A Maze

[Ent]

24th Cylus, Arc 717

It was a cold fresh Cylus morning, a thick layer of frost covered the ground and the embers of the fire from the night before gave out their last remnants of heat. The camp of the three wilderness survivalists, Ti'niva, Vega and Arlo, was quiet and it appeared that the native and the read head had already departed leaving Arlo alone in the camp. It appeared that there was nothing to do around the camp either, everything seemed clean and tidy. Just outside of Arlo's tent was a stone with some still warm venison on it. This made it clear that Ti'niva had cooked before leaving, the others did not use rocks as plates or to cook the food. It was clearly intended for Arlo if he wished to eat it.

It had been agreed the night before that Ti'niva and Vega would wake up early and go for a hunt this trial. He in turn would be allowed the trial to himself to do as he wished, whether this be to sit around the camp and relax or travel out into the forest and explore. One thing Arlo did have that could be of use was his map, although it did not show the way to the Maze it did show a path through the first few hundred metres.

This map had been written many arcs ago by a different traveler who had known Arlo's relatively new friend Bo'kuna. The old librarian had helped him to find this map when he arrived in Desnind in Zi'da. The hardest part for Arlo now would be to find the entrance to this mystical maze, it is a place that few have ever been too, and even fewer have come back from going to find. Although, exploration and wandering were normally the easiest ways to discover the entrance to this tricky and rarely explored maze. However, somebody in the city might be able to tell him its location, but that would be a risk as it may not be the case and instead Arlo might waste a day in search of a guide who may not exist.

Two choices were now available to Arlo, he could either go to the city and attempt to find a guide, although in Cylus only a few were brave enough to venture beyond the city walls. His other choice was to do what some travelers do best and wander, follow his feet and his gut. Either choice could end well or fruitlessly but there was also a chance that one would be incredibly rewarding.

[Arlo Creede]

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Ordinarily, Arlo might've questioned how he'd slept so soundly that he hadn't stirred, when Vega and Ti'niva got up and about, and then were gone again. But truth was he tended to sleep more soundly with fewer worries when in the company of others he could trust, and lighter when he was out on his own. Besides, the way the skies stayed dark through the trials of Cylus, was hard to get used to. There were times that the young man woke, looked around, and couldn't be sure whether it was morning or night.

The food left behind for him was appreciated, and he sat and ate it beside the dying fire while Peg grazed nearby, and Lyova buzzed round his ears. But as was typical for young men like him, it didn't take long to grow bored and wonder what he'd do with his trial. He'd tidied up what was left around camp, sat and flipped through the pages of his old book of maps, wondering where he'd go when the weather was warmer. And he'd still an entire trial stretched out in front of him. But then he remembered the map, folded up and stored away in one of his rucksacks.

He sat there in frowning indecision, holding the folded map between his fingers and thumb and tapped the thing on his knee. "Should we Peg?" he asked aloud, and the mare simply snorted, flicked an ear and continued to scrounge for what she could after her breakfast was gone. It was cold and dark out there in the forest, and he wasn't sure he could find what he was looking for. But the mystery of the maze and what might be hiding inside it was like a siren's call that no healthy young man could ignore for long. If not then, when?

It didn't take him long then to pack up what he needed, and to leave a note behind for Vega and Ti'niva in case he wasn't back before they were. Who knew how far he'd go in search of the maze? Who knew how long it would take? So thinking he ought be prepared for anything, he packed what he thought he might need into several rucksacks, rolled a little bit more into his bedroll, and tied it across Peg's back. He knew better than to head out alone unprepared, should something delay him returning. He slung his bow across his back too, strapped his new sword to his hip and stored his knife in his belt.

Peg could carry anything they needed. She was a strong, hardy and levelheaded creature. The wagon though would be a hindrance and Arlo would leave it behind. He briefly considered going into Desnind then and asking around. Maybe someone knew something about the maze? Maybe someone knew the way and might like to come along. Ultimately though, the young man concluded that if the oldest Sev'ryn in Desnind had never seen the maze or heard about it, then nobody had.

