_*]:min-w-0 !gap-3.5">"It's a cipher disk," Marcus said, leaning over the second puzzle that had emerged from the Labyrinth Box.

  The wooden surface had transformed to reveal three concentric rings, each engraved with different symbols—some resembling consteltions, others ancient runes, and a third set that looked like alchemical notations. Each ring could rotate independently, clicking softly into different positions.

  "Like the ones they used for military encryption?" Elias asked, gently turning the outermost ring with his fingertip. It moved with a satisfying click, the symbols shifting in retion to each other.

  "Simir principle," Marcus nodded, grateful for the hours he'd spent reading about historical ciphers. "Except instead of letters, we've got..." He gestured at the strange markings.

  "Star signs, runes, and alchemical symbols," Elias supplied, his eyes bright with excitement. "It's a celestial cipher. Old magic often connected the stars with earthly elements."

  They sat cross-legged on Marcus's bedroom floor, the box between them, the desk mp casting a warm glow over their work. Outside, night had fallen fully, and through the window, actual stars were becoming visible in the clear autumn sky.

  "So we need to align them somehow," Marcus mused, studying the patterns. "But into what configuration?"

  Elias ran his fingers through his already chaotic hair, somehow making it stand up even more. "If we knew what message we were trying to decode, we could work backward."

  Marcus frowned in concentration. "Maybe the answer is in the first puzzle we solved? That map?"

  "The map!" Elias snapped his fingers. "You're right. It had those markings on it, remember? At specific locations?"

  They both stared at the box's surface, but the map image had completely disappeared, repced by the concentric rings.

  "Great," Marcus sighed. "So we need to remember what was on the map."

  "I've got this," Elias said, sliding his backpack closer and pulling out a small, leather-bound notebook and a pencil. "I've been documenting magical findings for years."

  He flipped to a bnk page and began sketching, his pencil moving quickly. First, he drew the general outline of the map they'd completed—it had shown what looked like an ancient city pn with seven distinct ndmarks marked by different symbols.

  "The center had a fountain or well," Marcus recalled, pointing to the middle of Elias's drawing. "And there was a tower at what would be the north end."

  "Right," Elias nodded, adding these details. "And an archway to the east, a tree to the south, and a..."

  "A sundial to the west," Marcus finished. "The other two were a fme at the northwest and a chalice at the southeast."

  Working together, they recreated the map, with all seven ndmarks and their corresponding symbols. Elias added a final touch—a small eight-pointed star that had been at the very center of the fountain.

  "Okay," he said, tapping his pencil against the paper. "Seven ndmarks, seven yers to the puzzle box. That can't be a coincidence."

  "And each ndmark had a symbol," Marcus added, looking between the drawing and the cipher disk. "Those symbols must correspond to ones on these rings."

  They began methodically searching the three rings for matches to the symbols from the map. After several minutes, they found all seven—scattered across the different rings.

  "So now we need to align them somehow," Elias said, experimentally rotating the rings. "But in what order?"

  Marcus studied the map drawing again, his eyes tracing the yout of the city. Then he noticed something. "Look at how the ndmarks are positioned. If you connect them in order of... I don't know, importance? They form a consteltion."

  Elias looked where Marcus was pointing and his eyes widened. "The Big Dipper. You're right!" He quickly connected the ndmarks with lines, and the pattern became unmistakable.

  "So we align the rings according to the Dipper pattern," Marcus suggested. "But which ndmark comes first?"

  They tried several combinations, rotating the rings so different ndmarks aligned with each other. Nothing seemed to happen.

  "Wait," Marcus said suddenly. "What if it's not about the ndmarks themselves, but the elements they represent? The tower would be air, the tree would be earth, the fme is fire, and the fountain is water."

  "The four cssical elements," Elias breathed. "And the sundial would represent time, the archway would be transition, and the chalice could symbolize spirit."

  "So we align them in the traditional order of the elements," Marcus suggested. "Earth, water, air, fire, and then the others."

  As they rotated the rings to align the symbols in this order—tree, fountain, tower, fme, sundial, archway, chalice—the symbols began to glow with the same phosphorescent blue light that had illuminated the first puzzle.

  "It's working," Elias whispered, his face lit by the ethereal glow.

  The st symbol clicked into pce, and suddenly, a line of light shot out from each symbol, connecting them in the Big Dipper pattern Marcus had identified. Where all the lines intersected at the center, a small indentation formed.

  "I think we need to press it," Elias said, looking at Marcus. "Together?"

  Marcus nodded, his heart racing at the simple suggestion. They each pced a finger on the indentation and pressed gently.

