As the space around Lumière shifted, his eyes shook fiercely, his thoughts racing.

‘Did she say… Poe?’

There was no time for him to ponder on the matter, however. The blackness of the cosmos immediately reformed into a vast, incorrigible void. Before he could suck in a breath, three massive violet eyes layered like a triangle opened before him. He couldn’t perceive their height, for they stretched a distance larger than planets before him. If the great being wasn’t a sizeable distance away, he was unsure if he would even been able to gauge that there were three of them. The grand being’s skin was a thick, constantly writhing mass of hardened grey flesh, almost like sand that had been tainted by the presence of liquid and ash. In the distance, massive and countless black tentacles writhed about.

“Ah- are you… the one that summoned me here!?” Lumière called out. His voice didn’t seem to sound out through the void, but the being in front of him reacted regardless- as if he could peer straight into Lumière’s mind to glean his intentions.

{“I am not.” }

The being’s voice was illusory and echoed out endlessly into the void. It was neither the voice of a man nor a woman alone, rather like the voices of thousands of men, women, children, and elderly stacked atop each other like a cacophony of human presence.

Lumière tried to settle the feelings in his heart, but still they raged- anxiety, fear, and horror all churned within him. Still, he kept up the pretense- or at least he tried to look as calm as he could.

“Are you the one Ms. Gluttony called ‘The Sinner’?”

His voice didn’t sound out into the cosmos, but he was sure that his point had gotten across to the great being despite that.

{“I am the emissary of our Lord. I speak for him- in his absence.”}

“The Lord Sinner is absent?”

{“That is an- insignificant detail.”}

With every response the great being gave, writhing black tentacles would slither in the far distance. A little humoured, Lumière gave it a curt response.

“You’re kind of cute.”

The writhing tentacles shook a bit, waving back and forth like countless tails. It was like a dog wagging after receiving head scratches. Its massive three eyes blinked periodically, always staggered and out of sync.

{“Do you have-“} It spoke once more, {“-any questions for me? The Lord has asked me to answer- any questions.”}

By now, the fear in Lumière’s heart had faded. Still, the intense pressure of looking at such a being gave Lumière the sense of wanting to faint immediately, and he had to focus intensely to keep his lucidity about himself.

“You’re associated with Thomas Hawthorne, aren’t you? I believe he’s mentioned the ‘emissary’ before. I wish to know your name. If we serve the same Lord, then we’re now like colleagues.”

{“If I could understand humour, I’m sure that would- be funny.”}

The grand being blinked once more, but after several seconds had elapsed, as if it was slowly recalling the information, it spoke once more.

{“I am Oneiros, the bequeather- of the sands, the one who serves the Lord Dreamer, and the one who serves- the Lord Sinner. You can call me Mr. Sand.”}

“You serve two Lords? Does that not make you two-faced?”

{“They are brothers. Does sharing- with your brother make you- enemies?”}

Lumière tilted his head in deference to his point.

“Why have you chosen to meet with me now?” Lumière asked of him. “Is it because it is my first visit? Are you the welcoming party for me?”

{“This isn’t- your first visit. You aren’t like he said- you would be.”} Mr. Sand replied, his speech still slightly fractured. {“He said you would- be scared. He said you would Despair.”}

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Lumière smiled slightly, his left leg falling behind his right as he bowed towards the great being within the darkness. As soon as he had peeked out of the corner of his eye, he had seen the bright star within the abyss of churning shadow. He knew then that he had been outside of the labyrinth. Mr. Sand had been the source of the eyes within the darkness, and of the murmurs he had been hearing constantly. The invitation had been Lord Sinner’s, but it had been Thomas and Oneiros, Mr. Sand, who had delivered it to him. He was the emissary of the Lord, after all.

“I’ve despaired too much. I’ve decided to become the light instead.”

{“Is this your refusal of his invitation, despite- having used his power?”}

Lumière shook his head in response.

“I’ll carry our Lord’s sins, and fulfill his contract’s terms, but I will live my life as I wish. That is why you will never see me despair.”

{“Gluttony was fated to sate her appetite. You- you will probably destroy- everything too.”}

Mr. Sand’s words shook Lumière, but he kept a pretense of calm about him as he bowed once more towards the great being.

“Sorry, Mr. Sand, but I’ve places that I need to be. I ask that you send me on my way now. If you’ve further things to relay to me from Lord Sinner, then I ask that you seek me out on further visits to the Labyrinth.”

