In the quiet moments of the carriage ride, Alix thought of home and the ones he had left behind. Like Leon, the only scenario he could believe was that he had somehow had an accident and fallen into a coma. Unfortunately that meant that they both thought the other one was a hallucination.

  When he thought of his home, his shitty job, his crappy friends and his indifferent girlfriend, he realised that he didn’t care. Had anyone even noticed that he was gone? His parents were probably the only ones that would care, but even then it would probably take them a week to become concerned.

  The calendar on his phone told him that it was only the next day, but he wasn’t sure how much he could trust that. He hoped everything would make sense once they reached their destination, although he had never heard of a place called Galdea before and he was unable to get any word out of the coachman when he had tried to ask what country it was in. The fact that he had zero signal told him that it had to be the middle of nowhere. The alternative made his brain hurt to think about.

  Alix and Leon spoke for a while, establishing that they were indeed from the same country, but other than that they had absolutely nothing in common and their lives couldn’t have been more opposite. Alix didn’t know if he entirely believed Leon’s story about his lottery win but it made no difference if they couldn’t get home.

  When every conversation circled round to topics that just spiralled into panicked conspiracy theory, they decided it was best to wait out the rest of the journey in silence until they arrived at wherever it was that the carriage was taking them.

  They passed through no more villages, but they passed other travellers as the road grew wider, and changed from compact dirt to a smooth paved surface. Men and women rode horses or walked the road, and other carriages passed them by with hidden occupants. Their carriage picked up its pace as the road improved, speeding them onwards to their destination, which the coachman seemed to be in a disparate rush to reach.

  Everything he saw, and everything he had seen, was screaming one irrefutably fact at him, but it was one he was unwilling to admit to himself yet. Alix was an avid reader and what he was seeing was exactly how he had imagined every fantasy world to feel.

  Definitely a hallucination then. Never knew my imagination was this good.

  The road eventually met with a large river and continued on along its banks, until they reached a plaza in front of a large bridge. The bridge spanned the river in large gentle arch to a city beyond that looked plucked straight out of fantasy. There wasn’t much to see due to the high wall that rose along the other side of the riverbank, stretching both ways until it curved out of sight, but above it rose impossible spires.

  “What’s the rush, coachman?” Alix heard a voice say as the carriage jerked to a stop in front of the bridge. He looked out the window and saw that the bridge was guarded by a group of soldiers, dressed and armed similarly to the pair they had met before, but whereas the cave guards had looked more ceremonial, these men looked like they were ready for a fight at any moment. Everyone looking to cross to the city beyond, which had to be Galdea, queued in front of the guards while their goods were inspected.

  “Do you not recognise the royal emblem, soldier?” the coachman asked, pointing towards the elaborate seal inlaid with gold into the side of the carriage. “I need to speak with your commanding officer, I require an escort to the castle.”

  The soldier took a quick look at the carriage, finally recognising something that Alix didn’t understand. His eyes locked with Alix’s as he stared out the window and he went as pale as Osian had. He quickly ran off to a stone structure on the outskirts of the plaza, some sort of barracks, and returned a few moments later with another soldier.

  The commanding officer wore the same red leather armour but he sported a golden cuirass, and a white plume adorned his helmet, making for an imposing sight as he strode across the plaza, everyone moving out of his way.

  “I apologise coachman, I received the raven from the Temple, but I was dealing with a few unauthorised personnel that were trying to enter the city,” the commanding officer said, pointing over to a group that sat in a corner of the plaza surrounded by guards. Each one of them had their hand on their sword, ready to draw if the group made a fuss. The group were dressed in rags and didn’t look like they could give the soldiers any trouble. “Bloody Ringless always giving us trouble. I didn’t have time to let the men on duty know of your arrival. Follow me, I will escort you personally.” Before turning away, the officer glanced towards the carriage window where Alix was listening to the exchange. Instead of blanching like the others had, he stared at Alix with an intensity that caused him to retreat into the carriages shadows.

  The commanding officer strode off, shouting orders to his men. In short order, a barded horse was brought forward for the officer and he was joined by half a dozen other horsemen. He jumped up into the saddle with ease, as if his cuirass and sword weighed nothing. He took up position in front of the carriage while the others spread out around them. The soldiers on the bridge parted and they made their way across into the city of Galdea.

  Alix only got a feel for the city’s size after they were escorted for what felt like an hour along its winding streets. The waves of traffic made way for them at the constant calling from the mounted officer. The crowd did a double take as they caught sight of the strange flag that adorned their carriage. Alix had no idea of its meaning but it seemed to speed them on their way.

