“You sure no new clothes first?” Kren asked. He was holding his nose and cringing while looking her up and down as they stood up to get off the plane.
Molly wasn’t even embarrassed. She looked down at the clothes she had been wearing for the last few days. They were tattered, bloody, and disgusting, but they showed her growth, what she had recently been through, and where she had come from. “Not yet. After. But I’ll pick them out, and when I do, I don’t want your opinion.”
“What happened old clothes?” Kren asked.
There was no need to lie to him. “I destroyed them.”
Kren’s eyes grew wide. “Why?”
“For good reason, I promise. I won’t do it again.”
He left it at that and guided her into the airport with a few other students who had also traveled with them by plane. After everything that had happened, the students had been offered a few days off at home and many had gladly taken it.
But Molly wasn’t going home. She would spend a couple of days with Kren, recuperating, after they visited the prison. Kren had offered to take her home afterward, but she refused. She would gladly go back home at the end of the school year. Just not yet. She needed more time away. She didn’t care to tell him exactly why.
When he picked her up this morning, he had seemed more unsettled than usual. He hadn’t asked her how her classes were going, anything about the events with the metal overtaking the school, or anything really, except questions about Trennly the whole plane ride. She could tell he was worried about his old friend. Honestly, Molly was a little concerned for him too. Although a part of her felt like he should be locked away, another part of her could not help but feel bad for him and his story.
Molly followed Kren as he hurried through the airport to a car already waiting for them on the street. The slick midnight-blue vehicle she had not seen before. When the door opened, she saw that the white bench seats were long enough to fit four people across and that they faced each other. Kren cringed again as Molly scooted inside.
“It will clean itself,” he said as the car took off.
“I’ve never seen a car like this,” Molly remarked. It was eerie how clean and quiet it was. She also did not like how she could not see the driver in the front because there was no window.
“It take us to prison. Some other facilities too. Walitt owned.”
Molly didn’t know if that was a company or a last name like the airlines or both.
They didn’t talk as they drove for miles, leaving the city and then traveling across open roads to a tunnel.
“Will get dark,” Kren warned, looking out his window to the tunnel they were heading toward.
The tunnel was darker than Molly expected; she had been expecting at least the yellowish lights that usually lined road tunnels, but instead, everything went pitch black and continued that way until Molly felt disoriented in her seat and had to grab onto the door to try to steady herself and not become sick. The stink from her unwashed clothes was not helping either.
But then everything became bright again, and Molly had to shut her eyes against the glare. They left the tunnel and came out on a gravel road.
“Was that a normal tunnel?” Molly asked, looking up the gravel road to a giant menacing steel-blue building with no windows. It had to be three stories in height and had only a singer silver door in the middle. It looked more intimidating than the magickal school.
“Yes and no,” Kren answered. His face fell as he looked at the building.
The car parked itself, and Kren opened the door and scooted out. The air smelled musky, and the sound of gravel crunching beneath their feet rattled Molly’s already unsettled nerves as they walked up to the unwelcoming building.
Kren knocked on the door with his large fist.
Kren was the one who had wanted to confront Trennly and had wanted Molly to come with him. At first, she had been for it, wanting to hear Trennly’s side of the story and maybe get an apology so she could make her mind up about him, but now, after arriving at this place, she was a little freaked out.
The silver door opened.
A tall, thin, pale man peeked out and down at them. “Visitors.” He opened the door more, revealing his black suit and thinning long beard to study Kren. “I presume for the recently detained.”
Kren nodded, gnarling his hands together, refusing to look the man in his beady eyes.
“The…other mini-troll was brought into the back this morning. For attempting a body-snatch? Correct?” The man stood aside so they could enter, but Kren didn’t move. He didn’t even nod.
Instead, Molly answered for him. “That’s correct. I was the body almost snatched.” Then she carefully pulled Kren’s hands apart and gripped one of them into hers to lead him inside.
“Interesting. And why do you wish to see him?”
The room they came into was narrow, like a foyer, but was decorated like a fancy living room, except everything was silver. The walls, the couches, the carpet, the tables, the silverware, and a machine that looked like it might be a coffee maker with silver cups were all gleaming, purely coated in metal.
“We just wish to talk to him,” Molly answered, mesmerized by the hauntingly modern chrome-like display around her.
The man waited a few more beats, but when Molly said nothing else, he seemed to accept her vague explanation. “Fine. Let me get the key for his cell, and I’ll lead you there. Make yourselves at home.”
“Can… Can I use?” Kren pointed at the machine on the table that made some kind of drink.
“Of course,” the man said, opening a second silver door next to a table holding the machine before slipping inside and shutting it, leaving Molly and Kren alone in the room.
