Lyall’s reality remained still. He heard Luther and Aurae breathing, both surprisingly quiet, but his focus remained transfixed on the spot in the air where they’d been. The trees refused to be silent. Their blaring awe and rapture over such a stunning success against the tower’s trick pummeled his senses to a breaking point where he hardly noticed wisps of the strange...power? Magic? Whatever it was, the mysterious force of red, purple, and pink all continued dancing around his hand like bees upon the most desirable flower. Aurae said something. Luther said something. Distant and muted, their voices became even more so as a pulse of numbness blasted from his feet to his head. The mist of mixing colors swelled in the corners of his vision. 

Then everything went black. Lyall, however, did not know everything went black until consciousness returned. Heavy lashes reluctantly lifted to find the dark blue canopy of the four-poster bed in the master bedroom his welcoming sight to awareness. One more heartbeat of numbness trapped Lyall flat where he was without armor under the soft covers supported by a mattress of enchanting plumpness, but his next breath swept sensation and remembrance in with a gentle tingle almost pleasant. Steadying sight caught movement on his right. Luther, cloak and adornments off and on the floor, sat in a chair pulled by the side of the bed, reading one of the several books from his bag with text so tightly packed Lyall thought one featured nothing but black rectangles.

Luther snapped the tome shut finding Lyall’s head tilting to search him out. “How relieving it is to see you awake. How are you feeling?” 

“Fine—somehow.” Lyall sat. He stared at his hand. “What...happened?” 

“Well, Aurae thoroughly inspected you to ensure you weren’t possessed. I performed my own check, and what I sensed from you is odd. Our lessons have gone over the two domains of magic, divine and arcane, as well as the arcane subset of inherited magic. The power lingering on you after you collapsed reads as a mix of all three.” 

“That makes no sense.” 

“It absolutely doesn’t. I will admit my attention wasn’t intent on you as Aurae and I hung in the air over our potential doom, but I’m confident you procured no spell components and likely commanded no words of channeling, correct?” 

Lyall squeezed his hand now. “I didn’t even intend to do anything. I merely wished I could do something, and...and it happened.” 

“Disregarding the utterly abnormal blend of domain types, is there any chance this could be something gained from your father?” 

“Father only bore the simple nature magics innate to his people. Thorne took me to the capital when I was twelve to register me with the Elven Embassy, and they did tests to confirm I had no usable powers.” 

“Aren’t direct descendants of elven heritage to be registered at birth?” Luther pointed out. 

“My previously illiterate mother who’d never seen the inside of a schoolhouse wasn’t exactly well-versed on the political fine print of Elven—Grounded relations,” Lyall explained simply. 

“Understandable.” Luther wrung his hands. “While my curiosity compels me to study this unknown phenomenon before me, I urge you to not attempt conjuring that magic. Not right now. Lyall...” Luther’s voice lowering with a cold snap tightened Lyall’s core, “I know not a single story where a manifestation such as this leads to a positive outcome. Until we understand it better, it should not be mentioned or revealed. Aurae promised to keep it secret, and, of course, I will not divulge it.” 

“Thank you. I’ll heed your warning.” Swallowing proved difficult. “Where is Aurae?” 

“In the bath. You’ve been asleep a little over an hour, and she whined of needing something to do. My assumption of her true reasoning for quiet time to herself comes from her questioning if I would have been able to reach her with the slow fall spell.” 

“Would you have been able to?” Lyall prodded, and Luther’s straight expression answered. Luther then hung his head. 

“I apologize. That trap was entirely mechanical, which is why I didn’t sense it. Exploring a location such as this is not a common undertaking for me. The majority of my jobs are guard detail or clearing out predetermined nuisances like the spiders, so I accept my arrogance in taking on the leadership position without careful thought.” 

