The wall was slowly coming toward them, but they still had time.
"Artemis!" Shouted the boy's father shaking him. "Artemis, wake up-" His son's eye's fluttered.
"Hummmm-?" He mumbled.
"On the wall behind us can you read this?" Artemis Senior aimed his son so he could see the gnomish writing on a screen embedded in the stationary wall. In English it read:
"e^πi + 1 ="
Artemis II squinted at the gnomish numerals in a daze. They seemed to spin. He focused harder, and didn't notice his father nervously looking back.
"I can't..." He began.
"It's a puzzle, Artemis." Said his father. We are in a Labyrinth. If the puzzle doesn't get solved, we die." Young Artemis slumped a bit as a wave of nausea washed over him. Black dots appeared over his vision.
"I can't see it, I-" He gasped, as he felt a sharp glance to the back of his head that set his vision into focus for a moment. "N-Nothing."
"Noth-!" His father began.
"Z-Zero, the answer is zero." The black dots were beginning to blur his vision again but nothing else happened. There was a pause and all he could hear was the grinding of the wall behind him and his father breathing then, he repeated the figure in gnomish. No sooner had he done so than the grinding stopped. He had done it; he had solved the first puzzle.
Artemis Senior had expected a door to open ahead or to the side of them to continue into his predicted Labyrinth but no such portal appeared. Young Artemis's head lulled back, his eyes were shut but his lips were moving.
"Most beautiful, just like her, she so arrogant. Predictable. Next will be difficult more." Artemis Senior set his son down and shook his head. Nonsense, but his son's answer had been right. He felt guilty about hitting Artemis in the head but it was the only thing he could do and, admittedly, it had worked.