Young Writers Society

Summary of what happened last: Cass and Aspen agree to follow Lira and Rodet, even though they have no idea where they're really going or even who these two people really are.

Aspen quickly hobbled after Lira and Rodet, but Cass lingered behind their two guides. She was nervous. This wasn't the same sort of nervousness she felt in places like the flea market. That had been common sense - more people meant a higher likelihood of doing something embarrassing. But here? Her anxiety was coming from one person in particular - Rodet. He didn't like her. Even if Lira argued with him on the matter for the rest of the walk, and even if Aspen repeatedly came to her defense, he wouldn't budge on his stance. He disliked her to the point that she could have said that he hated her, and she had never once interacted with someone like that.

The last thing she wanted to do was give him another reason to hate her. Everything she had to had to be just right, and even then she knew he still wouldn't like her. If someone was so strongly disgusted by another person during their first meeting, it was clear that they had no intention of changing their mind.

If only she could understand why he hated her so much.

Aspen glanced over her shoulder at her. Cass gave a small smile in return, knowing that she could never explain the reason for her hesitation when Rodet was only a short distance away. She would have to tell her later, and just deal with this struggle on her own.

But Aspen knew her well, and slowed her pace so they were soon walking beside one another. She didn't say anything; she didn't need to. The glare she sent in Rodet's direction was enough for her to know that Aspen understood what was bothering her.

To her surprise, Lira suddenly began to slow her pace as well. Her lover barreled on ahead, completely ignoring her actions. Lira tucked a strand of her light brown hair behind her ear and gave the two girls a warm smile. Even though she knew Lira was trying her best to be friendly, Cass couldn't help but worry that she would soon treat her the same way Rodet had. After all, they were in a relationship - didn't that mean that they were alike?

"It's come to my attention that we never did any sort of introductions," Lira said. The smile remained, her face illuminated by the lights of the lanterns that accompanied them down the tunnel. "My boyfriend's name is Rodet, and mine is Lira. It's short for Solira, but only my dad calls me that."

"Well," Aspen said, giving a grin of her own, "you can call me Aspen. It's short for Aspen."

Lira laughed. It was a pleasant sound that made Cass want to smile, but the urge to do so faded the moment Rodet glanced over his shoulder and stared the three. Lira, oblivious to this, turned to Cass. She saw Aspen giving Rodet yet another glare out of the corner of her eye, this one apparently noticed from the way he sent one back in their direction.

"I'm Cass," she quietly said. She looked down and studied the ground.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Cass," Lira replied, her tone gentle, "especially when you have one of the lockets."

Nervously fingering the locket, she looked up at Lira. She didn't seem to hate her for it like Rodet had; if anything she was like a scientist who had just made a great discovery. She was in awe of the lockets - in awe of whatever they meant, even if Rodet despised her for that every same reason.

The end of the tunnel began to grow brighter. If Cass squinted, she could see the shapes of buildings and people moving about. It wasn't long before those sights were accompanied by a pleothra of noises: people talking in a variety of volumes and accents, livestock being brought from one place to another, and wheels rolling across cobble streets. When they finally reached the end of the tunnel, Cass began to notice a strange thing she would have never expected to feel.

There were sudden bursts of warmth coming from all around her. It reminded her of when the locket had brought them here; the warmth somehow felt intrusive, like someone was poking and prodding her. She stared down at the locket at her chest, but it wasn't glowing again. Even more so, the warmth seemed to be coming from everywhere but the locket. So then where could it be coming from-

"Cassie, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

Cass had to agree.

She had been so busy focusing on what she knew - the vendors selling their wares, brick and stone buildings only a few stories high, the occasional horse drawn carriage rolling down the street, and just the general bustle of a busy city - that she had missed all the little things tucked in between. Things that, under close examination, still managed to defy all known rules of the universe. There was a group of kids playing at the foot of a statue, water suddenly appearing in the air beside one of the boys before promptly getting somehow thrown at his playmates, even though he never once touched the water. There was a woman tending to her storefront. As she passed by one of the empty pots, a beautiful array of flowers sprang up from the dark soil. And only a short distance from the four, one of the less busy vendors was reclining back in a chair, a small orb of light illuminating the pages of the book he was reading.

It should have all be impossible.

But it was happening, and there was no logical way to describe it. And if there was no logical way to describe it, that had to mean that it was magic. She took a deep breath to steady herself. There were on another world, and there was magic. There was magic. Of course she had always wanted that to be real. Any kid did. But she had never thought there would come a day where she would actually see it with her own eyes.

When she looked back at Lira, the woman was smiling. "Welcome to Rey. From the looks on your faces, I'm guessing that it's not like your Kansas."

"...We're not from Kansas," Cass hesitantly said.

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence.

"Then why did Aspen make that comment...?"

"It's an expression from a movie-" Aspen started to clarify, only to stop when Lira gave her a blank look. "Never mind."

Rodet abruptly cleared his throat. And even though that should have dampened the mood, she found that she was still elated by their discovery. Even more so, she felt like she had been on these streets before, and that she had been to this town in the past - even though that was impossible. It was just like the feeling with the song and the locket. Was this city somehow connected to her dreams? And if it was, how?

"I'm going to return to the castle now," he said. His hardened gaze lingered on her, but, for once, she didn't care. She knew she had been there before. She was sure of it. "Don't forget to be careful, Lira. These streets can be dangerous."

