A few days passed when a cease fire was called. Glint patrolled the border, keeping an eye out on the shadowed country of Noier, but a new problem had come up. Firework bombs sometimes hit the lightning streaks or the shadow balls, getting the way of the battle between Noier and Lumar.

Yesterday, Ryzard and Setzard started sending firework bombs at each other across the desert in the middle of the night, sometimes even when the other battle was going on. Setzard on the left, where the sun sets and Ryzard on the right, where the sun rises, started to attack each other for no reason apparent. Spies came back saying there really only seemed to be sibling spite and not an actual battle for power.

Taking a turn left, he walked behind the Lumarn palace with nothing of its former glory and much less for the country as a whole, all tailored to Meridie's specific tastes. Crystal-shaped buildings, marbled roads with a whiteish-blue luminescence that streetlamps reflected on, and silver buildings of houses, shops, restaurants, cafés, but apart from the residences, no one occupied the other buildings. It could have been a ghost country, empty and void of life. Lumarns relied on the golden wheat fields behind the palace to sustain them and anything the Winged Monkeys could sell.

Beyond the marbled streets was a wide, white road. Meridionalis Street had whitewashed walls and a shimmering ball-shaped house made out of crystals and mirrors. It was Meridie's house, separate from the palace for whatever reason.

Nothing odd, he noted and went back the way he came to his watchtower. That's when he realized the gate had been opened. Right in front of his watchtower was a gate into Lumar. Usually, it was locked, and no one used it, but the lock had been melted, and molded back together. Briefly, he took off his glove and ran his hand across the molten metal, feeling the tingle of magick.

Fire element. Only a Noiern has that. He furrowed his brows.

"Get them!"

Glint lifted his gaze at Meridie's call, searching the twisty paths behind his tower. When he came out into the open, he heard screaming and shouting.

"Noierns! Spies!"

A shadow passed above him. Dark clouds brewed, churning, and flashing with red lightning, coming from the direction of the wheat fields. Lumar suddenly became populous as people were driven toward the center of the country. Red lightning carried tingles of magick, basking Lumar in red.

"Soldiers! Attention! Get these people to safety, Noier is attacking!" came the voice of the captain.

Glint recognized a vortex splitting the air and swallowing people, sending them to other realms. A shadow went for a child. Glint jumped forward, made a shield, and warded it off.

"To the palace!" he said, and the child ran, but another vortex swallowed her and woman who reached for her hand. Dashing forward, he tried to save as many people as he could, even jumping in front of them to offer himself up, the vortexes were strangely not interested in him.

At that moment, the shadows vanished. Meridie ordered guards to return to their posts.

"Especially the watchtowers," she said, staring at Glint, "one got away. A spy."

"Madamma," a guard said, "only few of us have survived."

Meridie clicked her tongue. "We will attack Noier once we get information out of those spies." Her cold gaze traveled across the guards. "The casualties are unforgiveable Septent," she said and turned heel to the palace.

Glint rested his hand on his sword he never used. He had not met a Noiern in years, but never once thought of them as evil, but maybe it was different now. Vezperex's soul might have turned corrupt and possibly that could affect how Noierns would think.

What is this war? He shook his head. It didn't make sense for them to fight like this. What was Septent's aim? To invade Lumar? Then she should be coming with her soldiers, attacking full force instead of this far-away poking.

He headed to his tower and decided to see if he could figure out who welded lock. Sometimes magick left memories which he could capture as curdles of smoke or bubbles. It was one of the things he could still do even after losing most of his powers.

Just as he was about to make his way to the gates, a boy burst out from that direction and skidded to a stop. Red hair, peachy skin, and freckled face could be Lumarn, but no one wore clothes like that—jeans and a hoodie with a dog picture on the front—unless they were from another realm. Everyone knew how non-Ozians dressed. It was all in the books.

In a split second, there was hope.

Maybe I can still find Princess Ozma, Glint thought.

The boy turned, making a move to escape, but the boy could be his key to the princess. If he came from another realm, that meant there was a chance now to get to the realm with the snowy country—the place of no magick.

"Halt!" Glint called. He had to stop the boy somehow. "No one is to leave at this hour!"

He cringed internally. Well done, me, that makes no sense.

"No, wait, you're not Lumarn," he continued. He had not been confrontational with people in a long time. A bit rusty. How was he going to get him to stay? Just in time, he heard footsteps approaching. Company was not what he needed right now, but at the same time it was.

"Oh my, they're coming. Uh, come, this way, hurry," he said with forced urgency in his voice, but the boy wasn't buying it. Glint saw that as a smart move. He wasn't some non-Ozian with fluff in his brain.

"I won't do anything to you. Please. Come, hurry. The ones who would do something to an outsider are coming!" he urged. The boy licked his lips and his eyes widened. Glint looked over his shoulder. The shadow of a Winged Monkey and of chains. Meridie or someone was coming. If he were caught helping this boy, he would be in trouble and lose his chance of ever finding the princess.

"Are you certain you saw him?"

