Clockwork Castle

Megara sighed and rolled her eyes, but didn't bother responding.

Jacob's crying had subsided slightly, just enough for him choke out a few words, "I have to go," he cried, "My prince doesn't want to see me."

Fidel reached out a tentative hand to comfort the man, but drew it back, unsure how to deal with this situation.

The prince stepped forward, trying - and failing - to break free of Megara's grasp. I watched as he extended his hand towards Jacob. He almost made it, but they were too far apart. "Jacob, I...It's not like that. Please don't go."

Jacob appeared caught between running to the prince and cringing away as tears filled his eyes again, "You said..." he said between shaky breaths, "You said you did not want to see me again. I have to go." He was insistent now, but uncertain. Confused.

Megara sighed and released the prince, taking out her knife to remind him not to try anything, "Go on," she said, sounding bored, "explain yourself. I have things to do."

The prince didn't even seem to notice he had been let go - he just darted over to Jacob's side, withdrawing a cloth from who-knows-where and extending it out to him. Despite his eagerness, he lingered an awkward distance away from Jacob. It looked like he wanted to hug him and do more than that, but couldn't muster the courage to.

"Where do you have to go?" the prince asked. He was avoiding the question. I couldn't tell if Jacob had realized that or not, but it was as clear to day as me - he didn't want to face the first thing that Jacob had just said to him. "You look so...so broken, Jacob - who did this to you?"

Jacob took the cloth as if out of instinct but just stared at it in his hands as halting breaths rattled through his anemic frame.

Tears dripped from his eyes as he stuttered out a response, "You did," he said quietly.

The prince's eyes widened.

Kirux shifted a few feet away - he had been scared of Megara before, but now he shyly made his way over to Jacob and gave him a tight, one-armed around the shoulder hug to comfort him. Something about the action seemed different to me. Not different for Kirux; it fit him perfectly. It seemed different compared to other people.

But I didn't focus on that.

I focused on the prince.

"What...what do you mean?" the prince stammered, his eyes still wide. "Jacob, I...I thought..."

He fell into silence, and his gaze dropped to the ground.

Jacob was crying again, too hard to respond.

Megara leaned against the wall in a facade of relaxation that served the true purpose of relieving the pressure from her leg as she stood. "Well," she said, sarcasm dripping from her words, "I would assume, and correct me if I'm wrong here, he's talking about that little death sentence that these morons," she gestured to her unwilling companions, "insisted we rescue him from. Or do you, as the prince, not have the power to call that off?"

She honestly didn't know why she was getting involved at all. It would be better to just shut up and let the lovers drown in their own thickheadedness.

But no. Here she was. Talking. Like an idiot.

The prince raised his head and stared at Jacob.

Even before he spoke, I had come to a realization that none of us had ever really considered: the prince didn't know.

"N-No," he muttered. "This-This wasn't supposed to happen. This wasn't how it was supposed to go."

He went pale - if I didn't know any better, I would have thought he had just seen a ghost. Then he shifted again, stepping forward like he wanted to hug Jacob but stopping - moments later - when he seemed to understand that a hug wouldn't help.

"...You were supposed to go," the prince said, his voice quiet. "You weren't...you weren't supposed to stay here..."

Jacob choked back a sob and stared at the prince with wide, teary eyes, "What do you mean, my prince?" he managed.

Just then, a great commotion sounded from outside the door. Someone tried the handle, and when it didn't turn, banged on the wood. A robotic voice shouted something incomprehensible about opening the door and the beating became rhythmic as they doubtlessly attempted to knock the door right off its hinges.

Megara didn't waste time, or explain herself, as she went to the tapestry on the wall and shoved it aside to reveal the hidden servant's door. Finding it locked, as these kinds of things typically were when the room's occupant didn't want to be disturbed, she sighed and turned to the prince, "Do you happen to have the key?" she asked, perfectly calm, "If you hesitate, I'd like to remind you that you've got a distraught ex and a lot of explaining to do before you let him get dragged off again or whatever it is you royals do when you get sick of your partners."

I was impressed by how quickly the prince responded to Megara's question - he withdrew a key on a chain that had previously been hidden underneath his shirt and unlocked the door.

"Thank you," she said curtly and vanished into the corridor. The hidden hallways twisted and divided within the palace walls.

