Tensions rise

Ariadne hid behind the pillar as another patrol group passed through the hallway. She stealthed her way through the palace and its extensively decorated halls and chambers.

She was a slim girl with a lean build thanks to her years of constant work for the Thieves’ Guild. She also had modest but firm breasts, as well as a toned and pert ass. The young girl was wearing leather armor, a cowl and the stealthing gear required for this mission. Hopefully the guild wouldn't be angry that she was using their equipment and techniques against themselves.

She went around the hallways and rooms from the complex until she finally found the one she was looking for: a diminutive door, almost hidden in the back of the 4th floor of the castle. Unassuming. The perfect place to hide something no one should be looking for.

The sole guard responsibly marched up and down the hall, but she was prepared for that. She pulled a thin, almost invisible piece of string that extended down the hallway to a side hall and into another room over. Inside said room, a suit of armor crumbled with the **** of the pull, sending the pacing guard to investigate the disturbance.

Ariadne strutted to her target’s location, picked the lock with practiced ease, entered the room and silently closed the door behind her. She took a deep breath and removed her cowl. The hardest part was already behind her.

Beneath the hood appeared the face of a beautiful young woman. With hair as black as a moonless sky, with brown eyes as inviting as the deepest cup of dark chocolate and skin the color of the sands that surrounded her hometown, the City of Marble. She had cute cheeks and a smile that could turn from cute to devilish, depending on who she was trying to swindle. If she was from our world, her features could have been described as Middle Eastern or Indian, but where she was from, it was simply from the peoples of the desert.

Ariadne looked around the room. Nothing noteworthy, except a couple windows at the far wall and a pedestal with her prize at its top, kept in a small leather pouch. The thief walked forward confidently.

"Maybe those ‘goody two shoes’ idiots will finally believe I'm on their side when I steal this thing for them." She whispered to herself.

"And where do you think you're going with that, little girl?" A heavy voice asked from behind her.

She whipped around trying to see who was talking. There seemed to be no one behind her and the door was still closed. Then a chunk of the wall began to move and a hulking figure came out of it. The wall hadn’t exactly moved at all, she noticed, but a man was actually made from the same materials as the wall and had been standing silently still until this moment.

"Can't let you leave with that, but a pretty little thing like you shouldn't take too long to take out." He boasted. He cracked his knuckles in preparation for what was to come.

"Oh please sir, please don't hurt me." She had a scared look in her eyes, she had backed up too fast and quickly found her back touching the far wall.

"Oh I swear it won't take long. I may even have some fun with you after I’m finished doing the beating." He menacingly stalked towards her, taking his time.

"Oh you shouldn't have said that." A devilish smile spread on her lips. "Now I'm gonna make sure you suffer." She starts concentrating.

"What?" Is all he can ask, slightly surprised the little woman before him suddenly decided to fight back.

"You know, you taste like gravel."

"What?" Is all he can utter again, before she sprints towards him at full speed.

She throws her hood into his face to confuse and distract him. Then, she focuses all of her energy on the tip of her fists making them turn gray and hard and become like the very stone the man is made of. They complete their transformation into rock as she lunges towards the man's crotch and punches him in the dick. He falls to his knees, breathless. She calmly walks around him as his stoneskin fades away due to his broken concentration, and clocks him on the back of his head, making him drop ****.

"These are just getting easier and easier, aren't they?"

She retrieves her cowl from the **** man and goes for the bag she was meant to take. Now firmly holding her target, Ariadne goes to one of the windows in the back, opens it and looks out.

The hot air of the desert morning invades the room. The first visible thing anyone would be able to notice is the vast expanse of sand, going as far as the eye can see. On the short distance, however, she could see many opulent buildings, most, if not all, made from marble or made to look like it. The rich district of the City of Marble, the most hypocritical place for the Thieves’ Guild to hide in. Or maybe they were going for a “last place anyone would look for” kind of thing, she never managed to figure it out. Regardless, she was in need of an escape route.

"Ok, how am I getting down now?"

Just as she said this, the aerial guard of the castle noticed her. A couple of purple demons descended from a higher tower top to meet her.

"Oh, good. I just get luckier by the second.” She said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice, but not even she knew how genuine it was. Because they had just provided her with her way out.

She retreated a couple steps into the room and focused again. They weren't as close, so this would be harder. Her hands returned to normal as she hunched forward. A pair of purple demonic wings sprouted from her back and flapped wildly. She continued to focus until they came into control. She could do it, she could escape atop the rooftops. Then, it would just be a matter of finding the best hiding spot.

