Ben spent more time than he probably should have sitting by his sister hoping she would come too. He was still in a bad way himself. Even with the time spent in the milder heat near the bottom of the stairs the effects of the cold still lingered in his extremities.
But he was at least conscious, and Sara was not.
Ben didn't know what to do. A door had opened downstairs, and he felt that this was likely the place that they were meant to go next but he was anxious about doing so. They had only just gotten through this room, well Sara had, and now anything could be happening in the next.
What even was this place? Ben knew the answer but that didn't help. Ghost, Hauntings and Magic. What did that mean? It meant anything. Ben was always a little afraid that anything might happen and now that anything was even more anything.
But worst of all Ben knew that there was nothing he could do. Sara was on the floor and the only open door was to the next room. He could stay on the stairs. Sara might wake up and take charge. But then she might not and then he still had to make the choice just in a worse position. There was no trick, no puzzle that Ben could find a clever solution for, nothing but the option to move forward or not. And no matter how long he didn't, moving forward would remain the only real option.
And so, Ben found some kind of resolve. To call it determination would have been giving it too much credit. It would be better to call it acceptance. Ben had spent his young life worrying that the worst was going to happen, and he would be hard pressed to think of worse than this. It was time to stop worrying.
Even after coming to this conclusion, it was not an easy trek. Knowing you have to do something and doing it are two different things and the weight of his sister did little to improve his resolve.
And yet despite all that the trip into the room felt too short. Before he was really aware of it Ben had crossed the threshold and felt entirely unprepared.
The room seemed to be some kind of parlour. Seemed to be because Ben had never actually seen a Parlour in his life. He remembered characters using them in old books and it seemed to fit the description. It was a well-decorated room with a sort of pinkish-red colour to the walls and dark red carpet. There was a small bookcase, but the majority of the room was set up with oaken tables and plush chairs which all bore some version of the Raven crest of the Malignas. The air carried the scent of burned logs which could be traced to the absurdly large Fireplace that stood at the far end of the room. You could have stacked three Bens on top of each other, and they would still have fit inside. They might even have done so if they had been standing beside each other.
Ben took all of this in but the thing that caught his attention most was the table just beyond the door which had a single seat and a pitcher of water atop it.
Paranoia set in quickly. It was too perfect. Maligna had set a trap to kill them off there was no doubt about it.
As concerned as Ben was, however, he was equally concerned by the fact he would almost certainly drop his sister if he didn't put her down somewhere soon. Sara would need water too and even if this felt too good to be true it was all Ben could get.
After a careful approach, and a quick check making sure it didn't have a spike or something, Ben helped Sara into the chair. So far, so good. Then came the pitcher of water. This seemed really suspicious. It was exactly what Sara would need after the havoc that had been played on her in the last game. It would be the perfect opportunity to hurt her.
The water was clear. But there were poisons that were invisible. Or was that just something Ben had read in a book? He sniffed it. It didn't smell of anything in particular. It could be odourless. Or Magic. There was always magic. How were you even supposed to deal with magic? It just didn't seem fair.
Sara was clearly less concerned with the water's safety and grabbed the pitcher before quickly downing the whole thing. Ben waited with bated breath for any sign that his sister might be in danger. After a few moments of nothing changing, he felt a little better. Sara was clearly still woozy but seemed a little more comfortable. It was just as Ben was starting to Relax that a whole new problem reared its ugly head.
"Ah," came a strange female voice, "so you managed to accomplish the first game. Impressive."
Ben turned to see the source of the voice, but he couldn't find anything obvious.
"Dear Benjamin," said the voice "I'm not sure your sister is in the best of health. What will you do without her?"
Ben caught it this time. There was an ornament atop the fireplace. It was a Brass statuette carved in the shape of a sphinx. Ben took a few steps forward to get a better look and as he did so he saw a quick flash of green flame in the sphinx's eyes.
Suddenly the whole room shifted. It Began to warp and stretch as the Fireplace grew to an enormous height towering above Ben. He had moved closer to it now, or it had moved closer to him, and as it did so the rest of the room seemed to shrink around it. A sickly green flame burst forth from the fire pit and cast its shadows along the mantelpiece obscuring the now enlarged Sphinx.
Now little more than a silhouette behind the flames the exact form of the sphinx was hard to make out. Ben believed he could see a lion's body with two feathered wings atop it but the face was completely obscured save for the two burning eyes.
