The Carnival at Moonbright

His boots touched the stone of the battlement of Haron’s Castle, and he felt the weight of his body become his own again as Gisela let go of Mr. Muffins. The party had safely and quietly made it over the mob of people. Looking around, he could see guards standing around the perimeter wall, but after a few moments, he could tell that none were moving.

“It looks like the guards are enchanted as well.”

“We just have to get inside the castle,” Leaf said. “If we can get inside, we can check on the Queen and hopefully figure out our next steps.”

They descended the stairwell, stopping to look at the castle grounds. Mr. Muffins saw the colorful trees off in the distance, the garden hedge maze, and a tiny pond around them, but there was no clear cover. They would have to move quickly and try their best to stay silent.

“I don’t see any guards, so we might be able to just go. Keep an eye out, though.”

They bent down and started to make their way along the hedge maze. While it wasn’t very tall, maybe three feet in height, it was enough to block one side from view and hopefully give them enough cover to make it across.

At the end of the hedge, Mr. Muffins could see they still had about fifty feet between them and the doorway. He made a motion as if to say keep an eye out, then stood and ran as quickly as possible. Five feet… ten… thirty-five… He dashed across the open space, just waiting to hear a guard yell or a crossbow bolt to fly in his direction. He stopped, almost slamming into the doors, before looking around.

Nothing happened. It was as if Ramona had them all enchanted but was not controlling them. He worried that these people could still think independently and tried not to imagine the idea of being stuck in a body he couldn’t control. He waved for the others and watched as they ran across the castle grounds to him one by one. Once everyone was together, they pushed the doors open and moved inside.

The interior of Haron’s Castle was breathtaking, but with the adrenaline running through their system, they felt no need to take it all in. Mr. Muffins could see hallways leading in different directions and the staircase in front of them, which they had taken just the day before to meet the Queen.

“There are hundreds of rooms!” Lyla said.

“We don’t need to check all of them, though. There’s more risk, opening every door.” Rhokhishi said.

“We should start with what we know.” Mr. Muffins stated, gesturing to the second floor.

“You’re right. We can’t just go through all the rooms, but we can start with where she might be and go from there.” Leaf replied.

Mr. Muffins walked up the staircase and followed his friends down the hallway toward the audience chamber. The high ceiling gave a narrow feeling to him as they listened for anyone. Their shoes made a CLACK sound against the marble floor, but it was quiet otherwise.

As they made it to the double doors, Mr. Muffins noticed that the mechanical contraption used to lock and unlock the door from the outside was already opened, with the doors slightly ajar. He remembered back at the guards that had originally been here, but it was empty this time.

“Running right in there could be a mistake,” Myla said. “Let me try something first.”

Mr. Muffins watched as Myla closed her eyes and focused. While he didn’t know many of her race, he knew they could reach out mentally to others. The seconds passed, and she opened her eyes and looked at the party.

“There’s… I think people are in there, but I can’t hear their thoughts. It’s like static from a machine. I can’t tell how many or how far away they are from the door.”

“I might be able to help with that.” Mr. Muffins said. He reached into his bag and pulled out a small potion bottle and a small spherical object. He poured the potion into the sphere, shook it, and then the globe turned invisible in his hand.

“What did you do?” Gisela asked.

“The potion helps those gain clairvoyance. I just gave it to one of my inventions. This little sphere has the ability to turn invisible. I can see through this since it’s one of my arcane creations.”

Mr. Muffins pulled a small monocle, placing it on his face.

“Humboldt helped me make this years ago. It’s not the most useful thing and needs tuning constantly, but it has its uses sometimes,” He explained as the monocle turned black on his face. He closed his left eye and could only see through the sphere as if it were his eye sitting in the palm of his hand.

“Let’s do this.”

He looked up, and the sphere followed his lead, lifting off his hand and floating silently in the air. He focused, using slight variations of intentional eye twitches to move it forward and into the other room.

Mr. Muffins could see the various stone and stained glass that made up the audience chamber. He motioned for the sphere to float higher and higher, getting a better vantage point while keeping away from anyone who might knock into it.

