Book One: Chapter Eleven

In a New Prison in another world

Yoko was the first to wake the next morning. She found herself in Freya’s vice grip of love and Mandolin was at Freya’s opposite side in a vice grip. She struggled to remove herself from Freya’s side.

It was a huge commotion which woke her in the first place. In the filthy room she was in, a girl with silver hair was pleading with two men who were looking down at her angrily. After turning up the volume she got an understanding of the situation. Apparently Freya was the silver haired girls mistress Astrid who had died the night before. Mandolin was some random thief who had supposedly tried to help the girl named Astrid. The silver haired girl who was not Mandolin had apparently informed the night shift but they left the duty of removing the corpses to the day shift. However, Freya and Mandolin who’s sleeping forms apparently looked like Astrid and said random thief who tried to help, were in fact alive. The girls that the girl and guards discussed were no where around as far as Yoko could see. She also figured that if the bodies were taken the morning shift were not aware.

“They really were dead! Your night guards checked as well!” the girl shrieked. “wasn’t it they who told you about these deaths?”

Yoko shook her head and looked around carefully. Along with Mandolin and Freya there were three other girls asleep in the filthy space. The floor was covered with straw. A bucket apparently used as a chamber pot was in one corner and the space smelled foul. Once this registered with Yoko she began to gag. Is this some kind of torture? Did the facility throw us into some medieval prison simulation just for kicks before the real torture starts. What the hell is this? Chamber pots? No it’s just a bucket? But how many centuries ago did this kind of stuff happen? Those scientists are so foul! Before she became overcome with the odor and vomited a loud roar caught her attention again.

“Then why are they asleep against the wall?!?!? They don’t even LOOK sick!”

The silver haired girl dropped her eyes to the floor. Under her breath she said “I’m happy Astrids not dead but why do I have to go through more trouble because she is alive?”

Yoko walked over to the open cell door. “What’s going on now?”

The two men looked at Yoko surprised at first. Aside from dirt covering her backside, her clothes were clean. Her hair shined and her eyes were just as large and dreamy as always. She did not look like some random thief who landed herself in prison. After gathering their composure they gave her a look of disdain “it’s none of your business wench!”

She looked at both men, and opted to use her persuasive powers.

“Oh? I thought it WAS my business. After all my cute little cell mates are my family and they are in fact not dead. I think this girl may have had a dream after she heard the evening shift outside the cell discuss playing a joke on you guys.” The silver haired girl shook her head and looked from Yoko to the two men which Yoko finally noticed wore Leggings, tunics, and leather armor. Yoko winked at the girl and smirked.

“Those bastards. I’m gonna kill them when they start their shift this evening!” The two guards walked away cursing the evening shift they all but forgot the silver haired girl who’s peacock colored eyes widened in shock.

“Cool! Peacock colored eyes!”

“peacock? What’s that?”

“are you serious? You don’t know what a peacock is? You must have been brought to the facility as a baby then. Hmmm…I’ve never seen you before.”

The girl shook her head, “Facility?”

“Is it finally over?” said a small voice from against the wall. Mandolin was trying to dislodge herself from Freya’s vice grip of loyalty.

“She’s not awake yet?”

“No. Its not hard to see why.” Of the three Freya had exerted the greatest amount of power. In addition it appeared as though she had lost weight within the past twenty four hours. In actuality the amount of time they had counted added up to more than twenty four hours but they would only learn this later.

“She did open all of those passages, pack our things, shine that ridiculously hot and bright light that I could see through my hands and eyelids…”

She had also worked with Mandolin to increase the speed of their snow mobile to the point where they nearly reached the sound barrier and then hold Yoko and Mandolin in a vice grip so they wouldn’t separate. Yoko had figured out that Freya had already placed a spot for the young girl in the family zone. She figured that just as with herself Freya also felt a kinship with Mandolin like she had with Yoko. As far as Clyde Mandolins brother, Yoko hadn’t really noticed him much as she was constantly scanning for enemies throughout the facility.

