The child heard the summons, and didn’t understand if she could help. Responsibly, she ran through each and every response authoritative adults in her life would express against her involvement. What can a child of her age even hope to accomplish where men and women many times her age were more capable? Still, Akira had not been on the whale city before, and she was curious what a ziggurat looked like.

Her white and gold kimono blended well with her hair, ears and tail, blurring the lines between features and clothing as she darted through one of the cities. Before anyone, including Neera, could stop her, the child closed the distance between her and the beautiful statue, touching it eagerly. Neera had been left behind, nonethewiser, asleep comfortably in the inn where they had been staying for the night.

It took a bit of effort, but the child kept her mind on her destination, determined not to be distracted by the whale city. There would be time to explore that AFTER the situation with that mysterious ziggurat. Akira managed to stay out of sight as she slipped into the building, but what she saw kept her rooted momentarily in the middle of the path. Many groups of people were stationed everywhere, some bandaged, others doing the bandaging. Several were eating meals previously prepared, talking about what they saw. Some were soaking wet, dripping puddles at their feet.

Somehow, she snapped out of her amazement and approached the first door. Once inside, she saw two paths with what appeared to be the exact same obstacle course. At first it starts easy, with swinging padded logs, sweeping the path clear of any runners. Loud whoosh sounds came from the logs with each pass over.

The trials of Eytelia, in memory, had never been as tedious during my stewardship as they were when mortals were finally invited back to contain the prisoner they surrounded. Clearly the seal on Wrath had suffered greatly in my absence, but whether its deterioration was due to purposeful damage or simple neglect remained unclear during the events surrounding the juggernaut's rebellion. Whichever it was, the fact remained that once per person per trial was no longer enough. Some people, myself included, had to complete the challenges multiple times, and often with varying partners between rounds.

My first walkthrough of the grounds was of course with Robin and Adel at my side, but the three of us quickly realized after our first roundtrip that we'd be more efficient as individuals rather than as a team. We split up with that realization, which led me to partnering – albeit involuntarily – with some of the other adventurers that had gathered in that ziggurat's nexus. One of the most curious of these encounters – and one that sticks out in my mind amidst the flock of several, unremarkable faces – was with a small, fox demon child who reminded me a little of myself.

I hadn't noticed the girl when first stepping into the Trial of Forbearance for the nth time; or perhaps I hadn't cared enough to glance down back then. For some reason, that particular trial always shifted to something predictable for me, and so it had become monotonous to the point that I fell into unobservant tedium every time I entered its domain. Actually, "monotonous" is not the right word. "Annoying" is more like it.

In what I can only assume was a sick sense of humor on the Voice's part, every "trap" in that place always became a clone of a feminine looking man named Serci whenever I stepped into the room. Not just any clone, either. Each and every copy mimicked the original volume of the trap it replaced perfectly. There were spiked Serci's, floor trap Serci's, log Serci's, throwing star Serci's, etc. Basically anything trap-related took on his likeness and annexed his name. I even ran into a boulder Serci before; and, yes, getting touched by any of them counted as being hit by a trap.

Yet that wasn't even the most annoying trait that all of these "traps" shared in common. Nay, the most egregiously infuriating issue was the fact that they could only speak one word and they spoke it in rapid, cacophonous tone.

"Serci, Serci, Serci, Serci!" That's right! They could only say their name! That was all I heard over and over as soon as I stepped into the trial room and the logs hanging from the ceilings of the two paths suddenly took on Serci's appearance. I was so distracted by it and the grief it caused me from untold rounds through this hell that I spoke aloud without even noticing the small girl next to me.

"I swear I'm going to find this Serci when I get out of here," I began with a low, growling curse, "and murder his face: provided, of course, I don't just decide to wipe the memory of his sorry hide from my mind as soon as I leave."

After a few minutes of watching the pendulum logs, Akira smiled as she darted forward. She slipped harmlessly past the first one, and waited before the second, only to step on a spring trap. A whole tile of flooring sprung the child into the air, and over the edge, sending her plummeting toward spikes below. Barely a single blink later, Akira found herself back at the beginning, hugging her chest protectively.

