Lucas had to admit, the Labyrinth was getting creative.
They'd been walking for what felt like hours, or maybe it was minutes, disguised by the sense of time dissolving somewhere along their trek. He'd flipped the coin four times already, attempting to divine the correct way to leave, and this seemed to annoy the labyrinth. For now, every time he flipped the coin, the Labyrinth shifted when the coin left his hand. Passages that led forward to safety coiled backward. Turns that should have climbed up spit them out lower than before.
Elizabeth walked ahead, one hand trailing the damp stone, the other twirling a dull dagger like a nervous tic, her fiery hair dull and covered in grime. Her clothes were disheveled and muddy.
"Don't you dare flip that coin again," she called over her shoulder without looking, hearing the slight sound of ruffling through pockets, knowing Lucas was going to try again.
She believed she was being punished for not leaving when given mercy, for every shift in the labyrinth targeted her, regardless of whether she was behind Lucas, leading him, or just beside him; it was only she who was armed, while Lucas merely suffered some minor inconvenience.
She glanced back over her shoulder. "You're enjoying this, aren't you, Princess?"
Lucas snorted. "Of course not." But the undisguised smirk on his face did nothing to give truth to his statement.
They came to another fork. The left corridor was narrower, walls pinched close enough that Lucas could brace himself between them. The right stayed the same. And sitting dead center in that corridor, absurdly out of place, was a single iron bear trap, gleaming with fresh oil like someone had just set it.
Elizabeth stopped. Lucas nearly bumped her shoulder from the suddenness.
"Don't," she said flatly.
He raised his brows. "I wasn't going to."
"Your eyes were thinking about it."
They stared at the thing. It sat perfectly still. Just a trap, jaws wide and hungry.
Lucas dropped his hand to his pocket.
Elizabeth slapped his arm. "No. No coin."
They both turned to leave both choices behind, but the corridor behind them had vanished, replaced by a blank wall of rough limestone. The only ways were forward through the corridor with a bear trap, or go into the pinch.
Elizabeth stepped left without waiting for permission. Lucas exhaled, following. Behind them, the bear trap sat untouched, its metal teeth glinting in the labyrinth's own light, along with a shadow of a bear hanging from an alcove above the trap, just waiting to fall upon any trespassers.
They shuffled through the tight crack of the left corridor, shoulders scraping the stone and rubbing the stench of wet stone and earth onto themselves. Lucas finally received the same treatment as Elizabeth, as when they finally emerged from the narrow space, they both looked worse for wear.
They emerged into a circular stairwell spiraling up. The air here was stale, unmoving.
Elizabeth practically hopped up the spiral stairwell. Anything leading upwards must be a good route with a hope of escape, but halfway up, the stairs rippled. Then, with a slight shudder, the steps retracted into the walkway, leaving a stone slide that sent them sliding down in a spiral. They felt their brains bouncing in their skulls until they were eventually spat out onto a wide stretch of stone.
Lucas hit the ground first, skidding across on his side. Elizabeth landed on his chest with a thud.
He wheezed. "Comfortable?"
She didn't answer, she just shoved herself off him and lay down beside him.
After some time orienting themselves and taking a moment to recover their breath, Elizabeth turned to Lucas with a twinge of frustration in her eyes, more at the labyrinth than at Lucas.
"Can't you use some magic to stick us to the floor? That stairwell could have led us to an exit."
Lucas shook his head. "The place is drowned in its own magic. It's too difficult to contest with my own, so my spells have trouble working. Even my sight only allows me to see the infused magic of this place and the vague emotion of what I can guess is a cat playing with its food."
They gathered their emotions and stood, checking the passage they were in.
On the floor ahead, there were tiles etched with symbols, the floor was covered in them, and the only exit was beyond.
"Pressure plates," Lucas murmured. "With arcane wards etched into them."
Elizabeth crouched, brushing dirt away to get a clearer picture of what was written on them, but apart from sensing the magic in the tile, she couldn't translate what the symbol meant.
She arched an eyebrow. "Feel like testing your luck, Princess?"
Lucas studied the symbols, knowing they would be the key to answering this puzzle. After some time, with Elizabeth resting against a wall nearby, Lucas stopped staring at the tiles and woke Elizabeth.
"Follow me carefully, match me step for step, understand?"
Elizabeth nodded, making no attempt at humour; she understood the seriousness here. One wrong misstep, and they both could be in trouble.
Lucas stepped on the first tile, and they both watched in silence as it sank under his weight, the magic activating. They waited with bated breath, just to have the symbol lit up, and just when they relaxed.
Bang
They both jumped, on guard and watching their surroundings for anything, but nothing. Lucas seemed to figure something out as he stepped back onto the same pressure plate, and again, after a second, the sound returned.
Bang.
...
BANG.
BANG.
BANG.
"Ok, you can stop now," Elizabeth muttered, watching as Lucas kept pressing the tile with childish amusement. "I swear I'm gonna burn this sadistic place to the ground when we get out."
Lucas stopped messing around and instead took tentative steps across the path of tiles, making sure to be accurate in his steps, with Elizabeth close behind, mirroring him exactly.
At the last step, maybe because she relaxed too much now that she was at the end, she slipped, her bronze leg scuffing a nearby tile, activating it.
Lucas immediately reached for her and pulled her away, shielding her with his body as the walls opened up and thin celestial bronze spikes were shot out, hitting the air where Elizabeth had been.
"Thanks," Elizabeth said, silently staring at the spikes. "Next time, Princess, you can trip the tile."