I had so many questions, but Mable didn’t want to talk about any of them until we were back in the privacy of her room at the inn. At least she didn’t seem scared anymore, that I could take comfort in. I didn’t know if I felt less scared or not, on one hand it wasn’t some terrible person coming to drag us down a dark alley never to be seen again, on the other it was a massive orc who looked like they had seen some serious shit who wanted our help for some mysterious reason. If he was a wizard, surely he could take care of things on his own, why would someone with that kind of power need help from two random girls he saw on the street? Combine that with the warnings I had always heard about staying away from orcs and I could not rest the unease in my stomach. It felt like a fish was flopping around in there, making me feel queasy and high strung.

Bri gave us a ghost of a friendly smile as we entered the inn, it looked like all the noble guests had finally had their fill of food and drink and retired to their rooms. She was sitting slumped in a chair, the mess of dirty dishes and glasses still scattered across the tables. A tub sat on the floor next to her, already filled to the brim with dirty plates and utensils, she had made the mistake of thinking that she could just rest her feet for a minute and then continue on. There was a faint snoring somewhere in the distance where I assumed Cam had finally succumbed to his own exhaustion.

“Do either of you need anything?” she asked weakly, her eyes fluttering like she was struggling to keep them open. “There’s not much hot food left but I could get up and find you something or make you something.”

“No, we’re fine, thank you,” Mable said a bit sharply, like her mind was running quickly. “Rose and I are just going to look at some things we bought then have a nap. It’s been a very long day already.”

Bri nodded, gave us a faint smile as a goodbye and was asleep in her chair before we even made it half way up the steps. Poor woman deserved her rest, though I did feel a little guilty leaving her asleep in the chair with the front door unlocked. After our meeting with the orc I felt less safe in the city. Though I supposed if a wizard wanted in somewhere it wouldn’t matter if the door was locked or not.

“That was…” Mable closed the door to her room behind me, a puzzled look on her face. “Strange? Not bad necessarily, depending on what comes of this.”

“I don’t like it,” I admitted. “I’m not sure I feel safe anymore. I thought I had gotten used to people and cities, this just feels like it’s set me back a bit.”

“The fact we got weirded out with the magic thing, then got followed?”

I nodded and found the spot on her bed again that looked least molested. “What else would it be?”

“Well he is definitely a wizard, so it makes sense he would scan us before contacting us if he was vetting if we’d work for whatever he has in mind, though I do admit it is a creepy feeling. I don’t like that part of it anymore than you do, but there is a logic behind it.”

“You don’t sound concerned.” Gods knew I was still.

“Concerned?” She looked deep in thought for a moment before giving a shrug. “He is a wizard, if he wanted us dead or something he would have already done it, wouldn’t have even been hard. Since he didn’t harm us yet, I think we are safe and if he is sincere about doing us a favor in return… well the possibilities could be nearly endless.” Her eyes looked distant and a greedy expression passed over her features. “I know you obviously don’t know all that much about magic, but do you know much about wizards?”

The commune had talked about wizards, but mostly like they were some mythical beings that people believed in rather than actually thought existed. That wasn’t entirely accurate, that was just the way my child brain had interpreted their words and actions, that wizards were like dragons: possible, but not likely to ever see one. The gist I had gathered from them was that wizards did magic like my mother with her healing only thousands of times more powerful, making them basically have no use for society either. I supposed most of the druids probably saw them in some way as some kind of brethren in that sense.

“Probably not as much as I should. I’m starting to learn that if I think I know something, I probably actually don’t,” I admitted.

Mable gave me a mischievous grin and nodded. “Bit sheltered, been over that already though so I won’t harp on it, but hmm, where to begin?”

I shrugged and waited for her to figure it out. Every time I opened my mouth like I knew something or made a suggestion I ended up being made to feel like I had just walked out of the woods again and had no concept of how the world worked. I hated how much the past day had shown a light on how naive I still was.

