Meeting of the Minds [SpiritAdept/Ribitta]

Brynn was about to shout something scathing at her but bit his tongue a moment later when things began to turn sour. Was it the lighting, or was that dark magic he had just seen? Never mind the fact that the woman was a complete idiot for all but summoning a fight, but now there was the possibility she was truly out of her mind. Brynn had no problem exploiting something to gain an edge be it through people, organizations, or magic; he certainly intended on exploiting artifacts he found. But dark magic was another thing entirely. You didn't need to look hard for rumors about what it could do to a person.

However, the pressing thing seemed to be that there was a gigantic arachnid in the room with them and that the woman's spells were relatively useless against the thing. Fantasies of running out of the room and leaving her to die a deliciously horrible death came easily. By now, though, he understood it was unfortunately out of the question. While that spider lit fear in his heart easily, the thing was slow enough, which gave them a certain amount of time. Naturally the woman would probably take to swinging a club at the thing, brute that she was.

To make matters more interesting, the thing was resistant to magic, the way that shell bounced things off. Skulltullas were often most vulnerable on their underside, away from that thick shell of a back, but this thing seemed to have no intention of showing its belly. Was it resistant because it had been bred to protect, or had it simply evolved to kill all the magical protections themselves? It was impossible to say at this point. While the woman hopelessly beat her fists against the thing, Brynn looked for a solution as he scurried away from the mage.

The room was cylindrical in design with enough garbage in it to occupy a horde of the homeless for weeks. It seemed dug from the earth, and the stone walls to support the whole thing had never really been finished; now the wood to hold the dirt back until bricks could be placed was rotting, and the scaffolding that littered the walls stood abandoned, heaps of bricks just waiting to be used. While resistant to magic, perhaps brute force would favor better against that exoskeleton. Searching, Brynn found a suitable candidate.

If the entrance to the room faced noon, entering from six, then his marker was all the way at two, an unfortunate distance given the size of the room. His body was in half the state it should have been at his age, but he could scramble a bit at least, ignoring the sharp pains that shot up through his abdomen as he bolted across the room at a break-neck hobble. The scaffolding was one of the highest, the final part in a series of incremental platforms that staircased up almost to the ceiling. A huge pile of bricks were held atop that one, and Brynn supposed they could be used to build a tomb rather than a wall.

Picking up something on the ground that felt heavy, Brynn hurled it at the skulltulla, missing by quite a bit. The noise made the thing pause at least though, and he threw another object, this time striking the shell uselessly. With a hiss not unlike the kind he'd make whilst irritated, the spider turned on him, and the man did his best to stamp fear down for the time being. Hopefully that brainless woman could understand he was luring the creature and not attack it for a moment. With the attention drawn, Brynn scurried over to the scaffolding, pausing when he felt he could to throw stuff at the spider, first drawing it along the wall and then leading it all the way to the scaffolding.

The spider was almost at his heels now, and the man broke into a lopsided run, darting underneath the rickety construction platforms that each held a burden of bone-crushing bricks, leading the spider to follow him under the thing. His heart pumped and his vision narrowed, but Brynn took the final steps, ducking under a support beam and crying out to his so-called partner to attack. Her magic was useless against the spider, but against rotting wood? Hopefully it would be enough.

Having determined the uselessness of firing bolts of magic directly at the arachnid, Selena took to trying to find a weak point on the thing. At first she tried aiming for its head, but the skulltula proved to be too quick for that. Every time a shot came near it the thing would simply shift and reflect the spell away with its hard plated back. Attempts to shoot its legs out yielded the same result for Selena. It was like someone had trained this thing to fend off magic users.

At this rate, Selena was starting to think her best bet might be to just pick up the largest piece of wood she could find and bash the thing into submission.

Before Selena could even start to look around for a weapon though, her companion had decided to take matters into his own hands. She shot him an incredulous look as she decided whether her next shot of magic should be aimed at the spider again or at Trollface for interfering with the fight in such a pointless way. Maybe she should just let the skulltula catch him, giving her time to search the basement while it feasted on him. Maybe she'd even luck out and the spider would bump the scaffolding too hard and make it fall...down...on...

