"I must have misheard. Did you say betrothed?" My shock still hadn't abated.

"Yes," he replied, grinding his teeth.

"Well..." What could I even respond to that? "When is the wedding?" It was the first thing that popped into my head.

Before he could muster an answer, Alira finally got past her shock and said, "There will be no wedding." She seemed pretty sure of that.

Her brother immediately responded, "Mother and I talked and—"

But Alira talked over him. "Yes, you and mother, not me," she almost shouted.

"You already agreed to do this; you are just embarrassing both our families," the fiancé added.

"I agreed years ago when I was stupid and impressionable," she looked at me for a moment like she was afraid of my reaction but then continued, "I distinctly remember telling you to find somebody else." People were starting to stare all around us as the decibels were increasing as the discussion advanced.

"Maybe we can move off the dance floor," I interrupted them.

Realizing the visibility of our group, they deflated a little and started moving.

Now talking in a respectable tone, he continued, "If you would just return home, we can talk with mother and reach some agreement."

"I’m done talking with mom. All I did was talk with her while you were at the academy," her voice was already climbing the octaves. "What I have to say, mother won’t listen."

"I’m sure..." He tried to respond.

"NO," she shouted, but then breathed out deeply and said in a calmer tone, "Let’s change the subject, please."

After another silence, which I was not going to break, she finally said to her brother, "I’ve missed you; it's been ages since we last saw each other."

He seemed to deflate as well. "It is good to see you, little sis," then went for a hug.

"What brings you so far from home, sis?" She paused, like searching for an appropriate answer. "He helped me on a mission, and now I’m returning the favor for him to complete a bounty." That was not even close to what she told me.

"I’m sure he can name a price and with the dinari hire five others to help him," he said, contempt still going strong.

"Taking money from mom is the last thing I want, and before you say it’s from you, that is not the point; it’s what I want to do," her serious tone made him rethink his retort.

Seems like he switched stances looking at me. "And who are you supposed to be, that my sister is defying her family for?"

How can you answer questions like that seriously? "Just a bounty hunter with a dream of making people laugh," I said, as Alira looked at me like saying, "Be serious for once," but had a slight twitch of her lip.

"Are you mocking us?" the betrothed seemed to take it personally.

"Kasper, was it?..."

"Jasper," he corrected with a growl.

"Right, I’m just a bounty hunter who happened to befriend her by coincidence," pointing to Alira.

"And now you're dancing? Quite close from what I could see?" Her brother intervened.

"I challenge you to a duel!" Jasper said in a very serious tone.

"What!" Was he serious?

Alira intervened. "If you want someone to duel, Jasper, then duel me," her eyes did not even blink as she stared him down.

"My honor has been stained, I will have my duel with... him," he said that last word with such disgust it was actually funny.

"Jasper, you need to relax. Even if there is such a thing as duels, we’re in another kingdom," He seemed the classical douche, or maybe I was a little jealous. No, no, definitely douche.

"What is going on?" It seemed our little talk had attracted some attention, and Vivienne with another elder gentleman were near us.

"Sorry," Alira intervened, "me and my brother haven’t seen each other for a while, and we brought some family issues that got heated."

Of course, Jasper couldn’t let it go. "And this man," pointing to me, "has insulted me, and I demand a duel to the death."

Was this guy for real? "To the death? Even trolls have duels to first blood," after a second, I added, "were you dropped on your head as a child?"

This time Alira was not amused and came near me and somehow shouted in a hushed tone, "Stop talking."

He was furious now. The older guy spoke next. "Prince Jasper, surely we can..."

But I lost focus after that. Really... this guy was a prince.

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Alira saw my realization and shrugged.

"Sometimes I think the god that brought me here is standing somewhere in a corner and laughing all day at my misfortune," I said in more of a rhetorical comment.

Returning after their little private talk, he said, "Both the Regent and Magistra Vivienne have agreed to the duel." just my luck.

"Look, I’m not gonna duel you. I am not a child."

"Then everyone will know you are a coward," he said, like it was the worst punishment ever.

"Do you think I care? It’s just a word. Call me a coward all night; see if I care."

"Then I demand he be arrested." And I was supposed to be keeping a low profile; now most of the people present here were watching us, probably hoping for an impromptu duel right here.

"I don’t want to cause an even bigger scene, so I’m going to leave. People are already shoving for a better view," I said, turning to leave, but of course I wouldn’t have the last word.

"I’m afraid you have to participate in the duel," the Magistra said after the Regent whispered something in her ear.

"You invite me here, then you tell me to duel somebody? Is that how guests are treated here?" It dawned on me that I was supposed to help these people, my grand quest a joke.

"It’s a political decision. It’s out of my hands. Sorry." spoken like a politician.

"I’d rather take the jail time." I mean, how hard could it be to break out? It wasn’t like I was gonna come back to this city.

"You would rather choose imprisonment than duel me? You’re not even a coward but a spineless animal," the prince was on a roll.

"Dude, you don’t seem to understand. Losing means I die; winning means having to watch my back all my life by assassins sent by your dad." Infuriating was an understatement with this guy.

I started walking to the platform, and surprisingly nobody stopped me, but on reaching the base floor, a few soldiers were already present.

"You will follow us," they said in a military tone.

