Into the Forbidden Place

16. I have this terrible feeling of déjà vu

I'm sure everyone has seen a labyrinth before or has an idea of what it might look like. Tim imagined that the corridors would be lined with tall hedges or surrounded by high walls, which would better fit the desert.

When they crossed the orange gate, to his surprise, they entered a massive hall with high ceilings, a rather grey and dull place. On the walls, uncertainly lit torches flickered on both sides, no windows, just four doors on each side. And there was a strange mold smell, like when it rains for days, and the walls of the house start to decay from the moisture.

Guldar decisively went to the second door on the left side. The others, Emorah, Udine, Ikara, and Lenny, followed him. Only Tim stayed behind, examining the walls and the ceiling.

Udine: "Tim! Come on, don't stare now!'"

Tim jumped because the building echoed, and due to the sudden noise, the others were surprised too.

Guldar: "Let's try to move together, don't lag. We'll get into small rooms connected by corridors. Each room has three possible exits. The sequence: right, straight, right, right, left. But I'll show you the way. I haven't been here for twenty years, so I don't know if everything is the same as before."

Ikara: "Where do we end up if we go through these rooms"'

Guldar: "There will be another room just like this one, with doors in the same way, but I'll explain the rest there."

Tim: "I didn't imagine the labyrinth like this. I thought we would be outdoors, not in a building..."

Guldar leaned in to open the massive door. It eventually gave in with a soft creaking sound, opening quickly compared to the initial difficulty.

Emorah: "Are we going down?"

The room they entered was the same in color and atmosphere as the previous one; even the torches flickered the same way. It was evident from the corridors that they were going downhill.

Guldar: "Yes, we're going down here, but then up, and eventually, we'll reach the open sky, which Tim misses so much..."

They progressed rather quickly through the narrow, musty corridors. Sometimes they descended more steeply, and towards the end, the terrain leveled off. After another hall, more small narrow rooms, Tim no longer paid attention to the direction they were going. His thoughts kept lingering around Mara.

The touch of the woman on his arm as she squeezed it, her scent when she leaned in too close. The feeling that she wanted to save him. Fortunately, he was the last to follow the others, and no one could see how he kept smiling and absentmindedly ran his hand along the walls. Could she be here for the same reason? Will they meet again?

They marched for a long time, hungry as well, but Guldar drove them, thinking that only a few more corridors, and they would get out of this cursed place. Food would taste better under the open sky, he muttered.

The fresh air unexpectedly hit them, biting into their lungs like the crisp breeze of dawn. This part resembled a labyrinth. They walked outdoors along tall stone walls, and if they straightened up, the taller ones could even see the towers of the Steel Citadel. Guldar asked Udine to tell him in which direction the tower was because, with his short legs, he couldn't see it.

They went a bit further, searching for a suitable place to eat. They were all exhausted, yawning enormously, from fatigue or just the sudden excess of oxygen.

Lenny: "Say that this was the tougher part, and from here on, we're heading straight to the tower!"

Emorah: "I remember learning that physically, the path was hard until now, but now comes the mental strain. The walls here can constantly move. There's no defined direction, as it was before."