The bridge creaked down, the moat having a visible floor this time. The castle doors opened, and the princess walked out.

“Hello. I hear you brought the humans?”

“Yes, Lady Chagrin. These are the humans, as per your request.”

“Wonderful.” She extended her hand to the group. “Hello, Amity. I’m the princess of this kingdom. You may call me Silva.”

Amity took her and and shook it. “Hi, Silva.” She let go. “Why did you call us over here?”

“You lot are humans, correct?”

“Yes, we recently arrived from earth.”

“Hmm. Please, follow me.”

She obliged, gesturing for the rest of the group to follow. They stood inside the castle, the princess guiding them to a hall just next to the main hall. She opened a small chest placed against the wall, revealing a small slip of paper.

“At your school, did you happen to know a girl named Kaiya?”

“Kaiya… I think she was in my 3rd period, but she switched out a few months ago.”

“Yes, well, she arrived here in your month of April.” She handed the paper over. “Kaiya has been in my quarters for this time. Right now, she is out doing work, but before she gets home, I have a request.” Silva put a hand near her shoulder.

“Sure, what is it?”

Silva gripped something, pulling her arm away to reveal a long blade.

“Hand over everything. You’ve gone far enough.”

Amity pulled up a wind shield, saying “What? Why would I hand anything over to you?”

Silva pierced through the shield with ease, allowing the tip to rest on Amity’s neck. “Why would you? Hmm, maybe it’s because I have servants lined up across the entire island! They’d stop you the instant you leave the castle! Maybe it’s the fact I could kill you right now! Maybe it’s because I’m a part of T-”

Amity sprayed the girl with fire, then booked it out of the castle. Everyone followed, and she used more wind to lift the drawbridge, blocking Silva in. Their relief was short lived, though, as not only was there a small sandstorm building in front of them, but when they turned around, a puff of wind and sand blew out from behind them. The flame-ridden girl summoned ice to surround them in all but the front, and used the raging fire already smothering her to provide her blade with a hot finish.

The only natural magic user in the ice panicked, launching up ice in front of them. She quickly remedied this, melting a hole in it, but she was met with the tip of a blade nearly hitting her face already.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“Amity Rune. Would you rather die like this? Or would you rather go out peacefully in an… accident in a few days?”

“Neither, because I’m not dying.”

She extinguished the fires on the blade, replacing them with dull ice. Silva pulled the blade away to remove what was effectively a scabbard, making it so no cutting could be done, but this was an error. A flame appeared just outside the back ice wall, quickly melting a hole large enough for everyone to sneak through.

“Hey, Bronza!”

“What did you just call me?”

Amity didn’t need to respond, as a small beam of lightning struck Silva. She fell over, just barely tripping directly into the pit, while still clutching a sword that had just had it’s tip cleared. The one who was still standing ducked under the hole she had made, attempting a hasty getaway. Unfortunately for her, the rest of her group had vanished, and there was still someone she was forgetting.

Kaiya.

She ran back to the castle, already feeling immensely drained, and used some ice to make footholds so she could reach the quarters of the (now likely ex-) princess.

“Kaiya! Kaiya, are you-” The door to the quarters opened, and a small girl in a jean jacket entered.

“… Do I know you from somewhere?” The soft spoken girl asked.

“Hey, I’m Amity, from school. Are you Kaiya?”

She nodded.

“Good. Listen, there was a fiasco, the princess tried to kill me for something I didn’t quite understand, and she fell into the moat around the castle, so I think she’s… yeah.”

Kaiya put her right hand on her left arm, looking down.

“Sorry… Anyway, we may need to go. Please, pick up whatever you have here, we need to run.”

“It’s fine… I don’t really have much stuff, so I’ll be back in maybe 10 seconds.”

She walked into the closet to her right, only grabbing a small bag with some basic supplies and one change of clothes.

“Oh, you really didn’t have much…” Amity sighed. “Let’s go.”

She used ice to create a small ramp down to the sand, leading Kaiya down. They ran for a minute or two, getting out of visible range of the castle.

“… Do you have a way to get home?”

“Yes, but we need to find my friends first. They have a lot of my stuff, including what we need to get home.”

Kaiya silently nodded, leading Amity forward to a small piece of rock in the ground. She stepped onto the flat surface and muttered some short words and phrases in a language Amity had never heard before.

“What are their names?” She asked quietly.

“Uh, Himiko, Raleigh, and Katie.”

She returned to speaking in the foreign language, saying slightly altered versions of their names that sounded more like how a baby would say them, but tighter and more powerful almost.

A small glow emanated from the sandstorm, and Kaiya stepped off the platform.

“That’s them.”

Amity created a small wind bubble around them to keep sand away as they walked through the storm, closer to the group. The very short girl made a few more unfamiliar utterances in the language Amity still couldn’t put a name on, and the glow increased in brightness. They penetrated the edge of the storm and made it to a calm area, and Amity near immediately collapsed. “Kaiya, can you give me a second? Magic is really draining.”

“Sure. Actually, how do you have magic in the first place? I don’t think you were born with it?”

Amity explained everything from how they got here to just before they found Kaiya, and she listened with intent. She helped Amity back up, and they continued forwards. The glow gradually dimmed, until they saw a familiar hat laying on the ground.

“Oh crap.”

“What?”

“This is Himiko’s hat. If she lost it… Something bad happened.”

“Uh oh.”

“Can you do the glowy thing again?”

Kaiya walked around to find a large enough rock, then stood on it and repeated the process, seeing the only glow come from the hat.

“That’s… not good.”