Secret Novel Chapter 7: Fernaldo (Patreon)

It had been a couple of hours since Madeline and the young man made their ‘escape’ further into the Maze. Neither of them were sure of how long their head start was meant to be, if they had one at all. Still the two went on, aimlessly through the Maze.

The boy’s name was Fernaldo, and apparently he had only turned eighteen two days before his city’s choosing. He had also called her Edwin at the start, having heard it from Flora, but when Madeline tried to correct him, she found that she was still unable to make a noise. Even her heavy breathing was completely silent. Still, with a slightly angry look and some rude gestures, Madeline was able to communicate that she didn’t like being called by her given name.

After that Fernaldo was mostly quiet as they went through the Maze. Though he did at a few points, specifically when he tripped the pair on accident, told Madeline just to leave him and go off on her own. Each time Madeline aggressively refused him and tried to communicate that they had more of a chance at survival together. That was rather hard to communicate without words, and she never did get the point fully across. Pointing at the second pack on her back and then back to him, did eventually get him to understand she grabbed it for him, which he was immensely thankful for.

Madeline had tried to keep herself and Fernaldo on a path heading west, but the Maze wasn’t being very helpful. Honestly Madeline wasn’t sure how much progress they were actually making in terms of getting as far from the mages as possible. For all she knew they could just be going in large circles. Still they kept moving.

Mid afternoon, the pair found themselves walking down a rather long winding path, with little to no exits on the sides, but at least they were heading west.

“Hey, I think there’s a fork up ahead,” Fernaldo said. At this point Fernaldo had taken the second pack on his back, and was walking by himself without her help. Though it might have slowed them down quite a bit, Madeline needed a break from helping him. Also the two were quieter this way, so it might also help them hear if anyone else was close by, be it other offerings or mages. Madeline looked up and saw that Fernaldo was right, up ahead the straight path ended with a turn to the right and left. “Which should we take, north or south?” He asked, looking over at her. Madeline pursed her lips and tried to think back to whether they had traveled further north or south. Before she could complete the thought, a blood curdling scream cut through the air.

The pair froze in place, both holding their breaths as the scream continued before suddenly being cut short. In the Maze it was difficult to tell exactly which direction it had come from, but it was clearly ahead of them.

“Maybe,” Fernaldo whispered, “we should turn back and head down one of the paths we saw a few minutes ago.” Madeline aggressively nodded her agreement, having no desire to find out what that scream was. Madeline turned back around to head back down the path, only to find that it now ended five feet behind them. “Well fuck,” Fernaldo cursed. “The Maze hates us doesn’t it?” Madeline nodded. “So…” He turned back around to the fork. “North or south?” Madeline sighed silently before pointing south. Fernaldo nodded, and the two set off again, though they were noticeably quieter, listening out for any signs of trouble.

The pair luckily never found any trouble, but the sun did eventually start to set, sending parts of the Maze into darkness with its long shadows. It was getting harder to see into those shadows, and each time they had to turn down one it felt like a gamble. Finally in one of these long shadows Fernaldo seemed to have had enough and stopped to lean up against the hedge.

“Goddess, I hate walking,” he said, rubbing his leg. “Can we take just a short break?” He looked up at Madeline with pleading eyes.

Madeline didn’t like the idea of stopping while the mages were after them, but her feet did hurt, and a break wouldn’t be the worst. As if on cue Fernaldo’s stomach growled and Madeline’s followed suit, though hers was silent which was a strange feeling. Madeline eventually nodded and sat down leaning up against the hedge. Fernaldo let out a sigh of relief and plopped down on the other side of her.

“Alright, let's see what food this bag has to offer,” he mused as he pulled the second pack into his lap. Madeline was also interested seeing as she already knew what was in her pack. Searching through the pack, Fernaldo pulled out some clothes and other things. Looked like the pair might have taken the noble offerings pack. Oops. Well he wouldn’t miss it. Then Fernaldo pulled out a book, and Madeline’s eyes lit up.

“You like books?” Fernaldo chuckled, having spotted her expression. Madeline nodded. “Here, “ he said, throwing the book over to her, as if a book was just something you casually threw around. Madeline caught it, doing her best not to hurt the potential source of entertainment. “I never learned to read, so no use to me,” he said before going back to dig in the pack.