“I guess I’ll just sum it up as you don’t meet many wizards for two or three major reasons.” She held up one finger to begin listing her reasons. “First, and probably the most likely reason, they blow themselves up. Working with magic can be dangerous and if you make the wrong move you can end up in the center of your own fireball. Lots of them do, they get cocky, try to show off or bite off more than they can chew trying to retrieve something for their magic in a dangerous land and they burn themselves to a crisp.”

“That definitely doesn’t make me want to be a wizard.”

“Well, see that’s the thing, I would agree if it was just that, but I can see why they take the risk for reasons two and three. Two, they end up getting positions working as something like a court wizard where if they succeed there maybe they end up the wizard for an emperor or a demi-god, or…”

Her face went wistful again and she went quiet, her eyes tracking back and forth like she was viewing an intense daydream. I was getting the sense that child Mable had really, really wanted to grow up to be a wizard.

“Three,” she finally said, snapping out of her thoughts, “is they end up creating their own realities and essentially become gods themselves or close enough.”

Becoming gods? That seemed absolutely absurd, though, didn’t the gods have to come from somewhere? Clerics certainly did pray and receive strength and sometimes gods did appear in the mortal world to bless or blight a particularly devout city or region, but it seemed like far too much for any mortal to hope for. I could agree with her that if I had the skills to be a wizard I might have also ignored the first reason for the hopes of two or three.

“So the orc said he was an ex-court wizard, what does that mean for him?” I asked. “Sounds like he lost his job, maybe he wasn’t good at it?”

“He would have had to be good at it to get it in the first place, they don’t just wander down the street and hand those out to the first people who can guess the card.”

“Guess the card?”

“You know, the trick they do for little kids where they take the deck of cards and make them pick one…” She trailed off and let out a soft laugh as she realized that I didn’t even know what a deck of cards was until I saw them in an inn within the last year. “Right. Doesn’t matter anyway, he had to have been good at what he did to get the position in the first place. That leaves the options that he either messed up really bad and got fired or he left for his own reasons. It was for the king that just died, maybe he just couldn’t take working for him anymore or he was being made to do something he didn’t like.”

“Or was being prevented from doing something he wanted to do?” I offered.

Mable’s face lit up and she nodded eagerly. “There’s a good line of thinking, maybe that’s where we come in. Wizards aren’t exactly known for their ability to interact well with people and we both could do that for him easily, in fact, we’re bards, we are great for sucking up to people and getting them to do what we want. Well, I’m a bard, you’re a musician, maybe he just thought we were a package deal and went with it.”

“Umm what is the difference between a bard and a musician? I’ve kind of been using them interchangeably but I get the sense that’s not right.” I knew I wasn’t right or I wouldn’t risk looking foolish. The pursuit of knowledge so I could be less ignorant was worth looking foolish.

“Magic,” she said and then went quiet like that was enough of an answer.

“Yeah that’s not going to cut it,” I pressed. “Might as well have told it’s because you say so and not to ask more questions.”

Mable let a small laugh out from between her lips and rolled her eyes. “I know, I know, patience or I am going to treat you like a little kid and just leave it at ‘because I say so.’ I’m trying to think of the best way to approach how to explain it.”

“My mother used magic to heal people, is it like that?” I asked.

“Yes! That’s a great example,” she exclaimed. She looked incredibly relieved that I had some frame of reference she could start from. “So being a musician is just… well… blowing into an instrument, in your case moving a bow across strings. It’s a purely physical action and the natural laws of the world and your own natural skill dictate what happens.”

“I play music, right?” I really hoped that I didn’t have that much of the basics wrong. If she was about to tell me that I didn’t even know how to play music I was going to give up and go back to living with the druids.

“Yes silly, gods, you’re not that thick,” she giggled, “I meant you play sound like anything else in the natural world. Like… a book falling off a shelf, that makes a sound that’s natural, without anyone influencing it. If your bow happened to fall off a table and against the strings it would play a sound regardless if you meant it to or not.”

“Bards don’t do that? You don’t do that?” I furled my brow as I frowned, trying to picture how you could make music without putting bow to strings and making it happen.

“I do, but I also don’t, it’s complicated.”

