As the small unit approached St. Claes tensions began to rise within the knights because, if something went even slightly wrong, they risked triggering a war between Dorovoth and Avonlea; a truly heavy weight to carry on their shoulders, but carry it they did. When they reached the shade of a colossal ironwood tree the horses were slowed to a stop and Belle simply stared at her birthplace a moment. For so many months she'd longed to return home but, now she was just outside St. Claes' walls, butterflies began to flap in her stomach. Her attention didn't remain on her worry too long though as Rumple abruptly dismounted his horse – a destrier named Gringolet borrowed from Prince Gottfried – then stared at the city a moment. Before any of the group could question him, a magic circle based on the one used at the Arcane University appeared beneath his feet and lifted Rumple high into the air as though he could fly.

Ser Chrysaor squinted upward as the demon lord rose so high that he became naught more than a blip in the sunny sky.

"What in the name of the cardinal dragons is he doing?"

Belle sighed. "I honestly have no idea."

Phria assured them she'd check then quickly deployed her wing gear and soared into the sky in search of her future husband while the others were forced to wait patiently. It took the white-haired pantherian a moment, but she soon spotted Rumple hovering with his unusual eyes fixed on the city.

St. Claes was an exceptionally large city which sloped gradually downward to Rosewater Harbor and almost every building had been roofed with a burnt orange tile. All the towns and cities Rumple had explored since being summoned to Dreymyr had been impressive in their own way, but St. Claes had something more, something unique. Perhaps it was the way the city had been designed with everything seemingly on top of everything else but spread out and open all at the same time, or maybe it was how half the city cuddled the harbor. Perhaps it was the way the citizens appeared to encourage living amongst nature by incorporating patches of grass and flowers in the most random of places to ensure St. Claes didn't become a gray blob like other cities. All that said, the reason could have been as simple as St. Claes being his beautiful Belle's home. Kalecaster Castle sat upon a hill in the western half of the city with the court mage's tower pointing upward as though it wanted to ensure Rumple spotted it easily. That tower was where Tvon would be, that tower was his target.

"… Rumple?" The delicate voice of his fiancée finally reached his ears, and Rumple glanced over to see Phria beside him with her magical wings keeping her aloft. "What are you doing up here?"

"Not to worry, darling, I just wanted a lay of the land." That seemed to comfort Phria because she flapped closer and gazed toward the impressive city as well. "A home befitting of Belle, don't you think?"

"I'll admit, it does suit her." She smiled softly.

Like many other cities, St. Claes had been separated into five distinct districts. The merchant's district where everything was bought, shipped and transported. The docks which saw constant movement and activity. The commoner's district where most of the city's residents lived. The noble's district, which was filled mostly with large manors and beautifully designed gardens. Lastly was the royal palace and the district which truly had Rumple's attention because, the better he studied it beforehand, the better he'd be able to teleport and navigate through it later. The barracks and stables were easily spotted as was the blacksmith's workshop and granary. Yes, Rumple would use all of this to his advantage.

Phria's brow furrowed then. "Rumple, we're miles away. I know we're high up, but how are you seeing in so much detail?"

"Hmm? Oh, it is one of Renner's tricks. The light magic he uses is surprisingly versatile. He utilizes a technique where he actually uses light to allow him to magnify what he is surveying from a distance. Amicia told me about it and, after a conversation with Renner, I built my own version."

Phria just stared at Rumple because he never failed to amaze her when it came to magic. He came up with things no other could and redesigned spells or magic circles for astounding new purposes. The circle he'd used to fly for instance, it was an exceedingly complicated design which the Arcane University had used for nothing else than ascending and descending from the Grand Mage's office since its creation, but Rumple had gone and turned it into his own version of her wing gear without the need of a mana stone.

Apparently done committing the basics of the city and Kalecaster Castle to memory, Rumple gradually floated back down to the ground with Phria then ordered everyone to dismount their horses and returned them to Bruckstone Castle. Before Chrysaor could even think of questioning the demon lord his King had aligned himself with, Rumple teleported all of them just inside of the castle's main gate knowing even Gaston wouldn't be stupid enough to alert the rest of the city to what was going on. Though a sick feeling rose up inside the knights unused to spacial magic, they steeled themselves for a fight … but none came. Kalecaster Castle was eerily silent without so much as a single guard in sight. The silence unnerved all present, especially Belle but Rumple rested a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Everything is fine, Belle. What does that bird of yours have to say?"

Through their bond, Belle called Albedo to her – which irritated Azzy as he'd grown accustom to being Belle's only tamed creature – and the white raven perched atop a post.

"Oh, Gods."

"What?" Questioned Ser Chysaor with alarm. "What is it?"

"Albedo says most of the guards are dead, that only those loyal to Gaston are allowed to freely move about the castle."

Rumple sighed. "He's turned the place into a prison."