“Hum, they tasted like summer’s haze… weirdly tastier than big guy over here.” She points to the **** man on the floor to the benefit of no one in particular. It’s not like there’s anyone watching her right now anyway. “You gotta rethink some of your life choices bud.” As she finished talking to the air, Ariadne charged forward through the open window and into the hot air outside.

The demon guards were immediately in pursuit of her, but with her recently acquired knowledge of how to use her new wings, she was maneuvering as fast as them, keeping a decent pace ahead. The rogue hugged the stolen bag close to her chest, it was hers and her brother’s ticket out of this place, and she wouldn’t give it up without another fight.

That is, however, until an unexpected drowsiness took over her and she started to quickly lose control of her flight as well as her other senses. Her last thoughts were of how she was going to avoid the fall and protect the object inside the bag from damage, as well as how important it was to get herself and her brother out of this city. But all of that was inconsequential, as a now ownerless bag was suddenly dropped from the sky as its previous holder was no more. It fell into a small alleyway and landed hidden inside a forgotten trash can.

***

The platform raised to reveal a young middle eastern woman in leather armor reading a pamphlet.

"Ariadne! Welcome!" Chrissi beamed excitedly.

"Hey." She responded, trying to look cool and calm. "A harem, huh? I've seen some of those before, seems like an interesting adventure. What's this part about fictional?" Ariadne tried to quickly remember what she had learned about how to stay calm and analyze dangerous situations. She was in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by strangers, and had just been told her whole existence was a fabrication (and that probably extended to her brother's as well).

"Oh, glad to see you have some experience, sugar.” The host congratulated her. “And about the fictional part, that means you are the personal creation of our little Harem Master over there." Chrissi pointed to Lin, who was trying to covertly look away from the new contestant.

"Oh. Hi there." He said to her.

"Hey." She said again. She raised an eyebrow at his weird reaction. "Everything ok with you there?"

"Me? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I was just wondering... at what point in the story are you from?"

"'Story'? So that means you were the one that 'wrote' me, right?" He nodded at her question. "Sweet, that's going to make some interesting tales at the campfire... 'I was written into existence...'" She was trying to hide how nervous this made her feel and, from what she could see from their reactions, she was succeeding.

"So... where in the story are you from?" Lin asked her again. "Has anyone died yet? Lost any limbs?"

"What?! Lost limbs?!" That shook her. "No, everything is fine! I was just going behind the Thieves' Guild's back to help a bunch of plucky do-gooders because they promised to take my brother and I away from that shit hole of a city." She was getting exasperated by now. She was losing her cool.

"No, no, it's ok, it's ok!" Lin was getting nervous alongside her. "I was just writing a story before. But now that I've met you and know that you exist, I can change the ending, none of those bad things have to happen."

A cold shiver of dread ran up her spine.

"... The ending? How does it end for me?"

Lin cursed at himself and swallowed his words. He was trying to think of a way to sugarcoat this whole thing, but before he could even come up with anything, Chrissi chimed in with her cutesy tone.

"Oh sweetie, cutie pie, honey pot, you try to help those heroes that you betrayed your guild for, but then you become the villain in the end. And then you die."

"You did WHAT?!" Ariadne rushed at Lin without so much as a plan in mind, she was pure emotion right now. Susie immediately charged in her roller blades with her arms outstretched to be in front of Lin and protect him. However, Bianca interposed herself between the two girls and grappled Ariadne before she could reach her target. The rogue was kicking and screaming in the stronger woman's arms, but it was clear she wasn't going anywhere.

"Oh yes," Chrissi continued. "After seeing your brother die in front of your eyes, you try to use the arcane ritual the villain was preparing for their own nefarious plans to bring him back to life. And maybe bring about a zombie apocalypse in the process. But you don't care about pesky details, am I right honeybuns?"

"You killed my brother you fucking psycho?!" Ariadne was shaking and kicking on Bianca's arms, but the cop didn't let go. She tried to whisper in the grappled girl's ear.

"Calm down. If you piss her off it's gonna get much worse for you. You read the pamphlet, you know what they can do to us."

"Fuck calming down! He killed my brother and then he killed and vilified me!"

"I'm sorry, I already said I'm sorry!" Lin said to the screaming woman. "Look, I can change the ending, I haven't even technically written it yet. It is all just in my notes and storyboard."

"Uh oh, silly me." Chrissi playfully slapped her own forehead, with a dorky look on her face. "I forgot to give you all some important information." This made Ariadne stop, just enough to hear what she had to say. Bianca didn't relent on holding her though. Susie lowered her arms.

