“Is it a maze, though?” Addie repeated Squishy’s question back to him. “If it’s a maze, how come there’s only one way forward?”

“True,” Squishy allowed, “But what else would it be if not a maze?”

Addie tried to hum in thought, but no sound came out since she didn’t have lungs at the moment.

In the next moment, all four of them were in front of the left wall door; Nettal must have moved them, Addie realized. This would get confusing fast, especially without a way to talk to each other or decide someone to be the leader.

Before Addie could so much as get her bearings straight or even finish thinking, Nettal had already reached out to the doorknob and summoned everyone into the next room. This time, there were doors on all four walls, including the one behind them they’d just come from.

“Maybe it is a maze...” Addie’s head hurt just staring at the three different walls.

She tried summoning Book out of her soul again, to get it to map the way for them, but it still stubbornly refused.

Addie had never been good at these kinds of puzzles or mazes— she’d rather jump right in there head first! But, she got the feeling that would be a bad idea in this situation. Nettal seemed to be taking the lead so far, so maybe she should just let her keep doing so?

As if in perfect timing with Addie’s thoughts, Nettal pulled everyone to the front side door before placing her hand on the doorknob. The next room only had three doors, one on the left and the right, as well as the door behind them they’d just come from. Nettal was quick to backtrack, immediately returning to the room with four doors again. From there, her cousin just sat down on the floor, one hand supporting her chin in thought.

But Addie didn’t think sitting around here would help them any. She wanted to know if all the rooms from here only had three doors, or if some of them might have had four doors or something. And, she was also curious to find out what would happen if she went through a door without Nettal. So, she imagined herself standing in front of the left side door before touching the knob. Immediately, all four of them were back in the starting room, the one that only had a single door forward.

Addie squinted her eyes in confusion— she had not expected that. She’d maybe expected to pull everyone with her to the next room, but she didn’t expect to start over again at the beginning.

With a quick scan of her spatial sense, at least Nettal didn’t seem upset or anything. Mostly she seemed lost in thought. So, Addie pulled everyone through to the second room, the one with just the door on the left wall and the wall behind them. Again, she moved everyone quickly through to the left door, since it was the only option.

But this time, instead of being in the four-door room, they were in a room with three doors: one in front, one on the right, and the one behind them.

“Definitely a maze,” Squishy said pointlessly over their bond.

“I realize that,” Addie snarked back.

This time Nettal was the one to move them forward, choosing the door on the right side. Being suddenly moved without warning was quite jarring, and probably would have made Addie trip if she weren’t floating, but it only took her a moment or two to adjust. The next room had four doors again, one on each wall. This time Nettal chose the door on the left side, and in the next moment everyone was back exactly where they’d first started— the room with a single door.

Addie mimed letting out a sigh; it didn’t feel right since she couldn’t really suck in air, but it still helped some. Her brain was not happy with this. Honestly, she kind of wanted to give up, just go back to Realmspace and get out of here.

But, when she glanced back at Nettal, she didn’t seem discouraged at all. In fact, she just had a well-thought-out look on her face. Once again, Nettal was the first to move them, this time bringing them past the first two rooms almost instantly. Then, she immediately went straight for the left side door in the third room, which teleported everyone back to the start.

Addie would have been upset, except Nettal was smirking.

“I think she’s figured something out,” Addie said to Squishy, excited.

She was quite happy to let Nettal take the lead since she must have known something Addie didn’t. Her thoughts were confirmed when Nettal did the same thing again, booking it to the third room before going through the left side door. This once again brought them back to the beginning.

“She’s definitely figured something out!” Addie exclaimed, partly to herself and partly to Squishy.

He sent a feeling of amusement back.

Nettal was on a roll, so Addie decided to just sit back and see if she’d finish figuring the whole thing out.

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This time, when they got to the third room, there wasn’t a door on the left side of the room. Only one in front and one to the right side. So Nettal chose the one in front. This room had a left side door as well as a right side door, and Nettal was quick to choose the left side door. Once again, all four of them were returned to the very start.

“Maybe the left side doors always return us to the beginning?” Squishy suggested.

“That’s what I’m thinking, too,” Addie replied with a shrug.

As if to disprove Addie’s thoughts, this time when Nettal made it to the third room, she chose the right side door, and then she chose the left side door. This time, they were not returned to the beginning, which just made Addie confused. Nettal chose the right side door again, and chose the right side door a third time in the next room, too. After that, everyone was brought right back to the beginning.

A few of these happened, where Nettal chose the right side door as many times in a row as she could before they all returned straight back to the start. Sometimes, the rooms would be in such a way that she couldn’t just go right immediately, where the right side wall didn’t have a door. So she sometimes had to go forward, and she even had to go backward one time before finding another right-side-facing door. Each time she chose three right-side-facing doors in a row, they always made it back to the beginning.