Selena couldn't stop the corners of her lips from curling upward as Trollface's plan became obvious to her. It was a good idea she had to admit, so good she found herself slightly miffed that she didn't think of it first. Of course this meant actually acknowledging that he was useful for something besides mere bait, but Selena was too happy with the thought of finally having a way out of this mess to care. When she heard him yell out, Selena charged one final bolt and tossed it into the support beam closest to the skulltula.

The result was something Selena could only describe as magnificent.

The scaffolding seemingly imploded, the weight of the rocks on top caused the structure to fall onto itself as they came raining down on the skulltula. It was loud, it was dusty, and it was messy, but the mage couldn't think of a better way she'd rather see the creature's end come about. Once everything settled and the dust grew thin enough to see through, Selena could see the end result of her handiwork. The entire skulltula was buried under a mountain of debris with only it's legs sticking out, futilely skittering back and forth as it tried to free itself. The spider's fear inducing hiss was reduced to a sickly crackling sound.

As a final form of punishment for being so tenacious, Selena decided to make extra sure that the arachnid would not trouble them any further. She grabbed a large rock and began bashing it against each leg she could see until they bent at strange angles and stopped moving. With no further sounds coming from the pile, Selena assumed it was finally dead and let out a happy and relaxed sigh of content.

Almost as if it had been designed for structural failure, the scaffolding collapsed beautifully from the blast, though Brynn didn't really get a chance to see it. The force from the explosion struck his back weakly, but it was enough to throw the man off balance. With a painful grunt, the man tumbled to the floor, landing ungracefully on his shoulder and rolling onto his back uncomfortably. Thankfully despite his general fragility, his bones were not unnecessarily weak; they would be bruised but not broken, at least. Unfortunately all of his panting from the run was about to be a great boon to his condition.

Before he could stop himself, Brynn accidentally inhaled a huge breath of the decrepit dust that the collapse had brought his direction, and the man began to cough violently. Rolling over, he got onto his knees, coughing into the ground until his lungs seemed to give out, spraying the dusty, grimy stone floor with flecks of blood every few coughs. Finally after he seemed to have coughed himself hoarse, the man got up shakily, the coughs coming in raggedly here and there.

His body was not cut out for this type of thing, plain and simple, but at least they'd managed to pull things off. Naturally that trull of a woman had decided to take to beating the spider with a rock anyway, but Brynn didn't particularly care since the thing appeared to be dead. Brutish as she was, at least she'd figured out his plan without him having to hold her hand through the whole thing. Any compliments for that were simply out of the question, however; pride inhibited him from such cordial gestures.

Instead, Brynn tried walking a few paces, but his legs wobbled uneasily under him, so he found a barrel that didn't look completely rotted and sat down tentatively on it, still working on recovering his breath, though this time with a handkerchief covering his mouth.

The sight of Trollface hacking and wheezing from the whole ordeal simply made Selena roll her eyes. She finally realized just how right he was when he said he wasn't built for fighting. The way he sounded she figured he was lucky the brisk walk through the library to find her outside didn't kill him.

Deciding to ignore him for now, Selena took a moment to scan the rest of the room they were in for any hint on what to do next. There was only one entrance into the place and no other exits. Not even up by where the skulltula was, it was just a small cavity in the ceiling. There was a small slab with writing on it, but it wasn't in a language Selena recognized. If was even a language, for all she could make out it could have been some sort of runic puzzle.

Selena hated puzzles...

Whatever it was, Selena realized she was going to need help again. Trollface mentioned that he was a scholar, which meant he probably had tons of useless knowledge floating around in his head just waiting for the day they'd become useful. Selena found that the euphoria of surviving battle was short lived as she was faced with the prospect of asking for help. Taking a waterskin out of her robe's pockets, she approached her companion and offered it to him after taking a quick sip from it herself.

"Suck it up already." She demanded of him irritatedly. "I've been too busy learning how to bend the laws of nature to my will to study much about dead languages. Why don't you take a look at the slab over there and tell me what it says."

With an ounce of hesitation, Brynn took a drink from the waterskin she offered, not bothering to hide his distaste a moment later. He'd been right to hesitate--the water tasted as if it had not even been purified by boiling! Disgusting. The man would probably be sick before the day was over from something like this. Only a woman as crude and thoughtless as the one before him could carry such a careless concoction around with her and call it refreshment.