“let her rest.” Mandolin finally dislodged herself from Freya’s arm. A square of sunlight shined through a small window without glass panes. Mandolin walked to the square of light and spread her arms. Yoko noticed then that Mandolin’s eyes were silver like her hair. Her café au lait complexion was a stunning contrast to her hair and eyes. Her eyelashes were long and thick and silver like her hair. Mandolin was quite beautiful. It wasn’t a deep hypnotic type of beauty she would associate with Freya. She looked almost like a fairy…

“I had no idea sunlight was so warm… but why did it feel so cold when we were escaping?” Mandolin asked.

“well… we are in an enclosed space.”

Mandolins brow wrinkled in confusion. “this space is not enclosed. All of the windows have no glass.” She pointed out all of the cells. “and also I can hear outside nearby. It sounds kind of like the main floor of the facility after Freya busted the door open, but it’s warm here!”

Yoko realized that Mandolin was right in her observations. She was not sure how Mandolin could hear the outdoors while they were escaping and suddenly remembered that Mandolin unlike Yoko was not caught up in reading the thoughts of several of the facility staff. Yoko assumed that even though they were escaping she likely had paid attention to the sound of the space when their door to freedom had opened. After thinking about it she remembered in the back of her mind she sensed that everything did sound a bit different when they had gotten outdoors. However, they weren’t free at the moment. They also needed to know exactly where they were.

“Who are you?” said a frantic voice.

Both girls turned their heads towards the silver haired girl.

“Normally when you ask for someone’s name you should give them your own.” Yoko said drily.

The silver haired girl eyed both of them down suspiciously but then sighed. “oh…eh…I am Davina deSarto”

A feeling of déjà vu hit Yoko but she let it go after she couldn’t quickly find the explanation but unconsciously something nagged at her.

“I’m Yoko, and this is Mandolin.”

Davina’s expression turned sour. She had spoken to her cell mates the day before and she could have sworn they were called Priscilla and Lápis. Priscilla who was small and had silver hair and eyes had died, while Lápis was still asleep on the floor of the cell along with two other prisoners. The girl with the green brown eyes standing in front of her was completely unknown to her. She didn’t know why she asked who they were either but she realized something was off about them. They had just sat and looked as Astrid lay dying and unable to see the night before. She also knew that Astrid had in fact died but she was so obviously sleeping against the wall now and also now wearing a much cleaner garment. Her thoughts were interrupted suddenly when the girls in question removed their garments and stood there wearing their underclothing. Davina gasped at the two who turned towards her. Her her face went bright pink.

“Is something wrong?” they both asked.

“Your c-c-clothes!…” sputtered Davina.

“We know we need to change them,” Yoko explained.

“They’re kind of filthy,” Mandolin chimed in.

Both girls stripped from their underclothing and dropped them on the floor. Mandolin did not have any personal items with her, so Yoko lent her some or her clothing. Mandolins frame was not much smaller than Yoko. She was only a few inches shorter. They both put on new undergarments and new shifts and a new pair of ballet flats. The shoes were a bit large on Mandolin and the shift hung to her mid calves but she didn’t look particularly odd. They threw their dirty clothing and soggy sneakers out the window. Both girls sat on the dirty floor again.

“did Freya pack food?” asked Mandolin reaching towards Freya’s bag.

“right! I’m hungry too. Yeah she did. Somehow she secretly stashed it. I don’t know where though.” Yoko shrugged and crawled over to the bag.

They found some MREs in the bottom of her bag and took two each. Yoko noted that they shouldn’t eat many more because Freya still needed to recover her strength. Mandolin looked at Yoko.

“your bags are here and our weapons are here. Why didn’t they take them away?”

Yoko’s eyes widened in surprise. “you’re right! At first I thought we were fished out of the sea and thrown here to await our punishment but when I think about it, it’s like we’re in a completely different location. As you said earlier, it is quite warm here. Outside the facility it was deathly cold. It almost had me completely distracted… almost. ”

Suddenly a sound like a snort came from Freya’s direction “damn book!” they heard her say.

