/that's just the weight of the world/ the weak and the weary will never survive/ that's just the weight of the world/ we do what we must to stay alive/
-weight of the world, shayfer james
When the walls had receded and the door had opened, the three left the chamber as fast as they could. Varian and Y/n declined to comment to Rapunzel on what she had seen between them, and instead led the way down the tunnel, Varian holding his staff aloft to light their path.
The distant sounds of rodents squeaking echoed throughout the tunnels, accompanied by each of their distinct footsteps.
Y/n had learned to listen for the small differences in footsteps when she was very young- to close a secret passage if she heard a guard coming, to snap her book shut if it was one of her tutors, or to try and make herself look perfect whenever her parents approached.
This talent had stayed with her even after it stopped mattering, and she could detect the unique tones in each of their steps- Varian's were rushed, like his legs weren't long enough to move as fast as he needed to. Rapunzel's were confident and heavy, like she couldn't wait to reach her destination, and Y/n's were soft and light, barely making a sound as they hit the stone floors.
"Tripwire." Varian called behind him as he delicately stepped over the wire in question.
Y/n noted the near-invisible string and stepped over it gently, Rapunzel close on her heels.
Pascal's telltale squeak echoed through the hallways, and Y/n whipped around to see him on the stone floor with his tongue extended, connected to a spider that was precariously balanced on the tripwire. Her breath caught in her throat- the second he pulled the spider off, the tripwire would be pulled, triggering Demanitus-knows-what.
"Pascal, no!" cried Rapunzel, who had also turned to the chameleon, Varian doing the same a moment later.
"I need you to carefully let go of that spider." Rapunzel instructed slowly.
Pascal walked forwards and delicately disconnected his tongue from the small arachnid, which began to happily skitter along the wire. Y/n let out a sigh of relief, as did Varian beside her.
This feeling was short-lived, however, as Ruddiger walked straight through the tripwire blindly, the cord snapping in an instant.
Instantly, a rumbling filled the chamber, and debris began to fall from the ceiling as the walls of the tunnel quaked.
Y/n froze up, seemingly unable to move a single muscle.
Rapunzel had the opposite reaction. "Watch it!" she cried, rolling forwards to get Ruddiger and Pascal as a heap of stone tumbled from the ceiling right where the animals had been standing a moment ago.
"Everyone okay?" asked Rapunzel from the other side of the new pile of debris, holding Ruddiger in her arms.
Y/n expected to feel guilty when Rapunzel said this. She was sure that any other person would have that reaction- Rapunzel truly cared- or at least thought she cared- about their health, and had no idea she was being manipulated.
Still, not an ounce of guilt managed to manifest in Y/n'a heart, and she felt nothing but fury towards Rapunzel. She'd do what she must.
No matter how much she claims she cares, it can't fix what she's done. She's getting what's coming to her.
Rapunzel didn't wait for a response as she set Ruddiger down on the other side and stepped over the stones. "We're getting closer to the surface." she said cautiously. "We don't want to alarm the guards."
Varian snickered. "Oh, I'm pretty sure they and everyone else have their hands full."
"Varian!" Y/n hissed in a whisper. He might have just outed them to Rapunzel!
Rapunzel looked confused. "What do you mean?"
The alchemist looked at Y/n and seemed to instantly realize his mistake, scrambling to correct it. "Uh n-nothing. Uh, it's just, um..." Varian turned away from Rapunzel, and Y/n mentally facepalmed. "They have their hands full... every day?"
He laughed nervously, turning back to face the two princesses and putting his free hand out to lean on a wall. "Corona, you know? Busiest kingdom on earth-"
He was interrupted as the wall he leaned on suddenly pushed inwards, triggering yet another booby trap.
Varian looked down with a shout as the floor suddenly collapsed from under him.
"Whoa! Oh!"
Y/n stopped breathing, and she swore that she felt her heart stop as Varian fell towards the abyss beneath him. She lunged for him desperately, but she knew she wouldn't make it in time.
