Saving Fable

by Scott Reintgen

  Quiver.

  Indira blinked.

  The streets of Quiver looked exactly the way she remembered them. It was already the afternoon. Some of the early-shift workers were making their way home from the mines, covered in that strange golden dust from the story nuggets they worked tirelessly to excavate. It was such a familiar sight that she almost forgot about the unfamiliar person standing beside her.

  “Not exactly paradise,” the Mark noted. “But your wish is my command. Has the favor been satisfied, sweetheart?”

  “Yes,” Indira replied. “Thank you. And thank you for convincing me not to go to Fester.”

  “It would have been a mistake,” the Mark said. “Why come to this place instead?”

  “I needed a reminder of why I went to Fable in the first place.”

  The Mark nodded in approval at that answer. There was a little shift in the air as the Mark stepped back through the invisible curtain. Indira found herself standing alone down by the docks. She picked her way through the narrow alleyways and headed for David’s apartment.

  Indira couldn’t help noticing that the city was exactly the same. It was a little sad to imagine David waiting in his room after each exhausting day, always doing the same work and always wondering if his baby sister would visit the next morning. She imagined how wonderful—and how difficult—it must have been when she hadn’t ever come. All he’d had of her over the past few months were the letters she sent.

  A grin stole over her face as she strode up to his door and knocked. “Special delivery!”

  There was a ringing clatter inside. She heard a little curse before the door cracked open. David glanced out. “I thought I told—” His eyes went wide. “Indira!”

  He swung the door open so hard that it almost came off the hinges. Indira laughed as he scooped her into a massive hug. “Good heavens! You’re heavy.” He set her back down and smiled wide enough to fill the whole doorway. “Look at those muscles! You’ve been training!”

  She blushed a little as she walked inside. It was a bit surprising to find it cleaner than ever. The only real mess was an abandoned frying pan on the center of the floor in the kitchen. Her brother hurried over to clean up the sauce that had splattered everywhere.

  “You’re cooking?” Indira asked. “Like…actual food?”

  David glanced back at her. “It’s a work in progress.”

  “Impressive,” she said. “Since I ruined the meal, how about sausage and biscuits?”

  She laughed at how quickly he abandoned the mess. The two of them took seats across from each other at his makeshift table. Her brother looked a little taller and a little more tired. Golden dust painted the backs of his hands and streaked his forearms—clear signs of the eight-hour shift he’d already worked that day excavating precious story nuggets.

  “How are you doing, D?” Indira asked.

  He set down his biscuit. “As if we’re going to talk about me. It’s been so long, Indira. I’m not going to sit here and bore you with mining rotations. You’ve been to Fable.”

  David said it the same way she had always said it. The same way that every kid who grew up in Origin did. Like it was this distant, fairy-tale dream. And in so many ways, Fable was beyond everything she’d ever imagined, but that didn’t soften the sting of yesterday. Indira’s experience hadn’t been a fairy tale at all.

  “It’s…fine. It’s fine.”

  David’s eyes narrowed. “Something happened, yeah? I can see it written all over your face, baby sister. What’s got you so down?”

  No one else knew the whole story. She felt like no one would really care to hear it except for David. So she started at the beginning, telling him everything that she’d left out of her letters. The mistakes she’d made with Peeve. How she had failed auditions. The whole ordeal of being abandoned by Maxi. She did her best to include the good parts as well. How the city changed outfits every now and again. The smell of Mrs. Pennington’s pies. The steady friendships with Phoenix, Margaret, and Gavin. But that didn’t stop the story from eventually spiraling back to now.

  “I was going to quit,” she said. “Kind of. I was going to Fester. It’s another city…”

  David nodded. “For the bad guys.”

  “You know about it?”

  “They recruit here all the time.”

  Her eyes widened. “What? How have I never heard of them?”

  “You were in Origin,” he said. “Everyone there still has hope, Indira. Here? A lot of our crew feels angry about how things turned out. It’s the perfect recipe for a bad guy, you know? They come looking for the characters who’ve had enough. It’s pretty tempting. The recruiters call it a second chance. A way for us to play a significant role in the story.”

  Indira nodded. “And…you’ve never thought about going?”

  “Of course I have.” David glanced at the golden dust coating his hands. “But you and me, baby sister? We’re not like them. We’re not the bad guys. I know you too well. There’s not a mean bone in your body. We both know you were meant to go to Fable, Indira.”

  She shook her head in frustration. “I thought that too! I was destined to go there and be a hero in a story. I had all these big plans for you and me, but I messed it all up, D. My brainstorm doesn’t even think I can be a side character now. Nothing I do seems to work. I feel stuck.”

  “Every cage has a key,” David replied. “All you have to do—”

  Indira stared at him. “What did you just say?”

  He shrugged. “Every cage has a key. Sorry if that sounds weird. A few weeks back I heard that phrase and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. Sometimes I feel a little trapped here. But there’s always a key to every situation. I’ve been able to step back and solve things now. It’s helped so much.”

