Faye stumbled into Ran as soon as she left the room, but he barely noticed. Instead, he stood in place, mouth agape. Faye followed his gaze to find Jyri sitting on an old barrel, chatting with Lavina and Kirsten with a grin on his face. The way he leaned toward Lavina made her wonder if he ever, truly got over her. Faye looked at Ran, whose expression hadn't changed. "That's Lavina and Kirsten," Faye said. "We met them on our journey."
"I know them," Ran said, and Faye followed him towards them. Once in front of them, Ran cleared his throat. Jyri looked up, face flushed. His mouth opened, and-
"RANNY!" Lavina shouted, causing half the room to stare. Without warning, she leaped to her feet, and gave him a hug big enough to almost knock him down.
Ran happily returned it. "What are you doing here? You should be safe in Dorendi."
"And you should be safe back home!" Lavina hugged him again.
Jyri raised an eyebrow at the two. "You've met before?"
"When I ran away, I ended up settling down at her village," Ran said. "I left shortly after she did." He looked at Lavina. "Your groom-to-be wasn't happy when he found out you ran away. He suspected I was behind it."
Lavina's face fell. "I'm sorry, I didn't think of that. Were you okay?"
Ran nodded. "I was able to get away before he could do any real damage. I've been wandering all over since. Somehow managed to end up back in Vustaria without realizing it, but other than that..."
Lavina beamed, and looked at Jyri, who stood next to the two with a slight frown on his face. "How do you know Ran?"
Jyri gave her a half-smile, and rested an arm on Ran's shoulder. "He's my baby brother. And I never thought I'd see the day where my little Rannikins would get himself a girlfriend." He spoke as though talking to a baby. "It's adorable."
Red-faced, Ran shoved him away. "Ignore him," he said to Lavina, who appeared equally embarrassed. Kirsten's eyes darted between Ran and Jyri, a wide grin on her face. She turned to Lavina. "Lucky you. I wish I had two gorgeous brothers fighting over me."
Both Jyri and Ran stared at the ground, flushed.
Gorgeous? Faye winced and changed the subject. "What's the food situation?
Corvin appeared. "You missed dinner, but there might be something leftover." He glanced towards a large rectangular table off to the side of the room, where a lone woman sat. "You could ask Nephele over there if she has anything."
Nephele had a bowl in front of her, which she took a bite from. Jyri's face began to pale. "She's not human, is she?"
"Nope. She's a nymph. Beautiful, isn't she?" Corvin stroked his chin, a smile growing on his face. "I wouldn't mind her seducing me."
Faye felt an urge to gag, and turned to bond with Jyri over it. But Jyri was gone. "Where'd Jyri go?"
"He ran out when Corvin said 'nymph,'" Lavina said. "It looked like he was headed towards the bathroom."
Faye frowned, then shrugged as she walked up to the nymph. She cleared her throat, and Nephele looked up at her. Or, at her eye-level, anyway. "Is there any more food left?"
"There's potatoes, but they're cold." The nymph pushed an almost-empty bowl of mashed potatoes towards Faye.
Faye didn't care that it had already been eaten out of. She grabbed the spoon, and ate straight out from the bowl. Nephele laughed. "Hungry?"
"Mm-ph." Faye swallowed. "I haven't eaten in over a day. My friend and I were caught."
Nephele nodded. "I remember you were here last week. You should've stayed."
"We were in a hurry." Faye took another bite.
"Where to?"
"Wizard's Point."
"Really? I used to go there all the time when I was a child." She leaned forward. "I remember, there was this cave I used to explore."
Faye nearly choked on her food. "What!"
"And one day, I found this door, with strange writing on it. I couldn't open it."
"Seriously? A door?"
"Yeah. I thought it was amazing myself. I tried offering it my blood, but nothing happened."
Faye tapped her finger on the table. "Jyri needs to hear this."
"Jyri?"
"My friend." Faye shoved another spoonful of potatoes in her mouth, then hurried to the bathroom, and bumped into Jyri in the hall.
