I narrowly dodged the sword, leaping out of the way just seconds before I would have been a pin-cushion for Teagra’s blade.

“Traitor!” she cried. “I should have known you serve the Cursed King.”

“Teagra! This isn’t what you think!” I cried.

“Lies!” she said with another whirl of her blade. “All lies.”

I had to admit, Teagra was really good with a sword. Far better than I would be under the circumstances, at least. That was part of the problem though. If Teagra kept at it, I was likely to lose my head.

Roy Fritz cut in front of me, his transparent form extending far beyond the reach of Teagra’s sword.

“Beware my wrath!” he cried in an eerily booming voice.

It sounded far more impressive than what I would normally have heard in a haunted house around Halloween. I had to give him points for trying.

Unfortunately, I could see Roy’s theatrics were just that - theatrics. Teagra’s sword passed harmlessly through the specter, but his hands also glided through her with little effect. Sooner or later, Teagra would figure it out, and then…I’d be goner.

I thought about making it run for it.

Yeah, good idea, run where?

I would survive two seconds out there. The world wasn’t very forgiving to Outsiders to begin with. I’d be rounded up and carried off - if I was lucky. The more likely scenario was I’d die of starvation, or be killed by a monster.

And that all assumed Teagra didn’t track me down and kill me herself.

I needed to get her back on my side, but clearly Roy Fritz was a sore subject.

I fished through my pockets, looking for something to help.

My phone. I could use that to…do something.

What? I didn’t quite know yet.

My hand fell upon the paper in the folds of my robe. I pulled it out. My eyes widened as I read the note.

Jason….I think that’s your name…

Whatever you do, don’t come back here. You’ll find many amazing things.

But you’ll also find Simon Merritt. And here, he holds all the cards.

Please don’t come here. I’m sorry how I ended things. I thought I was protecting you.

Now I can barely remember you. It’s this place. It gets in your bones.

I can’t even remember much else. Where I worked. Who I was before all this.

Hate me all you like. But don’t come here.

Please

Teagaaan Mells

My heart arched as I wrote it. It confirmed everything Roy Fritz had said. Teagan had come here, and she’d lost herself to this place.

Jason had disobeyed her wishes, tracking her down. What he found was only a stranger with Teagan’s face and none of her memories.

But was that really the case?

Perhaps.

Perhaps not.

But what choice did I have?

I took a hesitant step forward. Roy Fritz continued to toy with Teagra, whose hacks and slashes had little effect on the phantom. She turned her eyes to me.

“I should have killed you when I had the chance!” she said.

“You might get another one,” I said, holding the note in my hand. She stormed forward, so I awkwardly shoved the piece of paper in her face.

“What manner of devilry is this?” Teagra scoffed. “You think ink and parchment will stay my sword!”

“I do,” I said. “Don’t you recognize your own writing…or are you too far gone…?”

Teagra gripped the paper. Roy Fritz, for his part, hung back - though he did give me a questioning look.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“What trickery-” she started.

“No trickery,” I shrugged. “Your name is Teagan Mills. Or it was.”

“My name is Teagra,” she jolted her head towards me. “It always has been.”

“Who were your parents? Where were they born?” I asked.

“They…died,” she said, not answering my questions further. I knew I had punched a nerve, but it might be the only opening I had.

“Ja…the son of Jason,” I said. “He was your betrothed.”

Teagra’s eyes darted away from the paper and she turned to me with an expression of anger and shock.

“Surely you-” she started.

“What did he trust him…and for that matter…why did you trust him?” I said, gesturing with my hands. “You didn’t know him from Adam, after all.”

“I know no Adam!” Teagra protested.

“Sorry,” I back-tracked. “It’s an expression.”

Silence fell like a wall between us. I took some comfort Teagra had skewered me on sight.

Yet.

“The question remains…why did you trust each other?” I asked.

Teagra, thankfully, put down her sword. She began to hug herself, as if she was warming herself from the cold.

“He had such…kind eyes…and a good nature about him,” Teagra said.

“I think that’s bullshit,” I said. Teagra gave me a questioning gaze.

“I think that’s not true,” I said. “I think on some level, you knew you two were connected.”

