Radiance - The Alight Archives Book #1

94. A Single Mistake

The repeated sounds of his heavy, hurried footsteps pounding on the stone floor bounced off the walls, rebounding throughout the narrow pathway. Had it not been for the torches—their blueish flames dancing with life—a normal person would never have been able to find their way. No, they would remain lost in the darkness until someone happened to stumble on what remained of their corpse weeks, if not years later.

Even though he'd been robbed of his "special sight," Hound was more than confident in his memory. He had traversed this ever-shifting hall so many times that he knew every combination, every variation, every form the Labyrinth could assume. To that end, the map was eternal in his mind. The tails of his trenchcoat stirred wildly behind him as he rushed down the hallway, his shadow speeding along the walls as a rapid blur of darkness.

Ahead, the path gradually began changing to the right, showers of dust pouring from out the cracks of the cragged ceiling and falling over his head. If he listened closely, he could hear the low-pitched, grinding sound of the Labyrinth coming alive; had it remained on schedule, this would have been its seventeenth and final alteration for the day. It permanently adhered to the rules of the enchantment that had been cast upon it centuries prior. However, it tended to contradict said rules on whether Glyph Academy itself should be placed under compromising circumstances. Thankfully, those instances were rare and only pertained to when an intruder had somehow entered the Labyrinth.

A mix of anger and surprise spiraled within the Hound as he ran. Usually, it would have taken him less than fifteen minutes to reach the Heart, but since stepping foot within the Labyrinth's constricting confines, the paths had yet to stop changing. This could only mean one thing: the Labyrinth had been breached. What's more, they could still be in here with him, and that thought alone enraged him to no end.

How many things can go wrong today?! the Hound shouted in his head, a frustrated grumble escaping his scowl. He'd allow the Gray Cloaks to perform their jobs, of course, but he'd always felt as though this Labyrinth, this castle, was his responsibility. His realm to safeguard in the absence of his ancestors, and today, he had disappointed them. They would surely be frowning down at him from the Eternal Gardens, silently ridiculing him with shame in their eyes. The Hound tried not to think about it. Other than the students' safety, what was most important now was assuring no harm had befallen the Heart.

A beam of blue-colored light zipped past him in zigzagging movements. Most people in Incante couldn't discern faeries so easily, and to the untrained eye, he imagined Fara looked no different from a fragment of oddly-colored light or perhaps an insect—the strange kind that could illuminate its body. Fara was neither. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see her concerned expression warping her usual grinning features. Her worried stare appeared unfamiliar on her blue face, as it should have. For just like him, she knew what was at risk.

Eventually, the slender pathway opened into a brightly lit room kept illuminated by the numerous lumos crystals—fixed in organized clusters along the ceiling above—that filled the space with an orange hue. Catching his breath as his jog gradually fell into a sedated march, his beard itching around his mouth, the Hound began making his way into the chamber, his feet grinding over the smooth stone floor. It always seemed colder here than anywhere else in the Labyrinth, and the Hound suspected that wasn't a coincidence.

Running over the weathered stone walls of the chamber were endless rows of runes, each glowing with a spirited, fiery pinkish light. This luminescence perfectly matched the hue of Arianis—the larger of the Twin Sisters—when she transformed into the magnificent Sakura Moon close to the dawn of summer each year. In the center of the room, an enormous crystal stood majestically, towering at five meters tall. Its pink surface sparkled with facets that reflected the ambient light, creating a mesmerizing dance of colors. This crystalline structure hovered above a circular platform of polished obsidian, which gleamed like stars in the night sky. A soft hum resonated around the crystal, alive with ancient power.