As the heavy, white stone door opened into the antechamber, its true thickness became apparent—two feet at its heaviest point near the center. A low groan echoed, and the marble strained under its own weight.

  With a resounding, almost painful creak, the door halted before it could fully open—still, there was enough room to pass.

  The rest of the group stared at Safi astonished. Cora even patted her on the back for a job well done.

  “How did you…? This riddle, it was left unsolved for centuries,” Naomi said blankly. “It did not even seem as if you were concentrating at all…”

  Her gaze turned toward the half-opened entrance, her voice softening. “Not even a bit…”

  Safi whimpered like she had a migraine, “It’s kind of just, um you just kind of have to know it? Not really about smarts.”

  “The answer is the concept of ‘loss?’” Kylian asked. His face wrinkled skeptically. “That seems absurdly abstract.”

  “No, uh, not abstract. Just dumb. I guess it’s abstract. It’s both. Actually, now that I think about it, it’s really abstract,” Safi said. “It’s a joke. A really abstract, dumb inside joke.”

  “So, I was close,” Ailn said.

  “Close?! You were still thinking like a boomer!” Safi cried out. “It’s a comic—he runs in, that’s the top left, then he’s talking to a lady at the counter, and then he’s talking to a doctor, then at the bottom right he’s holding his hand out like ‘oh no’ because his wife is lying on the bed, oh god I’ll sound really horrible here, she’s lying down because she just had a miscarriage…”

  “Mis—miscarriage?” Renea bit her lip, and her expression clouded with anxiety, and a little hurt. “But there’s a teenage boy there…”

  “Remember, it’s someone else in the original fresco,” Ailn informed Renea. Then his brows furrowed in thought. “A lot of people do seem to think the swooning figure was a woman…”

  “Stop it! Stop overthinking it, it’s a meme!” Safi wailed. “It’s a meme! Renea, you get it, right? How does your brother not know what a meme is?”

  “A ‘meem?’” Renea echoed. Then, looking furtively to the side, she leaned in close and whispered softly into Safi’s ear. “You said it was a comic strip… like in the newspaper? Like with Snoopy?”

  “Ahaha…haha!” Letting her hands slide down her face miserably, Safi laughed like she was crying—or perhaps cried like she was laughing. “Help me.”

  “Could you perhaps explain it to me at some time in the future?” Naomi asked, her gaze shifting to the side as she approached Safi. Unable to make eye contact, her voice was earnest, though unsteady. “I—I truly wish to understand it.”

  Through her hands Safi peeked at Naomi anxiously. “Err, I could try? There’s a lot. There’s a lot of context, wow, I don’t even. I don’t think it’s going to make sense.”

  Naomi’s sideways gaze simply fell to the floor.

  “I… see. You are probably correct,” Naomi said, sounding quite hurt. “I probably would not get it.”

  Crossing her arms and keeping her head bowed, she walked ahead to enter the chamber, avoiding everyone’s eyes.

  “Oh no, Naomi it’s not, no—!” Safi whimpered again.

  Not sure what to do, everyone else awkwardly followed Naomi, while Safi stayed behind feeling like a jerk. “Cora,” she whined. “What could I even do?”

  Cora trickled like she was shrugging.

  Ailn raised his lantern. The antechamber was vast. It was too big for him to get a sense of with just the range of his light, but from the way their footsteps echoed, it seemed like they were at the top of a tower. The sounds of their steps would fade away into the distance, before marching right back after half a second’s delay.

  In the distance, they could hear the sound of water. It cascaded down, a persistent hiss broken up by the occasional loud plonk of a larger, heavier drop.

  When they’d sidled past the half-open entrance, Ailn had wondered how Cora was going to follow them. There didn’t seem to be a waterway leading in, and it took him a moment to realize there was actually a culvert running beneath their feet—that’s what fed the small waterfall ahead.

  …That also meant Cora was beneath their feet, under the rocks, just passing through as a shadowy mass. Ailn found that a little disturbing.

  Safi, however, seemed to see it as a game.

  “Cora? Here, Cora?” Safi tapped her foot against the stone floor loudly, and Ailn could swear he heard Cora’s loud distinctive splash underneath the rock. “No, here!”

  ‘...no, here…! A foot… left Safi…’

  He could definitely hear her. Her voice came through more than ever, despite being muffled by intervening rock. The layer must have been thin too—maybe half an inch of stone loosely held by iron grates.

  “Here!”

  ‘...I’m here, Safi!…giggle…’

  Ailn froze. That little laugh was unnervingly clear and resonant… as if he could lift the right stone panel, and find the giggling woman peering up at him.

  Suddenly, he felt a shuddering grip on his sleeve. That would be Renea.

  Now that he looked, Naomi seemed to catch her breath every time Cora spoke. Meanwhile, Kylian had gone as pale as Ailn had ever seen him. The knight was clenching his right gauntlet—was he struggling to rein in his holy aura?

  “Renea,” Ailn whispered. “What exactly do you hear?”

  “Gasp… Gasping,” Renea swallowed hard. Her voice was flat, her reactions muted again. But each word took effort. “Gasping… and splashing. Like… like she’s… drowning.”

