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The prison island of Gotlib. A prison that worked by being so that no one ever knew they were imprisoned. The roads circled and wound, and you could live well anywhere you wanted along them, but you would only leave the island by walking them all the way. Up an unassuming hill, to where the path split in two and coursed further down to the island's only accessible shore. All roads on Gotlib led there eventually. You just needed to walk for a very long time, and to not get lost.
And on that hill stood two guards. The only guards on the whole island. The only inhabitants who knew they were in a prison. The only ones who were actually prohibited from leaving.
Marinette and Kagami shifted their weights and waited, hand in hand. The life of a guard was lonely, but it could be made less so.
"It's been eighty days since anyone came through," said Marinette.
"No. It has been seventy," said Kagami.
No reply came. The guards both kept their free hands on the hilts of their swords, Kagami alertly, Marinette lazily. Even so, both of them saw at the same time the distant shadow who climbed the hill, rising slowly into view. A visitor.
The visitor — or wanderer, perhaps, but to them he was the former — had curly black hair and dark skin, and wore spectacles that perched perilously on his nose. A cloak was folded around him, fluttering in the wind, but his face and his arms were outside, and his eyes were keen. As his feet came into view, the two guards split apart and stepped up to their separate paths.
"Halt," said Kagami, once he came close enough.
"Wanderer," said Marinette.
Obediently, he came to a stop in front of them.
"What's your name? Why are you here?" asked Marinette.
He bowed at them in turn. "I am Max the Wise. I seek to know all that is."
"Then you will know one more thing after today," said Kagami. "One of the two paths before you leads to salvation, the other to death. One of us always speak falsehoods, and the other always truths. You may ask a single question to figure out which path is the right one."
"I understand," he said, as though he had understood long before he reached them. He gripped his chin as though thinking, looking from one to the other. "My question is… you. The one with your hair in pigtails." Marinette straightened up, met his eyes. "If I asked the other one, would she say your door leads to salvation?"
She pondered the question a little while, wrinkling her nose as she did so. Eventually she replied, "She… would say yes."
"Good." He turned towards Kagami then and said, "I'll choose your path. Because if she is the one who speaks truthfully, she would have told me you would lie, and if she lies, she would have lied about what you would say. You are the truthspeaker, so I will follow your path."
"As you wish," said Kagami.
He bowed to both of them once again, then passed by Kagami, his shoes clacking against the dusty paving stones.
Neither of them stopped him. Neither told him that, in order for a liar to speak falsehoods, they needed to grasp what they were being asked. Nor did they tell him that a lie was something different from something false, that liars and truth-tellers are defined by intention and not by comparison with a library of everything. He had gotten his one question, and that was the rule. He would find his goal at the end regardless.
Kagami and Marinette drew closer again once he was out of earshot. Close enough for their palms to meet. They were bound to the same spot, so by extension they were bound to each other. And their hands didn't lie, nor could they tell the truth. They held swords, not pens.
To stand guard was to forget what you were guarding. To stand guard was to become intensely aware of only what was right there with you. All that mattered was the moment, the place, and whoever was by your side.
Their next visitor appeared not much later, cresting the hill with the pride and confidence of a horseman. However, despite his heavy build and intimidating armour, he was walking on his own two feet. Only a pale strip of his face was visible through his helmet's visor. He rose more than two heads above them, and his sword was longer than either of them were tall, broader than either of them were wide.
Marinette shifted uneasily. Kagami steeled her expression. Both of them let go of the other and stepped aside to their separate roads. They were guards, and so they would guard.
"Halt," said Kagami, when they could just barely spot his eyes through the visor. "Your name? Your purpose?"
He took another step forward — but then he planted his feet sharply into the ground and puffed out his chest, the plates of his armour clattering with every movement. "I'm Kim the Mighty," he boomed. "I need to see what's beyond."
"But which path will you choose?" said Marinette. Her unease clearly had not passed, and her fingers drummed against the pommel of her sword.
"One road leads to rescue, and the other to your doom," said Kagami. "One of us only speaks lies, and the other only speaks truth."
"Ask us one question," said Marinette. "Then choose which path to take."
His armour rattled with his laughter. "My question is for you," he said, pointed at Kagami with a metal-coated finger. "Could you take me in a fight?"
