Essence flowed into her attack as she raised it above her head. Rather than a cone, she cast out a flat circle and captured the minotaurs all around them. They froze in their ghastly forms, but Zoe spared them no attention. One hand remained crooked, her fingers gnarled to maintain the technique, while her other hand grabbed hold of Trinch’s chains. They slithered through her grip like cold eels.

Zoe’s legs tensed and she swung Trinch around before releasing him like a wrecking ball. He blasted through minotaurs, shattering their ethereal forms, and Zoe dashed after him. She kept up her control of Time for as long as possible. Once they cleared some distance, she incinerated them. Flames licked through the labyrinth behind them, but Zoe and Trinch kept moving. She lost all sense of direction, but eventually, she and Trinch stopped at a branch in the passages. Three tunnels extended ahead of them. Dark arches in the intricate stone. The patterns framing the doors made them out to be the gaping mouths of bestial fis

“They’ve stopped following,” Trinch said. “We shouldn’t linger, but we have time to breathe.”

“Are there even any more of them to follow?” Zoe asked.

“They’re endless, but so is the labyrinth.”

“What were they?”

Trinch shrugged. Zoe figured that was as good an answer as she could give if he asked her.

“So we’re alone?” she asked.

Trinch shook his head.

“I smell people. You’re kind.”

Zoe turned to him. If humans were here in the labyrinth, then that could only mean…

“Which direction?” she asked.

Trinch pointed down the left mouth.

“Three of them are coming that way,” he said before he pointed down the middle. “Two are coming that way, and two are coming from the passage on the right.”

Zoe blinked.

“Are you sure that many are coming?”

He rolled his eyes.

“No. I incorporated the labyrinth and it feels like cockroaches are crawling through my veins but why would I know?”

“I could crush your heart.”

“Yes, you could.”

They glared at each other before Zoe sighed.

“Gods, you’re such an asshole.”

Tiny bugs crawled between Trinch’s crooked grey grin.

“They’re here.”

Seven people emerged from the shadowy tunnels. Zoe’s heart rose as she saw her friends. They were alive! She’d been so worried about what Fate did with them, but here they were and they looked safe, if a little tired. But her hope turned to horror as she saw not only her friends, but her friends, and her friends, for seven people emerged: from the left tunnel, Anton, Bella, and Skidmark emerged, from the middle tunnel, Bella and Skdimark emerged, and from the right tunnel, Anton and Bella.

Her friends all emerged and stopped and stared at each other. Zoe stared at them. Silence filled the space until Trinch cackled.

“You know, all you humans really do look the same.”

Zoe’s eye twitched.

“Shut up, Trinch,” she said.

The three Bella’s all gasped.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“That’s Trinch?” they asked as one before turning on each other. “Stop copying me! No, stop — this is so weird. Zoe, what’s going on?”

Their voices were synchronized, not a trace of overlap. It was like they were recordings of each other, but Zoe knew they were flesh and blood. The two Antons stared at each other with increasingly frozen poker faces. The Skidmark’s avoided each other’s gaze but kept sneaking glances.

Zoe felt a paranoia growing inside her brain. A primal thing pounding at her brain. It had been so long since she truly trusted reality, and now this was taking things to a whole new level.

“Which one of you are my real friends?” she said.

“I am!” every one of them shouted.

“Dumb,” Trinch said with a snort.

Zoe glared at him.

“Ok, look,” she said to the multiple versions of her friends. “I know some of you aren’t real, and that’s ok. Whoever isn’t real, just step to the side over there. I don’t care if you’re some kind of mental projection, or a parasite, or whatever, I’ll let you live so long as you identify yourself now. Ok? Ok.”

She folded her arms.

Nobody moved.

She waited, but everyone stared at her, at each other, and then back at her. A tense minute dragged out until one of the Bella’s coughed.

“To be fair, Zoe, I don’t think any of us really believe you won’t kill the imposters.”

Trinch laughed again.

“I’m so glad you didn't kill me,” he said.

