Ding
Kismet yawned and rubbed his eyes.
There was almost nothing he hated more in this world than being forced to wake up when he just wanted to sleep.
Although he would never tell anyone this, he didn't really care how serious the problem was, or how many people it affected, if it was going to require disturbing his sleep.
But he had a job to do, so he crawled out of his bed when he heard the ding.
The moment he stood up, a buzzing sound filled the room.
From a table next to his bed, he reached his hand out for a 'sword' that didn't look like it could possibly be functional.
The red blade was curved into a spiral shape. The hilt was made of a cluster of bees crawling over each other and buzzing incessantly…
As Kismet's hand approached the sword, the buzzing of the bees turned strangely melodic, as if they were happy to see him.
Hundreds of them crawled onto his hand, wrapping around it tightly in a braided pattern.
His hand was now effectively fused with the spiral blade of the sword.
BZZZ!
The door of the room creaked open, thanks to the bees pushing it.
A deep brown eye peered through the crack, but only for a moment before quickly withdrawing itself.
A second later, the red tip of a sword slithered through the crack in the door like a snake.
It was moving in a way that should have been completely impossible for something made out of metal.
It was snaking in all directions, and even had the ability to twist in circles. It appeared to be doing all of this in order to observe its surroundings, although there wasn't anything on the blade that looked like an eye.
Once the sword had fully unfurled itself, it was a full ten feet long.
After a few more turns, it appeared to have finished observing its surroundings.
The tip of the blade made a U-turn and snaked back towards the door again. It wrapped itself around the handle and pulled the door open.
Amidst the sound of buzzing, Kismet was standing in a crouched position on the door's threshold.
One of his hand was wrapped in live bees, and the other was held tightly behind his back. Combined with the fact that he wasn't wearing any shoes, and that his curly black hair was rather disheveled, he looked a little bit ridiculous.
Outside the door was a large clearing with an uneven dirt floor.
Dozens of hallways branched out from all sides of the room. The walls were made of the same black dirt as the floor.
There were no windows in the clearing, and no way to see further into the layout of the hallways without entering one…
It certainly seemed like anyone who wasn't deeply familiar with this place would have a very hard time not getting lost.
…They say that when you're stuck in a maze, you can just follow the right wall until you find the exit.
But this is only true for mazes where every wall is connected.
Some mazes have isolated islands, which immediately make this rule useless. You'll find yourself wandering in circles forever endlessly, wondering why you aren't getting any closer…
Kismet removed his hand from behind his back.
His fingernails had been pressing so hard into his palms that they were bleeding. He slightly released his grip…
His knuckles made painful cracking sounds as they relaxed. He winced in pain.
As he did this, he had been holding the sword as far away from his other hand as possible. Now, he opened his palm and moved it towards the bees…
In his hand was a large handful of colorful flowers. The petals were of different shapes and colors, but they all went together well, forming a blue and purple color palette.
The moment the flowers were exposed to the air, the buzzing of the bees raged like a chainsaw. They all flew off the hilt at once and attacked Kismet's hand in a frenzy.
At the moment the red blade landed on the ground, Kismet tossed the flowers into the air with a flick of his wrist.
The bees pounced on them. Less than half a second later, all of the flowers had disappeared! Not even a scrap floated through the air, much less had one been allowed to hit the floor.
Glad you liked it, I guess…
Kismet grumbled to himself.
Boy, wouldn't it be nice if I could keep some of those flowers to myself to admire before bed, but alas, I have no choice but to feed these gluttonous pigs.
Kismet thought this was basically the equivalent of giving caviar to a dog.
Maybe it wasn't the best comparison, because giving caviar to a dog wouldn't be done out of necessity, but this was a different story…
After the bees had finished their morning snack, they wrapped around Kismet's hand, once again forming the hilt of the sword.
A small group of bees flew to the ground and picked up the blade which they had dropped in their frenzy to eat.
As soon as the bees had released it, it had reverted to its spiral form. It retained it's original shape in the same way a spring would.
Although, Kismet didn't think the blade's shape resembled a spring. He thought it was more like the tongue of one of those reptiles, like a chameleon…
He smirked as a thought passed through his mind.
Well, there's already a "chameleon" at the Institute. I wouldn't want to take that title now, would I?
The bees reattached the handle and finished forming the braided pattern within seconds. They were astonishingly fast workers.
Kismet raised his left hand, and covered his eyes with his palm.
He held out his right hand towards no hallway entrance in particular.
The sword tensed up.
"Muirchertach, bring me to the intruders."
Kismet said this in a voice that clearly indicated he had resigned himself to what was to happen next.
