A Nameless Title

“You did this to yourself. You know that, right, Nameless?” the guard said through his bushy moustache as he walked next to his shackled prisoner. Nameless shrugged, both at his new title and at the accusation. Whether he did or not didn’t change the fact that he was here and there was nothing that he could do about it. Nameless merely reflected on his past life, each step manifesting a memory in his mind only to be replaced by a new one. They knew they were going to The Room of Sentences and Doors, or RSD to people who didn’t care to be so formal. The only sounds that filled the air were their two footsteps and the cling and clang of the shackles. Nameless imagined leaving a trail of memories in the shape of each step behind him, his feet imprinting a different memory with each footstep being left on the checkered-tiled floor. “Right?!” the guard barked as he jabbed the end of his polearm into Nameless’s back. A sharp pain shot through him on the outer shoulder blade and he inhaled sharply. “Right,” Nameless said through gritted teeth. “Good. Your acknowledgement means our system is working,” the guard said. Nameless was thankful to be slightly ahead of the guard lest his mild eyeroll might have provoked more physical compliance.

The entrance to The Room of Sentences and Doors, interestingly enough, does not have a door. They approached two large black walls with a gap wide enough to accommodate about three people and stretched farther into the sky than Nameless could see. Despite what looked to be very real clouds, he tried to remind himself that this was still a building. Beyond the opening lay a white room with a large, white judge’s bench which continued to extend to the left and the right the closer Nameless got to the threshold. The bodies behind the bench in their white robes and white hoods draped over their heads also multiplied in his view as he approached. These were the Sentences. Each one basked in a beam of light, casting a dark shadow over their face, the starkest contrast in the room. Bright pillars of light and shadowed heads sitting behind the bench as far as the eye could see. Behind each Sentence was a large, black door with a floating tocsin above, each one seeming to have different symbols on them. A loud gong that seemed to have come directly overhead violently reverberated in Nameless’s ears. He faltered on his feet and everything went dark for a brief moment. After the disorientation, there was only one Sentence in front of him.

The Sentence’s chest was broad through the white robe with fingers draped in white gloves interlaced and holding up a silhouette of a chin. Nameless looked back and saw that the gap was also gone. “Salutations, Nameless. I am your Sentence,” the Sentence’s deep and ominous voice echoed. Nameless knew what he was supposed to say. He had been very much persuaded during the rehearsals he was forced to do. After all, not complying meant being introduced to the nastier end of the polearm that they typically use for discipline. Nameless suddenly felt as if his knees had grown a magnetic attraction to the floor and they crashed down hard. He winced in pain and snapped his head forward. The Sentence was seemingly unmoved except for a slight tilt of the head. “I am not worthy of a name,” Nameless said. The Sentence’s head tilted back to its original position and at the same time, Nameless’s legs lifted back up, as well. The interlaced fingers unraveled and lowered until the hands were out of sight. “You have seen things that you should not have seen. That is your crime,” the Sentence said. “That is why I am not worthy of a name,” Nameless recited. “For that, you shall ask me my name,” the Sentence said. Nameless gave a shaky inhale before reciting the last line, “To what name is given to my Sentence?” he said as he felt his eyes blinking back tears. At that, the tocsin tolled loudly, reverberating through his body. The Sentence exclaimed, “Alighted Labyrinth!” Suddenly, the door behind the Sentence opened and Nameless felt himself being lifted by invisible hands and hurled into the doorway’s void. Nameless didn’t so much as land as he did crumple to the ground as soon as he hit. There was no indication of how deep the fall would have been and no time to brace for it. Once inside, he turned and looked up in the direction from which he was thrown and could no longer see the door. He couldn’t see anything.

Time was hard to keep track of in a place of complete darkness. Nameless had felt his way around for a while to get some sense of his surroundings. He lingered for a moment to find out what the rest of his senses would tell him. He could feel only slight, sporadic rumblings. He needed to make a decision on whether to stay or move. With no sign of anything sustaining him with nutrients or information, he decided to move. He was hopeful that he could learn something.

What Nameless soon learned was that not all new information was good information. He wandered for what seemed to be weeks and was left in a constant state of hunger. If the Sentence was from the Starvation family, he would be relieved since that meant some kind of end was coming soon. That’s not the case now. His Sentence was from the Labyrinth family, and specifically Alighted. He figured the place he was in was devoid of light and not that he was blind. There would be moments when a slight green hue would glow somewhere off in the distance, momentarily giving sight and he saw the black walls and their many passages. The green glow flashed as if the sun was setting in a faraway place and then suddenly the divine blew the emerald flame out. His next crossroad was before him. To go towards the light or to avoid it?

