Page 57 of Akarnae

She smiled despite the child remark since she knew his kindness was genuine. “So, the million dollar question: what happens now?”

He tilted his head to the side. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I can’t stay here forever,” she said. “How do I get back to the, um, ground?”

“That’s simple,” Darrius answered. “The same way you arrived.”

She furrowed her brow. “Didn’t I fall here?”

“You did,” he replied. Seeing her expression, he added, “Is there a problem?”

She stood and walked over to look out the window again. It was still the same view. If anything, it seemed like they were even higher than when she’d first looked. But since the clouds obscured her vision and the ground wasn’t even in sight through them, she had no way of knowing if that was true.

“Yeah, I’d say there’s a slight problem,” Alex said, gesturing towards the view.

“I don’t make the rules, Alexandra,” Darrius said with an apologetic shrug. “You asked me how to get out, and I answered you. It’s your choice whether or not you follow my advice.”

“How about some different advice?” she asked. “Like the kind that doesn’t involve falling to certain death?”

“I’m afraid I have no other options for you.”

He didn’t look afraid. In fact, he seemed completely at ease. Not to mention completely serious.

“You’re mad,” she said without thinking.

Darrius smiled at her words and replied, almost jovially, “You’re certainly not the first to believe so.”

At least he wasn’t offended. He almost seemed to take her insult as a compliment, proving to her that he was, in fact, a very strange man.

Alex took a deep breath and closed her eyes. As she did so, she heard a voice like a whisper in the wind: “Just believe.” She snapped her eyes open and turned to look behind her, but there was no one there.

“Let’s say for a moment that I believe you,” she said. “Would I really have to jump?”

Darrius appeared to think about it and her hope soared until he said, “I suppose I could push you.”

She groaned and banged her head against the wall.

“The laws of gravity are simple, my dear,” he said. “What goes up must come down.”

He wisely remained silent while she grumbled into the wall about staircases and elevators and how technically she’d nevergoneup since she’d only fallen down in the first place. There was no such thing as fallingupwards.

“Come along, then,” he said, pulling her away from the wall. “While time is of little consequence here, I do have work to be getting on with and your friends are likely anxious for your return.”

Alex blew out a resigned breath and followed him across the room until they stood in front of a door she hadn’t even noticed before. When Darrius turned the handle, the entire door vanished, opening to nothing. Unless, of course, the sky could be considered a destination.

She scurried backwards three steps before Darrius latched onto her arm with a firm grip.

“There’s really nothing to be afraid of,” he said, as if commenting on something as mundane as the weather. “Remember how I told you that the Library often teaches through challenges? Well, this is merely one such obstacle.”

“You also mentioned that it teaches through failure,” Alex pointed out, her body shaking in fear.

“So I did,” he agreed, cheerfully. “But not, perhaps, failure as you understand it. And I don’t believe this particular challenge will end in failure.”

He managed to gently pull her one step closer to the ledge.

“I—I don’t think I can do this, Darrius,” she stammered as he coaxed her forward another step.

“I, however, have no such doubts.”

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