Quarter Labyrinth by Victoria McCombs

Table of Content

• 1. MAY YOU FIND YOURSELF IN THE LABYRINTH.
• 2. AT LEAST, MAY YOU NOT LOSE YOURSELF.
• 3. (Untitled)
• 4. The King of the Labyrinth, once a young boy who went by the name Dimitri, was anything but kingly in his youth. But as fate would have it, he fell into two things.
• 5. One, in love, with a maiden by the name Alicent. She had silky pale hair like threads of gold and bronze skin like the hide of a lion. She moved like sunlight through the leaves, and Dimitri adored her from the shadows. But she was a princess, high and untouchable, and he, no more than a keeper of roses and thorns.
• 6. Two, he fell into a bit of magic.
• 7. It sat in the hedges of the garden, ancient and waiting for someone to find it. When Dimitri discovered the power, he thought to make something of himself.
• 8. Thus, he bled himself into the magic, and the labyrinth was born.
• 9. He set up a game for the islands to play at, offering a wish for whoever reached the center first. The game impressed the king, and caught the eye of the king’s daughter. Never before had such power been witnessed. But that is what happens when one bleeds into magic. It bleeds into you.
• 10. The man who reached the center first was a knight by the name of Dawson.
• 11. Dawson earned his wish. With it, he asked one thing.
• 12. Bind Dimitri to his labyrinth so he may never leave.
• 13. And what princess wants a man who is trapped in a labyrinth? Alicent did not, and Dawson went on to wed her. Dimitri sank into the darkness of his labyrinth, closing the doors to all others. For ages, he wandered it alone, until the magic sat idle for too long. It longed to be used again. Ripe for the taking, a second person bled themselves onto the walls of the maze—the descendant of Dawson and Alicent. Thus, they were able to control the labyrinth once every four years, and used it to hose the competition once more. Their line has always been able to host these games, no matter how unwilling Dimitri was. And Dimitri allowed it, if only for his chance to get revenge on the decedents of Dawson and Alicent…now the descendants of Callahan.
• 14. This year, for the first time in a long while, a descendant will enter.
• 15. Aurelia Brightspire, a girl of golden heart, ventured into the labyrinth when time was at its start. Her purpose was clear—to find a spark of magic to mend the fractures of her crumbling kin.
• 16. But the labyrinth held no cure.
• 17. Undeterred, she braved its shadows again, this time seeking a thread of time, a way to weave the past anew, to when her family was whole. Yet, the forest turned its back once more, and time remained unyielding.
• 18. Ever the hopeful, she attempted a third time. What she sought then, no soul can say, for Aurelia never left the labyrinth. She lingers still, restless in the maze.
• 19. With each Quarter Labyrinth, she clings one who enters. Drawn to the desperation of their stories—heroes, broken and bold.
• 20. She whispers of hope, of fixing the pieces that cannot be mended.
• 21. But her touch is cursed, her yearning too sharp—her meddling leaves scars.
• 22. The ones she marks always emerge with splintered souls, their burdens heavier still. For Aurelia’s sorrow knows no bounds, and her gift is one of ruin.
• 23. (Untitled)
• 24. Lady Luck once had a name—and quite a long one. That name is now forgotten. When first she bested the labyrinth, the islands stopped using her name and called her fortunate. Her second triumph birthed whispers of lies. “She cheats!” they muttered with jealous cries. By the third, at twenty- nine years old, “Lady Luck,” they proclaimed, her story retold.
• 25. None would enter the labyrinth without asking Lady Luck for her favors. But Lady Lucky had no favors to give. She had her sights set on the end again. For a fourth time, Lady Luck entered the labyrinth. Now at the age of thirty-three, with years well worn, Lady Luck learned her victories could not last forever. “One more victory,” the king of the labyrinth decreed, “And no more shall you quench this need.” So when she claimed her final crown, Lady Luck made her plea: “Let me stay in the maze I adore, to guide the lost through every door.”
• 26. The king sighed and granted her vow,
• 27. Then vanished with Lady Luck, who abides there now.
• 28. It is customary for Lady Luck to select two competitors—one bold and strong and one an underdog. She whispers hints, a nudge, a clue, and when they triumph, she triumphs too. For Lady Luck, clever and keen, has won thirty-one times unseen.
• 29. (Untitled)
• 30. August grew up in the wealthy heart of the Hundred Islands, apprenticing under the most renowned apothecary while engaged to the prettiest girl on the seas.
• 31. When the labyrinth opened, he sought his fortune just like many others. But August had tricks up his sleeves.
• 32. Poisons.
