Their town was something that, then, was considered something of an anomaly. Even with all the help the Fleyw Bresh had given the goblins and fairies over the years, it was rare for them to establish a town and live together as if they were one. Well, mostly one. They still had their fair share of arguments and generally they stayed in their respective churches.

Haris was young then; an energetic boy still impressionable enough to willingly sit through the kids’ service. His sister, being three years older, was quickly losing the childlike wonder needed to be entertained by it.

She raised her hand and, without any form of confirmation, asked, “Can I join the adults instead?”

The poor clergyman in charge, forcing a smile despite his growing annoyance at her persistent question, reminded her, “Your parents brought you here for a reason. If you want to join them next time, then that’s a conversation for the three of you.”

“He’s about to get to the best part, Sarah!” Haris whispered to her. Or, at least, he pretended like he was whispering. “Come on, stop complaining!”

“Once we finish the lesson, it’s craft time,” the clergyman tried in an attempt to keep them both quiet. Instead, it got the entire thirty-some kids in the room to let out cheers. He sighed. “Why did I tell my mother I would do this…”

Something else interrupted him, though; the opening of the door and a hushed argument in the Old Tongue. A goblin and her daughter were there… even if it seemed the daughter in no way wanted to go inside. The clergyman walked up to them and talked to them for a little while until the daughter joined the rest of the kids and the mother left. No words were spoken about her sudden appearance or how long she’d been staying.

Haris, even in his hometown, had something about him that made people stay away from him. When they all went to a table for crafts, he sat only with Sarah—everyone else acted like he was favored by Darkness. It was something that, for a little while, whoever watching the kids would try to solve. They’d eventually realized, though, that it was practically impossible without forcing someone and he really didn’t mind.

He was surprised when someone else joined them this time, and that someone else had been the goblin from before.

“I haven’t seen you in school,” Haris remarked casually. He was too focused on coloring the pieces of his craft to look up at her for more than a moment, however.

“Mom teaches me on her own,” she responded after a moment.

“What’s your name? I’m Haris and this is my sister Sarah.”

“Takane.”

…

He couldn’t remember how old he was when he first heard it; the story of the Minotaur and the Caverns. All he remembered was going back home that evening and continuing on with his day as if nothing was different… that is, except the story kept replaying in his head.

He’d eventually went to his room and opened up his own copy of the Commandments. He skimmed through all the other parts until he found the one with the story of the Minotaur. Then he just kept rereading it—rereading and rereading until Sarah came in to announce dinner.

The next morning he’d gone to the visiting pastor and asked questions about the story. Haris wanted to know more about the Caverns. But the pastor held no answers for him.

That just meant he had to find them out on his own—and there was one person he knew he could explain it to that would listen.

Takane.

“I think it’s interesting what the Commandments leave out of it,” Haris was saying as they walked along the creek. “It never tells us the names of the people Theseus brought with him, did you notice that?”

“Mom says that it only includes what’s most important,” Takane remarked. “The things that Orestis thought were necessary for us to understand it but not really anything more than that.”

“Why wouldn’t they be named? So many others that only appear once or twice have names. It doesn’t even state how many of them there were. What do you think made them so different from the others?”

She didn’t pretend to know anything more than he did. “Have you already tried looking in all the other documents? There’s usually other versions of the stories.”

“I did. All the ones the priests let me see, anyway. They said the rest of them I needed more permission for or could see when I was older.” He stopped along the edge and sat down, gesturing for her to join him. “I want you to promise me something. I’m going to do everything I can to figure this whole thing out, no matter how long it takes me… and I’m going to need someone by my side while I do it. Will you come with me?”

“I-I don’t know…”

“Come on, you know everything’s better with friends. We’re probably still going to be here for a while. Maybe we’ll go out to the capital one day, I bet their archives are huge. You said you wouldn’t mind seeing what’s past these mountains.”

She smiled, though he never recognized the hesitance behind it. “I’m not sure about the whole traveling thing just yet, but I promise I’ll help you out here.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

…

Haris started with a general goal. It soon grew much more specific.

Sarah, while out on a trip for their parents, had gotten a book from a nearby town for him. She told him they had plans of burning it—they didn’t believe it accurately portrayed the truths of the Commandments. It made him even more curious to read it and it looked like she went along with her day as if nothing had happened.

‘Here I detail my work so that the world might acknowledge my studies. I have put many years of research into this project. I know that someone might be able to gain something from it.

