Almost as if two opposing armies were charging into battle shouting war cries, the children swarmed the tables in the center, climbing over each other to grab the juiciest parts of the meat, tearing into every last platter of food. Viralia screams at the top of her lungs, her seething rage toward Oswin boiling over. But her scream pales to the sound of hundreds of shouting children. She dashes into the hall after noticing the King had slipped out again. Ohhh, no. Not this time you don’t.
Hrithika trots down the hallway, lost in thought. A burst of wind next to her snaps her to attention, and she twists her head around, "Oh, there goes Oswin." She shrugs and continues galloping down, getting spun around as another gust of wind blasts by. "Aaand, there goes V." Reorienting herself, Hrithika bounds down the hall.
Oswin was halfway down the last couple of corridors when Viralia shouted in the distance, and looking over his shoulder, he watched as she rounded the far end he was running from. Her speed was incredible, starting to close the gap quickly between them. Reaching the end of the corridor with a hall going either direction, Oswin grasps the corner pillar, swinging his body around to the left with his momentum, and continues on, maintaining his running speed. A large crash behind him lets him know his small plan worked, Viralia must have charged right into the wall. Another quick glance over his shoulder as he runs, he sees a cloud of dust and some rubble on the floor. Viralia leaps out of the hole in the wall and tears down the hall as if she were completely unphased. Oswin skids the top of his foot on the ground, stumbling forward, and scurrying to the end of the hall, shoving quickly through his living quarters doors. Turning around, he sees Viralia getting uncomfortably close to the entrance and he throws his entire weight into shutting the doors, slamming the lock down. As he rests his arms against the door, gasping for breath, a large slam nearly blows the doors open, sending Oswin backward onto the ground. He can’t take his eyes off of the door, his breath caught in his throat, waiting for more pounding to come, but silence fills the room. Finally gasping out again for air, he plops back onto the floor. Thank god, I made it. As he lays down trying to slow his breathing, his mind begins to wander. How could Hrithika have dragged me all the way back to my room? There's no possible way she wouldn't have been noticed. Could she have a discreet Specialty? One that could hide someone in plain sight? Or maybe… he scurries to his feet and begins walking the perimeter of his room, looking over the walls carefully. One sweep and he finds nothing, and growing more frantic he begins padding on the wall, searching high and low, nudging shelves out to check behind, still turning up empty. He slumps over to the bed, sitting on the edge and burrowing his face in his hands. What am I doing? This is crazy. There's no way something like that would exist. He drags his hands down, stretching his face. Am I honestly debating risking everything I have now for this hunch? This… strange feeling? Who is that woman? Is she a member of the castle…? Why do I not recognize her… Oswin stands up, his foot slipping on a loose sheet of paper under the side of his bed, and he stumbles into the bedpost. A distinct click sound happens as the post releases effortlessly from its lock above. What was that? He recollects himself and takes a closer look at the bed, seeing that the post was released from the crossbar. Walking over to the other post, he glances to where the first one is locked, noting which way it moved, and pulls the second post back, another audible click sound following. Oswin takes a step back, looking over the strange mechanism. I knew it. I knew I wasn't crazy! Now… How does it work… Unsure of what to do, he pushes against the foot of the bed, but nothing happens. Okay… He moves back to the bedposts and pushes on one, a joint in the middle creaking slightly. Wait… Underneath? He grips the bottom of the bed, and plants his feet down, heaving upward. The bed tilts up seamlessly, the posts folding back and tucking away nicely under the top. A staircase reveals itself and Oswin stares with his jaw hung for a moment. Shaking his head, he steps down the first stairs when he hears shouting from outside his room doors, and it is getting closer. He slinks down the stairs, grabbing hold of a rope attached to the bottom of the bed, and yanks down the cover, being able to see just barely underneath the drapes. Just as the legs of the bed come to rest on the ground, the doors burst open and Viralia charges in, with two large guards in tow. She gauges the room and stops.
"Where. Is. He." She strains, grinding her teeth.
"I'm not s-"
"What do you mean you aren't sure!" She shouts at him. Turning and taking a heavy step toward the guard, he stumbles backward. Oswin's hair begins standing on its end as Viralia closes the distance with the guard. She jabs a finger into his armor, the man screaming as he pulls away, taking off down the hall. She turns to the other one, "I thought I told you to stay outside of his room, and not allow him to leave!"
"Madam Viralia, he never came out, and I…"
"You what, trash?"
"I had to use the restroom, Madam."
