Asher had no idea how many stone gargoyles were situated around the castle, but he knew they vastly outnumbered the knights. Trevor and his men didn't stand a chance.

Through the hall windows, he could see dozens of the beasts crawling around, searching for new victims. He ducked under a window sill before getting spotted and crawled along the wall until it was safe to stand again.

The clank of metal on stone sounded to his right and he knew the knights were getting more action than they had been wishing in their boredom. Remembering how kind they had been to the servant, Asher couldn't help hoping they all got out of this mess unscathed.

Demeter had been right about the statues, and now Asher strongly regretted dropping that cupcake earlier. If one showed up with pink frosting staining its head, he'd probably toss himself out the nearest window.

Ebonies laughter cackled out from the maw of every gargoyle. She was using them all to speak in unison, effectively terrifying anyone within hearing range.

Asher knew it'd be safer to hide inside the walls, but if he did that, he'd have little to no hope of finding out if Leon was alright. He was most likely in one of the guest rooms since that was where he was leading Elise and her guards, and none of them had secret panels for him to pop in and out of, so he decided he'd risk staying exposed a little longer. 

The guest room doors were all closed, and in his hurry he burst through the nearest one, hoping to find Leon inside. Instead, he found one of the gargoyles tearing up the bed. He stared at the creature, which was sufficiently distracted by the flying feathers, and the servant quietly backed out and closed the door, glad he hadn't caught it's attention.

He was much more careful when checking the other doors, but had no luck locating the Prince.

Between checking rooms, a flash of light caught his eye and he walked up to a window to see what was going on outside.

Down in the courtyard he spotted a glowing purple circle with arcane symbols. In the center was Demeter, gesturing for the knights to circle in. Four of them were already inside the circle, and one looked like he had lost an arm.

Two more men were running at top speed with three gargoyles bounding after them. The men leapt to cover the last bit of distance, then as soon as they crossed the glowing line, a bright flash blinded the servant. Asher blinked, rubbing his eyes, only to find that everyone in the circle had suddenly vanished.

Spacial magic.

So that was how Demeter had planned to escape when Ebony returned. Asher was curious to learn more about such magic, but he had bigger problems to deal with right now, so he turned and continued his search for Leon. As he came to the end of the hall, the servant froze in his tracks as a haunting figure stepped out from behind the corner. 

Ebony was wearing a long black dress that trailed a few feet behind her. The witch's shoulders were exposed and her hair was done up in elaborate braids with baby's breath flowers decorating her head. He also noticed that for some odd reason, the witch was holding a jar with the fattest toad he'd ever seen. 

She stopped and turned, smiling dangerously at Asher before two gargoyles walked out from behind her with murder in their eyes. 

Asher scrambled backwards, away from the danger, only for one of the hall windows to smash inwards, blowing a gust of winter air inside, along with two more stone monsters. 

He was cornered.

Bracing himself for one of the stupidest plans he'd ever thought up, Asher ran head first towards the two gargoyles behind him. Just as they moved to swipe at him, he quickly dodged to the side and leap frogged over the smallest one, then bolted towards the reading room.

The servant heaved a great sigh of relief when he found it empty, then locked the door behind himself before diving for the hidden panel. He barely managed to get it closed in time for the creatures to break into the room. He could hear them trashing the place, searching for him.

Not willing to wait and see if they got lucky with the wall panel, Asher stumbled down along the hidden hallway towards the secret room where he hid in fear.

Clutching his travel bag, he sat beside the stained glass window, happy for once that it was too thick to see through, and wondered how he was going to get out of this mess?

An hour passed, and the sound of smashing and screeching eventually died down, but the murmur of the castle voices was still muted.

A few shadows passed over the window as the gargoyles continued to crawl along the outside walls, and the servant would hold his breath every time as though they could hear him through the stone.

In between panic attacks, he wondered what happened to everyone who had been left behind? Demeter hadn't gotten everyone out through that teleportation circle, and he knew for a fact that the knight he passed up earlier wouldn't have had time to make it down to the courtyard.

Was everyone else dead?

Asher tried not to think of what might have happened to Laurent, who was just dong his job.

Surely Leon was okay. Ebony needed him, so she wouldn't bring harm to him, and if Elise or her guards had done something, then maybe the witch had the power to heal him?

He felt sick just sitting here, waiting for the chaos to die down when he should be looking for Leon, but he wouldn't be of any use to the beast if he got himself killed. So he waited until it was absolutely quiet before moving from his hiding spot.