Addie quickly learned that the first two rooms were meaningless. They never changed, and they always led to a third room. The third room did change though, almost every time they went inside. Sometimes it had four or three doors, but it never had only two doors. Anytime Nettal went through the left-side-facing door, they always returned to the beginning.

Nettal clearly picked up on some of the patterns Addie was noticing, since she stopped trying the left side doors in the third room. She always went forward or to the right, to avoid returning to the start. She also made sure not to go through three right-side-facing doors in a row, similarly to avoid returning to the start. Fairly quickly, they came to a roadblock. None of the doors allowed them to go forward, and all of them only had backward, left, or right directions.

Since she’d gone through so many doors, and so many rooms, Addie actually had a fairly good sense of what the current situation looked like. She imagined three boxes, all in a row next to each other. Each box had a doorway to go left and right to each other, but none of the boxes had a forward-facing door, so they couldn’t go any further.

Addie didn’t know what to do, so she left it up to Nettal. Unfortunately, Nettal didn’t seem to know what to do either, since she just rubbed at the bridge of her nose and stood there. Just as she’d thought to herself earlier, standing around doing nothing wouldn’t help them, so Addie decided to go to the left-side-facing door two times to send them back to the beginning.

Back in the starting room, Nettal plopped down to sit. Even though she wanted to keep going, Addie pushed that part of herself down. Nettal had been the one to figure out the maze the most so far, so Addie wanted to let her think. Squishy and Lotty also came close for snuggles, which helped Addie settle down a bit.

After what felt like maybe ten minutes, Nettal hopped back up. She didn’t seem excited or anything, just thoughtful. Maybe she had an idea.

Soon enough, everyone was back in the third room. But this time, instead of trying to move around the main part of the maze, Nettal went backward. She did this a few times, moving everyone between the second and third rooms over and over again. Almost every time, the third room changed how many doors it had. Addie did notice that she only saw the four doors appear once, though.

For once, Addie was glad she wasn’t in her body, otherwise all the jarring movement around the rooms might have made her sick.

Finally giving Addie a break, Nettal paused before coming up to Addie. She couldn’t see very well in the dark, since she did that thing again where she patted all around Addie’s body until she found her hands. She pried at Addie’s fingers, so Addie easily relaxed them to let her.

She manipulated Addie’s fingers until she had eight of them up, with her pinky and thumb down on one hand. Of course, Addie knew exactly what Nettal was doing— she was counting! But why eight, Addie couldn’t help but wonder to herself. And why was she counting on Addie’s fingers?

With a gentle yet firm motion, Nettal pushed Addie’s hands into her chest, pointing to her eight upright fingers a few times. Then, she moved back out into the third room and back to the second room exactly eight times. Again, Addie only saw the four-doored room a single time. Then Nettal did it again, and once again the four-doored room appeared only once. In fact, it always appeared exactly on the fifth time they all moved between rooms. It was a pattern.

Nettal stopped moving between rooms, did some thinking, and then moved between the third and second rooms three times in a row. After that, she started leading them all back through the maze. This time, they never got stuck in a place where there were no more forward-facing doors. They had to go left and right, even backward and forward a few times, alternating as well. But finally, they reached the end.

A pedestal sat in the center of the final room, which had only a single door facing backward from the way they’d just come in. Floating closer, Addie noticed another Book sitting atop the pedestal, this time completely ethereal. It glowed blue, with wispy pages that fluttered in an unseen breeze. The very edges and corners of the pages sometimes pulled off, floating up into the air before disintegrating. Even though the pages seemed to be bleeding off into the air like that, the book’s pages never actually got any shorter or looked damaged.

This time, it really felt like Nettal had done all the work. Addie still didn’t get how the maze worked completely, but Nettal obviously did since they’d made it to the end. She pulled her cousin’s ethereal form into a quick hug, which she happily returned.

Finally, Addie floated over to the pedestal, placing her hand down on the book’s pages atop it. Knowledge poured into Addie, but she didn’t have time to parse it before the world flashed white around them, blinding her for a moment. Along with it came the feeling from the maze— of suddenly being moved to a new location.

Wooden ghostly walls surrounded them, but not like before. Now, wooden log walls surrounded them on all four sides, with a single door in front of them. This room was furnished with a rocking chair, dining table, and even a fireplace with ghostly purple flames flickering away. The whole house took on that ethereal blue hue, and Addie knew they were in the haunted house. The front door creaked open, the sound echoing through the space that caused the walls to shudder in response. The door opened to the outside: no sign of eyes in sight.