Young Writers Society

Jennifer attacked both her opponents at once as she went on the offensive once more, this time slashing in wide arcs at both of them, keeping her hands moving fast enough that the two constructs were forced to keep retreating, unable to find and opening to attack.

Continuing her attack pattern to hold the constructs in place, she took a moment to glance around at how the others were doing. It looked like Lyrth was handling himself rather well, he'd almost taken care of four of them. No surprises on that front. That was definitely not Lyrth's first time in an arena. The other two weren't quite fighting the conventional way but for the most part they looked like they weren't losing. Whether they were winning, it was anyone's call, but it looked like they'd remain long enough for them to get help if needed.

Jennifer turned back to the two in front of her and decided now was a good time to stop playing about and finish the two off. Rune was clearly going to soon run out of tricks, and Felix looked to be improvising a trap that didn't have a very high chance of working out.



Harry attacked both his opponents at once. The constructs were quite good in battle. They were programmed by some of the finest combinations of magic and technology after all, but against the experience of a Harry that was actually fighting smart and not just hacking wildly, they didn't even stand a whisper of a chance.

Harry stabbed towards the construct on the left, right food forward as he turned slightly towards the construct he'd attacked. The other construct saw it as an opening and swung towards Harry's right shoulder even as the construct #1 brought up its sword to block Harry's attack.

Harry smiled at a trap well laid as he proceeded to duck down, landing on the ground in a full split. Construct #1's sword came up to impact thin air while Harry's sword was in just the right position to smash into construct #2's wrist. The second construct's swing was thrown off balance and hit the sword of the other construct causing the two to cross swords.

The impact jarred both the constructs causing both of them to drop their swords. Harry kicked them away even as the last of his opponents dissolved into nothingness. He hauled himself to his feet in time to see Lyrth finish off his last opponent as Felix crumpled to the ground.



Jennifer launched an attack right at the wrist of one of the constructs, shattering it on impact and causing the sword to drop to the floor. The other construct slashed at her, but she spun out of reach as it connected with thin air. She used the moment that it was off balance to grab its sword by the blade and yank it out of the things hands. The creature crumbled into nothingness even as it fell down.

As she turned around, she could see Rune still facing one last opponent. She flipped the sword in her hand so that she was holding it by the hilt and threw it with deadly accuracy.

The point of the sword slammed into the constructs writs, cracking the wrist and causing it to drop what it was holding. As the final construct disappeared, the weapons scattered around the arena along with the arena itself began to slowly disappear into the blackness it had come from.



Harry turned towards Rune only to see Jennifer wiping out the final construct with a well aimed sword. It looked like they'd finished the first layer. As if in answer, the arena around them began to disappear. They'd definitely won but it appeared they weren't all completely unscathed. Quickly converting his sword back into its storage form and sheathing it, he ran towards Felix even as he could see Jennifer do the same.

He offered a hand to Felix.

"You alright there? That looked like a nasty fall, if anything's injured I could take a shot at some healing magic?" said Harry.

685 words

Everything ached, and it was getting annoying, “Harryyy!” he moaned.

When he opened his eyes, he realized Harry was standing over him already with his hand outstretched, had he offered help? Felix had a vague recollection of Harry’s voice a moment ago but he was still a little fuzzy, and his head hurt.
He reached up and touched his hand to his forehead, blood.
Great, that was the source of his headache.

He grabbed Harry's outstretched hand and tried to pull himself up with his help, but as soon as he was halfway to his knees he felt the wound on his chest give a flare of pain and collapsed.
He must have been hurt more than he thought.

“Ok if you have any healing magic id be happy to accept,” he said falling back to the ground. “Also a bandage if you rune has any more. Wait is what happened to the arena? Also why an arena, you said this was going to be a MAZE” He said quickly as his mind cleared of the grogginess.

Lyrth watched as Jennifer dispatched the last apparition. Once he knew that the group was in no danger, he turned to look at the place that had held him captive for so long.

So many memories soaked into the sandy floor of this arena, forever staining the pages of his past. Lyrth’s heart sank deep into his stomach. This experience had made it clear: the Crimson Arena would never truly set him free. These memories, these feelings, the person he was now, all came from this place, and would never leave him.

How many years had he hoped that one day this cage would relinquish its hold on him? Too many to count. But he knew he would never choose to forget the time he spent here.

He looked over to where Harry was helping Felix from the ground.

“…Wait is what happened to the arena? Also why an arena, you said this was going to be a MAZE” He said

Lyrth looked at Felix, “I’m sorry, I’ll leave the answer to that question to Harry to answer. I must think for moment, before we move on.”