Megara watched the corners for the telltale nicks in the stone to guide her toward an exit. She might be in another world, but the servants in a palace like this ought to have some way of marking their paths from room to room just as those in Megara's world did.

It was in this manner that she found the back door, a servants exit into the back gardens. Shadows reigned over the stone walkways and flowerbeds. Fog obscured the top of the wall.

It could be described as romantic, in an eerie kind of way.

Megara didn't waste time taking in the sights. She kept her head down and scaled the wall, finding a shadowed corner in which to do it. The rough stone should have been easier to climb, but climbing with a bandage-restricted and torn up limbs wasn't an easy task. Still, she managed to get over quickly and silently as if she wasn't considering hacking her arm and leg off.

Spoiler

I decided to bypass a bit by just telling it from Megara's perspective because she wouldn't care to make sure that everyone was behind her, so sorry for not giving your characters a chance to respond to the whole deal. You can backtrack if you like and tell it from Kirux's perspective or something to detail where they split, or we can just have one of the gentler characters think about losing track of the group in one of the upcoming posts. I'm not sure.

Spoiler

I don't mind at all! I just wanted to get a quick reply in earlier to move the plot along, so I'm actually glad that you just went for it.

Maybe Fidel and Kirux can't climb the wall because of their prosthetics? Fidel has the leg, and Kirux has the arm - it might be a good way to separate the group.

Also, fun idea I just had: what if the queen found out about Adrian going missing and assumed he was kidnapped by the people she brought there - or just people in general? It could make for a fun confrontation later on when she runs into our ragtag group, right up until someone brings Adrian out from wherever he is.

I felt a chill - an excited one, not a scared one - race up my spine as I looked into the garden. It felt vaguely eerie and more than a little mysterious. It was my kind of place. But I focused back on the situation at hand. We had to escape from the guards that were definitely on our way, and Megara's plan of scaling the walls seemed like the best one at the moment.

The prince - who I realized I didn't know the name of yet - approached the wall before me, glancing back in Jacob's direction before extending a hand out to him.

I started to climb the wall, but heard the prince say, "I'm going with you this time."

Then I joined Megara on the ground on the other side.

Jacob took the offered hand, a swirl of conflicting emotions showing on his face. He then turned his attention to the wall and reached his robotic arm up to grab the top. He pulled the prince close to him and pulled them both up and over with his seemingly superpowered arm.

Fidel stepped up next and stared at the spot where they passed over helplessly. He didn't have the upper body strength to pull himself over, especially so now that his leg was bulky copper and steel rather than the tangle of vaguely leg-shaped wood and vines that he used to control so differently.

He looked at Kirux, the only other person on this side of the wall, and gestured toward the wall, "I can't..." he trailed off, looked back at the wall.

This wasn't good.

When Jacob and the prince hit the ground beside Megara and I, I came to a conclusion straight out of a horror story: Fidel and Kirux hadn't made it over.

...And given both of their prosthetics, I doubted they could ever do that.

"We might have a little problem," I pointed out.


Kirux looked down at his own prosthetic. His gaze slowly traveled up to the impressive wall before them. Even before he tried grabbing onto it with his metal hands, he had the sinking, terrifying feeling in his gut that he'd never be able to get over it.

His lips quivered, and he turned back to Fidel.

The sounds of the guards' robotic voices and clambering footsteps echoed through the gardens, a distance away, but that wasn't going to remain true forever.

Fidel stared at Kirux with wide eyes for a second, then thought fast. He grabbed Kirux by the arm and dragged him into a nearby doorway, another of the servants' corridors by the look or it. He pressed a finger to his lips and kept a comforting arm wrapped around Kirux's shoulders, praying that he wouldn't start crying.



Megara cursed under her breath. As soon as Skull said something, she made the connection.

The others would want to go back for them. She listened to the sounds of the approaching guards. The others would get them all caught.

She resisted the urge to cradle her arm or collapse to the ground to get what minimal pressure was still on her injured leg. Climbing over wasn't an option, not again. She only hoped she could convince the others of that before they did something unbelievably stupid.

She pressed a finger to her lips and gestured for the others to listen, then she turned to Skull and signed, "If we go back, we all get caught. It's better to go somewhere safe for now and break them out later."