Falstaff stepped out of the boat and looked around the clear night. He wondered what he even did here, and then he saw his host standing on the edge of the beach, calling him where the sand and the sedge slowly turned into a forest.
"Why did you wanted me to come here again?", the "King of Thieves" asked. "This place doesn't look too civilized, you know."
"Civilized enough for us", Peredur said as he led Falstaff to a narrow, sandy path. "You'll understand soon enough."
Falstaff stopped asking. His leader might have had his reasons for this, but the corpulent man still was slightly confused. This coast didn't look like a place to waste a night when he had to guard a treasure. Not that he didn't trust his thieves, but...
"There we are." Peredur pointed to the end of the path.
"That was fast", Falstaff admitted. Then, for a moment, he couldn't believe his eyes. Despite the night was so clear, there was swirling fog before him, and out of the fog came a distinctive form, almost too big and striking to be hidden here. "Oh, it's..."
"Yes, it's the castle. Now let's go inside." Peredur stepped into the fog.

Once they were inside, the place lost all of its phantasmal quality and looked now rather solid, just like a normal castle. When Falstaff looked back outside through a window, he couldn't even see the fog anymore.
"With all due respect", Falstaff said, "do you really think it's a good idea to keep me away from the treasure for so long?"
Peredur chuckled. "You'll not lose more than half an hour. The time flows differently here. You can stay here for hours, even days, and when you leave the castle, you'll notice that you leave it the same moment that you entered it..."
"So it's true", Falstaff said with amazement. He had needed only 10 minutes to get to this coast with his speedboat, Eastcheap Isle was floating nearby in the sea, and the castle didn't consume his time. He wondered if this applied to his biological aging too, but for some reason he doubt it.

Finally, they reached a small hall that looked almost like a lounge, filled with different seating furniture that were made from a combination of expensive, premium wood and red velvet. There were also small desks and some scattered pot plants. Peredur went to one of the sofas and sat down.
"Come here", he said to Falstaff who still stood around, not really sure what to do. But once Peredur had called him, he chose another sofa face to face with his leader. Between them, on the white marble desk, there was a dark, dusty bottle and two golden goblets.
"So, why did you want me to come here?", Falstaff said while Peredur grabbed the dusty bottle. "I'm not nearly your rank."
"That doesn't matter now." Peredur started to fill the content of the bottle into the two goblets and pushed one of them into Falstaff's direction. "It's lonely here since Fleur is gone, and the castle decided to make a stop near the current location of our island, so I thought it would be fitting to call you. Yes, it's almost like our destiny that we're sitting here now. This", he lifted the bottle, "is one of the most expensive red wines in the world. I already drank a bit of it before you came, but the bottle is still almost full... let's share it now."

Since he had started his life as "King of Thieves", John Oldcastle had experienced some rather amazing delicacies, but this was still something new. The wine wasn't really red, it had more of a blackish-purplish color, and its smell and taste was like nothing he had ever tasted before.
"That is good!", he said after the first few swigs.
"Indeed it is", Peredur answered and smiled. And it didn't take long until he filled their goblets again... and again. It was impossible to see how much of the bottle's content was still left because it was so dark and dusty, but it could not have been much by now.
"Falstaff, I know you find no pleasure in women", the Number One suddenly said.
Falstaff lifted his head; he felt slightly dizzy from the wine. "What?"
"Oh, don't look at me like you didn't know what I'm talking about. You even killed one." Peredur looked at him again with a knowing smile, and the fact that Falstaff, still in his life as John Oldcastle, had indeed killed someone didn't really seem to bother him.
"It was not because of this", Falstaff mumbled. "And I also have two women in my band of thieves."
"Playthings, not more", Peredur said. "I know it."
Falstaff sighed. "Yes, you are right." But then he realized something. "If you are trying to seduce me, we forget one thing. You obviously find pleasure in women, and you are even married to one!"
"You can't imagine how I felt the day that she left the castle", Peredur said and took another swig of the wine. "It's not like I didn't allow her to go, she can go anywhere she wants... but it still left me bitter. I'm still not sure what to do about this. It would be very easy for me to bring her back, but I love her too much to simply decide for her."
"And despite the fact that you love her so much you want to..." Falstaff stopped. He didn't know how to finish.

Now Peredur laughed. "You and your dirty mind... can't we just be sitting here, enjoying this precious wine?" He took the bottle again and filled the goblets until the last drop fell out of it. "And now it's gone... enjoy these last swigs of it, Falstaff."
"That sounds like something is going to happen after I emptied my goblet", Falstaff said slightly nervously. He knew, without the wine, he would probably have been pretty scared.
"The only thing that's happening is that I can't fill these goblets again. But if you really want... there are more bottles in the cellar."
"No, no, no, I don't want to get too drunk", Falstaff said quickly. He really liked that wine, but he was too scared to lose his self-control.

Outside the fog, not a moment had passed.