|13| Stars and Spikes

As they walked, Naomi narrated a tale to Fiona. In the olden days, long before the Sentry Alliance was formed, sorcerers discovered the existence of other realms. They journeyed into the new lands, searching for treasures, while others resorted to hiding their treasures in them. The monster realm became a popular hideout site because of its dangerous inhabitants. Very few dared to venture in.

    "And one of those hideouts happens to be in here. Right under MARC!" Noami squealed, barely holding in her excitement.

She offered her hands for support, which Fiona, who was climbing through a window, took. Together, they stood inside a warehouse, a place that acted as MARC's storage facility. The area was forbidden to students, so they had had to sneak in. Naomi led Fiona to a door, but only a few feet away, they had to duck behind a pile of exercise books, due to a patrolling guard.

Hellhounds served as the security guards of MARC. They were humanoid wolves with black fur and glowing red eyes. The major difference between them and werewolves was that they couldn't take human form. One of them paced the southernmost area of the warehouse. Out of the blue, he picked up a human scent. Narrowing his eyes, he stared at the direction the smell was coming from.

In their hiding place, Fiona's heartbeat quickened. She'd heard the guard's footsteps stop and had assumed he must have noticed their presence. Naomi, on the other hand, was unfazed. Pointing at a box a few blocks away and using magic, she made it noisily roll backward. This provided the distraction they needed. The hellhound rushed to check what had caused the commotion, allowing the two girls to run to the door.

Walking down a staircase, they entered what appeared to be a basement. This part of the warehouse was reserved for old goods, which were too outdated to be used, but still valuable enough to not be thrown away. The room was dimly lit, having only one fluorescent bulb. Here, there was no risk of being overheard.

     "How did you find out about this treasure trove, anyway?" Fiona asked Naomi, who was running her palms on the walls.

    "During my yard duty. Cleaner gave me a sack to dump down here. Decided to explore and—Aha!" She suddenly exclaimed.

Getting down on her knees, she began pulling loose bricks from the bottom of the wall. Fiona did the same, helping her. Soon, they created a hole big enough for a person to crawl through. Her eyes twinkling, Naomi mouthed the words "Follow me" and wriggled into it. Fiona hesitated for a second or two, wondering if what she was about to do was wise. Deciding not to overthink it, she threw all caution to the wind and followed Naomi.

The first thing Fiona noticed was the dampness. Both the air and the chill ground were moist. That, and the place was extremely dark.

    "Noami?" She called, her voice shaky.

    "I'm here." Naomi did not seem frightened in the least. "Hey, check this out." She clapped and almost instantly, flame lit the several wooden torches that lined the walls. "Whoever made this tunnel had some strong voodoo for it to still be functional after all these years.

Fiona saw that they were standing at the beginning of a hallway. The floor resembled outer space with the many different-sized white dots that were drawn on the black tiles. On further observation, Fiona realized no two squares were identical.

    "I know what this is!" Naomi cried, as if she had just discovered the cure for cancer. "This is a puzzle. We have to figure out the pattern—and step on it—to move forward."

That was easier said than done. Fiona crouched, studying the floor of the tunnel. Its similarity to the night sky had to be a clue. After minutes of pondering, she noticed the positions of the dots on a particular square had a striking resemblance to Aries, the celestial ram. The answer to the puzzle hit her.

The zodiac circle was an ancient magical symbol, which formed the basis of a wide range of 21st-century sorcery. Regular humans only knew a tiny fraction of its capabilities, that is, the low-level fortunetelling that was popular on the internet. On discovering her ancestors were one of the earliest developers of the practice, Fiona had picked an interest in astrology. She had quickly dropped it, however, once she realized how complex it was —scientifically and supernaturally. She still vaguely remembered the zodiac constellations, though.

    "Here we go." Fiona mumbled and placed her foot on the Aries tile.

Nothing happened. No alarms went off, assuring her she had gotten it right.

    "Do exactly as I do." She turned to Naomi, who had surprisedly been quiet all this while.

Naomi grinned widely, giving her a thumbs up. "You the boss."

Fiona had already figured the order they were to proceed in must be that of the months in the zodiac calendar. Up next was Taurus the Bull. She found the pattern of stars on the next row of tiles and stepped on it. Again, nothing happened. Fiona smiled to herself, she had this. All she had to was dig deep into her memory and recall all she had read in those ridiculously thick books.

Gemini the Twins, Cancer the Crab, Leo the Lion, Virgo the Virgin. Fiona was in the process of identifying Libra the Balance when she heard the noise she'd been dreading. It was the sound of stones heavily grinding against each other. In horror, she noticed the side walls of the hallway were moving towards themselves. Panicking, she faced backward to check on her companion. And there Naomi stood, stepping on a square that she herself hadn't.

    "Seriously!?"

    "Or is it this one?" Naomi pushed another wrong tile with her feet. Immediately, razor-sharp spikes jutted out of the walls.

    "Forget it! Just run!" Fiona screamed and dashed forward, completely ignoring the puzzle.

Axes, spears, and swinging scythes shot at them with every step. Naomi took over, conjuring shields and blasting away weapons. At last, the patterned floor was nearly coming to an end. The two sprinted to what must be safety, but...

    "Holy sh—" Fiona caught herself from tripping into the hole that lay before her.

She did not even want to consider the possibility of it being a bottomless pit. The prospect of floating for eternity did not sound appealing at all. The spiked walls were still caving in. If they remained there, they would be impaled, then crushed, with no chance of survival. However, a successful leap across the wide hole seemed impossible.

    "Hang on!" Naomi briskly grabbed Fiona's waist.

Next, she generated a glowing golden rope out of pure mana, and lassoed a column on the roof. Clinging to themselves, they swung over the pit just as spikes from the opposite walls made contact, crashing on the other side. After the thundering sound of two mighty walls crashing into each other, all that was left was that of two human girls' ragged breathing.

Naomi was the first to sit up. Her hair matted and her skin sweating, she smiled. "Now that's what I call cool. And this is only the first stage."

A horrified expression formed on Fiona's face. "Did you just say first?"

What had she gotten herself into?