Teagra didn’t say anything for a moment. Then she turned away.

“It matters not,” she said. “He’s dead now. Whatever we had died along with him.”

I looked to Roy Frtiz, who hovered above the ground, shimmering translucently.

“And Simon Meritt..” I started. Teagra’s head jerked towards me.

“Mayor Merritt gave me all I have,” she raised her voice. “He gave me this life.”

I narrowed my eyes at Teagra. “Yes, by taking the life you had with Jason. That’s how he’s gaining powers. By trapping people here and taking their memories.”

I turned to Roy Fritz. “That’s what he’s been doing this whole time, right.”

The ghost shrugged. “In a nutshell.”

“Simon Merritt rules this land,” Teagra said. “He’s the closest thing we have to a king.”

Roy Fritz looked away for a moment. I fixed my gaze on his transparent form.

“That’s not entirely true,” Roy said. “I mean, he’s close to a king. He has most of the magic artifacts I wrote about in Shields at Dawn.”

“Most?” I raised an eyebrow.

“He may have missed a few,” Roy Fritz said sheepishly.

“And…?” I said.

“And it might be enough to shift the balance of power,” Roy said. “If you could find them.”

At this, Teagra scoffed. “The Cursed Kings promises long-hidden treasures. I’ve heard enough.”

For my part, I wasn’t satisfied. “And you know where these treasures lie?” I asked.

Roy looked away for a moment. “Roughly.”

I didn’t like this. But then again, I was growing steadily used to that sensation.

Maybe I was losing myself to this place. I involuntarily shuddered. As if Roy Fritz had read my mind, he spoke up.”

“Look I don’t like this anymore than you do,” Roy said. “But with those treasures, you could overthrow Merit. Maybe even get home.”

“You’re wrong, Cursed King Fritzroy,” Teagra growled. “I don’t like you at all.”

“But…” I said, searching Teagra’s face. Beneath her ferocity, I saw her features creasing with uncertainty.

“But if Lord Merit has stolen my past, he must answer for it,” she said. “And if these treasures might hold the key to making him pay.”

She turned to me.

“What say you?”

“Me?” I said, slightly dumbfounded. “So you care what I think now?”

“I don’t care for the Cursed King,” she said. “But you have proven to be a loyal and true friend of the Son of Jay.”

She laid her hand on my wrist. “And though I have no recollection of it, I have no doubt that loyalty extended to me…once.”

“So I ask again,” I said. “What say you?”

I felt a stirring within myself that I hadn’t felt in a while. I hadn’t seen Teagan in years, but now, even as the stranger she had become over those years, there was something about her forthrightness that seemed…familiar.

“I don’t normally associate with ghosts but…if there’s a chance we can put this right and get me home,” I shrugged. “I say we take it. Just know I haven’t proven myself exactly useful this whole time.”

“You have saved my life and brought a truth long since forgotten,” Teagra said. “What better use is there?”

She leaned in closer. “The Son of Jay would be well-pleased.”

“Right, Jason,” I said in a small voice. I needed to get home. He needed justice. But that was the furthest thing on my mind until Teagra had reminded me.

I looked back to Roy Fritz, the so-called Roy Fritz.

“What of you?” I asked.

“I’m bound to this place. I’m thinking Simon Merit might be my unfinished business,” Roy said. “But if you return to me with the treasure in tow, I might able to change said.”

“And just where is this treasure?” I asked.

“Beneath the Skull of Steel,” Roy Fritz answered

“Sounds inviting,” I said.

“I know where it is,” Teagra said.

“That was easy,” I replied.

“It won’t be,” Teagra said. She cast a wary eye to Roy Fritz.

“We will return his treasure within three days,” she said.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, dear,” Roy said. Teagra narrowed her eyes at the spectre.

“I do not make promises lightly,” she said. She turned to me.

“Are you prepared for another adventure, Karl Son of Connan?” she said. I sighed.

“As I’ll ever be,”

There was a time I dreamed of going on an adventure with Teagan Mills. Over a decade later, I stood side-by-side with the warrior woman she had become as we both embarked on an epic quest.

I didn’t see that coming.

It was the first of many.