Chapter 10: A New Friend

Several hours had gone by since Seth had initially been locked up in a cell within the dungeon of Murdred's castle. During that time, Seth had inspected the place from top to bottom, hoping to possibly find a secret passage that he might be able to escape through. In the movies, there were often times that the hero could make use of such a passage to sneak out of their cell undetected. Naturally, that logic didn't seem to apply here.

Seth had also tried to force the door to his cell open. He figured that since the dungeon seemed so old and abandoned, there was a possibility that it might be easy to bust open the lock or something. But of course, the door was more than sturdy enough to keep Seth locked up indefinitely.

Sitting down on the floor of his cell, Seth didn't know what he could do at this point. There was clearly no method of escape from this place that he could think of. If what Murdred had told him was true, then Seth's only way out of this situation would be to willingly surrender himself to the Demon God.

What had happened to Warren, Bracken and Bright? Were they all right? Did they give up? Did they even know where he had been taken? Would they even know what to do in order to rescue him? Seth had so many questions, and nobody was going to give him any answers.

Right now Seth was feeling truly devastated. Why had the Singing Sisters forced him into undertaking this mission? There was nothing that Seth could do. If he agreed to help Murdred, not only would he lose his soul, but the Singing Sisters' pact would presumably just kill him anyway.

Worst of all, Seth truly felt alone. Sure, it was better than being interrogated by Murdred. But he had nobody to be with and nothing to do. He did have his phone on him, but the Demon Domain had no service. Although he could play games on it until the battery died, Seth opted to save energy and had shut the phone off.

Seth just wished that he could be back at Fablehaven with his family. No adventuring, no bizarre monsters. Just sitting down with everybody that he loved in a safe place was all that Seth wanted at the moment. Having all the fairies ganging up on him was starting to look pretty good right about now.

"Put me down!" shrieked a female voice, which had caught Seth's attention. From what he could tell, the voice had come from the entrance to the dungeon.

"Look, if you want to whine, whine to your new little friend!" said one of the adlets, whose voice Seth could sense was getting closer. At that moment, the red adlet, whom Seth presumed was Xipp, stuck his face up towards the window of the door.

"Open!" said Xipp, prompting the door to swing open. From what Seth could see, the three adlets were all standing there. Xillch was carrying a human girl, whom he proceeded to toss into the cell. Xeero then slammed the door.

Seth looked down at the girl, who was attempting to get up from her fall. She appeared to be in her early teens, with brown, wavy hair. What was going on?

"Hey, are you okay?" asked Seth, holding out his hand to offer the girl some help.

"Thank you," said the girl in a soft voice, as she placed her own palm down against Seth's and used his support to get back onto her feet.

"This is your new cellmate," said Xeero, speaking from the other side of the door.

"Consider yourself lucky," said Xillch. "We don't get too many prisoners. If it were up to us, we'd have eaten the both of you on sight."

"And if we had to lock you up," said Xipp, "we sure wouldn't want to put the two of you together."

"Enjoy yourselves!" said Xeero, as he and the other adlets made their way back out of the dungeon, snickering with one another.

Breathing heavily, the girl looked over at Seth, allowing them to see each other eye to eye. Who was she? And what was she doing here?

"This is awkward..." said Seth nervously, "Uh, my name's Seth. What's yours?"

"Sarah," replied the girl, looking at the scrapes on her palms which she had gained from being tossed into the cell.

"What are you in for?"

Sarah closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. "I'm a shadow charmer. Just like you."

"You are?" gasped Seth. "Wait, how did you even know about that?"

"Murdred and his two negafae told me about you."

"So you're a shadow charmer? Just like me?"

Sarah nodded in agreement. "Until today, I thought I was the only shadow charmer out there."

"I think we both have a fair bit of explaining to do," said Seth. "Like, how'd you even get to be a shadow charmer in the first place?"

Sarah sighed. "I guess as long as I'm here, I might as well tell you. You see, my uncle is the caretaker of a preserve in Washington state. Mythic Grove."

Seth thought to himself. Mythic Grove did sound like the name of an actual preserve. He'd recalled hearing the name in passing probably once or twice, but knew little beyond that.

"Anyway, my uncle often invites my family up to Mythic Grove for the summer. So we're all familiar with the magical creatures and milk and all that."

"So how'd you get to become a shadow charmer?" asked Seth.

"It started when I befriended a centaur at Mythic Grove," said Sarah. "I'd always been told to avoid the centaurs, but there was this one who seemed friendly. Little did I know that she was actually a weakened demoness by the name of Darqina, who was simply using a centaur avatar to gain my unsuspecting trust. She attempted to convert me to the dark side, but because I refused, her power only managed to make me a shadow charmer. Darqina then transformed into her true form, but because she was weak, the fairies of the preserve were successful in banishing Darqina back into her lair."

"Man," said Seth, "that's not too far off from my story."

"What is your story?"

