The Riddle

Outside of the maze, the mood was tense and the mercenary band that was commanded by Mya stood at attention as they watched her pace around with a scowl on her face. Gendry stood nearby helping his Brother Edric who was still injured from their ambush at sea —his fight against Obara didn't help matters.

"How is it so hard to capture one man!" Mya shouted as visible trails of heat started to emanate off her body making the men even more nervous. While some of the men lined up were her half-brothers they knew she wouldn't hesitate to cut their heads off or turn them to ash as she was fond of doing nowadays. None of the men responded to her question; they had all seen what Jon Snow was capable of during their ambush at sea where he froze a large section of the water —they all believed he was a monster.

Gendry stood watching his sister pace back and forth with an uneasy feeling in his heart. Mya had always been cold and ruthless, but she had never been short-tempered like she was now, and he couldn't help but consider if the artefact she wore around her neck was affecting her in some way. 'Not that it matters,' Gendry thought to himself as he would never be able to convince his sister to give up an artefact that gave her such power —even if he offered his own in return.

"You let the one man we have come for escape!" She continued to shout as her anger started to surge and reach a boiling point.

"But captain we-"

"AHHHHHHHHHH."

Mya sent a torrent of flame at the man who spoke setting him alight and sending him running, though he eventually tripped up and started rolling on the ground, as he attempted to put out the scorching flames "Does anyone else wish to explain why they are a useless pile of horseshit?" Mya asked as flames started dancing around her hand.

"Sister that's enough you've made your point," Gendry said as he stepped forward —meeting the cold gaze of Mya.

"We are wasting time, if we want to capture Snow then we need to enter the maze before he can reach another exit," Gendry reasoned. Mya still looked at him with a cold ruthlessness that Gendry had long since become used to, and eventually, she extinguished the fire in her hands and looked away from Gendry. "Gather all the supplies you can we move into the maze within the hour, some of us have already gone inside, mayhaps they did want you can't," she said before walking away from them.

The troops could breathe a sigh of relief as she left and they were no longer at any risk of being set alight "You heard her get moving!!!" Gendry boomed out which got them moving to gather what supplies they could.

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Jon was on his hands and knees looking at his notes as Samaya held the torch for him so he could properly read them. He was frantically trying to read through them all as he desperately tried to translate the old writing at the entrance of the wall; it was a complicated piece of writing but having figured out that it was most like the source of the Sarnori, Ghiscari and Rhoynar languages it gave Jon an idea of how to translate the language.

Next to Jon sat Qyburn who had finished treating Obara and was now helping Jon in translating the text. It wasn't often Jon found himself liking someone —especially a Maester— but Qyburn was both intelligent and open-minded —something that usually didn't didn't go hand in hand. "Eçunteŷ... that means to travel in Rhoynari," Jon commented as he traced his finger under the word.

Qyburn however shook his head "Unless it refers to the Sarnori 'Equnteŷ, then it would mean to travel in the dark," he stated.

Jon cursed as he pushed himself to his feet and he started pacing; this was a lot harder than he originally thought it was going to be. While some of the words had meanings that could only be relevant in a singular language others had multiple meanings. What they had to do was make sense out of the words and this was not an easy task.

"Come on Snow you're just translating it can't be that hard," Daario said with an irritating chuckle.

Jon ignored him and kept on trying to recreate the ancient words on the wall using the three languages he knew. 'It makes sense that it would refer to the dark, or perhaps in the source language it can take on both meanings, to travel in the dark,' Jon thought to himself as he squatted against one of the Labyrinth walls.

Qyburn approached Jon and knelt next to him "What are you thinking Jon?" He asked as he put his hand on the younger man's shoulder.

However, before Jon could reply they all turned their heads around as they heard footsteps coming in their direction. 'Slow and even, must be one of the cult members,' Jon deduced as he stood back up —ready to fight.

