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Return to the Labyrinth	By : Capitalist Category: +. to F > Card Captor Sakura Views: 8619 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Card Captor Sakura, nor any of the characters from it, nor do I own Labyrinth. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
Chapter 6

‘discovery’

So high above the earth, a cool breeze ruffled Rai’s black wings and whisked a couple feathers loose. Caught in the gust, they skittered away from the castle and out over the labyrinth, and no one would know where they fell. He watched them go but did not really see them, his mind still back by that little stream, his heart still thudding with dull shock. Even now, it hadn’t quite recovered from that moment of dawning comprehension. Why would it? Rai could never remember being so stunned in his life.

In fact, it was all he could do to order his soldiers to pursue the boy; he couldn’t even collect himself well enough to give chase. And of course he would pay for that; naturally none of his soldiers returned. Nothing less from the Little Wolf.

Nothing less from his boy.

His son, his child, snatched away from him before Rai ever even had the chance to hold him, and the memories still made him snarl. After so many years he was sure the boy was lost to him forever, but this morning changed all that. To think he was here in the Labyrinth, of all places.

“Why did you shelter him, Yue?” Rai murmured, his voice lost to the wind. “Was it only to spite me?”

He closed his eyes and tipped his head back against the cool marble of the castle, still trying to calm his heart. He did not want to go back inside just yet, not while he still reeled from this discovery, and so he had come seeking solitude here on the crown of Yue’s castle. Just a few more minutes – that’s all he would need.

The wind whistled past, teasing his hair and wings. At first it was a silent wind, but after a few moments Rai noticed that it carried a song on it. So soft and thin, he thought it was some trick of the wind through the turrets, but then the song finished and another began. Curious, his feet turned on the ledge and carried him into the breeze, closer to the source. The sound grew stronger, and he hopped lightly up over a few rows of crenellation before landing on the edge of an entrance within.

Surprised for the second time that day, Rai looked around at the hanging sheets and withdrew his wings. There were so many, white as powder and filling the air with their fresh, clean scent, blowing out to the side with every new gust of wind. Now he could hear the singing very clearly, an enchanting melody that filled the air around him, but he still could not see the singer herself. He ducked under a clothesline and passed still more of the drying sheets, careful not to make a sound. For a brief moment he almost saw her, walking past her linens, and he parted the sheets between them like a curtain.

Now she was only steps away, long black hair rising and lifting in the breeze like her laundry did, draping a wet frock over the line and pinning it firmly in place. The song she sang wasn’t sad, exactly, but there was a peaceful and soothing quality to it.

That peace was lost when she turned around and saw him, her lyrics choked off and silenced in all of a second. Petrified, face white as her linens, she stared and Rai looked right back at her.

“Did I say you could stop?”

Terror flashed through her eyes and she trembled, but made no sound. Impatiently Rai gestured. “Continue. I want to hear the rest of it.”

For a moment he thought she was more likely to faint, but somehow she forced her lips to move. Haltingly, painfully, she managed the next word.

“That’s a little better. Keep going.”

It didn’t measure up to her earlier, carefree performance, but somehow the girl managed to get through the remainder of the song. Her voice was lovely, soft as velvet and just as tempting to touch. A pity that he couldn’t, Rai thought, as he closed the distance between them and cupped her chin in his hand.

“To think, that I had a little sparrow hiding in my eaves all this time. You look like you’ve made yourself very comfortable here.”

She did not speak or move, but he saw her hands shaking.

“Do you know who I am?”

She nodded fractionally.

“Well, do you speak? Or is that voice only good for singing?”

“I s-speak,” she whispered. He smiled grimly.

“I see more than a few things that do not belong here, I think. Have you been stealing from my castle, naughty sparrow?” She didn’t dare answer, though it was perfectly obvious. “I suppose I have you to thank for the escape of what would have been my plaything, last night.”

Idly he dropped his hand, tracing one gloved finger down her throat. “Wine.”

Her lips parted, and a shadow of confusion crossed her face. “W-what?”

“Wine. Bring me some, for I would like a drink.”

“I’m sorry, your m-majesty. I don’t have any.”

“Tea?” Quickly she nodded. “Then I will have that. Promptly.”

