Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

As Lucas finished speaking his final wish, the world of light around him began to disintegrate. A rushing wind picked up around him and swirled round and round, increasing in intensity. Lucas closed his eyes to brace against it, holding tighter onto the dragon tooth necklace. When the wind stopped, Lucas tentatively opened his eyes.

He was stood in an all too familiar room. The jail cell where this whole adventure began. Around him, his companions began to stir, opening their eyes tiredly. Lucas looked at his hand and realised that he was no longer holding the necklace. He had no idea what was happening. He looked around at the others. They all seemed fairly relaxed, well, as relaxed as you could be in a prison. None of them seemed to be as confused as him at suddenly being back in the cell.

He heard a loud creaking noise and looked to the top of the stairs where he saw the large door opening. He clutched his head as the rushing sensation of deja vu overcame him. Two voices floated down the stairs, but Lucas was too distracted by his thoughts to process the words. One voice was deeper and gruffer, the other was one he knew very well. One he knew from the three months they had spent together keeping her safe. He looked up at where the little girl was bounding down the stairs. Ellory.

As the two people walking down the stairs came into view, Lucas saw he was right. Separated from him and the others was little Ellory, the young queen he had grown so fond of, and a man whom he recognised from the many portraits of him hung all over the kingdom. A man who looked just like Ellory. Her father, the king.

Lucas still wasn’t paying attention to their conversation, only snapping out of his thought when the cell was unlocked, and the four prisoners were guided out. Now the others did seem to be as confused as him, shocked that they were being set free. All their manacles were unfastened, and Lucas saw out of the corner of his eye Ashen flexing his wrists, glad to be free of his restraints.

Lucas’ attention wasn’t focused on his impending freedom, instead on the Queen. Not Queen, princess. Her father was alive which meant that his wish worked. Ellory’s parents were alive. But he had also messed up. He must have wished away the time spent with his friends. Three months erased by his inability to get the stupid wording right!

He was pulled out of his thought by a tug on his hand. Looking up at him was young Ellory, concern etched upon her features.

“Are you okay?” She asked.

Lucas smiled, pushing away his thoughts to be present for Ellory and got down on one knee to be closer to her level, “Yeah, I’m alright.”

Ellory smiled back at him.

“Thank you, Your-,” He froze mid-sentence. He had to know whether she remembered, “Thank you, Sweetheart,” he said it low to avoid being overheard by the others in the room.

She smiled in a way that only someone who remembered being called by that name before would.

“You’re welcome, Sweetheart,” she whispered back to him.

Lucas smiled, at least he wasn’t the only one who knew. That would have completely shattered him.

***

The next few hours were spent signing documents about their early release and going over the deeds to the land and wealth Ellory had insisted each of them get. But soon enough, Lucas stepped out of the castle and into the courtyard followed by the rest of the Sweethearts (as he had begun to refer to them in his head).

While the others basked in the sunshine, Lucas’ thoughts returned to him, as did the tightening in his chest. He soon found it hard to breathe and walk, having to stop for a moment. He felt his heart race, his breathing speed up as his thought spun wildly in his head like a tornado of turmoil.

“You alright, mate?” He felt a hand clap his back as a voice broke through the pounding in his head.

“Y-yeah, m’ fine,” he ran a hand through his hair.

Ashen looked at him with a face that told Lucas he didn’t believe him.

“I promise you, I’m fine,” he walked forward another step and stumbled, suddenly feeling dizzy. This, however, was very different to the dizziness he had felt moments before. Deep inside his chest, he felt something he had not felt for a long time. The ever-present feeling of a tight grip on his soul released. He felt free for the first time since-... since he had made the deal. Eternal youth for his soul. But now that was gone. He could cry with happiness.

He felt a strong hand pull him to stand, keeping a firm grip on his shoulder, “You’re really not fine, mate, you nearly fell over there.”

“Ashen I-”

“Listen, how about you and I get a drink,” he said with that devilish smirk Lucas had come to know all too well.

A blush began to creep up Lucas’ neck and into his cheeks, “Y- yeah, sure.”

“Awesome,” Ashen slung an arm over Lucas’ shoulders and began to lead him out of the courtyard.

The two of them froze when they heard a shriek from behind them. The spun around to see Daemys with shock across his features. He was clutching the top of his head, and they saw soft, ginger locks begin to grow. Lucas had already assumed the second wish had been successful after he felt his soul being released and it seemed it had also applied to Daemys’ hair, or lack thereof. Did that mean...

Lucas looked up at the man next to him to see the same look of shock that Daemys had displayed mirrored on Ashen’s face. The two horns on the side of the man’s head crumpled away and turned to ash which was swept away by the breeze. Ashen looked about ready to cry but when he remembered Lucas beside him, he cleared his throat and blinked away the shine from his eyes.

He ran a hand through his hair and muttered to Lucas, “So much less sexy, now.”

Lucas resisted the urge to tell him that he still was without the horns but bit his tongue. This Ashen wasn’t the same one had spent months with. He didn’t feel the same was Lucas did. He felt the urge to cry again upon realising this.

Ashen seemed to notice and asked, “You still want that drink?”

Lucas wiped away the tears that threatened to fall and nodded, “Yeah,” and they set off to the Stumble Inn.

Chapter Text

During the three-month period they had spent travelling together, Lucas and Ashen had gone to the pub many times. They had frequented many branches of the Stumble Inn, going out for a drink together at least once a week while Falmouth bathed in the closest water source and Ellory drank her milky water. Lucas recalled one time, about five weeks into their journey, when Ashen got so drunk that he threw up in Lucas’ hat. Ashen had promised to buy him a new one but now, he supposed, he wouldn't have to.

The sun hadn’t properly begun to set yet, still hanging low in the sky, just starting to paint it in those gorgeous orange hues. Lucas stared up at it, entranced as Ashen led him into the pub.

It was fairly crowed and the many patrons in there were making quite a ruckus while music played somewhere in the background. Ashen held onto his hand and led him through the crowd, weaving around drunk people and servers bustling around. They eventually managed to find a table and sat opposite one another. Lucas immediately regretted resting his elbows on the table when he felt how sticky it was and recoiled in disgust.

He looked up at Ashen who seemed to be distracted, running his fingers through his hair at the sides where his horns used to be. When he noticed the other man staring, Ashen cleared his throat and moved his hands away from his hair.

“You want me to get us some drinks?” Lucas suggested, already half standing.

“Yeah, sure,”

Lucas nodded and got up. As he began to make his way through the crowd, Lucas heard Ashen call out to him, but he couldn't hear him and by that point he was already too deep in the crowd to turn back.

When he got up to the bar, he signalled the bartender who came over shortly after handing another patron their drink.

“What can I get ya?” They asked, seeming cheery despite the busy atmosphere.

“Two pints of Dragon-Aged Ale, please,” he replied as he dug through his pockets and pulled out his purse, handing over the amount of money he had grown so used to paying. They had always gotten the same drinks every time, partly because it was the cheapest alcohol on the menu and partly because the drinks had begun to remind them of each other in a stupid sentimental way and Lucas didn’t want to let go of that.

The bartender handed over his drinks and Lucas thanked them before heading back into the crowd, being extra careful this time to avoid spilling the drinks.

A couple of minor spillages later, he was once again sat opposite Ashen, “Here you go,” he said as he handed over the pint.

Ashen furrowed his eyebrows confused, “I never told you what I wanted.”

Shit

“W-well, I just- sort of guessed,” He offered, “It’s what I like so I hope you like it too.”

“What is it?”

“Dragon-Aged Ale,”

Ashen smiled, “That’s my favourite.”

“I suppose we have some things in common, then,” he raised his pint and Ashen raised his. They clinked their glasses together in cheers before drinking out of them.

“So,” Ashen took another sip of his pint, “What happened to you in the courtyard? It seemed like, maybe a panic attack? I’m not sure though, I don’t really have much experience with them but...”

Lucas looked down at the table, so they were going to talk about it.

“Yeah that’s... that’s probably what it was,”

“But, why?”

“I don’t know,” he began to pick at the skin around his nails, still avoiding eye contact.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Ashen placed a hand on Lucas’ shoulder, causing Lucas to finally look at him, “I know we’ve literally only just met today, but you can tell me, I promise I won’t judge you.”

Lucas smiled back at him, “Thanks, I guess I’ve just been a bit overwhelmed with so much change recently. It’s like my whole world, everything I’ve come to know and love disappearing like- like...” he struggled to find the right simile for this occasion.

Ashen got up from his seat and went over to sit next to Lucas. As Ashen pulled him into a side hug, Lucas found the tears he’d been holding back spilling out onto Ashen’s shirt. Lucas expected him to push him away since this version of him didn’t know Lucas but instead he just pulled the half-elf closer and rubbed his back softly with those strong hands he had come to know so well. This only caused him to cry harder which meant that Ashen held him closer and the whole cycle repeated itself over again.

Eventually Lucas pulled away, rubbing his eyes with his sleeve to prevent any more tears slipping past the barriers.

“Thanks for that,” Lucas smiled at the other man who smiled back, “sorry about your shirt.”

Ashen looked at the small damp spot on his plaid shirt, “It’s fine, I have, like, three other identical ones.”

Lucas laughed.

After giving him one final squeeze, Ashen pulled away completely from Lucas and went back to his side of the booth. Lucas felt sad about the loss of contact but had to remind himself that this wasn’t the Ashen he knew and loved. This Ashen hadn’t spent three months building up character development and getting over his thieving ways. This was illustrated as someone stumbled past them and Ashen pinched a pen from their pocket. Lucas had to suppress the disappointed look he would have given his Ashen at stealing.

Ashen slipped the pen into his own pocket, smiling briefly at it before returning his gaze back to Lucas.

“So, how much do I owe you for the pint?”

“Oh, no it’s fine, it’s on me,”

“I insist, how much was it?”

Lucas sighed, “Two bronze.”

“Only two bronze pieces?” he asked with a slight chuckle, “You got me the cheap stuff?”

“Hey, you said it was your favourite,” Lucas defended. They both laughed like old friends which, to Lucas, they were.

Ashen dug around in his pockets and produced two bronze pieces and tossed them across the table to Lucas, “There you go.”

“Honestly, it’s fine, you don’t have to pay me back,”

“Well, too bad,”

Lucas smiled slightly, “Thanks Ashen.”

“No problem-” he stopped, and Lucas worried he’d messed up, “How did you know my name?”

“Oh, I- um, I,” he scrambled to find an excuse, “I overheard them call you that back at the castle.”

“That makes sense,” Lucas hid his sigh of relief, “I don’t think I caught you name though?”

“Lucas. Lucas Flamingo,”

“Nice to meet you, Lucas Flamingo,” He held out a hand for Lucas to shake, “My full name’s Ashen Von Purple Beurer.”

Lucas felt himself break inside upon hearing those words. He knew that he didn’t know him, but it still hurt so much to hear it. Trembling, he reached out a hand to greet Ashen’s, “Nice to meet you Ashen.”

Concern once again washed over Ashen’s face, “You alright? Did I say something wrong?”

“No, no, it’s not you,” Lucas had to get out of there, he didn’t want to think about any of it anymore, not the wish, not their journey together, not even Ashen himself.

Lucas downed the rest of his pint (which was still mostly full) and stood up, “It was nice talking to you Ashen, but I really have to go now.”

As he began to walk away Ashen stood and called out to him, causing Lucas to freeze in his tracks, “Can we do this again at some point, I really like talking to you, Lucas.”

Lucas hesitated before nodding, “Yeah, sure. Goodbye, Ashen.” He turned back around and left.

The cold night air stung his cheeks where the tears had once again begun to fall. He distractedly wiped them away as he continued on, not really focusing on where he was going, just letting his feet guide him back home.

Back at the Stumble in, Ashen had his head in his hands, resting his elbows on the table, not caring for the stickiness. What had he said? It must have been him; he was always the problem. He could ask Lucas when he saw him next because Ashen definitely intended upon seeing him again.

Chapter Text

Lucas’ eyes stung as he fumbled with his keys, trying desperately to fit them into the lock. The tears clouding his vision made it hard and he ended up dropping them. Lucas rested his head against the door and closed his eyes, taking in a few deep breaths to calm himself and wipe away the tears before attempting to retrieve his keys. He managed to find them again and clumsily let himself into the house.

It was dark but he didn’t bother trying to turn on any lights. He stumbled into his bedroom, threw on some night clothes and sank beneath the covers. Once he was cocooned in the safety of his blankets, Lucas’ tears turned from steady streams to full on waterfalls. Any attempt he made to wipe them away was futile, so he let them pour off his face and onto his sheets. Eventually, he managed to fall asleep once his tears had dried up and left him sobbing emptily.

That night he dreamed of the Sweethearts. He dreamed of their adventures, the daring battles, the numerous laughs shared, the quiet tender moments spent around the campfire after a long day. He found himself longing for days like those again. He longed for the thrill of battle, the adrenaline of protecting the people he loved. The gasping of air and stinging in his side he felt after Falmouth had told them a joke to lift their spirits in the early days when morale was low. The glow of the fire under stary skies as he drifted off to sleep against Ashen’s shoulder.

When he woke up, his silent tears returned, falling into the tracks left over from the night before. He numbly got up, dressed and made breakfast before sinking onto his armchair. He grabbed a book and tried to read it, but he couldn’t concentrate beyond the first word.

Lucas didn’t know how long he sat there before a knock came at the front door. When he answered it, he was greeted by the postman handing him a letter. He thought the man made a concerned comment on his appearance, but he wasn’t paying attention, his eyes fixed on the letter. By the time he looked up, the postman was long gone so Lucas hurried back into his home and sat back down in order to read the letter.

The handwriting on the front was completely illegible and yet he was able to understand exactly what it said. It looked simultaneously alien and familiar. He spent a long time trying to remember where he knew it from but just ended up drawing a blank. He soon gave up figuring it out and turned it over to open it. The letter was closed with a red wax seal which, when he held it up to the light, bore the image of a singular feather. Lucas reached for a penknife and carefully opened it.

The parchment inside looked old, almost ancient and was written in the same baffling handwriting as the front. It read:

Dear Lucas Flamingo,

I have been observing you for quite some time and I believe we can help each other. I know of your adventures with the so called, ‘Sweethearts’. I know of the tragic end that befell you which erased the three months you had together. I know how to get them back.

Meet me at the Stumble Inn tonight at 7:30, table 11, you’ll know me when you see me. Do not be late. This is your only chance to have any hope of getting your friends back.

Until we meet, Lucas Flamingo.

Lucas read and reread the letter over and over. Each time the same question rang out in his head. Who was it from?

He sighed, the only way he’d find out was if he met this stranger at the Stumble Inn. He looked to his clock, 11:11.

Only 8 hours and 19 minutes to wait.

Chapter Text

7:30 eventually rolled around as Lucas nervously pushed open the door to the Stumble Inn. The pub was decently full without being overcrowded and he was quickly able to locate table 11. Sat facing the wall opposite the door was a cloaked figure with the hood pulled low over their face.

Lucas walked over, his legs shaking as he approached. The figure glanced up at him as he sat in the other chair but made no other movements. Lucas wasn’t able to make out any features beyond the darkness created by the hood and yet he knew they were looking him directly in the eyes.

They sat in awkward silence for a while and Lucas eventually decided to break it, “Are you the one who wrote me the letter?”

The voice in which the figure replied was elegant and soothing but had a dark undertone which made Lucas uneasy.

“No,” the replied, “There just happens to be another person sat at table 11 at 7:30 in the Stumble Inn who clearly recognised you when you sat down.”

“I don’t like your sass,” Lucas crossed his arms.

“Then you can leave and never know what I had to offer,” They waved, “Goodbye, Lucas Flamingo, have fun never having friends again.”

As they got up to leave, Lucas called out “NO!” and reached out a hand to stop them.

Lucas could tell the figure was smiling as they sat back down and rested their elbows on the table. They seemed to be waiting for Lucas to begin so he took a shaky breath in and slowly released it before he spoke.

“H- how do you know about our adventures?”

“That’s a good question,” They leaned back in their chair.

“Then can you answer it?”

They sighed as if he was the annoying one, “I know a lot of things, Lucas Flamingo. I know of realities that never happened. I know people’s greatest desires. I know exactly how to get anything I want,” That last comment sent a chill down Lucas’ spine, “Knowing about a three month period that never was is just a tiny, insignificant speck in my infinite knowledge, Lucas Flamingo,” They took a sip of a drink that hadn’t been there until that moment, “I hope that answer is satisfactory.”

Lucas had to take another shaky breath to steady himself, “Well, if it’s just a speck in your ‘infinite knowledge’ why do you want to help me get it back?”

