Chapter 4: Part 4 - Where The Lanterns Burned

Following Auri across Malchor's Leap was a little like following a dog assailed by too many scents. For every dozen paces they took, there was at least one pause to allow her to study both the horizon and the sky. Jean wouldn't have been surprised if she'd also turned in circles and sniffed the ground.

Even Oska was growing frustrated. "Sister," he said, when they stopped for the twentieth time, "are you sure you know where you're going?"

A matching frustration flitted across Auri's usually dreamy face. "Perhaps, brother, you should ask Marissa to stand still."

"She's moving?" Jean asked. Even before Auri nodded, he knew it was a pointless question. Of course Marissa was moving. As long as she had the strength to stand upright, she'd be pursuing the completion of this game.

"There," Oska said abruptly. "There's someone to the left of that rock."

Jean would have to take his word for it. At such a distance, he couldn't distinguish between the rock and... Well, possibly a person, or possibly another rock. Without Oska, he would have been hard pressed to say.

Except the figure was now moving towards them, with that elegant gait he always associated with his sister. Within minutes, she was close enough for Jean to see her face.

She looked... different. Grubbier and more strained, for one thing, as though Orr had exhausted even her. There was also a fierce gleam in her eye, one of determination and perhaps urgency – and in her hand, the scroll full of riddles.

"I've solved the first one," she said curtly, when they were within hearing distance. "As a precaution, I believe we should all be there to complete the task."

Jean stared at Marissa in astonishment. He hadn't expected her to greet them with embraces and tearful gratitude, but not even a 'hello'? That was cold, even for her.

"Hello, sister." He tried not to speak through gritted teeth. "I trust you're unharmed? Good. Oska, Auri and I were separated in the vicinity of the Garden of Ilya. We haven't seen any other teams, though there are plenty of Risen around. I assume you've come in contact with them already–"

"Jean." Marissa took a step towards him. "Be quiet. We haven't time for your ramblings. We're the only ones with the riddles. As soon as the other teams realise that, they'll be on our tail."

"We don't even know they're in Malchor's Leap," Jean said, but he knew he was losing the argument. Marissa didn't want to listen and not just out of impatience. If he'd been talking about anyone other than his sister, he would have said she was nervous.

Marissa swung away, breaking into a quick walk that forced the rest of them to hurry after her. "The first riddle is straightforward enough," she said, her voice low. "To find the place where the lanterns once burned, lit to celebrate the first of the Six and her chosen king–"

"Dwayna," Auri said, before Jean could display his own ignorance. "Dwayna was the first of the Six. She chose King Doric."

"Just so." Marissa's voice dropped even further, until she was almost muttering. "Which leads us to the Plaza of Lights. And after that? Doric's Shrine is now an encampment of the Pact, but I cannot see Yinn sending us straight to reinforcements."

"There's a plaque," Oska said. "I remember once seeing a picture of it. It commemorates King Doric."

Marissa nodded rapidly. "Much more likely. Will we be able to reach it without seeing combat? I don't like the last part of this riddle."

"Marissa, please." Jean grabbed her elbow, though he didn't quite force her to stop walking. "Will you just slow down and talk to us? Where have you been all this time? How are you so sure we're going the right way?"

"There isn't time for that." Marissa shook him off. "It's not just the other teams; some of them couldn't find their way out of a wet paper bag. Do you really want to spend any longer than necessary in this utter desolation, though?"

Of course he didn't. Orr made his skin crawl. There was something more than weariness and a distaste for endless dust in Marissa's haste, though. With every passing minute, it became more obvious that his first impression had been wrong. She wasn't just nervous – she was downright scared.

He released her arm, though she barely seemed to notice. For several minutes, they walked in silence. The emptiness of Karst Plains felt like an oppressive blanket thrown over Jean's shoulders. Maybe Marissa's obsession was for the best. If they could beat these riddles and end this round–

"There." They'd reached the top of a small rise, and now Oska pointed off down the long slope of the valley. Lights glimmered at the bottom, ringing a structure that looked distinctly out of place. "A camp."

"Somewhere safe to spend the night, perhaps." Jean squinted at the hazy sky. It was difficult to be sure of the time of day out here, but it had to get dark eventually. He didn't fancy being caught out amongst the Risen when it did. "Those trebuchets look like they'd keep anything out."

"There's no time for that." Marissa was already moving off down the slope. "We need to solve this riddle."

"Even if we get torn apart by Risen in the middle of the night?"

Marissa glared at him, almost looking herself again. "Do you think so little of our prowess, brother? The Risen are no match for us."

Jean sighed. She was probably right, but that didn't make the prospect of wandering around out here in the dark any more palatable.

