We just stare at each other for a while, I glance away first, and clear my throat before asking, “So, what was your sister like?” I don’t know if that was the right question, if this was the right action. What the Prince just shared with me felt so personal, so… desperate. I don’t know how to respond. My fingers twitch nervously and I fold my hands together as Yaluda replies.

“Istere was–” he chuckles sadly “--so alive is the best way to describe her I suppose. She put her soul into everything she did. She had passion, ambition, a drive to reach for the best future possible. She had rigorous morals and a dream she wanted to fulfill above all else. At times, she was hard to read. But I always knew her actions were taken to get closer to her goals." He blinks hurriedly, staring down at his hands. I lean over to look at his face, trying to gauge his expression. To my surprise, I see a single tear sliding down his face. He quickly smears it away.

"It's not your fault." I cut in hurriedly. He looks a little shocked. I'm not sure what to make of that expression, so I blunder on. "There was no way you could have known your father would drag her into this and have her be killed."

Yaluda laughs, and it's not even his ironic laugh, it's his genuinely amused laugh. I stare at him, even more befuddled. Was something I said funny? Was it not guilt over his sister's death that had sparked his tears?

Instead of explaining his odd behavior though, Yaluda simply says "We should get going, I can tell you more about Istere on the way."

He gets up from the big table and pushes his chair in. I follow suit. He holds the door open for me while I finish, and we walk out together. He leads us down the hallway in the opposite direction that the king and his ministers went when they originally left the room, before ducking into another servant's passage.

"Seriously," I mutter, "does everybody know about these things?"

Yaluda overhears me. "No, none of the temporary guards know then, and only the servants know all of them. I just know a couple of the important ones because my sister and I would use them to dodge patrols when we were getting into trouble."

"Which, I get the feeling you did often." I say jokingly.

"You just might be right." Yaluda shoots a grin back at me, his teeth flashing in the muted light of the servants tunnel. "Ah! Here we are," he announces a couple of seconds later. "Disguise room!" He snags a lamp off the wall, and, shadows spinning wildly, opens a door on the left side of the passage. Grabbing a long skinny stick from a batch by the door, he deftly opens the lamp, and spreads its fire to a number of sconces along the wall. As he goes out to return the lamp, I study the room. It's small and squarish, as if a 2-year-old tried to copy a square, but couldn't get the lines quite straight. A think rug covers the cold stone floor, and six chests– two on either side, one right next to the door, and one across from it– line the walls. Other than dogs, and a small curtained changing section, the room is completely barren.

Yaluda comes back in, quickly shutting the door behind him and throwing open one if the chest lids. Out pops the hem of a frilly dress, hitting him square in the face. "Ugh!" he mutters through her mouth full of silk, "I forgot how stuffed these are."

Tossing aside the plume helm of a newly promoted knight and one belled shoe of a performer of some kind, she pulls out a green tunic, and after rummaging a bit more, a gold star pin and a white undershirt.

"You can keep your belt, shoes, and pants, but the rest needs to be replaced." He elaborates, handing the items off to me. "Go behind the curtain and get changed, I hope I got your size right."

“It looks fine to me.” I confirm, and go to try the stuff on.

I briefly wonder why Yaluda requested I get changed behind the curtain, before I try to imagine Yaluda getting changed in front of me, and quickly realize this is definitely for the better.

Behind the curtain, which is semi-translucent to let light through, a mirror is hung. Glancing into it, I finish straightening myself out, and, once my face has cooled down a bit, head on out to get the Prince’s approval.

His lips curve into a smile as his gaze slides up and down my new outfit. I feel my skin heat again under his close inspection.

“Very fine.” He says, and then immediately flushes his eyes widening. “That came out wrong! The clothes– I meant– they fit you well, not–!” He stutters.

Amused at his uncharacteristic blunder, I take pity on him and break in. “I know what you meant.”

Still blushing slightly Yaluda says, “We should get going.” And hurries out the door, not even bothering to put my old costume in a box. After dousing the sconces, I follow him.

Yaluda keeps up a brisk trot through numerous servant passages and often crossing normal halls as well. I quickly lose track of where we are, and just trust him to know which pathway is best. We eventually exit the building through a side door, and then, after quickly glancing right and left, Yaluda gestures that we should continue onwards. “Wait.” I pull him back, “We don’t need to rush, hurrying around like this makes us look rather suspicious, don’t you think? Why don’t we just walk normally?”

