Today is a special day for the fourteen-year-old Kaelum, today is the day that Princess Tiela of Kassivir is visiting the city of Arum. This visit to Arum marks the halfway point of Princess Tiela’s very first royal tour. She is visiting every major city in a circuit around the kingdom in preparation for the grand tournament next year.

The princess is said to be extremely beautiful, and for many, this is the first and best chance to see her angelic disposition, but that's not what Kaelum is excited about. Kaelum is excited because the city of Arum is throwing a festival for the visit of the princess; That means all the food stalls and vendors are going to be making extra to accommodate the influx of people wanting to see the princess.

This is great news for an orphan street rat like Kaelum; It means after the festival tonight a lot of food is going to be thrown away for him to scavenge. Rather than scrounging up soggy bread from the alleyways, he’ll be able to eat ‘almost’ fresh, and only lightly soiled honeyed skewers tonight!

Unable to stop his feet from tapping in anticipation, he resolves to take a walk away from the market area and start walking towards the main road. The main road leads from the east gate directly through the center of the city towards the west gate. It’s the road that the conscripts take when they march off to war. While the soldiers march it’s customary for their friends, family, and sweethearts to shower them with flower petals as a token of good luck.

Noting that there’s already a procession of knights marching down the wide main street, Kaelum realizes that the princess’s entourage must have already entered the city. Brimming with excitement at the food to come, he decides to get a closer look at the princess everyone seems to love.

Kaelum had heard from some of the older street rats that supposedly the plan was for the princess’s procession to enter from the west gate, join the parade in the afternoon and make their way to the city lord’s manor. That's where the princess would be staying for the duration of her visit in Arum, before heading off to the next city on the royal tour’s circuit.

Apparently, some of the young knights-in-training in the city had gotten it into their heads to try and visit the princess at the city lord’s manor in hopes of impressing her with their magic skills or whatnot.

Bunch of idiots they are thought Kaelum. He’d much rather join the festival and try to snag some free food rather than see some random princess. Besides, the city guards wouldn’t let Kaelum anywhere near the lord’s manor, not after he got caught after sneaking in during one of the lord's feasts. Kaelum didn’t see why the city lord needed that much food, and he only took a little… Or maybe just a little bit more than a little. Regardless, Who cares about the princess when there’s free food?

Well… There’s no harm in at least seeing the princess, thought Kaelum. He’d only be taking a look as she passed. Then he’d go and see if he couldn’t get a hold of some ‘free’ food. With his plan set, he increased his pace towards the main road.

As he got nearer, he saw the grand procession. It truly was a majestic parade. There, the city guards were wearing fine clothing and playing instruments on each side of the procession. Red-faced guards blew into some kind of horned instruments, while other guards beat heavy drums until they were out of breath.

All the citizens around him were cheering, there were even some minstrels nearby singing among the crowd.

On top of all of that, honest to Gods knights led the princess’s entourage! Each knight's strength was worth at least ten of the city guards, and the princess had two entire squads of them!

With sparkling white and silver armor, the knights in front marched with a look only a professional killer could have. Most of the leading knights had helmets on, but the ones who weren't wearing any helmets had calm, but serious looks on their faces. Those white knights must have been from the White Order, a bit of a simple name, but their strength was anything but simple. Kaelum was certain that just this single squad of white knights could completely conquer the city of Arum, even with all of the city guards prepared.

That was just the qualitative difference between a ‘fighter’ and a ‘knight’, knights had trained for years and were able to use mana to not only attack with magic, but they could also use it to strengthen themselves beyond humanly possible. Nearly everyone looked up to knights, in fact, all types of mages were revered by the public. Kaelum was no exception and like every other teenager, he too dreamed of being a powerful knight.

The knights bringing up the rear of the procession were also a force to be reckoned with; They wore a red sash across their chests, complementing the heavy black armor they had. These knights possessed a look of absolute menace. They couldn’t have been from anywhere but Saitus’s Order. They were known as the most deadly of all of the knight orders in Kassivir, a reputation well earned. Between just these two squads of knights, the princess’s entourage could take on an entire army and at the very least survive.

In the middle of this procession was the princess herself, it looked like there were a couple other people on the float-like wagon with her but Kaelum couldn’t see very well. His vision was blocked by all the tall people around. Being only fourteen, his height couldn’t compare to all the adults around him. Wanting to get a better look, Kaelum started pushing through the crowd to get closer to the princess.

