Arcadia Oaks

                                    

                                          
The glowing blue and white building called Hex Tech was giving her a headache.
It was dark as they walked, she could only focus on her own footsteps. One step at a time while Douxie rambled on quietly about things that he'd done and seen in his nine hundred years away from her. Munching on her pie, Maia was barely paying attention.
But ahead, the glowing building (how is it glowing?) seemed to be drilling holes into her brain. Why did it hurt her so much?
"Maia?" Douxie asked. "You weren't paying attention, were you?"
"Does that building have to be so...bright?" she asked, casting her gaze down at the strange-looking road.
He chuckled. "Oh, yeah. It's just so that people know that they're still open."
She nodded, then glanced over her shoulder at the group following them. "And...who are they? I've only been introduced to three."
"Well...the troll back in the school, that was Jim—"
"That was a school?"
"Yes, but—"
"It's a rather odd-looking school."
He shoved her shoulder playfully. "Let me finish. Anyways, there's Claire—she does shadow magic like Morgana—and Blinky, he's the six-eyed troll. Steve, Aaarrrgghh, Toby, Merlin, Arch, and Nari, you already know, and—"
"Wait, wait, wait." She held a hand up to stop him. "Galahad. He-he was in the castle when it crashed...Douxie—"
"Sir Galahad didn't make it," Merlin said as Maia stopped, staring back at the smoking rubble in the distance. "He sacrificed his life to make sure that the Arcane Order didn't—"
"Galahad's gone?" she whispered.
"I'm afraid so."
"No." She shook her head. He can't be gone, he can't! Galahad had looked after for nine hundred years; she couldn't just lose him in one evening. "No, you're lying. He can't be gone, he can't."
"Galahad is gone, Your Highness" Merlin said sharply. "If you're thinking of going back to look, neither Hisirdoux nor I would allow that."
"But it's Galahad," she mumbled. "He can't just die, Merlin. He can't."
"We need to keep moving," the girl (Claire) urged. "We're out in the open here, those...monsters that took Jim, they could be back any minute."
But it's Galahad.
She felt a small hand take her own, glancing down to see Nari beside her. "I'm so sorry for your loss."
Maia shook her head. "Nine hundred years. I...I guess it was good while it lasted, hmm?" 
She let herself be guided by the small forest spirit to the unnaturally-glowing building. The sinking feeling in her chest had grown a little, despite getting Douxie and Archie back...She didn't like it.
When they went inside, Douxie laughed, more of a nervous gesture than anything. "Zoe! We need a place to lay low."
Zoe, a young woman with bright pink hair and large blue eyes, glared at Douxie with her arms folded. "Hisirdoux Casperan. You have a lot of nerve."
"Yes," the boy between them mumbled with a strange accent. "Like cutting in line."
Zoe ignored him. "We were supposed to hunt niffins and get burgers, remember?"
The boy turned to her accusingly. "And you're supposed to be helping me with my problems, remember?" He turned just in time to see Toby burst in, rather out of breath. "Toby? What are you doing here?"
"Some evil wizards shot down our time-travelling castle and stole Monster Jimbo!" Toby said, before trying to slow his breathing.
Zoe rolled her eyes at the intrusion, gaze landing on Maia in...was that confusion? "Princess Maia?"
"You know me?" Maia asked cautiously.
Zoe glanced over at Douxie. "Yeah. Someone would not shut up about you."
That didn't surprise her. "Oh."
Douxie gave Zoe an apologetic smile as she glanced over the group, before she sighed. "Come on, let's head to the back."
The group went on ahead to a door in the wall and Maia gaped at it as it automatically slid open by itself. Doors were supposed to be opened with a handle, this...was different.
"The door...opened by itself," Maia mumbled, staring at it in awe. "How did it do that?"
Zoe smirked. "Magic."
"Magic?"
"No, I'm joking. It's something called technology." She nudged Douxie as Nari headed along with the others. "M'sure this idiot here would love to tell you all about it."
Maia gave her a weak smile. "I'm sure."
"What are we doing here?" Merlin grumbled. "We're not safe in this...toy store."
Zoe grimaced, punched Douxie in the chest lightly. "Yeesh! You brought your boss here?" She glanced down the dark hallway. "We're closed to privileged Arthurian toolbags!"
"We're just hiding here," Douxie said to Maia, noting the look of discomfort on her face as they walked into the hallway. "As soon as we can, we'll leave."
"You know that's not what I'm thinking about," she muttered, glancing back as the door slid shut behind them. How does it do that? "I just...when I said I wanted to leave the castle, obviously this—" She waved her hand to indicate everything— "was not what I had in mind."
"And what did  you have in mind then?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. But...whatever that vision of the future was, Nari was there. Galahad too..."
"And Nari's still here," he assures her. "We won't lose anyone else, Maia. I promise."
"How can you sound so sure?"
"Because I couldn't do it in the past." He sighed. "I couldn't save Arthur, couldn't save Morgana. But this time, I'll make it right. We'll get Jim back, we'll save the world and defeat the Arcane Order, and then I'll take you to dinner."
Maia grimaced. "Oh, that's right."
"What's right?"
"You went back and changed time." When they had appeared back from the time rift, some of Maia's memories had changed. Some of them were better, but others...
"Oh...yeah." He chuckled. "It was an accident."
"If I'm remembering correctly, you broke my father's sword."
"Indirectly."
"Blamed yourself for Aunt Morgana's death."
"I didn't know she was still alive."
"And apparently Merlin got swallowed by a giant fish goddess?"
"The Lady of the Lake and...technically, yes?"
Maia just shook her head. "Maybe next time, let history run its course?"
"Only if there is a next time."