The scenery changes back to the cave. Blue tilts her head at Julie. “Did you make a contract with her before?” Blue is surprised to see April standing next to Julie. ‘Did she head there while I was busy with the contract?’

“Just now yeah, why?” Julie says.

“Isn’t another contract today too much then?” Blue wonders.

“Nah, I took the costs on me before, and you’re doing this one. She could get a lot more contracts this way.” Julie laughs.

Only then did Blue notice how unstable Julie seems. ‘She’s leaning on April, does that mean April noticed before? Why didn’t I see it? Am I that bad? I should try to watch them more, so I’ll be the first to notice if anything is wrong with them!’ Blue clenches her fists.

“Let’s get out of here, otherwise they might think we’re missing.” Eve sighs.

Blue tries to move forward, but her limbs are sluggish. ‘Is this because of the contract just now? Will I ever be able to make a contract without getting tired?’

Blue feels something touch her back, grabbing her side. She looks up and sees Eve.

“Are you just gonna stand there and wait?” Eve smiles at her.

Blue laughs. “Thanks.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Eve waves her other hand.

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Blue is sitting in the corner of the cage as the door opens.

A voice follows the opening of the door. “This way, Sir.”

“This is all?” A man with a moustache says. He’s touching his moustache while looking around.

“Yes, Sir. We ran into a little problem with the Church.” It’s the man that brought them here.

“I see.” Moustache man walks around the cage.

He finishes a round. “Well, I think I’ve seen enough.”

“Sir, please follow me out.” And as quick as they appeared, they disappeared.

“That guy must have been a great noble or something, the merchant doesn’t easily bow to people…” Julie sighs.

“How do you know that?” April tilts her head.

Julie laughs. “Just think about it, the merchant is a successful guy. All the rich and noble people come to his store to buy whatever he has. He’s probably richer than all those rich families, and seeing that every noble comes to beg for discounts, he has quite the status. The fact that even the Merchant acts like a low servant really says a lot about the status of that guy.”

“What was he here for?” Blue asks.

“That, it doesn’t matter.” Julie quickly says.

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“Brats, get out.” The same voice as always.

“You two, come with me.” Another voice joins in and points at April and Blue.

Blue stares at April. April just shrugs and heads towards the voice calling them.

[Come, you know what happens if you disobey.] April warns her.

Blue sighs and follows April.

“Took a while. If we need you then you come right away, dropping everything you were doing before. Understood?” The guard says.

“Understood.” April murmurs.

The guard snarls. “What is that? I can’t hear you.”

“Understood!” April says a little louder.

“Understood…” Blue follows.

“...” The guard shakes his head “Now come, hurry up.”

The guard leads them to a mansion.

[This might be where the merchant lives if he’s on this island.] April curiously looks at the mansion.

‘But, why are we here?’ Blue asks.

[Who knows what the merchant needs.] April sighs.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“Stay here.” The guard orders. He doesn’t wait for a response and heads towards the entrance. He knocks on the door and starts shouting. “I brought them, Sir.” Like a soldier responding to their commander.

A short while later the door opens. “Great job.” A voice from inside says.

“Thank you, Sir.” The guard bows. “Now get in, brats.”

The guard pushes them and walks off.

‘Wouldn’t this be the best time to escape?’ Blue wonders.

[And then what? We can’t get off the island, and it would mean we leave everyone behind.] April explains.

‘Oh, yeah.’ Blue sighs.

They follow the man that opened the door. It’s not the merchant, he wouldn’t open the door for some guard.

There’s a grand staircase in the middle of the room, making it look amazing. “Follow.” The man doesn’t waste any time and starts walking up the stairs.

April looks around with an open mouth. [This place, it’s so fancy…]

Blue tilts her head. ‘It’s just like my ho- my old home.’

[Later, let’s get a place like this. Or no, like a castle, with a throne room and a garden. Castles have big towers too, I want a room in one of those towers! The room should have a king sized bed, with satin blankets. A carpet would be nice too…] April excitedly thinks.

‘If you want just a throne room, a garden and a bedroom, where do you need the castle for?’