He stepped away, and she backed away so stiffly he was sure she would fall over her own feet. But she had the grace not to, and quickly scurried to a little arrangement that must pass for her kitchen. Rai reclined on one of the big silken cushions, watching her sift leaves into a cup, then pour the heated water. When she brought it to him, she set it on the floor beside him and backed away, standing respectfully with hands clasped and head bowed.

“I suppose you are one of Yue’s servants.”

“Yes, your majesty.”

And a well-trained one, which Rai appreciated. He sipped his tea. “I’ve had… such a peculiar morning.”

She blinked, looking like she didn’t quite know what to make of that, then hastily stuttered, “Oh, your majesty?”

“Yes. Very peculiar. I wasn’t expecting to find him here in the Labyrinth – I wasn’t expecting to find him anywhere. I had given up, years ago, the hope of ever finding my son.”

“Your… son?”

“My son,” he repeated, relishing the way the word sounded on his tongue. “He’s mine. Yue had no right to hide him in his maze. You know of him, I’m sure. The people in the city call him the Little Wolf.”

Her hand flew to her mouth, barely covering her gasp, which provoked a wry smile on his part. “Have you met him?”

“No, your majesty. I have only heard of him.”

“Have you.” Rai took another swallow, pausing to savor the taste. She made fine tea, this little songbird. “Tell me, then. What have you heard?”

She hesitated, hands twisting. “It is the city dwellers that talk about him. He is said to be a brave, skilled fighter that could appear out of nowhere when the trolls tried to harass the people. Sometimes they say he fought with his fists and kicks, and sometimes he used a sword – they said it magically grew out of an amulet he wears around his neck.”

“So it did,” Rai mused. “A quality weapon, that.”

“I have heard he is a very young man still, perhaps about my age. People said that sometimes he fought alone, and other times he had a fire-breathing lion helping him.”

“One of those monsters of the maze,” Rai said dismissively, unconcerned with the creature just now. “But tell me more about before. Where did he come from? Where did he live as a child? How did he come by the name Little Wolf?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know that, your majesty. It was the trolls that called him that, so the people did too.”

“And his home? Was it a woman that raised him?”

“The Little Wolf never lived in the city, your majesty. The people like to say that he was born in the wilderness of the labyrinth, that wolves found him in a basket and raised him with their pups.”

Rai grunted disdainfully, and she managed an abashed smile. “Myths will come, if the truth won’t. Especially for heroes. For five years he has given the people hope and comfort, and they admire him.”

For defying his king’s soldiers. The boy was a rebel, but instead of punishing him, Yue charged him to protect his princess. Why?

“Tell me what else you know.”

“I’m sorry, your majesty, that’s all I have ever heard.”

Coolly he watched her squeeze her hands together, interlacing her fingers over and over again. “Think harder. I’m sure there is at least one more thing.”

“No, I -”

“Tell me. While you still have a throat to speak with, sparrow.” He smiled at the way panic kindled in her pretty violet eyes. “You needn’t concern yourself with protecting him, I assure you. I am going to find him again. Nothing you say or do will change that.”

She swallowed, and he watched her shoulders drop with resignation. “There is a goblin, who lives just outside the city walls. She keeps everything that the people in the city throw away; she calls herself the Collector.”

“What of it?”

“Sometimes I felt sorry for her. I brought her things from the castle that I knew would soon be thrown away, and gave them to her while they were still nice. She has so many things… she told me once that the Little Wolf sometimes came to her to trade. He brought her things from the labyrinth, in exchange for clothes.”

“Did he? That is interesting.”

Abruptly he stood up, and she tensed when he closed the distance between them. He could feel the rapid rise and fall of her lungs as she struggled to keep her breathing even, and could smell the pleasant scent of clean linens that clung to her. He dipped his head close to her neck and inhaled deeply.

“I’ll be going, then. Little sparrow, you now belong to me. If you are not here when I return, I will find you and I will kill you. Do not doubt the promises that I make. Do you understand?”

She nodded quickly. “Good. Until next time.”

He breathed her in a final time and then took his leave, wings sprouting from his back at the moment he dove off the edge.

