Arthur.

No, no, no, no. This was not supposed to happen. ‘Give it back. Give my body back! Thnak, Scourge of the Cliff, you will pay for this!’ I shouted. At least I thought I shouted that, it felt like it, but nothing came out of my mouth. The thing is, my body wasn’t mine anymore. I was getting visual input through my eyes, but I couldn’t see. I was receiving the information from the ground touching my boots, but I couldn’t walk. I was still in my body, in the backseat, but Thnak, the Evil Moustache-Haver, was at the command.

“This body is… Oh goddess, those abs, those lines, phew, it’s well-built. Not my style, but… it will do. I dig the green hair though,” my voice said that.

He stole my voice! Not that I cared that much about my voice anyway, but still, it was about the principle of it. ‘Just don’t steal people’s voices, not nice!’ 

“Oh will you shut it, little man? I can hear every thought of yours, you’re a noisy lad,” he answered me, annoyed and still using my body.

‘You can hear me? Then I guess you're as much stuck with me as I am stuck with you,’ I mentally smirked.

“Y-yes. I guess, yes, I am.” He furrowed my eyebrows.

‘Wait. Does that mean you can know everything about me?’ I realised. If I’d still been in control, my breath would’ve quickened. 

“No. That’s not how the spell works. I can’t really hear eve–”

‘Oh no. This is terrible! You can see all my darkest secrets? Like those delicious frangipanes I steal from the royal kitchen every week or so? Well, technically, it’s not me, Lucien is the one responsible.’

“No. That is not. How. The. Spell. Works.”

‘Crap, oh crap, or that time I wished so hard I was born a girl that I farted in the middle of the prayer when I was 12?’

“What? No! Will you please stop that!?” The evil lord sighed. “The spell doesn’t allow me to dig into your most private thoughts. I just have access to your internal monologue and things you want to share with me. Just shut it, and I won’t hear a thing. Urgh, don’t worry, little knight, everything will be fine.” This time, he said those words with his body, the one with horns, very big pecs – or were they breasts? Oh good lord… – and a sparkly purple and gold suit. He was standing right in front of me, looking a bit worried. And he was controlling two bodies.

Oh that was trippy.

And oooh no-hoho. Everything was not fine.

I was a knight of the royal guard, and I failed to protect the king.

I had failed. Thnak, the… t-the Glittered Terror, had won. I was supposed to be responsible for the safety of everyone here. This was all wrong.

My knight colleagues, where were they? I was so caught up in this battle against this h-handsome evil lord that I let the castle staff down! I hadn’t paid attention to the mess in the castle. I really hoped I hadn’t lost my friends. I mean, the other knights were kind of nasty, so I didn’t care that much about them. The king was not a nice dude. And the cooks… I liked them, but I think they were realising that Lucien, their primary suspect, was way too small to have eaten that many pastries on his own. So, well, I really hoped I hadn’t lost one friend in particular.

“Arthur? Is that you?” I heard the voice of Lucien calling from outside. He was alive, that was a relief. My head turned in the direction of the doorway. And he was standing there, in his mage dress or something.

Ooh, that was a particularly fancy dress today, my good friend, looking good!

No, crap. Evil thoughts! Think of a big pink duck!

Okay. Alright. Phew. I’d almost sinned but barely dodged it. Gotta be careful with this. You never know, maybe someone, one day, will be reading your thoughts on a whim and discover you’re having impure ones! I had to put in some defence mechanisms.

“Thank the goddess, Arthur, it is you! Are you alright? Thnak’s minions are everywhere, they come from the base of the castle, they have the king captured. Everyone is fleeing to the higher sections.”

He slowly got closer to me, with worry growing in his steps.

“Arthur, what is happening? Why aren’t you moving? Who’s that with you?” Lucien’s eyes blinked, slowly getting used to the dim light in the room.

“Higher sections eh? Good to know!” Thnak snorted. “And the name of this body is Arthur. Funny that. Are they your friend? They seem to like you.”

Oh snap, should’ve been more careful with my thoughts. I mentally blushed. ‘Shut up evil lord! And leave him alone, or I will tear you limb from limb… A-as soon as I get my own limbs back!’

