Young Writers Society

"You remembered my voice. That's how I recognize you. I just can't remember your name for the life of me," he said. "Though your face behind the mask, I do."

"Kratzer," he says. "Or Silberfuchs, or Silver Fox, I'll respond to any of those."

"Or Mr. Fox," Viper pipes in with a snicker.

"Ja, if you want a broken nose," he replies, giving her a pointed look.

He had been starting to get his suspicions from the sound of the man's voice, but his face immediately lit up when Kratzer said who he was - no wonder his voice had sounded so familiar. It had been a handful of months for him since that strange incident in the cave, and he had made sure to memorize everything that happened so he wouldn't forget it all if he somehow managed to meet anyone there again.

"I can't believe you're here too, Kratzer!" Maahes exclaimed, then immediately covered his mouth when he realized how loud his voice was. He sheepishly lowered the hand a moment later. "Sorry. I'm just excited. Getting to see James again was surprising, but I'm even more surprised to see you here. I'm, uh, Maahes, by the way. In case you were getting confused."

James let out a small sigh. "Aaaaaand so much for using fake names," James muttered under his breath. He looked over to Kratzer.

"James would be me. Since the cat's out of the bag just... call me that," he said in resignation, with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Okay!" Taber said. "I'll go find him!"

Eremia reached out to pull him back, but he'd already vanished into the crowd. Even if he hadn't just eaten a bunch of sugar (a rare occasion, fortunately), he was fast. Waving (she hoped she didn't look sheepish) at Vala and Aaron, Eremia turned and followed Taber.

He dips his head. "Ja, of course. Pleasure to see you both again. They were back in the same cave we were," he explains to Viper. "But you showed up after they disappeared someplace."

Maahes gave a small, sheepish smile when he realized what he had accidentally done. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "I didn't even think of that."

He turned to Kratzer. "We met another time too, remember? It was when I was younger. Really younger. We ended up in that strange rift in reality."


Vala quickly followed Eremia and Taber. Aaron, on the other hand, lingered for a bit before he went to join them. This entire situation was making him deeply uncomfortable, especially when Vala had made it clear that she knew he wasn't using his real name. To make matters worse, he was stranded in a place lacking any familiar faces. If he had just one friend here with him, he could actually handle the situation.

Boris Dietrich




Damn. I had just begun to make some real progress on a lead, after being mysteriously missing for an entire week, with no memory of what had occurred during that space of time, and now I had gone astray yet again. I think I was having dreams of some shining city above the water, but I paid them no heed, for I was no stranger to strange dreams.

After all, here was I now, dreaming of a masquerade.

I did not recall drinking at all after my return. I did not recall having consumed any prisoner's honey. But I supposed that if I had become intoxicated enough to dream up a party that was this astonishingly lucid, and in such lavish detail, it was possible that I could have forgotten the ill-advised acts of consumption that sent me here.

In any case, I was at a spectacular ball, dressed to the nines, and surrounded by interesting characters. I saw no reason not to enjoy myself while I was here.
There would be time enough to chastise myself for being unproductive later.

I was briefly distracted between dances by a snoring under the table. I saw somebody lift the tablecloth to reveal a young boy in a pink gown and a sleep mask, miraculously sleeping heavily through the music, who seemed startlingly familiar in a way I could not place.

I shrugged it off, and joined another dance.

His eyes widened. "Verdammt, Aen?" he shook his head. "Gott, junge, you've gotten a bit bigger, ja?"

He grinned. "It's been a long time for me since our first meeting. I'd say around twenty thousand years, give or take?"

He blinked. "That's a helluva difference in the flow of time, it's only been maybe four years for me."

"That sounds about more my pace as well. Maahes's time seems to move...faster. Relatively."

As the group wandered through the crowd, "Aaron" continued to linger behind them. He wasn't here to watch them get reunited. He needed to find a way out of here, and fast. He was only going to get that done if he did some investigating of his own.

He broke out from the three and slipped into the crowd. As he wandered through the group of people, he bumped into a man that had been near one of the tables earlier - his stupid hat made him memorable.

"Sorry," he said, not really all that sorry but wanting to avoid conflict when he could be finding out how he had been brought here.

''No problem, my good fellow.'' I told him genially.

The young man in the horned mask seemed uncomfortable, by the way he shrank back from the crowd, and his eyes would dart around the room.

''Is this the first time you've been to a ball of this size?'' I asked him casually. ''Don't worry about it. There's little to it, only confidence and bluff.''

"You've got me," he said. "I haven't been to a ball of this size before."

He hadn't even been to a dance before, much less a masquerade, but that was something he wasn't going to share with a complete stranger. He did have to admit that the words given were a good piece of advice - acting confident and bluffing his way through things had gotten him far before this point.

"You seem like you have, though," he continued, keeping his voice warm and pleasant. Whoever this man was, he seemed to be enjoying himself. That had to mean he knew what was going on, right? All that he had to do was keep him talking if he wanted to get some answers. "Well, this is certainly the best ball I've ever been too. It's a shame I don't know who the hosts are."