Chapter Text
Jane didn’t know where she was. Everything was dark and her cheeks were beginning to hurt from the chafe of the thick, rough blindfold tied tightly around her head. It was hot. There was a constant sweat at the back of her neck, and the moisture trapped beneath the heavy fabric covering her eyes only made the raw sting on her skin all the more sharp. Settled over her was a dizziness she could not shake, not with the consistent swaying of the carriage she was being transported in. Whatever road she was on, it was too rugged and winding for her to maintain any sense of direction. Heavy shackles weighed laboriously on her wrists, and the occasional shove from men whose voices she distantly recognised instructed her when to eat and drink.
She’d given up resisting after two days. What she assumed was two days, at least. She’d no way to accurately keep count. But when they had come for her in the night, she had gone kicking. Fighting. Screaming. Her recollection of the moment came in flashes — the crack of her door being flung open, the shift in the moonlight spilling onto the floor as figures swiftly crossed the room towards her, the press of a knee to her back as her arms were bound, the metallic bite of the draught that assailed her nostrils and made her mind go foggy.
The glimpse of a note placed on her bedside table, perfectly mimicking her handwriting, that read that she was headed off on an adventure and there was no need to worry about her absence.
Now, as she shifted her weight against the hard wood at her back, her limbs ached, her body was tired, and she knew if she tried to speak her voice would be broken and hoarse. How long had it now been since she had been taken? Nearly a week?
Despite the blindfold, she squeezed her eyes shut tighter. And she prayed. Prayed to whatever god that was listening that her brother had found the one thing she’d managed to leave behind amidst the violent frenzy as she was dragged from her bedroom. For the last thing she saw before it all went dark, the last memory that flashed in her mind as she recollected that evening, was the sight of her bracelet hitting the floor.
Will the Wise stood rigidly in the oriel window of the turret overlooking the glade. The first colours of dawn had cracked through the witching sky and leaked across the horizon, and on any other day, he might have made for his easel to try and capture the magnificence of the breaking morning. But today he leaned forward, exhaling a fragile breath as the palms of his hands pressed into solid stone, seeking any kind of stability the wall in front of him could offer.
It had been seven days since he had discovered that El was missing.
She hadn’t come down for breakfast — a meal she never skipped. Will had waited for her at the long, empty dining table, had waited as the food grew cold and fruit flies began to drift toward the apples he’d sliced and delicately arranged on her plate.
At first, he hadn’t given it much thought. She’d been having trouble lately, Will knew. There were several kids their age in the nearby village (though after all they’d been through, it was hard for Will to consider himself and his sister kids anymore) that tormented her, that called her names, that did everything in their power to make her feel unwelcome. She’d never directly suggested anything as much to Will, but in the last nine months he’d come to learn to read her well. Except in this case, he couldn’t quite tell if she was putting on a brave face for him, or if it was herself that she was trying to convince about it all being fine. That morning, as he sat restlessly at the breakfast table, Will assumed that El had just needed some time alone. Or maybe she’d already gone into the village by herself — she tended to prefer to do so lately. Will often presumed that when she did, it was so she could avoid having him see the wretched beasts making fun of her.
So he’d waited until the onset of noon before he’d given into concern and made his way up to her chambers. His heart had plummeted to his stomach when he’d ascended the top of the stairwell and seen her kicked-in door down the end of the hall. By the time he had pieced the scene together, he knew he was far too late.
His gaze was now fixed on the field below the castle, cast in an inky blue haze as the morning fog began to lift. Clouds even darker than the deep lapis sky loomed on the horizon, occasionally flickering with the flash of lightning. It felt like an omen. But the approaching storm was not his concern, not when his attention was instead honed on the treeline that marked the boundary of the meadow. They would be arriving any moment now.
Sure enough, the silhouettes of two horses broke through the edge of the forest. A quick glance to one of the riders and the red hair that trailed behind her immediately made Max’s arrival clear, and he knew that it would be Lucas that rode at her side. Slightly to the east of them, another rider closed in. Dustin.
Will turned from the window and made for the steps behind him, going as fast as he could without risking a stumble and a fall down the turnpike stair. By the time he made it to the bottom, his breathing quick and short, his friends had reached the open gate of the castle’s weathered courtyard.
