She turned back and the look she gave him would wither lesser men. He had already lost points, and was digging a deeper hole by the minute. It was strange, suddenly the air around Serefina and Marlon seemed darker, as if a giant shadow was covering them both "I trusted you with my secret...but you can't trust me with yours. If something were to happen to me, an entire country would suffer, I think I have a right to be paranoid. Can you say the same?"

She wasn't really expecting an answer, and so turned back to her path, although she didn't walk more than a few paces ahead. She remembered her brother's orders. For now, Marlon was in charge and besides, she didn't want anyone overhearing the subject of the debate. Hence the shadow. Even in anger, she wasn't stupid.

"Considering that the suffering country would likely end up mine, yeah, I think I can say that. Besides, there's a bit of difference in our secrets. You're at home, where you could get protection if you needed it, while all I have are a couple of guards."

And he shut his mouth, like her, for now. The middle of the street wasn't the place for arguments like this.

She turned back and looked at him, filing away the information. He was comparing his situation to hers. Which was extremely odd, few would be so bold. She wasn't egotistical. In this, she was merely being practical...and parnoid. When they reached the warehouse, she crossed her arms over her chest and turned to the side, waiting for him to open the door.

Which he did, waiting for her to walk through the open door before following. As much to make sure that nobody attacked her from behind as anything. With those killers around...he wanted to be careful, in case they connected Serefina to Reinelle. In fact, he even locked the door behind him, just as an added layer of protection.

"Be careful, here. If an attempt was made on your life, then there's no promise that they haven't connected Serefina and Reinelle together, which would lead them here. Dammit, I so was not expecting life-threatening danger to come into my life when I went and rescued you..."

Serefina just looked at him as if she couldn't believe that he could believe that. "That is complete and utter bullshit. You crave adventure much like I do. Or you never would have done it in the first place. You went out of your way to do something that a 'mere' merchant wouldn't have dared do, even for the favor of a princess. Hell, if I wasn't so paranoid, it wouldn't have been a lie I told Adrian." She still wasn't happy and that was shown by her body posture as she leaned against the wall.

"I want to trust you, Marlon. But there is too much at stake." She bit at her lip so she wouldn't cry. She'd though she'd found someone who'd liked her for her. She should have known better.

Marlon was simply silent, until he walked over to where they had left her sword, picked it up, and tossed it hilt first towards her.

"Here. If there's danger, you'd better keep this, despite the risk of being recognized. Better to have a weapon you're familiar with that one you don't know the balance of."

And then he simply sighed, looking at her a bit funnily.

"Listen, you're an intelligent girl, ok? A bit rash, but that can be forgiven. If you weren't a princess, I really would consider courting you, but being tied to a throne isn't exactly on my agenda of things to do. At the moment, my goal is to keep you safe. Not only because of the whole political incident thing, but because it'd be a shame to let someone like you die so young."

"Thanks for the glowing recommendation" She caught the hilt easily, and her mood almost instantly improved due straight to the contact with the other part of her soul. "I like you Marlon, but the fact is you could be a danger to my people through me, and if I find out you are, I will hunt you down and kill you. I may sound like a goody toe shoes, but the fact is, I can deal with being raped, killed, maimed or otherwise, but I will not be used to hurt others, especially innocent people."

She began switching out the blades, wondering silently why she'd ever thought..No,s he refused to go down that trail. "At this point, I'm wondering if I should go to Chaizu..."

"It's up to you. But at the moment, it's probably in your countries best interest for you to get out of here, since the Devil seems to still be around and being as annoyingly persistent as ever."

Dammit, this wasn't going to work anymore. He hated having to do this, with a girl he barely trusted, but there was no way he could continue on trying to protect her without his full knowledge and skills. And there was no way he could use those without dropping his guise as a merchant. Damn these complications, cutting his vacation short.

"Now, if you want, since we're alone I'll tell you my secret. On the condition that you swear, by your name and your vows as a paladin, that you won't tell anyone. Not your brother, but the vizier, not the lady down the street, and especially not the Duvahian envoy who's probably still around."

Serefina blinked. She hadn't quite expected that reaction. After all, it rarely worked before. Then again, Marlon seemed to like surprising her around every corner. Her mind was doing it's own calculating. "I would give my word." She held up her hand to stop any words of his that might spew forth.

