The Master of the Wishing Well, the Warden, sat in his workshop. He turned the knob on his magnifying glasses he wore to get a clearer picture on the delicate gears in the puppet’s cavity. He found the issue, the gears were misaligned. He took a tweezer from the tray on his right, and carefully adjusted it.

The Warden felt all the threads suddenly shake. His concentration remained unbroken, but an annoyance escaped his lips in the form of a sigh. He adjusted the gear and then dropped the tweezer on the tray, turning behind him to the presence that bothered him.

“What is it, Ariel?”

She did not step into the light, preferring the shadow instead. She did show her respect though, and bowed to him.

“I’m sorry to bother you, Warden, I’m here to make a report of what the spiders have brought back.”

“And?” His thin eyebrow furrowed.

“Four,” she spoke. “One with high grade potential. The other three with possible potential.”

“Four,” he repeated the number, shaking his head. “How disappointing. I would have expected a much bigger batch than four.”

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“Three with potential escaped,” she continued. “They’ve run in the direction of the Sanctuary. They may make it.”

“Three?” He was still disappointed by that number. “Well, I suppose it’s better than nothing. Send one the bigger ones to capture them.”

The Warden turned back to his work.

“I also need to report the that the Seal ha-”

“Not now. We can discuss that once they are captured,” he waved her off.

Then he waited to see what she would do. To his disappointment she bowed and left. It seems that she still hadn’t developed as far as the others yet.

He sighed, tugging at the almost invisible thread in the air. He didn’t need her to watch or report. His threads were all over the Wishing Well. The intentions were communicated from these threads like the elegance of a symphony.

He listened to it, understanding what happened. The three that had escaped were strong. But one of them resonated with the Seal.

She would be the highest priority.

The one that they captured with high potential came from their group. That was good. He would hopefully become good material.

Just like he asked, Ariel had sent a giant spider to intercept them. They would meet very soon. A thread in the distance thrummed. There was movement where the elevator had dropped the prisoners off. He stopped tinkering with the puppet, and blew out a sigh.

Of all the people that had come, it had been the prince. He would make his way towards them, meeting up with them.

Without a doubt in his mind, the Warden knew that he would save them from their unfortunate Fate.

After mulling it for a bit, he decided what he needed to do. With a finger slightly infused with aura, he pulled at a thread, intention added, and released the string to call her back.

“Ariel.”