Chương 8: Book 1 - Chapter 8: Sometimes The Wheel Turns Slowly, But It Turns

As soon as his paw settled into the imprint, the door clicked open and swung silently inwards. Dominic stepped through cautiously, then paused as he took in his surroundings. The door clicked shut behind him. This room was far smaller than the room he'd just had to traverse with chains attached. It was shorter even than the corridors – about as long as it was wide and almost small enough to make him feel claustrophobic. It still looked like something out of the dungeons of an old castle, though.

Directly opposite him stood another sealed door with the familiar paw imprint at its centre and four easily recognisable carven symbols above it – a fish, a bird, a snake, and a lion. Of course, the lion in the back of his mind commented smugly, m y kind are best. Dominic heard him but ignored his comment in favour of inspecting the other major difference between this chamber and the ones he'd been in before – the friezes that covered the walls. One depicted fish swimming through stylised waves.

Another showed birds wheeling through the sky. The third displayed a savannah scene with snakes curling through long grass beneath a lone lion standing atop a rock. Beneath the carvings, etched into the floor before the exit door, were four lines: Down below, the hunter glides. Craving water, the silent hides. Crowned in gold, the ruler stands. Last of all, soars over sands. Dominic eyed the short poem and sighed. A riddle.

Still, if he used the clues in the friezes around and put them together with the four symbols engraved on the door, it seemed fairly straightforward, though he did wonder about the first two lines. Which is the fish? The hunter who glides below, or the silent one who craves water? Deciding that a fish was more likely to be connected with water than a snake, he padded forwards and pressed the snake symbol with a paw. It moved easily with a faint sound of grinding stone – it wasn't just a carven symbol but a button.

And when it had been depressed to its maximum, the whole symbol started glowing red. Nothing else happened and, perhaps ten seconds later, the glow faded, the stone becoming inert once more. Seems straightforward enough, Dominic thought confidently, doing his best to ignore the niggling voice that reminded him about the danger of assumptions. Really? the lion asked, bafflement emanating from him.

Well, I assume I have to make sure they're all lit up at the same time and in the right order – the riddle tells me what that is, presumably. The lion replied with a sense of dubiousness. Sure? he asked. Of course, Dominic replied with more certainty than he felt. Reviewing the riddle just to be sure, Dominic pressed first the snake, then the fish, then the lion, and then, finally, the bird.

Each in turn glowed red, however, when the final symbol was pressed, the red glow faded and there was a descending double chime. Suddenly, the floor disappeared beneath his feet, the stone replaced by all-consuming blackness. Dominic's heart missed a beat. And then the floor was back, stone flagstones supporting his paws as though they had never vanished. Dominic's body hadn't yet got the message – his heart pounded and his breathing came in gasps as adrenaline shot through his system.

For a moment he didn't dare to move as if any shift might prove that the floor was but an illusion. Then he swallowed and cautiously scraped his paw across the stone. It was there; solid. He knew what that had been – a warning. Sure, the lion replied, this time condemnation in his mental voice, though Dominic could tell it was a thin veneer for the fear he felt. It's fine, Dominic replied with his own attempt at composure. We just need to get it right this time.

And I'm sure about the last two – crowned in gold is an obvious clue. And a bird is the only thing that could 'soar above'. So I just got the first two mixed up – no big deal. He carefully didn't think about the possibility that he'd misunderstood the whole process – and what the consequences for that might be. Moving with more confidence than he felt – or the lion did, if its obvious skepticism was anything to judge by – Dominic pressed the symbols once more. Fish, snake, lion, bird.

This time, when the final symbol was pressed, that red shifted to white and a double chime sounded, its positive tone surely indicating success. For a moment Dominic waited tensely. Then the door clicked open and he stepped through, a profound sense of relief going through him. See, I told you, he told the lion triumphantly, though he did his best to hide how keen he was to get out of there. A new room was revealed, the twin in size to the one he was leaving, yet quite different in overall appearance.

There was no door to the room except the one he stood in front of; instead, the wall opposite him had four familiar symbols spaced out upon it. In the middle of the room was what looked like a small podium, standing only as half as high as Dominic himself. The top of the podium contained the familiar paw imprint. I understand! the lion exclaimed, triumph pouring off him, almost making Dominic jump. Crowned in gold – a lion with mane!

With the faint sound of shattering glass, Dominic felt a distant barrier break and the world… shifted around him. Dominic blinked, his mind suddenly feeling clearer, like a pressure he hadn't even realised was present had lifted. And with its absence, he suddenly recognised how much effort he'd had to be putting in to think straight before the change. The lion continued to chatter. And the silent is snake by waterhole! And the fish is also hunter! Hunter of what? he asked, his tone turning suddenly thoughtful.

