***
“ where the earth is round and passive , labyrinth is jagged edges and awake . it will bring you places that you ’ ve only heard about in your wildest dreams , to place where you ’ ll close your eyes and be scared to open them because you don ’ t know what ’ s better – knowing that it ’ s there or knowing that it ’ s fake .”
The single momentary disaster splits his world in half . Quite literally , unfortunately . Screams ring through the air , alarms somehow sound over the cacophony of terror , and buildings quietly disintegrate into rubble as Labyrinth redirects its energy into repairing the fissure that had opened up and split it in half .
Saesryc doesn ’ t know why this happened . Or how it happened , for that matter . Labyrinth is supposedly omnipotent – it has lasted through aeons of war and civil unrest , and nothing short of a miracle is able to wreak havoc like this . The last time this happened is a story in the textbooks , supposedly a ghost story used to scare anyone out of attempting to leave Labyrinth .
But Saesryc had never been one of those believers . He had watched as parents threaten their children with exile from Labyrinth , of puppeteers using magic to create contorted figures and expressions to mimic the myths of those who left , of spirit stories told around flickering purple orbs and warm mugs of tea . He had rolled his eyes at them , too busy imagining life outside of Labyrinth , outside of the erratic temperament of Labyrinth that he had long since gotten used to .
Children used to flock around him to hear his bravado tales of leaving Labyrinth , and nod excitedly as they chirped up with details of their own to add . They would happily absorb the stories and scoff at the sceptics , sticking by Saesryc until their guardians forcefully tugged them away and scolded them for disrespecting Labyrinth ( Saesryc would make faces at the guardians ’ backs while the children dissolved into giggles , and so what if he ’ s ten-seven-two , people always say he has the mind of a fourteen-nine-six anyway ).
When the crack splits Labyrinth into chaos , Saesryc takes the opportunity to creep closer to the edge , to the dark nothingness that would appear at the start but dissolve into lush greenery at the end , if elderly Trinket is to be believed . Saesryc has been in Labyrinth a long time , but Trinket has supposedly been there from the start .
He wonders about the people there and the world and the magic and all that they have and don ’ t have as he finally leans too far forward to look and falls through-
***
People do not come shooting out of the ground screaming bloody murder . That is a fact that he ’ s had total faith in until someone does come shooting of the ground screaming bloody murder . The … man-pixie-fae-winged-creature-thing lands on its side , grumbling as it rubs one of its eyes and wrenches his teeth back into his mouth .
While the boy would very much have liked to turn and run , his legs are sore , he ’ s running out of food and money , and his mother has always raised him to be as polite as possible . So he carefully steps around the … thing and tries to continue on his way . But then the creature grabs his foot , so he channels his sister instead and slings his backpack off to whack the thing over the head with it .
The creature shrieks and lets out a series of clicks and clacks .
He watches it wearily before putting his backpack on and walking away . The creature lets out another series of sounds and then seemingly drops dead . The boy watches the creature in confusion , and the side of him that ’ s not his brother tells him to help the creature up instead of thinking about rummaging