Dragon's Maze

But the being had some kind of life to it. In Jace’s mind’s eye, he saw the man turn and regard him. Jace could sense intelligence of a kind coming from this being, so he reached out his mind to it.

“Pardon me,” Jace thought to the being.

“Greetings,” the being said. The voice felt soft, but with a feeling of force behind it. “I am the bailiff. I can provide information.”

“The bailiff?” Jace thought to it. “Are you Azor?”

“No. I am the executor of the bidding of Azor. I was created by him to enact his will.”

“You’re a magically-created intelligence. A homunculus.”

“I have not been furnished with the definition of that term. But you are correct that I am a being created by magic.”

“But you’re just a mind. You have no physical form. You’re bound here, to the Forum of Azor.”

The luminous being put his hands out in a symmetrical gesture, then folded them inside the sleeves of his robes. “I am exempt from physical form, yes. I am a being made of law. I am the regulations and specifications of the Assessment, and I am the mechanism by which it shall be conducted. And when I have made the Assessment, I shall be the one to deliver its verdict.”

When the bailiff said the last word, Jace felt the word crackling with constrained energy. Jace had the sense that this being was connected directly to Azor’s maze somehow, that he was its symbol, or its manifestation.

“You are the maze,”

thought Jace. “You’re the agent of the maze itself.”

“The Implicit Maze is the form of the Assessment, and I am its executor.”

“So you’re using the maze to assess the guilds. From your perspective, the guilds are … on trial, in a way. You’re the judge.”

“It is not my judgment, but Azor’s. The Implicit Maze is the form of the Assessment, and I am its executor,” the bailiff repeated.

“You’re aware that the maze-runners are about to embark on the Implicit Maze?”

“Yes.”

“So, the maze-runners—they will receive something if they succeed?”

“I do not understand this query.”

Why didn’t the bailiff understand? Jace wondered. Wasn’t the whole purpose of the maze to hide its prize?

“Those who’ve been selected to stand trial for their guilds—the maze-runners,” Jace thought at the bailiff. “What are the conditions under which one of them will win?”

“There is no condition under which one shall win,”

said the bailiff. “All shall succeed, or I shall deliver the Supreme Verdict. The success or failure of all of the guilds is at stake.”

Jace had learned that the maze’s purpose was to encourage cooperation between the guilds. But he had to know what that would mean for Emmara in particular, if he was going to send her into the danger of running the maze. “What do the guilds earn if they all succeed?”

“If they prove themselves equal to the task, then the most worthy shall actualize the Guildpact.”

“The Guildpact.” It was the magically-binding agreement that, until recently, had governed the guilds for thousands of years. “When the Guildpact was broken, that’s when you came alive, isn’t it?”

“The Assessment was initiated by the dissolution of the Guildpact.”

“So there will be a Guildpact again, like before?”