Well, it did do wonders for the throat. Reluctantly, the man took another swallow of the stuff. He almost spat it out it, though, when she made her demands of him.

Cretin that she was, of course she wouldn't have a single ounce of her tiny brain to offer guidance in solving a simple translation. What was more, she expected to bully him into that? He was just as interested in what this place had to offer as she was, but he was not about to yield so easily to that woman when he practically had her in his pocket at the moment. Closing his eyes, he resisted the urge to grin by applying a grimace instead, choosing to answer her rhetorical question seriously just to prove that he could.

"Why don't I?" he said, his tone scathing as ever, "perhaps it's because I'm tired after destroying a spider the size of an aristocrat's ego. Or maybe I simply don't feel like indulging the whim of an imbecile who's name I don't even know." He spoke with more than a hint of a sneer in his tones, but the man remained seated nonetheless.

Selena wanted to punch him.

She wanted to lift up her fist and shove it right in his smug face. Break his nose, maybe force loose a few teeth while she was at it. And she wasn't exactly subtle about her feelings either, Selena's eyes had narrowed and were working on staring a hole through his face. Her jaw clenched as she bared her teeth at him. Selena wanted nothing more then to put him in his place.

...but she knew better then to do that. Trollface was her only way of getting any further in this goddess forsaken basement. Instead of punching him, Selena forced herself to take several deep breaths. She thought about whatever treasure was hidden in here, about how much more powerful it would make her if it was a spell like she thought it was, and how after all of this was done, she could gut Trollface like a fish. She thought about how he was all bark and no bite, proven by his own words and his own actions. All of this was just words, nothing more.

In that moment, Selena came to a wonderful conclusion that made her anger disintegrate and her lips melt into a malevolent smile of glee.

"You know what, you're absolutely right." Selena started with a dangerous sounding voice. "You did kill that spider, and you deserve some recognition for that. So here you go." She began to clap for him slowly, making no other noise for a moment.

"Thank you, so so very much for being the bait that a creature with a brain the size of a walnut fell for. After all, it's only natural for a predatory monster to chase after the weakest, most vulnerable thing around. So I thank you for that, it's a role I could never hope to do as well as you."

"Secondly, I don't have any need to know your name and I don't have any need for you to know my name." Selena's smile disappeared into a more serious look as she snatched the waterskin back. "Names lead to this unfortunate situation where you can identify me and that's not something I need. Besides, I've been calling you Trollface in my head this whole time and it's worked pretty well for me. I'm sure your real name won't be nearly as fun."

"But most importantly, I don't think you appreciate the nature of our relationship here. See you've spent your life studying...whatever it is you study, but I've learned how to do this." Selena lifted up her hand and charged it with a bolt of electrical energy, letting it crackle with power just inches away from his face. "See that? That is the power to rip your chest open with raw magical energy. And I'm sure by now you don't doubt I'd do it in the most painful way possible. I want what's hidden down here and I'm going to do everything I can to get it. So you can either hinder me and find out what it's like to be struck by lightning, or you can help me and live to nose through books another day. Your choice, personally I'd prefer to keep you alive a little longer and get my hands on that treasure, but killing you would be fun too."

A troll? What in Din's flaming name was that supposed to be? Apparently he had a face like one, whatever that meant. On and on the woman prattled, starting with a rather childish display meant for humiliation to a nonexistent audience. There were many advantages to being perpetually irritated, Brynn had found. When you were frustrated with someone all the time, it made their attempts to purposefully irritate you somehow more... trivial, as if they were revealing their true nature that you suspected all along. The scholar did his best to remain unphased, though a faint smile touched his lips for once.

The man didn't even bother to open his eyes until she finished, though he had tensed up a bit when he felt her light the spell. Would she kill him down here? Possibly. Death would be a shame but a wonderful relief from this life, that was for sure. He'd considered taking his own before, but there were more important things right now, especially when he found situations he could assert himself above people during.