- - - - - - -

Stretching out around him in every direction, the labyrinth seemed to reflect the grayness of the sky. It was so quiet. Li knew it wasn’t really safe to be up here, sitting atop one of the stone walls where any passing gargoyle could spot him, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. Somewhere out there in that labyrinth was a king in hiding, whose disappearance was the only reason Rai had even come to this place. At that moment, Li would have given anything to know where he was – whether to demand an explanation or throw things at him, he wasn’t sure.

“Why didn’t you tell me, Yue?” he whispered into the wind. “All those years… didn’t you think I deserved to know? You couldn’t at least let me have that much?”

The silent labyrinth had no answers for him. He did not know how long he sat there brooding, and it was finally Sakura that interrupted him.

“Li-kun?” She approached him delicately, speaking softly as if she were afraid he might fall off the wall and break. “Li-kun, are you hungry? Kero-chan killed… something, I’m not really sure what, and barbecued it, and I persuaded him to save some for you. If you eat, maybe you’ll feel a little better.”

“Not hungry.”

“Oh.” She wavered a bit, and he thought she might leave again, but after a minute he heard her trying to climb up the wall to get to him. He almost put out a hand to help her, just out of habit, but somehow she managed to get a foothold and pull herself up high enough to at least face him.

“Li-kun, it was a really scary thing that happened this morning. Maybe you’re used to being in fights like that, it sort of sounds like you are, but I was terrified. I know that you must be really upset now, but I just wanted you to know that I’m glad you’re okay. I wouldn’t like it if you got hurt while trying to keep me safe.”

Her words were so kind, it was impossible to ignore her. Li managed to grunt some sort of acknowledgement and nod his head. She smiled tenderly.

“How do you feel?”

“I don’t know,” he answered, very honestly. “I feel a lot of things. I’m angry, and surprised, and confused. I shouldn’t have had to find out this way; Yue knew. He should have told me.”

“Maybe he had a good reason for keeping it a secret.”

“Oh, I’m sure he had his reasons, I just can’t believe any of them were good.” Li took another, more careful, look at the princess. “How about you? How do you feel?”

“Me?”

“I’m the son of the king trying to kill you, the king that’s nearly succeeded twice. Do you still trust me to protect you?”

“What? Of course! I know you didn’t know you were his son, and even now that you do know it’s not your fault what he does. I absolutely still trust you.”

The innocent beauty in her smile was enough to twist a knife in Li’s heart. What a fool, to trust someone like him.

“That’s good,” he managed. “I’m glad. I don’t care who that man is, I won’t let him hurt you.”

“It’s a promise,” she affirmed. “Now, won’t you come sit with us? Kero-chan is worried too, even if he won’t say it. You should be with friends.”

Friends. Who would have ever believed a word like that could be applied to him? The Little Wolf had no friends, but he did not correct her as she climbed back down. Perhaps, in a way, she was not wrong.

- - - - - - -

Touya was, he knew, lost again. For most of the morning he’d managed to stumble along at a decent pace, didn’t fall through any trap doors in the ground – a miracle – and kept more or less to one direction by using the sun as a guide. Now it was getting closer to midday, and the sun had vanished behind that thick veil of clouds. He couldn’t even depend on shadows for a hint; the whole labyrinth was cast in a pall of melancholy gray. And as much as he wanted to believe he was still getting closer to Sakura, as much as he wanted to feel it, his instincts told him that he was not.

“I’ll never make a rat run through a maze again, as long as I live,” he muttered to the uncaring statue beside him. “I’ll fail the lab if I have to, but I won’t do it.”

The marble sculpture had no reply, but Touya jumped when someone else spoke – actually, shouted. His head jerked up and he scanned his surroundings, but nothing moved. Did he really hear it?

Yes, because there it was again. Touya left the courtyard and tried to follow the source of the noise, the racket getting louder with every step. Caution, and some considerable déjà vu, prompted him to move quietly and carefully. Even so, he almost walked directly into a yard bristling with gargoyles and trolls, and hastily threw himself back around the corner. He adhered himself to the bricks, heart thumping, but none of them had noticed. The gargoyles, at least, seemed preoccupied with making sure all of this party of trolls had come up from the Underground.

“All out, all out!” bellowed the gargoyle again. “I ain’t got time to be messing with you warts, fall in faster!”