"We'll find it well enough on our own," he said, as much to himself as anyone, and Arlo headed off into the forest, pulling Peg along behind him. It wasn't just the two of them either, though anyone passing them on the trail might think so. Lyvora was there, resting on the brim of his hat, shimmering a transparent blue for all her excitement. "Where are we going Arlo? How far is it? Are we there yet?" she trilled as he paused only briefly before deciding which way to go.

The ruins, the young man thought as he picked his way through the woods. It was among the ruins where he'd found the map in the first place. It seemed logical that whoever had left it there, had chosen that spot due to some sort of proximity to the maze. And if it wasn't the case, well, it seemed as good a place as any to start.

[Ent]

Arlo had made a logical decision that was sound, and his ideas and thoughts would pay off. After making the hike through the frosty forest, Arlo would find himself at the old ruined settlement. From here it was up to him in which direction to head, he had the basics really, north, east south of west. However, if Arlo was as smart as he seemed he would be able to pick up on some of the clues as to the whereabouts of the entrance to the maze.

One such clue was the direction of the North Arrow in relation to the entrance to the maze, the arrow pointed north and so did the entry corridor. This means that the entrance to the maze must face south. Another clue was that heading east was not an option, by going east Arlo would only end up back in Desnind. But not too far to the north was the sea, so this left Arlo with two real choices he had to either head south or west. Quite the dilemma for the young traveler who would have to make the decision himself.

What Arlo could not possibly know, however, was that he was not alone in the ruins and in fact he had not been alone for a few hundred metres before entering the old crumbling village. The Hunter Awo'san had been following him, something that would be less of a danger to Arlo and more of a help. Not only was this man familiar with the lay out of the Makubwa Lori, but he was also the only person inside of Desnind to have been to the Maze. He is a straight forward person, not one to make idol chit chat and most certainly the type to get a job done.

Now as Arlo stood inside the ruins he would finally be made aware of his observer, as he stepped out from behind a large tree holding his hands up to his sides in a friendly and revealing gesture. The mans only weapon was a bow that remained slung over his back and he greeted the man in common tongue. Much like Bo, in Zi'da, Arlo had been given away by his strange clothing, including his hat. Arlo was very unsev'ryn in appearance, something that made him stand out in the crowds of them around Desnind.

"Hello I Awo'san, I no mean to scare, I come to help." He remained at a distance as not to spook the man who would most certainly have been taken by surprise at his reveal. "I be there I hear from Bo of you, I know you look maze and me be before." He stood, moving a step closer now feeling if Arlo were to run or lash out he would have done so by now. "I can show if want." The dark Cylus day made him look much more dangerous and threatening than he really was.

[Arlo Creede]

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"Are we there yet?" Arlo had heard it a dozen times or more since he'd left camp, pulling his horse behind him. And when Lyova wasn't swimming, shimmering round the brim of his hat, keeping up a nearly constant dialogue unheard by anyone else but him, she was worrying Peg's ears, that flicked at the tickling sensation like so many buzzing flies.

To the young dreamwalker, the crystalline blue, teardrop shaped fairy seemed younger, more troublesome even than him. But Arlo knew better. He only reasoned that Jesine had known what he'd needed better than him, and in her wisdom had hand picked his small companion and protector. Tenacious little thing, but curious and mischievous too. She'd darted off among the ruins though when he got there, and he took the opportunity to study his map again. But which way to go?

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his compass and considered, south? Or west? He hadn't begun to decide which way, when an unknown Sev'ryn stepped out of the trees behind him. Arlo spun round, impulsively reaching for a sword he couldn't use well just yet, but immediately dropped his hand away. It would have been too late if the hunter had meant him any harm. The man could only have been following him, and somehow he'd managed to miss it.

He'd spent a good deal of time traveling through forests and surviving out in the wilds. But clearly this man had done it much longer than him. Peg had seemed more nervous than her usual, but he'd assumed it was Lyova that had distracted her. Lesson learned then. Meanwhile the little fairy had returned, swirling once around him, then again around the newcomer.

