"Start at the centre stairs, spiral out?" Silent suggested. "Two groups?"
Unheatedly discussing whether multiple groups would end up covering the exact same ground or not, we returned to the entry stair, and divided into two, but before we could begin our examination of the grass, Imoenne pointed to the pearly rim of stone surrounding the stair and said: "Stitches?"
She had indicated a line of tiny holes—each no greater diameter than a knitting needle—that ran around the entire outer rim of the pale stone stairwell. This, too, was a circle, and vaguely resembled a yin yang symbol, with the void of the top of the stair forming a misshapen yang.
"Stitches with the thread unpicked?" Nova said, dubious.
"Maybe it’s an example," I said. "And there’s some intact stitches somewhere, with a thread we can follow."
"Unless it’s in the grass, or too high for us to see on the outer wall, we didn’t miss anything like this." Nova was firm on the point, but then hesitated, surveying the unobtrusive curving line. "Not that I can see anything to do with these things."
Arlen knelt and ran his hand over the nearest couple. "Too small to make of any use."
"I’ll try dropping a shield over the whole outline," Silent said, and did so to no apparent effect.
Imoenne folded gracefully down to kneel beside the rim of holes, her soft voice barely audible as she said: "But we are to make the thread, are we not?"
A faint whine accompanied her attempt to push a thread of lan into the nearest hole, and I was not the only one who instinctively responded by snapping up an additional shield. Imoenne straightened, abandoning her exploration, but no attack followed.
"I saw it rise," Silent said. "Came up partway, but went back down again without firing."
"One hole, one blaster?" I said, and began to count under my breath.
The rest of my group had come quickly to the same conclusion. "Twenty," Nova said. "Even if they only shoot once, that’s going to tax us."
"Single shots are too much to hope for," Silent added. "This is the final stage, the biggest hurdle, and every hole we activate is going to add to the pounding."
"Three of us on shields, at least," Nova said. "And the other two trying to thread all these holes as quickly as possible. Let’s do a quick comparison of who can sew faster than the rest."
Arlen and I were the fastest, and we divided the circle in two, with the three on shield duty standing between us.
"Don’t stop for anything," Nova advised. "We’re likely to have only one chance at this."
"On the third mark," Arlen said, bouncing lightly. "One. Two…"
"Wait," I said.
Arlen almost fell over, pulling himself back from action, and gave me an aggrieved glance.
"Don’t do one hole at a time," I said. "Make a connecting shape, a long curve, and then go downward into the holes all at the same time. That will make it complete before any of the blasters activate."
"Or just activate them all at once," Nova remarked, then shrugged. "But it seems the logical approach. Might intensify the blast, but shorten how long we have to withstand it."
Arlen considered the wide semi-circle of dots, frowning, and said: "That will be more difficult, but I will attempt it. I do not think I can grow the little points evenly all at once, however."
"But you could create the shape above the holes, and then lower it, yes?" Imoenne said.
The boy’s smile lit up his face. "Yes, indeed! Ah, that is a good plan, because we can do all that is difficult in safety, and it is only a matter of dropping it into place."
"Hold the form after dropping it, in case it has a long activation time," Nova warned, and we nodded and began again.
Creating a curve, and then descending spikes, wasn’t particularly difficult. Making sure they all lined up to such small holes was a good deal harder, and I could hear Arlen occasionally telling himself off in low tones as he corrected and recorrected himself.
"Lower just to touching to make sure they’re all going to fit," I suggested, and then had to correct one of my own. Changing an existing shape was always harder than creating it in the first place, but it helped to think back to my glass-blowing analogy, to melt the tine back into the curve, and then poke a mental hot needle down in just the right spot.
"I think that I am ready," Arlen said, sounding nervous for the first time.
"Okay, if you’ve got it just touching, we’ll push it down as quickly as possible on three," I said. "One…"
"Brace," Nova added, to Imoenne and Silent.
"Two." I took a breath. "Three."
Whirring, all around us. I wanted to bring up my own shield, the nerves along my arms and back crawling with anticipation, but I didn’t dare in case my spike projection faltered.
"Double-check everything’s gone in," I got out, voice high and breathless, just before the blasting began.
Silent gasped, a deep exhalation, as if he’d been punched in the stomach. His shield dropped, and I felt rather than heard him stumble behind me. I didn’t dare look up until I’d confirmed that all my threads had gone in, and then I risked a quick glance about, checking to see if there was a protruding blaster to match each of the holes.
Imoenne lost her shield as Silent resurrected his, and then they both went down, and I could see the chrysanthemum blooms of light on Nova’s, as bright and constant as New Year’s fireworks. She was breathing like a runner, but standing firm as Silent and Imoenne constantly brought up and lost their shields to the barrage. Then came a thunderous thrumming, and it all stopped.
Nova sat down, panting, face streaked with sweat. "Not single-shot."
"What was that noise?" I asked, bringing up a shield because no-one else had replaced Nova’s, and I didn’t trust this game not to produce some last-minute horror movie encore.
"Back wall," Silent said, waving in a vague way toward the sweeping curve.
At first I saw no difference, or at least no black gap to indicate an opening. It took a moment to see the intersecting curve of the walls, hiding the way through.
"So it is done?" Arlen asked. "We have finished?"
"Maybe," I said, drawing the word out, and then recognising an unintended imitation of Dio.
Cautious, we rested and put up a full set of shields before heading for the gap, but there was no further barrage. We walked through a white curving corridor into one final room.
Gauntlet Successful
Gauntlet Success Rate: 11/11 100%
Challenge Success Rate: 17/18 94%
Lux Points Earned: 5
Total Lux Points: 6,834
Challenge Reward:
[Tier 2 Décor Pattern]
[Tier 2 Apparel Pattern]
Series Successful
Series Success Rate: 1/1 100%
Lux Points Earned: 50
Total Lux Points: 6,884
Series Reward:
[System Challenge Access]
[Custom Suppression Modal]
Arlen and Imoenne slapped hands together, and Arlen hummed a little medley of gaming victory tunes.
"Well, we did it," Silent said.
"We did," Nova agreed, and something in the way they looked at each other—even though their faces were still concealed by their focuses—made me decide TALiSON was right.
"Without dying," I said.
[[Without dying,]] Dio agreed, over my Link.
I glanced around for tem, but couldn’t see any Cycogs—just the cluster of Renba trailing us into the room. Ordering mine to efface itself, I listened as the others talked excitedly about attempting the System Challenge, revisiting upcoming available times, factoring in the travel time involved in reaching The Wreck. We would have to get off-planet, Skip, and then dock and travel with the big ship that was apparently the mandatory form of transport to the System Challenge. I listened, and said I could be available whenever, but my mind was on other questions, and whether the answers would be true.