“There,” the slender Sylphaen said as she withdrew her hand. “It is done.”

Where she’d reached there was no longer a jagged hole, but a solid stone wall that didn’t budge as Gabby pressed her armored fingers against it. It wasn’t smooth like marble, but layered with imperfect ridges, as if it were made of shale or something similar. She knocked on it, and the sound was dull and flat.

"Are you sure you should be hitting the walls?" Gabby raised an eyebrow at Archie, who stood a few feet away, arms akimbo. His spirit was veiled, but he jutted his chin aggressively, and his fingers twitched near the handles of his daggers.

"Nervous?"

"Just around you. I don't want those big muscles of yours breaking through the walls of this place and ruining the whole thing."

Gabby pursed her lips and turned from the walls. "You seem to think I’m here to hurt you."

"You hunted me for months."

"That wasn't me.”

"Sure looked like you."

"Quit your bellyachin’, all of you," Evie snapped. She was further down the hall than everyone else, and all of the Unbound turned to look at her. “Gabby’s on our side now.”

“For how long?” Archie jerked a thumb at her. “She changes sides faster than moods.”

“Enough.” Evie’s voice cracked, whip-sharp. “Felix trusts her, so I do too. The guy might be bone headed at times, but his judgment is solid. ‘Sides,” she favored Gabby with a lopsided grin. “She tries somethin’ and I’ll just stomp her ass into the dirt.”

Gabby couldn't help the grin that spread across her face. Evie's attitude, though rougher than some, was refreshing. After dealing with scheming priests and the politics of the Hierocracy, it was nice to simply have someone say something and mean it.

"Now we don't need to be fighting," Ondine rustled her feathers, the sound all too similar to snapping a bedsheet. "We're all here for the same purpose, are we not?"

Archie folded his arms and grumbled something too quiet to catch, but could be construed for agreement. For her part, Gabby tilted her head.

“Good.” Beef let out a breath, loud and relieved. His hand dropped from the massive hammer he had slung across his back. "Last thing we need is fighting, guys. Hey, where's Elowen?"

Gabby craned her neck and pointed further down the corridor. "Looks like she and the twins have started without us."

Down the short corridor lined with that shale-like stone on the wall, the area opened up. The star-tiled floor opened wide into a circular chamber no less than five hundred feet across. The ceiling was vaulted and filled with hanging lights, each emitting a warm glow that filled Gabby with a nostalgic comfort. It reminded her of her mother’s kitchen, where the lights were very yellow and almost smelled of spices, as if they’d been suffused by years of lovingly crafted meals. There was no smell here, though, save the sharp tang of ozone and dust.

Alcoves dotted the chamber. Each one was bordered by tall pillars carved with strange fractal patterns from the floor to the arches where they met the ceiling. Gabby couldn’t make heads or tails of them. Inside the alcove, instead of sculptures or paintings like the Shining Palace had displayed, the semi-circular walls were smooth. The stone was pale and unblemished as if it were an empty canvas waiting for a painter's brush.

Beef scratched his chin. The fur was tufting there into something approaching a goatee. "What exactly are we supposed to do here?"

Hallow hummed. "We find our Path.”

"Where? There's nothing here."

"I suppose we could always break some walls," Archie said, eyeing Beef’s hammer.

"I thought you said you don't want to break anything."

"I said I didn't want her breaking anything." Archie shot a sharp look at Gabby.

"I won't break anything unless we all agree," Gabby held up her hands in annoyed defeat. “We all need to hurry though. I have no idea what will happen to this space if that Echo is destroyed, or worse, gets away from my brother."

"You really think that's likely?” Beef swallowed, and glanced back the way they’d come. “Felix ate a god already, and that thing isn’t one. Right?"

"It’s something, but Echo or whatever, I wouldn’t bet against that thing having tricks up its sleeves."

The Minotaur nodded along, as did that weird crystal woman beside him.

"Whatever," Archie muttered, walking off to choose one of the alcoves seemingly at random. “Then we figure this out now.”

Beef gave her an apologetic glance and followed, his crystal accomplice clunking after him. Gabby shrugged it off. There was little she could do to pay off the debt she'd incurred when she'd been Imara. Certainly not at that moment. It left a sour taste in her mouth, certainly—she may not have been a saint back on Earth, but she’d never been a monster. She hadn’t even jaywalked. The fact that she couldn’t even deny any of the awful things she’d done only made it worse.

Stop it. You’re free. Mostly. Her first step would be to eradicate the Bargain entirely. Like her brother said, that meant she had to get stronger. Perhaps the Path would allow her to break free of that influence. If nothing else, it would give her more tools.

Unlawfully taken from NovelBin, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

She hoped.

Gabby walked to one of the alcoves. The interior was just as empty close up as it had been from a distance, but it seemed a lot bigger. The semi-circle stretched up at least fifteen feet high and ten wide, big enough to fit her sizable frame let alone Archie or the Kobolds. The pillars on either side of the alcove were around five feet in diameter and made of a similar material as the curved walls. Up close, those fractal patterns were even more dizzying. The bend and twists of them grabbed at her attention relentlessly, blurring her vision enough that Gabby had to brace herself against the pillar. Something nagged at her Perception, like a cloth dragging across the backs of her arms. Aside from the dizziness, the sensation wasn't unpleasant, merely insistent. She pulled away, and it all faded.

“That’s weird. Is it the same in the other alcoves?”

The next one over had the twins busily inspecting everything. They were poking and prodding at every dimple in the fractal patterns. Shadow even had an arrow that he scratched along the stone. It left no mark, but he stumbled as he traced the curve of the alcove.