The child could still feel the penetration into her skin, as sharp blades of pure flames yet cold as her body screamed from the experience. Tears streamed down her face as she sniffled. Whose idea was it to put such awful things that can hurt or kill? It didn’t seem fair to be sent back to the beginning to start all over. Would that happen every time? Just before she gathered her courage to try again, since she couldn’t very well go backwards and admit defeat, another joined her.

Akira looked up at the stranger and stifled a gasp. Whoever it was looked just like her! Well, not really. Taller, older, and there was a scar on her face, but everything else was similar. From the hair style, color, ears, and yes, tail. The major difference between them was the fact that Akira’s tail and ears were silver tipped. She cocked her head curiously at the words that came from the stranger’s mouth.

Innocently, she reached up and grabbed a fold of fabric to tug on gently. ”Excuse Akira, but who Serci? Why kill just face? Have you done this before? Can it be done? Does anyone die here? Are you just like Akira? Is Xunatar your daddy too? How’d you get that scar on your face?” A plethora of questions rolled off her tongue, in her sweet and innocent voice full of curiosity, her golden eyes wide with wonder.

My momentary lapse of composure – of which there were many in my life –was quick to be caught by the wide-eyed youth standing next to me in that hellish passage. I felt her tugging on my sock mere seconds after it occurred, and remember calmly commenting on my disbelief as she began rattling off a series of questions in that innocent tone that only young children possessed.

"A child in the trials," I asked? It wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that a small but gifted kid could end up in the wrong place at the wrong time; especially considering how talented some mages were straight from birth. That said, I was still slightly suspicious to find a little girl in the middle of an ancient prison of all places. If she was actually an adult in disguise, however, her acting was flawless and in need of an award of some kind. Whatever the case, I saw no harm in answering the majority of what she asked, so I kneeled down to be at her eye-level once she was finished.

"Well, in order," I started with a loud enough voice for Akira to hear me over the annoying background of Serci, "I'd like to know who he is myself, otherwise I wouldn't have to go looking for him, right? Kill his face because it's plastered all over everything now and will give me nightmares for some time to come. Done this trial at least five times by this point; lost count of the actual number. It's very much possible to accomplish and no one dies in it; but people do scream and can get hurt. Finally, while we do look alike, we are very much different and I'm definitely not Xunatar's child. If anything, I'm old enough to be his grandmother, which is a scary thought in itself. As for the scar, that's one question I'm not willing to answer, not to mention that I'm not fond of giving children nightmares."

That last bit was probably the most ironic of all my statements to Akira thus far. If this fox girl was indeed a direct descendant of the Lord of Chaos himself as she claimed, nightmares were probably her shtick by now. That said, the memories of my brother were still fresh in my mind and too painful to discuss openly with any stranger: not even an infant. If she insisted, I would likely lie or ignore her, even as the pinwheel burned from the fever dream such questions still invoked.

Regardless of how that conversation went, though, I did direct my small guest's attention back toward the traps in front of us. I didn't so much mind her company, but I definitely grew more irate the longer we remained in Serci Choir Land. I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, and I knew a cheap way to pass the Trial of Forebearance after having done much trial and error beforehand. I would have shared it with Akira immediately, but I didn't know how pliable or stubborn she was by that point. First, I had to ask, and then I would decide what to do from there.

"If you like, Akira, I can get us out of this trial and onto the next quickly enough. This is actually one of the easier ones and there's plenty more to see once we're out."

Akira nodded. ”Miss Angela ask, Akira came. Mommies don’t know, and I don’t know if daddy does either, but Neera still sleep at inn in Adaluna.” In her innocence, she had not realized that unless they have met her before, no one was even aware of who Neera the Puca was. The stranger came down to her level and answered most of her questions. Her brow furrowed again when she got to the trial questions.

Yet, the child waited, if impatiently, for the woman to stop talking before piling more inquiries upon her. Yes, the trial is doable. No, there is no death currently, though didn’t Angela say something about that earlier? Akira hadn’t been paying attention toward the end. Furthermore, she and the woman were not related, in fact she was far older than the god. ”If you’ve done the trial, why do it again? How are we different? What should I call you?”