Madeline turned the hard covered book in her hands, trying to find a title. Though there were none on the exterior, she opened the cover and found the title. Gems of the Desert Nights. She had no idea what this book was, but the title sounded promising.

“Aha!” Fernaldo said triumphantly, pulling out a wrapped piece of dried meat. “Food!” Quickly the hungry boy tore into the hard piece of meat, only to suddenly start coughing up a storm. “Shit!” He coughed more, and Madeline started to get concerned. “Why is this hotter than hell fire?!”

Madeline burst out into silent laughter as Fernaldo opened his mouth to fan his tongue.

“It’s not funny. Why would anyone do that to a good piece of meat?” Madeline couldn’t help but keep laughing, as she extended out her hand to ask him to hand it over. “You seriously want to try it?” She nodded, and he coughed again. “Fine but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Madeline chuckled, before taking a bite of the meat. Instantly she coughed at how spiced up this food was. “See!” Still she chewed, and it definitely burned her mouth, but she kind of liked the burn in a strange way. She went back for a second bite. “Are you seriously eating that thing?”

Madeline just smiled and took another bite. It was good, if spicy and hot. Fernaldo just shook his head at her. Feeling for him a bit, Madeline pulled her own pack into her lap and dug around for a piece of salted dried beef and then threw it over to him.

Clumsily he caught it and then looked at her. “It’s not going to burn is it?” Madeline chuckled and shook her head. He took a sniff of it, then a lick and decided it was good enough and bit into it. The pair sat there silently, eating their sad excuse for a meal for a good while, both enjoying the moment of rest.

“So I um…” Fernaldo started a little nervously. “I heard that mage woman say that you…” He looked nervous and Madeline knew exactly where this was going. “You think you are a woman.”

Madeline made a silent groan as she wouldn’t meet his eyes. Was he going to call her a freak too? Or perverse? Could she not just be gendered correctly once before she died in this Goddess forsaken Maze?

“Does that mean you’re of switched hearts?” Madeline blinked for a second, before getting a little hopeful. Would he understand? Looking him in the eyes she nodded her head. “I’ve never met anyone of switched hearts before.” That wasn’t surprising. They weren’t that common, and Madeline was even surprised that he knew of it to begin with. “So you’re a woman? Even though you have all the… bits of a man?”

Madeline took a deep breath. He could have worded that a lot worse. Though he was asking, and Madeline never really denied people when they asked her questions about it unless it was really personal. Madeline nodded her reply.

“Huh. What’s it like?”

‘It hurts. It really hurts…’ Madeline silently said.

“Oh right. Can’t speak…” Fernaldo looked away apologetically. “Sorry.”

Madeline smiled and shook her head trying to get across the ‘don’t worry’ expression. The one sided conversation died after that as the pair finished their meats. Once they finished, both packed everything back up, Madeline put the book into her pack before standing up.

“It’s getting pretty dark in here. Can’t see the sun anymore. Do you remember which direction we were heading?”

Madeline thought for a second. She did remember, but just to make sure she had an idea. She held up a finger to Fernaldo to let him know to give her a minute. Madeline stepped up to the hedge, and reached inside it. It was prickly, but as she reached in deeper she did find hard strong branches. Satisfied that this would work, Madeline started to try and climb the hedge. If she could get to the top, she would be able to see where the sun was and figure out which way to go.

It took a good bit of effort, but Madeline did manage to get herself off the ground. Not as easy as climbing to the top of the old watch tower, but it wasn't the worst. It was a little slow though. When Madeline reached the halfway point of the hedge, as she reached in to grab another branch, something stabbed the inside of her palm .

With a silent yell, Madeline pulled her hand back, just in time to catch a branch with another hand. Looking at her hand she can see thorns sticking out of her palm. Not a lot or too big, but enough that it hurt. But how did that happen? The branch she had grabbed was fine. Did it just suddenly grow thorns?

The Maze answered her by doing the same exact thing to the one hand holding her to the hedge. As like the other, she quickly pulled her hand away, just to realize she was no longer holding onto anything. She could feel herself start to fall and panic blossomed inside of her. Reaching back in with the first hand, she grabbed onto anything she could. Pain lit up her hand as the thorns dug in deeper, but she bared it, doing her best to not fall down to the ground.

