Though a bit stiff, sleeping on that makeshift bed was better than nothing.
I returned the couches to their original states but used the sheets as a sack to carry all my finds from last night. I carried the sack with the pink salt sword by threading it through the handle.
With my spirits high and my feet low I marched to the door and laid my hand on the doorknob before wondering why I was in that room. Someone told me to go here. A girl. What was her name? Yvette? Janice... Candace?
Whatever her name was, it was something pretty. She was pretty herself. Fitting, actually. Fitting... fitting. Clothes fit... My notebook!
I dug a hand down my shirt, expecting to find my name notebook but nothing met my fingertips. What was her name! My notebook, it was last in my old clothes, they were in that laundry room. Damn it, I had to navigate my way there!
Whipping the door open, I trudged out of the room into the Abandoned Wing's hallway. It was eerily quiet, especially since it's the morning. Outside it was a grey sky, with a darkness looming in the distance. Maybe it was going to rain today. Rain was always so pleasing to listen to when it would pelt down on the windows of my bedroom as I breathed in my three candles. Vanilla, sandalwood, soy wax. I actually gave them names: Vixen, Sadie and Sweeney. I think it's obvious which is which.
It was easy to remember their names because I could relate them to their flavours and change their names as I please. With humans I couldn't do that, but that wasn't the case.
Magne told me that there was something in my brain that couldn't process the concept of remembering names. Strangely though I could remember his and Yaritza's names. Probably because they were my number one people in the world.
As I walked down the hallway, newly-acquired knickknacks slung over my shoulder, I spotted a familiar figure approaching me. What I needed to remember was her name. Joe... Jan... Hannah... Yann...
The girl walked promptly to me with a tray resting on her arms. Breakfast I assumed. From where I was standing I could smell the savoury sustenance.
We met halfway, at the salt border. Funny how I have a salt sword and there's a salt border. What's breakfast gonna be? Salt?
"Goo-Good mm-orning..." the girl stammered, brushing a stray strand of hair away with her shoulder.
I nodded with a smile and jabbed my head to the load over my shoulder. She cocked an eyebrow before realising what I was gesturing to.
"Break-fast." she croaked, raising the tray to my face. "For you."
"Ah, thank you. Where shall we eat?"
She stared off to the side for a moment before deciding to turn and walk without saying a word. Not one for communication.
I followed her to her chambers where we sat on the bed. The girl sat closest to the edge, near the door, while I sat a distance away from her so that she would feel safe from me.
I unpacked the trinkets and spread them out around the cloth. The girl examined them with great interest, eyes wide with astonishment. She squinted at the fart-scented envelope, then opened it and read. I leaned over and we read it together in silence. She tilted the page towards me but bent away from my presence.
To Lars Haraldsen,
Considering your extraordinary skill in fishing and seamanship, we have gifted you an asset that will hopefully take your skills to greater heights. To claim this asset, you will have to find it in the catacombs of Isolering Castle and unlock the chains that confine it. You will see that we have provided a key for you in the envelope that you have received. Do not lose it.
Yours sincerely,
Councillor Maris
An asset. Probably a boat, or a fishing rod. What a dumb prize. On a more interesting note, this was a letter from Councillor Maris. She was in King Jesper's court, the person who oversees water health, safety and all that water stuff.
Well, that note told me basically nothing on how to escape this damned castle, unless we were in this Isolering Castle. But there was no key.
The next thing the girl looked at was the locket. She tried to pry it open with her perfectly trimmed nails, oval-shaped with a bit of shininess added for a clean glow. I would kill for nails like those. My nails are usually short and rough looking, I think I need more practice with the clippers. Or maybe I should let them grow out. Yeah, maybe that.
Anyway, the girl handed me the locket in hopes that I could open it. I tried, and failed of course. Short nails strike again.
As she observed me fail, the girl's face dropped. I returned the locket and found something to turn that frown upside down. The broken pendulum. A mechanism of great fascination, capable of capturing even the most strong willed in its swinging snare.
I used to have one at home until Yaritza 'accidentally' threw it out the window after I used her eyeliner pencil to draw raccoon eyes on my face. I was going through a phase, okay?
One of the pendulum's strings was detached from the metal bar, so I wrapped the string back around and tied it. I picked up the furthest weight away from the others and then let go. The spheres collided, making the other end go flying. Like magic, the pendulum kept going and going and going and going and going and going and going and going and going.
