章 67: The Maze
Arthur rummaged through his layers of clothes until he found the stuff he was looking for. He pulled it out of his pocket and the object, that was about the size of Arthur's palm, glowed slightly brighter when it was moved out of his pocket and into the open.
The object had a muted glow and it helped to banish the darkness that surrounded Arthur.
Arthur looked at the glowing object cupped in his palms with a confused expression. 'What is this? And when did I have it in my pocket?'
Arthur moved his palms up and down to weigh the object and it felt light to his touch. In fact, it felt like Arthur was holding air. Underneath the glow, the object had a yellowish-white colour.
The object was also quite fragile as it started to crumble into shiny dust as Arthur moved it around to study it.
All these descriptors added up to remind Arthur of something and it eventually dawned on the man. "Wait, isn't this the piece of the moon that I've snatched up inside the 'Moon' painting?!"
Arthur was pleasantly surprised by this discovery. He did not think the piece of the moon would survive the travel into the real world. The young man assumed it would have disappeared into thin air or melted back into a pool of ink when the magic dissipated.
He was glad to find out that he was wrong. "Thankfully, I still have this or else I would have been completely devoid of a source of light."
Arthur opened the lid of the oil lamp and dropped the piece gingerly into the container. The piece of the moon floated gently on the pool of oil. The glass container of the lamp refracted the glow and it caused the brightness of the piece to intensity.
Essentially, while the oil lamp had gone off, with the lucky find, Arthur had managed to create a magical lamp.
After that, Arthur used the lamp to look around his immediate surroundings. He did not find anything worthwhile.
Finally Arthur made his way to the mouth of the corridor. He tried to hold out the lamp as far ahead as he could but all he could see was a corridor that led into the darkness. The corridor was far too long and the lamp's glow too weak for the young man to be able to see anything.
Arthur had done everything he could considering the situation he was in. The only thing left that he could do was to move forward.
Arthur placed his hand on the left wall of the corridor as he slowly inched forward. With the lamp forming an orb of light around him, Arthur was like a ray of hope moving in solitude into the realm of darkness.
The wall of the corridor felt smooth under Arthur's touch. This made Arthur frown with contemplation because it meant that the space that he found himself in was most likely not a product of nature but a product of man.
The walls were sanded down for some purpose that eluded Arthur.
As Arthur moved forward, he looked up the wall. The wall extended far beyond his sight and penetrated into the darkness. In other words, Arthur was unable to see the top of the wall. He had no idea how far up it went.
This discovery made Arthur feel dwarfed like he was a toy trapped in some devious mastermind's playground.
Arthur continued to move forward until he came across a split in the road. The road split into four directions, left and right, front and back, including the corridor that Arthur came out from.
Arthur stood in the middle of the junction, wondering which fork he should take. He focused on his hearing but similar to before, he could not pick up any auditory clues that could help him make a decision.
"This is really a matter of instinct. I sure hope luck is on my side then." Arthur decided to choose the left corridor. "However, this does not mean that I cannot approach this issue the clever way."
Arthur opened the lid of the lamp and rubbed his fingers on the piece of the moon. He made sure to have the moon dust on his fingers before he pulled them out. Then, he rubbed his fingers on the wall of the left corridor and that transferred the moon dust from his finger to the surface of the wall. The smudge of dust glowed softly.
'This marks that I've already chosen this route before.'
Arthur continued his journey and it did not take him that long to come across yet another turn. However, this time, there was no split and the road took a sharp turn to the left.
'What is this? A type of maze?'
The feeling that he was a rat inside a maze grew exponentially. However, there was nothing else that the young man could do but move forward. Soon, Arthur came to yet another split in the road.
'I'll stick to the road on the left.'
Arthur had no idea how long he had been trapped inside the maze. However, he did make sure to take the path on the left whenever he was given the choice. And he indeed was given many chances to make that choice.
Whenever he took a turn at a split, he would leave a smudge on the wall of the left corridor. However, that soon led Arthur to a regretful situation. He did not expect the maze to be so extensive.
Arthur looked into the oil lamp and the size of the floating piece had drastically decreased compared to when he started his journey.
Arthur bit on his teeth as he was overwhelmed by regret. Perhaps he should not have been so cavalier with the usage of the moon dust. What use would the marks be if he ran out of light?
There was a grim expression set on Arthur's face as he walked away from yet another T-junction.
His footsteps were heavy as he contemplated for a solution. He looked down the road and suddenly his gait turned light.
He saw a four-way junction ahead of him. This was the second one he came across since the first he passed by. This was the proof he needed to confirm that he had not been spinning in circles.
Arthur jogged to the junction and then his body froze. His eyes were locked on the corridor right opposite from him at the junction. His eyes were shaking because right there on the wall was a smudge of something shiny.
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