He's going to die! It's your fault! You're going to lose him-
At the last second, Varian's staff caught on the edges of the hole beneath him, leaving him dangling over the void. Y/n breathed a quick sigh of relief.
"Varian!" she cried as she ran over to where Varian was hanging. "Hang on!"
"Way ahead of you!" he called back, staring downwards at the black expanse beneath him.
Y/n ran to the side of the pit and wrapped her hands around Varian's staff, pulling as hard as she could. For a brief moment, she was terrified that the wood was going to snap, but it held strong as she hauled Varian over the edge and back onto solid ground.
He smiled at her gratefully, and looked like he was about to say something- but he was interrupted as the walls began to shake once more.
Y/n spun around to see the floor behind them beginning to collapse, pieces of stone falling into a black void below.
"What do we do?" asked Varian in a panic.
"I'm gonna go with... run!" Y/n shouted, grabbing Varian's hand and pulling him along behind her as Rapunzel ran next to them.
The three were breathing heavily as they sprinted down the chamber, Ruddiger at their heels and Pascal on Rapunzel's shoulder, the floor crumbling beneath them.
Rapunzel suddenly stopped, and Y/n turned to her, confused. Why isn't she still running?
Without warning, Rapunzel unwound the beads from her braid, releasing her long golden hair, spilling it across the stones. Y/n bit back the hatred and rage that arose upon seeing it in its full glory- much as she hated it, Rapunzel might have a plan.
She tossed the hair like a lasso, looping it around one of the support beams in the ceiling. She tugged on it once to check the beam's stability, and then gestured to Y/n and Varian.
"Come on, guys!" she called. "This way!"
The two teenagers ran to Rapunzel, and Varian put his staff on his back, hooking it through a loop in his satchel. Varian linked one of his arms with Rapunzel's, and Y/n clung to him tightly, Ruddiger wrapping around her legs. This might have been embarrassing in other circumstances, but at the moment, her primary goal was not falling to certain death.
She did make a point not to make physical contact with Rapunzel, though. She still had standards.
The floor underneath them crumbled into nothing, leaving the three dangling in midair. Y/n's breathing began to speed up as they hung, and desperately tried not to look down- heights were not her thing.
Y/n felt them begin to swing, and she squeezed her eyes shut, feeling sick to her stomach. She buried her head in Varian's shirt- again, the action would normally fluster her beyond belief, but she was too terrified to care.
She felt her feet land on solid ground a moment later, Varian's arms still around her. "You alright?" she heard him ask softly.
Y/n didn't let go for a few seconds, trying to calm herself down from her initial panic. "I really hate heights." she mumbled, before pulling away from Varian with an exhale. "Sorry."
"No, it's-" Varian paused and glanced up at Rapunzel, who had begun to walk down the next chamber, before looking back to Y/n. "It's alright." He looked at her, and despite the darkness in both of their hearts, Y/n could still see that he truly cared. "You're safe, okay?"
Y/n swallowed and turned from Varian. He was the only one who... reassured her, made her feel like she was actually cared about. It was nice.
"Thanks." she managed to get out, and Varian smiled as the two followed Rapunzel down the passageway.
Rapunzel sighed as the pair caught up to her. "That was too close." she declared, still breathing heavily. "You're sure this flower is worth it, right?" She looked at Varian and Y/n in turn, who were walking to her left. "It's Corona's only hope?"
"It should be." confirmed Y/n, once again adopting the mask she had worn for so long- it had fooled Rapunzel enough, and it would work just as well now.
"But, uh..." Varian began, and Y/n froze. Oh, Varian, please don't... "I'm not really concerned about Corona."
Crap.
Y/n stepped on his foot, although she tried not to hurt him, and he yelped as Rapunzel gasped, beginning to speak.
"You don't care about Corona?" she asked incredulously, and Y/n bit her tongue. Is it so hard for her to understand that some of us care more about people than a kingdom?
