The tavern went silent upon her entry.

The woman released a dark purple beam that travelled straight towards Leta. It passed through the middle of her forehead and Lucas felt Leta’s grip on him loosen. Her eyes had rolled up and she teetered dangerously, before falling backwards. She slammed into the door and crumpled on the floor.

Lucas looked up at the woman and stiffened. That dark, purple hair, Russian Violet, was unmistakable. It was her, the one who had dragged him into this mess in the first place. The intruder. Mika.

He stayed next to Leta and he, as well as the rest of the tavern, stared at Mika who had gently grasped Tiaru’s burnt hands. A soft, purple glow radiated around their hands and the burn marks faded. Tiaru nodded in gratitude and began to pick up the mugs that had been knocked onto the floor during the fight.

Mika made her way over to Lucas and grabbed his hand, causing him to flinch. He tried to pull away, but she strengthened her grip and inspected the ring on his index finger with an amused look.

She took the ring off him and Lucas felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him. He was lightheaded and felt a growing sense of emptiness consuming him from the inside. His vision, once clear, returned to how it was when he was usually without glasses.

There was a murmur within the tavern people as his hair gradually returned from a rose pink to black. Mika pushed him forward, proudly presenting him to the onlookers with a smug expression, “You’ll be glad to know that my sister doesn’t break her promises,” to which she added under her breath, “though she really needs to stop making them when she’s wasted.”

Tiaru snorted. “Doesn’t break her promises for now.”

Another man in the tavern said, “Yeah, you can’t be a candidate without a companion, it’s-”

“Look, we have it sorted out. I’ll give you the details a little later but for now,” Mika turned to a man, “give us the spare room as well.”

The man, presumably the tavern keeper chucked her a key and Mika slung Leta over her shoulder, beginning to move upstairs. She looked back at Lucas and said “You’re coming as well.”

Mika unlocked the first door on her right and brought Leta over to the bed, laying her down gently.

“I’m surprised you kept your promise, Lucas.”

Lucas gave her a bewildered look. “What promise? How do you know my name?”

She shrugged in a way that was like a complete replicate of Leta’s shrugs. Both hers and Leta's eyes were ice-blue and piercing as always. Undoubtedly they were siblings. She tilted her head and said, “Hmm, I suppose you don’t recognise me in this form,” she said.

The air shimmered and twisted around Mika, her figure becoming a blur. They were sparks of red and black that waltzed around her, colliding with each other and combining into shades of dark brown. It was like staring straight at a strobe light, which made Lucas quite dizzy. Finally, the air settled down and Lucas looked down to see a dark brown cat, with ice-blue eyes, very clearly delighted at his shock.

“You…” He blurted out.

“Yep! The one and only.” She said. The air began to distort around her again, and Lucas looked away, not wanting to watch that ordeal again.

He clenched his teeth. “What more do you want from me?”

She grinned. “Forget what I said to you before. You’ve proven yourself, regardless of whether Leta trusts you or not.”

Lucas tightened his clenched fist. He still didn’t know anything, didn’t have a choice, couldn’t do this, couldn’t do that. “Proven myself?” he hissed. “You’ve knocked me out, tied me to a tree, offered me some cryptic deal with no guarantees, dragged me into this mess and now, now you’re telling me that I’ve ‘proven myself’?”

He stood up, barely able to control his breathing. He grabbed Mika’s shirt collar, the veins on his hand bulging and said “I’ll ask again. What more do you want from me?” He leaned closer, his teeth bared. “No more bullshit.”

Mika dropped her entertained expression and looked him dead straight in the eye. “You’ve heard the word companion, right? And that Leta is a candidate?”

Lucas nodded, loosening his grip slightly.

“We’ll move to my room first so that we don’t wake her up and then I’ll continue,” she said. Lucas let her go and stepped away from her, allowing Mika to open the door and enter the room just across. The room was bare, just a bed, a bag on the floor and a few pieces of paper sprawled across a desk as well as a chair. As the door closed she sat down on the edge of the bed and straightened out her shirt collar. Lucas dragged the chair out and sat down on it, facing her.

“Candidacy is a process that a select few people undertake so they can be allowed into the capital. There are three main requirements for it and one of them is having a companion. As you’ve probably inferred, you are Leta’s ‘companion’.”

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“Right, but I have no clue what that means.”

She sighed. “And it’s probably better if it stays that way.”

Again with the obscurity. Could they really not afford to tell anything to him?

She stared hollowly at Lucas and continued. “It’s quite a repulsive process, but don’t worry since that hasn’t happened to you.”

Lucas glanced at his hand, opening and closing them. He looked up at Mika and then back down to himself. He recalled Leta telling him that he needed to ‘ditch the idea that magic was some miracle’, but when she had injected him with her magic he felt stronger and more capable. It helped the people immensely with their day to day lives, but if Mika was calling it repulsive, maybe this was what Leta meant.

“That thing about gaining Leta’s trust was just to stop you from running away.”

