Arthur Names the Ways Out

Once the safe room had become an answer room, Arthur finally named the exits.

Vithyrex's Maze could be escaped through true love, wish magic, portal magic, or by repairing a stationary portal with heart pieces. That made the party's messy heart hunt official rather than inferred. The portal plan was not just a guess. It was the practical route left to people who could not rely on love being clean, wishes being available, or portal magic being simple.

Maine took a short rest and read Timonos Truthstriker's Journal.

The journal corrected the shape of Timonos's tragedy. He had not been sent into the labyrinth on a heroic mission by Ignotus. He had been effectively exiled there. His beloved axe had been broken into pieces somewhere in the maze, leaving him trapped inside a punishment disguised as a quest.

That changed the moral texture of the minotaur threat.

Timonos was still dangerous. He had still hurt people. But he was no longer simply a willing monster. He was Ignotus's abandoned enforcer, cursed, looping, and reaching for broken pieces of the thing he loved.

The party still needed out.

Now they understood a little more of what the maze had already done to the people left inside it.