Chapter III

  Fairy’s Grotto Inn suited its name. The building looked to have fallen out of the pages of a fairy tale. Purple ivy crawled up the brick walls of spires perfectly suited for a locked away princess. Tufts of white smoke popped out of the chimney, clearly enchanted for appearance. A dark violet forest sprawled out behind the inn, its mysteries beckoning to every childhood instinct still inside Mitsuko.

  She opened the metal gate leading to the inn’s garden and nearly tripped over the gnome doorman. He smiled up at her from under a monstrous white mustache which gave him a distinctly walrus-like appearance

  “Pardon me, ma’m. How might I help you on this fine day?”

  Mitsuko blinked down at him. Then she looked skyward. The barrier was still present.

  “Are you not worried about the dome?” she asked him.

  “Pardon my bluntness, but will my worrying solve the issue?”

  “I suppose not,” Mitsuko admitted. “I’m here looking for a friend of mine. Do you have a place I can sit down inside to wait for him?”

  “Does this friend have a name?”

  Mitsuko hesitated. Instead of stating the Emperor’s name, she decided to go with a safer option that wouldn’t rouse as much attention.

  “Wan. I heard he moved here after the embassy became infested.”

  “Ah yes, that dreadful situation with the centipedes. Repulsive insects. Please, follow me inside.”

  Mitsuko walked down the garden path and through the inn’s front door.

  The inn’s interior was a balance between lavish and cozy. A purple fire burned in the braiser adding its light to the sun beams streaming through the windows.

  Two more of the large beetle-people stood guard beside the front door. One, with a shiny black exoskeleton like the bard she’d seen at the pub earlier, the other with a brown exoskeleton, black spots, and a horn arching over its head.

  “Checking-in?” the brown beetle asked, its insectoid faceted eyes locked onto Mitsuko.

  “She is seeking a guest by the name Wan,” the mustached gnome asked. “Is he currently residing here?”

  “Left this morning after breakfast. Soon after the barrier appeared. Said something about that troll harassing people in the forest.”

  “Under the abandoned bridge?” The gnome shook his head in disgust. “Dreadful creature.”

  “Did he say why he went there?” Mitsuko asked. “And did anyone join him?”

  The two beetle-people exchanged a glance with one another before they answered.

  “I believe he mentioned… interviewing the troll. He went alone. Took only a large stack of paper and a quill.”

  Of course. Trolls were naturally long lived. Mitsuko had met one once that claimed to be over four hundred years old. Wan probably hoped to get information from this one. But the longer lived the troll, the less mentally sound.

  “Wan is supposed to be the cautious one,” she muttered to herself. Then, louder, “Can you point me in the troll’s direction?”

  The gnome and beetles were more than willing to help her. They brought her outside, gave her directions into the dark forest, and bid her farewell.

  As she walked down a winding path she examined a plucked leaf from a nearby tree. It wasn’t black, like she’d first assumed, but instead a deep purple. The veins of the leaf were a lighter violet. The island lived up to its name. Every bit of vegetation in sight was tinged with purple.

  She let the leaf fall to the forest floor and approached a decrepit stone bridge spanning a shallow ravine.

  “Ugh! Pay!” a guttural voice demanded.

  But the demand wasn’t directed at Mitsuko. There was a muffled response and a smash of splintering wood that shook the forest floor.

  She leaned over the edge of the bridge, looking down through the gap of missing stone. A gray-skinned troll towered at least three meters over a large wooden sphere. It wielded a split tree trunk that bristled with slivered wood. It repeatedly bashed its weapon into the sphere, but the protective barrier wasn’t even scratched.

  Mitsuko flicked her wrist, and a blade of ice flashed into her palm. She waited until the troll bent over, gasping for breath after its latest onslaught on the shield.

  Now.

  Shhe flung herself off the bridge and plunged toward the monster, chilled wind rushing through her still-damp clothes.

  Perhaps it was the sound of her leap or the whoosh of air around her as she fell, but the troll shifted slightly. The blade struck the Troll’s shoulder instead of its neck and shattered across the monster’s thick skin and dense muscle.

  She hit the ground hard, rolling on instinct as the troll roared with fury behind her.

  Another flick of her wrist, and a new blade formed as she turned, not a moment too soon. The troll turned its fury from the indestructible wooden shield and came for her. It stepped forward, its makeshift club swinging down in a blur of splintered wood.

  Mitsuko threw herself to the side and sliced at the troll as she passed. Her blade drew a thin line of dark blood, but it was shallow wound.

