Shades of Grey

CRONAMIA— MARCH 1843

The mermen pointed their spears upwards to a tunnel opening in the cave wall, through which I saw faint glimmer of clear light.

“Thank you!” I said to the Merpeople as I began swimming, eager to get out of the water and out of this damned country.

I had been swimming for what seemed like no more than a minute when I felt a sudden gagging sensation in the back of my throat. I began choking and remembered that my thirty minutes were up.

In a panic, I began furiously swimming towards the tunnel, trying desperately to maintain speed as my gills left me. I swam higher and higher to the burning lake surface as my human buoyancy returned with my human lungs. Closer and closer I came to the stairs until finally I managed to climb through the tunnel and pull myself up into the grassy, cool open air. I choked and coughed as I eagerly took several hearty gasps.

Once I had recovered, I looked up and saw a very tall ivy topiary maze encompassing a very old iron gate. I stood slowly, wondering if Theseus felt as apprehensive as I did then when he entered the labyrinth of the Minotaur.

Several torches then ignited along the top of the maze in a sudden display of menace, casting an eerie orange glow about the botanical monstrosity and making it seem like the most impossible task I had yet come to undertake. The same voice I was greeted with in the hall of mirrors returned, this time echoing even louder off the wet cave walls and iron bars.

“Hunter, as your third and final task, you must find the queen located somewhere in the maze which is littered with Creatures, quandaries and riddles of all sorts. Your irritating cohorts are also located somewhere within the maze walls, but time is running short. Act with speed if you wish to save them.”

The gates to the maze opened and I wasted no time, running inside as fast as my waterlogged clothing would allow me to move. I ignored the terrifyingly loud clank as the gate closed and locked magically behind me. I couldn’t panic. I had to remain focused, for I had no Ariadne to provide me with a guidance string: I was on my own.

Upon entering the maze, I turned left and withdrew my Flamesword, marking my path by burning an X into the grass. I then began running until I hit the next T-junction, where I found a large, blind griffin standing guard, exhaling copious amounts of fire into the air. I narrowly avoided the steady stream of flame, as I ran behind the bird and assessed my next decision, safe from its fiery breath.

If I went left, I would need to traverse a bridge over an open chasm filled with vicious, leaping piranhas. If I went right, I saw that I would come across a large Forest Troll, who stood stupidly swinging a huge club at no one — until he saw me, that is. I then found myself feeling quite partial to the left hand path.

I quickly ran for the bridge, avoiding the leaping piranhas while hearing the tromping of the troll rattle the earth behind me.

“Uggunuggugarrh!” screamed the troll as it traversed the bridge in three steps. I began running faster as the troll increased its speed, when I noticed a large pit up ahead filled with a radiant yellow liquid. I began running faster to increase my momentum before I leapt over it, propelling myself over the pit and landing cleanly on the other side. The troll, however, was not so lucky. He tripped over his huge feet and fell straight through, proceeding to burn in the yellow acid.

I stood, trying to catch my breath again and began walking down the maze hall until I got to the next fork in the path. A padlocked wooden door blocked the way to my right and the way to my left had large interlocking steel teeth crunching inward every few seconds, making safe passage impossible.

“Congratulations, young Hunter. You now have a choice to make,” said the dark disembodied voice.

“What choice is that?” I said strongly, looking steadfastly at the two doors.

Three long arms of ivy emerged from the wall and presented me with three different clear phials, each filled with a different colour of liquid.

“Mix these three ingredients in the correct order and you will be granted safe passage through the door of your choice, only one of which will lead you to the centre of the maze. Mix them in the wrong order or choose the wrong door...well, let’s just say it would be better for you to not be wrong…” The voice died in facetious malevolence.

I looked at the phials, then at the doors before letting out a long laugh, feeling my exhaustion begin to weigh on my focus.

“Better get started then…” I said to myself, grasping the three phials.

I set them down on the ground and looked at each: one was green, one orange and one red. I then arranged them in a line with the green one in between the orange and red, the orange being first. I then picked up the orange liquid and poured a bit into the grass, followed by the green and red liquids. The grass bubbled and smoke began to float off into the air. Incorrect. I then moved the green one to the front and repeated the procedure of pouring the liquid onto the grass. The same reaction occurred.

It was then that I looked at the colours more closely, scolding myself for not seeing it earlier — add red to green and you’ve got orange.

Like a mad woman, I poured the red and green liquids into the orange one. No acidic reaction occurred and I hurriedly drank the whole concoction. I instantly felt a Promethean spark of much needed energy fly through my internal organs.

“Very good. Through which door would you like to go?” asked the voice.

“I want to go through the door that will lead me to the centre,” I replied, praying that my poor attempt to be sly would prove successful.

