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Alex focused his entire being upon it, determined to pull it free from the waters. He had to know what it did. Everything he knew about Initiate stage said that the door\'s presence made absolutely no sense.

Admittedly, his knowledge on stages was quite limited — but Finley hadn\'t had any reason to lie about something like this. Alex was fairly confident the merchant had been telling the truth.

But if that was the case, then the purpose of Initiate would have been building up the Mind Palace and arranging it in some form of pattern. Alex didn\'t fully understand that part yet, but Finley had mentioned it had something to do with Visualizations.

But Alex hadn\'t had the opportunity to even worry about a Visualization or any organization. His soul hadn\'t given him anything to arrange. The only new piece he could see was the door that he was currently trying to rip free — and he highly doubted everyone put as much power into their Mind Palace as he did.

If it hadn\'t been for Meiderly\'s advice, he\'d have neglected the palace almost entirely. Most people would have done the same. That meant they\'d have even less to work with on this stage than he did.

But it wasn\'t like someone could have less than zero. Alex had nothing but a door — so he was determined to get that at the very least.

And so he poured power into himself. The dark water rippled like a stormy ocean. Frothy black waves slammed against the base of the basin and lapped at the stairs leading up to where he stood at its top.

Crisp, freezing wind howled all around Alex, and still he flooded himself with energy. Rattling chains echoed far below like the roar of thunder — and deep within the water, a marble doorway ascended.

Alex felt the power he\'d gathered draining away. It was taking an enormous amount of energy to drag the door upward, but he was finally making progress. His fists clenched and he pushed himself harder, not letting any of the magic go to waste.

The water above the doorway rippled. It approached the surface inch by inch, as if pulling itself away from the grip of the depths.

And then, finally, its top breached. Dark water sloughed off the marble door as it rose above the surface of his lake. The last of Alex\'s magic drained away just as the base of the doorway cleared the base of the lake.

His hands fell to his sides and he dropped to his knees, drawing deep, ragged breaths as he fought to gather himself. The angry waves in his soul slowly settled down, reducing to ripples and slowly fading away to reveal still waters once more.

And there the door stood. Alex carefully made his way down the stairs, stepping past the Nightmare and Ruler Aspect gems that sat at the top of his basin, and approached the newly minted doorway.

It was plain, situated between two of the three marble pillars. The top of it was curved like an entrance to a castle corridor, the frame roughly half-a-foot wide and entirely unadorned. There was no handle or other apparent way to open it.

The only form of decoration upon its surface were three lines that ran up from the bottom of the door. They gathered around a single clear gemstone lodged at eye level.

"What are you?" Alex breathed, running a hand along the marble surface.

The door did not respond. He gave it a small push, but it didn\'t so much as budge. Alex walked around to its other side and tried pushing the other side of the door. That didn\'t do anything either. If he was being honest, he would have been a bit disappointed if the secret to opening it had just been shoving it from behind.

Alex walked back around to the door\'s front. His foot tapped a steady beat against the still water, a frown crossing his lips as he thought. He could feel the new power pumping through his body and soul alike — he\'d gotten even stronger from the magical infusion — but there was absolutely no indication as to what the doorway was meant to do.

The only hint he\'d gotten were the three lines.

Three, huh?

Alex glanced over to the pillars. There seemed to be a bit of a running theme here. Three pillars. Three lines — and three holes for Aspect Gems.

Does the door only open once I\'ve set all 3 of my gems? Or maybe I can open it when I just set one?

I mean, I\'ve already got two, but there\'s no way I\'m just sticking them in until I figure out what they do. What if I need to put in all 3 at once or they somehow get wasted? Definitely not risking that.

Fortunately, Orchid is sticking around for at least a little longer. I\'ll make sure to fish for information on the gems while we\'re getting her that staff and looking for a place to set up the town. As soon as I know what they do and how they work, I\'ll set them.

Alex smiled to himself. Even if he couldn\'t use the door yet, he was certain that it was tied to the gems. It would have been far too great of a coincidence for it not to be. And if that was the case… he already had two of them. Even if he had to get a third before it would work, that wouldn\'t be long in the making.

