“C’mon,” Alex shouted out to Winstell during training one day in the arena. “One more time!”
The crimson sun sliced through the gaps between the ivy-covered pillars as she looked out into the distance, searching for him. The sector she had chosen for them to train in that day wasn’t well thought out. There were too many hiding spots for Winstell to recuperate. It was like playing a drawn-out game of cat and mouse.
“You said ‘one more time’ the last time,” Winstell wailed from nearby. “Besides, I’ve used too much of the Source. Any more and I’ll pass out.”
Alex scrunched up her eyes in frustration. Man, he’d be awful at hide-and-go-seek.
“Don’t give me that nonsense,” Alex shouted. “Dig deeper. As Master Lefario would say: ‘Repetition, repetition, repetition!’”
With the back of her gloved hand, Alex wiped away the beads of sweat from her forehead, her boots sinking into the pale white sand as she circled clockwise around the source of Winstell’s voice.
“I’m not lying, Taytora; I’ve got nothing left,” he cried.
Alex didn’t answer. Instead, she pinned her back against a broken pillar, a stone’s throw away from where she predicted he was hiding. In her peripheral vision, there were three students playing tag in the sector to her left, skimming across the lake gracefully as if they had skis attached to their feet, kicking up small waves as they changed direction. Show offs. Alex figured they must have been in an advanced class to be able to use that Water Spell.
“Taytora,” Winstell shouted urgently, “did you hear me?”
Alex poked her head out from her hiding spot and saw Winstell’s frightened face darting from pillar to pillar, frantically searching. He was looking in the wrong directions.
“Fine,” he shouted in defeat. “But this is the last time.”
By then, Alex had already performed the necessary Chain of Movements for the Spell.
She manipulated the air currents around her, focused on compacting them into the palm of her hand, then stepped out from behind the pillar and thrust her arm towards Winstell.
Winstell’s oak-coloured eyes bulged as he witnessed the spiralling sphere of air heading straight towards him. But thankfully, he didn’t freeze up like Alex thought he would. He pummelled his fists into the earth. A wall of sand shot up and protected him from her attack. There was the sound of a muffled impact, like a mitt catching a softball, and then the wall of sand collapsed.
“That one was amazing,” Alex yelled as she tramped towards Winstell. “You timed it perfectly. At first, I thought you weren’t going to block it, but then . . . .” That was when she noticed Winstell laying on his back, gagging for air, his pink face covered in a thick sheen of sweat and sand.
Yikes, she thought. Maybe he was telling the truth about having used too much of the Source.
“You all right, Winstell?” Alex asked, thrusting her hands out for him to grab. “Here, let me help you.”
“No, let me lie here for a bit,” he said, panting. “I still see stars.”
She performed a figure eight with her left hand and then drew the moisture out of the air, slowly forming a pool of water above Winstell’s head. Then she dropped it. It splashed over his curly hair and ran down his face in rivulets.
Winstell sat up and spat out a stream of water. “Refreshing. Thanks.”
Alex helped him to his feet and dusted the sand off his sweaty surcoat and rusty pauldrons. “Good training session today, buddy; I’m proud of you. How about we wash up and then I’ll meet you back in the Great Hall for dinner? We’ve earned it.”
Winstell nodded, a confused expression covering his freckly, wet face. “What does ‘buddy’ mean?”
“Umm,” Alex said, chewing the bottom of her lip in thought, “in my village it means friend.”
The word seemed odd when she said it out loud. Friend. Maybe because she’d never had one before? Although she did have Macey back home, she tended to drift from group to group, and none could be trusted with any of Alex’s secrets. Blabbermouths. And then there was Link. But he was her brother, so she felt as if that didn’t count because they were obligated to at least pretend to like one another. But as for Winstell, Alex could say with no uncertainties he was her first genuine friend.
As the weeks passed and fresh buds bloomed around them and the earth seemed to reawaken, Winstell and Alex were inseparable. He had shown her all his favourite books in the academy’s expansive library, escorted her through the winding backstreets of the city, where she tasted sweet lemon cakes and even bought herself a new, sleek bow.
