The first thing I felt was pain.

  Not a sharp pain, just dull, subtle throbbing all over. My entire body ached, tingling like a leg when it falls asleep.

  For a few minutes I just laid there, trying to recall everything that had happened. The last thing I remembered was the Noctyrix diving after me. I couldn’t even remember hitting the trees. The thought sent a chill through me. It’d been close… too close.

  I blinked open my eyes, using a hand to shield them from the daylight poking through the treetops. I coughed out a groan as tingling and numbness washed over me. I thought for a moment I’d been paralyzed, but let out a sigh of relief after I found that I could still wiggle my toes.

  I was laying on my back near the base of a tree, leaves and broken branches scattered all around. A dry chuckle escaped my lips when I noticed the broken canopy above. There was a clear trail of destruction all the way down to where I was. It was safe to say that I’d probably hit every branch on my way down… which would explain the back pain. The glider was still tangled in the branches above, torn and mangled beyond repair.

  “Yep…” I muttered. “That’s a proper crash landing…”

  My first attempt to sit up failed miserably. My head was spinning so bad that stars danced at the edge of my vision, forcing me back down. Rolling to my side, I groaned as aches racked my arms and legs.

  This was unlike any type of exhaustion I’d felt before— like a hangover mixed with the aftermath of running a full triathlon at the same time. Minutes passed before I managed to get on my hands and knees.

  With the tree as support, I pushed myself onto my feet. I scanned the area, listening for any signs of danger. Luckily, the only thing I heard was a gentle breeze running through the trees.

  “We made it—” I breathed, a smile teasing the corners of my lips. “Rose, I think we finished the trial!”

  Only rustling leaves answered me.

  “Rose?”

  Silence.

  “Rose!?”

  A knot formed in my stomach.

  I turned in a slow circle, scanning the ground, the trees, and the broken canopy above. There was no sign of her. I stumbled around for nearly an hour, searching high and low in a frenzy to find my friend.

  Nothing.

  Tears welled in my eyes as my heart sank. A cold fear crept in where relief had been not long ago.

  Was she injured? What if she was in trouble. What if—

  “No,” I said, shaking my head.

  I wiped the corners of my eyes. Rose was strong. Smart. Adorable. If anyone could survive being separated in a fall like that, it was her. Besides, the forest was her home. She was the one who’d found and saved me in the first place. Finding her right now would be like trying to find a period in a page of colons.

  A slight movement in the corner of my eye drew my attention. Through the trees, a short distance away, the blue glow of the beacon flickered through the trees.

  I’d almost forgotten about the original goal. A small bubble of hope filled me. Maybe Rose had just gone ahead? Maybe she was just waiting for me? I took a couple wobbly steps towards the beacon and clenched my fist. I couldn’t just stand here panicking.

  * Rose is fine. She’s the toughest fairy I know, even if she's the only fairy I know… *

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  With a sliver of hope restored, I willed myself onward. Though it wasn’t far away, the walk still took longer than expected, likely due to the fact that I had to occasionally steady myself on a nearby tree. Though I’d never been drunk before, this had to be worse than your average hangover.

  After stepping past the last line of trees, I stopped, having entered some sort of clearing. I couldn’t stop the ‘woah’ that escaped my lips.

  The beacon was much larger than it looked from afar, resembling some sort of small lighthouse— maybe fifteen feet tall and five feet across.

  I’d expected to see a huge bonfire at the top and giant blue flames roaring into the sky. Instead, a massive glowing crystal crowned the tower, radiating a comforting blue light. It pulsed and flickered softly, as though a fire burned deep within. The tower itself looked as though it had been formed straight from the earth, with glowing runes and symbols carved all around its sides.

  As I shuffled closer, I started noticing footprints in the dirt around its base, with some of them veering off towards a trail to the left.

  I stopped just short of the tower before letting out a long sigh. Sadly, there was no sign of anyone waiting for me. My heart sank a little since Rose wasn't here either.

  “Hello…?” I called, just to be sure.

  As expected, no answer.

  I stared at the tower looking for any sign of instructions, but as I quickly learned was the Terra Grix way, those were few and far between.

  * Well now what? *

  I circled the structure, running a hand along its etched surface. Lines and patterns danced along the sides— clearly some sort of Myzrakian runes. It wasn’t until my second lap around the tower that I noticed a series of small cutouts in a saw-like pattern circling its base. At first I’d thought they were just part of the runic patterns, but after looking closer, I realized they seemed slightly out of place. Some were empty, while others held a little square-cut stone within them. I counted a total of twenty slots all the way around, with only six of them still having a small stone.

  Perhaps those little stones were keys, and I was supposed to have my own to place in one of the empty cutouts. For a brief moment, a knot of worry tightened in my chest. Maybe I’d missed something earlier… maybe I was supposed to already have a stone?

  I leaned closer to inspect the remaining stones, trying to figure out what I’d overlooked. The moment my fingers brushed one of the cutouts, a soft click echoed from somewhere inside the tower.

  I jerked back with a small gasp as the stone popped loose and slid free of its slot. I barely managed to catch it before it hit the ground.

  I stared at it in my palm. It was cold, smooth, and cut in the shape of a square gem roughly the size of a golf ball. Faint runes were carved along its surface.

  I slowly looked back up at the tower.

  The empty slots suddenly made a lot more sense. These stones were indeed some sort of key, but others had had already taken theirs.

  * But where does it go…? *

  My gaze drifted back towards the trail, and as if on cue, the stone seemed to warm slightly in my palm while emitting a soft glow. It tugged my hand gently in the direction of the trail.

  A small chuckle escaped my lips. “Alright then, I guess I'll go that way.”

  I slowly started following the trail, relieved by the fact that my body was starting to feel a little better than it did when I first woke up. Mana fatigue really was no joke. Each step was a little unsteady, but at least my legs were cooperating again.

  After maybe five minutes, I noticed another stone structure up the hill ahead. The keystone seemed to confirm that was my destination, tugging ever harder the closer I got. As I climbed the last stretch of the hill, the structure slowly came into view.

  A circular stone platform sat in a small clearing, with one smooth slab of stone in the center and two pillars on each side. They looked as though they had been carved from the same gray stone as the beacon, and even had similar markings and runes.

  The moment I reached the platform, my grip tightened on the keystone as it seemed to tug harder towards the large slab in the center.

  “Please let this be the last stop…” I muttered.

  When I stepped onto the platform, my eyes widened as pale blue lines danced across the floor. Like lighting, they crackled across the stone, illuminating the runes and other markings along the pillars ahead. The keystone in my hand seemed to sync with the pulsing lines all around me. I hesitated a moment, then took a deep breath and stepped forward.

  The space in front of the slab warped and folded in on itself before forming a swirling curtain of blue light.

  “Well, that’s a portal if I ever saw one,” I said with a half-grin.

  I stared at the keystone in my hand as a low hum filled the air around me. Nature itself seemed as though it were cheering me on.

  I took another deep breath, bracing myself for whatever lay ahead. My stomach twisted with a mixture of nerves and excitement. I was ready to be done with these trials. Ready to see my friends again. Desperate to find Rose. One last look behind me, and the thought of a warm bath and my friends waiting for me spurred me forward.

  With a firm step, I moved into the swirling blue light. The world seemed to fold and stretch around me. A rush of wind, tinged with the same glow as the keystone, enveloped me completely. For a moment, I felt weightless, timeless—like when I’d first met Muganno. A calming wave of warmth washed over me.

  And then—

  Everything went white.