"Room of No Strangers p-04''

By;fernand jiro.......


When she awoke again, she didn't bother to move, or even open her eyes. Her body simply hurt. Everywhere. She was flat on her stomach, face pressed against the mercifully cool floor. Instead of moving, she thought.




She needed to get out of here. Her mother’s words rang through her head. Time goes normal, unless you slow it down, or speed it up, consciously, or unconsciously. But usually, you don’t want to tamper with time, it can have bad consequences. She wasn’t even sure if she was in a Room - but it was the only thing that came close. Neither was she sure of how long she had been in there. To her it felt like maybe a few hours. She had no clue how long she had been knocked out. 




Twisting, as someone would do when they were asleep, she got her hands under her. She defiantly didn’t want them thinking she was awake. Her hand found her ring, and slowly, she began to fumble with it. Pull it to the finger-joint, a twisting pull, and it came off. 




Ael sighed with relief, keeping her thoughts as neutral as she could, and her ring clutched tightly in her hand. 




She had found out that she could do that, whereas no one else could. On her first night. It had only been a second, as she played with it and it came off, before she jammed it back on, and no one was the wiser. It was on the next day, had found out how Ramona had gotten out. 




The rings put a leash on your power, as Jon had said, and helped you control it. But he had never said who was in charge. And her mother’s words came to her again. Nobody can do magic here unless you want them to. The collar to her power was gone. 




Ael smiled grimly. She could feel her power buzzing somewhere in the depths of her mind, and she wished, on a happy thought, to a safe place. 




Blinking, she reached out a hand to steady herself- on a light cedar end table. She sighed with relief and let herself fall onto the soft couch, and shoved her ring back on. 




Next in line were her clothes. Their whiteness and slightly aseptic smell didn’t belong here. Her dad had said that the room would, or could provide anything she needed. 




The wall suddenly had a door, hanging slightly open, and within, Ael could see shirts hanging, jeans neatly folded on a side shelf, and shoes on the floor. 




Her first attempt to get up left her a bit woozy, and she fell back upon the soft material of the couch. On her second attempt, she braced herself with the table, and held out a hand near the wall to help her make her way to the closet. Evidently, whatever that voice had done to her that knocked her out, had taken a lot more out of her than she thought. 




She pulled out clothes from the closet, and changed. Without a thought, she set fire to the pile of white material now on her floor. She watched it burn for a moment, before a single thought sent the flames to a degree hotter than Hell; and turned the clothes to a small white pile of ash, which she shoved into the closet with her foot, and shut the door. There wasn’t even a burn mark on the soft carpet. The door slowly melted back into plain light blue wall again. 




Once more, she sat down on the couch, pulling her legs up to hug them to her chest. However much she hated to admit it, she didn’t know what to do. They had never told her how to get out of the room, once she was in. The only other way she could remember getting out, was in Westly’s, with the door. But that had been linked for marriage reasons. And he had made the door appear. She didn’t know how to do any of that. 




She sighed, her head falling back against the couch. Her last thought before she fell asleep were that she couldn’t let herself fall asleep, because time was different here. She couldn’t let it slip by unnoticed.










“Ael…Ael, wake up!” 




“Wha...?” She rolled over, and fell off the couch with a thump. Slowly she sat up, rubbing her neck, looking at all the people surrounding her. Her mother, father, and all six teenagers from the Moore’s house. 




“What? How…?” Ael started to say, but her mother shushed her, and began talking fast. 




“Good job getting out of there, but don’t talk about it. Nobody else can find out. Jon’s gone on a rampage since you disappeared. He’s really, really mad. Westly and Rob started to make plans to leave as soon as you were taken, and just yesterday, we took everyone away. We can’t risk anyone being at that house any longer. No telling what Jon might do.” 




It was then that Ael noticed the varying degrees of fright on the teenager’s faces. From Jason, who didn’t seem very phased, to Briana, whose wide blue eyes darted around. 




“We have to leave you here though; we don’t have a safer place. Wes and I are going to get updates on what’s been happening. We’ll be back as soon as possible.” 




