The Guild of The Future

After what felt like another hour on the candy road, a creature made of candy appeared before them, holding an announcement. On closer inspection, Void realized they had a layer of clothes on them, looking like some castle servant.

“Queen Anise welcomes her former subject and his companions to her castle.”

“That is not necessary,” Puerile said, gently moving around the herald. The team followed suit. They wanted nothing to do with any denizens of Unland.

Out of nowhere, blocking the road, was a castle.

“I’m afraid it is necessary,” the herald consoled, unconvincingly.

“Oh, **** you!” in place of the expected swear, pink bubbles came out of Puerile’s mouth, which made him gag.

“****,” Lillian said out of curiosity, joining Puerile in gagging. “My mouth tastes like soap now.”

“Is there any way to avoid this?” Void asked. He didn’t look forward to the idea of meeting a queen; hierarchies had a poor reputation among celestials.

Puerile shook his head.

“Her Majesty always gets what she wants,” he said in a resentful tone.

The doors led immediately into the throne room.

Atop the throne, Queen Anise had mostly brown skin, with a scar of white across her face. Instead of the expected ball gown, she wore pants, a ruffled shirt, and a long coat. One of her hands was covered in a glove, and the other one was replaced with a piece of licorice moving like a tentacle. Her crown was a simple band around her head, that almost seemed glued to her skin with its sticky material.

Next to her was what looked like a little girl with bubblegum pink skin in a purple dress and a tiara made of sugar crystals.

“Hello, your majesty,” Puerile said, not daring to bow until he said, “Your highness,” toward the girl.

Queen Anise scowled for just a second. Void turned to Lillian, the only other person to notice it.

“Introduce us,” the queen ordered, “Lollipop.”

Despite, or maybe because of, the tension, everyone laughed at the name. It didn’t seem to match the nightmare lord they knew.

“Queen Anise, Princess Berry, this man,” Puerile pointed at Void, “A combined Celestial, has only gone by Void as long as I’ve known him.” He introduced the others by codename, including Lillian and Stéri. “And among their number I go by Puerile. Allies, this is Queen Anise, my progenitor, and her most charming creation, Princess Berry.”

“Your mom looks cool as ****” Lillian said, before gagging at the bubbles.

Queen Anise laughed.

“I am not his mother,” she said.

“No, that would indicate you ever put care into me,” Puerile said.

Princess Berry seemed to pointedly avoid Puerile’s gaze.

“Why are you here?” the queen asked.

“You made it clear we couldn’t refuse the invitation.”

“I mean instead of Earth,” she explained, “I thought you were banished.”

“I volunteered to join the Heroes’ Guild. Lord Chardri was just glad to expedite the process.”

Berry let out a short chuckle. Void spotted a small glint of white skin hidden under her hair. Making eye-contact with Lillian proved she saw it too.

“Shame,” the queen said, “I thought we were finally rid of you, but you still haven’t explained the reason for your return.”

“That’s confidential,” Void said. He felt something trying to creep into his mind and quickly pushed it out. Berry let out a yelp. Anise scowled.

“No such thing among our kind,” Anise said, “But far be it from me to defy a celestial, though justice must be done,” Puerile’s hands were bound in licorice as she spoke, “The rest of you may leave. I have my prisoner.”

“Excuse you?” Lillian asked.

“He committed crimes against me, hiding among nightmares to keep me from finding him.”

“What crimes?” Flare asked.

Anise waved her hand dismissively.

“Go, and be grateful I don’t consider you accomplices.”

“That’s our guide,” Splash explained as gently as possible, “We need him to do what we came here to do.”

“I can procure you another one,” the queen offered.

“Since we’re going where he hid from you, I doubt it,” Lillian said.

Queen Anise’s expression showed that was the exact wrong thing to say.

“Then I suppose I must keep you all here for your own safety.”

