Ashes of the crown

POV: Team Disaster (All of Them) 🌀🏃‍♀️💥

"It's just a training exercise," Lyra said."A basic, entry-level maze," Kael agreed."With a name like Maze of Mostly Mild Peril, how bad could it be?" Jax asked cheerfully.

Answer: Very. Very bad.

The maze was part of an old training ground used by ancient mages. Its entrance was a stone arch with friendly vines and a sign that read:

"Enter with courage, exit with chaos."

Kael frowned. "That's not comforting."

Ariya rolled her shoulders. "We've handled worse."

Jax high-fived the arch. "Let's go!"

Ten Minutes In: The Banana Room 🍌

They walked into a room where it rained bananas for no reason.

"Why?" Kael muttered, shielding himself.

"Why not?" Jax replied, catching one and juggling.

Lyra slipped, fell, and refused to talk for five full minutes.

Ariya lit one on fire just to see what would happen.

Result: banana-scented explosion.Kael: "You cannot just burn every confusing thing."

Ariya: "It's a coping mechanism."

Twenty Minutes In: The Singing Statues 🎶

Statues lined a hallway — and wouldn't let them pass until they each sang a solo.

Lyra sang an elvish lullaby. Beautiful, haunting.

Kael growled out a low battle hymn. Powerful, if a bit intimidating.

Ariya hesitated… then sang a gentle old tune from her childhood.

Even the statues swayed.

Jax?He sang a parody of "The Warrior's Ballad" but added chicken sound effects.

"You're not taking this seriously," Kael hissed.

"I'm creating art," Jax replied, bowing.

Thirty-Five Minutes In: The Room of Deep Truths 😳

The walls whispered secrets aloud as each person entered.

Lyra's wall: "She still dreams of that one mistake in the Sylvan Court…"

Kael's wall: "He's afraid he'll never be enough for the one he wants to protect."

Ariya's wall: "She's not sure if what she feels for Kael… is real or just safe."

Everyone froze.

Jax's wall: "He once kissed a goblin prince during a game of truth or dare."

"It was a weird phase!" he shouted.

The tension broke. Everyone started laughing — including Ariya.

Even Kael smiled through the pink on his face.

Final Chamber: Puzzle Panic 🧩

The room was a giant shifting floor of glowing tiles. Wrong step = a magical slap. Only one path was correct.

"Let me guess," Kael said. "Trial of logic?"

"Trial of friendship!" the walls shouted.

Cue groaning from everyone.

They had to:

Trust fall into invisible cushions

Answer trivia about each other (Jax knew everyone's favorite food and Lyra's shoe size??)

And perform a perfectly timed group pose at the end

It was absurd.

But somehow, they made it.

They stumbled out the other end of the maze, covered in banana residue, bruised pride, and glitter from who-knows-where.

"Mostly mild peril, huh?" Ariya said.

"They undersold it," Lyra grumbled.

"I got slapped by tiles twice," Kael added.

"I had fun," Jax declared.

"Of course you did," everyone said at once.

That night, they sat around the fire, too tired to bicker.

Kael leaned closer to Ariya. "You okay?"

She nodded slowly. "Yeah… and weirdly, I think I needed that."

"The banana rain or the truth room?" he asked, teasing gently.

"Both."