It was her turn to look frustrated. I imagined that as confused as I was trying to understand what she was trying to explain she was probably even more confused as to how to explain it. The way she was struggling to grasp words and examples pointed to the concept being so obvious and ingrained in her that she couldn’t wrap her head around how to make it clear to someone else. It would be like asking a bird how it flies, it doesn’t necessarily think about it enough to know, it just does. After a long moment of frustrated silence, Mable snatched up the long case to her shawm and pulled it out. She then patted her pockets to look for where she had put her new reeds. Upon finding them she triumphantly shoved the double reed into the mouthpiece and gave it a practice blow. I couldn’t help but giggle at how silly the tuning of the instrument sounded, she was not wrong when she said it sometimes sounded like strangling a duck.

“I’m going to play as a musician now,” she said, then began a quick tune.

It sounded decent, like she definitely knew what she was doing, but not as amazing as I had heard her play before. Her playing before had almost moved me to tears, drawing out emotions I couldn’t even fathom why I was feeling when it was a song I had heard played by others many times before.

“Sounds alright, yes?” she asked once the song was finished. “Not great, not terrible, but passable. You could probably find lots of people who could play that well, but it’s definitely nothing special.”

I nodded and she brought the reed back to her lips and a look of placid concentration filled her face. This time, the song felt like it had more soul, more substance and the tears began to prick at the corners of my eyes. Then she gave me a wink and though the notes of the song stayed the same and were in the same key, I was instead filled with feelings of joy and I couldn’t help but giggle with happiness. When she ended the song and I was left with the silence, suddenly the room around me felt surreal. I grasped what she was talking about, she was using magic to make music, she was influencing people as she played. I had no idea how she was pulling it off, but the proof was there.

“Now you see,” she said, noticing the change in demeanor. “That’s the only way I can think to show you what I mean. That’s the difference between a musician and a bard: magic.”

“How do you do that?” I asked in wonder. If I could make people feel the lows of sorrow and the heights of triumph I could be the best musician- or bard that ever lived. I could live well fed and happy with much less effort. It would be a step towards everything I ever wanted and I wouldn’t even need to seek out that rich husband to make it happen. “So I’ve been playing the sucker way, is what you’re saying?”

“Pretty much,” she said with a nod, “I don’t really know anyone who plays professionally who doesn’t use magic, it just makes everything so much easier. How you’ve made it this far is a mystery to me, I guess you’re just naturally talented enough to make up for it.”

“Hardly, I’m solidly mediocre.”

I made enough to live and not have to be one of the poor souls you saw begging with hungry eyes between songs. I had heard some truly terrible performances where I wasn’t even certain if the bard knew which end of the instrument they were supposed to be blowing into. Come to think of it, that was even more confusing for me now that I knew I was supposed to be using magic. That meant either they were terrible at magic or astronomically terrible at music. Either way, it seemed like it would be much easier for them to just give up their career and go do anything else. Maybe there was something that made you only good at one type of magic, I would have to ask at some point, once I hopefully had more firmly grasped the basics.

“You’re better than that,” she corrected with a disapproving tone, “but even if you were just mediocre, there are tons of people out there who use magic and mediocre is the best they can do. You have something special about you with your music, probably just raw talent. If we can figure out how to get you started using magic with it, you’ll blow me right out of the water.”

“I guess, I don’t think I really understand any of this yet, it’s a whole new way to look at the world.”

It seemed like I was just walking out of the woods again, naive about the world. There was a whole layer of existence that everyone around me had been tapping into that I had no concept of. On some level, I felt incredibly foolish, but how was I to know? I supposed that several of the adults I grew up with probably did know, they had not lived their entire lives separated from society, they had either grown up somewhere else or separated at some point to experience civilized existence and returned. Even my own parents had left together before I was born to go see what life was like and had hated it immediately, returning after only a few days, declaring the outside world too confusing and wasteful to bother with.

“How do people normally find out about magic?” I asked after what was probably a really long pause in our conversation.

