No Longer Lost, I Am the Maze

“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”

— Daniel J.

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The last thing you recall is the oppressive heat of the room; your breath is uneven and a kind of weight is covering you. There is a low, rhythmic murmur.

The world folded in on itself like a page that refused to lie flat.

Then, a deafening absence…

The sky is an oily, wrong shade of violet, and the horizon is a jagged line where geometry has been violently ignored, and vivid color begins.

A faint presence buzzes in the corners of your perception, overwhelming the tools and training you rely on. You sense an urgent, disorganized…signal, or maybe it was a cry for help, refracted through a kaleidoscope sensation.

There is something pulling your focus toward a structure in the distance, a massive, impossibly twisting hedge labyrinth, glowing with an internal, soft, magenta light.

There is a handwritten note pinned to a twisted vine that reads: "Ready or not"

And then you feel it, your instincts flare.

A presence brushing the back of your thoughts,

curious, uncertain…

and unmistakably aware that you have arrived.