Lucan stepped out of the maze and into silence. The stone doors shut behind him with a soft grind, leaving only a dim light spilling down from somewhere above.
It was a circular chamber that was clean, cold and quiet. In the center stood a large stone platform, and embedded into it were ten levers, arranged in a wide arc. Each was unmarked, unremarkable. Just old iron levers jutting out of worn stone.
A voice echoed around the chamber, not from any source he could see.
"Ten paths. One truth. Pull the correct lever within sixty seconds, pull the wrong one and you die."
Lucan's eyes flicked from one lever to the next. They were identical, not in some subtle way but truly the same. No differences in wear. No scratches. No heat or vibration or glyphs. No tricks.
His brows furrowed. This wasn't like the maze. There was nothing to study here. He knelt beside one lever, ran his hand under it. Smooth. He stood, moved to another, tapped it. Same.
Lyra looked to Lance, he was smug. "You know the solution don't you?" She asked.
"There is one thing you must always do if you want to lead, make decisions and don't second guess yourself." Lance crossed his arms.
He added, "When I charge in an army with double our men I don't think about whether we made a good decision, we decided and that was that."
Lyra thought about it, then she looked to Lance's steel hand. She nervously inspected his face before asking, "That... hand, was that from you-"
Lance cut her off, "It's not about what I did, it's what he did. He forgot all rhythm and let his instincts take over, that's why I'm missing this hand."
Lyra noticed Lance looking up in the sky, smiling, oddly enough. It's like he enjoyed that memory, was it because the fight was worth the price? This was a man who probably never felt challenged, was that why he was interested in Lucan? A future opponent that could make him bleed.
Forty seconds.
Lucan backed up, thinking quickly. Is this a logic test? A trap?
Thirty seconds.
He glanced at the walls. Nothing. He looked up. Still just that slow spotlight from above.
There's nothing here. No data. No clue.
Twenty seconds.
"Only one lever opens the path."
But how would anyone know which one? There had to be a pattern. There had to be-
Lucan stopped.
"No," he muttered to himself. His heart was racing not from fear, but from realization.
The first trial had been chaos. The second was deception. This one… wasn't about thinking. It was about doing.
They want to see if you can decide.
Ten seconds.
Lucan exhaled once. Deep and slow.
He stepped forward and without hesitation pulled the third lever.
A sharp click echoed.
Then the stone floor rumbled. The wall behind the levers groaned and slid open, revealing a stairwell leading upward.
Lucan didn't smile, but his eyes narrowed with faint satisfaction. He walked through without a glance back.
Eventually, Lucan reached the outside. The afternoon sun hit his face like a breath of air after being underwater. He squinted at the clearing where the survivors were gathering, much fewer than before. A patch of silence hung in the air, thick with exhaustion and quiet pride.
So many gone. The test had done its job.
Lucan exhaled, scanning the crowd. That's when a hand landed on his shoulder.
"Cassian," Lucan said, surprised and relieved to see him. "You made it."
Cassian gave a nod, face drawn with weariness but carrying a small, satisfied grin. Beside him stood the copper-haired girl, her clothes a bit scuffed but her gaze sharp as ever.
Lucan's smile faltered. "Where's the others?"
Cassian glanced around, then shook his head. "Didn't see them come out. I waited a bit, but… looks like it's just us three."
Lucan frowned. "That course really thinned us out."
"The maze was bad," the girl muttered, "but those levers at the end? That was just cruel."
Lucan chuckled. "I almost didn't pull one. Thought there had to be some trick to it."
"That was the trick," Cassian said. "They were testing initiative."
Lucan nodded slowly, thoughtful. "Makes sense. I just had to stop thinking like I would for a test and start thinking like it was real."
"Whatever you did," Cassian said, "it worked. People were talking about you."
Lucan raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
Cassian smirked. "It somehow made waves that Lance entered the testing area to give you a relic."
Lucan huffed a laugh and looked around again. The survivors were few now maybe a few dozen scattered around the open yard. Some were sitting in the grass, others pacing, waiting for what came next.
"It's going to be even harder from here," Lucan murmured.
Cassian nodded. "Good. Means we belong here."
They stood together in silence as the sky darkened into late afternoon. A breeze rustled the trees nearby, cool and weightless the kind of moment right before a storm.
And the storm was coming.