Steve had been led swiftly to his room, just as the Chairman had promised. The room he was led to was actually smaller than his room at home. All it contained was a bed, a chair, and a wardrobe. Steve opened the wardrobe to find a wide variety of tunics, leggings, and sandals. There were also some sets of robes, which were for formal occasions. Steve selected a green tunic and tan leggings to change into before shutting the door. “Is there anywhere to wash up?” Steve asked the maid, who had been ordered to wait on him.

“The washing facilities for the guests are down the hall,” she replied at once. “Would you like for me to escort you there?”

“By all means,” said Steve, imitating her formal style of speech, which went unnoticed. The maid shut the door to his room behind him as he went out. “What did you say your name was?” Steve asked as they began walking.

“That is not important,” said the maid mechanically.

“Well, I can’t thank you if I don’t know your name,” said Steve.

“Thanks are not necessary. It is my job to do any errand assigned to me.”

Steve looked at the maid oddly. She didn’t look to be any older than nineteen, but the formal way in which she was talking surprised him. Her accent, which apparently was the standard for the kingdom, since it was the same as Nadine’s and the Goblins’, was also not easily ignorable. “Surely you aren’t a maid all the time,” said Steve. “What do you do when you get off work?”

“I…that’s not important,” the maid said, sounding slightly surprised.

“Never mind then. You aren’t the only maid, right?”

“Correct,” she confirmed.

“Then it would be illogical for me to call you Miss Maid or any other general title,” said Steve. “Right?”

This time, the maid stayed quiet. Steve watched her closely and saw that she was undergoing some kind of inner struggle. “My name is…Christina,” she said at last, attempting to redo her hair, which had somewhat fallen out of its bun.

“Nice to meet you then, Christina,” said Steve. He offered his hand to shake, but she didn’t take it.

“We have arrived,” said Christina suddenly, stopping. She indicated a door on the right side of the corridor. “I have orders to remain here until you are finished. Please take your time.”

“You’re going to stand out here for, like, an hour?” Steve asked, stunned.

“I have orders to stay here for as long as it takes,” she repeated.

“Well, if you’re going to have nothing to do for an hour, why don’t you go off and do something fun? No one would know.”

“Chairman Jameson would not approve,” she replied, although the answer did seem, to Steve at least, a little forced.

“I expect he’s preoccupied right now with the return of his daughter,” said Steve.

“If I left, I would not know when you were done. If you were to finish before I returned, you would either be forced to wait for me or would attempt to go back to your room by yourself. I was also instructed to not allow you to wander the corridors on your own.”

That irked Steve a bit. He understood why he couldn’t be alone, since he was a foreigner, but they were punishing the girl, too, by making her do everything he wanted. He knew he wouldn’t like it if he was in her position.

Unfortunately, Steve himself had no power to do anything about the girl’s situation. He couldn’t order her to go do something she wanted or to rejoin the rest of the maid staff, and even if he could, she wouldn’t do it. So he came to a compromise. “Does the Palace have a library or any kind?” he asked suddenly, startling her.

“Of…course,” she replied warily.

“Then how about this? You go to the library and get yourself a book to read while you wait on me. It’ll make the wait much less boring.”

“I am a maid,” she replied flatly. “I have no privileges such as those. And…,” she hesitated, “…even if I did, I do not know how to read, anyways.”

Steve wracked himself mentally. He had forgotten to realize the true implications of being in a medieval society. He should’ve figured that only the rich got any sort of education. Steve still didn’t like leaving her alone in the corridor, but then he came up with another idea, one that he hoped she’d go along with. “Could we go to the library later?” he asked.

“I suppose,” she said hesitantly.

“Well, you mentioned you couldn’t read, so how about I teach you?”

Christina looked at him, stunned. Dropping all formalities, she asked, “You know how to read?”

“Of course. I’d be willing to teach you, if you’d be willing to learn.”

“I don’t know if it would be prudent…” she said hesitantly. She began fiddling with her apron, which was old and stained. The dress she wore under it was also old and covered in patches.

