Matt gripped and re-gripped his swords as the white flames covering Rapunzel dimmed. His palms felt sweaty as the room darkened. The energy swirling in his chest urged him to attack while he could still see. It pulled at his lungs.

“What’s going on?” Val asked.

“Please,” Rapunzel whispered again, trembling and hunched over the sofa, health at 2%.

Fallyn narrowed her eyes and took one step forward, light blazing out from her staff. Her hair flowed back on a phantom wind.

“We’ve stopped,” Matt said. He still held his swords at the ready.

Rapunzel lifted her blue bald head and turned to face Matt. A dribble of the sparkly liquid had run all the way down to the bridge of her nose. “Thank you,” she said softly and the name above her head turned white.

Matt’s heads-up display fell. He breathed out and relaxed his swords as the sconces ringing the room re-lit.

“Uh, what just happened?” said Kurtis.

“I think she likes us now,” said Val.

Matt did not take his eyes off Rapunzel. The bald woman gently brushed off the front of her purple velvet dress and then attempted to straighten the furniture. She placed the hardened gold blanket on the loveseat’s arm, but it teetered and fell off. She ignored it; it rocked and then settled on the richly carpeted floor. Arrows still protruded from her back, neck, arms.

“Rapunzel?” Matt tried, hesitantly.

The disheveled woman turned to face him. “Yes, traveler?” Her voice was pleasant, normal—entirely incongruent with her appearance.

Matt tightened his fists around his swords. Kurtis and Val still held their weapons and Fallyn maintained the charge in her staff.

“We stopped attacking when you asked,” Matt said slowly. “So, I guess, now what?”

“What he said,” muttered Val. Wiggles was at her side, holding onto the sleeve of her flight suit.

“Apologies,” Rapunzel said as an arrow pushed out from her shoulder and fell to the carpet. “I couldn’t stand the mess. Thank you for saving me.”

‘480,715 XP’ appeared in the familiar white text, floating up as it faded away.

“Alas, the threat persists.” She sighed and glanced at the open spiral staircase which was now at Matt’s right. Another arrow grew longer as her body expelled it. It tilted, then dropped to the floor. “Will you help me?”

Matt didn’t see how much choice they had. Sure, he could say ‘no,’ but they’d come this far. He checked his Quest Log. The quest from Prince Charming was not marked as complete. He scanned the faces of his friends.

“I’m in.” Kurtis shrugged.

Fallyn nodded, hair falling to her shoulders, staff going dim.

Val nodded quickly and started scratching Wiggles.

“What do you need us to do?” Matt said.

“My hair…” Rapunzel paused, reaching up but stopping before her fingers met the blue goop on her head. “My hair is up there.” She pointed to the stairs. “Quite unruly. Misbehaving. Please?” Her last word faded into a whisper.

“Alright,” Matt said. This had to be it for the tower.

He strode over to the open spiral staircase and began to climb, feet clunking on each metal step. Matt held his swords in his left hand; he gripped the rail tightly with his right. The metal was surprisingly cold. The narrowness and the incline made it feel like he was much higher up. His knuckles showed white as he held firm.

Then his head emerged into the space above: another cozy room, laden with floor cushions, and brightly lit with streams of sunlight. He surveyed the room for danger, eyes darting from plush blue velvet to red to purple. The space was round, like the room below, but smaller. Little circular windows like port holes, opened every few feet along the top of the curved walls, near the start of the domed ceiling.

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In the center of the room rose a white pedestal, a bit less than a meter wide. It reminded Matt of Greek or Roman columns, pale stone with deep grooves running vertically. A green crystal, like a five-pin bowling ball, was displayed at its center. Light streamed from the sphere to the apex of the ceiling.

“Matt!” came Val’s loud whisper, accompanied by three taps to his leg. “Whatcha doin’? Matt!” Three taps again.

“I’m going,” he shot back in a whisper. There was really no being quiet with the clunk-clunk on the steps but, for some reason, whispering felt right. Matt stepped into the room and waited beside the metal railing that encircled the hole he’d exited.

Dust particles floated lazily in the beam of light that streamed up from the green crystal. The grand pedestal was almost as tall as Matt’s shoulder. He followed the light up to a tiny round window—smaller than the ones on the walls. It unleashed the orb’s light into the sky. Matt tried to think back to the outside of the tower, wondering whether it had been visible. He couldn’t recall.

A light tap on his shoulder: this time Fallyn, asking him to make room. Matt sidestepped, and a tiny golden paw became visible, extending into a stretch from behind the pillar. Matt put a finger to his lips and then pointed in the direction of the limb. Val’s eyes lit up and Matt hurriedly shook his head.

