Daedalus

393 AC - I stroll through the bowels of the City, through its winding entrails. If Memory is our guide, it seems powerless here... as though it had completely turned its gaze away from this place. Normally, all places, even abandoned ruins, are marked with traces of a thousand memories, both happy and sad. Haunted by the echoes of our existence. Ideas attach, infiltrate, permeate… But here, it's the opposite. I feel a void. Each stone emits only its own idea; each door, foundation or chamber resonates with only its own concept, purged of any semantic, symbolic or memory connections that all things intrinsically draw to them. Where has the memory of this place gone? The memories of its inhabitants? Have they been erased? Stolen? This absence, this void, gives a sense of vertigo that leaves me in a cold sweat. I let out a long breath, trying to recenter myself. Because at the same time, I feel the terrible attraction. The one coming from the depths.

And it's clear I'm going to have a hard time getting to it. Few realize that reality is not a fixed and absolute entity, but a flexible structure shaped by ideas. And to counter our current situation, I'll need an idea that's just as powerful as the one dominating this place. I rekindle my inner flame and exhale lightly. Even with my eyes closed, I can feel the Eidolon entering into our reality. The old man that I've summoned smiles at me, draped in a cloak with geometric designs similar to the stones all around us. No one is better suited than Daedalus to navigate the depths of this labyrinth, both real and metaphysical. I know I can rely on him to guide me, especially since my attention is already turned to whatever is lurking down below, prowling the very bottom of the abyss. It's hungry. It hunts all ideas like a spider catching its prey. It's not satisfied. It never will be. It will never stop until the last idea to exist is its own. And then, will it perhaps devour itself? This thing is my antithesis in every possible way...

Daedalus is a character from Greek mythology: an inventor, sculptor, architect and blacksmith of exceptional talent. Jealous of his disciple Talos, he throws him from the top of the acropolis. He is banished from Athens and finds refuge in Crete, where he builds the Labyrinth to imprison the Minotaur. He gives Ariadne the solution to the maze to help Theseus find his way out after killing the Minotaur. To punish him, Minos imprisons Daedalus in his own creation, along with his son Icarus. The inventor then designs wings made of feathers and wax to escape with his son. Despite his father's warnings, Icarus flies too close to the sun, melting the wax and sending him plummeting into the sea.

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