In the meantime, young Blödu had settled on a long, wooden bench in the Little Alpine Rose's rustic parlor. In his right hand, he held a bear-shaped pitcher of beer,* in his left the traditional nine cards of a starting game of jass. His mind was completely at ease in the knowledge that the place with the wenches wasn't too far away and that the big city offered attractions far beyond his humble expectations.

And that was how his career began.

Blödu soon realized that none of the residents was a match for him. His skills with the cards, honed by hundreds of jassed-away nights in mountain pubs, allowed him to win any game he wanted.

This—combined with the high stakes they played for in the underground card playing scene—soon turned Blödu into a rich man. True to his Bernian roots, he spent the money wisely, invested in illegal gambling bars, the local mafia, and the best wenches the city offered.

Blödu soon found his place among the most influential crime lords of the capital.

_____

* Leading etymologist agree the close resemblance of the words bear and beer roots actually in the old bernian tradition to serve beer in bear-shaped mugs. Although it remains a mystery if the beer or the bears existed first.

~ ~ ~

Tussinelda, on the other hand, started a shoe business, first by selling anything high-heeled that Sürmu could conjure up. In the beginning, her clients were the ladies of the castle. While Sürmu's payment consisted of the occasional glimpse at Tussinelda's long (but somewhat hairy) legs, she earned enough to bribe her way out of the keep and into the city.

She married the head of the shoemaker's guild, a merry, elderly gentleman, who soon after their marriage was killed in an unfortunate accident involving a stiletto (the shoe, not the knife).

With her late husband's money, the young widow was able to start a proper shoe business and to get regular leg shavings. The later enticed Sürmu to develop a broader set of charms for innovative head-, hand-, and footwear. Tussinelda's fortune multiplied.

Blödu and Tussinelda had all but forgotten each other.

👠👠👠 ♠️♠️♠️

Years passed.

~ ~ ~

And while we let the years pass, we might pay a visit to our other protagonists. As considerate authors, we don't want to bore our few readers, after all.

~ ~ ~

King Löu, after exploring and bleaching countless maidens with the Yonder stone,* realized that it was time to turn his attention back to his kingdom. He ordered Lord Glünggi to prepare the largest party Larktrodden Castle had ever played host to and to invite the crème de la crème of local entrepreneurship to attend.

Thus, Blödu and Tussinelda, as CEOs of the city's leading SMEs, both received an invitation—a white envelope carrying the blindingly white royal sigil.

Blödu opened the envelope to read the well-worded summons. Its letters were set in elaborate, almost invisible white ink on the whitest deckle edge paper. Actually, he had to hold the text close to a candle to decipher the lettering in the sidelight.

His experience in the city's murkier waters had taught Blödu to be suspicious. What had pushed the king to give up his introspective ways and to reach further than the pink-and-purple walls of his castle?

Tussinelda, to the other hand, felt delighted. An invitation to a ball in the king's castle opened a treasure trove of business opportunities for a clever (or, as some rivals put it, shrewd) businesswoman specializing in the finer art of accessories.

Suddenly aware her legs needed shaving, she engaged in a flurry of activity, including visits to her pedicurist and hairdresser, delegating her promising young assistant Barbarella to spy on the leading town-ladies teatime chatting about fashion trends for the upcoming ball and calling Wizard Sürmu for a private meeting in her chambers.

_____

* Right, years have passed, as you might remember.

~ ~ ~

While everyone was busy—Lord Glünggi up to his head in ball preparations, Blödu double-checking his professional safety nets, Tussinelda enticing Sürmu to explore previously unknown, enigmatic depths of spellcasting, and the king expertly bleaching virgins—a new challenge arose on the far northern border of the kingdom.

While king Löu was perfectly content with how Sürmu exorcized the castle's surplus of white witches once a month, most of the said witches were unhappy with this development.

They had been lured from the bosom of their families, out of cozy homes and villages, promised life in luxury (or so they thought at the time), and they ended up used, bleached, and discarded by the king. They moped around the castle, wailing about their loss of color, virginity, and future, and were finally expelled by the wizard's spells.

None of them realized the Yonder Stone not only took from them but also gave.

One by one, they drifted north, guided by an unexplainable longing.