Ael watched as Westly quickly put his hand under Ramona’s chin, and suddenly, she was a totally different person. Aged, with white in her dark brown hair, with tanned skin and light eyes. Ramona did the same thing to Westly, and suddenly, he was the small blond boy Ael had seen at the park. 




“Let’s go Jared.” Ramona said, holding up a hand to snap out. He nodded, and they were gone. 




Ael slowly looked around the room, at all the people, and created another couch, making Briana jump. Everyone sat and was silent. 




Ael looked around, before asking. “How’d you get here?” 




“We were in another room, kind of like this, but different, and we walked through a hallway.” Fran said simply if a bit confused. 




“Oh…so what’s happened?” She asked them, not bothering to explain. 




Jason was the one who replied. “Did you know you’ve been gone for two weeks?” 




“Two weeks?!” But I was only in there for like…hours, not days!” How could she have missed two weeks? It was preposterous. Well, best find out what had been going on. She picked herself up off the floor, and scooted back into her corner of the couch. 




“So how much do you guys know, about what’s going on and all?” She asked them. 




Again, it was Jason who spoke. “We weren’t sure you were gone at first. Jon told us you were sick, and that whatever you had was very contagious. We didn’t want to catch it, so we told him to just give you our regards, and didn’t come in your room.” 




Jason’s green eyes turned to Rob as he gave a disgusted sigh. “What?” 




“I’m a Healer. Don’t you remember? She would have been better in about an hour, if she had really been sick.” Rob told them. 




Jason’s brows creased and he looked slightly humiliated. “Oh…well, anyways, it was a while before anyone thought to actually look in on you. There was no sign of Westly, so Tim finally peeked in your door, but there was absolutely nothing in there. No bed, no chest, chairs, and most important, no you. So we held a ‘kid-only’ meeting, and decided something was going on that wasn’t supposed to be. 




“We weren’t really sure what to do, so we just sat tight for another week, trying to think something up. Meanwhile, Jon got worse and worse. It was kind of scary. He tried to teach a class, but he got so…frustrated at absolutely nothing, and the crate just blew up.” 




Ael noticed Dave put a hand to his cheek, underneath was a small cut, as if something had flown by in a hurry. Dave was the one who finished the story. 




“He left after that class, and hasn’t taught one since. And at mealtime, he sometimes would stand up in the middle of eating, and grab somebody, and get right up in their face shouting, ‘where is she? Where is she?’. He made Briana cry she was so frightened. Geez, we had no clue what to say! We thought he was talking about the escaped convict. We never thought it would be you. Then Westly and Rob came one night, and took us all.” He looked about, ready to say something else, but stopped and changed his words. 




“Where are we anyway? I don’t even know how we got here. We were just suddenly here.” He had a blank look on his face as he turned toward Fran, and she always seemed to have the answers to everything. But surprisingly enough, she just shrugged, and it was Ael who spoke up. 




“It’s called a Room of No Strangers.” She told him. “It’s like your own personalized room. My d- Westly told me that much anyway. “She didn’t really want to reveal who he really was yet, nor her mother. 




She sighed, and leaned back against the couch, her ears straining for sounds in the silence. She almost jumped, as Tim spoke unexpectedly. 




“So do you know who that lady is that was with Westly? I’ve never seen her before.” Tim’s green eyes watched Ael through his thin glasses, and she suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable. 




“My mother…” was all she could think of to say, and she ducked as all the eyes turned to look at her. No way was she going to say her real name. 




“But you said she was dead…” Briana’s voice came up. 




Ael shrugged, not sure how to explain it. How could she reveal that her mother was convicted of being a corrupted, and the only person ever to escape a mage’s prison, except Ael herself. 




She rested her arms on her knees, and then her forehead on that, closing her eyes and sighing. Nothing to do until her parents got back. 




They sat in silence for a few minutes, before Dave spoke again. “But how did you know she was your mother? I woulda just- oh, never mind.” Dave’s dark eyes were thoughtful as he continued. “I think we need to have a truth meeting here. Evidently, we all have to trust each other completely, if anything is going to work out at all.” He suddenly stopped, as he realized how much he had just said, or at least the impact of it. A flush came to his pallid features, as Jason nodded, agreeing. 