“We came as fast as we could,” Lucas said without greeting as he hurriedly dismounted his steed. His face looked damp, though Will could not tell if it was from mist or sweat. The climate was much hotter in this part of the land.
“Thank you,” Will said breathlessly in reply as he diverted his gaze to Dustin, who also approached with an un-maskable sense of urgency.
Will had been so wrapped in terror over the last few days that he hadn’t given any thought as to what it’d be like to see his friends again after so much time. He only now realised just how much he missed them, and just how little he knew what to say.
Mercifully, Max spoke before he had to search for the words. “It’s good to see you, Will,” she said with a quick nod. “Maybe not the greatest of circumstances, but—”
“Good to see you,” Dustin agreed with a nod of his own.
Will exhaled. There was no point in beating around the bush. “El—”
“Your message said she was missing,” Lucas interrupted, his concern evident in his hardened expression.
Will nodded as he pulled a piece of parchment from his pocket. He’d sent them a single message via rock dove as soon as he'd become aware that something was amiss. It didn’t surprise him how instinctual it was to immediately call to his party for help. It also didn’t surprise him how they had responded without a moment’s hesitation. He didn’t know who of them would turn up, but the reassurance that at least someone would come to his aid warmed him. He was glad to see the three of them here, though he couldn’t help but glance upwards to the tree line, silently anticipating the arrival of one more.
Will looked towards Lucas once again. “She left a note but… But I don’t think she wrote it. Or maybe she did write it, but she was lying about where she was going.”
Max outstretched her hand, silently beckoning Will to give her the paper. He passed it to her, and she began to study the words intently, Lucas peering at them over her shoulder. Will already had it memorised.
I’ve decided to search for the cliffs in the north, the ones from our stories. It will be an adventure for me. I will be back soon.
“Don’t you think it’s weird,” Will asked Max.
It was Lucas who replied. “Sure, maybe, but is it possible she just—”
“Just what?”
“Just really left for an adventure?”
Will shook his head. “No. I mean, I’ve had the whole last week to think about it. She wouldn’t leave so abruptly. Not without saying anything.”
“It looks like her handwriting,” Max chimed in, though there was an ounce of scepticism detectable in her voice.
Dustin stepped forward. “Will, we came a long way—”
“Trust me,” Will insisted. “Something is wrong. Please just trust me.”
What he did not tell his friends was that since she had been gone, he had started to feel it again — the cold beneath his skin, the prickle at the back of his neck, the writhing of something malevolent somewhere deep inside of him. Since he and El had moved away from Halken, the kingdom that had once been his home, he hadn’t had any encounter with it at all. Not a single whisper of the things that still to this day caused him to wake from nightmare after nightmare. The haunting had been tiresome, but it had only been that — a haunting. A ghost of what once was, a ghost that couldn’t hurt him anymore. But in the last week, it had started to feel real again. He couldn’t accept that it was merely coincidence.
He examined the faces of his friends, who had travelled so far in response to his distressed call. That alone meant the world to him.
“Okay,” Dustin said softly. “Okay.” The other two also quietly gestured for Will to continue.
The cleric cleared his throat. “I mean, It would be out of character for her to leave without saying anything anyway, but…” He took a breath to steady himself. “...I found this. On the floor beside her bed,” he added as he fished the woven blue bracelet from his pocket. Palpable fear settled in the air between them as everyone’s eyes fell on the small, delicate piece of jewelry. Will swallowed. “And—”
“-And she would never take it off.” Dustin finished, his features suddenly grave, his voice made hollow and distant by fear. “Not this.” He glanced at the bracelet in Will’s outstretched palm.
Everyone seemed to purse their lips in a solemn acknowledgement of what the bracelet meant to their friend. The memory of the father, the hero, that had given it to her. The still-fresh wound of his death. She never took this bracelet off. Will knew as soon as he’d seen it that his sister was in trouble.
“Okay, so what do we do,” Max asked steely. Not a question of cluelessness, but eagerness to begin the search for their friend.
Will noted that Max didn’t question who might’ve taken El. As if the answer to that question was obvious. Panic swelled in his chest at the gnawing of the possibility he hadn’t wanted to even entertain the idea of. “You— you don’t think…” Will’s voice trailed off.