Of course it was. He had already gotten the impression that Leta needed him, and now it was confirmed. Although, it seemed more like Leta was trying to get rid of him, considering her actions, and he couldn’t decipher why. Mika was the complete opposite, she was a failsafe, ensuring that him running away didn’t happen.

"Why couldn't you tell me all this from the start?" He asked.

"You think we can trust just anyone? Besides, seeing how desperate you were when you first made a ‘deal' with me, I don’t think you have any other option."

She had read him like a book and she was right. He pondered for a moment and decided that he might as well ask the one thing that had been stuck in his mind.

“Do you know why Leta had me deliver a rock to Pierre’s house?” He asked.

“Ah. I have an idea.” Mika leaned forward and pinched the bridge of her nose. She didn’t reveal anything else, but her expression told Lucas that it was a decision made solely on Leta’s behalf.

“Wouldn’t I have been found anyways if I ran?”

“Of course. If you were wearing an item that she infused with her magic, that would be more than enough for Leta to gauge where you were.”

“Then wh-”

Mika interrupted him. “Look, that doesn't matter. If Leta’s going to survive candidacy she needs at least one companion. That’s just the rules.”

“So what, you’re telling me to become Leta’s companion?”

Mika smiled thinly. “As long as you have the ring on and do as she says, you’ll look exactly like her companion.”

Lucas narrowed his eyes. “And what do I get out of this in return? You’re not telling me a lot, you know.”

“The more you know, the more you’ll regret asking. You’ll be able to enjoy your life more once you get out of here, alright?”

“Yeah, and you realise how unbelievable this is?” Lucas said.

She gave an irritated sigh. “Sometimes you don’t need to know the fine print to accept the terms and conditions, but if you think I’m not going to honour my promise, then here.”

Mika got off the bed and walked in front of Lucas. She then lowered her head, put her right hand on her chest and knelt down on one knee. From her hand, a wheel appeared, split into three colours, blue, red and black. It spun and morphed into a deep, dark purple, the same as her hair. Sparks began flying from the wheel, and streaks of the same purple orbited around her. Her eyes were glowing, now a vibrant blue.

She offered out her left hand and looked straight at him. “On this evening, the two suns shall witness my promise to this man, Lucas. The light shall judge me and the darkness shall bestow me my punishment if I break it. I promise that I shall grant him a new life once he has served his purpose pretending to be Leta’s companion. Is this what you agree to?”

Lucas felt shivers run down his spine. When Leta had given him the ring, she gave him a desperate smile. Mika would not be kneeling down before him unless she was just as desperate, even if she didn't show it. Desperation had spread to them all, like an infectious disease. This was his chance. “I’ll agree to it if I get taught how to use magic. Proper magic.”

She bared her teeth, giving him a look of disdain. “Fine. Just take my hand already.”

He grinned and offered out his hand, shaking hers. The streaks around her concentrated into their palms, gradually pouring in until they had all disappeared.

Mika stood up and wiped her left hand on her pants.

“A real promise, huh?” Lucas laughed smugly. Finally, he had something in this world, even if it was something small. It was his first, genuine step in creating a path of his own in this horribly cryptic place. A new beginning, one where he wasn’t going to let himself be pushed around by people again.

She scoffed. “This isn’t for you.”

Lucas let out a hmph and got off his chair. “So how do I begin, with magic and all that?”

Mika’s lip curled upwards in a sneer. “You don’t.”

“Excuse me? Then what was that promise-”

“That’s up to Leta to decide.”

His jaw opened slightly as he processed her words. Is that why she agreed to it so easily?

Mika chucked him the ring that Leta gave him. “Put it on,” she said.

He complied and immediately felt a warmth flooding into him, his vision sharpening once again.

She smiled. “Good luck convincing her.”

He opened his mouth, about to protest, but it was useless.

“No more questions. Get out of my room.”

“Where do I go?”

“Well, you could stay outside if you wanted to. Or, you could stay in Leta’s room but if you try anything,” Mika pulled out a dagger and tilted it, letting the light above her bounce off it, “you know what’ll happen,” she said with a glint in her eye.

“Right…” He awkwardly walked out of Mika’s room and slowly opened the door to Leta’s room. She was sleeping soundly in the bed, blissfully unaware of what had just happened. The door closed behind him and he heard the sound of footsteps, which he assumed was Mika going back downstairs to the tavern people.

He slumped onto the ground, leaning against a wall and stared out the window, at the endless expanse of darkness. Not a single star in the sky was to be seen as he sat there.

The square of aluminium foil fell out of his pocket and he glanced at it. He still had so many unanswered questions and he felt like a toddler, one who had just learned how to walk in this vicious world. He didn’t want to be here anymore.

He wondered if there was just a slight possibility he could get back to his own world.

Even if it was impossibly small, it was a chance he was going to take, a chance he had to take. He would take one step at a time, navigate this hellscape and finally, be done with it all and go back home.

One step at a time.