First, there is the matter of the ley lines. They flow parallel to the way that Vaso walked through the lands. Through them, magic is distributed throughout the world. There is, however, something else that coincides with these points: the Anysia Caverns. This complicated system of tunnels with so many paths but precious few exits was the hiding place for the Fleyw Bresh in our darker years. Or, rather, one that I found of more interest to my studies, the extension of Peiros’s Labyrinth; the same Labyrinth that houses the spirit of the Minotaur.

Theseus’s journey was recorded in many places. Through all the church-sanctioned materials surrounding the legend, we learned many things about him. In these books we learned about his family and what happened once he returned to his homeland with his new bride, things the Commandments never elaborated on. But we never learned about his companions.

I have searched long and hard to find everything I could on the matter. Admittedly, there is still much that needs to be found. But I have discovered that there were five, and they were referred to as “the Keys.” They were part of Peiros’s failsafe—how people were able to access the Labyrinth. Finding them was not meant to be easy. He did not want anyone to accidentally find them all and unleash the beast, after all. They can, though, be found.

With the Minotaur now gone and nothing but a spirit remaining, there is little reason for the Keys to continue to be created. But, as part of Peiros’s creation, they need to be. Below I have marked the names and locations of all those who were either confirmed to be Keys or I found held similar characteristics in them. I do not know much about what they are supposed to do or look like, but I do know that there are things that they all possess and some that are common only between a few. They are all marked according to my confidence in the matter.’

Haris, intrigued by the information and ready to learn more, turned the page in order to see all the data.

There was none.

…

“This is it, Takane.” He couldn’t hide his excitement. “This is what I’ve been looking for! This is going to help us find out who they all were.”

She glanced over from what she was cooking. “It’s a single line mentioning someone in Rhodes territory. With a question mark beside it.”

“Well, the rest was all torn out,” he remarked. “This is the only remaining piece of the chart. But look, this one is recent.”

“Haris, that says that person was last seen a hundred years ago,” she pointed out. “How old were the rest of them that a hundred years is recent?”

“The author mentioned that it got much harder to determine after the Fleyw Bresh’s time in the Caverns.” He didn’t seem to be seeing the same problem that she did. “He couldn’t go off of what other records said were the Keys at that point because no one cared after that. He’d come up with all of that himself. I’d also guess that this was written much closer to that time than it was to now…”

Takane went back to what she was doing before. “Alright, so you figured out that they were the Keys and that these Keys are part of what unlocks the Labyrinth. What do you do now?”

“I’m going to find them. They’re probably the most likely to have any sort of interesting information. If I find them… maybe I’ll be able to find the entrance to the Caverns, too. Wouldn’t it be amazing to explore that place, learn whatever other hidden secrets might be there..?” He did, however, remember the main purpose of telling her all of this. “And remember what I said years ago about coming with me? How would you like to start seeing the rest of the world tomorrow morning?”

…

Sarah had already left home to find her own path at that point; she’d made it clear that she was never going to stay longer than she had to. It surprised few when Haris left as well, leaving little reason to think that he would return. What was surprising to most of the town was Takane agreeing to go with him—they’d always underestimated, it seemed, the discomfort she was willing to put herself through in order to help her friend.

That discomfort, whether he realized it or not, was about to get much worse because of him.

They were really staying at an inn in the largest city close to their hometown. They might as well have been living in the library, however, with how often they visited and how long they stayed.

“Oh, Takane, listen to this!” He’d searched through all sorts of old records; he was lucky to be born into a mixed population, relatively fluent in the Old Tongue and being able to piece together the words that had been lost to time. “There’s more specifics about the five people that become the Keys. This says they each play a role—they’re either the Bear, the Fox, the Rabbit, the Eagle, or the Cat. Each corresponds with a constellation.”

Knowing that he had much more to share than that, Takane looked up from her book and showed that she was listening.

“It says that those who become close to them can begin to set them apart after a while. It also says that there’s a way to tell if someone is part of the current set of Keys… and I want to try it on you.”

“What? How could I—”

“I’m not sure either, but I have this feeling. Come on.” He took her hand and led her outside, only assuring the librarian that they would return the book.

Haris led Takane to a quieter area. There was a river and, surprisingly and luckily enough, ikretta growing along it. He plucked a flower and crushed it. “I want you to hold this.”

Hesitantly, she held out her hands. He placed the crushed flower in it and mumbled things in the Old Tongue; he didn’t know their meaning, and from Takane’s expression, she mustn’t have known or understood it in context either.

The flower glowed for a moment, before the light formed a rabbit and jumped out of her hands. It disappeared immediately after, however.

“This—this is amazing! Do you realize what you are?” Haris held her hands and, in his excitement, completely overlooked her fear. “You’re one of them. You’re the Rabbit.”