The Girl in the Tower

It is said that there are only two types of people that live in tall, dark, abandoned towers: reclusive wizards or trapped princesses. And although absolute dichotomies are rarely true, this one is hard to find exceptions for. However, such categorizations are not always mutually exclusive.

It was mid evening, the sun hanging low in the sky, lazily protesting being put away for the night. The last of its light shone through the window of the high tower, providing just enough to do without a lantern.

Clair marked another tally, carving a thin line on the last wall to be covered in such markings. This should be the last one, she thought, staring at it. Grim determination adorned her face, thinking about how she wouldn’t have to scratch another mark again.

A roar suddenly shook the room, rattling everything around. Her stoic gaze cracked and she turned to look down the hall. “Measles, Mumps,” she called, beckoning the two servants of the tower.

The twin goblins scurried over to stand in front of her. Goblins, as a race, are quite androgynous, at least to non-goblins. The two could have been one and the same if Clair was not so familiar with the minute details of their faces; particularly, their disposition. Measles, the cook, stood relaxed and casual, waiting for Clair's orders. Although she was officially just a cook, her expertise had needed to extend quite beyond the title. Her brother, Mumps, the butler of the tower, didn’t share his sister’s relaxed posture. He instead stood stiffly straight, awaiting his lady’s next command.

“Are the preparations ready yet?” she continued.

“Almost, yeah,” Measles replied. “Just need to finish cooling them. They should be ready to pack by nightfall.”

“And the dragon, Mumps?”

“Still contained, but-” Another ferocious roar once again shook the tower. “…but not happy, miss Clair,” he finished.

“It’ll have to do. As long as it stays there until after we’re out, it’ll be fine.” She questioned if securing her warden so early was the best idea, but it was one of the more difficult tasks on her list, providing the pillars would hold until their escape in the morning. She shuddered thinking of what could go wrong. The dragon could escape. It could block the door. It could eat Mumps. It could even break her legs to keep her-

She clapped both hands to her face, snapping herself out of her increasing panic. Focus on now, she thought. Preparations are in place; deal with the problems now. She dismissed the goblin twins and turned back to her work. The magic bags she had been working on had taken a few months of research but the wait would be worth it. Just a few more stitches to complete the rune encircling the opening, and everything inside would be nearly weightless. Mumps had offered to help with the sewing, being the most adept at the task, but Clair found it was far slower and tedious guiding and explaining his every movement than just doing it herself. So she turned back to wall and set to work on finishing the second bag, assured it should work based on the first one she had finished a few weeks earlier.

She passed the needle quickly but accurately, piercing the rough sack she used as a bag with the soft scarlet thread they had found, looping around the stitches she had been working through the tough material. She hastened, rushing, and the needle caught her finger, causing a red droplet to form and grow. She quickly put her finger in her mouth, both from the sudden bite of pain and the worry of how a spilt drop of blood may mess up the rune she had been labouring over. She sat there, gingerly nursing the prick as a hot tear started to form on her eyes.

All the work, all the waiting, tomorrow it would finally be over ...one way or another, she thought, the intrusive thought forcing its way in. Or should I stay, a prisoner with only two friends, secure but safe? The emotions and worries she had been holding back steadily built up, leaking out against her will. The hot tears began to run down her face, dripping off her chin onto the bag.

“You alright?”

Clair's head bolted up and over to see Measles. The small creature, only a couple years her senior, had quietly sat down beside her, looking straight ahead, reminding Clair that she was not the only prisoner there. She sucked on her finger a final time and cleared her throat, wiping the last tear with her recovered hand. “Yeah,” she replied after a moment, “I'm fine.”

“I've been wondering,” Measles changed the topic, already knowing the answer to her question, “why the two bags? Surely one would be enough to hold our food and supplies.”

Clair grinned stupidly, seeing through the obvious facade, but glad for the excuse to talk about something else. “Why, Measles,” she feigned surprise, “obviously they're for my books.”

“I suppose the real question is why they were here to begin with. Though a fake brick wall is a good hiding spot.”

“All these years, I have had three companions by my side,” Clair's voice grew theatrically, “You, Mumps, and Regidor!” She laughed as she waved her hands emphatically to the spread of a little over a dozen tomes on runes and magic that surrounded her, all by the same author she had never actually met.

“And what's the first thing we'll do when we leave tomorrow?” Measles prodded with a slightly raised eyebrow.

“We will find and meet him.” Clair took a breath, feeling much more relaxed. “Besides, these books can't be that old, so he must be out there somewhere.”

At this, Measles gave Clair a clap on the back, “And we'll talk to everyone we see until we find him!”

“Yeah!” Clair raised a fist. “...Wait, everyone?”

“Yeah,” Measles replied, “everyone we have to.”

“Well, how many people could there be out there? Surely anyone would know this Regidor.”

“I don’t know, Clair; there are a lot of people out there.”

“…'A-A lot'? How many?”

“Well, I don’t know exactly how many, but I once saw about a hundred people in a room at once.”

“A hundred!?” she exclaimed, “That… that is a lot…”

“Don’t worry.” Measles reached out a small hand and wrapped a delicate claw around Clair’s fingers. “We’ll meet them together.”

