Chapter 96: Chapter Ninety Five: Shadow Rewards

The Chosen One looked at the three pedestals and sighed again.

 

“All right, so, group chat. Who thinks who should get the spells?”

 

“Well, obviously you should get the sword, Chosen One,” Qube started, before stopping herself. “Or maybe the carrot…”

 

Qube wanted to get the potion vial one.

 

She really wanted it.

 

But all the arguments she had made before (which were, naturally, very good arguments,) still held true. She just had to control herself and not let her desire for a new spell overcome her reason.

 

Even if she really, really wanted to.

 

“I believe that it would be best if I took the spell,” Definitely Bad Guy said. Sewer Bard narrowed his eyes at the Mage, but nodded begrudgingly.

 

“That is only fair,” he conceded.

 

“If he’s getting something, then our darling here should get one,” Sexy Screamy Spider Lady insisted, draping herself over Qube. “After all, she missed out last time.”

 

“I would not object to that,” Definitely Bad Guy said swiftly. “I only suggest that, given your ... situation, it would be wisest if you were to attempt the carrot one.”

 

“Sure,” Qube said brightly. “Unless someone else wants it?”

 

Everyone else disclaimed any desire to become more powerful. A small part of her mind registered that it had not occurred to any of them that the Chosen One shouldn’t get one of the pedestals. Obviously he was the Chosen One, so he should, but still. She would have expected at least one of them to suggest it, despite it being against the world’s best interest. Qube felt all warm inside — they really were the best at teamwork now!

 

“Huh that went… a lot smoother than last time,” the Chosen One said. Qube beamed at him. “You lot are really fast learners, aren’t you?” There was a strange note in his voice, but he shrugged and then continued more normally: “Okay, time to level up!”

 

“But Chosen One, we’re staying on the same plane —”

 

“Three-two-one-go!” The Chosen One reached out and grabbed at his pedestal while Definitely Bad Guy and Qube scrambled to get to theirs in time.

 

As the power was Bestowed on Qube, she suddenly realised that she should have asked for the sword one, in case she ever needed to defend herself. But the spell had already been activated and it hurt.

 

Her previous Bestowals had been painful, yes, but not like this. Those had been like straining a muscle. It hurt, but it wasn’t an unknown kind of pain.

 

This was something totally new.

 

Rathering than racing towards her mana pool, or ripping open the part of her mind that dealt with spells, it invaded her skin. It felt like a hundred thousand tiny needles burrowing all over her body, then drilling into a section of her mind just next to her knowledge of spells and tearing it open before pouring itself in.

 

Then, as quickly as it had swept over her, it was gone, leaving behind only a tingly sensation. She shook slightly as the new spell unfolded fully within her, and whispered its name.

 

“I got [Stoneskin],” she informed the Chosen One before he could even ask.

 

“[Wall of Blades]!” he cast, and cackled with delight as a ring of ethereal blades sprung up around him and started circling. “What does stoneskin do?” he asked Qube, not taking his eyes off of the swirling swords.

 

“I think it makes skin harder to cut?” Qube theorised.

 

“That’d probably stack really well with your shield, good job,” the Chosen One said. Even though Qube hadn’t had any actual control over what spell was Bestowed on her, she still felt a surge of pleasure in his praise.

 

“What about you, sulky-suit? What did you get?” the Chosen One asked Definitely Bad Guy casually.

 

“I’m wearing robes, not a suit” Definitely Bad Guy replied. The Chosen One briefly closed his eyes.

 

“Okay, so, learning is still a work in progress,” the Hero said to the back of his eyelids. He reopened his eyes. “So, Definitely Bad Guy, what spell did you get?” he asked with exaggerated patience.

 

“[Infected Fire],” Definitely Bad Guy said with relish. “While I have yet to test it, it feels like a combination of fire and curse magic.”

 

“Sounds painful; you should get your fire checked,” the Chosen One laughed. “See a doctor maybe.”

 

The companions all looked at each other, trying to figure out what the Chosen One meant.

 

“There’s no actual infection,” Qube kindly explained to the Hero. “It probably just means that the fire infects the enemy.”

 

This time the Chosen One completely covered his face as he closed his eyes.