"Dizzy?" she asked.

The Kobolds started, and Shadow blinked until he stepped free of the alcove. "Oh, um, yeah."

They looked at her, not with the hatred that Archie had displayed, but with something she'd grown used to, acting as Imara. Fear.

The one with green gold scales, Kevin, recovered the fastest. "It’s the strangest thing. Any time we step between the pillars, our Perception gets all fuzzy. We’ve tried three so far and it’s the same. I think there's some sort of, like, spell that's disorienting us, keeping us from finding a way out or through."

"That would make sense. The System doesn’t make anything easy.”

"I like to think of it as a skill-based challenge,” Kevin said with a broad grin.

Shadow nodded eagerly. “Like a jump puzzle.”

“I guess.” Gabby never really played games. Well, not video games. She’d always been good at poker though. “Let me know if you find anything.”

“Sure.”

Gabby moved to the next, and then the one after that, following the curve of the wall. There were exactly enough alcoves for all of them, she noted, and that seemed significant. It wasn’t until she’d gone through nearly all of them that she found one that was different. Just to the left of center, the pillars didn’t induce a bout of lightheadedness or blurred vision. In fact, as she stepped closer, the fractals on the pillars seemed to rearrange themselves. Between one blink and the next, they reformed into something vaguely familiar.

“I think I found something here,” she said, pitching her voice toward the twins. She wasn’t sure if they heard because the fractal patterns flared, capturing her attention like a hissing snake. She narrowed her eyes, lowering her posture as her armor clanked softly. Something dangerous…

Yet nothing happened. For several long seconds she watched the pillars, but they merely glowed with a golden radiance that had formed some sort of constellation. Clenching her jaw, she stepped forward, across the threshold and into the alcove proper. She was prepared for the dizziness to return, but it remained gone—instead, there was an answering light that welled within her chest. Gabby gasped as a glowing warmth flowed through her channels and the pale expanse of stone flashed, revealing a door.

“Huh.”

It was massive, the door taking up almost all of the alcove’s inner wall, and it looked to be made of metal. She reached out, touching its surface. It was carved with a similar fractal pattern as the pillars, etched with perfect precision into the dull silver surface. The moment her hand engaged with it, it welled with a spark of golden light.

“I definitely found something!” she said again, this time louder.

"Yeah, we did, too.”

She glanced back, craning her neck outside of the pillars and noticed the twins' were at the two alcoves to her right, set side by side with one another. Kevin was nearest and he looked at her with excitement stretched across his lizard-dog features.

“This is so cool! It just appeared out of nothing!

”

Elowen was further away, but she stepped out of an alcove with those chains in her antlers jangling. “Rearrange yourself. Each alcove is meant for one of us. It will respond to your Mana alone.”

The others hustled about, swapping places several times until each of them lit their pair of pillars. Kevin’s was green-gold, and Shadow’s was a purple-black. Archie’s was a deep brown that fluttered through nameless, iridescent shades. Elowen’s was of course purple, and Evie’s was a brighter, icier purple-white. Beef and Hallow, situated at the same alcove, gleamed with a blackened-green. Ondine, the last of them, stood before two pillars shining with striations of white-green and dark blue.

Strangest of all, Gabby couldn’t make out a doorway in anyone’s alcove save her own. When she asked, Kevin assured her that it was there.

Ondine hummed loudly, flexing her multicolored wings. "Our Paths are ours alone, it seems. We must walk them without the rest.”

“That was always the plan,” Evie said with a shrug.

“I suppose so.” The princess firmed up her narrow shoulders. “If Felix's experience is any indicator, we will meet up again in the next room. But if we don't, I want you all to know I wish you the best and it is an honor to know you."

“We’re not dying, lady,” Archie groused.

“Well, I’m not,” Evie said with a grin.

"Good luck.” Beef reached out and, at his insistence, rapped the tiny Sylphaen’s knuckles with his own giant furry ones. "Let's do this thing.”

He stepped forward, as did everyone else, until Gabby couldn’t see anyone but herself.

Right. No time like the present.

She reached out, laying her hand against the door. There was no latch or key, but the spark of golden light that she had seen now flourished fully. The fractal pattern that spread across its center shifted and morphed, never quite reaching the edges of the door. Curious, Gabby gave it more of her Mana. Golden light welled between her fingers as it pressed into the inscribed pattern, and the fractals rearranged themselves in new, very familiar ways. Like the pillars, they shifted, forming constellations that tugged at her memory.

Where have I seen these before? She pressed more, and the shifting continued…until it clicked.

"It's mimicking my core space.” Marshaling her Will and Intent, she sent more Mana flowing through her palms into the door. Immediately, the fractal pattern shifted until the center of the door formed a massive golden sword. Spread out around it were spider-like lines of golden light anchored onto gleaming weapons, each one radiating more lines of their own. Maces, swords, daggers, halberds—the whole gamut of weaponry available to people on the Continent, each one a weapon she’d trained in for countless hours. Some were even things she hadn't known were weapons when she’d arrived, like ropes with weighted ends or wires held between steel grips. All of it shone, picked out in exacting detail by a fractal pattern that spread like a wave of fire burning through kindling all the way to the edges of the door.

Do You Choose To Walk This Path, Ascendent?

Gabby pursed her lips. “Yes.”

A Choice Has Been Made.

The Door Is Open.

A deep, resonant click sounded from within its mechanism and the metal split open in the center. Liquid darkness met her gaze and the chamber rippled around her as a faint suction pulled her close. Planting her feet, Gabby stepped through, and the darkness transformed into golden light.