Varian began to stutter, his nervous expression illuminated by the staff glowing gently on his back. "Oh- uh-I mean, of course I'm concerned about Corona... I love Corona, it's just..."
As he stumbled his way through an excuse, Y/n silently pinched the bridge of her nose and wondered if getting her revenge was really worth being in these tunnels and having to listen to this.
"I just meant right now... I'm really concerned about how it's going to help my dad."
Y/n grinned, knowing that Rapunzel's gaze was not on her. Varian really was intelligent- he knew that pulling the "dad" card would make Rapunzel cave instantly.
"Corona too!" he said nervously. Rapunzel didn't seem entirely convinced, but she glanced down at Pascal and walked after Varian, Y/n bringing up the rear as they continued in silence.
─── ⋅ ∙ ∘ ☽ ༓ ☾ ∘ ⋅ ⋅ ───
The tunnel opened up into a massive domed chamber, the yellow-brown stone from the entrance having given way to ornate blue marble that gleamed in the multicolored light of Varian's staff, which he was holding aloft once more.
Y/n ran her gloved hand along one of the pillars in wonder as they passed, the smooth blue stone sleek under her fingertips as she gently traced the carved navy flames on its surface.
Varian panted as they entered the room, still out of breath from their run earlier. "Oh..." he sighed hopelessly, "It's a dead end."
"No," Rapunzel said confidently, "this is it." She pointed up at the ceiling, which sloped downwards into an elegant downwards-facing spire emblazoned with Corona suns. "We are right under the vault. Do you see that trapdoor?"
Varian turned to Rapunzel, lowering his staff slightly. "Yeah, ho-how do we get it open?"
"Hmm..." Y/n considered, looking around and observing the smaller details of the room.
Next to her, Rapunzel had begun to count the pillars of the room. "One... two... three... four... five... six... seven... Seven pillars." she concluded.
Y/n brought a hand to her chin, considering. "Hm... seven. There are seven kingdoms, it's the only one-digit number with two syllables, there are seven jewels on the ceremonial crown..." her voice trailed off, lost in thought.
Her thinking was cut off, however, as she realized that Rapunzel had forgone any logical reasoning and simply begun to push on a smaller circle of pillars in the center of the room.
Y/n looked up at Varian, who was smirking with a hand on his hip, before casting her eyes back to her sister, who managed to rotate the inner circle so that it aligned with the outer one.
"Huh." Rapunzel murmured in confusion.
A sudden whirr made Y/n's head snap up, searching for the source of the noise.
A set of five glowing green circles of various sizes began to light up on one of the room's walls, and Y/n had no doubt about what it had to be. Yet another booby trap.
Rapunzel and Varian, however, were not nearly as perceptive. Rapunzel was still rotating the circle, and Varian was still standing in the same position, observing, Ruddiger waiting at his feet.
Y/n tore her gaze away from the mysterious mechanism just in time to see the smaller set of pillars lower into the ground, successfully rotated by Rapunzel.
With a hiss, the spire on the ceiling folded downwards, revealing a trapdoor with a pale blue ladder waiting inside.
The two were looking up in wonder, but the sound of thundering footsteps caused Y/n to turn around once again.
"Guys?" she shouted fearfully.
Rapunzel and Varian both turned to Y/n, and gasped as they saw the very thing she had seen from the darkness.
It was a mighty, bipedal machine, towering over Y/n's frame. It was constructed of heavy bronze, and Y/n recognized the glowing green circles from the shadows as mechanical eyes, staring down at the three, devoid of any emotion.
An automaton.
─── ⋅ ∙ ∘ ☽ ༓ ☾ ∘ ⋅ ⋅ ───
thanks for reading!
(leviathan here! i've got a question for you. yuki and i are having a disagreement, and, even though it is completely unrelated to the chapter, we've decided to let our readers choose. so, for no reason in particular...
if Varian danced with someone, would he spin them, or would he be the one being spun?
we're not telling sides, but we truly need your opinions. [so that i can win.]
thanks for the reads, everyone!)