  Mages blinded trolls first - launching projectiles at their troll’s eyes before going for the kill before it healed the wounds. Mitsuko didn't have that luxury. She was on the ground, too low to strike the troll’s vulnerable head or neck.

  “Pay!” the troll bellowed. “My bridge! My toll!”

  Judging by the overgrown stone pieces of the bridge scattered across the gully, the bridge likely hadn’t been used in the better part of a century. The troll was insane. And Wan was perhaps just as mad for thinking he could get answers from the monster.

  Still, Mitsuko made use of her friend since he was here. She ducked around Wan’s wooden barrier, hoping she might be able to spring off it for another thrust at the troll’s throat, but the wooden dome’s surface was slick and oily.

  “I would prefer it if you did not interfere with my business,” an exasperated voice came from inside. “I am immortal. My current predicament poses no risk to my wellbeing. Please do not concern yourself.”

  “Too bad, Wan.”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  The troll slammed into the barrier.

  “Mitsuko? Interesting. I didn’t think you managed to reach the archipelago before the dome cut us off. Is Holly with you? Please do not tell me you dragged her into a fight with the troll.”

  Mitsuko didn’t answer him. Instead she dove under another swing of the troll’s club. It smashed into Wan’s barrier and Mitsuko sliced again at the monster’s leg.

  The makeshift club was falling apart now, little more than a hundred splinters held together only by the troll’s grip. A more sane troll would try to skewer her with it, using the splintered ends of the wood to its advantage. But old trolls lacked the intelligence for complex thought. All that remained was a creature of habit. It swung again, and again Mitsuko dodged. This time she took a glancing blow, ripping open her shirt and raking her ribs, pain flared at her side, but it wouldn’t be enough to stop her. She cut a third time at the back of the monster’s calf.

  Each time, she had cut the troll slightly deeper, striking at the same location. On the final blow, she severed the tendon. The troll stumbled, its weapon slipping from its grasp as it reached forward to catch itself. But Mitsuko was already moving, anticipating its fall. She dove upwards upwards, blade first. Ice punched straight through its eye and into its brain.

  Still, it struggled. Mitsuko let her sword go and created a third one without slowing, plunging it into the monster’s neck, where she’d aimed her first blow of the fight. This time, she didn’t miss. The troll gurgled as it choked on its blood.

  Drowning and burning. Those were the only two methods of killing a troll. She didn’t have any fire on hand.

  It still took several minutes before the troll stopped twitching on the ground. A final bubble of blood broke at the troll’s lips then it lay still in the mud.

  “You’re lucky it was ancient,” Wan said, lowering his barrier and stepping into view. He took in the monster’s wounds, piecing together the fight. “A younger troll would have healed far too quickly for a strategy like that.”

  Mitsuko wiped the sweat from her forehead and grunted in acknowledgement.

  Wan frowned at her. To the casual eye, Wan appeared entirely human. A young man with average height and build, decent looks and stark black hair. Unremarkable at first glance. But subtle signs betrayed his inhumanity. He lacked wrinkles, his joints were smooth skin, and no blemish marred his perfectly composed face, save for its current frown.

  “I was gathering information from the troll before you interrupted.”

  “I see that was going well for you.”

  “I miss the days when Sasaki first hired you. You were a great deal less sarcastic back then.”

  “Where is the emperor? Back at Fairy’s Grotto?”

  “No. He was scheduled to arrive tomorrow. At first, I suspected whoever put this barrier up was attempting to keep him from entering the archipelago. A political maneuver. I thought perhaps they intended to keep us on the island isolated until his ship’s provisions dwindled and forced his retreat, then they’d drop the spell.”

  “But you don’t think that anymore?”

  “Look up, Mitsuko.”

  She did so. The dome glinted in the sunlight. She searched for any hint of what Wan wanted her to see. A clue. It took her a minute before she pieced it together.

  “The sun.”

  “Exactly. When did the barrier drop today?”

  “Around noon.”

  And the sun was still high in the sky. Exactly overhead.

  “We’re trapped in a time dilation chamber,” Mitsuko surmised.

  “Not a chamber,” Wan corrected. “Something far more powerful. It’s sealed off the archipelago. The entirety of the archipelago appears to be frozen in time. Once I discovered that, I decided to look for answers.”

  “From a mad troll.”

  “The most ancient creature in the vicinity,” Wan defended his decision.

  Mitsuko just shook her head.

  They climbed out of the gully and headed back to town.

  “So, did you learn anything?” Mitsuko asked.