“Because, Lucas Flamingo, you can help me,” They leaned in closer, “Don’t you want your adventures back? Your friends back? Your Ashen back?”

Lucas felt a flutter in his chest at the mention of Ashen but pushed it down to continue the conversation.

“Why would you need my help? Surely if you’re so powerful you can do it yourself?”

“I’m omniscient not omnipotent,” they stressed, “But I suppose I can find someone else if you really don’t want them back.”

“I didn’t say that!”

“Then make a choice, Lucas Flamingo!” Their voice shot through the air like daggers, piercing Lucas in the chest and making it hard to breathe.

“Either help me and get back the life you lost or walk out of here and lose your friends, the choice is yours,” They sat back, laying out the options on the table for Lucas.

“I- I don’t know, can I have some time to think about it?”

“No,”

“I-I,” He drummed his fingers on the edge of the table, “Fine, I’ll help you.”

Though he couldn’t see it, he felt the figure’s grin, “Excellent, I’ll be in touch,” They stood, “Goodbye, Lucas Flamingo.”

From behind him, Lucas heard a loud crash. He whipped his head around to see that the bartender had dropped a drink, and the patrons of the bar burst into applause and cheers. He looked back around to the figure to see they were gone. All that was left of them was a singular feather lying on the chair.

He reached across the table and picked it up, twirling it between his fingers as he contemplated what had just happened. What had he done? he wondered. He sighed and planted his forehead in the table as more questions flooded his brain. What did they want in return? How would they even get the time back? Who were they?

Lucas jolted when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He tore his head up to look and jumped back slightly.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” the warm, familiar voice of Ashen Von Purple Beurer filled his ears.

“It’s fine, I was just a bit lost in thought is all,”

His eyebrows furrowed in concern while the rest of his features remained light, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he dismissed it with a wave of his hand, “I’m fine, honestly,” he smiled his most convincing smile.

It seemed to work on Ashen as he smiled back and gestured to the seat opposite Lucas that the mysterious figure had previously occupied, “Mind if I join you?”

“Not at all, please,”

They sat in silence for a while, not uncomfortable by any means but Lucas did feel the need to fill it. It seemed Ashen felt the same way.

“So, what were you doing here all alone? Not that drinking by yourself is a bad thing, I’m just curious,”

“Oh, I was just meeting someone,”

“Oh God, sorry, I’ll get out of your way then,” He made to stand.

“No, no, your fine, they already left,”

He sat back down, “Right, didn’t go well then?”

“It was... fine,”

He cocked his head, “You didn’t seem too fine when I found you?”

“Well I... it was a confusing interaction to say the least,”

“Right, so... you won’t be seeing them again?” he sounded almost... hopeful.

“No, I probably will be,”

“Got ya,” Ashen nodded and looked down at the table. He looked disappointed.

Lucas moved the conversation along quickly, “What about you? What are you doing here?”

Ashen turned red and began to rub his neck while looking away from Lucas, “Well actually, I was looking for you.”

Lucas felt himself blush, “R- really?”

Ashen nodded and looked up at Lucas again, “You’re kind of my only friend here and I wanted to, I don’t know, see you again. I hope that doesn’t sound creepy.”

“No, not creepy at all,” Lucas smiled and flushed harder, “I’m glad you consider me a friend.”

Ashen looked him in the eyes with a smile to match.

Just then, the door to the Inn burst wide open and a panting figure appeared in the doorway. Everyone stopped talking and turned to look at them.

“Everyone, I have terrible news!” They took a deep breath before announcing, “The King and Queen are dead!”

Chapter Text

Ashen and Lucas sprinted out of the pub with the rest of the patrons at the news. As the crowd rushed through the streets towards the castle, Lucas felt panic rising in his chest and his mind kept repeating not again, not again.

It wasn’t long until they had all reached the castle gates and joined up with the rest of the crowd outside. News spread fast in Litorum, particularly news as dramatic and important as this, which meant that almost the entire population were gathered outside. The last time this had happened, Lucas was in a prison cell in the castle dungeons, but he assumed the same thing had happened.

There was a small stage just in front of the castle gates used for various announcements and important events. Being shorter than average meant that Lucas wasn’t able to see very well over the crowd, but he was able to make out a familiar face stepping up to the stage and preparing to speak. It was the same woman who had assigned Lucas and his companions to take care of Ellory the last time the King and Queen died. The crowd all fell silent when they saw her waiting to speak and stared at her with devoted attention as she cleared her throat.

“People of Litorum,” Her voice carried out through the crowd, “As you would have heard, the King and Queen are... they’re dead.”

Gasps and quiet mutterings weaved their way through the spectators. Hushed condolences and murmured panics brushed through the nervous citizens before quiet returned to allow the speaker to continue.

“They were found murdered in their beds with no sign of an attacker anywhere nearby. If you could all please join me in a moment of silence out of respect for our beloved monarchs,”

The crowd bowed their heads, and silence fell over all of Litorum. No caws of birds in the distance, no scuttling of crabs, no hum of fireflies. Just silence filled with respect for the once great King and Queen. As the silence rung out, Lucas thought to himself, it must have been the Dawn Chorus.

“Thank you,” The silence broke, and the mutterings overtook the crowd once again. The Chancellor left the stage, the people around took that as a signal to leave as well, disbursing back to their homes to continue their mourning or to share a pint in the monarch’s honour.

Lucas turned around and began to walk back to his home, unconsciously falling into step with Ashen as they headed in the same direction.

“Horrible, isn’t it?” Ashen shook his head as they walked.

Lucas hummed in agreement.

“And what about their daughter? Ellen, was it? Or...”

“Ellory,” Lucas supplied, “And yeah, I wonder what’s going to happen to her.”

They continued to walk in silence while Lucas contemplated everything. Why was the universe so intent upon killing the King and Queen and leaving Ellory as an orphan? Was it the Dawn Chorus who killed them? If so, would they be after Ellory next?

They soon reached Lucas’ house, and he stopped outside, Ashen stopping shortly after.

“This is your house?” Ashen asked, when Lucas nodded, he commented, “It’s nice.”

“Thanks,” As he got out his keys, he asked, “Where abouts do you live? Is it far?”

Ashen just shook his head, “Nah, I don’t have a place.”

“What?” Lucas froze in the middle of unlocking his door, “Where do you sleep then?”

“Benches,” He replied simply.

Lucas shook his head, “Absolutely not,” He opened the door, “Come in.”

“Honestly it’s fine, Lucas, I’m used to it,”

“That doesn’t make it any better, just come in,” He insisted.

“I literally only met you yesterday, why do you want me in your home?”

If only he knew.

“Because I’m a nice person who doesn’t like to see others sleeping on the streets, now get inside before I magic you in here,”

Ashen sighed and reluctantly followed Lucas into the house.

“Are you hungry?” Lucas asked as they stepped through into his home.

“Nah,” Ashen made his way over to the living room.

Lucas raised an eyebrow and Ashen defended, “Honestly, I’m not! I just want to sleep truth be told.”

“Okay then, bedroom’s just through there,” Lucas gestured towards the room as he tidied his space up a bit.

“And where will you sleep?”

“Over there,” He pointed at his armchair which already had a blanket draped over the back.

“Okay, now it’s my turn to protest,” Ashen crossed his arms, “If I’m not sleeping on a bench, then you’re not sleeping in an armchair.”

“Those two are not even remotely on the same level,”

Ashen just smirked that cocky grin he always wore.

Lucas sighed deeply, “Fine, I guess we’re sharing then,” He made his way towards the room and Ashen followed closely behind.

“Fine by me,” he said in a tone that made Lucas’ face heat up. He had to keep reminding himself that this was not the Ashen that he knew. That they hadn’t had the long, deep conversations at night beneath the stars that made Lucas fall head over heels or the months of bonding and character development. This wasn’t his Ashen.

They reached Lucas’ bedroom and Ashen perched on the edge of the bed. He slid under the covers and waited for Lucas to join him. Lucas relished the feeling of once again being close to him while still maintaining a respectful distance. It wasn’t long until he felt his heavy eyelids close and the comfort of sleep wash over him.

***

The next morning Lucas woke to the sound of heavy banging on the door. Beside him, Ashen also began to stir.

“Who did you piss of this much,” Ashen rubbed a hand over his forehead as Lucas got out from under the covers.

“I don’t know,” he said with a yawn. He left the bedroom and made his way down the hall to the front door. He winced as he got closer and the noise became louder, so he hurriedly wrenched open the door to quieten it.

Standing on the other side of the door was two people dressed in the armour of the royal guards.

“Are you Lucas Flamingo?” one of them asked.

“Yeah,” He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and stared back up at them, “What do you want?”

“You are to come with us to the castle at once by orders of the current acting authority,”

“Am I under arrest?”

“No, but you will come with us, or we will have to arrest you,”

“Okay, fine, just give me a few minutes,” He made to shut the door and get ready, but the guards stopped him.

“You will come with us now,”

“Okay! Fine!” He raised his hands in mock surrender. He was just glad he hadn’t bothered to change clothes last night and was still in relatively appropriate attire to leave the house.

Just then, Ashen appeared in the doorway behind him, “What’s happening, Lucas?”

Before Lucas could answer him, the guards asked, “Are you Ashen Von Purple Beurer?”

“Yeah, why?” He responded suspiciously.

“You are required to come with us to the castle,”

“Why? I haven’t done anything yet!”

“Just come with us compliantly or we will be required to used force.

“Alight, fine!”

The two of them set off towards the castle, sending each other worried looks as they went.

Chapter Text

Soon they arrived at the castle and were led through the courtyard to two imposing wooden doors. The doors were made of thick oak and towered over Lucas and Ashen, making them feel intimidated. One of the guards knocked on the door and after a moment of waiting, they slowly creaked open, revealing the entrance way to the castle.

As they walked through, Lucas marvelled at the sight, taking in every piece of glittering finery and intricate architecture. He would most likely never set foot in there again so decided to take in as much as he could. Ashen on the other hand was also looking around at all the gorgeous items around them but with a certain glint in his eyes. A glint Lucas hadn’t seen since the beginning of their (now non-existent) journey, not since he had changed for the better and given up his life of thievery. But this Ashen never had so his eyes continued to linger on particularly stunning artifacts.

Eventually, they reached another room which the guard once again knocked on. This time, a voice from within called out, “Come in.”

The guard pushed open the door to what they could now see was an office. The room was fairly large while also feeling cosy. The beautifully carved desk in the centre of the room was decorated with a variety of eye-catching stationary which Ashen’s gaze caught on for too long to be just a casual glance.

There were six people already in the room which made it seem a bit snug. On the opposite side of the desk to the door was Chancellor Aberth Celver, the woman who first greeted them in the dungeons all that time ago, beside her stood Windsmoth, the owl mage who had assisted them when all hope seemed lost. Closer to the door were two people who made Lucas’ heart cry upon just seeing their faces as they turned around to see who was there, Daemys and Falmouth. Lucas felt the urge to run forward and embrace Falmouth in a tight hug (which he doubted the squid man would be opposed to) but held back. He was doing that a lot recently. Stood behind Lucas’ former companions were two more guards, the one behind Falmouth seemed particularly worn out and just a bit damp.

“Thank you for bringing them, you may go now,” The chancellor dismissed the guards who left immediately and shut the door behind them, “Now, I assume you’re all wondering why you’re here?” a murmur of agreement was shared amongst them, “Well I’m sure you’ve all heard of what happened to the king and Queen.” Lucas, Ashen and Daemys bowed their heads, but Falmouth shook his.

“I was underwater,”

“Well, the King and Queen are unfortunately dead. They were murdered in their beds earlier this evening,”

“I’m very sorry,” Falmouth joined the others in bowing his head. Lucas looked and saw a small puddle formed under the squid, he’s hydrated, good, Lucas thought.

Aberth continued, “And due to their unfortunate passing, the young princess- now Queen- Ellory is left an orphan and in immense danger.”

“Why is she in danger?” Lucas asked.

“Well, whoever the killer of her parents was will most likely be after her next, also”, she leaned in closer and lowered her voice, “her room was found to be broken into as well, but she was, thankfully, playing in the ballroom at that point. She, however, doesn’t know this and we don’t want to frighten her so keep quiet.”

They all nodded, and she continued at normal volume, “So, this is where you all come in,” she took in a deep breath and sighed as if what she was about to say took great difficulty, “it is up to you to protect the Queen from any potential harm that may come her way.”

“Why us?” Daemys asked folding his arms across his chest.

“Since you were all released from the dungeons despite your crimes with no real punishment, you are all indebted to the crown and this will be your way to pay it back,”

“But why do we need to protect her?” Ashen asked, “Surely you have plenty of guards to look after her, why a bunch of freed criminals who you don’t really know if you can trust?” he looked quickly around at the rest of them, “Not that I don’t think you’re trustworthy but none of us really know each other or our intentions.”

Lucas felt a shot of pain across his heart at that.

“As much as I would rather trust any of the guards over someone who ate a cat,” She shot a pointed look to Falmouth who seemed to be starting to dry up, “They are all preoccupied with keeping the kingdom safe and tracking down the murderers.”

“So, we’re going to be like... some kind of Suicide Squad?” yes, Falmouth was definitely beginning to dry up.

The chancellor sighed once again, “I suppose so. The plan is for you four to take Ellory into the woods, get her as far away from the kingdom as possible to keep her away from her would-be attackers and make sure she’s safe. We will be in constant contact with you the whole time so don’t even try to do anything.”

“But again, how can you trust us?” Ashen insisted, “How will you know we won’t try to hurt her?”

“Windsmoth, if you please,” Aberth looked towards the owl who had been stood quietly in the corner the whole time.

He stepped forward and as he did, he brought out a very familiar item. The necklace.

“You will all be bound to this necklace which will be worn around the neck of the Queen. This will ensure you keep her away from harm as any pain or curse inflicted upon her will be reflected upon all of you,” Windsmoth explained.

“So, if she stubs her toe,” Daemys began, and Lucas rubbed his temples as the inevitable confusion over the necklace’s power ensued. Thankfully, it was all cleared up relatively quickly and they were able to continue.

“So, how will we be bound to the necklace?” Ashen asked.

“By your blood,”

“And how will you get our blood?”

“We just have,”

All four turned around to see that a couple of guards had snuck into the room and drawn blood from them without any of them realising it. The guards went over to Windsmoth and handed him the vials and he got to work casting the binding spell. As soon as it was done, they all felt a pull and felt the connection to the necklace.

“Excellent, now that that’s all done, all that’s left is for Mr Von Purple Beurer to put back the pen he took and for Ellory to come in,” Aberth nodded to the guards, and they left to retrieve the Queen. She also held out a hand for Ashen to sulkily put back the pen. To be fair to him, it was a magnificent pen.

It wasn’t long before the guards arrived back at the office, young Queen in their wake. She looked... just sad. Of course she’s sad, her parents just died!

Aberth went round the desk to meet Ellory. She got down on one knee and said, “Ellory,” in a much softer voice than she’d spoken to anyone else, “I’d like you to meet Lucas, Ashen, Daemys and Falmouth.”

She looked up at them curiously, “You were all in the dungeons a few days ago.”

“That’s right,” Ashen said to her also in a soft voice, “And now we’re going to take care of you for a while.”

“Why?”

Before Aberth could speak, Lucas jumped in with, “We’ll be taking you on an adventure,” This seemed to intrigue her, so he continued, “We’ll be travelling in the woods, sleeping under the stars and visiting all sorts of places. Doesn’t that sound fun, Sweetheart?”

“That does sound pretty fun,” She admitted.

“Excellent,” Aberth stood and took some backpacks from the guards and handed them to each of the members of the group including Ellory, “These have plenty of supplies, but you may need to replenish them so keep an eye on how much you have, good luck everyone.”

“One last thing,” Windsmoth shuffled round the others to get to Ellory, “Have this," he placed the necklace on her and whispered to her, “I’ve given it a good luck charm, keep it safe, okay, don’t lose it or take it off, understand?”

She nodded, “Okay.”

“Good luck, your majesty,”

Aberth followed them to the exit and watched as they left and set off for the woods, whispering one last thing to Ellory that the others didn’t hear. And with that, their journey began.

Chapter Text

Lucas tried not to think too hard as they set off into the woods. He tried not to think of the crushing sense of deja vu he felt as they walked. It was all so horrifyingly familiar, the main difference being, however, was that Daemys was with them this time.