“I think we should as well. It would do us no good to find out something at a crucial time- if it comes to that.” Fran said, frowning. “Maybe we can even find something out on our own.” Her brown eyes usually serious were lit up, as if on the verge of discovering something, even if it was just something about somebody else. 




Ael frowned. She knew how much she would have to tell, and particularly, she didn’t want to. She needed an excuse…




“Shouldn’t we wait until Westly and my mother come back? I bet they have tons of things we’d need to know.” She prayed that it would work, or at least, give her time to find a way around the things she didn’t want to tell. 




Luckily, it did. Fran wrinkled her nose, but agreed. “It seems to be the smart thing to do…”




Tim looked up, “How long have they been gone anyway?” He looked to Ael, since she seemed to know the most about the room. 




Ael judged it had been about half an hour since they left, and her mother had told her not to stay in the Room for more than an hour. Unless somebody was checking up on them. She guessed that meant her parents wouldn’t be gone any longer than that. “Maybe twenty more minutes, and they should be back.”




They sat for a few more minutes, idly talking, when a door formed itself in her wall and there was a soft tap on it before it was pushed upon, and Ramona and Westly stepped in. They were both back in their normal appearances and neither looked like the news had been too good. 




Westly went to the couch and collapsed next to Ael. He scrubbed at his face with his hands and blew out his breath. “Nothing good has happened that I know of. Jon has completely torn the house apart looking for you. He’s got Michael and Jessica out looking for any traces of any of you. Don’t think you’re completely safe though. I know they can’t get here on their own, but if they catch any of us going to and from a room, they can ‘hitch a ride’ so to speak, and if they’re coming to this room, we won’t know until it’s too late.” 




“What’s wrong with my room?” Ael asked, looking over at him. 




“It’s not completely guarded. My Box, and your mother’s have many safe guards, and spells on them, so nobody can do magic unless we let them. It would be very hard to get into them, but I wouldn’t put it past Jon. We have a smart enemy. But anyway, I talked to my brother, and he’s leading Jon and the Moore’s around on a wild goose chase since our magic’s feel somewhat the same - “




“Feel the same?” Fran interjected. 




“Every magic has its own feel, like… with your mind. Family’s magic tend to be more similar, than two strangers. Miles is trying to get Michael to think that he is Wes, so he’ll leave us alone, and let us do what we need to get done with out Michael bothering us.” Ramona told them, leaning backwards on the wall where the door had melted away. 




“So why doesn’t my room have all those…protections on it, like yours do?” Ael asked, crossing her arms over her stomach. 




“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re not advanced enough. As you learn more about your magic, your ability to resist will grow stronger, and you will be able to set spells on your room. Didn’t you ever notice that Wes and I can do magic in here? It’s because you aren’t strong enough to resist his or my will. But give it a few months, and you’ll get up there. Your will’s strength usually fully develops about a year after your magic shows itself. But don’t worry, we’ll teach you plenty of tricks.” She smiled, lighting up her features as she spoke the last words. 




Ael nodded, commenting. “You seem to know a lot about magic - I mean, for…” she trailed off, unsure how to end it without telling everyone that Ramona had been convicted. Luckily, Dave stepped smoothly in, his shy voice speaking up. 




His dark eyes darted around as he spoke. “We-" he motioned to the other teenagers, “want to have a…truth meeting. Between all nine of us. Maybe we can find something out, or help somehow. We need to know at least what’s going on.” Dave sank his lean form down in the chair he sat in, waiting for someone to say something. 




“Well, I think it’s a good idea. We do know things they need to know.” Ramona said, pushing her wisps of chestnut-red hair away from her face. 




Westly looked thoughtful, and nodded. “I know where we can go too. Do you want to do this now?” 




Ramona nodded, and Westly snapped. 






A dry breeze that smelt of grass wafted toward the group, who were now standing in what seemed an endless plain. The only thing breaking the horizon was a few brushy, scraggly trees, and a few very distant mountains on one side. The grass was dry, a yellowy-green color, and the temperature much warmer than what it had been at home. The sky was a vast dome of powder blue that Ael had to squint at from the sun’s basking glow. 




