Chapter 26: The Three Trials

“I am ready to face anything!” Vibria said as she held her fist up in the air.

Ariadne, Toha, and Ptah explained the trials to both Vibria and Theo.

“Mom, are we going to be alright? Nobody will get hurt, will they?” Theo asked.

“I don’t know, little one,” her mother replied. “This temple may have its risks that we can’t see. You must be brave.”

“I will be with our daughter, my love. I will not leave her side,” Toha nodded.

“You can count on my sword to also protect her lady Ariadne!” Vibria said as her sword was still stuck into the stone floor.

“Then I think we have our teams,” Ptah stated, keeping his calm demeanor. “I will face one of the trials alone. Ariadne, you will face one of the trials, and Toha, Vibria, and Theo will face the other trial. All trials will be completed today and now. Our final reward is to see more of our brothers and sisters awake again. I know we will all succeed. Toha, you may start the trials for all of us.”

Toha looked at the green humanoid that stood before him. He put his hand to his chin. They stood in the center of the dome room as he began to scan the room some more.

“The question is how to begin the trials?” Toha asked out loud. He held out his hand as he closed his eyes.

“You know how to do all this husband,” Ariadne told him. “Only Se:he can do this.”

Toha felt the urge to walk as he felt like he was being guided to the exact center of the room. His shoes would crunch on the very light silt, and hard stone as the water droplets of the previously flooded temple still exhibit the dampness of the area.

“There!” he said as he spotted it. It was small. In the very center of the room was a tiny alcove. Two tiny slots could be easily missed if you walked through the large spacious room. One place featured a circular slot that featured the man of the maze, and the other slot featured a hand that could easily fit into.

“Which slot is correct?” Ariadne asked him.

“One is for my pendant, and the other is for me. Either one starts the temple. They must have anticipated that whoever was going to start the trials would either have my pendant or another pendant like it or had Se:he himself to activate the trials. They were trying to cover their bases as well as they could.”

Toha looked at his hand as he looked at the hand slot. Without much hesitation, he bent down and put his hand into the slot. Ariadne watched as Toha’s eyes turned a solid white.

“There he is...” Ariadne commented as she took a knee. Her hoof smacked the stone floor to look at her husband’s face. “Se:he, I know you are in there, old friend. Help us get through our trials.”

Toha’s hand glowed as she could hear the temple shifting. The domed room had two sides open massive stone slabs that revealed two rooms. The massive locked door in front of them still remained locked. Toha’s eyes went back to normal as his hand jerked away from the floor. Both of them stood up as Toha would look at his hands.

“I will be back, husband,” Ariadne told him as she put her hand to his shoulder. Her large hand easily shook his body a little bit as she stepped forward. She began to head in the direction of one of the new open rooms.

“You must be ready ... for what is in there,” Toha told her. I saw a little bit of this temple. “Some things are real, and some things are not.”

Ariadne nodded her head. “I will be ready.”

Ptah looked at the two as his attention went towards the other open door. He already knew what he needed to do as he stepped forward to the darkness ahead of him.

Ariadne proceeded forward towards the dark open room ahead of her. This left Toha with Vibria and Theo as they stood looking at the locked door ahead of them.

Ptah stepped into the darkness of the open room ahead of him. Only the illumination of the light from the central room behind him provided any light as he kept walking. His bare feet touched the stone floor with ease and quietness as only the sound of his staff, hitting the floor echoed in the room.

Once it got dark enough, Ptah took his staff and smacked it to the stone floor a couple of times as a bright light emitted from the ankh itself. The light began to illuminate as he could see where he was going. He could see that the room seemed circular as the last place was as well.

“Most curious...” Ptah stated. “Such elegance in a simple design as this temple.”

The Egyptian god seemed very calm and collected. He felt that he knew what he was doing, and that was all he needed. His eyes would scan the room as he heard a sound come from behind him.

Behind the god himself, the stone slab door closed with a hard thump. He was isolated and alone as he turned to look at it.

