Young Writers Society

It quickly became apparent that the main area wasn't going to provide them with the robot they were in desperate need of, so they made their way over towards the doors lining the walls. It was hard work - neither Charlie or Codix were fit enough to easily move Nadira, and there was only so much they could do to prop her up more.

They came to a stop in front of one of the doors, Codix giving a sigh as he leaned up against the wall beside it. Charlie followed suit a second later, and Nadira was the last member of their trio to use the wall to take a break.

"I didn't realize how heavy you were," Charlie said, taking in a big gulp of air.

"I knew," Codix said, "but I forgot what you're like when I'm like this."

"I didn't realize how weak you were like that, Codix," Nadira replied. Codix started to utter out a word of protest, but Nadira cut him off before he could continue. "Charlie's okay."

Codix let out a puff of air in one big burst.

"That's not fair," he replied. "Charlie should be teased, too. You don't get to pick one over the other!"

"Charlie's not my dad," Nadira shot back.

"I'm not," Charlie confirmed. "And you are her dad, Codix."

Codix crossed his arms. "Well, Mom, I get to tease you, then."

Nadira shook her head, leaning a little more on Charlie to prevent herself from falling over. "Who created me?"

Codix stared, and Charlie struggled to hold back her laughter as Codix looked more and more embarrassed at the thought. "Nad, no! That's gross. I'm not your dad!"

"Who's it?" Tannis whispered, hearing the muffled conversation that came through the entrance to the bathroom.

Pointing her dagger towards the water closet's 'door,' Enide shook her head. "I have no idea," she said, ears straining to pick up on the conversation. She couldn't hear much, other than laughter - curse these thick bathroom walls. "They seem rather amused."

"Don't they know what's goin' on?" Tannis said, head rolling to one side as he rested it against the seat.

"I am afraid that they do," Enide said. "I wonder if they incited it, even - it is not a reaction I can trust, given the situation."

The laughter - small and short as it was - finally died down, and the three fell back into an uncomfortable silence. Neither Codix or Charlie were ready to move it; they still need more of a break. But Charlie still hadn't gotten an explanation, and she was in desperate need of one.

"Why were you pretending to be a politician and his wife?" Charlie asked.

Codix slid down the wall and sat on the floor. "We wanted to get information," he admitted. Nadira nodded beside him. "It's been a long time since we've interacted with people who know what Sixen are - besides Asteri and Signia - and we wanted to see what the state of the war was like. And if anyone who knew me as...you know...was here, then they might be able to figure out where I've been hiding for the past three years."

"Did we do a good job?" Nadira asked, looking like she was strongly considering joining Codix on the floor.

Charlie thought for a moment.

"You did," she said, "but I could tell that something was wrong with Codix."

Codix stiffened. "I thought I was doing good."

"You're, um..."

"...Not the best at improvisation during times of stress," Nadira finished.

"...Oh."

Charlie's gaze swept across the room, and she found the sole person she knew besides them clinging to Télos. She joined Codix on the ground, a little closer to the closed door than before. "Are you going to tell him?" she asked.

"Tell who?" Codix replied.

She raised a finger and pointed in Thytes's direction. "Thytes," she said, a little louder than before. Her voice dropped again - not intentionally, but because she no longer had to clearly say his name. "If he recognized one of you, I think he would recognize the other. And if our plan to get another body for Nadira works, then we don't have to worry about 'Emma' not knowing him."

She hesitated.

"...Also, I think he was lying to me earlier about his family," she added. "I'm not sure why, but maybe it's like with you two."

If she hadn't heard a very familiar name, Enide wouldn't have pushed open the water closet's 'door.' But she knew what she heard - these people were talking about Thytes. That couldn't possibly be a good sign.

"Good luck," Tannis said to her as she walked across the tiled bathroom, pulling out a second dagger. It only took her a minute to reach the bathroom's entrance, but that minute stretched out to an hour. The mirrors on one side of her didn't help; neither did how hot and cramped the bathroom felt. Slowly and cautiously as she had to move, it was hard not to be distracted by her surroundings. But the bathroom was empty - the only danger was at the door.