He walked away from them. Side by side with the darkest, most gruesome memories were those that kept him sane, that pushed him forever onwards. Velda. His sister in every way but blood. He had promised her again and again that together they would escape, together they would triumph over their captors, together they would go out into the world and live again.

He failed her once. Never again. His vows renewed, Lyrth returned to the spot where he had lost it all. He knelt once more, feeling himself slip into another memory.

It was as thought all the world had stopped. All around him, the clash of metal and the cracking of bones faded into a sort of static. She fell, clutching at her stomach where a stain of crimson was rapidly spreading. Lyrth felt himself yell, stumbling towards her. He dodged a poorly aimed swing of an axe, under a vicious barbarian.

Orfin lay dead beside her, his hands still clutching the staff that carried him through all his life. Lyrth felt his heart constricting as he fell to his knees beside them. “Velda?” He asked, hoping against every ounce of reason, that maybe she would answer. Nothing. “Velda!” He yelled, tears beginning to pour.

It was too much. Lyrth pulled himself from the memory, knowing that what came next wasn’t something he could think about right now.

Felix was definitely not doing okay. He had a ugly looking gash across his forehead and there seemed to be some kind of injury on his chest too. Looking at the two injuries, Harry wasn't sure he'd actually be able to fully heal them. He'd offered, thinking it was probably something relatively minor, but looking at it again, this could actually be something a tiny bit serious. Harry was no healer by a long shot and the basic healing spells that everyone might not be powerful enough and at any rate he hadn't used them in a very long time, not really having a reason to do. That was the downside to having a full time wizard on the team.

He looked to Jennifer but she immediately shook her head. He'd expected that answer. After all, she was pretty much on the same boat as him. Jason was probably the only one that remembered any kind of healing spell.

"Well, I'll be honest, I'm not a hundred percent sure I can completely heal that, haven't had to that too often, ol' Vankous is usually the one taking care of that sort of thing but, I do know a few spells, and they could help, at least with the forehead there, that one looks pretty minor and at least numb the pain a bit," said Harry.

On that note, Harry waved his hand over Felix, and a bright dark cyan light passed through Felix. The general scanning spell picked up a couple of red spots before in another flash of light, the cut on Felix's forehead proceeded to heal itself and the blood vanished. Harry couldn't see what exactly happened to the wound on his chest but he got the feeling that it wasn't completely healed. Hopefully the numbing spell Harry had thrown in there would prove useful.

"Okay, now that that's out the way, I can answer your question about the maze here. Soo...this is a maze, its just a very adaptive maze that throws all sorts of tricks at you and well, we're kind of guiding you guys in the right direction so that we don't wonder aimlessly in unnecessarily areas. The arena was something that the maze decided to throw out to cripple Lyrth. Luckily it looks like the maze didn't win, but of course this is the easiest part of the maze, the stuff to come will progressively get worse. Andd...""

As he was speaking a second tunnel became visible, another dark passageway seemingly leading to nowhere.

"Well, it looks like we can run over to the second part of this maze now...that just opened. Let's go see whose memories it pulled from this time," said Jennifer. With that, she turned to leave.

Harry stepped away from Felix and walked over to Lyrth, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"You feeling alright?" said Harry.

Lyrth looked up at Harry as he laid a concerned hand on his shoulder, “You feeling alright?” He asked, brows furrowing. Lyrth opened his mouth to respond positively and soothe his friend’s concern, but a nagging thought in his mind resurfaced. He hesitated, attempting to gauge whether or not such a question would be met with outrage or deceit. It was impossible to tell. He took a deep breath, turning to face Harry fully, “Actually, you’re the sort of being that could end a musing I’ve been having,” Lyrth shifted nervously. He wasn’t sure if a powerful entity such as Harry would take kindly to him prying into the affairs of the shadow realm, but the temptation was too great.

“Have you ever, in all your many years of existence, come across a powerful being that collects memories and trinkets that hold passionate emotion in their histories? Have you ever encountered a being that is fascinated with the sort of emotion that so powerfully creates and destroys us inhabitants of the world?”

Lyrth peered intensely into Harry’s eyes, lavender and dark cyan wills colliding. Answers could be so close.

Rune had only been half-paying attention to the conversation up to this point. His secret miraculously hadn't been revealed during the battle, but he was still checking to make sure he had everything underneath his cloak completely covered. Between that and registering what had happened during the actual battle, Rune hadn't really been in the right frame of mind to check how the others were all doing.

Lyrth was waiting for Harry to answer a question. Rune had only heard bits and pieces of their currently short conversation, but the entity that Lyrth was describing sounded suspiciously like a god. Not Ignis or Finix. That didn't fit their descriptions. It was the kind of god that could have been the new god—the one that he had heard rumors here and there about.

