Qube had never been so high up before. Back in the village, with the unbearable pressure of trying to get above the town centre roof meaning they could never even climb its spire, she had never dreamed that she would ever get the chance to be so close to the stars. Those same distant stars that she had stared at back home were now almost within her grasp. The suns had set so only the pinpoints of light that made up the night sky remained, offset by the eerie glow of the moons.

Qube loved the stars. They were a mystery, a puzzle that she itched to solve. Like the fireflies that would haunt the river at night, she longed to grab hold of them, study them, see how they worked. She wanted to understand them.

Maybe she would go back to the Royal Observatory after all, she mused as the Chosen One’s magical wings worked to take her back to Cobbletown. She was invisible, so it wasn’t like the lab workers could even be strange to her…

The beating of the wings was oddly soothing as they coasted through the night. She felt like she could almost fall asleep, holding onto the Chosen One’s back, watching the wings move in and out of her body. This comfortable repose was, however, interrupted by the Chosen One suddenly banking left.

Qube, now wide awake, clutched at him.

“Chosen One?” she asked, alarmed. He’d swerved away from their path towards Cobbletown and was now heading towards the large expanse of unknown land. While the nighttime made it difficult for Qube to see exactly what was up ahead, she could make out a great shadow castle by the mountain range that held the Air Temple, and beyond that an expanse of near-eternal desert.

“I just want to check it out!” he breezily replied, before abruptly stopping in mid-air. He hovered in place, looking furious. “Hey!” he shouted at thin air. “No invisible walls!”

“Is there some sort of magic at play here, Chosen One?” Qube asked, peering over his shoulder. She couldn’t see any kind of shield or barrier — he was very lucky that he hadn’t smacked right into whatever it was!

“Yeah, the magic of railroading,” the Hero muttered, before pivoting in mid-air and redirecting his flight back towards Cobbletown. “Why even let me see it until I can go there? They’re such teases…” Abruptly he swung around again, swooping and trying to enter the land from a lower level. Once again, he was instantly stopped short, all momentum dying in a split second. He kicked out at the air before, with a final huff, resuming his journey once again.

Qube looked from where the Chosen One had been unable to enter, to Definitely Bad Guy. He shook his head — he, too, had been unable to detect any magic. Even Sewer Bard, who could [Detect Magic], seemed baffled. It reminded Qube of the circle of protection in the woods back home. Could someone (possibly the devs, or the Golden Prophecy itself?) be protecting them from some greater harm until they were ready?

A disturbing thought. What could possibly be so much more dangerous than the four Temples they had already faced?

---

By the time they landed at the front gate of Cobbletown, it was dawn. Qube wasn’t sure whether or not the city guards would try and arrest them — they were clearly in the pay of the Evil Emperor, but did that mean they would abide by his desire to watch them, or try and capture them to win his favour?

As it turns out, the guards did neither.

“Welcome, traveller, to Cobbletown!” one of the blue-clad guards said cheerfully.

Qube was starting to suspect that the gate guards weren’t exactly kept in the loop about what was happening in the current political landscape.

“Okay, time to hand in the quest,” the Chosen One said, with a blithe disregard for the fact that the Evil Emperor’s guards were standing directly in front of him and, in fact, talking to him. Or, rather, attempting to talk to him.

“You’ve come at a —”

“We can’t hand in the gem,” Qube, confident in her invisibility, felt only a tiny bit bad about talking over the guards. After all, if they couldn’t tell that they were being interrupted, did it really count as interrupting?

No, Qube decided. It did not.

Probably.

“The Exiled Prince and Exiled Princess are in the dungeon! How can we possibly give them the gem? Unless — unless you’ve figured out a way into the dungeon?” Qube’s eyes sparkled in admiration at the Chosen One’s potential cleverness.

“Nope,” the Chosen One said flippantly. “But I do know where we can hand this in!”

---

“Chosen One, this is the inn.” Qube was disappointed. They were standing in front of the somehow still-smouldering wreckage of what had once been the finest, albeit only, inn Qube had ever seen.

“Yup!” the Chosen One said cheerfully, pushing open the damaged door.

Inside, it was like nothing had ever happened. The same patrons were in the same places, with the same inn Bard crooning the same song. Even the barkeep was the same, still polishing a glass with the same grim determination.

This time, however, the barkeep glanced up when the group walked in, and nodded at the Chosen One.

“Those two told me you would be back,” the half-orc said in her gruff voice. Qube held back the urge to admire just how effortlessly intimidating the bartender was. Even her voice added to the image of someone who was detached but still capable of handling herself. “Which did you bring?”

The Chosen One looked at the half-orc thoughtfully for a second. Qube suppressed a groan. She recognised that expression.

“So you’ve got both medallions,” he started in his most persuasive tone. “Wouldn’t it make more sense, given I’m the one charged with saving the world —”

“Which did you bring?” the bartender ruthlessly cut his speech off.

“What’s your name?” The Chosen One tried a new angle.

“Zakora. I’m the barkeep. Keep out of trouble, and there won’t be none.”

“Sure, I’m great at keeping out of trouble,” the Chosen One lied without an ounce of shame. “So you’ve got both medallions there. You know who I am. Just hand them over! It’s what those two would have wanted,” he added piously.

“Chosen One, what are you doing?” Qube hissed at him.

“I want both!” he replied loudly.

