The Decision is Made for Them

The sound of wood and stone grinding against one another cut the conversation short, and all four adventurers turned to look toward the door they'd entered through. The oversized double doors were now smoothly swinging shut, cutting off their exit and leaving them trapped inside. A sense of dread washed over the group.

"Shit!" Roland shouted as he sprinted for the archway, his heavy armor clanking noisily with each step.

"Stop it!" Gorin yelled after him.

Sure. Stop it. As if Roland knew how he was going to do that. He could shove himself between the multi-ton wood doors before they closed and use his corpse as a doorstop.

There was a cacophony of panicked sounds as each made their own run toward the closing doors. Yelling. Shouting. Banging. A spell whizzed over Roland's head, surely from Trixa. It slammed against the hardwood a moment later but produced no effect outside of some sparkles and flashes. The grinding never ceased, and as Roland, the fastest of the four, finally reached it, the silvery moonlight from the mystic field beyond disappeared, sealed off by the two doors closing tightly. He stared up at them in frustration and horror.

The back of the doors, like the front, bore no handle to allow entrance or exit, no iron bar or great loop to pull on, and no etchings or carvings like the front, either. Instead, in tall, flowing, elegant script, a message dominated the hardwood of the doors. Roland didn't know what it meant, but Ivy quickly translated.

"Life's true rewards lie not at the beginning but at the end of your journey," she muttered once before repeating so all could hear. "Embrace the path and find rebirth through its trials and joys. The entrance is but a starting point; seek your exit beyond."

"Gods be fucking damned!" Gorin shouted, kicking the huge doors. He stood there for a moment, chest heaving, eyes wide with frustration.

"I guess Demi didn't like the idea of us looting the entryway," Trixa offered, staring up at the message.

"I sure hope not," Roland said, shaking his head. "I know that gods build dungeons, but I can't say we've ever had one actively watching us. Makes me uneasy to think about."

"Not watching you that you know of," Trixa emphasized. "I'm sure it will be fine. In a way, this might be better."

"Yea! It makes it a little easier," Ivy laughed. "I guess we take what we can carry and keep going through the dungeon."

"Not really what I meant," Trixa chuckled, glancing back toward the hall. "If this goddess is watching us, and everything we've seen so far is to be believed, I don't think slaughtering us is her goal."

"How do you figure?" Roland asked.

"Well, if her message is to be believed," Trixa offered, nodding at the script on the door, "Her goal isn't to kill us. You can't have someone 'reborn' if they die. They have to grow from their experience. Change."

"**** is a pretty good way to change someone," Gorin growled, finally stopping his one-dwarf tirade against the sealed doors. "Maybe she wants us born again as corpses."

"I doubt it," Trixa said, shaking her head. "She's a goddess of fertility as well. I would think that Life is her domain. Maybe a near-**** experience, but if she has her hand in play, we might be safer than any other dungeon we've been in."

"That's a hell of a hunch," Roland sighed in resignation, "Well, it's not like we've got a better option. Let's push ahead."

There was a smattering of comments and complaints, but no one had any ideas short of Gorin's thought to "hack the some-bitch to pieces." There was a cursory attempt, but his axe fell short of even denting the polish. Dejectedly, they turned back up and started on their way through the entrance hall for the second time.

"I'm keeping this, though," Ivy declared, holding up the little silver rabbit toward the ceiling.

There came no reply, but Roland was sure that if this Demi were watching and listening, she likely would be more amused at the elf's pettiness rather than annoyed. Or maybe she was planning to smite them all. It wasn't like he knew anything about her. Maybe the theft of the sacred rabbit was the one thing that would see them blown to smithereens, just so the goddess could take it back personally. Maybe it meant their safety. He had no fucking clue.

Everyone but Roland veered off here or there to display cabinets they'd seen before to select trinkets and valuables to shove into their Endless Bags, but soon they found themselves before the strange tree he'd spotted before. It seemed like it had grown directly through the ceiling and floor, passing effortlessly like the hard stone wasn't even there. He tested the stone with his foot to see if he could pass through the marble as easily as the tree, but to no avail. It seemed only the tree had that leniency.

Several of the roots had the strange writing carved into them, but Ivy offered no translation, and he didn't ask. Outside of a few passing glances and Ivy pointing out a small silver dish set in front of one of the roots with two copper coins resting inside, no one paid it further mind.

They meant to get through this Dungeon, but there seemed to be only one way to accomplish that.

Or, Roland thought, looking back and forth between the two doors, maybe there were two.

Two doors branched off in either direction from the tree. Both appeared seemingly identical: red hardwood inlaid into a silver frame, set into a large stone façade, over which a scrawling, elegant font, the same that Roland had seen all around the Dungeon, spelled out an unknown message over each door. The only differences he could see were that the fonts were somewhat different, though he wasn't sure how, and each door had a different symbol. The door on the left bore a jeweled pink and red heart. On the right door was a stylized emblem of a sword.

"Huh."

"Ives? Thoughts?" Gorin asked as the group looked back and forth from the two doors.

"They each have their own message," Ivy explained, looking from the door on the left to the door on the right. "The one with the heart reads, 'One shall find safety for all in intimacy.' The one with the sword says, 'All will become strong through battle.'"

"So it's a puzzle?" Roland considered. "We have to choose the right room?"

"Or a selection of challenges," Trixa offered. "One is about fighting. One is… I'm sorry, did you say intimacy?"

Ivy nodded.

"Intimacy? What does that even mean?" Gorin questioned.

"You don't know what intimacy is, Gorey?" Ivy asked, looking down at the shorter dwarf. "I mean, when a man and a woman love each other very-"

"Not like that, you daft twit!

"Why not like that? What other kind of intimacy would there be?"

"Valid question," Roland considered, "But I agree with Gorin. I don't think that's what the message refers to. Plus, there's mention of 'One' versus 'All.' If I understand, only one of us can go through the left door, eventually letting everyone through 'to safety.' The one on the right sounds like we all have to fight."

"Devil, you know?" Trixa asked. "I guess I'd be more comfortable fighting versus whatever that left door wants."

"You say that now 'til we get in there and find ourselves face to face with somethin' we can't handle," Gorin countered.

"He does have a point," Roland agreed, thinking about the sheer amount of wealth decorating the entrance hall. "We very well might not be able to handle whatever's waiting for us on the other side of that door."

"Come on, guys, this is boring," Ivy complained. "Let's try something new. We can see what the door on the left has. Maybe it'll be fun!"

Roland looked back and forth between the two doors. They had to make a decision. And, if they were right, only one could go through the door on the left. Which door? And, who would go if it was the one on the left?