Emily and the Statues

Though the gesture looked like an attempt to comfort Emily, it did nothing of the sort. She faced an awful choice: to venture into a watery maze filled with unknown dangers or to remain in this cold, desolate castle with no way out.

There was a harsh, grating noise of metal on metal as Brom cleared his throat. "I understand yer hesitation, Miss Emily. Were I in your shoes, I'd be wary too. Jivaro's tales of the Labyrinth can be a bit... exaggerated."

Jivaro the jester hopped forward, nearly toppling off his plinth, but somehow stablizing himself. His stony eyes glared at Brom. "Oi! I speak only the truth, bronze behemoth!"

Brom simply chuckled as the tiny jester shook his fists.

"Regardless of Jivaro's flair for the dramatic," Aria said, "the danger is real. The choice is Emily's alone."

The weight of countless eyes bearing down on her vulnerable form made Emily's decision all the more difficult. She thought of her home, her roommate, her mom and dad. How long would it be before they knew she was missing? What would they think? She had to get back to them, but she had no idea how. "I need to think," she finally whispered.

"Of course," said Aria, her voice gentle. "Please, wander about the castle, and take all the time you need."

Emily nodded and turned to shuffle out of the hall of statues, shifting her arms to obscure her butt from stone and metal eyes.

"One more thing!" Aria cried out, just as Emily reached the doorway.

"Yes?" Emily asked, looking over her shoulder.

Aria paused briefly and then said, "If I am restored to flesh, my gown shall be yours!"

"Now we're talkin'!" shouted Brom.

"Shush!"

Emily smiled to herself as she turned back into the hallway. Now that she had spent more time here, and become acquainted with the place's inhabitants, the strange and foreboding atmosphere of the place seemed to have softened. Castle Elid remained an eerie place, but it now appeared more lonely and sad than frightening.

As her bare feet stepped soundlessly down the corridors of Elid Castle, Emily relaxed and allowed her arms to fall to her sides. She would be ready to cover up at the sound of another voice emanating from an object that appeared inanimate, but for now she was truly alone.

The rooms she came across were largely empty, their furnishings long removed or rotted away. In some rooms, she found old bedframes, ancient tables and chairs, but never a sheet or curtain or blanket to cover her nudity or provide warmth from the castle's many drafts.

If she used her imagination, she could picture some of the rooms as they might once have been. Some must have been banquet halls, others ballrooms. But little remained as a reminder of those times, beyond the strangely long-lasting torches on the walls.

The most interesting room she stumbled upon was an old library, full of leather-bound books stacked upon wooden shelves. Pulling one book out, she found to her shock that she could read it. The book contained tales of the land of Thessolan, of knights, mages, and fierce dragons. Of princes, princesses, kings and queens. Each page appeared to have been painstakingly hand-written, with beautiful illustrations and elaborate border details.

When she'd first entered the library, the thought of tearing pages out of books to construct a makeshift outfit had crossed her mind, but their beauty and craftmanship were such that the idea now filled her with an even greater shame than her nudity. Emily had always loved books, and in this world, they were clearly rare and difficult to produce. To defile such beautiful objects... it was better to remain naked, as difficult as that was.

The library also contained the first mirror she'd come across in her journey. Through a layer of dust, she looked upon her naked body between the shelves, a leather-bound book open in her hands. A moment of vanity told her this would make for a creative and quite saucy photo opportunity if only she had her phone. She could think of a few guys who would be quite keen on seeing such photos. Laughing to herself, she struck a few tasteful poses. Though not having anything to wear once she was done soured the experience somewhat.

Her hair and body were dry by now, and she took a moment to put her hair up in a bun, getting it out of her eyes. This only made her feel more exposed, so she took it down again, slipping the hair tie back onto her wrist. With her hair back down, she attempted to arrange some of it so that it covered her breasts, Lady Godiva-style. This worked well enough and would stay in place as long as she walked carefully.

She had a choice, but really it was no choice at all. The statues had been correct when they told her that there was no way out of this castle--if she ventured too far down one corridor, she'd just end up back where she started. Magic was probably involved somehow. Unless she wanted to while away her time reading books in this library, there was only one thing to do.

