The next thing I knew, we were surrounded by trees, the claustrophobic feeling from the cupboard now replaced by the overwhelming realisation of what we had to do next.
We had to find a relic somewhere in all of this.
"I hope Helen is okay..." Poppy sighed, looking down guiltily.
I placed my hand on her shoulder, giving her a comforting smile.
"Don't worry, she seems to know what she's doing. She's an ex-Auror after all." I could hear the uncertainty in my voice, my own worry taking over as I thought back to those last moments.
"Well, the sooner we find this relic the sooner we can find out." Skye said, her hands on her hips as she gave us a look, urging us to start.
And with those words, we all silently began to look around, without the slightest clue as where to begin.
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"Can you sense anything, Emerald?" Ominis asked, but I could only shake my head.
I'd had the same idea a while ago, hoping the relic would call to me like the Hufflepuff cup, but it didn't seem to work.
Wherever this relic was, it wanted to stay hidden.
"You're a Ravenclaw, Skye. If you were to hide a relic, where would you put it?" Sebastian asked, getting her to prove her worth, acting on her comment earlier.
She looked bewildered for a moment, staring at Sebastian as though it were a stupid question.
Yet, not long after, her eyes seemed to widen, and she began to run further into the forest.
We all exchanged a curious look, none of us knowing what could have possibly crossed her mind, before quickly following her.
As we followed we noticed that she seemed to be looking at each individual tree, as though looking for something in particular.
"What are you doing?" Natty asked her, but Skye didn't answer, too caught up as she examined each tree.
Finally, she seemed to stop, eyeing up one tree in particular.
She wasted no time in running up to the tree, before dropping to her knees, reaching into a hole near the base of the trunk, so far down and small I would have missed it if she hadn't spotted it.
"I'd hide it somewhere obvious," she began, answering Sebastian's question from earlier as she reached further into the hole.
"Not so much so that it was clear as day, but so as to lead others astray, because what wizard wouldn't hide it with a spell..." she trailed off, concentrating on what she was doing.
"Really? Wouln't it be hidden by something more advanced? It was hidden by Ravenclaw's daughter after all." Sebastian asked, not convinced by her reasoning.
But Skye just turned to look at him quickly, rolling her eyes to show her annoyance.
"Being clever isn't just about complicated things, Sebastian. it's about being two steps ahead, knowing exactly what makes others predictable. At least that's what it means to me." she finally got up, turning to face us, something now in her hand.
She quickly tossed whatever it was to Sebastian, him catching with ease.
We all gathered around to see what it was, and sure enough, it was a Diadem.
It was the relic.
We all looked up at Skye, surprise covering our faces, while she now held a grin on her face, proud of her work.
"Sometimes the answer is right in front of you, you just have to be smart enough to look." she winked, walking over to us.
"Nicely done." Ominis commented as she approached, causing a soft blush to appear on her cheeks.
As I looked at the relic, I noticed the ancient magic begin to swirl around it, indicating it was ready to transport us to the trial.
I looked at the others, wondering if they were ready for what was to come.
This would be our third trial, but after last time, I was unsure whether their confidence would faulter.
However, I was met with determined faces.
They were ready.
And so was I.
We could handle whatever Rowena Ravenclaw had for us.
And with that, we all grabbed onto the Diadem.
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It seemed that the Diadem had brought us to a different place than the other relics.
While they transported us to actual locations, we were now in a strange room, one that reminded me of the ones in the castle, like when I helped Sophronia with Herodiana's conundrum.
The patterns on the walls looked similar, and the door in front of us did too.
Maybe this was a puzzle within the castle?
However, my theorising was cut short as Skye stepped forward, spotting something on the ground.
"There's something written here..." she muttered, deep in thought as she stared at it.
I walked closer to see what she meant, and sure enough, there was something written in a different language engraved into the floor in front of the door.
"Is that... Latin?" I wondered, to which Skye nodded.
"Does anyone even know how to speak Latin?" Poppy asked, bewildered by the different requirements of this trial.
Ravenclaw sure knew how to make this complicated for us.
But Sebastian just chuckled.
"Our resident braniack. Maybe it isn't so bad having you here after all." he laughed nudging Skye as her eyes remained trained on the ground.
She gave him a quick smirk, as if you say I-told-you-so, before looking back at the ground.
"Before we go inside, it says we need to choose a Captain." she explained, still staring at the floor.
"A Captain?" Natty questioned.
Skye nodded before continuing, her voice seeming confused, "... I think... it's a puzzle."
As we all looked at her confused, she looked up at the door, approaching it in order to see through the cracks.
After a moment of looking, she turned back to us, pointing at the door.
"It looks like there's a podium on the other side of the door. I think someone has to stand there while the others do something. Like a guide." she explained, seeming a bit more confident in her guess.
We all nodded slowly, the next question becoming evident.