He pushed the thought aside. He needed to focus on getting out of here.

But then he caught a glimpse of Felix, and he realized that he could actually do something useful with his magic. Rune had already pushed his use of magic too far earlier, but healing the living was easier than controlling the dead.

He walked over to Felix.

"Do you need anymore help?" he asked. "I have healing magic. I usually use it to control the dead, but it works on the living, too."

Felix nearly said yes before he realized what Rune had just said
Standing up straight and with a slight limp he took a step away from Rune.

“You just admitted you are a necromancer,” he cocked his head to the side “and you think id let you try your magic on me?”

He turned and walked away before he could answer. Why would someone admit they were a necromancer, and expect people to be fine with it? He wondered, maybe necromancers were different in his world.

Coming to the large dark passageway, it felt ominous and tempting, like it wanted you to come in just so it could lead you to a trap, if this was the easiest part of the maze, could Felix survive the rest? Well, he thought there isn’t any other option anyway, and walked through.

On the other side of the passage, Felix was met with a strangely familiar light

He stopped dead in his tracks and gazed around at the room as the phantom light disappeared, replaced by a candlelit chandelier, it was a large circle with a high vaulted ceiling, made of beautifully carved Elmwood, depicting stories and prophecies, all the walls and windows, door and ceiling, intricately painted with layers of gold and silver.
Directly across from the entrance was a long silver-lined table, with many gold or silver lined chairs behind it.

He knew this place.
He remembered it all too well.
This was where his arrogance had cursed him, his own brilliance had caused him to become an enemy to his only friend.

He took a step forward and gazed at the empty chairs, he could see everyone’s place, but he only looked to Svatrir’s chair, his friend, his enemy, his backup plan that had failed.

Sighing he turned to look out the windows, if he was truly back in Viterra he would be looking from a great tower, nothing, absolute nothingness, so perhaps he could take off his coat, he thought better than to test that theory though.

Where was the test? He wondered, when, across the room, as if in answer to his thought, one of the windows began to twist and enlarge, soon becoming a large weathered gate, it opened letting in a gust of freezing air.
“Ah-ha!” he said out loud, so he was going to be tested as before, when his fate had hung on a choice, prove himself in what was likely a deadly trap, or walk away.
They had feared him, that was it, he had known then, but only now did he realize that that was the final reason he took up their challenge a horrible mistake.

Well, he thought this time I suppose I don't have a choice.
He took a glance back at the dark passage, the others would be here soon enough, he wouldn’t start the maze without them, but he did want to see if anything was different.

Passing through the large gates his boots crunched in the white snow, he was standing in the center of a large semicircle, hard stone carved with beautiful images in some parts and intricate runes at others the walls were made the same way and the only reason you could tell where the floor ended and the wall began was the deep snow that covered the ground, a slight flaw of the designer’s, the only flaw actually.

Three identical passages led away from the main area.

So the maze had begun.

Harry nearly had to turn away at the intensity of Lyrth's stare. He didn't have to read surface emotions to know that this was a question that meant quite a bit to Lyrth. It was also a question which didn't really have one answer. And some of those answers, he didn't know if he really wanted to be giving out at the moment.

Harry took a deep breath. "Well, that was quite the question there Lyrth, I doubt I've ever had to answer a question quite like that. Well...to answer that...memories and trinkets are..powerful things, especially when as you say, strong emotion is involved. Not a lot of people out there that are entrusted to protect such powerful artefacts, but well there are quite a few. In fact...I..." Harry faltered. He had no idea how Lyrth was going to react to this one, but there was no point in trying to lie here. The truth was most often a much better option. "I've preserved my fair share of powerful memories, let's just say...I like happy endings, and I keep them around to remember that the mission I embarked on so many, many years ago is worth pursuing. As for a being that's fascinated with such emotion...well...I know quite a few beings once again. There's certainly more in that category. As for myself, I've played a hand a lot of that...although I do specialize in the orchestrating of the better side of that equation, although I can't say the same for most others." Harry shrugged. "Sorry if that was too much of an answer."



Jennifer paused as she heard the question from Lyrth. After a quick mental debate about what to do, during which she heard Rune and Felix exchange some words before Felix wondered off into the maze, Jennifer decided that Harry should be able to handle that and went ahead to make sure neither of the other two accidentally walked into a guaranteed death trap. Those would start to pop up now that it was no longer the first section of the maze.

