Prophecy Approved Companion

Book Two Chapter Fifty Three: Enter Light Temple

The desert rolled on, seemingly without end, and the wave of dry heat hit Qube in the face. Struggling to see through the suddenly-searing brightness of the suns, she saw a hazy upside-down triangle shape, just peeking out of the sand. It looked just a little bit taller than her, and seemed to have a rectangular doorway cut into it.

Instinctively, she turned and looked at the Chosen One. He gave her an encouraging smile, put his hand on her back, and gave her a small shove forward.

“Come on, then,” he said, “lead on!”

“Oh, I’m not leading,” Qube hurriedly disclaimed any such responsibility. “I’m just going to be helping guide the others.” She looked around and, to her dismay, saw that the rest of the party were looking at her expectantly.josei

She stood there, waiting for one of them to take the lead.

They looked back at her, waiting for her to take the lead.

“Well,” Qube said, just to start things moving, “what does everyone think we should do?”

The obvious answer was go up to the Temple entrance and start exploring. But Qube didn’t want to just take over the Chosen One’s role, and force the others to continue doing what someone else told them to do. She wanted everyone to make their own decisions, for themselves!

“Whatever you want, darling,” Sexy Screamy Spider Lady said, gently helping Squiggles to the ground. Squiggles immediately skittered over the hot sand, and climbed up Qube.

“I have some more questions,” Definitely Bad Guy said to the Chosen One.

Only Sewer Bard seemed to take her question seriously, looking between the Hero and her. She waited for his response with bated breath.

“This heat will quite ruin my lute,” he said at last. “We should find somewhere in the shade.”

Qube wanted to scream.

“It looks like there’s some shade over there, at the Temple,” she said, hinting as heavily as she dared. Sewer Bard blinked, then squinted at where she was pointing.

“It’s difficult for me to see,” he said uneasily. “The air is shimmering so much. You have clear sight, fair, uh, woman of worth.” Qube beamed at him encouragingly. He was learning! “Then, by all means, let us make our way there.”

“Good thinking!” Qube said, seizing on his suggestion.

Walking towards the upside-down triangle, Qube quickly realised that not only was she leading the way, but that the Temple appeared to be buried in the sand. The entrance she’d seen poked out above the sand dunes. As they got closer, the other party members gave exclamations of surprise and awe.

“It’s so big,” Sexy Screamy Spider Lady gasped.

“‘Tis strange, but I have heard no tale of such a structure,” Sewer Bard said curiously.

“This place is clearly ancient,” Definitely Bad Guy said.

The Chosen One remained silent, trailing towards the rear of the party. But his eyes were alive, flicking from party member to party member, all the while looking amused. Qube turned and looked at him inquiringly.

“This is gonna be so interesting,” he said to her.

Toiling across the hot sand was surprisingly difficult. It took a lot more effort and concentration than walking through the woods. As they reached the entrance, however, Qube spotted something that made her (and subsequently the rest of the group) stop dead.

An inscription was written over the stone door: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!

Then, slapped over the carved message, someone had written in flaking red paint: Do not awaken!

It was all very confusing. The Chosen One, however, heaved a heavy sigh as he passed a hand through the Save Point floating next to the entrance.

“Oh great,” he said. “I swear, if there are mummies in here, I’m going to have a fit.”

“What’s wrong with mothers?” Qube asked, alarmed. Rather than replying, the Chosen One rolled his eyes and stepped forward, putting his hand on the stone door. The instant he made contact, he winced and looked back at Qube.

“Sorry, forgot —” he started to say, before they were in the Temple. There was the normal disorientation that happened when they went through some doorways, where it felt like she’d been teleported, but Qube quickly grounded herself.

She was instantly on high alert, looking around for potential Temple enemies.

Instead it was what she imagined Sexy Screamy Spider Lady’s dressing room looked like. Mirrors on moveable stands were strewn around the sandstone room, with a circle in the ceiling letting in a shaft of light. The beam hit one of the mirrors, causing it to reflect the light surprisingly strongly.

The group gathered near the entrance they’d just come through as the Chosen One wandered over and looked at the lit up mirror. He glanced over his shoulder at Qube.

“Yeah, didn’t mean to enter before you said to; sorry about that,” he said. “Anyway, from now on, this is all on you guys. I’m just gonna… watch.” He paused, thinking about what he’d just said. “Huh, that sounded creepier than I thought it would. Oh well!”

Having said that, he sat on a smashed pillar, and watched.

There were no enemies. Only these mirrors, and that light. Each party member drifted over to a free mirror and inspected it closely. Meanwhile, Qube was still looking around the room, trying to figure out how they were supposed to progress.

On the pro side, there were no platforms. On the con side, she could see absolutely no exits. The only things in the room besides the mirrors were the giant sandstone blocks that made up the walls, and a white, clear gem embedded just above head height in one of the blocks. Presumably it would be like the Fire Temple, where they would have to solve some kind of puzzle to open the way.

So all she had to do was solve the puzzle! This should be easy! Qube loved puzzles! Fired up with enthusiasm, Qube turned her powerful mind towards solving this shiny new riddle.

