[Floor B87: The Paradox Floor]
Rule: All facts are simultaneously true and false.
Objective: Resolve a contradiction that cannot be resolved.
The corridor twisted like a Möbius strip as the trio stepped forward.
Walls rearranged behind them.
Time blinked sideways.
Their footsteps echoed before they landed.
"This… isn't geometry," Calen muttered.
"It's epistemology," Lucien replied. "We're in a floor built from clashing truths."
A voice crackled through the air.
[Welcome to the Paradox Floor.]
You will be shown three truths. Only one is a lie. But which one?
Your exit depends on the answer. So does your memory.
A light snapped on.
A massive hall unfurled before them.
At its center: a spinning trihedron, three faces glowing.
Each bore a statement:
"Naia killed Cassandra."
"Calen never died."
"Lucien was never born."
The moment they read it, a wave of dissonance crashed into them.
Their minds throbbed.
"They're all false," Naia said.
"They're all true," Calen whispered.
"No," Lucien said, eyes narrowing. "They're all plausible. That's the trap."
The floor shifted.
The first Room of Memory opened.
Inside: a flawless recreation of the moment Naia found Cassandra's broken body.
But this time, Naia was holding the blade.
Naia recoiled. "I didn't—I would never—"
A recording played above her:
"I had to kill her. She knew too much." – Naia's voice.
Lucien stopped her from lunging.
"The floor can forge memories. It's testing belief, not truth."
Calen reached into the scene.
Touched Cassandra.
She vanished into ash.
[Memory Source: Synthetic. File Origin: Unknown.]
They left the room.
The trihedron still spun.
Second door opened.
Calen's truth.
He lay in a tomb.
But his eyes were open.
Alive.
A heartbeat monitor beeped beside the casket.
Lucien frowned. "But I saw you die."
A nurse walked by.
"You were in a coma, not dead. The Tower lied."
Calen's hands trembled. "Then… who made me think I died?"
"We all did," the nurse replied. "You asked us to. You needed a martyr."
The room dimmed.
[Memory Source: Cross-verified. File Conflict: Active.]
Calen stepped back. "I remember dying. I remember not dying. This place is rewriting me."
Final door.
Lucien's paradox.
A hospital room.
A newborn.
No name.
No mother.
"This is you," said a woman in Tower robes.
"You weren't born like others. You were summoned."
She showed a page:
System User: Created – Not Generated.
Lucien's name: hand-written in red ink.
Naia said nothing.
Calen stared in horror.
Lucien walked to the infant.
Looked into his own eyes.
"If I wasn't born… why do I remember pain?"
"Because lies can feel like birth," the woman whispered.
[Memory Source: Quantum-locked. No verification possible.]
Lucien turned to the others.
"None of these can be proven. We have to choose one to reject."
They returned to the trihedron.
Its glow intensified.
Each statement pulsed.
"Reject one. Confirm the others. Pay the price."
Naia clenched her fists. "If we choose wrong—?"
Lucien interrupted. "We lose parts of ourselves."
Calen whispered, "Then let's reject mine. Let me be the lie."
Naia snapped, "No. That's cowardice. I'll bear the blame. Say I killed Cassandra."
Lucien said nothing.
Then smiled, cold and sharp.
"We reject mine. That I was never born."
Naia stepped back. "Lucien, if that's true, you—"
"Exactly," Lucien said. "If I'm a fabrication, then I'm the Tower's fault. But if I reject that... I own everything I've done. No scapegoat. No excuses."
He touched the trihedron.
"I was born. That's the lie I refuse."
The hall exploded with light.
One face of the trihedron cracked.
Then vanished.
[Paradox Resolved.]
[Lucien: Memory Rewritten. Status: Stabilized.]
[Floor Cleared.]
The walls folded back.
Revealing a new elevator.
As they stepped in, the Tower whispered:
"You chose your truth. Others chose differently. They are still here."
"This floor never stops echoing."
Far behind them, dozens of figures wandered lost, whispering conflicting truths to themselves—never escaping.
Lucien looked back only once.
Then turned away.