“Excuse me?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Eliana let out a light laugh. “Don’t mind her so much. She just has a strange sense of humor.”

“Of course,” Twilight smiled as she stared at me, but I noticed her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “I’ve come to speak with you.”

“I’m pretty busy right now,” I admitted uneasily.

“It can wait.” She shrugged. “However, there is a time limit.”

“Time limit?”

She lifted her hand. “The bell will ring 5 times. That is as much time as I can spare. At that point, we must speak to each other.”

“Five?” I tried to smile back, not sure what she was on about. “I suppose I don’t mind a guest. You can stay.”

“When the time has come, simply say my name and I shall appear.” She responded.

The surreal moment lasted only a few seconds, and neither Eliana nor the others reacted to her strange and cryptic words. I decided it wasn’t worth worrying about now. I had plenty of time. After settling Eliana, my daughters, and the rest down in a comfortable room, I pulled Faeyna aside. “Do you remember what happened to my daughter’s present?”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Oh!” Faeyna blinked. “Wasn’t that with the blacksmiths? They had to mount it to the necklace.”

“Oh, so Garnet has it?”

“Who?”

I blinked. Who indeed? As soon as I said that name, I felt a strange flash of something. It felt like a world of darkness. It was wet and cold. My body was lying in black slime. I could see countless others lying around me. There was a red-headed girl there, although she was so filthy that it was hard to say what color her hair was. Why was I so sure it was red? The vision was gone in a heartbeat. What name had I said? I didn’t know.

“Ah… I’ll head over to the blacksmiths.”

The blacksmiths weren’t particularly close to my castle, but that didn’t matter. I had maxed my blue mage a long time ago, and I was able to open a portal rather easily. After bidding everyone farewell, I left the castle for a bit, taking a step into a workshop. The work environment was loud and hot. The sound of hammering made it difficult to have conversations, and the heat was enough that if I didn’t heave heat resistance, I’d be sweating heavily. I found the first apprentice I could find, and they slowly worked up the ladder before I found myself speaking to a blacksmith in charge.

“I’m telling you what I told the others.” The man shouted over the sounds of hammers. “We had it sitting right there locked up last night, and when we came in this morning it was gone. I don’t know anything else.”

“So, someone swiped it in the night.” I considered, scratching my chin.

“The setting is done.” The blacksmith declared. “If you can recover the gem, we can set it in only a few minutes. However, I don’t even know where to start.”

“I might.” I nodded to myself, “There is one place where a lot of things that go missing end up. The fairies!”

As I said that, I heard a bell start to toll. The sound tore through the sounds of the hammers as if they were nothing. That was the first bell.