A maid was quick to slide a plate to the Wyler, though a she wrinkled her nose in distaste as she watched the beast slobber across the fancy silver plates. Regardless, she would be sent scattering with a yelp as a bulky Scorchio nearly toppled onto her. With an indignant scoff she quickly made her way to the back of the kitchen, coming back with a couple deserts and pastries. It was a delightful meal orchestrated by the best chefs Hagan had at his disposal. With full stomachs, introductions done and nerves quelled the group eventually carried on towards the spire they had been directed to.

It was a beautiful addition to the castle walls, reaching higher into the sky than the trees and rivaling the mountains. It's walls where bleached white and ornate tiling shipped in from Shenkuu. balconies and windows peeked into libraries. This one seemed completely empty. At the bottom of the tower and by the door was a spindly blue Lenny in regal looking robes. She seemed to perk up to her full height when they arrived fumbled with a small book she had before she began to read off a clearly rehearsed speech.
"Greetings heroes. So you've, uh... You've decided to test your mettle against my puzzles. Be warned: once you enter, there is no going back" She stuttered out nervously before she opened the door and revealed a fairly simple room within.

It was nice study: an out of place fireplace was lit giving off a nice, cozy warmth within. By the door was a bookshelf and the center of the room was filled with cushioned seating, ottomans, and a fancy glass table in the center with a cup of hot chocolate still warm on it. Underneath all the furniture was a fancy Qasala rug. On the wall, above the fireplace was large hand-painted picture of the Lenny outside and next to her is a well dressed yellow bori with a feathered cap and a rapier by his side.
"enter if you dare" The bird chimed in ominously, though her soft voice contradicted her 'threat'.

Eloween mouthed 'thank you' as the maid placed a plate in front of Wyler, who proceeded to wolf down her food without any shame. The ranger returned to her own food and kept mostly to herself for the rest of the meal, responding only if directly spoken to. The introductions had definitely broken the ice between her and her companions, but she was still careful not to say or do anything that might cause her to lose any of their good will. After all, if they were going to be taking on these 'trials' together, they needed to have faith in one another's abilities, to trust they were all able to pull their own weight and not slow or hinder the others in their efforts. While she had yet to see either Ferrin or Arma in action, they carried themselves with an air of confidence that implied that, at very least, they felt they were capable people, and it was through that confidence alone she felt she could trust in them. Eloween quietly vowed to herself that she would learn to carry herself in a similar fashion.

Once they had finished their meal, Eloween and the rest of the group made their way to the spire the old draik had previously pointed them to. As she had upon entering the castle, she kept a hand on Wyler's tail, both for comfort and to stop the gallion from wandering off. Eloween kept her eyes on the path ahead of her, trying not to stop and gawk at her surroundings and instead thought only of what was awaiting them in the spire. Neither the advertisement she had found nor the draik had explained what the trials were, nor what they were trials for, which only now did she start to realise was a little bit shady. She wasn't one to question royalty, but if the king required a certain level or set of skills, why hadn't that been mentioned? Why all this fuss, why all the secrecy? She spared a glance towards her companions to see if they were thinking the same thing, and was tempted to ask if they had any idea of what they were supposed to do. However, as quickly as she had opened her mouth to speak, she closed it again and averted her eyes away from them. No... it was likely they didn't know either, and if they somehow did, did she really want to admit she had no idea what was going on? Admit she didn't even know why she was here? That would make her look so stupid...

Eventually, they arrived at the room, where a blue Lenny was awaiting them. Eloween took a moment to take in the splendor of the room before the Lenny spoke up, daring them to enter what appeared to be some kind of study. One word that the bird-like Neopian said surprised Eloween somewhat. "Puzzles?" she repeated. She had expected these trials to be tests of martial skill or strength, things her and her companions had discussed while they had been eating their meal. However, 'puzzles' implied that the king was looking for something particularly specific, a certain amount of knowledge and finesse, which only further confused Eloween about what exactly they wanted adventurers for. Once again, she glanced towards her companions, attempting to get a read on what they thought on this situation.

Arma ate his meal without a care for what was going around him. He was completely enamored by all the different types of dishes. Even when Ferrin fell over, Arma simply gave him a glance before continuing. But it wasn’t only food on his mind as he thought about his soon to be companions. Ferrin was a melee fighter just like him though the Scorchio preferred to use weapons and armor. With the way he carried himself Arma could guess that he was pretty experienced in a fight. Eloween was a bow user with a hint of magic. Healing magic at that. She seemed timid but he felt like she would step up to the task once it presented itself. Arma felt that although their team was small they had a decent spread. Ferrin to soak up attacks while dealing damage, Eloween to provide rear support, and himself to provide speed and quick strikes.

