Caleb ran to the solid log wall and tapped hard. Pressing his ear against the timber to test for a secret entrance of some kind.

  “There’s no damn hole in the wall, so stop looking.” Johnson pounded his fists into the model labyrinth. It didn’t even buckle. He shook off his swollen hand and tried not to let the pain show on his face.

  “Well, she got through somehow.”

  “We all saw it.” Oliver said. “She phased through like a ghost.”

  Caleb crouched down to the labyrinth’s level and engaged his brain. “She entered through the left. Just where the entrance is on this model.”

  “Maybe it’s not a model.” Dave said. “Maybe it’s a map.”

  The group took a moment to absorb Dave’s surprise insight.

  “He’s right.” New Caleb confirmed.

  “Okay, so she’s gone. Can she get out?”

  The labyrinth entrance slid shut.

  There’s our answer.

  A little blue dot began to glow inside the model labyrinth. “That must be her.”

  Caleb watched as it bounced against the closed entrance, stopped then slowly made its way into the labyrinth.

  “What are we supposed to do - just stand here and wait?”

  New Caleb rummaged through his inventory. When he returned back to the world, he had a small bronze wheel of rebirth in his hand. “This is how she got inside, right? With her trinket.”

  Caleb equipped his trinket, a delicate silver spoked wheel on an equally fragile chain. “Where are we supposed to put it?”

  “Look around.” Johnson said. “Or do you really need everything spoon-fed to ya?” He grasped his wheel, a blood red wax seal set inside a polished mahogany handle, and ran his hands across every surface in front of him.

  “Got it!” He held the wax seal in between his fingers like a ring, placed it inside the almost-imperceptible inset and twisted. He leapt back, but nothing had changed.

  Caleb turned to the labyrinth model. Another small opening had appeared on the left side of the wooden map.

  This doesn’t make any sense. he thought. There’s nothing here.

  With a click and a whir, the wooden labyrinth model reconfigured itself into a totally new layout. Kayleigh’s blue dot disappeared.

  “See ya’ll on the other side, I hope.” With those words, Sergeant Johnson coalesced with the wall.

  A fresh dot of white light ebbed into focus. Johnson did not hesitate, immediately charging down the hallways, barely stopping even as he corrected for his wrong turns.

  “Oh god,” Oliver said from across the room. “I’ve found one now too.” He’d already inserted the wooden spoon with the wheel of rebirth engraved onto its scoop in its rightful place in the wall.

  “C’mere,” he said. “Look.” He pointed at a random spot on the right side of the wall. “You’re telling me you genuinely can’t see that?”

  Caleb tried. He strained his eyes and reached out into the wall, hoping that his fingers would phase through the seemingly impassable surface. But reality hit, and the knock of his knuckles against solid timber echoed through the sparse room.

  Oliver tried, and found zero resistance. He walked right through the wall.

  New Caleb pointed a finger at Caleb and grinned. “Your turn.”

  Caleb didn’t trust him.

  Dave sat with a blank expression in the middle of the room. “You sense something fishy too?”

  He snorted. It sounded like a screw falling down a plughole.

  God, he really is barely a man at all under all that machine.

  “It’s just wood.” Dave said. “When it’s time to go, I’ll just bust my way through the wall.”

  “Couldn’t you have done that for all of us?”

  “I guess. It seemed like you were all enjoying the puzzle.”

  Caleb thought. “Do you have a trinket in your inventory?”

  He nodded. “A few. I figured I could carry more.”

  “Here,” He equipped a health spray and handed it to Caleb. “Just in case.”

  Caleb patted Dave on the shoulder. He jumped at the spark of electricity that jumped from his exoskeleton’s steel housing.

  “Sorry,” he said, turning red as if he’d just farted.

  “No worries.” Caleb rubbed his scorched hand. “When we get out of here, we’ll get you to a hospital.”

  Dave gestured to his body. “A Doctor won’t know what to do with me.”

  “A mechanic then. We’ll find someone, I promise.”