Mable was good at being very patient and giving me time to think and process whenever she was shattering my world view about something. I didn’t know how she was so good at reading me and what I needed at that moment, especially since she acted like she had known me for years when we at most had known each other for a couple of weeks at this point. Probably magic. That was going to be my new blanket explanation for anything I didn’t understand about someone else. It seemed like a convenient and probably accurate method.

She gave a dramatic shrug and tilted her head to the side in thought. “For me I just remember being able to do little tricks as a young child and feeling the tingle of magic across my skin. I guess I knew how to use it and how it worked before I even knew what it was, must have been something I was born with or I came into it so early that I can’t remember a time without it. I’ve never really asked anyone else either, I just always assumed before you that everyone else just knew how to do little bits of magic too. Maybe I’m wrong and I’m something special, but I really don’t think so, like I was talking about earlier, even lowly thieves often use magic to distract or confuse their victims.”

“And I just never learned anything about it or figured it out on my own. I guess that sounds about right. I seem to be delayed in everything that’s normal to comprehend. What if it’s not possible for me and that’s why?”

“I don’t know, I just did it without being taught by society, in theory you should be able to as well, maybe it’s something we can ask the wizard when he finds us again. You could need a switch flipped inside of you or something. That doesn’t exactly make sense or sound like something I’ve heard of before, but if it’s something that can be unlocked in you a wizard can do it or know someone who can. Besides, I’m far from an expert on any of this stuff, I just use what I feel like I can do and hope it works.”

“I’m still a little… unsure about this whole wizard thing, but if you’re comfortable with it I admit I don’t know enough all this to probably have an accurate opinion. Like on everything else so far, I’ll follow your lead and trust you know what you’re doing. Though… are you comfortable with him being an orc.”

Mable raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well it’s just that my parents and the whole commune warned me to stay away from orcs. They told me that they are dangerous and unpredictable creatures not to be trusted, especially the males. I feel a little uncomfortable doing any favors for someone that I’ve always been told to stay away from.”

Mable made a show of rolling her eyes and stood like she was going to walk over to me and put her hands on me while she gave me what she thought was a serious talk, but stopped half way too me, startled by the sound of someone ringing a loud bell on the street outside of the inn.

“Important announcement from the seat of the crown!” a man bellowed, then rang again. “Official announcement! Come read the news and the declaration from the crown prince!”

We both ran for the door with me barely remembering I should close it behind me and raced for the stairs. We were not the only ones, the sound of doors opening echoed throughout the inn and soon there was a cacophony of voices and complaints about people having to run out in their sleeping gowns. A man fell out into the hallway, nearly causing us to trip over him. He let out a loud swear, his hands still fumbling to put on his slippers. We were the first to the bottom of the stairs and the first out the door right behind Bri, who was already making a beeline for the news.

The crier was on the street right outside the inn with his assistants pulling a cart full of parchments behind him. They were completely swamped with people greedily trying to get their hands on the documents. People were pouring out of nearby shops, scrambling to get their announcement first.

“There are plenty!” the crier yelled in a pleading tone, but no one cared to listen.

There was a lot of pushing, shoving, and nasty comments when someone stepped on someone’s toes or the shoving went a bit far and people fell over. All it took was one person to be bold enough to push forward, lift up the leather cover on the cart, and take their own without having to wait to be handed ones for the whole system to fall apart at the seams. Suddenly the attention went from making some sort of chaotic queue for one of the two people handing things out to a truly chaotic rush for the contents of the cart. It was like watching a bunch of rabidly hungry wolves falling on a wounded fawn.

“I said there are plenty!” The man sounded utterly defeated and he crossed his arms in front of his chest and nodded towards his assistants. “Just step back, they are like animals when gossip is fresh from the presses!”

I was glad that Mable made no move to scramble for an announcement, instead she stood off to the side next to the front door of the inn and placed a hand on my shoulder to signal for me to stay next to her. We watched as people got their ill gotten pieces of parchment and wandered away, fresh gossip already streaming from their lips before they had even finished reading what was in their hands. It had to be some pretty juicy information because there was a tone of intrigue and elation in their voices and while too many people were talking at once for me to get a clear sense of what had happened I could pick out that they were talking about someone being executed an awful lot.