After the meal was done, Arma leaned back and patted his belly. “That was a- *burp* sorry, good meal.” He said, completely satisfied. Now that everyone was finished they were led further into the castle. Once again the Bori found himself lagging behind, taking every chance he could to stop and stare at the architecture of the castle and the various decorations it had. After being called to catch up several times, they finally made it to their destination where they were greeted by a Lenny.

The room they were in was less pompous and more cozy and relaxed. It was a study filled with fancy yet simple furniture and warm fireplace. It was very relaxing and at that moment Arma wanted nothing more than to sit on one of the soft looking cushions and fall asleep.

However, when the Lenny presented her puzzles Arma immediately perked up. He looked at her closely, smiling at the challenge she set before them. “Don’t mind if I do.” He replied, walking in without a second thought.

Ferrin couldn't help but blush a bit as he clattered to the floor, giving the maid quite the fright. "S-sorry, sorry," the former knight quickly apologized while slowly crawling off of his chair to set it back up properly. He glanced toward Eloween, but noticed that she seemed preoccupied with her own meal and making sure her companion was taken care of as well. He let out a small sigh; he had just completely recalled why the name Bogshot was so familiar to him, and he wanted to ask her about it. But, he supposed it could wait.

Eventually, the others seemed to finish up their own respective meals as well. As that happened, the group were directed back toward the original spire. He turned his head and nodded to the others before immediately stepping forward, leading the way to their next destination. While the castle itself was different from Meridell's, it was still a castle, and Ferrin almost felt at home again, for the first time in quite a while. When they arrived, however, Ferrin took note of the Lenny's reaction to them showing up. The Lenny seemed to perk up and recite something that had obviously been practiced before. Heh. Clearly, they believed that all the pomp and circumstance was necessary, but he supposed he wouldn't say anything. The Lenny had done her job well enough, at least. However, there was something the bird neopian had said that caught him off-guard. The word "puzzles." Uh oh. But regardless of his own misgivings, and before he could discuss the topic any further, the Bori was already making his way inside....

Well, now he didn't really think he had much of a choice at this point. He certainly didn't want to seem like a coward.

"Well," Ferrin replied a bit more nervously than before. "You could have said that you'd brought the Turmaculus in here and I wouldn't walk away from something like this." Then, without another word, he followed in the Bori's footsteps and made his way inside the room as well.

He quickly examined his surroundings; it seemed like a normal enough little lounge. "Hm.... A bit flashy for my taste, but I guess that's the nobility for you." the Scorchio said to the others before opting to seat himself, not on the seats, but on one of the ottomans instead.

Eloween watched as both of her companions stepped into the room. For a moment, she just stared after to them incredulously, before giving a small sigh and following after them. Wyler trotted in after her, and as they entered the room, the gallion suddenly seemed even more alert than usual, sniffing the air and eying even the most inoffensive piece of furniture.

Eloween also seemed to be observing her surroundings more keenly than before, going from her usual awe at the decor to trying to figure out what exactly it was about this room that the Lenny had previously claimed they should enter 'if they dare'.

The room was a conventional reading room, from the composition to the obvious bookshelf, it all seemed rather mundane. The painting on the wall was the most obvious difference, and it seemed very conceded of the shy Lenny to stick a painting of herself in the room.

The group was be quick to notice that the Ornate Fireplace gave off heat, but as they entered the heat remained a constant, perfect cozy heat even as they drew closer. The room was lit very well, but the only light emanated from the fire. The whole room seemed off the more and more the group scanned it over. This was a tower, yet there were no stairs. There where windows from the outside but not from within. Outside the walls where marble, but within they where stone?

(Eloween and Ferrin)
The two of you would be quick to notice that on the top of the book shelf a few small but glowing words would begin to reveal themselves. Something likely unnoticed by those without the wherewithal to scan the room so throughway.
Trail of wisdom

They'd be too distracted to notice before it was all too late that the door behind them was closing. Any who would turn to investigate would find the Lenny locking the door behind them, trapping them within.

Upon entering, Arma was greeted by a warm and rather plain looking reading room. Even by his standards. He walked forward a bit and noticed that the temperature of the room didn’t change no matter how close he got to the fire place.

