Cinta saunters slightly as she enters her former place of employment. She goes directly to her room and packs all of her belongings, carefully hiding the many items she still has of immense value, and being sure to double tie and pad the bags of coin. She goes down stairs and has a breif argument with the proprietess about the pay she was promised, and leaves with marginally less than she was owed, but more than she expected to recieve. Without a glance back, long hair the color of wet soil trailing behind her, she almost skipped off to a new life, a world full of promise and danger.

And so the queen went off with Prince Eri, buying as much of his stock as he'd let her get away with and still have something to show the Eriosan courts.

Serefina went back to her room, to pen a letter to her brother about what was going on. EVERYTHING. Although it was in a code that she and her brother had developed a long time ago and had proven unbreakable.

Marlon went off, leaving Suki to do whatever, sulking about his wife and mother not trusting him while he went to deal with his 'contact'.

((Everyone else can just continue at their own pace if they wish. Otherwise, we'll be picking up RPing after one week of IC time. Basically, it's moved ahead by one week.))

It was about midday, the sun was getting high and there was much work yet to be done for Sayuri and her crew.

An hour earlier Sayuri, Bryn, Nyeave and three hands set out in two carts headed to pick up supplies, in the direction of the castle.

The carts bounced upon the road, wheels creaking as they went over stray rocks, rolling to a stop in front of a herb shop.

Sayuri, Bryn, and Nyeave steped off their cart, leaving the hands to carry the load after negotiations were set.

Once the trio reached the door, Sayuri stepped forward and knocked lightly upon it.

Cinta enters her new life with eagerness. She quickly picks up on all of the tasks set her by her new employer and always keeps her ear to the ground for news about her previous owners or information about the nobility. Gossips are particularly interesting to her, as she can usually glean a kernel of truth from their babbling.

She starts picking up on those customers that Clarisant doesn't want to deal with, the hens Cinta calls them.

After a day of hard work, brewing a particularly touchy remedy and dealing with several hens just wanting to come in and get lavender water washes soaked in cloths to lay across thier foreheads in the heat, Cinta collapses into the chair by the table and hands Clarisant a cup of chilled rosehip tea and holds her own up to lips.

After she catches her breath, she sighs and grins, "So, how did you get into this business?" she asks as she pulls her dark hair away from her face and ties it up with a kerchief. "Are you one for staying in your home and working your charms for those who will pay, or do you see yourself moving toward a different goal?"

"My dear..."

The Queen entered Serefina's room with unease. She didn't want to think about what she was about to tell the Princess.

Serefina looked up at the expression on the Queen's face and nodded; she wouldn't force her to say the words. She'd half been expecting it. "I understand."

"There will be mourning, but you are his acknowledged bride. You are welcome to stay here." Serefina numbly nodded again.

"I'll leave you be." And with that, she exited, to find her own alone time to mourn the lost of not only an heir, but her only son. And leaving a new bride to mourn the loss of her groom.

You know, Marlon wasn't quite as dead as everyone thought. Of course, he hadn't expected to get caught up in the middle of what could be a civil war, except with pirates, but unexpected things do happen. He'd approached the contact that he needed to see in order to reach his real contact...only to find that the guy was betraying her, kind of like he assumed those pirates that were attacking him were doing.

As it is, he knew he would be presumed dead, they'd made sure of that. They'd found someone who looked like him,gave him Marlon's clothes and items...and then killed him, mutilating the body so it would be hard to distinguish that it wasn't Marlon. And let the body wash ashore. That was two days ago.

Now, on a back just east of the capitol, another body was washing up. This one, however, began coughing up salt water once it reached the shore before sitting up, his hawk like eyes examining the area.

"...gotta get back...she's waiting for me..."

The poor half drowned 'dead' prince stumbled as he stood up and began walking towards his home. By the time he got there he'd either be exhausted or have shaken off a lot of the problems. But even he he would have loved to take this chance just to disappear from the royal agenda, he had someone who needed him to go backto. He couldn't do that anymore.

Serefina stood before the practice dummy she had created, her sword held before her, in respect, but she could not bring herself to drop the sword to the en guard position. She had been standing there for over two hours, and the guards watching over her did not see how she could possibly do it, her arm hadn't moved, and yet her sword was perfectly upright in her grip.