{“You are funny. Lord Sinner should- have given you the name ‘Humour’ instead.”}

With a sinister wave of his tentacles, Lumière’s body began to be swallowed by the abyss, drifting down towards the ground in a slow descent. He watched as the eyes the size of planets grew farther and farther away, and soon he had been enveloped in the darkness around him.

Lumière had already parsed the information received from Ms. Gluttony. It had become clear to him that he would be able to revisit the strange and bloodthirsty labyrinth after he had grown stronger. In relation to what that meant, he had begun to suspect that the spade card was the reason for his first visit. Only when receiving it had he been granted a base level of sorcery- a new dove in the world of mysticism and magic. Right after gaining knowledge of its power had been the moment he had been thrust into the labyrinth. It wasn’t confirmed, but Lumière’s operating suspicion was that upon receiving the spade card labelled the ‘Two of Spades’, he would reappear within the Labyrinth once more.

‘Shit. I should’ve asked him why the labyrinth is so dangerous. Why would it make sense for a gathering of Sinners to require their elaborate survival?’

Lumière reached up to grasp at the shadow, but in an instant, it had been replaced by the chirping of distant birds. He found himself in a garden of bright veridian flora, of flowers with white petals, and of marble structures. Iron-wrought benches lined a opalescent stone pathway leading up to a giant and intricately carved marble door blanketed in moss. In the center of the door, in place of a doorknob or latch, a small rectangular insert sat. Lumière ignored the environment around him, and anxious to return home, he stepped up towards the doorway. Immediately, an object in his pocket began to glow a bright silver, pulsing as if it had a heartbeat of his own. Reaching into his coat pocket, Lumière pulled out a small rectangular object with the imagery of a shadowy figure cradling a spade within his arms.

Without hesitation, Lumière placed the card into the door’s insert. The silver glow began to spread throughout the intricate carvings in the door, and slowly, a large churning sound erupted throughout the garden, silencing the chirps of the birds. The door swung open, and the card fell to the ground, on the floor outside of the garden. Although, the room on the opposite end of the garden clearly didn’t match. He could spot that past the door, a long stone hallway stretched towards a large room, where a half-circle table spread around an ornate high-back throne. In the chairs encircling the table, eight figures whose faces, apart from the two at the far left end, were blurry and unrecognisable. They didn’t seem to notice Lumière, and were caught up in conversation between themselves.

‘Are those… the Sinners? Then, is that throne where the Lord sits? Since he’s absent, it’s empty…’

Lumière stepped through the doorway leading from the garden, picking up the card that had dropped to the floor. Yet, when he raised his head with the intent to greet the Sinners in the gathering room, he found himself in his bedroom once more, as if he had just stepped out from the monastery hall’s door.

Lumière let out an audible ‘tsk’ and turned to sit at the edge of his bed.

‘Should I have asked about this card too? If it was meant to be a key to the labyrinth, and it was implied that the other Sinners had once traversed the labyrinth, then shouldn’t they have seen these cards at some point?”

Lumière placed the spade card back in his coat pocket and took out Poe’s Gnosis, which had begun to glow a dull silver colour. He stared at the black inky symbol on its surface, of an intricate tree with a snake curling around its trunk.

‘Is Poe a ‘sin’ too? Is that why he decided to help me? What about Thomas? Is he a Sin?’

He immediately recalled the form of the man sitting at the long circular table he had seen when he first entered the labyrinth. He had black hair tinged with grey, and deep black eyes that seemed as vast as the cosmos.

‘Was that man Poe? Then, this book really is his…’

‘I wonder then… are those marks… from the Sinners?”

Lumière pulled the book open to the first page, where the familiar lone line sat.

— Welcome to horror, thou who art a sinner. This journal is your lament. This journal is your haven. This journal is you.

Seven thumbprints marked in blood lined up underneath the single line. Quickly, Lumière bit into the flesh of his thumb, sending a droplet of blood dripping down the length of his wrist. Then, he pressed his thumb against the parchment, another mark fresh alongside the others. Instantly, he felt a cold chill run down his body, and the Gnosis began to glow a brighter silver colour. Underneath the singular line, another began to form out of thick, writhing black ink.

- Bound to the Sinner, Despair.

A cold feeling of despair grasped at Lumière’s heart in an instant. His body froze, and his bones felt the chill of a frozen winter that did not exist.

Instantly, as fear washed over him, his shadow began to churn.