  Indira couldn’t stop herself from lunging across the table. She wrapped David in an awkward hug that almost took the two of them to the floor. “You really heard those words? Exactly like that? Every cage has a key?”

  David nodded, confused now. “Yeah. I thought maybe I’d read it somewhere?”

  “Those are my Words, D!” Indira was almost shouting. “My mentor told me they’re like a promise and a warning. Those are the words that are supposed to begin my story. If I make it into one, that’s how it all begins! Don’t you get it? If you heard them too…”

  It took David a second to piece things together, but when he did, his eyes widened.

  “I’ll be in the story with you!”

  “Exactly! All I have to do is get chosen.”

  The realization was still thundering inside Indira’s chest. Her problems were far from solved. There was a long road ahead, but maybe her teachers had gotten it all wrong. Maybe Brainstorm Ketty just didn’t see her potential. David had heard the same Words. There was a potential story out there that was big enough for both of them. Indira couldn’t stop grinning.

  “I have to get back to school,” she said suddenly. “Is there a dragoneye?”

  “A dragon-what? Never heard of it. There is a quest road, though,” David answered. “Come on. The map is at the edge of town with directions to Fable. I’ll walk you down there. You better grab your biscuit for the road. It’s a pretty long hike.”

  It took a few minutes to navigate through the streets. Indira could feel the difference. Every single step she took had a purpose now. She was going to prove them all wrong.

  As David led Indira to the edge of town, he fished through a knapsack and produced a stack of familiar letters. Indira recognized the envelopes that Mrs. Pennington had given her to mail, and inside the stationery with her name. She frowned for a second, remembering that David had never written her back. She had started to assume that maybe he didn’t care about her letters at all.

  Which is why his next question surprised her. “Why’d you send all these
?”

  “I didn’t want you to think I’d forgotten you.”

  He held them out for Indira’s inspection. “But they’re all blank. There’s just your name. It would have been a little more helpful if you actually, you know, wrote something. Like updates on what was happening. These literally just have your name on there.”

  Indira snatched the first few letters and flipped through them. She was hit by a thunderous wave of déjà vu. None of these letters were supposed to be blank. She had sat down and written notes to David on each of them. No wonder he’d looked so surprised during her retelling of all that had happened. None of what she’d written had made it to him.

  “This is what happened with my homework!” she realized, her mind racing. “The same thing. They’re all blank.”

  And just like that a few pieces clicked together. All her homework had turned blank, even though she knew she’d written answers. Her name had been printed on the top, though, which ensured that she got credit for the incomplete assignment. Clearly, the same thing had happened with her letters. Just her name remained at the top of each one. The rest had vanished.

  Her first thought in class had been that someone was messing with her. One of the protagonists—someone like Chem—was going in and erasing her work. But no one would have bothered to erase her letters to David. Which left only one possible explanation.

  “It’s the pen,” she said, digging through her bag. “My pen is cursed!”

  But that didn’t make sense, either. She’d used the same pen on the premade worksheets Mr. Threepwood had provided, which were completed. It couldn’t be the pen. Which left one option.

  “The stationery.” Indira dug through her own knapsack, removing a piece of the paper she’d been using in school. She took out a pen and carefully wrote the words I am cursed. Turning, she held out the materials to David. “Do me a favor. Write these words under mine.”

  He frowned. “Kind of dark, isn’t it?”

  “It’s just a test. Trust me.”

  As David leaned over and scribbled the sentence, another thought slammed through Indira’s head: Brainstorm Ketty gave me this stationery. Indira remembered that during that first meeting, the brainstorm had provided her with all the school materials she owned. Indira was tracing back through the connections and possibilities when David cleared his throat.

  “Here.” He handed her the sheet back. “The map I was talking about is over here.”

  Indira stuffed the paper back in her knapsack. She’d check it again in a few hours, and she had a hunch she was onto something big. David led her to a forest that curtained this side of town. There was a single wooden signpost ahead, and like Indira’s letters, it was strangely blank.

  “Not a very thorough map,” she pointed out.

  David laughed. “You have to tell it where you want to go. It’s a quest map. Characters come through here for training every now and again.”

  Indira nodded before stepping forward. “Perfect. I’m on a quest to return to Fable.”

  Her eyes widened as the actual wooden sign groaned to life. It bent and twisted and carved inward, highlighting two separate paths Indira could take. David tapped one of them.

  “See? This one is worth one hundred experience points,” he explained. “But you might run into a dragon, and it suggests taking three people with you. This one…” He tapped the shortest and straightest route. “Looks like you’ll have to complete one challenging task and have an uncomfortable reunion? It’s definitely the easier quest, though. Just click that one.”

  Indira pressed her finger to the wood, and her desired quest clicked in. She stood there, memorizing the route, until she felt ready to get moving. David set both hands on her shoulders.

  “I don’t care how long it takes, baby sister. You were born for a story. You’ve got this, hear me?”

  Indira looped in for a hug. “Keep safe. I’ll come back for you.”

  “I know you will,” he whispered.