  They rushed past the fantastically quaint houses, tall multi-storeyed wooden constructions with whitewashed walls that obscured the streets beyond, apart from the castle he began to see glimpses of as they drew closer to the city’s centre. He wished he could get out and roam the streets of this strange new place, but he doubted the carriage would stop at his command. If he tried to bail out, he was likely to smash his head on the cobbles or become trampled by the heavy horses.

  The streets lead higher and higher, until the vast expanse of the city was laid out below them. The feeling that they were rising higher had been with him for a while and now he realised why. The city was built in rings, one above the other, each one getting smaller and fancier as they rose higher.

  The spires he had seen from the now distant plaza were part of an elaborate building that looked like a cathedral. What looked like stained glass windows glinted in the sun but they were too far away to see what the design was. It was several rings below their final destination, which was a grand castle at the city’s peak.

  The castle walls bristled with cannons peeking over the parapet, while more soldiers patrolled the walls. These ones, and the ones that guarded the castle gates, wore black robes adorned with the same emblem on the side of their carriage. They were briefly stopped once they arrived at the gates, the guards there speaking briefly with their escort, but after a few words the gates were hurriedly opened.

  They crossed a narrow bridge beyond that crossed over to an exposed courtyard, above which rose another battery bristling with guns. A path curved around to the right and their escort led them ever higher. The castle was extremely well defended, muzzles pointing in their direction at every turn. They passed barracks and guard towers, then a building that looked like it had a religious purpose, before the road looped around and over the first battery they had seen from below, before finally reaching the pinnacle of their climb.

  The secluded courtyard of the royal palace was surrounded on all sides by grand halls, and filled with more black robed, red armoured soldiers that rushed to surround them as the carriage came to a stop.

  “Looks like we are finally here,” Leon said, as the officer that had escorted them jumped from his horse and walked over to their door.

  Alix had no reply, he only hoped they would finally get some answers, although he couldn’t think of anything at this point that would make any sense.

  The coachman also jumped from his seat, but he chose to get as far away from the carriage as he could, disappearing behind the ranks of soldiers, as if terrified of what was about to be unleashed.

  “I am still not sure that this isn’t a dream, but I have never had a dream that felt this real before. I keep expecting someone to jump out with a camera and tell us that it is a joke,” Leon said, staring in awe at the magnificent castle before them. It rose in spires and towers, all adorned with flags that displayed an ornate looking tree.

  “This is way too much to be a joke. If these were fake sets it would have cost a fortune. More than a fortune. I’d believe it all to be some sort of drug hallucination, but I feel completely sober. Let’s just get on with it and see what they have to tell us. They are obviously leading us somewhere, or to someone.”

  The officer opened the door and motioned for them to step out, bowing respectfully and stepping out of their way. The other soldiers lined up in front of the door, creating a corridor that led to the castle doors. It felt awfully like they were being treated like dangerous prisoners, or royalty. It was hard to tell. Everywhere Alix looked, eyes were averted.

  Alix stepped out of the carriage first, stretching out the stiffness in his legs after the long journey. The officer took a step towards the castle, and as he did the ranked soldiers took a step in behind them, closing their way, forcing them to keep moving forwards. Alix was glad for the exercise, but he didn’t appreciate being herded like an animal. It wasn’t until he was moving again that he realised how hungry he was. He couldn’t remember the last time he had eaten.

  There was an air of anticipation as they stepped through the castle doors, which only grew as the hallway opened onto the throne room. The galleries were filled with noble looking men and women, dressed in gowns and rich suits, and the long hall was lined by guards ten deep on either side. Alix and Leon were marched up its centre to an elaborate raised dais at its head. There were a handful of people standing there, as well as a few seated, but the hall was so long it took until they were a few steps in front of them before he could get a good look at them all.

  A pair of thrones stood high above those standing in the hall, with a regal couple sitting in them, one a sage looking man, powerfully built, with short black hair and a wild black beard. A golden crown sat on his head. Beside him sat an equally powerful looking woman, dressed in what looked like a cross between a grand dress and full plate armour burnished a deep red. The man was more modestly armoured in a similar plate of red under his red cloak that flowed over his golden throne.

  On the step below there was a smaller throne which sat a young girl. She was dressed in a tight-fitting red dress that matched the colour of the regal pair above. The only ornamentation she wore was a bejewelled tiara. She might have looked beautiful, if her features weren’t so sharp.

  As well as the seated few, a handful of heavily armoured soldiers stood to the sides of each throne. Only one of them had a bare face, and he stared expressionlessly at Alix and Leon as they approached. The largest sword Alix had ever seen hung strapped to his back.