As usual, the first place he went to check was the Prince's room.

He listened closely and when he heard nothing, he peeked out from the panel to find the room unoccupied. He considered climbing out and resuming his original search for the beast, but knew the witch was still there, somewhere. Otherwise the voices would have returned by now.

The silence was deafening as he returned to the hidden hallway and trudged along, hoping to catch the sounds of someone, anyone.

He circled around where he knew the guest rooms were and was both startled and relieved to hear Ebony speaking. She was too far away at first to make out, but the closer he came, the clearer her words became.

"-bastards. You really don't have much for brains, do you?" He heard her argue about something.

It was so quiet in the castle now that Asher was afraid to get any closer for fear of a creaky floorboard exposing him.

"Don't look at me like that." She retorted to someone. "You weren't supposed to have guests anyways."

"Then how the hell was I supposed to break this curse in the first place!" Came Leon's voice, sounding as alive as ever.

A wave of relief washed over the servant now that he knew the Prince was fine.

"Not important." Ebony brushed off her obvious scheme as though it didn't matter. "What is important is how you managed to bring so many outsiders to the most protected castle in the kingdom."

The beast did not reply, and Asher waited to hear what the witch had up her sleeve. "I know you couldn't have somehow left or waved anyone down. I made sure you couldn't. And all former staff have been cursed, so there's no one left who could have led them here. So how? How did you do it!?"

An amused snort was all she got in return for her questioning.

"Fine, if you're going to be snarky about it, I'll just have to figure it out myself. I know at least two of your guests are still hanging around here somewhere, so once I find them I'll have some fun and see what they know."

"Who?" The beast asked.

"Oh? Do you care about them?" She replied, her voice rising in amusement. "How interesting. The arrogant Prince found someone he liked. Looks like I have even more reason to kill them."

Her footsteps were heard walking across the room, then there was the sound of glass being dragged across a wooden surface. "This bitch honesty thought she could pull one over on the kingdom. I spent so much time trying to get the scoop on who was leading the invasion, yet this whole time she had wormed herself in here somehow. Oh I know! Why don't I ask her and save myself some time? It's annoying to undo transfiguration spells, but I suppose that's what I get for losing my temper earlier."

Something shuffled, then a low hissing sound followed by a pained groan rang out. It sounded like a woman, and soon she was gasping in agony.

The witch scoffed. "Don't give me that. This is the least you deserve. Now be a good girl and answer my questions, unless you want to end up like your 'bodyguards'?"

Elise took a few deep breaths, steadying her voice yet unable to get her usual tone as she stumbled over her words. "Y-y-yes. Wh-What would you like to know?"

It felt somewhat satisfying to hear the traitor lose her confidence.

"How did you find this place?"

"Don't say a word!" Leon ordered, then yelped so loud that Asher almost jumped back.

"Hush darling. The women are talking." Ebony scolded. "Now, answer me."

"It was a servant." Elise replied evenly. "His name was Asher. He worked as a member of the castle staff but visits one of the nearby towns on occasion. That was where I met him."

"Impossible. I converted all the servants into souls to enchant the castle. There were none left."

"My mage suspects that he was not in range of the spell when it happened."

"Not in range? That's preposterous. What kind of castle servant doesn't live on the grounds?"

Another bout of silence before the witch sighed. "I supposed it makes sense if he visits other towns. Well this certainly messes with my plans. I'll need to make sure he's dead before he thinks to bring anyone else here."

"If I may-"

"No you may not." Ebony cut Elise off and one scream later, he heard the witch cackle. "She really thought I'd need more than that out of her?"

A quick 'squish' and a short croak had Asher wondering what the hell was going on.

"Anyways, I think I'll be sticking around for a bit longer this time and see if anyone pops back in to check on you. I can tell by the look on your face that this Asher is someone you like, and if they were willing to stick around despite the mess that you are, then I'm sure he won't have gone far. Not yet at least. As a matter of fact...I think I saw him. A blond fellow, right? Short with a slender face? I believe my beasties chased him off to the other end of the castle. Maybe his mangled body is lying somewhere and I just have to pick it up?"

"Stop it." Leon ordered, though he now sounded like the wind had been knocked out of him. "Leave him alone...Please..."

"And if I do? What will I get in return?"

"I'll..." Leon hesitated, but forced himself to finish making a proposal he'd been avoiding all his life. "I'll marry you. Just, please, if he's still alive, leave Asher out of this..."

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