The wooden shelving unit was incredibly heavy with a thick layer of built up dust and cobwebs around the feet on the bottom where it had not been moved for ages. From how massive the piece of furniture was I could guess that at some point it had been placed intentionally to hide the door from anyone just casually entering the room, but at some point it had been lost track of or the tunnel had been deemed unneeded and the door left to rot. I volunteered despite the pain in my back to lay on the wet floor of the tunnel and look underneath the small gap between the feet of the shelving unit and the floor to try to get a sense of what lay beyond in the room. I was already absolutely disgusting with all sorts of filth and blood caked to me not to mention the whole back of my clothing was soaking wet from laying on the wet ground. It just made sense that they stayed more clean in case that would end up making some kind of difference, perhaps if we needed to do some kind of smooth talking. Garret perhaps was out of that job as well, seeing as his dark trousers were thoroughly soaked from sitting on the ground and attending to me and he was currently shirtless, but that was all the more reason to not have him have to lay in the cold, tepid water. If we did need a representative to look somewhat normal Mable was going to be it, we could clean up the blood spatters on her boots if we needed to in a pinch.

Careful to keep my face turned so that I didn’t further injure my sensitive nose, I strained my eyes to take in as much light as I could to focus on what exactly I was seeing. I was starting to understand how to manipulate the powers that had been unlocked within me and while my sense of sight did not seem as enhanced as my hearing, I found that I was able to focus and see things a bit more clearly than I could before. Squinting my eyes a bit and focusing a bit of willpower on wanting to see better had some effect and the room underneath the door suddenly came into better focus like a candle had been lit somewhere in the room to provide a bit of extra dim light. It was nothing spectacular and did not make everything clear and detailed, but it was better than the black void I would have otherwise been trying to deal with. The room looked to be fairly sparse with nothing much but a single large object and maybe the hints of something being hung on the wall next to the object. Seeing just the bottom of things was difficult to tell, though by the way the object on the wall seemed to curl a bit on itself, I assumed it was some kind of fabric or other similar material. The larger object maybe looked like it had table legs, though they were extra thick and bulky, like the object was meant to hold a decent amount of weight and be stable. The only thing that came to mind was the butcher table the commune used to process large game that was brought down then processed to be preserved for long term storage, though why they would have something like that stored underground and inside I could not find a logical reasoning for. Butchering large animals was a very labor intensive, smelly, and filthy job, one where you wanted a lot of ventilation to deal with both the smell and air flow to keep you cool during the sweat you would work up moving around large masses. Then once you had completed your work and the animal was processed, it was much easier to clean up by tossing buckets of water over everything and yourself and letting the refuse and blood return to the soil. Here it would just pool on the stone and dry with a disgusting film, but they were royalty, perhaps they had dedicated servants who would hand scrub everything sparkling clean. On the far left of my vision was a dark rectangle the right width to be a doorway and it looked like the door was closed, a bit of good fortune for us and perhaps why no one had come running from hearing the door being ripped open. Beyond that, it was nothing but a very dirty and dusty stone floor. Whatever room this opened into I did not think was used for much which was great news for us.

“I think it might be safe,” I said softly, wincing at the sound of my now much more nasally voice. I absolutely hated the sound of it and would make sure to find a good healer quickly after this was all over so it could be fixed and not have a chance to be permanent. “There is a table or something I think and the door is closed. Very dirty, maybe unused for a while.”

“Good job, you didn’t hurt yourself?” Garret asked with concern on his features. He still looked very guilty for what happened to me despite the fact that it was in no way his fault.

“No,I didn’t let it touch the ground, don’t worry about me for now. I will survive until we’re done and out of here. The faster we get this done the sooner we’re out of danger from being caught,” I reassured. To drive the point home I gave him a smile even though the act of smiling tugged at my swollen flesh and made it throb more painfully.

“Agreed,” Mable said, stepping forward and putting her hands on one side of the shelving unit, “Garret get the other side and let’s get this moved.”

Together they very carefully wiggled the unit until it began to come up from the floor with a vaguely sticky sound. Given that the ground was still damp right up to the door I assumed that years upon years of moisture had seeped from beneath the door and built up a slightly damp paste of dirt and who knows what else around the feet of the piece of furniture. Rocking it forward and back let the feet from front to back lift up enough to walk the unit forward and out of the way of the door. They had to slow down when it became evident by the sound of clunking and jingling that the unit had objects set on it and the last thing we wanted was them all to come down and clatter loudly on the floor. Once the unit had been moved enough for us to slide by, we shimmied into the room and Garret brightened the sphere of light to give us a better view of where we were.

