I followed Anna through the library for hours.

She told me about all the different books she was going to borrow when she finished with what she already had as we went. I could have spent the rest of the day watching her without complaint, but the Biblicus itself had left me unimpressed.

There had been no fireplaces or high backed arm chairs. Which made sense because the books in my mind could not catch fire and burn. The real ones, that were made of paper and leather, could. It had not been anywhere near as large as I had imagined it would be either. In all four dust filled floors there was maybe half of the shelves and books that were in one floor of The Well.

Unlike the near infinite library in my mind, the real library had been organized. By some combination of colors and letters, Anna had been able to take me wherever she had wished without confusion.

If The Well had some kind of guide or system, there was no end to what I could find. Anna’s search for knowledge about The Mothers would be over in the same amount of time it took me to live through a single memory. It was rare that I ever even saw the library in my mind anymore anyways. Thinking of a name once I was floating in the pool had turned into a very effective and consistent method. Still, the thought having the memories sorted by who they were about made me wish desperately for that wonderfully organized fantasy.

What if there is a guide? What if you’re too stupid to know it? I asked myself without any hope of answering the question.

Lost in my own thoughts, I followed Arthur and Anna from the entrance of the library to the fountain in the middle of the circle of buildings.

“Well, what do you want to do now?” I heard the tall man say.

The thing at the bottom of The well. It would know.

Anna sat down on the white stone of the fountain and let out a deep yawn. “We stayed up way too late.”

Yes. The Autumn I liked agreed. If I could force the entity to speak with me, I could ask if there was some unknown sorting system.

“Autumn?” Anna said, placing her hand on my hip.

I shook my head and brought my attention back to what was in front of me. “What’s that?”

“Are you tired too? Do you need a nap like Anna?” Arthur laughed.

Something in his voice told me he was repeating something he had already said.

“I’m not tired. I just said we stayed up too late. Some of us still have to sleep, freak." Anna said, rolling her eyes.

It had been late when I had finally shut my eyes.

After Arthur had protected Anna and I from my accidental assault on the kitchen, the siblings had spent far too long caring for me through my afterglow. When I could finally move without losing control of myself, we had eaten the fire roasted chicken the guards had cooked and cleaned the mess I had made. Then, Arthur had gone over his plan and Anna had added an all important detail to it.

All of the people Anna had seen on her numerous trips into the city had been wearing the same colored clothes. Tan, white, pink, and faded reds. The style and fit varied, but almost everyone wore those colors.

If we all wore clothes that were none of those neutral warm shades, finding each other would be as simple as finding the dark spot in the crowd.

By the time we deicided our color would be black and I had played a few games of points with Arthur, the night had nearly turned to day again.

I wore a long sleeved black shirt that fit me tightly and a black skirt that ended just above the cuffs of my boots. Anna wore the dress she had the night that Opa had showed us where he had come from. I rather liked the way we all looked together. It was not so much the color, just the fact the we all matched. I imagined that pleasure, that feeling of togetherness, was what the underwitchs felt like in their crimson half cloaks.

"So, what do you want to do? Whatever you want, this is your afternoon." Arthur asked me again.

“Whatever I want?" I repeated.

"Whatever you want." Anna agreed.

"I don't know what I want." I answered honestly, turning away from them and letting my mind run with the possibilities. Even if it was under the cover of my glamor, I was free. If I felt like finding something to eat, I could. If I wanted to go see where The Mother in Red lived, I could. If I wanted to find one of the gardens that were littered throughout the city and take a nap, I could.

I wanted to be done with my punishments and The Well. Unless there was shop that I could buy permanent freedom from and sell a priceless ethereal structure too, that was out of my reach. So was becoming one of Rhiannon's roses. It wasn't just the sandals or cloak that I wanted from that. To learn how to use my power, to be a sorceress in full, I desired that more deeply than I normally allowed myself to understand. Arthur's dream about being my knight was something I shared in part. The siblings, Sam, and myself setting out into chaos and seeing all the wonderful places I only knew existed because of memories, I wanted that too.

Free in the city or not, I could not make that happen in the hours before the tournament.

The sound of hard footsteps broke over the stone street around us and echoed off the fronts of all the tall homes.

“Ugi!” Someone shouted from somewhere unseen.

One by one, five little boys gathered around Arthur, all of them dripping sweat and panting.

I recognized one of them. His mother was Ranee, the woman I had seen breast feeding within the tent the first time I had gone to seven columns. I had seen her just that morning, walking and talking with Go.

Atrean. I remembered. His name had been the inspiration for the woman I was pretending to be.

"The captain send you?" Arthur asked, kneeling down on his haunches and bringing himself down to the height of the boys.

