I Refuse to be a Named Character

Part 1

The only bright spot to being trapped here was Luke. After the day we met, we had become close friends, meeting up after my work was finished to talk. We often pooled our food rations, combining the meager food to make something mostly edible. Luke was intelligent, if a little gloomy. He enjoyed hearing stories, especially fantasy and fairy tales that I told him from my previous life. He was restrained, refusing to say much about his life before he came here, but as time went on he relaxed, sometimes telling me about his mother.

"She was a kind woman... too kind for her own good." He glanced over at me with a smirk. "A little like you. "

He never spoke about his father, and I never asked.

I told him about Chloe, and how our parents died when we were young. I didn't tell him about being from another world, if only because I wasn't sure how to explain it. I kept my stories and details vague, and much like how I didn't question him, he never pushed me for more details. We carefully spoke around each other sometimes, both afraid to reveal too much.

It was good to have a friend though.

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Then, about ten months since I arrived in this world, I was woken up in the middle of the night. A hand clamped over my mouth as I opened it to scream. I panicked for a moment, relaxing quickly when I recognized the familiar scent of Luke. He tugged on my hand silently, and we quietly left the slaves quarters to his courtyard.

"Luke, what's going on...?" My voice trailed off as he turned to look at me, his face more serious than I had ever seen.

"Tell me one thing, and please tell me the absolute truth." His voice was quiet, but it seemed abnormally loud in the silence in the dead of night. I felt nervous, unsettled, but nodded, showing that I would.

"You've told me before that you wish to avoid the spotlight. That you wish to live a long happy life of obscurity away from the intrigue and schemes of others." He paused, taking a deep breath as if to steady himself and looked up again. "Is that still true?"

I thought of the story of "Deadly Crown," of all of the terrible violent ways that the characters died. I didn't want any part of the lies and betrayal and murders that took up the majority of the plot. I just wanted to be a nameless side character. I nodded slowly.

At my response, he smiled, but it seemed in the moonlight to be a heartbreakingly sad expression. "Good. Then I have to get you out tonight."

"Tonight?" My heart beat faster, I wondered if the massacre of the 9th Lord's household was about to happen. "Why?"

His hand reached out, tucking my hair behind an ear. "If you want to stay apart from all this, it's better if I don't tell you."

He turned around, grabbing a bag and handing it to me. "This has enough provisions for you to travel for a few weeks, as well as a map with your path marked out."

"My path...?"

"There's an old huntress who lives in the Eastern Woods. She was a close friend of my mother's. She agreed to take you in, teach you her trade. It's as far away as you can get from the Western City." He reached out, holding my hand tightly. His palm was ice cold. "You can make whatever life you want there. You can stay, leave, or never go there at all. Just... be happy, please?"

I stared at him. "You're staying." It wasn't a question.

"I have to."

"But if I stay...?" I didn't finish the question, but I didn't have to, his bitter expression answered it for me.

"You'll be dragged into everything you want to avoid."

"What about you?" I felt worried, anxious at the thought of him facing all this alone.