Hex and Din were out walking during the evening, it wasn't dark out yet, they knew bad things happened when night would fall. They walked through the shopping district, talking while taking glances at the windows at the wares inside.
"I've been working on a new song for you," Hex said.
"Really? That's nice of you, I hope I don't take up most of the new album." Din smiled.
"You're important to the band, so it would be too surprising." He laughed.
A red portal opened up in front of them, and Elaine came through.
"I have a test for you two, to see if you can really beat me, it's a maze, I'm sure you'll like it." Elaine smiled.
"I don't really want to, she and I were just talking, I'd rather not devote my free time to petty squabbles." He frowned at her.
"It wasn't a request." She raised her hand and the scenery changed from street to a maze made out of a light blueish-green glass-like substance, with Greek statues lining the halls.
"What the fuck? Why would you bring us here? Can't you get it through your thick skull that I just want to be left alone?" he said angrily.
She laughed and dissolved into a murder of crows, the crows flew away, leaving Hex and Din alone in the maze.
"She's acting more like a villain as of late," he said.
They started to walk, and stared at the statues, afraid they would start moving. His rage built up every step he walked, eventually it boiled over and he summoned his sword and cut down one of the statues in anger.
"I wish she would just fucking leave me alone!" He kicked the fallen statue.
"We've gotta be calm and think about how to get of here, she's probably set up a lot of traps for us." Din walked up to him and placed her hand on his shoulder.
"Alright, fine, but I swear she's getting a piece of my mind once we get out," he said as he de-summoned his sword.
They went into the next hallway, and he started to walk forward, but Din stopped him.
"What's wrong?" He looked at her worriedly.
"Look closer at the floor." She pointed down.
He surveyed the floor in front of himself, and sharp shapes could be seen if he moved his head, they were invisible, whatever they were. Din walked up to one and poked it, and it snapped shut.
"Bear traps, but invisible." She stood up, and summoned her fan. She turned around and used a spell on the floor, hail fell from the ceiling, and all of the invisible bear traps snapped shut.
"Do you think that's all of them?" he asked.
"It should be, I covered the entire area, I made sure of it." She nodded.
They walked through, making sure to keep an eye out for an invisible bear trap that hadn't been tripped just in case. They got to the next hallway, and as soon as they turned towards it, there were pendulums that activated and started to swing. They only swung to the left and right, which made the two of them breathe a sigh of relief.
"We got this." He walked up to the pendulums.
"I know." She followed him.
They carefully timed their jump past the first pendulum, Din would feint her jumps a little before actually doing it, while Hex would just stare at it intently, waiting for it to pass. The second one was less anxiety inducing than the first, they thankfully jumped past it with only a split second to spare, the pendulum brushed against Din's face slightly. There was only one more, which made him and probably Din anxious, but they jumped only a little bit after the second and first, because they didn't want to re-gauge the jump by waiting.
They went to the next hallway, which just had a bunch of giant spider-like webs. Din walked up to one and touched it, she had visible trouble getting her finger free.
"It's extremely sticky." She looked at him.
"I can just use my sword." He re-summoned his sword, and cut through the web.
"Won't our feet get stuck?" she asked.
"We just have to keep walking, it may be slow, but this hallway has to end." He cut through the web behind it.
He continued to slice through the webs, and as soon as he stepped on the fallen pieces of web, sure enough, his feet got stuck, but he eventually freed himself. He would get constantly stuck and have to free himself every couple yards, Din would step or jump over the webs instead, but even she would accidentally get stuck from time to time.
"That was very annoying," Din said as she walked over to the next hallway.
"How did she even get past all that?" he asked.
"Not sure," she said.
They turned to an empty hallway, which was disconcerting, he walked behind Din with caution.
"You really shouldn't be in front, it's too dangerous, you should be closer to me," he said.
"I'll be fine, besides, it's worked out in our favor the whole way through up to this point." She shrugged.
A whooshing noise came from the floor in between them. He looked down, and there was a flame coming out of the floor in between them. Before he could tell her, it shot up to the ceiling, centimeters from covering him in flames. The flames spread out and blocked his path, and he heard her scream his name. He covered his ears, tears pooling under his eyes and rolling down his cheeks. There was nothing he could do.
He felt like the flames were burning for an eternity, and then they were gone. He opened his eyes and wiped them, all that was in front of him was burnt ground and a pile of ash.
"No!" Hex screamed, he ran to the pile of ash and brushed it away, hoping to find her, but there was nothing under it.
He held a hand full of ash in his hand, and looked at it. He felt all the life inside him leave his body. It felt like someone was hollowing him out like a pumpkin, leaving nothing left. The next thing he knew, he couldn't see through the tears in his eyes, so he blinked and wiped them away.
"Let me out," he whispered
"What was that?" Elaine's voice echoed through the hall.
"I said let me out! You killed her! Let me go!" he screamed, and slammed the floor with his fists. The only thing left inside of him was anger and sadness. He felt like there was something empty inside him, and the emptiness gnawed at him, it was prevalent and painful.
"Alright, you two can go," she said.
Hex and the pile of ash were transported back, confirming his suspicions that the pile of ash was all that was left of her.
Read the rest of the book here: https://www.moonquill.com/book/113