I wake up at four in the afternoon. Katherine is not in the inn room. I take my time getting dressed and then straighten up the room once I’m finished dressing. I don’t plan on coming back again, so after checking the dresser and the bathroom to make sure that I didn’t forget anything, I depart the room for good. Then I go to the front counter, thank the weasel again for his generosity, and turn in the room key.

Next, I travel to a store that sells portal scripts. I buy five with each costing 100,000 âmes. Normally I only keep one, but now that I have Katherine with me, I want to make sure that I’m well prepared for anything that might happen. When I finish shopping at the script store, I stop into Wilmette’s store to say goodbye. She’s in the middle of assisting customers, so I keep my farewell brief. Now that I’ve said goodbye to my only friend in the city, I just have to find Katherine and I’ll be ready to leave Magali.

First, I pass through the street with the food vendors. There are a lot of people around as always, but with her unique skin color Katherine is usually easy to spot even in a large crowd. But after thoroughly scanning the area, I determine that she’s not there. Next, I go to the town square. There’s still all of the food pieces and foul stench surrounding the empty gallows. I thought that maybe there’d be people gathered in the area, but now that the festival is over, I guess there’s no reason for people to assemble there. I think carefully about what locations in town Katherine is familiar with. The only other places where she could be are the magic store Cornucopia, the small café, the castle, and the playground.

To maximize my chances of finding her, I go first to the street with the small café. At the north side of the street is the café and on the south side of the same street is the park. I walk past the café carefully glancing at the people seated at the tables both on the inside and outside. Then I continue on directly to the park. She’s still nowhere to be found.

As I consider my next move, two hands suddenly cover my eyes.

“Guess who!”

“An ugly hairy gorilla that escaped from the zoo?”

“Nooo!”

I spin in place causing the hands to reposition themselves around the back of my head. The maneuver also causes me to stand point blank in front of Katherine. I take advantage of my position and wrap my arms around her back. I squeeze gently and she retaliates with equal pressure. “Well well. You’re not a gorilla.”

“Nope. I’m your servant Katherine.”

Although it’s never bothered me before, hearing her say “servant” reminds me of Master Simon’s cynical poke at our relationship. The thought makes my skin crawl. “I’ve got to come up with a better title for you than servant.”

Katherine bats her eyelashes at me. “What did you have in mind?”

I think I know what she’s thinking. “Not apprentice,” I say tapping her on the nose with my index finger. “I’ll think about it.”

I release my grip from around her. She presses her lips together and blows a frustrated puff of air through them. At the same time, her round cheeks flare rose colored. My answer clearly thwarted her hopeful expectations. I should say something thoughtful to console her, but all that I can think about is kissing her rosy cheeks. At once, I shake my head back and forth vigorously to throw out the thought. “It’s time to leave. Are you ready?”

Katherine instantly snaps out of her malaise. “Before we leave I have to show you something!”

Without warning she grips me by my coat sleeve and starts dragging me through town. I smile and go along with her. It’s just like when we first met.

She takes me into the rougher part of town not so far from the Armbear Lodge or from where I fought the Killer Clown. After passing through a few twists and turns, we stop in front of a large brown building. I read the large sign in front of the building: “Magali Museum of Modern History.”

“Come on!” Katherine says enthusiastically. She tugs hard on my coat and drags me inside. I’ve heard of the Magali Museum before, but this is my first time visiting.

The first display that we see is a collection of ancient primitive wands. There are also displays containing old armors and texts. As we move deeper into the museum, the time period of the displays moves increasingly closer to the present. Directly in the center of the furthest back room is a brown, green, and yellow wand isolated in a glass case. I step to the glass container and read the label beneath it: “The Wand of Shaman Terranostra.”

“Master, have you ever heard of Shaman Terranostra?”

“I’ve heard of him, but I don’t know too much about him.”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

I start to read the plaque detailing the story of his life, but suddenly Katherine collapses to her knees. I immediately fall to her side. “Katherine what’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. I suddenly felt faint. I need some water.”

“Okay. I’ll find you some water.”

I look around the room for a water fountain. I don’t see one, but I do see a security guard, who is watching us from a distance. I quickly skip over to him. “Excuse me, my friend suddenly fell faint. Is there a water fountain around here?”

“Sure.”

The guard starts to give me a detailed explanation of how to reach the nearest fountain. While he’s still speaking, I suddenly hear the loud sound of glass shattering behind me. I whip around only to find that Katherine has smashed the case surrounding the wand of Shaman Terranostra. She reaches her hand into the display and takes the wand. I watch in disbelief at her sudden turn to thievery. “Master, run!” she shouts.

“Hey!” the guard yells.

He looks at me and I look at him, exchanging confused blinks. Neither of us knows what’s going on. But before he can figure it out, I smack him in the face with my staff. He crashes unconscious to the floor. “Sorry!” I apologize chasing after Katherine.

When I catch up to Katherine, I ask the obvious question. “Katherine what are you doing?”

“I’ll explain later!”

We run full speed towards the museum exit straight ahead of us. Two approaching security guards block our escape. Using her ill-acquired new wand, Katherine casts a spray of Thorn Darts at the guards. Sharp little quills puncture into the guards all over their bodies. They shrill and wince in pain desperately trying to pull the little spikes out of them. Their pain keeps them occupied long enough for us to slip past them without any problems.

Once we exit the museum, Katherine makes a mad dash for the city gates. I continue following behind her still trying to mentally process her unexpected shift of character. We manage to get through the city without any problems until we reach the gate. When the inquisitor gate guards see us running in a visible panic, they react by trying to close the gate. As the gate closes, Katherine impedes it from shutting by causing a tree to grow in its path. Without asking questions, the inquisitors draw their swords. They begin to approach us but are almost instantly swiped away by Katherine’s Vine Whip spell. Teaching Katherine offensive magic may have been a huge mistake.

We pass through the gates exiting Magali. At once, the tree that had been blocking the gate disappears and it slams shut. That will slow the inquisitors down a bit, but I’m sure that they’ll still come after us. My first thought is that we need to get as far away from here as fast as possible. We could use the Portal spell to instantly travel somewhere else, but the place where I intend to go is not one where I have been before. So instead I imitate Sidney Butterfly and summon a monster Stallion.

Seeing another angry black horse sends shivers down my spine despite the fact that it’s actually under my control. Only with great hesitation do I step up to it and climb on top of its back. Luckily, it doesn’t try to fight me. I then reach my hand down to Katherine to help hoist her up. Once we’re both good and situated on the Stallion’s back, I apply pressure to it with my legs and it takes off running. I have a lot of questions for Katherine, but at the moment hanging onto the monster stallion requires my full concentration.

After riding the horse for a mere fifteen minutes, my butt is completely sore. Thankfully, we only had to cover two miles to reach our destination. I coerce the Stallion to stop and climb down. Next I unsummon it and cast the Miracle Heal spell on Katherine and then on myself. Riding a giant monster horse hurts. Seriously.

But all butt pain aside, it got us to Master Simon’s chateau safely. Before we go inside to Maser Simon’s, I decide that it’s best to confront Katherine about her criminal actions in private.

Never lacking for eloquence, I ask, “Katherine! What the crap?”

“Sorry for surprising you,” she apologizes.

“Why did you steal the wand of Shaman Terranostra?”

“Because…”

“Because what?”

“Because they have no right to have it!”

“Oh and you do?”

“Yes that’s right!”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because…”

“Katherine, you’re not answering my question. You’d had better tell me now!”

“Because Shaman Terranostra was my father! That’s why!”

“Oh.”

Snap.