Leo Vance: three
Miles Zeno: one
“One of these humans will be granted a life-altering opportunity by becoming a Celestial champion. Following the end of today’s game, a constellation ceremony will take place, followed by the naming of the Celestial champion. What a promising day we have ahead of us!” The citizens eat Pluto’s words up, exploding into excitement. The only consolation is knowing that there are people out there, like the Children of the Constellation, who believe in a different world. A better world. A world of freedom, free of the Kosmos’lies, and where one’s livelihood is not tied to preconceived notions of how worthy they may or may not be.
“Throughout the games, specific facets of the contestants have been tested thoroughly. For this last challenge, each competitor’s whole being will be tested in an unrelenting finale. The rules are simple: persevere or perish. Contestants will have five minutes to prepare with their sponsors before the final horn sounds. May the stars guide you. The constellations are the only constant.”
Nerves plague my system. “Riri, I’m not ready.”
“Yes, you are.”
“I have a bad feeling about this one.”I can’t lose anyone else.
“You’re scared;it’s okay. Do it anyway.”
“Not like I have much of a choice.”
“Your freedom is on the other side of this, Zi.”
“What if I don’t win? What if I can’t get the moonstone and Leo—” My mind spirals as Orion cuts me off.
“Stop it. Remember who you are. You are a fucking viper. One with the sweetest venom. One that holds the potential to ruin. And youwillruin them.” He holds my hands, squeezing. “I will be there at the end, waiting for you. I am with you every step of the way. Today will bring us one step closer to everything we are working towards. To save the universe and change all the worlds. If anyone has got this, it's you. Today, you will.”
“Today, I will win.” I nod, ingraining the words into my soul.
Orion nods his approval back to me. “Good girl. Today,wewill win.” His words remind me of my meeting with the Children of the Constellation, of what is at stake. That moonstone fragment is mine.
As the sponsors leave the arena floor, the seven of us stand around in a semicircle, waiting. Nothing is happening. Why is nothing happening?
“Are we supposed to be doing something, or…?” Celeste calls out to us. I shrug, looking around to see if there is a sign somewhere of what we should be doing. There must be something we’re missing. The sands begin to shift and swirl, each of us retreating to the outer edges of the arena. Instead of swirling down, the grains of sand twist into the air, the ground beneath us vanishing.
“What is happening?” Aria shrieks as she falls. One by one, each of us plummets.
I push myself firmly against the wall as I watch the ground disappearing upwards, quickly barreling in my direction. Trying not to focus on the swirling vortex, I observe what is unveiled beneath us. As the ground dissipates under my feet, I realize it’s a labyrinth.
Then I free-fall.
Seventy
I’m weightless. Limbs flailing, the rush of wind in my ears, and the cool breeze on my face overwhelm my senses. I land in a heap, my body rolling and bones aching from the impact. Much like the first challenge, the darkened maze is eerily quiet. Halls leading to antechambers or other pathways seem to stem in every direction, and I’m paralyzed by my indecision about which way to go. Heeding Orion’s advice, I proceed slowly, taking in my surroundings as I go. I choose the hall on the left. My boots take one step in front of the other while my heart hammers in my chest. The unexpected fall has unnerved me, and I wouldn’t put it past the Kosmos to have more surprises planned for us. I enter a room with a rounded shape and an elongated pedestal set in the center. Resting on the pedestal is a prismatic crystal. Light shines from an opening in the ceiling above, casting reflections of every color of the rainbow around the room. The room is captivating; it’s as if every ounce of pure magic in the universe hangs still within these walls.
Knowing I need to disrupt the breathtaking scene, I pass through the rays of light and approach the pedestal. Forehead crinkling, I take in the crystal. Broken into four pieces, each shard has divots and ragged notches. The crystal has been turned into a puzzle. I cautiously grasp the piece closest to me, but when I go to move the delicate piece, it will not budge. Instead of grasping, I try pushing, but the piece still refuses to move. Trying the next piece, I run into the same problem. How am I supposed to put the puzzle pieces together when they don’t move? When I touch the third, it slides forward and backward but does not release from the pedestal. Examining thefourth, it is also stuck in place. It clearly belongs on top of the first piece I tried; the outlines line up perfectly.
What am I supposed to do? They are stuck in a row that only allows the pieces to move up and down, where the only moving piece is stuck between a rock and a hard place. I circle the room looking for anything that could help me. There is nothing in this room, save for the circles of light the prism reflects. Four reflections are hitting the walls surrounding me… and there are four pieces that need to be arranged. Approaching the first reflection on the wall to my left, I squint my eyes as I inspect the circle further. Barely, almost unnoticeably, the circle of light blurs against the wall in small waves. The movement causes the rock to appear insubstantial, as if the wall itself is an illusion. Excitement hums throughout me as I tentatively reach out, only for my body to be sucked through a whirling vortex.
Everything spins violently around me in a whirring storm. The sensation lasts only seconds before my body has righted itself and I am standing, evidently in the same spot, staring at the magical spotlight in front of me. What was that? The other walls are a dull brown, the darkened rock making the room feel smaller. The walls aredark—the light beams that were on them have disappeared. My eyes instantly flick to the prism at the core of the room. To my surprise, I see that the pieces have shifted. The bottom piece no longer sits in line with the remaining parts of the crystal but in a row on the right side. My head bounces from the pedestal to the single beam of light on the wall and back as my mind reels, trying to make sense of what happened.
I walk back to the light, touching the distortion once more. After the spinning sensation fades, I find myself back with the pieces as I initially found them. Holy shit, the beams produce a portal. A portal, if I’m not mistaken, that transports me to other planes of time. I touch the wall again, praying I get through this puzzle without vomiting and get to work.
After entering the first portal, I move to grab the fourth piece of crystal but find that it remains stuck in place. However, the second and third pieces slide with ease. I slide the third piece down and attempt to move it to the right, but the piece remains stuck. It slides to the left with ease, and I repeat the movement with the second piece. The puzzle is now broken up into three rows. Piece three is on top of the second in the first row. Piece one remainsuntouched in the second row, and the fourth piece sits solely in the third row. I need to get the fourth piece on top of the first—time to test out the other portals.
After traveling through two portals that did not allow me to move the fourth piece, I entered the portal to the right of the doorway, confident that this portal would allow me access. To my delight, the fourth piece slides upward and to the left, clicking into place as it connects to the first piece.Yes!On to the rest.
I jump through time and portals, figuring out exactly which pieces move in which portal. It’s time-consuming and requires all of my mental strength and focus, but slowly two more pieces align with the crystal. I slide the last piece until it’s lined up where it needs to be, and the edges seal. The crystal flashes a brilliant white light, and I shield my eyes until the brightness dims, finding a new portal sitting opposite me.
I enter triumphantly, knowing that the first portion of this game has been completed. Hopefully, what awaits me on the other side can be achieved just as easily.
Seventy-one
