Nothing happened.
“Belien!” Leona hissed. The sorcerer scrambled into position next to her, mimicking her movements, the two of them working together to try and break through the wall.
Still, nothing happened.
Kit snorted.
Cyren released a loud laugh. “Very impressive.”
Leona huffed, the cold expression typically adorning her face still in place as she turned back to Belien. But Elyria saw the way the tips of her ears turned pink.
Cedric went next, hacking at the wall with his sword as if he hadn’t already determined the roots were too thick to cut through.
Panting, he scratched the back of his head. “This might take a while.”
And so, they tried.
Time and time again,they tried. Thraigg joined Cedric in attempting to hack their way through with blunt force, but every time they made it through a layer, more vines would instantly replace the ones they cut. Gael set the entire wall ablaze, only to have it snuff out as ifthe roots absorbed the flames. There wasn’t even a single scorch mark left behind.
Zephyr attempted to climb over at one point, her nimble feet scaling the wall with impressive speed. But like snakes, the roots shifted and slid over themselves, making it impossible for her to grab hold, and she found herself on the tail end of Cyren’s stormbending magic more than once as he kept her from plummeting to the ground.
No matter which champion tried what method, nothing worked. It was as if the labyrinth was fighting them.
No, refusing them.
Arguments rose as patience wore thin. The sun began to dip low in the sky.
Nox’s voice cut through the din of complaints as the nocterrian sidled up to Elyria where she now sat in the grass. “Why don’t you use your shadows?”
“Excuse me?”
“We all saw what you can do. You’re a nightwielder. A powerful one. I myself have just enough control to shadowstep, to hide myself amongst them when the need arises. But to manipulate them the way you did when you...” Their gaze flitted to Belien and back. “Your shadows are strong. You can create constructs. Why don’t you try them on the wall?”
Elyria didn’t know how to answer. Didn’t feel like going into how she’d spent the entirety of yesterday trying to figure out how she managed to do what she did to Belien. Didn’t feel like admitting she’d failed.
She had been able to separate her wild magic from her shadow. But all her attempts to recreate that solid dark tendril had gone up in smoke.
It didn’t matter how much she pulled or begged or cajoled. It was as if her darkness simply went back to sleep. She had barely been able to coax out more than a wisp of shadow. And while she didn’t love the idea of the nocterrian knowing this, what she really wanted to avoid was Belien and Leona overhearing. Nothing good would come from the humans learning about this weakness of hers.
Elyria might have accepted her inner darkness. But here, outside of the Trial of Spirit and the illusion she had lived through, she still had no fucking clue how to control it.
Thankfully, she didn’t have to come up with an excuse for Nox, because Kit approached at that same moment.
“Will you try again, Elle?” Kit tried to keep her voice bright, but Elyria could hear the undercurrent of dejection. Kit had tried several times to carve into the wall with her magic, freezing the vines, trying to embrittle them so Thraigg could smash them. Each time, his hammer had bounced back as if the wall was made of rubber.
Nox surveyed Elyria with interest in the wake of Kit’s question.
“I can try.” Elyria hated the uncertainty in her voice as she got to her feet. “But I don’t think I’m strong enough on my own,” she said—a deflection, but not necessarily a lie. Even if she could reliably call on her shadows, she didn’t think she could do this by herself. There was ancient magic preventing her from wielding the roots, locking her out.
As if it needed a key.
Elyria stopped mid-step. A kind of calmness washed over her. Clarity.
“Remember: unity is the key.”
The Arbiter’s voice rang through Elyria’s head, their words echoing like a chorus. The realization came to her so clearly, she felt like an idiot for not understanding sooner.
“That’s it,” she said, awe filling her voice as she neared the wall.