“We have plenty of time until the ball tonight,” said Steve. “Since you’ve been assigned to keep an eye on me that means you don’t have anything else to do, right?”

“Oh, very well,” she gave in. “I shall escort you to the library after you complete your bathing. If you wish to maximize your time in the library, please do not delay. However, I make no promises on what I shall do once we arrive.”

“Thank you, Christina,” said Steve, nodding to her. She looked away hurriedly, her brown eyes apparently taking interest in a spot on the wall.

When Steve finally went into the bathroom, he was stunned by what he found. Oddly, it was designed similarly to a modern day locker room, with the toilets and sinks on one side and the showers on the other, with a large wall in the middle. The showers were where it differed. In fact, there weren’t any showers at all. Instead, there was a giant raised tub, like a small pool, made of slippery marble. There was no curtain for privacy or a door, so if anybody who was lost happened to walk in, they’d get an eyeful.

Steve was lucky since there wasn’t anybody else around. It probably had to do with it being the middle of the afternoon, when most people were generally out and about. What he was surprised about the most was that the water was warm, which was odd considering that the Palace didn’t have electricity of any kind. The water also didn’t cool off a bit while he was in it, which was also odd. He was grateful for the scented soap and the deodorant which someone had thoughtfully left behind, as they promised to make his life that much easier. Neither was similar to what he was used to, but they were effective enough to suffice.

After he dried off, he dressed in the clothes he’d brought from his room. Christina was busy putting her sleek, black hair back into its bun when Steve came out. “That was fast,” she remarked, finishing up. Two strands of hair still dangled in front of her face, but she either didn’t notice or didn’t care. “I’ll take the dirty clothes, sir,” she said, taking his clothes before he could say a word and tucking them under an arm. Once the clothes were properly positioned, she motioned for Steve to follow her.

Steve observed the route to the library with interest, as he hoped he might be able to slip out that night and do some research of his own on stuff people kept dodging around whenever he asked questions. However, that plan was scrapped because they made a detour to the ground floor to drop off Steve’s clothes for cleaning. Steve tried to warn them that they couldn’t wash his tennis shoes, but they all looked at him oddly, as if not understanding what he was talking about.

After going back upstairs via another staircase and walking down a few more corridors, they finally reached the library. The Palace Library was everything Steve had imagined it would be the moment he’d first heard about it. The room itself was three stories tall, and went back as far as the eye could see. Every wall was lined with shelves, with sliding ladders to reach higher shelves. Steve wasn’t really much of a reader, but the sheer size of the place had just as much effect on him as it would on a bookworm. “May I help you?” the librarian asked, looking up from behind his desk. Steve jumped; he hadn’t realized the guy was ever there. The librarian looked to be in his mid-forties, with a balding pate and a heavy squint.

“The Chairman’s guest wished to take a look around the library,” Christina explained immediately, speaking formally again.

“I suppose I can allow that,” said the librarian, turning back to his book disinterestedly. That gave Steve all the encouragement he needed. He walked into the rows of books, taking in everything. The books themselves were extremely old-fashioned, and the bindings reflected it. There was also a very limited selection of fiction, as Steve quickly discovered. All the books were hand-written, which made it surprising that there were so many of them. Eventually, he wound up on the second floor, where he ran into the stuff he really wanted to know. He picked up a rather thick book titled A Brief History of Marisia and sat down to read it.

From Steve’s point of view as an outsider, it promised to be a very interesting read. Although he could have started anywhere, what he was most curious about was the discovery of the Portals that Chairman Jameson had told him about, but due to the nature of the secrecy, they weren’t mentioned at all. Shrugging it off, he started at the beginning.

Charminia: A New World

Before the kingdom of Marisia came to be, all Humans lived on the other side of the sea. This land was called Europe, and it was not a nice place to live. Due to the shuffling of power in the region over the past fifteen hundred years, there were numerous different nations and kingdoms, all believing they were unique and all-powerful. The only common ground every single one had was the adoption of the universal religion: Christianity. They followed their own set of morals that, while necessary for survival, did not sit well with outsiders.

