unsplash-logoNong Vang

One-offs

The Riddle Game

The stone room in the foundations of the Conjuration building was dark. A single lit candle next to the door leading to the stairs sent shadows dancing on the ceiling and opposite wall. Gaines stood there in a tunic of homespun and simple trousers. His notes for his final project were pasted to the walls with an alchemical concoction he’d bought off a fellow student. If this worked, Master Dulkor would finally give him the freedom he needed to pursue his pet project, and he’d be one step closer to becoming an artificer in his own right. Gaines took a single breath, calming himself. He slipped into the mindfulness used to cast spells.

He's chanting, bending and flexing his fingers into the proper runes. He feels the rush of the ethereal energies as he traces the runes in the air. When he opens his eyes, the runes he has written into the floor’s stone are glowing with a soft, grayish light. He fixes his gaze on them and his chant gets louder and firmer. A mist appears and spreads through the room, but Gaines maintains his concentration on the circle. When the mist touches the boundaries of the circle, it turns over on itself and stops. The mist forms itself into the shape of a person as Gaines finishes his chant and looks up, his mind slipping comfortably back into its normal state.

Gaines watched as the shape took on enough detail to make a face at him. It was grinning wildly. “You rang?” it asked. Its voice was a soft, airy sound, like a spring breeze.

“Yes. What is your name?” Gaines demanded.

The face raised an eyebrow at him. “And what makes you think I would give you something like that? Just because your people have forgotten the old ways doesn’t mean we all have. I was riding the winds when your ancestors were scratching out a living in the dust.”

Gaines spoke again and wove a simpler spell to summon the pine staff he had prepared for this ritual. It was covered in several runes that were burned into the lightly colored wood. “If you will not give me your name, perhaps you will play a game with me. If I win, you will let me bind you to this staff. If you win, I will dismiss you back from whence you came.”

“What if I don’t want to go back?”

“Why wouldn’t you want to go back?”

“Why would I want to, when there are so many of you foolish mortals here than I can play with.” He put an emphasis on the last words that made Gaines’ hair stand on end.

“Then I will release you into the world.”

“You are either confident in your abilities, or else very foolish to let me walk in the mortal world.”

“Do we have an agreement?”

The face smirked and nodded. “Name your contest.”

“Riddles.”

The face laughed. “I was all wrong about you little thing. Perhaps there are some still among your kind that know the old ways.”

Gaines began with something simple. “In a box, no lid or locks, gold is found.”

The face frowned at him. “Egg.” It said without hesitation. “Devourer of mountains and metals. Slayer of kings and peasants. Creatures great and small bow to me.”

Gaines sat for a moment, letting the creature in the mist wait. “Time,” he finally said. The face looked at him curiously. He continued, “Thirty white horses on a red hill. First, they jump up and down, then they are still.”

“Why do all you mortals have the same riddles? Teeth.” Gaines nodded, and the spirit went on to his own riddle. “Concealed in the shadows, burned in the light. In me all things are hidden from sight.”

Gaines waited a moment, watching the mists roll around the spirit’s phantom body. When he felt it grow impatient, he finally said, “Darkness.” Gaines looked at the spirit for a long moment. When he finally spoke, he said “I am what all mortals know and what all gods know not. I am what kings want, and what peasants got.”

The thing in the mist barely waited for him to finish before saying, “death.”

“Nope,” Gaines responded. “It was nothing. You lose.”

“Wait, what?”

“Creature I bind thee to my staff.” Gaines said with glowing confidence. He felt the will of the spirit pull away from him, but the Deep Magic had already been set. Still, the creature was formidable, and it took a great deal of time before the creature’s essence was fully subsumed by the staff. It howled in protest one final time, and then there was silence. Gaines fell to the floor, trembling, but grinning. A new rune had appeared on the staff: a triangle pointed toward the top end of the staff with a line through the top. When Gaines moved the staff in the air, the triangle shifted so it was always pointing toward the sky. He grinned at his new prize. The Masters will be quite impressed.