B3 – Chapter 36: The Fourth Vault

Tristan got his breath back and stood up, leaning against the root wall to do so. “That…was…taxing.”

Felicity shifted to her Elfanoid form and stood alongside him, patting his back encouragingly. “You can do Fourth Order spells! Which probably means more studying.” She let out an exasperated groan as she pulled her hand away and tapped her foot impatiently, “Just spending more time reading and gesturing…so boring.”

Tristan straightened up and peered into the next chamber of the Vault he had just unlocked. Shaped like the prior one – a large, shaped root creating a pedestal, another Vault door with other rings across from the pedestal, and a dangling, glowing pod of some type hanging from the ceiling of the chamber.

But unlike the prior chambers, there was no stone box atop the pedestal. Instead, he saw large, cylindrical tube seemingly carved from a single piece of wood. It had letters in Elvish across the length of it, and as he picked it up, he saw that there were rings that could be rotated to form various words. A small, red mark was painted along a side of the object. “What is this?” he asked as he held it up toward Felicity.

She frowned as she peered at it, leaning in close. “No clue. Some type of puzzle?” She snatched it from his hand, only to drop it as she hissed in pain.

He barely caught it before it hit the ground, “What happened?”

“It burned me!” she said as she backed up and hissed at the object.

“Must be like the stone containers,” Tristan said as he gestured back to the room behind them, where one such container was toppled from his prior unlocking of the Third Vault. “The Matriarch couldn’t touch them without pain.” He began spinning the various letters around, “Hmm…a puzzle? Spelling out words, maybe.”

Felicity walked over to the five-ring door on the far side of the room, “Looks like there’s more layers to this onion we’ll need to peel back.” She reached out to touch the door with a finger, and pulled it back with a small, “Ouch!” as she shook her hand. Frowning, she returned to Tristan’s side.

“Let’s take this upstairs. Maybe we can get other eyes on this and get some help.” Tristan left the Vault with his prize in tow, Felicity following a few steps behind, and ascended the root trees. He spotted and walked over Thallia, who was just outside the Queen’s Wood with some Nymphs at the pool. “Hey. Do you know anyone good at puzzles?”

She frowned, “Not me. I know Unicorns love a good puzzle. Maybe go check with them.” She waved her hand dismissively, “I’m busy setting up the diplomatic corps – only interrupt if you have something important.”

Tristan ignored her blasé behavior toward him and dismissed it as part of her personality which he understood well enough. Heading behind the Queen’s Wood, he went to the start of the Springthaw Meadows; the lush green and purple grasses billowing in the wind as they made a dancing wave. Spinning and reverse-spinning his crucible at the same time, he connected to the Realm’s essence. “Prish! I could use some help!”

Not thirty seconds passed before he heard the thundering beat of hooves, and the majestic Unicorn Herd Leader arrived, spreading the grass like a ship’s bow slicing through the waves of the sea. He dipped his head once he came to a stop in front of Tristan. “Lord Tristan, how can I serve?” he looked up at the Fey Lord.

Tristan held out the object, “I need help with this. Ever seen something like this?”

Prish stamped his foot against the dirt, “I have!” he said excitedly. “This is something called a cryptex. The inside contains something, and you have to create a specific word or code by lining up letters along this red line.” He snorted, and it almost sounded like a chuckle, “An easy puzzle.”

“How would you know?” Felicity asked as she walked over to Prish and put a hand on his front-left haunch. “You Unicorns making puzzles?”

“We run, we frolic, and we keep sharp wits,” Prish replied with a slight physical nudge to push Felicity gently aside. “Cryptexes are easy to deal with. You can brute force them easily enough just by trying every single permutation of letters.” He let out a slight whinny before continuing, “But this has Elvish lettering. Give me a moment…” he tramped over to the edge of the Springthaw Meadows, where the grass gave way to dirt, and began tracing out the whole Elvish alphabet in several columns – the same number of columns as the cryptex.

Once Tristan saw what he was doing, he helped out, and Felicity even got her hands dirty as they finished the laid-out version of the cryptex letter options. Then, Prish walked around to the base of the carved-into-dirt design, and went silent – his eyes narrowing and his ears tucking along his skull.

Felicity tapped Tristan, then leaned up to his ear, whispering; “If a horse is smarter than you, what does that make you?”

“No idea,” Tristan muttered back.

“A horse’s ass!” she snickered and giggled.

Prish shook his head and glanced to Tristan, “Try Koordinointi.” (Coordination).

Tristan switched the letters around to line up with the red line and smiled as the end clicked open with a slight pop and hiss noise as the seal was breached. “Thank you, Prish. You are smart.”

“Smarter than Tristan!” Felicity added.

Prish dipped his head, “I am not the smartest puzzle solver amongst the herd. Anything else I can aid you with?”

Tristan shook his head as he took the lid off of the end of the object and retrieved a scroll curled up inside the cryptex, and along with that, he also heard another item rattling at the bottom. Shaking the container, he was able to get a purple pouch out of the end. “Interesting,” he said as he held the two items in one hand, and the cryptex in the other.

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Felicity was practically buzzing with excitement as she gripped his forearm, “Come on! I want to see the treasure!”

Tristan grinned at her enthusiasm as he felt his own greed from the dragon crucibles he had consumed bubble up in him. Setting the cryptex down on the ground, he opened the silver drawstring on the pouch. Inside, he saw what looked like perfectly round acorns; a shimmering blue and purple intertwined together. “Any idea what these are?”

Felicity shook her head, “Nope! No clue. Mom probably knows.”

Tristan sealed the bag and handed it to Felicity before he unfurled the scroll. The Elvish words were second-nature to him as he read it aloud to Felicity:

You have solved the cryptex

and can now read this text.

Child of the dynasty

these seeds will flower to the finest tea.

Drinking this brewed delight

will increase your mind, a rite

long since passed down along

from Winterbloom to those who belong.

Your world will expand

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