With Marissa leading, they approached the brightly lit camp – and turned aside before they reached it. Jean ignored the low conversation between Oska and his sister. He'd just about formulated an escape route in case this all went wrong. It wasn't far to run back across this cracked stone plaza, around to the eastern entrance of the camp, and inside. Whether anyone else in the family would follow him was a different matter.

Beyond the steps and the plaza lay a stone outcrop, with views of the dark, oily sea. Auri already had her back to that, pointing instead at a worn stone tablet leaning against a wall. A rusty metal bowl was propped at its apex, the stone below weathered and covered in strange growths. The plaque, though... The plaque, gilt letters in black stone, could have been freshly carved.

And when the world rang with the clanging of swords and fire fell from the skies... Jean shuddered as he read the inscription. King Doric might have been saved by Dwayna, but this whole place felt like a tomb.

"Is this the place? What does the rest of the riddle say?" he asked, over his shoulder.

"Lay down your weapons." Marissa's voice seemed to come from a great distance away. Jean wasn't sure whether she was quoting the inscription or Yinn's clues. Didn't the plaque carry the same words? Were they supposed to do something with the shrine itself?

He turned to look at Marissa, who had his back to him – almost as though she was expecting what came next. The Risen Acolyte seemed to materialise from nothing, a wiry shape of dessicated flesh and ragged clothing. It would have looked less imposing than Auri, except it raised both arms, and suddenly there were a dozen more undead.

Jean gave a yelp of surprise. He drew his weapons in a rush, but the Risen had already swarmed around Marissa, almost hiding her from view. Oska darted in, a streak of black shadow; a flash of Auri's fire followed him. Jean steadied himself, reaching towards the ground below, feeling it rumble beneath his feet. If he timed it right, a single spell could knock all those Risen off their feet and allow Marissa to take them out with a handful of clones–

So why wasn't Marissa moving? All he could see was a drift of her pale hair, caught in the breeze; the Risen formed a wall that hid everything else. There was no sign of mesmer magic – just the clawing hands of the undead, trying to knock Marissa to the ground.

And then there was the Acolyte that had summoned them. It waited a short distance away, circling the tumult to stay out of reach of Oska's blades. It had raised its hands again, though, readying itself to summon more of its kind.

Still, Marissa didn't fight back.

Cursing, Jean slammed his staff into the ground. It wasn't his weapon of choice, but it could hardly fail against so many enemies. The tremor rippled out from his feet, throwing most of the Risen to the ground. Auri's fire swept through them a moment later, turning dry limbs to ash. Oska, meanwhile, had reached the Acolyte. A single leap and he'd be able to plunge his daggers into its chest–

"Enough." Marissa's voice was amplified, the only magic she'd yet used. It trembled through the ground and shook dust from the shrine at Jean's back. "Lay down your weapons."

What? The instant they disarmed themselves, they'd be as dead as the Risen.

"All of you." Marissa's voice had grown so loud, it seemed to reverberate inside Jean's skull. "Lay down your weapons."

There was a moment when the rest of the world disappeared. As though very far away, perhaps at the end of a long tunnel, Jean could see Auri and Oska's hesitation. Auri complied first, bending to place her staff on the ground. Oska retreated to her side before he did the same. Jean's vision receded further, until everything was black and the only sensation was that of his fingers clenched tight around his own staff. Fingers that were loosening.

Was Marissa inside his head? Jean couldn't find any other explanation for the way his grip suddenly went slack, his staff tumbling to the ground. Marissa had gone mad, he found himself thinking. She was going to take them all down with her.

He blinked, the world snapping back into focus. The Risen were gone, including the Acolyte. Marissa stood exactly where she'd been before, not a scratch on her.

"An illusion," Oska said, sounding dazed. Jean felt just as perplexed – but none of them had actually got close enough to physically touch the Risen, had they? Only Marissa, and she'd known from the start it wasn't real.

Jean let all the air escape from his lungs in a rush. "You could have bloody told us."

Marissa was unperturbed. "I couldn't be certain it was an illusion until you started to fight. As I said earlier, I had to take precautions."

Precautions like letting the rest of them think they were going to be slaughtered, just in case the fight turned out to be real. Jean shook his head. He wasn't sure why he was surprised any more.

Marissa stalked across the outcrop and pulled something from inside one of the carvings at the top of the shrine. It was another scroll, much smaller than the first; that too had been under an illusion until the Risen were dispelled, Jean guessed.

"Does it tell us where to go next?" he asked.

"Yes." Marissa studied the scroll for a moment, then tucked it neatly into a pocket. "The original clues from the Tarir scroll were out of order. It might have been possible to guess which came next, but finding this one was easier. Now I know for certain."

Easy? That was one way of putting it. They hadn't been in any real danger, but Jean's heart was still pounding.

Though maybe that was from having to trust Marissa. He hated to even think it, but that was becoming harder and harder with every passing day.