“I’m the last,” groused one of the trolls. Touya knew it because their voices were deeper, gravelly like the earth. The gargoyles always seemed to speak on the verge of shrieking. “Now quit yer shouting. We were patrolling, we were doing our task! Why stop us?”

“Demand no explanation from me, wart,” spat the gargoyle contemptuously, and Touya thought he heard a rumbling of anger. “It is your lord and king that wants a report from below. What of your search?”

“Nothing,” the troll answered sourly. “The Underground is empty.”

“Sure of it, are you?”

“We comb it every day. The Little Wolf is not hiding below. If he can’t be found, it’s the fault of those searching above.”

A number of the gargoyles snarled. “Watch your words! You serve the king because he was gracious enough to let you all live.”

“We serve the king,” the troll growled. “Not his bats.”

For a moment Touya was sure both parties would attack each other, the air was so thick with animosity. He remembered the goblins in the castle, how the gargoyles shoved them back from their circle, and wondered just how deep the hatred between Rai and Yue’s soldiers ran.

“Quiet!” hollered the lead gargoyle, several times, and eventually managed to shush all the growling and snapping. “Quiet, you lot! I have brought new orders from the king – if you are lucky in the hunt. Find the Little Wolf, fight him if you can, but you must not kill him. His majesty Rai wants the boy alive.”

Huh? Touya forgot the danger he was in and peeked around the corner, just to make sure he heard that right. The trolls looked as baffled as he felt.

“The Wolf is a criminal! We hunt him to kill him.”

“Not anymore you don’t.”

“But why?”

“His majesty’s orders are not to be questioned! Kill the princess if you can but the boy must not be harmed, he said. Bring him in and you’ll be rewarded handsomely; kill him and it will be your head on a spike. Tell the other warts that, when you see them.”

“But it makes no sense!” clamored a handful of trolls. Touya agreed, but right now he couldn’t be bothered to worry about Li. Not too far away, casually dropped by one of the gargoyles, slouched a sack of food. He could see a few apples, a loaf of bread, and there was probably more inside. All he’d eaten in the past twenty-four hours was a handful of almonds off a scraggly tree, and the very sight of something edible made his mouth water. Unconsciously he moved one foot forward, and stepped on a pebble.

“I’m tired of listening to you argue,” the gargoyle sneered. “You have your orders. Now go back below where you belong.”

“Yer a fool if you think you can bring in the Wolf alive,” a troll countered. “Could you catch him?”

“I stand a better chance than you fat oafs.”

“I could crush you!”

Another round of growling started up, broken by a gargoyle’s startled squawk. It clapped a hand over one eye. “Ow! A rock, who threw the rock?”

Everyone turned to look, and it pointed a finger at the troll party. “One of the warts threw a rock at me!”

“We didn’t- ouch!” This time a troll slapped a hand against its face. “Cowardly bats. At least learn to fight with your fists like us!”

“Cowards?” screeched two or three of the gargoyles, and from that point there was no turning back. Touya watched two soldiers fly at each other, and that triggered an all-out melee. Gargoyles jumped to defend their own, as did the trolls, and so preoccupied with their brawl were they that no one noticed Touya slip around the edge of the wall. He had his hand on the sack when something glittered and caught his eye.

“Oh, you gotta be kidding me,” he muttered, when he saw a troll kick the tiny fragment of crystal across the stones. No way was he about to dive into that mess; he had his food and it was time to get out. No way was he going to risk his neck over a stupid little chunk of rock that meant nothing at all.

Touya told himself that but he was already moving. He dropped to his hands and knees, slithering around the kicks and stamps that surrounded him, and almost had his hand on it when someone else kicked it and sent it flying. Damn it! Frantically he scrambled through the fight, rolling out of the way when a troll slammed an unfortunate gargoyle to the ground almost on top of him. He accidentally knocked it further away when he tried to grab it, and in desperation threw himself bodily on it.

Success! He snatched it, jumped to his feet, and found himself staring directly at one gargoyle that had mostly managed to work itself out of the fray. Its blank, black eyes popped open wide with shock, its mouth opened to yell, and Touya smashed his fist into its nose so fast and hard that it got knocked right back into the fight. A passing troll tackled it to the ground.