"But something tells me I don't truly want to know. Whether it be for good or ill." She looked tired and stressed. "I just want a bath, and to curl into a thick comforter and not think about all the hell my emotions have gone through. But I don't get that option. For the moment, I'll trust you as my brother trusts his knowledge of you." She took and lifted the hat off, letting the delicate braids fall off of her head and began pulling her fingers through the braids to smooth out the hair. Even dirty, she looked like a n angel who'd been playing in the mud instead of a lady or a boy.

And he smiled at her. both because he was glad he wouldn't have to spill his secret quite yet, but also because she had decided to trust him. It was nicem being trusted for once.

"Thank you. I'll do my best not to betray that trust, then."

Primes, she was beautiful, even muddy. Seriously. How often would one find beauty like hers in a lifetime, not already claimed?

"See that you don't." She gave him a saucy smirk, worthy of any tavern wench before she went back to sorting out her hair, letting it flow like wisps of smoke around her calves. Even the one hunk she had cut off didn't look too odd at the moment. No wonder Anastazi wanted to protect her so much. She was naive, no matter her skills.

She slid down the wall, and hugged her arms to her body. She was getting what she wanted, why wasn't she happy?

"Be on guard. I'll go check to see if I still have that tub."

he figured she'd want to get clean after all, and things seemed far too awkward right now for him to just stick around. So, he'd disappear into the warehouse. And after a few minutes, if she paid attention...she'd be able to hear the sound of him trying to drag it for use. Damn, but it was heavy, though. Where was Trayt when he was needed?

Originally Posted by Tabi Kat

"Arios, please take Stol's place. Ashe and Arios will be your guards instead." Mariah didn't look like she was about to let up on Arios' cloak anytime soon, and he could really only spare two guards at the moment.

The man kept petting Mariah's hair and back even as he eased her back into the room, so the servants could set down the food for everyone to eat. "M'lay Mariah. You should eat and rest before hysterics overcome you." He was trying to be kind, but he sincerely needed to be able to do his job.

Mariah nodded dumbly and let go of the guard, leaving a little wet patch on his shoulder from where she had been crying. She went over to a sofa and sat down, looking at her hands like an ashamed child. It was when she sat down that she realized she still had the candlestick in her hand, misshapen from her fury. She placed it down on a side table, very sad that she had ruined something that was the Queen's.

Truth be told, Mariah hadn't eaten much at all over the last 48 hours. All she had in terms of food was a raspberry sherbet from that old woman vendor in town and a pint of brew at the Merry Maiden. At the time Mariah hadn't really thought much about getting food because she thought that she had lots of time, but when everything started rolling, she hadn't eaten at all. It was just go go go, fight fight fight, worry, worry, worry. The first down time she had all night was when Aria came and then she went to bed only to be woken up by loud, alarming knocks on the door. To make her point, Mariah's stomach grumbled very loudly.

"Sorry." Mariah said, wiping her eyes with the back of her hands. It wasn't a sorry really for the stomach grumbling, but for everything else that had just happened. She wasn't making the best impression on the Prince Regent by having a temper tantrum and then breaking down crying.

She heard the scrapping sound of the tub and had to laugh. Surely the merchant didn't think he could do it on his own. Then again, this was Marlon, who was too much like her for her own liking sometimes. She stood up and checked her weapon and wiped the tears from her face before she headed into the room where the sound was coming from.

"Need some help?" Her eyes were twinkling, though the pain wasn't too far behind.

There would be a strained tone to his voice, as he continued to manage to inch the heavy tub along, obviously straining. Damn these things were heavy.

"...yeah, some help would be nice...at least if you don't want me collapsing after this..."

Why on earth did they make things this heavy, anyways. Not everyone had dozens of servants to help move things, after all. It was highly impractical. Maybe he'd have to see if a craftsman could find a lighter alloy to make these things out of...

She chuckled at the merchant straining. "And here I thought Duvah was top of the line in technology." She couldn't help but smirk a little as she went over and flicked the tub slightly, her eyes widening in shock at sound she heard.