"You are aware of the Sphinx's game, I suppose?" Asked the Sphinx.
Even when he had registered the question Ben was in no state to answer. The words rattled in his mind, but he was unable to attach any meaning to them. All he could do was stare at the creature glowering down at him.
The Sphinx did not seem impressed.
"What do they teach you," said the Sphinx, "The Sphinx's game is the game of riddles."
Of course. Like in the ancient Greek Myth. Ben reached for the story, but his mind kept drawing a blank. How was meant to think of anything with this monster staring over him?
"If you are unfamiliar," Said the Sphinx, "Then I will explain. I will ask you a riddle. If you can answer it correctly then you will have the chance to ask me one. We will continue back and forth until one of us is unable to guess the right answer."
"What happens then?" Asked Ben.
The sphinx's smile widened to a distressing size as she let her sharp teeth glisten in the firelight. Ben got the picture.
"Now that that's settled," said the Sphinx, "let us begin."
The Sphinx Stretched out her back and got herself comfortable atop the mantle before speaking.
"At dawn, I walk with four legs, at midday, I walk with two and at night I walk with three. What am I?" she said.
Ben spent more time than he would have liked not actually considering the question. He just kept repeating it in his head thinking about how he needed to think of something. As it did so, he realised that he had heard it before. He had been thinking about it recently. Like really recently.
He stared at the strange monster before him trying desperately to find the memory. Then it clicked. The riddle of the Sphinx. It was the riddle of the sphinx from the Greek myth.
Four legs in the morning, two at midday, and three in the evening. It was one of the most famous riddles in the world. The first one you would come up with when confronting a sphinx. Then maybe it was a trap? The sphinx would know that this was the most obvious answer, so she would ask it so you wouldn't think about it too hard.
But what would be another answer? A chair, maybe. No, that was stupid. A Drunk tiger. No, that was even worse.
Ben was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he failed to realise that the Sphinx had moved from her perch atop the fireplace. When Ben happened to glance in her direction he was startled to see that she was now scaling down towards him with hungry eyes.
"Man," Ben blurted out, "The Answer is man. Or human, I guess but that's the right answer. The morning is a metaphor. It's like when you're a baby you walk on four legs... well arms and legs but it sort of looks like..."
"Yes," Interrupted the Sphinx, "Yes that's right."
She slunk back up the fireplace into her comfortable spot.
"Very clever," She said, "But that was just a warmup. My next one won't be so simple. Regardless It is now your turn. So please riddle away."
Whatever momentary calm Ben had found from his success was quickly superseded by his panic at now having to come up with a riddle. It would have to be a hard one. The hardest one he could think of. Did he know any hard riddles? Did he know any riddles at all?
It was a strange feeling standing there before the fiery gaze of the sphinx. On the one hand, he was almost in control. He got to come up with the riddle that the Sphinx had to answer. If it was good enough, he would win the game. If was the operative word. Ben had little confidence in that idea. It was there, a small glimmer of hope, but it was hard not to feel that the game was stacked against him.
The Sphinx calmly sat, waiting for the riddle whilst always keeping her eyes trained on the small boy. Ben felt no more in control than when this had all started.
Ben did manage to pull a riddle from somewhere in his memory. He thought it might have been a computer game he had played. He wasn't sure if it had been a hard one, but he had gotten the answer wrong and been attacked by an angry ghost, so that was something at least.
"I have," Ben stuttered, "Mountains without stone, oceans without water and paths that no one can tread. What am I."
For the briefest moment, Ben actually thought he had stumped the Sphinx. She didn't move at all on her perch, and whilst the shadows made it impossible to tell what her mood might be, Ben was at least able to entertain the idea that she was perplexed. It was a vain hope. Within seconds, she gave her answer.
"You are a Map," she said.
Ben tried desperately to think of another answer. Maybe he could trick her if he pretended. It didn't seem to matter, though. The Sphinx simply claimed her victory and moved on with the game.
"32 white soldiers face each other on two opposing red hills. What are they?" she asked.
The Riddle came so soon after his that Ben felt a little disoriented, and it took him an agonisingly long time to put it straight. 32 white soldiers. Caucasian soldiers or just soldiers in white. What soldiers would wear white? It would be a terrible colour for war. There was no camouflage and you would be able to see blood unless the soldiers were in the snow. But if that were the case, why would the hills be red? Were there any red hills? There were mesas in America. They were red. Civil war soldiers, maybe. That seemed odd, though. Riddles weren't usually so literal.