My blood ran could as the light illuminated the sharp spikes and gleaming edges on the instruments of torture lined up on the shelving unit we had just moved. There were whips, flails, picks, chains, and all sorts of things I had never seen before but their intent was glaringly obvious. I was terrified to look and see what the large table was meant for then and turning to look curdled my stomach. It was indeed a very thick, sturdy table with large chains bolted at the top and bottom just the right size to restrain someone placed on the table. The dark stains across the table could have been easily mistaken for some sort of complex wood grain pattern in low light, but it was obviously years of blood stains deep set into the wood. The object that had been hanging on the wall next to the table was a long whip, the tip of which had been split off into multiple strips of hardened leather. Figures that our sneaky entrance into the castle would lead us directly into a torture chamber.

“Lovely,” Mable muttered under her breath.

I nodded in agreement and shared a worried look with her. It would be extremely convenient for the guards if we were caught now, we would already be where they’d want us to see if we would sing like canaries if one of those picks was applied under our fingernails. I shuddered at the thought of how many times the tools had already been used on prisoners and the terrible things people had experienced in the room. I desperately did not want to be included among their numbers.

“It will all be fine,” Garret said in a low, soothing tone, “don’t let this get in your heads. Look, it is coated in dust, obviously not used any time recently. This room has been left to sit, everything is grimy and has not been touched in ages.”

He was right, everything did have a fine halo dust that glittered dully in the light. Still, it was disconcerting and despite being afraid of leaving the room and running into any guards, I couldn’t wait to get out and away from the room. I wanted nothing further to do with being in such a place and the hairs on my neck were erect with fear and dread.

“They did say that his wife tempered him,” Mable murmured ash she leaned over and closely looked at the torture tools on the shelf in front of her, “but I always thought he still did the diabolical stuff in secret anyway. I guess she was a lot better for him than I gave her credit for, I would have thought this would all be well used and freshly blood stained still.”

Garret moved to the door, keeping the light an arm’s length away from him so it wouldn’t cast much light under the crack of the door into the hallway. Near eye level there was a small slit in the door covered by a thin strip of metal. Slowly and carefully, he grabbed the raised bit of the metal meant to be a handle and pulled it back, revealing a hole that could be looked through. He pressed his eye to the slit and looked up and down both sides of the hall outside the door, not moving and barely breathing as he looked and listened for any signs of anyone around. After a minute he carefully closed the metal again so it did not scrape and make noise on the wood, then nodded to the both of us.

“Looks clear, can’t hear much of anything, but there is a soft glow off to the right. Might be down where the cells are. Not sure if there’s an active patrol or not, but I don’t hear any shuffling or boots on stone like I would expect. No reason for them to be sneaky about having patrols either.”

“I say we go towards the glow then,” I suggested, “let’s get this done with. Even if we don’t get anything solved by talking to her, we can pick up a different trail later. I think I’ve just about had enough adventure for one evening.”

“I agree, let’s go,” Mable said, linking her arm with mine and heading towards the door. “Remember if we’re caught Rose and I are just helpless young women who don’t know any better.”

For the first time since sneaking in, the door opened without complaint and we were able to soundlessly creep into the hallway. The air was damp and chilly and being already soaked from my adventure being manhandled by a giant worm, I was quickly chilled to the bone. It took a great deal of concentration to keep my teeth from chattering as we tiptoed towards the end of the hall. The light grew brighter as we approached, enough so that by the time we were ready to round the corner that Garret wordlessly dismissed the light that had been closely following us and it fluttered out of existence. Garret held up hand for us to wait a few steps back while he pressed himself to the stone wall and then carefully peered around the corner to check what was in the hallway ahead. Assured that we were safe for now, he straightened back up into a more relaxed stance and returned to standing with us.

“There is a cell with a torch outside of it, I think that is the one the prisoner must be in,” he said in a very low whisper. “We should go talk to her, but be ready to put up the cloak and sneak back out. Voices are going to be a dead give away that there are people here that shouldn’t be and I don’t know how quiet she will realize she needs to be at first.” He looked at me, giving me an appraising look from my grime caked boots up to my wild and damp hair. “Rose, maybe you should stay here and be a look out, you might be a little frightening. No offense of course my dear, you have just had a very rough night so far.”

“None taken, I already thought about that. I look terrible right now after all that, though you might not want to show up shirtless either, that might seem strange too,” I pointed out.

A small part of me might also have not wanted a pretty girl to see him appear shirtless and dashing to rescue her from the dungeon. That just was the kind of scenario that I felt might make a girl fall in love with someone and I was not really in the mood to deal with competition after the night I had had already. He looked down at his bare chest like the idea might have not occurred to him before, then gave a short nod.

