[color=7bcdc8]“Yes. Of course.”[/color] Alastair pushed away from the wall and began walking away from the source of the noise, back in the direction they had come from, until he reached the nearest intersection. From what he had seen so far the maze was fairly simple in its design, though no less confusing for it; a seemingly endless crosshatching of straight lines with paths that ran on into eternity intersected by perpendicular paths with precise regularity.

It was a bit unfair to call it a maze at all really. There was no trick to it, no dead ends, no confusing loops or bends; just simple scale and a mind numbing regularity and uniformity that made it feel like you were making no progress at all. It the wall you were passing now looked exactly the same as the wall you passed an hour ago, six hours ago, a day ago, who was to say you were making progress at all?

It was enough to drive a person insane, if they were not halfway there already.

The unvarying layout did at least mean that circumventing the cave-in was incredibly simple at least. Simply back track a step, head half a dozen columns to the right and start heading back in the same direction; hopefully they had travelled far enough to the side that the cave-in wouldn’t be an issue and soon they were walking down a completely identical hallway and none the worse for wear.

[color=7bcdc8]“Whoever designed this maze was an evil genius. Or a bureaucrat. Such uniformity cannot be the creation of a sound mind.”[/color] After a few minutes of walking Alastair chanced to glance down one of the perpendicular paths as he crossed an intersection and spotted the piled rubble and broken slabs of concrete that marked the site of the cave-in. A sparkling amidst the dust and the stones caught his eye and he diverted from his path to approach the rubble.

Large, blue and glowing; it looked like an oversized gemstone, but when he reached down to pick it up it was immediately apparent that it was not a natural material at all. It was warm to the touch, still holding some small amount of energy of some kind which explained why it was glowing; or still glowing as the case might be. Its proximity to the cave-in and the fact that its shape suggested it was once part of something larger did not go unnoticed by Alastair; the idea that this object maybe be dangerous did cross his mind, but then he had never been one to heed danger when his own curiosity was involved.

So engrossed in the object was he that Alastair almost missed the elevator doors standing no more than ten feet away from him, partially obscured by rubble as it was. Luckily he managed to drag his attention away from the blue orb long enough to take in his surroundings, the sleek metal surface of the door standing out from the dull grey concrete.

[color=7bcdc8]“Over here! I believe I have found a way out.”[/color] Holding the blue enigma up in front of his face, Alastair turned his attention back to the mystery as he waited for Ash to arrive. [color=7bcdc8]“And a curiosity.”[/color]

[@Illiren]