If we could just escape here without risking any of this, that seemed like the better option. I doubted it was really an option, though, or Elody would have led with that.

“If we are in her web, which based on the fact that she has control over these doors, I would assume that we are. That means she has total control of the strings that make it up. While that doesn’t mean it’s impossible for us to escape, or to fight her for our freedom, I can find a total of two accounts of anyone having tried that route and living. Both of them were rulers of large factions, Arena champions, and far more powerful than all of us combined.” Half of the books Elody was reading vanished, only to be replaced by even more while she spoke.

“Got it, so play and possibly die, or just die. Not big on the options, but I suppose we have to play through. Is it just riddles, or is there more to this?” I asked. The three doors implied a bit more to the game.

“That’s what I’m trying to determine. So far, all I can find are references to the riddles differing based on the paths chosen, not that the paths themselves are in any way easier or harder. My best guess is it has something to do with the way they read fate.” Elody was down to only two books now.

“Honestly, I’m not sure what you are all so worried about. This sounds fun. Compared to the usual nonsense Dave finds himself embroiled in, this is actually something entertaining. So, what door do we want?” Pryte had a giant smile plastered across his face. He really was enjoying this. Would that enjoyment translate to success?

“While I don’t mirror Pryte’s enthusiasm, it does seem like there isn’t much else we can do to prepare. Unless you have ideas otherwise, Elody. Or Ivan over there, you’ve been pretty silent since this started,” Rabyn added.

“That’s because I’ve been trying to wrack my brain for anything about weavers, and I’m coming up with nothing. How long have they been part of the Spiral?” Karlinovo asked.

“I don’t know the answer to that. The oldest reference I have to them is about ten thousand years ago, but that doesn’t mean much. Dave, how locked off are we from the outside world? Are you able to bring Alpha and Beta across?” All of the books that had previously surrounded Elody had vanished.

“Oh, I didn’t think of that. Let me see,” I replied, pulling up a chat window.