“Fair point, we both might want to hang back, maybe if just Mable approaches the woman will feel safe and not overwhelmed.”

“I don’t want to do this alone,” Mable said nervously. “I would feel better if at least one of you would come with me. I have never done anything like this before, what do I even say?”

It was odd to see Mable anything but effortlessly confident, she was so skilled at navigating every other social situation that it was very strange to see her nervous about this interaction. Perhaps because there was so much riding on us getting good information so we could complete the investigation that it was a lot of pressure on her to do it right. Granted I thought I would probably feel the same way in her shoes, if we did not end up getting a clear thread to follow for how to proceed from the woman this whole risk and effort would be for nothing. We needed something to follow, some clue or crucial piece of information or we would need to start fresh with a different idea.

“How about this,” Garret said after a moment of contemplation, “get that cloak out. We are planning on using it anyway to get out of here, what if we activate it now for Rose and I, then we follow closely behind while you talk to her? Then you can just get under too when you’re done. That way we’re there for moral support but she doesn’t have to know we’re there and if things get really dicey, we can pop out and help you if need be.”

“I guess that might work,” she said with a sigh that gave away that she still was not overly happy with the idea of being mostly on her own.

Mable rummaged through her pack and handed over the cloak. Garret pulled me close to him, then wrapped the large, heavy cloak over both of our heads and undid two small clasps on the inside of the fabric which released more length to the cloak so it could completely cover us down to the floor. He pulled at the fabric where the activation words had been sewn into the cloak and to me they looked like absolute nonsense, they weren’t even in a language I could muddle through to understand and when he spoke the words aloud they sounded guttural and strange. There was not a single syllable I could make hide nor hair of. The fabric enveloping us shimmered like it was a liquid and slowly faded into nothingness. I looked down at my hands and found that I could see them and I could also still see Garret next to me, though the outside world looked like we were behind a lightly frosted pane of glass.

“That’s a neat trick,” Mable said with an appreciative tone, “could really come in handy to have one of those around more often. Too bad this one is almost out of juice.”

“They are hard to make and need a lot of time and dedication to produce one since magic intent needs to be sewn into every single stitch or the enchantment will fail,” Garret explained. “One this big probably took a wizard several months to finish, though it would have started with a lot more charges, maybe a couple dozen or more. I don’t think your wizard friend would have parted with it so readily if it was not already nearing the end of its usefulness.”

“Right, well, I’ll make sure to ask where he got one when I see him again, for now that let’s get this interrogation done,” Mable said, then walked over to the bend in the hallway, peered down to check it was still clear, then straightened and starting walking forward like she was confident that she was supposed to be there.

Garret and I carefully walked in tandem, making sure to keep our feet within the bounds of the cloak and slowly followed. Perhaps we were being a bit overly cautious, but neither of us wanted to waste one of the precious few charges left. By the time we rounded the corner, Mable was already standing outside of the cell, looking through the bars with a look on her face that told me she was impressed with something she saw. She leaned forward, placing her hands on the bars and made a low whispering sound to the girl inside to try to get her attention.

“Hey, over here,” she whispered quietly. “I’m here to help you.”

“Oh, hi!” the girl in the cell said far, far too loudly.

Mable winced and brought her hand to her lips. “Be quiet please, if I get caught I will be in deep trouble too, then I won’t be able to help get you out of here.”

A drop dead gorgeous girl with bright blonde hair curled into ringlets and dimples in her cheeks appeared at the bars. I had always thought that Mable, or rather her illusion, was the most beautiful person I had ever seen, but this girl took the cake. Wide, expressive blue eyes peered out curiously behind thick lashes and her small lips were almost unnaturally plump and pouty. She looked to be rather young, probably just out of her teen years, though that partially might have been further inspired by the fact that her eyes seemed to be a bit too dull, like the eyes of a doll. It was the same kind of glassy look that you could see in the eyes of a deer who was too scared to run away, where its brain had kind of shut off and decided that in the face of doom to simply do nothing. My father often referred to the look as there being a fire in the hearth but no one home to tend to it. She was dressed in some sort of plain, brown tunic that was a couple sizes too big though there was still makeup smudged across her lips and her eyes were still ringed with black. It looked like they had ripped her out of her party dress and put her in something else temporarily. Still, she somehow pulled off the potato sack look pretty well.

“Trouble?” The girl said, still a bit too loudly to be really covert. “Am I in trouble? I just want to go to sleep in my bed.”