After checking her hair one last time in the mirror, she returned to the hall of statues. All eyes turned to her as she entered the doorway, her right hand plastered over her crotch.

"Alright," Emily began, looking directly at Aria. "I'll do it. I'll enter the Labyrinthine Pool and retrieve the Stoneshell."

Brom smiled warmly at her. "We knew ya had the heart of a hero, Miss Emily."

Aria, her face etched with gratitude, said, "Thank you, thank you! At last, we shall all be free!"

Jivaro rubbed his small stone hands together, moving them so fast that bits flaked off. "Excellent! A new challenger approaches the Labyrinthine Pool! Best of luck to you, Lady Emily of Greenville, our beautiful and bare benefactor!"

Blushing, Emily asked, "How do I get to this Labyrinthine Pool?"

Aria gestured towards a doorway that Emily had previously not noticed. "It lies at the very heart of the castle. Bromberht and I shall guide you there."

A loud crack sounded from the plinth below Aria as she lifted a sandal-clad foot and brought it forward. Dust and fragments of marble sprinkled the ground beneath her as her legs separated, clearly for the first time in many years.

Emily winced at the noise. "Does that hurt?"

"N-no," Aria replied, grimacing as she staggered forward, almost losing her balance. "It just... takes a bit of effort." With jerky, uneven steps, she advanced towards where Emily stood, causing the latter to spring back, lest Aria lose her balance and fall. "Forgive me, I have not had any cause to leave my station for over a century."

Emily could feel the immense weight of Brom's bronze form moving behind her, from the tremors made by each of his footfalls. Up close, his surface was visibly tarnished, in contrast to Aria's immaculate complexion. He moved swiftly and with greater ease and confidence than Aria but with the same mechanical rigidity. "Aren't I always telling ye to move about more, Lady Aria?" he said playfully.

"Yes, yes, you're quite correct, Brom," Aria replied dismissively. "I just need a moment to return the feeling to my limbs."

Emily watched with fascination as Lady Aria's marble form jerked through a series of stretches, the stone of her limbs grinding against each other and producing a copious amount of dust and debris. She had never seen anything quite like it and had to pinch her thigh, for about the tenth time, to convince herself that she wasn't dreaming.

"There we are. I feel much better now. Follow us, Emily, the Labyrinthine Pool isn't too far." Aria walked over to Brom, moving much more surely now, and the two statues beckoned Emily to follow them to the doorway Aria had indicated.

"All honor and gratitude to Lady Emily, Savior of the Statues!" cried Jivaro's shrill voice. "I shall compose a song to tell of her bravery, her epic deeds, and the alluring curve of her backside!"

Realising that her hands had fallen at her sides while watching Aria, Emily blushed and scurried towards the moving statues, who led her into a mercifully dim hallway.

"Pay Jivaro no mind, Miss Emily," said Brom. "He's harmless, really."

Emily sighed and turned her gaze to Aria, who had taken the lead. She wondered what the marble gown she'd been promised would look and feel like after she retrieved the pendant and broke the curse. She felt a tinge of guilt about Aria's offer, which would leave her without anything to wear. But then, it had been an offer freely given, and surely the least of the statues could do in exchange for Emily's undertaking of such a dangerous quest.

Besides, the gown looked quite loose and flowy. Perhaps, with some careful alterations, it could provide outfits for both of them.

As they walked, Aria pointed out rooms in the castle and explained what they had been for during her time as a royal occupant. She pointed out bedrooms, servant's quarters and mage's chambers and told brief, light stories of the people who had lived there. For his part, Brom indicated the stones on the wall that would give way to reveal hidden passages and stories of his time as one of the castle's defenders. During some of these stories, especially those concerning mages, the statues would trail off and quickly change the subject, clearly unwilling to relive the events that had led to their petrification.

Finally, Emily and her statue guides turned a final corner and came upon a large, cavernous room with a warm dampness in the air. The walls, floor and ceiling of the room were of the same color as the rest of the castle, but here were unbroken natural rock rather than carved stone slabs. It was as though the castle had been built around a natural cavern, which they had now entered.

In the middle of the cavern was a still pool, its waters shimmering by the light of a single torch on an adjacent wall.

"Here it is," said Brom. "The Labyrinthine Pool."