“You’re going to get both! You always get both!” Qube protested. “Why are you acting so strange about this?”

“Ah, you’re right, we did kinda get both quest items,” the Chosen One said, sounding almost disappointed in their success. “Okay, here’s both, gimme gimme,” he said, thrusting out the sacred items entrusted to them by the griffins and Flitter Folk. The bartender took the deeply magical artefacts needed to restore Good to the world, and stowed them under the bar top.

Or at least that’s what she motioned to do. The actual items themselves disappeared as soon as they touched her hands.

Then a very strange thing happened. Zaroka started talking over herself.

“Good job, Hero,” she said with a strange echo in her voice.

“This Medallion will allow you greater access than ever to the Royal Gardens,” she said at the same time as she said “this Medallion will allow you greater access than ever to the Royal Bestiary.”

Qube wasn’t entirely sure what was going on with Zakora. Possibly she was — her mind scrambled to find some kind of explanation for the barkeeper’s strange double talk. Some kind of spell laid upon her by both the Exiled Prince and Exiled Princess? But there wouldn’t have been enough time for them to do so while being kidnapped by the Evil Emperor. Unless …

But before she could go too deep down the rabbit hole, she was interrupted by the Chosen One.

“Oh yeah, the Royal Gardens,” the Chosen One said, oblivious to the strangeness of the double-speak. “I totally forgot to go check that out. Maybe we can buy a plant party member,” he said cheerfully.

“There must be so many amazing herbs and ingredients in the garden!” Qube exclaimed breathlessly, totally forgetting about the weirdness that had just happened.

“And heaps of stuff to eat. I can’t believe I forgot about it. You must have distracted me,” the Chosen One shamelessly grinned as Qube swelled in indignation.

“I did no such thing,” she retorted before suddenly remembering that she may have done exactly that. Instead of going to the gardens they’d gone to the Wizard’s Tower to try and get her curse removed. And then Definitely Bad Guy had joined them and they hadn’t been able to buy a mount at the bestiary…

“Anyway, what does it mean greater access?” She quickly diverted the topic away from her potential guilt. “We went to the Royal Bestiary already and there were no hidden areas that I noticed.”

“You probably wouldn’t have been able to,” the Chosen One said, his grin widened as Qube realised he’d probably seen the whole mental journey she’d just gone on reflected in her face. “What does everyone else think?” He suddenly and surprisingly turned to the group. “Are you all okay with checking out the garden and then going back to the bestiary?”

The others seemed taken aback by his abrupt asking.

“Naturally, I would be pleased to accompany you anywhere, Noble Patron,” Sewer Bard said.

“Wherever you want me I’ll be,” Sexy Screamy Spider Lady purred. “I wouldn’t mind finishing shopping at some point though. We also need to return to the Forbidden Forest to do the Trials,” she added in a different tone.

“I would like the chance to return to my Wizard’s Tower and check in on some of my experiments,” Definitely Bad Guy said.

Squiggles just danced.

“How did you know that the inn was where you should hand in the items?” Qube asked the Chosen One.

“If I may, Fair Healer,” Sewer Bard said, cutting in. “It is well known that any good adventurer should, when in need of guidance, consult their local inn or pub.”

“Yeah, what he said,” the Chosen One nodded at the Bard. For all the Bard’s frustrations with the Hero, Qube couldn’t help but notice that he looked extremely pleased when the Chosen One agreed with him. “Anyway, sounds like there’s no objections to checking out the gardens first, so we’ll do that then we’ll do all your stuff.”

Qube beamed at their leader. He was listening to them and implementing their choices so naturally now! Soon he wouldn’t even need to ask them what they wanted; he would just know, like any true leader. Alderman, the de facto village leader, had always known exactly what the people wanted without ever asking.

“Right, where are the Royal Gardens?” the Chosen One asked no one in particular, slowly spinning in a circle. He stopped, triumphantly pointing a finger to the west of the city. “This way!” he declared with (from Qube’s perspective) totally unjustified confidence.

To her shock, he was able to take them directly to the Royal Gardens’ gates. The Royal Gardens themselves were beautiful. Once they had presented their token to a taciturn gargoyle, the wrought iron gates opened up into a verdant green landscape, with fruit-bearing trees, herbs, and rare flowers packed together. Gazebos were strewn about the place, with ivy climbing their pillars, and a white sandstone building sat in the heart of it all.

Potion-making facilities were stationed next to particularly bountiful patches, and Qube wasn’t surprised to see a fountain filled with sparkling water splashing nearby.

Truly, everything a Healer could ever want was right here. In fact, as the group drifted into the Gardens, she saw several people dressed in white walking towards the main building.

“Chosen One,” she whispered reverently. “I think that’s the Royal Infirmary.” Without looking, she reached out and took some herbs he’d just plucked out of his hands. “Please don’t eat anything,” she continued in the same respectful tone.

“Oh yeah,” the Chosen One said, plucking another handful of herbs, only to have them once again taken off of him. He started walking towards the sandstone building, the others following in his wake. “This is one of the entrances to it, isn’t it? Where I could get that Healer Mage companion. Instead I got you,” he said to Definitely Bad Guy, without any rancour. The Mage was too busy studying the various herbs they walked past to spare him a glance.

The Chosen One looked over his shoulder at Qube. “Hey, wanna go meet your rejected replacement?” he asked her.

“Of course, tee hee!” She hid a gulp, and smiled.