While wading through the crowd, he was continuously jostled by the surrounding people. Finally making his way to a relatively people-free area, he was slammed into quite hard one last time, it actually hurt quite a bit. Spinning around to see who had just slammed into him, he lost his balance and fell.

Picking himself up off of the ground he looked around only to realize that he was no longer on the street, not even in the city. Everything around him was black, but before he could form any more thoughts, a pair of hands grabbed him from behind “LET ME GO!” Shouted the voice of a woman, reverberating off of his eardrums painfully.

“Wait, wha-” Started Kaelum before he was interrupted.

“Let me go you bastard!” Said the voice, while shaking him back and forth.

Wiggling his shoulders, he was able to slip out of the grip of his assailant. He had years of training evading the city guards, after all. Kaelum then lunged away and spun around to get a look at who the voice belonged to.

It was a woman draped in gold light… The princess? No, although her hair and face looked similar, the princess was only sixteen… or maybe seventeen, Kaelum didn’t really know her exact age. But the woman in front of him was in her twenties at least, maybe slightly older. The princess’s mother the queen maybe?

“Who are-” Kaelum tried to speak, but he was rudely interrupted again as she chose that moment to lunge at him. He tried to dodge, but for some reason, she was unnaturally fast. She grabbed hold of his neck and started shouting again.

“LET ME GO!”

“Let… Go… Of… ME!” Yelled back Kaelum. This time, however, the entire area of darkness trembled with his voice. The woman was forced back, letting go of Kaelum in the process.

“You… You bastard! Let me go!” Said the woman again, as she tried to make her way back to Kaelum

“I have no idea what you’re even talking about!” Kaelum said as he backed up “I don’t even know who you are!”

This seemed to stop the woman, she stopped trying to make her way to Kaelum and just took a deep breath. After calming down, she decided to take a diplomatic approach.

“Listen, I’m in quite a hurry right now, and I need to leave.” She said, her voice trembling. She hadn’t calmed down as much as she previously thought. “I need you to stop holding on to my soul.”

“What? What does that even mean?” Kaelum replied, none of this making any sense to him.

This seemed to set the woman off again, but she didn’t lunge at him this time. “Just let go of my soul so I can leave!” Said the woman, barely containing the seething rage in her voice.

“Listen, lady, I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about, or even where we are.” Started Kaelum “Look, I’m not even holding on to you right now, so just leave.” He finished.

“I’m not talking about your hands! Your soul has attached to mine and it won’t release it.” Replied the woman, her eye twitching.

“How can I ‘let go’ of your soul?” Asked Kaelum, making air quotes.

“I don’t know!” Answered the woman “You did it, so undo it!”

“I’d love to help you… Really, but I don’t know how I can do that.” Said Kaelum “How did this even happen?”

This caused the woman to hesitate for a moment, before deciding to talk.

“I… I was flying through the street, trying to get to my body when we crashed into each other.” Said the woman “Now I’m stuck in here and can’t get back out.”

“Wait… So then it was your fault?” Asked Kaelum.

“No! I tried to get back out but your soul latched on to mine and won’t let go!” Replied the woman indignantly.

“So this is… my soul we’re in?” Kaelum thought aloud.

“No, this is your soul space. The ‘body’ you’re in right now is your soul.” Answered the woman. That would explain how he was able to force the woman back with only his voice earlier.

The woman then continued “But that’s not what's important, I need to leave right now!”

Upon saying that, the woman rocketed upwards, or whatever counted as upwards in the endless expanse of darkness. She flew extremely far at a fast pace, Kaelum could just barely make out the gold light radiating off of her on the horizon.

“What are you doing?!” Yelled Kaelum, to no response. After shouting out a couple times, she didn’t pay him attention. Fine thought Kaelum I’ll ignore you too

Kaelum started inspecting the ‘ground’ of his soul space. It was pure darkness like everything else around him, he couldn’t feel it when he tried to touch it, but he didn’t feel like he was falling either. Was he floating?

Looking back up, it seemed as if the woman was trying to escape his soul space with brute force by heading to the horizon at full speed. Though after several minutes of trying her damndest to escape, she finally gave up.

Coming back down, she set down near where Kaelum was curiously inspecting the ‘ground’. It appears she’s given up after failing to escape the endless darkness.

After a while, she seemingly decided to break the ice.

“I’m… My name is Tiela.” Said Tiela.

