Young Writers Society

Aska jumped at the sound of the girl slamming her shoulder into the wall. Nen did, too, but Aska's jump was more noticeable - his armor clanked together and echoed through the hallway and dungeon.

Why did she keep slamming her shoulder into the wall? There wasn't anything there. She was irritated, but didn't have enough anger to do something like that.

As she demanded they let her leave, Aska took several nervous steps back up the stairs. Nen somehow managed to stand his ground. He wasn't sure how. He just knew he had to face this situation now instead of trying to get away from it.

(Even though getting away from the dungeon and this girl was sounding like an increasingly good idea.)

"You can't leave," he said. "Not right now. I would help you leave if I could! But there's no way to leave the barrier. Aska's tried it. I've tried it. You could go to the barrier and try leaving it, too, but you won't be able to get out."

"So you're basically saying 'hey just hang around for a couple weeks until a witch comes back and curses you'?" Her voice was a bit harsher than she'd meant for it to be, but this was insane and she was running out of patience.

She didn't necessarily believe in all the nonsense that they were telling her. But she also didn't intend to take that risk.

"Where's the barrier?" she sighed, deflating a bit as she saw how scared she was making them. It was clear that they were no warriors. Maybe I can just kill this Tieth and break the curses for all of us. "Take me."

Nen didn't want to word it that way, but he knew she was right.

He also knew there wasn't really anything they could do about this situation. He had been like this for months now. Aska had been the way he was for a countless period of time that Nen couldn't even begin to fathom. There was no simple solution for helping her get back to where she was to be - especially when Nen didn't even know how she had gotten here in the first place.

Nen took a deep breath.

"Okay," Nen said. Aska gave him a nervous look before heading up the stairs. Nen quickly followed. When he was sure the still unnamed girl was following, too, he headed up the stairs.

The walk through the castle was awkward. The only time he could remember things being this awkward and tense was when Tieth first took him here. He had still be terrified of everything then - of Aska, of the castle, and of himself. The girl didn't seem especially scared, but Nen had to wonder what was going through her head when they walked through the empty, occasionally dusty hallways.

They left the castle and walked through the hedges that led to the front gate.

And then they reached the gate.

"This is the barrier," Nen said, reaching a hand out. He was met with resistance when he touched the barrier that lurked just beyond the rose bushes - invisible but warm resistance. He could practically feel the magic swirling in the air.

As they stood there, an oblivious bird landed on Aska's shoulder. Aska absentmindedly reached a hand up and gave it a little pat on the head.

Jerica followed Nen and Aska through the palace, mind reeling as she tried to comprehend what they'd told her. She wasn't scared of the two of them. It was clear -- to all three of them, she thought -- that she could out-fight them if it came to that. But it was hard not to feel uneasy about being in a supposedly cursed palace.

This is a test.

It was the only rational explanation. The Guild Master must have sent her to a practice world before her actual mission. Guild Master was watching to see how Jerica would respond. So she had to be courageous. Make the Guild Master proud.

When they reached the gate Nen stopped and put his hand up on what must be the barrier. There is no reason for the barrier to trap me here. She walked up to it and put her hand on it, frowning when she felt resistance. No reason.

Her mind flicked back to the Guild Master, wondering if she was expected to be crafty in her escape. She clearly couldn't just give up. That's not what Guild Members did. Ever.

Jerica took a deep breath and backed away from the barrier. Then she sprinted forward as fast as she could. She'd break through. She had to.

Jerica slammed against the barrier.

She groaned as she landed flat on her back. Her head throbbed. Her shoulders and chest ached. That had been one of the stupider ideas that she'd had. She rubbed her face, not bothering to gather herself up off the ground. "Don't suppose you have another exit?"

Before Nen could move from his spot by the barrier, Aska had already reached her side. The bird, startled that its perch had suddenly moved, flew off into the blue skies above.

Aska held a shaking hand out.

"You can technically try leaving from all around the castle," Nen said, "but the barrier surrounds all of it. The only place it doesn't is the entrance to the woods behind the castle, but even that has a barrier around its farthest edges."

Jerica looked at Aska for a long moment. She didn't want to touch him. She was still psyched out from the whole headless-knight thing. But, it'd be rude not to accept his hand. And it seemed like she might be stuck with them for a while. She put her hand in his and allowed him to pull her to her feet.

She brushed herself off with a deep sigh, considering her options.

"Have you tried going straight through the rose bushes?" she asked, glancing back at them. "Or over the barrier? Under it?"

