Rob X Punzel ~ Thirty-Seven!

Even while leaning against the wall of the stone room where she and her group had found safety, it still took Goldie a few moments to realize she was actually safe—for the moment. The stone door behind her was shut tight, and the likelihood of anyone managing to enter in the next few hours was extremely low, with all of them converging on the door and likely even now fighting each other. 

She looked back at the royal guard, who was motioning her forward, and she slowly followed after him. The armored man directed her to a small table laden with hearty food, pulling a lid off a covered dish and allowing steam to waft upward. Goldie's stomach growled loudly, and she all but threw herself at the thick stew that was calling to her. 

Barely having the presence of mind to scoop the steaming substance into a bowl, she began gulping it down, wincing as each movement of her spoon pulled at her wounds. A glance at her arm showed nothing, covered as it was by a fancy bandage, but she could only imagine there were hot lines radiating out from where she’d been stabbed the day before.

Dozens of scrapes and scratches covered her body, and the thief couldn't even be certain when they had begun to accumulate. Slowing slightly, she looked at the guard and inquired in a light tone, “I don't suppose this is poisoned? Maybe just a little? Something that might… numb the pain?”

“The only numbing you're going to find in those dishes is num-num-num.” The guard stifled a laugh as Goldie's jaw dropped. “What? We’re allowed to have a sense of humor.”

“...I guess.” Goldie blinked rapidly, turning her attention back to the bowl she was swiftly emptying.

“Anyway,” The burly man showed a crooked smile as he stepped around the table. “You're only allowed to stay here so long as you are not done eating. Unlike the previous floor, if you want to sleep, you're going to have to risk doing it out in the open. I don't… recommend that.”

Goldie gave a tired shrug and simply started eating slower, grateful for the hot food and the soft cushion beneath her. She chewed each bite, savoring it as slowly as possible to give herself as much time as possible to recover. The guard, realizing that she had understood his intent, let out a happy little sigh and folded his arms.

“The next floor is unlike the others. It's not about fighting, although there will be plenty. Nor is it about being able to handle the sheer number of traps you’re certain to find. You see, your next challenge is the ‘Hall of Mirrors’, and it’s meant to test…” he paused, as though uncomfortable with the script he needed to regurgitate for her. “It is a test of your fate.”

“By the system, guess I should give up now.” Goldie snorted into her stew, going quiet after not getting the expected chuckle from the previously jovial guard. 

“Unfortunately for you, that’s simply not an option,” he explained quietly. “That reward has already been claimed. But on a positive note, only one person from your cohort has already continued onward.”

“Heidi,” Goldie growled darkly, though she had no clue who the name belonged to. 

The guard didn't miss a beat, simply nodding and continuing his explanation, “The idea behind this floor is simple: someone who shouldn't be the next queen shouldn't have an easy path forward. If you are meant to ascend to the throne, you should be able to pick out the path, as the world itself will make way for you. In other words… the exit is randomly placed, and you need to find it. You might find it immediately or find yourself wandering for days. A word of warning…”

Waiting until he had her full attention, he began speaking once more, “Though you’re only the second person from your cohort, there are still people wandering around in there, even from the first group. I'm sure it’ll come as no surprise to you that the first cohort to attempt the tower were considered the most deadly of all the groups. The strongest and fastest arrived at the tower first, and they have the best chances at succeeding. Now, since you might be in there for a long time, I'll let you know that there are supplies hidden throughout the floor… if you're willing to risk the time needed to search for them. Food, weapons, perhaps even greater options, if you have the fate required to find them.”

Giving her a measured look, the guard motioned for Goldie to stand. Only then did she realize she’d been listening to him so carefully that she had stopped eating. He shrugged at her sour face as he pulled the door open then closed it behind her. “Rules are rules. May your fate be kinder than most, Rapunzel.”

Scintillating light washed over Goldie as she stepped out of the small room, reflected from dozens, hundreds, perhaps even thousands of mirrors set up at odd angles. Every inch of the floor, walls, and ceiling was coated in mirrors, angled and placed in such a way that her own image was infinitely reflecting back at her. Her hair shifted between a half-dozen colors, splashing light back at the mirrors in return and causing a cascade effect of rainbows racing into the distance. “Ow! My eyes! You're not helping.”

But her hair seemed to be reacting to the endless reflections with giddy, almost childlike enthusiasm. Her curls straightened out, and each strand extended to its maximum length as it snaked out, grasping at the mirrors like a magpie drawn to shiny trinkets. Goldie grunted with effort as the full weight of her hair bore down on her, no longer helping to support itself by resting against her body or creating counterweight by pushing against the ground. 

“Hair! This is going to be a problem real fast. Ughh… of course it loves being surrounded by mirrors. You just love looking at yourself, don't you? No wonder you've forced me to buy all those fancy oils and conditioners over the years. It's all been in preparation for a situation just like this, hasn't it?”

Letting out a frustrated sigh, Goldie forced herself to begin moving, choosing a path at random and doing her best to not be startled as hundreds of reflections flickered into and out of existence with her every move. For someone like her, who’d spent years honing her senses and practicing situational awareness, this floor was absolute torment. 

There was one unexpected benefit to her hair fluttering out in all directions: many times, it bounced off a hard surface she had thought was an open walkway.