She took a little while to respond. Her eyes measured him up and down and he straightened his back further, to appear even a little taller. "No," she said.
"You speak the truth," he said. "Honestly, I would have chosen your path anyway. Your companion over there," he pointed at Marinette with his thumb, "looks far weaker than you. Obviously you'd put the strongest guard to guard the best path."
"Perhaps," said Marinette, "the strongest guard could be a misdirection."
"Misdirection is for cowards." He laughed again, then turned to walk past Kagami. "Good luck guarding. Maybe you'll also be rescued one day."
As he rattled down the other side of the hill, they didn't turn to look at him. They didn't call after him that his confidence might make him underestimate his opponents. They didn't call after him that two matched guards must also be matched in skill. They didn't call after him that there were only two of them for a reason, even though the path towards them could carry an army. He had gotten his one question, and they had no further obligation towards him.
"I don't want to hold your hand again," said Marinette.
The two of them moved closer together, clasping hands once more. It was a mindless action on one level, because it happened every time they were alone; on every other level, they wanted it. To be a guard was to know that you were never anyone's goal, only an obstacle on the way to their true destination. To be a guard was to make your goal be someone else. They had started on opposite sides of their forks; now they stood together in the middle. Neither of them had ever said they enjoyed spending time together. Neither of them would ever tell the other, 'I love you more than anything'. But hands didn't lie, and nor did mouths that didn't speak.
How long had they been here now? It must be decades — maybe. Time passed strangely when you counted it by the number of people walking past.
"I wish people would come past all the time, so we'd never be together like this," said Marinette.
"Yes," said Kagami.
The third visitor for the day didn't take long to appear. He crested the hill and his hair glowed golden; his skin had been tanned bronze by the walk. His eyes were sparkling emeralds, and he didn't walk straight ahead — he fluttered instead, as though he only knew that he needed to move, not what his destination was.
Even so, when he spotted them, his feet gained a direction. They let go of each other again and took up positions, holding their pommels instead.
"Halt," said Kagami.
"Wanderer," said Marinette.
His smile was beautiful, but not infectious. "Hello."
"Who are you? Why have you come?" asked Marinette.
The question seemed to surprise him. "Why? I want to see more of the world. Maybe I'll find something wondrous past here."
"And your name?"
"I am Adrien the Kind."
Kagami cleared her throat. "Then, Adrien, you should know that one of these paths leads to destruction, but the other leads to freedom. You may ask a question, but beware that one of us always lies, and the other only speaks the truth. Use your question to learn which path to take."
The explanation appeared to trouble him. Looking from one to the other, he said, "Why is there a path that leads to destruction?"
"Er… who are you asking?" said Marinette.
"Both of you!"
"Because that is part of the arrangement. If one person goes free, another must always perish," replied Kagami.
Adrien put a hand to his face, as though in thought. "I see," he said, like the words were distasteful to him. "But remember, no one deserves destruction. You should reconsider your choices in life, if they make you guide half of everyone to their deaths.
Neither of them said anything. They just watched him, awaiting his answer.
"But… I will choose your path," he said, pointing at Kagami. "I know this puzzle. One knight, and one knave. You told me how the game works, and in order for the game to work like that, you have to have told me the truth. That makes you the knight," and here he looked at Marinette, "and you the knave."
"Those aren't your words," said Marinette.
"They are my words. So I was right." He smiled then, gently as though to himself. "Goodbye. I hope you have a nice day, and I hope you find something better to do with your lives."
Kagami nodded. "Move forward."
He parted with faster steps than he arrived with, though his eyes darted back and forth as he walked. Even now he was curious, and perhaps especially so of where the other path was leading — but the paths were quickly separated by a sharp cliff, and you could never return once you had chosen a road to walk.
And they didn't call after him that it was unwise to make assumptions. They didn't shout that the game he had played was not the one he thought. They didn't tell him that he had chosen the same path as the two before him or, indeed, the five people who passed through yesterday. They didn't tell him that the roads to be chosen were not what Kagami had told him.
They didn't say that a liar didn't always point to destruction.
As their hands joined another time, Marinette said, "I hate you more than anything."
Kagami replied, "I hate you even more."
They turned their heads together and kissed, fervently. Because their lips could only lie when words passed through them.