Ashen seemed to have designated himself as leader as he walked at the front of the group. Behind him was Ellory, she looked to be crying, and Lucas heard tiny sniffles occasionally, making his heart ache to comfort her. Daemys and Falmouth walked side by side behind Ellory, it seemed as though they were discussing something under their breaths. Bringing up the rear was Lucas, hanging back so he could be alone to think which, as he now realised, was a terrible idea.

He tried to concentrate on just breathing and putting one foot in front of the other. Breathe in, 1, 2 ,3, don’t think about how you can’t escape this cycle of events. Breathe out, 1, 2, 3, don’t think about how this ended last time.

He got so caught up in his own head he didn’t notice when Falmouth had fallen back and was now walking along beside him.

“Are you alright?” Lucas jumped at the other man speaking, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s fine, it was my fault I didn’t notice you, bit too caught up in my own head,” Lucas smiled apologetically.

“You didn’t answer my question, are you alright?”

“I’m... I’m not too sure really,” He admitted

Falmouth looked down at him curiously, “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know I just...” He rubbed a hand over his eyes in an attempt to push away his thoughts, “I guess I’m not sure about anything right now, it all just feels too... much, too fast and I have no idea what to do,” Lucas felt the stinging in his eyes he hadn’t been able to escape in the last few days, he really needed to drink more water so he didn’t waste it all crying.

Falmouth didn’t say anything. He just let two of the tentacles hanging by his side rise up and wrap tightly around Lucas. Lucas was a little startled at first but quickly melted into the embrace as much as he could while still continuing to walk.

Soon, Falmouth unwrapped Lucas and let his tenacles once again fall back to his side.

“Thank you, Falmouth, I think I needed that,” Lucas wiped his eyes on his sleeve.

“It was my pleasure, I don’t like seeing people upset,”

They continued to walk side by side until Ashen came to a stop, forcing the others behind him to stop as well.

“Let’s stop here for tonight,”

“Shouldn’t we go a little further just to be safe?” Daemys insisted.

“No, we’re all too tired to go further and besides most won’t check this far when searching,”

“What do you mean?” Ellory asked.

Ashen got down on one knee to be closer to the Queen’s height, “When people are searching for another person, there’s often a distance that they won’t look beyond because they think it’s pointless to look any further. And we’ve gone quite a bit further than that, so we’ll be safe.”

“But what if they do decide to look further?”

“Then we’ll make sure that you’re safe, okay, we’ll have someone on lookout duty to make sure no one finds us, does that sound good?”

She nodded.

“Brilliant,”

They all took out the bedrolls they’d been given and laid them out on the floor. Ashen kept his quite close to Ellory’s and Falmouth made sure his was near Lucas’, a gesture that Lucas appreciated.

“Who can take first watch?”

“I’ll do it,” Lucas volunteered, he didn’t think he’d be able to sleep for a while any way.

“Okay, Lucas first, then me, then, what was your name again?” he pointed to Daemys.

“Daemys,”

“Okay, then Dead-knees, then-”

“DAEMYS,” He stressed.

Lucas couldn’t help but smirk to himself, even in an alternate world he couldn’t escape that nickname.

“That’s what I said, then squid guy,”

“It’s Falmouth,” he corrected

“Right, sorry, Falmouth,”

Daemys threw his hands up in frustration and sunk down onto his bed roll, facing the opposite way to everyone else. The others joined him and all soon fell asleep. Apart from Lucas who sat on his makeshift bed, eyes gently drifting around the tress to spot any unsavoury characters.

He didn’t know how long he was there before things felt... weird. One second Lucas blinked and the whole forest around him became grey. Before when there was quiet movements and noises of the woodland creatures there fell a heavy silence. Lucas looked around to his companions and saw they weren’t moving; he got up quickly to check on them but halted as soon as he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end and goosebumps form all over his arms. Eyes were watching him from everywhere. He couldn’t see them, but he knew they were there. He was about to cry out when he heard a voice behind him.

“Hello again, Lucas Flamingo,”

He whipped around to see the cloaked figure from the Stumble Inn stood behind him.

“You, you- uh... I- a,”

They chuckled at his stammered response and walked closer to him, “Cat got your tongue?”

“What are you doing here?”

“I told you I’d be in touch,”

“I thought you meant more letters, not... whatever this is,”

They chuckled again and Lucas was really beginning to find it annoying.

“You really expected to be receiving letters in the woods?”

“I didn’t know I would be travelling in the woods!”

“Well, here you are,” they held up their arms to gesture to the woods.

“Yeah,” He felt a tightening in his chest.

“Well, are you going to thank me?”

Lucas stared up at them confused, “What do you mean, ‘thank you’?”

“I mean,” They took a step closer to him, “when someone does a service for you, you thank them, or did no one ever teach you manners?”

The pieces clicked together in his head, “You did this?”

“Yes!” They exclaimed, exasperated.

“You killed the monarchs!”

They groaned, “No!”

“Then what do you mean?”

“I caused this,” They gestured to Lucas’ friends, “I caused all of you to be together on an adventure again. The monarchs dying was always going to happen, I didn’t do anything to do with that.”

“But, why?”

Although Lucas couldn’t see it, he knew they were giving him a judgmental look, “You really are stupid you know.”

“Hey! I-”

“You said you wanted your adventures with your friends back and here they are! Can I get a thank you?”

“This isn’t what I wanted; I wanted their memories back! I wanted those three months back!”

“Well, this is what you’ve got. Now you can make new memories,”

“Brilliant! Fine!” He threw his hands up in the air, “I guess you can leave me to my misery now!”

“Not quite yet, Lucas Flamingo, you haven’t held up your end of the bargain, you still need to help me get what I want,”

“Fine then, what is it?”

“All will be revealed in time, goodbye,”

“Wait!” he called out, but they were gone.

Lucas was left alone in the grey, lifeless forest. All of a sudden, he felt his body shaking.

Lucas gasped and sat up. Had he fallen asleep?

“Lucas, you alright?” Ashen was standing over him, he must have been the one shaking him.

“Yeah, I’m fine,”

“You fell asleep, you were supposed to be keeping watch!”

“Sorry, guess I was more tired than I thought,” He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.

“It’s fine, good thing I woke up anyway,” He smiled in a way that Lucas genuinely believed he wasn’t angry at him, “I’ll let you get back to sleep.”

“Thank you,” Lucas lay back down and fell asleep quickly, falling into a thankfully dreamless sleep.

Chapter Text

Lucas woke up to a beam of sunlight hitting him directly in the eye. He winced and sat up, rubbing his eyes to rid himself of the last bit of sleep. As he looked around at the makeshift camp, he saw he wasn’t the only person who was awake. Sat on her own bedroll with knees tucked under her chin and arms crossed over her legs was Ellory. Lucas could tell she was upset, and his features drew into a grimace as he slid off his own bed to sit next to her. Ellory looked up at him briefly before returning her gaze to the floor.

Lucas decided to see what was wrong, “Are you alright, Ellory?”

She was quiet for a moment before replying, “I’m not sure.”

“Why is that?”

“I don’t know, it’s just, there’s been a lot happening and I don’t know how to cope with it all,”

Lucas hummed, “I assume this is about your parents?”

“Yeah, that and going on this adventure with you guys, not that I’m unhappy with that, it’s just a big change,”

“I get that, must be hard being put in the protection of four random strangers you’ve never met before,” Ellory hummed, and an idea came over Lucas, “Unless...”

“Unless what?”

“Do... do you remember back in the dungeon when you pardoned us, and we got to go free?”

“Yeah, why?”

“And... and I called you ‘Sweetheart’?”

“Yeah, I remember that,” She looked up at him curiously.

“Do you know why?”

She just shrugged.

No. Lucas needed her to remember. He couldn’t be the only one who remembered all that time. Well, him and them.

“Are you sure? You have no idea why you let me call you Sweetheart?”

“I guess I let you say that because it felt, I don’t know, nice? It’s better than being called ‘Your Majesty’ or ‘Your Highness’ or ‘Princess’ all the time. I mean, I don’t mind those titles, but it just gets boring when it’s the only thing people call you,”

Lucas nodded and looked to the ground. He blinked away the coming tears and gulped down the lump in his throat, “Yeah- yeah I suppose that would get annoying.”

“If possible, could you keep calling me Sweetheart? I kind of like it,”

Lucas put on his best smile to conceal the internal heartbreak he felt, “Yeah, of course, Sweetheart.”

Ellory smiled back up at him and leaned against his side. Lucas gently placed and arm around her back in a half-way hug. That sat like that together as the sun continued to rise, waiting for their other companions to stir while the birds tweeting in the distance provided a beautiful symphony.

***

It wasn’t long before the rest of the gang woke up and they quickly began to continue their journey. They packed up the few supplies they had taken out, which didn’t take long, and set off to who knows where. They walked in a different order to the day before, Ashen still led at the front but this time Ellory insisted Lucas should walk beside her and Falmouth and Daemys walked side by side at the back. Lucas was sure it had something to do with their conversation earlier that morning and found himself silently grateful. Without her, he probably would have spent the entire journey moping at the back of the group, left alone to wallow in self-pity.

“Where are we going?” Ellory asked not too long into the journey.

“Not sure,” Ashen replied simply, “We’ll just go wherever we end up.”

“But what if we end up in a place with some really bad people?”

“Then we’ll make sure your safe, Ellory, that’s what we’re here for,” Ashen assured her.

Ellory still seemed distressed at the thought, so Lucas quickly decided to distract her, “Hey, Sweetheart,” Ellory perked up at the nickname, “Why don’t we play a game?”

“A game? Like what?”

“Hmmm,” He thought for a moment, “How about I Spy?”

“I Spy? I’ve never heard of that before,”

“It’s really fun and very simple, don’t worry. I just say, ‘I spy with my little eye something beginning with the letter... L’ then you have to guess what I’m spying, understand?”

Ellory smiled, “Yeah that sound fun!” and she began to look around, “Hmmm, L... oh! Leaves!”

“Yeah, that’s right, well done Sweetheart! Now it’s your turn,”

“Hmmm, I spy with my little eye something beginning with... T,”

“T... trail?” he gestured the path they were on.

She shook her head.

“Hmmm,” He smiled, “The woods?”

She giggled and shook her head.

“Oh my God, it’s trees!” Daemys called out frustratedly.

“You want to play too, Daemys?” Lucas turned around to ask.

“No, you were just being annoying, it was obvious!”

“You know you have to wait your turn if you want to play,” Falmouth informed him

Daemys just huffed angrily and slowed his pace to walk behind Falmouth. Lucas noticed Ellory looked a little sad, so he tried to cheer her up, “Hey, it’s okay, Sweetheart, he’s just being a bit grumpy is all, that was a really great word.”

She smiled again, “Thanks.”

“I spy with my eye, something blue,” Falmouth spoke up.

“Hmmm, is it you?” Ellory asked.

Falmouth did a loud, drawn-out gasp, “How did you know?”

“You're the only blue thing for miles!” Daemys snapped.

“No, I’m not, that tree’s blue,” He pointed with a tentacle to a very non-blue tree.

“Are you colour blind?” Lucas asked.

“No,” an awkward silence followed.

“Hey, I have a game we could play,” Ashen, who had been very quiet until that moment, spoke up, “Basically, we all have to count up to twenty but if two or more people say a number at the same time, we have to start from the beginning, want to play?”

Ellory, Lucas and Falmouth agreed and Daemys continued to sulk at the back.

“Alright, 1” Ashen began.

“2,” Lucas continued.

“3,” Ellory said nervously.

“17!” Falmouth exclaimed. They all turned to look at him.

“Falmouth, do you know how to count?”

“Nope!”

“Um, m-maybe you should stay out of this one then?” Lucas suggested kindly.

“Okay, I’ll count birds in my head,” He began to stare up at the trees.

“Anyway, 4,” said Ashen

“5!” Ellory yelled

“6,” Ashen said yet again.

They managed to continue for a while, only having to restart once when Lucas and Ashen said 11 at the same time. But now they were at 16 and tension crackled through the air like electricity. Long pauses followed each number, no one wanting to be the one to make them restart.

“17,” Lucas said quickly after ‘16’.

“18,” Ellory squeaked out after a long pause.

“19,” Lucas felt the nerves shaking his body.

“20” “20!” Ashen and Falmouth said at the same time.

They all whipped their head around to Falmouth.

“We thought you weren’t going to play?”

“I wasn’t, I’d just seen twenty birds!”

“How about we say it doesn’t count because he wasn't playing?” the others nodded their agreement.

They played a few more travel games, sometimes circling back to ones they’d already played. They barely even noticed time passing and the sun beginning to lower in the sky.

“Hmmm, I spy with my little eyes something beginning with... T,” said Ellory.

“Is it trees again?” Ashen asked.

She shook her head.

“Trail?” Lucas suggested.

“Then what is it?”

“A town!” she pointed, and the others followed her finger. There was indeed a town just beyond the tree line.

“Nice spot, Ellory,” Ashen grinned and Ellory glowed with pride.

“C’mon, let’s go check it out,” Lucas suggested, and they set off in the direction of the town.

Chapter Text

The town was called Evenel and it was every bit the picturesque fantasy town you’d imagine. The cobbled streets weaved messily between the buildings like a flowing river. Small stone cottages with thatched rooves stood beside quaint shops selling a variety of strange and mysterious wares. They ranged from potions stores selling a wide selection of elixirs which could do the most reality bending magic to shops dedicated entirely to one type of cheese. Flowers sprouted from patch of grass they came across as well as in between the cracks in the stone pathway. The town dwellers themselves seemed kind, greeting everyone they came across with a smile and a wave, often stopping for a pleasant conversation, none seeming to be in any particular rush.

The group were in awe as they passed through this wonderful town. None of them had ever seen a place so beautiful and welcoming, it made a nice change of pace from the harsh woods they had been venturing through before.

Suddenly, Ashen stopped, almost causing the others to bump into him. He turned around to address them, “Right, I reckon we should stay here tonight and take advantage of a warm bed while we can,” the others nodded in agreement, “Brilliant. We still have a while ‘till night so we can have a look around before turning in for the night,” Once again, they murmured their agreements and Ashen continued to walk forward, the others not far behind.

Soon, they found themselves in a marketplace area. People from all sides calling out to them, begging them to take their wares. Lucas looked around eagerly at everything. He weaved between fellow customers, stopping occasionally to see what different stalls were selling. There were many stalls that drew his attention, such as beautifully bound notebooks, hand crafted puppets and other toys and even collections of dice ranging in colours and sizes from three-sided to twenty-sided die.

However, one stall caught his eye in particular. It was small, unassuming and tucked away in a corner. Honestly, it didn’t look like it’d had much business all day. The older woman tending the stall was sat patiently crocheting, eyes occasionally darting around at her fellow venders. Eventually her eye caught Lucas’ and she smiled. Lucas smiled back and made his way over to the stall.

The woman looked pleasantly surprised at him coming over but quickly hid her shock and smiled again, “Hello, dear, what’s your name?”

“Lucas, and you?”

“Margery,” She put down her crochet work and held out a hand for him to shake, “Margery-Deirdre.”

“Nice to meet you Margery-Deirdre,”

“Oh, please,” She waved a dismissive hand, “Just call me Margery, everyone does.”

“Alright then, Margery,” He smiled again and began to look through her stall.

“I don’t get many customers here, you know,” She mused.

“Oh really? Why’s that?”

“People prefer to buy ready-made quills rather than buying the feathers and making them themselves. A long time ago that was the only option we had. I learnt it from my father who in turn learned it from his. It was nice, if also a little tricky and full of a few cuts at first,” She chuckled, fondly recalling memories.

Lucas kindly listen to her story as he poked around at the feathers on display. He had no idea why he came over; he had no desire to make his own quill and yet he needed the feathers. He was drawn to a collection of grey and brown feathers towards the back of the stall. At first glance they looked dull and boring but the closer you looked the more the flecks of gold and silver became visible amongst the earthy tones. That wasn’t the only reason he was drawn to them, they also seemed familiar in a strange almost deja vu way where the more he searched for the memory of that particular feather the more it disappeared like sand falling through the gaps of his fingers.

“How much for those ones?” he pointed to the ones his eyes stayed fixated upon.

“Those ones? They’re one silver each,” Lucas winced, pricey.

“There are cheaper ones if you’d like,” Margery clearly noticed his apprehension and pointed to different feathers closer to him. Those ones were brighter coloured and looked close to gimmicky, “They’re one bronze for two if you want them?”

Lucas shook his head, “No, it has to be those ones,” The words tumbled from his lips without him thinking, they felt like they weren’t even coming from him to begin with.

“If you’re sure,” Margery relented.

