Marius looked at the private investigator knowing that his complicated feelings weren’t showing through his skull. He no longer had any of the muscles that allowed him to smile or frown. He knew that if he could, the private investigator would be able to see the grin on his face fall a few times during their conversation.

  Though she was nothing like the inspector who hunted him down for the sake of the law, he couldn’t help but imagine the look of dark pride on her face that he remembered on the face of Inspector Aelius when he had taken everything Marius had left aside from his infamy. It was the look of a hunter who was close to catching his prey. Where was the justice in what he did. That smile was what had chased the Violet Shadow into the labyrinth in the first place. He didn’t want to be caught. He had people to save.

  The private investigator looked at him surprised. “You want to come with me to the treasure?”

  He spun the dagger in his hand. It had been a while since he had a knife and though it had been eighty-something years, it felt almost exactly the same as he remembered.

  The main difference was that there was no longer any flesh padding on his bones. “Not want to go with you, need to. You already know that I found the treasure. I know where it is. I wasn’t kidding when I said there are traps between here and there, as well as a wraith that wanders the entire labyrinth. I fear that if I leave you alone you will end up dead. You could use a trained assassin on your side.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t need help from an assassin. I can protect myself.” The word ‘assassin’ came out with a strong tone of disgust.

  He laughed. He didn’t know why. It could be fun to mess with people like this private investigator, especially after what he had been through. “The only person I can kill here is you, and I suppose myself if I decide to just tell you everything. I don’t want to do that though. I really am planning on protecting you even if you wouldn’t do the same for me.”

  He held the dagger in front of his face and inspected it. It was a good bit of craftsmanship. There was a name engraved on the hilt. “I can tell you more about myself as we walk, Isaac, if that would make you want me to stick around. I know that no one I knew when I was alive is still alive and I also know that no one I cared about had any descendants. I don’t see the harm in telling you a bit of my story at least up until I found the treasure and made my wish.”

  She sighed. “Fine. You can come with me, but don’t try anything.” She set her bag down and began to dig through it. She took another dagger out of the bag and held it in her hand before putting the bag back on her back. Marius wondered if she planned on trying to use it against him. Surely she would know that she couldn’t harm an undead assassin with something as measly as that.

  She gave him a look. “I need a way to protect myself if we come across this wraith you told me about. I won’t try anything either.”

  He nodded. “That’s good. It’s a deal then.”

  That was how the unlikely pair began to make their way towards the heart of the labyrinth together. One knew roughly what was to come. The other only knew that she would be able to make her wish to protect everything she had built in the city above.

  Neither knew that the wraith was already at the entrance of the labyrinth with a nose to the trail of Petra Isaac, the private investigator.

  ##

  Marius never knew his parents. He grew up in an orphanage which never had enough funding from the public. He never felt full and he was often cold, but he loved that place. It was the first place he had ever felt safe and there was a knight who often came to visit the children. His name had been Sir Galan and though this was no longer the time of the armoured medieval knights of old with their codes and sense of justice, Marius felt he could look up to the old knight.

  He looked upon the children with a look of sadness and apologized to the matron for not being able to do much to support them. He brought sacks of food and gold to the orphanage, but it was never enough. It was hard to take care of and raise twenty children of varying ages.

  The young Marius looked up to Sir Galan. Whenever the man came to visit with his bags of food, Marius always offered to help him. He hoped that when he grew up he could be someone who helped less fortunate people just like his hero. He knew that it was unlikely that he would ever be knighted, however he was sure that he could join the police. That was his idea of justice, actively stopping criminals.

  The police didn’t help the poor orphans much and though they all kept out of trouble accusations were still thrown their way. Marius felt like he could do a lot of good being where he could begin changing things. He had never considered politics until long after he was thinking this way.

  That is because he would never be able to help people in the way he had planned since childhood. It was an average day when he was playing in the streets. There usually weren’t many people around when they were allowed outside to play. Most people had already either gone to work or were doing some shopping at the market. There were a few stores around though and these were what the few pedestrians through the streets.

  The children would play tag, throw balls to each other, and play any other game that they could think of. Perhaps one of these games was what caused the following to happen. Marius could no longer remember. It had been over a century since it happened and his memory was spotty.

  All he remembered was that he had done it to save a friend and that by the end of it, he held a bloodied knife, standing over the body of his first kill. It was then that his idea of justice first started to diverge from his original idea.

  Isaac interrupted him. “I’m sorry that happened.”

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  They were walking through the halls of the labyrinth. He guided her down different branching paths. He knew it was around there somewhere, not the treasure but rather a trap. This trap had injured him the first time he had walked through here. The private investigator was lucky that she had him with her.

  “Don’t be. It happened ages ago.” He said quietly. He did still think about it though. He wondered how different his life would have been had he been allowed to follow his original dream rather than being taken in by a group of criminals because he could no longer stay at that little orphanage.

  He wondered if the orphanage was even still there. The last time he checked about fifty years ago it had still been standing at least, though doing even more poorly than it had been when he was living there. Perhaps it had collapsed.

  “But still…” she said quietly, before adding. “I also started at an orphanage. They’re still not the best places to raise children.”

  “And I can see that you were able to become what I had wanted to be. Did you have a hero also?” he gave her a look.

