A Job For The Gods

Aiyana was VERY tempted to take her baggy shirt off right now. Sadly, she was wearing nothing underneath it this day, of all days to do so! The deserts were warm, and the light breeze kicked up sand she didn't feel having on her bare body; instead choosing uncomfortably warm instead of warm and uncomfortably sandy covered. Had this been any other type of warm climate, she would have went topless if she knew she could get away with it. Of course, most wouldn't mind a free peep show it that's what it came to when someone happened to pass by.

Out in the Forgotten Deserts a temple had been unearthed, and the original crew that had gone down had never come back. It was two weeks after that had happened, and Lamia Scale had been tasked with sending a mage out to go in, find them, and figure out what happened. To Aiyana, it sounded like that had either gotten lost or found some traps. She was hoping for the first one, as the second would mean finding a mess that neither woman would be happy to walk in on. Looking into the large entrance, Aiyana said one simple question as she half-turned her head to look over at her shadow to speak to her pet fairy that was hiding in her shadow.

”Well, we ready to do this?”

With no kind of noise, the shadow fairy appeared and flew up to eye level with Aiyana before speaking up.

"I'll follow where ever you lead, Aiyana."

It was this phrase that made the girl realize how loyal her pet was to her, when the fairy had come to her and asked to tag along for no reason she could think of. She'd have to get the reason why out of her some day in the future, as the dark creature had never given a proper explanation as to why she wished to be considered her pet.

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Word Count: 327

The bandaged mage began to walk into the darkness just moments later. Lo and behold, there were lacrima lights on the ceiling that lit as the pair moved, quite slowly, into the ancient temple. 'Well, whomever built this place knew enough about magic apparently.' she thought as she looked around the place; her wide eyes giving her a childlike look of intrigue and curiosity. Surely, with lights, the original crew had not gotten lost, something Aiyana knew meant they were probably dead at this point.

It wasn't long before the two, after a good walk through a long hallway, found a large and open room. The sole item occupying the room was a semi-clear, glassy looking, blue statue of a tall man that was wearing clothing of ages past. In one hand he held a scepter, the other holding some kind of strangely shaped item she couldn't guess at. Atop his head were two plumes, making him look like royalty of some ancient civilization of times unrecorded.

”Wow, that statue is beautiful,” the young woman said as she slowly walked towards the object. She got almost close enough to touch it before she bumped into the second item there, one she hadn't noticed while staring at the statue. Looking down, one could see a locked case made of the same material the statue was. Inside was a set of celestial keys! With eyes widened even more in surprise, with her eyes somehow not popping out of her head, she realized why the others must have wandered the place. If one could find a key to open this, the set of five could be theirs, holding an unlimited amount of potential being where they were from! With that thought Aiyana brushed her hand along the glass looking chest, wishing she could just reach through and grab them right now.

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Word Count: 308

With just that light touch across the surface of the chest, it began to glow with an ominous light. That light spread out, towards the statue, and the man started to gain color. Wide eyed during this process, the girl terrified of what she may have caused, the young woman watched as the item became a living thing.

Without moving from where he stood, the giant man looked down at Aiyana with a piercing gaze. It felt as if her very soul was being studied like a student would a text for an exam. She small girl shuddered under the gaze, unsure as to what to say to a living statue that had such presence, and stood there until the giant spoke up.

”Your soul is clean of the evil many of the mages of this world carry. If you wish to acquire the keys you lust for, you must endure the trials of this place. If you can bring back the keyring at the end of the trials back to this spot, you may have the keys as your own. But heed my warning, you MUST abide by the contracts you make with each of us after you earn us. We will not allow mortals to have our power to use at any time you will it!”

The booming voice filled the entire room, but didn't echo in the least. It was as if the being was here, but on a different plane. A celestial? Aiyana could only guess at the origin of the man speaking to her, calling the girl a 'mortal.'

But she couldn't deny that she wanted those keys, and if she was being given permission to try how could she refuse?

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Word Count: 302

”I will accept the challenge of these trials, and will bring the keyring back to you.”