Before he could respond, Faye grabbed his arm, and dragged him in the direction of the table. Jyri stopped, yanking his arm out of her grasp. "What in the demons-"
"You need to talk to Nephele."
"The nymph?" Jyri's eyes widened. "No!"
"You'll want to."
"I don't want to be in the same room as that-"
"She knows about the portal at Wizard's Point."
"What?"
Faye grabbed his clammy hand. "Come on." But she didn't need to pull any longer, for Nephele got up from the table, and walked over to them. Jyri took a step back.
"You must be Jyri," she said, holding out her hand. "I'm Nephele."
Jyri stared at her hand, but didn't shake it.
She dropped it. "Your friend seemed interested in a door I found in a cave in Wizard's Point."
"That's nice," Jyri mumbled.
Faye elbowed his side. "Isn't there anything you want to know about this door?"
"I-" Jyri's eyes darted towards the bedroom. "I want to go to bed."
"Don't you want to eat something first?" Nephele asked, but Jyri was gone before he could hear the question. She turned to Faye. "What's his problem?"
Faye bit her lip, guilt overcoming her. She knew Jyri didn't like nymphs, but hadn't realized it was a phobia. Surely he hadn't thought all nymphs were like the one he came upon in Amolo.
"Is he going to be okay?" Nephele asked.
"Probably." Though Faye wasn't sure. She sat back down, and polished off the rest of the potatoes. After her last bite, she remembered Jyri hadn't eaten a thing. He had to be as hungry as she, if not more. But knowing him, he probably didn't like potatoes anyway. Not knowing what else he liked, she asked, "Is there any bread around?"
"In the cupboard." Nephele gestured towards a cabinet against the wall.
Faye walked into the bedroom. Eight beds were lined up against both walls. Jyri was the only one in the room. He laid on his stomach on one of the farther beds, face buried in a pillow. Faye walked over to him, and sat on the edge of his bed. "I brought you some bread."
Jyri grunted into his pillow.
"It's sourdough."
He mumbled something Faye couldn't hear.
"What?"
Jyri lifted his head, and glared at her with red-rimmed eyes. "Go away."
"Nephele is willing to help us. Just because you had a bad experience with a nymph doesn't mean all of them-"
"A bad experience? A bad experience?" Jyri let out a forced laugh. "I've had more than one bad experience."
Faye felt a pang in her chest. "Jyri..."
"I'm not talking about it! I've had to revisit enough horrible memories tonight. I don't need three more."
"Three?"
"Please leave."
"Not until you eat." Faye shoved the bread into his hand. Jyri stared at it morosely.
Just then, Ran appeared. "Jyri? Are you okay?"
"Kind of," Jyri said, rubbing at his eye as Ran sat down next to him. "It's hard being around one of them. Too many bad memories." He seemed to have realized he was holding a piece of bread, and took a bite out of it.
Lavina and Kirsten walked into the room, Corvin trailing behind them. The two girls sat on the bed next to Jyri's. Jyri sat up and smiled, as though nothing was wrong. Corvin flopped onto the bed next to the one the girls sat on.
"Are you still trying to find parallel universes?" Lavina asked. "We were talking to someone who might know how to get to one."
"It wasn't the nymph, was it?" Jyri asked.
"It was."
Jyri ran his hands over his face, but didn't say anything.
Lavina frowned at him. "She said in Wizard's Point, there's a secret door she can't open. She suspects there's probably some weird, magical ritual needed to open it."
"That's usually the case," Jyri said. "There's just a matter of getting into Dorendi."
"You can't go through the tunnel?" Lavina asked.
Jyri tilted his head. "What?"
"The underground tunnel," Kirsten said. "It connects Dorendi to Vustaria."
"There's an underground tunnel?" Faye asked.
"That's how we got through," Lavina said.
Jyri's mouth fell. "Where is it?"
"Not too far. It's out that way." Lavina pointed behind herself. "We can take you there tomorrow."
"That's... that's great." Jyri turned to Faye. "We can at least get you safely out of here."
"What about you?" Faye asked.
"I'll search Wizard's Point on the Dorendi side."