Mable’s face went through several emotions, many of them shades of bewilderment. “You don’t know why you’re down here in the dungeon?”

“My new daddy died, then they brought me down here. I don’t know why, maybe it’s to prepare me for the wedding somehow,” the girl said with a shrug. “These people in the castle do a lot of things I don’t understand and half the time they don’t explain and just do.”

“That’s…” Mable seemed lost for words, so much so that she actually looked back to where she thought we must be for help. She shook her head and turned back to the girl. “I guess that means you must be Ava.”

“Ava Porter!” she declared proudly. “I am engaged to Phaedron and I’m going to be the new princess.” Her smile was wide and it was clear this wasn’t some kind of act to play dumb to get out of the execution.

“Yes I heard that,” Mable said, she was obviously frazzled that the girl just would not take the instruction to be quiet to heart. “Can we play a game now? Let’s see who can talk the quietest and if you win I’ll give you a prize.”

Ava gasped in delight and nodded her head furiously. I felt sick to my stomach at the idea that anyone would be willing to believe that this girl had been able to plan a successful murder, maybe the ex court wizard was being truthful and forthright with his claim that she was innocent. Maybe she was just a convenient person to frame because she wouldn’t be able to successfully argue that she didn’t do it. Though, if everyone was so sure… It seemed particularly evil to have a court all uphold the same lie, surely there had to be strong evidence that pointed to her for them to find her guilty and render a sentence. Regardless of the reason, I definitely was invested in helping her now, she was like a naive baby fawn trapped in a hunter’s snare and unable to extricate itself.

“Good, you’re doing great,” Mable whispered. “Now, can you tell me what happened right before you got dragged down here last night? I know you were at a party.”

“It was my engagement party,” she whispered back excitedly. “Everything was so pretty! My dress was such a soft and pretty pink and it was covered in jewels that sparkled and everyone was looking at us. I kissed Phaedron on the cheek, then went to sit down to eat and then my new father started choking and turning blue. I didn’t know people could turn blue, it was scary.” Her face turned down into a frown that somehow did not detract from her beauty at all. “They all rushed to him and tried to help, but they said he was dead. It happens sometimes, I had a pet budgie that the neighbor cat got to once and he ended up dead too. We buried him behind the tree in the backyard, but the cat just dug him up again and ate him.”

“I see…” Mable said, looking back again to us with an expression that said she had no idea where to go from here.

“That’s okay though, my old daddy said that it is just the way of things. Things die and we just move on and get a new budgie. Does that mean Phaedron will get a new dad?” Ava looked hopefully to Mable that she might be able to tell her the answer and explain how things worked.

“I don’t think that’s quite how it works,” Mable said with a soft, awkward chuckle. “Let me ask, did you want the king to die?”

Ava’s lips curled into an even deeper frown. “No no no, I liked my new daddy, he was very nice to me and bought me all sorts of nice things. He was going to buy me my own pony after the wedding so that I could walk around the garden with me. He even said he would get a pink bow for its hair and hire someone to braid its mane for me.”

“So you didn’t poison him,” Mable said, then shook her head. “Of course you didn’t, why am I even asking that?.”

“Poison? My old daddy had lots of poisons in his shop, they were all in green bottles so I knew which ones not to drink. Why would I give one to my new daddy?”

“Why indeed?” said a deep booming voice from the other end of the hallway.

I froze and my blood ran cold as my eyes focused on an imposing figure at the end of the hallway. He stood tall, shoulders wide, his clothing was similar to the guards but much more opulent with the royal crest front and center on his tabard. There was a long sword strapped at his hip that swayed with his gait as he approached. His dark hair was cropped close to his head and his dark eyes were set into a serious gaze leveled straight at Mable. If I had to guess, we had just gotten caught by the captain of the guard and he did not look pleased to see anyone talking to his prisoner.

“Hi Charlie!” Ava waved through the bars with a goofy grin on her face.

He rolled his eyes and stopped short before Mable, to my surprise he didn’t immediately grab her and take her into custody. “Charles de Lambert,” he introduced as he studied her face, “captain of the guard. Give me a single good reason why I should not toss you in the dungeon cell next to her as well.”

“I mean no harm, I was instructed to investigate the assassination and prove the innocence of this girl,” she said, trying to uphold her confident demeanor though the hands she held behind her back were shaking.

“Instructed by whom? The matter has already been reviewed, tried, and she is sentenced. There is no further investigation pending. Any further investigation into the matter is just meddling and undermining the decision of the courts.”

“I was sent by someone powerful who insists that they know she is innocent and after talking to her, I must say that I agree with that assumption.”