His stomach gave a painful twinge followed by a flash of rage in his heart. No, he was in control right now, and his temper had largely abated after his victory, as much as she would like to try and belittle the thing. With a mirthless smile he looked her in the eye and responded quietly, "Yes, I suppose killing me would be fun, wouldn't it? Simple now that we've come this far and you've used me so excellently to kill this little monster you were worried about, and since we're away from the public I suppose you could dispose of me and take all the rewards for yourself. Easy enough for someone as talented as you are, I'm sure.

"Yet, I don't know that you will. As much as you would like to pretend that anything besides your focus is--naturally--useless, perhaps there is something more to it? Your choice." The man offered her a wink that was meant to be anything but charming. "You can kill me now and find out that a small brain submerged in arrogance can't translate a wall for you. Or you can perhaps grow an ounce of respect. My name is Brynn."

Goddess dammit! Did this man have a death wish?!

Selena stared for a silent moment in disbelief at what she just heard as a response. Trollface, or rather Brynn, was unfazed by her. Even after looking death in the face he just...smiled back at her. Why wasn't he scared for his life? It didn't make sense! The only way for him to possibly survive this day was to make himself useful to her. What did he think she was going to do when they found the treasure now, be so overjoyed that she forgets he exists? He can't possibly be that stupid, he had to have thought of that issue! Why then was he provoking her?! Why was he acting like he was in charge?

It was then Selena realized, that for this brief singular moment, he was...

While still holding on to her spell, Selena reached with her free hand and wrapped it around Trollface's throat. Her nails dug in enough to make breathing painful, but not enough to draw blood or actually choke him. She was still the most powerful person in the room, she could still kill him with naught but a thought. Crush his wind pipe, vaporize his head, no one would ever know. It would be so easy.

But then the stone tablet would never get translated.

She could always do the research herself thought! Find the right book, study for a couple of days, she didn't have to learn everything, just enough to translate. Or she could find someone else. Kidnap them and force them to translate the tablet for her. Maybe she could even just take a rubbing and show it to someone. It was fully possible to get a translation without him!

But any of those solutions would be for nothing if this place was discovered before hand...

All it would take is a single person. A drunk hobo in the back alley, a lost kid, a lowly librarian deciding that today is the day they need something from storage. If anyone found the hole in the basement it was over. They would tell the library and the library would send people to investigate. They, of course, could translate it. And then they would get the treasure in this place. It would be the find of the century, a hidden vault of wealth or knowledge or whatever is in there found under the library. People would flock from around Castletown, from around Hyrule even, to see what was found. Within weeks every soul in the world that cared to listen would know about this find.

And at that point, it would be impossible for Selena to get a hold of it for herself.

She could kill Brynn and maybe translate the tablet for herself, but the risk of losing out on the treasure was too great. Killing him wasn't worth the risk...he was even more valuable then her damnable pride.

With a howl of raw rage and frustration, Selena tossed Brynn back as she turned and launched her arcane bolt into the largest scaffolding she saw still standing. Just like the last one it came tumbling down, but the destruction was far more hollow and meaningless to her this time. She picked up a piece of debris at her feet in her hand and blasted it across the room. Like an infant throwing a tantrum with his building blocks, Selena screamed and kicked and threw everything that was in arm's reach of her until her rage subsided. She was panting by the end of it, Selena even managed to work up a little bit of a sweat, but she was too numb to keep caring about Brynn effectively winning this confrontation.

"Fine...I don't care anymore..." Selena stated tiredly without looking at who she was talking to. "I'm Selena. Now can you just translate the...the thing? Please?"

The irritation tried to come back in spurts to Brynn, but he shoved them down as best he could. Oh how he loved being angry, but even more than that, perhaps, he loved being in control. For the time being, keeping a lid on his rage had managed to reduce this Selena from a queenly throne to practically nothing in under a minute. Of course, she had thrown him, and that was quite uncomfortable, so he allowed a glare as he stood up slowly, brushing off the dust from his robe and trying not to breath too deeply amidst the debris.

Checking to make sure that nothing had torn, clothing or otherwise, the man cracked his neck audibly and raised a questioning eyebrow at the woman with more than a hint of distaste.

