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Maybe it was only spelled to keep things inside.
Peering into the rain and fog, I tried to make sense of the labyrinth’s vastness as it spread before me. I could see the edges of the rock walls of Fauna blending into the bright green and flashing silver mirror vines of Flora.
Our sections were side-by-side, and two more stretched north of me, forming the square I’d suspected.
We weren’t close to either of the other sections, and without running across the narrow, rain-slick tops of the walls, I couldn’t see anything on the ground. The walls were simply too tall.
I didn’t see any more movement on the tops of the walls, and for a moment, trapped between the sky and the ground, it felt as though I was the only soul left in the world.
A sense of impossibility - almost hopelessness - washed over me as I took in how huge the labyrinth was. We were halfway through the Trial of the Flower Moon already, and I had no idea how to win.
But I knew how to survive, and that would have to be enough.
“Maybe it’s better this way... to be alone in this fight,” I whispered into the rain, falling more gently now. The thunder and lightning had stopped, and if I worked at it, I could almost imagine this was a peaceful place.
You’re not meant to be alone, mon amour...
The words slipped into my ear effortlessly, and I turned to see Nicolas standing behind me on the rock ledge, looking so real that my heart twisted with need and regret and hope that should have died a long time ago.
“Nicolas.” I said his name like a prayer, and he stepped forward just as the clouds slid apart and let the paltry light from the three slivers of moon shine down on us.
“You have a shadow,” I gasped, nearly tripping over my feet trying to get to him on the narrow ledge.
I feel stronger, he admitted. His fingers brushed my arm, still cool and damp like fog, but there was a solidity to them that I’d never felt before.
“Is the mist letting you...” I trailed away, not sure what I even wanted to ask.
I don’t know. I was sent here. Called here. Come down, Kana. You cannot leave the labyrinth, or the Trial is ended for you.
I startled - I hadn’t thought about that possibility. Escape might look like surrender, and there was no surrender in the Trial of the Flower Moon.
Whoever didn’t win would be eliminated at the full moon.
“How do I win?” I asked Nic, hoping he could give me the secrets, but he shook his head.
I don’t know. Please come down, he repeated, his form drifting closer to the edge. My heart beat faster as he dropped over the side of the wall, even though reason told me he couldn’t be hurt.
Still, I scrambled down after him, jumping the last several feet and following as he glided away from the mess of the dead gobbelins.
Nic led me to a quiet corner, sheltered from the weather and about as safe as it could get in a place like the Trials. He settled onto the ground beneath a rocky overhang and took my hands, tugging me down next to him. I was drawn in by the wonder and the impossibility of his touch - so close to feeling real, yet edged with the bitter reminder that it wasn’t.
You are not meant to fight this battle alone, Kana. You must find your weapons again. Find your prophet. Trust them, and let them trust you.
I felt a surge of panic at his request.Nic... No. I can’t put them in danger.
They are already in danger without you, my sweet. It’s like the humans wrote... together we stand, divided we fall. Stand with them, Kana. They need you, and you need them. Nothing is promised, not even tomorrow. Find them today. Trust.
He was so earnest and worried. I knew I should promise him I’d go back to Luca and Kassian, but it just wasn’t in me. I was filled with too much trauma from losing Nicolas and Acadian to Merden.
“I can’t handle it, Nic. If they die because of me. I just...”
He brought his hand to my face, cupping my cheek and bringing his forehead to touch mine. My heart thundered at the contact, desperate to sink into the touch but already imagining it being ripped away again.
But then Nic tilted my chin up, and our lips met, skin to mist. His mind opened to mine, and I was flooded with his memories. The sweetness of how I tasted, my powdery, crisp scent. The velvet of my skin under his gentle hands. The way my eyes tracked him as he moved throughout the library, and the soft smile on my lips as he read to me in the sun and the quiet corners of classrooms.
He created the moments anew for me with whatever magic he could find.
Drowning in sensation, I gave him back what I could. The smell of old books and leather and tobacco I remembered from his rooms. The rough fabric of the Earth clothes he loved so much, and the lilt of his French accent when he got excited to tell me a new story. The way he handled my body with the perfect mix of gentle and rough.
