TDR: Life as a Traveller

The Cost of Curiosity Part 3, Chapter 3

Part 3 — Limited Time

I made my way to my new greatest enemy, and much like the kiosk, it wasn't going to be a cakewalk. A first, I took note that the door's hinge flung away from me. Compared to the kiosk door, this was infinitely easier to open—in theory. I got on my hind legs, pushed against the door and pulled down the handle. The door creaked open, accelerating as I moved more of my weight against the door, however, the creak turned into a horrendous scraping sound mere moments later. The door stood still in an instant and my weight no longer moved it once bit: it was stuck.

Looking at the gap, it was still only a little too small for me to squeeze through. That left only one reckless solution: Using a run-up, I jumped right against the door with my full weight, each time the door moved just a smidge further. However, that too in turn made it more difficult as it scrapped deeper. Had I been just a bit bigger, I probably wouldn't have been able to open it enough. After a good—tiring—half hour, I had made enough of a gap to slip through, what met me on the other side though was less than inspiring...

I wasn't expecting the emergency lighting to stop after the door.
But here we are... a pitch-black corridor with not even the faintest bit of light.

'No need to be alarmed, child. I have memorised the path we must take. All you must do is follow the directions I provide and we will never be lost.'

I had been ignoring the full implications of what she said earlier, but now as I stared into this dark abyss, those implications were abundantly clear. I was placing my full trust—my life—in her judgement and ability. Someone who I hardly really knew anything about.

'I understand,' she spoke with an especially tender tone, 'the feelings you feel are natural. Unfortunately, our situation has forced this on both of us, child. If it helps put your mind at ease, your life and mine are one. Should your life end, so too will mine. If I was not confident, I would never ask so much of you.'

I took a long pause to think about it, and the more I did, the more I came to a head with my gut feeling that putting so much trust in someone was more dangerous. After all, the danger she spoke of was something I couldn't verify myself. I couldn't feel the 'tainted' Æther.
Was I to just surrender to her?

'I see... I respect your choice, child.'

'I didn't say anything y—'

'The way we are bound goes beyond what is spoken—I can feel what you feel. It is best to not force you to make a choice now. Instead, I will support you to the best of my abilities. Return to the map and begin to memorize as much as you can.'

At that moment, my heart felt torn in two. I knew in the back of my mind that she could feel what I did, and I could do the same with her—even in her period of long silence, there were times she felt unexplainably proud, and other times embarrassed at my actions—yet, even with a bond as close as this, I still doubted her. Yet, I couldn't muster the will to recount what I knew. Rather, I swallowed those feelings, buried them as deep as I could, and moved to the map.

I would be telling a lie if part of my reason wasn't that I believed memorizing the path was going to be easy, As I took a closer look at the map, I realised how wrong I was. The paths branched frequently and at irregular intervals—a maze that had no rhyme or reason. There were only two paths that made it to where Kun ended up. One needed you to go through an area much like this first, with a similar situation. The other was significantly more involved, taking a maintenance corridor that went to every arrival point in this massive structure. To get to that one took dozens of turns and doors. Nonetheless, I memorized both to the best of my abilities. For the long path, I broke it down into a simple form. For the path, it was memorized as "3-right-door-3-left-door-10-right-door-etc."
Or in the English language: Go down through the 3rd right door, then through the 3rd left door, then the 10th right door, and so on, eventually reaching the maintenance corridor door to where my brother was.
I spent an excessive amount of repeating the shortened path, to the point that the words "left", "right", and "door" all lost their meaning.
Since it was going to be pitch black, I decided on this way of navigating since I could hug the walls and count the doors as they passed by. Even in the worst possible situation, I could retrace my steps easily using this method.