The padlocked door to the right then unlocked and swung open. I smiled and ran through it, stopping when I came upon a gaping canyon in the middle of the path. The canyon was filled with green, malodorously bubbling water populated by pale, moaning Death Ghosts. Looking to the other side of the canyon, I saw a platform next to the continuing path on which stood a tall statue of the goddess of the Underworld, Persephone. A statue of the mighty three-headed canine Underworld guardian, Cerberus, sat loyally by her side. I stood silently listening for any sign of Forma…she had to be here somewhere…

A low, dark rumbling the came from the statues across the way, growing louder and louder as I saw the statues begin to tremble. The tremours increased in strength until the statues sprang to life, moving with a handicapped slowness as they attempted to manoeuvre their stone bodies. All three of Cerberus’s dog heads growled while its numerous snakeheads hissed hostilely at me. Persephone turned and grinned with striking malice, bits of her stoney skin flaking loose from her unnatural movement.

“If you are listening for your Maisling’s voice, you will not hear it,” she said in a gentle, smooth speech. “She has been silenced until you can solve a puzzle of my design.”

“How dare you tamper with a Hunter’s connection to her Fairy!”

The bog below me suddenly grew hot and particularly pungent in reaction to my sharp reply. The Ghosts floated upwards and reached out towards me, moaning eerily. I shrank away in disgust. After several minutes of revelling in my discomfort, Persephone clapped twice and the Ghosts silently retreated.

“What will you have me do?” I asked dejectedly. I was quite tired of being assigned tasks to complete...

Persephone smiled at me coldly.

“In front of you there is a bridge, but in order to make it appear, you must answer three of my questions. With each correct answer, more of the bridge will appear. Answer incorrectly and the bridge will fall into the water, as will you. Are you willing to play?”

I nodded slowly and looked Persephone in the eye.

“I’m ready.”

Persephone smiled and the bubbling in the water grew even more intense.

“My house is not quiet, I am not loud; but for us God fashioned our fate together.

I am the swifter, at times the stronger, my house more enduring, longer to last. A times I rest; my dwelling still runs; within it I lodge as long as I live. Should we two be severed, my death is sure.

I swallowed nervously. Riddles…I hated riddles…

“Is that a poem?” I asked sarcastically. The smoke from the water suddenly increased tenfold and I tripped backwards, holding my nose in disgust. The Death Ghosts began howling and wailing before Persephone silenced them with her booming, irate voice.

“You will ask no questions! You will answer the questions!”

I glared at Persephone and recovered as the foul smoke faded. I took several calming breaths and thought through the answer…fashioned our fate together…swifter and stronger…my dwelling still runs...

Got it.

“A fish in the ocean.”

Below me, bricks suddenly flew into place along the bridge and fastened themselves together with mortar, completing the next few feet of bridge. I dared to take another step and waited for my next question.

“Inside every one of us, there is one of these. It has many sides and many dimensions, but only one is normally seen. Too much strain and too much pull may break it, but the pieces are there, no one else may take it. What is it?”

I closed my eyes and thought about every word carefully, voicing my thoughts aloud.

“’Inside every one of us...many sides...only one is seen’...could it be a personality? No, you can’t break a personality...can you have pieces of a personality? No...that’s foolish...could it be sanity? No, there’s only one side to sanity...”

The Death Ghosts below me howled in laughter as I struggled through my logic.

“You are running out of time, Hunter,” Persephone cautioned just as the answer came to me.

“Oh! I know what it is! The answer is your mind!”

More bricks flew out into place and I took another step forward. One more question and I would have Forma at my side again.

“You are very clever. I may have underestimated you,” Persephone sneered. “However, are you crafty enough to solve my third and final question?”

I looked at Persephone’s ugly serpentine eyes and waited, not giving her any weakness to use against me, when suddenly three Death Ghosts climbed out of the water, each looked at me with pleading, desperate eyes as they began to form distinct faces. My eyes began to water as I looked upon the dead faces of Forma, Rodag and my mother.

“This isn’t fair! You’re cheating! Forma and Rodag are not dead!” I cried. More Ghosts suddenly leapt out of the water and they all clamped their scaly, skeletal hands around my mouth and my limbs, silencing me. Persephone nodded, annoyed with my spate.

“True, but if you answer incorrectly, they could be.”

The ghosts retreated back into the bog and I looked at the sympathetic face of my mother.

“Mother?” I asked.

“Yes. Grey! Please help me!” she cried in a two-tone howl.

“No Grey, save me! I love you!” exclaimed the ghost Rodag in a similar voice, reaching for me.

“Grey! Please save me!” begged the spectral Forma.

“SILENCE!” ordered Persephone, quieting the trio.

“What would you have me do? Choose between them?!”

Persephone grinned.

“As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what I want you to do. Would you choose to save the mother you never knew, stay with the man you think you love, or continue travelling with your Maisling? The two you do not choose will remain here forever. Make your choice.”

I looked at their pleading faces; their mouthes falling eerily wide open. I felt my heart stretch in three different directions as I stared at their gaping, ghostly mouths.

I sat up and stared at Persephone with fury in my eyes.

“I will not choose.”

Her face fell in anger and the bubbling of the water grew more and more raucous, along with the thickness and severity of the smoke. I then saw my opportunity to act. In an instant, I loaded my large crossbow with three arrows and aimed straight through the smoke for Persephone’s stony heart.