"Well, now that that's out of the way, on to business I presume," he said with a mirthless grin; oh how he loved having her under his thumb for the time being. Probably a good thing she didn't know that killing him and stealing his Book of Mudora would be quite enough for her to translate the thing on her own. As he began to walk across the room, he used his newly found control to start up some useless chit-chat. She would probably loath it, but that was the point, wasn't it?

"Tell me, Selena. How long have you been practicing magic?" A good enough question as any to start matters.

The grinding sound Selena made with her teeth in frustration was almost audible. She tried to drill holes in the back of his head with her eyes as he went about his business, it was all she could do to stop herself from actually doing that with her knife. Of course he wanted to talk, Trollface was going to use every opportunity possible to assert his dominance over her.

But that didn't mean she needed to give him anything important, she realized after thinking for a moment. He might have studied more then her, but Selena was still confident that in the end she was the smarter of the two.

"Professionally for 17 years." Selena stated matter-of-factually, trying her best to keep her tone civil so as to not antagonize Trollface further. "But I've been using magic since I was five. I ended up going off on my own and figuring out magic my own way. It was the best thing I've ever done."

Selena smiled inwardly to herself, pleased with how little any of that information meant to anyone else. He couldn't even use it to figure out how old she was.

Brynn offered her a sidelong glance she likely wouldn't have been able to see in the current light. A prodigy, or just plain stupid? Given his current stance toward her, he was inclined to presume it was the latter. Only a truly bullheaded fool decided to run off on their own when studying magic. The spells she had used before, that dark coloring they held, unsettled Brynn more than a bit, however. Likely this woman had possessed a natural aptitude for the stuff at a young age, if she was even telling the truth, and it had come out in frequently thrown tantrums or fits of rage as a child.

He doubted much had changed over the years.

Her parents would have hired a tutor, not to teach but to restrain, and in her idiocy she had only learned enough to get out of that obligation, which rendered her on par with a bomb thrown into a crowded street. Explosive, deadly, unrestrained, and generally useless beyond scaring people and causing some collateral damage. Making sure his back was facing her, Brynn licked his lips subtly. Though he was loath to admit it, she did frighten him a bit. Likely mad, the woman would be unpredictable at best. He hated being uncertain, and yet... part of him craved the challenge.

He didn't need her to tell him an age for him to guess; he'd spent enough time subtly eyeing women to give that a good enough guess. While he would have liked to say age was determinable by her temper, Brynn doubted that this woman would do much growing up even if she made it to graying hairs. It didn't matter though, for he had resolved it in his mind. There was a rogue scent, a hint of perpetual violence and madness about her that flaunted itself luridly. She was pretty enough, but that wasn't it. Well, what was the point in having hands if you were too afraid to stick them into the monster's mouth?

"I'm sure your mentor was merely an old buffoon intent on limiting your ability and claiming it for his own," Brynn said sarcastically--provokingly. "But what will you do with such tremendous prowess, my dearest Selena? Enthrone yourself? Usher in a new age of darkness under your mighty hand?" He laughed openly at that, mocking the ridiculousness of such an idea.

Selena snorted in response to Brynn's statement about her mentor. It wasn't the sarcasm in his voice that bothered her, on the contrary she quite agreed with the statement. What annoyed her is that she said nothing about a mentor and yet he brought this up anyways. Sure it wasn't hard to figure out she had had one, just about anyone that learned magic did. It was the idea that he was probing her for information and actively filling in the gaps with educated guesses. Trollface was trying to figure her out and that bugged her. There was much more fear in the unknown.

She would have commented on it if he didn't follow up with one of the most amusing jokes she had ever heard.

Selena's laugh echoed along side Brynn's, although sounding far more sincere then his. "What is with people instantly assuming that every dark magic user is out to rule the world? Have you ever thought about what that even means? Ruling over people, fighting to maintain control, having people to do everything for you while you grow fat, lazy, and weak. Ruling the world is for the stupid and the blind."

"I mean, just look at Ganon. Look at how far he's gotten with his little 'take over Hyrule' plan."

