Chapter 7: Shifting Paths

Note: Thanks to b0b for beta reading this!

Knight Kevin – The Free City of Grahata, Yalut Island

I walked into the Temple of Luben, a small structure dwarfed by the more popular religions of Pater, Slata, and Seljan. It was modest on the outside and plain in the inside. The floors were a checkered pattern of black and white stone, dark-stained pews forming two rows advancing towards an altar of black and white granite. Beyond, a statue of the God of Marriage, arms spread wide in welcome, was lit by candles flicking about his feet. Red tulips were held in vases beside every pew.

“It is late to seek the temple of marriage, sir Knight,” a woman’s voice said.

My eyes snapped around to one of the small transepts lining the edges of the main hall. She knelt before a smaller altar with a pair of statues, a man and woman, behind it. The stone figures held hands with the marriage binds about their wrists. No doubt they were one of the patrons of the temple, the priestess praying to Luben for their marriage.

She rose with a grunt, shifting with an awkward sway. She turned, the front of her white robes, trimmed in black, bulged from her heavily pregnant stomach. She had the red skin of Thlin, her white-blonde hair pulled back in a loose braid, a motherly smile on her lips.

“Be welcome, sir Knight, to the Temple of Marriage and Fidelity,” she breathed as she waddled out of the transept, her hands idly rubbing at the front of her robes. “Husband, we have a guest.”

“Hmm?” a voice grunted from another transept. A moment later a tall man stepped out, head shaved bald, his blond beard woven and trimmed into a square shape. He was also Thlinian, his skin a darker red than his wife’s. Every temple of Luben was run by a married couple. The priest’s robes were black and trimmed in white, his hands folded before him, hidden by the sleeves of his vestments. “Ah, Sir Knight, here to offer a prayer to your wife’s fidelity while you partake on a perilous quest?”

I shook my head, a wave of nervousness coursed through me. I shifted, so aware that the Labyrinth ran beneath my feet. That Angela was down there about to tackle the Minotaur, a foe nearly as dangerous as the dragon Dominari.

I should be down there with her. I should have journeyed with her, the precepts be damned. No one knight could take on Dominari. Scores had faced her and died. Entire armies had burned in her fires. She was the last of the great dragons, the strongest to survive, grown cunning with age but content to stay in her desolation and haunt the Despeir Mountains.

I should have understood her heart. I should have loved her enough to let her be herself instead of trying to convince her not to be a knight.

“Such grief,” the priestess said as she stepped up before me. “Do you wish to pray to win back the heart of your lover?”

“Luben is the god of Love, but he does not give out ‘love potions.’ Those are instruments of Lust and the foul god Las.” The priest eyes hardened. “Your lover is free to love whom she will. Luben will not try and dissuade her.”

“My lover,” I swallowed, the pain welling. “My lover has forgotten me. She made a deal with an oracle for a prophecy. I...” Tears burned in my eyes. I took a deep breath. I was a Knight Deute, not a love-sick boy. My hand clenched. “I need a way to break the demigoddess’s power, to reawaken her to our love so I can protect her.”

“Oh, you poor thing,” the priestess breathed, her hand reaching out and touching the vambrace covering my right arm, stroking the metal. “I am truly sorry for you.”

“Love ripped apart,” sighed the priest. “Yes, there is a way to fix her.”

“True love’s kiss,” smiled the priestess. “Kneel, Sir Knight, and receive Luben’s blessing. Let the power of your love break the demigoddess’s enchantment. Nothing can stop love. It is the most powerful force in the universe. It resides in all of us, the gift of Luben to the mortal and immortal races.”

“Thank you,” I breathed as I knelt in a clink of armor.

“Know that your love must be true for this to work,” added the priest as he placed his hand on my forehead. His wife’s hand joined his, clasping together on my forehead. “She must love you, too.”

She gave me up for the prophecy.

I clenched my eyes closed. She had to love me. “She does. I’m sure of it.”

“Then Blessed Luben, God of Marriage, Love, and Fidelity, let this young man’s love shine bright,” the priest spoke. “Let it pierce through the veils of enchantment wreathing his lover’s mind.”

“Let his lover once again feel the purity of his feelings, Blessed Luben,” the priestess said, her voice ringing true. “God of Marriage, Love, and Fidelity, let her heart’s beat overcome that which has obscured her memory.”