“I don’t need an apology,” Lyall set his hand upon Luther’s forearm, and Luther blinked faster. “Each one of us has seen successes and failures both climbing these floors. I didn’t notice the trap either. The lone reason I avoided it was because the trees screamed my head numb over the wind they knew was coming. I believe the strange power is a part of the reason I passed out, but those frustrating, overgrown sticks were the true culprit.” 

Luther chuckled. “We should have some words with them before we leave. On your state, what would you like to do? I worry about you and prefer we finish off the last two floors tomorrow morning, yet I suspect—” 

“I am over this tower. We don’t know if the traps undone will reset in the night nor what machinations or beasts await us on the mountainside. However, I won’t push my desire if you and Aurae are low on stamina.” 

“I am fine to continue. Aurae—” 

“I don’t mind,” Aurae peaked her head out from the bathing room. She’d dried and redressed into her regular layer of clothes, but she ruffled a towel through her drenched hair as she moved to the end of the bed. Lyall expected her locks to poof into a ball of frizz from the rapid movement. Her curls only settled back into silk spilling over her shoulders. “I’ve used little of my powers. Besides, I’m raging with determination to dominate this place that almost killed me!” 

“Spite can be an excellent motivator,” Luther nodded cheerfully. “Let me help you each with your armor.” 

Lyall thought Luther knew a spell to teleport his armor on the way he’d teleported it off, but Luther’s offer proved to be the slow, normal method of straps and buckles. Prepped to go, anxiety bubbled Lyall’s gut the moment they stepped onto the balcony. Not from fear of the stairs. Luther and Aurae promised it was like the slide that only activated once. It was that they all ignored something substantial, and Lyall’s indecision whether to take relief from having saved his companions or to wallow in what this event meant for him churned his stomach acid to and fro as a stormy sea. 

He went last in line like before, and the trees watched sleepily this time. That confirmed the safety of their quiet ascent to the penultimate floor. One that greeted them as an entirely blank space with plain windows on the walls, a wooden floor, a spiral staircase leading up in the center, and the glass door behind them. 

“Haah, I really don’t like this place,” Aurae huffed. She pressed against Lyall and Luther, for their trio clustered tightly just inside the door. 

“I’ll use the powerful sensing spell so we’re not bothered by more nonsense,” Luther decided. 

Lyall considered if they were truly alone. Perhaps a figure watched them from a secret building on the slopes above and used arcane means to time the tower’s reactions to their efforts. Lyall thought this because Luther’s sentence hardly finished when, without any of them moving an inch, stone shunted over the windows, over the entrance door, and slammed up in a circular barrier around the inner stairs to leave them trapped and blind in a room of darkest night. The three of them coughed from the cloud of dust kicked into the air assaulting their lungs. Luther was the fastest with his irritation. 

“I’ll be the fool of these tricks no longer.” He snatched Lyall’s hand, and Lyall assumed he snagged Aurae’s as well. “How about we just move right on past?” 

Lyall and Aurae said nothing, expecting the world to shift around them. Luther mumbled the same incantation as he had in the mines, yet...nothing happened. Did the spell require additional time to work given the extra person with them? Lyall flinched at Luther’s nails digging sharp pinpricks into his skin. 

“This room suppresses teleportation,” Luther growled viciously. Lyall flinched harder and slipped his hand free. Less vitriol tainted the wizard’s next words, but the sudden brandishing of anger tightened Lyall’s lips. “Aurae, are you able to cast a barrier around us that can prevent magical and mundane damage?” 

“Yes. I have the perfect barrier for that,” Aurae said, the ready inflections in her voice giving no sign that she found Luther’s change problematic. “I’ll just give us some light...first.” 

Lyall gained a second of sight of the room transformed into a stony prison before Aurae’s summoned orb of sparkling light spun out of existence. 

“This room’s closed-off nature is allowing me to read that it prevents teleportation and snuffs all light sources, magical or otherwise. Even torches won’t work,” Luther huffed. “I at least do not sense any magical traps aside from those great inconveniences. However, Aurae—the barrier?” 

