Page 78 of I Ran Away to Evil #3

Pompolin’s Café

Julian

Visha summoned Julian to the front gate, where he found a very focused Gerda rapidly magicking sigils into the wooden frame of his drawbridge.

“What happened?” he demanded, seeing the bloody state she was in. Her dress was full of holes from attacks that she’d healed but not cleaned; one on her sleeve, the other over her heart.

“She’s tried casting this same spell four times.” Sir Dimmund, the current guard on duty, told him.

Julian called out to her, “Gerda?”

“No time!” she yelled back, rushing to the last unmarked section.

Then she started cursing. The entire magical array faltered and faded as she released the spell and activated another instead. “Enter by the Channels, [Troll Magic].”

She downed a mana potion and started her magical array all over again.

Julian waited patiently for her to finish. Behind him, many of the border guards were lined up, watching. They hadn’t tried to stop Gerda, which he was happy to note.

This time, she successfully completed her spell.

“A Bridge Is Home, and Home Is a Bridge, [Troll Magic],” she declared, and the sigils disappeared into the wood. Gerda collapsed onto her knees, breathing heavily. “ Finally! ”

There was a murmuring from the crowd of onlookers, but Julian waved them back to their posts. Visha remained, standing quietly at attention.

“Is now a good time?” Julian asked, offering Gerda a hand.

“Yes.” She took it and let him pull her to her feet. “Alice found me. I wanted to move my home bridge here, but she kept finding my door while I was casting the spell.”

Julian gave the troll a once-over. She looked absolutely breathtaking and unhurt, except for the damage to her clothing. He wanted to take her somewhere and do a more … thorough check, but decided that could wait. “And you succeeded?”

“I did—but not before she completely destroyed my house. I think she thought that I’d come out if she did enough damage to my pocket space.” Her face fell. “My poor plants are a mess.”

“I’m sorry,” Julian told her, not knowing what else to say.

He’d never kept a plant before. He rubbed the back of her hand soothingly with his thumb.

It equally calmed his own building rage that someone had dared to attack her—and the frustration that he hadn’t been there to help her when it happened.

“No, I’m sorry.” She glanced at the fortress and back at him. “It wasn’t my plan to take over a North Sumbrian bridge, but I figured this was a better place to hide my door than in the Dark Enchanted Forest.”

“I’m happy you did. And that you are safe,” he told her.

Gerda lifted a sleeve to wipe her brow but stopped midway and stared. There was blood on it. “Wow. I need a shower.”

“You do,” he agreed. Preferably with him.

“Can I have one here?” she asked. “I don’t want to look at my house right now.”

“You can use mine.”

He brought her inside, and after a wash and change of clothes, Julian took her to his office.

If he had to work, he wanted her where he could see her and be sure she was safe.

Jeffry and Visha were already there, tackling a mountain of documents that needed to be reviewed and signed.

They barely registered when Julian escorted Gerda over to a chair.

She must have been running on survival and adrenaline because the second Gerda sat down, she started shaking.

“Visha—” Julian turned to order his general to go and find the fort healer, but he was cut off by Gerda’s trembling hand gripping the sleeve of his shirt.

“Julian,” Gerda said softly.

“Yes?”

“I want breakfast,” she declared. “A real one.”

“Alright.”

“I want fresh bimbleberry breakfast cakes from Pompolin’s Café.”

Julian froze. “I don’t—”

“Please?” she said, her voice also shaking. It was a request, made in a moment of vulnerability. “Come with me?”

Movement caught his eye. Visha waved at him to leave even as she continued filing. Jeffry looked less than pleased but nodded. Julian would have to bring them both something for the trouble.

“Alright.”

Gerda stood, and suddenly, they were portaling to the capital of Peldeep. They appeared on a bridge in an empty park near the merchant’s district. He’d honestly thought they’d portal to one of the major bridges crossing the river, but then realized the problem with doing so.

He didn’t want to appear inside another living creature. That would be a disaster.

They didn’t head off right away. Instead, Gerda threw her arms around him, and Julian held her until her tremors settled.

“Thank you.” When Gerda pulled back, she looked a little bit more like her usual self: calm, confident, and hiding something. Her hand found his, and she forced a pleasant, “I’m better now. And I’ll have you back in the North in an hour, promise.”