Leaning against the said door, she waited for anyone to come in, or anything that would give her the advantage if she were to come out.

Brian blinked at Mal's paw. Was he supposed to shake it? Hold it? -No, shake it, obviously, this was a diplomatic event, not kindergarten.

"Oh. Yep. Sure." said Brian. He shook the paw, and headed off.

He started clearing the way for Mal, stretching his wings out for emphasis.

"Medic! Medic coming through!" he called out.

The whine continued to tear through Carter's skull, burning as it journeyed on and left him defenseless on the floor. The ship was in trouble and here he was being a regular drama queen, moping about inside his head.

Flynn's soothing words started to slip through the barrier and Avi...well Avi had at least stayed in close proximity. Carter was going to make sure he got out of this state, even if it was just to tell that boy off for his poor security choices.

He silently thought, "What would Paul do if he was here?"

And then Carter remembered the facts of life. And that his boyfriend, while brilliant, was not very strong on the magical side of things. There was a reason that Paul was an advisor, a teacher, and a librarian at the House of Magic. The man was not fit for adventures taking place in hostile environments.

"Nothing. Because Paul is a fricking wizard and you, Carter Lincoln, are the most powerful warlock in the state of Alabama."

Carter slowly visualized the scene within his mind, standing up and crossing the halls, fully knowing he was still dead to the world. If Flynn could find the right person to open the gate, he could get out of this infernal place.

They once again fell into an awkward silence, Codix's gaze traveling over to where Thytes was hugging a dark-haired man. In retrospect, he knew very little about Thytes - they had only met once before this, and he knew comparatively less about his life than Thytes knew about his.

He heard Charlie move beside Nadira.

Glancing over at her, he saw that she had just gotten up. She gave a small stretch. "Before we keep looking for a robot, I'm going to use the bathroom," she said. She looked around a little bit, but then she saw the label above the door.

"Oh." Charlie looked down at Nadira. "I think I found the bathroom."

Nadira bit back a laugh - and Codix, too - as Charlie went to open the door.

Whoop, someone had started to open the door. In the few seconds between seeing the door handle rattle and watching the door open, a few ideas raced through Enide's mind. She couldn't just stand there - it would ruin whatever element of surprise she was trying to create, and it'd scare the partygoers even more to see someone wielding a pair of daggers. That meant she could either run to Tannis, which would take too long; hide behind the wall to one side of the door, which would be a bad idea if the person coming inside wasn't actually a threat (she couldn't be too careful); or squeeze into the crevice between the open door and a wall. Which was what Enide did.

Only to realize a bit too late that she was stuck in a narrow space. Oh, and anyone who entered the bathroom could see Tannis slumped against the seat of a water closet. Great.

Charlie let out a quiet sigh of relief when she stepped into the bathroom. The Sren's bathrooms had been nothing like what she was used to, but the bathrooms here looked like a fancier version of her school's rooms - there were stalls, toilets - something she had come to treasure after the Sren - and sinks up towards the front of the room. She could even neaten herself up in the mirror before leaving the room.

But just as she went to open one of the stall doors, she noticed that she could see a pair of familiar shoes through the crack between the stall's wall and the floor. She took a step back out of her own stall. That door had been open - she remembered seeing it when she entered the bathroom.

And when she checked in the stall, she saw that Tannis was slumped over on the toilet.

Her eyes widened in alarm.

"Codix? Nadira?" she said, trying to make her voice as loud as she could without screaming - she knew they couldn't draw attention to what was going on, or else someone would see the truth about Nadira. "I just found Tannis in one of the stalls."

"Who?" Codix said, peeking his head into through the open bathroom door.

She faltered for a moment, forgetting that neither one of them had been there for her conversation with Thytes and his friends. "He's someone that Thytes knows," she said. Now Codix entered the bathroom, awkwardly dragging Nadira in after him. Nadira tried her best to limp, but her injured leg refused to move in the slightest ways. Charlie ended up rushing over to the two and helping Codix bring Nadira over towards the stall Tannis was in.

