When illusion approached with a flickering candle in hand, I took the opportunity to look around in the light. I gasped to find my arm halfway through a wall, everything past my elbow missing. I wiggled my fingers, feeling them brush the rock, and realized immediately what was going on here.
None of this was real. Not even the tunnel before my eyes. I didn’t have to find the right illusion; I had to find the real exit under the illusion itself.
I saw a slight shimmer ahead, a tiny bit of magic breaking through, and made for it straight away. As I barreled through the shimmer, light assailed my eyes, making me blink quickly as my vision adjusted to the sunlight. The crowd was cheering, and the noise was nearly grating after hearing only whispers in the darkness.
I looked up into the crowd, my eyes narrowing on the royal box. Azurill was smirking at me from where he was sprawled on his throne, but Lord Carnelian was sitting back, a satisfied look on his face. I set my shoulders back under their watching eyes and continued on, trying to shake off what had just happened. I had buried that desire for a family for years, and now was definitelynotthe right time for it to rear its ugly head.
I focused instead on the thin rope connecting the tower across the way from the one I’d found myself on upon escaping the tunnel. This course was seriously messing with my equilibrium, magic thrumming through every installation, explaining the strange topsy-turvy nature of its entrances and exits.
At least this next one seemed pretty straightforward. The rope made it very clear what I needed to do, but the beams hanging in disparate intervals on either side of it the entire way across made my success a little less certain. I swallowed hard; I had zero desire to be crushed to death today.
I centered my balance and stepped a toe onto the rope. I slowly put one foot in front of the other, ignoring the jeers from the crowd right along with the cheers of encouragement. When the first beam to my right started to swing toward me, I jumped forward on the rope, heart pounding as itjustmissed hitting me.
Ofcourse, why wouldn’t they put us physically off balance after doing it emotionally?
I took another step, and a beam on my left began to swing, moving even faster than the first, forcing me to back up a step to avoid taking a hit. I tried to move more quickly from there, but as I took another step, I heard the almost collective inhale of the crowd. It didn’t take a genius to realize they were waiting for something to happen. I almost paused, but I forced myself forward, and as the beams began flying at me, faster and faster, I was thankful for my father’s lessons about not hesitating when it mattered.
I wobbled when I stopped abruptly to avoid a sudden spinning beam, throwing my arms out to stabilize myself. I let out a low breath as the rope finally stopped jumping under my toes, and lifted my right foot to continue, but my eyes widened as I realized the beam on the other side was already coming at me. There was no way it wouldn’t hit me, and the crowd clearly knew that too, as their collective gasps rang deafeningly in my ears.
I took a deep breath for all of half a second before I called on every dance lesson I’d ever been through and, with one wobbling, risky-as-Tartarus bounce, I threw myself up into the air. The wind rushed in my eyes as I flipped mid-air, timed to fall when the beam swung back—-perfect.
The crowd went wild as my toe landed back on the rope, but I made myself finish the last half of the tightrope before I allowed myself to celebrate. A quick glance at the royal box showed me that Azurill had collapsed back into his seat, a look of relief painted across his chiseled face. He ran a hand over the top of his hair, raking through the teal hair there as he rubbed his sharp jaw, speaking to the sapphire-haired man sitting beside him. I refocused my eyes forward, not wanting to lose because I was too busy watching the stupid king, and sighed deeply when my foot hit the wood of the tower’s platform.
And yet, still, I was far from done.
I scurried down the side of the tower and found there was a small circular tunnel on the ground before me. It was so tiny that I had to contort my limbs just to get into it. I crawled through the dirty ground as my braid rubbed along the walls, pieces of pink hair coming loose and irritating me by falling into my eyes. My breathing sounded like the sharp whizzes of firing arrows, high pitched and frantic, the darkness somehow worse than the previous tunnel when combined with the enclosed space. I shut my eyes, blocking out the sight as I reminded myself that I wasn’t in that small, dark closet.