Our ancestors were just one group of these outsiders. They defied their views by using magic, which defied their moral code and caused many of them to be imprisoned or killed for their views. With no other choice, magic users from across Europe banded together in search of a new land, away from the persecutors. They couldn’t simply flee to another part of Industria, as there were other religions that would just as easily have persecuted them. Therefore, using their combined strength, our ancestors built a fleet of ships, which they sailed west from the coast of Europe on the Great Pilgrimage. Months later, after nearly getting destroyed by a series of large storms, they came to the coast of what is now Marisia, where they befriended the local tribes and built a new Human society.

Steve was so engrossed that he almost forgot about his promise to Christina; he had to literally force his eyes off the page. He didn’t know much about medieval history, but he knew enough to know that their explanation was at least believable. “Would you like to learn to read now?” he asked Christina kindly, indicating an open seat.

Christina, who had been leaning against a shelf looking bored, jumped. “I don’t know…” she said at last. “I’m worried that I’ll get fired. I desperately need this job, you know. I have to support my family.”

“I’m sure that knowing how to read will open a world of opportunities for you,” Steve reassured her. “If you don’t want to, I understand, but please know that I have no intention of telling anybody about it. This is one of those things that no one else really needs to know.”

OK, that might’ve been a little much. It sounded like he was propositioning her for something a little more X-rated. Christina looked at him hard for a moment before sighing in frustration. “Oh, all right,” she gave in, sitting down next to him and withdrawing some paper, a bottle of ink, and a feather from their places on the table. “Where do we start, then?” she asked, watching Steve intently.

XXX

By the time the ball rolled around, Steve was proud of how far Christina had come already. Unlike a child, who took years to learn how to read correctly, Christina was already fully versed in how to speak, so it was simply a matter of putting it on paper and having her learn it that way. She was also more eager to learn than she had initially let on, so the work went by quickly. By now, she had already recognized which sounds corresponded to which combinations of letters on paper, and was well on her way to learning to actually write some of it herself. She still wasn’t very good, mind you, but she wasn’t terrible, either.

They both froze when the sounds of footsteps could be heard on the wooden steps. Steve hurriedly replaced the ink bottle and the feather quill while Christina gathered up the numerous sheets of paper and put them in her dress. Steve opened the history book to a random page while Christina got up, straightened her dress, and took up a position by the bookshelf again. Fortunately, though, it was just the librarian. “The ball starts in thirty minutes, so I’m locking up,” said the librarian, stopping two steps from the top. “They’re already seating, so you’d best get down there.”

As the librarian headed back down the stairs, Steve looked at Christina and mouthed, “Thirty minutes?” Christina simply nodded. Steve quickly reshelved the book and followed her back into the Palace.

“We must hurry,” said Christina, shoving other servants aside as she escorted Steve back through the Palace. It got particularly hairy when they had to navigate staircases, as important rich people dressed finely were attempting to head downstairs. Some had stopped on the stairs to chat. As none of the Palace Staff, including the maids, servants, footmen, etc. could pass them due to etiquette laws, as Christina explained to an annoyed Steve, it took forever to change floors.

When they reached Steve’s room, they both let out sighs of relief. “So we’ve got about twenty minutes, I guess,” Steve calculated. He gave Christina the thumbs up before going into his room. He quickly changed into a set of formal blue robes in the wardrobe and brushed his hair with the provided brush before heading to the exit.

“Ten minutes remaining,” said Christina as he entered the corridor again. She was eyeing the setting sun through the window rather than watching a clock. Steve followed her downstairs, but as they neared the ballroom where the ball was to take place, the corridors began becoming much more crowded again. “This is where I leave you,” said Christina, eyeing the crowd. “I am needed in the kitchens.” She paused a moment before saying softly, “And thanks for the lesson.” She turned and disappeared into the crowd, leaving Steve to find his own way.

