Growing up, Bristley remembered living out her days focusing on her studies or training to be a proper lady so she would know how to act if she was ever married off. Everything she ever did was for the sole purpose of being of use to her father who was actually the one who told her that that was how women were treated. He said that even his own wife had been given to him and his many other concubines were also due to exchanges with other n.o.bles. Women were merely things and could apparently be replaced or changed around at any given time.

Life wasn't all bad growin up in a large castle however as there were times when Bristley and her sisters would take the day off and have fun with their mother, playing games like tag and hide-and-go seek. These rare occasions were, without any exaggeration whatsoever, the highlight of Bristleys life. There was literally nothing else she looked forward to except sleep and sometimes sneaking books out of the library to read during the night.

Bristley and her eldest sister, Violet, had actually been raised for the sole purpose of reestablis.h.i.+ng trade with a neighboring kingdom. However due to events that had transpired with something involving a wolf in the eastern forest, the trade never happened which actually made the two sisters remarkably happy at least until they were told to go back to their studies on how to act like a proper tool.

This kept situation remain unchanged until the kidnapping of the Wilson family began.

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Three hours pa.s.sed by pretty quickly as the carriage made its way along the paved street. Max had fallen asleep around the halfway mark after listening to Bristley tell him about herself. He was now leaning against her shoulder and even drooling a bit as he snoozed away without a care in the world.

Bristley didn't really wanna wake him up as she felt that he looked rather cute. On top of having a rather innocent expression, she felt that his fluffy brown hair was immensely soft as it brushed against her face. Though she was tempted to just let him sleep for a few more minutes, the humongous castle looming in the distance changed her mind.

"Max," Bristley said, nudging him gently with one hand while also keeping her other hand on the reins. "We're almost to the castle.....you should wake up now."

After almost a full minute of gentle shaking and poking, Max slowly opened his eyes. "Huh? Wha....are we there yet? I thought it would take another 2 hours. Did I oversleep?" Max lifted his head off Bristleys shoulder and yawned, covering his mouth as he did so.

"No, I just woke you up early as we'll be at the castle in around 10 minutes." Bristley flicked her eyes over his body before looking straight ahead. "I a.s.sumed you wouldn't want to be all sleepy and unprepared before we got there."

"Your right, thanks," Max said as he rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes. "I appreciate you waking me up as I normally have trouble wak...HOLY FIVE SHADES OF NARNIA!!!! Is that freakin Hogwarts???!! That castle is huge!!!"

Looming ahead of them around ten minutes away was an enormous castle. It was like it came out of some fairy tale even though this castle was slightly less pleasing to the eye. It was big and well built with towers and huge bows lining the walls, but the color threw him off. The almost borderline black gave the castle a rather spooky feeling to it and made him feel uneasy.

"Yeah, my dad said that his great grandfather had it built and it took him around 30 days and that was WITH magic." Bristley said as the castle drew closer and closer. "It also has a magical ward on it that protects it from high cla.s.s magical attacks."

"So then low cla.s.s magic attacks are basically.....wait wait wait, magic?" Max sat up straight as he looked at the blonde princess with a look of disbelief. "Your telling me that magic exists???"

"Why do you look like your surprised?" Bristley replied with a small giggle, covering her mouth with one hand. "Magic is quite common among almost all races including elves, dwarves, humans and demihumans. Even though I hardly leave the castle except for royal events or parties held by n.o.bility, I know enough to know that throughout the world, magic is commonplace in everyones lives."

"Magic is common huh?" Max glanced over at the castle once again. They were getting pretty close to it and it seemed even more intimidating the closer they got. "Well it'd make sense for me to be surprised since in my world, we don't even have magic."

"What do you mean 'In your world'?" Bristley asked, her expression changing into one of confusion.

"Ehh, its not really important enough to talk about right now so just forget about it," Max replied, flas.h.i.+ng her an apologetic smile. "For now, lets just focus on getting your family to safety before worrying about anything else."