The captain of the guard glanced over to Ava who still had a happy grin on her face like she was just happy to have people around her and not locked up alone.

“You realize it too,” Mable pressed. “You know she is not of the right mind to pull off an assassination on her own. I would be surprised if she could spell her own name correctly without some gentle guidance.”

“A-V-A,” Ava said proudly, “P… O?” She trailed off, lost in thought about which letter came next.

“I will admit it seems beyond her a bit, but the evidence was damning, even I cannot deny that,” he said.

“Then the evidence must have been planted on her and that would mean the person truly guilty of regicide will walk free, perhaps even freely down the walls of this very castle. Who is to say they will not target the prince next? Then who will take the throne? He is an only child and that would send the kingdom spiraling into disarray, who is to say this isn’t the work of some foreign enemy bent on destroying the happy peace this kingdom enjoys?”

She was good at this, I had expected her to make a distraction or something and make a run for it, but she was doing well holding her own. Maybe the plight of the poor girl was just too much for her to want to give up so easily.

“I’m surprised that you have managed to do it, but a seed of doubt is now planted in my mind. What you’ve said has too much possibility behind it.” His lips set into a hard line and he looked again over at the imprisoned girl then back to Mable. “I think you will find it very, very difficult to prove her innocence, she was caught red handed, but if your intentions are for the good of the kingdom I will ignore this indiscretion on the condition you answer me two questions and answer them truthfully.”

“I assure you I intend to be truthful and forthright,” she said with an earnest nod of her head.

“Who has put you up to this investigation and how did you get past my guards?” he asked.

“For the first, it was a wizard. He appeared to me in the market today and beseeched me for my help. He claimed to know for certain that the girl was innocent.”

I really appreciated that Mable was careful to make it seem like she was the only one involved in all of this. It might have been strategic so that we could surprise and overwhelm him if she needed help, but I liked to think that she just had my back and wouldn’t throw me into the fire too.

“Let me guess, half melted face? Big ugly orc?” he asked with a smirk.

“That would be him.”

“Should have known he would try to insert himself back in court matters where he is not wanted,” the captain of the guard mumbled. “He is very brave to have sent someone in here on his behalf, I have half a mind to send someone out to arrest him, if only he wasn’t so good at escaping and our current court wizard has been too busy to worry himself with keeping another contained.”

“He did say you would not like the idea that he was meddling, but I guess he considered the situation important enough to send someone anyway. I don’t have any affiliation or affection for the relationship, it is strictly business.”

“It is wise of you to include that last bit, there is a good reason he does not show his face around here anymore.” The captain offered no more explanation, only turned to the girl and let out an almost imperceptible sigh. “I will grant you leeway to explore and investigate, but it is out of my hands to personally do anything to interfere with what decision has already been made. Do not expect to come to me and ask for more time or for aid in any search, I cannot and I will not. While I may have some lingering doubts, I will not put my position or head on the line. At the end of the day it is nothing to me what this outcome is.”

“That sounds fair,” Mable said quickly, then rocked back on her heels and let out a soft, slightly awkward laugh. “So can that offer of free movement be extended to a couple of friends if they are willing to help me?”

“There are more of you?” he asked with a frown. “Did that damned wizard employ a whole group to try to interfere in royal matters?”

“There are just two more, promise,” she assured. “One of them the wizard doesn’t even know about.”

He looked uncertain, but after a moment shrugged his shoulders. “If you all understand that if you cross any lines I will personally drag you down to one of the torture rooms personally I see no harm.”

“Right,” Mable said, “we will endeavor to keep that in mind and definitely try to avoid that from happening.”

“See that you do or you will end up like her.” He motioned to Ava who perked up and gave him a big smile.

“Can I get out now?” she whined. “I’m really tired of this game, I don’t remember playing hide and seek like this before and Phaedron’s been hiding way too long. I want to see him.”

Mable took her bag from her shoulder and pulled out a small piece of candy from one of the smaller pockets. “Here you go, you won the quiet game earlier, enjoy!”

The girl took the piece of candy and squealed with glee, unwrapped it and popped it in her mouth, face a look of absolute ecstasy. She seemed completely content and distracted now, at least she would be easy to soothe. Perhaps it was best that she was not clever enough to know what was happening to her exactly, she could spend what little time she might have left in relative happiness.

“There is the matter of the second question before you go,” the captain said with a slightly miserable look on his face, “how did you get in here? I know my guards aren’t really taking their duties seriously at the moment, but still they should be around every corner.”

