Much to Kierston's dismay, finding the Queen's Palace wasn't nearly as easy as it had been last night. The airy, white-gray buildings of the New City that lined the canal, their pastel flags fluttering like her scarf in the slight sea breeze, all looked the same to her, and she couldn't remember whether the Old City was located east or west of the newer sections. If that wasn't bad enough, she had also managed to get turned around in the winding streets. Although she was glad she had remembered to bring the map of the city with her, it was pretty useless if she couldn't find where she was first.

"Hey! Missy!"

Kierston jumped, crinkling the map involuntarily as her hands clenched. "M-me?"

She slowly turned around, lowering the map. An older gondolier was waving at her from his gondola, and she pushed down an irrational flare of disappointment when she saw he wasn't Alessandro. "Better watch where you're going there, kiddo. You nearly walked yourself right into the canal!" The man chuckled, eyes twinkling behind his round glasses.

"Oh my gosh, really?" The young girl gasped, hand flying up over her mouth. "Thank you so much!"

He waved off her gratitude with an easy smile. "Eh, don't mention it. Always happy to help a lady." The man poled the small boat closer to the street and peered curiously at her neck. "Say... That scarf you've got. Where did you get it? It looks familiar."

"Oh, this?" Kierston stammered. "I- I got it from a, uh, a friend." She ran a finger over the folds almost involuntarily.

"Hm." The old gondolier stroked his slight beard. "Would that friend be, perhaps, a young man? Who happens to be a gondolier?"

She nodded, wordless.

"I thought so! Why, you must be the girl young Alessandro's taken such a shine to." He stuck out a hand, which Kierston tentatively shook. "I'm his grandfather, but please, call me Grandpa Feli. Everyone does."

"Oh. Um, alright, if you say so." Kierston smiled, beginning to feel more at ease.

Grandpa Feli grinned back. "So, what's going on with you and my grandson? He may be a tad excitable, but he usually isn't so bold as to give one of his special scarves to a lady right away."

The brunette flushed lightly. "Um... It's kind of complicated. I'm not really sure."

"I see." He leaned on the gondola's pole. "Well, I suppose you young people are entitled to your secrets. Us nosy old people don't have to know everything, even if we'd like to think we do." The old gondolier chuckled wryly. "But, oh, how rude of me! I've given you my name, but I haven't even thought to ask for yours! And that map you have... You're lost, huh, kiddo? I'll tell you what. I'm actually on break right now, so if you'll just tell me your name, young lady, I'll paddle you wherever you're going. And while I'm at it, I'll tell you a little about Alessandro."

Kierston hesitated, but eventually nodded. She made to step into the boat, unsure where to put her feet on the rocking wood of the little craft, but Grandpa Feli caught her hand and helped her over to the bench.

"There you go, missy, nice and gentle. Now, what's your name?"

"I'm Kierston," she said, just loud enough to be heard over the water below them. "Kierston Theria. And I'm trying to find the Queen's Palace? Thank you for offering to take me. I'm sorry to be so much trouble..."

The old gondolier laughed as he expertly pulled the gondola away from the street. "My, so polite! I can see why Alessandro's so taken with you. Don't worry yourself over being any trouble. You got yourself mighty turned around, though! This trip might take a little longer than I thought. Why do you want to go to the Queen's Palace, anyway?"

Kierston opened her mouth to answer, but he held up a hand in laughing protest. "No, no, don't mind me. I'm just curious. Your business is your business, and I did say I didn't need to know everything. Now, I did say I'd tell you about Alessandro... Hm, where to start?..." Grandpa Feli hummed a snippet of a strange melody under his breath, evidently trying to find the right words. Finally, he began.

"Alessandro... He's always been a bit of an odd child. I'd often catch him talking to thin air, but when I asked him about it, you know, expecting to hear about an imaginary friend or something, he'd just shrug at me. One day, I had sent him to the market to pick up some dinner, and he came back an hour late with a strange lady." He shook his head. "She was the second Mobian I'd ever seen. A hedgehog, I believe, with pink fur. She turned to look at me as she came through the door, and it felt like she was staring straight into my soul, trying to figure out who I was and what I was doing there.