"He said that we couldn't come back without you," Atrean said between deep breaths. "Don't make this hard."

Arthur laughed. "Are you threating me?"

"Yes." One of the other boys answered.

"Do you want to come or are you going to hang around and watch Anna take a nap?" Arthur asked me.

Anna stood and rolled her eyes at her brother. "We'll all go. I want to meet the captain anyways."

All three of us followed the search party that the captain had sent for Arthur through the city. After taking what felt like entirely too many turns and having to run to keep up with them several times, we came out of an alley onto a street I recognized.

As far as I knew, seven columns was the only wooden building in all of Erosette. Two men stood in a empty wooden frame that filled the space between me and the tavern, hammers in hand.

"Captain!" Atrean shouted and led us over to where the man that had once brought a knife to my forehead stood.

Streaks of white salted his dark hair, Every part of him looked strong and sturdy, like he could hold up a collapsing building if the need arose.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"We got him!" One of the other boys cheered.

“Well done, boys, well done,” The captain lowered himself to his haunches and waved the boys towards him. When all five had formed a semi circle in front of the man, he reached inside his coat and brought his hand back out. “This is a big place and the streets don’t make much sense. I expected it to take you all afternoon to find Ugi.”

Into each of their little hands, the captain pressed a small dyme and gave them all a nod of approval.

The boys stood a little straighter and wore expressions that I could only recognize as prideful.

“Now, you’ve all done fine work today, but there’s more if you’re willing. You’ll have to be fast and it might get dangerous, but I think it can be done.” The captain said with his eyebrow raised.

“I’m willing!” Atrean answered immediately.

All the other boys joined in his agreement.

As silly as it was, I felt a small twinge of pride that my disguises name sake was showing his bravery.

“There’s a flower shop on the other side of the city, by the north bridge. Does one of you know where that is?”

One of the boys raised his hand. “I do!”

“Good, good. Go there and tell them old Bry sent you. They are gonna give you a package. I need it back here before sundown. Do that, and I’ll buy you all something to eat and make sure you’re right up next to the stage when the matches start.” The captain said, his voice deadly serious.

All the boys crossed their forearms in front of their chest in the shape of an X before turning and dashing away like a pack of wolves.

With a grunt, the captain stood up and turned to where the three of us stood.

“So you’re the one making my brother think he can go to war. Are you stupid?” Anna said, scowling at the man.

“And that makes you Anna.” The captain said with a nod.

“I told you she was mean.” Arthur laughed.

“Not mean, just concerned for you. That’s what sisters are supposed to do. If it makes you like me any more, I tried to beat it out of him.” The captain said with a shrug.

“I should try that.” Anna said, pulling her fist back suddenly.

The tall man flinched.

The captain laughed and turned his eyes to me. “I never thought you’d show your face here again after what happened last time.”

“I-“ I started, remembering how it had felt to drive my fist into Patience’s stomach.

The captain waved me off. “I’m just giving you a hard time. Ugi told me how much you hate losing. Just don’t hit anybody tonight, alright?”

“Alright.” I nodded.

“Good,” The captain smiled and clapped his hands. “Lady Anna, I need to borrow your brother for a while. Does food and drinks from my humble establishment sound like a fair payment?”

My stomach let out an audible growl and I felt everyone look at me.

“It does.” Anna agreed after a long moment of what looked to be intense thought.

As we were walking towards seven columns, I caught a piece of Arthur and the captain’s conversation.

“You never give anyone free drinks. Why are you in such a good mood?” Arthur asked.

“The boss is coming tonight, we don’t get as much time together as we used to.” I heard the captain say.

The distance grew to be too much for me to continue to listen. I followed Anna into the mostly empty tavern and sat down next to her at the bar.

The captain had made a grave mistake.

I realized it fairly quickly, but I hoped he would not come to know the depth of his folly until I was back in the manor, laying comfortably in my bed.

He had not specified how much food and drink Anna was entitled to.

The true misfortune of it all came with my discovery of the small wonder known as fried potatoes.

Golden brown and just small enough to throw into my mouth, my first bite drew me into a trance. It did not end until the barkeeper told me they were out of potatoes and I would have to wait until they acquired more.

He had looked confused when I asked for a glass of milk instead of wine or any other kind of hard drink, but to his credit, he brought me what I wished.

More and more people milled into the tavern as I feasted. I was only aware enough to vaguely register Woolie and Springer when they passed through the door. After enough bowls of potatoes that I had built a small wall in front of myself and enough milk that I thought it would leak out of my navel if I had another sip, I came out of my trance and found Anna staring at me.