“Hmmm ... very interesting indeed,” he stated as he turned his focus back to the room itself.

Ptah could see that he was in the center of the room. He stood and placed the staff in the center, holding it as close to his face and body as possible. The end stood perfectly as he held onto it with both hands. The light from his staff illuminated his face, beard, and head covering, and nothing else.

“I stand here ready,” Ptah said with a gentle smile. He closed his eyes and waited for the trial to begin.

Standing perfectly like the depictions of Ptah in the past, he must have stood and meditated for what felt like minutes. The room was quiet and unending. Ptah felt no fear or any apprehension from the environment itself. It was like standing in a massive empty void of nothingness.

Finally, a bright light flooded Ptah’s eyelids. He felt sereneness as he opened his eyes. He no longer stood in some dark room but now stood out in the open.

Ptah was standing outside. He could see the orange color of sand and dirt all around him. A small number of trees lined the area. There was a large building behind him and a massive road that led to the building itself. He looked ahead of him to see an array of humans all bowing their heads to him. He recognized the construction almost immediately when he looked at it. The building was connected to a series of enormous walls that surrounded the complex itself. The temple then connected to the city that it was located in. It was midday as the sunlight and heat perfectly illuminated everything. The god could smell the wind and sand around him. The small number of desert shrubs and plants gave the symbol of beauty that he knew and loved.

“Very curious indeed... , “ he said as he looked at the environment. “Such beauty as my home was so long ago.”

Ptah looked ahead of him. Behind him were the doors that led inside the temple itself. Rows of statues all dedicated to him, his wife, and his son, all decorated the temple exterior walls. He was standing by the entrance of the temple as he looked ahead of himself. In front of him were all humans all bowing and on their knees looking at him.

“The Temple of Memphis...” Ptah said quietly to himself. “How I missed this place ... the beauty of the people and the happiness that it brought to me.”

He stepped forward with his staff. His goal was to get close to the people as possible. He wanted to see the people that worshipped him.

Ptah could see the men, women, and children that were all bowing to him. They were dressed in the apparel of their time. The time of Ancient Egypt was vast. The people were unending as they kept their poses. It was as if they were afraid to look at him. At a time, he was used to this, but now there was a fleeting moment where he had to see the human faces he forgotten.

He got close enough to one of the humans. It was a little girl that looked like the same age as Theo. He stopped as he stood directly in front of her. He could feel the aura from the girl. He could tell that she was scared and nervous. The god that she worshipped was literally standing right next to her.

Ptah bent down and took a knee as he looked at the girl. His staff was still perfectly situated as he put his hand down to touch the girl’s head.

He could hear a small whimper come from the girl himself. The tension seemed so tight that it was as if the child would pass out from the event itself. He already felt and noticed that the human beside her was her father.

“It’s alright...” Ptah said to the girl. “I mean, you no harm.”

The child was unresponsive, but she started to breathe slower as if she began to calm down. The god smiled as he kept his focus on the child.

“I command you to look at me. Look at your god and be happy,” he told the girl.

The little girl’s head looked up as he could see her eyes pierce into him. She looked like any child from the time period. Her skin had a lightly dark complexion to it, much like he had in his human form. It was reasonably easy for Ptah to stand out in the crowd with his green skin, but here all of them worshipped him.

There was still much fear in the child as the others dared not look at him. Ptah put his hand to her head as if to calm the child. He felt the hair of the child to confirm that this was some illusion. He felt the heartbeat of the girl as the child seemed to calm down a tiny bit.

A small amount of light came from Ptah’s hand as it touched the head of the girl. He explained to her. “For your courage at looking at your god, I give you the gift of wisdom. Wisdom is the counter to fear for fear is caused by ignorance. You will be smarter than all the children around you, and you will be a proud mortal alongside your peers.”

The light faded from his hand as the girl smiled and put her head down. The god stood up as he backed away from the child. The little girl said one thing to him. “Thank you, great Ptah.”

