I froze. The hungry growl continued and grew louder. The hot breath on my face, however, was a clear indication that no, it wasn’t louder. It just seemed louder. There was a distinct smell to the beast’s exhalations.

  “Where. Is. Your. Light. Human?” the creature growled.

  “In my inventory? My lamp is in my inventory,” I answered bravely in a loud voice.

  The beast huffed in annoyance. “You’re not from here. So I will give you another chance. Where is your light?”

  “Are you referring to my lamp or my Enchant Light spell?” I asked,

  The beast moved even closer to me. “Either.”

  I slapped my hand to my chest, casting Enchant Light on my poncho. The beast leapt back, startled either by the intense light or the loud noise; I couldn’t tell.

  I squinted at the beast, a massive leopard, six feet at its shoulder. It had looked away and was slinking back into the trees.

  “Hey, thank you. Though, am I safe now?” I asked.

  It turned then, looking at me. “Mostly, Mage. Mostly,” it replied before moving off into the forest.

  Taking a moment, I calmed myself before moving on. I didn’t know what type of monster it had been, but I had a strong feeling that I never wanted another one like it that close to me ever again.

  Having taken hold of myself, I continued to walk the trail. It was the size and condition of a normal hiking trail, and I was pleasantly surprised by this. Despite the darkness, it was pleasant to feel like I was going on a night hike. One where there were things in the woods that could likely easily kill and eat me. Or maybe not. I wasn’t as inexperienced or powerless as I had been months ago.

  The path wound through the trees, leading me onward for another hour. I had heard things moving in the trees, but when I glanced in the direction of the sounds, there was nothing I could see. It increased my anxiety, reducing my enjoyment of the walk. I walked faster.

  The cave’s entrance opened up in front of me, and the irregular shape was barely the size of a normal doorway. Perhaps the monsters would have to stay outside while I played with the crystals. It was a comforting thought. Mostly comforting.

  I still didn’t know what I was supposed to do with the crystals, and as I walked further into the cave, I saw the massive stone plinth. Multiple different-colored crystals refracted my light as I walked closer. The damned thing looked less like a table and more like a terminal with the crystals socketed into evenly spaced crystal-shaped holes.

  Not all the holes had crystals.

  I had a vague memory of seeing a show as a kid with dinosaurs and people, including lizard people. And there was something similar to what I was seeing. I wasn’t sure, but it could have been something or a weird dream. Not sure it really mattered, but it gave a sense of familiarity.

  I placed my hands on the plinth, and it lit up. Well, the crystals lit up, the light almost blasting out of them, painting the room in a kaleidoscope of colors.

  “What the… it’s beautiful,” I said, enjoying the show. I glanced around, taking in the cave and seeing nothing to worry about. The space was more of a large room with rounded corners than a traditional cave. Almost as if it had been carved out.

  The plinth top had more holes than crystals, and I noticed the uniformity of the spacing. In fact, there were eighty-one holes. It took me a moment to count up the crystals, and there were thirty-seven of them. Is this a game or a computer? It didn’t really fit with anything that I had run into before.

  Since no instructions were given or available, I grabbed a red crystal and pulled it out of the hole it was in. I came out with an audible click and I started to move it to a different position next to a blue crystal. As I did, however, the red began to fade from it. I placed it in the new position, and it brightened. Only, it was no longer red, but purple. Out of curiosity, I pulled the blue one and placed it in the spot the red one had been. It also turned purple.

  So what if I put a yellow one where the blue crystal came from? Grabbing a yellow crystal, I put it in there.

  “Green. Yep, the colors are mixing. It’s something to do with color theory,” I said to myself. But other than the ones I had moved, it wasn’t just the primary colors. There were also brown, orange, pink, and magenta. I had no idea how to get anything other than the orange.

  That’s when I noticed a pattern: the yellow crystal came from the top third, the red from the bottom third, and the blue was in the middle third. I was, of course, just assuming the grid of sockets was broken into thirds, based on the three primary colors and 81 was divisible by three. I could make the three secondary colors.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  So what was up with the three odd colors? Wasn’t pink just a hue of red, like a washed-out red? And brown took several colors to make, if I remembered my colors correctly. And I had no idea on how to make magenta. The three colors didn’t fit at all with the rest of the pattern.

  There was a cough from a shadow on the back wall of the cave. A shadow that hadn’t been there when I looked.

  “What do you think you are doing? The board was correct as it was,” said a voice from the shadow.

  “Where the fuck did you come from? Why can’t I see you?” I asked, almost yelling.

  The shadow coalesced into the shape of an old man. “Might as well show myself, since you asked so nicely. I’ve been waiting here a long time for someone to come along,” the old man replied. “I was supposed to be released, you know, as part of the deal. The Gods promised they would release me to the world again.”

  “Who or what are you?” I asked. “You’re not even registering on the map!”

