Time Flies When…

From his prone position on the ground, Shiv pushed himself up by manipulating the floor underneath his hands into two separate protrusions. Now on his feet, he grabbed both skinny columns and detached them from the ground. With a thought, he turned them into greatswords and threw one of them at the wary Wells.

Wells deflected the sword with a practiced swing of his rapier, and quickly repositioned himself when Shiv followed the greatsword with the other one swinging in a downward strike.

Wells was ready for the heavy attack, and deflected that one as well. But in doing so, he was pushed back two steps.

Shiv, instead of following the momentum of his sword and letting it pull him to the ground, released it and threw himself into the wall of the corridor to avoid Wells' counterstrike.

The blade whistled past his ear, making him flinch. When it passed, he pushed himself off the wall and punched Wells in the jaw with every ounce of strength he could muster.

Wells staggered away, seeing stars, and swung his sword wildly to keep Shiv back.

Unfortunately for the noble, Shiv was not deterred.

Instead, he took the opportunity presented by Wells' concussed state, and punched him in the gut. He earned a slice on his neck, but ignored it.

Wells doubled over, coughing up blood while Shiv staggered to the wall to use as a support. Then, before Wells had time to recover completely, Shiv molded a portion of the wall into a heavy axe and cut his opponent's head off with a single swing.

Shiv slumped to his knees and placed his hand on the decapitated head. He pulled up its inventory and found a somewhat familiar amount of money in it. He took all of it, his mind foggy from blood loss and biting hunger. He swayed back and forth, trying to think. Trying to remember what was going on. Why was he here?

No answers were forthcoming, so he relaxed onto the inviting floor and lost consciousness.

***

Shiv yawned and sat up, stretching. Looking around, he found that he was in a corridor that had a disturbing number of scorched bodies covering the floor. He looked over his shoulder, finding Blaze sleeping with a dark expression, as if she was in the middle of a nightmare.

Shiv had a dark expression on his own face. Blaze had clearly been protecting him while he'd been napping away like a child. Not only had she protected him, but she'd also cauterized the wound on his neck.

He crawled over to the sleeping little girl and activated the healing powers he'd recently gained. Her scowl slowly faded into a peaceful expression, and he sighed. He then began to use the same power on himself, but the gnawing hunger was becoming too much, so he stopped.

Now that he was able to stand, at least, he checked the inventories of a few of the guards. He didn't find anything interesting, aside from a couple meals and some loose change, so he pulled a Tomato Soup out of his own inventory and devoured it.

Once finished, he silently put the empty bowl back into his inventory. Then he removed the shirt from the dead noble's corpse and put it on his naked torso. 'comfy material.' He sat for several seconds, just staring at his hands and then carefully, gently lifted Blaze in a princess carry and left.

"I didn't have to say 'abracadabra'. Guess I'm an idiot." He realized duly.

He walked the rest of the way with the slumbering firecracker in silence. Soon, he'd exited the territory that had once belonged to the honorable noble Wells.

Shiv had realized why the amount of money in Wells' inventory was so familiar - it was the exact amount he had been promised for his work. 'Guess I was tricked. Again.'

Despite that fact, he oddly didn't feel angry at Lucille. Just curious about how she'd gained from it.

Thinking of Lucille reminded him that he was supposed to meet up with a new contact at her show tomorrow… except a glance at the sun told him that time had reversed? Why was it earlier in the day than it had been when he'd first entered the mansion?

He stopped in the middle of the busy street and stared at the sun, desperately trying to figure out what was going on. Then… 'There's no way. I couldn't have been sleeping all day and night... right?'

There was a way. And not only was there such a way, but that way had been precisely what had come to pass.

"I'm going to be late." He muttered. Then with a shake of his head, he corrected himself. "No, I am not going to be late." He shifted Blaze to one arm and dug into his pocket with the other. He found a letter in it that was addressed to the captain of the castle guard.

'Looks like the show is going to be at the castle.' He shoved the letter back into his pocket and adjusted his grip on Blaze to how it was.

He started jogging. The castle was a good distance away, and he only had an hour to get there. He'd get there stinking, sweaty, and out of breath, but he would be on time.

***

His prediction proved to be reality. He arrived at the gate of the castle stinking, sweaty, and out of breath, but he had several minutes to spare. Blaze stirred as he handed the crumpled letter to the first guardsman he found.

"Hmm? What's goin' on?" She yawned and rubbed her eyes while he put her down.

"We're about to see Lucille put on a show."

Shiv went silent when the captain of the guard approached. "Y'all are lucky! The rest of the guests are already waiting inside. You'd best be hurrying. Y'all don't want to be missing even a little bit of the show." He urgently motioned for them to follow him, and took off at a pace that didn't look like it should have been possible, given the man's girth.

Shiv and Blaze followed obediently. Shiv was amused by Blaze trying not to gawk at the incredibly colorful banners hanging from every surface and covering every wall.

"I didn't know there were this many colors!" She exclaimed.

The captain turned to show his scowl. "Don't be talking while you're in here. We don't want to disturb the show. No we do not." He added the last part as a barely audible mutter and turned to face forward again.

Shiv leaned down to whisper in Blaze's ear, "I suddenly want to hoot and holler as loud as I can in there."

She giggled and nodded.

Despite what he wanted, Shiv remained respectfully silent as the entered the castle itself and began ascending what would turn out to be the first of many, many flights of stairs.

By the time they had finally reached their destination, Shiv's shirt was soaked with sweat, despite the surprising coolness of the castle's interior.

Blaze, however, was complaining about the cold. Shiv had given her Tomato Soup to eat but she'd rejected it. She had wanted bread and cheese, not soup. Unfortunately for her, neither of them had any, so she'd been stuck with the soup.

Instead of eating that, she'd stubbornly remained hungry, of course.

"Where'd you get to be so ridiculously stubborn?" Shiv growled at her, only for her to stick her tongue out at him in response.

Just as she did so, the captain opened the thick door to the room they were headed toward. Inside, a gorgeous blonde woman in a simple but elegant dress was sitting in a chair in front of a group of what could only be nobles, judging by their fancy clothes and noses stuck in the air.

The blonde woman glanced toward them with her head tilted, a curious and amused expression on her face.

Shiv suddenly felt embarrassed for Blaze, and stepped forward, blocking her from view. He hissed over his shoulder, "put your tongue back!"

She did so and peaked around him to stare back at the blonde.

"Well? Don't be keeping them waiting. Get a move on." The captain whispered at them with an intense expression.

Shiv hesitantly did so, suddenly wishing that he'd read the letter himself before giving it to the captain.

The blonde woman continued staring unashamedly as he entered. Shiv was beginning to wonder if she was ever going to blink, when she said, "are you the fellow madam Lucille would not stop talking about?"

Shiv gave her a crooked smile. "Where I come from, it's considered rude to ask another's name before you give your own."

One of her eyebrows quickly climbed her brow. She leaned toward one of the two nobles sitting next to her instead of behind, a chubby woman with pink cheeks, and whispered something to her. A moment later, the woman stood and curtsied slightly to her. She looked at Shiv hesitantly, no doubt taking in his dirty, sweaty apparel, then curtsied to him as well before taking a seat with the other nobles.

The blonde motioned toward the chair. "Please, take a seat next to the reigning princess of this kingdom…" her eyebrow rose again as she looked at him, waiting for his own name.

"Sure thing. I, the most daring and successful farmer to ever set foot on this planet, will gladly sit by your highness."