“That the Evil Wizard took her?” It was Dustin who answered. He looked at the ground. “I thought about it on the way here, after you’d said that she was missing. If she was going to disappear, it would make sense if that was why.”
“Yeah, I mean, who else would it be,” Lucas added.
Will closed his eyes. Of course it made sense. The very reason that he and his now-sister had departed their kingdom was to get away from the life that had brought the two of them so much turmoil. To have a fresh start. And though neither of them had spoken about it, Will knew that they also fled in fear of the Bad Men coming for El again. That even if the Wizard, the Bad Man who had started all of this years ago was dead like they assumed, the other men working for him would seek out the mage to turn her into their weapon once more. Staying in Halken was too much of a risk. And so they had come here. A remote castle nestled in a peaceful glade, far from their home, far from their friends, far from all that they knew.
After discovering that she was missing, part of Will hoped that it was just the horrid kids in the village who were responsible. That it was some mean-spirited trick that they were taking too far, but at the end of the day, just a trick. He’d hate them for it, but he knew that it would be a much better fate for El than the alternative his friends were alluding to.
Will’s attention flitted between Max, Lucas, and Dustin. All three of them looked like they hadn’t had much sleep, and knowing how long the journey was from Halken to here, he figured that it was most likely the case. Never mind the fact that worry for their missing friend would also be keeping them from rest.
A rumble of thunder echoed through the crumbling, overgrown courtyard as the dark clouds began to roll in from the distance, caressing the tops of the pines at the edge of the glade.
Will shivered. “Come on,” he said as he turned toward the stable, half falling apart from disuse, that sat isolated in the corner of the courtyard. His friends followed silently, each leading their horses by the reins. Even the mounts seemed to scent the tension in the air, the clop of their hooves on the weathered stone slow and wary. Once the horses were tied up and sure to be sheltered from the oncoming storm, he ushered his friends into the hall of the castle. They stepped inside through large wooden doors that took considerable effort to heave open.
“It’s… cosy,” Max remarked as she took in the space.
It’s true that the castle was on the smaller side. But Will and El hadn’t needed anything grand, not when it was just the two of them. Besides, this one had long since been abandoned when they came across it on their journey to find a new home. With little gold between them, a free castle — albeit a small one — was hardly something to complain about. The hall they stood in now was tight, even for the biggest room, and the space felt even more condensed having been occupied by ramshackle bookshelves, desks strewn with papers and maps, and walls decorated floor-to-ceiling with Will’s paintings. But it felt like home, or as close to home as it possibly could, and that was what mattered.
Will rushed ahead to clear an array of clutter from the only two chairs that the castle housed — the rest having long since been used for firewood — and managed to find a rogue cushion to place on the floor as a makeshift seat. He gestured for the party to sit while he worked on lighting the fire, subconsciously leaning in toward the heat of the gentle blaze once the logs on the grate had taken aflame.
The crack of thunder rang out, louder this time, reverberating through the dense walls. A soft pattering of rain outside quickly escalated to a heavy downpour, water hammering the windowpanes in relentless, pelting sleets. It was unusual to witness such weather here, in a place that predominantly saw clear blue skies. Will edged towards the fire some more.
After a few beats of anxious silence Dustin stood and crossed the room to the table that housed the maps Will had spent the last few months gradually updating. He scanned the various papers until his eyes settled, satisfied, on the largest of the maps. Dustin picked it up and blew on it as if he was expecting it to be covered in dust, though Will knew there wouldn’t be any. He took pride in his work, even if the way he left it displayed suggested the opposite. He’d be lying if he said that it wasn’t intentional — that feigned carelessness. It made him feel a little more normal to pretend that things mattered to him less than they really did.
“This place is a mess,” Dustin quipped as he walked back toward the group.
Will crossed his arms and levelled a look at him, though some knot in his chest began to unravel with the light-hearted ease of Dustin’s teasing.
“Okay. What we know is that El is missing. There was a note explaining her absence, and she left her bracelet behind.” Dustin said, looking to Will to confirm that those were all the details they had to work with.
“That’s right.”
“And she didn’t say anything to you about any plans to leave for some big adventure,” Lucas reaffirmed.
Will nodded again.
