"Mom! Dad!", Sofia came bursting into the castle's main dining area where everyone was, and rushed up, "Carlos is...well...". Upon trying to say it, the young princess faltered and considered how to not make it sound too bad...

Princess Val rose, Elena and many at the table with her.

"What is it?", Miranda asked, "Did he get hurt?". Right after they had promised the Avaloran and Paraíso party nothing would happen!

"I...I don't know, he's...stuck on the tower", Sofia said.

"Stuck?", Manuel asked.

"On the tower?", Gabe frowned puzzled.

Amber and Isabel had trickled in behind Sofia, but neither princess could add much to the story. James next came puffing in, having pulled most of the straw from his hair, and looking mostly presentable...

"We were having a race", he said. Elena glanced over to Valentina and smiled while the other princess sighed.

Miranda also. "James...did you get competitive...".

"Carlos probably helped it along, or started it", Val cut in for the boy's sake.

Manuel already headed off toward the door, familiar with this type of duty, Gabe and Cid following.

"You could do that thing like when you rescued Isabel and Princess Caterina from the Voladores' wooden plank that time", Cid suggested to Gabe.

"Let's see what this tower looks like first", Gabe said.

It wasn't promising.

Once everyone was outside once more, before said tower, they craned up to look at the young noble, who was not pleased.

Elena sighed, "Mateo stayed back in Avalor...Val, you know magic. Can you get him down?".

Valentina sighed, "I left my Tamborita also..."

Roland added to the sighing party, "James, go tell Cedric we need him, and then come right back. We still need to talk about this".

"I'll go get Mr. Cedric, Dad", Sofia offered helpfully.

"Thankyou Sofia, but James needs to be the one to do it", Roland was firm.

The prince frowned lightly and headed off.

***

"Why am I the one in trouble...he started it!", James grumbled to himself as he climbed the stairs up to Cedric's tower. He knocked at the sorcerer's door.

"Enter", Cedric's voice said from within. James did so, finding the sorcerer bent over his cauldron finishing something up no doubt, or just experimenting. He turned to face the prince, looking mildly surprised it was him. "Oh, Prince James, what can I do for you?".

James flopped in the nearby chair, "Dad wants you to come get a noble from Paraíso down from the tower".

"The tower?", Cedric asked, confused.

"Yeah, he got his tunic stuck on a spire", James replied simply, then glanced to their Royal Sorcerer and realized he still didn't understand. "He's younger than me". Incase Cedric thought they were talking about an adult.

"Oh!", this did clear up some of it. The sorcerer went over to a nearby shelf, pulling a few bottles, "A simple floating spell I think...". He glanced over towards James pouting yet again. "Dare I ask how the young noble came to be stuck?".

James slumped further in the chair, bad posture or no, "He's horrible! Insulted Minimus and then cheated in our race!".

Cedric only hummed, "Well these should do it", he gathered three bottles safely in his hand, "Come along and let's rescue the lad".

"Must we?", James found the boldness to ask as he got up and followed.

Cedric chuckled, "Yes. If you leave every child who outdoes, you and is horrible, stuck at the top of a tower...well let's just say that quite a few would still be there from my days in wizarding school...and I myself might still be stuck there, though not from being horrible of course".

James didn't reply, just frowned thoughtfully again. He already knew he was acting a bit unbecoming of a prince, pouting and all, though if only Cedric saw it...

Still he wasn't really looking forward to freeing Carlos just so he could be smart again!