“Let Love reunite these lovers in your name, Luben,” they said together. Lights flared white and black, dancing, entwining about their bodies and flowing down into my flesh. I shivered, my hands both clenching as a wondrous beauty settled into me. Something pure, at once both simple as the petals of a rose and as profound as the awe its petals stirred in the heart and imagination of the beholder.

Tears fell down my cheeks as the priests withdrew their hands.

“May your love be true, Sir Knight,” the priestess said, her hand going to her stomach.

“Thank you,” I said, rising, my armor clinking. I had a chance to save Angela. When she emerged from the labyrinth, I would have to kiss her, reawaken her love, and then I would save her. I would find a way to preserve her life.

Acolyte Sophia – The Labyrinth

“So ... which way?” I asked as we reached the first junction of the Labyrinth.

It was damp and cold in the tunnels. Behind us, moonlight spilled down the stairs we walked in. Stone ground above us, the large disc slowly turning. We had a few hours to find the Minotaur, slay him, and escape before we were trapped for a day down here.

I shivered. I did not want to be trapped for a day down here. My robes already felt damp and the smell ... A musty rot pervaded the dungeon mixed with a sour rank, like something unwashed for a hundred years. I wrinkled my nose, staring at the walls of mortared stone, my pink light shining next to me, but not shedding much light to either right or left.

“When solving a maze, the best way is to place your hand on either the right or left wall and follow it to the end,” Faoril said. “If there is a way to the center, then you will find it eventually.”

“And the rumor that the place rearranges itself?” Minx asked, staring at the floor. She bent down, stroking her finger along the mortar groove. “There is a segment right here.”

Xera nodded, her ears twitching. “Yes, this line extends to the walls and ceiling.”

“Then we need another way,” Xandra said. She rubbed her hands together. Chaun, beside her, strummed his lyre with a stimulating note.

“Sophia’s divination spell,” Angela said. “She’s used it in the past.”

“I have,” I smiled at my Queen. I found Faoril with it and the caravan to take us out into the desert. “It can guide us. Wonderful.” Then my smile fell. I had to masturbate.

“Well, let’s get to it,” Minx grinned, straightening her short stature, her metallic-red hair looking almost pink in my light.

“I have to masturbate and orgasm,” I said, my cheeks pinking. “Thrak, Chaun, turn around.”

“But you are such a radiant flower, Sophia,” Chaun said, strumming his lyre again, this time with a lusty note that made me shiver, my pussy growing wetter. “I seem to recall how much you enjoyed being paraded on the Golden Hunger.”

“Because my Queen commanded,” I answered. I glanced at Angela, her smile amused.

“I’ll make sure they keep their backs to you,” Faoril said, kneeling, her red robes swishing and her silver nose ring glinting in my pink light. “Men, I think a fresh dose of both your cum will be a useful thing. So come here and let me blow you.”

Chaun glanced at Xandra who gave him a loving smile. She rose on her tiptoes and kissed him on the lips before her sapphire eyes looked at me with a hot hunger. She had changed since we left Hargone. More confident. It made her even sexier.

I unbelted my robe, licking my lips as I stared at Xandra and her eyes falling on my small breasts, my nipples so hard. I let my white robes slip to the floor, letting out a little shiver. It was chilly in here. But I was a temple-trained servant of Saphique. I could masturbate in a blizzard.

Probably.

“I could use help to make me cum,” I purred at Xandra as my hands slid down my stomach to my shaved pudenda. “Volunteers are welcomed.”

“Sure,” Minx said. The halfling was behind me. I gasped as she grabbed my butt-cheeks, pried them apart, and licked at my sphincter. She rimmed me with her tiny tongue, swirling about my asshole. “Mmm, not bad, Sophia. Tasty ass.”

“Everything about Sophia is tasty,” Angela smiled, her hand resting on her sword as she leaned against the wall by the junction. Xera moved to the opposite side, her ears twitching, the gold flecks gleaming in the shamrock tucked behind her right ear. She was lush and naked, always a delight to stare at.

Especially with a naughty halfling rimming my asshole.