Other fish, usually. Or insects, Dominic answered absently, more interested in noting the differences since the world had shifted. Everything had become ever so slightly sharper, his eyesight picking up details that it hadn't before.

He found himself automatically noticing things like how the symbols now facing him on the opposite wall matched the ones he had just ordered perfectly, yet were spaced entirely asymmetrically in all directions, how the first row of flagstones was half the size of the subsequent ones, and connected to the last row of flagstones in the last room, and how there were cracks around the edges of the wall facing him that didn't exist around the other walls – which were all bare of decoration.

He suddenly wondered something, pulling up his status screen to check. Hah, I knew it. DOMINIC MARTIN COLE /? Species:? Form/s:? Tier/Rank:? Domains Predation – Basic Stage 1 Aegis – Basic Stage 1 Realm – Processing Sovereignty – Basic Stage 1 Realm, huh? he wondered, taking in the newest addition to his list of Domains. He also noted that this time it seemed like it was the lion who had made the breakthrough. Very interesting. See – lions best.

Ruler, the lion pointed out, apparently not having really been paying attention. No mane, though, he continued, his tone suddenly shifting to melancholic. I guess not, Dominic agreed, pawing absently at the unimpressive scraggly fur around his face even as he considered the implications of his actions not being the only ones counted. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Then he realised how distracted he'd allowed himself to become and forced himself to focus.

This is how characters die – because they lose sight of what is important, he chided himself. Trap? the lion asked, suddenly serious. Possibly, Dominic agreed uneasily, thinking about their unpleasant surprise in the last room. Padding towards the paw imprint, he eyed it carefully. It differed from the other imprints in only one way – at the tips of his four toes was a minuscule engraving of the animals. Dominic was unsurprised to note the order too – the exact same order he'd had to enter to get through the door.

Though part of him urged caution, the rest was far too curious. By this point, he'd been conditioned to associate the pawprint with achieving the challenge, so it didn't take much deduction to conclude that he needed to put his paw in it now. The moment he did, white light surged through the grooves in the stone around the pawprint. Dominic jerked back instinctively as a strange pressure flooded up through his paw and into his foreleg. At the same time, a grinding noise met his ears.

The moment his paw lifted from the paw print, the sensation disappeared and the light faded quickly. Dominic inspected his paw carefully, relieved when he didn't see any visible signs of what had just happened. He tested his claws and put weight on the paw – all normal. It wasn't painful, he mused. Just…. Odd, the lion contributed. Yes, Dominic agreed. Odd. It was like…. He searched for a comparison. The first one that came to mind was when he had accidentally brushed an electric wire on holiday at a farm in Devon.

It felt like we were part of some sort of… circuit, he reflected. It was only then that he realised the grinding noise hadn't stopped. Tensing, Dominic looked around, searching for the source, instincts and mind in total agreement about finding the threat. Nothing was immediately obvious – no gate or door opening; the ceiling wasn't descending. Then he saw a flicker of movement over in the corner closest to the door. Padding warily over, it took Dominic a moment to realise what he was seeing.

And then when he did, he instinctively crouched to the stone floor, his heart hammering in his chest. The lion was no better, his panic exploding across Dominic's senses. I need to get control of myself, he thought distantly. I need to move. Yet all he could see was the slow creep of the stone floor as it pulled away from the wall to reveal utter blackness.

And this time, since it wasn't only for a heartbeat, he could tell exactly what it was: the void – a place Dominic didn't even want to think about, let alone see again. Dominic forced himself to close his eyes, the view not helping him regain control. He also feared one of the Watchers spotting him again – or something worse. Fighting back the foreign panic from the lion – a difficult task made harder by his own terror – Dominic was finally able to take a single step backwards.

That single step seemed to break the spell – his paws were his own again. Refusing to look at the expanding section of blackness, Dominic hurried back to the podium. What do? the lion demanded, his tone still full of fear. Need to run! Run where? Dominic snapped. We obviously have to solve the puzzle before we can get out. The lion didn't argue, though Dominic could tell that all he wanted to do was run and scratch at the walls in a fruitless attempt to get out.

Lifting his paw, Dominic placed it on the imprint again. Once more the odd sensation pressed through him, an unnerving reverberation pulsed through every cell of his body. The pawprint lit up again, and then the minuscule carvings at the tips of his toes followed suit. At the same moment, the much larger symbols on the wall facing him lit up too, and four boxes in a line dead centre in the wall also lit up. Dominic took a moment to piece together the clues, urgency sharpening his thoughts.

He nodded – it seemed simple enough, and an extension of the last puzzle. In the previous room – or previous section – he had needed to determine the order. In this part, perhaps he simply needed to remember where to move the tiles since the light would surely vanish when he removed his paw. Focusing on the wall, he fixed the position of the four illuminated boxes into his memory, then lifted his paw. As before, the sensation of connection vanished, and, a moment later, so had the light.

