Tale of Four

Outside the cave, Alice looked at it and clicked her tongue before stepping in, seeing the muddy puddles left behind after the ice had melted. All around, the skeletons that the Magi had left behind for the completion of his puzzle were charred from the flames before, their clothes and notepads destroyed.

It infuriated her that she came back to this place after already finishing the game inside, and in the background, she was sure she could hear his mocking laugh echoing in the forest at having her dance to his tune. Ahead of her, Chesh knelt over the grave the Magi’s corpse lay in, poking it with her finger and frowning.

Alice walked over and knelt down, looking at the corpse, and grabbed its ribcage. Pulling it, she groaned, struggling to loosen it from its grave, feeling it was stuck on soemthing. "Come on." With a swift tug, the body broke, and she fell backwards, holding a rib cage and nothing else.

On the ground, staring at the dark ceiling, she let out a long sigh and slammed her head into the hard floor, dropping the ribs to the side. "Chesh, can you do this?" Looking up, she saw the black hair gone, "Of course." With a sigh, she sat up and shuffled back to the grave, and slowly tore pieces of the skeleton out of the ground, each one stuck in as if purposely done to make whoever attempted to struggle.

Half an hour passed, and although pieces of bone were still stuck, Alice didn’t bother to remove them and tried to leave, but stopped. Slowly turning around to look back at it, she then looked down at the skull, sure she saw it grinning at her. "He wouldn’t." Jumping into the grave and pulling out the quill, she let her arcane power flow through it and carefully carved the stone around those pieces to pull it free, making sure to be quick before the quill sucked too much out. After everything, she wasn’t leaving anything up to chance regarding the man. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

After another ten minutes, pulling the final fragments free, she took the bones outside and laid them out, recreating the skeleton on the ground. "Done." Sitting atop the cave, Chesh danggled her feet over the edge, kicking her feet in the air with a soft smile

"Where did you go?" Starring daggers at her, Alice turned her head and tried to innocently whistle, failing to do so before laughing.

"Why?"

"I didn’t see you leave." Alice snapped back, making the black-haired girl chuckle.

"You never do." With no counter, Alice turned away and looked down at the skeleton. Soundlessly, Chesh appeared behind her and peeked over her shoulder, nodding. "Where do you start?" Alice stared at the bones for a moment before reaching down towards his left hand.

"He held the quill in his right hand." Looking at the broken hand, she frowned, seeing it shattered into fragments, realising she was too impulsive when she pulled it the first time, "If he were to carve a rune on his bones, he would likely start with his other hand."

"What if it was a trick?" Chesh asked. Alice stared at the broken hand and shook her head.

"Then I broke our only lead, but I doubt it. This guy may be terrible, but he still wants people to learn what he found. He wouldn’t sabotage himself without anything to be gained." Picking up the left hand, Alice ran her hand over it first, trying to feel for any dents that were unnatural, flipping the hand over numerous times. Eventually, she stopped at one of the fingers, releasing it was slightly different from the others.

"Here." Holding it so the sunlight could see it, the two looked down at the index finger, "It’s faint, but..." Leaning closer, she brushed her hair out of the way, "Gathering? Maybe collection? No." With a sigh, she stared at the faint rune and frowned, "I can’t read this one? It’s not a normal rune. At least none of the ones I learnt, but it’s similar."

Chesh tilted her head, "Your teacher did say that older runes looked different."

"But the ones on the wall were ones we use now. Although there were a few I couldn’t read, I could still see they were modern runes." Alice looked back down at the finger, "He might have learnt older ones. He was obsessed with the craft after all, it wouldn’t surprise me."

"Maybe, he found out that the modern runes can’t be used on the body and had to use older ones," Chesh replied, making Alice fall into thought.

"Either way." Snapping the finger off, she put it in her bag. Looking over the rest of the hand and finding nothing, she threw it back into the cave. "I will figure it out."

"Of course." Chesh clapped and happily replied. Going around, Alice slowly made her way through the skeleton, examining every inch of it. Parts that had runes on them would be cut or broken free before chucking those that were rune-free back into the cave. Eventually, she was left with the soles of the man’s feet, his left index finger, his cheekbones and ribcage.

"All of them are the same. Similar but different." Alice stared at the largest of the runes, the one on his sternum, "It’s the same as his finger, but deeper and..." Tracing her finger, she noticed thin lines spreading out from the runes, running along the ribcage, a rune carved into each one. "Collection and gathering?" Pausing, she grabbed a stick and drew the runes from the rib on the ground before drawing the modern ones they looked like.

"Collection and gathering. All of them are that with the thin lines connecting all of them. My gosh." The more Alice stared at the ribs, the more perplexed she was. "He turned his entire ribcage into a circuit." Looking at Chesh, she raised an eyebrow, "I think I can understand, although I’m not sure. Think about what happened when I broke the caves’ first puzzle; it sucked in the energy of the world. If I’m right, he turned his body into something similar. It would explain how he could use the quill without worry. Every time it got close to sucking him dry, he could absorb the world’s energy into himself."

"But that’s if those runes mean collection and gathering, Alice." Chesh quickly replied, making her frown and fall into thought.

"Yeah. But it would explain it. His finger would be the first test. Soemthing minor that if his experiment failed wouldn’t be a big loss. As for his feet and face." Alice turned to the runes and began to seriously study them. Looking at his feet, she eventually sighed and shrugged, unsure what they meant, able to see that it was numerous runes expertly combined into one, soemthing that took more precision than the one on the ribs.

Next, where the cheeks. When she read it, her face fell before she dropped them in annoyance, "So vain." Much like the ones on the feet, they were numerous, carved to look like one. "I can’t be sure, but they are similar to longevity and things around that. He made himself stay pretty and young." Looking at Chesh, she saw her smirk and turn her head.

"Anyway, if I were to guess, he likely covered his skin with them as well." Chesh spoke after chuckling, "If he were completely insane, his muscles and organs, but I don’t know how he would do that. His eyes as well. Too bad those are long gone." Alice nodded.

"I need to go back to the Mad House after I’m done with the books. Ask the Magi about old runes." Chesh nodded. Packing the rest of the bones into her bag, Alice stared at the rib cage and cut it into pieces, making sure not to destroy any of the actual runes and only the connections between them, before stuffing it into her bag. "Let’s go."