The Divine Voice echoed in his mind as consciousness crept back.
Fire.
Cel's eyes snapped open to a wall of roaring flames mere inches from his face. Heat slammed into him like a physical blow. His skin prickled with the promise of what would happen if he didn't move - now.
"No, no, no—" He scrambled backward, hands and knees scraping against rough stone. His breath came in sharp, panicked gasps as he waited for the agony of melting flesh, for his tattered rags to ignite, for—
Nothing happened.
The flames danced peacefully in their stone circle, crackling with innocent warmth. A simple fire pit. Nothing more.
Cel pressed his palm against his racing heart, sweat still clinging to his forehead. "Just a fire pit," he muttered, the words shaky with leftover adrenaline.
He wiped his arm across his damp face and forced himself to actually look at his surroundings instead of panicking.
Ancient stone surrounded him - or what remained of it. Jagged stone walls surrounded him, their weathered tops broken and uneven like shattered teeth. Massive chunks of rubble lay scattered across the uneven floor, some half-buried in centuries of accumulated dirt and debris. Whatever this place had once been, time had not been kind to it.
But time wasn't the only thing that had claimed this ruin.
Violet crystals erupted from every crack and crevice like frozen lightning, their surfaces sharp enough to cut glass. They twisted through the stone like parasitic vines, their violet surfaces gleaming with an inner depth that seemed almost alive. The largest formations reached toward the open sky above, their faceted surfaces catching and splitting the harsh light into prismatic fragments that danced across the walls.
Cel tilted his head back, squinting against the glare - and froze.
Four suns blazed overhead, their combined radiance turning the sky into an endless dome of searing light. The heat pressed down like a physical weight, magnified by the crystal formations until the air itself seemed to shimmer with intensity.
"Four suns, huh?" His voice cracked slightly. 'Of course there are four suns. Why would anything be normal in a divine trial?'
He lowered his gaze before the brightness could sear spots into his vision. Movement caught his eye near the flames. Two leather bags sat beside the fire pit, their surfaces worn smooth by age and use. Beyond them, several sheets of parchment lay scattered across what might have once been a stone table.
Cel's fingers twitched toward the bags, but he stopped himself. First, he needed to understand where he was. What he was dealing with.
The structure's entrance lay buried beneath rubble and fallen stones that choked the opening like a rocky waterfall. Sharp-edged crystal shards jutted from the debris at vicious angles, their violet surfaces gleaming with malevolent beauty.
Cel approached the treacherous pile of stone and crystal, testing his first step carefully. The rubble shifted under his weight and a crystal shard scraped against his ankle, drawing a thin line of blood.
"Great," he muttered, picking his way more carefully over the treacherous terrain. Each placement had to be perfect - one slip and the hungry crystal teeth would open him from knee to throat.
Sweat dripped into his eyes - whether from the crushing heat of the four suns or the concentration required not to bleed out on crystalline teeth, he couldn't say. Probably both.
Finally, he hauled himself over the last jagged stone and stumbled to his feet, his frail body protesting the effort.
The sight beyond froze him in place.
"What in the gods' name…"
The ruin perched atop a small hill like a broken crown, offering him a perfect view of the nightmare spread below. A labyrinth of violet crystal stretched to every direction - twisted pillars erupting from the earth in chaotic patterns, some reaching toward the blazing suns like grasping fingers, others sprawling across the ground in fractal networks of razor-sharp death. Under the four blazing suns, every surface became a mirror, refracting light in impossible directions.
Cel blinked hard, trying to separate reality from reflection. Where did one crystal end and another begin? The boundaries blurred together in a fractured maze that made his eyes water and his head pound.
The ground between the formations looked no better - littered with crystalline shards that jutted upward like broken teeth, waiting to shred anyone foolish enough to try walking through this death trap.
But worse than the sight was the sound.
A low hum vibrated through his bones, emanating from the crystal maze like the purr of some massive, sleeping predator. The resonance pulsed in rhythm with the rising suns, growing stronger as the heat intensified.
Cel pressed his palms against his ears, but the sound came from inside him now, reverberating through his very bone.
'Suffocating,' he thought, the oppressive atmosphere pressing against his lungs like a weight.
Something gleamed in the distance - a spire that dwarfed all others, rising from the maze's heart like a monument to madness. Light blazed from its peak with such intensity that even at this distance, Cel had to squint against the glare. The beacon pulsed with harsh, unnatural brilliance, visible from every corner of the crystalline deathtrap.
His gut clenched with instinctive dread. Something about that tower felt wrong - too bright, too obvious. Like bait in a trap, drawing the desperate toward something worse than death.
For long moments, Cel stood paralyzed by the sheer enormity of what lay ahead. His legs felt like lead, his chest tight with the crushing realization of his situation.
But standing here frozen wouldn't solve anything. He forced himself to turn away from the hypnotic maze and began pacing around the ruined structure, his mind chewing on the trial's cryptic instruction.
"Find the moon," he muttered, kicking a loose stone down the hillside. It clattered against crystal shards below with a sound like breaking glass. 'Real helpful. Thanks for the clarity.'