Lucien’s face broke into a mix of terror and fury. “What have you done to him?!”

“I’m sorry little mage, you will have to fight them. I still need a wee bit of extra time to sort everything out.” My body took a battle stance, drawing my sword.

‘Lucien, please, move! He’s gonna attack you,’ I warned. My body rushed towards my dear friend as it was forced to attempt a slash at him. ‘Oh right, I can’t talk.’ Lucien leapt backwards and summoned a shield. He was cornered in the back of the room.

Thnak, the real one that is, gave a twirl to his wistful moustache. “See you later, little ones. Evil does not wait!” He was standing by a window. Which is weird because the only thing on the other side of that was the void. The castle was kind of just set in the cliff, there was no moat or haystack to catch your fall.

And then he escaped by jumping through the window, spraying large black wings.

Ah, yes, wings should do the trick.

‘Hmpf, show off.’

‘I’ll have you know I can still hear you’, I heard Thnak say in my head. ‘Sorry for snatching your body like that, but you wouldn’t stop fighting me, and I have a purpose to achieve here. Also, could you use 'they' when referring to me in your thoughts? Makes me feel more powerful,’ they added, with a tone of voice that I couldn’t quite figure out. I couldn't refuse their request, I was too afraid of the repercussions.

Then my body rushed towards Lucien once more and attempted to strike a horizontal blow to his shield. Fortunately, he dodged.

‘You captured the king! Why are you saying sorry? What the hell are you on about?’

Unaware of the conversation going on in my head, Lucien took my hand and trapped the sword in a sconce.

‘Oh, your friend is very smart! I’m starting to see why you like him! And if it were me, your king would already be dead, so thou should thnak me!’

My body desperately tried to get the sword off the torchholder. Pulling and twisting it a few times.

‘I don’t… D-did you just make a pun with your own name?’

Lucien spoke a few weird words, and his shield started slowly widening while my body reconquered its weapon.

‘Well I chose it, so I might as well.’

I was pretty sure you couldn’t choose your name. The knights told me that much. But evil lords weren’t known to tell the truth, were they? The knights also told me that.

My body turned to face Lucien, with my sword finally free and ready to slash again. But he threw his shield in my direction, enveloping my body in a magic cage before it could do anything. It attempted a few tentative attacks on the shield, trying to pierce through the magic.

‘Oh Lucien, well done my friend. You are really stronger than you think. Well, Thnak, this is it for your evil scheme!’

Lucien made a few last icant- incantio-, said some magic stuff, and the cage morphed into handcuffs.

Thnak threw a few attempts at breaking them, then groaned. “This is useless. I will bring back my real body here, and I'll take care of you, little mage, just you wait!” they said, through my mouth.

Then everything went calm.

My body just kind of stayed still. My eyes weren't moving anymore, I was stuck in a standing position.

This was waayyy more uncomfortable than before. Now I was totally trapped. I didn’t feel Thnak’s presence anymore. Even my breathing was out of my control.

“Arthur, are you alright? Can you hear me? Are you hurt? I hope I haven’t hurt you. Do you need anything? Oh yes, control spell, can’t talk, I should know that. Sorry.” He seemed very panicked for the man who just brilliantly took down the captain of the royal guard.

Well, the control spell seemed to act more like a cheap imitation of my true skills. But still, I was so big and strong, I could lift Lucien easily, it was no small task to bring me down like that. I had a huge respect for the guy, he was just so talented and passionate about his craft a-and he–

“Goddess, we don’t have time for this. I’m so sorry my friend, but we have to move.”

Yes, right… Thank you for cutting me off there.

“Thnak’s army is taking control of the castle. We’ll sort you out later, okay?” He took me by my shoulders, then mumbled a few words, and my body suddenly felt very light. 

Oh. I was flying a little, wheeee.

Lucien put my body in a lying position and took one of my hands. Then he started going up the floors, pulling me, and I kind of magically hovered over the concrete floor. 

“We could’ve used the castle’s entrance or one of the paths to the mines…” Lucien was talking to himself. “But that's probably not the best exit right now, since they invaded from there. That said, there should be lots of escape routes in the higher sections. I can think of a few that could work.”