As Selena laughed, Brynn instantly tensed up at the noise. Had he missed something? Had he miscalculated? Here he was, trying to chide her and provoke her, and she laughed. Quickly he covered up that fear, instead turning his ears to listen to what she would say next, holding onto her words carefully. Slowly as she spoke, the fear exhaled itself a bit in his chest and the man relaxed a bit. No, for once that did not seem like a laugh of malice, just honest enjoyment. Perhaps laughing at his expense, but not a cold, menacing thing that began the stopwatch to see how long his little game would run for.

For once, she actually made a good point. Brynn had never really had an intention of trying to subject people under his will, and he certainly had not intended to run after this foolish dark magic that the woman used so carelessly. Yet he did have a craving for something more than what he had already. Perhaps she felt somewhat the same way. So much so, in fact, that she laughed wholeheartedly at his attempt to mock the cliché of the notion. For once, an honest grin crept into the man's face, and he actually began to move, taking a slow walk to that thing she wanted him to translate. It would be a little while before he complied still, but he could at least look like he felt like doing it sooner rather than later.

"Many people would judge you a fool for even considering Ganon something apart from fiction," Brynn responded, his tone suggesting that he was not quite sure if he was one of those people or not. "But if you're so stalwart that you don't want to take over anything, then what exactly is it you want? Power is nothing if you're the only one who recognizes it, hm?"

"Fact or fiction, Ganon is the ultimate dark magic user everyone thinks of when you mention the subject." Selena started talking again with an actually pleasant tone of voice. She was getting so caught up in her own explanation of things that she had forgotten the only reason she was having this conversation was that Brynn had trapped her in it. It wasn't often she got to enjoy educating others about her views in life, not many people stuck around to hear them. And even fewer people existed that she'd actually want to sit down and talk to about it.

"He's also the greatest example of what not to do with dark magic. "The guy gets his hands on the Triforce and what does he do? Proceed to piss off every living creature, thing, and deity in a million mile radius. So much so some system had to be created where every time he gets too uppity a hero shows up put him in his place. Ganon can't do a damn thing because he dug himself into a corner and all he can do now is try to dig deeper and deeper."

"You want to know what power is for? Freedom. True power lets you go where you want, when you want, to do whatever you want. To not be caught up in all the rules and laws and regulations that exist. I don't like being told that I can't do something, but with enough time and practice that'll never happen again."

Brynn seriously doubted that this Ganon creature held any of the golden triangles of legend, but Selena did have a point about the notoriety of the name; he was as good a benchmark as anything else, it seemed. As she spoke, the man reached the tablet on the wall that he was supposed to translate and almost laughed when he saw it. Peering at it intently, the man ran a finger into the slices in the stone that some tool--or some power--had made all those years ago. The lines were easy to read; sometimes old Hylian could be tricky with odd grammatical flares or differences in spelling or characters, but there was nothing to complain about for this one.

Quietly he kept the text to himself, pretending to study it deeply until Selena finished talking. Turning to her, he nodded thoughtfully at her words, though he felt a pang of jealousy at them. Freedom? That was all this woman wanted? Well, Brynn supposed everything could fall under the category of 'freedom' if you wanted it to, but he doubted that was what she had meant.

No, she wanted freedom because she was simply unsatisfied with what she had been given. Selfishness was predictable, he supposed. If not for her grubby and relatively unkempt appearance, he might have guessed her to have the face of nobility, but at the very least she likely came from a well-to-do family. Tudors weren't exactly cheap. The surge from triumph and satisfaction from domination were receding now as his irritation bubbled up again, but he managed to phrase his response peacefully enough, "And what will you do when there are no more rules to break, no more authorities to defy? Do you think that will be enough for you?"

Brynn's question wasn't something that Selena had really considered much. She was so far away from her goal of being all powerful that she just figured she would find the answer to that question along the way. Finding an answer right now required several moments of staring off into space and thinking about what ultimate freedom meant exactly.

"Hmm...I guess after everything is said and done..." Selena started slowly with her response, waiting for it to fully form in her head as she spoke. "I think...maybe I'd make something. Something I could enjoy all by myself. Or I'd find something relaxing that I like doing or....wait! I know now, I'll make a beach."

