Lingering mortification over what I'd admitted, what had ... changed between us had me changing into my fighting tunic and rushing out of the manor after dinner, my thoughts focusing on my loyalty to my people and my family. Nothing could change that. I brought my bow and arrows, along with the jewelled hunting knife that Kallistê had given me. The Alger had said that the maze was alive. A cunning, cruel creature of its own. Who knows what deadly things may lie in it.
Phoebus's smile flashed in my mind and I blinked to clear the thought away. My decision was made. I can't turn away, not after everything I'd risked for this.
It felt so wrong—so maliciously wrong that bile stung in my throat and tears pricked my eyes. I swallowed harshly to keep both down.
Ungrateful. That's what I was. Ungrateful. All the kindness they'd shown me, all the gifts and adventures they'd given—it was all for nothing. They'd shared their compassion and love only for me to return it with cold, cruel deaths.
I shouldn't have entered Asteria. They shouldn't have let me enter Asteria. I could already imagine the look on Phoebus's face, his eyes raging with deep rage, pain and sorrow as his warm blood coats my hands—my face.
Betrayal. That's what it was. And I would always remember the feeling of his blood on my hands, shaking, shaking—-
Heaving breaths broke out of me and I hunched over my knees. I can't do this, I can't do this anymore, I can't—
My hands shook with such ferocity that I was afraid they may fall off at any moment. Red bloomed on my hands, dripping off at my fingertips, covering my hands like warm gloves. I staggered backwards, my bow falling from my grip as I tried to stop the shaking.
The misty air was forced down my lungs as I drew deep breaths, calming myself enough that my body shuddered with a sigh.
"You're doing this for your family," I mumbled under my breath, reminding myself again and again. "You're doing this for Aslan, for your people."
Tilting my head up in front of me, I stared down the winding path sneaking through bushes of pretty buds and began to hike.
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I crept through trees and brush for no more than a few minutes before I found myself standing at the labyrinth's entrance-the mouth of a beast about to swallow its prey. Drawing an arrow from my quiver, I looked back.
The manor was no more than the size of my palm from where I stood, an ethereal glow cast upon it from the face of the moon. My heart thundered and I clenched my firsts to stop the tears from flowing. I knew there was no going back now.
I didn't give myself a chance to regret my decision as I turned around, steeling my nerves as I stepped forward into the awaiting darkness, knowing this might be the last I would see the light.
.____________________.
Leaves rustled-hardly more than a breeze's passing and I whipped around, only to see my only entrance and exit seal shut. Intertwining vines crisscrossed their way across the opening, barricading my only escape. I struggled to breathe.
No turning back. No turning back. No turning back.
I chanted in my head quietly, turning left at a fork. A thick heavy feeling weighed down on me as if a sudden blanket had been draped over this confinement. The air itself also seemed alive in this maze, buzzing like the static which coated over metal during winter's coming.
Guilt ate away at me from my insides like a horrible parasite and I couldn't seem to shake away the feeling that this was happening. But the moment I had chosen this path, I'd already known that I would just be delaying the inevitable. It didn't stop the sharp stab of betrayal though.
I hurried my steps, slipping around another left corner into a narrower path. My mind wandered to the village and my family. Did they miss me? Have the Elders kept to their promise to keep them fed and well? I wondered many things these days and there were too many questions left unanswered dangling in the depths of my mind.
I turned and shuffled sideways as the walls seemed to slide closer towards the end, an inch or more separating my cheek from brushing against the damp leaves. It was strange that there was nothing out of the ordinary yet. No hidden traps or magical tripwires I've come across. Almost as if the maze wanted me to-
A firm tug on my ankle sent the ground rushing up towards my face. A surprised yelp escaped my throat as I flinched, little rocks and pebbles tearing at my skin. Sparking, refreshing pain shot up my left leg and I flailed a little as I struggled to see what I had tripped on...
Or rather what had snatched my leg.
My gut roiled in horror looking down at a vine as thick as my hand wrapping around my right calf. Its snake-like movement continued its way up to my knee and a sudden scream pierced the air.
The parched breathing of my hoarse throat told me enough of whose scream it was.