For a moment, I even considered zapping these guys and just leaving right now, but that would cause more problems. I pride myself for not angering easily, but seems everyone has a trigger, including me.

By the time we reached the jail cell, my anger had subsided somewhat. The cell was surprisingly clean; maybe it was a VIP one as I didn't even have roommates. After sleeping in nature for days upon end, even the bed wasn’t too bad. Still, there was the bucket in the corner, so it was still a jail cell, but at least I could get some sleep.

By morning i was still tired, it seems jails are very noisy, even VIP ones. When ‘breakfast’ was served, I had my first visitor.

"I’m again very sorry for the imprisonment," the Magistra said.

"That doesn’t help me. Tell me something that will help me." I hoped she wasn’t one of those "thoughts and prayers" people.

"I can’t do much. You either duel him or stay in jail."

"How long?" I felt my anger rising again.

"I guess until he leaves. That would be a couple of weeks, and he might decide to take you with him as a prisoner." At least she seemed regretful.

"Well, I can tell you I’m not gonna use a bucket to relieve myself for weeks." Tonight, I was busting out somehow…

"The bars and walls are plated with adamantite; they absorb magic. It’s made specifically against spell users," she said with a hint of sadness while preparing to leave.

As soon as she left, I fired a Lightning Bolt at the cell, and as advertised, it was completely absorbed. I may have made a huge mistake. It was time to put that big brain to use and figure out another spell that could help me.

Clearly, a direct spell would be useless, so I needed something to translate magic damage to kinetic damage since hopefully, that damn metal wasn’t immune to kinetic force. Well, kinetic force means an explosion of some kind. Now, what can I produce that would explode?

My first thought was oxygen and hydrogen, but it was easier said than done. While conjuring food out of nothing meant some sort of fusion, I expected fusion of water would maybe work. But I had no idea how I could keep the hydrogen from dispersing or concentrating it. So, that was a few hours wasted.

Into my second brainstorming session, another visitor seemed to be coming.

Alira looked really sheepish as she entered. “I’m sorry for everything,” she finally said, not even making eye contact.

I couldn’t be mad at her even if I wanted to. “Even if you would have told me about the guy, I still would have invited you to dance, so I would still be right here.”

This made her finally look me in the eye. “I am surprised you declined the duel and accepted this,” she said, looking around my modest conditions.

“I wouldn’t want you to become a widow so young,” I smiled.

She gave a chuckle but continued, “You jest, but he would have probably won.”

“Really? He’s that powerful?” Now, I was surprised.

“He would have known you were a mage and prepared for it with armors enchanted against magic, even a shield lined with adamantite.”

“I guess even here, money can buy you everything,” I said, a little exasperated.

“Sadly, yes.”

“Except common sense,” I added.

She sighed. “He’s actually a really nice guy.”

"Nice guy? Twenty seconds into meeting me, he was shouting... duel to the death." Now, my irritation was evident.

"Since he’s a prince and all, he is used to getting his way, and maybe a little jealous,” she added.

“Well, I appreciate you offered to duel in my place considering he’s so powerful.”

“My class kinda counters his holy knight class; he can clad himself in all the armor he wants,” she said, very confidently.

“I have a small request, well, two maybe,” I said, looking at her.

“Ok,” she was listening.

“First, take the books about the goddess to Malvina and the others,” she nodded.

“Then tonight, stay with your brother and reconnect or something, but don’t be alone,” I emphasized the last part.

“Why not?” I really thought she would realize my plan immediately.

“I can’t stay here two weeks, so tonight, I escape,” I said with a smile on my lips.

She looked like I was crazy. “You probably don’t know, but the bars are...”

“...lined with adamantite, yeah, the Magistra mentioned,” I said, but didn’t expand on it.

“So how are you going to pull that off?” she was still skeptical but not fully.

I really, really tried to be serious and said, “The dark side of magic is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural,” but halfway through, a smile broke through.

She rolled her eyes and said, “By your grin, you’re really proud of managing to bring that into a conversation.”

“It’s creepy how good you are at reading me,” I laughed. “But yes, I am.”

“Seriously though, stay with your brother tonight, so you have an alibi.”

“Alibi?” she said, confused, but when I tried to explain, she continued, “Never mind, I get it by the context.”

“Aren’t you afraid they will come looking for you even if you do manage to escape?” Her worry was cute.

“If I escape, they have plausible deniability, and it would mean I had something they needed since I could escape this,” I said, looking at my jail cell.

“If I hear you managed to escape, I’ll head to the first village south of here; we can meet there in a couple of days so it doesn’t look suspicious,” she said.

“Are you sure? Your brother will get suspicious if you don’t return home with him.”

“We started this; we’re doing it through the end,” she seemed really sure of herself.

“Not that I mind, but I have to ask why, though? I thought you had orders to come, but you told your brother something different, so why are you risking your almost princess future?” I know we had a moment there before we got interrupted, but she was not the kind to do something so drastic over that.

She did get all embarrassed though, and after a long think that clearly was trying to invent something, she sighed and said, “It’s personal; let’s leave it at that.”

“OK, we’ll meet down south,” I said.

“Good luck on the whole escape thing,” she smiled.

“Thanks, I’m going to need it.”