From what I knew, the castle was a big hunk of concrete set in the cliff. So yeah, there were tunnels and caves linked to the thing and going everywhere. A big flaw from a defensive point of view that we, knights, had to deal with. But a great feature from a child's point of view. I loved exploring those when I was younger and I wanted to escape my guardians’ notice.

We made our way through the now abandoned and messy kitchen, where I had to guess he grabbed some food from. Then he brought us to a series of stairs that dug further into the stone. We could hear battle still raging in the lower levels and the signs of a forming thunderstorm echoing in the tunnels.

I knew those stairs! I used to wander there when I was a kid. Those lead to a hidden plateau, higher than the castle itself, where old woods were clinging to a less steep part of the cliff. When did I stop going there?

We had to walk for a couple of hours. Sometimes the path was exposed to the outside storm. A few metres to your left, the void, a few to your right, the cliff. Sometimes it took us back inside the stone, through caves brimming with colourful bright mushrooms, cake-like rocks on the floor, and spaghetti-like rocks on the ceiling.

Okay, I was getting hungry.

Lucien was carefully guiding my body around, checking every so often if I was still breathing or something. I wasn’t really able to see him properly. Half of the time I was just staring at the thunderclouds and drinking rain (sippy sippy), the other half, I was watching a boring old cave ceiling.

I mentally sighed. Stuck studying the ceiling, some things never change.

I think I remembered why I never got here again. One day, when I was exploring these paths, I got caught. After that, I had been so afraid to be told off again I pretty much stopped exploring anything. I guess every good thing has an end.

And just like that, with the sun setting in the vertizon, we were there, in the old woods. I’ve always wondered how those mighty pines had found this little paradise in the endless height of the cliff. Trees really can grow huge if you give them the freedom to spread their branches.

Lucien took me to an abandoned shed and lifted the flying spell. Ouch. The ground wasn’t nice. And with a body that was not responding, I couldn’t even catch my fall properly.

“I’m so sorry. I hope that didn’t hurt...” He winced and looked at me, eyes wet. “...Too much.”

He carefully lifted me against a wall so that I could see him. Then he turned back, and with a magic spark, he lit a fire in the wood stove.

“I’m exhausted, the hovering spell took a lot. We’ll have to rest here for a while. Sorry again.” He looked sad.

And then the thunder rolled.

Great, that’s just great. What a wonderful day. Full of pleasant surprises: I was stuck in my body, the kingdom had fallen, and Lucien was sad.

Lucia.

I was just about to finish the metamorphosis rune, I was almost there. I just needed a few more minutes. And Thnak had to ruin it all. They just had to attack that day. Oh goddess, can’t a girl breathe? I couldn’t take it anymore, this castle, this king, this life, they all sucked ass! I had to run away as soon as possible. And I would’ve done so so long ago, if it wasn’t for this adorable pile of muscle.

Crap. Right. Arthur. My big grass-haired sweet knight with absolutely no sense of fashion. Lift that control spell first, transform your body second. Okay, that was easy enough. I just had to call for him and channel his inner self to the forefront…

“Hey! Can–... –ear me? Oi little mage!” Arthur spoke suddenly.

What? Arthur was back? But I hadn’t started the process. No, that wasn't right. His voice sounded different, same range but a little more refined, more twirly…

It was them, Thnak.

“Thnak, you rascal! Give my friend back!” I growled, gripping the shoulders of my possessed friend.

But something was off. Their voice was twisted and muffled, like they were talking from the other side of a closed door. “–s that? I can’t h–...” Arthur’s face switched back and forth between being evil-looking and totally still and lifeless. “–nder out there! …–re’s no network.”

Then thunder rolled even louder, and the bits of words gradually became more and more chopped up and scarce.

Oh.

Okay. This… This was kind of ridiculous. The Scourge of the Cliff, rendered useless by a teeny tiny storm, eh? “Did you hear that Arthur?” I loosened my grip and let out a giggle, that was the least I could do. “The storm is at our advantage it seems.”