"Iron? Even with a coating of air magic, Iron rusts too easily. We usually use a copper alloy that is pounded into shape." She laughed, but went to the other side, and began pushing while Marlon pulled. "Where do you want it?" Her smile was even broader, though it was most definitely at Marlon, not with him.

"Don't...blame me...I'm not the one who ordered this, some Eirosan Lady did a year or so ago and never picked it up..."

He continued trying to pull it, and eventually they at least got it to the main room. At which point he glanced around, trying to decide which room would be best for it.

"So...which room should we put it in?"

"Uh huh...sure..." Serefina just chuckled, not saying anything further. "Well, the easiest place to heat it would probably be your bedroom, but is there a water source nearby. I have a few fire stones." An expensive commodity to be sure, but she was a princess, and they did last quite a while. She reached up and peeled off a piece of dried mud from her face.

"A water stone should work for that, right?"

Wait a minute. A merchant, with water stones? That he was actually willing to use? Yep, definitely dropping the merchant act there. After all, any normal merchant would be more worried about the profit from a single stone than how useful it would be to him.

Of course, he wasn't even going to mention the wind stones on his ship, to keep good winds in it's sails.

She began ticking off her fingers. "Water stones will supply water, Fire stones to heat them. Air stones to cool it down if you misjudge the fire stones. And Darkness to protect your privacy if need be." She was still annoyed that she had been shot even through her darkness shield. It could have been a wild shot...but if it was one thing that could pierce darkness besides light, it was air. Air was almost a better scry than water. Made for spies. Perhaps that was why she didn't trust much about Duvah.

But what was even odder, was a princess who was so well learned about the scientific parts of the elemental stones. And especially their balancing. "Too bad there aren't any air stones around. I once saw a theory about lifting entire ships using them. Their calculations were completely off in one respect, the principle was easy enough. I hope that inventor didn't mind." She chuckled at the memory. Not like the Duvahian inventor's room she had accidentally invaded would ever suspect a princess of tampering with his formulae, but still. Hopefully he'd appreciate it.

"Oh? And where exactly had you seen that?"

Marlon was, indeed, curious about where she had. After all, where would she have seen schematics for flying vehicles? About the only place she could have would have been in Duvah, and even then, things like that would be kept secret except from royalty or those working in the project.

Meanwhile, he began moving the tub again, pushing it towards 'his' room.

She smiled. "I'm a princess, when I sneak off, it's not likely that people expect me to go to a place where I can get dirty or the like. I was there to meet a potential husband, but he had run off to deal with some business, so I was stuck there until the next ship arrived to take me home. I was just wandering about and came across a lab, and just happened to see a lab book, I looked at the information...and realized they were doing it wrong for what they wanted, so corrected the information." She shrugged, it didn't seem a big deal to her. It was just 'a day in the life of' to her.

"I think the guy was some high noble or something. It was at the Duvahian palace."

And he stopped for a moment, to just stare at her. So she was the one who had messed with that. Not that he was complaining. There had still been a few mistakes, but the alterations had been enough to set them on the right track, and speed up research by about a year. The day when Duvah could fly...that would be a great day.

"You know, you might want to be more careful of where you wander around, there. Some of those nobles can be quite touchy about their things."

She shrugged, "It was a good cause. Besides, one benefits one, eventually benefits all in good hands and later in bad hands. But there is no stopping knowledge, and my brother wouldn't have let me go there with only three guards if he didn't trust the leaders of the country." She sighed, "I just wish he'd let me know what the Duvah prince looked like. Because I'll still be coming back to that, unless the prince wises up and decides I'm too unladylike like the rest have."

They had finally gotten the tub inside, and Serefina went back out to her trunks to get the various stones she had. All were of course, fully charged. They had a mage of each type on staff to do this very thing. "I'll need a towel, more clothing, and more binding for my breasts." It was almost like Marlon was her servant. She wasn't even paying attention to him as she began to strip out of the dirt shirt, though she remained in the binding as she bent over to place the stones in their place to get everything started.

"...I'm not a servant, you know."

But, he went to grab the things anyways, for multiple reasons. One being that he just didn't feel like fighting with her. Two was just to be helpful. The last and most important one, though, was that she'd likely be stripped when he came back, and it would give him a great excuse to peek at her...

...yeah, he's a perv.