Across the chamber, Queen Sylona Valtori sat on her throne, with five guards surrounding her. The guards were slumped over as if the energy it took to keep them standing was too much. The sphere moved a little closer, trying to discern if she was enchanted, but he didn’t feel too confident that she had managed to escape the spell.

Closer and closer, Mr. Muffins moved the sphere until he was about fifteen feet away from the Queen. He could see that her hair was slightly disheveled, and in her hand was a small diamond. Her thumb moved over the diamond in a small circular motion.

“I’m confident she’s been enchanted, too.”

“Shit…” Lyla said, her anger causing her voice to rise past a whisper and slightly echo through the hallway.

Mr. Muffins watched as the Queen twitched slightly. He watched as she started shaking her head and blinking her eyes as if waking up. Her empty hand met her face, and she slowly sat in her seat. Then, she smiled wide and looked up at Mr. Muffins’ invention.

“Clever inventor you are, Mr. Muffins.” She said, “I assumed when you and the rest of them didn’t arrive at my call that you were safely hidden from my magic inside the Archmage’s Tower. There is no escaping this. Meet me at the Arcana Emporium, and we’ll finish this.”

She moved her hand, and a wave of energy pushed out from her. Mr. Muffins felt the sphere fall, and his vision through it stopped. Knowing she could dispel the magic, he turned to the party.

“She knows we’re here.”

“The Queen?” Rhokhishi asked.

“Ramona. She wants us to meet her at the Emporium.”

“Then let’s go kick her traitorous ass.” Lyla punched her palm.

“How do we get through the mob outside?” Gisela asked the party.

“Well, one of them turned around as we got into the castle. They already know we’re here.” Leaf said, looking down at the ground.

Mr. Muffins walked up to Leaf. He was upset, but his face was calm.

“Later, if we make it through this, we’re going to have a conversation about communication and the importance of sharing information as it happens, not later.”

The party walked back to the front door. Taking a deep breath, Rhokhishi and Gisela opened the doors, ready for any assault, but there was none. On the castle grounds, the mob of people moved from the Archmage Tower while they were inside and surrounded the front of the castle. A short and stocky male dwarf walked up from the crowd and spoke.

“You will not be harmed. Just follow the path.” He gestured behind him as the crowd cleared to give passage through the gate.

The party walked cautiously through, one step at a time. Right at the gate, they had to move one by one through as the crowd got closer and closer.

“On second thought,” A female human spoke out.

Three people on the other side grabbed Rhokhishi and pulled her back into the crowd. Rhokhishi started to fight back, not wanting to hurt them but wanting to be let go.

Mr. Muffins readied Jimbo, watching for other attacks, as Lyla and Myla went up to help. The woman spoke again.

“I need collateral. You all show up, I won’t kill Rhokhishi.”

Mr. Muffins saw Lyla reach back and start to attack one of the assailants but stopped. The human stood there, a smile on their face and their head cocked slightly to the side, as they held onto Rhokhishi.

“You’re not worth it,” Lyla said, spitting on the ground before the human.

“It’s not a fight we can win,” Mr. Muffins said. “Rhokhishi, we are going to come back for you. Just be safe.”

“Understood,” She replied, stopping her struggle.

“Be careful,” Lyla said.

“You too. I’ll see what I can do here.”

Mr. Muffins turned to the woman.

“We’re on our way.”

“Good!” Ramona exclaimed. “Preparations are almost done. We just needed a little changeling blood to finish my work here.”

“What did you do to them!?” Lyla screamed in the woman’s face.

“Oh, nothing yet. Nix and Meg are safe... For now.”

Mr. Muffins watched as the woman’s face grew slack. Ahead of them, another voice spoke out.

“I’m just lucky that I could convince her to stay all this time. Did you know that she was going to leave when Meg was born? I told her there was no way she could make it alone with a newborn.”

They followed the people forward, as a new person would speak the next couple of sentences, and the previous would fall back into their expressionless state.

“She was talking to her precious friend yesterday, you know Markus? She was going to leave with him. Something about meeting his family in Ekholm. I couldn’t have such a valuable resource leave before I needed it. So, I rushed my little project here, but it’s almost ready. Come see.”