"So, tell me more about your friend Crono," requested the king carefully as he and his daughter sat down at the dinner table.

"Well..." Marle spoke excitedly about Crono, only realising she was raving when the servant put her entree down in front of her. She thanked him, genuinely meaning it, and ended her monologue with, "And, yeah, he's pretty cool."

As the servant was walking back to the kitchen the king queried, "Is it fashionable for young men to wear their hair long these days? Oh dear, I am so out of touch with all of this. Hmm... I don't think I have seen him around before. I really should get to know everyone who works around here."

Shocked, and working it out, Marle got a look at the 'servant' before he disappeared from the room completely. Maybe his hair was neatly plaited back, maybe he wasn't wearing a cloak, but it was definitely Magus. "Um... oh, you know how the rosters change," she told her father although she didn't and nor did he. Hopefully, he wouldn't know she was making it up. 'Magus?' she was thinking, 'what is he doing here? Do the others know about this? Maybe he IS planning his revenge on us! Wait... maybe the others are here too. I need an excuse to get to the kitchen... what did they do with the cook? Speaking of which...' She glanced down at her food. She hadn't eaten at the castle for a while but she was sure she remembered the food being different, maybe a little more intricate. It tasted fine and as long as someone was feeding her she didn't mind, but this whole matter had stirred her curiosity.

She ate and made small talk with her father, wondering how she could get to the kitchen. When Magus came to collect their plates he actually smiled at her and she very nearly died from the shock. She didn't know Magus could smile. She would have enjoyed her father's company a lot more if she hadn't started to worry about exactly what they were doing.

About fifteen minutes later Magus emerged from the kitchen again to serve their meals. The king, in an effort to be friendly, asked him his name. "Um... Janus," Magus informed him, although he was uncomfortable to be using the name after so long- and for this purpose.

"And are you from around here?" queried the king.

"Pretty much," answered Magus cheerfully and got out of the room as quickly as possible without being rude.

"I haven't seen many people around with hair that shade of blue," remarked the king.

"Um... no, you wouldn't," Marle agreed, thinking, 'Unless you'd been to Zeal.'

The king looked down at his meal. "This food is burnt!"

"Unthinkable," cried Marle overdramatically, tipping the chair over in her haste to get up. "I'll... I'll go to the kitchen right away and get it sorted out. I'll not be long!"

She rushed down to the kitchen and ran into Magus. "Does this mean my role is over?" queried the evil wizard regretfully as he levitated the tray he had been carrying and had miraculously kept upright over to a bench.

"What's going on?" cried Marle as she struggled to her feet. Magus watched her fight with her dress for a while before he finally, although with obvious reluctance, helped her to her feet. Marle thanked him again and continued on.

"What are you doing?" exclaimed Lucca in annoyance as she put something into the oven. "I haven't finished cooking the apple crumble yet..."

"You burned my father's meal on purpose so I could come and work out what was going on- didn't you? What is going on?"

"We have a problem. Crono, come here and stir that pot!" Lucca ordered, looking over her shoulder. Crono took the stirring over so Lucca could go and do something else, which turned out to be bossing Magus around. "What are you doing just standing there?" she scolded. "Get to work! Do something!"

"Yes, Lucca. Sorry, Lucca," said Magus meekly, and turned to Marle. "Seeing as you're standing in the kitchen and ruining my fun- I was enjoying myself, serving you lot. Was I any good?"

"A bit too much of a noble bearing, but you are a prince," she shrugged. "I think you were fine- but we're off the subject!"

"Yes. Right." Lucca was washing the dishes; Magus picked up a dishcloth to dry them while he continued in his explanation. "I may as well tell you what we're doing here, then. Or what little was actually explained to me. None of you ever think to tell me anything... here, make yourself useful, put this away."

Marle accepted the saucepan he handed her and put it in its cupboard. "Well, you should make an effort to include yourself, if you want to know what's happening."

He shrugged and went back to the subject. "Anyway, Crono and the useless frog-man were wandering around in a desert when they ran into... this is pretty."

Marle took the knife away from him very quickly and put it in the knife block. "They ran into...?"

"Some skeleton they couldn't handle. Crono did have the frog with him, after all, and he's pretty useless. I mean, I'm not even a real water- mage, but my water attacks are stronger than his-"

"Thank you, Magus, for volunteering yourself to go and fight the nasty skeleton," Crono called from his position at the stove. "Lucca, what am I doing with this? And what is it?"

"It's tomato soup. We can heat it up for tomorrow if we get desperate. Here, you can keep washing up, I'll take over the cooking," she informed him, handing him the scrubber. As they switched places Magus finally told Marle why they were doing this.

"Crono decided we needed someone with stronger water attacks and the only other person besides the frog who specialises in water is you. For some reason they didn't want to just come in and demand that you go with them, so Lucca came up with a plan. We took over the kitchen. The king's meal is burned?"

"Yep," Marle affirmed.

"Hah! I knew I knew which one the king was, oh Crono of little faith!"

"Well, you did have to initially ask," shrugged Crono, handing him a wooden spoon.

Magus continued. "That was, as you correctly assumed, something to get you here in order for someone to explain to you what was happening. Here, have a spoon."

"Why thank you, kind sir," Marle answered absently and put it away. "So what you're really saying is that you want me to help destroy this skeleton."

"No..."

"No? Then what?"

"I don't want you to do anything," Magus corrected her. "Crono wants you to do it."

Marle sighed with considerable irritation. "Yes, okay, you don't need us, you don't really want to work with us, why did you decide to join us then?"

"I don't know," Magus answered. "When you've been planning something for almost all of your life, it gets totally screwed up, and then you get defeated... again, but by what you really hate- you don't think much about important decisions. Take this... what is this?"

The two of them studied the cooking implement for a moment in silence. "Take it anyway, and put it somewhere," said Magus finally and gave it to her.

"Magus, take the king his unburnt food," Lucca ordered. Magus handed the dishcloth to Marle and went off to do just that.

"I should probably go back," Marle said reluctantly, placing the cloth on the rail where it belonged. "I most certainly want to come, but I can't at the moment... could you come and get me sometime this evening, preferably as soon as possible?"

Crono nodded; Lucca's only comment was, "And tell Magus to get back here!"

Marle walked back into the dining room to catch the end of Magus' very wordy, flowery, slightly grovelling apology. "Cookie wants you in the kitchen," she told him, and was again startled by his entirely too happy smile. He was enjoying himself far too much. She wondered if he realised how out-of-character he was being.

"So it's all sorted out?" asked the king as she sat back down.

"Yes," she answered absently, her thoughts elsewhere. "It's all sorted out."