“Passing bandits wouldn’t bother with forging a note. They wouldn’t even bother kidnapping her,” Max said matter-of-factly. “There’s a very small list of people who knew about her powers. No one would kidnap her unless they knew how valuable she could be.”
“Exactly. Thieves would've robbed this castle of whatever you had, and either left on their merry way or killed you both,” Dustin added. “If they were on the hunt for anyone with active powers, there was a cleric asleep in another room that they could’ve gone for instead.” He looked up at Will. “Whoever it was came for El specifically. And there’s only one person who would have a motive to do that.”
“And the note mentions cliffs from a story she knew. If someone forged the note, it would have to be someone who knew her well enough to know to add that detail,” Max added as she once again examined the piece of paper in her hands.
Will shivered in the face of the undeniable truth. Of course, it was the same suggestion they had assumed to be true when they’d discussed the matter outside in the courtyard, but worry was transforming into ghastly reality as they eliminated the other possibilities. He didn’t know if it was better or worse, knowing who most likely had her. They had a starting point, but knew the nature of what those people would do to her. Will knew that El being in their hands was far, far from the best-case scenario.
He couldn’t bring himself to look at any of them as he spoke. “Does that mean you think that the Wizard is… what? Alive?”
“Maybe not him, but there was a whole team of sick freaks experimenting on El in that lab,” Dustin replied. “It could be any of them.”
Max looked pale. Lucas fidgeted with a dagger he’d pulled from his belt.
“It’s safe to assume we know who took El. We just need to figure out where they took her,” Dustin said as he unrolled the map on the floor in the space between where they each sat.
“And what they plan to do with her,” Max said as she studied the map, chewing her bottom lip.
Lucas shuffled closer to her. “The safe guess is to try to get her powers back.”
Will watched as the three of them launched into a discussion of each theory and possibility they could think of, the worsening storm outside a backdrop to their urgent chatter. With how dark the sky outside remained, it was hard to gauge how much time was passing.
Will hated how blindsided he felt. But how could he have seen any of this coming? Here, his and El’s days had consisted of exploring the towering forests that lined the valley, gathering various flowers and berries and leaves and clays that Will would use to make his paints. They’d run, and laugh, and play make believe. It had been a big change, uprooting all that they knew and relocating, but it was here they had found the first glimmer of a chance at being kids again.
Because that was also something that neither of them spoke about. Though, it wasn’t something they avoided talking about. They just didn’t need to address it with words. They each knew that their childhoods had been taken from them, they were far too aware of that tragedy they each shared. Will’s heart ached to think of El now, back in the hands of the very people who had stolen that youth from her.
Will took a deep breath. “We find her. Whatever it takes. And we need to stop the Bad Men before they can do whatever it is they plan to use her powers for.” Panic gripped him, making his voice quiver ever so slightly.
She wasn’t just gone, she was going to be hurt again. Used again. Manipulated again. He couldn’t let that happen.
They all stared into the fire as if it would give them an answer.
They’d spent hours poring over the map, and still had not come up with any conclusion as to El’s potential whereabouts. Night had blanketed the world outside the windows, the storm still wild and showing no signs of relenting.
Lucas dragged tired hands across his face as he stared down at the map. “What about the swamps of Kuzatan?”
“Not likely. Not with the fight from the dark force they’d be up against once they got there,” Dustin replied, not hiding the exasperation that crept into his tone.
The first option they’d considered was that they’d taken her back to Halken. Where it all began. The lab was already there, with its many bizarre gadgets and potions all meticulously organised and ready to pick up where the experiments had left off. But that had seemed too obvious. And besides, the lab had long since been shut down. Ivy now consumed every crevice, smothering every tile and wrought iron window grille. From what Will had heard, the lab had been reclaimed by the forest that surrounded it and it’d be easier for the Bad Men to start again somewhere new, and somewhere where they didn’t have a watchful eye over them, either. No matter what had been started there, and no matter what remained, they wouldn’t take her back to that lab.
So the party had consulted their maps in search of their answer, to no avail.
“Maybe the cliffs in the north are a clue.” It was Max who spoke this time. “Maybe if El was the one who wrote that note, she was trying to give us a lead.”
“I’m not sure if she would’ve had the time to write out a note mid capture,” Lucas responded. “Will said it looked like she’d been taken in a struggle. I think we stick to assuming the Wizard’s lackeys wrote it to throw us off.”