The buzzing of the bees escalated into a high-pitch whine, closer to an engine than insects.
Without warning, the sword shot forward at a blinding speed, pulling Kismet along with it.
Before he could even process what was happening, Kismet's face slammed into the wall of a tunnel.
He immediately lost consciousness, blood spraying from his mouth and nose.
With a mind of its own, the sword ripped through the winding tunnel. The path went in random directions without warning, exerting extreme geforce on Kismet's body as he was rag-dolled from wall to wall. The bees kept Kismet's hand firmly wrapped to the sword the entire time.
The sword suddenly stopped, whipping Kismet's body with a painful snap.
About 100 feet ahead, the tunnel opened up into a clearing.
The bees unraveled themselves from Kismet's hand. His limp body dropped to the ground with a thud.
One of the bees flew down and stung him on a visible vein on his neck. His eyes opened with a jolt, and he took in a rattly breath.
His brain finally processed the pain from his injuries.
As he was about to scream, he shoved his hand inside his mouth and bit down.
With a great amount of struggle, he raised his other hand over his head and clenched his fist.
Through the hand in his mouth, he croaked out a muffled word.
"Germinate…"
A chunk of earth broke off from the ceiling and slammed into Kismet's body. He was completely buried in an instant.
Within a couple of seconds, a sapling sprouted from the earth.
At first it seemed like it might have been forming into a tree, but it was taking on quite an odd shape. There were two stumps connected to a central beam, which had two more branches growing out of it. It resembled the outline of a human.
The tree-person's head finished forming. They were completely covered with a layer of bark, and no sign of facial features.
A bark-covered hand reached up and ripped off a strip of bark in the eye area. What was exposed were pale skin and dark brown eyes that clearly belonged to Kismet.
He blinked a couple of times, and stretched his limbs. The suit of bark produced crackling sounds as he broke it in. He pulled his feet from the dirt with little effort, brushing off the clumps of roots that came with them.
Kismet glanced down at the sword that was lying next to the bed of dirt. The bees started to excitedly crawl over his hand, but he waved them off.
"What's the situation?"
He spoke to the cluster of bees with a serious expression on his face.
They flew up to Kismet's eye level and started forming words. There weren't quite enough of them to form entire clear sentences at once, so the first words would start disappearing as the later ones appeared.
"There are two of them. They managed to enter without setting anything off, it's impossible to determine how until a more thorough investigation is conducted. They entered through Hymylä and made it to room two with the trapdoor. Their current location is just ahead."
"What weapons do they have?"
"Only a single bee caught sight of them, so they might have more concealed, but there weren't any that were visible."
"Why would they come here? What reason do they have to think they can win?"
"That cannot be determined."
Yeah, that's about what I expected…
It doesn't matter what they're here for. All those who enter here will encounter the same fate.
You think you can face a minotaur in his own maze?
His eyes focused on the light at the end of the tunnel. He couldn't see anything moving.
I'll need to prepare for attacks from either side, as well as traps. For the latter, I can have a few bees go out ahead of me. And for the former…
Kismet extended his right hand, and the bees wrapped around it once again, forming the hilt of the bright-red sword.
"Fragment," Kismet whispered to the blade.
It shattered into countless pieces. A bee rushed to grab each one before they hit the ground.
The hilt of the sword he was left with had just a fragment left. It was a broken dagger.
The bees, each carrying their own payload, were buzzing excitedly. Kismet held his palm up, and they quieted down.
He pointed at two bees in the front.
"One of you go left, one go right. If this is the last time I see you, you've done your jobs well."
They quickly moved to follow orders and rushed into the light. Kismet heard them go in their respective directions, and wrap around the room.
They aren't being attacked?
Kismet threw a rock into the clearing. Nothing reacted.
He slowly creeped out of the tunnel, and the room came into focus.
Yes, that's right, it's the fountain replica room. I forgot this was here, I haven't visited it in quite some time.
He nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw two figures clad in white bandages and glass sitting on the fountain's edge.
They were staring at the ground, smiles on their faces.
That's why I didn't see anything move, they were just sitting here and blending in…
The two bees he had sent out were buzzing around the men, ready to attack with their shards of metal. But Kismet had his hand held up, signaling them to wait.
Thanks for not attacking as soon as you saw them. I appreciate your battle IQ…
He held the broken end of Muirchertach at the ready, with countless bees buzzing behind his head, their weapons glinting in the light.
"Why did you enter this place?"
The men seemed to break out of a trance. They looked up at Kismet with dreamy eyes…
"Oh, it's you. Hello, Kismet…"
One of them yawned and stood up. As he looked at their faces closely, he realized he couldn't tell them apart at all.