Awo'san. Definitely a Sev'ryn. And he knew Bo. Arlo figured, everyone in Desnind probably knew the old man. "Arlo," he said, introducing himself, though the man probably already knew that. But when he mentioned the maze, that more than anything sparked the young man's interest. "You've been there?" Was the man telling him the truth? The shadowy dark of Cylus made it hard to tell just by looking at him, but Lyova didn't seem to concerned. When it came to character, she'd seemed to have something of a knack. Then again, she only need to be wrong just once.

"Well meet Awo'san," he said. "And no need." For an apology he meant. "I should have been paying more attention." He knew better of course, but he'd been too focused on the map, and reaching the ruins. "Have you been inside the maze before, or just seen it?" he asked. If the man meant him physical harm, he'd already know it, Arlo thought. Still there were reasons to accept and others to refuse. Ultimately Arlo opted for the guide and the extra help. He smiled a little and nodded. "I wouldn't mind the company, if you don't mind," he finally said, and then thanked the man for the offer.

[Ent]

"I go in one time, I be there trials I lost but I get out in end." He said a look of slight terror in his eyes. The look was hard to see but if one was to look carefully enough they would be able to tell he had not had a good time there. He stepped closer to Arlo and examined him and his horse carefully, as if he was searching for some kind of clue to who he was. In truth he was trying to see if he could understand why he wanted to visit the place, it had caused him nothing but trouble, however that did no necessarily mean that it was the same for everyone. The Sev'ryn new that and so he stopped staring and instead put out his hand to be shaken like he knew was the human tradition.

The man seemed to want the guide and so he would do the man a service in taking him there. However, he would not enter that immortal forsaken place, he would not risk getting lost inside again. "I take you to maze, but me no go in, me stay out and leave I no go in such place. I take you horse back camp, maze no place for horse." He said giving nothing away about what he experienced inside. The man would not tell the boy of what had happened to him, it was something he would never share widely.

"Come, let go I take you while still wake hour, it no far near one break." He turned on his heels and began to walk waving at the man to follow him with a friendly smile. "No worry me no hurt you, I no reason hurt you Arlo." He continued to walk leaving the old ruins behind him and instead taking to trees and brush.

The man looked at Arlo as he lead him and pointed to his hat. "I never see this before very interest, what call it you?" His question as filled with curiosity and he sounded like many of the Sev'ryn, even as they grew up they seemed to keep a natural curiosity for things. This was especially true for things not usual seen within their forest home, for example, Arlo's hat. "Why you look maze, what you hope find?" He had a lot of questions for Arlo as he guided him through the forest, they were heading west.

[Arlo Creede]

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Arlo was no expert at reading others. But looking harder and listening closer to what the Sev'ryn said, it seemed to him that he was unnerved just talking about the maze and the time that he'd spent there. Getting lost or turned around wasn't a desired condition. He'd done himself more than once. But it felt to be more than that.

He wanted to ask. But something told him that Awo'san didn't want to talk about it. It wasn't enough to dissuade Arlo though. He was young, full of big ideas and dreams of adventure. And like so many his age, tended to think himself invincible. So when offered a hand to shake, he smiled and took it, returning the gesture in kind. "What happened in there?" Finally he couldn't stop himself from asking, even if Awo'san refused to tell him.

But he was right about one thing. Inside the maze was no place for Peg. At best she'd be nervous, not liking the closed in spaces that a maze implied. "Alright," he agreed, as he followed, pulling the mare behind him. "Her name's Peg. She won't give you any trouble. I have friends that I'm sharing a camp with outside the gates. Ti'niva and Vega. They'll take good care of her till I get back."

Meanwhile, Lyova darted through the air around and ahead of them and back again. While only Arlo could see her, he smiled a little at her antics. She seemed to be as eager as him to get to their destination. "This?" he asked with a tap to the brim of his hat when the Sev'ryn asked about it. The young man grinned a little. "It's a hat. Keeps the head warm and dry, the sweat off the brow in warmer weather, the sun out of my eyes. This one, I think it's called a bowler, made of beaver felt."