He cast his gaze back into the water. Now that the door had risen, he was hopeful that there would be some sign of the next part of his Mind Palace that would make itself known.

Thin his eyes widened.

There, not all too far from the surface of the black lake, were dozens on dozens of murky shapes. Bricks floated, suspended in the water, waiting for a few more scraps of energy to summon them forth.

A grin split Alex\'s lips.

That would be what I need to build my Mind Palace. A bit more than just arranging things… but I\'d rather start from the ground up anyway. It\'s like a giant Lego set, huh? Looks like Finley wasn\'t lying… so this door was just somehow in the way of what I was meant to get.

Fascinating.

His desire to open the door only built even more, but there wouldn\'t be any of that until he got information on the Aspect Gems.

The tasks in his Mind Palace were done… for now.

It was time to return to the others.

***

Alex\'s eyes opened to find Derek holding the Night King\'s huge, broken sword in the air above him like it was a flag waving in the wind.

"Does anyone mind if I take this?" Derek asked. "It looks like it could be pretty fun to use."

"Be careful with that," Orchid advised. "It\'s heavy. You\'re going to cut yourself if you don\'t at least hold it with two hands."

"Your concern is deeply appreciated, but fear not, Princess," Derek said. "I am an expert."

I\'m starting to regret telling him that Orchid was a princess. That\'s my monster\'s name. I don\'t want to have to wonder which one he\'s talking about. There\'s only room for one Princess.

Alex was halfway through rising to his feet when Derek dropped the sword. It fell straight on his head, making a dull thud as its weight drove it down through his skull and into his chest.

Derek\'s body peeled apart around it. There were several clangs as it hit other weapons lodged in him and pushed them out of the way.

Everyone stared at him.

How heavy is that sword?

About a second later, Derek\'s body pulled back together around the sword. The huge weapon barely even fit inside him. He resembled a chipmunk with its cheeks stuffed full… if his cheeks were his chest.

"Oops," Derek said.

"I think you\'re more than welcome to the sword if you can actually carry it around. It\'s way too heavy for me or Claire to use, and I don\'t think Orchid is much a fan of melee weapons," Alex said dryly. "You might be getting stuck on a lot of doorways."

"Oh, you\'re awake!" Derek said. He turned toward Alex. And, as he did, a hazy ripple passed over the Night King\'s sword. The huge weapon sank into his body and vanished as if it had never been there. "Thanks! You\'re a real one."

It does feel fair that Derek gets something after all the work he put in helping us through the dungeon. I don\'t know if this would have been possible without him. It definitely would have been a whole lot slower at the minimum.

"You all ready to go?" Claire asked. "I got my meditation in as well."

"I\'m ready," Alex said with a nod. He resisted the urge to ask Claire if she\'d gotten any new abilities. She couldn\'t even tell him her normal ones until she was forced to use the rest of them. "Orchid? You ready as well?"

"I just had to wait for my power to return." The mage gave them a shrug. "I\'m already at the limits of my power right now. Without a stronger Disruptor or the world loosening its restrictions, meditation isn\'t going to do anything for me. Getting a new staff is the most important thing I can do… so I\'m prepared to leave whenever you are."

"Then let\'s go," Alex said. "We\'ll backtrack out of the dungeon and put as much distance between ourselves and Valley Ford before dropping back into 274-50. Is that fine with you, Derek?"

"Yup. Sure thing. Sounds fun. The Mirrorlands is great. It\'s so pretty," Derek said with a dreamy smile. "I like looking at the clouds. Don\'t care much about Valley Ford. I was only there hunting Anomalies, and I\'m sure I\'ll find more of those somewhere else. I just hope there are a few more fun fights. I\'m bored."

"Already?" Orchid asked, aghast. "What was this?"

No, I\'m completely with him. I can\'t wait to test out Spark\'s new form.

"We\'re in the Mirrorlands," Alex said with a chuckle. "You can\'t step outside without finding something fun to fight. Fortunately, we\'ve got a good one planned."

"We do?" Claire asked.

"Orchid needs a staff. And if there\'s one thing I know about how things work here, it\'s that we aren\'t going to get something like that without a fight. So, shall we get going? This should be fun."