The next morning, the team realized that they might not have been as prepared as they thought that they were. They had only packed a week worth of rations, which were now over half gone, and they were almost out of the berries for the oatmeal flavouring, which would leave them with just the dehydrated bits that came in the ration pack.
They didn't have to worry about starvation any time soon with the clerics available, but the variety of their diet would soon begin to disappear if they spent too long in the woods before returning to the train tracks.
But with the time limit imposed by the trials, they would be outside today, and once the cleric trainees had properly marked the spot on their maps as a holy relic, they could be on their way to give the news of their trip to the church.
Before he went to the Fate Stairs, Karl stopped next to one of the Golems, hoping that it would answer a question for him.
"Excuse me, do you know how often this trial can be accessed?" He inquired politely, with the assumption that a bit of courtesy might get the magical construct to answer.
[The Trials open at the will of the World Dragon.]
Karl bowed and stepped away, then focused on being sent to the Fate Stairs. The answer he got was both informative and useless at the same time. If it opened at the will of the Golden Dragon God, the World Dragon as it was sometimes known, then there was no way that he could predict the next opening date for anyone who asked.
But what he could confirm was that it would open again at some point. If the Church kept a close watch on this place, they would probably be able to tell when it would open.
The Fate Stairs were different from any of the other sides. They were cloaked in thick black shadows, which made Rae immediately regret going back to strength training. That darkness looked wonderful to her, but Karl suspected that it had some other purpose.
It was likely something along the lines of everyone's fate is their own, so you could only see your own path forward, and everything else was shadowed, but it could also be intended to change if you stepped away from the path you were on.
Could that be what it was meant to do? Show you ways to change your fate through the decisions that you made? There were Oracles among the Elites, blind seers of the future, and their visions were uncannily accurate. This could be the same sort of magic, but built into a massive temple to show more than just a glimpse of the possible futures.
One step forward brought him onto the first stair, and Karl looked upward, seeing visions of first power and glory, then tragedy in front of him. But to his left and right on the second step were misty figures of himself.
Instinctively, he knew that he could step up toward one of them and see what changes would be made if he changed the first major event along this timeline. From what he could see, he returned to the Academy and claimed credit for leading the team that found a Holy Relic.
It would make him a darling of the church and the media. His fame would rise even faster than his power would, but after some time, that fame would fade, and the lingering resentment of those who had lived in his shadow would leave him alone in the world, discarded by those he had left behind.
Both of the options would reject that next step, but neither were clear to him. Karl's first thought was to step to the left, but he found that he could only move forward unless some condition was set.
Perhaps he needed to make a choice? If he decided not to claim the find, but instead attributed it to the group, the glory would be shared between all of them and the clerics.
He thought that he could also imply that it was the presence of the future servants of the Golden Dragon that caused the trials to activate, but then how could he explain that he knew it was all at the will of the Gods, or keep them from ending up in that same discarded and shunned state he saw for himself?
It was better to put it all down to chance. They had been the first ones here after the World Dragon had willed that the trials be opened, so they were pulled in. Glory to the World Dragon and all that pious sentiment.
Yes, that seemed best.
Karl saw the path to the right begin to become a bit more clear, and resolved to make that the reality. He would instruct the others, and say that he had seen a vision on the Fate Stairs instructing him to give glory to the World Dragon. Few would argue with that, and those in power would be more inclined to listen.
Karl stepped up to the right, and a new future path became clearer in front of him. In this one, the ten members of the team all became much stronger, and began to surpass the average, becoming notable among the Elites of the Academy.
His mind began to spin as the visions of ten different people's futures were slowly played out in front of him, and Karl saw the impact that a single decision could have on the futures of everyone around him.
He didn't see any horrible endings for them, they would all end up with some level of success and recognition, while their two clerics would become pillars of the church.
The Pillars were those in favour of the Gods, who could use Holy Magic at Royal Rank or higher. Each of them would gain a boon from their chosen deity, a special spell that only they could use. From what Karl remembered, the current head of the church naturally followed the World Dragon, and was granted the boon of Rebirth. He could bring the dead back to life, with some limitations.
What those limits were, Karl didn't know, but there was video footage of him resurrecting a murdered cleric after an attack on one of the churches near the border. Every student in the Golden Dragon Nation had seen that footage in primary school.
With such bright futures for everyone in the vision, Karl took a step forward and found himself somewhere entirely different.
He was still on a staircase, but one with no start and no ending point. It simply floated in a sea of stars, and a sense of power and timelessness surrounded him.
The first trial must have been to choose a path for your immediate future. Once you found a decision that you were content with, or intended to follow through, the vision ended.
But this place didn't have any instructions. He could go up or down endlessly, it didn't seem to matter which he chose, though upward was generally seen as the correct way. You should strive to work hard and move beyond, up the social ranks, increasing in reputation, up was used to signify all things beneficial.
But down seemed so much easier. If he were going to travel indefinitely, he could certainly make it further going down than up. His strength and willpower would last longer, and he would see so much more if it were going to give him visions or rewards.
Then an absolutely insane notion came to mind. This was just a staircase floating in the nothingness. The mental spaces where he kept Hawk and the others began as an empty void as well. If he simply stepped off the side, what would happen?
Could he continue walking as he wished? Would he fall endlessly? The curiosity was egging him on, encouraging him to do something wild, just because he didn't know and couldn't know what would happen.
As he considered it, Karl felt a sense of curiosity and amusement flow into the space. Not his own, but as if there were someone or something watching him. Someone who could read his thoughts.
"A little help here? What way is the right way?" Karl called into the nothingness.
For nearly a minute, nothing happened, though the sense of amusement remained.
Then the whisper of a man's voice filled the space.
[There is no right way. There is definitely a wrong way. But there is only your way.] It spoke.
Dammit. He was terrible at riddles and brain-teaser type problems.
There was no right way, only his way, but there was a wrong way for it to be his way? Or his way was destined to be the wrong way?
Jumping off the side of the staircase was beginning to look like a better option than trying to figure out what way was the best, and that feeling was increasing by the second.
Karl took the ration pack spoon out of his pocket and began to flip it in his hand as he considered his options. Over and over it flipped, then Karl noticed something odd. The more he focused on the spoon, the slower it spun, as if gravity stopped working correctly because Karl was focused on the spoon being where it was.
That gave Karl an idea. He would go up. Not up the stairs, but straight up into the air.
So, he crouched and gathered his strength, then jumped, flying high above the staircase for one brief glorious moment, seeing the staircase fade into the distance beneath him as if he were a God himself, floating through the universe.
Before landing exactly where he started.
[Not very bright, is he?] Karl heard a second voice ask.
[But entertaining.] The first whispered, and then Karl was back in the grass next to the campsite.