“Oh, that’s nice,” Chain groaned as Faoril sucked noisily on his cock, making such obscene sounds. I tried not to notice the ebony and swarthy dicks. I could just see them as her mouth went back and forth, sucking on them, eager for the nasty cum to spill in their lips.

“I can help you, Sophia,” Xandra said, her voice so musical, a bird’s dulcets.

The slim woman moved to me, her nipples pressing on her sleeveless top, her knee-length skirt swishing. Her eyes were so bright in my pink light. My pussy clenched as I rubbed at my clit, eager to feel Xandra’s tongue on my pussy, licking, nuzzling, driving me wild towards my orgasm.

As Xandra fell to her knees before me, Minx’s tongue wiggled into my asshole. It was so tiny, swirling, teasing, sending sensations rippling to my pussy. I groaned, shuddered. Xandra’s delicate fingers stroked my inner thigh as she leaned her face forward, her breath washing across my pussy.

And she licked.

“Oh, Xandra,” I moaned, her tongue sliding so wonderfully through the folds of my pussy, teasing me, exciting me. “Mmm, that’s great. Oooh, yes.”

“And what about me?” Minx asked. “Isn’t my tongue great?”

“Yes, it is, you naughty halfling,” I moaned, sliding my hands up to my breasts, squeezing them as the halfling jammed her tongue back into my asshole. “Oh you are just delicious. Mmm, I love it. Worm that tongue into my asshole while Xandra devours my pussy.”

“She’s great at that,” groaned Chaun.

“Don’t look over your shoulder,” I groaned as the bard grinned at me, his teeth so white compared to his midnight-black skin. “Just enjoy your blowjob.”

“I am,” groaned Chaun, Faoril sucking with such enthusiasm.

I closed my eyes, ignoring Chaun’s and Thrak’s grunts and groans as Faoril gobbled their cocks. I concentrated on the delight of Xandra’s tongue probing into my pussy, swirling around, gathering my cream. She had her face pressed so tight into my pussy, her sapphire eyes shining up at me.

Oh, she enjoyed it.

Minx’s small fingers massaged my ass as her tongue probed and swirled. Then she sucked on my asshole, making me buck, my clit throbbing against Xandra’s delicate lips. The avian slid her tongue to it, stroking my nub, sending pleasure racing through my body.

Her delicate fingers slid slowly into my pussy.

“Xandra,” I panted. “Oh, Xandra, you delicious woman. Mmm, you really know how to please my clit.”

“You taught me well,” the married avian giggled. She licked again, her blue eyes so bright. I shuddered, my toes curling in my shoes as I trembled.

I pinched and pulled at my nipples, loving the pleasure surging through me. The dual delights of Minx and Xandra made me shudder. My head tossed back. My tongue stud ran across the back of my teeth as I moaned. Xandra’s tongue fluttered on my clit. My pussy clenched about Xandra’s pumping fingers, shooting such wonderful waves through my body.

Minx sucked harder on my asshole, loving it. Her fingers traced up my butt to my spine. I gasped as she stroked up my spine, her small finger had such a light touch. The sensations shot up and down my back, making me tremble, driving me closer and closer to my orgasm.

“Faoril,” Chaun groaned. “Oh, you hungry, cock-sucking mage. Oh, damn, drink my cum.”

I tried to block out his voice, followed a moment later by Thrak’s bellowing grunts as he unloaded into Faoril’s mouth. I pulled and pinched my nipples, twisting my pink nubs. I pulled on them, savoring the pain.

My orgasm built in me. Hot and amazing. Xandra’s tongue fluttered harder on my clit, flicking over and over before she sucked on it. I bucked, my pussy clenching on her fingers as they pumped so deep into my silky depths.

My right hand shot between my thighs, pushing past her face, and added my fingers to my pussy as I came.

Pleasure burst inside of me. My cunt spasmed on both our fingers, clenching and relaxing, massaging them as rapture radiated through me. I moaned, savoring Minx’s sucking mouth on my asshole.

“Saphique, I pray that you find what I seek,” I moaned, my pussy growing hot around my digits, juices gushing out of me. I ripped my fingers out as Xandra licked up my cream, moaning her delight. I brought my pussy-stained fingers to my breast, rubbing my cream into my nipple. “Guide me with your loving wisdom.”