Mandolin burst out laughing. “she must have truly been mad about that book.”

“yes she really was. We weren’t brought to the facility as babies. My parents were embarrassed by me and abandoned me when I was six. I started living with Freya and her parents but they eventually died and those government guys took Astrid and I to the facility. But yeah we experienced the outside world before they took us. Went to a normal school, watched television at home, read whenever we wanted to…. Well… There is no television allowed in the barracks and on weekends all we have aside from practice and exercise is a book to entertain us. Freya was particularly bored yesterday so when the book suddenly… ended..” her Hazel eyes suddenly widened and she rummaged through Freya’s bag, looking for the unfinished book –Legends of Ourantith—with no middle or end and as she skimmed through it her mouth was agape.

“Mandolin. Pinch me.”



Mandolin did as instructed.

“that hurts!”

“you told me to pinch you!”

“no. What I mean is I’m not dreaming…I still can’t be sure until Freya is awake.”

Mandolin returned Yoko’s statement with a confused expression. “well when you’re sure, please tell me because you keep acting strange like you might know what’s going on…I’m confused though.” She crossed her arms in front of her and turned towards Freya. “you need to wake up before I send some high speed pellets towards someone’s narrow butt.“ she mumbled.

Yoko turned to Davina and stared at her. This Davina sitting in front of her kept triggering a dejavu feeling and she finally understood why. Davina looked exactly as character Davina was described in the book. Her silver hair. Her peacock colored eyes, her gown of blue and green. Yoko shook her head again.


The girls eyes widened as she looked at the girls like they were the most foreign creatures she had ever seen.

“tell me about Astrid please?”

Davina paused feeling a bit startled but decided to just talk. She felt better talking about something pleasant at least. Aside from appearance Astrid had a few qualities like Freya, such as intelligence, with, love of books, great insight into politics and rhetoric, only Freya was much less politically correct and she was very direct. Freya also had excellent combat skills. According to Davina, Astrid also had magical potential but her body could not handle that magic potential and use the power. Over the course of the conversation she learned that they were in the capitol of Trolvania and it was early morning and at one point Davina paused saying “half an hour has passed already.” It felt more like over an hour to Yoko and Mandolin. Yoko began to feel as though she had truly walked into a different world.

“It’s just like the story Yoko” Freya said softly from her spot against the wall.

“Freya,!” “Astrid!” shouted Yoko and Davina in Unison.

“I just pinched myself a good 100 times and I’m really awake, besides dreams just don’t happen with a sequential order of events…”

Yoko shoved Davina aside as she walked over to Freya and embraced her in a hug. Davina stumbled and nearly fell to the ground. Mandolin kneeled down and hugged Freya as well.

“I’m glad you two are okay but this is weird. I thought we were going to die. Seriously.” Freya touched each of their cheeks gently. “I was never a big believer in those magical stories but I have to admit that when we were in the water I noticed my bag glowing right before I passed out. Now we’re here and… Aren’t we glad these survival packs—duffel bags packed specially by Freya—are waterproof?” The left side of her mouth turned upwards in a smirk. “If we wanted to carry guns we wouldn’t have to worry about wet gun powder. Right?”

Yoko rolled her eyes. “Like we would have thought of grabbing guns after you threatened our lives.”

“I never threatened your lives!” retaliated Freya with an exaggerated look of innocence.

Mandolin gave her a dirty look. “if you left us behind we would probably be wishing we were dead.”

“Fair enough,” Yoko responded.

Freya continued “besides, that’s totally irrelevant. Now… I bet Sargent Dyson is losing lots of sleep!” Her husky laugh rang throughout the prison. “Why don’t you hand that book over to Mandolin and let her read it.”

Yoko passed the book to the younger girl and then retrieved six MREs and a canteen from Freya’s bag. She helped Freya eat her food and change into a new set of clothes during which Davina again stared their way looking scandalized. Freya pulled her hair into a ponytail and turned towards Davina with a smirk on her face.