Will’s concentration was also honed in on the map. There were too many possible places, and not enough clues to rule any of them out.
Dustin’s fingers rapped against the arm of his chair in a rhythmic pattern. “El might have known something, though.” He sat up straight, his demeanor reinvigorated by a theory that had clearly started churning away in his head.
Will’s attention snapped to Dustin. Lucas and Max’s did the same.
“She’s spent a lot of time with those people,” Dustin continued. “She’d know the kinds of places they’d need to be in order to conduct their work. She’d know the sorts of magic sources they’d draw from to power whatever it was they were doing.”
Will leaned forward, his elbows balanced on his knees. “Go on...”
“Will, do you think there’s any way that El might have suspected that the Wizard would one day come for her again? Did she ever tell you anything? Give you any hints as to whether she thought she’d one day end up somewhere… specific?”
The answer was, disappointingly, no. If she did suspect anything, she certainly hadn’t spoken to Will about it. And sure, he’d had more than his fair share of traumatic experiences all to do with that lab, but none close enough that he’d ever come to learn what kind of magic sustained it or the kind of lands where that magic would come from.
“She doesn’t speak to me much these days.” Will slouched, disheartened by how quickly the hopes of securing a lead had fizzled out. “She spends more time writing to Mike than she does talking to me.” He tried not to roll his eyes.
Will suddenly sat upright again. “Oh my god.”
Mike.
The letters.
Will clearly had the thought settle over him before anyone else, because he stood up so fast that it raised startled looks from the rest of the party. He didn’t have time to explain. He raced from the room, ignoring the burning in his lungs as he bound up the stairs two at a time. He ran into El’s room, the sound of footsteps and laboured breaths trailing in behind him.
“What is it,” Dustin asked between gulps for air.
Will ignored him. He scanned the room then made for El’s desk, pulling out the drawers so frantically that some came all the way out and clattered to the floor. He’d have to apologise to his sister for the invasion of her privacy later.
“What is it, Will,” Lucas pressed.
“Mike. She hasn’t stopped writing to Mike since we got here.” He yanked open another drawer and hastily picked up a wad of papers. He began rifling through them.
“So?” Lucas folded his arms.
“So, if she was going to say anything about where she might be going, she might’ve said it to him.”
“Why Mike? Why write the clue in a letter to him and not just tell you?”
Will saw the exact moment the idea clicked in Max’s mind. “Think about it. Mike hasn’t shut up about planning a journey with El. Maybe—”
“-Maybe she planned a journey to somewhere where she knew they might take her. Exactly,” Will finished for her. “So that he’d be familiar with the area. Or be able to piece things together if and when she went missing. It’s a long shot, but at the very least, we could find a clue.”
“It doesn’t make sense that she’d willingly take him to some place where she knew she’d be in danger, though. Or, again, why she wouldn’t just tell you,” Lucas reiterated.
Will glanced down at the floor. It was a good point. He looked up again. “She’s been so distant with me lately, and I thought— I thought it was just because of some stupid town bullies. But what if… What if she had been suspecting what was coming and was trying to shield me from all of it?”
“It makes sense. And Mike practically jumps at any opportunity to be the hero.” Max scoffed and rolled her eyes. “She’d have to know that he’d be the best person to rope into the mix.”
“And she’s his girlfriend,” Dustin added pointedly, like it was the obvious fact they were all forgetting.
Will tried not to flinch.
“And as for why she might want to go there…” Will suppressed a shiver as the thought slowly occurred to him. “What if… what if she wanted to get her powers back? What if she wanted to go with the Wizard’s men, but left clues for Mike or whoever else so we could find her? So they wouldn’t be able to keep her there forever? So we could go and save her?”
“You’re right,” Lucas replied. “...Right that it’s a long shot.”
“Lucas—” Max interjected.
“Why would she want to get her powers back? Sure, they were cool and everything, but we don’t— she doesn’t— need them anymore.”
“It’s a start, at least. Unless you have a better suggestion?” Max shot Lucas an expectant look. When he didn’t reply, she looked at Will. “You and I can read through the letters. I don’t like going through her stuff like this, but I’m sure she’d be okay with the two of us seeing whatever drivel Mike writes to her.”
