Memories and Mazes

Before we could take another step different colored lights began to form around us. Indistinct people began to move among booths that were forming. An upbeat tune was being played on a pipe organ. I felt something in my hand and looked down to see a white ball there.

"Do you think you can win me that big one?" The visage of Sara formed near me as a carnival booth with stacked bottles appeared in front of me.

"Wilmaer, what is going on?" Lariss had her bow out and was looking for a threat to aim at.

"This isn't real, this isn't real." I had taken my wife Sara to a carnival soon after we started to date. I won her a stuffed animal that she kept throughout our marriage.

Everything around us started to fade as I rejected it.

"What an interesting Dream you've had." The voice from before said to us.

"Is that where you went when you were supposed to be here?" It continued.

"We're going to get rid of you." I started walking towards the next ritual site.

After we left the center of the village Lariss said, "What was that? Everything looked so strange. I've never seen clothes like that. And what language was that woman speaking?"

"It's from a dream I had when I was younger." I said.

"You have an interesting imagination." From her tone I could tell she didn't believe me.

Soon we came to a large circle of upright stones. A maze of smaller stones surrounded a large boulder with a silver rope tied around it. Several crystals hung from the rope. There were a few piles of armor and bones sitting throughout the maze. When I approached the smaller stones to step over them, I walked into an invisible wall that burned my skin.

"There's an opening right there." Lariss pointed to a gap in the stone that marked the start of the maze.

"Wait here a moment. I'll assess if there's any danger, then you can follow." I started into the maze.

From what I could see there were several easy routes that I could take. When I came to a pile of bones I gave it a quick search and didn't find anything of value. After taking a turn I stopped when I saw someone else in the maze and was surprised when I saw who it was. Another me stood on the opposite side of the maze. It had the same expression as me and when I moved my hand it also moved its hand.

I took a few more steps and ran into an invisible wall that burned my skin. I hadn't stepped into the small stones but I could see that my double had. This was going to be complicated.

"Lariss, is there a higher vantage point that you can get to?" I asked.

"Give me a moment." She soon climbed the closest tree and started to guide me further in.

I was half way through when she yelled for me to stop. To my right a second duplicate had appeared and they were about to walk into the small stones. Lariss had to guide me backwards to find another path. Her guidance was slower this time around but I soon was three quarters of the way through. To my expectations, at that point I saw a third copy of me appear to my left.

With four of us and despite Lariss' best efforts I started to run into invisible walls. I came upon more of the piles of bones but didn't find anything of value. Picking one up, I threw it over the small stones with nothing stopping it. Pulling out my sword I swiped it over the stones and it passed without issue. It seemed that only flesh or my copies hit the wall when trying to pass over. I also noticed that each of the copies now had a sword in their hands.

With four of us Lariss had me moving all over the place, constantly backtracking. Half of the time it took me to reach the center was after the third copy appeared. All four of us stood at the end of the maze a few feet from the center boulder. Once I took a step into the center ring, the copies changed course. I stopped but they continued on towards me.

Our swords clashed and as I circulated my Lydos aura, the copies swords also started to glow. Moonlight Slashes came at me from all sides. When I circulated my Osgar aura I saw the same areas glow on the copies. What didn't translate to the copies was the damage I took. I wasn't able to protect myself from all of the Moonlight Slashes, blood sprayed from a wound on my left shoulder. None of the copies took the same damage.

"Lariss, can you hit a non vital area on one of them?" I called out and to my surprise, the other three called out the same words.

An arrow pierced the right leg of one of the copies. I didn't feel any pain and that copy started to move slower than the others.

"Don't worry I can keep track of who's who." She said.

Taking advantage of that one's wound I struck only to feel the pain of my own strike. Damn, all I could do is defend. Lariss began rapid firing arrows with magical effects. My copies began to use my Osgar aura independently from me to block her shots.

"Lariss, what are you doing? I'm the original." One of the copies yelled.

"Don't get confused, I'm the real Wilmaer." Another called out.

The last copy coughed up blood as it spoke. "Please, you need to kill the other ones."

"I trust you with my life Lariss." I said to her.

She didn't even hesitate and in a few more minutes the copies began to fall. After a certain amount of damage they burst into mist and evaporated. I gave her my thanks and began to look around the boulder. On the far side was another pile of bones. This one still had a little flesh indicating that it was the freshest. Within the pile was a small pouch that contained three Storage Rings. I pocketed the rings and inspected the boulder.

"Should I just cut the rope and bring it to you?" I hoped more copies didn't form on my way out.

"That would loose any corruption that it's containing. I'm not sure how difficult that will be for you." She said.

"If you can remember the path, I can help you kill your copies." I said.

"Or you can do the cleansing." She said.

"I've never done anything like that before. Plus we don't know if something will attack while I'm working." I said.

"Alright." She tried to take a step into the maze but only stepped into the invisible wall. "It seems only one person can be in the maze at a time."

With a rope tied to an arrow, she fired it into the ground near my feet. I then pulled the rope to me with the pouch and parchment tied to the end. Lariss instructed me on how to spread the dust and guided me through the prayer. As I started to read, an abundant amount of power welled up within me. I had been told that I had an enormous amount of spiritual power but this was the first time I had accessed it.

One by one the crystals turned black and cracked into pieces. With each one that cracked I felt a release of energy from my soul. After the last one broke, I cut the rope, gathered every piece of crystal I could and burned it all.

With that done, I tested for the invisible wall and didn't find anything. When I left the maze Lariss came up to me and placed her hands on my chest.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Even though I said that, I felt out of breath.

"Using spiritual power when you're not trained can be exhausting. Why don't we take a rest before heading towards the last ritual site?" She said.

I nodded and leaned on her as she directed me toward a tree. As I rested, I pulled out the three Storage Rings. Two were low grade, while the third was a mid grade ring. They contained about 6 gold, 25 silver and 94 copper that I split with Lariss. Two of the rings contained a number of monster parts but even within the rings they had decayed. There were 5 monster cores that were still intact but would be of low quality if they were even useful due to improper storage.

There were also four items that caught my interest. The first was a wand that when I sent my mana into it, I found it had a minor mote of water contained within. Next was a silver censer that was engraved with iconography from the Church of the Holy Light. It still contained some unburned herbs. Then there was a full sized shield. It didn't contain any enchantments but was of excellent quality and was over twice as large as my buckler that now had a large crack in it. The last was a scroll inscribed with a number of glyphs. When mana was sent into it's central glyph, the spell contained within would activate. This one had a mental calming spell contained within.

After a few hours I began to feel better and we started towards the center of the village to head to the last ritual site.