  “Yes, no, well sort of. I got adopted and the room that my new parents had set up for me was filled with all of these adventure books. Some were about a consulting detective, that’s one who doesn’t work for the police. I wanted to be like him and my parents helped me realize that the job of a consulting detective is a lot like that of a private investigator, only PI work is a lot more realistic.”

  He put an arm out and she raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”

  “If this is the spot I think it is, if we go any further poison darts will shoot out of the walls at us from all heights.” He points at some almost invisible holes in the simple stone wall. “The first time I went through here I ended up twisting my ankle while dodging the darts. I’m glad that I didn’t actually get hit by any of them.”

  She nodded. “And I’m sure that the magic in the labyrinth keeps it stocked up.”

  “Of course.” He placed a hand on his chest. “I have seen all of the traps go off multiple times and it never looks like they will run out. Also, all signs that a trap has been set off will vanish within a few hours.” Several years back he had tested it to see if he could collect the darts. He didn’t know what he would have used them for, but he was starting to get bored. Perhaps he would have started playing darts against the wall had they not vanished.

  He took a step forward. “The thing with this trap is that it cannot be triggered multiple times in quick succession. It takes a while for the magic to replenish it.” He heard the many clicks as the darts soared towards him. He would have smiled if he could as he looked back to see Issac’s shocked expression. That was the upside of having his bones and spirit being immortal. Some darts got stuck in his bones, but all he had to do was pull them out and within seconds everything would be as good as new.

  He spun to the other side of the dart field. Once all the darts had been shot out of the wall he waved to the private investigator. “It’s safe.” He jumped back into the dart field just to show how safe it was just in case she didn’t trust him.

  She walked to the other side carefully, clearly not wanting to get any poison darts stuck in her shoe. Just as he had said no more darts shot out from the walls. “Well, you’re certainly handy.” She said with a smile.

  He gave a slow nod. “Of course. It’s just a part of me being me. I can trigger most of the traps this way. Very few traps can be triggered more than once within a few minutes.

  The ancient king clearly didn’t consider that people would be coming in here in groups. Greed is a solitary feeling after all. Of course most people I've heard of who have gotten their wishes granted were more than secretive enough to come alone.”

  She gave him a look. “I’m not greedy. I just want to protect what’s mine.”

  “My dear private investigator.” He said as he continued to guide her through the halls. “Just because you’re not greedy, doesn’t mean that many others aren’t greedy. It was greed that brought me here just like many others.”

  She looked around. “Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen any other bodies aside from yours. Does the magic also clean up after those who fall to the traps?”

  “You’re asking me?” he looked back at her. “It’s less the magic that cleans up after the people and more the wraith that wanders it. The wraith is attracted to people who are looking for the treasure, so we should keep going otherwise it will be here to clean up after you.”

  She nodded. “The faster I can find the treasure the faster I can get away from this place.”

  “There’s still a good way to go.” He said. “I’ll tell you the next part of my story.”

  ##

  Because of how he had used the blade, Marius had been terrified. He knew he couldn’t return to his life at the orphanage even if he was still barely a teenager. People had to have already known what he had done. He tried to think of what Sir Galan would do in a situation like this, but he knew that the knight would have never found himself having committed such a crime.

  Marius felt alone. He ran away from the orphanage and tried to live on the streets. It was hard though and he almost died then.

  A criminal gang brought him in and continued to raise him. He did some awful things during that time. He never liked to think of those years he spent in the dark with only the shadows and his new family knowing about those crimes. He didn’t want to talk about them, but he at least quickly mentioned them because those years were foundational in what he would become.

  The important part is that one night he was struggling to go to sleep. Many of the cruel things that he had done for his new family were beginning to weigh on him. He could no longer recognize what he wanted to do. He felt like a pawn, like someone who had no thoughts of themselves. He felt bad for how he hurt other people.

  Then he thought of his former hero, Sir Galan. He was sure that the man would have hated seeing Marius like this.

  These thoughts weighed on him until one day, while out delivering a message to someone else in the family he bumped into someone familiar.

  It was Sir Galan. He looked a few years older than Marius remembered and a little bit shorter also. He still had that same smile and that same sparkle in his eyes. He looked startled when Marius walked right into him distracted.

  “Whoa there, you should watch where you’re walking.” The knight exclaimed.

  “Sorry,” Marius mumbled, not looking up.

  “It’s okay. Wait a second…” Sir Galan placed a hand on his shoulder. “Could you be Marius?”

  Marius looked up and when he saw his former hero’s face tears filled his eyes. “Sir Galan.”

  “It is! You sure have grown up. I haven’t seen you in a while. I asked at the orphanage but the matron said you were gone. How have you been?”

  His eyes widened. He didn’t want to tell his former hero what he had been up to since he left the orphanage. The tears flowed.

  “Don’t worry.” He smiled. “I can see that it’s not good. You don’t have to tell me anything. You can come with me to my home if you need a place to sit for a bit.”

  He shook his head. “I can’t.”

  “Then you can come later.” Sir Galan took out a notebook and wrote something on a page before ripping it out and handing the scrap paper to Marius. “That’s my address. If you come we can have some tea.”

  Marius shook his head harder. “I can’t.” He wiped his eyes before looking up at the man. “Sir Galan. What should I do?”

  “I think you should do what you think is right.”

  At this point in the story Marius in the present day heard the scream come from nearby. They had passed multiple traps just as they had the first one. The two of them were about seventy-five percent to the treasure.

  “The wraith is near. We’d better hurry.”