“Keith!”

“I’m here.” Keith replied. The dust from the collapsed wall still obfuscated most of the room, but it was settling fast. Through the haze he saw Henrietta, in full glory and wielding Jacqueline with both hands, climbing awkwardly over the stone rubble that was once a wall. The catkin groaned, but no other movement could be seen from the ground and Ria squatted to hit the mans head with the pummel of her sword.

Manny was struggling to his feet, coughing. When he had breath, he yelled, “INTRUD-” before Ria also cut him off.

The Heroine of Justice punched him in the face. To everyone’s surprise, the guard wasn’t turned into paste but simply stumbled back. The bottle in his hands sailed through the air and shattered on a wall. The wall began to sizzle and spit as it melted away wherever the liquid touched. Keith flinched.

Henrietta’s face contorted into disgust as she recognized the molten ash vane.

“Now, what were you going to use that for?” she asked aloud, eyeing the melted wall and the man. Then she paused to read something on her character sheet and visibly paled. “Oh no!”

“Wait up, Henrietta!” Gerda the Bridge Troll appeared in the hole in the wall and clambered over the debris in her evening gown. Her own sword hung from a belt she’d found to wrap around over her dress.

Keith noted with amusement, the tiny scrap of green fabric sticking out of the rubble beside the bridge troll. The wall opened into a stone hallway that looked like a gallery; each side lined with portraits… and a green wall tapestry.

“Ria,” Keith said his princess’s name gently.

Henrietta’s head whipped up in his direction, and her face broke out into a wide grin. “Keith!”

Manny tried to stand up again, and before Keith could warn Ria, Gerda finished the job. She knocked him out and got to work shackling the man with his own set of Veralyn’s enchanted restraint manacles.

“I’m so happy you’re safe.” Ria unclipped a large metal ring with two keys on it from Manny’s belt.

“The feeling is mutual.” He smiled at her while she attempted to unlock his cell. Unfortunately, neither fit.

“No worries,” She said, tossing the keys away without a thought. Ria reached around to the bun at the back of her neck and dug out a lockpick. “I came prepared!”

“I love you.” Keith said, because he couldn’t say anything else.

“The feeling is mutual,” She teased, repeating back to him what he’d just said.

“The marquess probably has the key.” He said, pointing at the rubble.

She sighed, “I’m not much at picking locks anyway, I’ll go unearth the idiot.”

“Pass over the picks.” Gerda walked up and put out her hand. “I’ll start just in case we can’t find the key.”

Ria managed to pull out the very dead marquess around the same time the bridge troll picked the lock.

“This bubble’s a Void pocket dimension.” Keith held up a hand to hold Ria back when she rushed towards him. “You can’t touch it, and I haven’t figured out how to get out yet. Dimension magic isn’t really my specialty.”

Ria and Gerda stood there moment, both studying the pink dome.

“Let’s wake up Marquess Dorset and get some answers, but first [Harvest Kill].” The entire set of Drendil’s royal jewelry set, the construct button, a rough map of North Sumbria, a pair of keys and a spare pair of Veralyn’s enchanted restraint manacles, and a shiny rock all fell into her hands. "Loot!”

She pocketed everything and then pulled out her one revive potion, opened and poured it into the mans mouth.

His body glowed slightly. Unfortunately, revive didn’t heal injuries like resurrect, and the marquess still sported a terrible sword wound from where Jacqueline had burst through the wall.

Chadwick sputtered. “What, argh! How dare-”

Ria didn’t wait for the man to recover himself, she snapped her fingers in front of his face twice to get his attention. “How do we get Keith out of his trap?”

“I’m not a mage.” Chadwick scoffed, summoning a health potion from somewhere and downing it. “How would I know?”

“He really is useless,” Gerda said.

“You will rue the day-”

Ria didn’t let him finish speaking a second time, this time shoving a scrap of tattered green tapestry into his mouth. She walked back to Keith’s cell while Gerda tied up marquess.

“What if I hit it with [Void Damage]? Does [Void Damage] work on [Void Damage]?” Henrietta leaned closer to inspect the dome through the bars.

Keith nodded at her sword. “I would be more worried that the [Void Damage] would void the dimension itself. I’d rather not think about what that would do with me still inside.”

“I’m going to lock up the bad guys while we brainstorm.” Gerda said. “In case one of them has any tricks.”

“Good idea, Gerda.” Ria nodded.

