Her mother Pelenia, the current queen of Anailia happily waved at them as they drew closer, managing to look both excited and oh-so-smug.

“Mother, if you were going to come then why didn’t you just meet us at home?”

“Because then you might have tried to stop me,” She laughed. “Don’t think I don’t know how you’d react.”

“Okay, but this might end up taking a couple days. Don’t you have an entire nation to run? A nation that should be preparing for the next wave I might add?”

“You’re darling mother deserves a break too,” Pelenia told her, covering her eyes with the back of her hand and largely acting dramatic. “Besides, I already spoke with everyone that matters about this affair. They all understand and I’m sure our country will manage fine without me.”

The country will manage, yeah, but I have my doubts about how your talks went.

In Thera’s estimates, whatever advisors, employees, and others of note had likely been given little to no choice when it came to accepting what her mom wanted to do. She was too much of a free spirit to take no for an answer and pretty much all of the people under her had accepted that fact by now, even if they didn’t exactly like it and would still try to push back when it really mattered. She could only imagine plenty of them losing sleep given that they’d been given basically zero notice that the one they were working for had run off to a place where she could potentially die. If that did happen the impact on her homeland would be huge given what an important time it was for everyone, just thinking about it couldn’t help but make Thera stress out a bit herself.

“Relax sweetheart, just think of it as a little family bonding experience.”

“So you’re not doing this because you’re jealous aunty awakened her life magic?” Thera asked through narrowed eyes that her mother refused to meet. “Yeah, of course you are.”

She knew her mom’s charm was at the seventh level, there was no doubt in her mind that she was hoping that getting the blessing would give her another one so she could push it into awakening too. Symbolically, it might even be good for her to awaken it. As the queen of Anailia, awakening the skill so closely tied to their race was sure to impress a few of their people and create a good atmosphere for at least a little while in such a troubling time; though less so if they knew the motivation behind it.

In the end, she could only sigh. Whatever her mother’s reason for being there, Thera had no reason to argue against her presence. Even if Pelenia could be a bit much, they did love each other and knowing that one of the results could mean that she’d be given a few extra decades was something that would make her genuinely happy.

“Alright, just don’t get hurt,” She said in the end. “I’m pretty sure dad would try to go to war with the gods if you were injured in the tower.”

“I know, your father really is the sweetest,” She laughed, enjoying the idea far more than she was meant to when it was brought up.

“Ahem, so if that’s all sorted should we head in?” Ben asked, getting affirmatives from everyone. They were all feeling prepared, especially since they already knew what the first floor was going to contain and what their strategy would be for beating it so they joined hands to keep from being separated and went in to face the darkness within.

By all accounts, it was a straightforward one. On a floor where no light could exist, either magical or through chemical combustion, they needed to make it to the far-off exit while avoiding being led astray to any surrounding traps by the hallucinations that were going to be forced upon them.

It was straightforward as far as applications of dark magic went, but sure to be a nightmare for the average group of challengers that were forced to discern fantasy and reality without even their eyes to help them. Them though? Not so much.

There may have been no light, but her aunt Funa was a spirit, she didn’t perceive the world like that anyway. Instead, she sensed anything that interacted with her element, along with dark mana itself which the floor was flooded with. The rest of them couldn’t see, but for her, it couldn’t be brighter.

So with nothing else they could do they slowly moved forward, all of them walking with care with nothing acting on their minds for the time being either. Either the trial was waiting to show its effects or something else was at play.

“Stop!” Funa called out, but too late. A change, minor if it had happened in the light but terrible in the dark, ended up striking as each of them suddenly felt something hit their feet, making them stumble and at least one person fall, breaking the chain they’d made and letting the mental effects take root.

It seemed as if the trial had been waiting for such a thing, giving them just enough separation that they couldn’t trust their senses while the voices of the others filled the void, dozens of them calling out in confusion, with one hidden among them sounding resigned.

“It would seem the trial was designed to spring forth a few stumbling blocks to separate us if need be. Ben, be a dear and look after Thera, it seems I’m going to need to grab the other two.”

“You got it.”

Even if he couldn’t see her, he could still reach out with his connect to find her since they were all still so close, giving her a sense of comfort as against the throng of so many other voices she knew that whatever mind effects there were probably weren’t doing much to him and felt him take her hand. Both hands in fact, pulling in opposite directions.

“Come on, this way,” They both said as one in a way that would have been reminiscent of the first trial they’d ever done together if not for how, unlike last time, one of the two didn’t have her best interest at heart.

