The Spiral Map

"A riddle?" I asked.

"Yep. Four of them to be exact. One for each side of the brazier." she sighed. "And they really gave a thought to it! Because some actually has a rhyming scheme when translated to English!"

"Four?" I asked again. I then proceeded to read the first one out loud.

"A passage that goes around

Will lead one on what to be found

Guess the Right answer so you may find

The treasure I wish to leave behind

One I wish to protect"

I paused then a bulb lighted on me head and realized something.

"The map of the tomb!"

They all gave me a skeptical look.

"Look," I showed them the map I recreated from memory. "As you can see, it's very confusing right? Especially with many traps along the way. I have always wondered why there were many corridors and pitchfork paths and somehow some of them lead to nowhere! So that's why! It's a maze! And the only path to the main chamber is actually a spiral!"

"A what now?"

"Guys… look… we are here." I pointed at the box that was at the very beginning of the map. "This is the first chamber. Once we exit this one there will be a long corridor where dangers may lurk. After that there will be two separate roads." I sighed. "After that I'm not too sure anymore. The correct path can be the one on the left or it could be the other one."

"How about… we find the exit of this place first?" Seven suggested. "Then we think of something about that later."

"Good idea." Artemis said.

"Uh guys?" Calvin's voice echoed inside the chamber. "Is this supposed to be like this?"

We all turned to his direction.

"The fire's dying out."

We all gathered around the brazier and saw that the fire was really getting dimmer and the surroundings started getting darker. Torches on the walls started lighting up one by one like a sequence with blue fire.

"How did that happen?" I heard Mister Fa murmur.

"I think… it will be better not to know." Kyle commented.

As the fire dimmed in the brazier, the fire on the torched burned brighter. It continued to do that until the blazing inferno in the brazier totally burned out.

"Uhm… Where's the ash?" Blake asked.

I looked down at the bottom of the brazier and saw that it was spotless. There were no ashes nor coals or even a speck of dust. But then…

"There are letters." I said. "English letters."

"What? How the hell did a two thousand year old tomb inscribe English letters?" questioned Xander.

I didn't know how to answer Xander's question. I was as stumped as he was on that note.

"It seems to be buttons." commented Jessa.

I studied the image and true enough the English letters were inside a square.

"Do you think one of the poems is a clue?" Artemis asked.

I scanned the four poems. Then one of it caught my attention.

"The password is as simple as can be

You never thought it would be

Among the seasons of earth

Let me give you a clue

My last name is Liu but my middle name is Shen"

And everybody was confused again.

"Seasons of the earth. This poem is the clue to solve the password problem. One of the four seasons is the answer!" I said.

"So," Calvin paused. "Which one? Spring, summer, winter or fall?"

"But he left a clue though." Blake interrupted. "Remember? He stated his last name and middle name. Wait, do they even use middle names back then?"

"Liu… Liu…" Xander kept muttering.

"Liu? Six?" Kyle questioned. "Liu is green, well at least there is a character that translates to that."

"Green. Green…"

"Spring?"

"No. Spring time brings abundance of colors because flowers bloom in that season." Mister Fa suggested. "So it should be summer."

"Summer…" I muttered. "But why did he mention his mother's family name? His middle name?"

Wait… middle?

""Midsummer!"" Artemis and I exclaimed at the same time.

I pushed the letters that spelled midsummer. There was a low rumble and a section of the wall on my left opened like an elevator door.

"Good job Lei!" Artemis exclaimed.

"Okay, everybody let's go." Fa Xiao Min ordered.

I eyed my friends and we entered.

***

After walking in the dark corridor for what seemed to be hours while dodging traps along the way we finally reached the forked path.

"So which way?" asked Jessa.

"What do you think Calvin?"

Calvin only looked at me confusedly but he did not retort. He actually stopped for a few seconds to think.

"Well separating will be dangerous so why don't we take the right." he said.

"Why the right?" Kyle asked.

"Err… The first poem. There was a line that said 'Guess the Right answer so you may find'. Now what if the word right isn't just referring to the correct answer but also the direction?"

I was impressed. Calvin actually thought of something. I agreed with his decision and we chose the path to the right. About an hour later we reached a door. It was made of a big slab of stone with dragon designs on it. The door was very massive like a bank vault door and it definitely looked very impressive.

One of Mister Fa's men tried to open it but the door didn't budge.

"Well?" he turned to me.

I rolled my eyes and stepped forward. I shined my flashlight to the door to look for clues. The longer I stared at the door I could make out the ancient Han characters for poem and polite. It was hastily scribbled to the door like somebody carved it using a knife or something.