  The last on the dais was a man robed in white, leaning on a white staff, capped with an elaborate gold construct, two golden dragons wrapped around a large faceted crystal.

  It was quite the welcome party, although Alix still had no idea what was going on. He noticed there was a distinct lack of food. Everyone around them seemed to be too scared to speak. The commanding officer that had escorted them from outside the city bowed to the pair on the thrones, before stepping to the side to join the rest of the stationed guards. Eventually the man on the throne broke the awkward silence.

  “Welcome, my lords. I apologise that there is not a greater welcome, but your arrival wasn’t expected and we had little time to prepare once we received word,” he said in a deep voice. The bass echoed around the hall. Alix and Leon exchanged confused looks before the man continued. “I am King Azuran.”

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  King?! Alix wanted to scream at the room, demand to know what was going on, but at a glare from the intimidating guards he kept silent. As if reading his mind, King Azuran continued.

  “I am sure you have a lot of questions, but first I must let Cardinal Alecto speak. There is an order that these things must take.” He sunk back in his seat and motioned to the white robed man to step forward.

  Cardinal Alecto hobbled forward with his staff until he was a few paces away from Alix and Leon. Alix took an involuntary step back at the intensity of his gaze. He raked them with his intense blue eyes, which stared out of a lined and leathered face, then raised the staff with both hands and began to chant. A circle of intricate burning lines appeared in the air before him, and then two similar circles appeared beneath the feet of Alix and Leon. A bright light burst from them, rising up to engulf the pair.

  “What the fuck is this!” Alix and Leon yelled almost in perfect unison. It felt like a strong wind was blowing beneath their feet. They both made to step out of the large circled that had engulfed their feet but after a few short moments the wind and the light subsided.

  Alix took a few more panicked steps back, but at the sound of drawn steel he quickly jumped back to Leon’s side. Leon was busy inspecting the new clothes he found himself wearing. Alix looked down and saw that his own clothes had somehow changed. He was now wearing a clean fitted dark shirt under a black robe. Beside him, Leon had been similarly transformed, but he wore a white suit that matched his blonde hair. He was almost blindingly bright.

  He felt an unfamiliar weight on his right hand. A black ring in the shape of a dragon had appeared on his finger. He saw Leon catch sight of the silver ring on his own finger.

  “What is the meaning of this?” Leon said, fixing the Cardinal with an acid glare. “I thought you just wanted to talk but instead you play some trick on us instead. Why did you bring us hear?”

  “The Solknight and the Darknight have been chosen,” the Cardinal proclaimed, ignoring Leon’s indignation. Alix had no idea what that meant but an excited whisper spread throughout the crowd.

  “What-“ Alix began to say.

  “Silence!” the king roared, cutting him off.

  “How dare you speak in the presence of my father, you filthy beast,” the young girl sitting below the king hissed with venom.

  Alix felt naked under the hateful glare of all the eyes on him and a deep chill washed over him. This wasn’t fun anymore. He couldn’t spot a sympathetic pair in the crowd. Most avoided his gaze, and the rest threw pure loathing at him. When had every soldier in the room drawn their weapons? A hundred blades were suddenly pointed in his direction.

  A pair of attendants stepped forward and bowed before Leon. “We will bring you to your residence,” they said in near unison. Leon was dragged away in a daze, and Alix was left to confront the guards that drew swords on him.

  “You have five years, Darknight. Do with that time what you will, but do not return here. Get him out of here,” King Azuran demanded of the officer that had brought him in.

  As Alix turned to face the king again, flashes of white appeared in the air around him. When he focussed on them they came into focus as text. He focussed on the line above the king’s head. It read King Azuran XIII. Alix thought he was seeing things, then he noticed similar text above the woman beside him. Queen Theodora. Then there was Princess Prisca. More flashes of text coalesced around him in a confusing blur of random words.

  SoldierSoldierLvDukeSoldierKnightLvLv.

  The swords began to usher him out of the hall before he could study them further.

  “Hey, what the hell is going on here! Leon, help me!” he exclaimed when a pair of guards grabbed him by the arms.

  “I-” Leon began to say but the king rudely cut him off.

  “Please my Lord, you don’t need to concern yourself with this filth any longer,” Azuran boomed over him.

  What is this, Tales of Shittingonalix?

  Not very kingly behaviour, Alix thought to himself as the guards continued to drag him down the hall, all eyes watching him with obvious disgust. What the hell had he done wrong? Leon just shrugged as if he didn’t want to get in the middle of anything. Why would he anyway? He thought Alix was just an illusion. The crowd stared at Leon with open adoration, while they threw nothing but scorn in Alix’s direction, likely fuelling Leon’s conviction that everything around them was part of his own hallucination.

