As I staggered back, my mind filled with various obscenities to yell at our captors. More important than the various crass insults were all of our unanswered questions.

However, fate had dictated that they would remain unanswered. Before either Tyron or myself could get a word in, the door had shut, and at our feet lay another captive.

Collapsed on the floor, she wore brown trousers with a small, empty holster, a grey tank top, and had deep brown hair tied up in a ponytail. I turned to Tyron, who shared my mutual disappointment and appeared potentially even more irked, looking as if he were about to rip open the door. We had gained nothing, unless this girl knew more about our prison than we did.

"Didn't you say you wanted a meal earlier Tyron? The Divines seem to have rewarded you," I quipped.

"Yes...if she doesn't have any useful information, it might be about time."

That was when there was a low groan, and she began to twitch. She rolled onto her back and began to slowly blink open, muttering someone's name. I thought I heard "David", and was probably correct. She fumbled about on the floor for something or someone to hold onto, but found only bitingly cold stone on the ground. The young woman's eyes then shot open as Tyron came into view, and she rolled up, looking around for some object to defend herself with. I reached forwards, but she leapt back, finding a glass vase on a table behind her. She promptly shattered this on the table and waved the shattered remains before us, slowly backing up.

"Answers, now!" She spat. "Where's David, where am I, who are you? In that order."

"Shut up Kir," Tyron spat to this unseen figure. I was growing increasingly concerned by this.

The girl turned her head to me, "You, Kir or whatever your name is. Those three questions. Now!"

"Just calm yourself," I replied, more defeated than frustrated at this point.

"I don't think that answered any of my questions. Now, answer or I slam this in your face!" She jerked her arm threateningly, looking me up and down for a weapon.

Much to her surprise, rather than the weapon she had expected to find, I ignited a small flame in the palm of my hand. Sadly, it didn't quite have the impact I intended, being pitiful and flickering in stature.

"Sorry, it's usually more impressive than that. However, I don't have the answers to either of your first two questions, and I'm only partly sure of the answer to the third, at this stage. Please put the shard down, and I'll try to explain to you as best I can. Otherwise, I may have to give you some first-degree burns."

My joke seemed to calm her down a bit, and she lowers the shard.

"So," She swallowed. "We're in the same boat then?"

"I'm afraid so. All three of us are unfortunate prisoners. Of what, we do not fully understand, but we have several theories. As for who we are: He's Tyron, and I'm Astro. We've not been acquainted for more than about a half hour, though, so there's no backstory for you."

"Astro," Tyron rumbled distractedly. "Should have asked that. Rude of me."

"Destiny," She said grimly, brushing her fringe aside slightly and placing the shattered remains of the glass on the table. "They caught me around some portals. Me and my… friend. That's uh… David. I don't know whether they caught him, or, killed him… Yeah."

"Well, if you're looking for answers, I'm afraid it's slim pickings. The creatures that keep us here are called Endlings, and as you saw earlier, I'm not capable of using my magic properly. Meanwhile, Tyron's had several confrontations with a being called Freak. And no, we don't know very much about it either."

Tyron then began to grumble inanely. "Translucent shit. Going to kill him the second I see him."

"So, you're Astro," She asked quizzically, seemingly starting to calm down a little. "Who's Kir?"

"Yes," Tyron said unnecessarily, seeming to wake up from his grumbling. "Oh, yes. Kir is…" He gestured to the sword at his side, "That."

"Kir is a sword?" She dryly responded.

From slightly behind Tyron, I gave Destiny a look that said to just go with it.

Tyron then pulled the scabbard from his side, looked squarely at it and smiled sadly at the sword.

"You can talk to them now, go ahead," Tyron coaxed.

"My gosh, I thought I'd never speak to anyone but Tyron!"

"The sword is talking. In my head." Destiny ruminated. "Wasn't expecting that this morning, but hey I was pretty dead then so, this is one of the more normal things to happen today."

I mentally lamented the breach of my final private space. At least there was somebody to help me through my avid existential crises.

"Well," Destiny said, clapping her hands together and blinking furiously. "What do we know about the situation? Is there a window?"

She then looked over and saw the barred windows along the wall, and then realised this was a rather stupid question. Scratching her neck in embarrassment she went over to the window and looked out.

"Pretty high up." She said absentmindedly. "So, looks like we're stuck up here. Best get to know each other."

She grimaced and sat down on the nearest four-poster.

"Anyone care to start?"

I got the feeling that Tyron was not going to volunteer before me, so I spoke up.

"I hail from Arcadia, on the Horizon. It's a place; people just aren't very good at naming things where I come from. I'll keep it short, but I have the innate ability to use magic where most of my friends do not. I've seen many things over the course of my life, and, honestly, I don't particularly want to talk about it. All you need to know is that I want to get out of here as much as you do, and that I have more patience than I appear to."

Destiny nodded, as if understanding, yet I knew that she couldn't so easily. Nevertheless, I was finished.

"And you Tyron?"

Tyron looked at her and glared. "You fir-"

That was when Kir eagerly bounced back into our heads. Once again, I cringed at the loss of my inner sanctity.

"Well, if you must ask - we're from Minecraftia! Don't really have a home. We just sort of wander. Tyron's an anomaly who's friends with dragons. I'm a bluestone vein. We killed Herobrine together." It was plainly gushing over past glories, and Tyron just looked at the floor, growing increasingly discontent.

"That's enough Kir," He growled as the sword mentioned the name "Lupi".

"And you, Destiny?" The inside of my head had never felt so peaceful.

"Obligatory alcoholic joke." She dryly quipped. "I'm Destiny. I just kind of woke up a few weeks, maybe months, ago. Born from nothing and all that. Anyone else in that situation? Just kind of born fully grown? Potential amnesia?" Tyron raised a hand sadly. "Glad I'm not alone. So, I met this guy called David - we clicked. Stayed with a villager for a while, then he died. We were harassed by this guy called Martin - Herobrine's obnoxious apprentice. Then, eventually, he kidnapped me, held me hostage. Tried to kill me, extract the 'golden diamond' from my essence. Needed it to invade somewhere or something. David almost died trying to save me. I almost died. And then the Notch-damn second we had an opportunity to get out of that life - to have a damned easy stretch - we were pulled right back in! Our 'past-selves' decided they wanted us to investigate this weird portal they found. 'Hey! Want to enter a perilous situation we know nothing about?! Hop on in!'" She glared off into the corner of the ceiling. "They attacked us. Three Endermen and some weird gorilla-looking man attacked us. They took me and I don't know what happened to David. He could be captured - or being tortured - or dead!"

She dropped forwards, rubbing her temples furiously.

"Damn it!" She shouted, but instantly regretted it. "Sorry, that was rude."

I looked across at Tyron, who scowled impassively but nodded as if understanding. Kir seemed to "Hrm" in a concerned manner.

Then, because things always work best in threes, the door opened in a slightly less dramatic manner than the two previous times. However, this time it looked like something would advance the plot in a meaningful way. Between the two Endlings from before was a well-dressed middle-aged man with a large bald patch. He smiled coldly.

"The Entity would like to speak with you."