Chapter 274: Four Quadrants
"It can," I said. "Usually is."
I approached the pedestal slowly, my footsteps echoing off the marble floor. The book on top didn’t react to my presence. No glowing runes, no whispering voices, no sudden bursts of light. Just a book, sitting on a pedestal, looking like it belonged in a museum rather than a deathtrap.
"Don’t touch it yet," Trish said.
"I wasn’t going to."
"Your hand was literally reaching out."
I looked down. My hand was, in fact, reaching out.
I pulled it back.
"Fine. You check it."
Trish gave me a look that clearly said she was questioning every life choice that had led her to this moment, but she stepped forward anyway. Her amber eyes narrowed as she circled the pedestal, studying the book from every angle.
"No magic I can detect," she said finally. "No traps on the pedestal. No enchantments on the floor around it."
"That just means the archmage is better at hiding things than you are."
"Thank you for the vote of confidence."
Kevin and Vivianne had joined us now, both of them eyeing the book like it might bite. Kevin’s magic was still flickering around his fingers, ready to throw up a barrier at the first sign of trouble. Vivianne had her weight balanced on the balls of her feet, her body coiled to move.
"So do we open it or not?" Kevin asked.
"One way to find out."
I reached for the book again, this time actually grabbing it before anyone could stop me. The leather was warm beneath my fingers, warmer than it should have been, and the brass corners felt almost hot.
I opened it.
Blank pages.
Page after page of nothing. White, empty, unmarked paper that seemed to glow faintly in the starlight from above.
"It’s empty," Trish said, leaning over my shoulder.
"Maybe you have to write in it," Vivianne suggested.
The pages flickered.
Not all of them. Just one, near the middle of the book. The blank white surface rippled like water, and then words began to appear, written in an elegant script that seemed to burn itself into the page rather than simply sitting on top of it.
Cael Arden. Evelina D’Arclight. Kevin Illinalta. Vivianne Crestwood.
Four souls. One purpose.
The trial is not yet complete.
Below the words, a diagram began to take shape. A circle, divided into four quadrants, each one marked with a symbol I didn’t recognize. Lines connected the quadrants to a center point, and that center point pulsed with a soft, golden light.
"What is that?" Vivianne whispered.
"A map," I said, though I wasn’t sure that was right.
"A trap," Kevin said.
"A promise," Trish said quietly.
We all looked at her.
"What? Surely what I said isn’t that surprising, right?"
Her amber eyes were fixed on the diagram, her expression unreadable. But her hand had found mine again, her fingers cold despite the warmth of the room.
"The archmage said he wanted entertainment," she continued. "But he also said he didn’t want us to die. Not yet anyway. This is his way of guiding us without guiding us."
"Giving us just enough rope to hang ourselves," I muttered.
"Maybe. Or maybe he’s actually curious about what we’ll do."
"See the skill of people like us?"
"Maybe."
"People like you two? What about the two of us here?" Vivianne asked.
"Sorry, kid, but... Cael and I are on a whole other level of special," Trish answered for me, a teasing lilt in her voice.
"You definitely don’t talk like Lady D’Arclight." Kevin crossed his arms.
"Let’s get this over with. Vivianne and Kevin, you take the lower quadrants. Evelina and I will take the upper ones."
"How are we supposed to know where the quadrants are?" Vivianne asked.
"This place looks like a dome. Just assume this whole place is the circle on the map and imagine the quadrants yourself."
Vivianne nodded and immediately looked at Kevin to figure out how they’d handle the lower sections. "Left or right?"
"Guess I’ll go left."
"Got it."
"They sure don’t ask many questions, huh?" Trish commented.
"Yeah, that’s what I like about them."
"Unlike me?"
"Y’know you’re one of my best students."
"Thought so~."
The book pulsed once, and the four of us felt it simultaneously. A pull, not physical but something deeper, like gravity shifting beneath our feet. The quadrants on the diagram glowed brighter, each symbol burning with its own distinct color the moment Kevin and Vivianne were assigned.
Vivianne moved first, cutting right across the marble floor without looking back. Kevin hesitated for half a second, then followed, his footsteps quick and quiet as he vanished between two towering bookshelves toward the left.
"A kid, really?" Vivianne’s voice drifted back.
"Maybe stop acting like one," Kevin replied, his tone dry.
Their bickering faded into the rustle of pages and the soft creak of old wood.
Trish turned to me, her amber eyes catching the starlight. "You really think splitting up is smart?"
"I don’t think we have a choice based on this map, seems like the archmage designed it this way. Forcing us to separate was the point."
"Or forcing us to work together in smaller groups."
"Same thing."
"Not really, our survival chances increase a lot more if you’re the one who’s correct."
I tucked the book under my arm.
"We should move. The archmage isn’t patient, and I’d rather not find out what happens when he gets bored of waiting."
Trish fell into step beside me as we walked toward the upper quadrants, the dome’s starlight casting long shadows across the marble. The bookshelves here were older than the ones below, their wood dark with age, their contents wrapped in chains or sealed behind glass.
"Kevin and Vivianne," Trish said after a moment. "You trust them that much?"
"They’ve earned it."
"They’re children."
"So were you."
Trish was quiet at that. Her hand found mine again, her fingers interlacing like it was the most natural thing in the world. And maybe it was. Maybe after everything. Death, rebirth, soul-merging, holding hands with someone you haven’t seen for a long time wasn’t such a strange thing.
"How long do you think we have?" she asked.
"Three weeks until the celestial alignment. Less, maybe, if the church moves faster than Valtor said."
"I meant how long until the archmage gets bored."
"Oh." I looked up at the stars, fake though they were. "An hour. Maybe two. He seems the type to lose interest quickly."
"Then we’d better make this fast."