The four suns beat down mercilessly, their combined heat turning his skin red despite the brief time he'd been exposed. Sweat plastered his hair to his forehead as he walked, frustration building like steam in a kettle.
'This could mean anything...'
Yet his mind kept circling back to the same two grim possibilities, neither offering much comfort.
First - maybe he just needed to wait until nightfall. Simple enough, right? The suns would set, the moon would rise, trial complete. But his gut twisted at the thought. After all, this was a divine trial from a goddess - it couldn't be that simple. No, something would happen during those waiting hours. Something that would test him in ways he couldn't imagine, probably involving the humming crystal maze and whatever horrors it contained.
He glanced back at the labyrinth, noting how the light seemed to shift and writhe across its surfaces like living things. Time wouldn't be his ally here.
The second possibility made his stomach drop even further. Maybe 'Find the moon' meant literally finding something - an artifact, a symbol, some moonstone hidden somewhere in that crystalline deathtrap.
If that was the case, he'd have to venture into the maze. Navigate those razor-sharp formations, avoid whatever predators called this place home, and somehow locate one specific object in a labyrinth that stretched beyond the horizon. All while the four suns slowly cooked him alive and that bone-deep humming drove him insane.
The search could take days. Weeks, even. How long could he survive without food or water in this hellscape? How long before the heat and the humming and the endless reflections shattered his mind completely?
Both options were nightmares. Either he waited here like helpless prey until danger approached, or he plunged into the maze to search for something that might not even exist.
Cel wiped sweat from his eyes and stared out at the maze again.
"Well… this is going to suck."
The thought of wandering blindly through that crystalline deathtrap with no plan made his skin crawl. At least waiting gave him some illusion of control. For now.
He settled back against the crumbling wall, resigned to his vigil.
The suns had other plans.
What started as oppressive heat became a slow-cooking nightmare. The three blazing orbs climbed higher, their light shifting from harsh to vicious. Cel's skin reddened, then began to sting. The violet crystals resonated with the increased intensity, their hum climbing to a bone-rattling pitch that made his teeth ache.
"Come on," he muttered, squinting against the growing glare. "How much hotter can it get?"
As if in response, the heat cranked up another notch.
By what felt like midday the suns hung at their zenith like three malevolent eyes. The air itself shimmered in waves, distorting his vision until the crystal maze looked like it was melting and reforming in endless loops. Colors bled together in a dizzying kaleidoscope that made his head pound.
The crystals weren't just reflecting light anymore - they were amplifying it. Each formation blazed like purple fire,radiating heat that stung his exposed skin even from the hilltop. The humming climbed to an almost unbearable shriek that seemed to come from inside his skull.
Cel pressed his palms against his ears again, but the sound had burrowed deeper than flesh and bone.
Still, nothing happened. No sudden danger. No monsters emerging from the maze. Just the relentless assault of heat, light, and sound that tormented him.
His nerves stretched tighter with each passing hour. This had to be building toward something.
Cel found himself pacing around the ruin, eyes constantly scanning the horizon. Every shadow looked like movement. Every shift in the crystal reflections seemed like something stalking closer. His heart hammered against his ribs, muscles coiled for action that never came.
"What are you waiting for?" he shouted at the maze. His voice cracked from the dry heat.
The crystals hummed their maddening song in response, offering no other answer.
A flicker of motion caught his eye - there, between two twisted formations. Cel tensed, squinting against the glare. Nothing. Just light playing tricks through the fractured surfaces.
Another movement, this time to his left. He spun around, hands clenched into fists.
Empty air.
The maze was toying with him, he realized. Using its own nature - the endless reflections, the disorienting light - to fray his nerves without lifting a finger.
Hours crawled by like wounded animals. The suns began their slow descent, their light softening from molten white to angry orange. The oppressive heat eased by degrees, allowing Cel to actually breathe without feeling like he was inhaling fire. The crystal symphony dropped to a more tolerable pitch, no longer threatening to split his skull.
Still nothing happened.
The suns touched the horizon, painting the sky in shades of burnt copper and dried blood. Long shadows stretched across the maze while the crystal formations continued to pulse with stored light.
Cel's anticipation curdled into hollow unease. He'd braced himself for creatures, for traps, for some terrible revelation. Instead, he got... nothing. Waiting. Watching. The slow torture of expectation without payoff.
Night fell like a curtain drop, swift and absolute. The violet crystals shifted from blazing beacons to gentle glowing nodes, casting ghostly light across the twisted pathways below. Their hum settled into something almost soothing - a lullaby sung by stones.
But something about the rhythm felt wrong. Too measured. Too deliberate.
Cel stood alone atop the hill, surrounded by an alien landscape that seemed to be holding its breath. No wind stirred the air. No sound disturbed the stillness beyond the crystals' hypnotic hum.
Just him, the glowing maze, and the alien song of a world waiting for something.
He tilted his head back, seeking the familiar comfort of stars, of that silver orb that had marked him as chosen.
His blood turned to ice.
The moon… was gone.