First Test

The whirring noise echoed through the darkness. The cold breeze bites his skin. The strong humus smell entered his nostril—a strange sensation for him.

His eyes were heavy. Lanert vision blurred. After a minute, everything slowly becomes clear, and Alice smiles, welcoming him. 

"Thank you, God, you wake!" Alice's hug warmed him. A hug that spontaneously brings Lanert back to himself. 

"Alice, are you alright?"

"I am fine, thanks, God, you wake! I am worried. I am afraid you are gone!"

"I'm not that weak, you know. Where are we?"

'I don't know, but let's find out." 

She stopped hugging, helping Lanert back to his feet and gently touching Lanert's forehead. "You're—" She sneezed. "Sorry."

With one eye closed and both palms covering her nose, she was adorable. Lanert realized Alice rarely sneezed, if not in critical condition. 

"Let me check you, Alice."

"It's okay." She hushed Lanert's arm. "Let's get out of here."

"I insist." Her forehead was like boiled water. "You're sick, Alice."

"No, It's okay. It would be gone after a few minutes. Anyway, we should find a way out from here as soon as po—" Again, she sneezed.

Lanert chuckle. "We should find a way to make you better." He urged. "You are lucky. I always bring this." 

Lanert pulled a small box from his pocket. The platinum box contained many pills of different shapes and colors. Lanert's Mom forced him to carry it wherever he went. If he forgot to bring it, Mom would school him. Now, after fifteen years, it has become a habit.

"Eat the red one, round shape. That is for influenza. It would make your sniff gone. Come one before it gets worse." Lanert sniffled while pointing the single pill at the box. But his sniff was because of a cold, not severe. He was sure of that.

"It's just one pill." Alice prods Lanert's box. "Eat it yourself. You need it more than I do. Look, your nose is reddened. There, take it for yourself. I am fine."

"Alice, eat it."

"I am okay. It's normal for me. It would go before you said alakazam—" She sniffed again. 

"No, we must handle it first." His nose was clogged, but it was okay. Lanert temperature was normal anyway. "Eat the red one. That's for the flu. Besides, I am the man, and you—"

"So, do you think men are better than women?" Alice enunciated in a high tone that echoed through the mysterious palace. "Do you think we need—" She made a cute noise while sneezing. 

He notices while she sneezes, Alice's orb shimmering. Orb was a product of the Magi that relied on conjuring mana, reflecting the conjured condition. Alice needs more help than him. 

"Alright." Lanert took a blue pill and an aspirin. "I am done eating mine. Now eat yours. Or I will be mad at you."

Alice gulped the pill and washed it with water from Lanert's water skin. Slowly she showed relief. 

Lanert fondled her head while chortling. "See, you will be fine. Now, let us find out where we are. And Alice, put down your orb."

"Why?" sniffed. "Because I got influenza, and you look down on me?"

Yeah, that was the one reason. Lanert didn't want Alice to waste her stamina and mana. He could have said that, but instead, he answered casually, "It is my turn. You did well in the forest."

His blue orb emitted the surroundings better than a faint white orb. Alice put the end of her miserable orb. 

"Normally, my orb is better than yours," Alice protested. 

"Influenza makes you unfit, Alice. Rest for a while for the pill to work. Then you will return to normal."

As he lifts both arms like the falcon wing ready to fly, Lanert scrutinizes seriously. He clapped hard while blaring, "Scrutinise!" and then slammed both palms on the ground. 

The wave of gust blew and explored five kilometers of an area of effect. Lanert closed his eyes, and his vision awakened, flying, hawking the gust.

It's a long, winding, strange hallway of moras. The wall was cespitose with strange vines that grew from the fracture of the mossy brick. Mushrooms glowed green on flagstone fissures, and it drove darkness away. 

Lanert mapped everything inside his memory before his vision rolled, backtracking everything. When he fully opened his eyes, he returned to himself.

"So, any news?" Alice asked. 

"We are in the labyrinth." Lanert is back on his feet. "I tried to find the way out, but there is no end to it."

"So, it's wider than five kilometers?"

"Yeah, with a strange layout. We are trapped here." Lanert deride. He was not planning to get trapped here. He wanted to meet with the Lord of Darkness. He had no preparation for it. 

"Perhaps it's a trap?"

"It must be a test." Lanert insisted on, while journeying with Alice, tracking the labyrinth's layout. "I read a book about it. We must pass the test before we can meet with the Lord of Darkness."

"So, who wrote the book?" Her voice is funny, thanks to a blocked nose. "If the author had ever been in a maze or faced a test of darkness before?"

"Yeah, I guess the author is just making up what's appropriate for the reader, based on someone else's experience, perhaps."

"And you believe we are on the test?" Alice took a suspire. "Be reason, Lanert."

Lanert notices Alice losing her coolness while in desperate times. That is a dangerous thing. He must keep her mind healthy.

He remembers when they were trapped inside the underground tunnel. Alice yelled at every step, blaming the cat they pursued. Why did the cat enter the tunnel anyway? 

Deep inside his heart, Lanert knew they had screwed up. But he wanted to keep both of them optimistic.  He knew if they started losing hope, they would be trapped here for eternity. Even a little hope is better than no hope at all. 

"If the author writes that book, the author must know something," Lanert said. "I remember the book clearly said the first test was a labyrinth, a test of Endurance and Patience. The second test, dueling, is the test of Strength and Mind. The third test is Blood. The last test made sure only specific people could enter the door."

"If the blood didn't match?" Alice asked. 

"The person blobbed out, returning to the world without meeting with the Lord of Darkness. As the author said."

"He made up a fantasy book, Lanert. Not based on life experience. He lied."

"She, not he."

They anchored at the front of the mossy wall. The wall was not supposed to be there. Lanert was sure of it.

"Are you sure of mapping the layout?" Alice's worried voice echoed in the labyrinth.

Lanert Nodded.

"Are we already walking for five kilometers?" she asked.

"No, perhaps two kilometers."

The wall on the right starts to move and opens a new way, a new layout. Lanert shivered. 

"This Labyrint is alive."