“Bryson! Bryson dear! Where are you?” Duchess Coldwater called out as she wandered across the halls of the manor.

Stopping as she encountered Lila Frost she called out to her, “Ah you, Bryson’s servant, tell me where is my boy?”

“Ah, Duchess Coldwater, uh yes, Lord Bryson went with Miss Primrose for lessons.” Lila reported.

“Hmm, I told her to keep within the grounds.” Duchess Coldwater said looking upset.

“Oh, well Miss Primrose said that there was something extremely important that Lord Bryson needed to learn in the city.” Lila said quickly.

“The city hmm?” Duchess Coldwater thought for a moment, “Alright, I suppose that is acceptable.” Duchess Coldwater nodded, “Still, she didn’t ask for any permission.”

“Because I gave permission mother.” Viola said seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

“Did you now?” Duchess Coldwater asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, Bryson seemed troubled with Sable’s affliction. I decided it would be best if Bryson were to do something to keep his mind from this. Getting out of the manor would be best.” Viola said.

“Troubled? How badly.” Duchess Coldwater said concern in her voice.

“Only a little.” Viola assured her, “Which was why when his tutor recommended practice, I told them to head to the city.”

“I see.” Duchess Coldwater said, looking troubled, “Well, if it helps my baby boy feel better, then I suppose that is fine.” She said as she began to leave.

“Oh, Duchess Coldwater, the doctors said that no one is to visit Lady Sable right now.” Lila said.

“Oh, that’s quite alright. I have more important matters to attend to.” Duchess Coldwater said as she left.

“Huh, I think I see how Sable always feels now.” Viola mused once her mother was out of earshot.

“Huh?” Lila looked at Viola confused.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen mother so worried about me like that. And it was just for a slightly troubled Bryson.” Viola said.

“Jealous?”

“Ha, please. With everything he has to deal with? Not at all.” Viola scoffed before being a bit more serious, “I hope they’re having some luck out there.”

“Knowing Bryson’s track record, he’ll figure something out.” Lila shrugged.

***

The pixie opened her eyes from her nap as she thought she could hear the crunch of snow. She turned over to look outside, only to be face to face with a little brunette girl.

“Huh?” The pixie unconsciously said in confusion.

“I found the pixie! She’s really pretty!” The girl shouted downwards to someone.

“Get her already!” A voice yelled back.

“Right.” She called back darted her hand towards the pixie.

Snapping out of her confusion the pixie quickly dodged the outstretched hand and flew out of the tree past the head of the girl.

The cold wind hit the pixie hard, and the bright sunlight nearly blinded her. As she tried to blink her vision back she looked down and saw that down at the base of the tree were two more kids.

Her heart sank as she recognized one of them. Bryson Coldwater, even down below her it felt as if she was being looked down at. The other one next to him, the girl seemed familiar, then dawned on her that it was the girl from the disease village, Florence Marsh.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

As the pixie wondered what they were doing together, the other girl, Lottie Frost, leapt upwards and grabbed her in midair. Gracefully landing back on to the tree branch it lightly shook and some of the snow sprinkled downwards.

As Bryson took a step backward to avoid the snowfall, Lottie waved the pixie around. Much to the dismay of the pixie, who screamed as she was shaken about.

“Caught her!” Lottie said with a smile.

“Stooop!” The pixie cried out as she felt her stomach lurch from the excessive moving about.

“Use the bottle Frost!” Bryson screamed back.

“Oh yeah!” Lottie remembered, digging through her small knapsack she pulled out a small glass bottle.

The pixie’s eyes nearly bulged out of her head as she recognized the bottle’s enchantments. Where did they get that! She thought. She needed to act quickly.

Bryson’s brow furrowed when he noticed that magic began to concentrate around the pixie. Even with the magic suppression spell activated he could see a spell being concocted.

“Look out!” Bryson shouted.

Too late, a bright light engulfed them. Lottie cried out in pain, as she was temporally blinded. Letting go of both the bottle and the pixie she lurched backwards, and off the tree branch.