Meridie, carp. Glint hurried to the door. "Oh, do hurry!" he hissed and felt a buzzing in the badge pinned to his chest. Sometimes Meridie used the badge to call him. "They are coming! My badge is telling me so."

As if he's going to know what I mean by that. And why am I talking like this? Glint grimaced at his 'good' communication skills. When was the last time he talked normally to someone? Now Meridie was nearly here. She probably wanted to know if he saw anyone.

"Who are they?" the boy and took a step forward. Glint scowled and grabbed the kid, yanking him to the door.

"Meridie," he whispered, hoping the boy knew the name. Then he opened the door to the watchtower and shoved the boy inside. Quickly, he slammed the door and locked it. He thought of just leaving the boy locked up, but that wouldn't do with trust. So, he slipped the key under the door.

"I will knock three and two and you must open the door for me once they have left," he said. The boy didn't say anything, but Glint had to hope for the best. Besides, now he had entrusted the key to the boy. Glint wouldn't be able to get inside without the boy opening it for him.

I hope I wasn't dumb. He straightened his back just as Meridie appeared around the bend. Time for a bit of acting.

"Madamma, the spy ran out to the desert!" he said in urgency. "I could go and catch him—"

"Nonsense!" Meridie flicked her hand. "He'd die out there. But keep your watch. He was with Noierns, and from the realm of America! An outsider is siding with our enemies. Could there be more? Perhaps. For now, we must find out where those vortexes lead to. Noier has made us weak. But we will not surrender! Dismissed!" Her face contorted into a snarl. "And I have two Noierns in my grasp. They will soon reveal the information." She grinned.

Glint kept his head bowed until she left. In his mind, thoughts whirred around like a storm. What was a non-Ozian doing with Noierns? Did it have anything to do with Vezperex? Or Princess Ozma? But he knew he would have to tread carefully. Slowly build trust. 

Besides, Meridie liked to keep her victims around for a long time and alive, so there was no rush for the boy to escape and save his Noiern friends. Once Meridie dealt with a defecting munchkin until he eventually switched sides. She had that effect on people, playing into their emotions and making them feel sorry for her.

With a sigh, he turned to the tower. Three knocks and two more. Just as the lock turned, he grabbed the handle and pushed the boy aside. If anyone was watching, he was just being a little weird, knocking on his own door. He quickly noticed that when he was alone, this small watchtower and tiny living space was more than enough. 

But now this boy, who seemed older than Glint had thought, took up quite a bit of space. He squished around the boy, stood on the stool to hide the key above the door, deliberately in a way the boy would see what he was doing. It was just between wooden beams.

I'm not hiding the key from you, okay? He thought.

He beckoned to the boy to follow him. There was only one place to keep him—the downstairs living space. Glint didn't spend much time down there himself, finding the top tower with all his jars of memories a better place to be. He only slept down here, never ate.

Their shoes made the wooden steps creek and groan under their weight. So many things were going through his mind. So many things he wanted to ask. Had he heard of a name like Ozma? Was he familiar with Oz? How long had he been here? How old was he? What was he doing with Noierns?

Questions later, trust first. He tried to think of something to talk to him about. But anything he thought of sounded wrong. He couldn't ask the boy how his day was. He couldn't make small talk. What even was small talk? Glint had never made any friends. The memories were his friends.

I sound so sad, he grimaced as he opened the door to the room. It never felt so small until now. Two people, too many. The unmade bed he stopped sleeping on, wedged against the wall. The armchair where he did all his sleeping on, had clothes all over it. The table was a trash holder and the sink had dishes piled up on it. The fridge, well, he didn't want to know what was in it, neither did he feel like going to the only grocers in the country to stalk up.

And the grocers might have been sucked away into another realm. So, now what? Glint poked his cheek with his tongue, keeping his back to the boy. He cleared off the armchair and put the clothes on the floor. He sat on the bed and the boy sat on the armchair.

Now what, indeed? Glint clasped his hands together, trying to think of something to say. He had just taken this boy under his wing, maybe forcefully. He had to give this boy good reason to stay, but all he could think of was making the boy his prisoner. That was most reasonable considering they were supposedly enemies and now the boy owed him for helping him. The tension in the room crackled. The boy was probably already planning his escape. Glint cleared his throat.

"So, I've told them you escaped my grasp and ran away across the desert. I have covered for you."

"Thank you," the boy said shortly, watching Glint with a careful eye. Trust was not going to come after a kind gesture. Glint hid his emotions, afraid that anything might make the boy jump up and leave. But they couldn't just sit here. Maybe he could find out more about the boy?

"Meridie told me that you were with Noierns."

"Yeah." The boy stiffened.

"And that you are from the realm of America."

"Yeah." The boy gripped the arms of the chair and his eyes glided over Glint's attire. The mask, the gloves, the jacket, maybe he even noticed the unused sword.

Maybe I should've changed, Glint thought with regret. He was thinking too much about how to keep the boy here. And for how long? Keeping someone here also meant he couldn't take his mask off. Glint always took it off before bed after a long day's work. Now he was prisoner in it. 

Sighing, he bowed his head. Why did this have to be so complicated?