Page 34 of I Ran Away to Evil #3
A Fabulous Fairy-Tale Look
Gerda
Someone slipped an envelope under the door to my room.
It was past midnight, and after a few hours of rest, I was feeling marginally better; enough to roll off the bed and read the letter. [Appraise] let me know it was official, and when I cracked it open, nothing exploded, so that was nice.
It was a greeting from the North Sumbrian royals, with a clear schedule laid out for the wedding ceremony and an invitation to participate in a special game unique to the festivities.
The grand prize for the most Blackfog spies foiled over the course of the day was a custom-built magical elevator—to be delivered and installed at a destination of choice—with smaller prizes for capturing anyone out to ruin the wedding.
That included but was not limited to assassins, ceremonial disruptions, or anyone otherwise making themselves a nuisance.
“Let’s do this,” I whispered to myself, gripping the letter.
The pep talk helped, and I made myself comfortable on the bed before opening my character sheet.
[ Oracle: You are witness to the strings of Fate and her weave. The story unfolds, and the Chosen of each deity mark the way.
You have found 9/12 Chosen.
Impending Scenarios: 5/12 Chosen.
Keeper of Fate - The Royal Wedding
Paladin of Light - The Love Lost
Bringer of Chaos - The Shoals Battle
Guardian of Death - The Final Elite
Heroine of Justice - The Void Duel
Timeline access restricted.
Available Scenarios: All Scenarios within current Domain boundaries available. All Scenarios impending within 6.5 days available.
Oracle timeline: 4 mins 30 seconds.
Please select Chosen.]
Seeing the Keeper of Fate on my list, I put my head in my hands and thanked Luck for yesterday. Getting caught with Julia had been the best possible outcome. I selected her option.
Rage bristled under my skin as another one of my plans fell through, leaving me back at square one.
Everything I’d fought for; everything I’d set up—all of it, discovered and destroyed.
I would’ve suspected a spy among my spies if it weren’t for that meddling Madame Potts and her abilities to read the future.
She’d ruined everything .
The heroine had been deprived of her fate; she was supposed to slaughter the Dark Enchanted Forest, not marry into it! The Dark Lord should’ve perished before the Spring Ball, and the necromancer by the Masquerade.
Even the Bridge Troll had survived to ruin my plans.
It’d been luck, kidnapping Julia. Anyone permitted entry into the sanctuary would’ve sufficed, but using the Paladin of Light to kill the necromancer would’ve returned their weave to its rightful fate.
Until that, too, had failed.
But I wasn’t going to give up. I could never give up Fate. I would return things to the way they were supposed to be, starting with this wedding.
“Princess Contessa la Rouche of Ildsfeld, your seat.” The servant waved me into a pew.
Even if it restricted my abilities, [Take Fate] let me steal a captured target’s character sheet to use as my own, and the princess was safely stored out of the way for now.
I’d come to witness my efforts in action and ensure there wasn’t any more meddling.
One of my spies, the baron of Tour on Marsh, caught my eye and nodded.
At least the paladin going missing had drawn attention away long enough to set more traps.
I smiled. Even if they discovered all of my traps before the ceremony, that would only lull them into a false sense of security while my secret weapon planted more from the inside.
Even one life returned to the weave would be worth it.
The fireworks in Peldeep were nothing to the magical surprise I had planted now …
Coming out of the oracle left me shaking uncontrollably, I curled up into a ball and tried to claw the new person out of my head.
The rage. The bloodthirst that coursed through me and made me want to burn everything in my path.
Information warred and blended. Hatred for Madame Potts—for myself —made me want to tear at my own flesh.
[Mental Resistance] saved me. The feelings surged and settled, though the headache remained.
Putting myself in a new mind was always taxing.
I knew I needed to check in on the others if I was going to try and save everyone … but I still hesitated activating my skill again so soon. At least with Henrietta or Julia I would become someone I could stomach.
After taking a mana potion to replenish my reserves, I selected another Chosen.
“Chloe! No!” I cried out.
A trap enchantment had activated on the dais, opening a pitch-black hole under Chloe as she was consumed by the Void.
I reached to grab her, but my hand met a pink shield instead.
The adorable tendrils of my love’s shadow magic reached up to meet my hand, pressing from inside as both of us took damage from the touch.
“I love you.” Chloe smiled at me as her legs sank into the darkness. “Always.”
I screamed and activated [Solar Fist], striking the shield. It shuddered under the weight of my attack. I tried to strike a second time, but the Void had taken most of my hand.
“Stand back, Julia.” Mother was engulfed in fire, but ignored the flames as she directed her magic toward the dome. The pink bubble shattered—but it was too late.
Chloe was gone, consumed by the Void, never to be resurrected.
A burst of light erupted from me, my senses reeling from the sheer pressure that built in my chest and exploded outward. Screams. The sound of running. A window shattered overhead, showering the hall in broken glass that cut flesh, but no pain reached me.
“Julia!” Through the glare, I saw Julian yelling my name. He was sword to sword with an elven dignitary. Mother was no longer on fire, as Sir Pram had cast ice magic to frost the terrain. One wall of the sanctuary was covered in vines.
Their Royal Highness walked out of a billowing cloud of wolfsbane, unharmed, in time to catch an arrow from the direction of the oath registry table. Rowen stumbled, white foam at their mouth from the poison …
It took me a while to get to sleep through the sobbing.
“Gerda!” Henrietta found me at breakfast still ruminating over my own plans to save the day.
