I'm Gonna Fix Her! The Rebel of the Sands. The Bane and the Beauty. A Desperate Journey into the Unstoppable Force of Willpower. A Laughable and a Lustful Tale. A Flame-Blossoming Fantasy! A Rebellion of Love and an Unconquerable Feeling of Passion. A Heroic Love Story." In that moment, I laughed with delight. I have met someone like that? I have lived among people like that? She had been so beautiful and perfect in my dream that I was certain of it. "Your Majesty..." said the priestess. "The way you say it makes me feel like I'm being called a witch," I said and turned my back on the two of them, facing the wall that concealed the entrance to the temple. That was part of the game. I wanted him to come out, to see what awaited him beyond that very wall. "Ah! She can sense him, too," said the priestess. "Hush!" said the queen in a stern tone. "We agreed to keep the secret." The priestess nodded. I continued to stare at the wall. As I watched, I saw a shadow appear against it. The figure stepped into the light from the corridor beyond the wall and came towards us. It was a tall young man with dark-blond hair, clad in a black tunic. He stopped in front of the wall and his face was almost touching mine. "Did he just talk to me?" the king asked. "I... I think so," said the priestess with a laugh. "It seems like he's right on the verge of saying something. What is your name, my lord?" The young man smiled and asked, "I was wondering that myself." The queen replied with a smile, "Oh, just look at him! He's absolutely captivating! I've never met such a handsome young man before. He looks like a god!" The priestess nodded. "Yes. Definitely like a god, don't you think? He has his father's eyes." The king nodded and asked, "So did you finally come to the surface with that secret?" He must've seen through all my charade! I suddenly felt very disappointed. "Your Majesty... That's not it." "Then what is it?" asked the king, smiling as he moved aside so I could come out from behind the wall. I stood there, feeling unsure of what to say. "I'm—I'm curious," I said at last. "Your Majesty, do you have other secret people like this in your employ?" "It's none of your business," said the queen. "I don't understand what's gotten into her." "What? Is she ill?" the king asked, turning to the priestess. "No. She's perfectly healthy, I swear. I wonder if she was a lover of some other man." "What do you mean by that?" I asked, wondering what could possibly make her say that. "Nothing," said the king and smiled at me. "I see no reason for you to have a secret. Your name is Mieli, isn't it?" I nodded and felt a bit of disappointment. I had hoped that my act would be convincing enough to earn my trust and I had been willing to go far enough to tell him my real name. It was not to be. "My name is Caya," I said. "I would like to ask you about those books. Where did you get them?" "Your father brought them from the far side of the sea to my mother's brother. He passed them on to me when I was a child." "Do you still have them?" He laughed. "Why, yes! I do. Where else could they be?" He held them out to me. "May I?" I asked. "Go ahead," he said with a smile. "You'll like them." "Thank you." I took them from him and started to read. He had brought a lot of them. It was like he had been writing all his life, and there were notes from other books that he hadn't managed to finish. There were several books that were in incomplete states, but these were very different from the sort of books I was used to. There were no maps and it seemed that no other worlds existed in this world, at least, nothing like the ones I knew. Mostly they were about the daily life of the world and what was most interesting to me was the fact that several were stories of the people he knew. He didn't write his observations as a historian did. It was almost like the people's histories were stories he himself told. He was one of the people there. "Mieli?" said the queen, concerned. I was so absorbed in my reading that I jumped and nearly dropped the book. "What is it?" she asked. "You're very pale." "My apologies," I said, handing him the book he had lent me, but he refused to take it. "Why?" she asked. "Do you need it for some other occasion?" "I'm afraid I do," I said. "There's something I must check in here first. I'm sorry. Can you wait just a little longer?" The king glanced at the priestess, who nodded. "It's fine, Your Majesty," she said. "I'm sure the book is in the hands of someone who can really appreciate it. I'll talk to you later." She walked off. "I don't mind waiting," said the king, "I was thinking that you must be planning to go. I'd like to talk to you a bit longer. My sister is in a bad mood because she hasn't found anyone to marry yet." "I see." I looked at him with my most sincere expression and said, "Perhaps I could just wait right here?" "Are you sure you can't wait another minute?" "No, I'm afraid not," I said. "I'll come back tomorrow then." He nodded. I hurried back to the temple and looked for my brother. He was sitting in the same spot with a book in his hand. The priestess was watching him, but he was reading, so she didn't say anything. He raised his hand, as if signaling he wanted to leave, but I caught him by the sleeve before he could get up. "You can come with me if you want," I said. "I don't think I can," he replied, a little annoyed. "I'm done here, so if you want to go, go. But don't expect me to help you." I shook my head. "I don't. I have some errands to run first. Don't tell anyone I went out. I don't want to disturb your mother's evening or anything like that." He didn't say anything, but he got up and followed me out. The priestess winked at me as we left. We reached the temple entrance without any problems, and once there, I said to him, "So I was able to find out from the queen some things about those other worlds. We don't even know that they're real. We think we do, but there are no maps." He frowned. "That's not as strange as you might think." "I thought that because you've been told those stories, you must've seen something about them in the books." "I never saw anything in those books about other worlds." "You didn't?!" I asked. "Even from all the books we have now? Or from those in the palace?" He sighed. "Not everything is in those books." "What do you mean?" "Well, the priestesses keep a lot of secrets that even I don't know about. I've been here for so long, I've forgotten a lot of things, including a lot of the most basic things about the people in the palace. Our lives are very different." I nodded. "And the other worlds?" "They're... They're different, too. But the world we're in now is different from the ones I saw." "What do you mean?" He was silent for a moment. "I don't know how to explain it. It's like everything I read about those worlds was like a vision. A story someone told me, rather than something that really happened." "Maybe the language you use for other worlds is different, so you don't really have enough basis to believe that it's real." "I see," he said and grinned. "Aren't you full of compliments today? It's like you've been reading one of your mother's books!" I smiled back at him and took his hand. He still seemed a little reluctant to walk with me, but finally let me lead him outside. Once we got there, I said, "So which is the way to where we're going?" "Well, you should know that one," he replied. "But not the way you're thinking." "You mean the way we passed?" I asked. "That