“Explain again why we can’t eat our way out of here,” Lillian said. Void agreed that the walls looked like cookies, edible cookies.

“Because it will immediately grow back,” Puerile explained, “And if we keep trying, we will be stuck in here with vomit.”

Everyone winced.

“Can’t you make a window again?” Void asked.

“The queen is paying close attention to this cell, so no, not to mention I’m definitely never exiting these binds.”

Luckily for the rest of them, Anise had only tied Puerile’s hands, and instead just dropped them in a dungeon together.

“What did you do for her to call you a criminal?” Void asked.

“I gained sentience?” Puerile offered, “I escaped?”

“Gained sentience?” Lillian asked.

“Pan don’t procreate like humans do, I mean it’s possible, but since most of us are relatively solitary, it’s rare. Instead, as we build an environment, we naturally add a population to it, and through some random interaction, those creations develop minds of their own, and after long enough like that, gain power just like any Pan.”

“So you were made rather than born?” Void asked.

“Yes.”

“What were you originally, Lollipop?” Spark asked.

“Don’t use that name,” Puerile maintained a sardonic glare as he explained, “I was merely a servant, and then one day, I thought I hated serving others, so I decided to quit, and eventually I made it to a land of nightmares, where at least the denizens are honest to each other.”

“There’s more,” Stéri insisted.

Puerile turned a gentler gaze toward him.

“Berry. She never noticed me, until she did. Her mind is well hidden, but we recognized it in each other. When I finally decided to run, I took her with me, but when we were caught, she played dumb, like she always does. I can’t begrudge her too much, as she helped me get away, but she will never leave The Queen.”

“Why not?” Void asked.

“She’s lonely,” Berry said, causing everyone to pull away from the bars she was on the other side of. She looked older now, whether it was a true change or just no longer being dwarfed by Anise and the throne she sat on; Void suspected the former.

“Of course she’s lonely,” Puerile said, “And you’re clearly not helping.”

Void smacked the back of his head.

“Being rude to the princess won’t cut your sentence short.”

“It’s not like making it any longer will do much harm. Her Majesty will never let me out, and none of our fellow dream lords will help save me.”

“If you apologize, she may let you stay somewhere more comfortable,” Berry offered.

“I did nothing wrong,” Puerile insisted.

The rest of the team made disagreeing noises.

“Not here at least,” he added, “I even left a letter of resignation.”

“You kidnapped the princess,” Berry said.

“You came of your own free will, not that you’ll ever let her know such a thing exists.”

Puerile had been annoyed before, frightened yes, but Void had never seen him angry, rightfully and truly enraged, especially not at something Void sympathized with him over. Berry was intentionally hiding herself by whatever justification she chose, but hiding only comes from one emotion: Fear.

“Do you think you two will stay the only ones?” Void asked, “That there won’t be another one to start thinking. Are you going to leave all of them to rot, until at some point she has to figure out you stopped being a puppet a long time ago.”

“She isn’t that clever,” Puerile objected, “She was made to be outsmarted by children. It’s her saving grace.”

Not helping, Void warned him.

“I understand you don’t want to be saved,” Puerile continued, “And though I’ll never forgive you for it, I’ll respect it, but don’t let her keep me here. Lollipop died the moment I started thinking; I don’t belong here.”

The door swung open, revealing it was just on a hinge with no lock.

“Laran’s the only one she wants,” Berry said, “None of you have to stay.”

“Yes,” Stéri said, “We do. We’re not leaving a friend.”

“More importantly, we’d die without him,” Lillian said, “I wouldn’t call him a friend.”

“Could you remove his binds?” Void asked Berry.

Berry shook her head.

“Anise would know.”

“Right,” Puerile said, “Because your mother is the person who needs the most help right now. It’s not like she built a castle, or forced me to stop here instead of saving those falling into an abyss. It’s not like you just don’t know what to do if you leave.”

“You just said that you respected my choice.”