Chairman Jameson was standing at the ballroom doors, greeting people. Nadine stood with him, dressed in a pretty light green dress. She had put her hair up for the occasion and was smiling, but it was quite obviously forced and she looked positively miserable. Steve weaved his way through the crowd until he made his way over to her. “You don’t like crowds much, huh?” he began. Nadine, who hadn’t recognized him, jumped.

Nadine looked him up and down. “You…certainly have our dress down, haven’t you? You look like you’ve been here all your life!”

“Sure,” said Steve. Nadine’s quirks were still catching him off guard.

“By the way, have you spoken with Father after you spoke with him outside?”

“No, I…wait, how did you know that?”

“I saw you two talking earlier. My window looks over that courtyard.”

“Oh, OK. Did your dad want to talk to me?”

“You’ll have to ask him yourself,” said Nadine, giving her father a wicked poke to make him look ‘round.

“Oh, you made it!” said the Chairman brightly, eyeing Nadine and rubbing the spot she poked him. “I’ve been meaning to speak with you again. I need to ask a favor of you.”

“What kind of favor?” asked Steve, surprised.

The Chairman lowered his voice so nobody else could hear, not even Nadine. “I need you to keep an eye on the Princess for me. You, she, and my daughter are the only three people I actually trust right now, and Nadine still hasn’t gotten over her imprisonment. That’s why I’m turning to you. Will you do it?”

Steve looked at him blankly. “You want me to basically stalk someone I’ve never met?” he clarified.

“It won’t be stalking. Chances are, she’ll introduce herself to you later on. Once she does, keep her in your sights at all times, and if that means dancing with her, then so be it. One more thing: don’t let her leave the ballroom before me. She dislikes formal events and bodyguards so it is highly likely she’ll try to leave on her own at her first opportunity. If that becomes a problem, just stand by the front door and she won’t try it.”

“That’s good and all, sir, but what does she look like?” asked Steve. He had enough trouble picking people out of crowds without having to rely on vague descriptions.

“Right, you haven’t met her!” said the Chairman, smacking his forehead. By now, the two of them were alone in the corridor, apart from various Staff coming and going. “The Princess is…” he began, but was suddenly interrupted by a footman popping up from out of nowhere.

“Sir, the dinner is beginning. The Lords and Ladies are anticipating your speech.”

“Now then, let’s go in,” said the Chairman. “You’ll be at the high table next to Nadine.” Before Steve could ask what he meant, he strode inside, leaving Steve no choice but to follow. The ballroom was enormous, reminding Steve of some of those old cathedrals, just without all the church pews. One end of the room featured a long table with about twenty seats, which were filled with various powerful men and their wives. Chairman Jameson stood behind the chair in the direct middle, while Nadine sat on the end closest to the door. Steve quickly sat down next to her to allow the feast to begin.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you here tonight!” the Chairman began, speaking loudly and instantly quieting any lingering conversation. “The purpose of this ball tonight is to celebrate the safe return of my daughter, Nadine, to the city.” He leaned forward and gestured towards Nadine’s location, who sank down in her seat in embarrassment. He continued his speech, which quickly turned dull and boring, but most everyone somehow managed to pay attention to it, or they at least pretended to. Steve, bored, examined the room once again. The front half of the room was covered with circular tables, each seating 8-10 people. The back half of the room was barren, apart from an enormous organ on the far wall. On the right wall were numerous doors, through which the smell of food drifted. Steve could also see cooks roving around the kitchen, testing the food and ordering servants around.

Steve turned his attention to the audience. Everyone in attendance was dressed fancily and came in all shapes and sizes. Some were overweight, like the Chairman himself, some were thin as rails, but the majority was average. Their heights, on the other hand, were a completely other matter. Steve had noticed immediately that Nadine was tall for her age at about 5’7” at age twelve, but everyone else was even odder. As Steve looked around, he noticed that none of the adults were below 5’6”, which was especially odd for a society without modern medical care. Steve didn’t have a problem fitting in at six feet tall, but he was unnerved that so many people would be able to look him in the eye, since he generally had to look down to most people, including his friend Hannah, who was actually shorter than Nadine.