“Alright,” he said again, adding a light tease, “By that point, I’m sure Jeffry will have the appropriate forms you need to sign to register a proper troll bridge in North Sumbria.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Gerda groaned. “I pay enough taxes.”

Julian quipped, “You can afford it.”

“True.”

Pompolin’s Café served homemade pompolins, a figure-eight-shaped cake pocket stuffed with fruit and whipped cream.

The usual varieties were too sweet for Julian’s palate, so he picked out one with nut and seed butter, while Gerda ordered a triple berry with cream.

Julian waited until they had ordered and were settled before broaching his thoughts.

“This might be a bad time to ask, but what do you think about traveling into the Ice Fields right away?”

It was something to distract her. And it worked.

“I’m fine with that … Actually, that would be even better.

” She took a bite of her pompolin and left a bit of cream on her lip.

Julian was distracted watching her tongue lick it clean and almost missed her next sentence.

“It’ll cost more mana, but if I make bridges in the North and move my door there, I can keep ahead of our Blackfog mistress. ”

“What happens if your bridge is destroyed while the door is attached?” he asked, dragging his attention back to his own breakfast.

“Nothing good.” She sighed. “Without the anchor, the pocket dimension drifts in the Void and takes damage. If I don’t fix it quickly, it’ll start to destabilize and could even collapse.”

“So we’ll have to be careful where we put them.”

“And I’ll need to make a second traveling bridge,” she reasoned, “so I can leave one with the door while creating a new one at our next rest stop. Or just move the door back to the Northern Fortress every time?”

“That’s a lot of extra mana and time. We can build you a second bridge if you have the space to carry it. If not, I’ll send a request to my mother to make a storage ring for that size. It’ll take a week, but—”

“I have the storage.” She waved away his concern.

Julian eyed her ring, which already professed to contain two hundred scrolls, a Master Crystal, and had originally housed his Legendary-class armor set.

“Gerda, my dearest …” She paused midbite of berries and cream, eyes going wide at his term of endearment.

He enjoyed watching her blush. “… Should I ask after your equipped items and travel supplies? Or is it better not to know?”

Gerda swallowed her bite of pompolin as she eyed him, sizing him up to determine if he was trustworthy or not. He was glad to see that he passed. “I guess I could show you my inventory. Hells, I haven’t planned what to do with it after, so let me know if you want anything—”

“After what?” Julian interrupted, a sense of unease gripping his gut.

“After the, well, after I’m done in the North.

That’ll be my last big quest, and then we’ll see what Fate decides.

Either way, I probably won’t need all of this.

” She held up her hand, showing off the ring.

“As much as I like the idea of pretending to be a dragon hoarding treasure … there are people who could actually use this stuff. I figured I’d just, I don’t know, do like the Lady of the Lake and hand out rare magic swords to would-be heroes.

” Her voice caught, and she pretended to smile.

“You can auction treasures you aren’t using and use that to recover the fines you just paid.

Or just keep them for when you need them,” he countered, frustrated that she kept giving so much away for free.

From the life-saving Crystal Casts to the Valarian Royal Set …

but he didn’t want her to see his anger, so he shot her a smile and asked, “How many rare magical swords do you have to give away?”

“Thirty-seven.”

Julian choked. “Thirty-seven?”

“Thirty-seven,” she repeated. “And twelve magical spears, nine daggers, six bows, five axes, three shields, two war hammers, and a partridge in a pear tree.”

The list made him reel; the last confused him. “A partridge?”

“There is a song where I come from, and we sing it for winter solstice. It ends with that line after a long countdown list. I know it’s dumb to say it here, but sometimes, I need to say these things to remember where I’m from.

” She smiled thinly. “Maybe I’ll sing it for you if I’m still—if we are still together by darkest day. ”

Julian reached out and grabbed her hand. “We will be, unless you’re planning to abandon me already.”

“No.” The look on her face told him she wasn’t sure. It hurt … but he didn’t push the issue.

“Alright, then.” He knew exactly how her last relationship had ended, and he could wait until she felt more certain of his affections. He would just have to win her over until she stopped hesitating every time they spoke about the future.

She recovered and said, “Speaking of heading north right away, I was thinking about our travel schedule.”

It was a deliberate change of topic, but Julian didn’t stop her. She had things to work through … and he would be there until she was ready to let him in.