As Bubbles raced up the wide stone stairway that wound within the tower, keeping pace with the easy grace of the princess ahead of her she found her way partly blocked by an incongruous statue placed right in the middle of the steps. The princess skipped to one side of the figure, her dress fluttering past, and Bubbles, more slowly, sidled around the other side with curious interest.

She examined the statue in passing and found it was a remarkably detailed work, so life-like it surely must have been created by the hand of a master sculptor. The figure was of an elderly woman dressed in robes of dark silk that were made of real fabric, for they moved as Bubbles had brushed past. In outstretched hands were held what appeared to be real blankets too, soft furry material neatly folded in a bundle, giving the impression the figure was making her way up to the sleeping chambers with fresh bedding.

"Why put a statue here?" Bubbles said, looking back as she ascended onward round the next bend of the stairs. "Bit inconvenient if there's a rush on."

"Oh that's just Lady Fly about her duties," Princess Rapture said, continuing tripping up the seemingly endless flight of steps. "We leave her be. She's one of the Slow People."

Bubbles had stopped completely by now and stared more intently at the figure. She thought she saw it blink. And wasn't her left foot a little ahead of where it had been a moment ago when she passed?

"Slow People?" she said with equal slowness.

"That's right," Rappy's voice floated down from on high for she was some distance in advance of her friend by this time. "Not everyone is as quick about things as you or I. The Slow People are renowned for taking their time and we see no reason why that should be a hindrance in their daily lives. Lady Fly has been in our service for years and we hope she will have changed the bedsheets by this time next week, just in time to begin again."

Bubbles descended to give this slow moving Lady Fly an even closer scrutiny, not totally believing the story the princess was weaving of the matter. As she stared, she felt as if the moist eyes of the lady shifted ever so slightly to where she was standing and it was the creepiest sensation she had ever experienced.

"I beg your pardon, Lady Fly," she said with a brief curtsy, "if I hurried you just then." The eyes continued to move very slowly towards her and her left foot distinctly shifted a fraction of an inch as if about to attempt the next step up. The figure trembled a little and that was enough for brave Bubbles Bannatyne. She quickly left Lady Fly upon the stairs to continue her epic climb and soon met a smiling princess at the uppermost landing.

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"All our people are cherished by us," Rappy explained the matter in more detail, amused at the disconcerted look on the redhead's face. "Even if their services are not as swift in the undertaking they are nevertheless as sure. Slow People have their role to play too."

"Their schooling days must take an age," Bubbles observed thoughtfully. "If one were set an essay for the following day I reckon they might make a word or two by then."

"And it would be marked according to the value of those two words, for enormous effort would have gone into the writing of them and that is of equal value as a thousand words quickly thrown out by less careful minds."

And so Bubbles Bannatyne better understood the significance of Lady Fly and her blankets that might never get unfolded and spread during the time she herself would have spent in Xenia having a million and one adventures.

The girls picked beds in the round chamber and had a hot supper in the room.

"Imagine if Lady Fly served us supper," Bubbles sniggered as the maid who had brought the meal departed after a neat bob. "It would be very cold, and probably inedible, and we might be a hundred miles away by then anyway."

"Where is Arry this moment?" the princess said as she dipped bread in steaming hot milk and honey.

"Haven't seen him all day. Probably out chasing girl spiders. He is a boy, isn't he?"

"I do not know. It is nice to assign a gender to inanimate things, especially if they seem imbued with personality," came a considered response between gulps of cocoa.

"Arry's personality is frantic suspicion coupled with fierce loyalty and devotion to duty," Bubbles said. Her cocoa mug was already empty and her eyes seemed to shift about as if looking for any cake that might be hidden somewhere in the sumptuous bedchamber.

"A duty currently neglected," Rappy observed. "For he was bred to protect and guard and serve. Chasing after girl spiders is not part of that duty."

Bubbles pondered this for a moment and then remembered something else. She pulled out from her bag a roll of parchment that had been triple-signed.

"Look, I'm a palace guard," she declared brightly, flourishing the commission. "Some medal covered gentleman at the party asked me what it was I did for a living. He was very short-sighted I think and couldn't see I was a schoolgirl, so I said I did nothing for a living. He seemed perplexed. Surely he said I must do something? I was either a peasant, a brigand or a member of the royal entourage. Of course I scorned the idea of being a brigand and said there were no peasants where I come from. So, after consulting with a bunch of other medal wearing types, they all agreed to sign me up for a lifetime's service as a royal bodyguard, seeing as how I was the same height as yourself. That appeared crucial in their decision. Hey, perhaps I could be your double during potential future kidnappings?"

Princess Rapture read the document attentively.

"It all seems in order," she said. "I will alter the part about you having to address me as Exalted One. I much prefer Rappy." Then she yawned and stretched. "Early start tomorrow, on the road to Frozen Folly."

"More mountains and snow?" Bubbles hesitated to predict.

"Higher mountains and bigger snowflakes," the princess replied sleepily. "It's in the Glacial Park Zone where every lake is a skating rink."

That seemed a good answer and Bubbles lay her head upon a pillow, hoping the dreams she might have would match the reality in the Highly Romantic Winkel of Xenia.