Lucas placed eleven silvers on the table, grimacing at the noticeable weight lifted from his purse. Margery handed over the eleven feathers he purchased (the exact amount of that type she had left) and waved him goodbye. Lucas nodded and waved goodbye as well, set out to find the sweethearts his companions again.

Their agreed meeting point was outside the local Stumble Inn. When Lucas reached the location, he saw he was the last one there.

“Sorry to keep you all waiting,” He apologised.

“No problem,” Ashen assured him, “What did you buy?”

He held up his purchase, “Feathers.”

They all looked at him quizzically, “Why?”

He shrugged, “I just wanted them.” Needed them

“Well, you do you I guess,” Ashen shrugged

"What did you get?" Lucas asked

Ashen rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed, "Nothing, just a journal," he mumbled.

"You don't have to be embarrassed by that," Lucas assured him.

"Thanks," Ashen gave him a genuine smile then coughed, changing the subject quickly and addressing everyone collectively, “Let’s have a drink before getting a room, it’s not really late yet.”

Lucas looked to the sky and saw the sun hanging low in the sky, still clinging onto as much daytime as it could before it would inevitably dip below the horizon and allow everyone to sleep.

A half-elf, the queen, a giant squid, a holy man and a former tiefling walk into a bar sounds like the beginning of a joke but it’s really what happened as the companions enter the Stumble Inn. It was fairly empty for the time of day, so they had no trouble finding a table that would fit all of them. Lucas and Ashen sat on the same side of the booth, sides touching enough to be casual but to also send fireworks ricocheting through Lucas’ body. Falmouth and Ellory were opposite them and Daemys pulled up a chair to the end of the table.

“I guess since I’m the closest I’ll order for us, yeah?” when a general murmur of agreement bounced around the table he stood and asked, “What do you all want?”

“Dragon-aged ale,” Lucas and Ashen said in synch and smiled at each other.

“The biggest serving of water they have,” Falmouth grinned, well, whatever the squid equivalent of grinning was.

“If they do milky water, I’ll have that, if not then just water’s fine,” Ellory said, sounding a little shy, she probably wasn’t as comfortable around Daemys as Lucas or maybe even the others at this point.

Daemys nodded in confirmation and headed up to the counter to order. Lucas looked at the feathers in his hand and realised it was probably a good idea to put them away. He reached into his bag and dug around for a while, eventually finding a hand carved wooden box, one he had never seen before in his life but was also the exact right size for feathers.

“What you got there, Lucas?” Ashen asked, leaning closer to peer at his box.

“Oh, it’s just a box for my feathers,” He replied as best as he could while having Ashen pressed so close to him.

“What are all those?” Ellory asked, leaning across the table to point at the intricately carved symbols.

“Oh, those?” He looked at them closer and replied, “The ones on the outside are alternating feathers and crescent moons connected by a squiggly line,” he traced the pattern with his finger, “And the one in the middle are my initials, LF” He pointed out the elaborate cursive which reminded him of the letter he received all that long ago and repressed a shudder.

“Really?” Ashen asked, “I just see a bunch of squiggles.”

“Huh,”

“Me too,” Ellory agreed, “I can’t see any feathers or moons.”

“Weird,” Lucas muttered to himself.

“If it makes you feel any better, I always see squiggles,” Falmouth piped up and everyone looked to him with concern.

“Can you not read?” Lucas asked, glad the attention was now off him.

Falmouth shook his head.

Just then, Daemys came back with the drinks and set them in front of their owners. He then pointed to Ashen and Lucas and said, “You two owe me two bronze each,” He pointed to Ellory, “You owe me one bronze,” And finally pointed to Falmouth, “And the water was free.”

As he sat down Ashen looked at him, confused, “Ellory’s a kid, she doesn’t owe you anything.”

“She’s also royalty and can afford it,” throughout this exchange Ellory looked more and more uncomfortable.

“I’ll pay for her,” Lucas pulled out three bronze and handed them over to Daemys, Ashen soon followed with his two bronze.

An awkward silence followed the exchange as they all sipped on their drinks. Eventually they all finished and Ashen got up, Lucas following suit to let him exit the booth.

“Right, I’ll go see if they have any rooms, you guys wait here, I’ll be back soon,” and with that he went over to the bar. The silence continued to lull over the table, thicker than a gelatinous cube.

Thankfully Ashen didn’t take long and was soon back at the table holding two keys, “Right, I have one room with a double bed and one with a single and a double cause that’s the cheapest I could get while having enough beds for everyone. Ellory will take the single and can pick who she shares with and the other two will go in the other room, okay with everyone?” Nods went around the group and Ashen led them to their rooms. Number 10 and Number 11.

“Right, Ellory, who do you want to share with?”

“Um, probably Lucas then I don’t mind who the other is,” she replied shyly.

“Alright then, Daemys, you, Lucas and Ellory will take 11 and Falmouth and I-”

“Sorry, I can’t be in number 11, I just can’t,” Daemys interrupted, looking the most uncomfortable Lucas had ever seen him.

“Okay then,” Ashen didn’t question him further, sensing he was uncomfortable, “I guess I’ll go with Lucas and Ellory, and you can go with Falmouth, everyone happy?” they all agreed, “Awesome, see you in the morning, have a good sleep. They exchange a couple of well-wishes before dividing into their rooms.

As Lucas allowed himself to fall onto the bed, he found it remarkably comfortable for an Inn. He looked to his side to see Ashen unlacing his boots and the thought dawned on him; he was going to be sharing a bed with Ashen. A blush creeped up his neck as he turned to face away from Ashen.

“Are you not going to take off your shoes?” Ashen’s voice came from behind him.

Lucas sat up sharply, “No, no I just got lost in how comfy the mattress is, I’ll do it now.” He faced away from the other man as he took of his shoes and removed his waistcoat, folding it neatly and placing it next to his shoes.

“Right then,” Ashen climbed under the covers Lucas following shortly after, “Goodnight, Ellory.”

A barely audible ‘goodnight’ was vaguely heard, muffled by sleep and Ashen chuckled, “Goodnight, Lucas.”

“Goodnight, Ashen,” as he closed his eyes, he made a silent wish. He simultaneously wanted to avoid any contact with Ashen but at the same time couldn’t bear the thought of being so close to him all night and not wake up wrapped in his protective arms.

Chapter Text

Lucas did not, in fact, wake up in Ashen’s arms. They were, however, a lot closer to each other than they were when they fell asleep. When Ashen stirred, he noticed how close they were and quickly shuffled away, mumbling a “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Lucas sighed, reluctantly shuffling away from Ashen. It didn’t take long for them to get changed and pack up the few things they had, and they all quickly left the room. They didn’t have to wait long for Daemys and Falmouth to join them but when they did, they looked worse for wear. The bags under Daemys’ eyes were large dark and his eyes could barely stay open. Falmouth was hunched over and none of his limbs seemed to be working in co-operation with each other.

“What happened to you two?” Ashen asked.

Daemys groaned and replied, “He would not stop moving all night, he kept hitting me!”

“It’s not my fault I’m used to sleeping in water! I can move about all I want usually,” Falmouth defended.

Daemys looked ready to argue back but Ashen interrupted him, “Let’s just get moving.”

They walked in silence as they left the town. The awkward atmosphere made them all uncomfortable and yet they continued on, eventually reaching the forest once again. Soon enough, Ellory couldn’t take it and interrupted the silence.

She tapped Lucas on the arm to get his attention and asked, “Can we play more games like we did yesterday?”

Before Lucas could reply, he heard Daemys groan from behind him and whipped around to look at him, “Shut up and leave her alone!”

“I didn’t even say anything!” He tried to defend himself. The rising argument caused the others to slow to a halt and Lucas took the opportunity to get closer to Daemys.

“You’re still being rude; she’s just wants to have a little fun you prick!”

“Woah, woah, woah, calm down,” Ashen stepped between them to diffuse the situation. He lowered his voice and faced Lucas, muttering, “What’s gotten into you?”

Lucas just shook his head to dismiss his concerns, “Let’s just keep going,” He turned around and kept walking, not looking back to see if the others were following. Soon enough, though, he heard their footsteps behind him.

“Are you alright?” Lucas looked down to see Ellory staring up at him in concern.

His features softened as he spoke to her, “I’m fine, Sweetheart, I just got a little annoyed at him, that’s all.”

“Okay, if you’re sure,” She replied, sounding slightly less worried.

In order to avoid annoying Daemys and keep the peace, Lucas and Ellory played their games quietly at the front while the others walked a bit behind and talked about... something, Lucas couldn’t hear it over Ellory’s giggles when he was being intentionally stupid to make her laugh. It didn’t take long for them all to forget to tension from early and they were soon all in relatively good spirits. That was until Lucas began to see smoke up ahead. His abrupt stop took everyone by surprise.

“What’s wrong, Lucas?” Ashen asked, moving closer to him.

“Look, there’s smoke over there,” He pointed to show Ashen where it was coming from.

“Oh yeah, that’s weird, should we check it out or avoid it?”

Luas thought carefully. If they avoided it, it could potentially have been a wildfire about to spiral out of control and burn down the forest. But if they investigate it, it might be someone dangerous.

“Let’s check it out but stay back to be safe,” He looked round at the others, and they all nodded in agreement.

Quietly, they crept towards the fumes. It was thick and smelled awful, not like the kind of smoke you’d get from a fire. When they got close enough, Lucas peered around a tree to see what was happening. He saw that it was originating from a tent. It was mostly purple but had the pattern of an old carpet you’d find in a charity shop. Sat just outside was a woman smoking and staring out into the distance. She was wearing a red plaid dressing gown and slippers, definitely not the right attire for the woods, and her grey hair was piled in a messy bun on top pf her head.

“Stop peeking round that tree and come out to face me,” She spoke suddenly, not looking at the group but was obviously talking to them, “I don’t bite, well, I might but I’ll try not to, can’t guarantee anything though.”

Lucas glanced back at the others before complying and stepping out from his hiding place. As he did, the woman turned her attention to him and looked him up and down, taking a drag of what Lucas now recognised as a joint.

“And the rest of you, don’t be shy,” She called out to the others who still remained behind the trees. They stepped out quickly and joined Lucas.

When no one said anything for a while, Lucas asked, “What’s your name?”

“Margery,” She replied and took another hit.

“That’s funny,” Lucas mused, unsure why he was saying it out loud, “I met another Margery in the town back there, she looked kind of like you to be honest.”

A look of recognition came over Margery’s face, “Was that Margery-Deirdre? The crocheter who sells feathers?”

“Yeah, that’s her, do you know her?”

“Of course I do, she made me this scarf,” she gestured to the red scarf around her neck which Lucas hadn’t noticed at first as it blended into her dressing gown.

“It’s a very nice scarf,”

“Thank you, what’s your name, dear?”

“I’m Lucas. Lucas Flamingo,”

“Ah, I thought I’d be seeing you soon,” Margery began to stand, grabbing a stick for support, “Follow me,” She instructed walking into her tent.

Lucas made to follow her but was stopped by Daemys, “Are you really going to follow some random old woman into her sketchy tent?”

Without warning, Margey appeared behind him and smacked him on the head, sending a loud SLAP echoing through the forest.

“Don’t call me old, you cheeky little shit,” She admonished him before walking back towards her tent, leaving Daemys rubbing his sore head. Lucas couldn’t hold back a snigger as he followed Margery back into her tent.

When Lucas stepped into the tent, the first thing he noticed was that it was bigger in the inside. The extra space, however, didn’t stop the whole place feeling stuffy from the heat coming off the fire in the middle of the room and the fumes produced by the large cauldron atop the aforementioned fire. Lucas coughed, feeling his eyes watering and head aching from the dizzying atmosphere.

“Have a seat, child,” Margery instructed, having perched on a stool behind the cauldron, facing the entrance to the tent. She began grabbing various bottles off the shelves behind her and pouring them into the mixture in front of her, stirring and watching it change colours before grabbing more bottles. Lucas took the seat opposite her and waited for her to begin speaking.

...

...

She still wasn’t speaking.

...

...

“Um... Margery?” Lucas asked. Margery’s head shot up and she looked at him confused as if she'd forgotten he was there.

“Hm? Oh, right, sorry. You came in for a reading, didn’t you?”

“Actually, I didn’t come in for anything, you just told me to follow you,”

She smiled, “You may not have wanted it but it’s what you need...” That felt... ominous.

Margery dipped below the cauldron, digging around until she produced what she was looking for. A seemingly ordinary deck of cards.

“Are those... tarot cards?” Lucas had never actually seen a deck but had heard of them and they honestly scared him a little.

“Oh no,” Margery shook her head, “I don’t mess around with that voodoo shit, this is just your average playing deck. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have any magic, my dear,” she added upon seeing his sceptical face.

Who is this woman, Lucas wondered, if she doesn’t ‘mess with voodoo’ but is what he can only assume is a witch, how does that make sense?

Margery shuffled the cards before spreading them out in front of him. He didn’t know how they were held up as there was no table, but he decided not to question it.

“Pick three,” Margery instructed, “One for your past, your present and your future.”

Lucas did as he was told and drew three cards from the deck. He didn’t look at what he drew as it wouldn’t have mattered to him any way as he had no idea of the symbolism of the cards and just immediately handed them back to Margery.

Margery collected the unused cards and put them into a pile off to the side before taking Lucas’ cards. She withdrew the first card he had selected and dropped it into the cauldron. The liquid inside began to bubble and swirl around, turning violent shades of greens and purples before settling on a bright gold. Various dark shapes appeared on the surface, appearing to tell a story but not one Lucas could understand.

“You’ve lived a long time,” Margery spoke, “and in that time you’ve done a lot, seen many places but you’ve never been happy in any of them. Until you were happy for a while but-” the silhouettes of the people acting out Lucas’ life suddenly fade away, mixing back into the rest of the mixture leaving one behind, “now that’s all gone.”

Lucas had to take a shuddering breathe to steady himself before signalling Margery to continue.

She dropped the next card into the mixture, the one representing his present. The liquid once again switched rapidly between colours before settling on green, the silhouettes once again rising to reenact his life.

“You’re running from something, trying to distract yourself but it isn’t working. You cannot outrun your past, Lucas, as much as you try. Everything in your life is one never ending cycle that will repeat itself over and over until you do something about it. Also,” The liquid became darker and one of the shadows grew larger than the rest, overpowering the other figures, “There is a dark presence in your life, one who will hurt you and do whatever it must to you to get what it wants,” Margey looked him directly int the eyes, with a serious look that scared Lucas to the core, “Don’t trust it Lucas, do whatever you can to get away from it and protect everyone around you from it.”

Lucas knew exactly who she was talking about but also knew he couldn’t do anything about it; he was too late.

Finally, Margey took the third card and hesitantly dropped it into the cauldron. It bubbled once more but didn’t switch between any colours, it just became violet. The exact shade his magic was.

“That’s odd,” Margery mused.

“What’s odd?”

Margery looked at him, “Somethings blocking me from seeing into your future. It’s like there’s a force in your mind that doesn’t want me to see it.”

When noticing Lucas’ rising panic, Margery immediately calmed him, “It’s fine, just try to relax for me, push out whatever's stopping it.”

Lucas closed his eyes and tried to breath slowly, but he began to feel to force in his mind and it only made him more stressed.

“Ok, stop, don’t hurt yourself,” Lucas stopped and looked at Margery disappointed in himself.

“I’m sorry Margery,”

“Don’t blame yourself, it happens all the time,”

“Really?”

“No,”

Lucas chuckled, “Thank you anyway,” He made to leave but Margery quickly stopped him.

“Wait, I have something for you,” She riffled through her shelves before finding the bottle she was looking for and handing it over to him.

“Here, I know you think you can’t stop that dark presence in your life,”

“Thank you,” He tried to drink it.

“No! Not now! It has to be taken with a meal!”

He nodded, “Alright, thank you Margery.”

“No problem, have a good journey,”

He nodded one last time before exiting the tent to find his companions waiting for him.

“Finally!” Ashen stood up and went over to him, “What took so long? And what is that?” he pointed to the bottle in his hands which Lucas quickly but away in his bag.

“Nothing. Let’s keep going,” Lucas set off in the direction they had been going before. He felt the other’s confused expressions before following him, unaware of the annoyed cloaked presence watching them from beyond the treeline.

Chapter Text

Day turned to night as the gang continued their trudge through the forest. The whole time, Lucas’ thoughts kept drifting back to what Margery had told him, the weight of the bottle in his bag weighing on his thoughts.

“We should set up camp for the night,” Ashen suggested. Lucas turned around to look at the others to see them nodding in agreement. Ashen looked at Lucas for his approval.

