Trace sprinted down the dim, winding corridor of the mountain’s living maze. Glowing blue veins pulsed faintly along the stone walls. The wide halls with tall ceilings were lit by precisely placed torches on the walls.

  Around the next turn, Trace skidded to a stop.

  Someone stood at the intersection ahead.

  Green hair. He wore a tight-fitting gray striped shirt with a light green jacket. The boy held a sleek microphone.

  Trace blinked. “Wait… have I seen you before—?”

  The boy grinned. “You know me?!” He struck a ridiculous pose. “The one and only—Mackenzie! Pop idol of New Kaizo! Soooo… You want an autograph?”

  Trace stared. “Uh, no thanks. I’m not much of a fan or anything. I just saw you on TV. But you’re… a Lancer Trial participant?”

  Mackenzie’s eyes twinkled. “Of course! My father said I need to be more dangerous.” He winked. “Something about rebranding.”

  “Oh. Well, have fun with that.”

  Trace turned to go around, but Mackenzie sidestepped into his way playfully.

  “Sorry, bud,” he said. “But I can’t let you pass until I find a party. We’re like in an RPG game, it's basic rules.”

  Trace frowned. “I don’t have time for this.”

  He stepped forward, then Mackenzie held up the microphone.

  “Track 1,” he whispered. A gadget inside the mic clicked.

  Trace’s legs trembled. The scene vibrated. A beat of music pulsated from the microphone. The music practically wrapped around Trace’s body. His knees buckled, Dragon Vein energy suddenly heavier, slower, unsure.

  “You see, this is my Yogen,” Mackenzie’s voice hummed through the microphone. “You must be starting to think maybe… You can't escape me.”

  Trace growled. “No!” His cursed arm flared. Shitsugen stirred violently, thrilled by the tension.

  “Don’t,” Trace muttered to himself, clenching his fist.

  Shitsugen laughed in his mind: He’s bothering you, isn’t he? I can help you. Let me tear him in half!

  Trace fell to one knee, fingers twitching.

  Mackenzie stopped. “...Wait, are you okay?”

  His voice softened—he tilted his head, confused, stepping closer.

  From behind Mackenzie, a blur shot forward, swinging their leg forward, nearly hitting Mackenzie in the head before he narrowly dodged.

  It was the same person Trace had met earlier.

  “You good?” he asked Trace, his deep voice calm.

  Trace exhaled, nodding. The power of Mackenzie’s Yogen slowly lifting.

  Mackenzie blinked. “And who are you supposed to be?”

  Trace and Mackenzie began to notice the man’s appearance. His characteristics were those of a mountain lynx. Green eyes, a small grey tail poking out from above his pants, whiskers, and his bigger ears.

  The man stretched his neck. “A friend.”

  Mackenzie backed off slightly, “You aren’t human, are you?”

  “No. Perfectly normal, this is just my Yogen.”

  Mackenzie did nothing for a moment before his eyes lit up. He shrieked, bouncing on his feet.

  “Jeez, you two are so cool. I hope you don’t mind if I make your duo a trio?” He exclaimed, “Your friend and I were only sparring.”

  The man and Trace looked at each other as seemingly having a conversation with their eyes.

  The man said. “Yeah sure, you can come with us.”

  That’s not at all what I had in mind… Trace thought to himself.

  Trace spoke. “We should move. We already wasted a few minutes…”

  Mackenzie clapped his hands. “Sick. I found a party after all!”

  The man’s form shifted back to normal. Slowly retracting back to his original state.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Mackenzie pointed in a random direction. “We should go this way. Follow me you guys!”

  Trace reluctantly followed Mackenzie and the man deeper into the maze.

  It was pure silence as they walked, no words spoken until Mackenzie broke the tension.

  “We should introduce ourselves, you know?” Mackenzie said. “I’ll start first. My name’s Mackenzie Kojaku. I’m a very popular music idol. Nineteen years old. That’s a gist of me. Whose next?”

  “My name is Justin Rivas-Jones, eighteen years old,” he said, his voice calm. “I come from a coastal village called Bajora’s Wake, and I made a vow to protect others.

  “You're eighteen?” Mackenzie asked. “I would’ve guessed you were in your mid twenties.”

  “Anyways, what about you?” said Mackenzie as he looked towards Trace.

  Trace hesitated for a moment; he didn’t fully trust Mackenzie. “My name is Trace Baker and I’m eighteen.”

  A long pause.

  Mackenzie spoke. “That’s it? Come on, nothing you’d like to share?”

  “I’m also from a small town called Nisim, where I was trained by my mentor.”

  “Interesting,” Mackenzie said as he rubbed his chin. He eyed Trace’s arm. “What’s up with the bandages? You got a nasty scar under there?”

  “Uh, yeah, yeah,” Trace responded. “Totally gross.”

  Justin stopped walking. “Wait. Do you guys see that?”