Davina found the conversation between the three girls puzzling. They were all very bold in the way they spoke and she could barely understand anything they were talking about. All three girls seemed strangely confident despite their current situation. It was as though they were on a trip and decided to stop for a break at the prison to change and eat before heading out. Davina overlooked this however, when she looked at Freya.

“Astrid I thought you were dead!” Davina went over towards Freya and opened her arms. Freya stood up and walked into the light shining through the window. She held the heel of her palm against Davina forehead to prevent her getting any closer. Davina looked surprised as though she hadn’t expected such strong resistance. “… as I was trying to say. Davina. Look at my eyes.”

“Astrid! I’m so happy…” Freya sucked her teeth and sighed in frustration.

“Sorry but no. Look at my eyes! They’re not purple.” then Astrid showed Davina a tattoo on her left shoulder blade a tattoo of the eye of Ra. A tattoo given to all of the children in the testing facility. “… And look at this.”

Davina took a few steps backwards. The eyes of her former mistress were in fact purple.

“You’re not Astrid?”

Freya had navy blue Eyes and Astrid never had a mark on her body. She had no birthmarks or moles or uneven colored spots on her body at all.

“No. I AM NOT ASTRID DESARTO DAUGHTER OF HAKALAI AND NEFERU. I could care less about someone else’s silly parents and I’m not going to worry about them either.”

Davina looked at Freya with a mixture of shock and anger. “How could you say such a thing about the noble DESARTO family!”

“I know they’re noble and all but I just want to live a peaceful life like my parents intended. Hakalai is gonna die…Its in the prophecy.” Freya shrugged her shoulders.

“Yep.” Said Mandolin and she showed Davina the book. Before Davina could grab it she slowed the other girls hand and snatched it away.

“and her mother, that NEFERU lady is probably alive and with child. First she’s a super beauty and she probably uses some awesome kind of magic no one knows about but Hakalai. Of course the king wants his hands on her because she’s probably better looking than the queen. Oh right. Did I mention she’s probably with child too at least from the way the story looks.”

Freya looked at Yoko, pointing at the book, “I guess THIS is the type of story that is.”

“Right Freya. Did you forget to mention that Neferu is probably with child!?”

Freya smirked and chuckled. “right. I forgot to mention that.”

Freya was a fairly logical person. She was scientific in her observations. Through her power, however the world she observed was different than what most observed. Her scientific understanding helped her understand how many more ways she could use her powers. She concluded quickly that the story book had sent the girls to a completely different world that was not Earth. She decided to just ask questions and learn more. She turned to Davina and asked for her account of what happened to the deSarto family and herself, where she was at the time of each arrest, and a few personal details in order to see how similar it was to the book – “Tales of Ourantith”.

Minutes later Freya loosened her ponytail and tousled her hair while listening to Davina. She pinched herself several times. When Davina stopped talking Freya paced the cell thinking.

“Where’s Clyde?!?!” Freya suddenly exclaimed?

“sorry. He’s somewhere outside trying to find his way here. I heard him a while ago going on about forgetting to give Mandolin her things.” Yoko responded quietly. “if it hadn’t been so late at night when everyone was sleeping, I’d never have heard more… then I fainted.” Yoko drummed her fingers on her thigh, “do you think you have an affinity with him enough to contact him?”

“probably.” She whispered back. Freya had been pondering several things since she had awoken including Clyde’s suggestion that she did something to him. “Yoko. Listen for him. He probably can’t do telepathy and I can only clearly read your mind. Your telepathy only works with me. Right”

Her sister nodded.

“I think I will try to hear him though.” Freya responded.

Clyde. It’s Freya. I’m safe with the other girls were in the central prison. I may or may not be able to hear you directly but Yoko can definitely hear you. Just think like you’re speaking to me.