Touya snatched the bag and ran.

- - - - - - -

Rai had never seen so many things piled together in one space in all his life, and he had lived for a very long time. To call it a junkyard was a gross understatement; the creature that lived here had built entire junk mountains, piles and piles of stuff everywhere one looked. Warped and twisted remnants of housing, crockery, and farming implements seemed to make up most of it, and the result was an ugly monument to drudgery. Rai wrinkled his nose in distaste. The king disliked clutter, and kept few ornaments in his home castle. Clean, simple, and straightforward suited him better.

It didn’t seem anyone was about. As an experiment, Rai reached forward and tapped the edge of a broken pot with one finger, and within moments a squat old goblin came puffing into view.

“Take your hands off it! Get away! Take your hands off my collection or I’ll -” She saw Rai and the gargoyle behind him and stopped short, nearly falling over under the weight of the junk she bore on her back. He watched her mouth flop open, stunned and struck dumb with fear. It was quite the hideous picture.

“I hear you collect things,” he said coolly, and she quivered. “Don’t worry, your piles of trash don’t interest me. I want to ask you a few things, about a boy.”

“A b-boy, your majesty?”

“The Little Wolf. I hear he’s been here too.”

“The Little Wolf,” she bleated. “Yes, yes he’s come to me. Not for a long time, though, haven’t seen him in many months.”

“Why was he here?”

“Needed things, your majesty, always needed things. He gave me pretties and I gave him the clothes he needed, or I sewed up his shirts good and proper, always tearing his shirts he was -”

“Show them to me. The prices he paid you.”

She gulped several times and wavered like she wanted to refuse, but in the end she didn’t dare. Reluctantly she shuffled over to a case and opened it for him to see, displaying a handful of uncut gems.

“Where did he get them?”

“Found them in the labyrinth, he did, always brought them to me, said he had no use for them. He needed clothes -”

“How long has he been coming? When did you first see him?”

“Oh, he was just a little sprout at first, no taller than me. The lad was practically in tears, needed a new shirt because the trolls ripped his in half, blood all over his back.”

“From what?”

“From a whipping, I should think,” she answered chattily, getting over her nervousness. “Not that it’s any of my business, no no, but everyone knows the boy got his share of Yue’s punishments. It’s hardly any wonder that he started attacking the trolls after the king left, hardly any wonder at all.”

“Is that so?” Rai knelt by the case and looked over the gems more carefully. They weren’t particularly valuable, as far as he was concerned, but it was probably some trouble to find one. The boy was strong enough to steal from this little goblin if he wanted to. He wondered why he bothered to trade. “Is this all he ever gave you?”

“Yes, your majesty, everything right there. I sort my collection just so, always keep the alikes together, I do.” He moved to stand again, but stopped when he caught a glimpse of green peeking out from beneath her cloak.

“Wait.”

“Your majesty?”

Quite casually he snatched the pendant, snapping the chain around her neck and eliciting a dismayed squawk. Yes, he remembered this. The smooth teardrop of clouded green jade nestled in his palm, just as it once had so many years ago.

“This was his. You got this from him.”

“What? No, your majesty, I swear, I -”

“I know it was from him, do not test me by spitting lies. The only question is whether you stole it or he gave it to you. Which is it?”

She whimpered, tearful eyes fixed on the pendant. “He gave it.”

“Are you quite certain?”

“He did, he did, I swear it! He didn’t want to because it had belonged to his dead mother, but he was so desperate for a pair of new boots, growing like a weed he was -”

“She’s dead?” Rai snatched the collar of her cloak and yanked her close. “Are you sure?”

She nodded frantically. “It is what he said, your majesty, I don’t know anything, I only know what he said.”

“When did he give it to you?”

“Three years ago, now.”

“Did he say when she died?”

A helpless shrug. “Years?”

Rai released her with a suddenness that had her toppling over onto her back; unsuccessfully she waved her arms and legs in an attempt to right herself. He stood, pendant in his clenched fist.

“You will stay here,” he ordered his servant. “If the Little Wolf has come before he might do so again, and if you see him you raise the alarm. Understood?”