“Old access tunnel that leads out into the paddock,” she said and then pointed back down the hallway towards the room we had come out of. “Leads directly into one of the rooms down here. Guess you guys probably forgot about it.”

“I don’t like that I was not informed anything like that exists, it should be my job to have knowledge of all the possible entrances and exits at all times.”

“For what it’s worth I don’t think anyone’s been down there for a very long time. Everything is all crumbling to dust and grown over, I doubt very many people would be alive still to remember it’s there.”

“Yet that damned wizard knew,” the captain grunted. “Very well, you have earned the right to go free under the conditions for being truthful. Remember, do not give me reason to not trust you.”

“Be trustworthy, got it!” Mable said with a salute. She almost glanced back at where we were, but snapped her head back and tilted it to the side in thought. “Does this mean I’ve earned the right to use the front door?”

“I suppose. I will need to go up and let my men come assist me with blocking up this unsecured entry tunnel, I may as well inform them not to bother or arrest you.”

“That sounds great, please make sure they know to let me in the front door again tomorrow morning. There are several people we’ll want to talk to to try to piece this whole thing together. We don’t have much time so the less time I have to waste convincing people I need to be let in the castle, the more time I can spend trying to find the real killer.”

“That can be done, I will give them instructions to let you and two other people in and not to disturb you starting in the morning.”

“Morning?” Ava said with a loud yawn and stretch. “But I haven’t been to sleep yet. It can’t be morning yet silly.”

The captain’s stoic expression dropped into soft sadness for a moment as he looked over the imprisoned girl, but he quickly snapped his jaw back into a look of rugged indifference. “I have a lot left to do in my rounds, make sure you leave promptly after finishing up trying to talk with her.”

Leaving no time for Mable to answer he turned and strode back the way he had entered, supposedly towards the exit to the dungeons.

“Bye Charlie!” Ava called out cheerfully.

“Ava darling, I know you’re tired and probably want to sleep soon, but I have another piece of candy if you would answer just a couple more questions.” Mable rummaged into her bag and found another piece of candy.

The imprisoned woman’s eyes lit up and she nodded her head eagerly.

“Well I guess let’s start with the obvious. Is there anyone who doesn’t like you?”

Ava sighed dramatically and rolled her eyes. “That maid,” she spat.

“What maid?” Ava asked, dangling the candy like a carrot before a stubborn horse.

“The one who always makes all the silly, lovey eyes at my prince. Her name is… her name is…” The girl’s eyes crossed slightly as she tried to think hard, her face gradually getting redder as she struggled.

“What does it start with?” Mable gently suggested.

“Umm…” She was still struggling, but a light seemed to go on somewhere in her mind and her face got a look of relief. “It starts with J.”

“J…” Mable muttered to herself. “Not much to go on but it’s a start. So she liked the prince?”

“She wanted to marry him, she even told me.” Ava said angrily. “She told me I was too stupid and he deserved someone better. I’m not stupid, she’s stupid.” She crossed her arms in front of her ample bosom and stopped her feet. “I hate her.”

“It sounds like you should,” Mable said with an understanding tone to her voice, very much like she was talking to a small child. “Anyone else you don’t like or doesn’t like you?”

“No, just her, everyone else was very nice. She is enough of a problem.”

“Got it, thanks for answering my questions, here’s your prize.”

Mable handed her the candy and the angry expression melted from Ava’s face and joy returned to her eyes. She popped the sweet into her mouth and then wandered over to the cot in her cell, curled up on it facing the wall and began to go to sleep. Mable shook her head in disbelief and motioned if we could believe what we were seeing either.

With the accused girl being somewhat of a dead end, we had no other business in the dungeon and we followed Mable out through where the captain of the guard had left, up the stairs and into the sleepy castle. Two guards stationed outside of the door snapped to attention when they caught sight of Mable and seemed much more interested in getting information on where she was staying so they could try to date her than why she seemed to be holding open the door for an inordinately long time so we could sneak through. I supposed her desire to be universally appealing to every man that saw her was pretty useful in these kinds of situations.

Once outside the castle walls and Mable had managed to convince the guards who had escorted her that she was perfectly capable of walking herself home and was in no need of an escort, Garret and I made our way over to a side alleyway where we were less likely to be seen re emerging into reality. As soon as his leg broke the threshold the fabric ceased all appearance of being transparent and was once again completely opaque and obstructive to our vision.

“There you guys are.” Mable speed walked towards us from the end of the alleyway. “Never let me do that all alone again, that was completely nerve wracking, I almost puked on the captain’s shoes.”

