Katerina took a sip of her wine as Alfred quickly introduced Arthur and Tolys to Lovino, Feliciano and Erika.
She had ridden her horse all morning, along with Ivan and Alfred, so that they could reach the outskirts of Niba around lunchtime. When the servants told Alfred that Natalya had gone into the forest with the Princes, Katerina pulled out the compass and instructed it to guide the way. They arrived and rode around the rest of the group into the clearing, just in time to see the silver-winged fae vanish with Natalya in his arms through the faerie ring.
With Natalya gone, Ivan and Katerina had lent the group some rope to swiftly tie up Francis with, before they all returned to the castle. While the princes locked Francis in the dungeon, the travelling trio took a couple hours break to settle in, have some lunch, and get a bit of rest. Upon regrouping in the library just now, Lovino immediately demanded for Alfred to summon Arthur to answer for some unaddressed details. Ivan summoned Tolys to join them as well, as the fae was curious about their update on Natalya being abducted.
"Now that we have introductions settled," Arthur started as they all sat down, "You accuse me of keeping secrets and not disclosing everything, Your Highness, what is this foolishness you speak of?"
"Did you ever tell Alfred why exactly Natalya was being held in that tower?" Lovino interrogated, "Did it not cross your mind that Francis was holding her there with plans in mind for her?"
"No, I have no clue why she was there," Arthur defended, "I never looked closely into it, I just assumed she was a damsel in distress with a restrictive guardian. Why do you ask?"
"Natalya was already betrothed to the Unseelie King -"
"WHAT?" Arthur and Alfred both yelped, interrupting Lovino, while Katerina's jaw dropped.
"You've got to be joking," Tolys refused.
"Sorry, we're not kidding," Feliciano vouched, "Francis had previously arranged for her to marry King Gilbert of the Unseelie Court."
"Francis told us it was in exchange for protection when Gilbert takes over the human realm," Lovino added, "I didn't get the chance to ask him for more details on that point. He's in the dungeon now, if we want to interrogate him later."
"And you believe this to be true?" Ivan asked, "That our sister is to be the bride of the Unseelie King?"
"We only learned of this yesterday," Lovino disclaimed, "First Antonio told us, then they tried to abduct Natalya overnight, and then Francis confirmed the betrothal when we met him today."
"Okay, can we please go back a few steps?" Katerina requested, "Who's Antonio, and how was Natalya nearly abducted last night?"
"Antonio is a cecaelian who uses magic," Feliciano clarified, "Apparently he met Natalya when she was a little girl, and knew about Francis locking her away in a tower until she was of age to marry Gilbert. Erika here is the mermaid who rescued me during the shipwreck the other week -"
"Is she really?" Alfred uttered, glancing over at the girl quickly.
"She wanted to join the humans, so Antonio cast the spell to give her legs, collecting her voice as payment," Feliciano continued, "We spoke to him yesterday about the spell making Erika's legs very painful, it's unfortunately backfiring on her. Antonio recognized Natalya and told us what Francis had planned for her."
"Well, that explains who Antonio and Erika are," Tolys noted, "So what exactly happened last night?"
"As Feliciano just mentioned, Erika had exchanged her voice for her human legs," Lovino elaborated, "Yesterday we learned that Antonio had just in turn traded away her voice to the Unseelie fae. After that, in the middle of the night, Erika awoke to hear her own voice singing in the distance. The fae were using her voice to make Natalya sleepwalk in a trance, out of the castle and into the forest. We were lucky to stop her before she stepped into the faerie ring."
"The same faerie ring?" Katerina checked.
"Yes, that same faerie ring," Feliciano took over, "Erika and I nearly stepped into it ourselves last night. I forgot to step on it and destroy it, only remembering when we returned to the castle afterwards. We went back this morning to investigate it and destroy it, only for Francis to already be there. King Gilbert and his guards showed up while we were talking to Francis, and they successfully collected Natalya this time around."
"Which brings us to here and now," Alfred assessed, "It still doesn't make any sense, though. If Natalya's meant to be my true love, then how can she also be betrothed to King Gilbert?"
"That's what I was hoping Arthur could explain to us," Lovino explained, "She can't be both the Queen of Aegaimore and the Queen of the Unseelie Court, right?"
"Are humans even eligible to marry into fae royalty?" Ivan questioned, "I thought the fae would be pickier about that."
"Only under rare circumstances would a human marry into fae royalty," Arthur informed, "It has to be a very special human, perhaps with magic or fae heritage involved. Still, if Natalya were meant to be the next Unseelie Queen, then it shouldn't make sense for her to also be Alfred's true love."
"You're the one who did the soothsaying for Alfred, right?" Feliciano brought up, "To determine that Natalya was his true love? If you were to do it again now, would it still say it's her?"
