EA#02:
The Mountain in the Clouds, Part Three
“
It was time for me to act. The challenge was still on. The players were before me.The two men and the woman waited patiently. Despite me taking my time mulling over my thoughts about their stories, and trying to come up with the right questions for them.
I recalled again the technique my friend taught me for deciding how to choose by feeling. My thoughts were taking me in circles again. It was time to feel my way out here. It was time to sense it, to sense which way felt good and which way not.
So what do I feel or sense about the first man, the one on the left? He told me that his father tried and failed to complete the maze, but saw a secret path straight to the center. If only I were to find the square pool I would be set.
What do I grasp of this man, not through my thoughts, but through my feelings? Does he feel like he is telling the truth? Or is he trying to pull the wool over my eyes somehow? Did he have another agenda with the words he used?
I think I’ve got it!
What about the woman? Did she feel credible? She told me something ridiculous about the maze not really being there, that it was an illusion. Great, and then what? How do I even use that to my advantage? How does that get me any closer to solving the puzzle?
Hmm…
As for the third person, the man on the right… Did he know something that these others weren’t even aware of? That even my host was not aware of? Did he know for a fact that the labyrinth had already been beaten and the treasure already stolen?
Yes. That’s it.
“Ok, I am ready to ask my questions,” I said to my host, as if I needed permission. She merely nodded and smiled for me to proceed.
“First, I have a question for you, if I may?”
My host seemed surprised.
”I don’t recall you saying that I could ask questions only of those three before me. So I want to ask one of you first.”
Again a smiling nod.
“When I ask my question of these three people, how will I know if their answer is truthful or not? Are they bound in any way to speak the truth in regards to my questions?”
“That is for you to decide,” was all she said.
No help. “Fine, I am ready.”
I turned to the first man on the left.
“Sir, I know not your name. But I have one question for you. How did you really cripple your leg?”
“I’m no sir. Think I’m some damn knight? Nah, I’m just a farmer. It was my father who maimed his leg, remember? In the maze? Like I told you?”
I pointed as his left knee, which was bent in at a funny angle. He also leaned heavily towards the right, planting most of his weight on his right foot.
“My leg here? Kind of touchy about it, thanks for bringing it up. Hurt it in the field. Wagon was up the hill from me and I tripped. Thing started rolling and mangled my knee. Haven’t been able to work in a week. Why else you think I’d be wasting my time sitting here?”
“Well, I’m just confused. Was it your father’s leg that got maimed in the maze, or was the story really about your leg?”
“One question!” my host demanded.
”Right,” I said back to her. “But he has not answered my question.”
The winged woman who had brought me to this first challenge glared sternly at me for a moment, but said nothing more.
“Yea, it’s ok,” said the man. “I don’t need this guy questioning my honesty. Ok, maybe I was lying about the leg, but that’s just because, well, maybe I am a little embarrassed about the whole thing. Maybe I was trying to pass it off in the story of my dad. But my father did go in there and see that tunnel. Remember my words, if you go in there after him. Find the square pool. That’s the only way you will get to the center.”
I did not hesitate to ask my next question. I turned to the woman in the middle.
“How do you come to believe that there is no maze?”
She seemed pleased by the question and smiled faintly. Then she spoke.
“How do you come to believe anything?” she challenged me back.
“If I can see it, or touch it, or hear it, or experience it somehow,” I answered.
“So you believe only those things you receive through your senses?” she pressed me on.
“Not entirely. I do believe in the gods, though I’ve never seen them.”
“Then what makes you believe in them?”
“I guess… because of the evidence they have left of their actions.”
“So you believe in the spiritual because of how it affects the physical, that which you experience though your senses, is that it?”
“Ok, I see what you’re doing. You’re trying to convince me that what I believe is the realm of the gods is only so because I must see proof in the world around me. That’s not how I see it. I was just answering the questions you gave me. I know the gods are out there.”
”And I know that the maze is not there,” she returned with a grin. “Look, I can’t convince you of what you don’t want to believe, of those things that you can’t experience through your senses. Only you can do that. You can choose what to believe about that maze if you’re stupid enough to go in there. Just remember what I said. It’s good advice.”
At last, my question for the man on the right.
“What dream did you run away from?”
The man’s demeanor noticeably shifted. He looked morose, maybe even regretful.
“Bah,” said the man nonchalantly. “I didn’t run away from my dream. I ran straight towards it. And it fell out from under me. Just when it was within my grasp. My whole world. The glory, the girl, the gold. I was going to have it all. It was my damn friend. No friend of mine. He botched the whole thing. It was all planned so perfectly. He just had to follow my instructions. The ones I gave him, so clearly. We would have been in and out of there. But he had to mess it up and get us caught. So I didn’t get the gold, the girl didn’t want anything to do with me, and the glory? Well, I’m just living the glory through this these days,” he said, taking a swig from a bottle he held. “But I did go in that maze. And there is no treasure. Don’t waste your time. The gold is gone. No more glory.”
My host spoke up then without pause.
“The three have given their stories and their advice. You have asked them each a question. And you have heard each of their answers. You must now make your choice as to whose advice will help you survive this labyrinth. And decide what you will do next.”
“Well, I will talk out where I am right now. More for me than you… If I take the third man’s advice, I would have to decide not to go into the maze at all. That seems counterproductive if I want to complete the challenge, since I am meant to find the treasure as the center.
“The woman’s advice does fascinate me, but I don’t know what to do with that information even if it were the truth. I still must attempt to traverse the labyrinth whether or not it is an illusion. I don’t know how to implement her belief to my aid here.
“So that leaves the first man’s account. While he admittedly lied from a place of shame, perhaps there is still something to this secret tunnel by the pool. In any case, it seems to be the best, or only, real lead I have in completing this challenge. I guess then I will attempt my own navigation of this maze and seek out the pool and the hidden passage.”
“Very well. You may begin when ready,” said my host, who seemed pleased.
Once I had gotten that far, I thought I was ready to move forward. But somehow my body did not agree.
It was after some bolstering of my spirit that I began to proceed.
I passed the two men and the woman who stood very still and seemed no longer to have any interest in me.
And I walked on to the great opening in the huge labyrinthine hedge walls.
And I stepped inside.
And I saw what was before me.
“
READ PART FOUR
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Thank you.
Blessings to you all.
Matthew