Chapter 22: Labyrinth within the darkness

As soon as Lumière had fallen asleep, he felt his lucidity immediately return to him. He put a hand to his head and reeled back from its pounding. His vision was blurred and seemed to spin at the same time. Moreover, he could feel the familiar eerie chill wash over his body- so calming yet so terrifying at the same time. Black aura engulfed his form, which matched the environment that presented itself to him as his vision normalised.

The starry night sky at the back of his eyes when he had fallen asleep quickly took form into a grand formless castle in an ancient endless dark void. Shadows crept at the edges between the pitch-black fog, and a blinding white light residing in the endless darkness shone into the centre. In the light, the formless castle seemed to shift endlessly, changing its shape in every possible way every so often. Lumière stood at the edge of a crumbling cliff, watching the rocks fall off of its edge before turning into dust as it brushed against the endless darkness. Lumière raised his hand to look at it and realised his form had become transparent- as if he was no more than an illusory image. Countless thoughts began to race through his mind at the same time.

'Is this a dream? I swore that I had fallen asleep…'

'Then it's why I don't exactly feel real right now… it makes sense.'

'Is that a castle? Why is it constantly changing?'

Lumière was wearing his daily wear- a white button-up shirt and a long black coat that was cut off near his ankles. Despite the sky being dark, it didn't necessarily feel cold on his skin. Rather, the temperature seemed to seep through his body, so the chill rested on his bones and made him feel heavy.

Between the cliff and the castle, it looked as if the void stretched on for miles. It was clear he would be unable to reach the castle in the dream, but since it was all fake anyway, Lumière didn't place much significance on it. So, Lumière just kept watching the castle keep shifting. It gradually lost the form of a fortress and became an endless stone maze with a smaller castle in its centre. In a short time, it had become an ancient stone labyrinth. It seemed divided into thirteen sections, which Lumière could count out from above. Each was themed in several different aesthetics, but it was too far for Lumière to make out anything specific. As the labyrinth seemed to stop shifting, he gradually turned his gaze away from the stone structure and began to make out the endless darkness that surrounded him.

Besides the bright-white star-like object that shone onto the labyrinth, as Lumière furrowed his eyes, there seemed to be many creatures staring straight back at him. Big burgeoning eyes filled the darkness, barely visible. If it weren't for the light, Lumière wouldn't have even realised he was being stared at from all directions.

Lumière took a deep breath and stared back up at the endless darkness.

'No… it's a dream. I don't have to be scared.'

'Although, if I have to stay here staring at this place all day, I might not get much sleep. So how do I wake up? Do I have to die, like in those fantasy tales?'

Lumière's eyebrows furrowed as he stepped towards the edge of the cliff and looked down. Just like the sky around him, there seemed to be an endless darkness. However, the darkness below was quite different. It looked like an endless churning sea of shadow, with massive tendrils erupting from its waves. The pitch-black tendrils slowly reached towards the labyrinth, slithering against its surface like snakes, but they were unable to make their way into it. So, they violently thrashed about on its surface, trapping it in an illusory embrace.

'How terrifying. Are these the representations of those 'creatures' that I see in reality?'

Lumière clicked his tongue, and without hesitation, he stepped off of the edge.

Lumière tumbled through the air at intense speeds, barreling towards the torrents of darkness below. As he fell, the long black tendrils thrashed towards him, but as soon as they were about to touch him, they seemed to curl back in apprehension. Lumière grinned softly at this and closed his eyes as he was engulfed by the waves of shadow. As soon as he fell through the void, a large black cloud rose like puffs of dust. In an instant, Lumière felt his centre of gravity shift, and where he was once falling, he was soon stumbling backwards as he tried to stand up straight.

He had appeared in a long dimly lit stone hallway with several doors, although some of them looked as if they were at the height of someone walking on the ceiling. On the far end of the hall past the multitude of doors was a circular room lit by dim orange torches. It was carved out of marble, held up by large ancient pillars surrounding the room. In the centre of the room was a large half-circle stone table with ornate carved trim. Eight high-back chairs sat around the table, and they all faced a large carved stone throne that sat above the curve of the table. There was no one present in the room, but on top of the half-circle table, there was an old black leather bound book that looked as if it had collected a century's worth of dust. Atop the book was a silver-glowing rectangular object that immediately made fear rise in Lumière's heart.