He hadn't seen a single Sev'ryn wearing a hat. Isolated as they were then, it didn't surprise him that they'd think it strange or unusual. Maybe he'd start a trend then. Maybe hats would be all the rage in Desnind in a trial or two. Awo'san's next question was a little more complicated, but simple at the same time. In part, the answer was because he could.

"I've no idea what I'll find there, if anything," he admitted. "When I was little, a tinker gave me an old book full of maps. And I've spent arcs pouring through it, imagining all the places I'd explore. I follow Cassion, you see," Arlo explained. "Immortal of travel, adventure. But not long before I arrived in Desnind, I found another map folded up in the back of that book. According to Bo'kuna, it must have been more than fifty arcs ago, when it was left there."

"All those arcs and I'd never seen that map before. I figure there must be a reason to have found it when I did, like I did," he reasoned. Now he wasn't exactly saying that Cassion himself had made that map fall out of that book after ten arcs or more of having it. But he wasn't discounting it either. Or that it was fate or some reason behind it. "Why not then?" he finally said with a smile. "So why did you go in?" he asked, turning the tables a little as they left the ruins behind them.

[Ent]

"I want know what inside. I have mind like Sev'ryn, we like learn thing over us forest." It was a simple reason, what that required little elaboration. It was true that the Sev'ryn loved to learn new things about the Makubwa Lori and in fact new things in general. That was all he would say now about the maze, he had no wish to relive the memories of the place. Even thinking about them made him shudder, never mind vividly telling the man what he had faced. He would rather stay a night in the Cylus frozen rain than go back in the maze. Yet, then again, he did not have an adventurers soul like Arlo.

Instead they remained quiet until the door finally came into sight. It was a large wooden door, with metal hinges and loop handles. It was built into a strange mound of rocks and soil and was atop a stair case consisting of ten small steps. The door seemed totally out of place in the forest, a random stone structure among the trees and foliage. Somehow it was clear that this was not something put there by any human being, this was something supernatural.

The Sev'ryn man now took Peg from Arlo, taking her lead rope in his hands and allowing Arlo access to anything he may need from within the bags on her back. "Go through door, then look round. You find way if no turn away main path, maze left right but forward right path." He admitted that as the last advice to the man before he took his horse and left him with the maze and what belongings he had chosen to take inside with him.

Upon entry to the maze Arlo would find a long straight path lit by flaming torches. On each side there were many exit paths, each lit in the same manner as the rest of the main passage. The main passage stretched out ahead leading to a room with a lever on the far wall. The room was empty beside the single lever on the far wall. The lever was solid oak with a leather bound handle. In entering the Maze Arlo would also notice that the map showed that all the passages leaving the main passage lead to dead ends, something he probably had not observed before entering and seeing the map more clearly. The addition of context and physically seeing it made the map easier to read.

[Arlo Creede]

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It would have been helpful, had his guide been willing to tell him more about what he'd seen and experienced inside the maze. At least then he'd have some idea what to expect. But though Arlo might be young and brash at times, he wasn't blind or unfeeling to another's discomfort. The Sev'ryn refused to speak of it, so he wouldn't press for more. Whatever had happened in there, plainly it wasn't pleasant.

So there was a door leading into the maze. Somehow Arlo had expected a maze open to the elements and not a door in sight. It gave him pause as he slowed his pace, then stood back and studied it. It didn't look like anything created by men. At least like nothing he'd seen before. One of the immortals then? Then which one? "It's beautiful isn't it Arlo?" Lyova trilled through a connection that only the two of them shared. The young man wasn't sure he'd call it beautiful, but it was definitely something.

His other companion didn't have much to add as he took Peg's lead. At least not much anyway. Still, Arlo thanked him while pulling what belongings he could carry with him, off the mare's back. Then thanking him again and wishing him a safe journey back to Desnind, he finally turned back to consider the mysterious door. He hadn't come all this way to turn back now. So there was nothing but to open it and go inside.