“Interesting.” He said, raising an eyebrow. He turned around to talk to his companions and noticed Lenny that led them closing the door. Sealing off all means of escape. “Huh…I guess our task is to escape this place then.”

Arma’s focus returned to the fire place. He moved closer and began inspecting it.

Ferrin's tail planted itself on the ottoman, starting to look around the room. The longer he looked, though, the more confused he seemed to get, perfectly shown right on his facial expression. Nothing was making sense in this room. The fire wasn't any warmer here than it had been when he first stepped into the room, the lighting didn't match the sources, and...wait, weren't there supposed to be windows...? Something definitely wasn't right here. And he needed his answers before they got started. However, as he turned back to the door, he heard a soft click as the door behind them was pulled shut, and then locked in place. His eyes widened a bit, and he jumped back to his feet again.

"Whoa, wait a second," he said, moving to the door, grabbing the handle and turning, yanking on it, finding that it was, indeed, locked tight. He might be able to break it down if he really needed to, but he definitely didn't want to resort to that. However, he did let out a frustrated growl. "Hey, what is this!?" he would call at the door as he pulled at it to no avail.

However, when Arma spoke up, he turned back around to face the others again. "...Escape?" he said. "Ugh...oh c'mon, and here I was thinking...." He then shook his head. "Great. Not really what I was expecting, but...."

The Scorchio's words trailed off there as his attention was grabbed by the nearby bookshelf; or more specifically, just above the bookshelf, where glowing words were beginning to form....

"T...Tri...al...of...wi-wisdom...?" he murmured lowly. "Is...is that what that says? What does that mean?"

Because of the unchanging temperature, out of curiosity, Arma reaches out to touch the fire.

As she had been scanning the room, Eloween hadn't noticed the door clicking shut until she saw Ferrin attempting (and failing) to open it. A grimace crossed the ixi's face, which only deepened at Arma's words. Of course. She should have anticipated something like this. Once Ferrin had moved towards the bookcase, Wyler had gone up to the door and started scratching on it with her long claws. "Wyler, I don't think that's going to work," Eloween said, causing Wyler to immediately stop and give a small whine. The ranger approached her companion and gave her a small pat on the head. "It's okay," she said. "We'll find a way out of this." She gave another scan of the room until she noticed Ferrin staring intently at something on the bookshelf. "How about you sniff around the room? See what you can find." Wyler looked up at her ranger, gave a slow blink before nodding and began sniffing around the edges of the room.

Eloween approached Ferrin, and quickly noticed the words starting to form above. Before she could read them aloud, Ferrin beat her to it. She frowned thoughtfully. "Wisdom?" She looked over her shoulder at the room and then back at the bookshelf. "I'm not sure," she responded to Ferrin's query. "This really wasn't what I was expecting either."

Before she could give much though to this, however, she heard Wyler make a sound. She turned, expecting to see the gallion holding something in her mouth or hovering over something unusual. What she didn't expect was to see Arma trying to stick his hand in the fire. "Wait, Arma-" Eloween made a step towards the bori, though it was highly unlikely she'd be quick enough to stop him.

@Digizel
[color=SteelBlue]"i-i'm sorry sir!" [/color The lenny relented from behind the door. The guilt in her voice was uncanny.
"You'll get out in no time, I'm sure of it! Just... be really careful on the next trail".

@Moon Man
Eloween came running toward the monk, but was a bit to slow. Arma plunged his hand into the fire to find that it was an illusion. It flickered around him, giving nothing more than a harmless gust of wind. behind it, the sight of a ladder leading up the chimney.

From the corner of his eye Arma could see Elloween reaching out, trying to prevent him from sticking his hand in the fire. Just before she managed to grab a hold on him, Arma pulled his hand away from her grasp and stuck his other one into the fireplace. He shut his eyes, expecting searing pain but after a few seconds nothing happened, even after moving it around.

Opening his eyes, he could see his hand right in the middle of the flame but there was no pain. Intrigued he moved his hand from side to side causing it to flicker and reveal the hidden ladder it was hiding. He put on a smug face and spoke to his companions. “Solved the first puzzle.”

After saying those words he poked his head through the fire and looked up.

To Arma's dismay, the ladder wasn't all there was in the well lit chimney. At the top of the chimney was a trapdoor, potentially leading them further up. However, the trapdoor had a large lock attached to an iron ring in the wall, thus keeping the door shut.

Arma climbs up the ladder and tries to fiddle with the lock to no avail.

“Damn! It’s locked pretty well.” He says, emerging from the fireplace. “You guys can either have a go at it or we could keep looking around.”