Whoop. That was Charlie, wasn't it? One of Thytes's friends? Enide didn't know what to make of her companions, or why they'd been laughing earlier (those voices had to be the same), but suddenly she felt a little silly. And, with the bathroom door swinging shut, she quickly hid behind one of the walls. It wouldn't do to explain that she'd been afraid and had thought of attacking them.



"What are you kids doing here?" Tannis said, glancing over at the three other people who were now standing in the water closet. "'m fine - I just had a bit much ta drink."

He narrowed his eyes, first focusing on Charlie, then on Nadira. "What's up with ya?" he said to Nadira, staring down at her leg and the mass of whatever it was that was sticking out of it. "Something's off with yer leg."

The three collectively froze when Tannis noticed the gash on Nadira's leg. The observation had been inevitable - they should have known he would notice it, and should have tried their best to hide it. But they had all been too worried by him being slumped over the toilet, and now they would have to deal with the consequences.

...The most important one being that Tannis had been at the drinks table when Nadira was acting as "Emma" and that her husband was nowhere to be seen when she was clearly injured.

"It's silver paint," Codix said. Nadira tried to give a confident smile, but staggered a little as Codix and Charlie tried to hold her up.

"She bumped into a wall decoration," Charlie added. "She...bruised her leg bad, and hit it hard enough that the paint came off."

"It apparently dyes human skin," Codix wisely continued.

Nadira nodded and smiled, tightening her grip on Codix and Charlie's shoulders as they struggled to keep her standing.

Tannis blinked. "I don't think tha's how paint works," he said. "An' I don't think tha's somethin' to smile 'bout, if you're right." He pointed to Nadira. "Weren't ya with that young man? Where's he gone?"

Flynn stayed on the floor with Carter, placing his friend's head in his lap and slowly stroking the dirty blond hair. Short moments of Carter's relaxation were constantly being interrupted by what looked like bolts of lightning passing through his body. Flynn tried to connect to him, tried to feel beyond the pain and hurt, but kept coming up empty.

"Carter, please wake up for me."

He looked out onto the crowd again. If there had been any one in the crowd who could help the situation, they hadn't appeared as of yet. Flynn grew frustrated but kept his calm for the sake of the emotional bond in progress with Carter.

The man in the silver and blue was worried about Carter, but hadn't said anything to the either of them since Carter had fallen to the ground. Looking up to this person, Flynn asked, "Do you know what happened to him?"

Theoretically, Nadira should have been good at improvisation. She had been in the past, and this wasn’t any harder than previous situations. But something about the series of events made her blank, and all she could do was stare as Tannis asked where the "young man" - who was never supposed to be all that young - had gone.

"He's outside," Charlie suddenly said, gesturing in the direction of the bathroom door. Codix gave an eager nod in agreement. "They got separated when the lights went out. Codix and I were trying to figure out where he went when we had to take a break. We're both smaller than Emma, and I had to use the bathroom."

She faltered, and looked a little sheepish.

"...I still do," she admitted.

"How'd ya get separated?" Tannis said. He burped, then tried to readjust himself so he was sitting. No luck; his arms quaked, causing him to slump onto the floor. He groaned and rubbed his eyes, staring over at Charlie and waving her off. The lion wasn't going to waste anyone's time. "Weren't ya together? We were, anyways." He had the feeling that was something he wasn't supposed to say, but he was reasonably sure Enide had also figured out they weren't harmful. If she was still hiding, that was her loss.



Hng. Brian had shaken hands with him, then ran into the crowd while screaming that the lion was a medic. Mal suddenly regretted having struck up a conversation with him.

Still, Mal followed the path Brian had made. It led him to a few well-dressed strangers, one of whom was lying in another's lap.

"What happened?" Mal said, staring the unconscious man up and down. "It doesn't look like he's bleeding. Is he in shock?"