Young Writers Society

“Have they made you very mature?” Estella Fay smiled nervously.

Saturn held me a bit closer to his face, muttering a small, “I can guess no.”

I smiled, the very edges of my eyes crinkling and the corners of my mouth upturning.

I shot Saturn a look, just barely overhearing what he said to Heliodor Everett.

"I'm very mature," I said. "I'm the pinnacle of maturity-"

Nathaniel stifled a snort.

Saturn snorted too. I could guess mostly at Nathaniel’s snort.

Achebe stepped back. “There we go. You should be all patched up now. I suggest not getting stabbed, but I take it you’re not one to listen very well to that. I’ll grab you some clothes from the back.”

I frowned at the thought of wearing anything other than my leather jacket, but it was bloodstained and a bit torn right now.

"You say it like I'm the one deciding to get stabbed," I said. "It's not my fault everyone that knows Natty boy over here also wants to kill him."

It was Asmira's old enemies, too, sometimes, but Nathaniel's were the usual ones. It also didn't help that they kept mistaking me for Bartimaeus. Just the thought of him made my face contort into a look of brief disgust.

“It’s called dodging.” Achebe’s eyes sparkled with mirth. “Because notice your friend who they want to kill wasn’t stabbed.”

Saturn snorted again, his chest shaking with suppressed laughter.

I opened my mouth, then closed it again.

Nathaniel gave a smile at that, the prick.

I crossed my arms.

"Well, they usually want to kill me, too," I said. "Since they always mistake me for the guy he used to summon."

"I wonder why," Nathaniel said, deadpan.

I shot him a look. "I'm nothing like Bartimaeus."

"You haven't even met him," Nathaniel pointed out.

Estella Fay frowned. “So. They want to kill you because they think you’re someone else? And I’m assuming they don’t believe you when you say you’re not.”

I nodded in confirmation.

"I don't even look like him on the-" I paused, looking over at Nathaniel. "What are those things I can see things on now?"

"The planes?" Nathaniel replied.

"Those," I said. I hopped off of the table, then winced in pain when I suddenly remembered my injuries. "I don't even look like him when they check, but they think it's some trick and try killing me anyways. And don't even get me started on Khaba and Ammet."

Estella Fay nodded like she understood everything that was going on. Saturn, meanwhile, just furrowed his eyebrows like he was lost.

Nathaniel sighed.

"The planes are different levels of existence," he clarified, picking up on the group's confusion. "Skull can see on them now-"

"Which I could always do," I butted in. "I can just see your Earth's weird things on there instead of just mine."

Nathaniel gestured at Skull.

"That," he corrected. "Skull was saying he doesn't look like the same person everyone is after on those planes, but enemies still think he is."

Nathaniel paused.

"Which isn't a surprise," Nathaniel said. "They act just like each other."

I crossed my arms. "I'm nothing like him."

Nathaniel folded his arms. "You avoid work, always talk back-"

"No I don't," I protested.

Estella Fay kept nodding. “Mhm. Mhm. Planes. People. Similar.”

“Levels of existence. Like Dante’s Inferno but with… the world.” Saturn hummed. “I suppose.”

I shrugged. “Not the strangest thing I’ve heard.”

Saturn opened his mouth.

“An amphibious alien rescued me along with a woman who sacrificed her eye to the ancient ones to be able to change skins.”

Saturn nodded. “Right.”

I blinked. That was new, even for me.

"I...have no idea how to process that," Nathaniel said, which was ironic considering what I knew of his world. Spirits could change their forms, and didn't look remotely human. Some of them probably were amphibious.

I shrugged. “You learn to stop questioning things. And nod and agree.”

Saturn huffed. “You make it sound like you’re being kept against your will.”

“Once a girl that’s still going through puberty flips over a carriage because she’s actually harnessing the power of the wolf, there’s nothing else you can do.”

Nathaniel shuddered, then.

"Why are you reacting like that?" I asked, staring at him. That was a strange reaction, even for him.

"I don't have a...good history with werewolves," Nathaniel said. For once, I was the one that was shocked by something that one of the two of us had said.

"Since when has your world had werewolves?" I asked.

"The Night Police have been a central part of London's law enforcement for a long time," Nathaniel replied, still looking uncomfortable with this whole topic of conversation.

Saturn shook his head. “Artemis isn’t a werewolf. Werewolves are bitten and turn into demon wolves every full moon and attack everyone in a five mile radius. Artemis is an igni. She turns into a fairly normal wolf every night, but retains her mental capacity.”

Estella Fay grinned. “And she’s… very soft. Very, very soft.”