Ptah nodded as he turned and backed away, looking at the others that continued to bow to him. It was as if staring at living statues. He walked back to the temple entrance as he turned to look at the crowd of people.

“It feels so real,” Ptah said. “My home, the people that worshiped me, this was my past thousands of years ago.”

“There you are,” a voice came from behind him. Ptah turned his head to look at him. He recognized the voice almost immediately.

“Set,” Ptah said. He knew who it was immediately. The god was distinct, unlike the other Egyptian gods. The god himself looked like an aardvark that stood on two legs. He towered over Ptah, much like the other animal gods he knew. His body was covered in a dark gray and black fur. He had a long protruding trunk-like snout for his mouth and nose. He wore a yellow and red garment that covered his chest and legs. He had two long ears that protruded from the top of his head. He also had a long fur tail that connected from his back. He looked quite strong too like he could tear a pillar off the foundations and throw it. His feet had claws at the ends that clicked the stone floor that he walked upon.

“What? You don’t recognize me for some reason?” Set said with a booming like voice. There was some deviant look to him as Ptah looked up at him.

“Yes, I do. It has been some time since I have seen you,” Ptah replied.

“Some time? Come on, little green man. I was here a couple of days ago. I haven’t been gone that long.”

There seemed to be anger and a little bit of confusion in Set’s eyes as he looked down upon him. Ptah decided to keep the conversation going.

“How is your son doing?”

“Anubis is fine? How is yours?”

“He ... is doing well,” Ptah replied with hesitation.

“Ha, what’s wrong, Ptah? Did your wife smack you a little hard in that big noggin of yours? I know how rough that big cat can be on you at times.”

Ptah smiled a little bit. “Sekhmet is as she always is. She is a wonderful wife. Tell me something. What year is this?”

“The year is 1912 BC,” the tall god replied.

“Very interesting indeed,” Ptah smiled greatly. He looked back at the crowd and back at the animal god before him. “Almost perfect ... but not good enough.”

“I think you might be losing your mind today,” Set told him. “Maybe that crowd of people is getting to you...”

“Let me ask you this Set ... I can see what is going on here. It is wonderful to see my home again, but we have a time table to carry out.”

The god Set crossed his arms as he stood before him. “What is it that you want?”

“I am currently being tested at the moment. I have a feeling that if I am able to accurately guess what this trial is, then I will pass it. If I guess wrong or decide to embrace this world, then I will be locked into the realm considerably longer. That is not what I need, and it will not help my friends. I can see what it is, though.”

“Very well. It’s funny to see you talk like this. You can live a great life like this if you wish to.” the voice and tone changed.

“I can answer this question accurately if you answer my question. What is my name?”

“What?” Set replied with a confused look.

“What is my name?”

“You are Ptah, the god of wisdom.”

Ptah nodded again. “I have seen enough. I know what this trial is. This world is beautiful. I long for those days, but I know that the world continues and carries on like a river. We, the gods, have to live with that and embrace what humankind has become and what it will become. We are nothing but a fragment of that past, an echo of those times. This is the trial of illusion and wisdom. I know this because you told me inaccuracies when you answered my questions.”

“What do you mean?” Set replied.

“For one, the time period you told me and how you dated things were inaccurate. BC is a term referring to the birth of Christ, another religion that never existed during this time frame. Yes, I would understand that year usage for today but not during this time period. That is one of the inaccuracies. A most obvious thing as well besides the environment is that Set is dead. He was killed by Cataclysm.”

“Hmmm...” Set replied. There was hesitation in the towering god before Ptah.

“To make sure I gave you one last question to confirm this and you answered my question wonderfully. You told me my name, but it was not my name during the time period you gave me. During the ... middle kingdom, as the humans called it, the mortals began to refer to me as a new name Ptah-Seker. I only embraced my original name once again until much later under the wishes from my family. The rest of the Egyptian gods all knew and respected what I preferred to be called and named. You are incorrect and nothing but a false image. You failed to get into my mind and recreate this environment accurately. This is the trial of illusions and wisdom. What do you think?”