“What is it? Do I have something on my face?” I asked, leaning back from the bar top and wrapping my arms around my bloated middle.

“It shouldn’t be possible for someone to be so disgusting and so cute at the same time.” She brought her hand to my face and wiped the milk from my lip with her thumb.

“I don’t know how you do it. You aren’t big enough to eat that much.” Arthur said from where he sat on the other side of me.

I had not realized he was there until he spoke, but I was too full to scream.

The captain strode into his tavern with the same groups of boys from earlier that day following behind him. Working in unison, the boys lifted the large sheet of wood and hung it on the wall by the door.

“Listen up! We’ve got two rules tonight. No cheating. No fighting,” The captain looked directly at me after his second rule. “And for my sake, have some good matches.”

As quickly as he came, the man was gone. A tide of people followed in his wake, all of them crowding around the bracket in a wave of noise and chatter.

After the initial flood ran its course, the three of us made our way to the wooden board to see who Arthur and I’s opponents would be. Small wooden squares that bore the names of all of the competitors hung in carved wooden tracks.

I reached up and touched the square tile with my name on it. It slid up the track at my touch and I understood that having my tile climb higher on the bracket meant I would be closer to victory. Reaching the top of the upper most track, where all of the lines folded into one, would mean I would win the prize money.

I would be the new champion.

“Your first match is with Colin. He's one of the guys building the stage,”Arthur said, guiding me through the bracket with his finger. He nodded back to a table where a very pretty man had taken a drink. “And then all the way over here, my first match is against Maro. The captain said he’s the brother of one of the local sorceresses.”

Hair that was closer to muddy brown than my natural red, Maro was much smaller than most of the men in seven columns. Still, there was a confidence in his eyes that told me he would be more formidable than he looked.

“Do you know the rest of them?” I asked. Arthur had been to several of the tournaments. If he could tell me about who I would possibly be playing against, I had a better chance at reaching the single line at the top of the wooden board.

He brought his finger back to my tile before starting on the next match. “We both know Woolie-“

“You and I know Woolie. Trea doesn’t.” Anna chimed in.

“-I know Woolie. I’ve never met who he is playing against or these two.” A wide grin spread over Arthur’s face when his finger came to the next tile.

“What is it?” I asked him.

“That old man asleep in the corner? That’s Kip. He’s the best player in the whole tournament. You’ll like him. He’s playing against Unknown over there.” Arthur answered, nodding back towards the entrance of the tavern.

Sitting in a lone chair just inside the door was a person that was covered from head to toe in clothing. A loose white wrap concealed everything but one of their eyes. Long white sleeves and pants were partially covered by a red robe that was bordered in purple and green. I had not seen them come into seven columns and would not have noticed them if Arthur had not pointed them out.

“I bet every dyme in my pocket that’s Patience. Why hide your identity unless you wouldn’t be allowed to play if the captain knew who you were?”

Fair. I thought.

“You said he wouldn’t be here. Do you not remember what happened last time she saw him?” Anna whispered harshly at her brother and thumped the scars on his neck that formed the pattern of my teeth.

“Shut up. Even if it’s him, she can’t see his face.” Arthur said, pushing Anna’s hand away.

A sudden pang of guilt echoed within me at the reminder of what I had done to my friend.

Arthur continued through the bracket.

“Nocti is playing against somebody name Lawler. Galahad, he’s one of Nocti’s brothers, is playing against Thad. He lives upstairs. That’s it. If we both win out, it’ll be you and me in the finals.” The tall man said, holding his hand up for a high five.

“No. That won’t happen.” I said, shaking my head in denial.

“How do you know that?” Arthur laughed.

“I will not be the reason you don’t get your whatever it is from the captain. If it ends up being me and you, I’ll quit.” I answered honestly.

I wanted to win and I wanted the prize money.

I wanted Arthur to get what he wanted more.

“Tell you what, if it happens, don’t forfeit. You won’t be able to beat me anyways. I’ll get the recommendation and you won’t be a quitter.” Arthur said, smiling as always.

Before I could disagree, one of the boys from before stepped through the door and shouted over the noise within seven columns.

“Trea and Colin to the stage! Trea and Colin to the stage!”

It took me an embarrassing amount of time to realize that I was Trea.

I had played more games of points than I could ever hope to count, but after I weaved my way through the crowd and made for the door, I was nervous.

What if I tripped or got distracted?

What if I lost?

“Hey,” Anna grabbed me by my hand just before I went outside. So quick that I didn’t realized what she was doing until it was over, she kissed me on the cheek. “Good luck.”

I was a fool.

As long as I had her to do that for me, I could never be defeated.