 

“Why do I bother? Maybe I’m the one who’s still learning,” he mumbled.

 

“We’re all still learning, Chosen One,” Qube said, putting a comforting arm on the Chosen One’s shoulder.

 

“Thank you,” he said weakly.

 

“Shall we move on?” she asked gently.

 

“Please,” he said hollowly. “Before I go completely insane.”

 

Poor Chosen One, Qube thought to herself as they stepped towards the grey portal. This whole saving the world business was really starting to get to him.

 

Qube wasn’t entirely sure what she’d been expecting the next room to hold. Some kind of person or being who would give them a choice? Hopefully they wouldn’t be trying to harm each other. Qube found all the attempted murder very stressful at times. Sometimes she felt like no one had ever even tried talking out their differences before choosing violence.

 

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What she definitely hadn’t expected, though, was for there to be nobody. Again. Only this time there wasn’t even a puddle that a mysterious enemy could spring from.

 

Instead, there were only grey-marbled statues and a table made of twisted shadows.

 

As the group stepped further into the room, Qube realised that the statues were actually of each party member. The wood elf version of Sexy Screamy Spider Lady, the otter that Squiggles had eaten, Definitely Bad Guy, and Sewer Bard were all lit up. Each of them had two lights facing them, lantern doors adjusted so the light picked out only one side.

 

The strange placement of the lanterns meant that each statue had two distinct shadows cast on either side behind them.

 

The first statue was of Definitely Bad Guy, his grey, chiseled face gazing off at unknown danger. One of his shadows was that of a silhouette holding a jagged dagger upright, as if about to plunge into someone. The second shadow was of him standing tall, his shoulders thrown back and an arm raised, as if casting a spell. The real Mage stood in front of the statue, looking at it like it contained the secrets to the world. He scanned first one shadow then the other, before returning to look at his own expression.

 

How was this possible? Qube wondered to herself as she went to examine the next statue. How could one statue show two such radically different shadows? Were these shadows also alive, and about to spring into action against them?

 

None of the rest of the group seemed at all worried about an imminent attack, though, so Qube forced herself to relax, and try and pay attention to the “music.”

 

The statue next to Definitely Bad Guy was of Sexy Screamy Spider Lady in her wood elf form. One shadow had her kneeling, a chain around her neck that she was holding the end of; the other was her sitting on a throne in a pose of despair. 

 

Qube glanced at the Hunter to see how she reacted to this. Sexy Screamy Spider Lady was silently eyeing the statue. It was hard to read her expression, but she seemed to be deep in thought.

 

On the opposite side of the room were the statues of the otter and Sewer Bard. There seemed to be a few empty places where other statues could have been. Had the Temple made too much space, and just filled it in with statues of them when they arrived? Why the otter then? Where were Qube and the Chosen One?

 

She walked over to the otter. In the total silence of the room, her steps echoed out loudly, making her feel self-conscious.

 

Squiggles was slorping around the otter statue but, uncharacteristically for the sharktopus, wasn’t attempting to eat it or climb all over it. The otter shadows were equally strange, one side showing the otter in a pose of subservience, the other with its teeth bared. Squiggles slorped faster, agitated. Qube reached out to pat her and reassure her, but Squiggles ducked under her hand and kept pacing.

 

Sewer Bard was standing in front of his own statue, studying himself. Silently, he lifted up a hand and spread his fingers in front of one of the lanterns, watching the shadows of his fingers play across the marble depiction of his face. Interestingly enough, it didn’t seem to change anything about the shadows behind the statue. The first shadow was of the Bard with his shoulders bowed over his lute as he played, the second of him crouched with a blade drawn, pointing upwards.

 

The Chosen One, bypassing the statues, had wandered over to the apex of the room and was looking at the living shadow table. As he stood there, the light of two lanterns that Qube hadn’t noticed before played over his back, throwing forward duel shadows. One was of the Chosen One holding a crown and sword. The other was him crushing the crown beneath his boot. The Chosen One ignored them.

 

This was, thought Qube, a particularly creepy decoration choice by the Temple. She stepped up next to the Chosen One, and looked to see what her shadows would be.

 

But there was no change.