Ben suddenly realised he had lost sight of the sphinx, and his train of thought ground to a halt as he scanned the room for her. He found she had scaled further down the fireplace and was almost on the ground. This close to the fire in her eyes was eclipsed by the inferno next to her. All Ben could make out were those dagger-like teeth.
Teeth? 32 teeth.
"Teeth," Said Ben, "Teeth, they're teeth."
The Sphinx's face was still obscured, but her hesitation spoke volumes. For a moment, she hung frozen between the pillar and the floor. Ben began to fear that she might have been preparing to pounce but he was soon relieved as she quickly turned and, with a few quick leaps, made her way back to her spot on the mantle.
"My my," She said, "It seems you are not half so dim-witted as I had believed. I won't make that mistake again."
Ben didn't feel much encouraged by this which, mixed with a lack of prompting, might have been why it took him so long to realise it was now his turn. This realisation only led to another kind of panic.
That last riddle had been hard enough to come up with, and now he had one less idea. In his desperation, he began looking around the room for inspiration. This proved difficult as the room was still in its strange, warped state. He could make out a map on one of the walls, well that was no good, and then there were the teeth that kept coming into his mind, which was obviously not a particularly good idea either. There was the clock in the hallway that was always on the periphery of Ben's mind, but he could think of a good riddle for that. There was one thing that Ben had an idea for, but it was the most obvious thing in the room. Still, it was something.
"A spirited Jig I dance," He began, "I banish the darkest night. Give me food and I shall live, but water will end my life. What am I?"
What little confidence Ben might have had about this riddle quickly evaporated when the Sphinx gave an audible laugh that mingled well with the crackling flame.
"You are Fire," said the Sphinx, "A good effort but I am afraid I have heard that one before."
Even with his low expectations, Ben couldn't help but feel deflated. He had been scraping the barrel pretty hard for that last riddle, and he had no idea where he would get the next one from. Assuming he got to ask another one, of course.
The Sphinx stretched on her perch and yawned before delivering her next riddle.
"I have a face that doesn't frown," She began, "And hands that do not wave. I have no feet, and yet I move about all day. What Am I?"
Ben couldn't believe it. This time, there was no immediate panic. No worries. An answer just popped into his head. In fact, it happened so quickly that Ben got a little carried away and ended up saying it before really thinking about it.
"You're a clock," he said.
Ben's blood ran cold as he considered what a massive mistake he must have made. He was all the more convinced by how still the Sphinx had become. For a long time, she just sat there without a word. Was she just soaking in her victory?
Evidently not.
"That is correct," the Sphinx said with each word more painful to speak than the last.
Now it was Ben's turn to be dumbfounded. Elation at such a strong victory was tinged with a question that bothered him considerably.
Why had that been so easy? Clocks were just on his mind, maybe. The whole reason he was doing this was so he could get a magical key for a magical clock. Come to think of it, her riddles all seemed focused on herself. Riddles about teeth. The sphinx's riddle. She knew about other things of course. She had correctly guessed his riddle about the map, like the one on the wall, And the fire, Like the one dominating the room.
An idea began to form in Ben's mind. It was so simple that he was worried that it might actually just be stupid. Either way, he needed something. Ben had the distinct impression that the Sphinx was beginning to get anxious about the game. It had been going back and forth for some time now, and Ben's quick response to the last Riddle had her rattled. That being said, Ben was not confident that he would be able to keep his streak up. He needed to end this as soon as possible. If there was ever a time for a risk, it was now.
"Never stopping, never still," He began, "I move about from hill to hill. I do not walk or run or trot. It is never hot where I am not. What am I?"
The Sphinx sat still and considered the riddle. The shadows made it impossible to tell her expression, so Ben couldn't tell if she was struggling.
Eventually, the Sphinx stretched out and rose from her perch.
"Clever, clever," The Sphinx said, "But not clever enough, I'm afraid. The Answer is the Moon."
She had said it with such confidence that Ben almost thought she was right. Clearly, the Sphinx believed this as well because she quickly tried to move on.
"Very Well," She said, "My turn. I...."
"That's not right," said Ben.
The Sphinx fell silent.