Who would be our Captain?
"Well, you are the Ravenclaw here, Skye. Are you up for the challenge?" Sebastian asked, his voice teasing, as if to ease the tension.
She grinned at his question, placing her hands on her hips once again.
"It is why I came, after all."
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Once we stepped through the door, Skye immediately stepped onto the podium.
As she did, the ground beneith her began to shift as the podium rose, making it so she couldn't step off.
She gave us a thumbs up, before we all stepped forward, wondering what was going to happen next.
The room seemed to extend from the podium, with a large drop forming in the middle of the room, and a door appearing on the other side.
"Please tell me we don't have to jump." Poppy sighed, seeing the distance between us and the door.
Before I could reply, something began emerging from the seemingly endless abyss below.
We stepped back as tiles formed 5 different paths in front of us.
It seemed each path was made of 3 tiles.
"You all need to stand up to a lane each." Skye called down to us, causing us all to turn to her.
"How do you know?" I wondered, to which she pointed at the slab in front of her.
"That's what this thing says" she answered simply.
With nothing else to follow, we listened to Skye's instructions, each of us lining up in front of a different path.
As we did, the first tile of each path turned over to reveal a picture.
"Now what?" Sebastian called back to her, getting impatient, but Skye seemed to be reading something, her face scrunched up as she did.
"Wait a second." she called down, clearly irritated by being rushed as she rolled her eyes.
After a few more seconds of reading, she looked back up at us, her face serious.
"Okay, so I need to figure out some riddles. Whatever the answer is, you need to step onto the corresponding tile. I need to get you all across." she explained.
"What happens if the wrong person steps forward?" Poppy asked, to which Skye paused, her face twisting again as she reread what was infront of her.
"...It doesn't say." she answered hesitantly.
I looked passed the tile at the dark abyss below, feeling myself get nervous as I could only guess what would happen.
But before I could think about it too much, a voice began to echo throughout the room, speaking in what I could only assume was Latin.
Once it was done, we all looked back at Skye, hoping she caught what it said.
And with the look on her face, she had.
"I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no trees. I have water, but no fish." she said, her voice slow as she repeated the words, deep in thought.
I looked down at the images in front of us, wondering what that could possible be.
It seemed each image was similar, giving Skye no obvious clues as to what it could be.
However, within no time at all, Skye lifted her head confidently, her eyes shining brightly.
"A map!" she cried.
We all looked in front of us, seeing who had the map.
Seeing it was Natty, we all held our breath as she cautiously took a step onto the tile.
As she stepped onto it, it seemed the ground rumbled a bit, before the tile in front of her turned over and the one she stood on stablised.
We all sighed in relief, our confidence building.
We were right to bring Skye.
Ravenclaw's really loved their riddles.
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After several more riddles, we were all past our first tile, with a majority of us almost all the way across.
We had found out that once you step off a tile, it fell down into the abyss below, meaning there was no turning back.
But it only raised my suspiscions about what would happen if Skye was incorrect.
Thankfully, that hadn't happened...
Yet.
"You measure my life in hours and I serve you by expiring. I'm quick when I'm thin and slow when I'm fat. The wind is my enemy."
That was the current riddle.
And Skye had been stuck on it for a while.
With each passing second, we could see the confusion deepen on her face, and our worry only increased.
She seemed to open and close her mouth a few times, going back and fourth with her answer, staring at the options she had.
Until, she finally seemed to have enough, her face becoming irritated as she slammed her hands down, gripping the sides of the podium.
"A fire!" she cried out.
I turned back to see that I was the one with the image.
I guess it made sense, with the wind and the logs.
But the way she said it...
It seemed like a pure guess.
Nonetheless, I stepped forward, hoping with all my might that she was right.
However, as I tried to steady myself, the ground began to shake again, and I felt something different.
The tile was beginning to fall.
I reacted quickly, using whatever momentum I had left to push myself towards the cliff edge housing the door, barely grabbing the ledge as the tile completely gave way.
Thank Merlin I was on the last tile, or I would have fallen.
I quickly pulled myself up, seething as I scraped my skin against the rocky edge.
"Are you okay?" Poppy yelled, causing me to look up at the others, taking in their horrified stares.
"Yeah.. just a few scrapes." I assured them, wiping the gravel off of me.
But someone wasn't quite happy with that answer.
"What the hell, Skye? You could have got her killed!" Sebastian yelled back at her, causing me to follow his gaze.
She looked so pale as she stared at me, like she just realised the magnitude of the situation.
If I had fallen, it would have been her fault.
Yet, at the sound of Sebastian's yelling, her expression changed, going from white to red as she looked down at him.
"Will you shut up! I'm trying to think here. If you think its so easy you come up here and do it." She yelled down at him, which only seemed to rile him up further.
"I would if you hadn't invited yourself along."
