I am writing a short story that has to have 6 characters or less and I can't tell if this counts as a character
Context, the labyrinth in question in question is sentient in the sense that it can make decisions and simulations based on memories of the main character. Which it uses to make the main character briefly think that he escaped, thus causing the main conflict of the story
But it unable to have personal opinions and hold conversation outside of "I was made to keep you here, you must never leave" which is basically a prerecorded message.
While it does understand what that phrase means as in that it is the mission of the labyrinth, it is unable to ultimately understand the phrase as anything other than an objective. (like it sees it the same way a social media filter looks for a face, not how a human sees a face, does that make sense)
Though it might be important to note that the main character doesn't particularly think of the labyrinth as character or a setting and more a problem/conflict. But they only recently figured out that it has at least a basic form of sentience.