Ezra stood up as more wards went off. That didn't sound good. Standing in front of the couch, she peered over Zugos' shoulder to see a soldier from her kingdom. She felt a short burst of hope at first, but when she looked closer, she saw it was a living corpse and inhaled sharply. Most likely sent from that dreadful witch. She even recognized him. He was a good, kind, noble and loyal guard. She sighed. This was a powerful witch they were dealing with if she was even able to perform necromancy. She almost jumped when a sudden bolt of lightning was shot from Zugos.

Ezra saw that the sorcerer had picked up something that was attached to the corpse. It looked like a letter. She sat down again as he headed back to the house. She took the letter, not thinking much about the sarcastic comment he said. It was addressed to her [i]Princess Ezra[/i] was on the front. She didn't want to read this in case it had awful news... She slowly unfolded the letter, breaking the seal of her kingdom that the witch used.

[i]Princess Ezra

Your family and staff are still alive and mostly unharmed. Just thought I'd say that first to ease some of your worrying because I'm thinking about your feelings. I know you're worrying right now.

That said, I know what you're doing and if you don't give up and begin to return [b]alone[/b] in three days, I'll unfortunately have to give you something to worry about. And don't think you can try to trick me and escape my knowledge. I have eyes everywhere. And I do mean everywhere princess. After three days, if you insist on playing little Ms. hero, I'll have to start killing off staff. And then quickly make my way to torturing your parents and fiance until they die an agonizingly slow and painful death. Even then, I'll have to fetch you forcefully, but that won't stop their deaths. And it'll all be on your head.

Dreadfully sorry for the threat, but it's necessary. You know what to do.

And tell lovely Zugos hello for me.[/i]

Ezra folded the letter back up. She was at a loss for words. What was she supposed to do? She couldn't go back. Then what was going to happen? Then everyone would be stuck in the castle. But she couldn't keept doing what she was doing. Then her family would die. What was she supposed to do?

She became aware that Zugos was still there, staring at her. "Do you want to read it?" she asked, raising it to him. So many thoughts were running through her head that she didn't have enough energy for. She didn't know what to do or what to think. She had never felt more helpless and useless before. It was apalling.