There was a pause in Set. It seemed like the entire environment halted and came to a still. The whole setting became dark. Everything that existed all melted into darkness around him. In the end, he still held his staff as it illuminated the darkroom once again.

“Very interesting,” Ptah said as he looked at the room.

“You are correct,” a faint voice echoed the room. The voice sounded like the little girl that he blessed earlier in the crowd. “Hard for me to challenge the god of wisdom in the very trial he is good at.”

“However, there is wisdom in all trials, even this one,” Ptah added.

“Yes, there is. What do you think it is?”

“I told that to you already. I knew that was you when I came up to you earlier.”

“Indeed, you did. Knowledge is very important. It is the true way to combat the unknown and ultimately fear itself,” he said as he paused. Perfectly composed, the voice continued.

“If there is one thing that you can take away from this trial, what would it be?”

Ptah thought about it and answered the question. “This temple ... it is designed to be a sleeper temple for the other mythics. I know they are tapping into a power that is possible. Once we free the mythics, the temple will be no more. This room can see anything in the far future or past perfectly or imperfectly. I seek knowledge. That would be my reward for passing this trial.”

“You are correct, and knowledge would be a gift to be given to you. What do you wish to know?”

“What becomes of us? What will happen to the mythics in the far future?”

There was a pause as the darkroom began to emit a series of tiny lights all around him. Ptah’s staff went dark as he began to look all around him. He realized quickly that he was in the vastness of space itself. Stars were everywhere as he floated endlessly in space. He felt cold, but the cold itself could not harm him.

“There are many possibilities for the future,” the girl’s voice continued. “Even you must admit that.”

“Of course, but even you know that there is one path that must be the truth.”

“Many paths exist. I see the end of the Earth many times. Sometimes it is the human’s fault. Sometimes it is simply nature. Sometimes it is caused by something else. We have an important part to play in preventing some of that, but I am sure that you already know that.”

“Yes,” Ptah replied.

A planet grew closer and closer to the vastness of space. It came from almost nowhere as it grew bigger and bigger out of the hunk of rock in space. It orbited a small red dwarf star and seemed to be nothing in the middle of nowhere. The planet had an orange color to it with small faint clouds that covered the surface. There were small crater pits that lined the almost endless sands of the surface.

“What is this?...” Ptah asked.

“One of many possibilities ... perhaps it is the one that you seek most of all. This is one possible path for you and all the mythics. This is the planet Olympus, the new home of the gods and things other than human mortals live at.”

The planet grew closer as Ptah could see large cylindrical shiny white-colored floating objects that covered the orbit of the planet. It got closer to the point that he was no longer in orbit with the planet but now on the surface of the planet. The surface itself was seemingly barren, with some tiny green spots where plants grew. It was as if life did not exist around him as he looked up at the night sky.

“Do humans live with us?” Ptah asked.

“Some do, but most live on the other planets. Perhaps they don’t know what happens here. Perhaps all they see is the surface and what floats above.”

He felt himself sink in the dirt as Ptah closed his eyes. The projection fell to the soil and ground as he felt like he was falling for a few seconds. Suddenly he stopped as he could see the light again. He realized that he was standing in a large tunnel with artificial lights. The walls looked like something he never saw before. He could see crowds of different people. Each person seemed utterly different than the other. He would see an occasional human being, but they were with other creatures big and small. He would see one individual that looked like a woman and a rat put together. She was holding a mortal man’s hand as he could see another group of people. One looked like a walking and talking rabbit that spoke to a minotaur that was a different color than Ariadne was. Another individual was a woman with wings.”

“Incredible,” Ptah said as he watched the room go dark again. His staff lit up with light again. “Thank you for this.”

“This is only one possibility. Do not forget that.”

“I won’t,” Ptah said as he stepped forward towards the closed door. As he approached the door, he heard something from the girl.

“There is one thing though that you need to consider as well,” the voice echoed in the room. “What makes you think that Set is dead?”