In their Swordplay lessons together, Alex went out of her way to get Winstell as her sparring partner, just so the other students couldn’t leave him bruised and battered (he was always overly grateful about that). On most Sundays, after they had tended to their horses, Alex and Link would head down to the different sectors and teach him all the things they’d learned about magic.
Winstell and Alex could talk for hours on end about the silliest things. Things as trivial as whether Fluffles likes his nose stroked compared to having his mane brushed. Or things as complex as in-depth analyses about their favourite books. Turns out Winstell was a few brain cells short of a genius. He came from a very distinguished family, and on his sixteenth name day either he or his brother, Lioden, was destined to receive a massive inheritance. Their father owned quite a profitable gambling company.
But for some reason Alex couldn’t quite figure out, she had the feeling her friendship with Winstell was bugging Link. Maybe he thought Alex shouldn’t be getting too attached to people who technically weren’t even real?
But the way she saw it, killing Kilaydis wasn’t going to be an easy fix. It took Taytora and Deonis three years of intensive training. They slew experienced mages, hordes of western mountain giants, and worked their way up through the military ranks to become distinguished gold cloaks. Alex figured she was going to be in this world for a while, so why not sit back, kick up her feet and enjoy the most of it?
Nocera was her reality now. Unlike Link, who got to visit the real world frequently, she was stuck in this land indefinitely. So if she wanted to make friends, she was going to make friends. And who was to say Winstell wasn’t real, anyways? He was real enough to her, as real as a friend as she’d ever had. He was also a welcome distraction from everything taking place: The trance, more than likely never being able to see her parents again, the gruelling training, her creepy roommate, Xavier’s infuriating riddle. Winstell took her mind off it all.
“Buddy,” Winstell repeated with a fuzzy smile. “I like the sound of that.”
****
Several spoonfuls into her chicken, carrot and corn stew, Alex wondered where Winstell was. He knew the Great Hall menu off by heart, and he never missed a meal.
Maybe his bath was too hot and he had to wait for it to cool down?
Alex lifted her eyes from her steaming stew just in time to see Link walking through the embellished oak doors of the Great Hall. Both his arms were tensed, struggling to carry a burgundy chest with gold trimmings. There was a thump as he dropped it onto the table.
Every student at Baylor’s got paid a modest amount every week, and as Alex proved to have no self-control, Link had been holding onto her payments. He had spent the whole day in Iralda’s inner city, using their combined savings to purchase sets of armour for them both in preparation for the Golden Gauntlet. “Necessary luxuries,” as he called them.
Alex was dying to see what he had bought her. She had given him all her measurements, but she was still a bit anxious. Mom had once sent Link to the corner store to buy a carton of eggs, bacon and a loaf of bread for breakfast. He had come home with a bottle of pancake mix and whipped cream, saying he had made an executive decision on behalf of the family to have pancakes instead. He faced the full wrath of Tornado Trish that day.
“I knew I’d find you here,” Link said, his face hot and sweaty from the effort it took hauling the chest up the stairs.
“Let me see it,” Alex said, reaching for the chest lid.
“Uh, uh,” he said, smacking her hand away gently. “Patience is a virtue. How was training?”
“I almost killed Winstell,” Alex said flatly. “Now, can I see the armour?”
“What’s the magic wor—”
Alex gasped when she opened the lid and found a set of boiled leather armour as pale as Winstell’s skin. She pulled them out piece by piece, taking notice of how light each one was, and sprawled them across the table.
There were vambraces, boots, pauldrons and a breastplate that had shaped breasts moulded into them larger than what she actually possessed. Despite the setback in the cleavage department, she couldn’t help but to smile like an idiot. She was more excited about a set of armour than she had ever been about a dress.
What the heck is wrong with me?
“These must have cost a fortune,” Alex remarked.
“All armour is expensive,” Link said, “but in comparison to the others, boiled armour is relatively cheap. Plate armour—now that’s what costs the big bucks.”
“You bought yourself plate armour?” she asked sourly, remembering how in one of her fantasy video games it was the rarest armour you could acquire.
