Arc moved cautiously down the dimly lit staircase, his fingers trailing along the walls as he carefully balanced the alchemic lantern in his other hand. Its gentle glow cast with just enough light to see the next few steps but not what was ahead. Suddenly, a draft swept through the corridor, causing the light within the lantern to flicker and dance, casting eerie shadows on the stone walls.
"Gust?"
Arc stopped his descent down the staircase as he looked at the dancing shadows around him.
"If there is wind, then there must be something here!" A smile tugged at his lips as he spoke in excitement, "Wait, did no one discover this? Am I the first? Or is there something else?"
The feeble gusts of wind arrived in short, irregular bursts before scattering just a short distance behind. The source of the wind seemed distant, which only fueled Arc's curiosity and eagerness to explore.
"This is getting more intriguing. A small village like this holds so many interesting things. Oh, Ambrosia, what other fun mysteries do you hold for me?"
As Arc restarted his descent down the dark staircase, the smile that had tugged at his lips just seconds ago fully bloomed into a mad, almost insane smile. A mad glint flickered in his eyes and signaled a surge of determination, prompting him to hasten his pace, doubling his speed down the shadowy steps.
Arc's mind was a whirlwind of thoughts as he practically leaped from the final step. His eyes seemed distant, lost in thoughts and a world of his own as the previously dim hallway gradually illuminated with a soft, blue glow. His gaze regained focus, and as he glanced at his feet, he spotted a small obscure stone embedded in the floor. Lifting his gaze, he noticed the increasing number of lights glittering in the distance.
"What?"
A confused sound came out of his mouth, along with the question that sat at the tip of his tongue. His head slanted to the side as the light continued to grow until he could no longer see the increasing number. His head glanced between the simple and obscure stone, which seemed like all the others, and the growing light in the distance. Unlike before, it seemed obvious from the blank stare that no thoughts floated in his mind.
With a light step, the small stone pressed into the ground, causing the lights to flicker and fade away as quickly as they had appeared at the beginning. Once more, Arc pressed the stone, and the dull blue glow grew into the soft blue light casting down the barren hall. Arc repeated these actions several more times, his eyes sparking with realization and playfulness as he watched the soft blue glow and darkness dance and intertwined down the halls.
"What a mesmerizing mechanism."
Arc stood still as he watched the last bit of darkness fade from view. After the joy of playing with a new toy faded, Arc realized another fact: ' Why was something like this here?' When that thought crossed his mind, the soft blue glow began to take on an ominous characteristic.
"What is this place? Why does something like this exist here under an orphanage?"
This once mesmerizing and interesting mechanism of light felt a little darker than before as if something was beckoning him down the corridor with its fingers curled, asking if he would take a risk to answer his simple questions. At that point, Arc realized that the only way to gain answers to his questions lay hidden somewhere beyond the soft blue glow lighting the hall.
Each step felt heavy as if the air urged him to turn back. His hands trembled with a mix of anxiety and excitement, and a nervous smile played at the corners of his lips. Despite the overwhelming sense of something in the air, Arc's excitement easily pushed it aside, allowing him to effortlessly press on, his hearts racing with the promise of discovery that awaited him in the darkness.
"Oh?"
As Arc made his way into the large, circular chamber, his voice reverberated loudly, bouncing off the walls and filling the space with a sense of grandeur. The domed ceiling above emitted a gentle, ethereal blue glow, casting an otherworldly ambiance over the surroundings. Countless pathways branched in every direction and seemed to weave together to form a complex labyrinth within the chamber, making the path forward difficult to discern.
"There has to be at least thirty different halls, and they all look the same, and the way they twist into one another. What madman designed this!"
Arc's piercing gaze scrutinized each pathway, meticulously searching for the slightest, most minute difference that might distinguish one from the others. As Arc paced with restlessness around the room, his echoing footsteps and resounding shouts reverberated off the cold stone walls, sending back his every complaint, mad rant, and other noise from rage as if the room mocked his pointless observations.
"AHHH! They are all the same! Is this intentional? An Illusion? Am I just blind or just insane?"
Arc stood in the center of the room, his head tilted back as he stared at the domed roof above him, the subtle blue glow now tickling his nerves. With a huff and a sigh, he reached into a hidden pocket inside his robes, pulling out a small, shiny brown rod.
"Old man, I hate you, but thanks for this... thing."
Arc tossed the rod to the ground and watched as the rod spun in circles at an incredible speed, turning into a complete circle before suddenly stopping and pointing to two opposite paths.
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A smile tugged at the corner of Arc's lips as he stared at one of the entryways. Picking up the rod, Arc walked toward the path leading to somewhere with a much happier stride.
***
Carter's eyes drooped, and his head bobbed as he stared at the desk in front of him. He had been here for some time and had yet to find a single clue about what anything meant. The mystery still eluded him, and his interest waned as he continued to stare at what felt like a dark, bottomless pit where questions were thrown in, but no answers ever came out.
"... Frustrated..." Carter murmured wearily, his eyes growing heavier and heavier as they struggled to stay open. "So...Ti... ZZZ"
As Carter slept soundly, the gentle sound of his soft, slow, and shallow breathing filled the room, creating a peaceful and tranquil atmosphere.
