A Journey to a Hundred Worlds

Michelle finally found a way across the river when the first rays of dawn caused the sky to turn gray. She was starting to feel a little better now that something had gone right for her. Plus, morning always seemed to give you a brighter outlook on things in general. With the darkness of night gone, the light of morning made things seem not quite so scary. She didn’t feel so completely alone now. Soon people would be out in the streets and the place would be lively instead of stagnant and dead asleep.

There seemed to be a few differences between this city and the cities she was used to. This place didn’t have the big, ornate building that housed any prominent witches or wizards. The houses also seemed somewhat smaller than what she was used to seeing. And finally, here there was no magic dust, little bits of magic that were everywhere she had ever been in varying quantities. These things puzzled Michelle. She couldn’t see how this could possibly be a city of Aegrota. Plus, she didn’t think there was any place like that out of Aegrota that didn’t have magic dust. It was just something that had been as commonplace as the air she breathed at home. Where could she possibly be?

Also, Vale with his silver hair and crimson eyes was something of an enigma. That hair and eye color was definitely not natural for any part of her world. So did that mean she was in some kind of other world?

In the midst of her thoughts, she accidentally bumped into someone.

“Sorry!” she said hurriedly, reaching out to help keep the person from falling. It turned out to be yet another guy who looked to be around her age. This time, though, he didn’t look too extraordinary. He had short, orange hair and bright green eyes. Once she had seen someone similar-looking from a neighboring country called Vereltas. Something about him seemed out of the ordinary, though, though in a different way than it had been with Vale. She felt as though he were someone very important.

“It’s okay,” he said, grinning. His clothes seemed pretty shabby and he looked noticeably thin. “But if you don’t mind my asking, why are you walking around at this hour? Shouldn’t you be at home, getting the sleep and rest you need? You look like you could use it, your eyes look a little red and you seem out of sorts.”

“Um, I…I don’t exactly have anywhere to go at the moment…”

A look of concern appeared on the person she was talking to’s face. “If you want, you can come with me. I know a place you could stay at for a little while to get some rest and food if you need it.”

Quickly thinking this over, Michelle decided there was nothing else she could do, really. “That would be very kind of you,” she accepted.

“My name’s Liam, by the way,” he told her.

“Michelle.” She then followed Liam, hoping she had made the right decision in just following him. He seemed like the total opposite of Vale, so willing to help out, and he seemed to have a warm personality.

Liam took her through the winding streets which were starting to fill up with early birds setting up shop and whatnot for the day. Her spirits slowly were raised higher and higher by the proceedings of the day. Vaguely she wondered what had ever happened to Vale after he had gone off by himself and where he himself had come from.

After a few minutes she found herself stopping as Liam did outside of nice cozy-looking inn. He held the door open for her, and she walked inside. A few people were already up this early. The innkeeper was bustling around, the cook was making breakfast, and a few costumers were relaxing at the tables. Michelle did a double take as her eyes passed over the patrons. Her eyes quickly returned back to the one sitting in the far back corner: It was Vale.

Liam noticed the direction of her gaze. “Someone you know?” he asked her politely.

“Uh, I guess you could say that,” Michelle replied, not looking away from Vale. He had a mug of something resting in his hand. Did that mean he had somehow gotten money already?

“You can go talk to him if you want,” Liam offered. “I have to go talk to the innkeeper to arrange it so that you can stay here for a little bit until you know what it is that you are doing.”

"Thanks,” she replied absent-mindedly. She made her way over to Vale’s table, not without a sense of trepidation. He was so apathetic, she had no idea what to say to him.
When she reached him, he didn’t look up. Uncertainly she started, “Um, I was wondering—”

“Do you start all of your sentences with ‘um?’” Vale interrupted, annoyed.

“Uh…”

“Or ‘uh,’ for that matter.”

Michelle blushed. She had been saying those two words an awful lot lately. “Fine, I was wondering how it is that you got money already and what you plan to do here.”

Vale let out a sigh, rolling his eyes. “Didn’t I already tell you I don’t want to be interrogated?”
Michelle bit her lip, considering. “Well, I won’t give up. I want to know. We are in the same situation, aren’t we?” Here she lowered her voice. “Didn’t you come from a different world too?”