Glancing warily behind him, Dominic saw that both corners were now fully black. He didn't have unlimited time. Padding quickly over to the closest tile – the lion, ironically enough – Dominic placed a paw on it and tried to slide it upwards. It refused to move. Fear roiling inside him, Dominic hoped he just needed to put a bit more force into it. Lifting his second front paw and placing it next to the first, Dominic put his whole weight into pushing the tile. It didn't budge by even a fraction.

To all intents and purposes, it appeared to be just a part of the wall. Dominic swore, glancing back at the wall through which he'd come. A thin, curved line of black now connected the two corners. He refocused on the puzzle. It can't just be that I don't have enough dexterity with my lion paws, he decided tensely. None of the other tests have been impossible like that… I must be missing something. Casting a glance backwards – though avoiding looking too far – he eyed the podium.

Perhaps the imprint was more than just a tool to illuminate where he should move the tiles. Hurrying back to it, he once more illuminated the lights. Instead of merely allowing the current to flow through him, this time, he tried to lean into it, focusing on the lion carving once more. Come on, he murmured towards it, a low growl emerging from his throat. Move! Nothing happened. But Dominic had a moment of hope. Because he'd felt something – a flicker in the energy running through him.

Dominic leaned harder into it, focusing harder on the lion tile moving than he'd focused on anything in his life. The sharpening his mind had undergone in the previous room seemed to aid him here – he was sure he wasn't capable of this intensity of focus before. Though purely mental, the pressure of his mind had physiological symptoms. His eyes ached, his muscles trembled, and his teeth were clenched so tightly that his jaw ached. Yet still he pressed, sensing that this was the way.

This was how he succeeded, how he survived. No one was here to tell him he couldn't do it; only himself. And he refused to be his own contagonist. The energy flickered again encouragingly. Once more, he sensed that he was pressed against an intangible barrier, but this time he knew what it meant and he threw himself at it wholeheartedly. It held for a long moment. Then, fractured with a tinkle of broken glass that was felt more than heard. A shiver ran through him, deeper than the cool clarity he'd felt before.

This one settled into his muscles and bones alike, carrying with it a strange sensation of renewal. Fatigue loosened its grip slightly; the trembling in his limbs eased. Checking his status screen, Dominic nodded in tired satisfaction. Sometimes the wheel turns slowly, but it turns. DOMINIC MARTIN COLE /? Species:? Form/s:? Tier/Rank:? Domains Predation – Basic Stage 1 Aegis – Basic Stage 1 Realm – Processing Conduit – Processing Sovereignty – Basic Stage 1 A new Domain. Conduit. Makes sense.

Though surely I haven't missed out on a way to advance Realm like the others? he wondered with some concern. The quiet sound of grinding interrupted his thoughts, reminding him of his time limit. With renewed determination, Dominic returned to attempting to move the lion tile once more.

Pressing against it with all the force he could muster, Dominic was taken aback when the tile shot upwards, going through the box he'd wanted to aim it towards and bouncing off the top of the wall, rebounding to crash into the bird tile with a thunderous bang. Dominic was left blinking as the lion tile once more rebounded, this time far more weakly. Hah! he cried out in victory.

Then, unable to stop himself from glancing backwards at the ever-advancing line of black, the triumph drained out of him, replaced by fear once more. Alright, let's get out of here, he told himself with grim determination. Renewing his focus, he gripped the lion tile and tested just how much mental force he needed to apply to shift it. Practice made perfect, and it wasn't long before the lion tile clicked into place in the third square.

Avoiding looking at the void through sheer force of will, Dominic moved onto the next one. As he advanced, Dominic found that each tile became just that much harder to move. By the time he was shifting the bird tile, the last he had to move, he was trembling again, his jaw once more aching with the force he had to apply. Come on! he snarled at it, unable to stop himself from looking backwards again. The curved line of black was now halfway between the door and his position.

He had to succeed, he had to – both he and the lion were in complete agreement that they never wanted to return to that awful place. Through sheer force of will, Dominic shifted the tile the last few centimetres. It clicked into place and Dominic almost sank to the ground in relief as he heard a chime and a door appeared off to his left – a little ahead of the advancing line of black. It ground open and Dominic practically ran towards it – if he never saw the void again, it would be too soon.

Still, as he stepped through the doorway, he couldn't resist a final glance back at the puzzle he'd just completed. So, moving things with my mind is possible now, he murmured contemplatively. The thought sent a thrill through him despite his exhaustion. If he could learn to do it without the podium…. That would be incredible. As the door closed behind him with a low boom, grinding stone heralded the appearance of not just one, but two doors in the opposite wall.

One was marked 'Exit'; the other had just the paw imprint. Another bonus room? Dominic wondered, trepidation mixing with excitement as he recalled what happened in the last bonus room: the danger – and the rewards.