Belle's home, the home of her ancestors and countless happy memories, had been lowered to the status of a depressing prison. If this was what Gaston had allowed Kalecaster Castle to become, she shuddered to think what the rest of the realm would have been subjected to were Gaston to rule all the kingdoms.

A beckoning sound caught the group's attention then, a sort of coaxing series of sound effects of someone who didn't wish to make too loudly lest the wrong attention be drawn. Though all were cautious, they did search around for the noises source until Phria spotted a dark-skinned man had awkwardly poked his head out from the stables. The moment Belle spotted him she rushed to the barn leaving the others to trail behind.

"Estienne!" Belle threw herself into the middle-aged man's arms gleeful to see a familiar face while Ser Chrysaor's men all hid themselves out of sight within the stable. "Rumple, he's chained!"

Sure enough, when Rumple took a proper look at the taller man dressed in red, he found that Estienne was indeed chained to one of the stalls by a mangled iron chain; clearly he'd been trying to free himself for some time. With a wave of his hand, Rumple summoned the chain to him then simply let go of it causing it to clatter to the floor more loudly than anybody would have liked.

Estienne rubbed at his throat. "Thank you. I'm so happy you're all right, Princess. Gaston and Tvon took over the castle. Most of the guards are dead, almost all of the servants have been dismissed or killed and the King … I don't know what has happened to him." Belle squeezed him in a tight hug, she'd known the castle's marshal all her life. "Princess, I am so pleased you're alive but it isn't safe here."

"Everything will be all right now, Estienne. Rumple is here and King Artem sent a team of knights to rescue Papa."

Once the obligatory questions like 'who is Rumple?', 'the Dark One is just a myth, right?' and 'is he forcing you to marry him?' had been asked, answered and dealt with to the very best of Belle's ability, attention was turned to the eerily silent castle. Estienne carefully explained that, since so few were actually loyal to Gaston, the task of guarding the castle had left them stretched to little more than a skeleton crew. Sure, they still rotated frequently and actually had the castle locked down rather well, but there would be at least twenty minutes every now and again where the main gate would simply become a ghost town; and fortunately they'd stumbled into one of those times. It was clear that Gaston couldn't maintain his hold over Kalecaster Castle and that was probably why he'd made so little progress in recapturing Belle or Rumple. While, despite being the marshal, Esteinne had been chained in the stables and treated as little more than a lowly groom unless his knowledge was required for moving anything in or out of the castle.

"Dearie, as helpful as all of this information is, our window is closing and those guards will show up sooner rather than later." Rumple turned to Belle. "Sweetheart, go with Chrysaor to find your father. Get that ring off him, wear gloves while you do it, and then place it on the floor and stay away from it." Belle opened her mouth to object to being sidelined but Rumple just kept talking. "Belle, you have to do this. You heard the Marshal, Gaston hardly has any soldiers, so seeing their King restored and reunited with the Princess, will cause them to surrender or prioritize fleeing; especially once they realize I am here."

Only a little reluctantly did Belle nod, his plan did make more sense and she wasn't much use in a battle. "Okay, we'll find Lorrimer as well."

Rumple kissed her, a light kiss to petal lips but one full of love, then he glanced sternly to Azzy. "You protect her or you'll answer to me, Azadanes." The waheela stared him down, Azzy wouldn't let anyone hurt Belle and nor would Albedo who'd remained outside. Rumple turned to Phria. "You'll come with me, darling."

"Of course."

With a solid plan made and issued, the group broke into two with everyone following Ser Chrysaor towards the keep save for Rumple and Phria who made for the upper walkway to the court mage's tower. Rumple would have preferred to take the entry which looked less like a stone-carved death wish but Estienne had mentioned that Tvon had blocked off the lower entry shortly after Belle's disappearance as paranoia and darkness had bloomed inside him. It didn't take long for Gaston's men to become aware of Ser Chrysaor's team and make a bee-line for them, but that didn't stop Rumple or Phria from having to dispatch the odd crixx-brained soldier here or there. One had incurred Rumple's wrath when he'd discovered the guard beating a young page. Due to his promise to Bae, Rumple hadn't killed the man, but he'd sure as hell ripped off the arm he'd used to beat the boy. Phria had urged the page to hide before they'd continued to the walkway; if that page thought he'd been rescued or that even worse people had shown up, neither had time to think about.

Eventually they reached the walkway, the door to which had been sealed by wards, but Rumple had them crashing down easily enough. The first step onto the walkway proved just how high up they were because the air was cold and the ground seemed so very far away. Rumple didn't fear it though, he had magic on his side so the coward within him was silent. For once he wasn't the invading monster either, but rather a liberator – no, a savior. He'd become a savior as though he'd always been intended to be one.

