As Lenka glanced around the group at the campfire, she couldn't help but feel like her world had turned upside down. First was the trickery that made her attend the ball, followed by having a wicked sorcerer kidnap her. She had now been rescued by a band of Prathagean rangers, led by the infamously murderous Ice Princess.
They rode through the rest of the day, heading southeast as far away as possible from Virside. They did manage to leave the lakes in the late afternoon, and set up their camp for the night just inside the Bueswood Forest. The plan was to ride as far and as fast as possible tomorrow, southeast through the forest to Stulikya's capital city.
The group had been able to tell her the basics of their mission as they hastily travelled, from Madeline's lifting of Prathage's eternal winter to Francis's mischief to the pending nuptials in Tark, and promised to fill in the blanks this evening. Arthur was a bit more talkative through the ride, though, describing how he was from another world where he was a nation called England. It all made a vague bit of sense to her, and Arthur did seem genuine enough for it to be believable.
For now, she sat on a log by the fire, while Lovino and Feliciano poured some stew into the bowls. Lilli was across the way on another log beside Tolys and the Princess, still in her swan form. The raven had already been sent off with a message for their accompanying group from Inasdiff, which was supposed to join them tomorrow.
"Who's eating first?" Lovino asked, "We only have the five bowls for the seven of us, at least two people will need to wait."
"I don't mind waiting," Tolys offered before listening to some squawks from Lilli, "Lilli doesn't mind either, she says she might as well wait until she is human again at sunset."
"Here you go," Feliciano offered as he handed Lenka a bowl.
"Thank you," Lenka accepted the bowl.
"Perhaps while we eat, we can finally share more of our stories," Madeline suggested, "Would you mind if we start with yours, Lenka?"
"I don't mind, Your Highness," Lenka complied, "As you're all aware, my name is Lenka, and my birth spell has made my life a mess in many ways. When I'm not under its influence, I am a servant at the Ixaidellian royal palace in Inasdiff, where I work in the kitchens cooking and baking all day."
"A simple life of servitude," Lovino remarked, "You're a long way from that right now."
"I blame it all on the maids," Lenka elaborated, "While they were getting everything prepared for Prince Ludwig's birthday ball, they found one of the Queen Mother's old dresses in one of the closets, still in very good condition. They decided that a servant should dress up like a princess and sneak into the ball, but none of them had the guts to do it themselves, so they tricked me into it with my spell. They ordered me to put on that blue dress and mask, attend the ball, and sneak back downstairs to the servant quarters at midnight."
"A blue dress with a mask?" Arthur checked, "That was you at the ball, dancing with Basch?"
"You were there?" Lenka asked.
"Yes, of course I was!" Arthur declared, "I had just arrived in this realm shortly before, and was found by Prince Ludwig. King Gilbert let me stay at the castle for several days, surely you must have heard about an unusual honoured guest?"
"I work in the kitchens, those rumours mean hardly anything down there," Lenka answered, "But yes, I was wearing a blue dress with a matching mask at the ball, and spent most of the time dancing with a man who didn't want me to leave his side."
"That would be because you enchanted him," Arthur revealed, "It surprised everyone that he danced with you for so long. He absolutely swooned for you, enjoying your company so much that he even forgot to ask your name."
"I enchanted him?" Lenka grasped, "Well, I suppose I did enjoy dancing with him too. If it weren't for my own spell telling me to leave at midnight, I would've kept dancing. You said his name was Basch?"
"Yes, Basch Zwingli," Arthur confirmed, "The Duke of Gaeniel."
"Wait, what?" Lenka gasped, "I was dancing with the Duke? And I enchanted him?"
"This is getting to be a very small world," Lovino informed, "It just so happens that the Duke is on his way to meet with us, he's a member of the party from Inasdiff that we'll be regrouping with."
