I keep moving forward, steady on the outside,
but inside my hope is starting to crack.
This must be the fifteenth time we've come back to the same corridor.
Corridors everywhere.
Damp stone walls.
Small, airless rooms.
Nothing else.
And worst of all—
not even the faintest hint of a way up.
Every now and then we stumble upon a door, taller and heavier than the others.
It feels like it appears out of nowhere, offering us the illusion of escape.
Every single time, my heart leaps.
I rush toward it, hope flaring—not just in me, but in the others too…
…only to be crushed again.
They all open onto empty rooms.
The same rooms.
It feels like a colossal joke.
A cruel prank, maybe meant to punish my curiosity.
How is it possible there are no secret passages?
No hidden exits?
Getting out of here feels impossible.
We've been walking for hours.
At first, we were moving in circles.
Then something changed.
Everything became linear. Repetitive. Mechanical.
I couldn't recognize a single landmark anymore.
I was lost.
I turned to my friends, praying it wasn't the same for them.
But none of them remembers the way back to the flowered gate.
We're exhausted.
Hungry.
I want to scream.
To cry.
But they all look just as broken as I feel.
This is my fault.
I'm the one who dragged them into this.
I can't be the first to fall apart.
"There! Look! Maybe that's it!"
Maya's voice.
Sun's Rainbow, please—
let it be true.
I spin around.
She's already moving down a corridor I don't remember ever seeing before.
We follow her, hearts pounding wildly in our chests.
At the far end, an archway rises—tall, wide, rounded.
Beyond it, the space looks brighter than the others.
Joy surges through me.
"Maya's right! That has to be the way out!" I shout, breaking into a run, overtaking everyone.
I'm almost there—
almost—
…
I hear water.
Flowing. Splashing.
It has to be the fountain outside the prison!
I know it. I feel it.
I run faster—
—and burst inside.
…
I stop dead.
It's not the exit.
The others catch up so fast they nearly crash into me.
We look around.
I see it in their eyes—
the same disappointment crushing my chest.
We're in a vast chamber, nothing like the cramped spaces we've seen before.
At the center wall, a fountain spills into a stone basin with raised edges, rock and masonry fused together.
So that's the sound we heard.
At least we can drink.
For one brief moment, we shut everything else out.
We almost throw ourselves at the fountain, drinking greedily.
The hunger eases.
The thirst fades.
"Let's check the walls," Bumbling suggests after a while. "If this room's different, maybe there's a hidden passage."
"That makes sense," Fealsy agrees. "If there's a fountain, there has to be another way out."
They all look at me.
Waiting.
It's a good idea.
"Let's do it," I say, forcing resolve into my voice.
We get to work.
We search every inch.
Every corner.
Even the inside and outside of the fountain itself.
We leave nothing untouched.
And once again—
we're disappointed.
Exhausted, we sink to the ground in silence.
Even Beagy and Milly—usually unstoppable chatterboxes—say nothing.
Maybe we're just too tired.
Or maybe we're all afraid of saying the wrong thing.
Of saying something useless.
How could I have been so reckless?
And my parents warned me—again and again—not to come down here!
But honestly—couldn't they have explained why instead of being so mysterious?
If they'd told me it was like this, do they really think I'd have come anyway?
Come on.
When we get out of here, I'm telling them.
That's not how you do things.
I look at my friends.
Their eyes are closed, as if they're resting.
Are they really?
If only I'd disobeyed alone.
If only I hadn't dragged them with me.
They'd be warm right now.
Safe in their homes.
Fireplaces lit.
Bellies full.
Blankets tucked tight.
And instead—
I can't hold it anymore.
The emotions surge up inside me like a flood, and I break down, sobbing.
I feel like a dam giving way—wanting to stop, but unable to.
I feel their eyes on me.
"Why are you crying?" Làidir asks gently.
Between sobs, I manage to choke out,
"It's… it's all… my fault…"
Milly's and Beagy's small arms wrap around me.
"Don't say that," Beagy murmurs.
"It's not true," Milly adds softly.
Maya places a hand on my shoulder and forces me to meet her gaze.
"Well, that's some truly regal behavior, Meg," she says coolly. "Exactly what you'd expect from a leader."
Her words hit me like a slap.
She's right.
I have to stop this.
I brought them here.
And I'll be the one to get them out.
That's what Dad would do.
Mom too.
So why not me?
I wipe my tears away and force myself to pull together.
"Hey—look at this!" Fealsy exclaims, snapping everyone's attention toward him.
I stand and walk over.
He's staring intently at a spot on the fountain.
I look closer.
There's a plaque—so small it's almost invisible to the naked eye.
I step nearer, the others crowding in behind me.
But how… how is this possible?
It's a filigree.
With my portrait.
And beneath it— my name: Princess Majory Mcyea.