Nadine nudged him in the ribs and Steve brought his full attention to the speech, where the Chairman had begun talking about him directly. “Despite the horrible predicament, I am quite thankful that Mr. Steve Dodson happened to be in the area at the time. Even though the Goblins did manage to ambush him, he managed to use his head to get both himself and my daughter back to the city. Let us give him a hand, shall we?”

“Stand up,” Nadine hissed as her father finished speaking. Steve did so and immediately felt the gaze of everyone in the room. Then came the applause, which lasted about a minute. When the clapping was over, Nadine tugged on his robe to indicate he should sit down. The Lord closest to Steve looked at him very curiously from that point on, which made Steve want to dig a hole in the floor and vanish.

He was so preoccupied that he didn’t notice that the servants had been called out from the kitchens, all bearing platters of food. The high table, where Steve was sitting, got served first. However, they did not begin eating until all of the tables were served. When the servants had finished distributing the food and drink, they stood respectfully against the walls. Everyone waited in anticipation as the Chairman took the lid off a nearby platter and put a leg of chicken on his plate. Once he had taken the first bite, there was an immense clatter as the rest of the room discarded the lids to the other platters and began eating themselves.

Steve, when he saw the food, had a moment of panic. He hardly recognized any of the food at all. The food wasn’t weird, just different. “What is all this?” he whispered to Nadine, who had taken a roll and was chewing on it quietly.

Nadine looked over the food that was nearby. The first thing she pointed out was the rolls. “Those are Elvish Sweet Rolls. They have a sweet, bready taste and are really popular. That over there,” she pointed to a second dish of what looked like corn, “is rice and cheese. The recipe was actually popularized by our late Queen Rebecca. For some odd reason, it and chicken sandwiches are the two foods that tend to be enjoyed most by Industrian visitors. The cheese is made from cow’s milk and the rice is grown in the fields along the coast in the south.”

“What about that?” Steve asked, indicating a gleaming cooked bird nearby. It didn’t look like chicken or turkey or anything like that.

“That is sautéed Mountain Eagle. They’re a real delicacy, but they’re only popular with some people, I’m afraid. Here…” She took Steve’s plate and began loading it up with food. First was the cheesy rice, then a few rolls. “That should start you off,” she said, grinning at him. “Oh, and…” She snatched his goblet off the table and poured the contents of a nearby pitcher into it. “As for a drink, I think you’ll enjoy this.”

Steve looked in the goblet and noticed that the liquid was a reddish purple color. He cautiously took a sip, but it tasted so bad it made him gag. The drink was clearly wine, and to him, it tasted horrible. “What is this stuff?” he hissed, spitting out the wine into his goblet.

Nadine giggled. “You fell for it!” she said, smothering her laughter in a napkin. “Dwarven Bloodwine is notorious for its odd taste, and you fell for it!” Steve, humiliated, made a mental note to pay her back the next time he got a chance. He called over a servant and asked for a glass of water to get rid of the taste. It wasn’t the fact that it tasted bad that it was undrinkable. It was that the texture of the drink simply wasn’t desirable. It was hard to explain why it was so nasty, though; it was one of those things you just had to experience for yourself to understand.

Fortunately, Nadine had only pranked the drink, since the food tasted fine. Steve couldn’t bring himself to touch the eagle, but he did try some fruit that was passed down to him from farther up the table. There were apples, cherries, and a few other things he recognized, but there were just as many he didn’t. He purposely didn’t ask Nadine to explain what they were since he was still mad at her.

After the main course came the dessert, which the servants slowly started putting out on the tables after about thirty minutes. Steve quickly found out that the Marisians were not familiar with sugar, since anything without fruit in it was as bland as could be. There were plenty of disgusting meat pies, too. Who thought it was a good idea to put bacon in a pie anyways? Steve was thankful when the desserts got taken away.