Looking closer at the glassy plane, she found dozens of tiny scuff marks where someone moving at a running pace had slammed face-first into a mirror. As Goldie rounded a corner, walking through an exact replica of the previous corridor, her feet began crunching against shards of shattered glass. Though she checked her surroundings for damaged mirrors, none of them showed even a hairline crack. 

“Do they repair themselves after they’re broken?” She murmured in dismay as she reached out and tapped on a smooth surface. “If I can't leave a path for myself, that's going to make it pretty difficult to figure out where I've been.”

Deciding to test her theory, she slammed the handle of her battle scissors against the glass, and it shattered immediately. For a few moments, she second guessed herself, but then watched in amazement as silver liquid poured from the top of the mirror, dribbling over the damage and hardening into a new, flawless reflection. Unable to think of anything else to do, she simply concentrated on her footsteps, hoping to prevent any shards from stabbing through her shoe. Soon, her hair bumped against glass, and she turned to go another direction, only to find herself boxed in on all three sides. 

“Abyss… a dead end.” She turned to go back the way she had come, only to pause and frown as her hair pulled on her gently. “Am I missing something? There wasn't anywhere to go, though?”

Once more there was a gentle tugging, and Goldie realized she hadn’t been thinking like a thief at all. Reaching upward, she swiped her hand back and forth, only then realizing the ceiling above her was open—whereas before she’d been stuck in an enclosed hallway. “Hup!”

Pushing off the wall, she bounded upward, back and forth, until she found herself… on yet another mirrored path. “Great. It's exactly the-”

“Ha!” A voice screamed out with glee as a thick axe slammed into her body—only for the reflection to shatter under the brutal attack. “No! You had to have landed there!”

The stocky woman who had tried to cleave Goldie in half spun around, eyes wild with panic as she began smashing mirror after mirror, screaming with frustration as her target began running. The sound shifted into a howl of fury as Goldie rounded a corner, and hundreds of her reflections vanished in an instant. 

After slipping away, leaving the other woman to curse and shriek while shattering even more glass, Goldie wiped sweat from her brow with a trembling hand. “Too close. I didn't even get a warning from you, so that means she took both of us by surprise, doesn't it, hair?”

The farther she went, the more uneasy she became. Many reflections around her seemed to warp, some twisting her image into strange, unfamiliar, or concerning shapes. Each time she made a quick motion, Goldie flinched as her senses screamed that someone was taking a swing at her. “Celestial feces, this place is starting to mess with my mind. No wonder that lady went wild like that. I've been in here for half an hour; who knows how long she's been stuck there?”

Goldie was faster and more agile than most of the other contestants—she was sure of it. Years of slipping through crowds and twisting streets, finding paths and footholds where others would’ve stumbled had given her that advantage. But now, unable to trust her eyes, she felt clumsy and off balance. The ever-increasing weight of her hair certainly didn't help, either. As she took another step, a sick feeling flooded through her as her foot came down on nothing.

Letting out a shriek of fear, the thief dropped into a hole in the middle of the hallway—only her hair spreading out like a net and gripping all sides of the opening managed to arrest her descent. Glancing down, Goldie's eyes trailed along hundreds of glass shards angled upward to impale anyone who dropped onto them. She released a soft, strangled gasp as she directed her hair to pull her upward. 

A moment later, she pressed herself against the floor, breath fogging the smooth surface enough to allow her not to see her reflection for the first time since entering this level of the tower. “Okay… I know you like being extended up and around, mind doing the floor as well?”

As per usual when speaking to her hair, Goldie wasn't expecting an answer. So when a dark chuckle echoed down the hallway, she immediately rolled into a crouched position and began moving quickly.

“What's the matter?” The cheery voice held a sickly edge as it followed Goldie's rapid footsteps. “Aren't you happy to see me? I know I'm happy to see anyone except me!”

The voice rose at the end, becoming little more than a snarl as the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps pounded on the glass surface behind Goldie. “No, I'm not happy to see you! Leave me alone, whoever you are!”

“Not happy to see me?” The voice feigned sorrow, the ruse breaking as the speaker began chuckling once more. “What a shame. Isn't it lucky for you then that-”

Squelch.

Goldie tried to suck in a breath of air as pain lanced through her. Her chin dropped down, and she stared at the spear tip jutting through her abdomen. A moment later, her assailant yanked the weapon back, and the thief dropped to the floor with blood pouring out of both sides of her body.

“-I’m invisible?” the disembodied voice finished grimly, a streak of blood coating a spear tip the only indication of her position as it floated along.

“Heidi?” Goldie gasped out the only other contestant’s name she’d been told. The red streak, which had been aimed at her chest, paused for a moment before withdrawing. 

“How do you know that name?” Now the voice was only a whisper of a snarl. 

“Hiding. Heidi is hiding.” Goldie let out a gurgling chuckle, blood moistening her lips as she made the connection. “Got it.”

“You're funny.” The voice trailed off, and the streak of dripping sanguine began moving away. “Too bad that you had to die so close to the exit like this. Real shame. Anyway, I have a position on the citizens’ council to hold for Bianca. Gotta go guard the exit, so… ta taa!”