The Minotaur's Exit Interview
A labyrinth keeper helps the minotaur resign after three thousand years. The monster's replacement is a polite human consultant who is much harder to escape.
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How it begins
The minotaur gave two weeks' notice.
Mara checked the rota.
"That leaves Thursday uncovered."
"I have given three thousand years."
"I know. I'm looking at the spreadsheet."
Aster sat carefully on the visitor's chair. It had been reinforced after an unfortunate meeting with a visiting prince.
He placed his resignation on her desk.
The handwriting was excellent.
Mara had taught him during a winter when the heroes stopped coming and both of them needed something to do.
"Have you found another position?"
"Possibly."
"What sort?"
"One with windows."
Mara looked around her office.
The labyrinth had many corridors, several ceremonial entrances and no obvious employment policy for anyone who wished to leave.
She opened the procedure manual.
There was a chapter on replacing torches.
A chapter on disposing of abandoned shields.
Nothing on resignation.
At noon, the consultant arrived.
He wore clean sandals and carried a diagram showing a much more profitable maze.
"Visitors should never reach the end."
Aster looked up.
"Why?"
"Retention."
"Some of them come to see their families."
"An excellent opportunity for a group package."
Mara closed the diagram.
The consultant smiled at her as if she had not understood the shape of the future.
"We can make this humane."
Aster stood.
Behind his chair, the wall moved.
It had always listened when he was frightened.
Mara watched a corridor fold itself into a circle.
For centuries, people had blamed the monster for getting lost.
She looked at the consultant.
Then at the resignation.
"What happens if we let people out?"
"We lose the business."
Aster waited beside the door.
Mara picked up her oldest map.
It showed the route he used to leave food for trapped visitors.
"Then," she said, "we may need a different business."
The wall stopped moving.
For the first time, Aster asked where the front gate was.
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Outline and characters
- Aster submits his resignation
- Mara discovers no exit process exists
- A consultant offers a more efficient maze
- The replacement system turns visitors into permanent customers
- Aster admits his fear of ordinary streets
- Mara refuses to train a successor in coercive practices
- They map exits using the minotaur's remembered care routes
- Former visitors help dismantle the false walls
- The labyrinth becomes a voluntary public garden
- Aster takes a job whose door opens from both sides
Characters
- Mara Reed, 45. Labyrinth keeper helping a resident leave his assigned role
- Aster, 3000. Adult minotaur seeking work beyond the maze
Series possibilities
- Aster's new garden receives a visitor who cannot remember which maze she escaped.
