Scadlock dragged his captive to the other side of the hallway. He hated doing dirty jobs like this but anything to protect his friend. Plus, the girl was rather heavy. Girl? That hadn’t registered in his mind until now. His face went a bright red. He could already picture Jacien teasing him.

            He placed her next to a pillar underneath a windowsill. The moonlight fell through the window and danced on her bright red hair. 

            “You’re a Matern?” he said.

            She scowled at him.

            “What of it?”

            Her voice was harsh and definitely didn’t have the elegance that he thought a crystal guard would have. She climbed up the social ladder, I suppose.

            He pulled down his hood. Short cropped red hair spilt over his dark skin.

            She laughed.

            “First time I see another Matern in Calorland, and I’m being kidnapped by him,”

            He chuckled slightly too. The girl was funny. In another world, he could see the two being friends. However, he was stressed by what could be taking to long. He wouldn’t challenge the King, would he? He facepalmed. Of course, he would. That idiot!

***

Jacien was embarrassed. He lost to the King?! He should’ve been practicing more. It’s alright having the talent but maintaining it and supplementing it was more important…that’s what his dad always said.

            The sword hung over him menacingly. The King wouldn’t hurt me, he thought, I’m too important in his plans—and I’m not going to participate in such plans. Like the King had before, Jacien threw up a magical smoke shroud and leapt far from the blade. Not as far as he’d have liked. Well, to be fair he wanted to be completely outside the castle. But it was far enough to use one last spell.

            Simultaneously he raised a jungle in the Palace Hall and trapped the King in quicksand. Grass and trees erupted from the floor. All sorts of strange fauna lined and dotted the walls. The King sunk deeper and deeper into the lumpy liquid. Simultaneous casting, nice—I still got it, Jacien thought to himself.

            “This is real funny, Jacien,” The King said, as expressionless as a stone. “You have to realise at some point—you can’t outrun destiny.”

“Well, destiny will just have to tell me herself ,”

            With that he vanished. He wasn’t to take anymore chances with the King. If he could just teleport him and Scadlock to a safe location…

***

            Gwyn looked around. All of a sudden a white light had appeared… and where they were now didn’t look like the castle.

            It was an open field, in the middle of nowhere as far as she could tell. Grass swayed softly in the wind. The trees looked rather different than most she had seen. Nothing too dramatic other than the shade of wood and the shape of the leaves but still it was rather odd. There was nothing notable about the place however—no landmarks or anything. It couldn’t have been the great city of Caloran.

            “Who are even you?”

            The voice had a distinctly punch-able whininess to it. The type that one remembered. Please don’t tell me that it’s…

            Black-Cloak Robyn stood before her impatiently, as if waiting for a response.

            “It’s the girl from earlier,” Scadlock said, “A Crystal Guard,”

            “Did you get captured by her?” Robyn laughed.

            “No way!” Scadlock blushed “The other way around,”

            Robyn turned to face Gwyn.

            “I see, so using my powers of deduction… you got caught off guard by Scadlock and captured…and when I teleported him, you came too because you were being held by him,”

            “I never thought you had any brains in there, mate,” Scadlock laughed.

            It was Robyn’s turn to go pink with embarrassment.

            As the two shared an exchange of insults at each other, Gwyn could feel her blood boiling. 

            “Where are we,” she finally grunted.

            Robyn laughed.

            “Why of course Calor—,” he looked around him and his smile faded.

            “Where are we,” she repeated.

            “I don’t know,” he stammered, to Scadlock’s alarm, “This has never happened before,”

            “Quit pulling our leg,” Scadlock smiled.

            “I’m not...on our bond,” 

Gwyn flew into an outrage. Scadlock fell silent.

“What the hell do you mean? Aren’t you a second to none sorcerer?!”

“I…I don’t know there is something wrong… something sinister at play,”

“Don’t lie to me! The only villain here is you!”

“Don’t you raise your voice at me! What would common filth like you know anyways?”

Gwyn felt anger consume her. She unsheathed her sword and…

Scadlock intervened just before the confrontation became a full brawl.

“This isn’t helpful,” he sighed “We’re all stuck here at the end of the day—we need an alliance,”

Gwyn was shocked. In all her life she had never thought she would work with a criminal. They were scum, simply scum. Yet she had never met another Matern either, she wanted to know more about Scadlock—ask him so many things. She also couldn’t make her way back home by herself either. 

She glared at Robyn. He would be a problem though.

Reluctantly, she raised her hand and shook Scadlock’s.