After a few moments Freya began to pick up a faint voice in her mind,…barn several miles away from… prison. She closed her eyes. Don’t leave until I get there! If I can’t get there keep Mandolin from… statue.

“Hey Yoko. Did I hear properly? He’s in a barn several miles away from here. Wait for him… and keep Mandolin away from some statue?”

Yoko smiled, “that’s the gist of it. Yes.”

After about half an hour Mandolin had finished skimming through the book. “Uh… I think we’re not on earth any more guys and I think we’re the aliens visiting from another planet.” She sat down.

“I’m not saying you’re stupid or anything Yoko but I’m sure it hasn’t quite sunk in that we really are in a completely different world. You’ve been listening out through the prison this whole time right?”

“yeah I have” She heard many things that she did not want to believe but now that Freya was awake she was ready to accept and discuss what she could hear.

“Yoko, turn down the volume. NOW. We need to talk”

Mandolin took a deep breath before starting.

“-Mandolin. How old are you?” Yoko asked.

“I’m ten.”

Davina looked surprised. “Ten! I thought you were my age!”

“Yeah, I bet. I am really smart. That’s all… but I’m still ten and I don’t wanna be a soldier or be used by the government for whatever political things they’re after.” Yoko and Freya nodded. Their faces wore sober expressions, but Davina though she nodded, she also looked confused.

“Anyways, from what I have seen Freya you’re smart. Really smart and really serious .”

“Wow! I never knew anyone else could see it,” cut in Yoko. “Like how she was acting all cavalier like she doesn’t care about someone about to die but she is trying to figure out how to save the man…”

Freya elbowed Yoko in her middle and shushed her. Yoko blocked her elbow and led Freya forward and let her tumble to the ground. Davina looked over at them hopefully.

Freya stood up angrily if steam could come from her ears it would be rushing out right then. “…and you’re the dolt who can’t keep up because of all the chatter you allow in your head and I know you didn’t stop listening since you obviously keep hearing about that girls father dying so much that you are blurting out unfounded statements.” Yoko steadily laughed at Freya who smacked Yoko’s forehead as soon as she finished speaking.


“why mention anything when you can’t make any promises… turn down the volume Yoko. They keep saying the same things I think. I tried to hear it that’s all i vaguely heard. It’s like a really big event here apparently. The death sentence for a man guilty of Treason…” she said it like a proud citizen of Trolvania supporting the execution of a traitor.

Davina eyed her angrily. Freya rolled her eyes and shrugged. She was joking but Davina didn’t get it. She didn’t even care to explain because they were from two COMPLETELY different worlds.

Mandolin interrupted. “Freya, I wanted to discuss this prophecy…”

Man’s kingdom will destroy a family descending of troll royalty. The father will die, his daughter reborn with a new body and soul, his sons birth is but a hope to him…”

Freya cut in “ok. So it’s that cheesy prophecy again.”

Mandolin stopped for a moment in thought. Before she started again Yoko cut in, “I know what you’re getting at. You think Freya could be Astrid’s reborn form. New body, new soul, all here. Unfortunately she is not Astrid…. Unfortunate for Freya and especially the people who think this is the gentle Astrid.”

“You calling me a violent beast who would rip apart a baby if it cried a decibel too loud?”

“wait…” Yoko laughed. “… I did not say all that.”

Freya was in reality, very gentle and protective. Her reason for working relentlessly to get stronger was to be able to honorably protect those she loves. She spent numerous hours in the facility bathroom stalls secretly exercising her powers of telekinesis. Her efforts were not just about getting out of the facility. After escaping she wanted enough strength to protect herself and Yoko when necessary.

“yes. That’s one thing.” Mandolin said “but before that it said the family would be destroyed and the father would die… meaning this all hinges on one: the deaths of Astrid and her father and two: your appearance or maybe OUR appearance in this world.”

Freya suddenly jerked her head up staring outside the cell they were in. In front of her was an old couple. She knew exactly who they were. Briefly in the book they were mentioned. Pomeroy and Lucinda…the “Two Seers”.