Kaelum looked up from the ground, responding awkwardly “Oh, uh… Hi Tiela.”

After waiting several moments, Tiela said in exasperation “Are you going to introduce yourself?”

Finally catching on, Kaelum responded, “Oh, my name’s Kaelum!” Without letting the silence set back in, he asked: “Isn’t the princess’s name Tiela?”

This caused the woman to hesitate again as she chewed her lip, before finally responding.

“Yes… Tiela is the name of Kassivir’s princess.”

Seemingly not picking up on Tiela’s hesitation, Kaelum then asked.

“Oh, so are you her mother the queen?”

The woman coughed, looking at Kaelum in shock, responding.

“No, I’m not her mother! How old do you think I am?!” On her face was a look of exasperation. She continued “No, I am Princess Tiela of Kassivir.”

It was Kaelum’s turn to have a spit take.

“Liar! I just saw the princess a little while ago, you’re way too old to be her!” He replied incredulously.

“I am her!” Yelled back the aggrieved princess.

“Liar!”

Deciding that she was beyond a childish exchange such as this, Tiela straightened her dress and patted down her hair.

“I am the princess of Kassivir, however, I have somehow traveled back in time from the future.” Said Tiela, with a regal look. The child in front of her should be in awe seeing such a wise-looking woman.

Though Kaelum’s only response was a quizzical look “The future?” he asked in bafflement. He decided this ‘Tiela’ in front of him was some kind of crazy lady.

“I am from the future!” Shouted Tiela, seemingly losing her regal atmosphere.

“Really? If you’re from the future, then what will I have for dinner tomorrow?” Asked Kaelum with hunger in his eyes.

“Why would I know that?!” Asked the princess indignantly.

“You said you’re from the future…” replied Kaelum meekly at her sudden outburst.

“Why would I know what some unimportant kid had for dinner years ago?” Asked the princess.

That makes sense, I guess thought Kaelum. But being called unimportant does hurt.

Tiela started “Although I’m from the future, I’ve come back to the past.” She paused in a moment of hesitation, eventually deciding to share her knowledge. She looks Kaelum in the eye and says “Because I’ve come back to the past, I’ve decided to change the future. I’m going to stop the end of the world, I’m going to save everyone.”

“Or, at least I was before I got stuck here.” Said the princess glumly.

“Wait, wait. Did you just say the end of the world?” Asked Kaelum.

“Yes, I’m trying to prevent that from happening.” Replied the princess.

“How does the world end? When does it end? I feel like you’re leaving out quite a few details!” Kaelum said.

“How it ends isn’t important, and it’s not for quite a while… But since I’m stuck here now, I need your help so I can return to my body.” Said the princess.

“Hold on, you’re leaving out a lot of details!" Responded Kaelum, obviously concerned as to how the world is going to end.

“That doesn’t matter right now! As I said before, I need your help to prevent it.” Tiela said once again.

Deciding to put aside his curiosity, Kaelum asked: “How can I help you?”

“Well, since I’m stuck in here, I need you to get into contact with the princess. That is, the princess of the past.” Said the princess, that is, the princess of the future.

“I thought you said you were the princess?” Asked Kaelum.

“I already said, I’m the princess from the future, the princess from the past is who you need to meet with.” Explained Tiela irritatedly.

“This is kind of confusing, how do I differentiate between the two of you?” Thought Kaelum aloud.

“That’s not important, just call me the future princess or something.” Said Tiela in annoyance.

“I guess I’ll just use Tiela with you, and call her ‘the princess’ then.” Said Kaelum, ignoring Tiela’s look of annoyance at him deciding to address her, a member of royalty by her first name.

Deciding to just brush this aside in favor of quickly proceeding to make contact with the princess. She explained to Kaelum that he’d need to find where the princess was staying and make contact with her. After making contact, he would need to relay everything that Tiela said exactly so that the princess would believe him.

After being in close contact with the princess’s body, the pull from her body should overpower the pull of Kaelum’s soul on Tiela’s soul and let her leave. The princess should believe Kaelum's words and not resist Tiela's soul merging with her own. After merging with the princess's soul and body she could then prepare to prevent the disasters in the future from occurring.

Glad that their exchange had turned from him nearly being murdered, to amicable. Kaelum assured the princess that he knew what he had to do and that he would do his utmost to help her out. If only to get rid of the unwanted roommate in his head.

But Kaelum was left with one last question.

“How do I get out of here?”