“You were amazing, Mable,” I reassured and leaned in to give her a hug, then remembered what I probably smelled like and jerked myself away at the last second. “Sorry, forgot I’m all disgusting.

She reached out and jerked me into a hug, then gagged a little bit as the smell of blood, stagnant water, dirt, and worm slime hit her nostrils. “Still probably worth it, but you need a bath in a bad way.”

“And a healer,” Garret sighed, “I’m never going to forgive myself until we get my sweet Rose feeling better.”

This time the flush of blood to my cheeks hurt a little, the extra blood reigniting flares of pain across my damaged nose. I raised my hands to my face and gently pressed just below my temples on either side of my face, the pressure distracting my body from the worst of the pain.

“Bri is going to ask so many questions, we need to have a good story planned out as to why you look like hell,” Mable warned.

“Are we still worried about people knowing? I thought we basically had an all clear now to investigate and it wouldn’t matter who knew what we were doing?” I asked.

“Better not become the talk of the town, you saw earlier today how those people became like wild animals trying to get their hands on just a flier to satisfy their curiosity,they will impede us trying to be snoops to get the latest gossip.”

I couldn’t argue with her there, after that show in the street I did not want to let anyone know that I held a bit of juicy gossip. I was bound to potentially come away in even worse shape than I already was. At the very least they would make it hard to get anything done and perhaps some people would be clam up and refuse to be open with any information if they thought we were trying to stay Ava’s execution and they had anything to do with the murder.

“I suppose we could find a way to clean me up first, then we go back to the inn,” I suggested.

“You can come back to my flat and let me clean you up,” Garret offered. “Don’t mistake this for me trying to take advantage of the situation, though trust me I would under normal circumstances jump at the chance to get you back to my bed, but in this instance I am more interested in making up for my lack of judgment earlier. It would make me feel much better to be the one who takes care of you while you recover and since I am familiar with the city I can take you to a healer in the morning.”

“What happened was definitely not your fault,” I insisted, “you had no way of knowing. You had absolutely nothing to make up for.”

“It would make me feel much better. I promise that I won’t try a thing, in fact I wouldn’t dream of doing anything while you are so injured. This will be strictly just me taking care of you and giving you a plausible reason why you would not have returned in the night and no explanation needed to anyone about your broken nose.”

“I think it’s a good plan,” Mable agreed, “as long as you’re comfortable with it, Rose.”

“As long as I’m not just going to be extra work and trouble,” I conceded.

I trusted Garret’s intentions, I did not think that he had the capability within him to do anything he thought might hurt me. As suave, romantic, and insistent as he was that he was interested in me, he was equal parts, if not more, protective. He had not stopped fussing over me and holding me securely since the attack and his gentle touches had become more about making me feel secure and protected rather than desired. Besides, had the night not gone this way, I would have likely followed him home anyway for less than wholesome reasons.

“You will never be a bother to me Rose,” he purred, then wrapped his hand over mine. “Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to make this up to you.”

“Alright then lovebirds,” Mable chuckled, “I’m going to race on ahead. Probably better if we’re not seen coming back together since I kind of lied by omission to the captain about you two breaking in with me. I’ll be at the inn hanging out until you’re ready to head back and start playing detective with me in the morning. Just swing by my room when you’re ready.”

She looked like she was about to go in for another hug, then stopped herself and just lightly punched my arm instead with affection. The heels of her boots clicked away quickly into the night and faded down the street, leaving me to Garret’s care. Hand in hand we strolled towards his home, he seemed aware that perhaps I was a bit sore after everything and kept the pace slow and leisurely despite the fact we were probably both itching to get back and get me bathed. I had no idea how he was able to stand being so close to me, though I couldn’t smell a thing seeing I couldn’t currently breath out of my nose, according to Mable’s reaction I was certain I smelled pretty awful. Still, he seemed completely unaffected and even pulled me closer when we encountered a drunk stumbling home from the bar.

Outside his shop, Garret let go of my hand long enough for him to pull a key from his trouser pocket and unlocked the front door, holding open the door so I could step inside. He closed and locked the door behind us and once again grasped my hand, leading me behind the counter and through a door in the back.

“It’s nothing fancy, just enough for a bachelor, so you must forgive me if it is not quite up to the standards of such a refined woman,” he said as he flickered another light into existence and sent it high into the ceiling to act as an overhead torch.

The room was about twice the size of my room at the inn with all the necessities of living including a small stove against the back wall for cooking and heating, a large wash basin, table chairs, and a bed piled high with extra blankets. The table held a few instruments in various stages of repair, several of which were clamped together while glue dried or varnish hardened.