“Yeah,” Link said, “and boy was that an effort to haul up the stairs. My set’s in my room. Couldn’t be bothered bringing it up to show you, though.”
Suddenly Alex felt disappointed. Like Link had outdone her and Mom and Dad had bought him the better Christmas present again.
“How come you didn’t get me plate armour?” she asked sourly.
“Relax,” Link said, running a hand through his hair and settling into a seat. He leaned over the table and started piling slabs of meat onto a plate. “Your greatest strength is your speed, Alex. You’re faster than everyone in swordplay, including me, and I’ve seen you run away from gorlacs. If we were back in the real world you’d be setting track and field records; I’m telling you now.”
Alex folded her arms and glared at him. “Just what are you getting at?”
“I bought you light armour to better complement your speed,” he said, ripping the meat off a drumstick with his teeth. “Plate armour—my armour—would weigh you down too much.”
“OK,” Alex mumbled, still a bit unsure of his plans logic. Wordlessly, she placed the pieces of her armour back into the chest.
“What’s up?” he asked as he sucked the grease off his fingers.
“Nothing. It’s just . . . .” she paused, trying to think how best to phrase how she was feeling. “I thought you wanted me protected? If every injury I acquire pops up on me in our world wouldn’t plate armour give me the most protection?”
“Plate armour also weighs about forty pounds,” Link said, his face unmoving. “It’s like trying to fight while piggy-backing a small child. Just trust me, OK?”
“My life is in your hands,” Alex said, smiling curtly and getting out of her seat.
“Where are you going?” he asked, frowning.
“I’m going to look for Winstell; he never misses a meal. Are you coming?”
Link pursed his lips, considering her question, then he looked back down at his full plate of meat. “Nah, I’ll catch up with you after. I haven’t eaten all day.”
****
“Let go of me! Let go of me!” Alex heard Winstell wail as she approached the bottom of the staircase that led to his floor.
Without a second thought, she leaped up the steps two by two, her stomach lurching with nerves.
“I just want a piece,” a girl’s monotone voice spoke. “A nice thick piece. They weren’t serving any in the Great Hall at breakfast, you see.”
“Please don’t,” Winstell pleaded. “Please.”
“Shut-up!” A boy's deep voice echoed through the corridor. “Pigs can’t speak, remember. They can only oink.”
When Alex reached the top of the staircase, she was met with an unsightly scene. Through the deserted corridor lit by flickering torches, Winstell was propped against the stone wall, his throat being clutched tightly by a hulk of a boy: Daedrox. Beside him, a girl was bent over, raising the bottom of Winstell’s tunic as she hovered a knife over his bare belly.
“Let go of him,” Alex shouted, both fists clenched as she stormed towards them. “Let go of him right now.”
Daedrox whipped his head around, alarmed at first, then his face softened when he realized who it was making the threats.
He had a short ginger mohawk, a patchy beard, and a set of intense amber eyes that could burn holes through you if you met his gaze. But his size was what shocked Alex the most. He had to be a head taller than Link and twice as wide. A basketball player on steroids.
Daedrox tightened his grip around Winstell’s neck, like an act of defiance against Alex’s threat. The veins on his forearm bulged in response. Winstell sent her a panicked glance as he clutched futilely at the boy’s arm, gagging and wheezing out loud for air.
The girl straightened up, a smile tugging on the corner of her mouth. She twirled the curved knife effortlessly around her fingers as she meandered towards Alex; hair so thick and tangled it was on the verge of becoming dreadlocks. Eyes so hollow and black it was hard to distinguish where her iris or pupils started or ended.
Normally, Alex would have been intimidated by the likes of these two, but the adrenaline pumping through her body was making a compelling argument. For a split second, she toyed with the idea of opening her Gate and letting loose on them, but the no magic outside of class rule was quickly at the forefront of her mind. Besides, chances are she wouldn’t have even posed a challenge versing one of them, let alone two.
“We just want some bacon,” the girl said in an emotionless voice as she stood over Alex. “It would such a shame to let this plump little piggy go without so much as a slice, don’t you agree?”