“Yeah, okay,” he took his bag off his back and began to unpack everything he’d need. Soon, all their bedrolls were laid out and were trying to light a fire. It took a few attempts before the flames flickered to life and the logs quickly became engulfed. They all smiled with relief and huddled around the fire. The day had been mostly warm, but the evening had seen a drastic drop in temperature, so they were all glad for the warmth. The main downside of this being that the fire caused Falmouth to dry out quickly.

Once they had all warmed up enough, they produced food from their bags, not much as they still needed to ration it but enough for a decently sized meal. As they cooked bits of bread over the fire, they talked and joked about nothing and everything and it quickly turned into one of the most pleasent evenings any of them had experienced for a while.

It was just then that Lucas remembered the potion Margery had given him. He rummaged around for a while until he felt a sharp pain in his finger and quickly pulled his hand out of the bag. He looked at his finger to see it bleeding. This caught Ashen's attention as he turned from the others to speak to him.

“Are you alright,” He asked then noticed the blood, “What happened?”

“I nicked myself on something sharp in there,” he indicated his bag, “Can you grab me a bandage?”

Ashen nodded and grabbed a couple medical supplies carefully from his bag and took Lucas’ hand in his own. He poured some water on a piece of cloth and started to clean the cut.

“You don’t have to-” Lucas began but he was cut off.

“I want to,” Ashen looked into Lucas’ eyes with the utmost sincerity which caused Lucas to blush and look away. Ashen finished cleaning then took out a bandage and carefully wrapped it around Lucas’ finger. He tied off the bandage and returned his gaze back to the other man’s face, “Do you want me to kiss it better?”

Lucas quickly snatched his hand back and avoided eye contact as best as he could, “NO, no it’s fine,” He was sure his face looked as red as the blood on his finger.

He heard Ashen chuckle before he asked, “Do you know what cut you?”

“Uh, no, I’m not sure,” He pulled his bag closer to him and dumped out its content. He carefully looked through it. Soon he found the culprit: a shard of glass.

“Where did that come from?” Ashen wondered aloud.

Lucas dug though the pile, finding a few more shards and mentally piecing them together to form a bottle. He picked up his bag and felt the bottom, it was wet, and Lucas realised what had happened. The bottle Margery had given him had broken.

Picking up on his distress Ashen asked, “What was it?”

Lucas sighed, “Nothing, just something that witch, Margery, gave me.”

“Was it important?”

“Not now, it isn’t,”

“I’m sorry,” Ashen comfortingly rubbed his back.

Lucas shrugged, “It’s not your fault,” Then he yawned, “I think I’m going to try and get some sleep. He moved away from Ashen and the comforting warmth of the fire and over to his bed roll. It didn’t take long for him to fall asleep, his heavy eyes falling shut and sleep mercifully taking over his brain.

When he awoke the forest was different. The surroundings were in greyscale, invisible eyes were watching him from everywhere and his friends were missing. He sighed as he realised what happened. He rose to his feet and called out, “I know you’re here so just show yourself and get on with it!”

“Hello, Lucas Flamingo,” a voice from behind him appeared, causing him to jump. This made the cloaked figure laugh as he stepped back, giving them space to walk forward.

“What are you doing here?”

“I just want to chat, is that a crime?”

Lucas crossed his arm, “That depends on what you want to chat about.”

The figure pretended to think for a moment, “Hmmm, how about that friend of yours. What’s his name again? Oh, that's right, Ashen.”

Lucas’ face fell into an expression of fear. This caused them to laugh once again, “You two are really close, aren’t you?”

“Whatever you do, don’t hurt him,”

“What makes you think I’d hurt him, I would never,” Lucas could tell they were smirking under their hood.

“Please, leave him alone,” his voice had grown weak and shaky as images of what they could do to him floated around his mind.

“He’s really nice, isn’t he? He helped to fix you up after you cut yourself on that piece of glass, didn’t he?” They began to pace in a circle around Lucas, making him feel trapped like prey stalked by a predator, “You’re welcome by the way.”

His eyebrows pinched in confusion, “For what?”

“For breaking that bottle, now can I get a thank you?”

“You broke it, why?”

The sighed and Lucas could tell they rolled their eyes, “So ungreatful,” They muttered under their breath before speaking to him again, “Because that potion would have ended our deal and you do not want that to happen.”

He crossed his arms, “Why wouldn’t I want to end it?”

“Because,” They stopped their pacing and got really close to him, their non-existent face coming close to his own, “You still haven’t honoured your end of the deal and people you don’t fulfil my deals come to regret it very soon.”

“What would you do to me?”

“There’s not much I could do to you that isn’t already worse than what you’ve already experienced,” They backed away slightly but still remained close, “But I’m sure there are plenty of things I could do to your friends.”

“No,” his voice was small

“Yes, how would it feel to watch your best friends tortured for your crimes, a fate worse than death, I’d imagine,”

“You can’t” He shook his head, willing them to leave him alone.

“I won’t, as long as you follow through on out deal. Don’t worry, it won’t be too long,”

They began to walk away before Lucas called out, “Wait!”

They turned around looking impatient.

“What’s your name?”

The question seemed to take them aback, “My name?”

Lucas nodded.

A smiled crossed their face, “I’m Nobody.”

Just as Lucas was about to talk more, he felt himself jolt awake. Ashen was standing over him looking slightly concerned. It was morning by now, but they were the only two awake.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” He swallowed, trying to push away the memory of what happened, “I’m fine.”

This put Ashen a bit more at ease, but he still looked worried, “You were talking in your sleep, and you seemed scared, who were you talking to?”

Lucas sat up and looked out into the distance seeing the swish of a black cloak just beyond the treeline, “Nobody.”

Chapter Text

It didn’t take long for them to be back on the road. At first, Ellory and Ashen tried to engage Lucas in conversations and games but after getting shut down repeatedly, the left him alone. Much like the first day of travelling, Lucas hung at the back, thoughts swirling around in his head as he contemplated his deal with ‘Nobody’. His main thought about it was, ‘Why did I let this happen again?’ He’d just gotten out of similar deal with a different entity and now he was back again. Was he just destined to have his life repeated over and over again, spinning around in circles like the world’s worst carousel?

“You alright, mate?” Lucas looked up to see who was speaking to him. It was Daemys.

“I’m fine,” He brushed him off with a hint of agitation in his voice.

“I can tell you’re not, what’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing,” He replied, getting more and more annoyed every second. He tried to walk slower to fall out of step with the cleric however, Daemys didn’t get the hint and matched his pace.

“Just let me help you, why are you being so resistant?”

“JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!” He snapped. This caught the attention of the others, causing them to halt and turn around.

Ashen approached them with a worried expression, “What’s going on here?”

“I was just seeing if he was alright and he yelled at me,” Daemys defended.

Ashen looked at Lucas to hear his side of the story. Lucas struggled for a moment to put his thoughts into words but when he came up blank, he just sighed and walked away in the general direction they had been walking in before. He didn’t even care if the others were following him, he just needed space.

When he didn’t hear footsteps behind him, he kept going, they were probably all better off without him anyway. He was just going to get them hurt if they stayed too close to him, who knew what ‘Nobody’ might do to them. Eventually, Lucas looked behind him only to see no-one there. Good, he tried to tell himself, this was for the best, but he couldn’t ignore the pressure behind his eyes and how his vision slowly began to blur. He wiped at his eyes telling himself he wasn’t going to cry but it was useless, so he let the tears fall silently down his cheeks.

He tried to keep walking but after a few steps, he fell to his knees. He hugged himself around his chest and let himself cry. His body shook from the sobs and the occasional sniff or sharp breath interrupted the otherwise quiet surroundings. Lucas cried until he could cry no more then began to dry his eyes and steady his breathing.

Eventually, he stood up and brushed himself off to get rid of the leaves clinging to his knees. He blinked a few times to clear the last tears from his eyes then looked around. There was no sign of anyone else around but him. He sighed, I guess I’m on my own.

The problem was that he had no idea where to go. At least when he was with the others, they didn’t need a place to go but just wondering around a forest on his own did not sound like a good idea. However, he had no map nor any idea where he was. Lucas rubbed a hand over his face and leaned back against a nearby tree.

As he opened his eyes once again, he saw something glinting in the light. Curiously, he approached the shiny object which he didn’t think had been there before. He bent down to pick it up. It was a feather. It looked similar to the ones he’d bought in the previous town from Margery-Deirdre. He stood up once again and as he did, another glinting object caught his eye, and another just beyond that. They seemed to be leading him somewhere and with nowhere better to go, Lucas decided to follow them.

As he picked up the eleventh feather, he saw something that filled him with hope. A village just beyond the treeline. A smile split across his face, and he picked up his pace, breaking through the trees and taking in the sight before him.

The village was called Venele and it seemed to be a nice place, not as nice as the previous town they’d been to but nice nonetheless. He spent a little while looking around. The people were friendly without being overly so, the shops sold interesting items, but they weren’t too extraordinary, and the architecture and decor was pretty without being outstanding. Overall, the place felt very... normal. It was a nice break from all the strange and fantastical interactions he’d had so far but felt quite bland at the same time.

This village had its own Stumble Inn as well. When Lucas stepped in it looked exactly like every other Stumble Inn he’d been to. Being the middle of the day, it wasn’t very crowded but also crowded enough to feel welcoming. He made his way to the bar and order a Dragon-Aged Ale and handed over some money. He sat at the bar and thanked the bartender when he was handed his drink.

“Rough morning?” the bartender asked while cleaning a glass. It felt so cliche that Lucas almost laughed.

“Not the best if I’m honest,” He replied and took a sip, it tasted the same as always.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what happened?”

Lucas sighed. It seemed like this was just his life now, people asking him if he was okay and him just deflecting so this time, he chose to be truthful, “I split away from my friends and honestly, they’re better off without me,” He took another sip.

“What makes you think that?”

“All I’m good for is bringing trouble and if they stick around me, they’re just going to get hurt as well.”

“Well, if you’re going to get hurt, isn’t it better to face that with others than dealing with it alone?”

Lucas scoffed, “Yeah right, I should totally endanger my best friends in the world just so I don’t have to deal with my problems alone(!)”

“If they’re your ‘best friends in the world’ then surely, they don’t want you to be hurt and would rather try and protect you even if that puts them in danger,”

“Yeah, well, that’s not their choice. I’m the one who put myself in this position, they don’t deserve to deal with the consequences of my actions,”

The bartender shrugged, “I suppose it’s up to them to decide what to do,” the shuffled off to serve the other customers.

“Sure,” Lucas muttered before picking up his glass again.

One and a half pints later, Lucas heard a familiar voice behind him.

“Lucas, oh my God, is that you?”

Lucas spun around to see none other than-

“Ashen!”

Ashen walked up to the bar and sat next to Lucas, “I can’t believe it, I really though we lost you forever!”

Lucas sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, “Yeah, uh, sorry about that.”

“I don’t want to hear an apology, I just want to know why?”

Wanting to continue with his honesty, Lucas replied, “You’re better off without me.”

“Shut the fuck up,”

“Huh?”

“I will not accept you being mean towards my friend. He is an amazing person and a valuable asset to our group. Sure, he may not be the most open and honest guy you meet but he’s still amazing and he is the best part about wandering endlessly around a forest,”

Lucas lunged forward and pulled Ashen into a hug. He felt the other man’s strong arms hold him close. When they broke apart, Lucas asked, “What if I was going to put you in danger?”

“Then we’ll face it together,” matching smiles spread across their faces.

Ashen called over the bartender to order them both a few more drinks. As they drank, Ashen explained what happened after Lucas left. They decided to give him a few minutes to cool down and gather himself. When he didn’t come back for a while, they started to head off in the direction they saw him go but soon got lost themselves and had no clue where to go. Ellory started crying as she was sad he wasn’t going to be with them anymore, Falmouth just hung his head and quietly mourned the loss of their friend and Daemys looked incredibly guilty at being the one to drive Lucas away. After that, they decided to keep going, and eventually found this village. They all agreed to do their own thing for the evening and then all meet up at the campsite they set up at the edge of the forest at night (they didn’t have enough money to rent rooms).

After he’d finished the story, Ashen asked Lucas, “Why were you so mad at Daemys anyway? I mean, I get that he was asking you a lot of questions but that doesn’t really explain why you yelled at him like that.”

Lucas sighed, he supposed he was just going to have to tell him, “Daemys is part of a religious group called the Dawn Chorus,” for some reason he felt a chill down his spine when he said those words, “and I’m pretty sure they’re the ones who killed Ellory’s parents and tried to kill her.”

“Oh my God,” Ashen looked horrified, “You don’t think it was Daemys who did it, do you?”

Lucas shook his head, “No, but he is a part of that group and i just don’t really trust him.”

“I guess we’ll have to talk to him about it,”

“Yeah, probably,”

As they drank more, the conversations drifted to happier topics until eventually they were too drunk to have proper conversations. Soon, their speech was mostly slurred together and giggled, although they seemed to understand each other perfectly. It didn’t take long for the bartender to cut them off and the two left them a generous tip before stumbling out of the Inn.

“You know, you know,” Ashen giggled, “You’re my best friend!”

Lucas gasped and smiled widely, “You’re my best friend too!”

They pulled each other into a tight hug. When they pulled away, they kept their arms on each other’s shoulders. Lucas stared deeply into Ashen's eyes. They looked like two pools of chocolate that he wouldn’t mind swimming in. Then his eyes drifted lower to his mouth. His lips were gorgeous, and his mouth hung open slightly. He looked so kissable. Sober Lucas would have shut down that though immediately, but Drunk Lucas couldn’t stop wondering what it would feel like to kiss him. He’d done so before, but that was in a different timeline, maybe this timeline’s Ashen would taste different. He really wanted to kiss him now.

Ashen seemed to share that though as they both leaned in. Their lips crashed together like two magnets desperate not to be separated again. It was messy but it was perfect.

~

Eventually though, they had to come up for air. They kept staring into each other's eyes as they breathed. Once he had caught his breath, Lucas leaned in again but Ashen let go and turned to the side and vomited against the side of the Inn. When he’d finished, he turned back to Lucas and wiped the remaining vomit from his lips and tried to lean in again.

~

Lucas laughed and pushed him away, “Gross.” Ashen began to laugh as well. They staggered away from the Inn, with a warm, fuzzy feeling in their chest that definitely wasn’t just the alcohol.

Chapter Text

Lucas woke up the next morning with a pounding head a warm body pressed against his own. When he opened his eyes, he was confronted with a light so blinding it seemed like the sun had a personal vendetta against him. He managed to crack his eyes open a little, enough to see the plaid shirt his face was pressed into. Lucas pulled away slightly to get a better view and saw that the plaid shirt was attached to a man and that person was Ashen. All of a sudden, flashes of memories from last night flooded his head. Him drinking alone, Ashen finding him, them drinking together, the kiss. The kiss. He and Ashen had kissed. He pressed his fingers to his lips as if to find any trace of him left on them.

Lucas sat up and began to shuffle away from Ashen. This movement caused Ashen to stir and he blinked a few times, adjusting to the light before looking at Lucas. Confusion overtook his face for a moment before the same shocked realisation that Lucas had felt overcame him.

“Oh my God, um, Lucas, a-about last night-” Ashen began but was interrupted by Lucas.

“Can we... can we not talk about it?” Lucas requested avoiding eye contact with the other.

“Oh, um yeah, right, of course,” Ashen rubbed the back of his neck. He looked almost... disappointed.

“Just because we were, you know, drunk and-”

“Yeah, I totally get it, we’ll just... we’ll forget about it. Wouldn’t want to, you know, ruin our friendship or anything,”

Despite being the one to suggest forgetting about it, that felt like a gut punch. He had no idea why he even suggested it to begin with. He loved Ashen and he finally got his chance, why was he throwing it away? Maybe because they were drunk, and therefore it didn’t feel right. Maybe because it felt wrong to be with a different Ashen than the one he had first fallen in love with. Maybe because he was scared this Ashen didn’t love him back.

Thankfully Lucas was distracted from these thoughts by a voice.

“Lucas?!” Ellory exclaimed way too loud and high pitched for two hungover men this early in the morning. She ran over to him and pulled him into a tight hug, Lucas reciprocating even tighter, “I’m so happy you’re back, I thought you were going to be gone forever!”

“I’d never leave you forever, Sweetheart, you’re stuck with me for life,” this made Ellory giggle. They fell out of their hug and when they did, Ellory’s face fell to a frown.

“Why did you leave?”

“Sometimes I can get a bit overwhelmed with my feelings and need time to process them alone. Unfortunately, I got a bit lost but Ashen found me and now we can all be together again,”

“I’m glad you’re back,”

“I am too, Sweetheart,”

“I do have one question, though,”

“What is it?”