  The rings sank into the box, the connected lines of light briefly intensifying, then the entire surface transformed again. This time, it revealed what appeared to be a three-dimensional maze, with tiny walls rising from the wooden surface about half an inch high, creating an intricate byrinth in miniature.

  At the center of the maze was a tiny silver sphere, no bigger than a pea. At the outermost edge was a small depression.

  "The third yer," Elias said with reverence. "A byrinth puzzle."

  "Makes sense, given the box's name," Marcus replied, studying the tiny pathways. "We need to guide that sphere from the center to the edge without touching it directly."

  Elias looked up at Marcus with an expression of pure delight. "This is incredible. You're incredible. I can't believe we're doing this."

  Marcus felt his cheeks warm at the praise. "It's just puzzle-solving."

  "No," Elias shook his head firmly. "It's more than that. It's like... you understand how I see the world. No one else ever has before."

  The words hung between them, weighted with meaning that Marcus wasn't sure how to interpret. Before he could respond, Elias turned his attention back to the maze.

  "Right, so how do we move the sphere? Tilting the box?"

  Marcus nodded, grateful for the return to the concrete problem at hand. "Probably. But I'm guessing there's more to it than just rolling the ball through. That would be too straightforward."

  "Agreed. Magical puzzles always have a twist." Elias gently tilted the box, and the silver sphere rolled smoothly along one of the passages. "At least it moves well."

  They began working the sphere through the maze, taking turns tilting the box with careful precision. The paths were confusing—some that seemed to lead toward the exit would suddenly curve back toward the center, while apparent dead ends would unexpectedly open into new corridors.

  "This is maddening," Elias groaned after fifteen minutes, when they'd navigated the sphere into yet another loop that brought them back near their starting point. "It's like the maze keeps changing."

  Marcus narrowed his eyes, watching the sphere's path. "I think... I think it is changing. Look closely at the walls when we move the sphere past them."

  Elias leaned in, their heads nearly touching as they both stared at the tiny maze. As the sphere rolled past certain intersections, the walls did indeed shift slightly, opening some paths and closing others.

  "It's responding to our choices," Marcus realized. "We're not just solving the maze—we're creating it as we go."

  "That's..." Elias seemed at a loss for words. "That's beautiful, actually. Like life."

  "But how do we know which paths to choose?" Marcus wondered aloud.

  Elias was quiet for a moment, thinking. Then he reached for the notebook where they'd drawn the map. "What if it's reted to the city yout from the first puzzle? The maze could be a simplified version of the city streets."

  They compared the maze to their drawing, and sure enough, there were simirities in the general structure. The seven ndmarks from the map corresponded to major junctions in the maze.

  "So we should navigate past each ndmark in the same order we aligned them in the cipher," Marcus suggested. "Earth, water, air, fire, time, transition, spirit."

  They began again, carefully guiding the sphere along a path that took it past each junction representing the ndmarks in the proper sequence. As they did, the walls shifted to open the correct passages, and the sphere began to glow faintly from within.

  By the time they guided it to the final junction—the chalice representing spirit—the sphere was pulsing with light. When they finally rolled it into the depression at the edge of the maze, it sank in with a soft chime.

  The maze melted back into the wood, the walls flowing like liquid until the surface was smooth again. In its pce appeared a new puzzle—the fourth yer.

  "We did it," Elias exhaled, colpsing back against Marcus's bed. "That was intense."

  "Yeah," Marcus agreed, suddenly aware of how close they'd been sitting, how their shoulders had pressed together as they hunched over the box. He could still feel the warmth where Elias had touched him.

  "We should take a break," Elias suggested, stretching his arms overhead. His t-shirt rode up slightly, revealing a sliver of skin that Marcus determinedly did not look at. "I'm starving."

  "Me too," Marcus said, grateful for the distraction. "Let's see what's in the kitchen."

  As they headed downstairs, Elias slung an arm casually around Marcus's shoulders. "You know what's weird? This box is supposed to adapt to the solver, right? Show puzzles that reflect your mind?"

  "Yeah," Marcus nodded, hyperaware of Elias's arm.

  "So these puzzles..." Elias continued, "they're a reflection of us. Of how we think. And so far, we're completely in sync." He gave Marcus's shoulder a squeeze. "Kinda cool, right?"

  "Yeah," Marcus said again, unable to manage anything more eloquent with Elias so close. "Cool."

  As they raided the refrigerator, Marcus couldn't help wondering what the remaining puzzles would reveal about them—and whether the box already knew what his heart's true desire was. If it did, he wasn't sure whether to hope they solved all seven yers or not.

  Because when they did, would the truth be something Elias was ready to see?