  Alix was glad to leave at everyone’s sudden change. His warm welcome had turned frosty, and he quickly found himself back outside the castle doors. He tried to shake off the rough gauntleted hands but they refused to let go until he was thrown into the back of a cart. The plush carriage had been replaced by a rough looking cart of splintered wood banded in battered rusty metal. He was forced to take a seat in the back and then the cart took off at a brisk pace, bouncing wildly over the hard cobbles, before he got a chance to jump out again. They were swiftly given passage through the city but this time all eyes turned away from him. They passed too quickly for any of the names hanging over their heads to be readable, although he could see the flashes of text were still there.

  Only two names appeared readable, the two soldiers that drove the horses. Durgun and Bolo. The title Imperial Soldier appeared above their name, followed by Lv. 22 and Lv. 24 respectively.

  “Can you please tell me what’s going on here?” Alix tried pleading with the soldiers that drove the cart, but they refused his cries, sneering at his desperate desire for answers. They were both low level Imperial Guards, but he had no intention of fighting them. They both wielded swords at their sides, while he was unarmoured. He could jump out and run, but where would he go anyway? The complete lack of any forthcoming information gave him a pounding headache.

  Alix checked the pockets of his new garb as they rushed down the rings of the city, but he found nothing new apart from the ring. His phone was still there which was at least some comfort, but he had yet to get a signal and from the look of the place he doubted he would ever get one again. He left Galdea more confused and frustrated than he had ever been in his entire life. The fury he had felt after learning of Mac’s betrayal paled in comparison to the mix of emotions he was feeling now. Culture shock, motion sickness, hunger, rage, indignation.

  Where did you come from? Alix thought to himself as he played with the ring on his finger, a distraction from the painfully uncomfortable ride. He wasn’t used to such an accessory and couldn’t help but mess with it. He kept his eyes on the curious ring until they passed back over the bridge.

  The cart drove him back into the countryside, but this time Alix was brought further into the mountains, taking an easterly route where before they had travelled south. He was worried at first, his immediate thought that he was about to be executed for some crime he didn’t know he had committed, but the guards kept their swords sheathed.

  Clouds drew in until they covered the sky and towered dark and angry overhead. Heavy rain began to fall, washing all the warmth out of the land. The picturesque landscapes vanished as the cart drove him into the mountains. It was hard to make out anything in the downpour but the road looked like it hadn’t been travelled in a long time.

  Hours passed. They passed barren heaths, gnarled trees, and overgrown scree slopes as they passed higher into the mountains. Once he thought he could make out stone houses hidden in the trees, but they looked thoroughly abandoned, no life shining through their gaping windows. They sped past without slowing down. At least he wasn’t going to be abandoned in such a place, although he would have fallen asleep anywhere at that point. The hunger was gnawing at his insides and the day’s events had left him feeling dazed and exhausted.

  Again he tried asking his escort where they were taking him when there was no end to the rough road in sight, but they remained silent, mumbling only to themselves. He tried to quieten the voice in his head that told him he was being taken out to the mountains to be disposed of. The king had told him he had five years though, but he had no idea what that meant. Five years for what?

  The horses powered on through the building storm. The sun set as they climbed. The one called Durgun unshuttered a lantern to light their way. The cart rolled higher and higher, until they eventually came to a stop. Just as they did a crack of lightning lit the sky, illuminating a sprawling ruin. Alix only caught a quick glance of it before the lighting faded, but the sight was burned into his eyes. The lightning showed broken towers and crumbling walls of a monstrous castle beyond a crumbling gate, perched precariously on the edge of a cliff high up the mountain.

  “This is where you get off,” Bolo turned and said to Alix, finally speaking to him for the first time. When he didn’t make a move, he drew his sword. It was pouring down and miserable, but Alix reluctantly jumped down from the cart into the soggy darkness. He landed in a puddle that instantly soaked his new shoes straight through.

  “Good luck, Darkshite!” Durgun jeered as they drove off, leaving him alone in the downpour, taking the only source of light with them.

  Alix watched the light float away in the darkness, until the wind began to cut too deep. He tried to wrap his robed around him but they were soaked through and didn’t help to keep out the elements. He turned to gate. The moon gave off enough light for him to make his way through the broken gates, half falling off their hinges, and down the overgrown path, lined by a thick impenetrable wilderness he had no desire to wade through in the dark, to the closed doors beyond, which at least looked like they were in good condition. Maybe there would be somewhere to shelter inside after all. The ruins didn’t look inviting, but he would take anything that would shield him from the storm.