Garret moved to a large trunk at the base of the bed and opened it up, then began sorting through what looked like his wardrobe. After a moment he stood back up with a clean shirt that looked long enough to cover to just about my knees and he handed it to me.

“There’s a washroom just through there,” he said, pointing towards the right wall where there was a door I had yet to notice. “Already should have fresh water and cloths in there. Freshen up as long as you like, I will make some tea so you can calm down and get some sleep. The morning will come far too early.”

Eager to feel clean again, I closed myself in the small washroom and peeled out of my sticky clothes, tossing them into a heap in the corner of the room. I would not be opposed to just dumping them into a rubbish pile, I did not think even with a few washing I would feel like they would be clean enough for me to want to wear them again. After multiple washes, thanks to how stubborn the slime coating my torso was, my skin felt soft and clean once again, though that left the task of my hair. It was disgusting and crunchy, but any time I tried to lean down so I could wet it and scrub my nose flared painfully. It took a lot of time, willpower, and many breaks to finally get it clean enough for me to stand, though it would have to stay a tangled mess for now. Feeling somewhat myself again, I patted myself dry and slipped his shirt over my head, careful to not let the fabric touch the tender flesh on my face.

“Much better,” he murmured as I stepped out of the attached room. “Here, have a seat on the bed and I will bring you some tea.”

The bed now had a few less blankets on it, some had been moved to make a makeshift bed on the floor where I assumed he was planning on sleeping. He had left me a thick comforter and all but one pillow, a single pink rose sitting on the one propped up closest to the edge of the bed. A goofy grin spread across my lips as I realized he must have been planning all along for me to end up back here one way or another. Though I was sure he would have rather this was a romantic tryst instead.

He smiled at my grin as he handed me the cup of tea, then looked at my hair and frowned slightly. While I sipped my tea, he pulled open the chest at the end of his bed once more and this time produced a brush. Wordlessly he sat next to me on the bed and began to gently brush out my hair, taking care to work slowly and carefully so as to not hurt me by tugging too hard on any stubborn knot. By the time I was finished with my tea he had managed to get my hair somewhat under control, then further to my surprise he started braiding my hair close to the crown of my head, pulling in more strands as he went until all of my hair was secured into a single plaid.

“Many sisters,” he said with a chuckle, “you pick up a few tricks when you’re the oldest and your mother is already frazzled trying to deal with too many girls whining to have their hair done in the morning.”

“Oh I thought you only had the one sister, the dancer you mentioned,” I said.

“One was a dancer, the other four didn’t have interest in it, they saw how much work it was for the eldest of them I think.” He got a distant, but happy look on his face as he recalled them. “I will tell you more about them later, but for now you need your rest. The morning will come early and I insist we get you to a healer as soon as day breaks.”

Already sleepy from the tea and having my hair brushed, I did not need further convincing and allowed him to help me into bed and tuck me in. He tucked the blanket up to my chin, then leaned down and placed a warm, gentle kiss on my forehead before flickering out the light and crawling into his makeshift bed on the floor. I wanted to wallow in the warm, fuzzing feeling that had blossomed in my chest but my exhausted body was asleep in moments.

In my dreams I was fighting the worm again, but this time I was in its clutches and no one was there to help me. I screamed as it smacked me into the ceiling and walls of the tunnel over and over until I was a bloody mess. I felt myself losing strength and the beast winning so I dug down to the core of my strength and gave myself one last burst of energy to try to break free. My arms flailed as I tried to escape and I awoke with a scream as I had actually been flailing around in my sleep and managed to smack myself directly in the broken nose. Blood began to gush down my face along with the tears of pain and the room illuminated again as Garret scrambled out of his blankets to attend to me.

“Oh Rose…” he gasped softly, taking no thought to bloodying a blanket by handing it to me to press to my nose.

Sobs escaped me from how painful it was, I had really walloped myself good it even felt like maybe I had smashed the bones to a different side.

“Let me see,” he said firmly, but gently and gingerly moved my head side to side to get a good look. “Oh you did do a number-”

His words cut off as a brilliant white light flared underneath his hands as they held my face and a warming glow infused my skin. Shock and wonder played across his features as the bones of my nose began to painlessly shift back into place and the intense throbbing and burning began to fade into nothingness. After mere seconds I was uselessly holding a bloody blanket up to my nose and I pulled it away only to touch my nose with my other hand in awe. I was completely healed, almost like nothing had ever happened in the first place. The skin felt a little more sensitive than normal, but it was no longer painful and the bones felt firmly back in their proper place.

“It can’t be…” he whispered. “They… they are not dead.”