The rest of the meal followed a now familiar pattern. Amy shouted belligerent questions at the monk. The monk responded with a monologue unrelated to Amy’s question, primarily focused on her great and fearsome powers. Amy then shouted some more at the monk, employing sarcasm and undirected rage as blunt instruments with little effect. In response the monk monologued some more, and Amy shouted some more. Janik, Thomas, and Baron ate as much as they could and watched the show of these two talking at each other but never with each other. Without the fuel of Amy’s apparently endless appetite for confrontation they were too weighed down by trauma and fatigue to participate. Janik occasionally interjected to ask for alcohol and was repeatedly denied or ignored. Eventually even Amy and the Monk seemed to flag, and the ‘guests’ were promised the arrangement could be discussed tomorrow in exchange for leaving the monk alone and getting some rest. As they were led out of the dining room by a silent monk who approximated the size and beadiness of Gregor, the old monk lobbed one more reminder of her authority at them. ‘This discussion is a courtesy, not a negotiation.’

They were led down a corridor, then up a winding staircase, to a large room with a single window. The room had tatami style floors laid with tightly bound straw, and bedding consisting of thin mattresses, pillows, and light duvets. Janik collapsed on the closest mattress.

‘Yes.’ Janik rolled from side to side, pulling the duvet over himself. ‘Yes.’

‘He really likes that bed,’ said Baron.

Baron walked over to the window. The sun was up fully now, though still low in the sky. This room was above the water line and he could see the wooden towers more clearly, sticking out of the water out at irregular intervals from each other. He realised the towers were slightly cone shaped, their walls curving gracefully into blunt tips. The lack of texture in the calm water made the horizon where flat blue sea meets flat blue water difficult to distinguish. The towers sat on perfect reflections of themselves which led to the impression that they were elongated eggs floating in space. Baron could see more monks moving backwards and forwards through the windows in some of the other towers, and wondered where Gregor was. To his astonishment Bradon realised the monks he could see through the windows didn’t match their reflected counterparts. He wasn’t looking at the reflection of each tower, but was seeing the submerged lower half of each tower through the crystal clear water. Each tower was perfectly symmetrical and floating in the water at exactly it’s midpoint. Did these towers also submerge like this one had when they needed to?

‘This place is incredible,’ said Baron.

He looked behind him and saw Janik sliding deeper into his duvet, Thomas easing himself onto one of the mattresses, and Amy standing darkly in the corner. None had heard him. He decided that was fine. He would keep this moment for himself.

Amy looked at Jaink, already almost asleep on his mattress. ‘Don’t they have beds in whatever junkie slop hole you squat in?’ said Amy.

‘Amy!’ interjected Thomas. ‘Come on …’

Janik didn’t seem to care. ‘I’m tired. We all are. This is a very comfortable bed. You should get some sleep.’

Janik wasn’t wrong, the bed did look good. It looked crisp, expensive. And she was tired. Tired in her bones, exhausted from having the rug pulled from under every five minutes and from her own constant rage. But someone had to try and wrestle control of what was happening, someone had to rage. And Amy had a little rage left in her. Not useful rage. Even Amy recognised that her rage was impotent and misdirected. But it was hers, and it made her feel like she was doing something. She reached deep and found some pointless spite.

‘Even without a drink Janik?’

‘I know you think you’re being mean, but actually I would very much like a drink.’

‘They don’t seem to like alcohol here,’ said Baron, making himself comfortable on one of the mattresses.

‘You know what? That’s fine. It’s actually easier when it’s just not an option,’ He shrugged himself into a more comfortable position. ‘Maybe I should stay here. Maybe this is good for me.’

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

‘As if we have a choice,’ said Baron.

‘We do have a choice!’ said Amy, ‘Or we should have a choice! Why does every idiot who can do magic think it’s ok to just kidnap someone?’

Amy noticed that at some point she had sat down on one of the mattresses. It was treacherously soft.

‘Well shouting at everyone doesn't seem to be working for us,’ said Baron.

Amy winced. ‘Well, that seems quite pointed Baron. But fair point. Whatever we are doing is not working for us. And it’s exhausting. But we need to break out of just being pulled passively from disaster to shit show. Things are happening so fast that if we keep going like this we are going to sleep walk into being house elves for these cosplay pricks. From now on we stop reacting and resist. If they say go left, we go right. If they say jump, we sit down. If they say stay here forever and … like, be their cleaners or whatever, we do ... whatever the opposite of that is.’