"Cassion guide my steps," Arlo said once he'd entered. But before he had, he'd picked up several sturdy sticks off the ground to take with him. The first one, he wedged into the frame at the bottom of the door so it wouldn't close completely behind him. But torches. Lit ones? The boy frowned and wondered how it could be, if no others like him had been inside recently. If there'd been a moment to think twice about what he was doing, that would have been it. But instead, he adjusted his rucksack on his shoulder and carried on, past each adjoining path just like the Sev'ryn had told him. And the map too, now that he'd given it a second look.

At some point, he might leave a trail of something behind him. Something to follow back in case he got turned around and the map wouldn't help him. But so long as he was going straight there seemed no reason to. But then, he found himself entering a room at the end of that long stretch, with nothing in it but a lever on the far wall. Though he wasn't ready to admit it, the lever, with no readily apparent purpose combined with the lit torches, were a little unnerving.

"Are you going to pull it?" Lyova asked excitedly? And Arlo frowned in response. What would happen if he did? Would one wall slide away or was there a hidden passage that would appear? Would the floor drop out from under him? But then he remembered. There were things the fairy could do that he couldn't. Phasing. And now, as good a time as any, the ability might be useful.

"You can pass through things and come back again, Lyova. Not just people but other things. Before I try this lever, what say you pass through to the other side of the wall, see what's there and come back again?" After all, if he was going to go around pulling mysterious levers that didn't seem to have an obvious purpose, it might do to have some idea of what was waiting for him after he pulled them.

[Ent]

It was a good idea placing the stick in the doorway so it would not fully close and the hefty thing managed to keep the door from closing all the way. Although it left only a small crack, one that nobody could fit though but would meant he door could not seal behind him. A slight breeze came through the door though and caused the torches to flicker and the flames to wobble. The walls showing the strange shadows of the light and the flames as well as dust particles that blocked some bits of light leaving odd black dots on the walls.

The walk to the chamber with the lever was quite easy, no trouble came from anywhere and in fact all he would see was the random passages leaving off to the sides at odd intervals. Some passages were lit by torches and some not but as the map and Awo'san had told him, straight ahead was the way to go. The paved floor was flat the entire way with no slopes and it was straight as could be.

Arlo was clearly full of good ideas as he told his small fairy to examine the chamber wall and push through to see what was on the other side. In many cases this would have revealed some form of chamber or secret passage but in this case all she would find was a few feet of blackness made by soil and then the forest again. It would certainly be odd for the fairy to find such a thing especially with the lever on the wall.

The only really choice for the boy and his invisible companion was to turn back or pull the lever and risk whatever it would open or not open as the case could possible be. There was only one way to find out.

Off Topic

Hey so I am so sorry this is so late! I have been really busy and I just totally lost track of this thread, I am really sorry for that. I should be able to keep up to date with it again now, thank you for your patience.

Many apologies!

-Ent

[Arlo Creede]

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That was unexpected, and strange Arlo thought when Lyova returned from the other side of the door to tell him what she'd seen there. The last thing he'd have guessed was that there was forest on the other side instead of another room, a hall or a chamber.

"Are you sure Lyova?" Of course she was, he figured. But whatever Awo'san had experienced during his time in the maze, whatever had spooked him so badly, must have happened on the other side of the door. Which meant he must have gone through it.

Arlo had several choices then, so far as he could tell. Go back, and give up the hunt. Explore one of the other passages, but according to the map those led to nowhere at all. Or pull the lever and see if the wall or a door opened up.

His choice was obvious. It was why he'd come after all. And no self-respecting or devout follower of Cassion would simply walk away from the mystery. So resolving that he'd forge ahead, Arlo fished his lamp out and lit the thing before turning back to the lever.

"I figure you like this sort of thing, Cassion," he said. It was his own, conversational if unconventional way of worship and prayer. But he didn't figure the Immortal would mind. "Venturing into the unknown. Mystery, discovery and all that. This is for you then, in your name."

"But just in case you don't mind," he added once his lantern was lit, and he pressed himself against the wall next to the lever, "A little of your guidance and protection wouldn't go without notice." He still didn't know what would happen though when he pulled the lever. Would a door open up? An entire wall? Maybe a gaping chasm in the floor? There was only one way to find out, so Arlo activated the lever and waited.