A bright, almost childish smile spread across Selena's face as she entertained the fantasy of total control over anything. "I've always liked beaches, so I could make the perfect beach for myself. The right kind of sand, the bluest water, the perfect weather, everything I ever wanted in a beach. After my final fight to have ultimate power, I'll make that beach and relax there for a good long time. Maybe I'll take up fishing, catch a few lobsters to roast up, maybe collect seashells for a bit."

"Oh! I could make it well known where I'm at too, so that everyone that thinks they are stronger then me can have the chance to learn the error of their ways. It'd be a good outlet for all that pent up aggression I'm sure I'll develop. I can just imagine it now, lines after lines of warriors and wizards lining up to take a shot at me, and I just have all the time in the world to toy with them as I please. I could find ways to kill people that doesn't even exist."

All of a sudden Selena let out a rich laugh as an amusing thought crossed her mind.

"I can already see some skinny little trickster coming up to me and challenging me to a game or something. He'll probably ramble on about how there are many forms of power and his strength is his smarts, and then strike up a deal along the lines of if he wins he gets all my power or something. So I'll play him and just to be funny, I'll let him win. He celebrates his victory, gets all happy and does a few back flips or something, and then tries to claim his prize. At which point I just say no, and he stares at me flabbergasted and I explain to him that the only rules I play by are my own and I don't owe him anything."

"Then I'll just...teleport all of his blood out of his body or...something. I get the feeling that if I can imagine a new way of killing someone right now, it won't be the sort of thing I'm looking for when I have the power to do anything."

"You, develop pent up rage?" Brynn muttered in a dry, sarcastic tone, "I never might have guessed." The man rolled his eyes at her, though his face was turned the other direction, and he used the image of studying the tablet as a chance to study her words. She certainly no longer had trouble speaking whatever seemed to come to her light-forsaken mind, and Brynn continued to study the question that irritated him incessantly. Was she someone to take seriously, or just a fool? Could it be both? She certainly sounded like a fool, describing her 'future' the way she did. Yet there was a certain level of power behind that as well.

Brynn had the mind to wonder: was this how evil was created? This fusion of foolishness and potential, combined to make something truly sinister?

He had no real love for the light, no desperate hope that the goddesses would repay the goodness he accomplished in his life. That didn't change the fact that hearing a woman talk about draining the blood from another man tended to make him a little uncomfortable. Having power over people certainly sounded appealing, but that was completely different than having no stomach. This woman's fantasies involved subjecting people to pain and false hope their entire life. If there was a sense of damnation, was there anything she could say that would somehow worsen her fate at this point? Perhaps that was the idea.

Finally he responded, deciding it was about time to move on from this place, "Perhaps in your quest for infinite power you'll find the time to actually learn to read more than one set of letters. Else someone may hold everything you own ransom simply to read some Goron scribbles." Brynn offered her a merciless smile, turning to the stone tablet and giving the thing as hard a push as he could manage. Something clicked behind the wall and the tablet shuddered, giving way to the force and sliding back a half dozen inches before sinking slowly into the wall.

There, in front of Brynn now, was a hole just large enough to clamber into, though it appeared to lead into a hallway of appropriate ceilings. Stepping back from it, the scholar faced Selena once more, gesturing toward the entrance with an almost mocking flourish, "After you, my lady."

The small quip from Trollface quickly grounded Selena back to reality, causing her elated mood to evaporate instantly and a small growl to cross her lips. She quickly stormed towards the new passageway, shoving her companion out of the way

"Maybe I'll just hunt down your soul and bind it to a rat, that way I'll be able to keep you around to do all my translations for me. You'd end up looking better at least."

The hallway Selena stepped into was short in length, although still with enough distance between the entrance and the door at the end to make her suspicious of a trap. The door itself on the other side having an assortment of chains barring entry into it with a single lock holding the whole thing in place. For a moment Selena heart skipped a beat as she realized that they didn't have the key to get in on them, but she quickly relaxed when she noticed the only other notable feature in the hall.

Laying not too far away from them was the robed skeletal remains of someone, face down and reaching toward the entrance they just came through.