  Indira thought she might cry if she stayed any longer. She kissed him once on the cheek and headed straight into the forest. Talking with David was exactly what she had needed. It was a reminder that she still had a chance. She could do this, no matter what anyone thought.

  The route led south. Forest loomed around her, but sunshine speckled through the trees, and it felt like a warm and welcoming place. The path wound over babbling creeks and moss-covered stones. Before long, she decided to remove her shoes. The dirt felt so good between her toes that it was hard not to skip her way back to Fable.

  The creature appeared without warning.

  One moment she had a stretch of empty path before her, and the next there was a thing in front of her. It sat cross-legged in the dirt, and it took Indira a few heartbeats to figure out what it even was. The creature’s body was that of a man, and it wore a lovely blue business suit with a cream-colored tie and handkerchief. The head, however, was that of a lion. He had a majestic mane that framed his light gold face. His bright eyes sparkled mysteriously.

  One challenging task, Indira remembered. Was this the task?

  “Halt!” The voice was higher than you’d expect from a lion. “I am the unanswered question. I am the dark unknown. I am the missing word. I am the riddle keeper!”

  She nodded. “I’m just Indira.”

  The lion thing smiled. “Pleasure.”

  “Same, but I have somewhere to be.” Indira glanced past him, down the path.

  “Not a chance!” the lion thing cried. “I come from a long line of guardians with malicious intentions. You shall answer a riddle to earn your way. But know the rules first! For if you answer this riddle correctly, I get to eat you.”

  Indira shivered a little before realizing what the lion thing had actually said.

  “Wait. If I answer correctly, you’ll eat me?”

  “Yes, those are the rules.”

  “And if I get it wrong?”

  The lion thing glanced down the path. “You get to go of course. Haven’t you ever met a sphinx?”

  Indira frowned. “I can’t say that I have. It’s just…I thought it worked differently.”

  “Well, now you know. It’s good to learn new things. Are you ready for the riddle?”

  “I think so.”

  “Are you sure you understand the rules?”

  “Yes.”

  The sphinx rubbed his hands together in anticipation. It was rather odd to watch him speaking through the mouth of one animal and using the hands of another, but Indira listened intently as he spoke in a mysterious tone.

  “Sometimes I’m a sphere, sometimes I’m a banana, and sometimes I’m not there at all. What am I?” He steepled his fingers quizzically. Indira wasn’t really sure what the answer to the riddle was, but she focused on figuring out an answer that was definitely wrong. She thought carefully about each clue and decided on something that could never fit all three requirements, because it could never be a sphere.

  “Are you a cube?” Indira asked.

  The sphinx let out a heaving sigh. “No, I’m afraid that’s not it at all.” He moved aside from the path and gestured with one human hand. “The answer was the moon. Oh, bother. No one ever seems to get them right. Back to the drawing board.”

  Indira thought about suggesting that the sphinx rearrange the consequences of his riddle, but then realized she wasn’t going to be doing any favors to the adventurers who came after her. She watched the creature slink off into the woods before setting off once more.

  The map she’d seen must have been old, because she stumbled upon a town that hadn’t been marked at all. She waited in the shadow of a sprawling tree and watched for several minutes, unsure how to proceed. The little town ahead could easily be a hideout for unscrupulous rebel antagonists. She pictured bandits with bandanas over their unshaved faces or notorious mobs
ters in pinstripe suits. She knew she could skip over the town, but that would require her to leave the path, and all of Alice’s lessons drifted back to her. Leaving the path was one of those mistakes that always came back to haunt the character.

  All right, then, she thought, I’ll just have to go through it.

  Her best strategy was to look confident. If they thought she was rough and tough, maybe they wouldn’t mess with her. She began down the trail. The town consisted of a loose circle of weathered buildings, their sides brushed by desert and their colors made pale by the sun. Indira spotted a wooden sign that was nearly too faded to read.

  THE BOOKSELLER RETIREMENT COMMUNITY

  She had no idea what a bookseller was, but the word didn’t sound quite as dangerous as nemesis or pirate or rapscallion. The windows of each building allowed a generous amount of sunlight inside. She saw figures moving within, but no one came out to greet her or challenge her. She could have just continued on to Fable, but curiosity had the better of her. She was about to knock on the door of the nearest building when a polite cough sounded behind her.

  “Hello there, Indie.”

  It shouldn’t have been a surprise to have Deus stumble upon her here. After all, he was her mentor and he was an unpredictable kind of person. She knew he was probably powerful enough to show up when he wanted and to summon forth whatever events he wanted to summon.

  But so far? Deus hadn’t really helped her. He hadn’t really helped her through auditions at all, and none of his “convenient solutions” had saved her from the horrible day that had just happened. She wanted to be angry, maybe even shout at him, but he looked pretty tired and miserable himself.

  “I’m busy,” she said in an annoyed voice.

  “Come now, Indie,” Deus said. “We don’t need to play this game.”

  “It isn’t a game.” She turned to face him and felt the anger seep back into her words. “My auditions? They weren’t a game. My schooling? It’s not a game. None of it is a game to me. But you haven’t been much help so far, and I don’t see how you can be much help now.”