“I’m surprised there are so few courses tonight,” Nadine muttered. “Perhaps it is because they planned this last minute and they couldn’t prepare enough food in time.”

After the meal, the crowd started filtering towards the dance floor, where an organist had begun playing some simple pieces to draw in the crowd, none of which Steve recognized. But then again, he didn’t really listen to classical music. Steve didn’t particularly want to dance, but he’d made a promise to the Chairman so there was no getting out of it.

Now, among other things, Steve actually had danced before. In middle school, there had been a middle school prom, which was supposedly practice for high school. In reality, it was a cheap way for the school to make a ton of money in a single night after a disastrous fundraiser earlier in the year had screwed them over. A ticket cost forty bucks alone, and it cost fifty-five for a couple, so while it was cheaper than a high school prom, the tickets seriously emptied the wallets of some of the parents.

Steve hadn’t wanted to go to that dance either, but his friends Alan and Jamal had persuaded him. Plus, his girlfriend at the time, Clarissa, probably would’ve murdered him if he’d bailed out. So he’d gone along with it, and they had ended up having a fun time. She had also taught Steve to dance properly, so that was why he knew how to dance.

Now, as Steve watched the people dancing, he was glad he’d had the experience despite the bad memories that came with it. Even though the majority of the prom had been kids jumping around and acting like fools, it had been the slow dancing that counted, which is what was going on the ball. And even though there were some bad memories associated with the event, at least he knew how to dance, however badly. Steve leaned against a wall in one of the corners and watched the dance silently, hoping he wouldn’t be asked to dance in case he screwed up. The last thing he needed was to tread on the feet of some rich guy’s daughter. If it wasn’t for that fear, he probably would’ve asked somebody.

Five minutes later, the problem of asking a girl to dance was solved for him. No less than three girls barged up on Steve from out of nowhere and each asked him for a dance. Each girl wore the same style of dress, just in different colors. “Would you like to dance with me?” one girl asked at once.

“I wanted to do that, Marissa!” another girl pouted.

“I saw him first!” the third said wildly.

“Elizabeth, Kate,” Marissa said silkily, “don’t forget the rules. First come, first served.” Elizabeth and Kate continued to protest, and soon their argument with Marissa started drawing glances. Steve attempted to escape, but Marissa grabbed him by the arm with a grip of steel.

Steve was beginning to panic somewhat now. The last thing he wanted was for him to be the cause of a girl fight. “Is there a problem?” another voice asked suddenly, again a girl’s. Marissa, Elizabeth, and Kate all stopped arguing at once. Steve was so crowded by the girls he couldn’t even see who the new girl was.

Marissa was the first to recover. “I was asking this man for a dance when they,” she glared at her friends, “showed up.”

“I’m the one who noticed him looking bored,” said Kate.

“And I suggested we should talk to him!” said Elizabeth.

The girls started arguing again, but suddenly stopped at the exact same moment, stopped short by a single command from the other girl. “ENOUGH,” said the girl. “How many times has this been now? I’ve lost count. Maybe you three need to go dry out. Perhaps in the future you shouldn’t drink so much wine.”

“Fine,” they said sullenly, looking at the floor. They silently walked away in single file, heads dropped, and disappeared into the crowd. Steve let out an audible sigh of relief.

“I apologize for their behavior,” said the girl once the other three were out of earshot.

Steve looked at her to say thanks, but instead he got the shock of his life. The girl was about his age with long, waist-length golden blonde hair, which was tied up at the moment in a plait, and vivid dark green eyes. She wore a beautiful red and purple dress, which accented her hair perfectly. However, her most distinguishing feature was the large, golden crown she wore. “Your Majesty,” said Steve, bowing politely.

“Bowing isn’t necessary; I’m only the Princess,” she smiled. “I am Rachel, Princess of Marisia. It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Dodson.”

“The pleasure is mine,” said Steve, nodding. He would have offered a handshake, but he didn’t feel as though it would be prudent. He was taken aback by how forward she was; it completely defied the normal stuck-up princess stereotype.

