Eventually we were forced to halt again. This time it was not a simple wooden door with a lock that could be charmed into opening. It was like a solid iron gate. Upon inspection it turned out that there wasn’t even a lock to be picked. There was only a small, square screen with blinking, illuminated symbols.

We all stared at it.
‘It’s a touch screen,’ Millie murmured eventually. She reached out, hovering her fingers just above the glasslike surface. The symbols kept on blinking.
‘It’s a security pad,’ Cuckoo said, his voice betraying a hint of reverence.
‘I see,’ I breathed. ‘The door opens with the right password or code…Amazing use of network…’
Millie reached out to touch one of the symbols on the screen but I quickly grabbed her hand, pulling it away.
‘We can’t afford mistakes,’ I explained, as I wiped my own hands to my clothes. They felt clammy. ‘My guess is that if we toy with this, we’ll be dead before we can even blink and say “oops”.’
They all fixed their eyes on me as I said this, willing me to go on; to explain to them how we were going to solve this riddle.
‘Look,’ I said uneasily. ‘It’s probably foolish to even try to meddle with such a thing -’
‘This is why you got the network update from Merope’s sister,’ Ladybug cut me off. ‘Isn’t that right? Surely she warned you about this and provided you with a solution.’
I tried not to look at him as I gulped, then nodded. In a high-pitch voice I added: ‘It never guaranteed us a safe invasion though.’

I did not dare to oppose his assumptions, however. With trembling fingers I investigated the touch pad, making sure I only barely touched the screen. In my mind, I let the network enfold before me, desperate for a simple solution.
The right code must consist of a combination of these symbols. I did not think that these cryptograms were letters; for that, they differed too greatly from what had been written on my map. So, I thought, there wouldn’t be a single, specific word that we might guess. All we had to do is find the right combination of signs, and enter them.
It seemed easy enough.

Tentatively I worked my way through it, placing guide string upon guide string. The most logical guide strings had led me nowhere; after a while I became bolder in my queries, trying everything that might have been remotely related to the answer.

Time went by alarmingly fast and the results were still down to zero. I heard Millie shuffling uncomfortably next to me. My own legs had began aching too. It was cold in here, and we were all afraid to be exposed.
Just when my mind began drifting off, wondering how to get us out as quickly as possible instead, something changed in my network.

For a brief moment, I had the same sensation as when we had been walking through Devilswood forest, lost and scared, when the densely grown trees parted to give way to a clearing.
Suddenly there it was: a myriad of symbols and glyphs.
I must have gasped, because Millie asked a little shocked: ‘What is it?’
‘I’ve found them,’ I mumbled, closing my eyes in order to concentrate better. ‘All the symbols of the screen. No, even more -   there are about one hundred symbols!’
‘How do we know which ones to use?’ Millie inquired whispering.
‘I don’t - wait.’ I held up a hand. ‘I was wrong; there’re not a hundred different symbols - there’s a pattern to them…they’re all the same, they’re constantly repeated in reverse order.’
I opened my eyes to study the screen in front of me. ‘I don’t get it. The network shows the symbols in horizontal and vertical lines, but this here is only horizontal. I wonder…’
Partially expecting the roof to collapse on me as soon as I touched the screen properly, I touched one of the symbols; the first one in the first horizontal row.
Nothing dreadful happened. Only the one blinking glyph turned motionless, like the first written letter in an sentence.

After a minute or so, I had entered the first line according to what I saw in the network. This meant I had to close my eyes after every symbol, check for the next, double check, then enter it, close my eyes again, etcetera.
‘There,’ I said, feeling somewhat lighter now that the roof had still not fallen down on us. ‘We got this far.’
‘Daffodil? What’s this?’ Millie pointed at a small, separate pictogram on the screen. It was not meant to be touched and neither did it flicker like the others. It showed a finger against the keypad. It showed a miniature clock next to it, arrows pointing at numbers that were too tiny to read.
‘It’s the security system I think. We’ll have to enter the code in a certain amount of time. I guess it’s to keep people from taking their time and guessing the right order. Never mind; I can work around it, let’s just hurry up.’