"It looks like you… just a bit older, maybe?" Bumbling says, squinting. "And those clothes are totally different from what people wear now. Still—wow. You could be sisters!"
There's only one reasonable explanation.
"She must be one of my ancestors."
"Phew," Beagy sighs dramatically. "Good thing. I thought you were ancient."
He says it with such absolute seriousness—and it's so ridiculous—that we all burst out laughing.
"Look! Look what I found!" Yosho suddenly shouts, popping out from beneath the archway.
I wince. I hadn't even noticed he'd wandered off.
He's breathless, eyes bright, waving an enormous ancient book in the air.
"Maybe this tells us how to get out!"
We spring back to life instantly.
With exaggerated solemnity, Yosho lowers the tome to the floor and sits down.
We gather around him in a circle, and I take my place directly in front of the book.
"The Book of the Dynasty…" I murmur, reading the large title etched in ancient lettering across the cover.
I open it.
Carefully.
So carefully—I'm afraid it might fall apart.
The pages are yellowed, worn thin by time.
So delicate they seem to whisper beneath my fingertips.
I handle them as gently as I can.
On the very first pages, there's an image I recognize.
"…Isn't that the same painting as before?" Fealsy says. "And this—this is the fountain!"
I nod.
It's the same place.
And the girl depicted there—
she's my ancestor again.
Could there be a connection between her and the fountain?
"Please, Meg," Yosho says softly. "Read what it says."
I'm genuinely curious now.
I draw in a deep breath—
and begin to read.
"Princess Majory Mcyea, scion of the Royal Dynasty of the Mcyea.
To those who came after, it hath been handed down that this proud and noble Gnome did commit a grievous wrong.
Whilst yet in tender youth, she did proclaim herself enamoured of her coachman, the Gnome Yolmi.
Born of humble stock, he sought with gentle words to bring her unto reason.
Much older than she, pledged in marriage and devoted in heart to the fair Sophie, he could not return the Princess' affections.
Then did the Princess—heedless of the will of others, accustomed ever to take and never to yield—give herself unto obsession:
Yolmi, as though he were but a thing, must needs belong to her.
Thus did she command that he be seized and carried away by stealth, believing that, once torn from his beloved, the Princess would find entrance into his heart.
Yet matters went not as she had hoped, for the young man never loved her.
Enraged, and swollen with bitter wrath, she did then cause him to be cast into the deepest dungeons of the Castle of Mcyea…"**
"That's yours, Meg!" Milly blurts out, eyes shining, like she's just uncovered the greatest secret in the world.
"Shhh," Donny hisses. "Don't interrupt."
"Sorry…" she whispers.
I take a breath and go on.
"Where was I… right. Yes. Here—…and thus did she cause him to be imprisoned within the secret dungeons of the Castle of Mcyea.
Thereafter she denied him utterly, and turned her gaze unto another Gnome.
Yolmi, left alone, fell into a dark and hopeless oblivion.
And then, yearning with all the strength of body and of soul to reach her who dwelt within his heart, he did attempt to flee.
But vain was the endeavour; and he perished, overcome by madness born of grief and by unendurable torment.
When tidings of this sorrow came unto the ears of Sophie, she—blinded by anguish and inflamed with deep hatred against the Princess—turned herself unto she who, in the Realm of the Two Rainbows, was feared above all others:
the Gnome Fheall Mcotgan, ancient and valiant commander, the most puissant of Witches.
Before her she cast herself down and did beseech her to enact vengeance.
Fheall, moved to pity and yet made furious by what she had learned, consented—and did hurl upon Majory a curse so cruel that it is spoken of even unto this day:
That upon attaining her sixteenth year, she and all the women born of her line should wander in vain within the subterranean halls of their own domain, never to know true Love.
There, alone and lost, they should wither away in madness and in anguish, until such time as one among them should break the eternal malediction."**
I can't go on.
Something's wrong—I don't feel well.
"And how do you break the curse?" Donny presses. "Does it say?"
I nod, trembling.
Yes. It's there.
…And I don't like it.
Not at all.
I force myself to keep reading, desperately hoping—uselessly—that the words on the page will turn into something else.
**"In one sole manner might this come to pass:
that Princess Majory herself, or one of her descendants, should encounter and recognize True Love before the fulfilment of the prophecy.
And should such fortune befall her, she must herself destroy it, condemning her own soul to a life of everlasting and most dreadful misery—
even as the noble lady had imposed upon Yolmi and upon the gentle Sophie.
Only then would they be… avenged…
and the eternal curse… at last… undone."**
…Asher…!!!
My one.
My only.
My greatest love.
No.
I don't believe it. I won't.
Asher—no.
"Meg!"
I think Yosho and Maya rush forward, catching me as I fall.
Then—
only darkness.