Keith felt a knot form in the pit of his stomach. “The keys on the ground are to the cell beside me… I should tell you now, your parents are in there.”

Henrietta glanced over at the cell, seeing the three bodies lying there. “Oh no…”

“Ria,” Keith didn’t know how his princess was going to react, and he was furious that he couldn’t go right then and there and give her a reassuring hug.

“Lieutenant Franni!” Ria continued, looking devastated. “What happened?” .

Gerda opened the door and dragged the three victims out.

Ria pulled out her resurrect potion and poured it down Franni’s throat without hesitation. The lizardkin came to quickly and with much better grace than the marquess had. Then again, a resurrection potion was a better potion that left her in the peak of health.

Franni was on her feet and asking for orders in very quick succession.

Henrietta nodded. “For now, Franni, there’s backup coming just behind us. Could you wait outside and show them where we are? We can catch up after this.”

“Right away, Princesss!”

“Speaking of catching up. What happened?” Keith inquired, knowing that he’d ask again for every last detail when they were safe. And after he’d had a calming bubbly bath. The entire affair was too much, and he was ready to be done with it all. Adventures were for adventurers and heroes – like his princess. He was supposed to stay home and greet her triumphant return with a warm castle and a cup of tea in the man-eating flower garden. “And how did he capture you in the first place?”

“I figured that we could ask the Continental Council tomorrow to undo the contract, and when he poisoned me it was going to be a perfect exhibit to our case! That was… until they shackled me with Veralyn’s enchanted restraint manacles. Havork slipped us the key to the manacles so I could get free and summon Jacqueline. I defeated all of the slave traders except Jacques the whipper who escaped,” she corrected herself matter-of-factly. “Oh, and the one Brownie hit on the head.”

“I see.” And he did see. She was brilliant as ever.

“Then, we made it back to Grand Duchess Calisto’s and found out you were missing.”

Keith sighed. “I was tricked into a trap by your parents. I am utterly ashamed.”

“And then,” Henrietta continued after taking a breath, “it turned out that Gerda went to Marquess Dorset’s room at the start of the night, and he was meeting with a runner. She tracked the runner all over the city as they did errands and then the whole way here.

“The catkin?”

“Yes,” Gerda replied, locking the cell door with their three prisoners inside. She walked up to start a full inspection of the pink trap incasing him..

“Yes.” Ria said at the same time. She continued. “We followed the trail here. It took a few hours to get here from Grand Duchess Calisto’s.”

“Really?” That piqued his interest. Henrietta could go a long way in one hour. “Where are we?”

“Almost to the Servalt border, in a small place called Colwood.”

“And you say Gerda tracked the catkin?” Keith frowned. “How did she do that? He was quick.”

“I don’t know the whole of it, mind.” Henrietta shrugged. “But Gerda got ahead of him to the bridge just outside the city then hit him with a ‘You have three days to find the answer to my riddle or I’ll eat you’ riddle. He laughed at her and kept running.”

“Foolish man.” Gerda shook her head. “It’s like he’d never met a bridge troll before.”

“Many haven’t.” Keith chuckled. “Still, he should have known better than to leave something like that hanging. Those tales always end in tragedy.”

“I don’t think you’d actually eat him,” Henrietta corrected.

“I appreciate your faith in me.” The bridge troll joked. “It’s not a perk I use often. Tracking people for three days and waiting around so I can pop out whenever they next reach a bridge is a lot of work.”

“Sounds fun, actually.” Keith smiled. “Maybe not now—I’m far too busy ruling a Dark Enchanted Forest and wooing the Heroine of Justice to play those kinds of pranks. But it would have been perfect in my younger days.”

“Speaking of ruling the Dark Enchanted Forest.” Henrietta pretended to pout. “You didn’t propose in front of the entirety of Valaria’s well-to-do like you promised. Does that mean I have to wait until the Summer Masquerade?”

“I barely lasted this long; I won’t make it three more months.” Keith wanted to kiss her so badly, but there was still permadeath blocking his path. That was a thought. “Actually . . . what if I just died? I would probably leave a piece behind, and you would have plenty of time to get me to Chloe, even if the pocket dimension collapses—”

“Let’s not, just in case.” Ria shot him a serious expression and refused outright. “I’ll run back to get someone else who knows anything about dimension magic.”

Gerda scoffed. “I’m right here, you know. Dimensional-troll-magic user, right here.”

The two stared at her.

Gerda sighed. “Just step back and let me take a look.”