I breathed and gathered myself. Was Thnak still there? I scanned Arthur for any further signs of the evil lord.

There seemed to be no trace of them. Nothing. Good. They were gone. For now.

I looked Arthur in the eyes and beamed. “They've lost connection. That’s great! The spell will be easier to lift now.” I settled in front of my friend, and I took off his armour gently while gathering my thoughts on how exactly I would deal with this.

I just had to make Arthur’s body remember who was the original owner. For that, I needed to find where said owner was hidden behind his magnificent sculpted face. Then I would craft a link with him and bring him back with the power of communication. Magic is like 20% sparkles, 80% therapy.

I got to work. First, the most efficient method: Naming.

I gently took his jaw in my hand. “Arthur. I know you’re in there. Can you hear me? Could you try to focus on the sound of my voice? Good,” I added, knowing that would put him at ease. “You’re Arthur. This is your body. Okay?”

No reaction.

“Hey. Hello? You’re Arrrtthhuuuurrr,” I said slowly. “This,” I poked his chest, “is your body.”

Not even a twitch.

Crap. This was wrong. Terribly wrong. Usually, those words alone would get me at least an eye flickering, a mouth half-opening, or a spasm somewhere in the body. Something to work with. Anything!

Think Lucia, think. You’re a smart girl. You’ll figure it out. What could work? Who was Arthur? He was very strong, and very hot too… a-and caring! He had a curious mind, he showed interest in things other knights didn’t care about! But… he was also weirdly buying into the knights’ bullshit.

I sighed. Let’s go with strength.

“Hey.” I whispered. “You’re Arthur, knight of the royal guard. You’re the most powerful soldier in the king’s army.” I looked him right in the eyes.

Nothing.

“You love to spend time bench-pressing the castle staff!”

Nothing.

“You spend every Saturday morning watching the birds fly while suspended with your arms on your balcony. Above the void.”

Still nothing.

I felt a knot in my throat. “That’s very unsafe… a-and you should at least get an emergency wing rune to catch your fall. It’s like you don’t care about your well-being…” I sighed. “You really are a reckless ass, you know that?”

I started tearing up. 

“W-why did you try to fight them? That was so fucking stupid! Y-you just had to fight them!?” I cried out, shaking, “...and now I’ve lost you…” 

He gave no response.

“W-why aren’t you answering?” My voice cracked.

It had to work, the spell should’ve broken by now. This wasn’t complicated magic. Thnak was still out of range. It shouldn't have been that hard to invoke a reaction out of Arthur.

I lifted myself up and stepped towards the window. Wow. I didn’t know we could see the whole castle from here. It was just a pile of monolithic blocks of concrete lost in the thunderclouds. Honestly, it just looked like a prison. And my rune was stuck there, in my office. The first step out of this life was totally out of reach.

“Sorry.” I breathed slowly, trying to refocus on the task at hand. “I’ll… I’ll try something else.” I turned towards Arthur again.

Okay. Breathe in, breathe out. So. If not strength, what was Arthur’s thing? Maybe… manhood? That was usually linked with strength and knights, right? Perhaps I failed to see that strength was a way for him to express manliness?

Let’s try manhood, then. Not my forte.

I lowered myself in front of Arthur’s eyes again. “Uh. So, you’re Arthur, the dude who mans the most, eh?” I flashed him a hesitant smirk, tentatively punching him in the shoulder in the way other men did to me sometimes, as they shouldn’t.

He moved! There was a flicker in his eye and a spasm in the left leg. Oh, hope was not lost. That was an unusual method, but to be fair, I don’t go exorcising my friends every other morning.

“You moved! This is great, okay then, manliness, that’s your thing, right?” I asked excitedly, trying to reiterate the reaction.

Huh. He hadn’t just moved, he had winced.

Querelle

I wanted to try some silly ideas, so here's a new story! Featuring a cliff world as a setting. I wrote it directly in English without using my French neurons. I hope your proud of me.

I've drawn a little map-thing of the castle and the Cliff. I love maps! Honestly, I don't know if what I did could be considered a map per se, but whatever it is, it's in the glossary.