I’d dealt with this kind of panic many times, and Ula’s advice came back to me in a rush…
Ten…nine…eight…I wasn’t there…seven…six…five…I was no longer small and helpless…four…three…two…I was going to kill the bastard who caused this…one…
When my breathing finally evened out, only slight hitches remaining, I forced myself into action, because yes—if I could just get through this, I could make the man responsible pay, but if I failed to win, then all of this was for nothing., Zumra would have to do this too, ruining her hair as she crawled through the dirt, which at least brought a smile to my face.
It didn’t last long, though, as despite the fact that I was beginning to see light emanating from the end of the tunnel as I shuffle-crawled my way through it, the memories kept trying to drag me back. But with the monster who orchestrated that tragedy watching on, I couldn’t afford to crumble.
When my head finally cleared the tunnel after what felt like years, I was able to breathe in the fresh air as the sun hit my face, allowing those memoriesto fade into the back of my mind once more. I crept all the way out and stood to face the next challenge, refusing to let it show that such a simple obstacle had affected me so powerfully.
I could see a rock wall waiting in the distance, but getting to it was obviously going to be another challenge. What had been the dirty, slightly sandy ground of the arena was now…broken. Vast voids instead yawned into an endless nothing, with only a map of platforms interspersed throughout providing a way across. I’d have to cross this wasteland before making it to the wall, and it was clear to me that I’d need to jump to each platform to even have a chance of making it with the large gaps between each one. They weren’t all spaced apart evenly, either, with some smaller apertures and some much larger and riskier.
My years of planning heists came in handy now, with my brain automatically jumping to different tactics and mapping out the different routes I could take to reach the other side. After judging each platform’s distance and which jumps would be easiest, I found the perfect path forward and jumped onto the first platform.
Once I’d landed, I couldn’t help looking over, straight down into the void. Chills broke out along my skin, and I shivered, redirecting my focus forward. I had no idea what might be waiting below or if it was just some kind of illusion, but the idea of falling endlessly through that nothingness was a nightmare I had no desire to experience.
I hopped to the second platform, but as a bellowing roar echoed out into the arena, and the noise from the crowd picked up once more in tandem, I jumped in a rare burst of absolute fright. My head flew in the direction the roar came from, and I found a fuckinglionbounding toward me.
My eyes widened in shock as I processed what I was seeing. It wasn’t even just that there was a damnedlionheaded right toward me, but this was definitely not an ordinary lion. This was a beast made entirely of magic. The shimmering fur of silver, sapphire, emerald, and onyx made it crystal clear that it had been created with a specific purpose in mind. Each gem had its own properties, and each had been added to make a creature that would work to the exact goal they had in mind when creating it.
I eyed the rock wall I was heading toward and hurriedly jumped across to the next platform. Before I could get to the next one in my planned path, however, the lion had already caught up to me. I swore under my breath as,with a large leap, it skidded onto the platform, its claws digging in. It let out a bellowing roar, its multicolored mane shaking as it shook its head.
A shiver went down my spine as its multi-faceted diamond eyes watched me with the kind of intelligence that could only have come from the magic powering it. I tried to shuffle slowly right, and it followed me step for step, one large paw after the other shifting to the side. My perfect route across was definitely blown now, but I needed to get to that rock wall regardless.
They’d definitely put their all into this damned course. No wonder it felt like forever waiting for Faiza to finish; I was having issues, and I was already used to the obstacles that came with being a thief, activities that most noble ladies would faint at. I could only imagine how much longer it would take someone not used to it like I was.
But I’d been chased more than once to avoid capture, and a magical lion wasn’t going to get the best of me now.
I kept moving to the right like I was going to continue in that direction, before abruptly turning on my heel and sprinting to the left, the roar of the lion’s anger chasing me as I readied to jump the distance to the next platform. I sprang upward, flying through the air before landing on the next one, my breath coming hard and fast as I tried to get to the next best platform.
Except I felt the wind shift as it was displaced…the godsdamned lion had caught up again, landing solidly in front of me and blocking my way forward.