Seth went on to explain how he came to arrive at Fablehaven in the first place, and how he had wound up at the point where he ultimately gained his shadow charmer status through Graulas.

"Can't say I'm familiar with any other demons to know about Graulas," said Sarah. "Other than Darqina. But I'm glad that I've finally found another shadow charmer. I know that the Knights of the Dawn like to keep things confidential, but I would've been thrilled to know that I wasn't in fact the only known shadow charmer out there."

"Same here," said Seth, looking Sarah in her face. Had it not been for the fact that she was claiming to be a shadow charmer like himself, Seth never would've guessed so otherwise. Likewise, he wondered if she was thinking the same way about him.

"So, how'd you wind up here?" asked Sarah.

"It's a long story."

Sarah smiled. "You think I'll be going anywhere so fast? Take your time."

"Well, I don't want to reveal too much," said Seth. "But one year ago, I made a pact with these three immortal beings known as the Singing Sisters. They provided me with some information."

"What kind of information?" asked Sarah.

"It's... not something I want to get into. Besides, it's irrelevant to what I'm getting at. So anyway, in exchange for this information, I agreed to come back in one year's time and fulfill a favor for them. This favor was to travel to the Demon Domain and defeat Murdred."

"Defeat Murdred? He seems really powerful!"

"Well, I traveled here with some allies, but we were overwhelmed by the Demon Domain's dark atmosphere. I got caught by those three adlets..."

"Xipp, Xeero and Xillch?" asked Sarah.

"Call them Alvin, Simon and Theodore for all I care. They took me to see Murdred and his stupid negafae. I didn't exactly agree with Murdred's proposal to join forces and give him the power to take over the world, so they locked me up in here. What about you?"

"Well, I was actually at home in Olympia. I was just sitting on my bed when those three adlets barged in through my window, dragged me outside, then through some portal and into this Demon Domain. From there, I was taken to meet Murdred. It was scarier than any demon encounters, that's for sure."

"Wait," said Seth. "How would the adlets somehow just emerge from a portal that lead them directly to a shadow charmer?"

"Did you not notice Murdred's evil eye?"

"Evil eye?" asked Seth.

"Maybe he didn't show it off to you," said Sarah. "But on Murdred's forehead is a powerful third eye. It supposedly has all sorts of powers. Murdred explained that he is able to detect the whereabouts of darkness with it, even in our own world."

"So after learning that I was a shadow charmer, he must've suspected there may have been more out there and used his evil eye to sense your presence."

"That's pretty much how he explained it to me. Apparently, his evil eye was able to pinpoint my exact location, and the negafae were able to open a portal to that very spot, allowing the adlets to capture me rather easily."

As Seth absorbed Sarah's story, something hit him like a ton of bricks. The Sphinx! He too was a shadow charmer! Wouldn't Murdred be able to detect him as well? He didn't know what to say to Sarah on the matter. Was it right to have even told her everything he already had about Fablehaven? It had been referred to as a hidden preserve for a reason! But if the Sphinx were to be taken to Murdred, the man might actually agree to his terms and allow him to take over the world! Right now, Seth just wanted to not dwell on that thought.

"I'm glad you had the decency to turn down his offer," said Seth. "There could've been others out there who would."

"How could I not turn down his offer?" said Sarah, arms crossed. "Even if it wasn't for something inhuman, he spoke highly of you and only scoffed at me."

Seth rolled his eyes. "What exactly do you mean?"

Sarah turned her head away from Seth and closed her eyes. "He said... it was because I'm a girl."

Seth could feel as his heart skipped a beat. "So you're a girl. So what?"

"Murdred said that woman are weak. That we're inferior to men."

"Are you for real? That Murdred sounds an idiot with the mind of small child. I bet he thinks girls have cooties too. Believe me, some of the strongest, most valiant people I know are women. "

"Really?" asked Sarah, turning towards Seth, displaying a small smile on her face. "Like who?"

"Some of my friends, for starters. And then there's my sister. If she were here now with the right support, she'd show Murdred a thing or two."

"How so?"

"Well, unlike me, Kendra has fairy magic embodied within her, rather than darkness like you and I."

"So, she's like you, but with fairy powers instead of dark powers?"

Seth let out a chuckle. "Hardly. She's a lot different than I am, even without factoring in light and darkness. She's more interested in reading than actually having fun. She's the Lisa Simpson to my Bart."

"I see," said Sarah, nodding in response. "I've got an older brother myself. He's already in university, thanks to a scholarship he earned on his own. If he also had fairy powers, I can't imagine the praise and admiration he'd be getting from my family for it."

"Tell me about it," said Seth. "If you've got dark powers, sometimes people think of you as a red-headed stepchild."

Sarah's jaw dropped, and she let out a smile. "Funny you should say that. My brother himself actually is a red-head. But he's no stepbrother, through."

"It's just stupid a metaphor from way back when. Like the idea that women are supposed to be weak. Doesn't make it correct or anything."

"I got the impression Murdred is stuck in the past," said Sarah. "Too bad there doesn't seem to be a plausible way to change his views."