“Waahh!” Lottie yelled as she felt herself falling.

Bryson, still blinded, heard her scream, and heard her voice getting closer. She slipped. Bryson realized. He had to act fast.

His eyes glowed once more, and everything became far more clear. Looking up he saw Lottie fall in slow motion. With a small motion of his hand, the snow around him rose up and piled together right under Lottie.

“Oof.” She grunted as she landed in the soft snow. As her vision cleared, she saw that the snow pile she was on turn into a spiral slide.

Sliding down to the bottom of pile she saw Bryson looking over her, eyes glowing and concern on his face.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine. That was pretty cool of you.” Lottie said with a bright smile.

Bryson’s eyes immediately returned to normal, “Whatever.” Bryson said rolling his eyes, “Where’s the pixie?”

“There!” Lottie said pointing at a small, winged woman flying away from them.

“Where’s the bottle?” Bryson said searching for it.

His question was immediately answered as a blur of blue, pink, and red moved past him and toward the pixie. Once he discerned the blur to be Florence, he realized that in one of her hands was her miniature blunderbuss and the other held the bottle.

Quickly loading the bottle into the firearm she pointed it towards the pixie while she leapt up onto a tree. Upon perching atop the tree she fired at the pixie who was now frantically zigzagging away.

It was all in vain for the pixie as the bottle nailed its target. With a loud cry, the bottle hit her and a cloud of sparkling pink smoke exploded from the impact.

A second later the bottle dropped onto the snow below, now with a pixie frantically trying to escape the bottle. Bryson and Lottie slowly walked over to Florence who stared intently at the bottle.

“You can do that?” Bryson asked.

“I just fired my gun.” Florence said.

“You fired a bottle from a cannon that I’ve seen blow up monsters. How did you not destroy it?” Bryson said as he looked at the blunderbuss, the enchantments it had were rudimentary. All it could do was channel the user’s magic into a concentrated blast.

“I just made sure to generate less magic through it.” Florence said with a small shrug.

“You can do that? With something as simple as that?” Bryson asked in disbelief.

“Is that very impressive?” Lottie asked.

“That kind of weapon is so imprecise! It only has one setting, explosion. The amount of skill to control the output is insane.” Bryson said.

“Wow, that’s cool Florence.” Lottie praised.

“It’s nothing special.” Florence said, “Let’s get the pixie.”

“Right.” Bryson said as he walked towards the bottle. After taking a few steps forward he stopped. I should practice this. He thought.

Stretching his hand out towards the bottle, the bottle hurtled towards him and straight into his awaiting hand, much to the complaint of the pixie inside. Realizing that the bottle had grown to the size where it could fit the pixie, he had to now hold it with two hands. Looking at the pixie in the bottle it reminded him of a ship in a bottle.

“Hey, I’ve seen that before.” Lottie said.

“When in the world would you have seen levitation magic like that?” Bryson asked, ignoring the pixie banging away at the glass to no avail.

“When your dumb brother tried to bother me and my friends.”

Bryson thought back for a moment. He recalled the time he made Gilles chase his sword years ago. To this day Gilles never did find out who the culprit was. Bryson intended to keep it that way.

“Ah, that.”

“So it was you! You helped me back then!” Lottie said happily as she moved in for a hug, “Never got to say thanks, so thank you!”

“Don’t touch me -grrrr.” Bryson grumbled as her arms wrapped around him for a friendly hug.

Quickly stepping back, Lottie then gave Bryson a deep bow, “Thank you for protecting my sister.”

“Please stop talking.” Bryson grumbled as he looked away. He then came to a realization.

“I can see.” Bryson realized.

“Huh?” Lottie and Florence said in confusion.

“I can see magic clearly again.” Bryson said looking at the pixie, “The bottle’s stopping her from using magic, the spell’s gone.”

“So the guards might find us again?” Florence asked.

“Yes.”

“Then we need to leave.”