Five minutes later, she was reasonably certain that it had something to do with the mirrors. Possibly they had to light all the mirrors up? How would the Temple be able to tell when they’d done it? It was the Light Temple, though, so it made sense it would involve light in some capacity.

Part of her TIMES research would definitely be focused on how the puzzles seemed to follow the theme of the Temple name.

Having gotten distracted, Qube was snapped back to reality by Sewer Bard giving a gentle cough.

“Stories tell of passages that reveal themselves only when the proper conditions are met,” he said to the Chosen One. The Hero gave him a strange look.

“Why are you telling me that?” he asked. The Bard hesitated.

“I… don’t know,” he confessed.

“I think this mirror could do with some more light,” Sexy Screamy Spider Lady said loudly, popping her abdomen to the side and putting a claw to her fangs. “So I can see myself better.” She hesitated, then dropped her pose. “Although I have enough eyes. I can see myself just fine.”

“This appears to be a puzzle that requires some reflection,” Definitely Bad Guy said, rubbing his chin and facing the Chosen One. He dropped his hand, and looked at it in confusion.

“You’re all doing great!” Qube said supportively. They were on the right track! It definitely had something to do with the mirrors. The mirror she was looking at was all lit up from the sunbeam, and just the sight of it gave her a warm glow. “All right everyone, it seems like we need to make all the mirrors more like this one here!”

The others gathered around her mirror and conferred, coming to the conclusion that Qube was right, and they all felt much better when they saw this lit up mirror. Definitely Bad Guy was the first to peel away. He went to a crooked mirror on a swivel stand, and stared at it.

“[Fireball]!” he cast, hurling a flaming sphere directly into the mirror. The spell bounced off and flew through the air, nearly hitting the mirror Sewer Bard was now examining.

“Be careful!” the Bard snapped, before resuming his study. “[Light],” he sang, casting onto the mirror. The mirror did indeed start to glow, but failed to cast out any solid beams of sunlight like Qube’s mirror.

Sexy Screamy Spider Lady stared at herself in her assigned mirror. She pulled back her lips and stared at her dripping fangs, and tickled some of the screaming children’s faces stitched into her sides.

Qube stared at each mirror in turn, her mind whirling as she tried to solve each individual mirror-riddle.

The Chosen One buried his face in his hands.

“Why did I think this would work?” he asked nobody in particular. “This is like watching monkeys doing maths.”

Qube bristled. She was good at puzzles! They all were! Why, in Construct Crossroads, they’d mostly been able to solve the puzzles to get into the various shops! Sure, some of them have failed miserably, but on the whole, each had been able to at least get some part of their riddles right! They just had to work together, and they were sure to be able to solve these fiendishly cunning mind-benders!

Then Squiggles, possibly bored by the puzzling, or just attracted to shiny things, started climbing Qube’s mirror, and accidentally tilted it. The beam of light it was throwing off hit Definitely Bad Guy’s mirror, causing him to knock it slightly as he jumped away from it. That small adjustment was enough to redirect the light again, hitting Sewer Bard’s mirror.

Suddenly, everything clicked into place for Qube. These weren’t discrete, individual puzzles. They were part of one big puzzle. The whole room was a single puzzle!

“Sewer Bard, please adjust your mirror a tiny bit to the right,” she said, sweeping her gaze across the room. “Sexy Screamy Spider Lady, push your mirror so it’s facing upwards a bit more. There’s a gem on the wall over there; aim it so it’s pointing at that. Squiggles, please get off that mirror carefully, so it doesn’t move. Definitely Bad Guy, stand back further from your mirror.”

The group snapped into action, following her instructions like clockwork. Within a minute, everything was arranged so that the beam of light from the ceiling bounced from one mirror to the next, before hitting the white gem on the wall. The instant the light hit said gem, it started glowing a rich golden colour, and the outline of a door appeared beneath it. With a grinding sound, the door slid into the ground, revealing a new room.

“We did it!” Qube shouted, overjoyed. “We solved a Temple room! And all by ourselves!” she started dancing around in glee, as the others gave their classic battle victory poses. The Chosen One stood up from his pillar seat and stretched.

“Great job,” he said as he walked past Qube and tousled her hair. She swatted at him half-heartedly. He peered into the next room, then remembered himself and stepped back. “Well, boss,” he said, grinning at her, “what next?”

“I’m not a Boss!” Qube spluttered, alarmed. “You’re not working for me! No one is working for me! We are collaborating on this Temple!” Was this how Bosses started? They went into a Temple and started telling others what to do, and then became giant versions of themselves?

If every beast they fought was just like Squiggles, did this mean every Boss was just like Qube: someone who wasn’t supposed to be leading the way in a Temple just taking charge, and eventually becoming so swollen with power and ego that they decided to rule over said Temple? No wonder the Temples needed someone like the Chosen One to defeat them; he was the only one with the protection of the Golden Prophecy stopping him from swelling up!

Aside from the Hero, the safest one to lead them would be Sexy Screamy Spider Lady, with whatever protection her Royal blood would afford her against Bossification. But Sexy Screamy Spider Lady had made it extremely clear that she wanted no part in leading people.

No. If Qube was to get through this without Bossifying, she was going to have to make sure she didn’t do any leading, only guiding.

That was her path to victory!