With but a nod of approval, the giant being pounded the scepter he held in one hand into the ground, the resounding boom causing a hidden door to begin opening; the solid stone wall lifting up from the ground to reveal a path she would have to take to start the trails she had been tasked with. As soon as the door was fully opened, making a grinding noise as it stopped, the man reverted back into the statue with an almost serene transference. Had she been willing to stop and stare, she probably would have noticed the statue was back in it's original position as if nothing had ever happened. Instead, the bandaged mage walked into the newly opened path.

The place had lacrima lights, just like the previous area did, that lit as she walked through the small hallway. Just as she was getting impatient at how long the hallway way, there was an abrupt turn that brought her to a small size room. Inside this room was a table with a single scale. A small door was on the opposite side of the room, a riddle written in plain English above it.

The writing was, “A balanced life is well and good, but to find one's balance they must focus inside their own soul.” She had no clue what it meant, but surely she had to figure out something to do with the scale resting atop the stone table. Upon closer inspection there were odd shaped figurines laying around, all the same shape and size from the looks of it.

'Maybe I have to balance them on the scales?' Her thought confused her further as she looked at the puzzle laid before her. The eight figurines were all in little nooks, like pieces of a board game being put away in their containers at the end of the day.

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Word Count: 312

Picking up one of the figurines, the young woman realized that the piece she was moving between her fingers was the same shape as the statue that had sent her into the place. 'Well, well, looks like eight of him to balance on this thing. Good thing they're all the same size!' Taking out all eight pieces, holding four in each hand, the Lamia Scale mage took them to the scale and set them down at the same time. As soon as her hands were clear, her eyes turned to the door in the hopes that it was opening. She was disappointed to see that the opposite was true, the door as unmoving as a mountain with no resistance.

Not knowing why it didn't work, Aiyana looked back over to the scale to notice quite the peculiar situation. Even with all the figurines being the same size, that scale was hanging further down on the right than the left side. "Uh, what? How is it not balanced when they all weigh the same?" She took the pieces off, setting them back in the slots as she lifted the scales off the table. The golden scales were in perfect condition, not even dirt marring the shaped gold. After inspecting every inch of the item, she set it back down on the table. Well, maybe the figurines aren't exactly even in weight. 'Maybe they all weight slightly different to a point that I can't notice on my own.'. With that in mind, the young girl decided to test each figurine against one on the other side, as a basis for them all. It took but a few minutes to do the test, and it seemed that the one on the left was, apparently, the heaviest one of the figurines she was using.

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Word Count: 300

"Well, maybe if I put the heavier one on the left, with just two others, and five on the other side it will even out!" Leaving the one, heavier, figurine on the left side of the scale, Aiyna again picked up the others at the same time. With two in her left hand, and four in her right, she walked up to the golden, beautiful, scale and set down the pieces as she thought they should go. To her disaproval, the left side of the scale did not even out with the other. Instead the scale did the opposite, the right side falling all the way down as if a lot more weight was on it.

"W-what? How? I just weighed them all against each other!" She wasn't happy with the current situation. She took off all the figurines and set them down on the table, the flat parts of them laying on the table as she tried to figure out what was going on. Picking up each piece, she looked closely at them to see if ANYTHING was different on them. After doing this, the young woman slammed the last piece on the table in anger before turning to face the door to the next area. ”They're ALL the same! Why doesn't this stupid scale want to balance out!”

It was after her outburst that she heard noise coming from behind her. Wasn't she the only one in the room right now? With a wide-eyed, almost terrified, expression on her face, the woman jumped into the air as she turned around. She was expecting to see another person there, or at least some other living being in general, but what she saw was something that actually upset her even more than someone sneaking up on her.

”You HAVE to be kidding me...”

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"I can't believe this stupid thing! The table is uneven! What kind of dirty trick is that?" She was pretty upset. The bandaged mage had spent an unknown amount of time just trying to figure our there weight of the statues when it wouldn't make a difference, the table would just make it lean one way or the other. If the table was uneven, she wasn't going to just be able to set the pieces down with the scale sitting on it. 'Wait...that's so simple. It HAS to work!'

With a frown on her face, mad at her own stupidity, she picked up the golden scale and watched as both sides went to different locations. Not only was the table unbalanced, but so was the scale itself! That made it almost comical, had it not been happening to her right now. The Lamia Scale mage walked up to the figurines, picking them all up in her hands, before taking them over to the, now grounded, scale. She slowly placed the figurines down on the scales one at a time. If one side fell lower she would place one on the opposite side. When she was done the scales were ALMOST even, the left side was just slightly uneven in comparison.