"Poem about politeness?" I scanned my notes for the poem again and found one poem about it.

"Politeness lets you be treated nicely

Courtesy is used scarcely

The two let you earn respect in society

Be careful not to be feisty

But do choose carefully who to be really polite with"

""So… Be polite?"" Xander and Blake asked at the same time.

"His words speak the truth." I commented.

"How do we act polite? To a door." Calvin asked.

"Simple." Artemis stepped forward. "We knock. Gently."

Artemis walked to the door and knocked on it gently thrice. At first nothing really happened but a few seconds later the doors swung open on its own.

"See? Be polite. So next time, try to knock and be nice on people instead of kidnapping them." she flipped her hair and started walking.

I only smirked at her actions and was amused at Mister Fa's miffed reaction.

We all entered the door and were greeted by yet another long corridor. I could hear the complaints of the younger ones, namely Blake and Calvin. We were about to walk further when an arrow suddenly came out of nowhere and struck one of Fa Xiao Min's men. It hit him right on the throat and immediately died.

"Traps." I muttered. "Everybody stay where you are!"

I looked around and found out that it was Fa Xiao Min himself that stepped on the trigger.

"And don't move."

I took out the map and studied the traps that were found along the corridor.

"So there should be poisoned arrows, a pit full of spikes and poisoned strings at the very end. Kind of like laser beams except its strings. And it's also color coded. I read one of my family's books about poisons written by Zhang Li Er himself and was co-authored by General Shen Yu. Red will knock you out, yellow will make you hallucinate, blue will make you dizzy and black will immediately kill you."

"HA?!" was Calvin's reaction.

"It's a family thing or maybe an inside joke between them, Anyway according to the information I have for this kind of trap, three will have to get to the other side first to disable the traps."

"We'll need nimble people for this one." Kyle voiced out.

"I'll go." Artemis replied.

"What? No!" her older brother immediately reacted. "Healers should stay in the rear! Not charge into danger!"

"Sounds like you don't trust me big brother."

"That's not what I meant."

"I know, but who else can actually go there? I'm very nimble and flexible and I suppose Jessa as well. I'll be fine Kyle. Trust me, okay?"

Kyle turned to Mister Fa. "If something happens to my sister I'll flail you alive."

The sight would've been comical since Kyle towered over Fa Xiao Min for like a foot and the latter had a very terrified expression on his face but the place was full of danger and nobody really dared to laugh.

In the end Artemis, Jessa and Calvin were the ones who would disable the traps. Jessa volunteered while Calvin was forced to do it. But the guy was nimble since he also used to do parkour before becoming a trainee. Plus to disable the traps a drop of blood from the Liu bloodline was needed.

"Okay these commlinks should work. When you get there just point the camera to anything that seems suspicious. I'll talk you guys through." I said.

"Can't you come with us?" Calvin asked. "It'll be easier you know."

"I can't. Once you get there should only be three platforms. The extra person will be ejected or worse, killed."

"Then replace me." he cried.

I looked at him with a blank expression and gave him a flat out no.

***

Artemis dodged an arrow and jumped as the floor she was about to step into vanished. Jessa, who was just right behind her, followed suit and landed safely. Calvin though really surprised us. He moved at a fast pace and was the first one to reach the poisoned strings. He was able to dodge all the other traps at a hair's width.

The three of them carefully entered the trap of the strings. They took careful steps to avoid any of it.

"Jessa! Watch out!" I heard Calvin yell. I watched the feedback from Calvin's camera and saw that Jessa lost her footing and was about to fall on a red string. Luckily, Calvin caught her, well he sort of hugged to save her and also to make up for the tight space.

"Thanks." I heard her over the comms.

"Uhm… Yeah…"

I just heard Artemis scoff then the three of them continued making their way to the other side of the strings.

A few minutes later just as they were about to exit the trap, I heard Calvin yelp. I took a look in the camera and saw that he got cut.

"Calvin!" I called. "What color did that?"

"It was blue, I think." he said uneasily. "I feel… kind of dizzy."

"Artemis! Jessa!"

""On it!""

I watched as the two held Calvin and dragged him on one of the pedestals found in the room. The two then went to the other two.

The pedestals were stuck to the wall with a hole at the wall it was stuck into. I told them to put their hands on the hole.

Jessa complained about it but Artemis shushed her and the three of them put their hands inside. Another yelp came from Calvin and the entire corridor shook.