“Bloody vultures,” the crier grumbled, righting the crumbled papers he had managed to barely keep a hold of in the chaos, “see there are still plenty of them left, if they had just waited then we all would have been a lot better off and not seemed like everyone in this city was raised by wolves.”

“Someone took our lunches…” lamented one of the assistants, her head peeking up from looking into the cart.

“Of course,” the crier mumbled.

“And the left wheel is broken,” the other assistant informed as he knelt next to the side of the cart.

“YOU ARE ALL A BUNCH OF UNCIVILIZED ANIMALS!” the crier bellowed as loudly as he could manage, which was intensely loud, enough so that I had to cover my ears against the pain.

“Magic,” Mable muttered, giving my shoulder a squeeze. I guess she was making it her new mission to get me acclimated to the idea and understanding how pervasive it was in everyday life. I really appreciated it.

“It’s alright, Hammond, at least this means we have to take turns fixing it while the other two take lunch breaks,” the male assistant said, trying to find a bright side to the situation. “An unexpected break is always welcome, even if it is a bit annoying with the circumstances.”

“We could take our lunch if we had our lunches still,” the woman reminded him.

The crier made a strangled and frustrated grumbling sound in this throat and clenched his hands into fists at his side. He began to count backwards from ten slowly, starting with his words very sharp and harsh but getting less angry as he went until his utterance of the number one had much more lightness to it. Then he began to breath in and out slowly and softly murmured something about his wife saying his anger was bad for his health.

“You are next to an inn,” Mable said cheerfully and stepped forward towards the street. “You can have a sit down lunch while you’re waiting. Much better than standing around in case word gets out and more gossipy scavengers come by and instead of a cold lunch, you can have a hot lunch. Perhaps someone’s done you a favor by stealing the lunches and breaking your cart.”

“I don’t know about either of those being a favor to us, but that is still the best idea anyone’s had all day,” the crier said and waved over his assistants. “Rock, paper, scissors, who loses twice out of the three of us works first and has their lunch after, is only fair.”

“No cheating this time,” the assistants said in unison as if they have had to remind him not to cheat many times before.

“Yeah yeah, don’t act like I’m such a cheat,” the crier grumbled and stuck out his hands, one making a fist on top of his other palm. “You first Suzie. On three, one, two….. Three!”

Suzie threw out scissors only to fall to her boss’ rock. She rolled her eyes, muttering an “of course” under her breath.

“Don’t be a sore loser,” the crier said with a lot more pep in his voice, “you’re next Gerald.”

“I count this time,” Gerald demanded as she stepped forward.

“What why?”

“I know what you did there, you didn’t space out your counting even so she would be caught off guard.”

“Oh come on, that’s ridiculous, you know what you’re going to throw before you even start the count,” the crier argued.

“Then it doesn’t matter who counts then, huh?” Suzie said with a knowing smirk.

“Fine!” The crier thrust out his hands again and waited for his assistant to count.

“No cheating,” Gerald reminded. “One, two, three!”

The both thrust out their hands with the crier ending up victorious again with his paper covering the assistants rock.

“Oh Suzie, ladies first, just go have lunch and take a rest,” Gerald said, motioning with her hand that he’d just start work on the repair.

“Are you sure? We can play for it, I don’t mind losing and working on the cart first.”

“I’m sure, wouldn’t feel right letting you work on an empty stomach.”

“But you’d let me?” the crier asked.

“Yes,” the assistant said flatly.

The crier snuffled through his nose in annoyance and marched towards the door, not even giving the two of us a second glance, his mind on taking the impromptu break. The female assistant rolled her eyes, reached into the cart to grab one of the fliers and handed it to us as she walked past towards the door.

“Here you probably wanted one of these I bet?”

“We did, thank you!” Mable said brightly.

“Thank you both for not acting like starving wild animals on a carcass,” she said and clucked her tongue with disapproval. “People these days, no manners.”

