Maze

The maze. You have been here before, thousands of times. The minute twists and turns are like second nature, the walls as intimately familiar as the duskwood and shadowtop trees outside of Highmoon. This is the maze of your life, and as you trace the path that Ubtao has set, you feel at peace.

Then, suddenly, you come to an unfamiliar fork. Ahead of you is a passage that you do not remember, a path that you have never seen. Panic wells up in your heart, threatening to overwhelm your rational mind. Soon you relax, breathe deeply as your masters taught you, and project yourself forward and out, extending your innate senses far beyond your physical body. The unfamiliar branch of the maze stretches before you into infinity. You cannot know what lies there unless you walk that terrifying, unknown path.

You wake up suddenly in a cold sweat. The maze again. You have had the dream many times before, and always you felt as though Ubtao were whispering into your ear. A new branch, an unknown path� What could it mean? Is it Ubtao�s will that your mortal life will soon come to an end? There was a comfortable path and a difficult path; perhaps you will soon be faced with a decision that could change the course of your life. Or is it something darker? Could it be, with that terror you faced in the dream, that you will be betrayed by that which you trusted most?

The maze of life. Once it was known, familiar, comforting.

Ubtao set the maze of your life when you were born, and you began the path as you drew your first breath outside of the womb. Once, you knew that your course would never deviate from what Ubtao had set at the moment he gave you life. It would never alter from the form he had given it. Your life was to be spent walking the path, fulfilling, step by step, your fate.

But the maze has grown foreign. It is a stranger to you now.

Each path brings with it the sudden panic of an undiscovered branch. Each step brings you strange visions of things that were, of things that are, and things that may be.

The last fork was just the first�the herald of Anthynian�s betrayal as he fell to the evil of the Black Egg; you are sure that Ubtao was warning you. That itself is troubling; it is as though his brief fall to darkness was a thing that should never have come to pass�as though Ubtao had not written it into your maze... and even he could not stop it.

How can that be?

Beating back a primal fear, you step into the unknown. There is a red man�crimson eyes, russet skin, vermillion hair, his whole form a riot of flaming color. He clutches a shield in one hand and a shattered crown in the other. His eyes flash with anger, but his arms reach out imploringly.

No comfort, anymore, no certainty. Only this jumble of confused images.

One step forward, and this time it is a young girl. A Halruaan lass, skin is fair as morning spring and hair like a sea of onyx. She runs towards you but seems to close no distance; she runs and runs and recedes into the distance. Further and further she sinks, slowly turning olive, then lime, then a brilliant emerald, fading away until she is nothing but a fine green dust that falls about you.

Enough! You shout, only then noticing that you have awoken from the dream, startling your companions. They look at you questioningly�Anacard of the South, plastered with sweat, breathing as though you�d been running for days, your heart pumping so loud its drowns out their questions.

You cannot be sure of anything anymore. How do you explain that to them?

The Maze