Varin did not answer many of Thaddius’s questions as they made way into town. It was not necessarily that he didn’t want to, but more so the fact that he didn’t have the answers. He doubted his plan would work tonight, for it relied solely on a conspiracy he had shared with no one.

“Varin, will you answer me?” Thaddius snapped.

“I would if I could,” Varin said. “I don’t know many of those answers, though.”

“Then why are we out here?”

Varin opened the doors to the Tavern and waved him inside, his eyes raking over each patron in hopes to see the blonde woman he figured he was bewitched by. Seraphine, as Leolina called her.

“I have a feeling, is all. I needed you as support in case something happens to me again.”

“Again? Varin, what has gotten into you?”

Varin took a seat and accepted the beers the innkeeper gave them. “I was bewitched the last time we came here, Thaddius. I think that may be why Aiora is missing.”

“I’m sorry?”

Varin sighed and rubbed his temples. He loved Thaddius as a brother, but just as any sibling would, his constant questioning could easily drive him to insanity. “I was bewitched, Thaddius. Under some witch’s control, but it was a weak connection. I only blacked out every now and then, but when I did—I was gone. I do not know how else I can tell you.”

“Are you still…?”

“Not at all,” Varin said with a nod. “Our lovely Mistress helped me out with that one. I fear at what price, though. She has already said she has an errand she wants me to run for her.”

Thaddius scoffed and looked around the bar. “What did she look like, then? The witch?”

“Blonde hair, tan skin, green eyes. That’s all I can remember.”

“That narrows it down so much,” Thaddius joked and looked back at Varin. “It is not like half of the citizens in this kingdom are tan and blonde, or anything.”

“Well, I at least know she’s not an Elf.”

“I think it would help our cause if she was an Elf, Varin.”

He looked at his friend and smiled, bringing the mug up to his face and took a sip of beer. If anything, he would get tipsy and perhaps earn a bit of cool and collected silence out of the night.

“What is she doing here?” Thaddius said and let out a groan. As Varin turned, he met eyes with Cateline, who stood at the entryway of the Tavern with wide, curious eyes. She was in that same royal blue dress, one that exuded her royal status and made her stick out like a sore thumb. A sore, decaying, and infected, thumb begging to be preyed on by vultures.

Even the bard slowed his tune when she made her entrance, each of the civilians staring in disgust as they wiped their hands on their burlap dresses and pants, mumbling their envies before drinking yet again. She paid no mind to the judgmental stares as she made way to the duo, stopping at the end of their table with a grin.

“This place is… amazing,” Cateline said as her eyes trailed each passerby, watching as they began to exit the building. The sun was beginning to set, it was time for the citizens to return home. Varin had spent little effort looking into why people rushed to their homes at the wake of night, but it was evident they, collectively, feared something. Nothing seemed to bother him while he was out, though. Aside from a simple bewitchment, of course…

“What are you doing here, Cateline?” Varin asked.

“You said you two were out on the town this evening, I wanted to see what town was actually like.”

“This Tavern is no place for Princesses,” Thaddius said with a sigh. “Especially ones that don’t know how to stick up for themselves.”

Cateline gasped and crossed her arms, “You know, Thaddius, I thought you were one of the nicer ones out of that trio of yours. It seems both of you have a stick up your arse.”

“Naughty, naughty,” Thaddius tsked before taking another sip of his beer. He set his mug down on the table and grinned towards the Princess, his canines particularly sharp. It was a common trait amongst the satyr’s, one not to be mistaken with a vampire’s fang. “Now, who taught you those types of words? I will have to give them a talking to.”

Varin chuckled and waved his hand to dismiss the innkeeper who offered them another round, his eyes returning to Thaddius. “I do not believe the witch will be coming.”

“The witch?” Cateline asked with wide eyes. “What witch?”

Varin sighed dramatically, turning his gaze downwards to her and smiled. “A stick up my arse, so to speak.”

With that statement, he stood and gestured to the Princess with his index finger, curling it in an attempt to get her to follow. To his surprise, she stood without a fuss and followed him outside.

“You, Your Highness, are to return to your chambers. Safe and secure at Lighthelm, understood?”

Cateline looked up at the dark-haired man, her brow furrowed and hands clenched into fists. “You are so condescending. What have I done to you?”

Thaddius hollered something at the bard as he walked out, his cheeks puffed out and red. Varin decided to ignore the inquisitive Cateline and, instead, focused on what Thaddius was doing. “What is the matter, Thaddius? You look like your mother has been threatened.”

Thaddius grumbled an inaudible response, wiping the beer foam from his soaked pant leg. Varin grinned at the sight, finally looking back at Cateline. “What were we saying? Oh, right. I was telling you to scurry along, Thaddius and I do not need your questions distracting us.”

Unsurprisingly, she ignored him. “You spoke of a witch. What witch, one from Lighthelm?”

Varin shook his head with narrowed eyes, shrugging his shoulders. “Perhaps if you go back, you will find out. I hear they like prying through the journals of Princesses.”

Cateline huffed and looked around the city, her eyes raking over each house as the residents closed their shutters just as the sun began to set over the hills. She hummed with a curious frown, stepping towards the center of town. Varin pursed his lips, looking at his satyr friend who looked anything but pleased.

“Damn it all,” Thaddius cheered sarcastically. “Why don’t we all go look for our beloved Aiora then, shall we?”

Varin shrugged with a shake of his head, jogging out to follow Cateline before she was pulled away by whatever cult of ultimate proportions that was tormenting Lighthelm. It worried him that the Head Mistress sensed this woman, Seraphine, before he even had a clue to who she was. It was also interesting that Leolina knew who had bewitched him in the first place, as if there was no question. That was the one and only reason he was so convinced wherever Aiora had disappeared to this time was not normal. It was a sick, twisted intuition he somehow hoped was dead wrong.

Varin slowed his pace as he approached Cateline, talking between breaths. “Surely, you have reason for twisting through all of these homes to stand in the middle of, well, a town?”

She spun around, her eyes wide and fearful. Her bottom lip trembled, and her irises that had once been the coolest shade of blue now were as orange like a flame atop a candle’s wick. When she spoke, her voice was quiet.

“I can see her,” Catleine said. “She is somewhere dark, cold… and there is a woman talking.”

“What is she saying?” Varin asked, waving Thaddius away when he stepped towards them. “What do you see?”

“The woman is just… talking. Words that seem foreign, and irrelevant. Aiora is safe, but it is strange.”

“Strange how? Cateline, what is happening?”

Varin’s heart rate was increasing as he placed his hands on her shoulder, jostling her a little in hopes to make her realize how urgent this information was. Even if it was a hoax, a false vision, he could feel the energy that radiated from her eyes. It felt dark, unnatural, and dark. Although Cateline was staring at him, he knew she could not see anything. She was staring through him.

“Aiora is getting up,” she whispered. “She has a sword, no… An ax? I cannot tell. It’s blurred—as if I am looking through a layer of fog.”

Within an instance, Cateline’s head tilted forward and her eyes closed. She wobbled, about to collapse on her side, but she awakened and looked up at the two of them without delay. Varin looked at her with an open mouth, his eyes watering at the thought of having so much information hidden behind such clueless eyes.

“Cateline, what did you see?”

She blinked a few times, her bottom lip twitching. Stepping back, Varin’s arms fell back to his side and his fists clenched from the never-ending stress. Cateline sucked in a breath like she had just gone on a hike through the mountainous regions of Traburg and back and shook her head.

“What are you talking about?” She said. “I did not see anything.”