Footsteps echoed through the dark, humid corridor. The air was heavy, clinging to the skin, and the ground glistened with wet patches of liquids no one could identify. Two voices broke the silence, shouting back and forth.
"Can't you just get off my back??"
Karma's voice thundered down the hall. Rita looked one second away from punching him.
"«Get off your back»?? ME?! You're the one who keeps whining!!"
"I'm not whining! I'm just stating facts!"
They were fighting again, loudly and pointlessly, over something so unimportant that neither would remember it later.
After walking a bit further, they finally reached another room. Their arguing halted as they stepped inside and took in their surroundings. The room was lit and quite large, almost like a dining hall. A big wooden table, the kind a king would keep for himself, stood in the center, resting on a dirty red silk carpet.
Countless paintings covered the walls. Most had lost their colors or were ripped and shredded, barely holding together. Only one stood out: the painting at the far end of the room, untouched, perfect.
Karma and Rita slowly approached it, their eyes drifting from the table to the ruined frames, until they stood before the last painting.
"Whoa…"
Karma let it slip without meaning to. They both stared, speechless, at the beautiful piece in front of them.
It showed a stunning woman in a blue dress, gazing at the moon from what seemed to be a balcony. She looked lost in thought, the moonlight illuminating her snow-white skin.
"This is… beautiful.." Rita muttered, her eyes glued to the woman's face.
Eventually they tore their eyes away and refocused. Glowing stones set into the ceiling lit the room, but it lacked something far more important: an exit. There was no way out except the corridor they had come from, and going back wasn't exactly an option.
Karma spoke first.
"So.. what are we supposed to do now?"
"I don't know. There must be a way to continue.. a puzzle or something?"
He scanned the room for any clue, anything that looked like a mechanism or a riddle. After a careful look, he found nothing that could help them.
"It doesn't look like it.."
"You barely looked around!" Rita snapped, annoyed by his lack of effort.
"Because there's barely anything to look for!"
He answered louder, frustration showing. Rita was about to retort, but stopped herself. She sighed and sat down on a chair.
"Let's think this through… There's clearly something wrong with that painting."
"I.. guess there is, yes.."
"We should probably study it harder."
Rita leaned in again, eyes tracing every detail, squinting now and then to make sure she missed nothing. But apart from the woman gazing longingly at the moon, nothing about the painting seemed meaningful.
Frustrated, Rita suddenly punched the table, making Karma flinch just as he was about to make a sarcastic comment.
"Um… Maybe there's something behind it..?" he suggested cautiously.
Rita gave him a tired look, but got up to help. Together, they lifted the painting off the wall, and to their surprise, something was hidden behind it. A message, carved in Latin:
Rita skimmed the inscription, then looked at Karma expectantly. He sighed before speaking.
"It says, «Paintings, are.. a reflection.. of past things.. put them together to… find the correct.. truth..? That locked.. the ones before you here..». Kind of… poetic? I think."
She thought it over, trying to grasp the meaning. Karma silently reread the words, checking that he hadn't made a mistake that could change the sense.
Finally, Rita spoke.
"I think we need to study the other paintings."
"..But how? Most of them aren't exactly in their prime anymore."
"Well, first, we can take them off the wall and check if there's anything behind them…"
Karma looked unconvinced, but helped anyway. He checked the paintings on one side, she checked the other. Behind each ruined canvas, they found a word. In the end, they had six:
– Love
– Comfort
– Beauty
– Danger
– Passion
– Longing
"Okay.. so there's definitely something… I guess you were right… We just have to figure out what to do with those words now.."
"It said to «put them together», right..?"
Karma glanced again at the carved message.
"Yes, it did… Where are you going with this?"
"Well, then we probably have to find a word that links with all the others, right?"
"… That's a bit far-fetched…"
"It's really not.. Plus, it's our best shot.."
Karma still didn't look convinced, but she was right: it was their only lead.
So they thought. And thought. One word after another, minutes slipping by, then half an hour. Eventually Karma gave up and decided to take a break, exhausted by everything that had happened. He cleared a patch of the carpet, lay down and tried to sleep, but he couldn't, not with Rita pacing and making noise.
"Can you stop?!" Karma snapped, glaring at her. "We can fucking continue after taking a break.. We've been up for way too long now."
Rita didn't argue this time. To Karma's surprise, she simply obeyed and sat down quietly.
He finally began drifting off, until Rita started moving again. Enraged, he jolted upright and yelled:
"When the hell will you shu—"
He froze mid-sentence.
Rita was crying. Trembling. Trying desperately to be silent. She hid her face when she saw him looking, but it was too late. He had already seen the tears.
Karma went still. He had never thought he'd see her cry. Rita always acted so strong, so unaffected. Even when scared or disturbed, she pushed through it. But now… that Rita was nowhere to be found.
"What the- are you- did something-"
He tried to speak, but the words wouldn't form. So instead, he stood and sat beside her.
They stayed like that for a while, silence filling the room, until Rita finally whispered:
"I- I can't take this anymore.. It's all too much.. All of this.. This situation… I-I-I don't know what's going on..!"
That's when it hit him. Rita, for all her strength, was still just a college student, barely an adult, thrown into something far too big.
He reached for her and hugged her gently, whispering things like "it's all going to be okay.." and "you'll be fine."
After a long moment, she pulled away, wiping her tears.
"You better not tell the others about this.."
"Sure.. no one will know.. You can trust me.. The amazing Karma never lies, after all!"
She stared at him blankly, showing absolutely no reaction.
"Um… you could say something… I'm trying to cheer you up here," he muttered awkwardly.
Finally, she laughed, quietly but genuinely.
"You are.. so dumb, you know?"
"Hey! You should show a bit more respect to your elders, you know.."
"Why? How old even are you?"
"I'm turning 25 this year."
"25?! You barely look 18!"
"Well, thanks for the compliment-"
"No, I'll stop you right there. That wasn't a compliment."
"…"
Karma opened his mouth to fire back, but stopped. Something clicked.
"..Fire.."
"What..?"
Rita blinked, confused by his sudden shift.
"The word, I think I have it. It's Fire! The fire of love, the warmth it gives to others, its beautiful colors, its destructive nature, the burning passion and desire! It has to be it!"
Rita's eyes widened as she connected the dots. She ran to the inscription and yelled:
"FIRE!"
She waited, expecting something, anything, but the room stayed perfectly still.
"I don't think it's worki—"
"You probably need to say it in Latin," Karma cut in.
He gently moved her aside and, in a calm voice, said:
"Ignis."
The room trembled instantly. The ground beneath them split open, revealing a staircase descending into darkness.