Going towards the light would give him the greatest understanding of this place and decided to go towards it. While moving towards the last direction of the most recent flash, he felt what appeared to be fauna with different textures. He couldn’t keep time, but he could count his steps. 1,839,658 give or take until he found his first plant. His fingers traced along the stems and felt what appeared to be fruit. With trembling hands, he voraciously stuffed them in his mouth. He felt energized, and life was restored to his weakened muscles. This renewed vigor would allow him to move faster. He picked a few pieces of the small fruit and kept them in his cupped hand since he had nowhere also to store them.

Step 7,639,132, give or take, was where Nameless began to discover the dangers that dwell in the dark. His feet tripped over something that fortunately helped him stop short of a trap that sent something whooshing over his head that would have otherwise been at his mid-torso. He later discovered that while feeling with his hands that he tripped over legs with a missing torso. The disturbing aspect was, while he felt the liquid that was clearly blood, the legs kept moving as if trying to walk. Being cut in half wasn’t a part of this poor, nameless soul’s Sentence. Figuring this place out would be impossible with such a handicap. Nameless knew he had to be especially careful now.

One problem with counting steps comes from the whether to count tripped steps or not. They aren’t whole steps. If he accounted for those, he would have to add 10,039,785 steps to his current count. Also, what about the times he had to backtrack like he just had to do 107 steps ago due to what felt like a missing flooring? Lost in thought, Nameless didn’t notice the faint breathing that he was walking towards. His attuned ears soon picked up on the other set of lungs nearby, but knew his carelessness got him much closer than he would have preferred. He stopped immediately. Whatever was out there could have already detected him. Only the sound of his and the other’s breathing filled his ears. He decided to start counting in his head. At around 4,557 the other began to growl and the growling sounded as if it were coming closer. Nameless burst into a sprint and heard a loud shriek behind him with the hairs of his neck sticking up. Whatever this thing was, it quickly gave chase with ferocious speed. From the sounds of it, he would never be able to outrun it, but he would be damned if he didn’t try. He slowed to round the corners, and exploded into a full sprint on the remembered straightaways. This wasn’t going to last though. The creature was only a few feet behind him now. It shrieked loudly and sounded as if to approach at an astounding speed. At that moment, a green light flashed and Nameless saw what looked to be a hybrid of a large rodent and a human lunging towards him with sharp claws extended forward. In his peripheral, Nameless saw the floorless section from earlier immediately to his left. He quickly dropped down underneath the airborne creature and used his shoulder to brace against the wall for support as he used his legs to strike. With a hard crack against the ribs, the impact hurled beast far enough to have the shrieks disappear into the abyss.

The last flash of green light was the closest it had ever been, which was a profound discovery. Before, each flash came from a different direction. So, it was hard to tell if Nameless was ever making any progress. This flash was within possibly 10,000 steps. He stored one of the small fruits in a pocket of cut skin and, after fishing it out, ate one for needed energy to move hastily towards the last known direction of the flash. He quickly began to move. After 13,023 steps, he experienced the very thing that has been devoid in his world for tens of millions of steps and it was illuminating from what looked to be a humanoid body. There were faint, green, glowing markings on the body, a collage of images and letters, nothing that Nameless could decipher. The light was dim enough to make out the outline, but not to detail anything else. He tried speaking, but only a hoarse exhale came. He swallowed hard and tried again. “H-hello?” he called. The figure turned and strands of hair as brilliant as emeralds eclipsed by the sun flowed from the head. The body still looked to be of the void, but distinguished wide hips and breasts. An emerald roll of silk manifested from her wrists and draped her up to her shoulders until it fell down, creating an intricate jade robe. The addition of the attire increased the brightness exponentially. He was surprised that after being in darkness for so long that this didn’t burn his eyes. This light was soothing. As if he hadn’t even notice that his eyes were on fire the entire time and now, they were being soothed by a cool breeze. Water began to accumulate in Nameless’s eyes. “I do not have much time,” she said in a divine, sonorous voice. “I am being hunted by the Sentences for helping Namelesses like yourself. Judging by your condition, I see you are somewhat new—” Impossible “—but I would understand any skepticism that you have. I will give you the choice. Do you want to come with me?” Nameless weighed his options. This was happening so fast. He thought about his Sentence: Alighted Labyrinth. She was alighted in the labyrinth. A trap maybe? He grit his teeth, gazed at her, and he chose—