Path

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Path>

You’ve misjudged me, mage. You can try and manipulate all you want, but you have no track record that I should trust, and I don’t like to take gambles.

@Nimda

You didn’t think I had knew that you were trying to be lazy? Well believe what you will, you have reached the exit, as promised you can choose from my armory and Lily can choose three grimoires from my library.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Path>

Every labyrinth has a catch, and the best solution to a dungeon isn’t often the most obvious one.
*Shifts my gaze to the exit, and then back to you with a smile*
Sometimes the master of the maze will even walk you through herself.
*Steps toward the exit door*

@Nimda

*follows*
I am not the master, as I would have not done something as walk with you. The purpose was that I am here to aid you as well. I had no idea where I was going, but I took the opportunity to talk to you.
*smiles*
But if your deceitful mind wants to believe you tricked me into leading you to the exit, then so be it. I just pushed you to get up and not give up.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Path>

If you were me, why would you trust you?

@Nimda

Because as the conversation continues on and as I question me, you find that you are wrong. That your assumptions are not as you think. If anything I could see it as threatening as well, but nothing will come to harm of me as the contract states. And then you will find that despite your willingness to go against me and want to not believe me.
*we turn a corner and and the exit to the maze is in front of us*
I am not your enemy or warden. But someone who wants to understand as the foundation of the contract’s relationship. Along the way I want to help you as well so that I am not a burden to you, as that’ll hamper the full potential of my research.
*turns to you*
You mentioned your experiences with labyrinths and how they always had a catch, yet I told you that this was not the case for this one and that all you had to do is the basic action of labyrinths. Walk. Traverse through by taking the paths ahead of you despite the confusing layout.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Path>

Did I misunderstand? Everything you’ve said seems to hinge on the idea that we should trust you.

@Nimda

Of course, it will make this contract easier. Especially since you have an immediate distrust to the extent that you feel that you are a prisoner. Which you are not. I have not been dishonest with you either as everything I had said been truth. None had any malicious or deceitful intentions. It is our bare meeting of each other and the foundation you have placed it is under the assumption that I am here to control you. An example is your attitude with the maze, you see me as the controller of the maze but failed to ask what the maze is and fail to realize that I have no control of it. In fact, this maze is a living creature. You attacked it and it was defend itself.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Path>

A judgement call isn’t a choice. Lily got the best deal for us that she could given the circumstances. I think you’ve misunderstood the kind of adventurers we are and the reason for our choices in this maze.

@Nimda

That is what I am trying to understand, what you are and your reasonings. Just as you misunderstand the kind of mage I am.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Path>

*A smile plays on the corner of my lips*
Am I? In the end, this contract put us under your dominion. Even if it does help us once it’s all said and done, it’s because we didn’t have a choice.

@Nimda

You did have a choice, you chose to trust your friend. In that trust she had your interest in mind. If you were under my dominion, your friend would not have taken the deal. I went with that condition because I saw that she wanted you to truly be able to do the things you need. I could have reject the condition too. But I saw something that I wanted to look into further. You were healed, she did not have to wait potentially centuries for another you now, and you can do what you want. I am along for the ride that you two call your life.
*smiles*
Just as I was doing while you were attempting the labyrinth. You could have called for my help, asked for more advice, even requested the help of the Faye here!
*points to her and she waves*
Yet you did not. Which is where I ask, why? What made you think that you could not do such things? I never said you couldn’t yet you created underlying rules and regulations in completion if this maze that limited you. Prevented you from going further, so you gave up.
*leans close to you*
I won’t give up on you, as I seek these answers and wish for a productive end to our contract.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Path>

Whether we had to sign the contract or not, we had no way to know whether you were being honest, Lily did the right thing by making certain you wouldn’t kill us, and now I have a set of obligations to fill.

@Nimda

Exactly, which is why she made that precautionary condition. She has your life in her interest. I am not disagreeing with her action as it is a smart decision. Yet your apparent obligation are small and are not as a detriment to your being as you think. As many who I have done this with has saw me as a boon to their lives without worry to harm on them. You are the first to take an opposite view. I am a burden in your eyes, a ball at the end of your perceived chain. Yet you have the most control here.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Path>

Anyone bleeding approached by a random mage in the tundra would think they were going to die.

@Nimda

Or saved. It’s all about how you see the world and your baseline trust especially in times of crisis. Not everything is a battle for survival.
*moves my hands*
In your experience you see it as danger, but it is flawed and skewed as that is not how everyone will see a random mage in the tundra. Like this maze, you fight it and try to break it, to no avail I will note. As your experience has brought you to these conflicts and solutions. But not all situations are the same.
*points up*
The sun whilst in the labyrinth is a trick, not set by me, but by the labyrinth itself. I catch myself falling for it at times. It will teleport back to the entrance. Which is why I warned you about it.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Path>

The deal was to guarantee that we wouldn’t die at your hands. If the tundra itself was a death sentence to us, then yes, we’d be in your debt.

@Nimda

The guarantee was a measure made by your friend during the two years. Not as a prerequisite. You were going to die and Lily did not want that to happen.