“I suppose you’re right.” Yaluda concedes, “I just didn’t want to linger in the palace passages any longer than we had to. Most of the nobles are out in the afternoon, so the servants use that time to clean their rooms. I didn't want to run into any of them in the passages.” From a ways behind us, there is a brief clatter, as if someone just dropped something on the floor. Glancing back, Yaluda adds on, “Besides, I thought you wanted to get back, your friends are probably worried about you.”

I think back to how I snuck out in the middle of Faladel and Briareth’s discussion, not ever mentioning where I was going. “Yeah,” I agree guiltily, “They’re probably pretty freaked out by now.”

“Especially that prince of yours– Faladel wasn’t it? He’s quite uptight from what I’ve seen, so I’d bet he’s a worrier as well.” Yaluda muses, stepping out of the doorway and onto the cobblestone path. He suddenly glances back at me, as if only now registering what I’d said. “You did tell him and Briareth what you were up to, right?”

I flinch guiltily, and then shrug at his exasperated expression that clearly asks what in the world I was thinking, leaving without telling my companions. But instead of giving him a proper answer, I direct our conversation back to a safe topic that I actually have a good response for.

“First of all, Faladel’s not my anything,” I say, and then reconsider, “Well, except for perhaps my friend. Maybe. And he has his reasons for wanting to stick to his rules.”

Realizing that I planned to leave it at that, Yaluda presses o, curious.

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“Oh? What reasons?”

I hesitate, considering my next words carefully as we round a bend. “I don’t actually know them, but he certainly seems like the type to have them, even if he doesn’t talk about them.”

“True that.” Yaluda laughs quietly to himself. “Although I sincerely hope he’ll be able to bend his rules a little this time. We need my father out of the picture if anything is ever going to change around here.” He stops at the tower door and opens it for me. I smile at him.

“Agreed.” I reply, walking in. The door closes behind us with a click.

We start up the stairs, Yaldua cautioning me that we should discuss more mundane matters now that we’re back in an area where as he puts it “the walls have ears, and the paintings eyes.” I remember the peephole I peered out of and decided he definitely has a point. After climbing a few sets of stairs in silence, I find a topic that’s interesting enough, but also wouldn’t raise any alarms from interested ears.

“So you were close with your sister, but what about with your mom? She died when you were young, right?”

“Yes, she died when I was eight.” Yaluda’s hand tightens around the guardrail on the stairs for a second, but then he releases it and continues climbing up the cylindrical staircase. “I guess we were close when I was really little, it's hard to imagine a mother and son not being close at the start. But once I began to gain my own ideas and opinions, it was clear they differed vastly from hers. And she disapproved. Harshly. As I grew older, she became more deeply involved in the church, more under the thumb of the High Priest”. Yaluda stares morosely at the underside of the stairs above us and I realize this wasn’t as good a topic as I’d originally thought.

“What about the current queen? Your stepmother? Is she any better?” I ask, scrambling for someone else to talk about.

Yaluda pauses for a second, seeming to give the matter some thought. “No, if anything, she’s worse.”

“Oh.” I say simply. There really isn’t much else I can say to that. “Wait, did you hear that?”

“What?” asks Yaluda. “I didn’t hear anything.”

“Maybe I imagined it.” I say, glancing down, “I thought I heard a soft scraping sound.”

“Probably a servant opening an old passage. Come on, we don’t want to be out here if they enter the main area. It’s best if we get seen as little as possible.” Yaluda replies and hurries up the next flight of stairs. We quickly reach our floor– we didn’t have that much further to go –and duck inside the library. Blix, who’d just come out to replace one of the other guards, meets us at the tapestry, and shows us inside.

Briareth jumps up to greet us immediately.

“Blix told us where you were, but you shouldn’t have run off!” He exclaims, giving me a hug.

I’m not much of a hugger, but I awkwardly pat him on the back until he releases me. Faladel is still sitting down, but he’s watching us over his cup of still steaming hea.

“We're glad you’re safe, but please next time let us know where and when you’re going somewhere? We were really scared when we first realized you were gone.”

“Skip that!” Briareth announces. “Take me with you next time! It’s boring in here! There’s only so many times you can play poker before going insane. Especially when somebody–” He glares over at Faladel “–keeps winning!”

“It’s not my fault you can’t keep a straight face.” Faladel says, and, chuckling, takes a sip of his tea.

“Sorry, Briareth.” Blix adds. “You may be short by elf standards, but you’re still a good finger taller than any dwarf I’ve ever seen, and with the castle all fired up since we broke you out, that's more than enough to get you caught. So, unless you fancy another trip back to the dungeon, I’m afraid you’re staying here for the foreseeable future.”