“Why do you have a bruise on your neck?”

Lucas covered up the spot she pointed to and both his and Ashen's eyes grew wide.

“Umm... well...”

Ashen quickly stood, “Let’s wake up the others and keep going.”

***

Falmouth was just as welcoming to Lucas on his return as Ellory was. The second he saw Lucas; his tentacles wrapped around him as squeezed him so tight he could barely breathe. Daemys, on the other hand, was more apprehensive. He still looked guilty at being the one who caused Lucas to run off. He did come over and apologise to Lucas and was told to not worry about it.

And now they were back to walking. Lucas and Ashen led at the front Ellory a few paces behind with Falmouth and Daemys at the back. They quickly realised this was a mistake as Ashen and Lucas were being awkward around each other. Blushing whenever their hands brushed each other’s. Stumbling over their words when they spoke to each other and doing everything to avoid looking in the other’s direction. The worst part was that they pretended nothing was up and they were being totally normal.

The others could obviously tell that something was up. Ellory had no idea, Falmouth assumed they had eaten something funny and Daemys thought they fucked. Ellory fell back in order to talk with them and conspiratorially whisper about it with the others.

“I really hope they’re okay, I’d hate it if they’d fought, what if Lucas goes away again?” Ellory asked nervously.

“Don’t worry, I just think they might have had some bad food, he won’t run away,” Falmouth assured her.

“I don’t think it was anything to do with food,” Daemys replied.

“Then what?” Falmouth bent down so Daemys could whisper in his ear his theory about what happened, “Oh my!” Falmouth exclaimed when he explained.

“What? What happened?” Ellory asked

“I’ll tell you when you’re older,” Daemys promised causing Ellory to be upset.

They continued with this awkward atmosphere for a while until Ashen noticed something suspicious.

“Did you see that?” He asked, lowering his voice.

“No, what? Lucas replied, doing the same.

“There,” He pointed, “There are people hiding behind those trees.”

All of a sudden, they heard a scream from behind them. They turned around to see a masked person holding Ellory with a knife pressed to her throat. Falmouth and Daemys were also grabbed from behind to stop them trying to save her. Lucas raised his hands, prepared to cast a spell when one of the attackers yelled-

“Stop or I’ll kill the girl,” that made Lucas lower his hands, “Now, we’re going to take this girl and if any of you try to follow or attack us, we will not hesitate to kill her or you.”

“No, you’re not,” Ellory informed him as she kicked behind her and elbowed him as best as she could. The shock caused the attacker to drop her, and she quickly ran over to Lucas and Ashen.

Ellory’s distraction gave Falmouth and Daemys the opportunity to free themselves as well, also joining the others.

“Oh, you’ve done it now!” the one who used to hold Ellory pulled out a sword and began to attack them.

Ashen did the same and ran to attack that one. The other would-be kidnappers prepared to attack, as did Falmouth and Daemys. Meanwhile, Lucas turned to Ellory and told her, “Stay back, and stay safe, don’t get involved.”

“But I can help,” she tried to protest.

“I’m sure you can but this is dangerous, and I don’t want you to get hurt, okay?”

She sighed, “Okay.”

Lucas stepped away from her and entered the fighting. As he fired a spell at one of the attackers, he noticed something odd. His magic used to be a vibrant violet but now, as he fired an eldritch blast, he noted that it was a midnight blue. Additionally, the warmth it used to fill him with was replaced by the coldness of night. But he had no time to wonder about this as he had his friends to protect.

The fight went on for a while, the opposition clearly loosing but refusing to give up. Certainly admirable but still annoying. It was as Lucas had managed to pin one of them to the floor, he noticed one running up behind Ashen sword at the ready to stab him. There was no time to warn him, so Lucas ran and flung himself in front of the sword to save him.

The pain was overwhelming as the blade entered his shoulder and came one again when it was removed. It was by far the most injured any of them had gotten in the battle. The pain became too much, and Lucas sunk to the floor. He heard a cry from above him which he assumed was Ashen, but he wasn’t paying much attention at this point, all his focus was upon applying pressure to his wound although he wasn’t very good at it. It was mostly trying his best to keep his blood inside his body which wasn’t very efficient as it was also pouting out on his back.

His eyelids became heavy, and sleep was feeling more and more inviting. AS he tried to close his eyes he heard someone say, “No, no, stay with me Lucas,” as they shook him, but he didn’t process the words as darkness flooded his vision, and he fell backwards onto the ground.

Chapter Text

The fight didn’t last much longer. When the attackers realised they didn’t have a chance at winning, they bolted off into the depths of the forest, probably to find some other poor travellers they could harass. The group took some breaths to recover before they turned their attention back to Lucas.

His shoulder was bleeding badly, his face was pale, and he had passed out. They all rushed over to him and knelt in a circle around him.

“Lucas? Lucas can you hear me?” Ashen tried but he remained unresponsive, so he turned to the rest of the group, “Are any of you good at healing?”

“I know a little bit, but not a lot,” Falmouth answered looking sorry.

“Before all of this, I had my own potion shop, I could probably whip up some healing draughts if you help get the ingredients,” Daemys replied

Ashen was a little hesitant to trust Daemys after what Lucas told him about the man being a part of the Dawn Chorus, but it was their only option.

“Alright,” Ashen took his bag off his back and handed it over to Daemys, “see if anything you need is in there, you should probably check Lucas’ as well, if not, you and Falmouth should look around through here and see what you can find.”

Daemys nodded and began to search through the bags, Falmouth and Ellory joining him. Ashen meanwhile returned to focusing on Lucas. He needed to do something about that wound in his shoulder or he might bleed out.

“Toss me any medical supplies you find, like bandages and stuff,” he called out to the others. Not much longer after that, they chucked over a roll of bandages, a cloth, some water and a couple other bits and pieces.

Ashen silently apologised to Lucas before unbuttoning and taking off his shirt and waistcoat to clear the area around the wound. Much like a couple days ago, Ashen poured water onto the cloth and began to clean the blood to get rid of any dirt or debris that may have been in there. Finally, he took the bandages and carefully wrapped the wound. Luckily by that point, the bleeding had slowed down so the bandages weren’t completely soaked through. Ashen breathed out a sigh of relief at finally having patched up the wound.

“Got it!” He heard Daemys exclaim. He looked over to see him holding a bottle with a gold-coloured mixture inside, swirling and glittering with the sun making it glow. Daemys hurried over to Lucas and Ashen. Together, they shifted the unconscious man into a sitting position. Daemys raised the bottle to his lips and gently poured the liquid down his throat. It seemed to go down easily enough so the two men once again lowered him to the ground.

“That should hopefully speed up his recovery time and lessen any pain he’ll feel when he wakes up,” Daemys informed him.

“Excellent, thank you,”

Daemys just nodded and made to stand, Ashen following shortly after.

“What are we going to do now?” Ellory asked, she kept nervously glancing over at Lucas as if he were to wake up any second.

“We probably shouldn’t move too far but also far enough that if those guys are coming back they won’t be able to find us,” Ashen suggested and the others agreed.

“What about Lucas, how will we move him?” The young girl asked.

“I could carry him?” Falmouth suggested. Ashen hesitated, knowing that Falmouth could be a little clumsy and reckless, before agreeing. Falmouth walked over to the body on the floor and picked him up with two of his tentacles and carrying him bridal style. The others retrieved their bags and supplies before continuing to walk.

They walked in silence the whole time, all too scared, nervous and/or tired to hold a conversation. Once they had reached a point Ashen declared far enough, they pulled out the stuff they used to make camp. It was a bit early in the day to be setting up camp, but they were all exhausted and deserved to rest.

After camp was set up, Daemys announced, “I’m going for a walk,” and stood up.

“Can I join you?” Ellory asked.

Ashen was about to protest, he didn’t think those two alone would be a good idea when Falmouth asked, “Can I come as well?”

Daemys nodded and they stood up with him. Ashen called out to them, “Just make sure you’re back before sunset,” They all nodded as they headed out into the woods together.

Ashen sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. So much had happened in not a lot of time and it was very overwhelming. He looked to his right and saw Lucas lying next to him, his breaths deep and even, face relaxed. This made a nice change as most of the time when Ashen saw him asleep, he looked troubled and muttered things to himself. Not that Ashen made a habit of watching him sleep or anything, he just happened to notice him looking troubled a few times. A smile came over Ashen’s face at the sight of him.

He reached out a hand and began to gently card his fingers through his hair. It was soft despite them having been travelling in the woods for around five days now. Ashen then began to observe his features, which despite looking youthful, he knew hid an old soul. His smooth, pale skin interrupted by freckles scattered across his nose and cheeks like the stars. His eyes were closed now but when they were open, they reveled the most gorgeous shade of grey Ashen had ever seen. His pink, soft lips which Ashen now knew the taste of curved up in the slightest of smiles. What he wouldn’t give to kiss him again.

It was as he was contemplating this though he heard the smallest voice say, “A-Ashen?” He was startled and quickly withdrew his hand as he saw Lucas’ eyes begin to open.

“Lucas? Lucas you’re awake!” Ashen exclaimed. He tried to push himself up but quickly stopped and let out a yelp of pain when he put pressure on his shoulder.

“Be careful(tm), you got stabbed, remember?”

“St-stabbed?” Lucas asked before clarity washed over his face as he remembered. Ashen helped him sit up and grabbed Lucas’ spare shirt, helping him into it.

As Ashen looked at Lucas, he felt his heart beating faster in his chest and his cheeks heat up. It was now or never.

“Listen, Lucas, we, um, we need to talk about the kiss,”

Chapter Text

We need to talk about the kiss

The words echoed in Lucas’ mind. He cleared his throat, “Ashen, let’s just leave it-”

“No,” He interrupted, voice teeming with urgency, “We have to talk about it now or we never will.”

Lucas sighed, he wasn’t going to leave it alone, “Fine, what did you want to say?”

“W-well, I...” He clearly hadn’t thought about what he was going to say before he suggested talking, “To be perfectly honest with you... I haven’t stopped thinking about it ever since it happened.”

Lucas felt his heart flutter, “R-really?”

He nodded, “Yeah, every time I look at you, I remember how it felt. How you felt. It was so warm and beautiful, and I know I kind of ruined the mood afterwards, but it was still amazing.”

Lucas felt his face heating up, he tried to speak but the words got stuck in his throat.

“And I... I really want to do it again. I never want to stop. Basically, what I’m saying is...” He took a deep breath, “Lucas, I know we can’t really with our current situation but when we’re out of this mess... do you want to go out with me?”

And there it was. Everything Lucas ever wanted to hear. He wanted to cry out scream yes yes yes! over and over again but...

“We can’t,” He looked down to avoid Ashen’s hurt eyes.

“Why not?” Lucas winced at the pain in his voice.

“I... I can’t really explain, it’s too complicated, you wouldn’t understand,”

Ashen held his chin and guided his face to look at him, “Then help me understand.”

Lucas was about to reply when he heard voices and footsteps approaching. He was able to identify it was the rest of their party, “I’ll tell you when they’re gone, okay, it’ll be much harder to explain to all of you.”

Ashen nodded and let his hand fall back to his side as he waited for the others. Ellory was sat atop Falmouth’s shoulders with Daemys walking along beside them laughing at a joke one of them must have told. As they approached, they stopped in their tracks when they saw Lucas was awake.

“Lucas!” Ellory exclaimed. Falmouth gently let her down from his shoulders and she ran over to him and pulled him into a tight hug.

He hissed in pain, “Careful of my shoulder, Sweetheart.”

She pulled back and hugged him lightly on his good side, “Sorry, I’m just really glad to see that you’re okay, I was really worried for you.”

“I’m glad I’m okay too,” he gently half hugged her back.

“I’m happy to see that you’re well, my friend, it’s good to see Ashen’s quick first aid skills and Daemys’ potion worked,” At first, Lucas was confused about Falmouth’s speech until he noticed the water dripping off him. They must have found a pond on their walk.

“You feeling alright, mate?” Daemys asked, looking very genuine but at the same time, nervous as if he was worried Lucas would yell at him again.

“I’m fine, thank you for helping me,” He smiled. Daemys visibly relaxed.

A yawn came from Ellory, “I think I’m going to go to bed, good night,” they all wished her a good night. Daemys and Falmouth followed very shortly after, leaving Lucas and Ashen as the only ones awake as evening rapidly became night.

“Do you reckon their asleep?” Ashen asked.

“Yeah, I think so,” Lucas affirmed.

“So,” Ashen shifted his position slightly to face Lucas more head-on, Lucas mimicked his posture, “Why can’t we be together? What’s so complicated to explain?”

Lucas sighed, “You’re going to have to promise to hear me out. You’re allowed to call me crazy, walk off and abandon me or whatever else, but promise you’ll listen the whole way through.”

“I doubt I’m going to do either of those things, but I promise,” he said sincerely.

“Good,” Lucas took a deep breath and began to try and put everything into words.

“Right now, we are living in an alternate timeline. There used to be a different one but that one no longer exists because... because I accidentally erased it,” He looked at Ashen’s facial expression and saw, not confusion or judgement but genuine interest so Lucas continued, “In that other timeline, we also all met in that dungeon cell however, that time we awoke to the news that the King and Queen had drowned at sea, leaving Ellory as the heir to the throne. We were tasked with keeping her safe but that quickyl got out of hand when we discovered a plot to kill her and take the throne. That plot was made by the Dawn Chorus, the group that Daemys belongs to so that’s why I’m so wary of him. Daemys ended up betraying us and you, Falmouth and I ran away with Ellory to keep her safe. We spent three months together, growing close until we were reunited with Daemys again for a mission. That mission ended with us getting a wish that could alter reality, and I ended up being the one to make the wish. I made,” Lucas screwed up his eyes and took a shaky breath before continuing, “I made three wishes. The second was to remove all of our curses and the third to give us prosperous lives. But the first... the first was supposed to bring Ellory’s parents back to life but I... I messed up the wording and I ended up erasing all the time we spent together and landing us back at square 1 in that dungeon. I’m the only one who remembers any of that time, the only one who knows what happened. And that’s where we are. You know what happened after we woke up in that cell,” He wiped away a tear, “Go ahead, call me crazy, walk off, just get it over with.”

Ashen did not walk away, instead he pull Lucas into a hug, staying mindful of his wound.

“I’m so sorry Lucas. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to keep all that to yourself all this time,”

“You- you believe me?” More tears began to escape.

“Of course I do, what reason would I have to doubt you?” That broke Lucas and he gave up holding in his tears, letting them flow freely into Ashen’s shirt.

They sat like that for ages, Ashen’s comforting hand rubbing up and down his back, Lucas’ sobs echoing through the forest. Eventually, Lucas pulled away and wiped his eyes, looking back up at Ashen, “Thank you.”

Ashen smiled, “Of course. I have one question though, what about that means that I can’t kiss you?”

“Well... during that time we spent together, we did start dating. Well... not proper dating considering the circumstances, but you know what I mean. And the problem is... I’m worried that you’re different... that you’re not the Ashen I fell in love with. Also, that Ashen shared all sorts of things with me, and I shared stuff with him, and it feels... wrong, I guess, knowing all these things about you while you know none of it about me,”

Ashen contemplated this for a moment but eventually replied with, “Even if I’m not the Ashen you fell in love with, I will do my best to become him, maybe even better. And I can’t wait to learn all those things about you.”

Lucas wanted to cry again, how could he be so perfect?

“But what if it happens again, what if I mess up and erase this timeline too?”

“Lucas,” Ashen cupped his face, “I promise you that I will fall in love with you over and over again. I don’t care how, where or when. Not matter where or when we are you’re mine. We’ll still be the same people, even if we’re two rival police officers, two people having an affair, a tailor and a drug addict or so many other infinite possibilities. I will find you and I will love you and that is a threat.”

Lucas surged forwards and captured Ashen’s lips in a kiss. It was full of all the love he could give and more. Ashen kissed back with twice the amount of passion. When they broke, they rested their foreheads against each other and stayed like that for a while, just staring into each other’s eyes.

“Aww, that was sweet,” they both snapped their heads around to the source of the voice.

“Falmouth! How long have you been watching us?”

“Long enough to hear how much you love each other,” He raised two of his tentacles and formed a heart shape with them.

Ashen made to stand to confront him but Lucas stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, “Just leave it, he won’t do any harm. Besides, I’m tired,” He puntuacted this with a yawn.

Ashen yawned just after him, “Okay, let's get some rest.”

They shuffled over to where Ashen’s bed roll lay. The settled down on it together, not bothering to get out Lucas’.