Finally I entered the last of the symbols - a snakelike curled line with a dot above it. It filled the last opening in the most right vertical line.
I had recreated the same pattern as the network had shown me. Though I had still no idea what the symbols meant - if they meant anything at all, that was - I was certain I had not made a mistake.
The screen remained motionless for a split second. Next, it swallowed the whole pattern whole, briefly turning blank.
‘Did it work?’ Millie asked after a second of awful silence.
Before any of us could reply, something flashed on the screen. Words had appeared a message of some sort. I felt my stomach twist.
‘What does it say?’
Cuckoo narrowed his eyes as he studied it. ‘Validating input code,’ he read then, with some apparent difficulty. ‘Validation completed. Code: correct.’
We all heaved a sigh and I felt triumphant. This certainly was a handsome piece of work, even if I did say so myself!
Ladybug moved to push open the iron door.
New words flashed on the screen.

Cuckoo made to read them, but before he could even open his mouth, a sound filled the corridor: it was a high, screeching sort of bleep - brief but penetrating. Not for a split second did I think that this was the sound with which the door opened.
‘Whoops,’ I said weakly, standing frozen.
‘That didn't sound good,’ Millie said, tentatively. ‘Is something wrong?’
‘No, nothing wrong,’ I answered her shakily. ‘That's just the problem. It worked.’
‘Huh?’
‘It wasn't supposed to work, it was supposed to break.’
Cuckoo grabbed my shoulder, forcefully whirling me around to face him. ‘What are you saying?’ he barked. ‘What has worked?!’
I could not answer him. The door we had sought to unlock swung open with a bang; heavily armed guards spilling through them.

One moment we were huddling together as they surrounded us. The next moment they had grabbed our arms and twisted them behind our backs. I winced, Millie gasped next to me. Cuckoo began to curse, all of the men putting up an impressive fight.
I tried to see what happened to them and whether they managed to pull themselves free, but the guard that had grabbed me shoved me through the door. My legs gave in under the pressure and I had to walk with him if I did not want to fall over.
I glanced about panicky. It seemed that Millie was just behind me, struggling to keep to her feet, just like me. 
I don’t know where exactly they brought us, or how we got there through a myriad of corridors. I tried to register everything, but the guards dragged on me so hard that I nearly stumbled.
After a while we were forced through a large, polished door and entered a spacious hall. The marble floor was painfully hard against my knees when they threw me down. I heard a gasp of pain and knew that Millie, too, had fallen to the ground.
The Rough Rebels remained standing, not ceasing their ferocious struggle with the arms that held them in check.
‘Your highness,’ I heard one of the guards say. ‘The intruders, as you commanded.’

I felt shocked. Looking up, I stared up into white but beautiful face, framed by a downpour of straight shiny hair that hung to well over her shoulders. The eyes that locked with mine were dark, stern - almost vicious.
‘Thank you,’ the girl said, lifting her gaze from mine. ‘They do not seem to be much of an army.’
Behind me, Cuckoo stirred once more, growling: ‘A few men can succeed where a whole army fails, my lady princess Merope.’ He spat out her name as if it were a curse.
‘Yes,’ the girl that was the princess said, quite without emotion. ‘Just this time, your theory seems to have failed. Take them away. Separate them.’ This last command was, of course, made to the guards.
We had to allow that they dragged us apart once more. Millie and I went through a left-hand corridor while the Rough Rebels were taken right.
I looked over my shoulder as we left the hall, and saw how Merope gazed after us. She did not look troubled at all; she didn’t even look surprised.
With a chill, I wondered whether we’d be tortured so, or that we would just be killed straight away. I wasn’t sure what I preferred.
‘Where are you taking us?’ Millie asked in a shaking and high-pitched voice as well-lit corridors made place for gloomier, cobwebbed passages. ‘Please slow down - my arms -’
‘Shut it,’ the guard that was holding her mumbled. ‘You’ll be put down in custody until her highness decides what further actions will be taken.’
They forced us down a flight of stone stairs. Now, the only light came from a sputtering lantern somewhere in a recess in the wall.
One of the armed men drew up a keychain, opened another iron door with only one small, high and barred window.
It was obviously a dungeon cell where they threw us down.

The first thing I did after I had scrambled up, was folding my hands around the window bars and shake them as if I had some of breaking them.
Nothing happened of course. The bars were strong and even if we’d ever manage to wiggle them loose, this window would still be too narrow to even allow a child to pass through.
I turned around, my eyes searching for Millie, who had slumped down unto the floor.
‘Well, this sucks.’
She nodded, one hand massaging the other arm. I supposed the guards hand not handled her with care. I felt the pain myself, thinking that, if we managed to get out of this alive, with only a few bruises to remind us, we would be the two luckiest people in the entire world.