“Yes, your majesty.” The gargoyle bowed low and launched itself into the air, perching on the roof of what seemed to be – incongruously enough – a misplaced bedroom.

“Your majesty!” the goblin cried, when he took one step away. “You won’t take it, will you? It is my most precious thing!”

“No, your heartbeat is your most precious thing. Be grateful I’m leaving it intact. You can get back to your junk.”

- - - - - -

In spite of his growling stomach and dizzy fatigue, Touya pushed himself to run a long ways away from the gargoyles and trolls before he felt safe enough to take a rest. Exhausted, and probably on the edge of blacking out, he finally dropped onto a bench with a thump and opened the sack.

“Hello, hello!” brayed a door knocker across from him. “What do we have here? A new guest in the labyrinth? Oi, Shield, we have a visitor! Shield?”

The brass knocker in the door next to his remained asleep, his eyes firmly shut.

“SHIELD!”

“Eh, wht, wht?” He started awake and tried to speak, his words reduced to mumbles around the large brass ring hanging from his mouth. “Wht y wnt? M tyng to slp!”

“Whatdja say? Huh?” The first knocker had a ring too, but his was fastened through the ears. “You awake? It looks like we got a new friend!”

“Trrfc,” growled the second one. A shield had been carved into the door underneath his face, a pair of crossed swords under the other’s. “Srd, whishe?”

“WHAT?”

Touya, on his third bite into a loaf of bread, decided he’d lost all patience. “Oh, enough. For God’s sake.” He stood up, marched across the yard, and ripped the brass ring right out of Shield’s mouth. “There. Can you talk now?”

“Amazing!” He worked his lips in and out of a pout, testing them, and beamed. “I can finally speak! I can at last anunciate my words with the proper diction!”

“What’d he say?”

“Not that it will do much good against that lout. Deaf as a post, you know.”

“Did you call me a ghost?”

Touya closed his grip around Sword’s ring and yanked it out too, dropping it with a clang on the stones. “Now will you be quiet?”

“I can hear!”

“He can hear!”

“Yes. Now can you please stop shouting, because I am starving and I want to eat in peace, and also there’s a party of fifteen gargoyles somewhere around that will rip me open if they find me. Do you mind?”

“Not at all,” they answered quietly, in unison.

“Thank you.” Ravenously he tore back into the bread, ignoring the pair in favor of lunch.

“Nice young lad, isn’t he?”

“Yes, very nice. D’you suppose he’s lost?”

“D’you suppose he wants to get to the castle?”

“We could tell him the right door.”

“We’re not supposed to.”

“But he helped us.”

“But to get through a door, he’ll have to return the ring so he can knock. It won’t be me.”

“Well it won’t be me!”

“Do you want to fight on it, Sword?”

“Do you think you could beat me, Shield?”

“Quiet!” Touya snapped, and bit savagely into an apple. He chewed and swallowed before speaking again. “I’ll save you both trouble and tell you right now that I’m not trying to get to the castle. I’m trying to stay as far from it as possible, actually. It’s my sister that I’m looking for.”

“Ohhh,” they both chorused, again in unison.

“A sister?”

“Could that be the princess?”

“Suppose so. Can’t be too many girls wandering around in a labyrinth.”

“I heard she’s cute!”

“Oi,” Touya said sharply, and they both shut up again. At least for a little while. But Sword and Shield were apparently in love with the sound of their own voices, and went back to bantering at one another while Touya demolished half the food in the bag. When at last he was full, he leaned back against the stone wall and closed his eyes in satisfaction.

“Knock knock,” said one, for the hundredth time.

“Who’s there?”

“Wooden.”

“Wooden who?”

“Wooden you like to know!”

They both cracked up.

“Knock knock.”

“Who… oh, what’s that?”

“No, you moron, it’s supposed to be ‘Who’s there?’.”

“No, I mean, what’s that?” Shield followed Sword’s curious gaze to Touya, who was now studying the three little chunks of crystal quartz in his hand. “Hey, kid, what are those?”

“I wish I knew,” Touya sighed, turning each one over after another. “Right now, they’re nothing but a mystery. I seem to find one wherever I go in this accursed place. And I get these feelings sometimes… I just know when something is important.”

“Important, he says!”

