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@ariella-newheart – Thank you! Yes, the throne room (and the whole empire in general) is very depressing. It’s necessary for some of the evil emperor’s most important plans (which will not be divulged just yet. ;)) Lol, yes, Racleva will be busy…funnily enough, there’s a scene similar to this in her story where she gives away her position by sneezing, because she has a cold. Hiding sneezes is not one of her talents, apparently. 😛

Random questions: does Caedon have any experience with weapons and fighting? What are his feelings about them?

@anne_the_noob14 – Thanks! The middle stressed part is like the first syllable in elephant, Ra-CLEH-va. She’s a person.

I was wondering, is Lucas from a specific country on Earth? (also, nice drawing! It’s almost exactly how I imagined it, except the main hall is smaller than you describe it.)

I should probably mention that it’s common for people from Racleva’s planet to teleport to Earth, where they don’t show any signs of magic or being from another planet. So she’s used to disguising herself and being around Earth people (and in my story, it’s the early 1900s on Earth, so not that different from when Lucas is alive.) So Racleva will try to keep her fire powers a secret for as long as possible.

@christlover – Kidnapped again? That sounds like an intriguing backstory. I’d love to know more about Thaddeus, when the time is right, of course. Is he from the future version of America?

No problem! You made everything more interesting. Ooh, elemental powers are so cool. Racleva won’t use her fire powers unless absolutely necessary, because (as mentioned above) she’ll try to hide them from Earth people.

…

The voice of a young boy floated up to Racleva’s ears. “I’m Caedon of Solina. Nice to meet you, Mr. McAsgain.”

Racleva frowned. Solina? There was no land of that name in Dione. But Quilvanya was large, and she didn’t know the names of everywhere.

“Likewise. I wish I still had some biscuits I could give you.”

A young man’s voice, distinctly English like the boy’s. She was on Earth. The only way that could happen was if the enemy had teleported her there, which meant anyone she met could not be trusted.

Racleva focused back on the conversation.

“Do you live here, Mr. McAsgain?” the boy asked.

“No, I arrived here under mysterious circumstances. One moment I was sitting at my desk working on a new calligraphy technique and the next I was here.”

“That’s just what happened to me! Only…” He paused. “I was listening to my sister recite a poem.”

“You have a sister?”

“Two. Both younger.”

Interesting. They didn’t know how they arrived. Perhaps innocents captured by the enemy for some strange scheme? The thought sickened Racleva, that Earth-people would be dragged into it, but she knew it wasn’t beneath them.

Thunder rumbled somewhere far above her, making it harder to hear. She concentrated hard, but there wasn’t much. They talked briefly about the storm, and fell into silence.

Suddenly something shifted in the air. The dust was disturbed, flying straight into her nose. Racleva sneezed, cursing her inability to control it. Running footsteps and a clang of a sword echoed from her left. She had a split second to brace herself before she was knocked onto her back.

They fell into the room with the people she was eavesdropping on. Instantly Racleva wrapped her legs around her attacker’s hips in an upper guard as he reared back to punch her. In the light of the fire, Racleva saw the young man’s emerald eyes shift from hardened focus to surprise. She knew it well.

“I-I’m so –“

Without warning, Racleva yanked him forward with her heels, sending him to lurch forward and slam into her fist. She pushed him to the side and rolled the other way, leaping to her feet and drawing her sword, pointing it at her attacker.

The young man she’d been eavesdropping on, Mr. McAsgain, held a dagger towards the attacker, who rose slowly with one hand covering his bleeding nose and the other raised above his head.

Mr. McAsgain narrowed his eyes. “You’d better have a very good explanation for this.”

The attacker’s eyes flickered between him and Racleva. “Do you two know each other?”

Mr. McAsgain glanced at her. “No.” He looked back. “But no man with any sense of honor would attack a young lady.”

“I know.” The attacker looked apologetically at Racleva. “I’m sorry. I thought you were…well, I thought you were one of the captors that kidnapped me.”

Racleva lowered her sword. Being kidnapped would match with her theory. “You were kidnapped?”

“How else would I get here? I’m sleeping peacefully with my friends and suddenly I wake up in a strange place.”

Mr. McAsgain shook his head as he lowered his dagger. “That would mean we’ve all been kidnapped, and I definitely was not. I just blinked and suddenly I was in that hall. Caedon too.”

Racleva followed his gaze to the boy who was standing behind a chair, eyes wide. He looked about ten, though boys tended to look younger than their age.

“What about you?” Mr. McAsgain turned to Racleva. “Are you from here? And why were you eavesdropping on us?”

“To answer your first question, no, I’ve never been anywhere like this. As for the second, wouldn’t you eavesdrop if you arrived in a foreign place and heard two people talking?”

Mr. McAsgain didn’t hesitate in his answer. “Probably.” He paused. “So, do you have any theory of how you got here?”

Of course she did. But she wasn’t about to tell anyone, otherwise it could put them all in danger. The enemy could be spying on them as they spoke. And it was clear that they had developed an advanced teleporting technique to make Mr. McAsgain and Caedon think that they weren’t kidnapped. But why not use it with the other young man as well? Everything was so confusing.

“No idea,” she lied smoothly, sheathing her sword. She had lots of experience lying. “I was out picking berries in the woods, and the next thing I know I’m here, my head hurting from falling.” She glanced at the others. “But I do know that we first need to figure out where we are, and to do that we need to find a way to get out of this castle. We’ll have to work as a team.”

Finally something she had experience with. If she could lead a team of corrupted warriors, she could lead these three. They didn’t look too difficult.

“Is everyone okay with that?”

Nods from all around, even from Caedon, who was looking less frightened as time went on. Good. Racleva didn’t know how to deal with frightened children, even though he wasn’t that much younger than she was. “Alright. First, we might as well introduce ourselves. I’m Vladlena.”

No way would she give away her real name in a place that was controlled by the enemy.

Mr. McAsgain dipped his head. “Lucas.”

The attacker took a napkin from a nearby table, wiping his nose. “Thaddeus.”

Caedon inched around to the front of his chair. “And you already know my name.”

Racleva smiled. “Great!” She pulled up an armchair next to Caedon and plopped down. “Let’s start brainstorming!”

…

Hopefully I didn’t mess anyone’s characters up! I’m not too sure of how they’d react at this point, so I just stopped here. And I hope it’s okay that I made everyone agree to try to find a way out of the castle (although they won’t be able to, of course.) If not, we could always change it. 🙂