“Don’t worry, I’m real, come on this way.”

“The others are just over here, come on.”

“Yeah, I have no clue which voice to trust here,” She muttered, getting a reaction from both.

“Which voice?” They again asked as one before they presumably connected to her, hearing what the other had to say through her mind.

“I’ll admit, he sounds cute so I get why you might be fooled, but I’m definitely the real one,” The one holding onto her left hand said.

“Ignore his sultry tone, neither of us can let ourselves be led by him no matter how handsome he sounds,” The one on her right spoke back, making her want to drop both hands to grab her head.

“You know, I would have thought the fake one would try and take this a bit more seriously.”

“That would be a bit of a giveaway, don’t you think?”

“Which does lead to the small problem of how I’m going to prove I’m real. Funa, want to give her a clue?”

“On the left.”

“On the right.”

Both voices sounded like her aunt, though one was clearly a mental attack, same as she was already dealing with.

“Aunty, there’s no way you can’t do something about this.”

“You’re right,” She laughed back. “But where’s the fun in that? The trial wouldn’t have this if there was no way to tell which was real, why not take some time to see if you could get it right?”

“Because one of them is definitely trying to kill me?”

“And I’ll stop things before that can happen.”

“Sounds fun,” One Ben told them, with the other not being outdone.

“I’m game.”

This has to be the dumbest thing anyone has ever done in this trial.

“Fine, just don’t be mad when I get it wrong.”

She could hear the sounds of struggling coming from both Karly and her mother but ignored it, believing her aunt had things well in hand while she focused on trying to guess which was which, though nothing either said had seemed like enough to make her guess with both of them picking up on that fact.

“I guess the problem here is that anything you or I know, the trial probably does as well,” One said.

“It really does create an issue with determining things. Maybe it adds a bit of false information to create a chance of giving it away, or maybe it can’t know everything?”

“Hmm, if I was designing this then I think I’d make it so the trial creates the hallucinations from the mind of the specific target to force them to compare the one in their head against the real one.”

“Oh now that is a fun idea, I like that. You could get something interesting doing the opposite as well though, create the hallucination from the mind being mimicked to see if the person being targeted can differentiate between their companion and who their companion thinks they are.”

“Oh, that could be interesting, but at the same time potentially too easy. I’ve read enough minds by this point to know that people don’t always show who they are on the inside.”

“True, but there’s definitely gotta be ways to counteract it. Maybe their idealized self could be modified by the behaviour they show upon entering? Though I’ll admit, your idea was better for this sort of thing, I just wanted to spitball from there.”

“Hey, no worries, that could be fun in itself. I wonder if I could ever talk a mind god into letting me help design a trial for them? That would definitely work in a situation where a person has to face both who they think they are on the inside and who they actually show the world.”

“I was just thinking the same. A shame that so many gods seem like they aren’t exactly fans, I would love the chance to do some trial designing with any. Maybe something to look into for the future.”

Thera, staying quiet during all of this while she hoped for any sort of clue could hold back her comments no longer. “Why is it that every time you meet a replica of yourself you immediately get all buddy-buddy with them?”

“It’s probably a sign that I’m nice and well-adjusted since I can get along so well with me. Better than hating myself, right?”

“It could also have to do with the way I think making the idea of comparing thoughts against the same mind feel like a bit of a treat by this point.”

“Of course, there’s no need to draw this out any longer so why don’t I tell you how to figure out which of us is real?”

“Oh, this should be good. In that case, also make sure to wait so I can tell you why he’s wrong. Getting pulled into a flawed idea is just going to leave you blushing when we get out of here,” He laughed, sounding teasing and like he was getting way too much entertainment out of this whole thing.

“Naw, this is a pretty easy solution. Thera, just try and petrify both of us.”

“Wait, what? That’s-”

She didn’t need to hear anymore and immediately pulled away from the hand that spoke last, hanging tight to the Ben who’d given the suggestion.

“See, easy solution,” He laughed. “The illusions need to have some sort of self-preservation or they’d risk giving themselves away.”

“Oh, was that what I was supposed to get?”

“Was it not?”

Even though he couldn’t see it, she still shook her head. “I just couldn’t imagine anyone but the real you suggesting anything that crazy.”

She could still hear the voice of the other in her head telling her that she was wrong, that her mistake was putting her in danger, but ignored it. She had absolute faith in her choice and with that small game done they moved on, slowly making their way out and finishing that floor of the trial.