Lisa, Chris and Jania all sat in the room of mirrors. They suspected that it was the last room and that the mirrors were a hint.
"It seems too obvious but I believe the mirror is telling us we must reflect upon ourselves." Stated Chris, while it seem obvious it just seemed a little on the nose, they had to be missing some vital element.
To Lisa, there was something familiar about these trials and it had triggered a memory from a conversation she had with Null talking about Littleman and Angels and what made up a sentient life.
" Null once told me that 'A sentient lifeform needs three things, a body, a mind and a soul' the first two trials covered the mind and soul. That means this is a test of the body, I think we have to understand our bodies."
"That seems like a good idea, but what do we have to understand? what wisdom can we gain?" from the first two trails it Chris understood they were all about displaying wisdom but he couldn't comprehend what this trail wanted. He had hoped that Null would arrive to help as the others didn't have an answer for him.
Without knowing what they were looking for the three of them sat in the room and looked at their reflections hoping for a revelation. Jania focused on the one aspect of her body she wanted to control. She wanted to know how to trigger entering her berserker state. She sat there trying to remember all the times she had entered the state in the hopes of gaining some insight and understanding. It took her another 5 hours before she gave up and asked Chris to fight her.
She knew from previous research that it was the thrill of battle that activated her ability. She was hoping that there may have been a secondary trigger.
"There must be a physical trigger for when I am in battle. So attack me" To make it fair Jania had dialled her implant to a minimum and had blindfolded herself. She believed she need to be under stress to activate the skill.
With all the handicaps she had given herself, Chris was able to constantly make contact with his stun baton but she was still able to get a few hits in. The more hits she got the happier she became and it didn't take long for Jania to enter her berserker state.
It was the thrill of battle that activate her ability so she hadn't learnt anything new. Once she activated her ability she could sense and exit.
"The exit this way" she headed towards the exit but it only allowed her to pass.
"Yes!, Jania you made it. Have you seen the other? " asked Null. He was excited as he had been waiting days for someone to arrive.
"Yes, they are in the mirror room but I don't know if they will be able to escape" Jania now knew the trial wanted them to understand their abilities but Chris and Lisa didn't have any.
Lisa and Chris had come to the same realisation.
"what do we know of abilities?" asked Chris
"From what Null has explained is that they are the result of channelling a field. Jania channels the motion field."
"So all we need to channel one of those fields and we too should be able to exit. So there are ten fields I guess we have to find the one that is right for us"
The 10 fields are:
• Space
• Time
• Mass
• Mind
• Quantum
• Energy
• Gravity
• Soul
• Life
• Motion
They both sat down and attempted to channel each field by concentrating on them one at a time but they weren't having any luck. They knew there might be triggers or other conditions as well. The chances of randomly discovering their ability were minuscule but their lives depended on it.
"We are approaching this the wrong way, Null and Jania use their abilities instinctively, I think we have to try not thinking but instead feel for them instead" Lisa didn't know if it could be done but she was willing to try.
The two of them tried to clear their minds and tried to meditate and see which field came to them instinctively.
Lisa found herself thinking about atoms, and how they could be combined to form matter but then she started to think of the smaller building blocks and then wave functions. The deeper she went the more she understood until sudden she had passed through the floor. She had unknowingly channelled the quantum field and had become intangible. She didn't know what had triggered it but it was a welcome surprise.
This had left Chris by himself in the mirror room, with all the time in the world on his hands. his thoughts went to the meaning of time. What is time? He concentrated on it, he had always wished he had more time to think things through, he didn't like making rushed decisions. If he had more time then all his decisions would be better. While he was thinking this he had noticed the outside world had slowed down.
A door then open for him and on the other side he could see the others, so he rushed to meet them.
He had been channelling the time field to accelerate his thoughts.
Pamphilos welcomed the others to the room. He confirmed Lisa idea that the test was used to give the participants knowledge of three elements of life.
"That final room is flooded with field essences to make it easier for one to discover their abilities but even so you are the first party that has succeeded in the last 100 000 years. I guess humans will need further investigations"
The party didn't know how to respond to the dragon comment, the others were still getting used to the idea of a talking dragon let alone having passed the trials.
"Congratulation on completing the trial of Pythia. You will now be rewarded an audience with Pythia the Oracle. Please follow me".