"You had. To… Absolutely pathetic. You are worthless, you know that? Follow me." Viralia commands him out of the room, slamming the doors behind them. As the footsteps recede, a loud scream rings out, abruptly cutting short, a dull thud following seconds later. Oswin doesn't move an inch, even long after the sound has faded. His feet felt as if they were nailed to the floor, his body felt tightly bound in invisible string, holding him in place. Breaking out of his mental trap, Oswin turns around, stepping slowly down the dark passageway. He takes this quiet moment to catch his breath and think over the past couple of days. Why am I doing this? I could have just stayed oblivious, feigned ignorance. Life would have been so simple. But I just had to go running after seeing that… boy… that boy… I wonder how he is. I hope he's able to handle himself. Oh god, what if he's dead already… no, you don't believe that, Oswin. Damnit, now I'm talking to myself in the third person. Have I lost my mind? Why else would I be seeing these strange memories that aren't even mine? Surely there's an explanation for this. Maybe I should speak to Kendrick. He would know wha-. Oswin thuds against the secret door, making full body contact, sending the door swinging open and it slams into the shelf next to it, knocking down a few books.
"Oh shi-" Oswin clatters down and shovels the books back up, haphazardly tossing them back onto the shelf and closing the door behind him. He turns back around and sees he is back in the Archives, in a far corner hidden away. He walks through the familiar shelves and to the center reading table, being greeted with the same curly blonde hair he saw earlier this morning.
"Jeez, what took you so long? I've been waiting here for like, a millennium!" Hrithika throws her hands up exasperatedly.
"Sorry, I had to… well… ruin the Ceremony again."
"Oh, yeah, blah blah blah, king duties this, king duties that," She mocks.
"I- wel- wai- It's not my job to ruin the Ceremony," he stammers, "I just… desperately need to know more. It isn't my fault they keep trying to pull me away."
"And somehow you still managed to make it your job," she kicks back in the chair, leaning on the back two legs, "don't worry, by the way, the other doors are locked. Your secret way is the only one open right now."
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"Riiight…" Oswin turns to walk away, "Well, blunt comment aside, thank you for that. I need to go to the tower again, so I'll just be-" As he looks away from the table, he's greeted by Hrithika standing directly in front of him.
"Okay, let's go." Her eyes stare blankly up into his. Her sudden shift of demeanor hooks Oswin into place for a moment. What is with this girl?
"Wh- what do you mean?"
"To the tower, duh," her stare still looking through him.
"Well… that isn't necessary, I can handle myself quite well." Oswin bows and walks by, managing to take just a few steps before Hrithika pops up in front of him again. He visibly recoils, eyes widened.
"Aaand, what are you going to do if you pass out again?"
"I- wel- You are very persistent, you know that? Very well, you may accompany me." He sets off to the wall and as they approach it, Hrithika leaps forward and shouts the phrase to unlock the way, diving headfirst into the passageway. Oswin stares dumbfounded for a moment before crawling through the passage and meeting Hrithika waiting by the stairs. Oswin begins climbing first, Hrithika right on his heels. As they climb, a question crosses Oswin's mind. "Why… are you helping me?"
"I dunno," She claps her hands together and speaks in a voice he only hears when someone is cooing to a child, "Maybe it's because I have such a big crush on you."
"What? I- I- Uh…"
"I'm kidding! Jeez, you're so gullible," she cackles, the laugh echoing up and down the tower.
"Yes… Of course, how naive of me," Oswin's face flushes with heat. He swallows before continuing, "So… what's the real reason you decided to help?"
"Eh, who knows? I was bored. I've already read everything here. Twice now, actually. I came up here yesterday and saw you all unconscious on the floor, so I thought it would be a good idea to bring you back to your room."
"Well… that's certainly an explanation. Thank you for your assistance." They continue up the stairs, the air filled with an awkward silence for a moment before they reach the trapdoor and Oswin swings it open, stepping into the top room. "Alright, now I have to find something. Anything…"
"Wow, that's descriptive. What kind of something?"
"I'm not really sure… it's, well, been purely happenstance that I've found the last two items. The first was a scroll that gave me shivers… the second one made me feel… buzzy."
"Shivery and buzzy, huh? You're really giving me a lot to work with here, Oz." She begins scrambling around the room, knocking pedestals over, tossing different knickknacks around, and examining things almost too closely. Oswin disregards her comment and tries to search through the nearby shelves, but keeps getting distracted by Hrithika bouncing around the room.
"It's slightly difficult to focus with you crashing around, I need to find some more documents that give me a… feeling… when I touch them. I don't even understand it myself…" He glances over to Hrithika and sees her staring at him, squinting slightly like she is allegedly in thought. She looks at a scroll in her hand, and back to him, then back to the scroll. Without missing a beat, she throws the scroll at Oswin and it bounces gently off of his forehead. He stares at her incredulously, unable to process what's happening.
She croaks out a quiet, "Hehehe," a sly grin creeping on her face. "Did you feel anything?"
