MM Ch 23

Wow, I genuinely thought I had posted this yesterday. I typed out this paragraph and chose the options and everything. I'm going to blame my internet; it's been flaky lately.

So, I paused charging on Patreon for a month. It won't quite give you all a full month off, but it'll give you a few free weeks. I figured you all deserved it for supporting me through these occasionally-sporadic updates. :D Merry Christmas?

Some of the reasons for my flakiness are "bad" reasons (that is, non-writing-related personal reasons) but some have been Secret Writing-Related reasons I can't share with you yet, although I'm hoping to be able to soon... and I'm hoping you guys find it as exciting as I do.

Chapter 23

“The rules the old lady told us are the only things you can count on,” Raza said. “But apparently there are a lot of almost-rules. Patterns, I guess? Apparently there are three groups of rooms, sort of. Marnie called the first set puzzle rooms. You’ve got to figure something out and use magic to accomplish a secret task, but they’re not usually dangerous.”

“And you think this room is one of those?” Dee said.

“Yeah? Nothing’s attacked us yet. And it’s fancy. Lots of art stuff? Apparently puzzle rooms are usually kind of pretty.”

Ravel had to admit he could see what she was saying: everything was fancy. Yeah, there were framed images on every wall, but it was more than that. He couldn’t see the top of the table from his spot on the floor, but even the chair legs were carved into interesting shapes, each seat supported by four strange monsters. Though the room was small, it still held four ornate pillars, which seemed to serve no practical purpose.

“Okay…” said Dee. “Anything else we should know about this kind of room?”

“Um… I haven’t completed one,” Raza said. “There probably is, but it’s not anything I know.”

“Marnie didn’t say anything else?” Dee asked.

“Well, she was starting to, but she was using examples from the room we were in, and the castle was getting upset and…” Raza shrugged. “I can tell you more about the second kind of rooms. They’re all combat-focused. They’re usually kind of plain in comparison, and Marnie said that you don’t get in trouble for doing minor damage to them as long as you’re trying to follow the directions.”
“The directions?” Ravel asked.

“Oh! I forgot you didn’t know about those. I guess that’s another way you can tell what kind of room you’re in.” Raza walked over to an empty picture frame, just barely visible to Ravel from his spot on the ground. She touched the small plaque beneath it. 

A tiny man appeared, dressed in ornate, embroidered robes and an odd, pointed hat. He had a broad grin on his face and leaned close to the frame, speaking with exaggerated excitement, punctuating his words with dramatic gestures. “Every country on Earth had legends of magic and creatures infused with it. To master this room, show your understanding of the magic of today and the magic of yesterday.”

The tiny man froze as he finished speaking, then faded away.

“What does that mean?” Ravel asked.

Raza shrugged. “It’s all wind and lights to me. I haven’t solved a puzzle room. Just a combat room. See?”

She tugged at a rip near the neckline of her shirt, revealing part of a circular tattoo. It was similar to the one Ravel had seen on Koby, and the one he’d caught glimpses of on his own chest, but the lines were pale and stood out clearly against the girl’s dark skin. 

Raza jabbed a finger at one segment of the circle, which was no longer totally empty: the barest whisper of a curling design was forming along one edge. “This bit was empty yesterday, but I was looking in my mirror a bit ago and now it’s not. I’m guessing that’s marking that I completed that combat room.”

“What did you have to do for that?” Ravel asked. 

Raza shrugged, looking away. “Land a hit on a big puppet. Puppet was trying to stop me, though. That’s how I got so beat up.”

“It came after you? As soon as you came in?” Dee said. “That’s how you got so torn up? I thought it was the castle punishing you for learning secrets.”

“No! The castle just did the red light thing again like it did at the first room: a little pain, just enough to warn us to stop. The puppets didn’t come after me straight off either. There were a bunch of them in the middle of a big circle and some magic knives you could pick up at the edges. If you stayed outside, the puppets left you alone. If you went in, one would wake up. Marnie had said not to be afraid to wait out rooms until I found some good ones, so after I tried it a bit and got knocked around pretty hard, I was going to come back to it later.”

“What do you mean, wait out rooms?” Ravel asked.

“The doors open, eventually, even if you don’t solve them. Marnie said it varies - can be just a few hours, can be a week - but you don’t have to solve every room you enter.”

Dee was frowning. “So, you were getting hurt - by the puppets, not the castle directly - and you weren’t going to go back in… but when you got here, you were almost dead, and you said you completed that room. Something changed your mind. What was it?”

“You’re sharp, Sha-” Raza seemed to catch herself and cleared her throat. “Uh, you’re sharp. Yeah. Um. This guy came in. He didn’t do anything but… he was watching me, and his answers to my questions were weird. Suddenly seemed like a bad idea to wait around.”

Dee’s eyes widened as she drew in a deep breath. “The rules. They say not to hurt the manor, but they don’t say not to hurt other people.”

Ravel blinked. “No! That lady definitely mentioned the safety of guests.”

“She said they were prioritizing it, but she didn’t say we had to,” Dee said. “And, given what we’ve seen already, I don’t think the castle is prioritizing guests’ safety anymore.”

“Either that,” Raza said, “Or we’re not guests. But… yeah. I don’t know what he was thinking, but I wanted to get out of there before I had to sleep with no one to watch my back. I got pretty beat up and it still took me a long time.”

Dee snorted. “Having some people on your side would help with that, don’t you think?”

Raza looked at Dee, her face wrinkled up in confusion. “Yeah…? Of course.”

“Maybe you should try being nice for a change, then,” Dee snapped. 

Raza’s brow furrowed further.

“Oh, never mind,” Dee said. “The third kind of room?”

Raza blinked a few times, then shook herself. “The third… oh. Well, it’s not exactly a type, not like the first two are. It’s more like ‘any room that’s not a puzzle or combat.’ There are a lot of rooms that don’t seem to match any others. Some of them have the illusions of people giving instructions, but there are all different people on them, and they ask people to do strange things, supposedly. Others don’t have the crystal panels at all, but the castle seems okay with people staying in them for a while. Marnie thought there might be hidden things you’re supposed to do. After I got split up from her, the first room I ended up in was one of those rooms. No directions, nothing to do that I could figure out, but there were real beds. Best night of sleep I’ve had since this started.”

Ravel found himself up on his elbows. “Whoa, whoa, there are real beds in this place somewhere?”

“Lay down!” snapped Dee. Then she sighed. “Getting you in a bed would be good, even if we could only stay for a day or so. Plus, I’m really worried about Koby. He was supposed to be right behind us. If that monster waited around and found him…”

Ravel grimaced. “I hope it didn’t. But we probably won’t find out - or find a bed - without getting out of this room, so we need to either wait or solve the puzzle. Understanding the magic of now and before, it said?”

“That’s going to be hard,” Dee said. “The magic of yesterday? Maybe. I know a little bit about old legends, just because Keb was so into ancient history. But the magic of now… that guy was probably talking about the time when he lived, when Marynth Castle was built. We don’t know much about that.”

Raza wrinkled her nose, craning her neck as she tilted her head from side to side. “There’s usually enough information to solve the puzzles hidden in the room they’re in, Marnie said. Maybe something in the table carvings or the wall pictures? I don’t see any books.”

“Well, if Dee won’t let me get up, can you guys see if you can take the picture frames off the walls without damaging them? That might be something I can look at from down here,” Ravel said. 

“They come off!” Dee said, stretching to lift one from the wall.

“Let’s see what we can do,” Ravel said.