I live here, inside this rock. It's safer in here, no-one can touch me. The Black Guards cannot hurt me. When the Great Comet passes by, it cannot burn me.

How did I get here? The living rock simply grew around me, hard like my immutable heart, and armoured me. It's better this way: through a peep-hole I can watch the labyrinth's febrile inhabitants, without fear that they might entangle me.

I live on the orchids that grow in the dark. I do not grow, but like a shadow as noon approaches, I will twist away to nothing. In a thousand years the rock will split, and my beautiful body will emerge as a fossil, only to puzzle a diligent archeologist.