Kren dug deep into his brown suit pockets and plucked out a few bundles of herbs that he must carry around. He set two bags on the tall table then put his hands on the table to try to lift himself, but his hands were too slick with sweat to hold himself. Everything rattled.
“I can do it,” Molly said, taking up the flowery-smelling herbs. “Just tell me what to do.”
Kren sighed. “Open top.”
Molly did. She peeled back the lid to reveal a clean silver bowl.
“Put inside. Close. Then push button.”
Molly followed the steps, and there was a click. She grabbed a cold silver cup and put it under the hole just when pink tea started pouring out of a spout.
It didn’t take too long for the cup to fill. Then Molly handed it to Kren. He took a sip and his shoulders relaxed and his eyes drooped.
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The door creaked open.
“This way, please,” the tall man said.
They followed him through the door.
There was a long beige hallway with solid walls and nothing else, except at the very end of the hallway, which was a brown door with a small window in the upper center. The tall man opened it and led them through. It took them to a set of black stairs that they climbed. The tall man was faster than Molly could keep up with, but she didn’t even try. She stayed behind with Kren, who was going extra slowly since he was trying not to spill the drink he had brought with him. The man was waiting for them at the top by the time they arrived, then he opened another brown door. It led to a hallway that looked exactly like the previous one.
Molly didn’t understand the point of the solid blank beige walls until the tall man hit a key card on a particular bare spot on one of the walls, which then fell away as if it had never existed. Behind the wall was a cell complete with bars.
Was that what was behind all the walls?
Trennly was startled inside the cell, cowering for a moment with his hands over his head. But then he turned toward them. When he saw Kren, he shook his head and looked at one of the walls outside his cell. His eyes drifted to Molly. His face fell and he clenched his jaw before his gaze sought out the floor.
“I will leave you be,” the man said, walking off the way they had come. Molly listened to his footsteps on the hardwood flooring then heard the door at the end of the hall open and close.
Molly looked between Kren and Trennly. Trennly wouldn’t make eye contact with either of them. Kren’s face fell further. It hurt her inside.
Finally, Kren spoke up. “I came all way to see you.”
“I don’t know why,” Trennly responded, plopping himself on the floor before he began dusting off his black shoe to no avail.
“I looked all over. You closed up shop.”
This got Trennly to look up at him. “So did you.”
Kren shrugged and took a drink from his silver cup with shaky hands.
“You have a drinking problem,” Trennly remarked, watching Kren gulp it down.
Kren shrugged again, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. “You have getting in trouble problem.”
“Always have.”
They were silent for a while, leaving Molly standing there, not knowing what to do or say.
Kren looked to the door at the end of the hall. “Should I leave?”
“I would rather you not come here at all.”
“You knew I would. You know I won’t stop.”
Snickering for a moment, Trennly got up from the ground with some effort and made his way over to them. He put his hands on the bars that separated them. His hair did not smell as nice as it usually did and the color wasn’t as vibrant. His skin was not as shiny or perfect either. And there were small purple scars on his arms and hands that she hadn’t seen before.
“Garlic bread, again? Really, Kren? It makes your breath stink, especially mixed with whatever herbs you’re drinking.”
Kren ignored his comment. “Apologize.”
“To who? Her?” Trennly still wouldn’t look at Molly. He looked only at Kren.
“Name is Molly. You feel bad. You won’t look at her.”
At one time, Molly might have been self-conscious that he was refusing to look at her, which sounded silly to her now after everything. But that was when she had slightly despised herself. Now she knew that the reason why he wouldn’t look at her wasn’t because of her, it was because of how he felt about himself.
“Apologize,” Kren said again.
“For possibly finding a solution and trying it?” She could see Trennly growing angry. At himself or at Kren, she didn’t know.
“I found a way, Kren. I found a way that could have worked. And once I was inside with her soul,” he squeezed the bars, “I could have studied empty vessels, unlike anyone else.”
Kren shook his head, “Not possible. Whatever planning, not possible.”
“I’m an expert at drinks,” Trennly sneered. “I was and still am smarter than you, Kren. I could have figured it out. I have. You don’t understand. I have nothing! This was the only thing that could have worked for me. For those like me in the future.”
“You would have killed her.”
“No! I found a way to make sure her spirit stayed. That it wasn’t lost and wouldn’t drown. I would have found a way to save her. I am not a troll, Kren. I said I will redeem myself from being one.”
“A way? What way?” Doubt flickered in Kren’s eyes.
“A token that follows the rule like-calls-to-like. It would have kept her human spirit in her body. Would have kept it from dying, until I figured things out.”
Molly remembered the token she had found briefly that one time in her room when she had escaped the place her mind imprisoned her in. How when she had looked again, it was gone.
