Princess of Balbadd (Magi x Reader)

Zeal of Zagan

AN: I've had parts of this done for a couple of years now, so I'm excited to finally share it!

"You should have seen these two when they were alone, away from your watchful eye..."

~*~

When the door slams shut behind you, it disappears, leaving you in a seemingly endless curling hallway. The surroundings now feel more like a castle and less of nature with more rectangular stones and less vines.

The two of you follow the hall for what seems like forever. You had always envisioned dungeons to have more excitement and less walking. Adventure tales always left out the long transitions between the thrilling parts.

Every so often there are alcoves of about four different varieties. When your feet get too sore to keep up, you eye the padded rocking chairs in one of these nooks.

"Would it be okay to take a break?" you ask Ja'far, pointing to the inviting chairs.

"Oh. Of course. Let's make sure it's not a trap though first." He leads the inspection but it appears innocent enough.

Sitting down, it feels so good to get the weight off your feet as you lean back in the chair. At this point, you've probably been walking for hours. Now that you've stopped the momentum, you're not sure you'll be able to stand back up again. There's no sun to gauge how much time has passed since entering, but certainly a full day has been put into traversing this dungeon by now.

Then your stomach rumbles.

That's one way to measure time. You look to the side, slightly embarrassed, but Ja'far just gives you a soft smile and reaches into his sleeve.

"Here. I picked this from the trees outside," he says and hands you an exotic looking fruit. After you gratefully accept it, he continues, "There doesn't seem to be any danger here, so I'm going to scout out ahead to see how much longer this pathway goes."

You nod and he goes off to the left. As much as you'd love to slowly eat and savor the fruit, your hunger gets the better of you and you devour it as soon as you are alone. It's really a shame since it is really hitting the spot. You clean up the remnants then rock on the chair.

~*~

After some time, a shocked gasp pulls you from your relaxed state. Your eyes open and see Ja'far approaching you from the right. Is this some kind of joke?

"Wait, isn't that where we came from? Didn't you head off that way?!" you exclaim, pointing towards the way you saw him leave.

"I did. And you haven't moved from that spot since I left?"

"Well, yeah. Which means–"

"–we've been going in circles," he concludes dejectedly.

The chair nearly falls backwards from the force of you throwing yourself back in exasperation of all the energy the two of you have been wasting. The hallway was pretty consistent. No other paths branched off. No holes high or low to slip through. The two of you are trapped here.

Zagan's laughter fills the hallway. "It sounded like you liked riddles. So here you have one."

A stone in the wall across from the alcove rotates around, revealing some Tran markings. You get up and go over to inspect it, doing your best to remember what you learned back at the palace. Although a lot of it seems weird. Only a few words in the center look familiar to your Tran vocabulary.

"I think it says to keep going. Find...the right step...eventually?" you paraphrase what words you do remember the translations for and hope you're getting the gist of it correctly.