They were maybe a third of the way across the stone walkway when a crossbow bolt loosed at Rumple's heart but a touch of magic had it deflect off towards the ground. Rumple spun around on the spot smugly while Phria gripped her sword tightly.

"I wondered if you'd come out to play, dearie." Giggled Rumple in that way of his. "I had hoped you'd have a bit more than that though. My Belle was right, you're a simpleton and nothing more. Just an oaf who got too big for his boots."

Gaston drew his sword, the sound of crimson steel being unsheathed echoed as he prepared to cut down the True Demon Lord.

"Did you call her 'my Belle', beast?" Gaston laughed. "Do you love her? Why would she ever want a beast like you?"

The time for talk had ended some time ago though, so Gaston launched forward with such speed that he must have had an enhancement worked into his boots, but Phria blocked his blade with her own in an instant; she'd not been made Captain of the Valkyries for nothing. As much as it pained Rumple to admit, Gaston was a competent warrior who gave Phria few openings. However, just as Rumple had made the choice to speed things along, Gaston was suddenly sent sideways off the walkway by a gust of wind he'd not summoned. Gaston tumbled down below where he landed in the roses, dead on impact. That was the end of Gaston LeGume, short, borderline comical and a bit of a let-down after so many months of plotting Gaston's death. Not wishing to mourn Gaston, and since they had more important things to do, Phria and her future husband turned to see the wind's cause: Haldor Tvon. The man stood halfway between the tower and the castle dressed in dark blue robes with a sinister grin on his face. This was the real evil that needed to be defeated. This was the true cause of Belle's suffering.

"Well, that was rude."

Tvon's smirk only grew. "Yes, but it was a boring fight and Gaston has served his purposes. Weren't you taught to throw away garbage?"

Rumple had committed great evils in his exceptionally long life, but even he'd never displayed as much glee as Tvon when it came to killing a person. A sadist, Haldor Tvon was a sadist who craved power; Rumple hadn't even known it was possible for dark magic to corrupt someone already so corrupted.

A sudden gust of familiar wind threw Phria off the walkway but her wing gear deployed allowing her to float safely to Rumple's relief.

Tvon's head tilted to one side quizzically. "A Valkyrie, how unexpected. This must mean Demeer is unhappy with me."

"An understatement!" Phria hissed in that way that only the angriest of cats and pantherians were capable of.

"No matter. He's unimportant." Tvon threw his arms open wide. "I am a demon lord! I shall crush all who stand in my way!"

Rumple lifted an eyebrow. "An impression of me, dearie, that's all."

"Oh, I've done something no other has -"

"Love the sound of your own voice, dearie?"

"You have one little Valkyrie, I have a dragon!"

A terrifying roar which rumbled through all their chests echoed around the castle before a gigantic red dragon appeared and dropped onto the tower's roof, it scrambled for purchase causing numerous tiles to fall away. A second roar escaped the creature, and surely all of St. Claes had heard it.

"A real dragon." Phria whispered to herself as she floated just to the left of Rumple. All her life she'd thought the dragons to be extinct but there was a living, breathing dragon before her. She gulped.

Tvon's insane grin grew as Rumple and Phria stared at a myth made flesh. "The fire dragon, the great Viren! Behold, this is what a real demon lord looks like."

A snap of his fingers had Viren take to the sky and spew down fire over the walkway, over Rumple, causing the stone to melt away like it were nothing more than butter left out in the sun. Phria screamed out for the man she loved knowing just how powerful Viren's fire was meant to be. Dead, he couldn't be dead. Rumple was immortal, surely that hadn't killed him.

"Is that it?"

Phria's head snapped to the voice a meter or so to her right to find Rumple floating much as he had earlier that day. There wasn't so much as a patch of singed fabric on him and Phria let out a breath she'd not known she'd been holding.

Tvon couldn't have expected it to be that simple, even with a dragon on his side, but that didn't stop his smile from faltering. That was when all hell broke loose. Viren launched at Rumple while Phria confronted Tvon directly. Viren clearly seemed like a bigger threat, so Phria hoped that she'd be able to hold off Tvon long enough for Rumple to kill or incapacitate the dragon. Slow Tvon down, that was her only job.

Using his flying magic circle, Rumple fled the tower and tried to lure Viren away from the castle and city out over the water. The dragon swiped and bit at Rumple until they'd reached the water and that was when the fire bursts started up again, almost as though Viren hadn't wanted to cause more damage than he already had. Frankly, Rumple wasn't entirely sure what to do about the dragon, in his wildest dreams he'd not expected a dragon to come out of extinction. Although, he'd dealt with Maleficent on her worst days, so Rumple had that to guide him to some extent.

Eventually they were so far out that Rumple tried to lose Viren around a series of tall rocks which resembled pillars, but instead found himself cornered. Viren breathed a new volley of fire at Rumple filling the area with smoke and melting two of the tall rocks surely angering the merfolk in the process. Then, as the smoke began to clear, the red dragon sighed deeply and spoke.