  The place looked thoroughly abandoned so he didn’t think twice about opening the front door. The door opened easily at his touch despite its weathered appearance, but the squealing of the hinges echoed through the empty rooms beyond. He slipped inside and quickly pushed the door shut, mercifully cutting off the biting wind.

  The room he found himself in was dark, which meant that at least part of the ruins were solid enough to keep out the light of the moon. The wind howled around the place, but it was nothing compared to the brutal gale outside, and there was no rain either. It was still cold, and the place smelled of dank rot, but he felt relief that he at least wasn’t going to die from exposure.

  That was until he saw some text floating in the darkness, alerting him to another presence in the dark before his eyes could adjust.

  Skeleton, Lv. 49. The text appeared small at first but quickly grew closer, accompanied by spine chilling scraping noise. It contrasted sharply with the text he suddenly spotted in the top left of his vision. Alix, Lv. 1.

  It took all his restraint not to scream and curl up into a ball of fear on the floor. The rattling grew closer but he wasn’t about to wait around to get a look at its source. He had caught sight of a staircase to his right in the brief flash of moonlight that shone through the door before it screeched closed behind him, so he ran for the stairs and hoped he wouldn’t trip over anything in the dark.

  “Heee…ooooooo,” a voiced moaned behind him as he ran, the sound chilling him to the bone worse than the wind and rain already had.

  Alix looked around for a weapon as he climbed, his eyes slowly adjusting to the dark, but he couldn’t find anything. He stopped on the upper landing and made a quick decision, turning down a random hallway. The roof had caved in in several places, dripping water from somewhere far above. A beam of light shone down through a hole and illuminated the hallway. He dashed down the path, quickly checking the open rooms he passed, but all had windows smashed in, caved in roofs, or pools of water for a floor.

  Alix came to another door, this one shut. He couldn’t hear anyone following him, but his only instinct was to find somewhere to hide. He tried not to think about what was waiting for him below as he hurriedly opened the door.

  Alix scrambled through and felt around for a lock, hands trembling from a combination of cold and fear. He breathed a sigh of relief when his hands found a bolt. It resisted at first, stuck solid with age, his frigid fingers refusing to work properly, but he finally managed to wriggle the bolt free with a strength born from fear. He slid it shut and stumbled back into the room.

  His heart raced as he stared into the darkness. Slowly his eyes accustomed to the dark and he saw that he was alone in the room. The door seemed to be solid enough, and the room at least had a roof and four solid walls.

  After what felt like an age of waiting in silence, and with no attempts from anything beyond the door to try and open it, he quietly inspected the room. Apart from a few pieces of ancient furniture, there was nothing but a bed in the corner, which he collapsed onto. Its sheets were musty, old, and threadbare, but he didn’t care. He kicked off his soaking shoes and then lay there listening.

  Whatever had been with him in the dark down below either didn’t care about his presence or hadn’t manged to find him, but he was too tired and cold to care. If anything tried to break down the door he would hear it anyway, although he didn’t know what good that would do him. He would still be trapped in this room.

  Lightning struck wildly and a fierce wind howled through every crack in the walls. Alix tried his best to wrap the rotten blanket around himself but it didn’t do much good. It was threadbare, motheaten and smelled strongly of mildew. The mattress, if it could be called that, was little more than a large coarse sack stuffed with old dusty straw, but in the crumbling ruin it was better than nothing.

  The wooden frame of the small bed was grandly carved in a way that belied the dilapidated surroundings. He tried to keep still, to avoid alerting anyone, or anything, to his presence, but his bed continued to betray him. It creaked terribly with every shivering movement, threatening to snap into kindling at any moment, and the straps holding up the mattress groaned.

  The night ahead was looking long and miserable, if he even managed to survive it. If he did, he was sure the next day would be even worse, but he didn’t want to think of what might be waiting for him on the other side of the door.

  What a monumentally shit day.

  After what felt like an age of shivering in the miserable bed, the howling of the storm seemed to fade, his senses diminishing until there was nothing left of him.

  This is it, Alix thought to himself, I’m not going to make it.

  He thought about getting out of his damp clothes and trying to start a fire with the debris scattered around the room, the remains of chairs and tables, but it was wishful thinking. He had nothing to start a fire with and the scraps of wood looked like they were more likely to turn to dust. More than that, he suddenly found that he could no longer move, the exhaustion forcing his body to sleep while his mind remained too terrified to lower its guard.

  Shadows moved in the darkness around him, sleep paralysis demons chasing him into oblivion, but with them came a new sensation. It felt like the wet clothes melted from his body and a new inviting warmth slowly came over him.

  Alix succumbed to the embracing warmth as thunder rumbled in the distance, sure he would never wake again.