  “Nothing especially remarkable. He mentioned temporal magic during his rants, so I suspect he might have held some answers somewhere in that head. But he spent most of our conversation demanding that I pay a toll. A toll I did pay, mind you. Three doubloons. But his short term memory was shot.”

  “I see. A damaged mind.” Precious few ways existed to fix something like that. Mitsuko thought back to one of the other rumors. The one about a witch with white hair. If that was who she thought it was she might be able to…but that was unlikely. Why would that woman be all the way out here? And the point was moot now. The troll was dead.

  “What brought you out into the forest?” Wan asked. “Surely not a concern for my well-being.”

  Mitsuko quickly briefed him on the events of the shipwreck and her goal of rescuing Holly.

  “Interesting there are still ocean currents despite being cut from the ocean as a whole. Perhaps there are thermal hot springs on the seabed. But that leaves the implication that the dome barrier doesn’t cut the earth off. No. There must be another reason for it. Otherwise the temporal magic sealing us off from the rest of the world wouldn’t properly function.”

  “Will you help?”

  “Oh. Yes. If you require funds, I’ll happily sponsor your efforts getting Holly back. Having her here will be invaluable.”

  “Why is that?”

  “For one thing, I can count on her to accurately report the exact numbers and coordinates of the dome and the area inside it. As far as I know, she is the most talented cartographer on the archipelago at the moment. Her spells can calculate those numbers faster than anyone else. Then there is the added benefit that I know her. I prefer to work with friends rather than strangers.”

  They returned to Fairy’s Grotto and she sat in the foyer while Wan paid for her room. A few of the other patrons eyed her with curiosity, but nobody commented on the battered and bloodied human sitting on the couch, warming her hands on the purple fire.

  “You need to change clothes.” Wan handed her a roomkey. “Those wounds may not be deep, but they should be washed and bandaged promptly to avoid infection.”

  “I know.”

  “Do you require assistance? I have a spare set of clothes and bandages in my room.”

  Mitsuko’s eyes widened. But she reminded herself that this was just Wan.

  “No. But I’ll take the clothes.”

  Wan nodded. If he understood the impropriety of the offer, he showed no sign of it. They went to his room first to get the clothes, then Mitsuko entered her’s, next door to Wan’s. The walls were painted to look like a grove of trees and silk curtains draped over the bed at the center of the room. Sunlight from the window kept the room well lit.

  She peeled off her shirt, wincing as the cloth ripped some of the hardening blood near her ribs. Tossing the discarded soiled clothes in a heap in the corner, she then turned to a mirror posted on the wall nearby and took a step back to get a good look at the damage dealt to her body.

  A lifetime ago, she used to flaunt her body. She believed it was her ticket out of her horrible life in a backwater village in the jungle. She’d been soft with delicate skin. Long before she’d begun her training. Hours on hours resulted in that soft flesh being replaced by toned muscles. But no matter how many hours she spent exercising, no muscle would ever cover the gnarly scar that stretched across her navel. Hideous. And then there was the matching scar across her back where the tip of the blade had punctured through. She touched the old wound, her enchanted ring brushing against the scar. The very ring that had ripped her open.

  The sight of her scar reminded her that a witch from the Hon Basin walked the nearby streets. The thought filled her with a mixture of fury and fear.

  But that wasn’t her problem. No. She had no business getting involved in world plots or scheming witch covens. Besides, it could be an entirely different white-haired witch from Hon.

  She wrapped bandages around the new scratches on her side and then threw on the clothes given to her by Wan.

  Exhausted, Mitsuko sat down on the bed and closed her eyes. But she didn’t sleep. Not yet. It took her several minutes of internal struggling to get her body to stand back up. But, as always, she eventually did.

  She took a deep breath, flicked her wrist, and began her nightly routine. Step in, step out, feint, raise in block, strike, strike, backstep, forward, feint, strike, strike, block. She continued on until sweat trickled down her brow and her sword flung drops of water across the room with each swing as it melted.

  Finished, she tossed the ice blade out the window and started on her second round of nightly exercise. She stood still and focused on her magic. She was beyond useless at spells, but Holly had taught her one. It had taken half a year of practice to get it reliably correct, but Mitsuko knew a simple compass spell.

  She cast the spell and felt the pull and indisputable knowledge of her current position. Then she closed her eyes, spun in a circle, and cast the spell again. And again.

  After the tenth cast, she stopped herself. Spells cost a mage their blood and every spell had a cost on the body’s supply. Mitsuko’s lack of affinity meant spells tapped more blood from her than for the average person. She reluctantly let the magic slip from her and collapsed on her bed. This time, for good.