“Where find token?” Kren crossed his arms.
Trennly looked around first before leaning in to whisper, “From the deep magick market. Someone had taken pieces of destroyed souls and worked to put them into these coins to see if they could make a whole soul, at least enough to where it could pass as a soul to bypass certain things…. Like-calls-to-like, Kren. So, another human spirit would have kept her soul there. Would have kept it from drowning.”
“You don’t know. That’s a risk.” Kren shook his head.
“It’s not fair for me to be trapped like this,” Trennly said. “Not when this isn’t what I was meant to be. I’m tired of being forced to live like this and face the trauma life has dealt me every single day.”
Molly’s heart stopped. Her mind paused. Trauma? Living with himself was as torturous for him as it was for her being in that place of ice?
“All I want is to be is something respected, not a griffon or another creature, but one I identify with. You wouldn’t understand. You relate to being a troll. That’s you. Not me. What was I supposed to do? No one ever listened. I’ve—we’ve—been ignored when it has come to this our entire childhood. Turned away by everyone. Even by Lockdrest!”
Molly started to back away. Trennly was struggling. He had been struggling. He didn’t feel right with himself. Worse than she had ever felt with herself. Was he really the bad guy in this story? Could he be a bad guy when he only wanted change that the magickal world would not offer him? He had not planned to hurt her. Not really. He had hurt no one. Only saved them. But the way he had gone about everything had been wrong.
Desperation had taken his hand when everything and everyone else had turned away.
Trennly’s next words stopped Molly backing away.
“You know what… I’m done. I’m done with this world. Done with everything. I’m sick and tired of no one listening to me or understanding. We have magick. If more people cared and took their time, we would find a way. Just tell Derrin I won’t be meeting with him anymore.”
He let his hands fall away from the bars and hang limp at his sides. “He doesn’t know what happened to me, and he is traumatized after the incident, I’m sure.”
Kren tsked. His eyes narrowed. “Why mess with other student?”
“I was helping him.” Trennly squeezed his hands into fists. “Well, helping him and using him. He wanted to impress someone at home, so I offered to help. I used his room to sleep in while he was at class and taught him what I knew.”
“Derrin…. Derrin was the one who saved us,” Molly breathed.
Trennly had taught him. How?
“I know.” Trennly turned to her and actually looked at her for the first time. “I was there.”
Kren nodded as if he were not surprised. As if he knew deep down that Trennly was good and that he was just a little lost. Yesterday, Molly had thought something was floating around them in the fake school built on visionary and gnome magick. Something had been shifting to fight off the growing metal that was reaching for them at that time. But she had been too freaked out to pay too much attention to it. She had been too focused on the growing mass above them that was breaking the barrier. But it did make sense. Trennly must have used an astral spell. He also must have given Derrin that one drink that helped save them all.
He had been helping another student this whole time. He had also risked himself when he didn’t have to in order to protect the other students. He had saved others and let a student take all the credit for what he had done. Did that prove he was actually good?
Molly walked back up to the bars. She trusted Kren and his opinion. If Kren thought deep down that Trennly was a good guy, then she also wanted to.
“I want to find a way to help you,” she said.
Trennly sneered at her. His eyes were full of anger, unfairness, and doubt. “Good luck with that, princess.”
Molly met his eyes. “I will find a way to help you. You’re good. You just have been dealt a bad life.” She knew how that felt.
“I’m not good.”
“You saved those kids, and you didn’t have to. You didn’t even have to put yourself in danger for them.” Molly would help him. She would find a way to save his soul that was lost like the way hers used to hide.
“I tried to overtake you. I’m not good. Kren, tell her.”
Kren didn’t say anything for a moment. “I sure you thought could save her soul. You did her wrong. It is her to decide.”
Trennly rolled his eyes and sighed. His cheeks burned red.
That did it for her. She was going to help him no matter what it took. She would find a way.
He had done a bad thing. She knew that. She also knew that he had been fueled by loneliness and desperation, so he had taken matters into his own hands.
But he had not hurt anyone. He had not planned to hurt anyone. He had planned to study empty vessels and maybe he would have found a way to help her.
And it was her life, her body that he had wronged. So, it was up to her to decide. It was up to her to understand and to sympathize with him. She might not forgive him fully. That would take time. That would take him proving himself and showing that he would not hurt her again. But she wanted to believe.
Without him, she would never have gone to a magickal school. She would have never learned to protect herself. She would never have found herself. He had saved the school. He had saved them. She owed him something. She owed him healing.
He helped her heal in a way she never could have, so she would also help him heal.
After she found a way to help him out of this prison first.
Then together, they could both try to find a way to change the magickal world to make it listen.