For once, Lira's tone was cold. Even as Cass surveyed the streets for something that could jog her memory, she was able to take note of that. "I know. I've lived here my entire life, just like you. And, just like you, my dad's important. So you don't need to protect me because we're datin-" He was gone before she could even finish her sentence, having disappeared into the bustling mass of people.

Lira let out a sigh. "I hate when he gets like that."

"Wait, Rey has a castle? And your boyfriend works there?" Aspen asked. Cass forced herself to focus on the conversation at hand instead of the nagging feeling; her search wasn't getting her anywhere, and this was almost as interesting.

Their guide chuckled. "Rey's the capitol of the kingdom," she explained, then laughed a bit harder. "And I guess you could say that - I should have mentioned this earlier, but I keep forgetting that you don't know what most people here know. Rodet is the prince of our kingdom, and I'm the mayor's daughter."

Cass gasped at the comment. Rodet was a prince? A bona fide prince? The closest she had ever come to knowing someone that important was going to the same school as the son of the town's mayor, and they weren't even in the same grade.

Aspen crossed her arms. She apparently wasn't as impressed. "For a prince, he sure is rude. I thought royalty was supposed to be all diplomatic, or is that just a thing back on our world?"

Cass' eyes widened, and she frantically nudged Aspen with her elbow. They weren't just talking about one of the people in charge of the kingdom; they were talking about the person Lira was dating. Even if Aspen thought that Lira could do better - which Cass was also beginning to think - she should have kept it to herself until they got closer to Lira.

But Lira, fortunately, seemed unfazed by the question. She sighed for a second time. Then, looking back in the direction that Rodet had gone in, said, "Rodet's grown up hearing stories of how terrible Telorum is. We all have-"

"We're from a different world, remember?" Aspen interrupted. "Who or what is Telorum?"

Lira studied her for a moment before answering the question. "Telorum is a neighboring kingdom to this. Everyone in the Rexun Alliance knows of it, and every child is told just how terrible its rulers are. It's been like that for centuries, ever since King Kartiel III declared his kingdom would never be a part of it."

Lira took a deep breath.

"Telorum has a golden locket that's been passed down from every king to the next. It's like a symbol of their country - my dad's seen it with his own eyes. He lived there for a time as King Kartiel VIII's advisor so he could learn more about how the kingdom worked. It was during his time there that he learned that there was never just one locket. There was a silver one and another gold one, but both had been lost for centuries."

Cass and Aspen looked down at their respective lockets, then back up at Lira.

"That doesn't excuse Rodet's attitude back in the tunnel," Aspen finally said, keeping her arms crossed and a serious expression on her face. "So, what? Everyone just assumes any gold locket means that someone's allied with Telorum or something?"

Lira nodded. "Unfortunately, yes."

Aspen narrowed her eyes. "That's so stupid."

"It's not really, when you think about it," Cass hesitantly argued back. Aspen never snapped at her, but the prospect of arguing with someone who was so adamant about their belief was never a comfortable one. "The swastika was originally a religious symbol, but after World War II, people started to avoid using it because it was the symbol of Nazis. And in our time, Pepe the frog fell out of use when racists started using it-"

Someone suddenly bumped into her.

For just a moment - just a handful of seconds - the two stared at each other.

She took in every detail that she could in such a short time. How his dark brown cloak obscured most of his features. How she could see a pair of purple eyes peering out from underneath the hood, and how black hair with white streaks framed a face marred by a scar that ran up one cheek. How she saw a look of shock flicker across his face before he pulled his hood down.

She had seen that face before.

"Sorry," the man muttered.

She had heard that voice before.

She reached out a hand to grab onto him, but he was gone as quickly as he had appeared.

She turned back to Lira. "What's his name?" she asked, desperately hoping that she knew it. She had known these streets, known this locket and had known that song. But not a single one of those feelings compared to how she had felt when she saw that man. He was important. There was no denying it. "Please, Lira. I need to know who he is."

Lira briefly glanced in the direction the man had gone, then back at Cass. "His name is Aldonius, I think," she said. There was confusion on her face - she didn't understand why this was so important. "Whenever he's in town, he frequents the tavern I go to. I don't think anyone there really knows anything about him either."

"Can we go there?"

Aspen grabbed onto her shoulder and hobbled in front of her. "Cassie," she said, looking her in the eyes, "you hate going to places like that."

"But he might be going there," she protested. She waited for Aspen to nod in agreement, but all that Aspen did was continue to stare at her. "You don't-you don't recognize him, do you? You're not feeling the same way I am. Aspen, it's like earlier. It's like in the car, and it's like at the flea market-"

She fell silent. Aspen was still staring at her, but it wasn't with the worry she had earlier. It wasn't even close. Her eyes were wide, and she was biting her lip. Cass knew that look. She had only seen it a few times before, but that look was unforgettable.

Aspen was scared.

Cass fingered her locket. "Never mind," she said, quickly turning around so she was facing Lira instead of Aspen. She couldn't handle seeing that look on Aspen's face when she knew she was the reason for it. "...Let's go meet your dad."

Lira watched the two of them for another moment, her face an unreadable mask. Then she nodded, and started to head down the street with the two in tow. Cass lingered behind the two once more, though this time it was because she didn't want to deal with how Aspen felt about her.