Capitulum XX

" D id they say why?" I asked as Arlie audibly gasped.

"No." She peered around again. "But I did get trapped right after I started looking for it."

Arlie turned to me, eyes wide. I must have mirrored her startled expression because Connie immediately began to panic.

"Oh no, what's wrong?"

"Did you ever end up discovering your history?" I asked, my tongue suddenly feeling numb.

"I never found it." Her eyes narrowed. "And I have no intention of trying again."

We exchanged looks. "So, you don't know why they refused to tell you?"

"No, and I don't plan on asking."

Suddenly lightheaded, I leaned my back against the edge of the countertop before sliding to the floor.

"What's wrong?" Connie asked.

Arlie crouched next to me, smacking me lightly on the cheek. Suddenly, every noise echoed, like I was falling inside myself.

"Agnes didn't get her history either, and neither did Lindy," I heard Arlie explain in a hushed voice while she fanned me with a paper plate.

"The girl that got eaten by that wolf?" Connie asked.

"She wasn't eaten. It was a diversion," I mumbled, shaking my head in bewilderment.

That's when it seemed to hit Connie, and she slowly crumpled to the floor in front of me.

"Why would I magically escape only to be replaced by someone else? That doesn't make any sense."

"It might not be true," I said, though I was struggling to convince myself of the alternative. "Is there any way for us to find out if she's in there, at least? Did you have any contact with the outside world?"

Her face went pale. She peeled away from us, pacing across the small space before returning, eyes suddenly full of determination.

"We're friends, right?"

"Yeah," Arlie said.

"Could you absolutely assure me that our shared connection is strong enough that she might be in the cathedral?"

My eyes went to the ceiling, searching for an answer.

"Does the name Last Hope mean anything to you?"

"No? Should it?"

Arlie turned to me. "Maybe we should take her and see if she recognizes it?"

Connie squinted, looking between us. "Take me where? The mortal world?"

I leaned forward and said, "If you're also from Last Hope and all three of us didn't receive a history and then a week after you're freed, one of us disappears, it would make sense."

"I get it." She raised her hands to stop me. "If you can devise a halfway decent plan to prove it to me, I will consider it."

~

The next night, we all huddled in a corner of the fire pit, sipping drinks and scheming. As it turned out, sneaking off campus would be far more complicated than I'd initially assumed.

"Can we not use the throughline in the middle of campus that goes to that mortal graveyard?" I asked, but Blair shook his head. "I saw you pick the lock."

"That lock used to suck on purpose, as sort of a treat for the upperclassmen in exchange for having to sit through a year of Metaphysical Cartography. There's another throughline on the other side that leads almost directly to the pub in town." He eyeballed me over the rim of his bottle as he brought it to his lips. "But after someone — not to name any names — almost got eaten last year, they gave it the old magical lock treatment. So, now, it's out of commission."

"And if anyone else tries to climb the mammoth to get over the fence, Sylvette would likely feed us to the giant crocodile in the cellar under the dining hall," Connie added, staring forlornly at the dirt between her feet.

"There's a cellar under the dining hall?" I asked.

Arlie cut in before Connie could answer. "Agnes, you are focusing on the wrong bit of what she just said."

Connie waved off her concern. "I promise it's not that mysterious. It's just where she temporarily keeps animals that she doesn't trust around the students. I go down there every day to bring the iguanodon his ginkgo leaves."

I could see Arlie itching to ask more questions, but I decided to route the conversation back to the problem at hand before she got the chance.

"So, are there any other ways we could possibly get off campus? Any other throughlines maybe?"

We sat in thoughtful silence for a long stretch, and I'd been about halfway to giving up when Arlie suddenly got to her feet. "I have an idea."

"What idea?" I asked, nearly tripping to follow her into the throng of drunk students.

Her wispy curls danced around in the firelight as she moved through the groups until she found her target, which I recognized as the TA for Professor Arnold.

"Sam," she said with a surprising degree of authority. "I need a favor."

It hadn't even occurred to me she would know these people. Yet, when they turned to her, a passive familiarity presented itself, if not genuine excitement, when they recognized her.

She nodded toward the exit to the maze, and he handed his drink off to the person next to him and followed her out.

"Why would she want to do that?" I heard him ask as I caught up to them.

Arlie looked around conspiratorially before leaning in. "Agnes has been doing really bad at school, so she's trying to win some points. I thought I'd be doing you a favor by taking the job off your hands."

"I don't even know if second-years can do stuff like that."

"What? We don't have your staggering genius required to pass papers back and forth with Professor Arnold? Give me a break."

"Whatever, I'll ask on Monday, but I'm just saying I don't have any control over making that happen."

"No one accused you of that," she said with a smirk, and I was surprised by her smooth lilt.

"Whatever, fine."

He turned, looking surprised to see me standing behind him, but he just nodded as he circled me to get back to the party.

When he was out of sight, she grinned. "See? Easy peasy."

"Why do I need to be a teacher's assistant?"

"Because teacher's assistants get access to Professor Arnold's cage and, by extension, his throughline."

"And even if we do that, how long do you think it would take to figure out how to make it from wherever that throughline leads all the way to Last Hope?"

"We'll have to figure out how to use the atlas."

Blair laughed. "Good luck with that. I took a whole year of Metaphysical Cartography, and that shit is still nonsense to me."

That's when I realized who I had to ask for help, and the reality of it made me feel ill.

"Shit," I grumbled. "I know someone who can help us."

"Oh." Her brows knitted together. "Why are you making that sound like a bad thing?"

"It's Rigel."

Arlie choked out a theatrical gag.

"Oh, the unpleasant one," Connie said, before laughing a little. "The one who was in your room demanding the teet."

Both Arlie and Blair's eyes shot open.

"What?" they asked together.

"Metaphorical teet," I corrected, my mind still going a mile a minute, realizing I had the perfect bargaining chip. "But, yes, he's the only one who can help us, unfortunately."