"That's a good question," Arthur considered as he sat up and looked around the room, "I need a mirror to check it again now."
"That wall over there," Lovino pointed, "Behind that bookcase."
Arthur looked in the direction Lovino pointed in, before suddenly vanishing from sight. Katerina lifted her glass of wine to her lips and took another sip, processing the entire narrative that was just described. It was astonishing that so much could happen to her sister, and all within a day of their potential family reunion. It seemed the fates wanted to delay their homecoming significantly. If they had been only a few minutes faster riding to Niba and to the faerie ring this morning, they could've intervened and prevented the abduction.
Arthur then reappeared, standing beside his chair and placing a mirror to lay flat on the table. Arthur's fingers began glowing with green magic as he touched the glass of the mirror and filled it with the magical haze. Katerina leaned forward to watch from across the table, placing her glass back on the table, while Alfred and Tolys also leaned in to watch from Arthur's sides.
"It still says Natalya is his true love," Arthur revealed, "However, it's now indicating that the likelihood of this fate is diminishing."
"Diminishing?" Katerina realized, "So the longer she stays in Yuvalon, the less likely she will be with Alfred?"
"It appears so," Arthur confirmed, "If she joins the fae, they will never be together again."
"We need to rescue her then," Alfred determined, "We need to get her out of Yuvalon and get to the human realm. But how do we do that?"
"What became of the faerie ring?" Tolys suggested, "The one Gilbert took Natalya away in?"
"Francis destroyed it," Lovino shot down, "He stepped on it as soon as they were gone, and just before Alfred could hop in and follow them through."
"In that case, we cannot use it to bring Natalya back to this realm," Arthur judged, "If we were to make another faerie ring, it would allow humans to cross into Yuvalon to rescue her, but this is risky. There are a couple complications we'd need to sort out first."
"Unless we can come up with something very quickly, then we're going to have another problem," Tolys redirected, "The longer we take to make this rescue happen, the more likely Natalya is to drink or eat something that will turn her fae. If she has the will to resist, the other option is to die of starvation and thirst."
"Is there any way to prevent either of those things from happening?" Alfred inquired.
"Yes, we'll need Erzsébet's help with it," Tolys replied as he rose from his seat, "Mind if I prop the mirror up on your chair here, Arthur?"
"Not at all," Arthur allowed as he backed away, "Do as you please."
Tolys lifted the mirror up off the table and propped it up in Arthur's chair, so that everyone could now see the magical haze in the mirror's reflection that was still active. Tolys summoned magic to his fingers as he swirled the magic, forest green overriding the emerald, after which the reflection shifted to show the inside of the cottage. At the forefront of the image was Katerina's dear childhood friend and future sister-in-law.
"Hello everyone," Erzsébet greeted, "That looks like a fancy room, where did the two of you end up now?"
"We are in Niba, in the company of the Princes of Solyra," Ivan brought her up to speed, "Long story short, Natalya has now been abducted by the fae, and is being held captive by the King of the Unseelie Court."
"Oh for goodness sake," Erzsébet moaned, "The fates can't let any family reunion be easy, can they?"
"We need you to make us your great-grandmother's potion," Tolys requested, "The one that prevents starvation and thirst when a human travels to Yuvalon."
"Oh yes, that one," Erzsébet recalled, "Hang on a second."
Katerina watched as Erzsébet backed away to look at a bookshelf behind her, grabbing one of the older books full of family-brewed potion recipes off the shelf. As she approached once again, Katerina could see the magic in Erzsébet's fingertips as the pages whipped open on their own to the correct spot.
"This looks straightforward enough," Erzsébet described, "I'm low on supply for a couple rare herbs, but it can be found in the forests near Niba. Katerina and Tolys, can you get that for me?"
"Of course, Erzsei," Katerina offered as she stood up, pulling her compass out of her pocket, "What do you need?"
"I will need some vervain for sure, possibly also some -"
As Erzsébet spoke, a hand suddenly swept down from behind Katerina and pulled the compass right out of her palm. She tried to reach back for it, but the culprit broke away and immediately disappeared out of thin air. Tolys then teleported to the spot the culprit appeared, his brown wings outstretched and stiff in alarm.
"Katya?" Erzsébet called from the mirror, "What just happened?"
"The compass was stolen," Katerina informed her, "Someone appeared out of thin air, ripped it from my hand and vanished!"
"That was one of Gilbert's Unseelie guards," Lovino identified, having risen from his seat on alert, "We saw him in the forest this morning, he was one of the guards who held us back while Francis gave Natalya to Gilbert!"
"They already took Natalya," Tolys mused, "Why would they also want the compass?"