The ice castle was stout and wide, sitting in the shadow of the black tower. Its architecture was cartoonishly rounded. The erie smiling face of a massive ice imp leered at Squad 46 from the front of the grand door.

  “What… Is this?” Norok asked.

  Will pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with a proud smile. “After thinking about it for a while last night, I realized that what Squad 57 really beats us in is camaraderie.”

  “They are crazy good at communicating,” Daimona said, nodding profusely.

  “Exactly, and we need to get better at that, spend more time together as a team. That's why I figured we could use our free day to do some team bonding exercises.”

  Will turned to gesture to the castle. “Pultz said he'd be happy to help out, so I asked him to build an escape room for us.”

  “Escape room?” Irina raised an eyebrow.

  ‘Pultz helped?” Kell uttered in disbelief.

  “Well…” Will frowned, scratching his chin. “Pultz said he'd be happy to help if it meant we wouldn't bother him today.”

  Norok chuckled. That sounded right. He looked at the castle, catching a flicker of movement in the windows of the tallest spire. “So what do we get if we win?”

  “I mean,” Will laughed awkwardly. “It's an exercise, so--”

  “I want your glasses,” Norok interrupted.

  “Ooh, I want a whole roasted bear!” Daimona jumped up and down excitedly. “I haven't had bear in forever!”

  “Sparkboy and I will take riches,” Irina added. Kell shot her an offended look. Irina tilted her head as she softly asked, “Do you not want riches?”

  Kell opened his mouth, then closed it as he weighed the option. Eventually he shrugged and nodded to Will. “Riches sound good, actually.”

  “Guys, no, there's no prize!” Will shouted.

  “Better beat us to the top then, Captain, otherwise you'll have to pay up,” Kell said deviously. “Come on everybody!!”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Norok dashed with the others, ignoring Will’s protests from behind. Once they had all vaulted themselves through the doors, the ice fused into a wall, blocking their exit.

  “We're supposed to do this together,” Will panted, leaning over with his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. “So no prize.”

  “Says you,” Irina replied snarkily.

  The room before them was a glittering hall of ice. Snow-white tapestries depicting the sword in the stone sigil Norok had seen countless times before decorated the walls. In the middle of the room was a beautifully sculpted round table, with twelve seats evenly spaced around it. Behind the table was an empty throne of smooth stone.

  A projection of light shot up from the center of the table. In the same grainy, hair-like particles from the simulation chamber emerged Pultz's floating bust.

  “Testing, testing… Alrighty,” Pultz’s voice came in crackles, his projection pulsing with each syllable. “Welcome to the King’s Game, a uh… What was it you wanted again, Saint?”

  “An escape room?”

  “Right, that,” Pultz said dully. “Anyways, all you kids gotta do is uh… Do the puzzles, bring the King his sword. You know. Team bonding. Alright, knock yourselves out.”

  The projection dissipated with a final yawn from Pultz. Kell frowned, looking around the room.

  “What if we can’t get out?” he asked.

  “Of course we’ll get out,” Will scoffed, investigating under the table. “You heard Pultz, we just have to play the game. Everyone look for a sword.”

  Norok began examining the rest of the ice-sculpted furniture. The bookshelves were hyperrealistic, with each book uniquely bound. As he leaned in to look closer, however, he could see that the titles were all repeating strings of gibberish, random letters placed together to look like content enough for the undiscerning eye.

  “Make up your mind, dude,” Norok mumbled under his breath. “Put in the effort or don’t.”

  “So what’s the deal with you guys and swords anyways?” Daimona asked. She tugged at one of the tapestries boredly, clearly uninterested in solving anything that didn’t require brute force.

  “You haven’t heard the Legend of the King?” Kell replied, perking up. He looked to Norok eagerly. “Have you?”

  “No,” Norok said, shaking his head as he made his way back towards the table. Kell bounced excitedly, sprinting towards the throne and touching the armrests lightly.

  “They say the First King of Fable was a real hero who never used magic! His strength was so intense, he could withstand the heat of a thousand suns, breathe twenty leagues under the sea and communicate with beasts in their own tongue. His sword-- the blade we swear by-- is the one that killed the evil mage Merlin.”

  Something about that name sent a shiver up Norok’s spine. He had heard Will use the word before as a form of cursing, but there was an instinctive recoil in his gut at the mention of the person. He was about to ask more before Daimona suddenly gasped.

  “Found something!” Daimona shouted, tearing a tapestry clean off the wall and tossing it to the side. The tapestry melted in an instant, and in its place was a gaping hole, winding out to an unknown, dark abyss. “It’s not a sword, but it’s still cool.”

  “Let’s finish investigating here first, and then we’ll--”

  Irina and Daimona were already gone before Will could finish his sentence. He groaned, jogging to catch up as Kell laughed behind.

  Norok stood at the entryway, looking back at the empty throne. The room was eerily silent, his vision starting to sway the longer he stared at it.

  “Norok?” Kell said, stopping a few feet ahead. “You coming?”

  Norok swallowed dryly. “Yeah, sorry.”

  He turned away, following Kell into the dark.