Oops

Eloween looked horrified as Arma shoved his claw into the fireplace... only for the horror to quickly die down once she realised the flames weren't actually hurting him. However, before she could breath a sigh of relief, Arma then proceeded to raise her anxiety further by sticking his entire head into the fireplace. "What are you-" Eloween started to ask, only for the bori to climb into the flames and disappear entirely. "Arma!" she shouted. She glanced over at Ferrin with alarm, as if expecting him to do something.

Wyler had approached the flames and was sniffing the area around the fireplace, also noting how the fire didn't seem to give off any heat. She was just about to step through herself when Arma returned, startling the gallion and causing her to run and hide behind her ranger, her mane and tail bushed up in surprised.

"Thank Fyora," Eloween muttered as Arma exited the fireplace. "Don't just do something like that without warning us first!" She did, however, seemed to calm slightly as Arma spoke again. "What do you mean? What exactly did you find in there?"

Ferrin let out a groan as he heard the Lenny's words from the other side of the door. So, then this was the trial after all? Ugh...that was annoying. Well, hopefully the group would be able to get this over with quickly enough. However, his attention was soon grabbed by Eloween's unexpected cry. He watched from his spot in front of the bookshelf, his reflexes clearly not being quite as sharp as the Ixi's. He took a step forward as though to help the Ixi restrain Arma from doing something stupid...but he stumbled to a stop as it turned out that the Bori...somehow wasn't on fire...?

The Scorchio blinked in bewilderment. "What...?" he murmured lowly. However, before he could react further, Arma had...completely disappeared into the fireplace!? "H-hey, what're you-!?" he exclaimed, rushing toward the fireplace now as well, ready to rush straight into the roaring flames to pull his companion back out if he had to! However...by the time he reached the flames, he could see the Bori starting to emerge through them again.

Wait...so none of it was real? That was the only explanation, right? But...he could see them. The roaring, crackling fire was definitely real! But...if the flames were real, then why wasn't Arma burned at all...?

He shook his had. There was only one way he was going to get to the bottom of this.

"Let me take a look," Ferrin said simply, hesitantly stepping through the flames himself...only to find the ladder on the opposite side, and his gaze followed it upward and to the locked door overhead. "Huh. Wow. The fire's fake, and there's...a locked door up here? Heh. Well, we'll see how long it stays that way. Don't worry guys, this shouldn't be a problem."

Then, without hesitating, he climbed the ladder and, when he got to the door itself, he would attempt to slide the shield off of his back and onto his arm. It was time for his own brand of lockpicking. He shoved his arm upward, attempting to bash the lock with the shield in a likely-futile attempt to break it.

As the shield neared the trapdoor, a blue shield of energy formed to block the path. The Door was already sturdy, and now some magical form seemed to also be blocking the path.

Ferrin's shield bashed into the lock...or at least, so Ferrin thought at first. But then he realized that some sort of blue barrier had appeared in front of it, causing his eyes to widen a bit. "Whoa.... That's...new." he murmured, quickly realizing that he wasn't going to be making any progress in attempting to brute force the lock. He didn't like it, but he knew he was gonna have to give up on breaking anything up here.

He sighed and climbed back down the ladder. Once he was back at the bottom, he stepped through the flames again, and slid the shield onto his back. "So much for that. Apparently there's some kind of barrier stopping me from just breaking the thing down. Whatever kind of puzzle is in here, we're not getting around it."

Even now she knew the flames weren't real, Eloween still tensed when Ferrin stepped through the fireplace. To calm her nerves, she knelt down and patted Wyler's head, muttering quietly to the Gallion as she did so, "This whole ordeal is going to give me a heart attack." Wyler rubbed her head against her ranger as if in commiseration.

When Ferrin returned, explaining how the lock had some sort of barrier, Eloween stood up again. She glanced at the flames, and then back down at Wyler. "I think we should go take a look," she said, more to her petpet than to Ferrin or Arma. The gallion looked at her doubtfully, then back at the flames. Her mane and tail were starting to fluff up again. Eloween put a hand on Wyler's head. "It's okay, I'm right here."

After a minute or so, she was finally able to persuade Wyler to walk through the flames with her. She then picked up Wyler to climb the ladder and inspected the lock. She specifically made sure to have Wyler sniff the lock. She then carried Wyler back down the ladder, and upon exiting the fireplace, sent the gallion to inspect round the room to try and locate anything matching the lock's scent.