There was a pause in Ptah’s thinking as he turned to look back away from the door. “I have not considered that ... He could be alive ... so many listened to my words when I tried to push this idea so long ago, it is possible ... he like some of the others might be alive and be in temples like these...”

There was a pause in the conversation as the voice seemed to conclude with the discussion they were having.

“May you find peace among the stars,” the girl’s voice echoed.

Ptah looked forward at the door again as he waited for it to open up. “You as well, friend. Whoever you are ... may you find what is out there.”

While all the events occurred with Ptah, Ariadne herself had her trial ahead of her.

She stepped forward as she could see Ptah was stepping into the darkroom behind her. She mustered the courage to face her trial. Easy or hard, she had to treat this trial seriously. She didn’t know if she was going to be facing a shit storm or be the easiest of solutions. She didn’t know if she needed her trident or not. She did not know what the trial might be, and even then, it was a simple guess.

She took one last look at her husband and daughter as her hooves would clap against the stone beneath her. She got closer and closer to the darkness. Her tail twitched a little bit as she grasped her hand and clenched her fist. She had to appear fearless in front of her husband, but even she knew the unknown was not an easy thing to face.

She walked into the darkroom as the light from the interior room behind her illuminated everything behind her. She kept her pace as she started to have a harder and harder time seeing what was ahead of her.

Suddenly she heard a sound behind her as the door closed. The stone slab that was the entry to the room closed with a hard thump. All around her, the darkness perforated her sights. It was like stepping into a dark void.

“I can’t see... , “ she said as she held out her hand. She felt a little bit of smoke emit from her hand as she knew that she was holding onto a crystal of some sort. “Let’s see if I can make things brighter...”

Ariadne held her hand up and tapped the crystal with her fingernail. The crystal began to emit light from it. The small amount of light began to illuminate the room. Much like what Ptah had stepped into, the room was almost circular or at least what she could see. The range of light from the crystal was limited. She trotted forward slowly as she was careful not to run into anything that she didn’t want to.

“I am waiting... , “ she called out. “I came here to face the trials...”

There seemed to be nothing but silence as she kept walking forward. Before she reached the center of the room, she began to see something. She surmised that she must be in the center of the room with the amount of light around her. There appeared to be a large table of some sort that was ahead of her. On the table was some large black box almost the size of her massive frame.

Ariadne was a little bit nervous as she peered at the box. She felt the urge. She reached out to it to check out what it was that she was looking at.

Suddenly it went fully dark. The light from her crystal disappeared as she went and tapped the crystal again. Nothing happened as there was an eerie sound of creaking around her as she tapped the crystal again. Finally, the light of the crystal began to glow again as she looked ahead of her. The table was gone now.

“Hmm ... well,” she said as it reverberated in the room. She thought she saw something ahead of her as she clenched her fist.

“Who goes there?” Ariadne called out.

There was nothing but silence, but she figured it had to be her imagination or something. Then it happened again as she focused her attention ahead of her.

“I am here. I am ready,” she called out.

Then she saw it step forward to her. It was a large person at first glance from the darkness. This person was the size of her own height, and as the light began to reveal who it was, her jaw almost dropped from the sight of it.

It was a minotaur that looked very much like her. He had large horns and big muscles and wore a Greek tunic much as she wore. He looked at her and had a smile on his face.

“Son...” were her only words. “Of everything...” she was at a complete loss of words. She grew sad at the sight. It was almost too much for her to bear.

“Hello, mother,” he said with a smile. Ariadne practically put her hand to her snout as she tried to hold back her tears.

“Is it you?”

He gave a slow nod. “It’s me,” he said as he held his arms out to her.

“Oenopion! My boy ... my boy,” she said as she grabbed and hugged him hard. “My boy... , “ she began to cry as tears ran down her face. She could not hold it back any further. “Gods, I missed you so much ... I missed you, my boy.”

“I missed you too, mother,” he said as he held his arms tight around her.

“How? ... How did you survive?” she said as she kept her grip tight around him.

