14.7.0

Thursday morning, the nobles began to arrive. In the span of a few hours, there were suddenly people everywhere in Castle Blackpool. Dirk seethed in frustration. He hated crowds, under the best of circumstances. He loathed many of the people now present. His castle seemed to be overrun. Everything about this scheme depended on Zyrdicia being here, and he still had an unescapable sense of dread regarding her present condition. The damned demons could very well keep her locked away for eternity.

He had spent all morning trying to find her in the monocle. No threats or cajoling had enabled Vector to find her in the viewscope. Wherever she was, she was beyond help or rescue. The sense of powerlessness only compounded his frustration.

Amid the chaos in his great hall, the prince saw Portia walking through the room with a crying toddler in her arms. "You!"

She stopped and turned around. "What?"

"Come with me!"

"In a minute. Do you know who 'Lady Santir' is? This little guy was wandering around lost. He can't find his mommy," she explained, tousling the child's fair hair.

"The cow over there in the green dress," Dirk growled. "Get rid of it then meet me in my study. Now!"

"I'll be right there," Portia replied calmly. She knew what this was about.

14.7.1

"Did you retrieve the items I requested?" Dirk demanded irritably.

Portia nodded guiltily. "She isn't going to like this."

"Nonsense. She will never have to know." He frowned slightly, disliking the finality of the pronouncement.

"Is that all you wanted?" Portia asked.

"Where is she?" he hissed.

"She'll be here. Something must have happened to delay her," Portia reassured. The worry in her eyes, however, was far from reassuring.

"Find her."

"I can't. I tried last night. No one has seen or heard from her since she left. I'm trying to keep myself busy to not think about how scared I am. I know she isn't dead, but that's all I know."

"If she fails to keep her promise to be here, she will wish she were dead!"

Portia sighed, "My biggest worry is that Baal grabbed her and took her to Tenaebra. My second biggest worry is that she's wounded on the astral plane and can't get back. I could go down the list of all the other things I fear might have happened, but that won't make you feel any better. All we can do is wait. If anyone hears anything at all, they'll let me know. I don't know what else to do."

"Take me to the astral plane and I will retrieve her myself. I have no more patience with delay!"

"No. Its proximity to the outer worlds makes it very difficult to reach from here. Even if I could find someone to get us there, there's no way of knowing where she is. She didn't tell anyone the location there she had chosen for this. And the plane is filled with weird, magical predators popping in and out from other worlds. She promised she would come straight here when she was finished with Baal. I know she'll keep that promise if she possibly can."