Page 78 of Charmed

And so the final challenge began, which Alden had to face with little magic at his own disposal and still succeed, all while working side by side with one friend he deeply trusted and two he didn’t. Time would tell whether it was a mistake for him to sacrifice the last of his magical reserves for such an alliance…or if the decision would lead to the failure he’d been fearing.

CHAPTER24

Upon entering the tower, the air tingled as the portal’s familiar magic transported us to the first level. An illusion had been cast on the tower so that it appeared to each individual solving its puzzles that it was empty of the other contestants; at our request, the judges had agreed to count our group as a single contestant.

The magic faded around us, revealing a mist-shrouded atrium aglow in golden sunshine that danced across the sea of mystical plants growing in swaths of color and intoxicating perfumes.

I lost myself wandering the twisting paths, admiring the unique flora—I recognized many of the plants that also grew in the forest near my home or in Alden’s garden of potion ingredients, but there were many I’d only seen in black and white illustrations in books, and still several others that were entirely foreign. I lingered to study them, taking in the details of every unique leaf and interesting blossom.

“As fascinating as this room is, we have more important matters to attend to than a garden tour.” Princess Demetria’s disapproving tone tugged us from our reverie.

Alden straightened resolutely from the clump of herbs he’d been studying, Kai followed suit with much more reluctance, his longing evident with his affinity for herbology; King Ciaran had remained in the shadows cast by several blossoming trees and leafy ferns growing alongside the glass wall.

“Has anyone discovered any hint indicating what this room’s challenge is?” Alden asked.

Princess Demetria pointed a slender finger towards a door on the farthest end, nearly completely obscured by the wall of vines. Alden parted the leaves and honeysuckle to reveal a door shimmering with magic. Five panels decorated the edifice, each with a riddle etched into the wood.

“It appears that the answer to each riddle acts as a key that when combined will open the door.” Alden traced his fingertip across the first line. The letters glowed, revealing the first riddle:look for me here, look for me there; the true me is one of many and difficult to snare.

Kai’s eyes immediately brightened with recognition. “It speaks of themirage flower, a plant that’s able to project dozens of ghostly copies of itself in order to fool creatures that wish to harm it. It’s a useful ingredient in many potions, but its unique illusion ability makes it difficult to harvest.”

“And does your knowledge on this plant’s properties also include how to determine which of its illusions is the real mirage flower?” Princess Demetria asked wryly.

“That is part of the trick,” Kai said. “Other than the mother plant being the only one with a scent, there’s no other discernible way to determine it other than trial and error.”

She heaved a frustrated sigh. “A troublesome plant.”

Alden beckoned to the spellbook that had been floating around the room, and it obliged, changing its contents into a book of herbology and opening to the entry ofmirage flowers. Based on the illustration, the blossoms themselves appeared entirely ordinary save for their shimmery petals that helped them blend into their surroundings, which would make it difficult to locate not only the duplicates but the primary plant we would need to harvest in order to open the door.

We looked out across the sea of blossoming greenery. Suddenly the room that had once created wonder with its variety now overwhelmed us with its overload of senses that the transparent plant would blend seamlessly with.

“Can the imposters be located with a simple tracking spell?” King Ciaran asked from his shroud of shadows.

Kai shook his head. “Traditional tracking magic doesn’t work on it, but I imagine there’s a trick that’s not recorded in traditional herbology texts…one we must discover if we have any hope of progressing.”

Princess Demetria sighed. “Which leaves us to experiment, an inefficient method when even with our combined powers we are limited to how many spells we can cast.”

Kai gnawed his lip. “Then perhaps we should first try and find it through a traditional search rather than magic.”

We split up to cover a section of the atrium, but we hadn’t been searching long when we discovered another trick of the room—as we wandered, the walls seemed to expand, making the chamber much larger than it had initially appeared, which required us to cover more ground and made it difficult to locate the real mirage flower even with the five of us working together.

As we searched, we came to discover another unique feature—the room was broken up into regions, so that desert foliage grew alongside plants from more temperate climates. I hoped this would narrow our search, only to learn that the mirage flowers could adapt themselves to any climate, increasing the overwhelm as heavy as the mist shrouding the air.

Princess Demetria’s frustrated sigh eventually penetrated the tense silence. “This is taking too long. At this rate, we’ll spend the entire day on this single clue, leaving us no time for the other riddles guarding the door, let alone the tower’s other floors.”

“Our search seems ineffective,” I mused. “It’s as if the room is designed for us to rely on our powers.” Quite fitting for a magical challenge.

Alden grew pensive. “Hmm, I wonder…” He considered a moment. “Perhaps our search is too narrow; we need to broaden our reach. Rather than focusing on finding the real mirage flower, let’s first locate one of its many illusions.”

“I’ve already encountered a few, but when I tried to harvest them, they faded upon contact,” Kai said.

“Which is exactly what I need to test my hypothesis. If you find one, don’t touch it; I want to experiment.”

Though its camouflage caused the flower’s illusions to blend in with their surroundings, we managed to find one in short order; as before, it faded when we tried to uproot it, evidence it was merely one of the flower’s many illusions. Before the plant could completely vanish, Alden bottled its magic and lifted the vial to the light to study its contents.

“Magic always leaves traces,” he explained. “Just as each spell produces its own fingerprint. By deciphering the mirage flower’s pattern, we can better understand the magic affecting its illusions in order to follow the trail to the real plant.”

He produced a droplet of power and added it to the vial, swirling the contents until it blended with the spell before studying it again with a concentrated furrow.

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