  He pointed forward. Trace and Mackenzie both whipped their heads forward.

  Barely visible was an old woman sitting at a long stone desk, just behind her were four armored men carrying halberds.

  “Yeah, I see it,” Mackenzie said. “I doubt they’re candidates, maybe this is a challenge of some sort?”

  They walked towards them. Once they got close enough the woman said, “Time for the quiz!”

  “A quiz?” Mackenzie repeated.

  “Yes,” she said. “If you’d like to receive an instant path to the center of the maze, you have to pass a quiz comprised of a single question. You’ll have five seconds to answer. If correct, you move on. You may only answer number one or number two by the end of the five seconds.”

  “Interesting. Hold on just a moment, all three of us have to share the same question?” Mackenzie asked. “So let's say… Trace here gets the question wrong, does that mean we all miss out on the path to the center of the maze?”

  The old woman responded. “Since you three came here as one, you answer as one.”

  “What do you guys want to do?” Justin asked, turning towards Mackenzie and Trace.

  “Hey! Watch it, rookies!” A man wearing brown robes approached, carrying a black satchel. “If y'all aren’t planning to take the quiz, then move aside.”

  “What will you do?” the old woman called out.

  Mackenzie looked towards Trace and Justin. “He seems pretty eager to me, we let this guy go first so we know what to expect?”

  “Yeah, I’m okay with that,” said Trace.

  Justin agreed, “No objections here.”

  They stood aside, letting the man take the quiz first. She said, “If you’d like to receive an instant path to the center of the maze, you have to pass a quiz comprised of a single question. You’ll have—”

  “Yeah, yeah, I already heard your spiel, lady. Get to the question.”

  The woman began, “This is your question.”

  She inhaled and exhaled heavily. “If you had to lie to protect someone you love, or tell the truth and lose them, what would you do? Say one to lie to protect someone you love or two to tell the truth and lose them.”

  The woman began to count down from five.

  Mackenzie interjected. “Hey! What kind of question is that?!”

  The man held up the number one just before she finished counting down. “You’d lie to them for the greater good.”

  The woman said nothing, and a hidden passage to the right of her opened up in the wall. “Follow this path.”

  The man snickered, “Pfft, that was easy. Hey, kids, it seems like the answer is telling the woman what she wants to hear. Ha! Adios!”

  He walked into the opening in the wall, and the walls behind him closed.

  “That’s nuts!” Mackenzie yelled. “Different people would answer that in different ways. There is no correct answer to that question, and you know that!”

  “No correct answer…” Trace said quietly, then his eyes lit up, “Mackenzie—”

  “That’s enough!” The old woman said. “Not another word between you three besides your answer to the question.”

  The boy with the bandaged arm has figured it out, the woman thought to herself.

  “Here is your question,” the woman began. “Your son and your daughter are both being attacked by a criminal. You can only protect one of them. Who do you save?”

  Mackenzie’s face contorted into annoyance.

  “A stupid question. Old hag,” he whispered. He leaned against a wall. His eyes closed.

  The woman began her countdown.

  Trace looked towards Justin, who made a puzzled face. Justin noticed him.

  The old woman counted down to zero. “You three did not answer the question in the allotted time.”

  “Tch,” Mackenzie scowled as he turned away. “Let's go, guys. We’re wasting time.”

  “Mackenzie,” Trace called out. “We got the question right.”

  “Huh? What are you talking about?”

  “The correct answer was silence.”

  The woman smiled. “Because you did not answer, you boys passed this challenge.”

  Mackenzie made a dazed look. “But, what about the other guy, you let him travel through a hidden passage?”

  Before the woman could answer, Trace spoke. “But she never said he was correct. She only told him, ‘Follow this path.’”

  The wall to the left of the woman opened up to reveal a staircase. “By taking this staircase, you’ll travel for about fifteen minutes underneath the maze leading to the center,” she said.

  Mackenzie bowed slightly. “I apologize for my behavior. Sorry if I was offensive in any way.”

  “You’re fine,” she said. “Meeting people like you is the only reason I do this job in the first place.”

  Mackenzie and Trace were already halfway entering the passage before Trace noticed Justin still deep in thought.

  “Hey, Justin,” Trace hailed from the doorway. “Aren’t you coming?”

  “Yeah, I’m just stuck,” he responded. “What if that happens to me someday. Two people need my help, but I can only save one of them. Then what? It wouldn’t be right to choose one over the other, and I definitely can’t do nothing. And about the question you asked the person before us. Lying isn’t the right thing to do, but it's necessary to protect someone. Telling the truth is right, but you’d lose them. Whether we like it or not, we might be put in that situation someday.”

  “That is the true point of this quiz anyway,” the woman said. “Go ahead and become the best Lancers you can.”

  The three of them entered the hidden passage, the wall sliding back into place.

  “Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue.”

  — Proverbs 17:28 (NIV)