"Perhaps we were meant to find you at Virside then, Lenka," Madeline judged, "The spell that brought Arthur here wants him to set things right in the three kingdoms before he can return home. Those of us he meets along the way who also exist in his world have a part to play in this saga, and it seems you are involved in this tangled web."
"That explains the mess," Lenka concurred, "I started with sneaking into a ball and dancing with the Duke, then had a sorcerer kidnap me, and now I've been rescued by an infamously murderous Ice Princess. No offense intended, your Highness."
"I understand completely," Madeline dismissed, "So what else happened at the ball, did you still leave at midnight?"
"She sure did, and under very strange circumstances," Arthur explained, "When the clock struck twelve, she immediately fled from Basch's side and tried to leave the ball. When she reached the front entrance, and Basch shouted for the guards to intervene, she veered left into the next hallway. There was suddenly a glow of blue light around that corner, and she had vanished completely."
"And that's how I met Francis," Lenka took over, "He was loitering around the corner of the hallway, and grabbed my arm when I sped past towards the servants quarters. He immediately surrounded us in a haze of blue magic, which obscured everything. When it faded away, we were standing in his study in the castle at Virside."
"Teleportation magic, of course," Arthur realized, "He used his magic to instantly transport the two of you from Inasdiff to Virside. If he's that good with it, then he'll have no trouble reaching Tark for the wedding once he unfreezes."
"Francis quickly figured out what my birth spell was, and immediately started abusing it," Lenka finished, "I was put to work as his new maid, cleaning the small empty castle and cooking the meals. Lilli helped me when she was human at night. There was another woman named Erzsébet who visited a couple times to speak to Francis, she seemed to get even more frustrated as time went on."
"Erzsébet?" Feliciano reflected, "We're also keeping an eye out for a woman named Erzsébet, we believe she is Francis's partner and a fellow magic user who's causing trouble."
"You'll have to ask Lilli about her," Lenka directed, "I only saw her a couple of times."
Lilli squawked something, making Tolys look over to listen.
"Lilli has quite a bit to say about Erzsébet," Tolys translated, "She should become human again any minute."
"So you all said the Duke is with the other group?" Lenka digressed, "We're going to cross paths again tomorrow?"
"Yes, that is the plan," Arthur answered, "I think he'll be pleased to see you again, regardless of the circumstances upon which you ended up at the ball."
"He'll find out I'm just a servant," Lenka pointed out, "That's quite the problem."
"There shouldn't be any need for you two to rush into anything," Madeline advised, "There will be plenty of things to sort out, and time in which to do it once we see what's happening in Tark."
Just as the Princess finished speaking, a yellow glow surrounded Lilli, and the group watched her figure transform into that of a human. At the end of the transformation, the glow faded away to reveal Lilli in her human form.
"Ah, there we go," Lilli said, "Hello everyone, don't mind me. I understood everything you were saying while I was a swan, I'm caught up on everything."
"We're glad to have you join us," Lovino welcomed, "That's quite the spell you have there, turning into a swan every day."
"Yes, Erzsébet put this spell on me," Lilli explained, "She joined us at Virside several years ago as Francis's apprentice, and this is one of the more powerful spells she cast. It allowed me to leave the castle and explore the area during the day, while also staying close to where I could still be home at dusk every night. It was the only way Francis allowed me to leave the castle without him."
"Erzsébet was Francis's apprentice?" Madeline tested, "And what does that make of you?"
"Francis is my guardian," Lilli elaborated, "I have lived with him at Virside my entire life, I've never had any other family. He raised me as if I were his own child, and was very protective of me. He was wary of the world being too dangerous, and how my birth spell could be so easily triggered, so he kept me at the lake and wouldn't let me leave."
"There may be another reason he kept you there," Arthur suddenly interrupted, "He must have had plans for you."
"What are you talking about, Arthur?" Tolys pried.
"Lilli is indeed one of our fellow nations in my world," Arthur clarified, "I know her as Liechtenstein, but she has a different human name. That's why I didn't realize who you are, Lilli, until you turned human just now."
