Mirai

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It wasn't until the stones had moved to form a passageway that I realized what awaited me. I was about to meet a sphinx.

I hadn't slowed down to think since coming eye to eye with Nox, but meeting a chimaera and now a sphinx was something that felt like from a story. Sure, I had grown up knowing about these ancient creatures' existence, but they had always felt unreal. They weren't like us witches, or vampires, or shifters that a human could mistake for the ordinary. These were creatures that didn't belong to the normal world and that held such power, strength, and knowledge.

They were creatures of the old. Creatures that belonged in ancient myths and legends. Creatures that were slowly dying out in the more modern world. In fact, Nox could very well be the last of his kind, just like the sphinx I was about to meet might also be.

It was all surreal. This wasn't a part of the magical world that I deserved to be a part of. I was just a teenager, rebelling against her home to find a woman I'd dreamed of. I held neither the power, strength, nor knowledge to be allowed into the deepest of myths. Neither did I feel brave enough to handle it all.

But I had to be brave because I couldn't give up.

I took a deep breath, it came out shaky, before I walked through the passageway.

It was another corridor, but it wasn't as dark as the previous one because at the end of it, I could see light.

It opened up to a room that was bright, though I couldn't identify the source of the light. It was filled with shining gold, glittering jewels, magnificent ceramics. And in the middle of it lay the sphinx.

She had her head tucked into her side, but when I stepped in, she started to move.

I wanted to curse everything. Why did I have to wake her up just like I had woken Nox up?

But her reaction was quite different from Nox's. She yawned and stretched, and then sat up straight. Her size, though impressive, was about half of Nox's. She also didn't look as terrifying as he did. A lot of that was because, though she had the body of a lion, her head was a woman's and it had soft features that smiled at me.

"Now, who do we have here?" she asked and tilted her head.

"Hi!" I said, and my voice sounded awfully cheerful. "I'm Mirai. And ehm, I'm looking for a person and I was told by a chimaera, Nox if you know him, that you maybe can help me."

"Nox!" Her smile widened. "Oh, how is that grumpy old beast?"

"He's, ehm, fine, I guess?" I answered and split my hair so half of it hung forward on one side and the other half on the other side.

"Oh, that is wonderful to hear! Now, my help you said?" she continued, and I nodded. "Well, I am happy to give help to such a fine little being like yourself if I can. Tell me, what do you need help with?"

"I'm looking for a woman. She has a mark on her shoulder of a serpent coming out of a pomegranate. Nox said you might know of her?"

The sphinx nodded. "So it's become time for that," she mumbled, more to herself than me. Then she said, in a clear voice, "I can indeed help you with that. But first I would like a favor."

"Of course! Just tell me what." I regretted those words immediately. What type of favor could a sphinx possibly ask of me? What could I give her?

"That's so lovely of you," she chirped. "Now you see, I do enjoy my solitude, but it's been many, many years since I last had a visitor. So all I want is for you to play with me first."

"Play?" I swallowed hard and my eyes fell onto her claws that looked like they could rip me in half in one slash.

"Yes! I will tell you a riddle and if you answer it correctly, I'll tell you what you need to know."

I let out a sigh. A riddle didn't seem too bad. It definitely seemed better than what my imagination had pictured.

"Alright," I answered.

"Great!" the sphinx exclaimed with a bright smile. "Here it comes: There are many different opinions of me. Some think of me as a waste, others as a comfort or an escape. But only those that know me not, will know the true blessing that I am."

I stared blankly at her. When she had said riddle, I had been prepared for one of the classics like "what walks on four legs in the morning, two during the day, and three in the evening". But this one... I had never heard it before and I had no idea what the answer was.

"Could you repeat it?" I asked her and she obliged. It did not make any more sense the second time. "I think this one is a bit hard. Can you give another one?"

She shook her head and her smile was ever so bright. "Oh no, this is the riddle that you get, and the riddle you must answer correctly if you want answers from me."

"What happens if I don't get it right?" My mouth felt dry.

"Then that will be a shame, and you'll have to be on your way."

Why had I agreed to play with her? And why had I agreed on a riddle? I should have asked for other options. Though I was pretty sure she wouldn't have given me any.

"How much time do I have?" I asked.

"I do believe that you are more limited in time than I'll ever be," she said, and my hand shot up to hold the back of my neck over where the mark was. She smiled at my action but didn't say anything more.

I started pacing to try to think. I pulled my hair to one side and wished for an elastic band to make it into a bun. I realized I had lost the rug sack with food Elijah had given me, but I had no idea of when or where, though had a feeling it lay where I had fallen after Nox had hit me. I thought and thought, and more random wonderings came, but no idea of what the answer to the riddle could be.

What was something that I thought was a waste? There were obvious things like trash, but that could hardly ever be considered a comfort or escape. I considered some people a waste of space that others surely liked, but that could not be the answer. This whole running around was actually also just a waste of time, this riddle was a waste of time. If Mom would have told me what she knew, or Nox, or if this damn sphinx would only tell me, I could stop wasting the precious time I had until the countdown reached zero.

I pulled my frustration in and sat down on the floor. It hadn't worked before, but maybe this was the time for a vision. Hopefully, one that could provide me with an answer.

But like when I had tried to force a vision to find the sphinx, nothing came. It really seemed like they only came when they wanted to. I had no control over them. The only thing that seemed to actively trigger them was sleep, considering that I hadn't been able to sleep without having a vision since turning eighteen.

I wondered if that would always be the case from now on. Would I never be able to get a night of undisturbed sleep? Would I always wake up from another vision? I hoped that wouldn't be the case. I hadn't ever much considered sleep, and that peaceful unawareness, as something more than just something I had to do every night. But the idea of never again getting a proper night's sleep felt horrible. It was such a wonderful time to get a breather from everything else. An escape...

"Sleep," I told the sphinx. "The answer to the riddle is sleep."

She got up on her paws, flexed out her claws so that they scraped against the stone underneath them. Her smile had never once faltered during the time I had thought of the answer.

I swallowed the saliva that seemed to be overflowing in my mouth.

You think she got the riddle right? 👀

And do you know any good riddles the Sphinx could have used?