"All 3 of you are his personal creations, and the other contestants are all from ongoing or unfinished stories as well. To bring you all here, we obviously had to change the course of those stories. Or we would have, if you weren't all fictional and from the Master's past." Seeing confused looks all around, she continued with a dumbed down voice, as if she was speaking with a particularly cute but dumb child. "We can't change history, or we would cause a paradox in the Master's past. So, our way to solve this was to take you from the last moment Lin ever interacted with your story. We also manipulated the stories so, no matter what happens to you here during the show, once you get back to the exact point you left, the story will take the twists and turns it has to to make sure it stays the same. If we didn't, we might have caused a paradox, if not to Lin, then to all the people who came into contact with the stories before you came here. And we don't want that, do we?"

The girls took some moments to internalize all Chrissi had said. The first to react was Ariadne, the moment she realized her story would never change, she started kicking, shaking and screaming all over again.

"Unless..." Chrissi said, tantalizingly. She just loved how much control she really had over the Arabian girl. Lo and behold, she stopped once again, waiting for a lifeboat to her sinking situation. "Of course, there's that wish at the end of the road. If you manage to win the competition, you can use it for almost anything. The only rules are that you can't interfere with the continuation of the show itself or with the existence of your own harem, anything else is on the table. It can even rewrite the past..."

"Then that's what I will do! I'll save my brother and change my fate." Ariadne answered with determination.

"Are you sure, sweetheart?" Chrissi asked with a devilish smile.

"Yes, 100% sure."

"You hear that, girls?" The host directed her speech at the two other contestants. "Most groups on the first episode vow to use the wish to undo any changes that may happen to everyone, but here you have a contestant blatantly announcing she will use it for selfish reasons. If I were you, I'd make sure she doesn't win."

Both women looked at the host with hate and contempt.

"Don't blame me, he wrote the story." The host reacted.

"I'm sorry." Lin said again. He was trying to hide his face even more, but that was looking less and less doable by the minute.

"Don't apologize, owner. Arh... I mean, Lin." Bianca said to him. "You were just writing a good story. It's this bitch who won't change it no matter what."

Chrissi then raised her hand, ready to snap.

"Oh, you wanna try saying that again?" The host threatened. With that, Bianca, without averting her gaze from the Chrissi's, lets Ariadne go. The rogue didn't charge at Lin or at Chrissi, she simply walked with purpose and took a spot at the line that was forming. She was now a woman with a mission. She just allowed herself one last hateful look at the Master.

"I'm sorry." He said, for the fifth time. "I just like writing tragedies." But the target of his apologies was already looking straight ahead.

"Susie, dear." Chrissi called, still staring at the cop.

"Yeah boss?"

"Come over here and announce the next contestant, if you please."

Susie glanced furtively at Ariadne.

"Are you sure she'll behave, boss?"

"It's fine. If she tries anything, I can just point or snap. And besides, our lovely Bianca will put herself between the Master and our troubled contestant, won't she?" Bianca grit her teeth, but did exactly as the host asked her to do, without averting eye contact.

"Ok then." Susie said, as she skated around the contestants and started reading her card while on her way to the host. "She's a nerd first, a hypnotist second, a lesbian third, and when she's on the page, we can't tell whats going faster: Master's heart or his hand on his dick. With an unsusual sexual appeal and no confidence in her great skill, everyone, say hi, hello and welcome to the protagonist from our Master’s most favourite porn story ever, Sunny… wait, what is this?”

“What is it?” Chrissi said through gritted teeth to her assistant.

“There’s something written in the middle of her name in parenthesis.”

“What?” The host broke her eye contact now, looking down with a hint of curiosity at Susie.

“It says ‘(no, not that one)’. Sunny (no, not that one) Baudelaire.” She said, with a hint of curiosity herself.

“And is there supposed to be another one?”

“Uhm, actually,” Lin piped up. It was good to have something devoid of tension to talk about for once. “Sunny Baudelaire was a character on a young-adult book series about –”

“Yeah, yeah, we don’t need the whole explanation about it.” Chrissi cut him off. “There are two Sunny Baudelaires, you beat your meat to one of them and we are bringing her to the show.”

“You better bring the right one, the other one was a literal child.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry dearie. Worst case scenario we erase her memories and send her home. Susie, do your thing dear.”

“Everyone, say hi, hello and welcome to Sunny (no, not that one) Baudelaire!”

Chrissi facepalmed. At least the cameras weren’t on her to catch it.