‘Look,’ I sat, sinking down next to her. The floor was dirty. ‘I know this isn’t looking great, but we were partly expecting this, right? And…at least Cuckoo and the guys won’t be able to murder…’ 
My voice died away. What use was it that they were not able to kill Merope now, when chances were very high that the ones to die today were Millie and I?
‘I so wish we had not been caught in the act,’ I mumbled.
‘So, what now Daffodil?’ Millie asked. ‘Can you get us out with the network?’
‘You know I can’t. I’m not our lovely mister stalker, though I wish I was now. I suppose you can open our cell door with those Fairy flowers of yours. But what good will that do, when we’re still trapped in this maze of corridors? I have no idea how to escape from here and it looks like the dungeons down here are enormous.’
We sat in silence for a while, listening to the few sounds in the darkness: I heard scurrying of a small animal of sorts; the fluttering of tiny wings of a moth against the lantern. Our own breathing, our uncomfortable shuffling.
‘I wonder what they’re doing with Cuckoo and the rest,’ Millie then said softly.
I put on a brave face, even though it would be hard to see in this semidarkness. ‘Cuckoo and the rest are hardened men. They can look after themselves.’
‘Not if they’re bound and disarmed.’
‘Hmm. Good point.’ I stretched my arms above my head but quickly withdrew as my fingers came in contact with something sticky and threadlike - ‘Ow, gross! This place is full of cobwebs. Damn it, I hope the spiders died a long time ago, I hate spiders.’

Millie carefully folded her limbs more closely to her body. I remembered the night of the giant bug in beneath her blankets and was quite sure she did not care for spiders either.
‘Anyway,’ I said, ‘they knew the risks, that lot. They knew what they were getting into. If they’re about to get worked on with an obscure torture device - I hate to say it, but it will be their own bloody fault.’
‘Yes…But still!’
‘I know, I know.’ I sighed, and then got up. ‘Come on; let’s not sit here like this. We’ll feel better if we try to find a solution. You can open the door, even if we’re not moving far. Open doors are far better than closed doors after all.’
‘Okay.’
She held the Key Flowers to the lock and we both waited for it to spring open, allowing us to slip into the hallway.
I raised my eyes at her. ‘Ping? Was it supposed to go ping?’
‘Not really…’
‘Hmm…this could be quite distressing.’
I pushed the door. It would not yield.
‘Err - try again. We must have this one opening up to us. You probably pressed it in the wrong way, or something.’
Millie gave me an uncertain look, but tried again. Once more, nothing happened.

Now, for the first time, real panic started to rise in me. ‘You’re doing it all wrong!’ I snapped, not being able to restrain myself. ‘That must be it! How did you do it last times? Did you move your wrist differently, or -?’
‘I didn’t do anything specific!’ Millie cried. ‘I never did! It’s just not working here - we’re stuck.’
‘Nonono!’ I said, shaking my head. ‘Absolutely negative! That can't be right, because if it was right, I'd be wrong, and we definitely, DEFINITELY, cannot have that!’
Millie uttered a frustrated howl and started to punch the wall - or at least, that’s what it seemed like at first. Then, I saw that she was actually pressing her flowers to the bricks; so hard that one or two were grinded against the rough stone, losing all of their limb petals.
Her absurdity seemed to bring me back to my senses. I folded my arms, asking: ‘What are you doing now?’
‘Don’t interrupt me!’ she breathes, never looking up. ‘I will get us out of here, I won’t allow us to be… to be…’
She went on with this odd activity. I completely failed to grasp why she was doing it or what she hoped to achieve.

I settled myself against the wall once more. Here we are, I thought. Two silly girls, separated from a group of very silly men. One of us has already lost her senses, it shouldn’t take long for me to follow suit.
Suddenly, there were very hasty footsteps outside our door. It seemed like someone was actually running up to us.

Something made a clicking noise and then our cellar door was blasted open. I gave a startled shriek, jumping up. Millie had frozen in her fanatical pacing, staring at the exit.
I gawped.

