“What, you don’t want to come with me?”

Kesem shrugged. He didn’t look up from the papers he’d spent all day buried in. “Unlike you, I’ve got responsibilities now. Perhaps if you bothered to act your age, you would also be too busy working to complain about not having someone to mess around with.”

Casper frowned. “Like you didn’t enjoy it! You know she did. I was thinking of going to that place she always liked, I thought you’d want to go there. You cling to pretty much everything else about her.”

“I’m not going.” Kesem made a point to hide more of his face from view, a sign that Casper’s words had done something. “Go find someone else to play your games.”

“Come on, you’re the only one who can go! It’s going to be boring without anyone there. Also Grandfather probably wouldn’t like me on my own.”

“Do I want to know why you’re so insistent on going?”

“Mother wants me to attend this stupid party with a bunch of rich noblewomen. But if I’m not there, I don’t have to be around a bunch of desperate women trying to become the future queen.”

“Maybe getting a wife would make you realize you can’t fool around forever.”

“Getting a wife just made you boring.” Acknowledging he’d find no more help in the older, Casper turned to Lucas. “Do you think we could just go on our own?”

“If you want your grandfather to be angry when he finds out,” was the spirit’s casual response. “But that doesn’t stop you on a normal day, why should that matter now?”

“What’s with that condescending tone? You did all kinds of stuff Clari didn’t want you to!”

Lucas only shrugged.

Casper considered his options, now that he knew neither of them were with him. “Do you remember where Mother said the party was?”

“The Stones had offered to host it, didn’t they?”

“Alright, then I just need to avoid that area while being somewhere Grandfather can’t get mad at me for…” He went into deep thought until he grew a mischievous grin. “Got it! I’ll go to Alyselin. Only those caretakers live there and if anyone asks I was visiting Grandmother’s grave. There’s got to be something special to do there aside from looking at graves, right?”

…

He took Harriet and rode out on his own—that way, hardly anyone would notice that he left before it was too late to catch up to him. He’d left a note too, of course, but the two of them missing already let them all know he’d done it intentionally.

It was getting dark when he got there, but he didn’t care. He had yet to allow himself to fear the shadows and what lurked in them; he wasn’t even certain that they existed, since he’d never seen any of them himself.

“So, where should I start?” he wondered aloud. “Were there any hidden secrets here when you were alive?”

“I’ve told you before, this isn’t the Alyselin of my time,” Lucas said with a bit of disappointment. “They’ve rebuilt a lot of things over the years. I wouldn’t even say that these were the same streets I walked all those years ago.”

“They couldn’t have gotten rid of everything, right? Maybe things on the outside look different, but the skeleton of the place is still over a thousand years old.”

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“The only thing I can recall was rumors of the barracks having an underground system to ones in the capital, but—”

“Sounds perfect! Which direction were those in, again?”

Lucas looked like he might’ve objected, before remembering the person he was the spirit of. He pointed down one of the silent streets. “That’s where they were. Who knows if they’re still there, though…”

Casper practically ignored all of what the spirit said. Sure, it would be great if he could find something exciting. But, mostly, this was just him biding his time until he was able to get out of doing something he didn’t want to. Anything would be better than hearing his mother list the “unique qualities” of all those noblewomen.

The thought alone was enough to bring him a step closer to insanity.

“You know, I’d assumed you’d be more interested in the offer,” Lucas remarked casually. Casper could never figure out if Lucas could read his thoughts or if he was just that good at understanding what the prince was thinking. “Your grandfather made it quite clear last year that the only way you were going to take his place was if you were married.”

“Yeah, and that’s not the only thing he said that he ended up changing his mind on. He’s already old, in a year or two he’ll probably either die or realize he really doesn’t want to put up with it anymore.” Casper shrugged. “It’ll happen eventually. Can you blame me if I don’t want a woman who’s either only interested in the money or so stupid she can’t think for herself?”

“Personally I feel that you’re just more interested in running around.”

“Hey, I’ve met probably all of the noble redheads in Mikkel territory. If they don’t do it for me with the way I’m connected to you, no one’s going to. Maybe Tramos is where all the hot women are! How am I going to know if I never wander around?”

“I can’t believe I was sparking rebellion at your age…”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

And a completely different, unfamiliar voice answered from somewhere nearby: “We don’t have all damn day, you know.”

“Oh, geez, you’re so annoying!” another new voice moaned. “I’d kill you if I didn’t have to work with you…”

Then a third voice. “Both of you, be quiet. Valgrin and Bozul said they saw someone nearby.”

“Oh, lighten up, no one lives here,” the second voice said. “This isn’t the same town it was before I became a Messenger—it’s a glorified graveyard now.” A pause. “Damn, I’m old. But not as old as you, Jun!”

“Age matters not,” the first voice muttered. “What matters is that we spend that time properly serving out our gods’ wills. Something you’re both failing to do by taking so long.”

A hmph. “Well, I don’t see you putting any effort into it! As far as I can tell, there’s nothing here.”

Casper carefully rounded the corner in order to get a good look at the strangers. One of them, the tallest, was masked with a cloak and hiding any possible distinguishing features. The other two were young women, both looking to be around the same age, one overly eager and the other nervously glancing around her.

It was the nervous one that noticed him.

“That’s who Valgrin and Bozul saw,” she said in a surprisingly calm tone. She’d been the owner of the third voice.

The eager one immediately stopped what she’d been doing. She was the second voice. “Oh hey, can we kill him? I want to kill him.”

“That would be necessary,” the tallest—the first voice—concluded after a moment of observation. “We can use this. Mortal, send a message to your kin: the worst still has yet to come.”

Casper was immediately just that much more interested in finding out what they were doing, but Lucas had quickly brought up points against it. It took a moment, but eventually Casper listened to him and quickly walked away again.

He never considered that day to be anything special, at least not then. Lucas never explained what he thought was worth leaving in such a rush for. It took a few years, but Casper was able to see it all for himself; the troubles they’d have to face on their road to a peaceful future.

Yet, even looking at that, he was sure that wasn’t what that stranger was talking about…