“So what if I did? I don’t need help from anybody and neither do I want to help anybody. Now leave me alone.”

As Michelle tried to think of something to say, Liam came back. “Hey, the innkeeper says you can stay here for a few days if you help with washing dishes. You’ll be provided with three meals a day and a small room to sleep in.”

“Really?” Michelle said in disbelief. “Wow, thank you so much!”

Liam scratched the back of his head. “It was no problem…”

Vale had taken a drink and not bothered looking at Michelle. Now, however, he looked at Liam. “Hey, you, who are you?” he asked, setting his drink back down.

If Liam was surprised, he hid it pretty well. “Oh, I’m Liam,” he replied.

“Liam… Have you ever heard the story about Prince William?”

“Well yeah, everyone in Manus knows it. When Prince William was a young teenager he would sometimes sneak out into a village nearby the castle and pretend to be just a commoner. He used a fake name and found some regular clothes to wear to blend in. He always returned back to the castle before he could be missed too much, but he always got in big trouble for it. However, one day he never returned. And now that his mom and dad are dead and he was their only son, he should be the rightful king. But since no one can find him, his aunt and uncle have taken the throne.”

“Yes. A pity, huh?” Vale said, expression and tone unreadable as ever. “If only he could be found. The new king and queen are starting to oppress the common people more and more. Seems the power’s gone to their head.”

“I wonder what it would be like if the prince could be found,” Liam agreed.
Vale took another long drink from his mug, clearly signaling to them that the conversation was at an end.

“Well then, I guess I’ll be seeing you around,” Liam commented, taking his leave.

Now that the two of them were alone again, Michelle decided to continue pressing Vale for answers. “Why did you ask him about that prince?” she questioned.

“None of your business,” he replied, not bothering to hide his impatience.

“Is the prince important to you, or something?” she continued.

With an exasperated sigh, Vale seemed to give in. “Alright, if you really must know, yes, I do believe he is important to me. And before you ask me yet another question, it’s because he is probably the important person of Arcturan, this world. If I can help find the prince and get him on top of the throne, then I am hoping I can move onto the next world.”

While the words sank in, Michelle was quiet, probably to the relief of Vale. This was more information than he’d ever given her, and his willingness to disclose it surprised her. So the prince could actually be important enough to be the key to moving onto the next world? Was that how you moved from world to world, finding the most important person and getting them to do what they needed to do? And then why was it that Liam had seemed like such an important person to her?

“Don’t you think that maybe Liam could be the prince?” she ventured.

Vale didn’t look startled at all by her suggestion. “Him? When he spoke I could see nothing in his eyes, manner, or voice that would give him away as the prince. No matter how good a liar he was, there was no way he could just talk about himself like that without their being something to give it away that he was indeed the prince. Why would you think that he would be the prince, anyways? His clothes and attitude are both shabby for royalty.”

For whatever reason, his last comment made Michelle mad. Maybe it was because unlike Vale, Liam had helped her out and it was thanks to him she actually had a place to stay and food to eat for a time. All Vale had done was frustrate and ignore her. “I’m not really sure, but he just feels like an important person,” she retorted. “Unlike you.”

“Oh, how biting and insightful. ‘He just feels like an important person,’ you say. And do you always rely so heavily on such feelings?” Vale bit back. “Maybe you’re just confusing it with a crush on him. I’m sure it’s a common mistake for people like you.”

Now Michelle was fuming. “I imagine you have no idea what it’s like, do you? You don’t even have or express simple feelings and you have no social skills. No one would ever look in your direction in a positive way because of your horrible attitude!”

“Fine, now that you’ve got your little temper tantrum taken care of, could you please leave me alone before I do something that I regret?” Vale asked in a voice that made Michelle shiver. It suddenly occurred to her she had no clue what kind of world he came from or what kind of person he might be. For all she knew, he could be just fine with killing her on the spot because that was the thing to do in his world.

“I won’t make any promises, especially if you’re staying here,” Michelle replied. “And besides, I still think Liam is the prince so you’ll be stuck listening to me in the end. And then we can both get him onto the throne, and then get ourselves out of here and onto the next world.” With that, she left Vale at his table and went to go see the innkeeper about what it was she was supposed to do.