Having been inducted into the wonderment of the magical chamberpot, Mari started to eat the breakfast Shwef had brought.

Her stomach was feeling queasy, actually. She wasn't sure whether it was the weird food or the stress; regardless, Mari needed all the energy she could get. So she shovelled down the porridge.

At least the porridge was relatively normal - albeit a slight blue tinge. It wasn't quite oatmeal; nor was it rice, or quinoa, or white corn, or any other porridgy stuff Mari had ever tried.

Which was fine, except it wasn't the only thing that bugged her.

For example, the door didn't have a knob. Or a handle. It didn't have any visible hinges either, yet the door still swung open and close like any normal door.

The drawers didn't have any knobs either. Not even an indent. And sure, maybe they were push-to-open drawers, but Mari was sensing a pattern here.

There were no light fixtures on the ceiling. Not a lamp in sight. Only the window. There had to be a light somewhere! Last night, the window had been dark outside, but Mari remembered that room inside had been uniformly lighted.

The window was strange too. There were no glass panes. In fact, there was no glass at all; the window was just a large square opening in the wall. There were tiny etchings all around the edges - she suspected that the window was using a forcefield to keep the mosquitoes and flies and bugs out.

Just like how the forcefield marked by the etchings on the floor was keeping her in.

Mari poked her spoon at the forcefield. The spoon went through; her fingers didn't. That wasn't surprising.

She drained the cup, held it with her fingers inside, and pushed it into the forcefield, bottom-first. The cup went through, but her fingers felt resistance inside the cup.

The forcefield could somehow precisely differentiate what was Mari and what was not.

Mari continued experimenting with the cup, spoon and tray in different configurations - but in all cases the force field would let the object through, and not her. She didn't particularly care that her kidnappers could probably see her messing around with the forcefield. Shwef himself was walking in and out of the room, busily bring in a large assortment of items. Mari ignored him for now; she'd find out soon enough.

Okay then, Mari thought, continuing her series of tests, what if it used to be me?

Mari pulled out a strand of her long, black hair and twisted it into a little hair-stick. She poked it at the forcefield.

The hair-stick bent back, repelled by the invisible barrier.

Hm. Is it configured to my DNA, or is there a little man controlling things behind a screen?

The spoon got a generous serving of drool and made its second journey towards the forcefield. To Mari's fascination, the saliva sloughed off and dripped onto the floor as the spoon went through. The spoon came back completely dry.

That's sorta cool.

She rubbed some of her saliva into the corner of her sleeve.

The sleeve, saliva and all, didn't go through. Mari tried the other sleeve, no saliva this time.

It didn't go through either. Was it all the dead skin cells rubbed into the cloth? She did wear these pajamas pretty much all the time...

"Mari."

Her thoughts were interrupted by Shwef saying her name. The young man was sitting on the floor by the barrier boundary, a wide assortment of paraphernalia neatly lined up in front of him. The line of objects seemed to be ordered mostly by size, though there were enough exceptions to make it puzzling. There were familiar objects - cutlery, tableware, stationery, books, a hanky - as well as a strange collection of marbles, crystals, and various objects made of glass and metal that looked like they belonged to some fantasy videogame.

Yup, definitely a wierd wizard theme going on here.

"Mari."

Shwef called for her attention again. His face was full of childish anticipation. What was he up to? Shwef picked up the first item from the line, a tiny marble.

"Buhlertan," he said, pointing at the marble.

Mari nodded and repeated the word after him. It was the same word for the pee-marble, just without the pee bit.

Placing the marble on the center of his palm, Shwef stared at it intensely.

"Shwef what-"

He held up a hand, stopping Mari midsentence. She shut up and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Finally he sat back and gave a sigh of relief. He showed her the marble triumphantly.

"Manna el buhlertan." He gentured.

Mari inspected the marble, confused. The tiny thing didn't look any different.

"Manna el buhlertan?" She said uncertainly.

Shwef nodded excitedly, handing her the marble. Mari wasn't sure what she was supposed to do with it. Seeing her confusion, he picked up another marble and repeated his actions - the marble at the centre of his palm, the long period of staring.

"Manna isht naj plaenra, el buhlertan," Shwef said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

It wasn't obvious at all. But Mari humoured him by copying his actions. After staring at the marble for a while, she looked up to see his reaction.

He wasn't happy. He took back the marble and gave her a pointy little crystal instead, genturing at her to do the same thing. Mari tried. She had no idea what he wanted, but it was clear this was some sort of experiment.

They repeated the exercise with various objects, but each time Shwef's face just looked more and more troubled.

And Mari was becoming more and more afraid.

The last item they tried was the hanky. She was still staring at the soft, white cloth when Shwef stood up and swore. Mari jerked. But Shwef wasn't swearing at her. He was muttering to himself, incredibly upset.

As soon as Shwef saw the fear in Mari's eyes he stopped. Looking a little guilty, he sat back down and stared at the floor until his breathing calmed.

"Mnaha."

His voice was apologetic. Mari returned a little trembling smile, but said nothing.

She was relieved when they abandoned the exercise after that. Instead, they started pointing at objects and exchanging words. Time seemed to pass slowly, but before long it was evening. Shwef brought her second meal, and a portion for himself too.

They ate the blue-and-orange equivalent of shepherd's pie in silence.

After dinner, Mari handed Shwef her dirty tray and watched him walk out the door with it. He still looked dejected. His actions, and subsequent reactions, had made things clear.

He was experimenting on her. If not directly, then by proxy.

And she was failing.