"If changing his views were easy, I'd have convinced him already into letting me go."

Sarah nodded in agreement. "Oh, while I was up in Murdred's throne room, I found this." She hastily reached into her pocket and pulled out a scrunched up piece of paper.

"How'd you get that?" asked Seth, trying to discern what it was that Sarah even found.

"It was just lying on the floor, so I quickly snatched it up when Xipp tossed me down before Murdred."

"Don't you think Murdred's going to notice it's gone?"

Sarah rolled her eyes. "There were literally dozens of papers like this one scattered all over the room. I didn't get a chance to see for myself, but they all looked pretty similar from what I could tell."

"I didn't notice any papers when I was in the throne room."

"From what I could gather, Murdred was trying to capitalize on locating another shadow charmer when I was there, since he'd already found you."

"All right. What does it say?"

"I honestly have no clue," said Sarah, unfolding the paper and presenting it to Seth. "Think maybe you could make heads or tails of it?"

Seth accepted the paper from Sarah. The moment the fabric touched his hands, Seth could sense that the note had actually been written down on an old piece of parchment. Taking a good look at the text that had been written on the paper, Seth could see for himself that it had been penned in an unfamiliar, alien alphabet.

"You've got me," said Seth, handing the paper back to Sarah. "No idea what this thing says. If we can earn Murdred's trust, maybe he'll tell us."

"Fat chance of that," said Sarah, pocketing the parchment. "He's not on my side. As long as I've been a shadow charmer, I've felt like nobody's been on my side."

"I know how you feel. I know I still have my family and friends, but sometimes, because I'm a shadow charmer, there's been times where I've felt like I'm alone. Like there's nobody I can relate to."

"Seth," said Sarah, looking directly into his eyes. "At last now we have each other. Even if we don't survive this ordeal."

Seth didn't know what had come over him. He had only known Sarah for no more than ten minutes, but already, he could start feeling a connection between himself and her. She understood was it was like to be a shadow charmer. She knew what it was like to be different in the same way he was, and to not "fit in" at home.

Without saying anything, Seth, who felt like he was on the verge of crying, held out his arms and proceeded to give Sarah a hug.

"I'm so glad I found you," said Seth, embracing himself around Sarah's body, which was by far the greatest source of warmth in the entire dungeon.

"Same here," said Sarah, hugging Seth back. After a moment had passed, the two shadow charmers released themselves from each other's grasps.

"Let's make it official," said Seth, extending his hand. "Friends?"

"Friends," said Sarah, shaking his hand in response.

"If only we had a way out of here," said Seth. "Then we could actually make use of our friendship."

"I've got an idea. I tried to use my power to overwhelm the adlets, but I wasn't strong enough. But maybe, if we could combine our powers, it might be enough to do the trick."

"You think it'll work?"

"We might as well give it a shot. At this point, I don't see what we stand to lose. We can try it when the adlets come back. They said I'd get to eat something soon, so I assume they'll be back."

From that point, only a few minutes had passed before the three adlets came tromping back into the dungeon.

"They're here!" gasped Sarah, as the adlets' footsteps made their way towards the cell.

"You sure you can do this?" asked Seth.

"Let's hope so," said Sarah, grabbing both of Seth's hands in her own. Seth felt a strange feeling coursing through his body, just as one of the adlets ordered for the door to open up.

The three adlets now stood in front of the doorway. In his hands, Xillch appeared to be holding a plate with a pizza on it.

"Is that for us?" asked Seth, as Sarah let go of his hands.

"Unfortunately," said Xipp. "Helwic doesn't ever conjure up pizza for us. She made us bring this to you two brats."

"At least that woman knows her place," said Xeero. "In the kitchen!"

The three adlets all guffawed in unison, prompting Xillch to drop the entire plate onto the floor.

"Enough!" blurted Sarah, as she raised her hands at the adlets. Seth could sense darkness emanating from Sarah's hands. At that moment, the three monsters all stopped laughing and stood still.

"What happened?" asked Seth.

"It worked!" said Sarah with a huge smile on her face. "I overpowered them with my shadow charmer abilities! Serves those jerks right! Now we can get out of here!"

"I never doubted your ability," said Seth, as he and Sarah walked up towards the doorway to the cell. "But, you did it!"

"With your help," said Sarah, patting Seth on his back. "But we need to get out of here."

Seth looked down at the pizza, which was laying topping-side down on the floor. "Man, I don't care if a negafae did make that pizza. I was hungry."

"Let's just get out of here!" said Sarah.

At that moment a guard, whom Seth presumed was the sentry of the dungeon, walked over from the entrance. Somewhat humanoid in appearance, his body appeared to resemble that of a yak and a rhinoceros. "Hey, you brats should be in your cell!"

"It's okay," said Xipp, speaking monotonously. "They're with us. Go back to your post."

Seth looked over at Sarah and smiled. He got the impression that he was going to be enjoying this new-found friendship.