While Brians laughter echoed through the room, Morn put Bet down, relatively gently. As gently as you would expect from someone like, well, someone like Morn. Jade crouched down besides her.
“Wake up,” she said. But Bet didn’t. Jade took the water barrel off her back and scooped some water with her hands to splash in Bets face. Bet writhed, the water was causing her pain, but still she didn’t wake up.
Jade looked up and saw Morn slashing their axe at Magic Brian. But the Zauflak laughed and sidestepped the incoming blows, he hopped backwards and Morn stumbled when the floor opened up between the two of them. Morn shot Magic Brian an angry look and jumped over the pit. Magic Brian just stood there as Morn swung their axe towards him. Slowly, Magic Brian lifted his hand, snapped his fingers and in his place now stood Acantha.
“No, Morn!” She screamed and threw her hands up to shield herself from the incoming axe. Morn let go of their axe and it flew across the room where it clanged against the stone wall and fell to the floor.
Magic Brian now stood next to Lumira and she tried to hit him with her spear. Jade looked down at Bet. She would have to remain here to make sure Bets unconscious body was safe. Jade vaguely remembered waking up this afternoon with no one around to protect her. She wondered if her friends thought nothing of her. Or worse, perhaps they had thought it better if she wasn’t there. Gone, or invisible. Jade swallowed and stepped back and concealed herself in the darkness of the room. Now she was truly invisible.
Acantha, Morn and Iratus together ran towards Magic Brian, who was now facing Lumira. Lumira halfheartedly stabbed at the Zauflak, scared that he would pull the same trick on her and she accidentally hit one of her friends instead.
“Aww, you’re not even trying,” said Magic Brian and he turned around to face the incoming warriors. He cackled and lifted his hand in order to snap his fingers yet again.
When he did so, Bets unconscious body appeared in his place and started falling to the floor. Acantha caught her with her vines.
Jade inhaled sharply. It had been her plan to protect Bet and now this Magic Brian had taken that away from her. But he was close and he had not seen her yet. She dashed, her blade at the ready and stabbed through his neck. The cackling laughter deformed into a gurgle as Brian reached for his neck. Jade held him as he sagged to the floor. She held his head as she guided him to the floor.
“Ssh,” She hushed to him, “It’s ok, it will be over soon.”
She heard a loud click overhead and the ceiling started coming down. Magic Brian gurgled and Jade noticed he was holding a panel of buttons in his hands. She grabbed it and looked for the button to push.
Magic Brian snapped his fingers and Iratus appeared in front of Jade. She looked up from the panel and saw Morn waving their axe at the Zauflak, who somehow managed to be standing. Morn reached him just in time and smashed him towards the pit in the center of the room. As Magic Brian fell down the pit he screamed in a high pitch:
“Nooooooo!”
Jade looked back at the panel to find the correct button and she heard a thud when Magic Brian hit the bottom of the pit. A wail echoed up from the pit.
“Bryan,” said the wailing voice of Magic Brian, “There you are, Bryan.”
“How is this guy still alive?” said Acantha and she walked to the center of the room to look down the pit. Jade went to stand next to her and said in a loud voice:
“We never wanted to hurt you, Brian.”
Acantha gave her a look people give when they think someone might need intensive psychiatric care.
“But you did.” Brian said with a whine.
“Yes, we did, we felt kind of threatened by you, actually.”
“You killed my Bryan, he was my baby.”
“We did, but only after you sent him to fight us.”
“Ah, yes, I understand how that would feel threatening.”
“I also lost my baby,” said Jade and she crouched down so that her head would stop touching the ceiling.
“Really?”
“Yes, he is a green snake and his name is Toby.”
“Is he a very talkative snake?”
“He is,” said Jade, she smiled, despite the looks Acantha was giving her.
“Does he brag a lot about being able to send others to sleep?”
“That’s him.”
“Ah, well, I know where he is.”
“Please, tell me!”
“I put him with my other snakes, in the snake pit. You can find him in square one, the fake square one, I’m sure you know.”
“I do, I will get him now!”
“Please do.”
“Magic Brian?”
“Yes?”
“Please tell me how to stop this ceiling from coming down and crushing us.”
“Ah yes, third button from the right.”
Jade pressed the button and the ceiling stopped coming down and instead started going back up again. Which made being in the room a great deal more comfortable.
“Thank you.”
“No problem.”
“I hope you are well.”
“Yes,” he said in a broken voice, “I am together with my baby. I raised him myself, you know.”
“I do.”
Jade looked at the panel and saw a button with a drawing of an arch and the number six. She pressed it and the door opened to the previous room. She looked at her friends, Acantha looked bewilderedly back at her, Lumira was poking with her spear at the floor. Morn was already going back through the archway with Bet on their shoulders.
“Let’s go,” said Jade and they followed Morn in silence.
Morn took the blown out candle from the pedestal and gave it to Acantha. They moved back over the squares in the puzzle room.
“We’re allowed to bring any other artifact that we found,” said Acantha. The others nodded and they decided to also bring the barrel with an apparent endless amount of water. When they passed the broken spider egg, Kevins tucked it into his robes.
“I’ll go fetch Toby,” said Jade.
“I didn’t know you were so attached to him,” said Iratus, “Otherwise we would not have presented him as an offer to the riddle.”
Morn snickered, “Yes we would have.”
Jade left the others to step onto the fake square one by herself. The moment she did, the floor disappeared and she slid into a pit filled with snakes. Jade gasped, but then she realized that all the snakes were sleeping.
“Toby,” she said quietly.
“Sssneaky one?”
“Come here, I’m here to take you out.”
“Look sneaky one! Look at all the friends I made!”
“Wow Toby,” said Jade with a grin, “You’re such a charmer.”
The tiny green snake blushed as he wrapped himself around Jade’s outstretched arm.
“No biting,” Jade said sternly, “Understood?”
“Yesssssir!”
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