As she walked into the tunnel, she passed Rune. "Don't take the necromancer comment to heart," she said, "most young civilizations don't realize that necromancy is simply another form of magic. All it takes is one bad egg, and the entire art form suffers from a bad rap for a millenium." She winked at him and then continued after Felix.

Jennifer found herself in what looked like the dining room of a decently well to do castle. It wasn't anything impressive in terms of size, but it made up for tht with some rather beautiful decor. It was definitely a lot better to look at than the arena they'd been in earlier. Judging from the fact that Felix stepped through one of the windows which just so happened to turn into a gate, Jennifer figured that this was one of Felix's memories. There was no telling what could be there on the other side of that.

She ran through after him to find herself in what was unmistakably a maze. So Felix would get his maze after all, although she doubted that he was actually going to like the experience all that much. She looked down the three identical passages in front of them. It was time to figure out which was not going to lead to certain death.

"So Felix, I take it you recognize this place?"

Rune stared after Felix and Jennifer. Felix's comment hadn't been a surprise. Getting turned away because he was a necromancer was normal for him—he had lost count of all of the inns and taverns that had kicked him out when they realized what kind of magic he specialized in. Rune hadn't ever really tried to hide it. The only reason he had halfheartedly tried it here was because he was worried about the consequences.

He still needed to see her again.

Not having a place to stay for the night wasn't something that would impede that. It made him irritated, deep down, but he didn't want to pretend to be someone he wasn't. He wanted to see how people actually were.

But to have someone accept his magic? And to have that same someone call it an art form? Rune hadn't ever had that happen. For once in his life, Rune really was at a loss for words.

After staring after them for another minute, Rune went to catch up. It looked like they were in some kind of memory that had unfolded into a maze. Rune didn't want to think about what a place modeled after his memories would look like.

Rune gave a little stretch, his weight shifting underneath his cloak again. He would take a maze over animated constructs any day.

Lyrth listened intently as Harry answered his question. To some degree. He shot the angel a look when Harry mentioned he himself collected these things, but the worry passed when he finished his thought with happy endings. The incident surrounding Velda’s disappearance had been anything but happy. Lyrth nodded as Harry fell silent. Left with more questions than answers, he resolved to inquire further when there was a lull in their adventure. It was best to avoid asking tension charged questions when in dangerous circumstances. Or was that the best time? Lyrth couldn’t decide.

“We shall talk more about this later. I don’t want to stay here any longer,” Lyrth smiled reassuringly, a twinge of sorrow in his voice, “As long as you leave the owners of those memories with something to hold on to, you’ve nothing to be ashamed of. It’s those beings that take with no regard for us who are left behind that I have dealings with.”

He followed after the others, not risking a glance back in the direction of the arena. One day he would burn that place to the ground.

“This is where I live,” Felix said turning to Jennifer, he was glad it was her, something about Harry made him feel irritable and on guard, he was like that so much already it was nice that he felt he could trust Jen, though he wondered why?
Turning and gazing again at the stone walls “my prison,” Felix let the statement hang in the air for a few moments, cocking his head he listened intently.
Utter silence.

“Can you hear anything?” he said to Jennifer, “it’s usually not this quiet, although I haven’t been on the wrong side of the maze since I made the foolish choice to try. Now I’m stuck in the ruins beyond the maze forever, I guard them, the ruins that is, the maze is certainly capable of defending itself.
I’ll explain all it can do and how to escape it when the others get her. How about you and Harry? How did you come to live in a horrible place like this? I imagine it’s quite a story” he said it was partly a way to change the subject, he really hadn’t meant to say so much, but he was also curious.

"Welll," said Jennifer, as she listened to Felix talk about the place. A home. A prison. Oddly suitable for this island. She peered into the darkness that shrouded the path in front of them, much like every other part of this cursed place. "Uhh, I can't hear anything either. Usually I can hear nearly everything, but besides your heartbeat and the heartbeat of everyone behind us, nothing. Well, don't you worry, if as you say, beyond the maze is supposed to be some ruins that are out of here, I'd say almost certainly the second part of the maze should end at that point, whenever we exit this maze on the other side. At least I think so. Its hard to tell sometimes."

She turned to Felix. "And you say this is your prison and yet you also guard something. Well considering this is what the maze chose to draw from your memories, I suppose you don't have any pleasant memories here so I feel bad having to ask this but, I suppose you know the way through? As for your question, well, we don't live here, no living being is meant to set foot on this accursed place, but a few days ago, a few individuals breached the prison and weaponized it to pillage countless mortal civilizations, luckily we detected it while the plan was in its earliest stages, the two of us with the rest of the team dealt with the situation. The team has gone ahead under the leadership of our brother to look for those that caused this issue in the first place while we stayed behind to fix the broken defences and well you know the rest."