“Goodnight, Ashen,” Lucas whispered.

“Goodnight, Lucas,” Ashen replied.

Chapter Text

Lucas groaned as he woke up. The world was once again bathed in grey scale, and he felt the eyes watching him from all around. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, looking around for the figure he knew wouldn’t take long to appear. Sure enough, directly opposite him was the cloaked presence of ‘Nobody’ and they looked disappointed.

Lucas stood and made his way over to them. He folded his arms across his chest and stared back at them, waiting for them to make the first move.

As he expected, they spoke with a sigh, “Really Lucas?”

He raised an eyebrow, “What?”

“I didn’t expect you to actually go for it,” They gestured to Ashen.

He scoffed, “I thought you were supposed to be ‘omniscient’ or something.”

That was the wrong thing to say. He felt them scowl, sending a sharp, cold pain through his chest. “I don’t appreciate the cheek, Lucas,” they snarled, voice as cold as ice.

“Why does it even matter to you? Am I not allowed to have fun? To do what I want?”

“It matters because you’ve just added a brand-new layer of complication to this already mess of a situation,”

“How so?” He asked with genuine curiosity.

They sighed, “I can’t explain but I’m sure you’ll see in time. Also, I have good news.”

“What is it?”

“The time has come for to begin your part in repaying me,”

A look of hope softened Lucas’ features, “Really?” He couldn’t wait to finally be free of them a live a normal life. He and Ashen could find a nice house together. Ellory could even live with them so they could keep her safe. Falmouth could live in a pond nearby so they could meet up and hang out. Maybe even Daemys could live close, if he worked on himself and tried to improve.

Lucas got so caught up in the fantasy of his dream life that he almost missed what ‘Nobody’ was going to say, “You’re going to head towards a nearby town called Nevele, I’ll provide you with a map. When you get there, what should happen next will be so obvious that you won’t be able to miss it. Understand?”

“Yeah, I understand,”

“Good, I’ll leave you for now, Lucas, unless you have any questions?”

He thought for a moment before asking, “What’s under your hood? What does your face look like? Do you even have one?”

They seemed shocked for a moment before recovering, replacing the confusion with a grin that made Lucas uneasy, “You’ll find out in good time, Lucas, I promise you. Good luck.” And with that, Lucas awoke.

He sat up, placing his head into his hands and sighed heavily. This movement stirred the body beside him and soon Ashen sat up as well.

“You alright, Lucas?” He asked, placing a hand on the other’s back.

Lucas picked his head back up, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Ashen wasn’t convinced, “You can tell me if something’s wrong, you know?”

“I said I’m fine!” he snapped. Ashen was startled and removed his hand.

“Sorry, I’ll leave you alone I guess,” He was about to move away but Lucas stopped him.

“No, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that. I just... I had a bad dream is all,”

Ashen smiled, “It’s okay, I forgive you,” He pulled Lucas into a hug and kissed the crown of his head. Lucas closed his eyes and leaned into the other man, “You really didn’t need to get so defensive, though.”

“Yeah, sorry, I overreacted. I didn’t sleep well because of it and I'm just a bit cranky is all,”

“Do you want to tell me what the dream was about?”

“No, it’s not important,”

“Okay, but I do want us to make an agreement,”

“What is it?”

“We won’t lie to each other anymore, okay? All it does it hurt the other person and ourselves. Can we agree to do that?”

Shit, thought Lucas. He really did want to agree to that, he didn’t like hurting Ashen and did want to be honest with him. But at the same time, he couldn’t agree. How could he tell him that he made a deal with a strange figure who he’s pretty sure is evil and wants him to do who-knows-what without even knowing who they are? He’d think he was an idiot. And worse, he wasn’t sure that ‘Nobody’ would be too happy with him tell Ashen about their deal. Then again... lying isn’t the same as not saying something. He could tell the truth about everything else but just not mention anything about ‘Nobody’. It felt wrong and it most definitely was, but he couldn’t see any other way.

“Yeah, I agree, we’ll be truthful with each other from now on,”

Ashen smiled, “Brilliant,” he kissed him, “I lo- thank you.”

Lucas nodded and smiled back. He stretched and stood, preparing to begin the day. As he did, something fell out of the folds of his clothes. He looked at it curiously and bent to pick it up.

“What’s that?” Ashen asked, standing up to join Lucas in looking at it.

“I’m not sure,” In his hands was a folded-up piece of paper. It was yellowed and worn around the edges as if it were very old. He gently opened it, peeling each layer away from the other with the utmost care, scared it would break if he was too rough. When the whole paper was revealed, it became clear that it was a map.

“Where did you get it?” Ashen asked.

“I’m not sure...” He most certainly knew where (more accurately who) he got it from.

Lucas lifted his hand and brushed the tips of his fingers over the intricate ink detailing. As soon as he did, a small bright light appeared on the paper, glowing in a starburst that began to grow until it engulfed the whole map before shrinking once again. The light became a midnight blue dot with a small arrow sticking out the top of it pointing towards south. Lucas decided to test a theory he had by turning around in a circle. As he predicted, the arrow spun with him.

“That’s brilliant, how did you do that?”

“I really don’t know I’m afraid, honestly,”

Lucas’ eyes remained on the paper, tracing every line, studying it intensely. According to the map, they were in a forest named ‘The Forest of Dean and Mark and Gary and Brian and Martin and Kenneth’. A little further north from where they were was a town called Nevele, the place ‘Nobody’ had mentioned.

“Look, there’s a town not too far from here, do you think we should head there?”

Ashen looked to where he was pointing, “Yeah, sure, let’s wait for the others to get up then we’ll head there.”

“Excellent,” And that was what they did. Guilt gnawed at Lucas as they waited. He felt so incredibly bad for hiding the truth from Ashen, but he knew it was what he had to do. After all, he would be free after this. It was all for the greater good.

Chapter Text

It wasn’t long before they were back on the road once again. Lucas and Ashen led at the front closely followed by Ellory and Daemys and Falmouth taking up the rear. The front three walked in an easy silence, listening to the crunching leaves and the scurrying of animals through the trees. However, the two at the back gossiped in hushed voices.

“I knew it, look,” Daemys pointed to Ashen and Lucas who were holding hands and doing their best to make it look subtle. It wasn’t working, “See, I knew they were fucking.”

Falmouth was confused, “How does that show they’re fucking, they’re just sharing moisture.”

“They’re what?” It was now Daemys’ turn to be confused.

“They’re sharing moisture! It’s very common among my people. We dry out when we’re above sea for too long so if one of us starts to dry out too quickly the other will hold their hand and transfer some of their moisture to the other. We have to make sure we’re wet at all times,” he explained as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“Right, yeah, I get that you lot would do that but as far as I’m aware, neither of them are squids,”

Falmouth contemplated this for a moment, “I suppose you’re right, perhaps they are indeed, as you put it, ‘fucking’.”

They continued to walk for a while, the occasional small conversation starting up before being dropped. It felt nice, calm, waiting for the perfect moment to be disrupted. Ashen felt Lucas squeeze his hand tightly. Confused, he turned to face the other man and saw a look of fear draining his face of its colour.

“What’s wrong?” He asked in a whisper.

Lucas faced him, “I heard something, I don’t think we’re alone.”

The sound of rushing wind flew over their heads, causing them all to duck as an arrow struck into the tree mere inches from where Lucas’ head had been a second ago. They all turned to the source of the arrow, producing their own weapons. From out of the trees stepped a group of cloaked figures all with their own weapons drawn or magic prepared at their fingertips. A small insignia was displayed on the front of their robes which, at this distance, Lucas couldn’t make out, but he did see how Daemys visibly paled when he caught sight of it.

“Lower your weapons and you make it out of here alive,” The cloaked figure who was clearly the leader of the group commanded.

“You lower yours first,” Lucas argued back. He did a mental count of how many of them there were. From what he could see, there were five of them but who knew how many of them were hidden amongst the darker spots of trees.

No one lowered their weapon.

The leader spoke once again, “I will only ask once, lower your weapons and hand over the girl and you all walk out of here alive.”

Ashen subconsciously stepped protectively in front of Ellory. That small movement caused the group to raise their weapons higher and prepare to attack him.

“Well then, I suppose we’re at a stalemate,” Ashen stepped further in front of the girl, “Because we would rather die than give up the girl, understand?”

“Fine then, I guess we’ll kill all of you then,” The leader was about to give the order to attack when one of the others stepped forward. They whispered something in their superior’s ear, causing them to turn their attention to Daemys. He tensed up under their gaze and his breathing grew shaky.

The leader chuckled, “Well, well, well, if it isn’t Daemys! We thought we’d never see you again, traitor.”

The Sweethearts turned to face Daemys, confusion growing on their features, traitor?

“That’s right,” the leader stepped forward, “Daemys here used to be with us until he failed to obey us and ran away. But here he is now and running with a group of criminals protecting the ‘Queen’ of all things!” by now they were standing face to face opposite Daemys, “What happened to you? You had so much promise and potential and you wasted it all. What a shame.”

Lucas could see how tense Daemys was under their stare and almost felt bad for him but quickly shook off that feeling. Now that they were so close, Lucas could now make out the insignia on their cloak. It was a yellow embroidered symbol of the rising sun.

The leader stepped back to join their rest of their crew, “Although, I suppose we could consider letting you join us again. We’d hate to waste a good follower like you because of one mistake,” They held their arms open in a welcoming gesture, “Join us again, Daeyms and all will be forgiven.”

“I- I...” Daemys cast his scared eyes over the Sweethearts. They looked at him with a mix of confusion and hurt, “I don’t know.”

The leader looked annoyed as their arms flopped to their sides, “Oh come on, you can’t seriously consider choosing that pathetic bunch of low lives over your welcoming friends and family.”

“I-I don’t know,” He repeated, his voice was quivering as tears fell over his cheeks.

They sighed, “Daemys, join us or you will never again be accepted into the Dawn Chorus. You will be unworthy of serving our great leader Lethander and never feel his gracious light of day if you do not join us!”

Daemys’ eyes flicked back and forth between the Sweethearts and the Dawn Chorus. He looked so scared and conflicted that they almost felt bad for him. Almost. Lucas shook his head and looked at the ground, knowing exactly who he’d pick, who he’d picked before.

“I’m sorry,” He heard Daemys’ voice break. He braced for the inevitable impact as he felt the rushing of magic. But it never hit. Lucas looked up to see Daemys facing the Dawn Chorus with his arms raised. The group had all been knocked to the floor and were scrambling around on the floor trying to right themselves. Most of them were clutching their eyes and the rest were clearly in a lot of pain.

“Come on!” Daemys urged them and without thinking they followed him, running away from the Dawn Chorus with yells of ‘We’ll get you’ and ‘You can’t run away that easily’ echoing out behind them, growing fainter and fainter the further they ran.

They stopped when they reached far enough that they wouldn’t be followed, all panting and bent over at the unexpected sprint. Once they’d recovered enough breath, they all sat in a circle. Silence fell over the group; hundreds of unanswered questions buzzed around them like a particularly annoying swarm of bees.

Eventually it was Ashen who broke the silence, “What the fuck was that?”

Daemys sighed, “I was really hoping I would never have to explain all this.”

“No time like the present,” Lucas prompted, folding his arms over his chest with an accusatory look.

Daemys took a deep breath, where to begin? “Those people back there, they’re part of a religious group called the Dawn Chorus and they worship Lethander, the God of the Morning Sun,” Lucas felt himself shiver at the mention of them, “I am, well I suppose was part of this group. For ages it was great, I loved it! It felt like I was part of a community, I felt like I belonged. But eventually, they started saying some... things. Some very not good things. When I tried to question them, they tried to guilt trip me like you saw back there by telling me I wasn’t ‘obeying what Lethander wanted’ and that I was ‘a disgrace to the Dawn Chorus’ if I didn’t do what they wanted.”

“What were they saying? What did they want you to do?” Ashen asked.

“They, um, they wanted to take over Litorum and they... they were going to kill the royal family,” Lucas already knew this but still felt the shock at hearing it out loud. He saw Ellory visibly flinch away from Daemys.

“Because they had been questioning my loyalty, they, um, they made me play a part in it,” this was news to Lucas. Daemys lowered his head and avoided eye contact with all of them, “So I was... I was made to climb up the castle to... to try and kill Ellory,” they all turned to face the young girl and saw the look of fear in her eyes, “You couldn’t imagine my relief when I saw she wasn’t in her room. I never wanted to kill you, I promise, and I can’t say how grateful I am that I didn’t. When they found out she was still alive they were so angry at me, they yelled and threatened to kick me out. I was so scared that I... that I ran away. Then I got called to the palace and I was scared they found out what I'd done. But then they gave us this mission, and I couldn’t help but feel the irony, like some God was playing a cruel trick on me, making me protect the girl I tried to kill from my own people! And... you know the rest from there,” He looked up and made eye contact with Ellory, “I’m so sorry. I know words can’t apologise enough for what I tried to do, and I don’t expect you to forgive me. I won’t blame any of you if you want to leave me here.”

Ellory stood up and Daemys expected her to walk away but instead she approached him and hugged him as tight as she could around his massive shoulders, “I understand that you didn’t want to do it. You were forced into it, and I can see that you're really sorry about it even though you didn’t do it. I forgive you.”

Daemys sniffled and hugged the girl back, “Thank you. I can’t apologise or thank you enough.”

Soon, Falmouth got up and joined the hug, wrapping all the tentacles he could around the others. After some hesitation, Ashen join as well, leaving only Lucas behind. He really didn’t want to forgive Daemys but at the same time he could see that the man was genuinely remorseful. He sighed and got up to join them. Maybe being honest was a good thing...

Chapter Text

After taking a short rest to process the news, they quickly set off in the direction of Nevele. As they walked, Lucas kept his head down and focused on the map, trying not to think of what they’d just found out. Obviously, he’d already known about Daemys being a part of the Dawn Chorus and the fact that he’d betrayed them wasn’t a shock. It was the fact that he’d confessed to trying to kill Ellory. More than that, it was the fact that she forgave him so quickly and now they were chatting while Ellory happily skipped along beside him at the back of the group.

Maybe he was being too harsh on Daemys?

He quickly shook that thought from his head. No, he betrayed them in one timeline, it was still possible for him to do it again. What if he decided he made the wrong choice and abandoned them for the Dawn Chorus again? There was no way Lucas was going to let down his guard as he knew that was when everything would go wrong.

Lucas flinched when a hand was placed gently on his shoulder. He looked up to see Ashen giving him a look of concern, “You alright? You seem a bit on edge.”

“I’m fine,” he turned back to look at the map.

“I thought we made a promise to be honest with each other?”

Dammit

Lucas sighed, “I guess I’m just still a bit weary of Daemys, especially after his confession. I’m worried if I let my guard down, I’ll leave us all vulnerable, not just to Daemys but to everyone. We've already been attacked twice and the first time I got stabbed! I can’t risk letting any of us, particularly Ellory, get hurt!” It felt like a weight was lifted from Lucas’ chest as he confessed this. It felt... good. Perhaps confessing more would feel even better...

“I understand that and it’s definately reasonable to feel that way, but you don’t have to have your guard up constantly. First of all, I doubt Daemys will be betraying us anytime soon,” that was what they thought last time, “Secondly, you’re not the only one protecting Ellory, we all are. And lastly, so far of the two attacks we’ve faced we’ve managed to either defeat or escape from them, barring a few injuries, so the odds are pretty clearly in our favour,” Ashen smiled kindly at Lucas, “Does that make you feel any better?”

Lucas returned the smile, “A lot, thank you,” Ashen pulled Lucas into a hug and he let out a contented sigh.

He felt calm, more than he had been since forming the deal. It was now or never, “Um, Ashen, there’s something really important I need to tell you-”

“Guys, look! A town!” They all turned to look where Ellory was pointing. Sure enough, just up ahead was the town of Nevele.

Ashen turned to Lucas and smiled apologetically, “Can it wait?”

Lucas sighed, “Sure.”

The town looked deserted. The only living being they saw as they walked down the empty streets was a black cat hurriedly scampering across the street in front of them. It wasn’t as though it was late at night, it was only just approaching evening, the town should be bustling with activity and yet there was not a single person in sight. All the windows had curtains shut tightly across them, blocking out everything except faint lights and glimpses of shadows. The sight of a town like this, completely shutting itself away, sent a shiver up all the travellers’ spines. The only place which seemed to have any activity was this town’s own branch of the Stumble Inn.

“Should we go in there, have a couple drinks and stay the night?” Ashen suggested. After a general murmur of agreement, they all headed inside the Stumble Inn.