 

Thinking that perhaps she was just too short, she copied Sewer Bard and waved her hand around the Chosen One’s head.

 

“What are you doing?” the Chosen One asked, turning away from the table and looking at her.

 

“Trying to see what my shadows are,” Qube replied, before realising how insane that sounded. The Chosen One quirked an eyebrow at her but stepped aside, gesturing for her to take his place in front of the table.

 

“Feel free,” he said.

 

Stepping into his place, Qube automatically looked down at the table. There was a strange, flat disc vibrating in place. It almost looked like two interposed discs forced into the same space, with a small plaque next to it.

 

“The choice is made…? What does that mean?” she asked, turning to the Chosen One. He shrugged.

 

“Dunno. They’re probably mixing things up at this point, trying to keep people interested.”

 

“Why would people not be interested anyway? We’re saving the world!” Qube exclaimed. “Also, who else would be coming here? And why would the Temple care about them being bored?”

 

The Chosen One shrugged again.

 

“Because people are weird?” he offered. “Look, I could be wrong, but I think this was supposed to provoke reflection or something. Don’t worry about it.” Having said that, he reached past her and picked up the flat disc. As soon as he touched it, the disc attempted to split in two and rocket off in opposite directions. 

 

“[Fiddle]!” he exclaimed, and grabbed at both discs. Qube gasped at the spontaneous birth that had just occurred in front of her. Truly, the miracle of life was beautiful! “No, stop! Get back here!” The Chosen One managed to catch one of the discs, and chased after the other, which was skidding along the floor.

 

As Qube watched the Saviour of All Human and Human-Adjacent Beings run around after the mystical Temple’s ancient artefact skittering across the floor, she reflected that perhaps he was wiser than even she knew.

 

After all, people really were weird. But not as weird as the world itself.

 

---

 

Having captured his prizes, the Chosen One hastily shoved them into his backpack.

 

“Right, has everyone finished admiring themselves?” he asked, shouldering his backpack. The others nodded or murmured their assent — everyone seemed remarkably subdued after the whole statue experience.

 

Qube, remaining in place at the table, realised two things.

 

One, she still didn’t have any shadows. And two, she didn’t have a statue. She narrowed her eyes at where her shadows should be, and then glared around the room. She spotted one of the empty spaces right next to the table — was that where her statue was supposed to be? Clearly, given her shadow wasn’t appearing at the table, the shadows themselves were a construct of the Temple and not born from actual light. It made sense, given that the silhouettes cast in no way resembled the actual statue they were supposedly shadowing.

 

Why didn’t she have a statue then? Had they just not started it yet? Given that the Temple would have had to start building the statues as soon as they’d entered, it might not have had time to make ones for her and the Chosen One. Presumably the Chosen One’s would have been set in front of the table — hence his shadow appearing there. It probably was keyed to his physical appearance.

 

Which meant if she went and stood in one of the empty spaces, her shadows would probably appear. Probably the one closest to the Chosen One, given her status as his Childhood Companion.

 

As the Chosen One walked towards the door that had magically appeared once he caught both discs, Qube realised that if this was supposed to be a Temple of reflection, then she hadn’t really succeeded in reflecting herself. Maybe the reason was that the Temple just didn’t think that she needed to do any reflecting. That would explain why a version of her hadn’t appeared for them to fight. Qube was 75% sure that this line of reasoning wasn’t correct, but it was a nice thought, that the Temple thought she was doing such a great job that it didn’t need to try and provoke any thought or change in her!

 

But unfortunately for her calm, she was too rational to hold to such flights of fancy. She knew, with pragmatic grimness, that the Temple hadn’t used her shadow because she had no offensive spells and thus there wouldn’t have been any fight to overcome, and that it simply hadn’t had enough time to build her statue. If they hadn’t been busy saving the world, she would have tested each alcove to see which had been designed for her.

 

When she returned to do her TIMES research, she would have to try. Or maybe it would have finished building it by then. Did the Temples continue building things after they had taken the prizes? The Fire Temple had changed, true, but she didn’t know if it continued making traps etc...

 

Already puzzling through this new aspect to incorporate into her studies, Qube left behind the confusing Shadow Temple and happily stepped out into the dark abyss beyond.

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