Aska's hand immediately returned to his side. Nen was sure he hadn't missed her hesitation, either.

But before he could comment on it, she started asking questions. Nen's mind immediately flickered back to his first days in the castle - all of the answers were things he knew from experience.

"Yes to all three," he confirmed, giving a sheepish smile. He rubbed the back of his neck. "I couldn't get past the rose bushes. I fell into the rosebushes when I tried flying over the gate. And when I tried digging under it, the shovel hit the barrier."

Jerica groaned again and rubbed her face, frustrated. I'm running out of ideas, Guild Master. She rubbed her wrist hoping with everything within her that Guild Master would answer. But she was met by silence.

She sighed deeply, looking at Nen. "Do you have any rum?"

Nen was silent for a moment.

Then he gulped.

"...No," he finally said, his voice awkward and quiet. "We don't."

"Of course, you don't." Jerica sighed again. "Very well. What now, then?"

...That was a very good question.

Nen mulled over it for a moment. The bird, which had been flying nearby and observing the group for the past minute, decided it didn't mind if its perch occasionally moved and landed back on Aska's shoulder.

"Well," Nen said, "we were in the middle of cleaning out the dungeon. But that would be rude to do while you're here..."

He gave a smile that accidentally showed all of his very sharp teeth.

"We could go to the library," Aska whispered.

Nen crossed his arms and leaned up against the barrier. That was definitely a good option. It had comfy seats, a warm, cozy fireplace, and plenty of good books to read if they decided to take a break from talking. Add in how close it was to the kitchen...

"Aska's right," Nen agreed. "We should go the library!"

Jerica couldn't seem to stop sighing. But she nodded, resigned to her fate. At least, if she was going to be trapped here, it seemed like the people she was with were decent enough company. And, she quite liked books.

"Alright." She took a step towards them. They walked in silence for a few steps. She cleared her throat. "So... how long have you been here?"

Nen had to think about it for a moment before he settled on how long. It was easy for time to fly by here when it was just him and Aska doing whatever they wanted each day.

"Almost a year, I think?" he guessed. "Maybe nine or ten months. We're not sure how long Aska's been here, though - he doesn't remember much before we first met."

Aska fell into step beside him as he narrowly avoided a rose bush he had flown into the other day. He still cringed when he saw the claw marks in the bush. After all this time, he still couldn't perfect a landing.

"It's almost ten months," Aska quietly corrected. After a moment of hesitation, he grabbed onto Nen's hand with his own shaking one - seemingly still a little afraid of their guest (?). Nen gave his hand a squeeze that Aska couldn't entirely feel. "Tieth came twenty-one times every two weeks since you got here. That's forty-two weeks. Nine months is thirty-nine weeks."

Nen blinked and glanced over at Aska.

"That's making my head hurt," he said.

Aska stared at the ground. "It's, um, simple math..."

"But you did it all in your head!" Nen protested. "I couldn't ever do that, even after years of getting math drilled into my head by tut-"

He froze, suddenly remembering his earlier decision to not mention being a prince. Giving a very, very nervous laugh, he rushed on ahead - dragging a confused Aska along with him.

"-by teachers!" he corrected. "By the teachers my village was lucky enough to have, thanks to the, uh, kindness of Laetae's prince. Who happened to stop by. On a trip. To do prince things."

Jerica felt herself bristling as Aska started rattling off math like it was nothing. Gloating, really. It seemed like people who were good at math never stopped talking about how amazingly good they were at math. Then pretending like it wasn't a big deal and calling it 'simple' so that you'd feel even dumber and worse about yourself.

But, then, Nen started being awkwarder. Again.

"His 'prince things' included randomly hauling a teacher to a random village to drill math facts into a random boy?" Jerica asked skeptically. She wasn't quite sure what his game was, but it was clear he was hiding something. Or, trying to. He wasn't doing a particularly good job of it.

If he's going to lie about who he is, maybe I should too. It's not like Levin would ransom her even if they knew she was a princess, so no point in sharing that information. Much better to just grouch around and hope she annoyed them enough they just kicked her out.

"Yes?" Nen asked, glancing over his shoulder to look back at her. He was glad scales covered most of his face right now. He could feel his cheeks burning underneath them. Az had always said he was a terrible liar, but it wasn't like that was something he could really change.

He looked back at the path ahead. Thankfully, they were almost at the doors now.

"And it, uh, wasn't just me," Nen quickly corrected. "It was all the children in our village. He, um, felt bad for us. Because it was his first time out of the castle alone and he hadn't, er, realized how bad the education system was in rural parts of Laetae?"