As they pushed open the doors, all eyes snapped towards them, filled with a mixture of fear and shock. All conversations stopped and the music providing a gentle background ambience fell silent. A sense of unease strangled the Sweethearts as they cautiously approached the bar. Eventually, everone returned to what they were doing and the noise resumed though the tension in the air remained thick and noticeable.

“Three Dragon-aged ales, a glass of milky water and the biggest pitcher of water you can provide, please,” Ashen asked the bartender, sliding the money onto the counter. The bartender looked at the coins then the travellers with the same look of suspicion before reluctantly taking the coins and preparing their drinks.

“Welcoming place, isn’t it?” Lucas remarked, scanning the rest of the Inn, watching as eyes would dart to the newcomers before returning to their conversation partner or drink, “What do you think happened to this place for them to be so warm and friendly?”

They were startled by their drinks being slammed on the counter, “Enjoy,” the bartender said without an ounce of warmth, avoiding eye contact and quickly moving away from them to clean an already sparkling glass.

“Excuse me?” Ashen called out to them. They sighed before stepping back over to the group, still looking at the ground, “Do you have any rooms we could stay in for the night?”

“No rooms, sorry,” they replied harshly, trying once again to step away.

“Really? Do you know anywhere else we could stay; it would only be for tonight?”

“I said there’s no room!” they walked away before anyone could get another word in. They all shared a nervous look as they finished their drinks. They left the Inn as soon as possible, feeling the collective sigh of relief from the patrons as the door closed behind them.

“I guess it’s another night in the woods then I’m afraid,” Ashen grimaced. He saw Ellory’s shoulders sag as they walked around to find a small patch to set up camp.

As they were all drifting off, Ashen turned to Lucas (they had placed their bed rolls next to each other's) and asked, “What were you trying to tell me earlier? You know, before we were interrupted?”

“Oh, that, I... I um...” The more Lucas tried to recall what he wanted to say, the more an intense buzzing overtook his brain, making it hard to think, “I’m sorry I don’t remember.”

“Oh well, if you forgot it, it must not have been that important,”

“Yeah... I suppose so...” and with that, Lucas drifted off into a thankfully dream (and visitor) less sleep.

Chapter Text

Lucas found himself in the hazy space between awake and asleep. He sighed contentedly and curled tighter into the warm body beside him. However, this slight change in position caused a small pebble to lodge itself underneath him. He tried to move off it again, but it was no use, so he instead rolled onto his other side to escape his tormentor. As he did this, his head fell onto something unusual, and he heard the sound of rustling paper.

Curiously, he sat up and looked at the spot where his head had just been. Lying on his bedroll was a letter. He picked it up and stared at the handwriting on the front. He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw that it was not the all too familiar handwriting of ‘Nobody’. This also made him infinitely more cautious as now he had no clue who it was from.

He heard movement beside him as Ashen sat up and placed a kiss on the crown of his head with a “Morning, Love,” he peered over Lucas’ shoulder at the paper in his hands, “What’ve you got there?”

“A letter, I found it here just now, I don’t know who it’s from,”

“Then let’s open it and see,”

Lucas shuffled around to face Ashen head on as he opened the letter. He unfolded the parchment inside and read out loud:

“Meet me at the Stumble Inn tonight. Ask for the ‘Special’. The bartender will respond, ‘We don’t do specials.’

You will reply, ‘Really? I was told the soup was to die for.’

At this stage they’ll come back with, ‘Look, I don’t know what you’ve been told but we don’t do soup, and we don’t do specials.’

To this you must say, ‘Minestrone, like the soup.’

In turn they will speak the following words, ‘Yes, I know Minestrone is a type of soup, like I said, we don’t sell soup. For that you’ll need to speak to the Soup Monger.’

Then once you have shifted any suspicion, they’ll direct you to where I wait. I’ll see you before you see me.”

Ashen looked to Lucas with a mix of confusion and amusement while Lucas tried to hide his fear at the memory this letter stirred up.

“Who do you think it’s from?” Ashen asked.

“I-I don’t know,”

Ashen scanned over the letter again before he pointed to the bottom of the page, “Look, it’s signed with an ‘F’. Who do we know whose name begins with an ‘F’.”

Lucas looked at the signature, “It doesn’t look like an ‘F’ to me,”

“Regardless, do you think we should do what it says and go there tonight?”

Lucas wanted to respond by saying they should err on the side of caution and not go. He couldn’t do this again, he would not let this happen again, but his mouth responded with, “Yes, we should definitely go.”

“Are you sure, what if it’s someone who wants to hurt Ellory, or worse?”

“We’ve been able to hold our own before and protect her. Besides, what if it’s someone trying to help us and we miss this opportunity?”, he couldn’t stop the words tumbling from his mouth, spouting completely the opposite of his thoughts.

Ashen sighed, “I guess so.”

When the others awoke, Lucas and Ashen told them of their plan to go to the Stumble Inn that night. They seemed hesitant but after seeing Lucas’ firm, unwavering expression, they agreed. When they had concluded it was pointless to head into the town before their meeting (especially after their warm welcome the previous night), they decided to just stay at their camp. They chatted, laughed and shared stories, all stories which Lucas had heard before but was happy to listen and laugh to a thousand times over. Eventually, the sun began to set, and they decided it was time to go to the Stumble Inn.

The bar wasn’t as crowded as it had been the night before and they saw a different bartender making drinks which put them slightly more at ease. As they walked through the bar, they still caught a few odd looks but not nearly as much as the previous night.

When they reached the bar tender, Ashen leant on the counter and asked, “Do you have the Special?”

A startled look flashed across their eyes, and they hurriedly sorted through things under the bar. They soon found what they were looking for and replied to Ashen while very obviously glancing down at a sheet of paper, “We don’t do specials.”

Ashen quickly looked over his own paper for the next response, “Really? I was told the soup was to die for.”

The ‘conversation’ continued following the script they had both been given and after a brief interaction with a confused Italian man, the bartender led them through the back and into a corridor lined with doors. They showed the group to room 11 before leaving and heading back to the bar. Daemys shuddered as Ashen knocked on the door.

They heard the sound of the latch unlocking and with an echoing creak, the door slowly swung open. Inside the room was a crackling fire and a cloaked figure sat at a small round table and Lucas felt his breath hitch. Despite knowing who was beneath it, it still made his hands feel clammy as much as he tried to push the thoughts of ‘Nobody’ out of his mind. They all shuffled into the room and approached the table.

“I see you received my letter,” The person at the table said.

“Who are you?” Ashen asked, getting straight to the point.

They reached up and pulled back their hood, revealing the familiar face of Windsmoth.

Falmouth gasped, “It’s you!” then he leaned over and whispered in Daemys’ ear, “Who is it?”

Daemys whispered back, “It’s the bird mage from the castle.”

“Thank you for trusting me, I know these are hard times of trust for everyone,” Windsmoth gestured to the other seats at the table and the group sat down, “Hello my Queen, it’s good to see you again.”

Ellory nodded and smiled, Windsmoth had always been nice to her, and she liked him.

“What do you mean, ‘hard times of trust for everyone’?”

“Oh, that’s right, you wouldn’t have heard,” Windsmoth sighed, “In the absence of a monarch I’m afraid to say that the religious group known as the Dawn Chorus had taken over Litorum and therefore also the other towns under its rule, including this one.” Daemys visibly shrunk in his seat.

“Was that why the people here were so cold to us?” Lucas asked.

“I should think so, yes,” Windsmoth replied, “Most people haven’t been very receptive to their new leaders, so most people have become wary of strangers, not knowing whether or not any new person they come across is a member of the Chorus.”

“There must be some way to get them out of power, right?” Ashen asked as Ellory leant against his side for comfort.

“That is precisely why I called you here to talk to you. There is a way to change this, to change history. Although, it requires a highly advanced and dangerous magical item. It’s called the Necklace of the Dragon’s Tooth, and it has the ability to grant any wish. It can be found in-”

Lucas felt his heart begin to rapidly pound in his chest, static blocking out any other noise and his breathing becoming shallow. He couldn’t do it again, he couldn’t! What if he messed up again? What if he loses everyone again? HE CAN’T DO IT!

Lucas stumbled to his feet and ran out of the room as fast as he could, feeling the eyes of his companions watching him. He burst back into the bar and ran straight out of the door. After that, he couldn’t get much further and sank to the floor, curling into a ball, leaning his back against the wall of the Inn. He felt tears begin to burn his eyes and buried his head in his knees, letting the tears fall and soak into the fabric.

It wasn’t long before he felt the touch of a familiar hand on his shoulder and a voice broke through the static, “Lucas, are you alright? What happened?”

Lucas lifted his head slightly to see Ashen standing over him; face filled with concern. It took a few tries, but he eventually managed to squeeze out, “I can’t do it again.”

Ashen sat next to him, “Can’t do what again?”

“This. This is what made me lose you all last time, that stupid wish!”

Ashen pulled him into a hug, “I promise you; it won’t go like it did last time. We can learn from our mistakes and do it right. It will go well, and it’ll all be fine. Trust me?”

Lucas sniffled before replying, “Yeah, okay.”

Ashen helped him stand and they went back into the Inn to hear the rest of Windsmoth’s plan, praying it would be better than last time.

Chapter Text

They stood before the imposing structure known as Ottermore Temple, staring at it in awe. It was an impressive building, one certainly worthy of being the place of worship for a God. None of them were more amazed at the sight than Daemys who was tearing up at the sight.

“You alright mate?” Ashen asked, gently elbowing him.

“Yeah, yeah it’s just-” He sniffed and wiped his eyes, “I’ve always dreamed of seeing this place. I know the Dawn Chorus are bad people but... despite them I still feel connected to this religion and Lethander, you know? It’s kind of stupid...”

“It’s not stupid at all,” Lucas comforted him.

Daemys smiled, “Thanks.”

They walked closer to the building and walked up the steps coming face to face with a large wall. There didn’t seem to be a door, only a small indent in the rock, the perfect size for a pebble...

Lucas already knew what needed to happen, “Daemys, maybe you should-”

“Stand back,” Daemys interrupted. They followed his instructions and gave him space. Daemys closed his eyes and used his magic to lift one of the small rocks from the ground and slotted it into the hole. It fit in perfectly. The ground around them started to shake as the wall split in two revealing the entrance to the temple. Lucas exhaled, no turning back now, and they stepped through.

“i just want to let you all know,” Daemys stopped them all before they could enter, “When people go on here, they never come out the same.”

Well that’s definitely true Lucas thought to himself. He kept trying to push away the dark parts of his mind which told him everything that could go wrong but it just wouldn’t leave him alone.

After travelling through a long stretch of corridor, the first place they came across was the large gap splitting their path in half, a ruined bridge dangling on the other side. They used various techniques of flying and ropes to make it to the other side, all of them landing safely and breathing a sigh of relief as their feet touched the sturdy rock. Then it was back to walking through the temple.

The next room they came to was the one with pictured tiles on the floor and the story of Lethander and Shar written on the wall. Lucas shuddered upon seeing them. He turned and saw Daemys’ eyes light up when reading. He saw how much all this meant to him, even if most of the people following this religion were bad, perhaps not all of them were.

They made it through the room with relative ease. None of them stepped on the wrong tiles with Lucas’ guidance, although Daemys did also nearly get crushed, but Falmouth’s wall of water saved him. As they continued through the temple, Lucas felt an itching within him, like bird desperate to hatch from its shell. He did his best to push it down, but it kept rising back up, making him feel restless as he marched on in front of his friends. He knew they were questioning his weird behaviour, what else was new, but he ignored them and hurried on.

When they got to the circular platform and were about to make their way up the shaft, Lucas warned them about the Gelatinous Cube.

“How do you know?” Daemys asked.

“I- uh I-,” He scrambled for an answer, “I can hear it.”

They all when silent, trying to listen out for the cube. None of them heard it.

“Am I missing something?” Falmouth asked.

“Lucas just has, um, really good hearing because of his, you know, elf ears...” Ashen tried to help. Daemys and Falmouth shrugged, and they sighed with relief. Ashen gave Lucas a wink that made him blush. Ellory, however, narrowed her eyes in suspicion. She was a half elf just like him and yet she couldn’t hear anything. She decided to let it slide for now and just wait and see what happens.

Just as Lucas had said, a Gelatinous Cube attacked them but being prepared gave them an advantage. Thankfully they managed to kill it, unfortunately killing the person trapped inside as well but no matter. After tending to their wounds, they continued to travel up the shaft and out the top.

They stared up in wonder at the sun so close to them. Daemys was close to tears as he felt himself grow more and more connected to his God.

“Isn’t it incredible Lucas, I mean, I know you’ve seen it before but... Lucas?” Ashen looked to his side but Lucas wasn’t there. He looked around and saw him walking away from the group, closer to the shimmering platform, “Lucas? What are you doing?” He didn’t acknowledge him.

Lucas took his bag off his back and pulled out the intricately carved box, opened it and took out his feathers. He placed one on the ground, walked eleven paces and placed another. He continued this until ten feathers had been placed in a circle. He stood in the centre, holding the final one, about to place it in the centre.

Ashen hurried over to him, “Lucas, what’s going on?” He tried to grab Lucas’ shoulder, but he shook him off. Lucas wasn’t in control of his own body but Ashen didn’t realise this and just continued to try and reach him, “Please, just look at me Lucas! What’s going on? Why are you doing this?”

Lucas finally turned to face him. Ashen smiled and tried to speak when Lucas put his hands on Ashen’s shoulders and pushed him out of the circle. Ahen was too stunned to speak as he stumbled. The others had made their way over to them at this point and caught Ashen before he fell.

They all watched as Lucas placed the final feather in the centre of the circle. The ground beneath them began to shake. Deep cracks appeared in the ground, spreading out from the feather circle, glowing a dark blue. Rushing wind picked up swirling around Lucas who remained in the middle of the circle, eyes unfocused. Soon the wind was too heavy, and the blue light was too strong for them to see Lucas.

Eventually, two massive wings emerged from the swirling wind, black as midnight and glittering in the sunlight. A faint shadow could be seen, growing darker and darker. The wind began to die down revealing Lucas who had now sunk to his knees, chin tucked against his neck and a second figure they hadn’t seen before. They seemed to be a mix between human and bird. Their body was that of a tall human but most of their body was covered in feathers. Their only exposed skin was their hands and face which was curled in a smirk.

“Oh my God,” Daemys’ voice was shaky, eyes widening upon seeing the figure, “That’s fucking Shar!”

Shar, the evil Goddess of night they had seen depicted in the carvings earlier in the temple, now spoke, “That’s right, wonderful to finally meet you.”

“What have you done to Lucas?” Ashen yelled, staring in horror at the shaking, hunched up am on the floor.

The Goddess chuckled, “You should be asking what he did to himself.”
She looked at their stunned faces and sighed, “Well, I suppose since Lucas will be unavailable for a while I’ll explain.”

She cleared her throat and began, “For all of you who are unaware, this has happened before. You’ve all been travelling together protecting the princess then ended up here to make the wish blah blah blah. Only last time, Lucas messed up and erased that whole timeline, landing you all back in the prison cell you began in with only him rememboring everything that happened. I saw all this and decided to offer him a deal. I’d help him get back those months he lost if he’d pay me back and he agreed,” She chuckled and shook her head, “Idiot.”

“So, I held up my end of the deal, I set you all off on another adventure to help you all bond again. But he was unhappy, he thought I tricked him even though I gave him exactly what I told him I would. Anyway, you all had your adventure, blah blah blah, and now here you are.”

It took Ashen a moment to recover from the shock of hearing that, had Lucas been keeping this from him the whole time? but once he had he asked, “But, what do he have to do in return?”

“Oh, nothing much, just help me return to power and establish my world of darkness,”

“No,” Daemys breathed out and the others turned their attention to him, “There- there was a prophecy about Shar’s return to power. I- I didn’t properly pay attention, I should’ve.”

“Yes, you really should have,” Shar smiled, “Oh well, too late now.”

“It’s not too late, we’ll stop you!” Falmouth declared, tentacles waving above his head in anger.

“Yeah, we’ll help Lucas, we always will, he’s, our friend!” Ellory’s face was filled with determination.

“I’m sure he is but I meant what I said, it’s too late,” She began to grow in size towering over the Sweethearts, “I hope you don’t mind a little darkness, or well, I hope you do,” Talons exploded from her fingertips. She raised her arm to the sky and clawed at it, slicing it in half. From the tear she had formed, darkness seeped out, poisoning the sky and leaking over the sun, enveloping the sun’s once comforting light in inky blackness. The last thing they saw before their world was completely dark was Shar’s sneering face grinning at them. Then all was gone.