Emily glanced down at the water. In the dim light, it was entirely opaque, like a portal to the unknown. "How will I know where to go?" she asked.

"A light will guide you," said Aria. "That is what the legends say. All who enter the Labyrinthine Pool know where they must go. It is the going, not the finding, that presents the difficulty."

Emily shivered and felt the chill of cool metal rest gently on her shoulder. It was Brom's enormous hand. "Ye were sent here for a reason, Miss Emily," he said, staring resolutely ahead. "You've courage and wits enough to best whatever this Pool throws at ye."

"I don't feel very brave," Emily muttered.

"Real heroes seldom do," said Aria. "But they don't let that stop them." She placed her own marble hand on Emily's other shoulder.

Emily's gaze fixed on the surface of the pool. Aria had a point, she thought. Despite everything, she had come this far. A less courageous person in her situation would probably still be sitting in the stone bath room, curled into a fetal position, willing herself to wake up. Despite the insanity of her situation, being transported to a strange world with magic and talking statues, and having to navigate it totally naked, she had stepped into the role of a hero. Reluctantly, perhaps, but indisputably.

"Let's get this over with," she said. The statues squeezed her shoulders appreciatively. "Ow!"

"Sorry!" said Brom and Aria in unison, immediately withdrawing their hands.

"It's fine," Emily replied, rubbing both shoulders as she advanced towards the pool. She dipped an experimental toe in and found that the water was warm, just as Aria had said. It felt just like her bath.

Her mind filled with thoughts of the comforts of home, she slowly lowered her body into the water. The water surrounded her in a comforting embrace. Emily paddled out, noting that the pool quickly became too deep for her feet to touch the surface. It also wasn't very big, being merely the entrance to a large labyrinth.

"Time to go under, I guess," she said, turning back to smile at Aria and Brom.

"Good luck, Emily," Aria said. "We will see you again soon."

Emily sucked in a deep breath and dove down, plunging into the depths. For a moment, all was in darkness, but soon small spots of light appeared in the corner of her vision. As she watched, a school of luminescent fish swam by, the light of their scales illuminating the vast underwater space she now found herself in. They swam rapidly forward and down, and Emily kicked against the water in pursuit.

Odd rock formations were scattered across the cavern floor, and it took Emily a moment to recognize them as statues. She recalled Jivaro's description of the Labyrinthine Pool, and of the statues that had unsuccessfully tried to navigate it. A pang of sadness grasped her heart, and she had to avert her eyes.

The fish led her down to a gap between a decaying castle wall and the natural rock of the cavern floor. It was just large enough for her to squeeze through, where she found herself in a narrow tunnel. After a few perilous seconds of swimming through the tunnel, it widened at the top, and Emily caught sight of a surface. Lungs burning, she sprang upward and breached the surface of the water, immediately opening her mouth and gulping in fresh air.

After catching her breath, Emily looked up at the cavern ceiling, in which glowing runes had been carved. She had no idea what they said, if anything at all, but they provided an eerie blue light for the tunnel, which split off into a fork not far ahead. She had truly entered the maze now. At least the water was warm.

Taking another deep breath, Emily dove back down and followed the tunnel to the right. After a couple of tight turns, the tunnel slanted steeply upwards, and Emily broke the surface of the water in the middle of a tubular chamber that appeared to be made entirely of gleaming white marble. Along the sides of the chamber were a series of alcoves, occurring at regular intervals. Each one glowed brightly in a different color, from teal to aqua.

As she passed close to the alcoves, they seemed to whisper to her in different voices. Some were deep and low, others high-pitched. At first, they spoke in a jumble of words from different languages she couldn't understand--she recognized French, German, Japanese--but as she progressed through the chamber they gradually became intelligible.

"Go back, go back!" the voices urged her. "Leave us!"

Always a stubborn girl, Emily set her face in a hard expression and pressed on. The voices became more detailed in their pleas, warning her of great dangers if she should press on. They told her she was weak, unprepared, and would never survive the trials ahead.

"Return!"

"Leave now before it is too late!"

"One such as you is no match for the Labyrinthine Pool!"

A shrill lady's voice echoed from one alcove when she had almost reached the end. "Where is your bathing suit, young strumpet? A shameful display!"