"What?" Before Oswin can react, a rain of different scrolls begins pelting him. "Excu-" He tries to get a word in but proceeds to get smacked in the face with a thin notebook. He stumbles backward as the onslaught of light rolls of paper smacks softly against him, and he can't help but start laughing in disbelief. Hrithika runs out of small items to throw and moves on to thicker bound journals. Oswin twists around as one jabs into the side of his ribs and he shoots a glare at Hrithika, who freezes in place just as she was about to release another one, her bottom lip sucked in to feign an innocent face, before a snort of a laugh escapes through her tightly pursed lips. Her laughter breaks Oswin's attempt at staring her down, his laugh cracking through as they sit in the quiet tower. They cackled amongst themselves for a few minutes, and as the moment wore off, Oswin sighed deeply. He begins slowly and haphazardly sweeping the papers with his hands, forming something bearing the resemblance of a pile. He looks up and Hrithika is crouched directly across from him. "Agh! Damnit, you move so quietly, it's scary sometimes." He chuckles again.
"Here, I can do it." She reaches forward, not minding his words and Oswin sits back, letting her take over. He watches as her hands start to change shape and, being caught off guard, he scoots back further, almost reflexively. They shift shape into dozens of needle-like fingers on each hand, each one moving independently of the other as they ruffle through and shift every sheet of paper until a neat stack is left after only a few seconds. "Here you go, all done," she says as one of her hands shapes into a solid flat board that she uses to slide the stack closer to him. Oswin stares baffled for a second.
"Did I- Did yo- How d- Is that your Specialty?” he stumbles as his thoughts pile up.
"Yeah. It's pretty handy, why? Did you think I didn't have one? You know we don't have anyone without Specialties in this ring, and especially not the castle. Except for the Queen of course, gotta keep that bloodline pure, am I right?" She judges Oswin's shoulder and raises her eyebrows.
"Ah, yes, right. So… I'm just," he points to the pile on the ground, "Gonna… yeah." He takes the papers and begins to flip through them. Wait, is that… his fingers begin tingling as he flips further down the stack. It must be. It has to be. He tosses the top half of the stack off to the side and it scatters everywhere across the floor, Hrithika calls out a very distant sounding 'Hey!', but Oswin is too focused to notice. Another twelve sheets get thrown aside before his fingers touch the page he felt. Delicately, he pulls it out of the remaining papers and lets go of the rest. This… looks like a torn-out diary page.
Oswin closes his eyes and soon, little pricks travel across his entire body. Opening his eyes, he immediately notices that he's hiding in a bush, his vision obscured by twiggy branches with thorny leaves. Where is this? Who am I seeing through this time? As he adjusts to the new environment, he sees through the cover he's behind, and in the distance on the path is a young girl walking away from him. Why are we watching her? She looks almost familiar… The figure that Oswin is spectating crawls forward, and it's as if Oswin can feel the sting of the sharp leaves dragging across his skin. Breaking through the tangled shrub, they quickly run over to a nearby tree, peeking around to keep an eye on the girl. What is this person trying to do? Why do they have to make sure they aren't seen?
This is pointless… Why am I still following her? A woman's voice echoes through Oswin's mind.
Wait… that wasn't me.
It's been two years since they should have shown up. Oswin's attached body sprints to the next tree, footsteps nearly silent.
Am I… hearing her thoughts? That's… new. Hello?
Surely she has one. She has to. I can't continue keeping an eye on her. Eyeing around the tree again, the girl is closer, and another person is walking in her direction further in the distance.
She doesn't seem to be able to hear me… Is this woman her mother? Trying to see if her daughter has a partner? That wouldn't make sense, why would I be shown that…
Please… As the far figure closes in, a surfaced root catches their foot, sending them stumbling forward into the dirt. The girl runs over to help them up, and as the stranger takes the girl's hand, their body begins to rapidly convulse for a moment. The girl screams and tries to yank away, unable to let go and forced to watch as the jolting body begins to slowly melt, bone exposing through the dissolving flesh, the bone liquifying soon after. All that remains is a mass of fleshy goo, stringing up to where the girl had taken the poor victim's hand. Oh my God.
Oh my God.
The mass begins noticeably shrinking, the stringy goo slinking up and pumping into the girl's fingertips until the last bodily remnants are slurped up. The girl continued shrieking, collapsing back onto the ground, staring horrified at the puddle of remnant blood left behind.
What the hell did I just see? Both Oswin and the woman think simultaneously. A loud untraceable crack sound rings out, but neither the girl nor the woman seems to notice. Their shared body steps out from the cover and Oswin finally understands why he thought the girl looked familiar. The woman calls out.
"Bela…?"
The girl's head snaps to her and Oswin is thrown from his mind, snapping into an upright position back in the tower, smacking the back of his head against the shelf he was leaning on. He manages to focus just long enough to see Hrithika running over before slipping into darkness.