  “Thanks.”

  Footsteps echoed into the room.

  “Ahh,” exhaled a calm and contented voice. It was as if Caleb’s favourite nurse or teacher or therapist was in the room, saying exactly all he wanted to hear. “I’m glad you’re still with us, my boys.”

  A row of white teeth grinned below the hood of the black robe. Unlike the rank-and-file cvltists, a tasteful bead of gold lined this robe. The Priest beckoned to both Calebs. His fingers were weighed down with hefty golden rings and festooned with all manner of gems.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Now let me see you both.”

  He made eye contact with Caleb.

  “The flesh…”

  Then smiled at New Caleb.

  “And the future…”

  The Priest let his gaze drift down to Dave sitting cross-legged on the floor. “And here we have the modern idea of the future. Vulgar. Crude. Automated.”

  Dave hung his head in shame.

  “I suggest, for your own safety,” Caleb said, trying to make his words sound like a helpful hint. ”that you stay on his good side.”

  “Yes, yes, I’ve seen the robot’s handiwork.” The Priest said, tossing the idea that he’d be intimidated by anyone away. “Physical force is no deterrent to me.”

  New Caleb stepped forward, fell to one knee and bowed deeply.

  His face seemed to tremble like jelly, as if a magnetic force pulling him towards the Priest.

  The Priest looked up, and Caleb caught a flash of green in his eyes.

  They’re all infused with it. he thought. Or made of it.

  “And I must admit, when you compare my brother’s best to my creation… there is no contest.

  Belker was The Priest’s brother?

  “All you’ve done is make a facsimile. And you didn’t even grow him, I did. Is the flour grinder responsible for the whole cake?”

  The Priest guffawed. “Yes, quite! I knew I liked you. I knew I chose well. Your newborn brother is important, you know. Now that there are Progenitor Spores in the atmosphere… crude, synthesised Progenitor Spores… his purity will be admired. People will want to kill for it. Luckily, he is a creature of contrasts. The weakest…” The Priest pointed to Caleb.

  “And the strongest.” he placed a hand over his chest.

  “Balancing each other. Tempering each other. A perfect ouroboros, feeding endlessly on itself.”

  “You really like circles, huh?” Caleb didn’t know where the quip came from.

  My hero is still here somewhere…

  New Caleb hissed, his eyes aflame with neon green. “Do not insult our creator.”

  “Your creator.” Caleb said. “Didn’t take long for you to show your true colours.”

  The log wall dug into his spine.

  New Caleb dulled his eye colour to mirror Caleb’s. “We lack respect. It’s always been a problem, let’s be honest. You treated those people as if they were barely human.”

  “But then again,” The Priest chimed in. “What kind of world expects an intellect like yours to flip burgers?”

  Caleb recognised his own thoughts in the Priest’s words, and he didn’t like the association.

  “Let’s stop talking about me.” He pointed towards the labyrinth model. “What’s the game here?”

  “Ahh yes, the labyrinth...” The Priest hovered across the room. His body remained still and his legs were entirely invisible under the heavy robes.

  I can’t even discount magic in a crazy place like this…

  “This is a challenge.” The Priest said. “A simple one, and a personal one, but a challenge nonetheless. It marks the second step towards becoming a citizen of Ravenswood.”

  That explains Johnson’s lack of hesitation. He’s done this before.

  “After they have consumed the Progenitor Fluid?”

  The Priest relished in the slow drip of information. “Traditionally, yes.”

  “Which means that nobody here is equipped to face the challenge.”

  “Nobody except us.” New Caleb added.

  “And me.” Dave said.

  The Priest chuckled. “You could say that your friends are playing on Nightmare Mode.”

  He clapped his hands, clearly getting bored with all the talking. “Anyway, you reach the end of the labyrinth to enter your new home. The wheel of rebirth settled, your new life in bloom.”

  “And then that’s it? Game Over” A small sliver of hopefulness entered Caleb’s tone.

  How stupid of me.

