The monsignor had told them its relevance here in Chartres might be a metaphor for the soul struggling against its inner demons through the twisting paths of life, a struggle that began with Adam and Eve, depicted in the window above them. The victory of Theseus, and St. George, and Christ in the wilderness, acted out the soul’s chance to regain Paradise; and Ariadne with her thread was Divine Grace, the path to human redemption. Still gendered female, Lucy had thought.

For Alex these ideas had linked with Lucy emerging from her maze, with her new potential to find her own paradise; and it had also shown him how she held the thread for him, to lead him out of his long winter. She’d convinced him yesterday that the labyrinth had the power to create alchemy. It could heal the soul, prompt changes of perception and feeling—if you were open to it. It had for her; and she believed it had for Will. Siân’s white roses, she told Alex, paid tribute to some nascent female strength in her that she’d not yet discovered, as well as stating Will’s unconditional—if not passionate—love. Siân would come to this best part of herself one day: she was starting to now.

The labyrinth embodied a common thread in all belief; and though today seating obscured the beautiful snaking path, its rose-like shape had yesterday filled Alex with an unexpected pleasure. Seeking a mathematical riddle somewhere in this great building, he’d wound along the bends with his love, his feet counting each turn to the middle. And he knew exactly how many there would be: thirty-four turns took them together to the heart of the labyrinth, and thirty-four took them out again. The mysterious church had built in the axis of sun, moon, and world. It was the place where they could traverse time and space, and bring knowledge from another sphere: if you believed in it.

Now Alex held Lucy’s waist as they looked up at the colored angels watching them from the beautiful Rose Window of the Last Judgment. Her distinctive perfume made him smile. A conversation suddenly surged and caught their ear, and the now familiar American voice of Alex’s cousin spoke emotively to Henry, Max, and Siân, whose hand he held tightly. They too were contemplating the Judgment Window.