At Orillia Castle, Ezekiel had almost finished saying goodbye to the staff. He'd wanted to save his last goodbye for Aleena, the Royal Sorceress, who had inherited the position from her father when Zoe was born.

He made his way up to her tower and knocked on her door. "Prince Ezekiel," she greeted him, looking up from her latest concoction.

Ezekiel kissed her hand. Aleena had always had a crush on him, but never pursued it, since he had a girlfriend. (He remembered that he'd also have to tell Deidre to come to the royal mansion now if she wanted to see him.) Aleena understood that she was only seen as a friend. He wanted to have something to remember her by, and told her as much.

"Of course. I have a few things you might like. Wait here," she walked over to her cabinet, and Ezekiel looked over some of her potions. He'd always liked how the potions smelled as they were mixing, but of course, sensitive-nosed Sandra couldn't tolerate them and always had to have a Bubble-Head Charm cast on her before she could come in for potion lessons or if she wanted to help her do something. She and Sandra got along very well, but she always felt that Sandra was missing out on the amazing scents that came from her workshop.

Suddenly, one caught his eye. It was in a black and green vial and the stopper had a snake on it. "Leena, what's this potion?" he asked, holding it up for her to see.

Aleena's turquoise robes swirled around her as she turned to look at it. "I don't remember brewing that one; maybe my father made it before he retired. I can't even remember what it does," she shrugged and laid a few items on the table next to him. "But this is a two-way mirror I made especially for you. I have others like these and they're magically tuned in to the rest of the family. And I have a few Forever Bones I created especially for Spike. But this…" she smiled as she put a medallion with a black gem around his neck, "is something I've been wanting to give you for a long time." She turned to Spike. "Say something to Ezekiel, Spike."

"Hi-hi-hi! Hello, Ezekiel!" Spike said as he tried to jump on him and Aleena.

"Spike! I can hear you!" Ezekiel gasped. "Now I know how Zoe and Sandra feel when they talk to you and Ambre…I feel kind of bad now that I always teased them about it. But, what are you going to do?"

"As you know, one of my friends is the Scarlet Warrior, and she gave me the spell to enchant jewels with the ability to talk to animals," Aleena explained. She didn't tell him that Scarlet had gotten the spell from Sofia and Lucinda; she figured Ezekiel had probably heard enough about Enchancia for a while.

"Leena, this is great!" Ezekiel smiled as he took her in his arms and planted a kiss on her forehead. "Come with me?"

"Don't do that!" Spike scolded. For some reason, he never liked it when people kissed in front of him.

"I'm sorry, Ezekiel; my place is here, at least for now," Aleena pulled away and gave him a few extra little magical trinkets he'd always had his eye on. "But I will come and visit you whenever I get the chance."

Ezekiel shooed Spike out the door and gave Aleena's hand a final kiss. However, when she turned her back, he pocketed the snake-headed vial, which he felt strangely drawn to. It might be useful to get some kind of revenge on the family, but first he'd have to do a little research on it before using it. And he knew that Lewiston had a great section of magic books in its library.

When the royal family of Orillia had returned to their castle a week later, they were talking about everything that had happened. Sandra, of course, kept quiet about getting the power of invisibility. However, she did offer to help take inventory of the first shipments of goods to go to Enchancia the next day, which her father accepted.

When she was in her room, she put the recipe she'd copied into a folder she'd gotten for recipes. She settled onto her bed and started leafing through them. "This sounds good for dinner this weekend," she mused. She stroked Ambre, and told him about everything that had gone on.

"I wondered why it was so quiet when I came out," Ambre agreed. He and Spike had a tense relationship, since the dog had chased him when he first came to the castle as a stray kitten, but he always tried to stay out of his way. However, they did work together when they had to.

Later that night, Sandra had almost fallen asleep when she felt a hand clamp over her mouth. "Sandra! It's me," she heard her father's voice. "Get dressed. Sir Peter, Constable Ryan, and the guards informed me that the castle is in trouble."

"Dad, what's going on?" Sandra's question was muffled against his hand.

"You probably want to know what's going on, so if you promise to be quiet, I'll tell you," Robert whispered. Sandra nodded, so he took his hand off her mouth. He kept his back to her as she changed into her riding outfit, which was the first outfit she grabbed out of her closet. "Your brother is understandably furious about what happened at Enchancia Castle. As he was leaving for the royal mansion, he told me that this wasn't over. We didn't take him seriously, figuring that he was just angry about being told that he had to leave." He sensed that Sandra was giving him a 'tell me something I don't know' look as she turned around, and he nodded at that. "He's raised a small army of his friends, and he's told them that he's going to storm the castle."

"What about Mom and Zoe? And where's Ambre?" Sandra asked quickly when her father paused and she looked around for the cat, who had just been on her chair as she was going to sleep.

