Julia

  There was a soft, tentative kno the door before it was unlocked.

  "e in!" Peter rolled his eyes. "Who we wele to our pace?"

  Leopold came in with a trite expression. "Hey."

  "Hey!" Marko growled. "You’re showing up here? Now?"

  Leopold stopped in the doorway. "How are you?"

  "Magnifit!" Marko crept closer to him and before Leopold could react, he grabbed him by the colr. "So? Do you have anything to tell us?"

  "Marko, no!" Julia rushed to the two and touched the shoulder of the angry wolf. "Please let him go."

  He gave her a venomous look, then pushed Leopold bato the hallway. "If that’s your wish." He sat dowo Finn. Julia hurried into the hallway and helped the elf up. "What do you want from us now?"

  Peter followed her into the hallway and gave Leopold a brief, skeptical look. Marko's soft growl could be heard from the guest room.

  "Nice!" Peter looked at the tapestries and paintings that decorated the walls of the hallway. They showed flowers and dang elves in the woods. "So this is where you live? But I don't see anyone else here. Aren't your parents here to make sure we stay in our pretty room?"

  "My mother is in the living room and my father should e back soon", Leopold replied. "Our elder wouldn't like it if we let you out."

  Julia could hear, how a door ened briefly, before it was closed again shortly after that.

  "Wouldn’t he?" Peter looked around with i. "And that would stop us? I think Marko is very ied in leaving this small room!" As if as a firmation, anrowl could be heard from the guest room.

  "The eldest?" Julia stood o her brother and crossed her arms. "And what do you want?"

  "To kill us servants!", hissed Marko from the guest room.

  Leopold shook his head. "No. I want us all to be free. I want the binding of servants to be banned! No one should have to fear such a fate!"

  "That es down to the same thing!" Marko now came to the door of the guest room. Finn followed him carefully. "Is that what you want?"

  "Of course not! But what choice do we have?"

  Julia could uand him. She had also thought she had no choice. Peter had thought he had no choice. "It is not possible to solve binding spells safely. At least not yet. Maybe someday someone will create a suitable spell. But creating new spells is not easy. Leo... How do you think this will go? Why didn't you say anything? Maybe we would have found another solution." She felt sorry for him and at the same time she was disappointed. And angry, even if she could uand the desire for freedom.

  "I'm sorry about your hair. The eldest only wanted a strand, but Inga wasn't satisfied with that."

  Julia nodded. "Thank you... But this is only a small fort. At least they will grow back. Leo? The pn will not succeed. I saw it. In a vision. The vilge is being burned down by soldiers."

  "What's going on here?" Leopold's father came into the house and looked at her fused. "Why aren't our hostages locked up? This will not please the elder. Leopold?"

  Another door opened, Julia could see a bright aper, and Leopold's mother looked around the er. "We won't lock them up any lohey are children!"

  Peter grimaced. "I'm certainly not a child...", he grumbled.

  "Franz angrily bang on our front door I don’t care", Flora tio pin. "We won't lock that door anymore!"

  "But honey!" Hanno shook his head. "We 't do that!"

  "We !" Flora came out of the living room and stood o her son with her arms crossed. "They are my guests!"

  "Juli?" Leopold looked at Julia in fusion. "What do you mean, the pn will not succeed? The vilge from your vision is our vilge? The one you told me about? It is? Are you sure?" He seemed restless, and indecisive. He chewed on his lower lip with a furrowed brow.

  "Yes. My mother will not respond to your bckmail attempt. Everyone here is in danger! Why didn't you tell me? Don't you trust me?"

  "That's obvious!" Marko put his arm around Finn. "He didn't tell us anything. Pyed the good friend just to betray us!"

  "We are in danger?" Flora looked shocked. "Really?"

  "Or it's a lie." Hanno looked at Julia frowning. "We 't trust a witch. And not a young oher!"

  "No. We trust her!", Leopold tradicted him stunned. "She's told me about this vision before... But she didn't know which vilge it was... If she says we're going to fail, that's true. We o talk to Franz! He won't like that... Everything would have been in vain. Isn’t that true?"