A hot blush overcame Emily, and she submerged her head in the water, so she didn't have to listen to the voices anymore. Thankfully, she had almost reached the end of the chamber, where marble once again became stone. She pushed on passed the final alcoves and entered another tunnel.

The next tunnel was longer and more circuitous, and Emily worried that she wouldn't reach the end in time. The words of warning from the glowing alcoves echoed in her mind, even as her lungs screamed for air. But there was nothing to do but to press on. She swam desperately, and soon enough the end of the tunnel came into sight.

When she burst up for air, she found herself in another large chamber. This time, it was made not of marble, but of mirrors. The walls, ceiling and even the floor beneath the water were all covered in massive, shimmering mirrors, each of which distorted Emily's appearance in some way.

In one, Emily's hair floated around her head in a fiery halo, and her eyes flashed with lightning. In another, she appeared with long, thin arms and her legs were transformed into a fishy tail--the effect was more siren than human. Another mirror enlarged her breasts and butt, and the next one made her appear flat as a board.

There was a mirror that put a crown on her head and turned her hair tie into a golden bracelet, and a mirror that showed her body entangled in kelp. Every last one reminded her of her absolute nudity.

The reflections were disorienting, her every movement amplified and mimicked in a dozen different ways. As she swam, ripples distorted the mirror images to wobble and distort even more, creating an almost hallucinogenic effect. The further she swam, the more her mirror images appeared to separate from her actions, to stare and make menacing gestures at her.

Emily closed her eyes and relied on her other senses to navigate. The cool touch of the water against her skin and the sound of the current guided her forward. Only when she sensed darkness through her closed eyelids did she open her eyes again, to find the mirrors mercifully gone.

Emily's hands brushed against a stone wall, and she knew she was at the end of the chamber. A faint glow beneath her signaled that it was time to dive once again. Taking another deep breath, she submerged herself in the water and swam down towards the glow.

The source of the glow was a dense, underwater forest of tall, waving kelp, bioluminescent, casting shades of soft colored light. Each strand seemed to be a different color--there were vivid purples, deep blues, and golden yellows, painting the underwater scene with a kaleidoscope of hues.

Before she knew it, Emily was surrounded by the waving strands of kelp. As she moved through them, the strands reached out, brushing against her skin with a velvety touch. They wound around her, caressing her with gentle curiosity. Their touch was soothing, though it tickled slightly, but fear rose in Emily's heart as she felt the kelp across more and more of her body.

With a couple of violent kicks, she moved down, aiming for the rocky ground, among the roots of the kelp. This seemed to work, as more strands of kelp released her the lower she went, until there were only a couple left, winding gently around her legs.

Emily passed through the kelp forest in this way, keeping low, and soon she was in clear water again. A few strong kicks took her back to the surface, where she gulped in much-needed air. She gave herself a moment to float there, panting, and glanced back in the direction she'd come. The kelp made the water glow with ever-changing colors.

"It's very beautiful," Emily said to herself.

The next challenge the Pool had for her was a series of twisting paths. Some led to dead ends, while others had strong undercurrents that threatened to pull her under. Through patient and careful trial and error, and with a lot of backtracking and coming up for air, she found the right path, which led her to a larger chamber than any she had been in before, so vast that she could not see the walls or ceiling. If not for a glow that seemed to come from the water itself, she would have been in total darkness.

The waters around her swirled in churned, for some way ahead there spun a massive whirlpool. The vortex's pull was so strong that even from a distance, Emily could feel its drag, trying to suck her into its swirling depths.

In the very center of the whirlpool, Emily spied a stone platform, wide enough for her to stand and walk about on. In the middle of the platform, she saw a pedestal. Something on top of the pedestal glinted in the dim light, and Emily's heart leaped.

Despite its vastness, the whirlpool chamber appeared empty, but for the stone platform in its very center. Emily swam away from the whirlpool, searching for the wall of the chamber, but soon gave up. This place was impossibly big, and it would be a terrible waste of what remained of her energy to attempt a thorough search of it. Emily was a strong swimmer, and she'd taken numerous breaks during her passage through the Labyrinthine Pool, but she could feel a deep weariness in her limbs. She would enough for one final push.