🏆 OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2022 LONGLISTER 🏆
Mersem Wess, a town boy in the wintery kingdom of Solon, is content with his life collecting timber and admiring Leara Madris, the darling Lady Knight, from afar. His sister, Silke, a girl with a short fuse...
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Mersem opened his eyes to realize he wasn't in a tent anymore. He wasn't even in the Pike Mountains with Leara and her guildmates. Instead, his mind registered the empty fireplace, the wooden walls, the domed ceiling, and the empty chairs and tables in the middle of the room. It looked so much like the cabin he lived in back home except this one was void of various knick knacks he, Silke, and his father had amassed over the years. Hell, the cossum chair wasn't even there.
"Mersem," a familiar voice called him. He whirled to the source to find Silke behind him, in the flesh.
He blinked. "Wh-what's...how are you here?" He looked around and frowned. "Where even is here?"
Silke gestured to placate him. "Calm down, Mers," she said. "I had Vera call your mind-presence as soon as you fell asleep."
Mersem knitted his eyebrows. "Vera?" What was his sister talking about? Moreover, why was she glowing with a faint white outline? Was he dead? Did an avalanche occur somewhere and killed him on the spot? Damn, he hadn't even made a move with Leara.
She sighed. Even the sound felt so real and not whatever she called this situation to be. "I'm here to tell you about what happened in the Palace and why you shouldn't look for me anymore," she said. Then, she turned to an empty spot beside her. "Vera, come out. It's just Mersem, the one I'm telling you about."
The air shimmered and a boy younger than Mersem stepped out from nowhere. Mersem stepped back, his mind barely keeping up with the weirdness happening to him lately. Then, he paused and narrowed his eyes, noting the scarlet red hair, the sharp, brown eyes and the beige skin unusual in Solon. "He's a boy," he said.
"Yeah, I can see that," Silke rolled her eyes.
Mersem stalked towards her. "What are you doing with a boy?"
She crossed her arms. "What are you doing with Leara Madris?"
He opened his mouth then closed it. All the words vanished into snow smoke in his head. Well, that's...
"That's not what I came here for," Silke waved her hands in the air and inclined her head at Mersem. "You should go back home and forget your stupid quest in finding me. I'm fine. See?" She spread her hands to prove her point.
He shook his head. "Why are you doing this, Silke?" he shoved his fingers into his hair and surprisingly found it still stuck to his head. "And who's that boy over there called Vera? Who names a kid like that?"
"I am a mage from Lotherne's royal court. You would do well to show some respect," the boy stepped forward and shoved Silke behind him. No one does that to his sister. "I am tasked to get Caeda back to her family."
"Look, I don't know what weeds you have been inhaling, kid, but this is my sister," Mersem made sure he towered over the mage-boy-whatever-he-was even though mere inches separated the level of their gazes. "You just can't take her anywhere. Besides, who's Caeda? Who names a kid like that?"
