Page 132 of I Ran Away to Evil 3
“I thought this was going to be a simple escort mission … What am I missing?” Jeffry asked.
“Miss Gerda has offered to help us locate the dungeon in the North,” he told them.
“How? Does she have a scouting ability? Can she fight?” Visha asked. While Jeffry was in charge of their logistics, Visha would be responsible for keeping everyone safe. Her orders were second only to his own.
“No. She will accompany us as a noncombatant.” Julian returned Visha’s dubious look with a slow smile. “She has the ability to create temporary portals with her bridges, so we’ll be able to go back and forth between the Ice Fields and the fortress.”
“Gods.” Jeffry nodded. “Ifthat’swhy you agreed to date the troll, then marry her.”
“That’s not including the fact that she has oracle powers and might justseewhere the dungeon’s at,” Sir Tully added.
John shook his head at the paladin even as Julian chastised him.
“Miss Gerda is under no obligation to use her Madame Potts’s powers to aid us unless she chooses to do so of her own free will.”
“So we’ll be practicing defense formations around Miss Gerda while she’s setting up her bridge points?” Pram asked.
“Yes.”
Visha frowned. “I think we could manage a full defense for three minutes as we currently are. That’s without any of us taking an injury.” She looked around the table. “If we need more time than that, we’ll have to keep back one more of John’s shadows and leave Pram with enough mana to cast [Ice Wall]. I could double my attack radius if John let me borrow his Eye of Effeldor—”
“You meanMYEye of Effeldor brooch!” Jeffry declared, smug. He lifted his cloak to reveal the thing pinned to his tunic. It was an obnoxiously gaudy piece of jewelry as big around as Julian’s fist, made of gold and set with rubies and emeralds and sapphires and three other colored semiprecious stones that Julian couldn’t name. A large tiger’s eye stone was affixed in the center. “And I’m not giving it up for anything!”
Visha turned on John. “You gave it tohim?”
The human shrugged.
“Food’s here,” Sir Tully noted. He’d been watching the kitchen and drew their attention to the waitress heading their way with three platters of food—one in her right hand, one in her left, and one balanced on her left arm.
Everyone paused long enough to welcome the arrival of their meal before the waitress left to get Visha’s oat parfait.
Sir Tully stabbed a potato and ate it, not waiting for anyone. He stabbed another then waved his potato-skewered fork at Julian. “You know, if Your Grace used Theo’s Amulet, that would raise your perception to twenty-seven and grant you plus-forty mana, which is an extra four durability to Miss Gerda’s [Barrier]. After your strength modifier that would defend against—”
“Enough, Tully.” Visha’s voice was cold and hard as it cut off the paladin.
He shrugged and stuffed the potato in his mouth. “I was just pointing it out.”
The waitress arrived with the elf woman’s parfait.
Julian thought about it.
Reaching up, he fiddled with his locket. It granted him no combat bonus to equip it. Even so, he’d never taken it off or replaced it with anything else because it was a keepsake from his late father that he was told might protect him in his needed hour.
Julian unclipped the chain, holding out the locket to stare at it. After a second, he sent it to his storage ring and said, “Alright.”
His party members,his friends, all looked at him with varying states of surprise.
Sir Tully choked on his flying pork sausage. “Wait, really?”
“Sure. Pass it.” Julian held out his hand to the paladin, who scrambled to do as he was asked. As Julian equipped the amulet, he considered the other changes to his equipment and smirked. “This’ll go well with my new armor set.”
“Whatnew armor set?” Visha asked sharply.
“Is Miss Gerda already giving you presents?” Pram asked with a knowing look. “That is my favorite part of the courtship ritual.”
“I think that’s only a selkie thing,” Sir Tully pointed out; Pram’s excitement visibly faded.
“She did, in fact, gift me my new armor set,” Julian said, and Pram regained a bit of his vigor. Julian was sad he’d have to wait until Gerda returned to show off.