“I’m a liar,” Puerile said, “Just like you, I say whatever I think I need to to save myself. I don’t respect your choice to stay, but I’m certainly not rescuing you a second time.” he lifted his licorice chains, “Clearly the first attempt did more harm than good.”

Berry took a step back.

“No,” Splash said, “If you want to recover whatever guilt you felt about throwing him under the bus, now’s the time.”

“You’re a crowd of Mages,” Berry said, “She can’t stop all of you.”

She closed the door, disappearing. Puerile seemed to light up.

“She really messed you up, didn’t she?” Lillian noted, “I didn’t expect your tragic backstory to be an ex-girlfriend trying hard as **** not to be a person.” this time she went without gagging as the bubbles came out.

“I wouldn’t care as much about a girlfriend,” Puerile muttered.

Everyone else in the room “Aww”ed.

“Shut up!”

“What did she say about mages?” Sprout asked, “Because I really don’t want to turn elemental here.”

“I’m not a mage,” Lillian said, “Neither is Stéri.”

“But you have a stick that hit a monster very hard,” Void said.

“Right,” Puerile tallied their options, “You said that Nightingale wasn’t immune to mental manipulation. What did you mean?”

“It means I can control my own mind while transformed.”

Void was happy to know he wasn’t the only one confused.

“Don’t pretend you’ve never had a song stuck in your head,” Lillian explained, “Or a thought that you can’t stop. Humans, at least, don’t have total control of our own minds.”

No one seemed interested in arguing.

“Does that mean you can control how much and what parts of this place you believe to be real?” Puerile asked.

Lillian shrugged.

“Incredibly helpful.” he turned around the room, “Fire master, remove my chains.”

The room filled with the smell of burnt sugar as Flare set Puerile’s licorice shackles on fire, but they stayed true.

“****.” Puerile made a face, “Never pleasant, that.”

The room smelled too bad for them to think of another plan for several minutes.

“You know Sprite could have aired this place out super fast,” Spark said, “If you hadn’t sacrificed them at Chardri’s.”

“Someone had to stay behind,” Puerile reasserted, “Or else we all would have been trapped there as he demanded a permit of us to teleport back.”

“Then why start there?” Void asked.

“Because Chardri’s is one of the few places where we won’t have to worry about something surprising us. It’s just boring. Places like this one trap you in an attempt to keep you here.

“Or to bring a criminal to justice,” Lillian said.

“I was just trying to leave somewhere terrible. Do you want to stay trapped here for eternity.”

“What if Berry’s the real mastermind?” Splash said, “She could be the one keeping you here.”

“Anise has the pale marks,” Void said, “I have a feeling those don’t appear unless you’re the real deal.”

Puerile nodded.

“You can copy yourself, but you can’t make something mindless with the pale marks.”

“Alright,” Lillian said, “Nightingale!”

In moments she turned into all but the spitting image of the hero from years ago. Void could feel the walls suddenly raise around her mind.

She immediately fell through the ground with a scream.

“Well there goes plan A,” Puerile said, “And one of our teammates.”

Void’s mind tried to grab hold of Nightingale’s. He’d connected with her mind before, so there had to be something he could latch onto.

She was terrified, she was falling, she was debating the wisdom of believing the floor was real.

Let me in, he begged.

Her mind was in two parts, the one was Lillian, just a mortal human, and the other was something stranger, that was human once, but knew something more. He pulled at both, focusing on the floor right where she’d fallen through.

She appeared, terrified, watching him. He could see in her movement where Lillian and Nightingale aligned, and where they were separate.

“Brace yourself,” they anounced as their staff slammed Puerile’s chains off.

They all scrambled for the window, Nightingale holding her staff like a bat again.

“One last thing!” Puerile said, running out the door, just to the side of the bars, “My home is small, but there is still a place for you. This will take you there.”

Everyone held a mocking grin as Puerile rejoined them.

“Just get out of my way,” he warned them.