“No, I don’t,” Alex said, arching her head up to counter her hollow stare. “Now let go of him right now or you’ll have to deal with me.”
The girl smirked at Alex’s challenge with her dry, cracked lips as she tossed the knife from hand to hand. “Then by all means, come get him, little one.”
“Get her, Bidell!” Daedrox rumbled from behind. “Carve her a better face!”
His voice is as low as his IQ, Alex thought.
She took a cautious step back from Bidell as she weighed up everything logically, just like Link would do. Two against one. One with a knife. Both could defeat me in their sleep.
After several tension-filled seconds, she concluded she’d be stupid to pick a fight with these two. So, she turned and walked away. Then, just as she figured Bidell had dropped her guard, Alex twisted her hip around and whipped her foot out, letting momentum do the rest. Her heel collided with the left side of Bidell’s jaw. The knife spilled out of her hands as she hit the ground in a daze.
As Alex looked up to focus her attention on Daedrox, she was startled to find a flaming torch spinning end-to-end flying straight at her. She’d almost forgotten Daedrox was highly skilled in Telekinesis. Alex panicked, and could do nothing but cower as she waited for the torch to hit. But it never did.
There was a thud, followed by a buzzing sound, like static electricity. Alex looked up to find a rippling shield of transparent magenta energy protecting her. The torch was lying extinguished on the ground. The shield quickly dissipated as Zudane’, the girl with the crescent-shaped birthmark on her neck, stepped in front of her. Was it her that cast the Ward?
Now that the torch was out and there was no light, all that could be seen of Daedrox was his beastly silhouette. He took a few steps forwards, stopping in front of a paneless window, the moonlight shining upon his face. It wasn’t hard to tell he was livid: nostrils flaring, eyes bulged in fury, body quivering in rage. He was showing all the signs and symptoms. But then the most shocking thing happened. Daedrox’s rage cooled as quickly as it had come. And he simply smiled at Alex and Zudane’. Just smiled.
Alex’s body tensed as Daedrox closed even more of the distance between them, but to her relief, he bent over and scooped up his delirious friend, Bidell, throwing her on top of his shoulder as if she were as light as a soft teddy.
Daedrox’s eyes honed in on Alex’s. “You’ll pay for that.” He turned to Winstell who was still whimpering against the stone wall. “You too, piggy. Mark my words.” Then he walked away in the opposite direction through the dim corridor.
Alex immediately ran to Winstell’s aid. He was massaging his red and raw throat as he tried to get his breathing back to normal. Zudane’ picked up the torch Daedrox had thrown and set the end ablaze with a simple Fire Spell, giving them some light. She crouched down beside Winstell as well.
“Are you all right?” Alex asked, trying to hide the panic in her voice.
Winstell couldn’t even meet her eyes. He kept mumbling nonsense to himself with his head down. It was normal for him to be um’ing and uh’ing, but he was struggling to form a coherent sentence at that point. There was blood trickling from his nose which he seemed oblivious to. But before Alex could wipe it away with her sleeve, Zudane’ was dabbing it tenderly with a small cloth.
Alex felt disgusted with herself she wasn’t there sooner. Maybe none of this would have happened if I wasn’t so preoccupied stuffing my face. She felt like such an idiot. She should’ve known something was up when Winstell wasn’t at dinner.
“Isliah smiles down upon you two,” a nonchalant voice spoke from behind them. “I honestly thought Daedrox was about to kick up dust and charge.”
The voice was too pubescent to be a master mage. Alex swivelled her head around. A lanky boy with prominent cheekbones had emerged from the staircase. Long, jet black hair was swept back behind his head, and he had the worst hunchbacked posture Alex had ever seen. There were patches of acne covering his face, and he had eyes as grey as storm clouds that gave her the impression he was wise beyond his years.
Alex thought she had seen him in a couple of her basic classes, but she couldn’t be sure.
