Room1d
Jora moves through the darkness. Pain accompanies the movement; this must be what it’s like for an infant being born. There is light in the distance and Jora swims toward it.
In the darkness, a rough, ancient voice recites in a sing-song manner.
“White and black
“Black and white,
“You’ll never get it right.
“Black and white, white and black
“Then the white is right.
“Fail and forever wander in the black of night.
“Hahahahahahaha”
The light expands until it fills the world and the members of the small group sit up and open their eyes.
This damned room, again.
The room is exactly how they remember it, a circular room with smooth stone walls of a strange gray.
To their left is a large black wooden door bound by iron straps.
Opposite this portal is an identical door except that the door is white.
The mummified corpse lies as they remember it, forlorn and possessing a letter whose intended recipient has long since turned to dust.
“Was that Faustus?” Safir mutters as if still in a dream.
“Oh Gods,” Lamia says. “Not again; I really hate this room.”
“At least we’ve learned something. If we die in one of the mirrors, we’re not permanently dead.” Jora sounds inordinately happy about this. Knowing that they died is not heartening but at least they’ve somehow come back from the dead.
“Wait, haven’t we done this before? Didn’t you say this already?” Conrad stands and dusts himself off.
Jora’s mind feels like it’s packed with cotton when he tries to remember.
“I honestly don’t know. Everything is so fuzzy. I don’t know if this is the first time we’ve died or the dozenth. How long have we been in here anyway?”
“I don’t think it’s been very long,” Lamia says.
“I’m not sure,” Conrad says. “I feel like I’ve done this many times already.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Jora pops to his feet, taking control. “I don’t care if we’ve done this once or a thousand times, we have to keep trying to escape. Let’s just pick a door and try again.”
What choice should the adventurers make?