"What?" She hissed.
The fiery eyes grew in intensity, and Ben trembled under their gaze. He did what he could to steady his breath and continued.
"You... You got the Answer to the Riddle wrong," He stammered, "The Answer was...."
"No!" Roared the Sphinx, "Don't tell me. I still have two guesses."
If that had been a rule, Ben hadn't heard it, but he felt in no position to argue.
The Sphinx didn't return to her original seating position as she usually did. Instead, she began pacing the mantelpiece muttering the riddle under her breath.
Ben was now faced with a new problem. Winning the game meant nothing if the Sphinx didn't concede. Ben couldn't do anything to stop her if she decided to just attack.
The Sphinx slowed in her pacing and turned to Ben.
"Fire," Said the Sphinx, "You've used the same answer twice to try and trick me."
"No," said Ben, "it's a new answer."
The Sphinx let out a horrible screech that seemed to be a cacophonous combination of a woman's scream and a Lion's roar. Ben felt faint but managed to stay on his feet.
The Sphinx's pacing became more erratic as her mutterings were punctuated with similar roars.
"You cheated," Said the Sphinx, "There isn't an answer."
"No," said Ben, "No there is. I can tell it to you if you want."
The Sphinx roared loudly once again.
Ben's breathing was starting to get out of control. This was the end; he could feel it, but what kind of end would it be?
"A gaslight," The Sphinx Roared, "The answer is a gaslight being held by a person."
Ben's voice caught in his throat. He was shaking heavily, and he just couldn't seem to get enough air. Even through the shadows, Ben could see the smile widening on the Sphinx's face. She thought she had won. Ben took a deep breath.
"No," He said, "That's not it. You had three guesses, and they were all wrong. The answer... was the sun."
Quiet fell over the parlour. The Sphinx was frozen in place, and for a moment, Ben genuinely thought she might have turned back into the statue she had been previously.
Then it all happened at once. Before Ben knew it, he was on the ground and atop him was the sphinx. Her face was inches from his, and for the first time, Ben could see the strange mesh of human features mingled with those of a lion. Most noticeable of all was the too large mouth splitting her face in half as she spread her sharp teeth.
She was going to eat him. He had won, but it didn't matter.
No. No, it did matter. He had won. There were rules.
"I won," Screamed Ben, "You lost."
The Sphinx roared in Ben's face, letting him see deep into her throat, and then, with a pained howl, she launched herself straight into the green fire. In an instant, the Sphinx was incinerated, and the flames died.
Ben had to blink. The room was back to normal as if it had never changed at all. The only clue that any of it had happened was the absence of the sphinx from the mantelpiece.
The fireplace was once again cold, and within the new layer of ash that covered it, something was sparkling.
A hand suddenly took hold of Ben's shoulder, and he screamed.
"Woh," Said Sara, "It's just me."
Ben turned to see his sister standing over him.
"Dude, that was amazing," she said.
"You saw?" Asked Ben.
"Yeah," Said Sara, "I mean, it got a little weird for a second, but the whole thing with you and the weird lion lady..."
"Sphinx," said Ben.
"Yeah, whatever," Said Sara, "That was awesome."
Ben blushed.
"How do you feel?" He asked.
Sara gave a weak smile.
"Not great," She admitted, "But better. Just going to have to deal with it, I guess."
Ben wouldn't argue against that. He turned to look over the fireplace where the Sphinx had thrown herself. The glinting caught his eye again. He walked over and brushed away some of the ash, and found the small key hidden beneath.
"Alright," said Sara, "Two in a row. Not bad, ay. You should do the honours."
"I did the last one," said Ben, "Also, I can't quite reach the keyholes."
Sara rolled her eyes.
"Okay," Said Sara, "You just sit back then and let your sister do all the work."
She gave him a punch in the arm, and Ben couldn't help but laugh. For a moment, he couldn't help but feel euphoric, but it was short-lived.
Upon reaching the grandfather clock, the reality of what lay before them came back into focus.
Two out of twelve.
They had barely survived those two, and now ten more awaited them. Any victories they had enjoyed were wiped away for whatever new horror would take their place.
Had Ben held the key, he might have indulged himself with a few more moments. But Sara seemed to have the opposite philosophy and barely waited, which was probably for the best.
Two more chimes echoed out across the manor, followed by the creaking of another door up on the first floor.