Thinking fast, before more thorns suddenly sprouted into her hand, Madeline started to climb down as fast as she could. Though it didn’t seem fast enough for the Maze, as more thorns continued to sprout into her hands.

‘Fuck fuck fuck,’ Madeline cursed, before getting to a height that she felt safe jumping down from. Thankfully she didn’t botch the landing and hurt herself more.

“You okay? Why did you stop?” Fernaldo asked, coming over to her.

Madeline didn’t respond as she simply held up her hands and inspected the damage. A large number of thorns and cuts line her hands, as blood poured from the cuts.

“Oh. Shit, that looks bad.”

Madeline shook her head, feeling like it looked worse than it was. Quickly she started to pluck the thorns out of her hands, which only made the bleeding worse.

“Here,” Fernaldo said, pulling out a shirt from the second pack and tearing off parts of it. Madeline’s tailor brain couldn’t help but cringe at Fernaldo as he so casually ripped apart such finely made clothes. Though she couldn’t say anything against it. Literally. Taking the strips from him, Madeline quickly wrapped them around her hands to help stop the bleeding. Silently she offered her thanks.

“I guess the Maze doesn’t like anyone trying to climb it.” Madeline nodded her head. “Did you find which way to go though?” She didn’t, but she did remember which way to go from before. Madeline reached out and pointed down to the next left in the Maze. “Great.”

As the two continued to travel, it steadily got darker, and harder to fully see what was coming next. Though they rested and ate, Madeline could easily tell that carrying the pack was getting harder for Fernaldo. He probably wasn’t used to walking or carrying stuff for this long. Reaching forward, Madeline pulled the pack from his shoulder.

“Hey?” Fernaldo looked at her confused. “What are you doing?” Madeline simply smiled before putting the pack on her own shoulder. “I can carry it.”

Madeline shook her head and silently said, ‘Faster’. Fernaldo was able to read her lips well enough to get what she was trying to say.

“Are you sure? I know two packs can’t be the most comfortable.”

He wasn’t wrong. It was a little awkward to have both packs, but if she did some rearranging, and put the straps across her chest, the packs appeared to hold on nicely to her. A little heavy, but secure enough that she didn’t have to keep holding them up with her injured hands. Giving him a thumbs up, Madeline continued walking down the path with Fernaldo just ahead of her.

“The moon is waning, but hopefully we’ll still be able to see a bit. But these shadows do scare me. Can’t see what’s coming next.” Moving slightly further ahead, Fernaldo peeked around the corner of the next intersection. “This one is clear at le—”

Suddenly Madeline's world lit up as lightning suddenly struck right in front of her. Right onto Fernaldo. Then there was no longer a person in front of Madeline, just a fried husk of a person. It crumpled to the ground. The burned and charred flesh crackled and tore as it did. The sound was horrible, and the stench was even worse. But Madeline didn’t notice. She didn’t even watch the body of the young man fall. Shear shock had frozen her as she blankly stared ahead, terrified. Her mind stuck on the image of the split second he was struck.

“Damn, Flora. You really went all out on him,” a voice from around the corner said. A very familiar noble voice.

“The professor said they need not return in the same state they left in.” Madeline didn’t want to believe it, but that was her sister’s voice.

“Yeah, but did you really need to burn him to a crisp?” His voice was getting closer, and Madeline took scared steps backwards.

“I needed to test the spell to its limits for my thesis. This was the only chance to test on a live subject,” Flora said dryly, as if she hadn’t just murder some innocent boy.

Madeline took another step back, thankful her heavy breathing was completely silent, but her heart was pounding so loudly in her ears. She was sure they could hear it. Another step backwards.

Suddenly the shape of a person stepped out from the corner and looked down at the body.

“More effective than I thought.”

Madeline’s next step backwards was loud enough to draw the attention of the killer mage in front of her. Her green eyes meet the green eyes of someone she thought long lost, but now knew was lost in another way. Finally everything kicked in for Madeline and she took off back down the path, running as fast as she could from the mages.