“Yes.” 

The hair on Lyall’s arms prickled. Was that the barrier being set? His fingers curled over the leather grip on his hilt, waiting for whatever was to come next. He jumped instead from a bizarre, forceful reverberation coursing through the floors and walls that confused his feet upon their landing. Thankfully, the stone wall behind him caught his back to prevent a humiliating fall as neither of his companions struggled as he did. 

“There are no magical traps, and that lets us know there are no mechanical ones either,” Luther spoke. His anger fading, exhaustion crept into his syllables. 

“And what was it you did?” Lyall prodded. 

“A specialized force spell. The waves it sent out would have triggered any wires, pressure plates, or the like had they been there.” 

“So, the sole issue is that we’re trapped in here,” Aurae realized. 

“I can catch a small breeze for airflow,” Lyall closed his eyes and felt the gentlest of rippling air. “If the intention is not to suffocate us, there must be some mechanism to set us free.” 

“The force spell would have triggered it,” Luther reminded dejectedly. The shuffling of his cloak signaled he slumped and sat on the floor. “That was a high-level spell as well. Leave me to rest here for a time.” 

“I’m going to check the walls all the same. It could be there’s a clue on how to get out etched into the stone,” Aurae proposed. 

Lyall agreed with the merit of that idea and took the left now while Aurae went right. The tips of his fingers brushed against nothing but the smooth stone and mortar even when he squatted low and stretched high on his toes. Five minutes Lyall gave his knees and calves a thorough workout trying to find a bit of hope, but five minutes was also when his ears twitched noticing a change in the room. What he believed was his closer proximity to the hole giving them air was actually Luther, breathing heavier and faster. Lyall carefully returned to his side. 

“I’m fine,” Luther dismissed in a whispering croak. “The day is merely long.” 

Luther looked to Lyall as a slightly less black blob since his vision adjusted best it could in a room utterly devoid of light. Thus, Lyall avoided accidentally landing upon his companion as he sat next to him and searched out his hand. Though Luther tried to tug it away, he didn’t properly resist, and Lyall clutched the quivering, cold skin between his palms. Luther whined a near imperceptible groan of embarrassment yet squeezed tighter their connection. 

“What is it that scares you?” Lyall leaned near Luther’s ear so that the conversation was only for them. Aurae continued her investigation, humming the waltz from the piano below. Luther shook his head. 

“It is not a conversation for now. Please.” 

“I won’t press on it then. Allow me a different question. If you are able to cast that thunder-like spell that you used on the deceiver again, would that be enough to break down the wall surrounding the staircase?” 

“I-I can cast it to that effect, but I can’t. In an enclosed room like this with these curved walls—the thunder would reverberate and blow out our eardrums.” 

“Good to know. Aurae!” 

“Hmn?” 

“That barrier from before, can it keep spells contained within it as opposed to blocking what’s outside from getting in?” 

“It can. I can choose how the entire thing acts.” 

“Perfect. That’s our solution then,” Lyall smiled. He knew Luther couldn’t see it, but he hoped it’d be seen all the same. “Luther, you’ll do what you did with the force spell in reverse.” 

“What a straightforward but brilliant solution. It’s even a technique I’ve used before, but I...” 

Lyall stood with both of Luther’s hands in his and pulled him to his feet. “Are all wizards so self-critical? I think you’re incredible, Luther, and nothing that has happened today has changed that.” 

There was silence. Try as he might, Lyall couldn’t see the expression of the man right before him, but Luther’s hands stopped shaking. 

“Ow!” 

“Aurae?” Lyall called. 

“I walked with my arms out and bent my pinky against the wall. I diagnose that I’ll live, so you two hurry up.” 

“With pleasure,” Luther agreed. 

Aurae cast the barrier, Luther slipped his hands through, and the thunder wave unleashed. Chunks of stone smashed across the now accessible staircase flooding the room with light. They climbed over the debris and ascended to the final floor.