He ran into the room with the table and grasped at the card, turning it over in his hands. It was the One of Spades that he had encountered multiple times in reality. It had a light, nauseating black aura seeping out of it.

'I can't escape this even in my dreams...'

Atop the book, an opened letter sat. When Thomas had left the night he had visited the monastery, Lumière had opened the package and stored away the silver flute safely. However, the letter, the invitation that was included had been lost to him. He had assumed that Thomas had forgotten to include it, but now he assumed he had been wrong. Its wax seal was engraved, and it looked like a sharp-edged black coloured eye with an upside-down cross piercing through it, acting like a slitted pupil. Besides the pupil, a serpent-like line crept up the cross in a spiralling fashion.

'Is this really a dream? If that's not the case… then is this the domain of the Lord Sinner…?'

He reached towards the other book with his hand and brushed the dust off of its leathery surface. Clouds of dust filled the air around him, and as he waited for it to clear, he felt the air around him start to sting his skin like an icy chill. He now felt intensely cold, inside and out. Lumière shivered as his gaze moved down towards the book's surface and read the title on its cover, picking it up to see it closer.

'Poe's Gnosis...?' Lumière puzzled inwardly. 'Who's Poe? Is it someone I know? Why would something like this be in this domain? Has it been left for me?'

However, before Lumière could even begin to process the thought, screaming illusory voices began to ring in his head, sounding both close and far away at the same time. A cacophony of thousands of voices stacked on top of each other and began to repeat the same things endlessly.

{'House of Cards. Orulinde Street. Joker.'}

{'House of Cards. Orulinde Street. Joker.'}

{'House of Cards. Orulinde Street. Joker.'}

Lumière fell back onto the floor with the book and card in hand, but he didn't make contact with the stone floor. Instead, he sunk straight into it, and as the darkness converged around him, Lumière found himself sitting upwards in bed. He let out harsh, exhausted pants, and fatigue seemed to cling desperately to his body as if he had gotten no sleep at all. Moreover, he could feel objects weighing down his palms, which made his heart sink even further. Looking down, he saw that he was still grasping the book and the silver-glowing card.

'House of cards? Orulinde Street? Joker? One of Spades? Poe's Gnosis? What does any of this mean?'

Suddenly, Lumière's eyes widened.

'Orulinde Street... isn't that in the middle borough? The entertainment district... is that where that 'House of Cards' is? If I go there, will I find out what this means?'

Lumière let out a soft sigh.

'But everything that's happened so far has been extremely dangerous. If that 'House of Cards' is related to those things, then blindly exploring it might bring me and Father Benedict trouble. I'll have to tread carefully. Ten days have elapsed, should I try summoning Thomas…? No, he might be bothered being summoned so soon. My only option is to go by myself.'

Lumière still felt tired, but he was too shaken to go back to sleep. He was hesitant because he was sure that he would either dream of that nightmarishly bloody night or would appear in that endless darkness once more. So, he got out of bed and quickly got dressed so that he could continue with the day. He reached towards the pocket watch on his nightstand to check the time, but remembering its state, he quickly retracted his hand and looked towards the clock on the wall of his room. It had barely struck the fifth hour of the day, so the lilac-coloured moonlight was still streaming through the window, and the rainfall was pouring down in heavy droves. Lumière tied up his excess messied hair before pulling a flat cap over it. He adjusted his spectacles and hesitantly glanced in the mirror hung up against the wall of his room.

He let out a comforted sigh as he saw his exhausted face. His hair was a dark brown, and his eyes were a light-bluish grey. There was no figure overlaid over his form, and there was no black twisting aura permeating around his body. Moreover, at least for the time being, his shadow seemed normal and followed his every movement. It didn't have a long fluttering cloak, red eyes, or illusory ravens flying about. He was just the normal Lumière.