As soon as she entered the inn we turned our attention to printed words on the parchment, hungrily devouring the print with our eyes. The document bore the royal seal at the top of the parchment that marked it as an official document whose word was good as law. The document itself read:

To all the good citizens of the kingdom:

It is with a heavy heart the crown prince Phaedron Fontainebleu notifies the populace of the death of his father, the majesty Harold Fontainebleu. King Harold’s glorious reign was tragically cut short by assassination through poisoning by one Ava Porter during last night’s engagement dinner. Miss Porter has been tried and found guilty of regicide, her public execution will take place in the city square at noon two days hence from the disbursement of this notice. Further information about the funeral procession and days of official mourning are to follow.

In strength we will weather this tragedy,

Phaedron Fontainebleu, Crown Prince

“So it was the prince’s betrothed,” Mable said with clear surprise in her voice, “I had really thought that was probably just something someone made up to make everything more exciting and dramatic than it actually was. Wow, she had to be really desperate or dumb to kill her father in law before she had the ring on her finger.”

“Seems pretty counterproductive, she didn’t even get to have the big wedding and enjoy being royalty,” I agreed. “She could have at least had the big party and enjoyed the nice perks before going through with it. Maybe I’m just weird in thinking that way, not that I think I would ever be able to kill another person.”

Mable shook her head and folded the piece of parchment up small enough to fit in her pocket. “Though I don’t suppose I should be all that shocked, people are weird and short sighted sometimes. Maybe he just really pissed her off about something, he is kind of known for that, and her need for revenge was greater than her desire to be royalty. It would have to be something pretty bad though for her to make a snap decision like that or a very hot headed person.”

“Was she that kind of person?” I asked. Mable seemed to know the generalities about most things related to the monarchy. At least way more than I did.

“No clue on this one, don’t think they have been engaged for long and I think she’s a local girl. Either she’s not noble or they stripped her of her titles in order not to have to use them in the announcement. I haven’t kept super close tabs recently, I was making my way towards the border out of the kingdom to see what else is out there when the call for bards went out. People on the fringes care less about what the crown does so there were less people who cared to gossip about royal intrigue and rumors.”

I was about to comment on how I had finally found something that Mable didn’t have an answer for when the hair on the back of my neck began to prickle. It felt exactly like the sensation earlier in the day so I assumed it was the wizard again, but still, I didn’t like the feeling and it made me instantly feel flighty and on edge.

Meet me in the alley next to the inn. A voice boomed in my head.

I looked to Mable who was already stepping over to the alley way and turning the corner.

“You know you could have just stepped around the corner right?” she asked. “You didn’t have to scare the crap out of me with a voice in my head when you could have just cleared your throat and excused yourself for interrupting like any normal person.”

I entered the alley and saw the hulking figure of the wizard, his hood pulled down this time. I suppose he had nothing to hide anymore since we had already seen what he looked like.

“I can’t chance people seeing me quite that much,” he stated.

“Why not?” Mable pressed, looking suspicious. “What exactly did you do that made you not be the court wizard anymore?”

The good side of the orc’s face curled up into a dark smile. “The king and I… well… we just… butted heads far too often. Eventually it became apparent that if the trend continued I was going to end up having to end up blowing my way out of the dungeon or banishing him to a plane of eternal suffering.”

“Ah, well I think you’re probably leaving something major out, but that also checks out,” Mable said with a shrug. “So what are you wanting done?”

The orc raised the one eyebrow he still possessed and looked between us. “Does this mean you’re willing to take a chance and help me?”

“As long as it’s nothing too dangerous or something,” Mable answered.

“And you?” The wizard looked to me, waiting for an answer.

“I guess, if Mable’s willing to help I will too.” I was surprised he was asking me like I mattered, I assumed that Mable was expected to be the brains out of the two of us.

He nodded and looked pleased, perhaps a little relieved. “I’m glad to hear it, if I go myself I am much too noticeable and will be found out quickly. I won’t make much progress on my own.”

“We’re sneaking into something?” I asked. “I’m not sure I’m very good at stealth.”

