1. PATHWAYS

The CHILD and The PATRIARCH from distant corridors:
Where am I?
Where is my family?
I can't see anything
Or hear anyone

The APPRENTICE:
How time passes with each lesson learned
Yet here I've remained for decades
Starved of all knowledge
Aside from these walls

The ARTISAN:
These walls are all I've known
Yet I know not of their build
Measured distance is not possible without sense of time
Maze of stone I beg you
Please release me

*Intermission*

The ELDER:
I've lost all those I've loved
Long before the stone
Claimed which was to be owed
No fate befalls me undeservedly

The PATRIARCH:
I will never resign
My blood has strength beyond stone
My will shan't be caged

The APPRENTICE:
My escape is built of mind, heart and will

The CHILD:
I can hear your voice but still I fear those I cannot see

The PATRIARCH:
Follow me not child, I must search
For the ones I've lost alone

The ELDER:
I hear striking of the stone
But know it matters not

The APPRENTICE:
Be gone old man, I must undo these walls

*Intermission*

The APPRENTICE:
All I've learned is cast from hands and mind
Yet I've never known
Known for whom these gifts align

The ELDER:
I deserve to walk these paths alone
Alone I shall be

The CHILD:
I know I'll never escape alone
Give me strength to go on

The PATRIARCH:
I've walked miles searching for
Any sign of kinship lost
Every path is repeating

The ARTISAN:
Lost without my tools
My hands feel no purpose

The ELDER:
My hands, twisted and arthritic

The ARTISAN:
These walls must break before willpower does

*Intermission*

The APPRENTICE:
None have seen my work
My death bears no losses
Still I press on

The PATRIARCH:
Should I have let him follow?
Cruelty befalls me
Left a boy for dead in search of family

The ELDER:
Had he let me accompany
I know he would learn from me

The ARTISAN:
What would he know?
Age renders purpose to dust

The CHILD:
Were I older, I'd survive
A gift of time
Had I known what would become of me
I'd have lived each day fulfilled

The ELDER:
Weakening, with each step
I await my death

The PATRIARCH:
To provide I must continue on

The APPRENTICE:
Should I build of an escape
Others will find purpose in my work

The ARTISAN:
Could the old man have helped
Solve this maze of dark and stone?

The ELDER:
Was I searching for escape
Or was it companionship?

The PATRIARCH:
I must find the child
And provide companionship in death

The APPRENTICE:
Voices
I can hear your voices

The PATRIARCH:
Someone approaches, if I die
I want it to be
Within the company of those I've left behind

The CHILD:
He's come back for me
I grow weary
I would rather die in someone's arms then die alone

The APPRENTICE:
I can feel the presence of four others

The ELDER:
Reveal from darkness those who shall inherit light

The ARTISAN:
Forgive me, I know now
We are lost only in betrayal of our kind
Let us conquer the stone as one

The CHILD:
I heard it crack and quake

The APPRENTICE:
Each wall is crumbling

The ARTISAN:
I feel the structure heave and bellow

The PATRIARCH:
I will protect you all

The ELDER:
We've no reason to fear

The APPRENTICE:
Tower after tower
The stone crumbles at our feet
A twisted mass where once our prison stood

The PATRIARCH:
Lord let us have survived the collapse
I just want to see the family that gave me the will to continue

*And with that, light filtered through the dust*

-EPILOGUE-
Once they met each other's gaze, they saw in each other
A separate fragment of a shared soul
All of them knew, from then on,
That the whole of self must subsist of each known perspective
As only then, can full understanding of being exist.