Satisfied, Lumière stepped out of his room. Father Benedict's room sat at the far end of the hall, but the door was ajar, and the light had been shut off, which meant that he was out of the monastery. With no Dwindlers settling in or outside of the monastery, it also meant that he wasn't preparing food for them. It led Lumière to wonder what exactly he was up to, although considering the circumstances, Lumière was sure that he had many things to do. With the monastery on Cobbler's Street now missing two nuns, it meant that the Upper Cathedral of Leiden would soon send a replacement over. Surely, Father Benedict had many things to prepare in the meantime.

As Lumière stepped out into the rain, countless thoughts from before began to enter his mind as he parsed through them.

'If the book and the card from my dream stayed with me, there's a large chance that the illusory labyrinth in the dark was real… and in the shadows, I saw those burgeoning eyes and tendrils…' Lumière puzzled in his mind. 'Then, does that mean that those 'eyes' I see often, and those murmurs I hear are a product of that endless darkness?'

All the horrors that Lumière saw as disconnected gradually began to coalesce together as he continued to think.

'Then, is this 'House of Cards' connected to this One of Spades? But this card only appeared once that intruder had been killed… was his appearance the meaning of the word 'heretic'? Am I now a heretic? Then, what good does this card do? Why has it been left to me, and why does that voice keep commanding my way? Are the ravings of that terrifying being related to the Lord Sinner? Is this the 'path' that has been set out for me to follow?'

As he puzzled inwardly, he ascended the flowering steps that led to the middle borough. He made his way to mercurial street and turned a familiar corner as he entered Orulinde Street. He was a magician on that lonely corner, although he wasn't wearing that familiar black half-top hat with a white stripe around its rim that carried the memories of a warm smile, so he felt out of place there.

At that particular time, on what seemed like a very strange day, a familiar white mist began to creep along the edges of the street, quickly filling the area around him with a sense of mysteriousness. Lumière walked through the street, looking in every direction as he eyed the buildings around him. Suddenly, as if all he needed to do was squint his eyes to see it, a large fantastical building that wasn't previously before Lumière came into view. It had many arched windows lining its exterior, but no matter how much Lumière tried to peer through them, nothing could be seen inside.

He had tucked the small knife left to him by Thomas into his boot before he had left. It wasn't his first choice, but it was easier concealed than his sword, and so it was his only choice.

In front of a fantastical wooden door that seemed as if it had been made for giants, a man with bright red ochre skin stood quietly, dressed in a dark attendant's uniform and cap.

Lumière watched as a man approached the attendant with determination in his eyes.

He looked young, with a face almost like a child's, but he was as tall as Lumière was. He had a light-brown long coat over a buttoned white robe. He had straight white hair that fell to his shoulders with soft yellow undertones. He had a gentle round jawline, and his face was calm yet serious- devoid of a smile. The man who looked quite young reached into his coat pocket and produced a rectangular object with a soft light-green sheen around its edges. As Lumière saw the object, his eyes widened slightly.

"Four of hearts." The man spoke towards the attendant before handing him the card. Accepting it, the attendant carefully glanced over it to gauge its authenticity, before presenting it back to the man with a nod.

"Thank you, Mr. Osiris." The man bowed his head slightly before retrieving the card once again. The attendant bowed in return before reaching out his hand and pushing open the ornate door for the man.

As much as Lumière tried to peer through the open door, he couldn't seem to perceive anything through the mist that had gathered in Orulinde Street.

'So if I don't approach, I won't be able to gather any information?'

Lumière expelled all the worry out of his heart as he let out a sigh. He then stepped across the street, making his way up a set of polished stone steps before standing before the ornate wooden door and the attendant dressed in fanciful attire. He stared up at the attendant, who blankly stared at him without saying a word. Lumière reached into his jacket pocket and produced a rectangular object with a silver glow, presenting it to the attendant.

"One of Spades," Lumière said aloud, mimicking the man who had come before him.