  The figure walked up to the plinth, looking thoughtful. “I guess you could call me the Whispers, if you must call me anything. I used to be in charge of everything, back before I was trapped in here.”

  “Wait, you worked with the Voice or something?”

  The shadowy figure laughed bitterly. “Oh yes, in a way. I guess you could say I was his better nature. But when I was the solution to a very real problem, I got locked up. Is that fair? I don’t think that’s fair.”

  If what this apparition was saying was true, then I was in worse trouble than I had realized. “What was the problem?” I asked softly.

  “Cluttering. With all the Earthborn coming in, the population on Temberis exploded in just a few generations. Even accounting for the added deaths from Earthborn adventuring and killing each other, and the whole Mage thing, the population growth was much higher than it should have been.”

  “So what, you just stepped in and decided to kill a bunch of people and monsters, some of which were obviously sapient?” I found my fear being replaced by anger.

  “Stepped in. I like that,” the Whispers said, nodding. “Yes, I did what needed to be done. Just as I suspect you would be happy to do. Want to clean up this mess down here? I think it might be very fun for you to do so!”

  This being expected me to be corrupted, just like the other Mages. Something about that nibbled at the back of my brain. He can’t read my state, not like the Voice. I could use this to my advantage. “Maybe, what’s really in it for me?”

  The Whispers chuckled and stepped closer. “Yes, I thought you might be interested. That demon really did a number on you and your predecessors,” he said, pleased. “Well, I want you to do two things. And for those two things, I will give you two wonderful gifts: more power, and the permission to do whatever you want for the rest of your life.”

  “No,” I said, and the shadowy figure clenched his jaw in annoyance. “I want to do everything I want for even longer. I want to continue enjoying myself for at least a thousand years! No, ten thousand years!”

  “Oh, yes! You had me disappointed for a moment there. Very well. At least ten thousand years. All you need to do is kill everyone and everything in this chasm. Then, I want you to do something different with these crystals. Each of them needs to brown, magenta, or pink. I’ll walk you through how to change them.”

  “And what will that do?” I asked, playing along.

  “That, plus arranging them correctly, will get rid of the barrier and the Guardian. It will free me, and I will remove the Voice, taking my rightful place,” purred the Whispers.

  The being confirmed my worst fears. Whatever he had been, the Whispers had chosen to massacre the majority of life on the planet, and likely would justify doing it again. I didn’t like the Voice, but that insufferable ass was a damn sight better than the monster that the Whispers would be instead.

  I strengthened my resolve. “Alright. I think I need to figure this out first before enjoying myself.”

  The dark figure waved magnanimously. “If you must. There’s nothing wrong with a little practice, I guess.” The figure of the Whispers moved off to look out the cave entrance, humming to himself.

  I knew the zones and decided it was time to experiment with the non-primary or secondary colors. I picked up a pink crystal and held it between my fingers. It felt strangely washed out. It dimmed, and I put it in the red third, and it stabilized. I picked up a brown crystal and immediately put it back; it made me feel uneasy. Then I picked up a magenta crystal.

  The crystal immediately began shaking and squirming in my fingers, to the point that I almost dropped it. I set it into a red socket and a red light flooded into it, but did not quite get rid of the magenta color. On a whim, I switched it to a blue socket and the swirling red in the magenta turned purple.

  I wonder what would happen if I —

  It clicked into the yellow zone and the purple turned white, flushing the crystal of the magenta color.

  “What are you doing?”

  I didn’t even look up at the shadowy figure. “I’m just experimenting with the crystals, seeing what colors I can get,” I replied cheerfully.

  “Well, that’s quite enough, young Mage. It’s time to go have your fun.”

  “Oh, but I’m having fun right now,” I said, moving another magenta crystal to a red slot, then a blue one. “Why should I go anywhere until I get bored?” It turned white once it was socketed in yellow. Just four more to go.

  “But you’re ruining it,” the old man almost whined.

  I laughed as I moved two at a time.

  “Stop it!” the Whisper cried, moving closer.

  The nine pink crystals, as well as the seven brown ones, flickered as the last magenta turned white. The shadowy old man coughed behind me as he stopped rushing. I didn’t even spare a glance over my shoulder as I looked at the brown ones. There was no discernible pattern as to how they were placed in the grid, the seven crystals spread out between the primary color zones.

  With the magenta out of the way, I picked up a brown from the blue zone and placed it quickly in the yellow. Nothing happened. So I quickly moved it to a red socket. Nothing except me feeling more ill every time I touched it.

  I glanced at the eight pink ones to see if there was a pattern. Wait, weren’t there nine of the pink ones?

  I looked at the extra red that had been a pink crystal and grinned.

  “Traitorous Mage!”

  Edit: I realized that the puzzle grid I did for myself might be helpful for others to visualize. It's not fancy, but might help!

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