The castle was strange.

Okay, so Vella had known that from the start, but it ran far deeper than she could've ever have expected a castle to go and with far more complex machinery and sorcery than she'd ever seen in her life.

The first room Shay (Vella had debated calling him 'Prince Shay', since it felt odd calling a prince casually by his first name, but found that Prince Shay was even stranger on the tongue) had showed her was the nearest to them that he could access: the dining room.

The dining room wasn't particularly big- there was a large window looking out into the forest.

In the middle of the room was a slightly awkwardly placed table and a couple of chairs, almost like they'd been shoved haphazardly into the room and left there mere minutes before Vella had come in.

Looking outside, it was rather misty, like a spell had been cast over the forest.

It had to be quite lovely at sunrise and sunset, but even just in the middle of the night, it was a beautiful view. Ray was snoozing quietly in the sky as his glow sent an ethereal blue glow over the sea of mist- he must be quite tired.

"Wow, that's a cute baby chair," Vella remarked, spotting it in the corner of the room.

It was decorated with suns and moons in a very pleasant orange and blue color scheme- was everything in this castle based on Ray and Hope?

Shay coughed. His face was bright red. "That's, um, mine."

"Oh, that's cute! You used it as a baby?"

"No, um, the computer insists on me using it. Now. Like right now. As an adult. To eat meals." Shay looked as though he'd lit his entire head on fire, he was so flushed.

Vella felt her own face flush- she was torn between hysterical fits of laughter and being completely speechless. Hope definitely seemed pretty affectionate, but, uh...

Well, this was awkward.

"Oh."

"I mean I told her- it- that, that I had outgrown it, and that I could use a table like everyone else, but I guess she, uh, glitched? And decided to- do that. Anyway, um, I guess now that you're here they got a new table in here, so, um, thanks for that. I'll shut up now I'm talking too much. Anyway moving on in the tour!"

And off Shay hurried, clearly embarrassed, leaving Vella to hurry after him while trying to cool off her own flushed face.


The next room was a chamber with three doors.

"Is this a closet?" Vella asked, looking at the first with interest. Each door had an inverted triangular window, with small cartoony faces on them. All of them looked asleep, with strange little symbols glowing on each door.

Shay smiled a little for some reason. "Not exactly. Teleporter, activate."

The sleeping face on the door they were standing directly in front of blinked awake, straight into a smile.

Now that Vella thought about it, nothing here really seemed to frown. Even the weird wolf didn't have a mouth. The only things she'd seen frown- people? Beings?- were Hope, Ray, and Shay.

Though could she really say Marek didn't frown if Marek didn't have a proper face?

"To the Trophy Room?"

Shay went red again, the smile giving way to embarrassment.

Vella was just in admiration that so much blood could go to his head without him somehow passing out.

"Um- no, no, we're good. Need to tell the computer to block off that room," he mumbled.

"Wow, you're a talking closet?" Vella asked, regarding it more curiously.

Sure, a "teleporter" sounded cool, whatever that was, but there wasn't really any reference to what that was. Maybe it was a super fancy closet? One that talked? She wouldn't put it past a prince to have a super fancy closet.

"Who are you?" the talking closet on the far right of the room replied. (Could "the far right of a room" be said about a circular chamber?) Though, the tone sounded quite interested in Vella's presence and general existence, rather than confrontational.

"I'm Vella. What's your name?"

The far-left talking closet paused. "I... oh, gosh. It's been a while since someone asked me that..."

Shay blinked at that- startled.

The closet blinked again. "Let me check my files..."

A brief silence.

"It's... Melanie. Huh."

"We actually have names?" the far-right one asked, abruptly also rather curious.

Melanie hummed. "Yes, you're... Ophelia. And Nadine is in the center- she goes to the warp core. Though, she tends to be inactive, so don't expect a greeting from her."

"Huh," Ophelia said.

"Well, nice to meet you, Melanie and Ophelia. Are you a closet?" Vella asked politely.

If the doors could've smiled mischievously, Vella was almost certain they both would have. "Kind of. Step inside me and I'll show you," Ophelia said, her doors sliding open.

Vella turned to look at Shay dubiously- he was quick to nod, stepping inside. "Don't worry about it."