• 33. He slipped through the night, slaying all he came across with a simple sniff of his tonics. Never has the death toll been as high as it was that year.
• 34. Yet August failed to realize that his beloved had followed him into the labyrinth. Seeing his tricks, she turned her back on him, leaving her ring behind. August won that year, and took home his prize to reclaim his girl.
• 35. But she’d married another already.
• 36. Rejected, August threw himself into his work. He became even more renowned than his master, and the Hundred Islands had never seen a more talented apothecary. But he’d lost his taste for the world.
• 37. When the labyrinth opened next, August abandoned the mortal land to throw himself into the labyrinth. This time, his potions weren’t designed to kill, they were to aid the competitors. Seeing a place for him in the walls, Dimitri asked him to stay, and now he makes potions to either aid or to hinder the competitors.
• 38. August is not as calloused as the others.
• 39. But you never know whose side he’s truly on.
• 40. (Untitled)
• 41. Delilah dreamed in gilded hues, of riches vast, of treasures strewn. Rivers of gold and basins of gems, gowns stitched from moonlight’s silver hem. It was right of her to want these things. A beauty like hers demanded greatness.
• 42. She entered the labyrinth on its twentieth appearance. Her sister joined her quest.
• 43. Delva was not like Delilah. She was the quiet beauty of a rippling pond that only a few cared to see. Her value came in her loyalty to her sister and the sharpness of her mind. But those things could not save her from what she found inside.
• 44. Dimitri took a special interest in the sisters for the eldest’s resemblance to his lost love, Allison. The ghost of his past was still too near. He hatched a plan to bring them down.
• 45. Delilah’s path to victory was assured—she was clever, determined, and blessed by her sister’s aid. She made it farther than most. But Dimitri, with his honeyed words and promises spun from starlight, ensnared her heart. Few could resist the labyrinth king when he chose to woo, and Delilah was no exception. His tales of unending riches and a world built for her beauty seduced her like no treasure ever could.
• 46. She turned from her goal, abandoning the labyrinth’s prize in favor of the man who swore to give her the world. But Dimitri’s gifts came with a cost.
• 47. He showered Delilah with riches—golden tiaras, silken gowns, and jeweled necklaces fit for an empress. Yet, he stole from her the one thing he suspected she loved more than these: her sister.
• 48. Delva, steadfast and quiet, was no match for the labyrinth’s merciless traps. She perished in its endless corridors, and Delilah, left behind, was doomed to wander her sister’s graveyard each night. Dimitri abandoned her, but he makes sure her halls are filled with treasure as a reminder of what she once craved.
• 49. No longer does Delilah yearn for gold, or jewels, or gowns spun from moonlight. Her beauty is as radiant as ever, but her heart is heavy, burdened with loss. She dreams now only of her sister—her fallen star, her silent shadow—forever beyond her reach.
• 50. Through endless halls, her footsteps fall. A queen of sorrow, who has it all.
• 51. (Untitled)
• 52. Long ago, Lawson dwelled on an island too small, too fragile to weather the vast and hungry sea.
• 53. The tides grew restless, clawing at the land, pulling it piece by piece into the deep.
• 54. Desperation drove him to gather a band of men. They ventured into the labyrinth—a twisting maw of shadow and stone—seeking the prize: a ship blessed never to sink.
• 55. Lawson dreamed of salvation.
• 56. If they tethered the ship to their crumbling home, perhaps the magic might hold, anchoring their island against the sea’s wrath.
• 57. And it might have worked.
• 58. But greed is a poison that festers in the hearts of men. The others, blind to loyalty, craved the ship for themselves. They sought to flee, to leave the island to its fate. Brother turned against brother, blades clashed in the dark,
• 59. And in the end, Lawson fell, betrayed by those he’d led.
• 60. The survivors, drunk on their hollow victory, scattered through the labyrinth’s endless halls. One by one, they died in the labyrinth. The ship was lost to them, and their island sank beneath the waves.
• 61. Doomed by the greed of those who might have saved it.
• 62. As Lawson lay dying, he called out to Dimitri for mercy.
• 63. And mercy came.
• 64. Dimitri made Lawson a Stone God, a keeper of the labyrinth, charged with guiding selfless souls to their prize. Yet grief runs deep, and Lawson’s heart turned cold. He grew weary of mortal folly, their endless grasping and loss.
• 65. Now, every four years, when the labyrinth opens its gates, Lawson hides among the stones,
• 66. A ghost in the maze he was meant to guard.
• 67. It is said he still lingers, but it is just as likely you’ll never see him.
• 68. (Untitled)