Breast milk leaked out, coating my fingers. A tingle rushed through my orgasming body. I felt a pull to the right as I bucked and squirmed between Xandra and Minx, groaning and gasping my pleasure as I swayed.

“Right!” I moaned. “We should go right. That will get us to the minotaur.”

“Wonderful,” Xandra smiled, her lips stained with my juices. She stood up, beaming at me.

I had to kiss her. So I did. I savored my tart juices on her lips, my body trembling, eager for more sex. But we were in the Labyrinth. This wasn’t the time to pull Xandra to the floor and devour her pussy until she exploded.

Even if it would be wonderful.

Minx

Thrak brought up the rear, Faoril with him, her ball of light bright and white. Chaun and Xandra were next, the avian holding her fire totem, a ball of dancing flame hovering before her, shedding more light, then walked Angela and Sophia, the acolyte guiding us through the turns of the Labyrinth as we moved deeper and deeper. I walked at the front beside Xera, our eyes scanning.

“There, a tripwire,” Xera said, pointing before us.

I squinted, staring at where she pointed. I could just make out a slight gleam from Sophia’s light. It was almost impossible to spot against the gray stone. I shook my head in annoyance as I padded forward. I again failed to spot it. I had never encountered such cunningly hidden traps and alarms. Pushing down my frustration, I knelt before the tripwire, examining it.

“Why does it keep rumbling?” Sophia asked. “Is the maze really changing shape around us?”

“Maybe,” Faoril said.

I ignored them as I followed the tripwire to the right. It led to the mortar between two stones. I pulled out a slim tipped dagger, probing at the mortar. It was soft, a substance that only appeared to be solid mortar. I pried it away and revealed the inner mechanism for the trap. The wire held a lever back, a spring attached to it, taunt. It wanted to slam the lever forward and trigger something in the ceiling but the trip wore prevented it.

I looked up.

“False ceiling,” Xera said.

I nodded my head in agreement, my skin crawling. “Probably drops something nasty on us.”

I pulled my thief tools, rolled up in black felt to keep them from rattling, out of my pouch. I unfurled them on the floor, a collection of lock picks, small crowbars, delicate tweezers, and a pair of tin shears. I pulled those out and reached through the small gap for the spring. I took a deep breath and snipped the spring. It twanged.

I flinched.

Nothing fell.

“Okay, it’s disarmed,” I said. I cut the wire with the sheers, the lever staying upright, and put away my tools. “We’re safe until the next one.”

“Why are there even traps?” asked Sophia. “Isn’t a terrifying maze that rearranges itself good enough.”

“It’s to keep the Minotaur trapped,” said Faoril.

“A good reason to keep the maze moving,” Thrak nodded. “Else the brute would learn how to escape his prison.”

“But don’t they send sacrifices in once every ten years?” Sophia asked. “Poor girls given to satiate the Minotaur’s bestial lusts?” She hugged herself. “How do they make it through?”

“The custodian guides them,” Faoril said. “Perhaps there are records of the maze. Or maybe every ten years a certain alignment is reached allowing the girls to be brought to the Minotaur along paths with no traps.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Angela said. “Time is ticking. We’ve been down here a half-hour. Three-and-a-half more, and then we’re stuck in here for the night.”

“Right,” I said, standing up. “Sophia, there’s a junction ahead.”

“We’re going left,” the acolyte said as I walked down the corridor, my entire body tensed, searching, breathing.

Gods, it stank. I felt sorry for Xera and her keen elf senses.

Xerathalasia

A riot of sensory information bombarded me as we walked through the Labyrinth. A dozen different sources of stench filled the air, rising out of the bowels of the maze. Decaying corpses, molding cloth, spoiled food, the rank stench of an unwashed beast, old blood, damp stone, and the fester of standing water. Various oscillations hummed through the floor, some remote, some close, the sound of stone grinding on stone, the moving of metal mechanisms, and the regular click of gears twisting, turning.

The maze was being rearranged around us. A giant clock ticked away. And the changes sounded fast, the corridors moving with blinding speed when they were rearranged. I feared that passageways we had already passed through had moved. We would not be able to backtrack to find our way out of the Labyrinth.

We reached the next intersection. “Keep straight,” Sophia said from behind me.

Would her divination spell be thrown off if the Labyrinth rearranged itself?