‘That’s still just reacting to things Amy! We need a plan,’ protested Thomas.

‘That is a plan!’ insisted Amy.

Janik sat up on his mattress. ‘You’re both right. We need to stop reacting, we need to figure out what is happening. And we need to make a plan to get out of here. But Amy, sitting when someone says stand isn’t a plan.’

‘We? You’re not one of us!’ said Amy.

‘But he is one of us!’ Thomas said, ‘Like it or not he’s in the same mess we are in, and we’re stronger together. I mean he’s an actual magician.’

‘He is a literal thief!’ Amy yelled.

Thomas put his hand on Amy’s shoulder. ‘Amy I love you but …’

‘No no no!’ interrupted Amy, ‘Whenever someone says “Amy, I love you but,” they are either firing me or breaking up with me and you are unable to do either!’

Thomas continued, ‘I love you, but you can’t just shout at every person we meet. Janik is as deep in this as we are, and he can use magic, and he’s clever. The old monk said so. We need him. And we need to stop shouting at people, get a real understanding of what we are caught up in, and make a plan for getting out of it.’

Amy felt shaken, she always had the support of Baron and Thomas, regardless of how pear shaped things were going. But she had to admit to herself that recently everything was pear shaped most of the time. And they were right, nothing she was doing seemed to be slowing down their tumble from disaster to disaster.

‘I know, I mean you’re right, but you guys don’t do anything. If I stop shouting at people then no one is doing anything.’

‘And you do a great job, not just at shouting, which you are great at, but at all the stuff. But we need a better toolset than lying and shouting. We still need you to lead, but not all by yourself.’ said Thomas.

Amy felt her panic subside a bit. She realised she relied a lot on knowing Thomas and Baron had her back. To some degree it’s what gave her the confidence to shout at everyone with such conviction. But to change how they operated she needed more from them.

‘Okay. Okay, okay. We can do this. But you guys need to do more than just wait for me to think of a plan. You need to lead too.’

Thomas was nodding, ‘You’re right. Baron, we need to step up. Part of the reason Amy is so problematic is because we just sit back and let her make all the moves. We need to do more than just push her out in front and wait to see what happens.’

‘Problematic?’ said Amy.

‘In a cute way!’ said Thomas ‘Baron and I need to step up and lead some stuff now and then! It’s not fair to expect you to do everything.’

Baron was nodding, ‘Yes. Sorry Amy. You just always seem so confident. But you guys are right, we need to stop just waiting for things to happen. So what’s the plan?’

Thomas stood up. ‘Here are the new ground rules. We think before we do stuff.’

‘Mmml,’ said Amy. ‘I do not like what that implies about how we were working before.’

‘It’s not a dig Amy, you were the only one thinking, we all need to think.’

Janik struggled up from his mattress. ‘Well this is all very lovely, but that’s not a plan. That’s an approach.’

‘Yes,’ said Baron. ‘What’s our plan?’

There was a long silence. The boys looked at Amy. Amy raised an eyebrow.

‘Please, go ahead,’ she said.

The silence, unbearably, continued.

‘Well maybe you could go first just while we ease into this new way of doing things.’ said Baron sheepishly.

‘What we need,’ said Amy, ‘is someone who knows what the hell is going on, because I’m buggered if I know. Someone on the inside. Someone who already has a track record of breaking the stupids monks' rules. Someone who has already demonstrated a willingness to go out of their way to help outsiders.’

Thomas and Baron stared at Amy blankly. She returned their stare expectantly. It started to get weird.

‘She means Gregor you morons.’ said Janik.

‘Greg!’ exclaimed Thomas as the pieces somewhat belatedly fell into place.

‘Greg!’ said Baron, as the same pieces even more belatedly fell into place.

‘His name is Gregor,’ said Amy. ‘And we all better remember that, because names are important. And he is our ticket out of here.’

‘But how do we find him?’ asked Thomas.

‘Through a technique that you have all acknowledged I am somewhat of an expert in,’ said Amy. ‘Shouting.’