"Fair enough," said Harry, with a nod, "leaving this place is certainly a good plan. Let's go see what this maze has come up with for its second section. Hmm...aand, just one more thing. A friendly tip shall we say. If you're looking for a lost soul...the way out...uhh...you know what nevermind. Forget about that. Let's finish this maze first. You shouldn't be dwelling on anymore than you already are if you're to survive the rest of this maze. It will only get harder. After all there will be another section of this maze pulled from your memories and if my spell works as intended, since it was your memories chosen for the first layer, it will also be your memories that the maze choses for the final layer...and that is the worst one. Shall we then?"

Harry began to walk towards the rest of the group.

Lyrth nodded. Harry, as usual, was right. Now wasn’t a great time for complex questions. But Lyrth disagreed about what he should dwell on. His ‘lost soul’ was motivation enough to focus on the challenges ahead. It didn’t hurt to pick up pieces of information on the way there though. How often does one stumble into a journey with two ancient magical beings who exist on a level above planar?

He winced inwardly when Harry mentioned that the last challenge would be the hardest AND would be focused on his most horrible memories. Not that he was terribly surprised. Most quests were most difficult right at the end. That was when you had to stop dilly dallying about and do what you’d been putting off. Lyrth wasn’t especially fond of the end of quests.

Lyrth swallowed and grimaced, “So we shall.” He followed Harry into the next challenge, worry churning in his gut.

Now that Harry and Lyrth were here Felix could start explaining.

"Alright, everyone uh, first of all, welcome to the Kasatkan isle ruins”
Felix said stepping forward “and as harmless of a maze it seems, it is very dangerous and I already mistook it for simple.
“So basically as I’m not sure whether it is different than the real one, an overall rule here is to be constantly aware of your surroundings the maze walls, as you may be able to see are made up of square sections, these can move whenever they want in order to trap you, so if you hear a grinding noise, run in the opposite direction than you were previously going and as the maze changes it will probably open up a new route.
Also if you do get caught, or even if you don’t watch out for monsters likely giant wolves, serpents, trolls, and possibly” he paused here not sure he should say this with a necromancer around “um phantoms” he decided on.
“And whether those are all the dangers or if this place has added more I don’t know, but it all looks normal to me. Oh also we should divide up into two, or maybe three groups the maze can only move one part at a time so if we divide up the maze won’t be able to get all of us at the same time”
He finished and looked around at everyone, he wasn’t sure Harry or Jennifer would want to divide up very much but it really made a difference he’d seen it happen. Although He also wanted to get farther away from Rune.

"Okayyy," said Harry, as he came up behind all of them, taking in the room as he walked in. It looked to be some sort of low budget castle leading right into a very classic looking maze. "You're not wrong about the whole harmless look, it does look a bit old and worn out there. Hmm, you say these walls are meant to move, I think the enchantments that run this place will easily replicate that...although I get the feeling these walls are going to move quite a bit faster, so yes, good advice, start running, don't even try phasing through the walls, for those who can do that, unless you're ridiculously confident with that power, these walls will trap you."

"Yeah, I don't know if the original maze was equipped with that ability, but this one certainly is, as for the monsters you mention, well, this is the second tier, but its still far from being past the halfway mark, so it shouldn't be introducing any new creatures to the maze. I do however believe, these won't be ordinary creatures. The wolves, serpents and trolls are potentially going to be light constructs like you fought earlier, stronger and faster than their real counterparts. Although I believe creatures like that won't be intangible, you will be able to hit them with more brute force, but, it also means, they will hit you with brute force, keep that in mind."

"As for the last category, phantoms....so I assume you're talking about ghosts of some sort and not the annoying flying creature that frequents Minraftia. That will be interesting. Umm...so the maze definitely can replicate whatever ghosts are usually found here, but I do not know if they will be..well...the same as ghosts in the sense that they'd be susceptible to manipulation via necromancy. It is the second tier, so it wouldn't hurt to try if anyone wants to but, umm, don't be surprised if it doesn't work," said Harry.

"As for splitting up, Harry what do you think, usually that's a terrible idea in this place," said Jennifer, "but considering the point that Felix brought up about confusing the maze, I think we can reconsider that?"

"Yeah, seems like it could work if we used only two groups, I wouldn't be comfortable, letting anyone go in there without one of us, but splitting into two teams seems like it's only slightly risky, and if the maze does have that limitation, and this is an "if" because the maze might have received a few upgrades thanks to the enchantments here, it could help."

"Anyone else have an opinion on splitting up?"