Answer the Riddle

And yes, the voice was right.

She was now uncomfortable with it in this form, and it didn't help that she was aching all over and felt like passing out. The only thing keeping her on her feet was knowing that if she could answer the riddles, the voice would show her a way out of here.

"How...?" She breathed, still looking at Alastair's figure, "Are you like uhh, a shapeshifter?"

"Don't compare me to those lowly creatures," It replied with an eye roll.

Aaliyah's mouth fell open. It's so weird seeing it making all those facial expressions using Alastair's face. Maybe a little funny too, but she didn't have the luxury to laugh right now.

"Let's begin with the Riddle," It announced, and they both grew silent once again.

Its demeanor changed, and all signs of humor disappeared from its face. One could tell it was now strictly business, and Aaliyah shivered once again. Her guts screamed into her soul, telling her if she failed this time, there would be no escape.

She would not be as lucky as the last three times. This is it.

She was now standing between her doom and her exit, with the riddles standing in her way.

It opened its mouth, and she gulped once again, "I'm something...," It began, its voice suddenly echoing with the echoes resounding all over the whole place, "That goes down, but never comes up. What am I?"

Aaliyah knew nothing. Her head had gone blank. What comes down but never goes up? She dug into the little knowledge she had all her life, her lips pursed in thought. What could be the answer? Rainwater would have been a suitable answer here, but... Wasn't that a little too easy?

"Your time is up. What is the answer?" The voice barked.

Aaliyah said the second thing that she had thought of after rain, "Hell!" She exclaimed, biting her trembling lips.

"Huh?" Alastair's face narrowed its cruel gaze at her.

Since she had grown up in an Orphanage/Church, she's heard about heaven and hell a lot, "Hell lies underneath our feet, deep down the depths of the earth. It flows downward, and I don't think there's ever been a case where...," She paused, hoping her explanation was making sense.

"Lucky you," It murmured.

Aaliyah couldn't believe her ears. Did she just get that right? Her legs almost gave out from that realization, and her heart did a double take. This was so scary.

"I was made to be. I shall, and will be. I come in the most familiar ways, or the oddest of ways. Sometimes, I'm calm and sometimes, I'm like an erupting volcano. You can never get rid of me from this accursed world because I flow through everything. What am I?"

Aaliyah grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled, an empty look in her eyes. This riddle was ten times harder than the second one, and she couldn't think of one thing that fit the description exactly. This was definitely twisted, and she doubted if she would get it right.

What could be calm sometimes and like an erupting volcano sometimes? What flows through everything? She was so confused. She had never regretted being so uneducated till that moment. It brought tears to her eyes, but she wasn't gonna let them fall.

She was gonna think about it. The question wasn't so straightforward, so she had to delve deeper and relate all the keywords together. She had to look deep inside herself, and all that she has lived through till now.

But not everything was about her. So, she took a peek outside the box. If this flows in everything, then she had to think about what she's seen in others too.

"Time's up. Let me have my answer," It growled softly.

The feeling was the closest to what she could come up with. She's never understood why people were so obsessed with it. It had been in the center of the book Yuan had read to her, and Aaliyah remembered thinking to herself then that maybe it was just inescapable.

The words fell out of her lips like a gentle prayer, "Love,"

What irked her the most was how whenever she related to herself, Alastair was the first person that came into her mind. Chills ran down her spine at the thought alone, and she shuddered in disgust.

She didn't like how she felt at all. It was unusual for her, and from all that she's experienced in this forest, she hated the unusual. It didn't come with anything good.

In fact, it could kill her in one breath.

"Last Question," It said, pulling her attention to it.

'Here we go' Aaliyah murmured to herself.

"There once lived a Powerful Beast that reigned the earth. It didn't just reign the earth, it ruled all the lands. But, the beast was not a good nor worthy ruler. He instilled fear into all the people and usually killed without a heart. He had no feelings whatsoever, and only fought out for more power,"

Aaliyah was doomed. Why was the voice telling her a story?!

She's never heard anything like it before.

"He was an insane man walking the earth, except...his powers could not reach a certain place. A very special place...and that place, and what lived in it proved to be the end of him... but it's beginning to prove otherwise, and I do not know why!"

What a twisted story.

"Tell me, Aaliyah. Why do I not know why?"

How the hell was she supposed to know that?! She barely answered the last two, and this third one was like they were expecting her to suddenly do what? Cast a magic spell and find out why this... voice doesn't know why.

Aaliyah could feel everything crumbling down and had no idea what to do. Her short life was flashing before her eyes...She couldn't think of anything good anymore.

"You don't know because...," She swallowed hard, sweat trickling down her head in the cold, "Maybe you're not meant to know. Maybe you should just watch everything unfold, like... wouldn't it be more exciting that way?!"

It didn't move. It stared death into her eyes, and Aaliyah concluded that her end had come.

"There's a thrill in not knowing tomorrow. You don't have to know why, that is why you don't know why,"

Now she was just spitting out gibberish.

Its eyes shot so many looks at her, making her freeze to the ground with her toes curled tightly. She would probably go splat anytime from now.

Alastair suddenly vanished and turned into the wind again. The heavy silence that weighed on her back made her knees buck, as she awaited her fate. Her throat had never been dryer, and she could feel the itch even more now.

She couldn't even swallow due to how tensed she was...with the silence dragging on for the most frazzled few minutes of her entire life.

"I'll take your word for it, Pearl Crier."

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