The Dark Lady sat down beside me in the palace dining hall, still in her regular attire despite the wedding only a few hours away.
I’d only just watched her scenario an hour before, so seeing her in person made for a strange sense of settling reality—especially since her scenario was just as awful and heart-wrenching as the other two.
“Good morning, Your Majesty.” I stuffed a small summer tomato into my mouth and bit down. I’d chosen a classic breakfast with scrambled floofpoof eggs, thick-cut flying pork bacon, a slice of golden sourdough, and some fresh baby tomatoes.
“Enough of that! I heard you broke your promise and left the guardhouse early …” Henrietta’s eyes were full of worry. “What if something had happened to you?”
“Something did happen to me,” I told her. “A shadow user tried to attach to me right under the guards’ noses! I didn’t know what else to do, so I took your advice and portaled to my bridge. It took a bit, but I did make it back to my rooms safely.”
The best falsehoods weren’t falsehoods at all.
Henrietta grabbed my green arm and squeezed gently. “I’m happy you’re safe, even if you had to walk back and wait outside for the Arc. Maybe try to lie low today?”
I showed her the piece of paper I’d been perusing. “Then how am I supposed to win myself an elevator?”
“Ha!” Henrietta let go and picked up a fork to tackle her own breakfast. She had a stack of waffles with markleberry jam in the first layer, strawberries and whipped unigoat cream in the second, and the top had more whipped cream and a light drizzle of strawberry syrup.
“You could surprise people by rising up from below the bridge in style! It would be spectacular .”
“And slow,” I argued, taking a bite of my eggs and enjoying the fluffy soft taste. “They’d be long gone by the time I exited onto the bridge.”
“True.” Henrietta’s nose crinkled in thought.
“ If I won …” I paused for effect. “I could give you the elevator.”
Henrietta laughed. “Keith would be beside himself with excitement to take it apart and find out how it works, and see if he could make one.”
“He would,” I said, then changed the subject. “What are your plans for today?”
“I’ll help Keith get ready and run any errands that need running before the ceremony.” She sighed. “I wish Chloe and Julia didn’t have all this added stress for their special day.”
I nodded; it was unfortunate.
“How about you?” Henrietta turned her eyes my way.
“I’m probably going to go straight to the hall, search for traps, and wait around with the rest of the party guests. Mingle a bit. And then use the ladies’ room before the rush,” I told her.
Again, technically not lying.
“Good idea,” my queen approved, nodding her head happily. “If you need anything, just shout. This whole place is under guard, and Chloe made enough Revive potions to bring back the entire hall if need be.”
“Impressive.” I wasn’t a potion maker, but she must have burned through a lot of time, money, and mana to whip out two hundred Revives. I couldn’t imagine where she’d found the time—possibly a reserve stash.
“Right?” Henrietta got a bit of whipped cream on her hand and quickly licked it clean. She never changed.
“That won’t help anyone from a kingdom who disinherits on death,” I pointed out. “But I guess if they chanced coming to this particular wedding even after Madame Potts’s warning, that’s their problem.”
After we finished breakfast, Henrietta left to go change and get ready with Keith.
My own dress was a more elaborate bright-purple version of my usual style, with white flowers over the bust. The overdress cinched at the underbust line, opening at the front to reveal a soft white underdress. It fell in waves, with more flowers embroidered at the edges.
The only thing I wasn’t happy with was my hair.
My braids were pulled back into a half updo, with one each left down to frame my face as makeshift bangs.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t gotten the time to properly wash and redo my braids, so they were seriously fraying.
To hide the chaos, I’d stuck small white and purple phoebe flowers here and there.
I also wore my silver Ancient Gamblers Amulet, which was unassumingly plain but matched the white highlights in my outfit.
A fabulous fairy-tale look, if I did say so myself.
There were guards everywhere , and I joined a lineup of guests who’d arrived early to go over the sanctuary and try for the grand prize.
A few members of the Continental Council were there as well, including an unamused Witch Agatha arguing with Master Thomas.
Behind them, the Grand Pontiff of Sumbria stood alone, looking high and mighty.
His nose was in the air, and his long ears twitched in annoyance whenever Witch Agatha said something particularly curt.
This year was the first in two decades that Grand Duchess Calisto had allowed the noble elite from Sumbria to attend her events.
Prior to this, she’d only granted specifically vetted ambassadors access to cross the border, and only for the Continental Council meeting the day after any ball or feast.
She was making an attempt at peace.
It was especially telling that she’d welcomed the Grand Pontiff to the wedding … as it was his predecessor who had killed Grand Duke Lysander in the civil war.
In anticipation of the crush, the Grey Hawk Knights were out in force, checking invitations and securing the area. I resisted the urge to face-palm as I joined the end of the line. This just gave any ne’er-do-well the perfect opportunity to set traps under the guise of searching for them.
It was rare, thankfully, but sometimes, a prediction telling everyone to stop a thing actually helped that thing happen. A great case in point was Sumbria—they outright ignored any and all warnings I gave them, which meant that evil could thrive when I reported it.
For example, tell everyone to send guards to an unlucky coastal town about to get hit by one pirate ship?
An entire fleet of pirates will show up because they’ll know the elven elders will deliberately turn a blind eye because I made the announcement.
It was infuriating, and I was still stumped on what to do about it.
A few minutes later, a scribe arrived with a tablet for guests to join a waitlist. I put myself down in the last available time slot, just behind Duchess Calisto herself, because I was a genius.
Now, I had two hours to myself. Plenty of time to get other important things settled.