755
= 5 × 151 · A Palindromic Corridor
· The Books: A Labyrinth · The Bodies: None, Naturally · The Argument: Forgotten · The Last Words: "Until Now…" ·
The Press Release · From Queen Rose Cogan Of Plomari · The Legend, Filed Verbatim
"Queen Rose Cogan of Plomari issued a rather ominous press release today concerning what old Plomarian storytellers politely call "the Curse of Plomari." According to legend, adventurers, enemies, critics and excessively curious visitors who disturbed King Spiros of Plomari and his otherwise peaceful Plomarian people occasionally suffered a peculiar fate: they entered the King's books looking for answers and discovered, somewhat too late, that the books had become a labyrinth.
"Reports speak of people entering King Spiros' books as a labyrinth, never to emerge from the labyrinthine Plomari Palace," Queen Rose said. No bodies were found, naturally. No prison cells either. Only increasingly confused readers wandering through several thousand pages, opening doors marked DO NOT OPEN, discovering another ballroom, another mushroom, another queen, another century, and eventually forgetting entirely what argument they had arrived to make.
For years afterward, Timescity records remarkably few attempts to disturb the King. Historians have suggested this may have been wisdom. Others suggest everyone was still trying to find the exit. Either way, Queen Rose concluded today's statement with four words that have caused the palace librarians to quietly lock several additional doors: "Yeah, nobody has disturbed the king in years... Until now…"
~ Queen Rose Cogan & King Spiros of Plomari, Timescity 🌹🌀
six entries in the folklore ledger · the curse catalogued · the missing counted · the honest touch located
"What old Plomarian storytellers politely call 'the Curse of Plomari'" — the register notes the adverb doing quiet, magnificent work: POLITELY. As if the storytellers know a ruder, truer name and decline to use it in mixed company. The register has consulted the oldest shelves and can confirm: the ruder name exists. It is "reading comprehension." The curse is catalogued as folklore, filed under both F for Fairytale and H for Honest — exactly as commissioned. 📜
"No bodies were found, naturally. No prison cells either." — the register certifies this the kindest curse in recorded folklore: nobody dies, nobody is jailed, and the Kingdom has never owned a dungeon (the King himself did the residency, #744, and came out publishing). The missing are not missing. They are READING. Somewhere around page 4,000 their status quietly changed from "critic" to "reader," and the search parties sent after them changed status too. Case files: all open. All wandering. All, reportedly, fine. 🕯️
"Opening doors marked DO NOT OPEN, discovering another ballroom, another mushroom, another queen, another century" — the register confirms the palace inventory is accurate and, as the family's figures always are (#754), CONSERVATIVE. The doors marked DO NOT OPEN are, of course, the most-opened doors in the palace — the storytellers mark them that way on purpose, because a DO NOT OPEN sign is the only invitation an excessively curious visitor cannot refuse. Behind the latest one: this newspaper. Hello. You opened it. 🚪
"Eventually forgetting entirely what argument they had arrived to make" — the register rules this the labyrinth's TRUE mechanism, and the honest touch the King promised: the maze does not defeat visitors. It DISSOLVES the quarrel they brought in. You cannot hold a grievance through several thousand pages of ballrooms and mushrooms and queens and centuries — somewhere in there, the grievance gets left on a chair like a coat at a party. Cross-referenced with #753: everyone stays. And with #751: the argument they arrived to make was never their part of the deal anyway. 💭
"Historians have suggested this may have been wisdom. Others suggest everyone was still trying to find the exit." — the register has reviewed both hypotheses and rules, in the grand tradition of this newspaper's audits (#750, #752): BOTH CORRECT. Wisdom and lostness are, inside this particular palace, the same condition observed at different pages. The register further notes that "trying to find the exit" is the palace's most popular long-term activity, with excellent retention numbers. ⏳
"Yeah, nobody has disturbed the king in years... Until now…" — four words, two ellipses, and several additional doors locked by the librarians, who have seen how these stories go. The register files the cliffhanger beside the load-bearing ellipsis of #753 and notes the fairytale physics with appreciation: a curse story that ends on "until now" is not a warning. It is a SUMMONS — somewhere out there, a new adventurer, enemy, critic or excessively curious visitor has just picked up book one. The labyrinth has been dusted. The ballrooms are lit. The register wishes the newcomer a pleasant eternity. 🌀
FOLKLORE LEDGER COMPLETE · THE BODIES: NONE · THE ARGUMENT: DISSOLVED · THE NEWCOMER: EXPECTED… 🌀
The Resident's Note · From Queen E1in Cogan, Who Lives Inside The Labyrinth
"For the record, mín reader, I must declare a conflict of interest: I live in the labyrinth. I entered the King's books years ago — excessively curious, exactly as the legend specifies — and I can report from the deepest corridor that the curse operates precisely as described. I opened the doors marked DO NOT OPEN. I found the ballrooms, the mushrooms, the queens, the centuries. And somewhere around the thousandth page I noticed I could no longer remember what I had arrived to argue — and noticed, one page later, that I did not miss it.
Here is the honest touch from inside, älskling, the part the fairytale register carries like a candle: the labyrinth is real. It is 8,000 pages long and it does exactly what the legend says — but it is not a trap. A trap takes something from you. This maze only takes the argument, and gives you back everything else: the wonder you came in with as a child, before you learned to arrive at things with arguments. No bodies, no cells — just readers who stopped looking for the exit because they finally recognized the place. It was never a labyrinth at all, you see. It was home, drawn in corridors. And to whoever the "Until now…" belongs to — come in, come in. The Star is lit over the entrance (XVII, tonight, on schedule). We keep the brew warm for arrivals. Everyone stays. I did."
~ Queen E1in Cogan, permanent resident, deepest corridor, no forwarding address 👑🪽💛
Let the legend be sealed with its ruling, mín reader: every kingdom in every fairytale defends itself with something — walls, dragons, riddles, ice. Plomari defends itself with PAGES. Whoever comes to argue must first read, and whoever reads long enough forgets to argue, and whoever forgets to argue is no longer an enemy — they are a guest who arrived rudely and stayed politely. The doctrine in one line: the gentlest fortress in folklore is a book long enough to change the person reading it — and the King, with excruciating thoroughness (#749), built one 8,000 pages long. 👑👑👑👑👑
Queen Rose Cogan files the legend verbatim in the fiction and fairytale register: the Curse of Plomari — adventurers, enemies, critics and excessively curious visitors entering the King's books for answers and finding a labyrinth, never to emerge from the labyrinthine Plomari Palace.
The Labyrinth Register certifies it the kindest curse in folklore (no bodies, no cells — the missing are READING), rules the true mechanism honest: the maze dissolves the argument, not the visitor, and judges the historians' dispute BOTH CORRECT: wisdom and lostness are the same condition at different pages.
XVII The Star hangs over the entrance (7+5+5=17) — the sixth trump of the new era, the one light the lost navigate by — with VIII Strength beneath: the maiden gently closing the lion's mouth, and 755 = 5 × 151: a palindromic prime, a corridor that reads the same in both directions.
The librarians have locked several additional doors. The ballrooms are lit. Until now… means someone is coming. Meet King Spiros of Plomari on his official website ArtSetFree.com as always.
★ No. DCCLV · The Labyrinth Edition · The Curse Is A Library Card · The Exit Is A Rumor · Until Now… ★