  Try as he might, Ailn couldn’t think of a single comforting response.

  The group continued on, until they reached the precipice of the waterfall. The flow from the culvert widened, splitting into ribbons as it spilled over.

  “Cora, be careful not to fall, okay?” Safi called out. She traipsed over to the edge to peer down. “What a steep drop—ack!”

  Naomi, who’d been standing there, had jerked her back from the edge. “Safi. Mind your own advice. Please. I am begging you.”

  “Oops. Sorry,” Safi nodded.

  Peering over the edge himself, Ailn thought he could make out its basin at the bottom. Looking to his left, he noticed a pathway down—a ramp hugging the walls, spiraling down to the base of the antechamber.

  It really was like a tower, albeit a broad one. Maybe forty feet across. At the top was an almost domed ceiling which, like the earlier caverns they’d passed through, had its share of natural slits and crevices. He wondered if sunlight ever managed to find its way down this deep.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Then, Ailn heard something a little unexpected.

  ‘...I’ll wait up here, Safi… okay…?’

  “You want to stay up here, Cora?” Safi asked, sounding worried. “Is something wrong?”

  Ailn’s brow furrowed. Usually Safi would completely misinterpret Cora. Was this just a coincidence?

  ‘...Noué makes me… uncomfortable…’

  “I don’t think Cora really likes Noué…” Safi translated for the group. “Will you be alright here in the dark…?”

  ‘...I can watch your lanterns… from here…’

  “Okay! We’ll come back for you when we’re done, okay? Don’t get pulled by the waterfall!” Safi gave one of Cora’s tendrils a loving squeeze.

  ‘...Have fun…’

  The clump of shadow took a peek out of the culvert’s mouth, before shaking its head and retreating back inside, seemingly untroubled by the flow.

  “Noué, you’re really something else,” Ailn muttered to himself. “Alright. Let’s head down.”

  Now, the moment of truth was near. Ailn wasn’t really sure how he could be expected to ‘understand’ an artist who was so polarizing she’d managed to discomfit such a terrifying creature.

  Just what the hell was this final puzzle?

  The group descended the ramp in silence, save for Safi’s soft humming. The tension was palpable because the stakes were high; nobody wanted to destroy the vault with a wrong guess, and the three investigators channeled their stress into focus.

  Halfway down the ramp, they were stunned to hear a female voice rising from the basin, joining in on Safi’s tune.

  Everyone froze… except for Safi who kept strolling. She paused for a moment, then continued humming contentedly—a little louder, even, as if her new singing partner were nothing more than a pleasant surprise.

  “Safi!” Renea whispered in a hiss. She swung her lantern with a jerky twist of her wrist, beckoning the girl to stop. “Safi, hold up!”

  “Hm?” Safi tilted her head, then stopped to peer down, trying to squint and see whatever was in the basin. “Why? She seems nice?”

  The voice, which had gone quiet when Safi did, came floating up again.

  “...hey, why’d you stop?”

  “See?” Safi said, then continued on her way. “It’d kinda be a letdown if the final puzzle wasn’t at least this cool, you know. If it was a ghost it’d be scary, though. Oh! Why not keep Cora company if you’re afraid? She’s a scaredy cat too, um, I mean, I’m not calling you a scaredy cat, there’s nothing wrong with being one, by the way… kitties are cute you know? But… wouldn’t help if you’re both…Just think… creepers! Gather all… diamonds and obsidian… survive an explosion!”

  Unaware that no one was following her, Safi carried on with her reassuring ramble while she moseyed on down the ramp, her voice getting more indistinct as the echoes of her yapping blended together into a reverberant blur.

  “Well, it’s not like we’re gonna stop here,” Ailn said, casting a glance at the faltering Renea. After a moment’s hesitation, he patted her shoulder reassuringly before following after Safi.

  “If there truly is a threat, we should be down there to assist,” Kylian said. He gave Renea a look of consolation, before starting down himself.

  “W-wait, we can talk about it first—”

  “And discuss what?” Ailn called back, without even looking her way. His voice getting more distant even as he spoke. “If it’s a ghost, we already woke it.”

  “...Surely there were more heartening words… Lady Renea…” Kylian’s voice slowly diminished as they made their descent.

  “...Then you wait for her… Renea… be fine…”

  Legs shaking, upset that she was being treated like the unreasonable one, Renea glared down at their retreating backs.

  “If it helps, Lady Renea,” Naomi grimaced, drawing near to Renea before moving past. “I am in full agreement.” Then, arms crossed, looking more fed up than terrified, Naomi descended after the others.

  By the time Renea finally willed herself to join them, she could hear them already conversing with the voice below.

  “...An illusion… Conscious?” That was Ailn.

  “...seem conscious? Elenira… great job.” The voice responded to him.

  “...Alone all this time? … Wow, you had a really… Be nice to Renea, okay?... afraid of caves. And darkness…and bats… water… probably skeletons… Uh oh. What if she’s afraid of heights? We left her alone up there!”

  Renea got the sense that her list of fears had probably been unfairly extended by a well-intentioned Safi.

  “I’m not afraid of most of those things, okay?” Renea said sullenly as she reached the bottom of the ramp. She’d already been somewhat disarmed by how casually everyone else seemed to be engaging with what seemed like a ghost.

  Steeling herself, she marched up, zeroing in on the waterfall’s raised, circular basin, and gasped when she saw who was reflected in the surface of the water. “It’s really Noué…”

  The image of Noué smiled sweetly up at her, her ‘reflection’ rippling from the veil of falling water disturbing the surface. Her shimmering, distorting visage was never quite clear, but it felt alive; as if the woman herself were standing in Renea’s place.

  She wore the same cream tunic and gold sash as in her portrait, and her eyes seemed to flicker with recognition when Renea approached. Even here, her face blurry on the dark water, Noué’s eyes glowed like molten gold—they were all the more enchanting, for it.

  “Renea…” Noué addressed her directly, her voice light and airy like a pixie. “You’re… finally here.”

  “...What?” Renea’s heart seized.

  “Did you… never question this fantasy world?” Noué asked softly. As if the gold in them were being stirred in a crucible, her eyes started to glisten with tears. “We’ve been waiting for so long, Renea.”

  “Ever—ever since the accident… we thought that…” The voice wavered, as if she were choking up. “Nevermind, Renea. It’s time to go to sleep now… alright?”

  Renea started hyperventilating.

  Hands clutching at her throat, she gasped, feeling like she was about to swallow a lungful of water.

  “Noué!” Ailn strode up to the basin, sounding agitated. “Quit that. Seriously. You’re really upsetting her. Renea. Renea, are you okay?”

  Faintly aware of her brother’s words, Renea still couldn’t tear her eyes away—there in the basin, she could see her own reflection drifting downward, falling irretrievably into its depths.

  The reflection in the water’s soft, sad smile started to waver. Then, unable to hold it in anymore, she finally started cracking up, her pixie-like voice coming out as a gremlin cackle.

  “Pfft…heh… hahahaha! Whew! We really got a live one, huh?”

  Ailn lightly grasped the panicking Renea’s shoulders, pulling her away from the basin, so she’d face him instead. He looked her directly in the eye. “She was kidding, Renea. She’s an illusion.”

  “How… my name…?” Renea talked in spurts, flinching when Ailn gently removed her hands that were grasping her throat.

  “She just heard Safi say your name,” Ailn said.

  “The… accident…! I… saw myself!”

  “...Lots of people like us probably had accidents,” Ailn said, trying not to say the word ‘reincarnator’ out loud. “It’s cold reading.”

  Then he squeezed her shoulders, making sure his eye contact was firm. “Whatever you saw in there, Renea, it was just part of the illusion.”

  “I… can’t swim, Ani…” Renea gasped.

  “You probably should have told me that before we went into a river cave,” Ailn frowned. “You’ll be okay. It’s basically impossible to drown with Safi here.”

  Giving her a gentle nudge toward the others, he left Renea with Safi. “Watch her, okay? And remind me not to ever tell you anything I’m afraid of.”

  “Um…Sorry,” Safi said, looking downcast.

  “I had heard she was a prankster,” Naomi said coldly. The water mage walked with deliberation up to the basin. “I did not think she would be so cruel.”

  “Hah…oh, don’t look at me like that,” the reflection’s laughter softly subsided, before her voice took on an irritated tone. “The nice artist’s vault was through the tiny water tunnel up at the top. Only at high tide, though. Want directions?”

  Ailn couldn’t stop himself from looking up, his eyes searching for the culvert where all the water was flowing from. The top of the waterfall was too far for their lantern light to reach. Was Cora watching them right now?

  Squinting into the dark, he thought he could see Cora’s amorphous form peering out… He swore there was movement, something shifting, almost a silhouette. He shuddered, and blinked a few times.

  For a moment it looked like a person was staring down at him.

  “It seems the dead are better off silent,” Naomi snapped. Perhaps she felt emboldened, as water was her wheelhouse. “Your tongue is not nearly so interesting as your brush.”

  “...Everyone’s a critic,” the reflection gave an ambiguous smile.

  “What’s the final puzzle, Noué?” Ailn asked, cutting to the chase.

  “Walk through the right tunnel and you win,” the reflection shrugged. Her smile was still faint, even pitying. “Go explore the chamber.”

  It was true they hadn’t really looked around. They’d all focused on the basin, which had been right at the base of the ramp.

  The chamber was, from what Ailn could tell, a nearly perfect circle. As he moved toward the center to inspect the far side, he noticed four tunnels. Evenly spaced along the semicircle, each was just tall and wide enough for someone to walk through—and deep enough that they seemed to lead into darkness.

  Above each tunnel was a portrait. It was Noué’s portrait, the one that Elenira painted and which they’d found in the mausoleum.

  In the vague light of his lantern, in the first instant Ailn thought they were all exactly the same. But now that he looked, he realized they all had slight differences. All four were rendered in different mediums. All four had different defects from aging in the cave.

  And all four of them had slightly different smiles.