[For the rest of you guys of course! I don’t want a giant place just to myself. We need a giant kitchen, with people who mastered cooking,and a bathroom attached to every single room. A shower and a bathtub, combined to make sure it doesn’t take too much space. We can’t forget the sink, where else do we brush our teeth. Do you think two person bunk beds exist? Then we can even share the room and always have sleep overs. We’d never be lonely like that! Ah, we also need a toilet. But not in the bathroom, I just want a little room for just the toilet.] April smiles thinking about it.

Blue scratches her chin. ‘Then, let’s do that when we get out of here.’ She has no clue what most of the things mentioned mean, but it doesn’t matter. She’ll figure that out later. ‘April’s eyes sparkle…’ Blue thinks to herself with a smile.

“Get in.” The man holds a door open and pushes them in.

In the room stand two familiar figures. The merchant and the man with the moustache. They give each other a big handshake.

“I’m glad to be working with you.” The moustache man says.

“The pleasure is all mine, Sir.” The merchant smiles. He looks to his side and sees the open door. “There they are Sir, all yours.” He waves.

“Great, the deal is done, right?” The moustache man asks.

“Yes, there’s nothing Sir needs to worry about.” The merchant keeps his smile. It’s obviously a fake smile.

“I’ll be taking my leave then.” He looks at the man at the door. “Call my guards.”

“Of course, Sir.” He quickly walks off.

“Come.” Moustache man glances at Blue and April while ordering them.

Four guards quickly join in as they leave the mansion.

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[Ugh another ship. I’m gonna be bored out of my mind.] April rolls her eyes.

‘Can you show me what the castle you describe looks like?’ Blue asks.

[Show? How?] April wonders.

‘I don’t know what a castle looks like, so maybe if you share a memory of you seeing a castle?’ Blue thinks.

[I see. You probably don’t know how anything I mentioned looks.] April laughs.

‘Not really…’ Blue smiles.

April quickly sends over images.

‘You know, with my sister to share a memory we did the same thing as for a soul contract. You just send it to me without any of that.’ Blue points out.

[Like a mobile phone.] April smirks.

‘A what?’ Blue raises her eyebrow.

[Don’t worry about it. I’m just sending images of my memory, it happened when I thought about sending them. So not sure how it works…] April shrugs.

‘Okay then. You know, we got a soul space, Julie told me that I have to fill it. Maybe we can build a castle there?’ Blue asks.

[That’s a great idea, we can do something without getting bored on a ship. Let’s go!] April happily says.

Blue thinks of wanting to go to her soul space, and that’s enough for the world around her to disappear. There’s seven people around her now, making the place crowded. She looks at the April standing there, and just as she meets the closed eyes of April, April opens them.

“Hello!” April waves.

“Hi.’ Blue smiles.

“Okay, so let’s start with a terrain. A grassfield with a sky should be fine.” April scratches the back of her head.

Blue nods and starts thinking about the grassfield she wants here. Around her grass starts to sprout, making the place a lot better already.

“Awh, you added flowers.” April laughs.

“Vince really seems to like them.” Blue scratches her chin with a slight blush.

“Yeah.” April smiles. “Now a sky, if you want you can try a day and night cycle, if not pick one.”

“Do you like the sun or the moon more?” Blue asks.

“I like the sun.” April easily decides.

“Then we’ll get a sun.” Blue quickly thinks of the sun. The place lits up quickly with the addition of the sun.

“I think you forgot the sky part, now we got a black space with a white dot. You need the atmosphere added as a layer between the sun and the sky.” April laughs.

“Atmo what?” Blue hesitates and doesn’t know what to do.

“Yeah I know, it’s really complicated. I only realized it when the sun turned white. Here, let me do it.”

“Okay then…” Blue allows April to make changes.

The sky turns blue and clouds appear.

“We’re lucky enough that we don’t need to understand what we make. I really don’t know anything about the atmosphere besides that it’s a layer that makes the sun yellow.” April scratches the back of her head yet again.

‘She seems to do that when she’s unsure…’ Blue notices.

“Next up, trees!” April waves and a few trees appear. “Which one do you like better?”

Blue looks at all the trees. There’s small trees, really big trees, brown trees, white trees, even a few without leaves. “I want that one!” Blue points at a white tree.

“A birch tree, good choice.” April waves again and there’s a few birch trees around the field. “Let’s start the castle now!”