While the woman seemed to grow increasingly irritated, she gave an offer the child could not pass up. Akira’s entire face lit up excitedly, a huge smile showed perfect white teeth with a missing gap at the front where she had lost one. ”I’d love to! Akira was about to ask if you would go with me. Already fell once. Was not fun to fall.”

Luckily, Akira did agree to my terms, which meant I could escape the current trial soon enough. However, before we could depart, before she gave her consent, she had yet more questions for me, more comments. She revealed a little more about herself and the circumstances by which she had come to Wrath's temple. Apparently the fox girl was a runaway in one sense of the term, egged on by Angela's broadcast for champions. She knew the deity in some respect, judging by the manner in which she referred to her; and that made me all the more content in the knowledge that somehow this little girl who was so close to the conclave still didn't know who I was. That could only mean my identity was not being carelessly tossed around by the conclave: exactly how I wanted things to remain for the time being.

Beyond that stipulation, I was perfectly fine just answering Akira's further questions, because I fully anticipated she would say yes to my request if I posed my language properly.

"Because once is not enough," I spoke once more while still at her eye level. "I will only explain why when we're out of here, though, because it is not something simple that I can describe with all this background noise. As for differences between us, you are a fox demon and were likely born in some part of Revaliir, right? However, I am, or was, human. I was also not born here. I'm not native to Revaliir. As for a name, you may call me Natsumi, or Nat if that is easier for you. I still prefer Natsumi, if you can manage."

T'was at that point that I gave my offer of help to Akira; and, to my great relief, she readily and enthusiastically accepted it.

"Hold on tight then." I wasted not a moment following that acceptance, and quickly grabbed the fox girl's hand before "cheating" the gauntlet of traps before us. See, one of the things I had discovered through trial and error on my first round through the ziggurat was that the Trial of Forbearance had a loophole. For reference, the object of that particular challenge only stated that you had to reach the end of the path while avoiding all traps. It didn't specify how you had to do that, however, and so my idea of teleportation came about.

Basic teleportation as a spell was limited by sight on Revaliir. You could only use it so long as you could see where you wanted to go. The paths before Akira and I were just long enough to prevent us from using that rule to simply jump over the entire gauntlet, but the distance was only enough for people who had normal eyesight. Using my optics, I could easily and clearly see the finish line from the start, so I just simply teleported us there and pushed one of two panels on the ornately decorated, moonstone wall to release energy back to the central chamber and mark the end of my trial.

"The only rule of this chamber," I said while then directing Akira to push her panel that appeared exactly at her eye level, "is that you have to evade the traps. It doesn't forbid short range teleportation, which is a rather useful loophole since destroying the traps isn't an option." Adopting a small smirk, I continued. "Remember, Akira, your greatest ally in a place like this will always be your ability to think in unusual ways. Where others simply try to barrel through, a little thought allowed us to complete an otherwise formidable challenge in seconds."

Once was not enough? Natsumi seemed to brush off any chance for more questions as she moved to the next answer. Akira nodded, as it was true to the extent of her knowledge that she was born somewhere in Revaliir. "Natsumi" She tried the name on her tongue, and decided she liked the name. Soon after, in no time at all, they had passed the entire trial without touching a single trap. The child blinked in surprise as she listened to the explaination.

As directed, the panel was pushed, while her mind tried to wrap around Natsumi's words. Think in unusual ways? Was there a usual way? Looking back at the swinging pendulums, spinning traps, pushing blocks, and various other obstacles, the child had to admit it made sense. "Okay, think not straight, think smart. It our minds that get us through trials. What is next one?" Almost too eagerly, the child accompanied Natsumi back to the entrance of the ziggurat, and approached the next door. When they entered, the door shut behind them ominously.

Yet, Akira showed no fear. It wasn't that she was with Natsumi, or armed with the knowledge of thinking her way through. In her innocence, she didn't know how to be scared of a lot of things. Trials of unknown obstacles? Sounds like fun! However, she did begin to get nervous when water began to cascade into the room. Instinctively, Akira stepped closer with a light splash to the woman fox. "We're not going to drown, are we?"