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

“What happened?” He demanded, seeing the bloody state she was in. Her dress was full of holes, one on her sleeve and the other over her heart, from attacks she had healed but not cleaned up from.

"She's tried casting this same spell four times." Sir Timmund, the current guard on duty, told him.

Julian called out to her, "Gerda?"

“No time!” She yelled back, rushing to the last section that was unmarked. 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].”

Then 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 magic 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 he pulled her to her feet. “Alice found me. We’ve been playing cat and mouse while I portalled to my front door to difference bridges while trying to establish a link here."

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.” She looked sheepish. “It wasn’t my plan to take over a North Sumbria 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 until I’m clean. She destroyed my dining room. And my table.”

“I’m sorry.” He lowered his hands to hers, taking them and rubbing the backs soothingly with his thumbs. It was equally to calm his own building rage that someone had dared attack her-- and the frustration that he wasn't there to help her when it happened.

“It was a nice table.” She told him.

“We can get you a new table.”

She nodded and they headed inside.

After a wash and change of clothes, Julian brought 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 hand grabbing onto the sleeve of his shirt.

“Julian.” Gerda said softly.

“Yes?”

“I want breakfast.” She declared.

“Alright.”

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

Julian froze. “I don’t–”

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

Julian panicked, torn. Before he could respond however, 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 portalling to the capital of Peldeep. They appeared on a bridge in an empty park near the merchants 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. The second they'd arrived, Gerda threw her arms around him and Julian held her until her shaking 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. “I’ll have you back in the North in an hour.”

“Alright.” He said, again. They started walking towards Pompolin when he added 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 Cafe served homemade pompolins. A figure-eight shaped flat cake pocket stuffed with fruit and whipped cream. The usual varieties were too sweet for Julian’s pallet, 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 travelling into the Ice Fields right away?”

Honestly, he just wanted 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 then move my door there, I can keep ahead of our Blackfog spy mistress.”

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

“It’s a nightmare.” She sighed. “Without the anchor, the pocket dimension will drift and take damage. If I don’t fix it quickly it’ll start to destabilize and could even collapse.”

“Then we’ll have to be careful where we put them…”

“I’ll need to make a second travelling 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 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 storage 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 storage ring, which already professed to contain 200 scrolls, a master crystal and originally housed his legendary class armor set. “Gerda, my dearest…”

She paused in a bite 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. She eyed him with a look, 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 wasn’t really planning on 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, back to him, showing off the ring. “As much as I like the idea of being a pretend dragon hoarding treasure… there are people who could actually use this stuff. I’ll just, um, I don’t know, do like the lady of the lake and hand out rare magic swords to would-be heroes of something?”

Her voice caught, and she was pretending to smile. He almost pushed, wanting to find out exactly what she was so nervous about… instead he joked, “How many rare magical swords do you have to give?”

“Thirty-seven.” She said.

Julian choked on his pompolin. “Thirty-seven?”

“Thirty-seven.” She repeated. “And twelve spears, nine daggers, six bows, five axes, three shields, two Warhammers 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, but sometimes I need to say these things to remember where I came 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 wasn’t a good sign, and he squeezed her hand tight. She recovered and said, “Speaking of heading north right away, I was thinking about our travel schedule.”

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