bars

Samantha

She forgot how many times she had counted 35 bars (she had mistakenly counted 34 several times earlier).

“Bup… bup… bup…”

She’d asked the people who had delivered the food what happens next, they hadn’t responded.

Vincent entered.

“I’m sorry.” she said.

He held a bottle and two cups.

“I acted rashly, and it caused pain, and it wasn’t justified. So, sorry.”

He poured into both cups. “I don’t care, Samantha.”

“Oh. Is the stablehand alright?”

“His name is Bernard, and he’s fine, if a bit banged up.”

“And Centigrade?”

“Fine, it’s back on display.”

Vincent drank from his cup.

“So, now what,” said Samantha, “do I just apologize to your dad, or…”

“They’re going to execute you.”

“What? Why?” She shot up.

“I don’t know.”

“That literally doesn’t make any sense. I didn’t cause any lasting harm, right?”

“…I wouldn’t be so definitive.”

“Nothing that would justify execution, though?”

“No.”

“You understand, I ran a Vanguard Guild, right? They won’t stand for this. Anisa wouldn’t stand for this. Hendrik wouldn’t. I… if you combine all the manpower in the country who wouldn’t stand for this, you’d have a force who’d be capable of destroying anything.”

“I don’t know, Samantha.”

Blink.

“So now what?” said Samantha.

Vincent slid the cup through the bars. “I told you a lot of stuff, about magic. Why don’t you tell me how that bag works?”

“Really? That’s the most important information you can extract out of a doomed princess?”

“Yes. I’d think it only fair.”

“…Well, it’s a stipospace backpack with an antigravity crystal in it. The crystal probably came from Anisa, she’s the antigravity specialist, and the backpack itself came from Hendrik. It compresses space, so it’s bigger on the inside than the outside. The crystal reduces weight, because what’s the point in being able to hold more if it’s still just as heavy.”

“How is the space reduced inside of it? Can it be flattened out with stuff inside?”

“I think so, but I think there’s a minimum. If you put a book in there, from the outside, you could get the bag thinner than the book was.”

“I see.”

“I’m not sure I can drink this. My stomach is quite empty.”

“Try. And don’t do anything stupid until I come back.” And he picked back up his cup, and the bottle, and walked for the door.

“What, that’s it?”

And he left.