“Not necessarily, but it might be the easier option, but I feel we’re getting ahead of ourselves, let me explain. I know that Ava Porter is innocent, but since I have such a… poor history with the crown my coming forward to defend her and prove innocence would not work. I’d be cast out and probably attacked by the new court wizard before they let me get any sort of investigation done.”

“Whoa wait, now I’m back to wanting to know what the hell you did to warrant that response from them,” Mable said, putting up her hands to signal him to stop his explanation. “What’d you do, the classic take a shit on his desk on the way out?”

The orc cracked another smile and let out a huffing laugh. “No, but now that you mention it, I wish that I had. Would have been a bit fitting for how I felt about my job at the end. I do not think I did anything that really warrants the level of animosity I would get by coming back, I did not try to kill anyone or anything like that, they just would not trust me seeing as the king and his guards hated my guts at the end. I promise once we get through with what I need you to do for me I will explain all. I can assure you that if you are caught investigating they will have no reason to harm you in any way.”

“You’re not selling this to us very well,” Mable sniffed, “you’re hinting at it being dangerous.”

“It might be a little, depending on how you go about things, but remember I’m offering you something very grand as a payment.”

“Something like a wish granted, as an example,” she asked with greedy hope in her eyes.

“Gods, if I could grant a wish I wouldn’t be concerned with anything on this plane of existence right now,” he answered with wistfulness in his eyes. “But as I said before, I can offer you a great many other things to make some of your wildest dreams come true.”

“Okay, you’ve sold me with that.” Mable turned and looked at me. “Would you like an almost wish granted too?”

“Yes,” I answered. I could think of several things off the top of my head that I’d like to change or have in my possession.

“Then we’re in, what do you need done?”

“It’s simple really, I need you to prove that Ava Porter is innocent and is being framed for the murder.”

“Oh is that all?” Mable said sarcastically.

“You just need to do a bit of investigating, she is being held in the dungeons, probably quite alone since they were cleared out and those housed there were recently pardoned in celebration of the upcoming wedding. I would suggest considering using an old emergency access tunnel by the royal stables to get in undetected.

“We’re breaking into the castle?” Surely I was hearing him wrong. “I think we might end up getting executed with the girl if we do that.”

The orc pulled a large piece of black cloth from the thin air with a flick of his wrist. When it fluttered to a still state I saw that it was a simple cloak, but big enough for both of us to huddle under.

“If you use this and utter the phrase sewn into the lining it will make you invisible to everyone outside of the cloak. There are three charges left, use them wisely.”

This still seemed like a terrible idea, but Mable still looked determined, taking the cloak from him and throwing it over her shoulder.

“I’m doing this for an almost wish, right?” she confirmed.

“Yes, an almost wish,” he affirmed with a nod.

“Okay Rose, we can do this.”

“Are you sure?” I asked with uncertainty. “This seems stupidly dangerous.”

“It probably is but man… almost anything granted for me. Almost anything I can dream of? I have to. You don’t have to, I suppose, you don’t have to go with me.”

I almost took her up on the offer for me to chicken out, but I was curious of what I could end up wishing for and didn’t want Rose to do something dangerous on her one.

“We’re in this together,” I confirmed.

“Remember you are on a limited timeline, the execution must be stopped,” the orc wizard warned, “or an innocent girl will die.”

“Break into the castle, save the not quite a princess, got it,” Mable said with a wave of her hand. “Anything else we should know?”

“Don’t trust the new court wizard,” he said with a snort.

“Noted. Anything else?”

“We never met.” As soon as the words left his mouth he had vanished again.

“I wish he would stop doing that,” Mable muttered and turned back towards facing me. “Well at least we can still have our date tonight, no sense leaving to do this before it’s as dark as it can get.”

“I suppose…”

“You really don’t have to come with me, I know I’m being greedy here and probably should have told him to take a hike.”

“No no, I’m kinda greedy too, I want to see what I can get out of this.”

“Good, I feel better knowing you have my back,” she said with a smile. “Now let’s get some lunch and then get you ready for your date.”