Nimda

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by 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.

@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*

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by 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.

@Path

If you were me, why would you trust you?

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by 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.

@Path

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

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by 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 on you, as I seek these answers and wish for a productive end to our contract.

@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.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by 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.

@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.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by 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.

@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.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by 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.

@Path

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

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Nimda>

No. You are not in my debt. I would have healed you regardless if you accepted the deal or not, in which you trusted your companion to make that decision as well. If you are as cynical and cautious as you make yourself, you would not have let that happen.

@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.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Nimda>

Yet you never tried them, so how do you know? You utilize tricks and cunning to get your way, but it is consuming. After a few, you absolved that nothing will work or change because what you have done didn’t and that is what the world is going to do.
*brushes my hand on the hedge as we continue walking*
Of course I don’t want you to do such a thing, especially after I saved your life and had hopes that you’d be trustworthy to hold your end with at least a little appreciation. And besides sleeping the timer away, there are many other ways to deceive me and hurt me. I am unable to defend myself from you in that way either. You could kill me! End my life! But as the contract states, I cannot harm you.

@Path

You clearly have enough magical ability to defend yourself from attacks or escape. The root of the problem is that we didn’t make this contract with you so you’d rescue us. We made it with you so you wouldn’t kill us after we ran out of strength to fight. Am I in your debt because you chose not to take my life?

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Nimda>

*smiles*
You see yourself as the rat, but instead you are the sewer that it’s trapped in. In fact, I am that rat. Just like this maze, you have been given the freedom to complete it or not. You fought the maze and attempted to burn it down, only to give up thinking that nothing else can be done. You have no time limit to complete it, nor is there any danger that awaits you. It’s just a simple labyrinth. And I know you haven’t exhausted all of your options as well. Not thinking in the right direction.

@Path

I have other tricks. But I have a feeling they'll bring me to the same spot as all the last ones did. And I have the same feeling you won't let me get away with sleeping off our contract.