“Oh come on!” Briareth exclaims, throwing his hands up in the air.

“That goes for you too, Balderk.” Yaldua says.

“What?!” I protest, “But I was fine! Nothing happened!”

“But it could have.” Yaluda says grimly. “Next time you might not be so lucky. That’s why I’m putting an end to this now. Unless both Blix and I have agreed it’s necessary, none of you are going out.”

“Sounds reasonable.” Faladel says, and finishes the rest of his tea. But Briareth and I both see it differently.

“You know you’re basically imprisoning us again, right?” Briareth asks. “Yeah, it's prettier. But it’s still a prison.”

“You might want to change your minds after you hear the information I’ve gathered.” I say stoutly.

“Share away if you’re so confident.” Blix says, looking more than a little interested. We all sit down and I tell them the entirety of the conversation I overheard behind the tapestry, and then the one I had with Beni and Lutti.

“They’re good eggs, Yaldua.” Blix says after I’m done. Faladel offers me some tea– he’d already poured a cup for everyone else, –but I wave him away, my eyes fixed on Yaluda

“Perhaps.” Yaluda allows. “But I'm more interested in the fact that the PPG has spies. Balderk had mentioned it to me earlier, when he first found me outside, but I wanted to hear your take on it.”

“Well, it’s not really a shock, you and I both knew it was more than likely. This just confirms it and narrows down my list of suspects a lot.”

“And the fact that he’s waiting for a powerful “narcissistic lunkhead” to die is also helpful.” Yaluda adds, “Someone in the church clearly doesn’t like my dad.”

“It’s most likely the High Priest.” Blix replies. “Because of those new laws restricting church authority that the King passed recently.”

“Yes, you’re right! Ever since then, they’ve been on terrible terms. Good catch Blix.” The prince says thoughtfully. “And good job finding all this out Balderk. Even if it doesn’t help us directly, it's still good to know what the other powers that be are doing. Especially when they’re working together to cook up something.”

“Not good enough to let me back out again though?” I guess, looking at Yaluda’s still firm face.

“No.” he confirms. “It's just too dangerous. I don’t want to put you– put our whole operation at risk like that.” Blix opens his mouth, but before a single syllable can escape, Yaldua cuts him off. “However, Blix, you can re-establish contact with Beni and Lutti. Tell them they’re on a need-to-know basis, but we’ll use their information when they have anything useful.”

Blix smiles, obviously pleased with this outcome. “Excellent.” He says.

I stare at Yaluda frowning. “It’s not like they wouldn’t snoop around anyway.” he defends his decision. “I’m not putting them in unnecessary danger, nor am I trusting them outright.”

I look away, Briareth slurps his cup of tea loudly, and then changes the subject. “Well, Faladel still doesn’t want to kill anyone, but he agreed it might be necessary since we can’t force the King to abdicate. However, from the sound of it, we may need to change your little plan from outright outright murdering him.” He gulps down the rest of his tea and holds out his cup for more. Faladel refills it with the last of the pot as Blix, Yaluda, and I stare at him.

“Why?” Blix asks.

“Well because that priest guy and the suspicious nobles are waiting for him to die.” Briareth says. “Once he’s dead, they kickstart their plan, which probably involves you all being dead shortly afterwards.” he takes another gulp of tea, and then immediately spits it back into the cup. “HAAHHT!” He gasps.

Faladel blinks, “Excellent deduction, Briareth.” He says, clearly mulling it over in his own head. “From the way everyone talks about this priest and those noble houses, it's quite probable they’re plan is to dethrone you, Prince Yaldua, as soon as you take power. That’s when you’ll be most vulnerable after all.”

“So we need allies.” I say grimly. Everyone turns to look at me. “What?” I ask, feeling my cheeks heat up. “I was in the army for ten years after all, you do pick up on simple tactics after a while. This situation isn’t too complicated. You either find some allies to watch your back when you take the throne, or promise these guys something so that they won’t attack you right after you gain control. Unless you can convince them that a frontal assault won’t work or will deal them significant damage even if it does work, they have no reason to agree to any deals. So the first option, gaining more allies so they won’t dare try anything, is the safest bet.”

“Nobody was questioning your competence, Balderk.” Yaluda offers. Briareth looks like he’d love to cut in, but Yaldua continues too quickly for him to make an interjection. “You make a great point. The only problem is getting people to agree to ally themselves with us in the first place.”

“Choosing who to trust.” Blix clarifies, “And how much to trust them with.”

As soon as the last words leave his lips, the door to our room swings open and a young dwarf marches in and announces, “I want in!”