The automatic crossbows died down, the holes on the floor got sealed up and the strings retracted to the walls.

Once we made sure that it was safe we all took our things and rushed to the three's direction.

When I arrived, I saw Artemis tending to Calvin who was complaining about how dizzy he was and that how much he wanted to vomit.

"Give me a sedative to calm him down." Artemis ordered. "He can just sleep it off and when he wakes up, he will no longer have that feeling."

Kyle gave her a syringe which she immediately injected to the groaning Calvin. A few seconds later he calmed down and fell asleep.

"He needs rest. We all need rest so let's camp here." she said.

Nobody complained. We were pretty tired.

Everyone set up their gears and lied down. I, on the other hand headed to the next chamber. I decided to check it out to make some plans but with what I saw the idea was immediately thrown out the window.

When I woke up the next day (it was… I checked it with Jessa's phone) I went back to the chamber with my gear. The rest of my companions followed suit.

"Welcome to the second chamber." I announced. "The Sphinx's Room."

"Ha?" Xander exclaimed. "Wait… isn't the sphinx a creature from western mythologies? Why would an ancient Chinese tomb have it?"

"Well I'm as clueless as you on that one, but if it's true that the mysterious lady, Hauria, really did exist and that she was from the future then there's a possibility that she was the one that influenced them with all… this." I said.

"Now, we have to answer riddles?" Blake whined. "I hate riddles. I suck at them."

"Sush. The sphinx will ask us five riddles. If we answer four correctly, then we can pass."

"Did you find that in your family's files as well?" Kyle asked.

"No. It's written there." I pointed to the wall where ancient Han characters were written.

"Oh."

"We have to get closer." I announced.

We all made our way closer to the sphinx statue. Once we were only a few feet away, the sphinx's eyes glowed bright green.

"Answer my questions and thou shall pass." it said in a taunting voice. Well the mouth wasn't moving but there was a voice coming out from the sphinx.

"Hey, is it just me or the voice is familiar?" Jessa asked.

All eyes were suddenly on me.

"What?"

"The voice from the sphinx, it sounds like you." Jessa said.

I only stayed silent because somehow it was true but before we could argue about it, the sphinx already asked its first question.

"During the 21st century, what is the capital of Japan?"

"Uhm…Tokyo?" Kyle answered with a tone of uncertainty.

"Correct! What is the symbol for the element potassium?"

"K!" Blake answered.

"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Artemis interrupted.

"What is it child? I still have three more questions to ask you know."

"What kind of questions are those? You're pulling a Mark of Athena right now! Aren't you supposed to ask riddles? Like, 'what walks four feet in the morning, two in the afternoon and three in the evening?' And the answer will be 'man'?" she reasoned.

"Well Hauria said that it will be obvious and predictable so we changed it to this."

"Hauria?"

"Yes. Hauria, Fen, Li Er and I created this entire place after all."

His words made me stop and work the cogs of my brain.

"You're Liu Qing!" I exclaimed.

"Nothing but a remnant I'm afraid. Something Hauria calls a mere memory. Anyway, next question! If x is equals to 6 then what is the answer to this equation? Three x squared plus x minus 3? You have thirty seconds…"

"A hundred eleven!" Xander shouted almost immediately which made us turn our heads to him. "What?"

"That fast?" Seven asked.

"Well, it was easy. And I like math." he grinned.

"Fourth question. How many months in a year have twenty-eight days?"

We got stumped on this one… It wasn't even a riddle or a simple question. It was a trick question.

"Twelve!" Xander exclaimed again.

"Are you sure?" Blake asked him.

"Very."

"Correct! Would you like to answer the last question?" asked the sphinx.

"What do we get in return?"

"Nothing really. I'm only a guardian."

"Then pass." I answered.

"Okay then! You answered four questions correctly! Give a reward to that kid who answered two questions. You may pass."

"Wait!" I shouted. "If you're really Liu Qing's remnant, just who is Hauria? And why do you have Rexon language in your tomb?"

The sphinx was silent but then I heard him chuckle.

"I see… Well, figure out the answer yourself. It will come to you sooner or later. You're smart, I'm sure you can. You already have enough clues and help to get to my chamber, do your best."

The glow in the sphinx's eyes died down and everything became silent for a moment. Seven tapped my shoulder.

"You okay?" I nodded. "What did you talk with the sphinx anyway? None of us could understand it."

"Huh? What are you-"

"You spoke in a language none of us could understand."

I then realized that I just conversed with the sphinx in Rexon.

'Just who the hell is Liu Qing?'