When Red rejoined the banquet hall, he wasn't surprised to see Merin grinning at two women bawling their hearts out.

Merin could handle herself when she was cornered, or else he wouldn't have left with the Sosia.

"Merin," Red said.

She trotted over to him with a blooming smile on her face. He gestured with his head that they were leaving, and she followed him. Shouts and roars of emotions followed in their wake, but both ignored them.

"How did it go?" Merin asked him in her native tongue.

"What is the name of your language." He said.

Merin blinked, then said, "It's a name lost to time. I call it Arthurian."

Her voice hitched, and Red could feel her heart skip a beat through their bond. A torrent of emotions too complex to comprehend without introspection flooded her heart.

Red didn't have time to unpack any of that, and Merin beat him to the punch anyway.

"What did you talk to your father about?"

"He's not my father," Red said.

Merin's eyes widened, and a twinkle grew in them.

"I didn't mean it like that. He's the Emperor's Sosia."

"Sosia?" Merin said.

"It's the counterpart crafted through magic to serve the Emperor. It can become him during times of uncertainty. He's designed to take a knife in the heart for the Emperor. Sosia are made in the image of the Emperor but have no free will."

"That sounds like a fate worse than death," Merin said. "I would know." She muttered the last part to herself. Had this been a month ago, Red might not have understood what she was saying. The two had countless days and nights of lessons, so he caught it this time.

"How would you know?" He said.

"Where are we going?" She said. Her face was furtive, and she wanted to change the subject.

Red obliged and said, "We're going to my rooms."

Her eyes lit up, expecting more overly decorative horse crap.

That same light went out thirty minutes later when they finally arrived at their destination.

Red could feel pity, anger, and sadness through their bond. He looked at her, unsure why those were pulsing through her veins.

"They live like that, but make you endure this?" She said. "Unacceptable."

"I don't need those trappings. I like it simple."

"This is criminal! You're a prince just like them!"

"I'm not like them," Red said. "I don't need to dress up my surroundings to understand my worth."

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Merin smiled, and new emotions rushed through their bond. Red blinked and rocked on his heels a bit. He might have made a mistake in deepening their connection. Merin was an emotional woman who felt everything under the sun. Red couldn't remember the last time he felt anything so complex.

It wasn't a bad feeling he was finding, and that thought did worry him a little.

Merin made it her mission to spruce up Red's rooms. He called them rooms, but it was a mini palace in its own right. The structure was like the main palace that they left. Tall walls with massive archways and openings to allow fresh breezes in. He didn't have silk draped for privacy; instead, there were thick mothy sheets.

He had rooms, a decent-sized banquet hall, a courtyard, and more. It was hard to see his home. There was a layer of dust, dirt, and spiderwebs on everything. There should have been servants to come in and clean it up even while the prince was gone, Merin raged.

When she told Red this, he laughed. It was then that he dropped a shocking truth. A great majority of the servants thought that he was cursed. They always did the bare minimum before running away, and he had a rotating door of new people.

Red was born with one red eye and one black. His brothers spread the word that he was doomed to die before the Emperor because he donned the colors before his name day. A prince can't earn the right to those colors until the verification of blood is proven, which was done on a prince's name day. Red's name day never happened, so he was considered the nameless prince. Aram was just a formality because of the interrupted day.

"If anything, it should have been interpreted that you would succeed your father."

Red shrugged at that. "Don't expect anyone to come."

"They will," Merin said through narrow eyes. She refused to live in filth or squalor now that she was out of the desert. She had never cleaned a day in her life, and that wouldn't change now.

Merin tracked down the heads of departments for the servants and guards. It was a tiring task as she boldly navigated the main palace halls.

She could tell who was who by how they dressed. The guards all wore dark brown leather. The servants wore white and lighter shades of brown. The slaves comprised the lesser part of the workforce. They were more often than not indentured due to debt owed to a royal or a guard. They wore grey mothy robes and did not have a pin to set them apart.

Everyone who personally served the royal family had pins. The leaders of the servants and guards wore pins of twisted copper with black edgings. Merin had learned that the color and shape of the pin were the most crucial part. The princes each had a personal symbol for the black and red pins that their people used.

So that was how she was able to find them. She did it through the copper and black pins. The group of them were eating little cakes while they played dice.

Merin cleared her throat sharply to get their attention.

Instead of responding or following the customs she'd painstakingly memorized, they made more noise.

Merin narrowed her eyes and inhaled to grant herself the patience to deal with them. "One more chance." She muttered under her breath and tried to clear her throat again.

The disrespectful gamblers made more noise to drown it out.

"And there goes my grace," Merin said with a serene smile and stormy blue eyes.

She flicked her wrist with a bored swish and knocked everything off their table to the ground. Then she flipped her hand to send the table and seats carrying people afloat.

Screams and panic-induced curse words escaped her victim's mouths as they finally looked at her.

"Good, I have your attention," Merin said in perfect Habrinon. Her peaceful smile stayed plastered across her face, but each word dripped venom. "Lower your eyes. You know the rules."

They did so immediately.

"My Rutilus Aram is overly generous in that he doesn't punish those that don't perform their duties. I'm not the same. If I see a speck of dust or another bug being eaten by a spider..." She paused and shuddered at the memory. That was a terrible way to die, and she has now ranked it higher on her extensive list. She needed to treat Red better because he saved her from being digested. What was she thinking? Death by digestion was not the way she should go out; she was embarrassed that she welcomed it then.

Merin shoved that memory deep into the recess of her brain. She opened her eyes only when she gathered herself. Her eyes looked away from the cowering floating people to inspect their clean quarters.

Mercy was theirs to have when they earned it; she decided this would be their final chance.

"I know what I will do if I see a dirty home. I'll start with you and work down from there." Merin said.

She dropped them painfully to the floor and walked away. Nothing was more disgusting than a messy home, and if they didn't take her threats seriously, they would pay dearly.