Another wave of pain washed over my leg as I felt my bones being crushed, tears springing into my eyes. Countless instinct hunting skills had me pulling an arrow from my quiver and stabbing it into the ground. My teeth clenched as I gripped onto the arrow, the wood groaning as it bent farther and farther, my knuckles turning white.
The faint stench of blood wafted into my nostrils as the same tingling pain snaked its way up my left arm. Surprised, my head snapped to my left wrist, each movement slower as a spiking headache built in my head from the pain. I wasn't shocked to see another one of those...things clinging on to my wrist, thorns that were shaped like hundreds and hundreds of rows of tiny teeth penetrating themselves into my flesh. I swallowed another cry as a small groan and snap were produced by my arrow, bending so much now that I was afraid it could shatter at any moment. Wet streaks warmed my cheeks and I realise I'm crying.
What in the Mother's name are these things?
Wiggling my foot and hand, I tried flinging them off to no avail, their teeth sinking further into my skin. My bones and skin were burning now. Burning like an endless fire raging in the depths of my body. The stars winked back at me mockingly as I pleaded towards the night sky for this pain to end. Another wave of crushing pain soaked into my body.
I rubbed my hand and foot against the mud, twisting, tearing, kicking...anything to throw these things off. Another snap echoed in the air and I cried harder as the wood of my arrow groaned under my weight. My body felt like it was ripping apart as the two snake-like vines start to pull in opposite directions, slithering back into their shadows of the hedges.
I was thrashing now, frantically trying to scrape them off but they were too strong, like heavy weights on my ankle and wrist. The hellish fire continued to rage through me and somewhere through my haze of blood and tears, I realised that the thorns could have been poisoned. My fingers slipped a little on the arrow.
No, hold it together. The village needs you. Your family needs you. The words echo dully in my mind and it's as if I'm hearing them for the first time now. My breath quickens and I can't help thinking. I don't want to die.
An unholy screech and squelch reverberated in my ears and I looked up at the source of the sound. It doesn't help that my headache pounds on, determined to make me scream with the pain. Yet, relief washed over me as my wrist is granted sudden freedom. I squint my eyes in agony at the sight of one of those things hanging limply from a particularly sharp branch jutting out from the side of the hedge, puncturing through its body. It seemed my thrashing had granted me a blessing.
My relief is short-lived though as there was a final screech and the feeling of broken splinters between my fingers. I screamed as I was dragged harshly against the ground, pulled away by that monster. Dirt was shoved into my mouth in the process and I gagged and sputtered.
But there was a glint of light from my left boot and a quick flash of the jewelled handle of Kallistê's dagger that had my body aching in exhaustion as I flipped around. Seizing the opportunity of having both hands free, I pushed myself up with what little energy I had left and pulled the dagger from my boot, bringing it down against the snake-like vine. I savoured the feeling of victory as it wailed before finally falling limp, pulling the dagger from its body and stabbing it again.
And again.
And again.
Blood was splattered on my face, both my own and not. With a defeated sigh, I retreated away from the snake-like vine's mangled corpse, tugging the dagger out of its body along the way. I managed to stagger a few steps towards the opposite hedge, slumping against it as I stared with unseeing eyes at what I've done.
I hated this. Hated that I couldn't expect what would happen in this nightmare brought to life. Hated that this was the only way to freedom that I could earn for my family and myself. Hated that this was my only way home.
Was this the wrong choice? As much as I despised faeries I couldn't seem to shake off the fact that Phoebus, Kallistê and Oberon had done nothing to harm or trick me through the time I'd spent with them. And Phoebus...he'd provided me with everything I ever wanted even if I was just a lesser being--a mortal compared to the power thrumming in his veins.
I was confused. Sad, angry and confused at Phoebus, at the faeries, at the Elders. At myself. But history has been set in stone and there was no mechanism to turn back time. I have no choice.
The pain was still there, coursing through my body as the venom from those thing's teeth sucked away at my strength. I cry out softly as my head tilts towards the night sky, so innocent and beautiful compared to the monster I'm walking in. I exhaled as my eyes fluttered shut, bringing soothing darkness along with it.
The night would not be over yet.