“Ah, here we are. Inside now.” Westly’s voice ushered them. 




Ael turned around to see a white tent. Not particularly clean, it was about seven feet high, with a roof sloping on either side to the walls, which were only tied down flaps. It was about eight feet wide and maybe ten feet long. The only thing that encouraged Ael to enter was the cooling splash of shadow on the ground. 




Inside, was a completely different scenario. A low six inch high table, with thick cushions surrounding it was most of the décor. A pleasant breeze wafted through and there were packs in the corner, obviously food and drink. 




“Westly, where did you take us?” It was Ramona’s voice that cut through the silence. 




Westly grinned. “Tibetan Plateau.” He said, “Home to some of the greatest mages in the world, surprisingly enough. Even if we do magic, they won’t notice till we’re gone.” He looked pleased with himself. 




Ramona sighed exasperatedly, but smiled and went to the table to sink into one of the plush ground cushions. Everyone else followed, and they were soon all seated. 




“Ok then, who wants to start?” Westly asked cheerfully. Nobody spoke. Until finally, Ramona started to speak. 




“I will, but nobody can leave while I speak. Even if it scares you.” Her brown eyes were serious, as she sat cross-legged and rested her elbows on her knees. 




“Let’s see, I guess I’ll start with my family. As you probably know, Ael is my daughter, and Westly, is my husband. I have a non-magic sister, named Amy Alacon, and she is just your normal non-magic person. I don’t think she likes me very much though. My dad has magic, my mom didn’t. Both of them died, when I was young.” She paused for breath, before going on. “I worked for the magical-government as a corrupt catcher, and Jon became Head during this time. He convicted me of being corrupted. Yes, I am Ramona Larcin. But he had no clue. He couldn’t detect a person if his life depended on it. And I was no way a corrupt. I’m still not. I’m as sane, and uncorrupted as any of you. I promise. 




“I was in a cell for sixteen years, and if you want to know how I got out, it’s this.” She held up her hand, and pulled her ring off. 




Surprisingly enough, there wasn’t much of a reaction. A sharp intake of breath, and startled twitch maybe. Ramona’s eyes were blank, and as she put the ring back on, she blinked, and they came back into focus. 




“I’ll explain why that is, in a moment, after everyone has spoken. I guess that’s enough for me, next?” She looked around. 




Jason smiled, always the positive attitude. “I’ll go. Well, my name is Jason Neil. There’s not much to my story. I’m the middle of four sisters, Dad and Mom had magic, but I’m the first to have it of my siblings. Um…we lived on the beach my whole life. Jon came and took me. That’s about it, nothing special’s happened to me.” He shrugged, and looked to Briana beside him. “Your turn.” 




She nodded, and sighed. “My name is Briana Corely. I’ve got a sister, but she’s really young, like…about a year old. My parent’s were good friends with Jon, and told me about the school a few years ago. I couldn’t wait to get in, but now I’m not so sure it was that great of an id - “Her blue eyes got wide, “What was that?” Her eyes followed something across the tent, something only her eyes saw. 




Westly and Ramona were on guard, they were both tensed, eyes scanning opposite sides of the tent as if they had done it many times before. 
“What did you see?” Ramona asked softly, still watching the tent. 




“It was…a person, I think…it was different though.” Briana sounded a bit scared, and very unsure of herself. 




Ramona was staring at her, as if she had forgotten about the rest of them. Her brown eyes were intent. “What was it doing?” 




“I - I don’t know…just moving across the tent…”




“Walking?” 




“No - well…it wasn’t taking steps.” She sounded scared. “Am I going crazy?” 




“No, can you remember anything else?” 




“It was a woman, she…looked at me, but she didn’t have any eyes, and she smiled.” Her voice shook slightly. “And she was sad…very sad.” Briana’s hands were clenched together. “Please don’t let me be crazy.” The words were half to herself. 




“You’re not crazy. I can promise you that. But what you saw, I’m not that sure about. You’re the first person I’ve ever met that can see them. Only the third person in the world.” 




“What was she?” Briana asked. 




“It was a spirit. I’ve never, and will never see one, neither will anyone of you. It’s a special talent, like healing, only much rarer.” Ramona explained “I don’t know very much about the spirits, only that they’re here to live out their guilt. They did something horrible, when they were alive, and never had time afterwards to fix it, or be forgiven for what they did. And so they are sentenced to stay on Earth until what they did has been forgotten by mortal people.” 




“So what happens then?” Briana asked, a little more steadily. 




“Nobody knows. You can’t come back once you’re dead.” Ramona’s voice was quiet. 




Briana was silent, her head turned to look next to her at Fran. “You go.” She obviously didn’t want to talk about the spirits anymore. 




Fran nodded, and took a deep breath. “My name is Fran Nicholes. I’m an only child, my parents were both good mages, and taught me a lot of what they knew. They told me about the school a year before I got in, and I guess that’s all…I don’t know, nothing has ever happened to me.” She looked around, her gaze settling on Westly, across the table from Ramona. 




He nodded, and began talking. “My name is Westly Larcin. Wife, daughter.” He nodded at Ramona and Ael as he spoke. “Both my parents are dead. I’ve got a brother, and sister. My brother’s name is Miles. He’s a good guy, the one leading Jon around right now. He’s good at hiding, and get-aways. My sister is Julie, Rob’s mother. I don’t know why she corrupted; she was one of the sweetest people before she married Michael. Jessica and Rob are my nephew and niece.” 




Ael frowned upon hearing this news. It seemed her whole family was tied up with corruption. 




“Let’s see, I was trained in magic by my parents, before they died, and I have a sort of…specialty with Rooms - those are the rooms you were in before we came here.” He explained to the others, who had blank looks. 




“When Ramona was taken, I well…did some things I should have and was put in jail - a regular, normal jail. Jon bailed me out, and offered to help. I went with him, hoping he could lead to where Ramona and Ael were. Ael had been taken away by social services, prompted by Jon, which I later found out. But then Ael came to the school, and Jon trusted me even more, and I found out what he was up to - I’ll tell you when everyone’s done. So, who’s next?” He looked next to him. 




Dave, who was sitting there, looked up, and began talking, his voice quiet at first. “My name is Dave Wolf. I was born in, and lived in a forest. I’d tell you where, but even I didn’t know. My dad, well…I think he’s a wolf.” He looked around, as is expecting them to laugh. When nobody did, he kept going. “My mom transformed into a wolf, I’m not sure why, maybe to hunt or something, but she was raped, I guess, by a male, and we never found out which one. See, there’s a pack that ran through the area that we lived in, but they won’t ever talk to me. 




“That’s another thing that resulted from it. I can talk to animals, and transform into them. Most people have to learn how, but I’ve been able to since I was born. I just think, and it happens. 




“I lived in that forest until Jon came and got me. My mom wouldn’t even let me go to the village that was near by. I think she was ashamed of me, or scared.” He looked down, before finished. “That’s all I’ve got to say…”




His dark eyes flickered over to Tim, who shrugged, and began to speak. “My name is Tim Johnson. Umm…I grew up in the South. Neither of my parents knew, or had magic. I’ve got a sister, she’s a year older than me, but she doesn’t’ have magic. I only learned about it when they brought me to that school.” He shrugged. “That’s all there is to my story, Ael, your turn.” His green eyes turned in her direction. 




She began to speak, wondering if everyone felt unsure of what they had said as she did. “My name is Ael Alac- Larcin.” She had to correct herself. “My parents are Ramona and Westly. From what I know, I was taken from them when I was about six months old. They took me to live with my aunt and uncle. I lived there for about sixteen years, before Jon took me to the school. That’s when I found out who my parents were. I can do the same thing as my mother, for some reason.” She twisted her ring, and pulled it off her finger, before jamming it back on. She still didn’t like the feel of it not being there. Blue met blue as her eyes met Rob’s as she turned to him. 




“My name is Robert Moore, I grew up in the house that all of you call the school. My parents, and sister, sadly enough are all corrupted. I’m not though, thank God. I think I never corrupted, because I was always with Josh-" He nodded toward Ael, “her cousin. He was only thirteen, but he was a jerk. No offense meant to anyone. Josh showed me the wrong, every time I was with him, he tormented, and ridiculed others. And, I think it’s because I’m a Healer. Being corrupted has been considered ‘ripping your soul’, and I naturally resist anything that you would normally Heal. I naturally heal, where some people learn it. I just do it. Like Dave and transforming. I can Heal. I became friends with Westly when I was about ten, and I guess that’s how I came to be part of this little group.” Rob leaned back on his hands, and sighed, finishing his speech. 




It was silent a moment, before he spoke up again. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m kind of thirsty.” He swung his legs around, so he could stand up, and walk over to the few khaki colored packs that were in a corner. He pulled out a few bottles of water, which were surprisingly cold, and passed them around. 




Westly’s eyes suddenly grew unfocused, and he didn’t take the water passed to him. Ramona hissed at Rob to leave him alone when he tried to touch him. Then suddenly, Westly twitched, and seemed to come back to himself. “Nobody’s there yet.” He said with a relieved sigh. Glancing at the water as if he just realized it was there, he took it. “Thanks.” 




After everyone was settled again, Ramona began speaking. “I suppose everyone wants to know why we are here. Since we’ve got the time, I’ll tell you the story. 




It starts out about nineteen years ago. I had just become one of the world’s top cc’s, or corrupt-catchers. Jon Burken was working his way toward becoming Head. Everybody liked him, he was obviously going to get it. So after about a year passed, and elections were held, Westly and I got married, and then Jon became Head. I started noticing people close to Jon being charged for corruption – not people he openly associated with, but people he talked to behind closed doors, like the Smiths; they were a big family who were all caught on charge of being corrupted, and a few of the cc’s as well. 




Surprisingly enough, the cc’s we took in had been the ones who caught these already corrupted people, the Smiths’, the Starres’, the Woods’, all those families. Something was obviously going on. Nobody could put their finger on it though, and then one day, I just stumbled upon the answer while talking to my best friend, Julie Moore.” 




“But she’s an enemy! Why would she be your best friend?” Briana butted in. 




“It was years ago, before she was corrupted. Anyway, I came upon the solution that Jon was the one who was actually corrupted. I made her promise not to tell anyone.” 




“Why not though? Wouldn’t it be easier to have taken him in then, before he had all this power?” Briana asked again. 




“No, Jon was just as powerful then; he was probably one of the most, if not the most powerful mage in the world during that time. If someone would even dare accuse him of doing the smallest wrong, they would find themselves in jail, for the stupidest things, before they could get their accusation out. And once they had been in jail, nobody would believe them anyway. So no one could accuse him of being corrupt. 




Little did I know, Julie told him my suspicions as he grew closer and closer to her. He only needed a reason to get me out of his way, and he would do it. About that time, I became pregnant with Ael. That gave me about a three-month leave from work. Jon waited for that chance, and when I came back, he convicted me of plotting for power against him, the stupid...” She trailed off muttering angrily to herself and then shook her head. 




“Sorry, it just makes me so mad that everyone was so blind! And no one would say otherwise, even if they were my friends – they didn’t want to get blamed either.” She said her voice slightly bitter. “From there, Wes’ll have to tell you, I became a bit occupied with four white walls.” She shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest, her eyes hollow. 




“Right then...” Westly gave her a careful look before starting to talk. “Let me start with when Ramona was pregnant. I worked in the same part if government, but I wasn’t a cc, I had the boring part, files, desk work. I hated it, so of course I was always talking to people in other departments. One of my best friends was Jack Nicholes,” He nodded toward Fran. “Your dad, he worked with Creation Boxes, which are the white boxes that the rings came out of. He helped to create those. He was telling me about Jon, how he had started to come in everyday, and asking to help create the boxes. Jack told me one day, how the boxes that Jon helped to create always seemed to be plain white, whereas the one’s he didn’t touch, were a more, iridescent color, a mother-of-pearl-ish color.




The boxes all worked the same, so people just shrugged it off. Funny enough, the off-white boxes tended to break easier, so Jon’s boxes went more and more in circulation. I told this to Ramona since she was trying to figure out what was wrong with Jon, but then, Ael came, and she was convicted by Jon six months later and we never had the chance to figure anything else out. 




Ael was taken by social services after Jon hinted to them I was an unfit parent, and I was told to forget about her, and I would never see her again. I did some things I probably shouldn’t have, and went to jail, and Jon bailed me out, acting as if he didn’t know anything about it. He convinced me to join him in helping this school by saying he would help me get Ael and Ramona out. I was desperate by then, and I didn’t get any information, so I took his offer. 




Sixteen years passed, I never heard anything, of either of them, and he never said anything about them. He was too busy trying to keep his office. He wasn’t doing bad, it’s just that people wanted something new. Nothing big was happening in the world, and even though he was still the most powerful mage, people still didn’t realize he was corrupted. I began to get letters from old friends, telling me what had happened while I was gone, and together, we formed our own little ‘good side’. 




Then, the group of students I had been waiting for came. Ael would have been sixteen, and if she would have had magic, it would be my last chance to find her. In the group was a student named Ael. I thought it was a weird name, and then I saw how it was spelt, and I became suspicious. The only problem was, Ramona had never told me her middle name. Before you ask why I didn’t know, it was a game we used to play, me trying to guess. Then Ramona escaped, and found me, and I asked her, and she said it really was you. 




Your real name is Allison Ellen Larcin. A.E.L. is your initials, and Jon gave that name to the social workers so that’s what was you were known by. See, he wanted to remember you, out of everyone, so he could make sure I would never find you. 




Once I found out who you really were, Jon knew I somehow had contacted Ramona, and took Ael away to a mage’s cell – luckily, she got out the same way Ramona did and that’s pretty much how we all ended up here.” Westly sighed and shifted in his seat, rubbing at his tired face with a hand. 




“But Jon doesn’t seem that dangerous, does he?” Dave asked quietly, looking toward Westly and then Ramona. 




“Remember those boxes I told you about? We found out, that every box he made, he has a bit of power over whoever gets a ring from them. Including the six of you, but not Ael.” 




“Me? Why not? I got my ring from the same box as everyone else did.” Ael asked, confused. 




Westly shrugged, and was silent. Ael turned to her mother, repeating her question. 




She too shrugged, “I’m not really sure yet. I’m guessing it has something to do with you being related to me, but then I’m not even sure what it is with me. It can’t be my ring, since all old rings were replaced with one’s from Jon’s boxes. Now, all the rings are on a person’s middle finger.” She held up a hand showing a pale strip of skin on one of her fingers, evidence of the ring that used to be there. 




Briana stiffened her eyes once again following something across the tent that nobody else could see. She blinked, shaking her head and rubbed at her eyes. Nobody said anything about her actions. 




“So what’re we going-” Fran’s voice spoke up, but was cut off by somebody storming into the tent. 




He was extremely tall and wore white. They weren’t robes exactly, but neither were they pants and a shirt, Ael couldn’t tell exactly what manner of clothing it was. It did however, contrast vividly with his brown skin and black eyes. His hair was white; there were only a few wisps of it that lifted in the breeze coming through the tent flaps. He spoke loudly in a language none of them understood, his face a mix of concern, anger and confusion. 




Westly stared at him, flabbergasted for a moment, before standing quickly, making motions with his hands. They didn’t seem to have any effect on the man, who was now trying to urge Westly out of the tent with urgent, foreign words. 




“”Ramona?” Westly held his ground easily. The tall man was obviously unused to physically having to move someone. “Any help?” 




Romana stared just as Westly had done, before standing as well. The rest of them began to stand as well, everyone slightly concerned. 




Still rambling on in his tongue, he motioned toward the door hurriedly. It was clearly a gesture to leave, but before they could try and respond, another figure came hurtling through the tent flap. 




He was a tall man, much on the same build as Westly. He had light brown hair, board straight, which hung to just below his ears. He had sky blue eyes, and an easy smile, but at the moment, his mouth was grim, and he looked for Westly. 




“Wes! They know it’s not me! They’re coming this way! I didn’t know what to do but some and get you.” He said, walking toward Westly all the while.