SWNOVELS Chapter 14
“And we don’t have the luxury of making mistakes!” Lyra snapped, slamming her palm down on the pedestal. The puzzle box pulsed in response, its patterns swirling chaotically. “This isn’t just about us anymore. The fate of multiple worlds hangs in the balance. If we fail here, everything we’ve fought for will be for nothing.
The tension between them crackled like electricity, filling the air with an almost palpable charge. Fenris could feel his wolf stirring, responding to his anger and frustration. He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.
“I know the stakes,” he said, his voice low and controlled. “But we can’t let fear paralyze us. Sometimes you have to trust your gut, take a leap of faith.”
Lyra’s expression softened slightly, but the determination in her eyes remained. “And sometimes you need to think before you leap. I understand your frustration, Fenris. I feel it too. But we can’t afford to be reckless.”
They stared at each other for a long moment, the impasse stretching between them. Finally, Fenris sighed, running a hand over his face. “So what do you suggest we do?”
Lyra turned back to the puzzle box, her fingers tracing the ever-shifting patterns. “We keep working. We combine our strengths. Your instincts led us to this book, which could be the key to unlocking the spell. My knowledge can help interpret the symbols. We just need to find the right balance.”
Fenris nodded reluctantly, moving to stand beside her once more. “Alright. We’ll try it your way. But if we don’t make progress soon…”
“Then we’ll consider alternatives,” Lyra conceded. “But let’s exhaust this avenue first.”
They bent over the puzzle box together, their earlier argument still simmering beneath the surface. As they worked, Fenris couldn’t help but wonder if their clashing approaches would ultimately be their undoing. He respected Lyra’s intelligence and magical prowess, but her cautious, academic method felt stifling to his more instinctual nature.
Hours passed, marked only by the shifting of shadows across the chamber floor. They made incremental progress, deciphering fragments of the spell hidden within the puzzle’s complex patterns. But with each small victory came new layers of complexity, new riddles to unravel.
Fenris found his attention wandering, his enhanced senses picking up hints of danger beyond the chamber walls. Faint howls echoed in the distance, a chilling reminder of the creatures that had chased them into the temple. He could have sworn he heard the scrape of claws on stone, growing ever closer.
“Lyra,” he said, his voice tight with urgency. “I think we’re running out of time. Those things outside… they’re getting closer. I can feel it.”
She looked up from her work, her face pale and drawn with exhaustion. “I know. I can sense it too. The magical barriers around the temple are weakening. But we’re so close, Fenris. Just a little more time…”
A distant crash echoed through the chamber, followed by an unearthly howl that made the hair on the back of Fenris’s neck stand on end. “We don’t have more time,” he growled, his eyes flashing with a hint of amber. “We need to act now.”
Lyra hesitated, torn between her instinct for caution and the undeniable threat bearing down on them. In that moment of indecision, Fenris made a choice that would alter the course of their quest irrevocably.
Without warning, he placed both hands on the puzzle box and closed his eyes. He reached deep within himself, calling forth the primal energy of his wolf form. Lyra’s cry of alarm barely registered as he felt the change beginning to overtake him.
“Fenris, no!” Lyra shouted, but it was too late.
Power surged through him, raw and untamed. The puzzle box beneath his hands pulsed with blinding light, its patterns swirling faster and faster. Lyra’s magic joined with his own, whether by choice or necessity, he couldn’t tell. The chamber filled with a deafening roar as ancient energies collided and intertwined.
For a heart-stopping moment, Fenris thought he had made a terrible mistake. The magic threatened to tear him apart, to consume both him and Lyra in its chaotic maelstrom. But then, just as suddenly as it had begun, everything went still.
Fenris opened his eyes, blinking away the afterimages of the magical surge. The puzzle box lay open before them, its contents revealed at last. But as he turned to Lyra, ready to celebrate their success, the words died in his throat.
She stood frozen, her eyes wide with a mixture of awe and horror. And clutched in her trembling hands was not the Moonstone they had sought, but something far more ominous – a crystal orb swirling with shadows and starlight, pulsing with a power that made the very air around them shudder.
“What have we done?” Lyra whispered, her voice barely audible over the pounding of Fenris’s heart.
As if in answer, a bone-chilling howl echoed through the chamber.