“Hey,” Dustin and Lucas protested simultaneously, though Will could tell they hadn’t taken any real offense. What Max had implied was true, after all. The bonds that Max and Will each had with El were closer than the ones she shared with the other two. Anything Mike wrote to her, she’d probably have eventually shared with Max or Will in casual conversation anyway.
But despite that reassurance, Will’s stomach knotted when he thought about having to read the letters. He didn’t want to read about the sorts of things that Mike would say to El. He couldn’t quite place why, and maybe part of him didn’t want to know why.
He sighed as he divided the stack of papers in half and extended some towards Max. “Okay—”
He was interrupted by a sudden sound. Downstairs, there was a sharp whistle of gusting wind and the rain becoming louder for a quick, precipitous moment, followed by the deep thud of the heavy doors booming shut.
The group of them glanced between one another and, without a beat of hesitation, all stood and rushed for the stairs, nearly tripping over each other in their frantic scramble. Will hadn’t even realised that he’d let go of the letters until they floated to the floor around his feet in a passing blur. No one seemed to notice. They were all thinking the same thing, hoping for the same thing. That El was home, and all of this was just a false alarm.
Will made it to the stairwell first. He practically flew down the spiralling steps, one hand dragging along the smooth wooden railing in case he should lose his footing.
It was all a false alarm. He couldn’t even bring himself to feel bad for making his friends come all the way here for nothing, not with the relief that was beginning to course through him.
He reached the bottom of the stairs and didn’t slow his pace as he made for the great hall. He flew into the room and skidded to a stop in the space where the party had been gathered before, chest rising and falling desperately.
But it wasn’t El in the doorway. Will froze.
Because there was a third reason Will had needed to leave the kingdom of Halken nine months ago. The third reason, the one that he could tell no one about. Not even his sister. And it was all to do with the boy standing in front of him now, hair dishevelled, wet clothes dripping onto the stone floor, that look, that look, on his face.
“Mike,” Will breathed so quietly it might have been a prayer for only him to hear, the name sacred and delicate on his lips.
Will’s stomach suddenly wrenched. Mike, who still wrote to El but not Will. Mike, who had once always been glued to Will’s side. Mike, who Will needed so much that he hated himself for it. Mike, the paladin who would get to know love in the way that the cleric never could all the while Will sat back and watched in torturous silence miserably pondering the perpetual question of why not me, why not me, why not me?
“Where is she?” Mike's voice was stern. Cold. Worried. His eyes were locked with Will’s, something unreadable splayed across his expression.
Two hundred and seventy-seven days. Two hundred and seventy-seven days since Will had seen him. Two hundred and seventy-seven days since he had heard that voice. Two hundred and seventy-seven days of denying to himself that he’d really been keeping count.
“I— I…” Will felt like he was free falling. “You’re here,” was all he could manage to say, his words trailing off, carried away by the disbelief that overwhelmed his every sense.
“Where is she,” Mike repeated.
His tone was sharp enough to shock Will back into his body.
The rest of the party reached the bottom of the stairs. They flooded past Will towards where Mike stood in the doorway, though Mike’s gaze continued to stay on Will a few seconds more before his attention drifted to the approaching party members.
“You’re here,” Max said as she reached him. It was the same thing Will had said, but they sounded like entirely different words when they were spoken from her lips. From Max they came almost with an air of impatience, as though she had been expecting him all this time.
It was in that moment that Will realised that he shouldn't feel so caught off guard by Mike’s arrival. Of course he shouldn’t have. Why would Mike not be here to join the search for El? Especially if she had given him clues that could help them find her. Maybe, just like not wanting to confront the possibility of El being captured by the Evil Wizard or his men, Will also had willfully avoided even considering the very real possibility that he’d have to see Mike. Speak to Mike. Acknowledge the feelings he had for Mike that he tried with all his willpower to keep buried. Maybe, as much as he had hoped Mike the Brave would show up with the party this morning, part of him had been relieved when he hadn’t. Maybe part of him had accepted the absence and melted into the bizarre, comfortable consolation of it.
It shouldn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter at all. Will cursed himself for worrying about such things when his sister was missing. In danger. Alone. But he couldn’t help it, just like he’d never once been able to help it.
He looked at Mike, and a new kind of disquietude plunged deep to his core.