  The Priest embraced Caleb. He’d expected his robes to be musty and filled with sweat, but despite their heaviness, they smelled fresh and airy. “That’s it?” he replied, mimicking the rhythm of Caleb’s voice. “My boy, ‘it’ will never come for you again.”

  New Caleb pointed at the right side of the wall. The timber beams retracted to form a neat entrance. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Caleb turned to Dave. He crouched down to whisper into his ear. “You’ve gotta go through the labyrinth, bud.”

  Caleb looked deep into Dave’s eyes. The electrical force ebbed behind them. Now that he was close, he could see how crude that connection between Dave’s severed head and his new body was. Coagulated blood oozed from his neck, corroding the steel plinth his head laid on. The energy shield emitter that surrounded his head hummed.

  That doesn’t seem stable…

  Dave nodded. “I know, Caleb. Just give me a second to rest.” He breathed in and out deeply. A fan inside his chest clicked on noisily.

  New Caleb clapped. “He’s going to be fine. C’mon. The entrance won’t stay open forever.”

  Caleb smiled at Dave. “See you on the other side. Promise?”

  “I promise. It’ll be nice to see the sea sometime soon.”

  “Absolutely.”

  Caleb turned to The Priest. “Are you a traditionalist?”

  The Priest cocked his head, confused. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, labyrinths normally come with minotaurs.”

  The Priest smiled again.

  This man seems like he’s made from nothing but teeth.

  “They do, indeed.”

  New Caleb pulled Caleb by the hand through the entrance. He turned back but the entrance pulled itself shut behind him - the new surface an unbroken sheet of swirling obsidian marble.

  “We need to move.” New Caleb said.

  “Let go of me.” Caleb snapped, reclaiming his hand.

  “We don’t have time to argue. Work with me. I was born from this place.”

  Caleb looked around. All four walls were cold black marble. He tested the floor. It was slippery. He touched the walls. They were so cold, his finger pads clung to the surface. The place was well lit, but not seemingly from any one place.

  A strange backlight that hung in the area. They needed to see, so they could. There was a simple, abstract logic to the way this world worked.

  “This place is hostile.” Caleb said.

  “And that’s without accounting for what else is here.”

  New Caleb headed down the hallway with zero hesitation. He made left turns, right turns, in no sequence, with no foreseeable order. New Caleb turned back to make sure brother was following him. His eyes had rolled into the back of his head.

  “Are you reading a map?” Caleb asked. New Caleb blinked, it was the only time Caleb had ever seen him do that, and winked.

  “Don’t worry,” New Caleb said. “We’re well-equipped.”

  “How long is this going to take?”

  They had been walking for a solid half an hour at this point. “The model labyrinth wasn’t this big.”

  “Oh, we’ve almost completed the model.” New Caleb said, as if it was no big deal. “That was only level one.”

  He rounded another corridor and came to a blank room with a red centre. “But since you asked, yes, we’re here now.”

  Caleb took a deep breath and closed his eyes, then stepped onto the red circle.

  Time for Level 2.

  Nothing happened. Caleb opened his eyes to see New Caleb sniggering.

  “It’s not a portal.” New Caleb said. “This isn’t the entrance to Level 2, either. I’ll be honest, we’ve taken a little detour.”

  White hot rage ran through Caleb’s soul. “What?! You’re supposed to help me get out of this place!”

  Wait. We’ve still gotta keep this guy on side.

  “You’re supposed to help me become a fully-fledged citizen of Ravenswood.”

  New Caleb dismissed his brother with a wave. “We’ll get to that in good time. In the meantime, don’t you want to see how your friends are doing?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “That’s what this place is for. It’s a Surveillance Room.”

  This guy is so damn smug.

  “Step back onto the portal, please.”

  Caleb did so. This time, his consciousness ejected out of his body. He flew over the labyrinth, over hundreds of labyrinths, and came to a halt at an identical obsidian wall.

  Kayleigh flew down the corridor.

  The minotaur pursued.