Laurence sighed, before walking forwards and pushing his key into the final slot. Like before, the key slid into the offending slot and melded with it perfectly, leaving Laurence to watch the door as it shuddered be rumbled. Collectively, the mass of people before the door held their breaths until slowly, arduously, the door split down the middle and slid open. A gust of ancient air burst out of the doors, revealing a simple hallway that stretched into infinity.
Laurence nodded to Peter and walked into the hallway then turned and ushered Gawayen and Yveth inside as well, "Come on! There might be some traps you set off on your own, and I am not coming back to get you."
Growling, Gawayen strode forwards, shoulders hunched in barely concealed rage. His leather coat flicked out with each wide step as he sought to catch up to Laurence and Peter, with Yveth not too far behind. As they followed the path, Laurence began to notice that there was something odd about the walkway they were on. The further they walked, the more he realised that the walls were slowly fading out of view. At first it was not very noticeable, but his incessant use of his truesight began showing its worth when it picked up the details on the materials the path was made of slowly becoming less and less distinct. At first he assumed it was because of an increase in work quality, but there was a tipping point where his cursory truesense was showing something more.
"Halt," he said, raising his hand and squatting down for a second. He spread his truesense out in all directions and frowned, "There is something wrong here."
"What is it?" Peter asked, "Are we near to the well proper?"
Laurence was silent for a moment, before sighing admiration. Quickly, he stood up and began moving again.
"Are you not going to tell us what you found out?" Yveth asked, the large grin that had sprung on her face at Laurence's arrival still fixed firmly below her sharp nose, "Such a tease!"
"There was something off about the path we were on, I've never experienced anything like it. The further we walked the more things became... Fuzzy. At first I thought it was nothing, then I guessed it might be a trap we had stumbled into, but the reality of the situation is much more fascinating."
"I don't care about your conjecture, are we near the well or not?" Gawayen snapped, his hands sketching patterns in his arms around his myriad piercings.
"Tetchy, tetchy, daddy," Yveth mutered, laughing quietly at the whole situation.
"You really can't see the wood for the trees can you?" Laurence said, "That massive hole that defied the natural order by being deeper than the island it sat on is the well. We have been in the Well of Yoth the entire time, but right now - right now we are going somewhere very special. We are soon going to be entering the heart of this amazing creation."
With a single step forwards by Laurence, the hallway that was slowly fading out of existence seemed to shatter entirely, leaving the four of them on a very simple stone path. Motes of green light connected each slab on the path, guiding them and lighting their way towards a doorway outlined by those same firefly-flickers. As they walked along the path they were all careful to not step off the path; they did not know what would happen if they did, but this late in their journey none of them were willing to find out.
They reached the doorway and walked through, into a room lit by in depth lines of that same green. At the heart of a room was a raised plinth wrapped in that same ethereal light. The plinth was orbited by two balls of which the light originated, like little satellites, one brighter than the other. The group looked on as they bathed in the soft green. Varying sized dots scattered around the two orbs, spiralling closer and closer with each rotation that they made. It was like a microcosm of a solar system, one which happened to have two suns.
A thousand thoughts rushed through Laurence’s head when he saw the plinth, but the single word that presided over every other momentary blip and concept was just, “Finally.” For a moment, he did not even realise that he had spoken the word aloud. In saying such a thing his voice sounded odd to him. He was relieved. He was almost free of a burden he had held within him for far too long. As he turned around to confront the two Avalonians that stood behind him and Peter, he clutched the pendant that held Cleo and smiled. “This is it. This is the Wishing Well of Yoth, the core, the place where you make the wishes. Peter and I will decide between us who uses the plint first, and then you can go after.” Laurence turned back to his companion, but before he could utter a single word, Gawayen replied.
“No, that’s not what’s going to happen. You see, Laurence, we only needed you to get to this point here. And now you have no value, so it’s time to end you and use your body to make Avalon, no, to make me stronger.”
Seemingly from nowhere, hundreds of bones seemed to cascade from behind him like a wave, compacting as they arrived before the man. In an instant, an arming sword had appeared in his hand. It was grey-green and gave its owner a bare edge that had been so gently hidden behind schemes and meticulous planning. He raised his blade to point at Laurence and smiled, “It’s time to remove the Doom of Avalon from existence. Yveth, end the other one, my fight has been foreordained and I really don’t want complications.”
“But you have no idea how to activate the well!”
“Oh, we do, Bookbearer,” Yveth replied, “I found the diary of the wonderful woman who made this place. I know all about it, how it works, how to activate it, even the name lady Yoth’s poor, doomed lover. As my father said, we don’t need you anymore.”
Laurence summoned his hammer to his hand, and the glow he had held within his skin burst out like a corona around him. Laurence’s excess energy shifted the colour of the light in the room to teal, and momentarily blinded the other three. In that instant he jumped towards Gawayen and swung his hammer, his fury at being obstructed by Yveth and her companions returning in full force.
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