I stepped out onto the bridge for the second time that evening.

Julia was still asleep, so I carefully set her down and straightened her into a comfortable position. The railings would prevent her from rolling off the sides and someone would find her soon.

[Warning, mana below 10%]

I immediately popped a mana potion and downed it. No sense messing with fate and getting caught unprepared. Once that was done, I dropped the empty bottle back into my storage ring and crouched down to do a quick check on Julia.

She didn’t appear to have any obvious injuries, though her wrists were rubbed red from the manacles. King Keith was the master crafter who'd created most of the St Veralyn’s Enchanted Manacles on the continent… I was sure he’d have a way to free the Paladin of Light from her restraints.

All of this in seconds.

I was debating giving Julia a health potion just in case when her foot twitched. I jumped back as fast as I could. She was stirring and that meant I had two choices; escape before anyone realised I’d saved her, or stay and claim the glory of rescuing the damsel in distress.

I, of course, ran away.

Listen, I knew there were guards stationed about the palace, some of them were even paroling the larger sky bridges that stretched above and below me. And there were three raven's flitting about the grounds that could be a familiar. I knew that, but I took my chances. Instead of bolting, I walked calmly to the tower opened the door and let myself in.

My timing was on point for one thing; I barely made it through the door before I heard Julia draw a sharp breath and try to sit up. My back was pressed to the wall, out of sight, and I took a deep breath to try and calm my racing heart.

It was time to slip away to my rooms and reassess the situation.

My perception was on high alert as I hurried through the hall. A shallow breath, a music box, and the faint sounds of someone enjoying company all came to me through the walls.

I made it inside my own room before the soldiers sped up the stairs, abilities propelling footsteps at surprisingly slower speed than I'd anticipated. I leaned my back against my door and slid down, trying to calm my pounding heart. It was a near miss.

I waited there for a very very long time. If anyone had seen me, then I wanted to hear them coming. No one came. I continued to wait, head in my hands sitting against my door. Honestly, I might even go with them if they did come. There wasn't much left for me to do except see the wedding and then be off. I only had one bridge left until I could try getting out of this dumb video game.

Still, no one came.

“Alright Gerda,” I reassured myself. “You’ve done it again. Good job.”

Talking to myself helped. There was no one else to talk to about this kind of thing, and living alone was starting to take a toll on me.

The thought made me smile. A toll on a troll.

I stood up and walked over to flop face first onto the bed.

And then I heard it. Soldiers coming back down the west tower.

I tensed.

“At least she came back in time for the wedding.” A cheerful voice said, accompanied by the subtle clink of platemail.

“You don’t actually think she was just cooling off some steam?” A woman’s voice said, incredulous.

There was a swish of fabric trailing on the floor from the third voice, “Tully, you can’t be serious.”

Ah, Sir Tully was one of Julian’s party members. I could only assume his two companions were the same.

“What?” The first voice asked. “A bunch of mercenaries told us that Julia was probably in the port district and then the entire palace raids the place and finds nothing–”

“They didn't find nothing. They were attacked.” The woman interrupted, “Besides, of course they didn't find Julia. She must have portalled onto the bridge.”

“No one can portal anywhere within the Arc Warden.” Tully grumbled. “I’m at half the speed with my heavy armor class now.”

The woman sounded exhasperated when she explained, "She portalled before the Arc Warden Tully."

“I still can’t believe we missed whoever’s been portalling onto that bridge a second time.” The third voice said sharply.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"You were the one who said that it was probably just someone out for a walk returning to their rooms, Pram." Tully reminded the third voice.

Pram, I was impressed, simply stated, "Maybe it was Countess Julia both times?"

“You can only portal in the palace if you are already in that area of the palace.” The woman reminded. "And we searched everywhere."

"Obviously not everywhere if Julia showed up on the bridge." Tully added. “Well, no one can portal anywhere now.”

The voices had come and gone, and anything else they said was too hard to hear.

Of course the palace would have noticed my coming and going. I had no idea what the Arc Warden was, but that didn’t matter.

I rolled over onto my back and looked at my character sheet. My bridge portalling abilities weren't available... but I could still probably get out if I got to the city border and used Dimension Rift. If.

For now, it was time to see where everyone was at.

“[Oracle].” I activated my title.

[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 effect 5/12 Chosen. Select scenario:

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 limited: All Scenarios within current domain boundaries available. All Scenarios impending within 6.5 days available. All Scenarios involving Gerda Jones available.

Oracle timeline 4 mins 30 seconds. Please select Chosen.]

I made my selection.

[Rage bristled under my skin and I held it back as another one of my plans fell through, leaving me back at square one.

Someone was always foiling my plans. 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. Because of her, everything was wrong. Thr Dark Lord should be dead... even the bridge troll survived fate and was now ruining my plans.

I'd thought changing all of my plans on the fly and kidnapping Julia might get around the problem. It was a whim facilitated by catching the countess in a moment of vulnerability. But it, too, had failed.

Nothing I did worked... but today was going to be different.

“Princess Contessa la Rouche of Ildsfeld, your seat.” The servant waved me into a pew. I had taken the princess’s invitation, so that I could be here to witness my efforts in action. One of my spies, the baron of Tour on Marsh, caught my eye and nodded. At least the countess going missing had drawn attention away long enough for us to set more traps. So what if they found all of them already, that should lull them into a false sense of security. It didn't matter, when my secret weapon could just plant more.

I had a few goals for this wedding; cause chaos to the new storyline, and take out as many fateless as I could get my hands on. Even one life returned would be worth it.

The fireworks in Peldeep were nothing to the magical surprise I had planted now…]

The Oracle only went until the guests had finished sitting down, but I wrote down all of the important information I’d gleaned from the scenes. I needed to spend some time in my own mind before I tried again... I'd learned from experience that overdoing Oracle would give me any number of mental debuffs. And it felt sickening.

The next Chosen was even more revealing.

[“Chloe! No!” I cried out.

A trap enchantment had activated on the dais. It was like the shadows that normally bobbed at Chloe's feet, but without the adorable inquisitive tendrils.

Instead, a pitch black circle appeared underneath her, trapping my love as she was consumed by the void. I reached to grab her, but my hand met a pink shield instead. Her shadow met my hand, pressing from inside even as both of us took damage from the touch.

"I love you," Chloe smiled at me, even as her legs vanished. I screamed, summoning my greatsword and hitting the dome once and twice, watching as it ate my blade with void damage. Not wanting to risk the complete destruction of my bonded blade, I dropped Gildred to the floor and attacked the shield with my fist, not even feeling as part of my remaining hand was devoured.

"Stand back, Julia," Mother was engulfed in a fire attack but brushed most of it off. She walked over, eating further damage from two separate attacks as she did so, and directed her magic towards the dome. It warred with the pink and subdued it... but it was too late.

Chloe was gone.

A burst of light erupt from me, my senses reeling from the sheer pressure that built in my chest and exploded outward. Screams. The sound of running. Someone shattered one of the windows overhead, showering the hall in broken glass that cut flesh… but no pain reached me.

I was already crying. My eyes searched the room for any and all who looked suspicious. The light was fading as vines slowly enclosed the hall.

“Julian.”

My brother was there, sword to sword with an elven dignitary. Their Royal Highness walked out of a billowing cloud of Wolfsbane unharmed, in time for a trap on the oath registry to explode, sending the fox stumbling…]

Slowly but surely I made it through Julia and then Henrietta's scenarios… and made my own plans for the wedding tomorrow.