“The answer is simple ... I never did.”

“Wha...” she could not finish her sentence as she pulled back from her hug. “Wha ... what do you mean?”

“I am dead. I have always been dead. You left me to die.”

Ariadne gripped the light crystal in her hand as she looked at him. She began to wipe the tears around her face and fur. She shook her head as she tried to close her eyes.

“No ... no don’t say that. Please... , “ she begged him.

“Your family is dead ... now you are fucking some other man and having his child. Why? Were we not a good enough family for you?”

“No ... no ... it isn’t true,” she told him. “You were dead ... destroyed by the creature that is Cataclysm. I lost you, my dear boy.”

“Is that what you are going to tell all of them, mother?” he gestured as he lifted his hand. He stepped out of the way.

What Ariadne saw was horrific. She saw the room light up a little bit. The room was massive as the darkness still limited her sight range. What she could see was nothing but bodies. All the bodies were lying about. She recognized them all.

“Apollo ... Hercules ... Zeus ... Hades ... my babies ... I see them all.” She said.

“Why weren’t you there, mother?” Oenopion asked her. “Why did you leave us to die?”

“No ... no,” she shook her head. She put her hands to her ears and horns as she closed her eyes. “I ... I was supposed to. They were randomly choosing gods to go and fight. You could have volunteered to fight, but you didn’t!”

“I tried to ... I was ... None of you were returning!” she told him.

“You sound like a coward. Were those the same words you said about the sleepers of this temple? So interesting to hear those words coming from you. You couldn’t face death, could you?”

She turned around as she began to tap her head with her hands. She began to hit her hands against her horns hard.

“I tried to son. I saw you ... you were the last of my family as you were chosen to go and fight. One by one, I watched as my family was wisped away to be slaughtered.”

“Yet you didn’t,” he calmly replied. “Now, here I am telling you this. You failed the family mother. Not only am I dead, but so is everyone you loved and cared for.”

“Stop!” she yelled. She hit her hands so hard against her horns that she felt a sharp pain come from her palms. She pulled her hands away as tears were running down her face. “I ... watched you all die ... my brother ... I had to help kill my own father, son. My sisters ... grandfather slain by our family ... too many tragedies, my dear Oenopion. A... , “ she put her hand to her snout as she felt a little bit of blood come from her hands.

“No excuse, mother,” he shook his head. “You know the sacrifices the parents have to make. You could have chosen to fight for my stead. I didn’t have to fight. Instead, it could have been you, but you didn’t say anything.”

“I tried ... to summon the courage, son ... I saw you chosen, and you picked up your sword. You were such a brave man, ... minotaur, human, or not. I raised you to be so brave.”

“Bravery only got me killed. You looked after yourself. Now you are fucking this other human. Are you hoping to leave them behind as well the next time a disaster like this happens?”

“No!” she yelled back at him. “I will never leave them! I won’t leave my daughter! I will choose my life over hers.”

“I don’t believe you. Your actions speak louder than your words. Perhaps we should warn them. Another disaster, and you will watch everyone die around you again. Then you start the cycle once again. My mother ... the coward.”

“It isn’t true, son! I saw you pick up your sword without hesitation. You knew that you were going to die. Your bravery helped give the extra time that was needed to slow the creature from reaching Earth. Your actions among the countless others saved us all.”

He shook his head. “Why is it so hard to admit it? What is that you are afraid of, mother? Look at us.”

She snorted as she looked at the dead bodies strewn about. The sight of seeing the dead around her was devastating. More tears ran down her face.

“And in the end, I guess it doesn’t matter. You move on, and now I have a half-sister, the daughter of a woman who wouldn’t go and fight.”

“That isn’t fair, son,” she said as more tears ran down her face. “I couldn’t face it. Fine! You want me to admit to it. Yes! I was scared to fight. I knew that I had the opportunity to go and fight in your place, and I didn’t. Why? Because I knew I was going to die. I could have made the ultimate sacrifice that any good parent could have. I didn’t ... I didn’t.”