§

The three slept uneasily and briefly through the night, taking shifts to ensure that one of them would be awake to keep an eye on the great red dragon on the ground floor. Clair took the first watch while the small twins leaned against her as she worked away, looping the last of the stitches through the mouth of the bag. The dragon had quieted, likely resting after spending most of the day attempting to break out of its newfound cage. Clair hummed lightly, not in tune to any melody or song, but to the rhythm of her sewing, gingerly looping and tightening and tying off the complex pattern as Mumps had taught her. She jumped up as she finished the final knot, causing the two goblins to tumble down, their large ears cushioning their fall onto the stone floor.

“Hmm? Clair? Wassat...?” Measles groaned in a stupor as her brother snoozed away.

Clair quickly turned, realizing that she had forgotten the twins were there at all while being so engrossed in her work. “Ack! Measles, sorry, I-uh...” she hastily apologized, quickly lowering her voice as she realized only one of them awoke. “It... it's done, the second bag. I didn't know if I could do it, but I, but I...” she trailed off.

“Hey now,” Measles smiled up at her. “If the first worked, then surely a second one would. Why don't you activate and fill it and I'll take next watch?” she offered to an eager nod.

Clair took a deep breath, gripping the bag precisely, eight fingers wrapped inside while she lined up her thumbs with the red markings stitched into the rough cloth. She closed her eyes, muttering “here goes...” as she concentrated, letting the magic flow through her fingertips. It buzzed as the invisible energy danced from her fingertips, catching onto the scarlet thread and slowly glowing the same vibrant red. The effect was faint at first as she was intentionally slowly letting her power come out, favouring precision, her years of practise and self-taught training guiding her will. The thread from her fingers glowed fainter as the effect travels further away from her thumbs, the glowing slowly circling either side of the bag until they met.

SNAP!

The bag suddenly let out an audible pop as the rune encircling it was powered, the energy flowing round and round in a feedback loop to keep the otherwise temporary effect going. The scarlet thread quickly brightened, pulsing before it stabilized, lighting the complicated layering of loops and circles and other shapes with a steady glow.

Clair, however, jumped slightly, eyes widening in surprise, even if she was expecting this effect after the first successful bag. The collapse of space inside would have made anyone gasp; at least that's what she told herself as the goblin girl raised an eyebrow at her and stifled a giggling smirk.

“...seems to have worked a second time?” she asked Clair rhetorically.

“Well, yes, of course.”

“And in the exact same way...”

“...yes,” Clair slowly replied, suspecting where this was going.

“And yet you still jum-”

“It just surprised me, ok?!” Clair snapped, huffing and rolling her eyes at the impish grin goading her. “...ok, fine; yes, it made me jump,” she finally sighed, chuckling at the simple, good-natured tease, feeling the relief of stress lift the mood. She glanced back down at the beaming face. “Y'know, maybe Mumps is the older one,” she grinned back.

“H-hey, uncalled for!” the goblin laughed back, now her turn to be the butt of the joke.

“I don't know, he's the one who can read the best of you two, and he makes all of our clothes, and-”

“And snores louder than the beast!” Measles laughed as her brother let out another unconscious snort.

“Ha, he sure does... but I really owe him. I wouldn't know what to do with these books if he hadn't taught me to read them. It feels like forever ago that we found them, but he was right that they would be useful; they were the key to our freedom,” she smiled as she started to place the books in the bag, each one seeming to disappear as the cloth barely expanded with each thick tome.

“I would never have the patience for that,” Measles simply chuckled. Clair's mouth twitched, forming a fleeting frown at the lighthearted comment, knowing that, true or not, her caretaker was always too preoccupied with the farming, chores, and other necessities to do any reading like her charge had been able to.

“Yes, but...” Clair trailed off, not sure what to say, instead busying herself with loading the books into the bag. “I... I owe you both so much. You've seen more of the outside than either of us, but all three of us were trapped by that dragon... And it's thanks to the three of you that we're finally getting out; you, Mumps, and Regidor,” she told her with a smirk while brushing away a bit of dust off the last book and sliding it in. It took up no space, disappearing through the mouth of the enchanted bag with the others.

“Perhaps. I have certainly done a lot around here...” Measles smirked, puffing out her small chest a bit. “...but don't count yourself out either. You worked hard and made all this happen. Mumps and I... well, I at least never had the head to study magic, not that I really remember too much of anything before I was here with you.”

Clair set the now filled bag aside, beside its paired twin, still empty and ready to be stuffed with food in the morning. While the first was flat and folded in place, the second one, now filled, was only about the size of two fists clasped together despite holding over a dozen books. “So, what do you want to do when we're out?” she asked, realizing that she hadn't actually spoken the question aloud before.

“I... I think I'll come meet this Regidor, too. Y'know, give him my thanks and all that?” Measles chuckled. “And then, uh... well, I'll figure it out later.” She gave a nonchalant shrug, as if asked if she would prefer beans or corn with dinner, treating it as a small inconsequential thought that didn't really matter to her in the slightest.

“I, well... I guess I'm not really sure either,” Clair eventually replied. “You and Mumps make the world sound so big, so full... I mean, hundreds of people? That look like me? Seems a bit odd...” she mused, shaking her head in disbelief.

“Well, we were so young then too, sixteen... or seventeen years ago? Something like that...” Measles trailed off. “...but we really only remember little bits and pieces of outside the tower, before you and the beast... But hey, we'll see it tomorrow! So get some sleep and I'll stay up for a while,” she said, crawling behind Clair and combing her hair with gentle clawed fingers as Clair rested her head on Measles' lap.

“That... sounds... nice...” Clair sighed as her eyes began to droop, the stillness of the moment and soft, familiar sensation relaxing her. “Thank you...” she yawned, drifting off to sleep.