"You're sure?" Vella didn't want to be offensive, but, well... stepping into a closet seemed rather strange.

"I mean, I've never had much trouble with it," Shay replied, shrugging.

Vella tentatively stepped in- it was a tight squeeze in the closet, with Shay there. He had to awkwardly shuffle backwards a little. "I hope you're right..."

Shay smiled- a crooked little smile. Now that she looked closer, he only had one dimple, in his left cheek. Maybe that's why the smile was crooked. "Don't worry. It's safe."

"Mostly," Melanie chimed in.

"Mostl- wait what-"

Lights blinded Vella, shimmering and flashing in a strange pattern that was almost reminiscent of sewing or clothwork patterns. She wished she could say she was mostly unphased, but she did unfortunately give a yelp of surprise and latch on tighter to Shay in surprise before the feeling in her fingers was overtaken by a strange feeling.

Her skin didn't exactly crawl- it wasn't exactly an unpleasant feeling. It reminded her of the one time her mother had let her have a sip of champagne- almost like bubbles shooting up her skin.

When Vella blinked the afterimages of light out of her eyes, she almost fell over in shock.

This was a hallway, full of many arched doors with large and intricate images painted on them- not the small chamber with the three doors that Vella and Shay had been standing in.

"Hey," Shay said abruptly- his voice was a little more high-pitched, she was pretty sure.

Vella turned to look up at him- had his head shrunk?

Now that she was looking at him, she realized she'd instinctively started clinging to him in the closet- teleporter- and quickly took a step back. "Oh, I'm sorry."

"No, Vella, um, your head..."

"What do you mean my hea- wait, what the f-" Vella pulled back from Shay further, feeling her throat- her voice had gone a little deeper. Her fingers made their way up her suddenly-too-big chin. "My head! Your head!"

"My-" Shay reached up and felt his face. Judging by the way his face went a tiny bit paler, he'd discovered the sudden shrinking of his own head. "Oh."

Melanie gave a sympathetic hiss. "Yeaaaah, we've got a wiring malfunction going on right now. The computer's working on fixing it, but we're noticing that going through's shrinking and growing heads."

Vella looked at Shay with wide eyes- closets could do that?! Sure, maybe Shay had a super fancy closet, but still- shrinking heads?

Shay's eyes were also rather wide. "What."

"Oh, but don't worry. It's temporary," Melanie said soothingly. "If you just come right back through one of us, your head will go back to normal."

Vella glanced at Shay- he was already nodding. "Okay. Let's make the return trip, then, Vella, and we can take the long way around."

"I feel like you should be more concerned about this!"


The rest of the tour was nice enough, Vella supposed, flopping into the bed in the room she'd been given and feeling quite drained.

The hallway they'd gone to with the intricate doors was filled with 'adventures'- a runaway train that was impossible to crash, an ice cream avalanche, and a strange room filled with hugging creatures. It also led to a balcony that opened out to a contained garden, with thorns entangling high enough that it couldn't be simply hopped over.

Still, it was a pretty garden, if just one that would be hard to escape.

"Oh, I do hope you like the room. We don't dust in here all that often anymore," Hope said suddenly, her face appearing in the window- it took Vella quite a lot of control not to jump in shock.

"Um, it's nice, I guess?" Vella scratched her cheek a little.

"Well, I suppose Ray was right earlier; Shay does seem to like you," Hope said, a strange warmth and relief tinging her voice.

Vella frowned. "Wait, that's right. You told me to 'save' Shay, but then you didn't let me tell him how I got here. Or that he was in danger. You had a whole script about me being a maiden in distress or something. Though Shay doesn't seem to be in danger. I mean, the castle's weird, but he seems to be pretty comfortable here. What with that weird Marek wolf, I suppose. Wait, and you said Marekai was a threat. Is Marek Marekai? He seems harmless though..."

(And of course, this was the part where Vella realized she was rambling and hastily shut herself up.)

"Ah. Yes." Hope cleared her throat a little, awkwardness clear in her demeaor. "Well, that would be because Shay doesn't know that we're all cursed."

Vella blinked.

Then blinked again.

"Excuse me?"