"You know me by another name?" Lilli asked, "What is it?"
"The name I know for you is Erika Zwingli," Arthur revealed, "You're the stolen duchess we are looking for."
"Erika Zwingli?" Lenka realized, "Doesn't that make her related to Basch?"
"Yes, that makes her his little sister," Feliciano determined, "That also puts Lilli here as third in line for the throne of Ixaidel."
"Which must why Francis stole you away, Lilli," Arthur concluded, "You somehow fit into his plans for Ixaidel."
"I'm sorry, this is a lot to sink in," Lilli commented, "I'll need to think this through."
"Of course, take your time," Madeline assured.
"Wait, does that mean we have two stolen duchesses in our group?" Lovino pointed out, "Lilli by birth and Lenka by possible courtship with the Duke?"
"I don't think that's quite the case here," Arthur analyzed, "Madeline's vision had an infant stolen from a crib twenty years ago, so that must be Lilli. Lenka's story appears to be a huge coincidence, I would say. Nonetheless, Francis did manage to steal away two ladies that both matter to Basch, which is quite the move."
"So tomorrow's reunion will be very interesting," Feliciano remarked, "Basch is in for a surprise."
"It seems we're going to have a lot of surprises to sort out," Lilli diverted, "There's another powerful spell that Erzsébet once cast, it might also prove to cause some drama. Perhaps I should tell you about that as well."
"We're listening," Madeline encouraged, "What do you know?"
"A few weeks ago, at the edge of Virside, I crossed paths with a beast," Lilli disclosed, "It's very much like a wyvern, if you all know what that is, but covered in grey fur with a face shaped like a lion."
"A wyvern?" Arthur gasped, "There are wyverns in this world too?"
"They are exceptionally rare, even Francis's books describe them as very difficult to find," Lilli illustrated, "There aren't any known ones around here, they all tend to be south on the continent. When I crossed paths with this one, we discovered we were able to speak to each other and quickly became friends. I had broken my curfew the other night so that he could see what I look like as a human, which is when Francis caught us and locked me away in the attic."
"So that's why you were in the attic?" Tolys figured out, "Because you broke your curfew?"
"It's not just because I broke my curfew," Lilli revealed, "It's because they knew each other. Ivan is Erzsébet's husband, and Francis helped her cast the spell that turned him into a wyvern."
"Erzsébet is married?" Lenka checked, "And she turned her husband into a beast?"
"The beast's name is Ivan?" Arthur verified, "Did he tell you anything else about his life?"
"Yes, he told me plenty about his life," Lilli ratified, "He claimed that his family was noble, wealthy and influential, and that he had two sisters named Katerina and Natalya. Katerina was assassinated, and their parents died after. As far as he knows, Natalya is the only one still alive, unless something has happened to her too."
"Katerina and Natalya?" Lovino noted, "You don't think -"
"The Royal Family of Stulikya," Feliciano caught on, "But that's impossible, King Ivan was killed by the Beast of Bueswood."
"Was he though?" Tolys tested, "Didn't Feliks say in his letter that the Beast of Bueswood has never been proven to exist?"
"Unless King Ivan is the Beast of Bueswood," Arthur suggested, "If Erzsébet did turn him into a wyvern, then she would've had to forge the declaration of his death."
"Arthur, you do realize what you're implying, right?" Madeline checked, "Are you really claiming that King Ivan is alive, and that he's been haunting the Bueswood as a wyvern all these years because his wife cast a spell on him?"
"And that he became friends with the long-lost Duchess of Gaeniel?" Arthur added, "Who was kidnapped by the same sorcerer who picked a feud with Prathage's Ice Princess? Yes, I dare say we're heading down that path."
As the others attempted to connect all the details to each other, Lenka glanced across the group as she tried to keep up with all they were saying.
Her own story may be messy, but it's nothing compared to this catastrophe.