LABYRINTH

I

"A step into the Labyrinth
A sway with the dead and free
Wine or weapon she desires
So the epilogue will be
The macabre danse will end
When the answer is found "

'When the answer is found?'

'When the answer is found'

'..the answer is found'

'...the answer..'

Those words were so bewitching.
Letter by letter shifted into something mystical,
etching itself deeper and deeper onto the mind.
Entrancing the soul, trapping it between the lines.
Tempting the curious,
As if a call to unravel the secrecies of a lost realm.

Yet the revelation was vague.

What might the answer be?

Irked by her incompetence to fathom the enigma, Isla* heaved out a heavy sigh as she closed the book which presumably resembled a medieval possession.

Letting her head slam against the table disrupting the divine harmony of the library, she couldn't care less about the judging glares thrown at her for vandalizing the silence.

'...will end when the answer is found'

Those lines kept carouseling and desperation gripped her senses tormenting her day and night to decipher the meaning.
It's been almost a week and she could not put a finger on the conclusion.

Something about it didn't add up.

The rustic pages spoke of the tale of a faceless princess. Rumours had it saying that the king locked her away to hide her charm from the foul eyes of immodest men.

Some people claimed her to be ugly while some accused her of witchcraft. Nevertheless, the princess was spotted neither in the kingdom nor outside the towers.

Sounds like a failed rip-off of the movie Shrek...

Anyway,

This earned her the infamous title 'Faceless Princess' and many princes sought after her hand in marriage out of curiosity but were singlehandedly turned down by her father. He spared no empathy for his daughter.

And so did the word travel beyond the domain.

Unbeknownst to the King's knowledge, the princess courted a stranger, a snake in human guise. She traded her heart in exchange for the love she was denied of. Although it was manipulation, she believed it to be love.

Desperation held her in clutches. Reckless feelings engineered her mind.

A victim of ill fate, a foolish dame
one could say.

Blinded by the newfound romanticism she sold away the loopholes to the snake of a man, exposing all the vulnerabilities of the throne and becoming a part of his conspiracy.

It was too late when she realized
that she had lost everything. Her family, her position, her kingdom.
They went up in flames in front of her very own eyes.

A traitor she became.

And treason was her sin.

She was ripped off of her honour.

The story closed with the princess torn between the choices of either submitting to the tyrant who would spare her life or falling down to her death.

A cliché middle-age romance that no one gave two shits about.

Surprisingly the tale didn't end there. An abrupt stop with an abrupt poem which had no relevance to the plot whatsoever marked the last page, claiming it will conclude when the answer is found. God knows what that means.