My hands are tied. Literally.
The rope is rough, dirty, and smells faintly of smoke. I don’t know when they tied it—sometime between the shouting, the marching, and me demanding an explanation. I didn’t resist. Much. What would’ve been the point? The only thing I managed was to glance over my shoulder, just once, to look at her. She had met my eyes.
Grandma Teri.478Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8kBe3WoAgX
For an old woman, she sure tricked me. I think.
Not that I expected her to leap to my defense or anything. But a flicker of doubt? A frown? Anything other than that cold, unreadable face would’ve been nice. Instead, she stood back like she’d already decided this was how it was supposed to go.478Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmAGd0Vnr9X
It was her who called these so-called medieval, out-of-a-story authorities.
These... medieval police? Soldiers? Or maybe just people in costume pretending to be soldiers? Whatever they were, they weren’t exactly chatty. And if it is the costume thing, that has me a little worried. Five soldiers in total. Their armor wasn’t shiny; it was scratched, smudged—lived-in. Their swords looked sharp, though. One of them—the one riding next to me—had a scar down his cheek and a head shaved so close it glinted in the sun. He looked weirdly polished. No less than three shampoo ads came to mind.478Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyIKQsKhGEX
I wasn’t supposed to be laughing.478Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4PZnW6opyF
He hadn’t spoken to me once since we left the cottage.
The only one who didn’t look like he wanted to dropkick me into a ditch had kind eyes and gave a half-apologetic glance when they mounted me up—forcefully. He rode at the back, mostly quiet. Maybe he was new. Or just decent. Hard to say.
They said I’d committed a crime. Something about damage—destruction, actually—though they never got into specifics. Apparently I blew up a field? Or cursed it? Or turned it into a crater? It was all very vague. I couldn’t even tell what exactly they thought I’d done—only that it was bad enough to skip the whole “police station and lawyer” part. And me explaining part.
Instead, I was being led—no, dragged—toward a castle.
Because apparently, we live in a fairy tale now.
I mean, in what country does this still happen? Sure, Austria has royals, but this isn’t how modern monarchies work. At least not in the real world. But here, in whatever-this-is, I guess due process includes horses, swords, and ominous declarations.
And yes, horses. Real ones.
I had the privilege of sharing one with the scarred soldier. I say “sharing,” but it was more like being flung in front of him like awkward luggage. No saddle for me. No dignity either. Every step the horse took jostled me in a new, deeply uncomfortable way. The guy didn’t say a word the whole time. Just held the reins like this was the most normal Tuesday morning patrol ever.
Although the scenery was something else.
At first, the forest was thick and damp, trees rising like spires overhead, their leaves rustling like whispers. The farther we rode, the darker it got. The sun blinked out behind the canopy, and the air turned colder, wetter—filled with the scent of earth, old bark, and something sharp I couldn’t name. Shadows pooled between trunks like waiting things.
I didn’t like it.
My questions—not that I had high hopes—were met with silence. Not even an eye-roll or a “shut up.” Just cold, unified nothing. The one who’d first spoken to me—probably the leader—did murmur, at one point, that if I didn’t stop talking, they’d gag me.
I got the hint.478Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP8R61uz4Y0
I shut up.
But that didn’t mean I’d given up. I don’t know what’s going on, but I do know one thing: I’m not going down without a fight. I’ve survived worse things than this. I just... can’t remember them right now.
Eventually, the forest thinned. The trees stepped back.478Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡED2q7NteYw
And suddenly—we were on a cliff.
I gasped.478Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSSlRvNrZ9n
Actually gasped.478Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡofsToqLH0v
Like someone in a bad romance novel.
Because—yeah. It was that beautiful.
Below us sprawled a valley that looked painted. A river shimmered like a silver ribbon, weaving through hills and fields and scattered villages. And in the middle of it all, nestled against the base of a small mountain, sat the city. Gray rooftops, spiraling towers, narrow streets that twisted like roots. And at the heart of it, rising calm and wide like a secret that knew it didn’t need to scream—
The castle.
It wasn’t shiny. It wasn’t sharp. It was old. Weathered gray stone, sprawling wings, tall arched windows. Not majestic in a postcard way—majestic in the way cliffs are majestic. In the way bones are majestic.
I stared longer than I meant to. Something about it prickled my skin. Like I’d seen it before. Somewhere deep in a dream I forgot to remember. Which made no sense, obviously. I’d never seen this place before in my life.
Right?
We didn’t stop long. Just a moment. Long enough for all five soldiers to look down, scan their surroundings, and murmur something I couldn’t hear.
Then, without warning, the scarred one reached down, pulled out a cloth sack, and shoved it over my head.
“Hey—!” I started, but the world went dark.
I bit back the rest of my protest. It wouldn’t matter.
The ride continued. Blind. The hoofbeats shifted—dirt, then stone, then cobbles. The occasional gust of wind. I couldn’t tell if it had been five minutes or fifty. My sense of time warped. It could’ve been hours.478Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNc4PqDVb5C
Or maybe the forest had swallowed the sun.478Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4O8qof59iy
Or maybe I was about to wake up in two seconds from this weird dream.
Eventually, we stopped.
The soldier dragged me down—not roughly, just efficiently. Still, he could’ve been nicer. My feet hit solid ground. Then steps. Up, then down again. The air changed—from open wind to something thicker, enclosed. Echoes whispered around us. Murmurs. I caught a snatch of speech, a laugh, a clipped command.
Then the creak of doors. Big ones.
I shivered—and not from the cold.
The floor beneath my boots changed again—stone, then velvet, then something too smooth to be real. Footsteps surrounded me, echoing in rhythm. I imagined walls watching me. Ceilings leaning in to listen.
And then—abruptly—I was shoved to my knees.
Pain shot through them as they struck the floor. I yelped.478Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3MycVgMdo4
“Hey—so rude,” I said automatically.
A second later, the bag was yanked off.
Light flooded my vision.
I blinked, stunned and disoriented. My eyes adjusted slowly.
And what I saw made no sense at all.
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