THE BOOK OF THE SPHINX

Somewhere in the world lives a Sphinx who inhabits a maze of timeless infinity. Many have disappeared in search of the Sphinx and the maze, for it is said that he who can possess the book guarded by the Sphinx may know a great secret. And so we take up our tale with the Hero following a path that others have trod yet never returned. He does not know how or where he will find his mysterious quarry or when he may unwittingly enter the maze in which some creature will suddenly reveal itself as the Sphinx. It is but a moment after our Hero has set out when he notices that he is passing the very same scenery he thought he had observed but an instant before. And just ahead of him he sees the same scene yet again repeating itself into infinity. He is within the maze! His pulse quickens with the excitement of approaching triumph. His own image seems reflected in multiple mirrorings on the walls of air that surround him, yet ..... one image is featureless and so nondescript as to defy description. And, above all, it holds before it a small spiral bound volume. It is the Sphinx! With a single bound, Hero leaps forward, clutching at the book which must bear the answer to his quest. But at the very moment he touches its pages, the guardian is gone, disappearing in a flash together with the myriad of mirrored images. Hero looks down at his hands now featureless and nondescript - and sees he is holding a book marked The book of the Sphinx.* He already knows its secret, but opens its pages and starts to read the words beginning: