We Make A Plan

A girl ran into the room. She had a complexion much darker than Ian’s and her hair was cut above her shoulders and fell in dark brown, thick ringlets. The front pieces seemed to be tied back with something but I couldn’t tell what was keeping them in place. Around her waist was a toolbelt with a rolled up piece of parchment tucked in among the tools.

"This guy has red blood, can you believe that?" Eumaeus asked, jotting down something else with the ballpoint pen. Then they turned to us. "Oh this is Penelope, she's my best friend and possibly your ticket out of here."

Penelope took a seat in one of the armchairs by the bookcases. "Please don't tell me you brought me here just to tell me this."

Eumaeus waved their hand dismissively. "No but I think they're the key to helping us save my father's kingdom."

"We're not helping you with anything," Ian said, he'd been on edge since we got here but even more so since we came up to Eumaeus's room. Not that I could blame him, I just wanted an adventure though.

"Then I guess you'll just have to be thrown back into the cellars," Penelope responded with a shrug. "Too bad."

"Can we have a moment to talk about it?" I asked, maybe there would be a way to convince Ian to do this. Rotting down in the cellars wasn't exactly something I'd look forward to.

Eumaeus and Penelope exchanged a look. She shrugged and they nodded. I hopped off the table and we walked over to the window. Outside, I could see the garden; there were rows of trees as well as a hedge maze stretching as far as the eye could see.

"We're not doing this," Ian whisper-hissed at me. "I don't care what they say, we can get home without them."

"Ian…"

He shook his head. "No, no, we are not doing this. You could probably take both of them in a fight right? The door is closed, all we'd have to do then is sneak out and find that room again."

"Do you honestly think that we'd be able to manage that? You saw the hallways outside, they're riddled with guards and we've already seen that I cannot take them." I gestured to my face at the last part, just to make a point. "We should help them- scratch their back and they'll scratch ours."

Ian considered this. "Fine but you're not a hero, remember that please."

"It's not like you'll ever let me forget it," I responded and maybe I was a little bitter about it but I didn't really care.

"I just don't want you to get hurt or in the worst case scenario die," he poked my chest and I could see he was fighting back tears.

I felt bad. Maybe I should try to be more cautious, just to give Ian peace of mind. “We’ll be careful, it’ll be grand.”

“If something goes wrong it’ll be entirely your fault,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest and striding back over to Eumaeus and Penelope.

I followed behind him, trying to put on a smile. It was a terrible idea because I was never any good at faking things. “Okay, what are we helping with?”

“Well, there’s this staff that was used by mages back in the day,” Eumaeus started. “Hundreds of years ago, they’re an extinct species now but a few of them- a group known as The Ancient Order-“

I couldn’t help but interrupt. “They called themselves The Ancient Order? That’s the stupidest name ever.”

“They didn’t call themselves that,” Eumaeus shook their head. “Years later historians called them that because they wielded ancient magic.”

“Like older than druid magic type of magic,” Penelope said. “It was insane, they weren’t shapeshifters but apparently they could change their appearance at will and used wands to focus their magic, they had their own language too.”

Eumaeus looked over at her. “I thought druids had their own language too.”

“Nah, I mean…” she trailed off a little. “We sort of lost it as the mages died out or… were brutally murdered, it didn’t carry over to us.”

“Oh,” Eumaeus frowned as if this was something they should’ve known all along. “Anyway, The Ancient Order was made up of a bunch of really skilled mages who helped out in the Great War. They helped put a stop to the war by making a staff which could take on the form of whatever the person wielding it needed.”

“And you want us to help you find it?” Ian asked, still looking annoyed at the whole situation. “Why us? We’re not mages, we haven’t got any sort of powers.”

“There’s a prophecy,” Penelope said.

Ian rolled his eyes. “Of course there’s a prophecy, there’s always a prophecy,” he mumbled. “I bet you’re really enjoying this, Rory.”

“That’s not fair, don’t give me grief for this,” I said, even though he was absolutely spot on and the idea of being part of a prophecy was probably the most exciting thing to ever happen to me. “It’s not like I orchestrated this whole thing and if you’re going to be moody about it you’re welcome to go and try the guards outside.”

Eumaeus and Penelope looked at me, then at Ian and back at me again. No one said anything for a couple of very tense seconds. Finally, Ian marched over to the armchair across from Penelope’s and slumped down into it. He’d get over himself eventually but I wasn’t in the mood for his sulking. We both wanted to get out of here and I wasn’t going to apologise for having fun while I was here.

“You said there was a prophecy?” I prompted, sitting up on the desk again. I didn’t look at anyone, opting to pick at my nails instead.

Eumaeus cleared their throat. “Yes, I can’t remember it exactly but to paraphrase it- two strangers to the kingdom show up and are destined to find the staff to save the kingdom.”

“What about the bit in the middle?” Penelope spoke up. “The bit about the final breath?”

Ian shot up in his seat and looked at me. “Final breath? You mean one of us is going to die?”

“No, definitely not,” Eumaeus shot a look at Penelope. “I mean… okay, there is something about an ancient king awakening and taking his final breath but prophecies are fickle… these things never fully come true. Plus it’s a translation so it could be his final breath but it could also be taking someone else’s final breath, and, well we don’t actually know if this ancient king is the one taking the breath because from the text I read it in the ‘he’ was on the next line and the ‘H’ was capitalised so it could be someone else entirely.”

“This is way too risky,” Ian shook his head. “Maybe you two are willing to risk your lives for this but I’m not willing to bargain my life or Rory’s for some stupid old stick.”

I shook my head. “Have you got a copy of the translation?”

“No, I don’t,” Eumaeus looked down. “I lost a while ago and I haven’t been able to find the book or anything that contained the actual prophecy since.”

This was bad. I was inclined to agree with Ian, I didn’t want to risk any of our lives for the sake of a kingdom I had nothing to do with. However, I couldn’t just walk away either, not when they needed my help. When Ian first came out, his parents weren’t awfully accepting of him and it was my dad that took him for his first haircut and went shopping for clothes with him. He made Ian stay with us for a couple of weeks and talked to his parents for him. When mam got sick, dad went out of his way to make sure everything in the house still ran smoothly and that we were all okay. My dad always helped people when he could, he set up a fundraiser for the music department when they couldn’t afford to rent the local theatre. A few years ago he took over coaching the local under 4s to under 20s GAA teams when the coach had to retire due to arthritis. My entire life, all I wanted was to be like my dad and this might have been my only chance. So, I thought about what my dad would do if he was in my position.

“How do we help you do that?” I asked.

“Hold on,” Ian interjected before Eumaeus could answer me. “Why does the kingdom even need saving? I mean, if we’re going to help then we should at least know why.”

“That’s fair,” Eumaeus nodded a little. “A lot of people don’t like my father-“

“That’s not surprising,” Penelope mumbled loud enough for everyone to hear.

Eumaeus ignored her though and went on. “But no one has actually tried to challenge him before, my family has been ruling Caldale for centuries and no one’s ever really questioned it until recently. There’s this person called Nym and they want to overthrow my father using the staff.”

“The trick is though,” Penelope interrupted again. “That the staff will only work for the one true ruler, of course daddy dearest is scared that Nym could be the one true ruler and not him anymore.”

“Do you have to call him that?” They complained, rolling their eyes. “The staff worked for my great-great-great-great grandfather so we just put it in a temple at the end of the kingdom but from what I’ve read the staff is supposed to pick a new true ruler every hundred years or so.”

Ian groaned from his seat. “I hope you have a map or a GPS system that’ll get us there, I’m not up for being lost here.”

“Of course they’ve got a map,” Penelope said while Eumaeus stood up and began searching the bookcases. “And I’ve got a ship.”

“It’s not your ship,” They corrected and pulled out a book, then brought it over to the desk again. They opened it beside me and began flicking through the pages.

“Okay it’s my girlfriend’s ship but she’s cool with letting us borrow it,” she said and waved her hand dismissively. “We should see my aunt first though, mum says seeing seers before travelling is always a good idea.”

“Your aunt is a seer?” I asked. Honestly, it shouldn’t even surprise me that there were seers in this realm but it did.

Penelope nodded. “Yeah, she’s one of the only ones left- most of them were killed by daddy dearest.”

“Pen, seriously?” Eumaeus glanced up at her.

“What? You think I’m not going to mock that asshole?”

“Whatever,” They said and stopped on a page with a long stick curved at one end with a purple rock floating in the middle of the curve. They picked up the book and turned it over to show Penelope and Ian. “That’s the staff in its dormant form, when the person using it doesn’t need it to be anything else. The gem in the middle is supposed to glow when the true ruler holds it.”

Ian stiffened in his chair but didn’t say anything, I made a mental note to ask him about it later. Penelope just nodded. From a drawer in their desk, Eumaeus produced a map and unfolded it. It was a map of the entire kingdom, according to the loopy calligraphy at the top. There were circles and arrows in different places. Eumaeus picked up the ballpoint from earlier and drew a big rectangle over a section of the forest on the side closer to me.

“That looks pretty far,” I stated the obvious and glanced up at Ian, he seemed to be less upset now. “How long is it going to take us to get there?”

“Couple of days probably, if all goes well,” They responded. “We’ll go at nightfall, I’ll tell my father your wound is infected and have to keep you in for observation so you’ll be able to stay up here until we need to sneak you out.”

“And you’re sure this is going to work?” Ian asked, ever the skeptic.

“Sure, we’ll get you out the window,” Eumaeus nodded. “There’s vines growing up the wall, we can use them to climb down.”

Then go meet Penelope at her aunt’s?” I asked.

“Sounds good,” Penelope nodded and stood up, stretching. “I’ll see you guys later then.”

“Yes, and I’ll get some food for you,” Eumaeus said. “You guys must be starving.”

“We are,” I reassured them while Ian shot me a look I couldn’t decipher. Eumaeus chuckled and led Penelope out, promising to bring back something good to eat.