For a whole five minutes the girl and I had our eyes glued to the contraption. We sat there in silence, watching the weights go clink clink against each other. Eye catching, it reminded me of my own pendulum. Oh, how I missed that pendulum.
The faint scent of watermelon broke me out of the trance. Sweet and blue, the candle sat on the cloth waiting for its turn in the spotlight. I waved the candle cup under the girl's nose in which she broke away from the metal enchantment. She stopped the ball and turned her attention toward the candle.
I took a big fat sniff of the wax in the teacup. Sparks of sugar and saccharine dribbled into my brain. This candle was delicious. I'd have to find one for my collection and leave this one for the girl. The candle's wax was teal but smelled of watermelon. Quite an odd combination but I liked it.
I looked at the girl and she looked at me. We frowned in unison and silently contemplated the strange candle. Eventually we both shrugged it off and finally turned towards breakfast.
Today, we had two bowls of porridge dotted with blueberries and blobs of strawberry jam. Next to that was two slices of what looked to be flatbread and two cups of that sweet smelling drink again.
I gestured to the girl to go first but she shook her head. It was only good human decency that she'd go first. I pointed to the platter and then at her. She only shook her head. A tough nut to crack. Usually people would dig in by now but she was the most persistent person to ever refuse my offer.
Not wanting this to go on any longer I took one of the metal spoons and started munching down. After I showed the girl she had won she also started to pick at her food. We ate in silence, like we had been this morning and yesterday.
Full and content, I set down my spoon. The girl set her spoon down too and cast her gaze aside, avoiding mine. If we were going to be stuck together in this castle for a while then we would have to get to know each other. One way or another.
"So-uhh... What do you like to do for fun?" I pursed my lips as I awaited her response. "Bird-watching? Journaling?"
The girl raised her head and held a hooked finger to her mouth. From her bedside table, she passed me my name notebook. Finally, after an hour of talking to a nameless girl I could rediscover her name!
I flicked to my most recent page and tapped on the name. Jannike. The girl's name was Jannike. Her page even had a portrait of her. A totally accurate portrait. Totally.
"Thank you!" With a small bow, I thanked Jannike.
As I followed Jannike out the door, I slid the notebook beneath my shirt. The book fell out but I caught it with my knee and decided to just hold it for the journey.
My feet slapped against the marble tiles as we made our way to whoever knew where. Our surroundings were as quiet as what quiet could be.
The trees beyond the forcefield swayed in the wind that I once knew. And when the birds flew from their nests I thought of myself being them, free. I had only been in this castle for a day but I was already homesick. That feeling of being in an unfamiliar place dug a cave in my body, leaving me hollow and brittle as the bones of a bird.
The girl- I meant Jannike, opened two double doors and revealed an enormous library. Bookshelves full of dull coloured books lined the walls of the first floor. A large mezzanine above us held even more books. I was never a bookworm but this whole room made me giddy as one would be.
In the middle of the hall were benches with black leather seats. Perfect for sitting, an avid reader's dream. All the windows had grey seats built into them and all the grey seats had windows built under them.
Jannike appeared next to me holding a familiar book. Expectations that were Great, I think. Magne used to share snippets of it with me. He said that the book was from the old world, or whatever it was.
From what I remembered, the book was about a girl who climbed the social ladder of her world and became a gentlewoman all thanks to her mysterious benefactor's moola. The girl was also in love with a handsome boy who was trained by his caregiver to break hearts. Quite an interesting plot I'd say.
Jannike offered me the book and I took it of course. Anything to remember Magne.
She grabbed a book for herself off a shelf and led us to sit down on a bench. We read for a while, glancing at each other's pages to see our progress. I swore that Jannike was reading at least twenty pages every five minutes. And then there was me, ten pages in twenty minutes.
I leaned forward and saw that Jannike's book was called Emmo. I had never read it before but assumed it was good because of how fast Jannike was getting through it.
My eyes blinked slower with every few words read. Reading really took the energy out of me. Jannike next to me was fast asleep face down on the table, body rising and falling with every breath. I too laid my head down on the table and took a rest from the book.
Without a thought, I found myself twirling with a strand of blonde hair around my finger. It was no silk but heck was it smooth. Whatever oils Jannike was using, I wanted.
I let my eyes rest. The words from my book imprinted themselves onto my eyelids and glowed in the darkness. I read them a few times over until the sentences are etched into my brain. A new skill unlocked, reading my eyelids. What a wonderful skill...