“My friends might be a little dotty sometimes, but they did have a point.” Rachel continued. “You do seem bored. Might I invite you for a quick dance?”

Again, Steve didn’t really want to dance, but something about the way she was looking at him told him he didn’t have a choice. She was also glancing at something over his shoulder on occasion. “I suppose,” he shrugged. She extended her hand, and he took it.

The dancing itself actually wasn’t that bad. Steve simply followed her lead and that pretty much solved the problem. But then there was the conversation. “So where are you from, exactly?” Rachel asked. Most people were keeping their distance from them, so there was little chance of being overheard.

From the intense gaze Rachel was giving him, he knew telling her the truth was a bad move. His accent was probably making her suspicious. Luckily, he’d used his time in the bath earlier to come up with a believable substitute. “I’m from a small village up north called Showdon. It’s actually pretty peaceful. I decided to go out and see what the world had to offer, but I ended up seeing some of the worst of it.”

Believe it or not, she bought it. Or maybe she didn’t but was giving him the benefit of the doubt. “To have sown an honorable man such as you, it must be a beautiful place. Perhaps I should visit.”

“That…probably wouldn’t be the best idea right now considering all the stuff going on,” Steve replied, a bit taken aback.

“That was a joke,” she said, smiling, although from her tone you’d have thought she was dead serious. She was also staring at him like she was looking into his soul.

“I see,” said Steve, laughing slightly. It was definitely the weirdest conversation he’d ever had with a girl.

Not long after that, the song ended, and they split up. Steve went and stood by the wall between the dance floor and the door, as per the Chairman’s instructions. “So, what did you think?” a young voice said suddenly, startling him.

“About what?” Steve asked, composing himself. Nadine looked at him oddly.

“I was watching you, you know,” she replied. “What did you think of her?”

“A bit…odd, I suppose,” Steve said, after a pause. “I’ve definitely never met anyone like her before.”

“It’s not really her fault. Her mother was murdered in front of her eyes and she’s never been the same since. She’s actually pretty fun once you get to know her, though.” She paused while following Steve’s gaze. “Does she scare you or something?”

“What makes you say that?”

“You’re way over here, where she won’t see you. Doesn’t that mean you don’t want her to notice you?”

“You take things way out of proportion,” Steve replied, glaring at her.

“Fine, then,” she said, rolling her eyes. “It’s either her personality, her looks, or a combination of the two. If you don’t pick one, I’ll pick one. You’re just like Paul, you know; you just won’t give me a straight answer!” She stamped her foot on the ground in frustration.

“Why are you being so obnoxious?” Steve burst out finally, fed up. “First it was the drink and now this. You were fine earlier. So what gives?”

Nadine looked down, tears coming to her eyes. “You don’t have to be so mean,” she whimpered. Almost instantly, Princess Rachel came out of nowhere and confronted him.

“What did you do?” she demanded loudly, getting right up in his face and half-scaring Steve out of his mind. She was pointing at his face, and her finger was about half an inch from the tip of his nose. She was shouting so loudly half the dance floor started missing their steps as they tried to eavesdrop.

“I called her out for being obnoxious, and she, uh, didn’t take it well,” Steve replied feebly. Unbeknownst to either of them, Nadine slipped away, grinning broadly.

The fire in Rachel’s eyes grew even hotter. “You do realize she’s only twelve, you know?”

“Uh, yeah,” said Steve, refusing to look away. He hadn’t done anything except call her out on being annoying and wasn’t about to stand getting yelled at for acting just like anybody else would have, no matter who was accusing him.

“Well, if you know that, then you must know she’s more sensitive than most people about being insulted!”

“I didn’t insult her!” Steve said, angry and outraged. Steve generally didn’t get angry, but when he did, people generally steered clear. Mostly he just got annoyed, which people around him interpreted as anger because of his reputation. When he did get angry, he started acting irrationally, which is why he couldn’t help saying what he said next. “I only called her out about being annoying. I just lost my temper, OK? You have plenty of experience with that, I’m sure.”