“Mystery!”

“Exciting!”

“We can help him solve it!”

“Yes!”

“One after another,” Touya muttered, tuning both doors out. “Like… like a trail? Hansel’s breadcrumbs, maybe. But if they’re supposed to lead me anywhere in this maze, they’re not doing a great job. Too far apart, too sporadic.”

“Perhaps they marked a clue!”

“A clue to what?”

“I don’t know, do I have to think of everything around here?”

“Wasn’t anything special about where they were… at least, I don’t think so. Just that I was there too.” Carefully Touya studied them again. Their appearance was similar, the same texture and clarity for all three, but they weren’t identical. They were different sizes, and differently shaped. “Maybe they’re all broken pieces of the same rock?”

Experimentally he tried to lay them aside one another, to see if the edges matched. He didn’t really think that was it and was only playing around, hoping inspiration would come to him, when suddenly one shard slid and clicked into another.

“Whoa.” He was so startled he dropped all of them, which got the doors to shut up and look at him again. Hastily he snatched them back off the ground, one small shard and now one double-sized one.

“What happened? Did you see?”

“No, I was distracted by your idiotic chatter!”

“They fit together,” Touya said, trying to explain it to himself more than his audience. “It was like, they were meant to hook together like that. Just like…” He paused and looked again at his surroundings, the labyrinth. “Just like a puzzle. Of course.”

“A puzzle, then!”

“What do you suppose it’s meant to be?”

“Who knows? Not you.”

Touya was trying to slide the two pieces apart again, to get a better look at how they interlocked, but he couldn’t even find a seam between them. It seemed, now that they’d been fit together, they had irrevocably fused that way. The third piece, though he tried, didn’t seem to fit in with the other two.

“There’s more pieces,” he realized out loud.

“Oh, how many?”

“I don’t know. I guess I’ll find out when it’s all put together.”

“And then what?”

“No idea. But it can’t hurt to try.”

He stuffed both pieces back into his pocket and stood.

“So, where you off to now, lad?”

“To my sister, I hope.”

“Ah, looking for your family. Very wise.”

“Very responsible.”

“Have you heard where she is?”

“I haven’t heard much of anything in a long time!” Sword joked.

Shield shook his head, or tried to, seeing as how his head was disembodied. “No news recently, lad.”

“What about Yue? Have you seen him? Or heard anything about him?”

“The king?”

“Of course the king, you fool.”

“What does he want to find him for?”

“He’s the king’s consort!”

“Oh? That’s the famous consort?”

“What, are you blind and deaf? Can’t you see the mark on his neck?”

“Ah, I see what you mean.”

“The what?” Touya asked, exasperated. “Consort?”

“Consort, noun,” Shield recited. “Personal companion to the royal sovereign, specially when it comes to the bed. That’s you.”

Something inside Touya smoldered, and he noticed his fists clenching. Instead of trying to punch a brass door knocker, though, he just clamped one hand over Shield’s bulbous nose.

“Hey! Hey, what are you doing- no! No, not that!” With dread he saw Touya pick the ring back up off the ground, and clamped his lips together. With Touya squeezing his nose tight, however, he couldn’t breathe and eventually gave up so that he might gasp for air. When he did, Touya stuffed the ring back where it was meant to be.

“Nn,” he mumbled piteously, and Sword crowed with laughter. Laughter that was all too short-lived when Touya picked up the other ring and wedged it firmly back into his ears.

“Aw, shucks!”

“It ws tgd t be true,” Shield moaned.

“WHAT?”

Touya turned his back on the pair and left the yard. If it were possible, he was even more determined to get away from these guys than Rai’s soldiers.

Consort.

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Disclaimer: I do not own these characters

Ah, so you weren’t completely wrong when you guessed Shield would be in the Labyrinth, Scorp… just not quite in that role. I plan to include a few of the Clow Cards this time around, because they make for handy extras, but don’t worry. When I said more CCS characters would be showing up in the sequel, I meant actual people characters too.

And Hinata’s Twin? Yes, yes, dear god yes it is longer. The original Labyrinth was 80 pages long; so far Return to the Labyrinth is 150 pages and I’m STILL not done. There’s just so much darn plot to deal with!
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