“Oh, come on,” Val huffed and walked around Matt to view the animal.

“Hello,” came a deep, gruff voice that almost sounded like it was yelling.

The paw shrunk back behind the pillar. Matt took another side step to stand closer to Val.

“Hello, I’m Larry,” the creature yell-talked. “Why you here? I’m Larry.”

Matt didn’t know what he was looking at. The faceless, four-limbed, ball of blond hair had pointed a thumb at himself when he repeated his name.

“Boo!” said Larry, stretching his arms wide and leaping towards them.

Matt jumped back. So did Val. Kurtis and Fallyn watched from another five feet behind.

“What?” the ball of hair gruffly demanded. “I’m Larry. It’s my tower, I do what I want.” He crossed those tiny arms in front of him. “The whole realm is mine,” he added, and though no eyes were visible, he seemed to gaze up at the crystal.

“What have you done to the realm?” Fallyn asked slowly.

“We were happy once,” Larry said, “Rapunzel and me. But then she wanted to spend all her time on that Prince Charming. Prince Charming, Prince Charming, Prince Charming,” he repeated sardonically. “I mean, what makes him so special? So, now I stay up here on my own. Serves them right.”

“Did you cause the gravemist?” Kurtis asked, tail in hand.

“Cause, smause…” Larry swayed and gestured wide with his tiny hands.

“Rapunzel sent us up here to find you,” Val said sweetly. “She must miss you.”

“Wu,” Wiggles added.

Larry huffed. “She’s down there, eh?”

Val nodded.

“Fine.” Larry hopped to the spiral staircase and dropped down, with a soft clink on each metal step.

What the fuck just happened? Matt thought.

Fallyn approached the pedestal and withdrew a glowing purple book from a vertical seam of light. “Warning,” she called, and the lightning flash blanched the small round room.

Matt lowered the arm from his eyes and straightened the bill of his ball cap.

Kurtis was also standing close to the white pedestal. “I think we’re supposed to do something,” he said with a swish of his tail. “Wish I knew what.”

Matt checked his Quest Log. The quest from Prince Charming was still there, incomplete: ‘Restore Leaning Tower: 0/1.’ “Maybe it has to do with this crystal?” he ventured.

Val stood on her tiptoes and reached towards it. She scrunched her eyes closed, then poked it. She recoiled and waved her hand in the air.

“You okay?” Matt asked.

“Yeah,” she said quietly as she glowed with healing.

“Hee?” added Wiggles.

Val petted the beaver with her other hand.

“Perhaps we could block that window,” Fallyn suggested, leaning into her bone-white staff.

Matt stowed his swords and tried for the gem himself. It looked like there was a divot in the platform to keep it from rolling. Matt cupped his hands around the base of the sphere and lifted. It wouldn’t budge. A tickle of energy ran down Matt’s arms like a powerful static charge.

“Ow!” Matt leaped back.

“You okay?” Fallyn asked.

“Yeah, just surprised.”

Fallyn pressed her lips into a line.

Kurtis hefted a blue velvet pillow on top of the crystal. It was the size of a dog bed and had practically been used as one. The cat-man adjusted it so that it balanced, and then held out his hands, willing it not to fall.

Is it really that easy? Matt thought.

The pillow blocked the beam of light entirely.

“Oh,” Val said. “I was gonna… never mind.”

Then flames burst from the top of the pillow. A charred and glowing hole began to form in the center of the cushion, as if from a giant magnifying glass. The pillow slid down around the crystal as the opening widened, and when the full force of the beam was restored, the flames quieted and flickered out.

Shit, I jinxed it.

“What were you going to try?” asked Matt.

“Well, I just…” Val waggled the ex-caliper in the air. “I just wondered… I dunno.”

“I don’t have a better plan.” Matt shrugged.

Val pulled open the arms of the teardrop-shaped metal instrument and then, once again on her tiptoes, fed them around the base of the crystal. She recoiled when they made contact. “Kurtis, can you try with your mitts?”

“Yeppers.” Kurtis switched places with Val and then placed one oven-mitted hand under each side of the ex-caliper.

Holding the silvery instrument closed around the jewel, Kurtis lifted. It moved. The beam of light flickered out like the bulb of a dying streetlight, then it was gone. Kurtis hugged the darkened round gem to his brown leather apron. Then the green jewel shrunk, zipping away to the cat-man’s inventory. Ex-caliper fell to the floor.

“Neato burrito,” Kurtis said.