"We know Dorendi," Kirsten said. "We can help you navigate."
"Can we talk about this in the morning? I'm trying to sleep," Corvin complained.
The room had begun to fill with people chattering on beds, some already settling down for the night. Jyri's eyes swept the room, possibly searching for Nephele. Faye yawned, wondering where she'd sleep. It looked like most beings had to share beds. Faye looked to Jyri, and figured there were worse people to share a bed with.
Jyri fiddled with his shirt, eyes focused on the door. But no one else walked in.
"She's probably uncomfortable sleeping among men," Faye whispered to him.
Jyri scoffed. "That'll be her dream come true."
"She's not like that. If you'd hold a conversation with her-"
Vartan walked by to occupy a bed across from them, and Jyri called him over.
"Does the nymph sleep in here?"
Vartan frowned for a second, then broke out into a huge grin. "Ah, no. She's uncomfortable sleeping with men around. No one knows where she sleeps."
"But she never comes in here?"
Vartan shook his head. "Don't get your hopes up, kid." He gave Jyri's shoulder a pat, then walked away to his own bed chuckling.
"Told you," Faye muttered. She heard Kirsten say something, and turned around. Whatever Kirsten said must've involved sleeping arrangements, for Kirsten had left Lavina for Corvin's bed. Meanwhile, Lavina crawled into the bed she and Kirsten had been sitting on, leaving a space which Ran was preparing to occupy.
Jyri cleared his throat, his jaw set. "What are you doing?"
"Sleeping," Ran pulled the blankets aside to crawl in.
Jyri grabbed his arm, yanking him away. "Not there, you're not."
"But there's not enough beds-"
"You either sleep with me, or on the floor." Jyri folded his arms, raising an eyebrow. "You are not sleeping with a-"
"I'm 19," Ran hissed. "I can sleep with whoever I want." He turned around, but Jyri grabbed him.
"If you don't get in this bed right this second, I'll tell her about that nightly problem you had as a child."
Ran narrowed his eyes. "You wouldn't."
"I would."
Ran glanced over at Lavina, who laid on her side, watching the scene with mild interest. Jaw clenched, he turned back to Jyri. "Fine." He faced Lavina, fiddling with the hem of his shirt. "Sorry, I can't-"
"It's okay," Lavina said.
Kirsten sat up. "If that's the case..." She flopped onto Lavina's bed, and made herself comfortable, before rolling over to face Ran. "Personally, I think he's being hypocritical."
"Hypocritical!" Jyri shot her a look.
"Given how he-"
"Don't you even-"
"Spent a night with-"
"Shut up!"
"Her in his arms." Kirsten jerked her head towards Lavina, who blushed.
Eyes widened, Ran turned to face Jyri. "What!"
Faye focused her attention on the barren wall on the opposite side of the room as everyone in the room turned to gander at the argument unfolding at her side.
"You slept with her?"
"I didn't sleep with her."
"You don't even like girls!"
"I was struck by a heart arrow!"
"And you slept with her?"
"It wasn't like that."
"But you won't let me-"
"You're still a child!"
"I'm the same age as a woman you slept with!" Ran's words rang through the room.
It was then when Jyri seemed to notice the attention their donnybrook had caused, and he lowered his voice. "You're making a scene."
Ran tore his glare away from Jyri and noticed all eyes on him. Flushed, he shot Jyri a "this isn't over" look. He crawled into the other bed, and flopped on his side, back facing him.
At this point, Lavina had hidden herself under the covers. Kirsten sat up next to her, grinning as though proud of the chaos she had caused. A thought occurred to Faye. "Where am I supposed to sleep?"
"Yeah," Ran said. "Where's Faye gonna sleep, if I'm stuck with you?"
"Corvin's got room."
"I'm not sharing a bed with Corvin!" Faye snapped at him.
"Then sleep on the floor."
"Can you all shut up already?" a nearby elf grumbled. "We're trying to sleep over here."
And so Faye slept next to Corvin, and tried to ignore his loud snores in her ear as she wondered what drama the morning would bring.
ns 15.158.61.48da2