"I am sorry, Dark One. I had no choice." Regret snared each and every word as his great wings flapped slowly. The smoke cleared fully then revealing Rumple surrounded by the strongest shield he'd ever created. Viren was shocked. "You lived? Nothing can withstand my fire. Nothing."

"I like to keep my audience guessing, dearie." Rumple brushed himself off mostly for show but quickly grew more curious about what the dragon had said. "What did you mean when you said you had no choice? You're a Cardinal Dragon."

"The evil mage has my youngest son." Viren deflated. "He is trapped behind wards and chains that are dragon proof. I cannot free him."

That was not what Rumple had expected to hear, but he fully understood Viren's pain. He'd felt the agony of being separated from a child longer than most and knew he'd have done the same in Viren's place. Belle had told him dragons were noble creatures who had done their best to stay out of the affairs of mortals, so the head cardinal dragon serving Haldor Tvon freely didn't seem likely.

"He had my son in a cage." Said Rumple, surprising himself by sharing more than he normally would with a stranger. "His plan was to use my boy against me but he got away."

The dragon's great wings flapped causing salty air to swirl around them. "Then you understand why I must kill you. I am sorry, Dark One."

Oh, Rumple had learned long ago that a deal could always be struck of one party had something that the other wanted and he wouldn't pass up the opportunity. For the most part, Dreymyr's inhabitants seemed reasonable, hopefully the red dragon would be as well.

"How about a deal?" Viren stared quizzically at the demon lord hovering before him as he questioned the word deal. "Yes, dearie, a deal. I will save your son, free him from Tvon's wards and chains and reunite him with his father."

"And in exchange?"

Rumple giggled, he'd got the dragon on his hook. "Simple. You cease aiding Tvon and aid me instead."

"An alliance?"

Rumple shrugged. "You can call it that."

The dragon considered the demon lord's proposal for a moment. While he was no Avarathda, Viren was intelligent enough to realize that Tvon wouldn't ever release his son, and he knew that the wards were indeed dragon proof. Trusting a demon lord from another world didn't seem like the wisest of choices, but it seemed to be the only one which could actually reunite father and son. Also, if Tvon had indeed kept the Dark One's child in a cage, he must have understood how desperately Viren wanted his own back safely.

"You say you will free Shiryu but how do I know you will keep your word?"

"I only ever went back on one deal, dearie, and it was the worst mistake I ever made. When I make a deal I keep to it."

Another pause, small and hardly there as the salty air continued to assault them.

"Then you have my word and we have an accord, Dark One."

A deal with a dragon, that didn't happen every day and Rumple found himself pleased with it. Dragon dealt with, Rumple teleported back to the destroyed walkway knowing that Viren would follow.

The second Phria spotted Rumple she shot backwards with her wings from Tvon and rushed to her fiancé. She'd suffered a long, deep wound to her left flank as well as a small cut to her right shoulder but she wasn't bothered in the slightest, not when she finally knew Rumple was safe.

"You survived Viren?! How?!" Tvon demanded with a growl.

"Oh, he's on my side now."

Just then Viren flew back over the castle, nodded to Rumple, then landed at the base of the tower patiently. Rumple was by far Tvon's biggest threat, but he'd been so confident that his pet dragon would tip the scale. How had the Dark One taken his biggest advantage? This was bad and the first time Tvon had felt any fear and it had him throw spell after spell in a desperate attempt to take down the strongest mage to have ever walked Dreymyr. While powerful, Rumple easily shielded himself and Phria from them. He'd had just about enough of this pathetic bravado and charged one of the most powerful spells he'd learned, a lightning spell that he launched at his enemy without mercy. Of course Tvon threw up a shield, but it wasn't nearly as strong as Rumple's and soon fractured then shattered allowing the spell to connect and flung him from the damaged walkway twitching as the electricity surged through him. Ironically, Viren opened his mouth and swallowed the evil mage whole.

"It's done?" Phria questioned, unsure of if a single spell could have killed a man who'd become the fifth demon lord. "Is he dead?"

"Yes, darling, it's done. Not many can survive being eaten by a dragon." He turned his attention to Phria's wounds, one of which was alarmingly deep. "Let me heal you."

He made to end her pain but Phria caught his hand and shook her head. "Didn't you say all magic comes with a price?"

"Oh, Phria," he began with a soft smile. "I'll pay it for you."

With that Rumple healed Phria's wounds easing her agony and saving her life.

"I'm sorry about the armor, it really was lovely."

"Don't worry about something so trivial. It can be replaced."

Gaston LeGume was dead, Haldor Tvon was dead, and Rumple had almost completed his deal with Belle, he'd even gotten a dragon on his side.

XXXX

This is now on hiatus until November 13th.