Samaya and even Obara —despite her injuries— got up and ready to attack whoever was approaching them. When the familiar sight of the eyeless hoods informed them of who was approaching them; they sprung into action. Samaya rushed towards the first one as she had the torch, though as soon as she started moving the cultist turned his head towards her and withdrew a dagger from his sleeve. This did not help the cultist as Samaya sidestepped the thrust before smashing her fist into the cultist's throat; the cultist grabbed at his throat as blood started to fill his mouth and he fell to the ground choking on his blood.

More cultists started pouring down the narrow corridor; Obara was next in attacking and she thrust her spear straight through the face of one of the cultists before whipping it out and thrusting again. Jon couldn't help but be confused as the number of cultists that came towards them was increasing; he held his hand out to summon Winter Weaver from where he had left it. After thirty seconds of waiting he began to get concerned 'Why is it not coming?' He thought to himself.

"On the right!" Daario shouted as he shone his torch down a different corridor that had a number of cultists coming down. Jon rushed to help him and launched a kick towards the cultist in front; the cultist was sent flying backwards into his fellow members. 'I'm still strong... so why can't I summon the axe?' He wondered to himself as he drew the dagger he had stolen and started to kill the cultists as they came —Daario was at this side killing them as they came with his Arakh.

"More coming down the other path!" Obara shouted. Three of the five paths that led to where they were had now been filled with cultists who were approaching them intent on delivering them to death.

"These fuckers just keep coming!" Daario shouted as he rushed over to the other corridor to stop them from flanking them. The cultists had little to no martial ability but they seemed to make up for this by simply trying to overwhelm the group with their sheer numbers.

*Rumble*

Jon whipped his head around as felt the walls start to shake "What's happening!" Obara shouted as she hit a cultist with the butt of her spear. the rumbling continued until eventually the walls started to shift "The labyrinth is moving!" Jon shouted as he tried to run back towards his group, but he was too far away and the corridor where he was already began closing off from where his group was.

"Jon!" Samaya shouted as she tried to run towards him but it was too late the corridor closed off trapping Jon on the other side in complete darkness with a group of cultists intent on killing him.

Samaya slammed her fists against the wall as she tried to smash it open and get to Jon, but she didn't even make a crack despite her power "We have to help him!" Samaya shouted.

"We have to leave there are more coming!" Daario said as he rushed to the only pathway that didn't have any cultists on it. Qyburn looked at the wall that Jon was behind with a sad expression before following Daario.

Obara grabbed Samaya as she tried to drag her towards the escape route "Samaya Jon can look after himself, but we won't be able to fight these cultists forever, especially when we run out of light," she reasoned, though Samaya still looked reluctant to leave him behind. Eventually, though she slammed her fist against the wall one last time before following Obara and the others through the empty corridor as they escaped from the cultists.

On the other side of the wall, Jon banged his fists as well, but to no avail. He was submerged in pure darkness with enemies drawing closer to him. Keeping his palm on the wall Jon turned around and faced where he believed his enemies to be stood; he knew flailing around wouldn't do any good, so the only option he had was to run. Keeping his palm against the wall Jon ran down the only other available route, luckily he remembered where it was before the lights went out. As he ran he couldn't help but worry about the labyrinth; the entire maze had shifted —new pathways had opened up and old ones had closed off— he could still hear the sounds of the walls moving, it was like a miniature earthquake being set off. He had truly seen nothing like it at bedtime in his life, and he had seen some fantastical things.

With his hand along the wall, Jon ran and ran in the hopes of escaping from the cultists that followed. His heart was beating fast and while he wasn't winded his body was covered in sweat as paranoid thoughts started invading his mind 'The dark has a strange effect on the mind,' he thought to himself. He remembered years ago when he was at the citadel, Arch Maester Marwin conducted an experiment where he kept men in pitch-black darkness from an entire moon; the men didn't last a week before they cried and banged to get out.