“Luckily for Daedrox he came to his senses and went the other way,” Zudane’ said to the boy, which Alex presumed was her friend. She gazed down the end of the corridor where Daedrox had disappeared. “I have a right mind to go after him.”
“I’d highly advise against that,” the acne-riddled boy said. “They say Daedrox knows over a thousand ways to kill someone.”
“Tall tales, Phen,” Zudane’ said, annoyed. “Oh, where are my manners? This is my friend, Phenetrest. The name’s a mouthful, I know, so just call him Phen if you like. My name’s Zudane’.”
“I’m Taytora,” Alex said, feeling obliged to introduce herself, “and this is Winstell.”
“Winstell,” Zudane’ repeated, smiling with the corner of her lips. “It suits you.” She bowed her head slightly, her rippling hair almost reaching her knees. “How are you holding up, Winstell?”
“I-I’m, I’m fine,” he managed to splutter. “I-It’s fine; it really is. Bidell never ends up cutting off a piece; she always plays around.”
“They’ve done this to you before?” Alex asked, feeling another surge of anger coming on.
Winstell nodded, his wet cheeks jiggling. “Not Daedrox. But uh, but Bidell has.”
Zudane’ regarded Winstell with misty eyes and a sympathetic smile. Just like Alex, she was at a complete loss for words. What were you supposed to say to that? Alex had been bullied before, called names, even been pushed around a few times. But nothing the likes of this. This was the type of bullying that scarred someone for life.
Zudane’ stuffed away the bloody cloth in the fold of her doublet. She and Alex grabbed either side of Winstell and helped him to his feet.
“I can’t thank you enough,” Alex said, turning to Zudane’. “Without your help, we’d probably both be dog mince right now.”
“Uh, s-speaking of that,” Winstell said. “Won’t you lose your position at the academy for—” He paused, and then sniffled loudly. “For, you know?”
“Using magic outside of class?” the lanky boy Phen finished, his arms folded confidently. “That’s why I was positioned at the staircase; to keep watch and make sure there were no masters in sight.”
“Oh, that was what you were doing?” Zudane’ said. “From where I was standing it seemed as if you were trying to save your own skin.”
Phen jerked his head back in horror. “You would think so lowly of me?”
“Phenetrest, you are many things, my dear, but a lion is not one of them.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Zudane’ waltzed towards him and brushed his hair back tenderly, almost as if she was petting a domesticated animal. “Yes, you’re just an adorable little kitten who thinks his meows are roars, aren’t you?”
Phen slapped her hand away and then scratched a spot above his eyebrow, fighting off a smile. “Remind me why I am friends with you again?”
“Because before me, you didn’t have any,” Zudane’ said without a moment’s pause.
Phen pouted his lower lip. “Harsh, but true.”
“How did you cast a Ward that massive?” Alex asked Zudane’, reflecting on the massive shield of energy she had produced to protect her from Daedrox’s Telekinesis attack.
In her Spiritwielding class, the biggest Ward Alex could project was the size of a nickel. And even that drained her strength entirely. For mages, Wards were a convenient alternative for shields in battle. Instead of lugging around a forty-pound sheet of metal, they could keep a hand free and cast a protective barrier if the occasion called for it.
Zudane’ smiled at Alex cheekily. “The real question is how did a little girl like you get her leg up so high to strike Bidell’s jaw?”
“No,” Phen interrupted, “the real question is how many jelly swans are left in the Great Hall right now? I, for one, do not want to wait around to find out.”
“J-Jelly swans?” Winstell stuttered, his head piping up. “I love jelly swans.”
Phen threw his hands up. “Then what are we waiting for? You heard him. Time is of the essence.”
Zudane’ cast Phen a dirty look. “Forgive my impatient friend. His enormous appetite does not seem to reflect on his gaunt body.” She turned back to Alex and Winstell. “Could we sit with the two of you at lunch?”
Despite the fact her belly was about to burst after all the chicken stew she’d previously eaten, Alex blurted out “yes” a little too quickly. Damn it, can’t you act subtly for once in your life?
Winstell nodded his head eagerly, causing his nose to trickle blood again.
We are each as bad as the other.