Jason and I were escorted down a couple of halls before we were placed into separate bedrooms. In my bedroom, there was a woman already in there. She looked to be about my height, and she looked to be middle-aged. Her black hair was pulled back in a short ponytail. She has a dark tan, and her eyes are dark brown. Everything about her were dark tones, including her clothing. She had a thin rope in her hand, ready to use it. When the guards left the room, the woman approached me and started using the thin rope to measure various parts of my body, such as my arms and my legs. She did not speak much, except for when she needed me to do something like lifting my arm and turn this way or that. When she was done, she left the room, leaving me alone, I assume to get me the clothes that will fit. I take this time to observe the room I am in. It was very pink with white accents. The bed had pink sheets and blankets, and the furniture in the room were white. Am I going to sleep here for the whole week? I wonder what Jason’s room looks like. Is it blue? Our bedrooms back home are plain white, which is what I would prefer. I miss our home.

Not too long after, the woman comes back with a couple of dresses. “Would you like some help getting into these dresses?”

“Yes, please.”

“Which one would you like to wear?”

I take a look at the choices I have. There is a light red dress with a darker red accent to it, a dark blue dress with a light blue accent to it, a plain pink dress, and a plain white dress. I point to the blue dress, and the woman prepares it as I start to undress out of my school uniform. I carefully fold my uniform and place it at the foot of the bed. The woman helps me put on the dress, tying ribbons here and there to make the dress fit better. She hands me matching flat shoes to put on and waited until I was finished. “Does everything fit okay?” She asks me.

“Yes, it does, thank you.”

“Do you have any questions before I leave?”

I think for a quick moment. I have many questions, but what do I ask her?

“What is your name?”

The woman looked surprised, as if no one has asked her before. “My name does not matter.”

“It matters to me.”

She was a bit nervous and hesitant before answering. “It’s Sybil.”

“Thank you. That is all for now.”

Sybil bows her head a bit before walking out of my room. I sit on the bed to collect my thoughts some more. What do I do now? Should I try finding Jason? I wonder who is tending to him. Has Jason asked for his name? Where is he, anyway? I probably should have asked Sybil before she left. Should I try finding her first?

I get up from the bed and walk to my door. I peek out to see who is in the halls. So far, there was no one in sight. Do I walk out until I have found someone? Should I just stay in my room? I want to find Jason. I’ll venture out.

I exit my room and start walking down the hall. I had no idea where I was going. I was walking for the purpose of finding someone. After a minute or two, I have found someone who was able to give me directions to where Jason’s room was. I head to the location and knock on his door, but there was no answer. I open the door slightly to look inside, and Jason is not in there. He must have already left his room. Is he looking for me? Has he gone somewhere else? “Excuse me,” I hear from behind me, “May I help you?”

I turn around, startled. An elderly man stood a few feet away from me, looking right at me with friendly face. I closed the door to Jason’s room. “I was just looking for my brother.”

“After I had him fitted into some attire, he asked for directions to a library. You may find him in there.”

He told me the directions to the library, and I thanked him for it. I follow the directions that was given to me and found the castle library. It was a large room that was filled with books along the perimeter of the walls, and in the middle of the room were tables and chairs. I walk inside for a few seconds before already spotting Jason sitting at a table by himself with books stacked on both sides. As I walk up to him, I see that he is reading a book about the merfolk. “Why mermaids?” I ask him.

Jason seemed startled, but not too much. “Oh, hey, I didn’t see you come in. I’m reading about them because that was what brought us here, so I figured that would be a good place to start.”

“Have you even figured out where we are?”

“A different world, for sure. The creatures that we believe to be mythological are real here. Elaria is the name of the world. Currently, we are in a small country called Auman, home of the humans, and in the kingdom Atihan, and we are inside a castle named the Yielden Castle.”

“That is a lot of strange names.”

“Yes, it is. I got access to a map. It has the countries, kingdoms, and even castle names.”

“Have you tried figuring out about our family?”

“Strangely enough, there are no books or writings about the Winters, so any records that the king talks about are somewhere else.”

“What have you learned about the mermaids so far?”

“Mercenaries. Pay them enough gold, and they’ll do anything no matter the ethics or morals. As suspected, they have an effect on the opposite sex, like how you were drawn towards Leven. I would have the same problem if we were faced with a female one.”

“So do you know why Leven have brought us here? I remember that he said he was looking for something.”

“That, I do not know. We would have to ask him. He did know us, which made him decide to take us here. I believe he was going to take us to his own kingdom. In case you haven’t noticed, our Winters name almost gives us a royalty title.”

“What about the angels that have saved us?”

“I haven’t read about them yet. In fact, I didn’t even know what book to grab to try and figure out what they are. I had to ask around about what they were called. Anselv is what they are called. No one doesn’t know much about them, but I’ll try reading as much as I can about them and take notes.”

“Do you think we’ll stay here for a long time like they want us to?”

“We may not want to, but I have a feeling that they will try to force us to stay when the time comes.”

“What will we do when that happens?”

Jason sighs, “I don’t know. We should learn as much as we can right now about anything and everything, and use it to our advantages.”

The only person that can pull that off is Jason. He is the smart one, always learning and expanding his knowledge. He knows so much already about where we are. Who knows, maybe he’ll figure out on how to get back home all on his own. Should I start reading too? What do I even read? I cannot retain so much information like Jason can. “Should I help with the reading?” I ask.

“I suppose. Try finding a book that catches your eye in the library. I want to read the books I already have here myself, so you can’t read them. Sorry.”

I turn towards the general direction of the rest of the books in the library. Where do I even start? I should find a book that catches my eye. So what book would that be? I walk to one of the bookcases and skim through the different books. What catches my eye? Most of the books have dust on them, which makes it almost hard to read the titles. As I look through the titles, I see one that does seem interesting enough for me to pull it from the rest of the books.

Magic: Types and Spells.