"Alessandro didn't seem to notice the tension. He bounced right up do me and explained that this was the lady he'd been talking to in the garden, and that she was going to teach him magic. Now, I was expecting her to laugh and deny that, but she just nodded. Apparently whatever she saw in me was good enough for her, because she stepped back and smiled at me. 'Your grandson has the talent,' she said, waving a hand at him. 'You don't. Someone in your family has got to, otherwise he wouldn't have any, but they aren't here, right? So I'll just have to teach him myself.' And she did! She'd come over every Thursday night and sit outside with him, doing who knows what. Eventually, she told me that her name was Amelia, and that she was a highly regarded seamstress as well as a magician, and that she'd like to take my grandson on as an apprentice in both. I said that, as long as he was fine with it, it was fine with me, so off he went to learn thread work."

Kierston lowered a hand and trailed it in the canal, watching the tiny waves that followed in its wake as she listened. "He knows how to do magic? And how to sew?"

"That's right," Grandpa Feli affirmed. "And weaving, as well. Who do you think made you that scarf you're wearing?"

She hummed thoughtfully. "I never really thought about it, I guess. I'll have to thank him properly the next time I see him."

"You don't need to do that."

"Yes, I do!" she protested, turning back to face him. "I didn't have the chance to thank him before, and now that I know this is something he made himself, it's even more important that I thank him. He must've put so much work into it... It'd be rude to just take it."

"If you say so." The old man shrugged with an easy smile. "Anyway, his apprenticeship went on for several years. He divided his time between learning the canals and how to properly scull a gondola and studying with Madame Amelia, with frequent breaks from both to come talk with me in my workshop. I'm a sculptor as well as a gondolier," he explained, poling the boat around a sharp curve that had Kierston tipping sideways until she was nearly horizontal. "It was only a year after he completed his apprenticeships when Madame Amelia passed away. She had been quite spry, for a seventy-four year old lady, but I heard she had come down with something and never quite managed to shake it off. Alessandro was inconsolable for weeks."

"That must've been really hard for him," Kierston murmured sympathetically.

"Oh, it was. It was around then that he began spending so much time at the Queen's Palace. The statues were there even then, and I think it comforted him to be around hedgehogs again, even if they were only stone." Grandpa Feli sighed. "Soon, he was spending nearly all his time there. I hardly ever saw him, those days. He came home one more time to grab some of the things Madame Amelia had left him, and then I didn't see him at all for a week. I'm not sure what he ate or where he slept, but he came home exactly a week after, still looking solemn, and only just on this side of death, but glowing with pride. 'Grandpa Feli, do you think you can do me a favor?' he asked me, and of course I said I'd do anything I could. But after all those years, the boy still surprised me. 'I want you to carve the Three Heroes,' he said. 'As many times as you can. Please, it's important.' And then he passed out! Well, I carried him up to bed, and I'll tell you, I got carving then and there."

Kierston blinked in confusion. "You mean, you carved all the statues everywhere? Because Alessandro asked you to? Aren't there laws about... I don't know, not being able to put up statues everywhere?"

He laughed, a warm chuckle that made the young brunette smile. "Yes, that was me. You've seen them around, have you? I should have guessed."

"Alessandro pointed them out," she answered. "They're very realistic."

"Yes, well, I did my best with the references Alessandro got me." He chuckled wryly. "I still don't know where he got those. Some magic trick he picked up from Madame Amelia, I suppose. But yes, I carved them to the best of my ability and presented them to the City Council as a gift. It was a close vote, but the final ballot was seven to four in favor of putting them up, and now they're everywhere. Sort of comforting, really."

"Yeah," Kierston agreed. "It's kind of strange to have them staring at you everywhere you go, but I feel a little safer knowing they're watching over me."

The gondola drifted silently up to the palace dock, and Grandpa Feli helped his grateful passenger out onto the cobble streets. "Well, there you are, missy Kierston, delivered safe and sound to the Palace just as I said. Did you enjoy the ride?"

"Yeah, it was great! I'm glad you offered to take me," she shyly responded, scuffing a toe on the irregular stones below. "Um..."

He gripped her chin gently, lifting it so he could meet her gaze. "Don't you worry about a thing, alright? You didn't cause me any trouble, and it was nice to have someone to talk to." Grandpa Feli stepped back into the boat with a grin and a wave. "I'll be seeing you 'round, right? If you really want to repay me for my time, bring a pastry of some kind and a story of your own to share."

The brunette set her chin. "Alright, I will," she called back to the departing gondola. "Good luck!"

"No, young lady, good luck to you," Grandpa Feli called back. "Stay safe, you hear?"

"I'll do my best!" Kierston waved until he was out of sight.

Then she turned to the Palace, eyeing it critically with expert eyes. Satisfied with what she found, she set to scaling the wall.