"By the way, do you have an exact plan?" Bristley asked as she turned her attention to the road in front of them. "I may have given you all the details I know about, but there will still be various variables that are unaccounted for."

"Let me tell you something about myself Bristley," Max said as the carriage slowed to a stop in front of the castle. "As someone who was, quite literally, blessed with nothing but bad luck, I always have a backup plan for things. If I didn't then I'd have already died numerous times. You think you had it bad? You haven't seen anything yet!!"

"Blessed with bad luck? How is bad luck a blessing?" Bristley asked, slightly confused on the choice of words. "For that matter, just how bad was your childhood?"

"Because having bad luck has changed me into the man I am today," Max easily replied. "My bad luck has given me the chance to grow as a person, to see the world as it truly is, and to meet the most amazing people. It has also taught me to be strong, smart, and always look at the bright side. If that by itslef isn't a blessing then I don't know what is."

The door to the carriage opened and Jackey stepped out, shutting the door behind her. She gave huge yawn and began stretching her entire body, an indicator that she had been sleeping of fake sleeping the entire ride. After she was done, she calmly walked up to the two of them and looked up at the castle.

"I guess we're here...that is one huge building," Jackey had to bend herself back just to see the top so this was an understatement. "Its got nothing on New York though so I'm not too impressed, except that this one feels a whole lot more intimidating."

Turning her attention to Max, she gave him a small smile. "So whats the plan? I a.s.sumed you've thought of one during the ride over right? It felt like four or five hours and in that time you probably thought of a great plan. So lets hears it."

Max s.h.i.+fted his bright green eyes over to Jackeys pale lavender ones, a smile on his face. "I got one, but it involves me going in alone. Contrary to what you might think, I stand the best chance of going in and coming out alive with the royal family if I go in alone."

There was dead silence as the two girls, Bristley and Jackey, stared at him with confused looks as thet processed what they said. The moment the realization hit them, they opened their mouths to blurt put their complaints, but were interrupted when Max held up both hands, signaling for them to remain quiet.

"Okay, before you start yelling and alert everyone to our presence, how about you answer me this," Max put down his hands and shoved them into his pockets. "Can either of you fight if your spotted? Do either of you have the training necessary to fight or even kill someone?"

Silence fell over the two girls once again as they pondered this question. Of course the answer was no as neither Bristley nor Jackey had ever been in the position where they had to kill someone and they never thought they would ever be in that situation. If one doesnt expect it then they would never train for it unless they had some sort of goal that would need them to kill.

"Wait, are you saying that you have the ability to kill someone?" Jackey was skeptical of this question as it seemed he was implying that he himself would be able to murder someone.

"Have you ever heard of a thing called berserker mode?" Max asked as he looked towards the castle dead ahead. "Its when you put yourself in a trance of pure rage and go on a killing spree, all other emotions gone or surpressed including reason. Well what I learned to do is somewhat similar except I'm able to cancel out all other emotions except a cold logic. It took me years to learn it for the sole purpose that I might have to kill someone."

"Thats just pure ridiculous," Jackey shot back, her voice raising a bit. "How could you even put yourself in a trance? It sounds like a bunch of gibberish you just made up. Even if its true, what makes you feel that you'd need to kill someone one day?"

"Well actually, I already killed people before," Max said, his eyes turning serious as he looked back at the ground. "I don't remember it much but I can clearly see piles of bodies around me and blood on my hands. I a.s.sume this was when I was in a foster home, though I don't understand anything about it. If I killed then why wasn't I arrested? In any case, I can most certainly kill if I have to, but that doesn't mean I want to."

Max looked up, an expression of determination on his face. "I can and will save this family. No one deserves to know the feeling of losing someone close to them. I couldn't save my friend, but I can most certainly save your family Bristley."

Without saying anything else, Max walked towards the front door, leaving the other two girls behind him.