Jon didn't know how long he had run for but after a while, he decided to stop. He strained his ears as he listened out for the footsteps of anyone approaching him; the only sound he could hear was the slight whistling of the wind travelling through the maze walls and the shuffling of the walls. Jon breathed a sigh of relief as he leaned against the wall and sat down. Now that he had a moment to breathe he could finally start to think about solutions to the situation he found himself in —as it was quite perilous— he found himself in complete darkness, away from his friends and in a constantly shifting maze.

'I'm dead before I even reach the grey waste,' Jon thought to himself with a chuckle.

There was one thing that nagged at Jon's mind ever since he had entered the maze. The Cult of Boash all wander the maze blind and yet they seem to know the way —he wondered how that was. Jon then started to think about the writing that was on the wall at the entrance to the labyrinth 'Are they connected?' He thought to himself.

He'd have to go on the assumption that they were, if he did then the writing became a lot easier to translate as he had a point of reference. His mind started to race as he thought about the appropriate words that would translate from the three languages that descended from the source.

*Come followers of the light, walk through his halls until darkness is as sweet to you as the light, walk through his halls and see the light in your eyes die, walk through his halls and join the darkness forever.*

Jon involuntarily gulped 'That has to be a story or an adage, there can't be anything in here?' Jon thought to himself with slight paranoia. Jon was quite disappointed that the words on the wall didn't reveal any truth or tactic to navigating the maze, but when he thought about it more he didn't know why he expected it to. Having instructions on how to navigate a maze right at the entrance would be a foolish thing to do. 'Though I don't know why they're encouraging these followers of light to enter the maze,' he thought.

'Maybe it's a religious rite.' Jon pushed himself up against the wall and started to walk down the corridors once more, he didn't have any time to waste; he had no food nor did he have any water so his time to get out of the labyrinth was limited. He had begun to accept that finding the Starlight Crown was out of his current capabilities 'I should return here with Aeksion,' he thought to himself as he traced his fingers against the wall as he walked.

As he walked his mind went back to the newly translated words on the wall. Jon hoped his translation was wrong, but as he formulated other possible translations in his mind he found glaring issues with each of them, no, this was the right translation —though its meaning was lost to him.

The only information that might be able to help him was the link between the Cult of Boash and the writing on the wall 'The followers of Boash believe in covering your eyes as only through darkness will their third eye be opened.'

'Darkness... that is the link between them but I don't understand how it could help me,' he continued to think as he tried to come up with a solution. Jon was coming up blank with solutions and instead could only think of the ways he could die in this place. He was getting so desperate for ideas that his mind —which was usually a place of logic and reasoning— started to formulate ideas that he did not often consider, those of a magical nature.

'Only through darkness will your third eye be open,' he repeated in his mind.

'I'm in darkness now but I don't feel any different...' he thought with a chuckle as he felt a little ridiculous giving this any thought. But Jon was a Maester at heart so he considered the words even further 'I'm not in darkness, my eyes are open and still looking for the light,' he reasoned.

Once again doing something stupid he reached into the pouch on his belt before taking a thin strip of cloth, he held it up in front of his face —still unable to see in front of him— he then placed it across his eyes and tied it around his head. It didn't make much of a difference if Jon was honest, he still couldn't see only now... Jon did feel a little bit different; the longer he walked with the blindfold on the more sure he became of his footsteps. Jon now understood that he needed to first lose the expectation of seeing as it made him walk around trying to use his vision when he could be relying on his other four senses.

However in the end Jon still couldn't see so he knew he could walk in circles for hours and not know about it. He wondered if there was more to it or if this was it; those in the Cult of Boash seemed to know exactly where to go and even how to fight and kill them —all hard things to do without your vision.

'I knew this was stupid...' Jon thought to himself as he continued walking. His stomach started to growl and rumble signifying that he was hungry, he had done a lot of fighting after all. But unfortunately for Jon, there was no food in this maze, only those who inhabited it.

'Hopefully, I'll get out of here before it comes to that,'

(AN: Just a chapter of setting stuff up, revealing a little bit of the main antagonist, yeah like I said the arc will be short so I'll try and make it as such. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter.

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