Rebirth and Second Chances

Chapter 91: Maze

Once I had my fill and finished the soup, I took a few minutes to freshen up and change clothing. Refreshed, my hunger and thirst slacked, I once again approached the entrance to the maze.

"I wonder how they found this path, or why they bothered looking for it since it would be easier for the Kelpie to stay in serpent form and swim upstream?" I said to no one specifically.

"For the same reason they failed to report their discovery," Uron suggested. "They wanted to keep the mine and dungeon hidden, so they searched the area for obvious egress points, and created obstructions to block passage for any but the most determined and powerful."

"They had to have had help to do this," Irvin pointed out. "Kelpie may be well versed in growing things, so they would have easily been able to layout and encourage a maze to form. But the arrays of confusion and passage? No Kelpie from our territory is skilled enough to integrate this many arrays into a formation this powerful and intricate."

"It's possible that people skilled in those abilities were hired by Haygan. More likely Kel fief supplied the resources and experts. At the very least, Thom or Kel were instrumental in expediting the process, they may not have found them, but they certainly made finding them easier," Lohne suggested. "Part of the trade agreement between the two parties, if I had to guess,"

"They would need people just as dishonest as they are, to move and sell the crystals and whatever they are harvesting from the dungeon," Cedric agreed. "They were able to funnel the raw resources through Kel fief, because they had Blacksmith's willing to help."

"That's something else Blayney and Duke A'Daoine will need to investigate and discover," I said turning my full attention to the maze, extending my perception to try to identify the location of the embedded crystals and perhaps understand how this formation was created. "Just who was involved and how deep this conspiracy to defraud goes."

I found the concept of formations and the techniques to deploy them fascinating. Additionally, they seemed to resonate and spark my memories. I had no real knowledge of what they were or how they worked, but a sense of deja vu seemed to be evoked whenever I brushed my awareness across the runes and formula that had been inscribed to power this array.

It was almost as if I had learned formation construction and forgotten how it was done. My memories tantalizing me with glimpses of insight into knowledge that was just out of reach. It was both frustrating and thought-provoking. The dichotomy of emotions heightening my expectations and impatience.

My aura stable, I was able to extend the radius to ten feet. What I found interesting, was that the aura extended down the same distance. It was a perfect sphere, and what it touched began to change.

I watched in wonder as I brought winter to this place. Snow forming as the water contained within the air froze. The cold extended as I moved, killing everything that it touched. Temperatures plummeted, and ice-covered and encased leaf and branch. Where fire from Beleros Aura destroyed, the destruction was healed and repaired. Cyronax used the nature of Winter to kill and then place in hibernation those plants that it touched.

The maze began to transform. No longer obstructing my path, the breeze that was both gentle and harmless, still capable of shattering the newly formed ice sculptures, Cyronax Aura created. The warmth and cold alternating, fighting for supremacy, with only a glistening field of snow and broken hedges remaining to give testament to the clash of elements.

The aura extended deeply enough to cause crystal arrays to become brittle, expanding as the molecules reacted to the cold. The sounds of crystals shattering soon filled the field. Loud pops and bangs exploding in a systemic four-meter beat. A beat that could be used in counterpoint for music.

A clever musician could create a Waltz that allowed dancers to synchronize their movement in time with the explosions.

Cyronax Aura made it possible for us to completely ignore the maze and the path that had been established. The rest of my group followed, making sure to keep a safe distance. The aura probably wouldn't kill them, but they would certainly be afflicted with frostbite, perhaps sever enough to lose fingers and toes, before their bodies could repair and heal the damage.

It wasn't worth taking the risk when they could simply wait a moment or two, watching the path before them, waiting to move when they noticed the ice beginning to melt under the warm summer sun.

Cedric and Uron were not happy that I had to take point, afraid that it would be much easier for me to be ambushed or trigger a trap.

But we really had little choice.

If they walked in front of me, before I had a chance to destroy the embedded crystals, they would be caught in the formation. There was no telling where they would wind up since I was destroying as I walked. The formation was created to always return the trapped person to the beginning of the maze.

There was no longer a beginning. My path of destruction made certain of that. How that would affect the Maze's function that still existed was unknown.