The cloaked guy threw us only a mildly interested glance when we were both shocked like that, but he was actually looking quite nervous.
‘I need the girl with the brains,’ he said.
Not: thank goodness you’re still safe. No: I’m glad to see you, let’s get out of here. Not even: here I am to safe your butt again.
I gave an uncomfortable sort of snort. ‘Good luck finding her.’
‘Aha,’ he said, taking a few steps inside. ‘Daffodil, just like I thought. So my sister was right.’
‘What -’ I started, but he grabbed me by one arm and resolutely dragged me out of the cellar.
‘Hold on,’ I tried again, wanting to pry my arm free but failing. ‘What are you doing here? Where are you taking - hey, don’t close that door!’
Because he had actually slammed the iron door shut, leaving Millie on the other side.

‘What the hell?!’ I shrieked.
‘Don’t make such a noise,’ he said, dragging me along. ‘Don’t worry about Millie; she’s quite safe inside.’
‘Safe - what do you mean she’s safe? Princess Merope can fetch her any moment to have all her limbs removed!’
‘No, she will not.’
‘Oh, and I suppose you know this,’ I scoffed, still struggling desperately to free myself from his iron grasp.
‘As a matter of fact, I do. Up here, if you please. STOP struggling like that, I’m not going to eat you.’
I halted when he ushered my in a small, round room. There were windows to every side, and it was well-lit. My eyes had to get used to the light; for a moment, it was painfully bright. I had shouted and struggled so hard that I actually had to catch my breath as he moved to one of those windows, finally releasing me.
‘I can’t believe you’ve followed us all the way inside,’ I said, holding one hand to my heaving chest. ‘You must be out of your mind.’
‘I would say the same of you and be the one that’s most correct,’ he answered, giving me a cold glance. ‘You’ve not been up to your usual wits, Daffodil. Didn’t I tell you that I knew where the sword was drawing you? That I would be there?’
‘You did -’ I stammered, feeling shocked. ‘Do you mean that you knew we were going to the castle?’
‘Yes.’ He walked past me, closing the door with a snap.

Now that my initial surprise began to fade, a new emotion rapidly took over. ‘Can’t you give us a break?’ I began, raising my voice. ‘MUST you always be near - can you not for one minute STOP following me?!’
‘It’s not you I’m following. You just happen to be in constant company of the thing that I am pursuing. It would help if you just left, if it bothers so much.’
‘Interesting thought,’ I growled. ‘But a little too late. Tell me, how did you get in here when we couldn’t? That’s fishy - everything about you is fishy! Who are you anyways?’
‘I’m Merope,’ he said.
‘Sorry?’ I gave him a polite stare. ‘I think I misheard you; I thought you said Merope.’
‘I did say Merope. That’s my name.’
‘Look fellow, pull the other one! Whoever you are, you can’t be…’ My voice faltered. ‘That’s impossible. You are not…’
I gave up. He wasn’t lying to me and anyway, it was a good explanation for getting into the castle without trouble.

He moved about the room purposefully, drawing up some charts, spreading them out on the only present table. I couldn’t see what kind of charts they were and did not care, because at that moment, something struck me.
Firing up, I cried:  ‘Waitaminute! Your sister? Then she is not princess Merope?’
He looked up. Sounding weary of repeating his words, he said: ‘No. I’m Merope.’
‘But…you’re a guy.’
‘I know.’
‘But you’re a princess anyway?’
He heaved a sigh. ‘It’s just how my family does things.’
‘Uhuh.’ I thought he looked a bit uncomfortable as he said it. A new thought rose up: ‘So, our previous king Castalli was…’
‘…my mother. Yes.’
After a short pause I said: ‘You have an interesting family. I’ll grant you that much.’
He gave no response.

I looked about the room as I walked to one of the windows. Not that there was much to see now that it was already dark outside. ‘So all this time, we have been chased by princess Merope himself…Prince,’ I added hastily, blushing. ‘Sorry.’
‘Yes,’ he said now, in his voice a mocking tone. ‘I do hope you feel honoured.’
‘And all this time you knew where we were headed…and why!’
‘Yes.’
‘Then tell me something…’ I grasped the windowsill with both my hands, keeping my gaze steadily fixed on the dark canopy outside the window. ‘Why would someone that is already heir to this land pursue a brittle old sword like that…? Surely not for the legend!’
‘You’re quite wrong,’ he said. ‘If not for the legend, why else would I trouble myself?’
‘But you already are in charge! People fear your name throughout the country! And here’s what puzzles me,’ I continued as I turned to face him. ‘If you had believed this legend and this sword would be a threat to you, I believe you would have murdered us right after our first encounter. You would not have me let me win during the tournament; you would not have been withdrawing yourself every time that we glimpsed you in the forest…What possessed you?’

