I woke up the next morning, grabbed some breakfast, and brought it to the castle rampart to eat and do some brooding. I stared out past the walls of the kingdom, and a couple hundred yards away, LDB’s army was camped out, just waiting. If what Abe had said was true, they’d be biding their time the next couple of days until the allied kingdoms came together and crushed us like a bunch of bugs. I tore into a piece of bread and morbidly wondered if any of those soldiers would try and shoot an arrow at me from this distance.

“There you are!” Princess Melanie walked over and stared down at me. She wore her now traditional black outfit and copious amounts of black eyeliner, her unruly dark hair blew wildly in the breeze. “Y’know, for someone so loud and grating, you’re awfully hard to track down.”

I grunted in response, not in the mood to talk.

“Anyways, seeing as though you’re not doing anything important,” continued the Princess, motioning to my brooding, “I wanna do some acting. Come down to the square with me, let’s do another performance.”

I turned to Melanie, giving her a weird look. “We’re surrounded by an army of people who are actively trying kill us, and you feel like now of all times is appropriate to put on a stage play?”

Melanie shrugged, “Eh, we had a good run,” she replied, snatching away what was left of my bread and tearing into it.

I blanched. “Everyone in this kingdom is about to be slaughtered like pigs, you included!” I replied, voice rising, “How can you possibly be so casual about dying?”

“Nah,” replied Melanie, as she downed the rest of my bread in a single bite. “I don’t feel like doing the whole dying thing just yet.” She opened her palm, it glowed with a pulsing green light. “Why are you freaking out?” She asked, squinting at me. “You’re magical too, those goobers might be a threat to the normies, but not to us.”

“I’m not magical,” I admitted, staring at my feet as they dangled off the castle wall. “Also my dragons not real; I’ve been lying to you all the entire time.”

“Oh,” said Princess Melanie, eyes widening ever so slightly. “Well, that sucks.” I nodded. “How’d you fake all that magic stuff?”

“I’m from the future,” I replied, realizing it didn’t matter what I said now if everyone was going to die anyway.

“Cool.”

She was taking this all stride, wasn’t she?

Melanie stared out at LDB’s army. It was several moments before she spoke, “So what are you gonna do then?”

I shrugged.

“Well, I, for one, am gonna fight that DripBussin prick,” continued Melanie, slamming a fist into the palm of her hand. “and his stupid wizard, too! If I win, great, and if I lose, I’ll run. Simple as that.”

“I was offered a chance to go home, back to my time,” I said suddenly, wanting to share Abe’s secret offer with someone else. “But if I do that, I’ll have to abandon Praedones.”

“Are you gonna do it?” Princess Melanie stared at me, eyes glowing, expression unreadable. I didn’t know what to say, so I just shrugged again.

“I don’t care what happens to anyone in this stupid kingdom,” retorted Melanie, staring back into the city as people went about their day. “Well, except for my dad, but you,” Melanie pointed a finger, a crooked smile breaking across her face. “You’re one of those goodie-two-shoes hero types. You’ll do the right thing in the end.”

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“I’m no hero,” I muttered, “And even if I did try to help, what would be the point? You’ll all die eventually.”

“Dark.” Replied Melanie, nodding in approval.

I squinted up at the sun as it slowly rose into the sky. The sun would still be basically the same in the present, but everything else would be different. All the people I’d met here in Praedones would be long dead. They’d have been dead for hundreds of years, whether or not I helped them or ran away. Not to be a nihilist, but if everyone in the kingdom ended up dying regardless of what I did, then what was the point of even trying to help? Would it make more sense to join Abe and get my laptop fixed so I could go home?

“Whether or not someone lives or dies isn’t relevant,” continued the Princess, “At least not for a square like you. If you don’t try to at least help, the guilt will eat away at you for the rest of your life.”

“A very short rest of my life,” I replied grimly.

“Piper?”

I snapped around at the sound of the voice. Walking up the stairs of the rampart, head bowed, was Thomas. I stared at him, not sure what to say. We hadn’t spoken since the incident with my laptop, mostly because I was afraid I’d knee him in the crotch if he got too close.

Melanie spoke first. “Buzz off, Joseph, we’re talking.”

“Uh, it’s Thomas.”

“Don’t care.”

Thomas withered slightly under Melanie’s indifferent stare but didn’t back off. “I’m not here to apologize for what I did yesterday,” continued Thomas, speaking to me but avoiding my gaze, “But I want to make things right with you, both as my teacher and my friend.”

Thomas lifted a book, and I immediately recognized it as Gerard’s textbook. I felt another complex swirl of emotions as I was confronted with memorabilia from my own time.

“I spent all of last night reading up on computers,” he said, flipping through the pages, “And mark my words, I’m gonna learn how to fix your laptop. I have no idea what a circuit board is, and I don’t know why you would need a ram to give a computer memory, but I can figure this out; we can figure it out together.” Thomas paused momentarily, thoughtful, “And maybe if we get things under control here in Praedones, and we’re not being invaded every other day, we can discuss if there’s a way for you to go home too.”

I blinked, surprised to see that I’d started to cry. I was touched, to put it simply. Thomas and I had struggled for weeks to create basic electricity out of lemons and potatoes. There was zero chance we could fix a broken laptop, but still, the fact that he was even trying to make up with me spoke volumes.

“Thanks–” I started to say before bursting into tears.

“Hey, cool it with the waterworks; you’re gonna get my makeup wet!” Growled Melanie, hopping away from my explosion of water and snot.

I sniffed, trying to reign it back in. I didn’t like how much I’d been crying these last two days, but to be fair, I’d been under a lot of stress.

“Are you alright, Piper?” Asked Thomas, walking towards me but freezing mid-step as if he was afraid of how I’d respond.

“Not really,” I replied, standing up and wiping my eyes, “But I’m good enough.” I closed the distance between me and Thomas and touched his shoulder; he flinched but didn’t pull away. “I’m sorry too,” I said, still sniffling slightly, “I shouldn’t have freaked out like I did; you were just trying to do what you thought was right.”

“Water under the bridge, Piper.” Thomas scratched the back of his neck. “I’m not great with all this emotional stuff. Do you, uh, want a hug?” He asked, awkwardly opening his arms.

“Scandalous.” Snorted Melanie. I smiled in response and ran into his arms.

Thomas hung there awkwardly for a moment but slowly wrapped his strong, familiar-feeling arms around me. It was at that moment I realized that I loved Thomas. No, not like that; calm down, but I knew that I had a friend here who genuinely cared about me and who I cared about in return. Ellie was the same way, and maybe, just maybe, Melanie and I would eventually reach that stage too. Not to mention, King Cassian had been nothing but kind to me as well (except for the one itty-bitty attempt at my life on my first night here).

I groaned as I came to this realization: I cared about these people, and if a bad guy is holding a knife to your friend’s throat, you don’t whip out a Philosophy 101 argument and say they’ll die someday, so why bother trying to help in the here and now? Ugh, why did I have to be such a loving person? “Fine,” I said, removing myself from Thomas’ awkward hug. “Let’s try and see if we can’t do something about this siege.”

Thomas lit up with excitement, “Really?”

I nodded. “And the second things get back to some semblance of normal, I’m sitting your butt down, and we’re gonna fix my laptop so I can go home.”

Melanie flashed me a toothy grin. “This should be fun,” she said, motioning toward the enemy army, “what’s the plan, mophead?” Mophead? I thought, self-consciously running a hand through my hair. That was new.

I stared back out at LDB’s army, where Abe was waiting, and contemplated what we could do. “I think it’s time for one final bit of magic.