"They're all fine," Robert assured her, "They're in a secret room that Ambre frequents, and I told the staff to keep the room clean for him."

"It's his own little Fortress of Solitude," Sandra whispered.

As he was also a movie buff, Robert smiled as he got the reference. "I suppose it is," he pulled out a piece of parchment. "Aleena had this made for me to keep an eye on the family if they were ever in trouble. And now I'm passing it down to you. I trust you know how magical maps work?"

Sandra picked up the wand that Dorrie and Candice had made for her. "I think I'm familiar with the spell," she tapped her wand on it. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." She and Robert watched as the blank parchment gained a fully detailed map of every room in the castle, and the words Mssrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, purveyors of aids to magical mischief-makers, are proud to present the map of Orillia Castle appeared across the top. She and Robert saw Patricia, Zoe, and Ambre's names in a small room a few floors below them. "Mischief managed!" Sandra said a few moments later.

"Good for you," Robert smiled. "We didn't see your brother near the surrounding areas, but he might not be in range to see on the map yet."

"I think I know a way to get out of here without being seen," Sandra added. She looked around, and noticed the flute that the Scarlet Warrior had given her, and handed it to him. "But before I go, take this. The Scarlet Warrior gave me this flute that calls her if I need help."

"Won't you need it?" Robert asked.

Sandra shook her head. "Remember, Scarlet upgraded my necklace to an amulet. I told you how it summoned Merida for me that one time."

"You're so brave," Robert murmured as he took the flute, then hugged her. "I love you, my little warrior princess."

Sandra bit her lip. She was known to be even shyer than her friend Vivian, and her father only called her that when he was afraid. "I love you too, Daddy…" she only called him that when she was scared or upset.

When she was alone, she tucked her dagger into her belt, then took her amulet out, but she stole a glance at the plush cat Zoe gave her when she was named a squiress, which she saw as a good luck charm. 'Wish me luck, Fig, I'm really going to need it!' she thought, then she said to herself, "Okay, Sofia says I have this power too, so…I wish to be small!" She felt a glow of magic surround her, and when she opened her eyes again, she noticed that everything was bigger than she was. She also noticed the mouse hole in the far corner of the room. She ducked into it, and was immediately approached by a mouse.

"Who are you?" the mouse asked.

"Sandra. I need help. Can you get me to the stables?" Sandra asked.

"Sure I can. Do you know Soldier?" the mouse asked.

"He's Sir Peter's cat, he loves to sing, and he lives in the stable. He's also Ambre's self-appointed godfather," Sandra replied.

"I didn't know he sang, but any friend of Soldier's is a friend of mine!" the mouse smiled as she mounted him.

"And if anyone says otherwise, if cats weren't meant to sing, that musical would have never been composed!" Sandra said as they went to the stables.

As soon as they arrived in the stable, Sandra slid off the mouse's back. "Thanks for the ride…" she paused, not knowing his name.

"Call me Squeak," the mouse smiled.

When Squeak left her, Sandra murmured, "I wish to be big again," She had to quickly duck against the wall as she suddenly appeared in front of her horse Phoenix, who jumped in alarm. "Sorry, Phoenix, but we've got a real emergency."

"What's going on?" Phoenix asked.

"As soon as we're airborne, I'll tell you everything," Sandra said as she put the saddle on her. She felt something rub against her. She looked down, seeing a black and white tomcat. "Soldier!"

Sir Peter's cat looked up at her with wide blue eyes. "Sandra, I know what's going on, and you do know that this is extremely dangerous, don't you?"

"I've got to get help, Soldier," Sandra started. She picked him up and stroked him for a minute, then put him down again. "Stay safe. We'll sing when this is all over." When Soldier ducked into the stall, Sandra mounted Phoenix. "Okay. I've never done this with more than one before, but…I wish that Phoenix and I were invisible!" When they became invisible, they flew off into the night.

Author's Notes

Thanks to Niagara14301 for helping with details in this chapter.

Squeak the mouse, Aleena the Royal Sorceress of Orillia, Constable Ryan, Sir Peter, and his cat Soldier are my own characters.

The Fortress of Solitude is from Superman.

Spike's Forever Bones are based on the Forever Carrots in Sofia in Elvenmoor.

Magical maps are found in Harry Potter

Sandra got a flute that summons Scarlet in chapter 7 of my story Royal Blood.

For more about Spike and Ambre's first meeting, see chapter 1 of my story Pet Stories, and that's where Sandra's "If cats weren't meant to sing that musical would have never been composed" comment comes from.

Sandra's amulet summoning Merida was from chapter 6 of my story A Puzzling Mystery Weekend.

We'll probably learn more about the potion Ezekiel swiped in the next chapter.