***
A figure hidden in a grey cloak that covered their whole figure walked into a dark room covered in dust and a stale, musty stench. The figure's violet eyes glimmered as they walked to one of the few chairs around a small table. Their eyes squinted as they saw the chair's dilapidated state. With a click of their tongue, they ignored the chair, choosing to stand instead.
"Hello, little Carter."
The broken and flickering light in the room cast strange, twisting shadows across it, and from the chair opposite the grey-cloaked figure, the shadows seemed to come to life. A single small violet eye emerged from the darkness of the chair, its gaze fixed on the figure before it. Another eye appeared as the figure shifted beneath a twisted blanket, glaring intensely at the grey-cloaked figure that had disturbed it. No sound broke the silence as the blanketed figure continued to stare, each eye radiating an intense and chilling gaze.
"I was told you were talkative and bursting with energy. It seems I have been misinformed."
"Who are you?" a gravely but childish voice echoed from under the blanket
When Carter asked the question, the corners of the figure's eyes curved upward, forming crescent shapes, revealing a sense of amusement and anticipation as if it was waiting for that question.
"Someone that can shed some light in the darkness and bring you onto your true path."
***
Carter's eyes snapped open from the dream, and as he lay there in the faint glow of the room, he could feel the remnants of the vivid images that had filled his mind only moments before. The echo of the dream lingered, and he found himself trying to grasp onto the fragments that had so abruptly dispersed upon waking. He felt that the answer to his questions lay in that dream, but how could he pull the answer from the chaos?
With racing thoughts, Carter's mind lingered on the shadows of the hood, shadows which covered only what needed to be covered. The pale white hands could be seen even in the oversized sleeves, but only the eyes of the face could be seen. Could shadows choose where to be cast on their own, or was a type of control needed? Light and darkness: there is always a connection between the two; just like any essence, they all have an antithesis, but the combination of the two always creates something like fire and water with steam and light and darkness with shadows, which was the key at least that is what it seemed.
With renewed vigor and a shimmer of interest in his eyes, Carter moved around frantically, trying to piece together the puzzle in this room and its hidden meaning. Still, no matter what he tried, he could not figure out the crux of the problem.
"If I can have that dream again, maybe I can find the missing piece. But how do I have the dream again?"
***
Arc slowly made his way down the dark and empty path, and the stale cold air chilled his skin. The soft, dull blue lights that once trimmed the hallway had long stopped to illuminate his way, enveloping the surroundings in an impenetrable darkness. Thankfully, he clutched tightly onto the alchemic lantern, its warm glow piercing through the darkness that surrounded him. Despite the passage of what felt like an eternity, the oppressive blackness remained, stretching endlessly before and behind him, leaving him with an overwhelming sense of isolation.
"Am I trapped..."
Just as the comment slipped out of his mouth, the light from his lantern seemed to twist around a corner.
"Finally, a change!"
Arc sprinted around the corner and stumbled into a room bathed in a soft, ethereal green glow emanating from random green stones in the ceiling. The space looked like a makeshift laboratory dedicated to research of some kind, but Arc had little idea what it could be.
Neat rows of metallic slabs lined the center of the room, while desks with towering stacks of paper were pushed close to the walls. Other than these, the room seemed too bare to be used for research. It seemed more fit to call this an observation room rather than anything else but what could be observed in such a manner.
"What were they observing here... No matter how I look at this, it is just unusual. What kind of research or observation would require this strange organization of desks and slabs?"
Moving to the stacks of papers close to him, Arc rummaged through the documents. They were strange, almost like the ramblings of a madman. Nothing in the papers sounded like sound research or even sound-minded words. He couldn't make sense of anything that he read, and the more he read, the more confused he was about what this room was and, in fact, what this whole labyrinth was.
"This is more like some kind of delusional cult!" Arc rubbed his eyes as he tried to gather his thoughts, "If... are... uh, I need all of this to be connected, or else nothing makes sense, but if it is, then I have even more questions."
Arc saw something on the last page of the document he held: a sketch of one of the patients or, better yet, experiments.
"That girl that Carter spends his time with? She was here? And it appears the last documented time was just a few days before we arrived at the village. Divine Race, what are you plotting to send us here?" Arc fumed as he spoke, feeling like he was being toyed with.
Arc took deep breaths, the rise and fall of his chest steady as he tried to calm himself down. He placed his hand firmly on the edge of the desk, feeling the smooth wood beneath his fingertips. Glaring at the imposing stacks of documents in front of him, he willed himself to focus. Suddenly, as he lifted his hand, the unmistakable sound of a button being released echoed through the room, followed by the jarring noise of objects shifting and moving.
"Old man, this is your fault!" Arc screamed as the lights above him began to blink.
***
Carter walked back into the office room with a sigh. He had left hoping to find something in one of the other rooms, but he had no luck, so he returned with no choice. As he sat, the room slowly started to lose its subtle glow, and the desk began to lose its strange ability and now cast a subtle shadow.
"Huh, did I do something?"
Clunk
As Carter turned, a sudden sound of movement caught his attention. He swiftly noticed a frame on the wall had fallen, revealing a new space similar to the storage room in the dormitory. Without hesitating, Carter leaped to his feet, his eyes filled with excitement, and he dashed into the newly exposed area.