Well, that did it. If Rachel had been angry before, she was livid now. “What do you mean by ‘plenty of experience?” she asked angrily, now shouting so loudly she drowned out the music, which was pretty impressive considering it was coming from a loud organ. People’s mouths dropped open as they interpreted that statement in a different way.

Steve was spared from answering by a loud bang, which was louder than both the argument and the music. Everyone stopped what they were doing to see what was going on, including the dancers and the guy playing the organ. The main ballroom doors had been blown inwards and Goblins were pouring through them. Everyone watched, stunned, for about half a second before pandemonium ensued. Everyone on the Palace Staff, who had been busy collecting dishes, dropped what they were doing and ran to the kitchens, barricading the doors behind them.

The Chairman stepped forward to do something, but before he could open his mouth, a man squeezed through the Goblins, who were standing in formation, and stood on a table. He was wearing a thick, hooded black cloak, so it was impossible to tell anything about him. Despite not being able to see his face, Steve could tell by his body type that this guy was the man he’d seen in the Goblin camp. “So it was you!” the Chairman exclaimed, still holding a wine glass. “You’ve intruded on us this evening to try again?”

The figure said nothing. Instead, he slowly began to rise above the table, his hands sparking with what looked like black lightning. Then, in an eerie voice, he said, “I come here tonight for one thing and one thing only.” He pointed at Rachel and said, “I desire your Princess. If you do not surrender Princess Rachel of Marisia over to me, then my army will take her by force. I did not like it when the girl I had abducted as part of a far grander scheme had escaped. So I have stepped up my timetable and personally come to make sure that it gets followed precisely.”

Despite the man’s eerie way of speaking, Steve recognized his voice at once. It was the same guy that had brought him and Hannah to this place, the Syndicate Leader. There was murmuring amongst the crowd as people pondered what to do. “I will not permit this!” said Chairman Jameson angrily, taking a step forward. The figure instead sent a single bolt of his lightning at the Chairman’s wine glass he was holding. The glass shattered and the wine splashed into his face, burning his eyes and staining his mustache. He collapsed to the floor, hastily wiping the wine with a napkin from a nearby table.

“You’ll come with me, won’t you Princess?” the figure asked sweetly. He rose upwards, as if by magic, and glided forward until he cleared the table and was about twenty feet from the Princess.

What the figure hadn’t planned on, though, was that the Princess had just been having an argument, so she was already hopping mad. The new intrusion only made it worse. “Not today!” she said angrily, her face red from shouting. She raised her hands at the figure and shouted, “Begone!”

Absolutely nothing happened. Rachel just stood there looking like an idiot. “Oh, I forgot to mention,” said the figure, “I had one of my servants spike the drinks that were served tonight. Nobody who drank any of them will be able to use magic for the next few hours. By then, I’ll be long gone!” At this, the entire crowd began murmuring various phrases, with absolutely no effect, with the figure’s cruel laughter in the background adding to the drama. Most of them had pulled out wooden magic wands, but even they did nothing.

Steve, who hated bullies, had had enough. Without warning, he snatched Rachel’s heavy gold crown from right off her head, prepped, and threw it right at the hooded figure. It was a perfect throw, and the figure found that out firsthand when it beaned him in the head.

Rachel looked at Steve like he was crazy, but then the figure fell from the air, hitting the floor with a thud. Before anyone could jump him, though, he rose back into the air, a hand under his hood covering the wound. Then, looking at Steve, he said, “Huh, not bad. My defenses didn’t account for solid gold objects.” He suddenly dropped a moment before regaining altitude. “And now I’ve got a splitting headache. Thanks for that. Well, since my plans are now ruined, I suppose I should leave and recover to try again later. Although I should probably take measures against anybody fleeing before I leave. Come, we’re leaving!” He addressed this last part at the Goblins, who obediently turned around and filed out of the room, the cloaked guy in the lead.