  "He certainly won't listen!" Hanno looked at the front door. "He is firmly vinced of the success of his pn. Tomorrow evening a party is to be celebrated, I have just heard about it. For our freedom. Everyone should bring some food with them. Franz's nephews no longer allow humans access to our vilge. I've seeand guard oreet."

  "A party?" Flora petted Leopold's hair. "How cruel!"

  "So...", Finn spoke up quietly. " We get out of here?"

  "As long as you stay in the house", Flreed. "I don't want to risk you being locked up in a ste room."

  Marko growled and looked at the front door. "Tonight is a full moon."

  "You have to stay in the house, Marko. Really!", said Leopold urgently, and then sighed.

  Babette

  The fire in the firepce had long siinguished. It was quiet in the mansion where Babette should have lived. White sheets y over the armchairs and the sofa in the firep. She stood in front of the painting that showed her aer. Tears ran down Babette's cheeks. It was all ruined. Her eure. What was she supposed to do now?

  Her retives were certainly tearing their mouths over her tragedy. A shame. Abandoned by a prince who dared to say no. In a wedding dress! A wedding dress! She had been the bride...

  Now she stood there as a fool. Over the past few days, she had avoided as many people as possible. She didn't want their false pity.

  She should be a princess now!

  Babette held a knife in her hand. With the other, she touched the edge of the painting. That should have been her future. She took the knife and cut across the rge picture.

  "Babette?" Her father approached her. "Do you want to go home now?" He did not pay a single g the destroyed painting. Instead, he took the k of his daughter's hand and pced it on the windowsill. The entire house was furnished. Staff was hired. Why should she go home?

  "We'll find someone new for you." The baron smiled. "And then you move iogether. Your stepmother and I are already looking around."

  "Someone new?" Babette looked out of the window. "That doesn't make me a princess either."

  "No. Don't you want anyone else?"

  "I should be a princess now! Guests should celebrate my well-being right now. This picture should hang on a wall. Instead, it is no longer needed. How dare he?" ed, she knocked over the painting, which hit the floor with a loud bang.

  "I don't know my child. Let's go home first. Your stepmother is waiting for us. She was very tired earlier. I promised her not to stay here too long with you. Did you get everything you wao get?"

  "I want to stay here. That's why I wao e. Not to pack things!" All her clothes were already hanging in the rge closet in the bedroom. Everything that beloo her was in this house.

  "Let's go home."

  "So that more retives and friends try to attack me with their dolences, just so that they gossip among themselves ter?" Babette shook her head.

  "No." Her father slowly pushed her to the front door. "So that you are with me and your stepmother. Besides, she also use your help now, as weak as she always is. Are you happy? You get a cute sibling! And don't worry. We'll find someone for you!"

  A sibling.

  Babette didn’t want a sibling. She wasn't happy about that. At least it wouldn't be a witch or wizard. Not at all. But that was not a good fort.

  She didn't want to help her stepmother. She wao be a princess!

  "Of course", she murmured.

  Agathe

  Where could Julia be? Where? Should she try to see something in a vision?

  Sathe had heard nothing. She leaned ba her armchair in the firep and closed her eyes. She focused on what she wao see. Her daughter. Where was she at this moment?

  And then... At st... White noise and a few pictures!

  Julia in a small living room. Tea and biscuits. From a window, some trees could be seeer tells her something. The two wolves are sitting on a few cushions...

  And that was it. That's all Agathe saw. No matter how many times she tried. Each time she saw the living room and the trees nearby. That wasn't enough to find her daughter.

  "Agathe?" Friedrich came into the living room. "Have you heard of Julia?"

  "No. Nothi. I think you'll have to go to the marshnd alone. I'll stay here."

  "Alone?"

  "It's your son." She looked at the fire in the firepce. "Your blood. Not mine. I want to be here when they find Julia! And I want to hear what she has to say!"

  "And if something happeo her?"

  "She's fine."

  "Are you sure?"

  "I had a vision. She was sitting in the living room. Maybe she is actually with Ingried or Paul. Peter is with her. But I 't possibly travel as long as our daughter is gone. You have to go to the wedding alone."

  "And if they find them today? Tomorrow?"

  "Then we drive together. But be prepared to drive alone!"

  The fire flickered as it ate the wood. Something was reassuring about this kind of destru. "I heard there are dragons in the snd. Take care of yourself."