"Five rupees say he has the key on him." Selena stated with relief as she walked over to the remains. At first she was cautious, taking her time to prod at the skeleton with quick kicks to make sure it was completely inanimate before she rummaged through the robes. The search proved fruitful, in the guy's pockets she found a handful of rupees (which she quickly pocketed when she wasn't being watched), some reading glasses that she set off to the side, and finally a large wrought iron key.

"So I'm thinking..." Selena stated out loud as she kicked the guy's skull to the other side of the room in hopes of revealing any traps that may be there. "He got left behind here. Everyone else was already evacuating when they put the final locks in place. This guy was making sure the door here was locked when they moved the stone in place to block this place off before whatever chased them out would stop them from doing so. Probably ended up starving to death calling out for help that would never come."

There was not an ounce of remorse in Selena's voice, and even less so as she continued on with a faint smile.

"Since this whole place seems designed to keep people out and not something in, I'm feeling pretty confident that there is something really worthwhile on the other side of that door."

Brynn felt a flash of irritation as his control slipped a bit. Being able to withhold her from her goals had given him a temporary edge, but they were back to being on even footing. The only issue was that on even footing, she likely had the best of him. Oh she was bright, there was no denying that now. It was not the type of wits that made you respect a person though. It felt bullied, like everything else in her life, like her wits were being used only to keep her alive from one stupid decision to the next. It was as if a beast had been given a brain it could not comprehend how to use. Subtly, unconsciously, it protected the beast, but at the core the nature was still primal. Brynn hated stupidity, even though he found himself surrounded by it, but he hated fools with brains too. It made sense in his head.

Not just a fool with a brain though, he reminded himself. She was strong too.

That sneering comment of turning him into a rat? It made him want to shiver. Death would be a glorious relief. Subjection to the likes of her would be unacceptable, unimaginable awfulness. His insides stabbed at his nerves sharply, as if to goad him into pursuing his immense dislike for this woman. With a growl of anger, the man followed her into the passageway, letting her lead a short ways until they got to the door.

Naturally those brains managed to protect her savage self, and Brynn watched in agonizing impatience as she prodded the dead man's body, finally revealing a key and discarding a pair of glasses with ancient Hylian written on them. Brynn snatched them while she rambled. Thinking herself the wiser, she began to deduct from the circumstances what she assumed must have happened. Her analysis tugged at the corners of his mouth, and by the time she finished he was downright chuckling. Those undeserved brains could save her in many situations, but unguided they ran rampant and useless.

There was something wrong with what she said. Perhaps he did not know exactly what the answer was, but he could pretend as if he did. Well, half of the puzzle was obvious, even if he did not yet know the other half. By displaying the first, though, he could gain credence in solving the second. "A delightful interpretation, Selena, though perhaps you should reconsider the next time you try 'thinking' your way through a situation." It was snide. Arrogant. Bold. What better way to catch someone off guard?

"I find your tale lacking. If the men sealing this place were in a hurry, running from something, would it not still be here? The only monster to be found is that slow, dim-witted arachnid that seemed placed by them in the first place. I doubt it. And even if some terrible spirit forced them out of the place, moving the massive stone wall into place would hardly take a mere moment. They would have had to have been closing it already, which would mean this man here would have had plenty of warning to leave. And even if you had to choose between the two, which would you rather have protecting your treasure? A lock with a key that has vanished hundreds of years ago? Or stone tablet that literally reads 'Push Me' a dozen times in a row in the most basic ancient Hylian known. Even if the wall had magically appeared in a moment to stop some fiendish creature that no longer exists, locking this man in here to cry for help until he died, do you not think he would have died calling for help by his exit? Or, perhaps, he could use his key to claim this untold power behind the door and then use that to escape. But he didn't do either of these things. This man died right here.

"No, this was intentional. Everything fits. Each step along the way was to increase our momentum. First we find the staircase, then we defeat their creature, and then we decipher their wall, only to find someone who suffered demise when the goal was so close. Invigorated that our fate is better than his, we take the key and finish the task."

Brynn stopped, turning his gaze from the locked door and snapping his attention onto the woman. Narrowing his eyes, he spoke softly, "I'm sure it will fit--take that key and open this door. I dare you, woman." He spoke boldly, but truthfully Brynn was slowly realizing he would not want to be anywhere near this door, should she turn that wretched key.