I moved forward through the intersection. The bones of a corpse, covered in rusting iron, lay a few yards down the right hand corridor. How many would-be heroes were so hopelessly lost in the Labyrinth that they never found the Minotaur and died of starvation and dehydration? There were faded chalk marks on the wall and sometimes length of rotten string lay on the ground, signs that someone had tried to mark their back trail

I ignored those. I had to keep looking for traps. My eyes scanned the tiles, the walls, the ceiling and...

“Pressure plate,” I said when we were a hundred feet past the intersection. “Three stones in front of you and two to the left, Minx.”

The halfling’s head moved. “Yes, yes, I see it.”

I had tried a few times not mentioning traps to see if Minx would spot them. She had keen eyes, but she missed them every time. Maybe there wasn’t enough light down here for her to see, or maybe the traps were too cunningly concealed for anyone but an elf to find.

Minx moved forward, falling down on her hands and knees, pressing her cheek against the adjacent stone, examining the pressure plate. It stuck a fraction of an inch higher than the surrounding tiles, almost unnoticeable.

The party stopped, Sophia letting out a frustrated moan. Chaun leaned against the stone wall and strummed his lyre. Xandra was right beside him, humming to the chord he stroked, her fingers idly tracing across the lines carved on her fire totem. Her ball for fire danced in the air. Beyond them, Thrak turned around, facing down the intersection we came, hands on his two-handed ax. Faoril pulled out her notebook and scratched some notes, adding a faint scent of burning paper to the air.

The click of gears echoed right beneath us. Tick, tick, tick. My ears twitched as I straightened, staring at the floor. It was so loud. Sophia, yawning, blinked and shifted on her feet, staring down at the floor.

“That feels close,” she muttered.

“Hmm?” Angela asked, her eyes facing forward, her kite shield strapped to her left arm, her right hand going to the pommel of her sword, prepared to draw.

The floor rumbled violently beneath us as the ticking grew louder. A great, groaning echo vibrated the floor from stone sliding on stone.

My eyes shot to Chaun. He leaned against the dividing crack in the wall, half on one side, half on the other. And the shifting happened fast. Fear shot through me, and I moved without thought, darting to Chaun as he blinked.

“Move,” I shouted, the groaning growing louder.

The floor shook. Xandra stumbled backwards towards me. I rushed past her and threw myself at Chaun as the back section of the hallway pivoted, turning to the left. Suddenly, only half of his back was against the wall as the corridor spun fast, carnying his body to the opposite side and the cutting boundary of stone.

My jump carried me to him. I crashed into him, tumbling us both to the floor as stone groaned and ground. Dust flared, the floor moved beneath us. Thrak and Faoril fell to the ground with a grunt. We slid, the corridor spinning so fast and then it stopped a heartbeat later.

“What?” Faoril gasped, struggling to stand.

“The tunnel shifted,” I groaned, rolling to my feet. The corridor, which had been facing north and south, now faced east and west. It linked up to a new set of hallways leading off into the gloom of the labyrinth.

“Las’s putrid cum,” Chaun groaned as he stood, staring in the direction he thought was south but was really west. “Where did everyone go?”

“They’re on the other side of the wall,” I said, pointing south. “it must be thirty feet of stone between us and them.”

My stomach twisted as I stared at the stone. I stood up, my knee burning, skinned by the fall and rolling as the hallway shifted rapidly. The clock mechanism below had stilled. I heard it ticking farther away, the violent grind of stone as another section of the Labyrinth turned ninety degrees.

“Xandra,” Chaun shouted as he stood up, staring at the wall, his shoulders trembling.

Xandra

“Chaun?” I squeaked, staring at the solid rock that had been the corridor only seconds before. It had swung so fast. Xera barely pushed him through before it closed. It would have cut my husband in half if she hadn’t saved him. I gripped my fire totem, the elemental dancing with agitation, feeding off my emotions as I stared at the wall in horror.

“Chaun!”

“Where did they go?” Angela asked.

“Cernere’s nimble fingers,” groaned Minx, still kneeling before the pressure plate, her knife prepared to pry it up.

“It moved,” I said. “Chaun!” I rushed to the wall, pounded on it.

My hand hurt.

“Oh, no,” Sophia groaned. “That’s not good.”