A Better Map (Open)

Crystal had never attended a boarding school before. Most other girls her age would have been sent to finishing school, and most boys to a prestigious academic institution, but Crystal was not most children. She had spent her youth taught by tutors within the walls of her family's estate, and very seldom even spent time around other children.

That, however, was not what was worrying Crystal about her new university. Or rather, it was not what was worrying her currently.

She looked down at the map of the castle in front of her, then up and the hallways stretching out around her. By her navigation, she should have been somewhere close to the courtyard on the ground floor, yet she could see through the windows that she was clearly some twenty floors above the ground. Beyond her in every direction, she saw no doors.

Crystal felt akin to Alice, lost in Wonderland.

Alex wasn't sure when he started getting a feel for when and where some of the hallways would change. Magic was starting to feel... not natural exactly, but familiar. It made him bristle to think about it.

(He was getting a little tired of that, too.)

So it wasn't that odd to Alex that he was on the 20th floor; he knew he was still headed from his room out to the courtyard. The woman he saw as he turned a corner, though- was she a woman, or another student? She was striking, seemingly ageless, with an aura about her that made Alex think of a celebrity or even a princess. He slowed to a halt and stared.

"Oh!" Crystal heard a sound behind her and turned back to see another student, a boy, waiting in the wings. He looked younger than her, perhaps, though he was so peculiar looking he might have been a faerie.

"Pardon me, I did not notice you there. I... I hate to admit it, but I believe I've gotten myself lost."

Alex had the flash of an idea that he had no idea who this woman was, and she could very well be some kind of faerie. On the other hand, said his rational mind, so could anyone else he'd met and he'd yet to offend anyone enough to get tossed into a dungeon or have someone try to poison his drink.

He put a normal smile on his face. "This place can be a maze. Where is it you're trying to go?"

Crystal smoothed out her skirt a bit. She still felt somewhat self-conscious with the clothing of this world; although the knee-length skirt was considered quite modest by modern standards, it still felt far too revealing to her.

"I had planned to go to the Courtyard, but it seems I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere," Crystal replied. "I'm uncertain where I am, or how I got to this place. I thought I was on the ground floor."

Alex nodded politely. "I was just going there myself. I think further down this way is the right direction. The castle is... strange." He wasn't sure how best to put it.

"Are you from someplace like this? A bordertown, I mean."

Jason wasn't sure how he'd ended up here while trying to get to the art room, but the sound of voices up ahead made him a little more optimistic about finding his way back to where he wanted to go.

He rounded a corner and spotted the speakers, two younger-looking people he'd never met before. He smiled and called out as he approached them. "Hallo! Sorry if I'm interrupting something, but I'm a bit lost." Well, maybe more than a bit.