SHADOWBOUND HEARTS

Chapter Ten

Selene stepped through the door with the mountain symbol and immediately felt a change in the air. The air was thick with the scent of earth and moss. The temperature was just a few degrees cooler than everywhere else she had been in the building. The room before her was vast and cavernous, with the ceiling lost in shadows high above.

They were rough and jagged, with loose rocks and boulders strewn between the patches of gnarled, thick roots. On the walls, large rooms had natural rock walls with formations, stalactites, and the occasional stalagmite glistening in the faint light emanating from hidden sources.

At the extreme of the cavern, there was a large stone platform jutting out from the floor. On this one, an altar, presumably ancient looking, with a series of engraved symbols on it, held a heavy locked chest atop it. The chest itself seemed to be covered in intrinsically cut earth symbols—mountains, trees, animals. This was clearly the objective of the trial, and getting to it was not going to be easy.

Selene proceeded carefully toward the floor of the cavern. It was treacherous; every step had to be cautious and every measure had to be taken not to stumble on hidden roots or slide on loose gravel. She saw that rocks and boulders were strewn in a casual, random way, but something told her their placement was not as random as she might think.

She had just made her way to the floor, when just in front of her, the first challenge of the trial came into view—huge rocks in her way. Boulders were immense; their surfaces were very rough and uneven, hence hardly climbable. She drew near the obstacles to examine more clearly and saw a few handholds and footholds which would be useful in the climb.

Selene took a deep breath and started climbing. Hands and feet worked hard at that cold, heavy boulders under her, creating effort that drew from the test of physical power and endurance. There was a pull put to the muscles, and her body performed the carefully balanced, precise coordination of movements involved in pulling itself up. Her scratching of hands and legs in the dirt was soon obvious, but determination won once more.

After successfully going around numerous boulders, Selene came testing with the second challenge: a shifting maze of earth filled with hidden traps. As she moved through it, the very ground beneath her started to tremble and gape, pitting sudden gaps and pitfalls against her. She had to move quickly and remain vigilant in order not to fall into the hidden pits beneath the surface.

This was a very perilous maze, in that its floor would give way on some areas while others would suddenly become unstable. Selene had to, therefore, purely rely on instincts and quickness to avoid the dangers. She jumped over spaces, crawled on her belly, and carefully tried her weight on each step.

As she moved through the maze, there were subtle clues embedded into the soil: hidden glyphs and patterns that almost suggested safer ways forward and potential dangers. Using these clues, she avoided the most perilous areas and made her way across the shifting terrain.

The last challenge was a series of spinning stone slabs that bridged out to the altar. The slabs moved with a rather slow pace of rotation—the spiral motion was the leading cause of Selene's needing to walk in a specially timed way. The bridge was very narrow, and rotation made matters "dizzyingly" important to balance and time.

Selene timed her advance to a non-melodic, gritty rhythm riding with in the rotational spin of the slabs. She absorbed the seeming beat of their motions, and stepped one slow, calculated foot in front of the other cautiously, as she crossed the bridge. It was a very slow and fidgety process, but she had managed to reach the stone platform without a fall.

As Selene stood in front of the altar, she approached the chest, now locked. Scenes of ancient ritual and elements of nature were engraved on the chest, and the lock had a series of engraved symbols similar to those on the altar. It should have been discernible by now that the chest, in order to be opened, the puzzle to be solved is related to these symbols.

Selene observed the symbols on the altar and the chest. She noted the clustering and order of these symbols. She realized that this was a puzzle made up of the symbols that needed to be arranged in a numbered order. She really looked over them and after a little bit of trial and error she succeeded in correcting the symbols. A latch on the chest clicked on and the chest unlocked, showing its contents.

Inside the chest was a golden amulet in the shape of a mountaintop, so exquisitely detailed in gemstones that it glowed softly. Selene extracted the amulet from the chest and held it up, studying its weight and heft, realizing that this one could obviously end up being quite the powerful artifact. She definitely got the sense of great meaning-trial-wise.

The moment she took in her hand the amulet, the cavern began to shake just slightly, and the stone platform on which the altar rested was shifting, realigning. The earth around her was settling to a more stable solid, and the hazards of the trial she had gone through started to fade.

Returning to the central chamber, there was the waiting guardian, the look on its face one of a serious and approving nature.

"You have passed the Test of Earth," intoned the guardian. "It tested your resilience and resourcefulness; now you are ready for the final test. You choose another door."

Selene observed the remaining doors as her heart beat in anticipation. The trials had tried her in so many ways that by this point, she could only let the final challenge prepare her to its last end. With a willful resolve, she picked the door bearing the sun symbol etched onto it, ready to close the trials and uncover what secrets lie beyond.

Stepping through the door, Selene braced herself to the final trial, ready to face whatever that lay ahead.