”Man! So close! I need something light I can just set down on i~” The idea hit her before she even managed to finish the last word of her statement. Drawing her khopesh in one hand, and unrolling a piece of her magic bandage in another, the young woman cut of a piece of it. The useless piece of bandage fell to the ground while the bandage attached to her regenerated to make up for the piece she had taken off. The young woman picked up the piece gently, laying it down on the uneven side of the scale as if it could explode at a moments notice.

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As she moved her hands away, she noticed the scales had finally become even in weight. "Talk about looking focusing inside my own soul. Had to use my magic to balance it out, even if it did take a little bit more effort to do so." As she said the words, the door that held the quote for the puzzle began to make grinding noises. As it slowly lifted up, Aiyana walked up to it until it was directly in front of her. She put her weapon away, and made sure her hat was resting on her head properly, before the door stopped moving and allowed her entry to another hallway.

The new hallway was quite different from what she had seen so far. For one, the lacrima lights in this area were in a severe state of disrepair. Many of the lights were out, or flickering, giving the place an eerie atmosphere as she traveled to find the next trial she would have to do. It wasn't long before she found the entrance to another room, which she slowly walked into. With so many lights out she didn't want to step into as trap, or a monster roaming this place. Not that there had been any yet, but this was a temple of trials after all.

Upon entering the room, a good chunk of the floor moved upward to reveal another riddle of words. “Lying eyes will bring one to ruin, and drag others down with them. Be sure your eyes deceive not others, as well as yourself.”

”Great, another riddle to solve and I have no clue what it's talking about!”

She was ready to just get this over with. Who knew how many trials there really were! She hadn't eaten before setting off on this supposed job and was already getting hungry.

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With a growl from her stomach the young woman began to look around at her surroundings. Nothing seemed to be out of place, although there were two paths she could take from where she stood. 'Perhaps a maze is the next trial?' With that thought in mind, she walked towards the left path and started to slowly follow it. She walked for what seemed like an eternity through the seemingly infinite hallway. The only thing that broke the monotony was the fact that there was a lacrima light every so often on the ceiling. After a few more minutes of walking would cause her to get upset and look back behind her.

”Dammit! It's going to be like that, is it?!”

The entrance that she had taken was about a foot behind her, meaning she hadn't walked any distance at all. 'Is it magic? Some kind of space distortion that makes me think I'm moving when I'm really not?' It made sense to assume that's what it was, as she surely had been walking a lot longer to go more than just the foot of distance she really had gone. She walked back out into the beginning area before going into the next hallway.

It wasn't long after entering the final path that she found herself walking into yet another room. This one held three different paths that she could take, any of which could possibly be the correct one for her to walk through. 'Okay...Left, right, or middle? Which do I try first?' The she stood there in the silence for a few moments before she decided to walk through the left passageway, hoping beyond all hopes it was the correct choice. Although, if it wasn't, there was just two other options to pick from.

”Only one way to find out though, just keep moving.”

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The hallway she had chosen seemed to go on forever in her mind. Yet every time she looked back to see if she was moving the entrance she had chosen was further away. 'Well, at least I know it's not like the previous one.' Lacrima lights were still at a point of disarray, some points even being almost completely blacked out when walked through. It made her wonder just how old the place really was, with the place being in worse condition as you explored it. Surely it had to be older than the ancient ruins at this point. Lacrima lights lasted a very long time, or so she had thought, and she these were the first she had ever seen that had stopped working.

With thoughts on age and old places, the young woman made her way into another room. It was one with two paths, one on the left and one on the right. ”Wait...this is the beginning!” The frustration in her voice was quite obvious, as the maze appeared to have more than just one type of trick up its sleeve. Knowing what to do for this part, the young woman simply walked through the right path again. It led her to the same kind of room, meaning the maze wasn't going to change on her. 'Well, I have a solution for this.' Drawing her khopesh, the Lamia Scale wizard cut off a small part of her bandages with it. Moving legs would carry the girl to the left path, where the no longer enchanted piece of bandage would be layed down in front of. ”I just need to remember that a bandage in front of a path means I've already been down it!”

Feeling accomplished in carrying out her idea, Aiyana turned towards the middle path of her choices and began to walk down it.

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