“That’s a good point,” one of the Antons said. “Boss didn’t kill him, so maybe she won’t kill the imposters. You should step aside, whoever’s fake.”

Everyone stared at the Anton who spoke.

“Well,” said the other Anton. “It’s obvious that you’ll kill whoever steps aside.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Doesn’t mean it isn’t obvious.”

The two Skidmarks covered their faces with their hands and slid down the wall before sitting on the floor.

“This is ridiculous,” they said, before starting at the other’s synchronized voice, glancing over, and hurriedly looking away. “This is terrible,” they whispered with another flinch.

ding!

So many friends! Friends! It’s great to see you all again and again and again.

Zoe glared at the Black Star’s chains as they slithered across the stone floor. The metal clinked against the carvings of fish scales, and Zoe walked over to place her foot on top of one of the chains.

“Leave them alone,” she said.

The unspoken message: they’re mine. The chain yanked out from under her foot and retracted to Trinch.

ding!

Such a meanie.

But Zoe knew from the sulking tone that the Black Star wouldn’t do anything. She still wasn’t sure what to expect from the chains in the long term. It was a contender for the wish at the center of the labyrinth, but what would it want with something like that? Zoe shuddered when she realized that she really didn’t know. Not long ago, she would have said that all the Black Star wanted was to make as many friends as possible, but now she knew that goal was warped beyond belief. It had already resurrected itself, and its presence here proved it survived the conflict between Rue and the Witch for a hundred years.

Zoe ran a hand down her face in an almost imitation of Skidmark as she turned back to the group of her friends. This was too much. Faith flickered beneath her skin, the power momentarily quelled by her uncertainty.

Trinch seemed happy to lean against the wall and pick at his teeth with an overgrown fingernail. Zoe wasn’t sure what he was fishing for in there, since his entire body was newly grown, but she supposed he had bitten some of the minotaurs they fought their way through.

She was distracting herself.

“Ok,” she said. “I’ve played nice, now it’s time to play not so nice?”

“What are you saying, Zoe?” one of the Bella’s asked.

“Do whatever you need to, Boss,” the Anton’s said at once.

“I hate this,” said the Skidmark’s one after the other.

Trinch raised an eyebrow.

“Look how much of a spine you grew.”

“Shut up, this won’t be pleasant for you either.”

“What are you talking —”

[Our Heart’s Toll as One]

Zoe poured her Skein into the technique and it rippled forth. She felt the power slam in waves of pressure against the labyrinth walls. Her heart, that gaping black wound, inverted into an explosion of grasping love. The core of the technique was a sick need for control, she recognized that now, and maybe if she had another go at the apocalypse, at the dungeon, she wouldn’t create it like she did — or at all. But she had the tools she had, and she would use them.

Waves of whispering Skein wrapped around the eight hearts present and grasped them tight. Zoe closed her eyes and focused. Light burned through her lids as her Fate reared up. She felt the hearts one by one as she squeezed. The Bellas, the Antons, the Skidmarks, and Trinch all collapsed to the ground, but Zoe kept squeezing, kept probing, looking for anything she recognized, and anything she didn’t.

Trinch’s heart she saw for his and she ejected him from the technique with a flicker of thought. He gasped for air as his body twitched in agony, but she was already ignoring him. That left the seven friends, the seven imposters, the seven questions.

She pressed and probed. Each of the Bellas was the same, but the two had something different about their hearts. Something beneath their surface. The same was true for one of the Antons, and one of the Skidmarks.

Her Faith surged, and Zoe acted.

She crushed the hearts that felt wrong, and with a snap like rotten bone a foreign technique canceled. The four wrong hearts squished like pulp beneath her Skein, and Zoe released her hold. Two Bellas, an Anton, and a Skidmark flopped on the ground, their skin sloughing from their flesh to reveal something beneath…

Something horrific…

A visage Zoe never imagined she would see again.

She could hardly speak through the surge of emotion.

“You!”