I hoisted myself up from the infirmary bed, noting how easy it was to do so. Feeling completely refreshed, I bode farewell to the student and began to make my way back to the hallway, running into a few dead ends before doing so. As I arrived and began to finally navigate over to the field, however, a portal manifested itself in front of me, causing me to step through before I could react in any way. I was brought into Midnight's office, with my principal sitting in his chair only a few meters away. Freezing for an instant, I began to sit in the smaller one. Observing Midnight a bit more, I realized that he had his elbows planted onto the table, with his head resting on his intertwined hands.
Now a bit nervous, I peered at Midnight until he finally prompted me to speak. "Why'd you bring me here?"
My principal began to exhibit emotion; the corners of his mouth drooped. "I'm sorry about the attitude that I showed up until now. It was irrational. To make it up to you, I'm going to elaborate on everything. It's just that... what unfolded last night was peculiar.
"As I descended another level in your labyrinth, I began to notice that my surroundings were shifting. Walking down the last step in the flight of stairs, I noticed that unlike the dull rooms that I had encountered before, this looked more like a cave than anything."
With a jolt, I remembered the location in which I woke shortly after passing out in the infirmary. I kept silent, however, intent on listening to Midnight.
"After exploring for a while, I came upon a gate of sorts," he continued. "It was unlike anything else that I had seen: it was small enough to technically classify as a door and what stood out the most was its mechanical appearance." Midnight proceeded to sigh. "I thought that I would simply be able to blast through it using a basic spell, but after doing so I only saw a light that was previously unactivated emitting a red light.
"I scanned the area using an observation spell, but the light only shone more. Panicking, I tried desperately to turn off the light. I failed, though, and I just came back to the school in a foul mood, thinking that the incident would have affected you in some way." Midnight paused yet again as he eyed me over. "That brings me to my theory. You may have already made this assumption, but I believe that event triggered you to feel unwell."
It was true; I knew from the instant that Midnight described the light turning on that it was related to my declination in health. Before Midnight considered the conversation to be over, I spoke up. "Is there anything you can think of to get past the gate, then?" I tried to squeeze a little bit more information out of Midnight before we parted once again.
"Well, there's one line of thought that I was considering," he replied. "If you were the only one meant to descend that far into the area, then you, by extension, are the only one able to open the gate. Perhaps the light will turn green then, opening in your presence. Until we can confirm that, however, I'm just going to deem that speculation."
A pang of both fear and excitement rippled through me at the opportunity to finally see what was likely the last level of the labyrinth. I thought that what was just beyond the gate was the solution to my problems, that I was finally going to get an opportunity to destroy the labyrinth once and for all.