"And you would've gotten them all killed from the beginning. God, you can be so impulsive sometimes. Even Anne said so."
"Really? You're going to insult me now?"
"Well if you hadn't started yelling I wouldn't have yelled back."
" I knew it was a bad idea involving you"
"Will you stop! If you haven't noticed, I'm fine, and you all still need to get across. I can't get through this door without the rest of you, so focus!" I snapped, glaring at the pair of them.
I never knew someone as hotheaded as Sebastian, but I guess their friendship made sense now.
They had the same temper, which was all we needed in a situation like this.
However, after they were snapped out of it, they both went quiet, realising what they were doing.
And the next riddle was read out.
Although, I couldn't help but notice the look on Skye's face.
She was scared.
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We had finally made it to the last riddle, with Ominis being the last one to get across.
It seemed that the tile had changed though, as this time, there was no image to aid Skye.
We all waited in anticipation as we waited for her answer to the current riddle.
"I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with wind."
But once again, it seemed Skye was stuck.
And this time, she seemed completely terrified.
If she got this one wrong, Ominis would be the one to fall, and he was less likely to catch the edge.
I couldn't imagine the stress she was under.
I couldn't imagine being in that position with Sebastian.
I wouldn't be able to answer.
And it seemed she was having the same thoughts.
"I-I can't do this" Skye cried, hands in her hair as she stared at the podium, as though it would answer for her.
She looked like she was about to have a meltdown.
"Oh no, she's freaking out." Natty whispered to me, but I couldn't even think of a way to help.
I wasn't any good at riddles.
None of us were.
But Sebastian didn't seem to have the same sympathy, his face twisting in anger again as he worried for Ominis' safetly.
I quickly grabbed his arm, earning his attention as I shook my head, making sure he didn't say anything.
"Don't make it worse." I said through gritted teeth, refusing to deal with that again.
"I wont do it. If I say the wrong thing, thats it. You were right, Sebastian, I shouldn't have come..." she choked, holding back tears.
Sebastian seemed to step back at her words, a look of guilt covering his face as he regretted his words.
Yet, we were all surprised when Ominis decided to turn towards Skye, a soft smile placed upon his lips.
"I trust you, Skye. I believe in you. Always have, always will." his voice was so soft, I hadn't heard him speak like that before.
Even Skye seemed shocked by his words, her tears ceasing as she listened to his words.
"I don't think you'd ever let me fall. Besides, we can't let Sebastian be right now, can we?" Ominis laughed, causing her to let out a small laugh too.
After his words, she smoothed her hair down and used her sleeve to wipe her eyes, her determined look from before returning.
She's quiet for a while, each minute feeling like hours.
"Each riddle gave me a hint... so why not this one? Sure it's the last one, but still..." she muttered to herself, causing us all to hold our breaths in anticipation.
"Maybe the images weren't the only hints... but what else was there?" she wondered.
Both of our eyes widened at the same time, remembering what she had said to Sebastian earlier.
Sometimes the answer was right in front of you. You just had to be smart enough to look.
But maybe this wasn't about looking.
It was about being smart enough to listen.
With her smirk returning, she yelled out her answer.
"An echo!"
She yelled in a way that would ricochet off the walls, causing the echo of her voice to hit every inch of the room, including the tile.
Ominis stepped forward, with us all watching as the tile began to adjust, leaning forward to catch him just in case.
But after a moment of adjustment, something different began to happen.
Instead of falling, all the previous tiles began to reappear, forming the paths again, before a blinding light appeared between them, causing us to sheilded our eyes.
Once the light was gone, I peeked at the tiles, and was surprised to see that they now formed a floor, the abyss from before completely gone.
The podium slowly decended back to the floor, allowing Skye to step off.
Without another thought, she stepped off the podium and ran towards us.
At first, I thought she would hug Ominis, or even Sebastian, but as she got closer, I realised who she was aiming for.
I braced myself as she slammed her body into mine, wrapping her arms around my neck tightly.
"I'm so sorry I almost made you fall!" she cried, tightening her grip even more.
I laughed, struggling as she cut off my oxygen, and wrapped my arms around her.
"It's okay. Trust me, is not the worst thing thats ever happened to me." I giggled, causing her to pull away as she began to laugh.
"Really, though. You were amazing. Thank you for coming along." I smiled, causing her to give me a big grin, tears still in her eyes.
We were interrupted as the door behind us swung open, revealing a portal to the map chamber.
We all stood infront of it as we stared inside, reality setting in.
"We're down to the last relic." Ominis commented, like he couldn't believe it.
"Yeah... I can't believe it. It felt like we would never get here." Poppy laughed nervously, reliving the events leading up to this.
"Lets just hope we're in time to stop Isidora." I sighed, remembering what this was all for.
And on that note, we all made our way through the portal.