The cloaked guy - prince Merope - sighed and crossed his arms. He wore an expression that told me that he was only reluctantly resigning himself to answering my questions. ‘You must realise that taking away the sword would not have done the trick, or I would’ve done that,’ he said.
‘Yes! So that’s why I’m asking…’
‘It’s the legend!’ he cut me off. ‘The legend that’s the threat.’
‘I thought you did not believe in this legend?’
‘I don’t,’ he snapped. ‘And I know you don’t. That did not stop you from coming here tonight, did it?’
I stared at him. ‘What are you saying?’
‘I’m saying that it doesn’t matter if the legend is just a blatant lie. As long as someone is prepared to believe it, take risks for it, it will turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy before long. I was worried for my sisters safety, of course. And for my own. For yours as well.’
‘Mine?’ I asked incredulous.
‘Yours and Millie’s. It seemed clear that you had been put out of your heads. You didn’t even have to believe in it to act upon it as if it were all true!’
I became silent, feeling embarrassed. What he said had been all true: I had responded as if the legend of the sword was true. Only now it dawned me how completely insensible I had been. So what if Gran had burned my bed? I could have stayed. I could have drawn the finish line any desired moment and yet here I was.
‘So you’ve caught me,’ I mumbled.
‘There’s something I need you to see,’ he said, surprising me. ‘I’m sorry there’s not much time for your confusion; you’ll just have to deal with your stuff until later.’
‘What?’ I asked alarmed. His face was suddenly looking way too grave for my taste.
‘It seems your friend has actually managed in her mission of bringing havoc upon the land.’
‘She didn’t - she never wanted -’
‘Be silent, will you? I’m going to take you on a side-along tap and you’ll see why I got you out of that cell.’

Before I could utter a protest, he had taken one of my arms. Not rough but still rather decisively.
At once I was plunged into a world that made me dizzy just by being there. Everything revolved and changed, I could not fix my eyes on anything.
‘Hold on just a little more,’ I heard Merope mutter as if from another room. Then, the vision changed and I was looking over a field and a small town. It was night, telling me the image was in real-time.
I was hardly aware of my body but knew that, at that moment, I must stiffen all over. ‘What in Gods name is that?’
‘Your guess is as good as mine,’ I heard him say, as we zoomed in.

I saw the dark silhouettes of something large - very large. Destructively large.
‘Towers,’ I mumbled, squinting. ‘Looks like they’re towers or something. I can see windows.’
‘Yes,’ Merope said softly. ‘They’re definitely buildings of a kind we have not here in Archeon. Can you see what they’re doing, Daffodil?’
I nodded, though I wasn’t sure if he had his eyes opened to see. I never could work with the network and watch the world around me at the same time.
‘Yeah,’ I said therefore. It came out rather weakly. ‘They’re about to crash with the town.’
It was true: eerie as it may seem, the square-built, many windowed towers hung up somewhere in mid-air, hovering over the landscape like threatening thunder clouds before a storm. But they were moving steadily downwards, as if growing taller, but not up but down, closing in on houses and town wall and field.

‘Stop it!’ I shrieked, as the first block hit the ground, leaving behind a ravage. ‘Stop them! They’re going to…!’
‘I cannot,’ I heard Merope say. He sounded very bitter. ‘I can’t stop them. I’ve already tried.’
‘But…’ I stammered. ‘That town…it’s going to kill everyone out there.’
‘I know.’
I closed my eyes, forcing myself out of the side-along tap. I needed a little time to recover. Then I asked: ‘If you can’t do anything about it, why make me look at it? What IS it? And what’s it got to do with Millie - that makes no sense, I don’t even know that place. We’ve been here all the ti -’
I shut up when he motioned me to do so.
‘I don’t know, I can’t tell you anything. I just know that it happened right after Millie went berserk in that cell.’
‘What?’ I asked, too tired to even be surprised anymore, though I still had to ask. ‘How did you know…’
‘I know!’ he said curtly. ‘It wasn’t hard to track you once I hacked your network update.’
‘You hacked me. Of course.’

Without asking permission, I sank down in one of the chairs. It was a comfortable chair, with pillows that embraced me like a ducking is embraced by the plushy feathers of its mother duck.
‘Well, that explains.’