But the tri braids that flew back from her face gave truth to the fact she was not a statue, and the guards weren't sure what to do. But they were convinced that Prince Marlon was insane to die leaving a bride like that around.

The repairs on the remaining ships of the fleet were taking a long time, especially since some of the merchants were less than helpful - even if they had the Duvahian royal go ahead. With her limited her Duvahian language skills, she had to rely on a translator provided by the royal family. It was frustrating, because she was sure that not all of what she was saying was going into the conversation. She didn't have much choice though, there were limited places they could take their business, and even less that had what they wanted. So it was VERY slow going, but it was going.

Marlon had decided to not use Suki's offer of help. She knew that he would be very unlikely to use her assistance, but the refusal did hurt her pride a little. Considering the current state of the heir to the throne, perhaps it was better. Death wasn't something that she actively sought, even if she had to fight it regularly as part of her duty. Suki very much liked being alive.

As she watched the new main mast being finally put secured into place, Suki wondered when they were going to get out of this really strange land. It was not providing anything interesting and they had been mainly tied up with ship repairs and the locals remained icy and aloof toward their visitors. Besides, there was obviously something much more important happening at sea...

He wasn't dead.

Or at least, Eri did not think so. Perhaps it was his faith in his friend, perhaps it was something he knew that others did not, or perhaps it was something that spoke shades of denial. But he figured that he was not dead.

This is a ruse.

At least, Eri thought so. But no one else did. Perhaps he wanted to believe that the situation was reversible or something of that sort. But he knew no one would believe him. So he acted as if Marlon were truly gone.

A body that looked like Marlon did not make it him... something was amiss about all this, and too many assumptions were being drawn too early. But he would not have asked to see the body- it would have been wrong, after all, and it would have drawn suspicion. So Eri, not knowing what to do about the situation, did the only thing he could- he waited.

And then a body was found. For the first few days, Serefina could not bring herself to look at it, and so instead, spent everyday in isolation, meditating. She was a serious young woman, but even this was highly unusual for her, and so it disturbed the Queen enough that she sent a letter to Prince Anastazi on her behalf.

Originally Posted by seripha

"How lovely. Then the prince can flirt with whomever he desires and we can all pretend we don't know who he is!" Tati giggled, clapping her hands delightedly. Tati did genuinely enjoy balls and masquerades. It gave her the opportunity to dress up and it was also an amazing source of gossip.

"Maybe I'll even make a costume for you Benji! You can have a little doggy outfit!" Tati kissed the top of her dog's head and gave it a pat. The dog did not look impressed at the idea of a doggy outfit. Benji had heard those words before and he remembered a vague sense of not liking it.

"I hope the Queen isn't expecting you to front the entire cost of the masque because you were to hold it originally without the royal family." Tati rambled onto a new thought, putting Benji down again onto the plump pillow next to her, "It is more efficient and I'm sure more economical for the royal family... but maybe not for you."

Originally Posted by Tabi Kat

Elisabeth snorted, "No. The royal family is actually going to be reimbursing me for what I've spent so far. I got the notice just this morning. I wouldn't have minded, I have more money than I know what to do with, I think sometimes."

Elisabeth glanced at the dog; she agreed with him. The idea of dressing up dogs was completely repulsive to her. Then again, so was the idea of dressing children up to look like miniature adults.

A knock at Serefina's door.

"Highness, we have recovered the body of Prince Marlon... it is in the palace at the moment. Would you..." The guard that spoke looked at another one beside him, and he gestured him onwards.

Hurry up and finish it. She is in just as bad a state as we are, if not worse.

"...Would you like to view it?"

There was no response, since Serefina wasn't in her room. She was in the keep, her sword poised for hours in front of her sight, while she looked sightlessly beyond it. Her hair was no longer in it's Paladin's braids, instead it merely flowed behind her. And she stood quiet.

Chih... not here.

They began searching for her then, checking around to see where she was located. It was easy enough to find her, but when they did indeed locate Serefina... well, they didn't want to disturb her any further.

They didn't want to, but they had to.

"Highness... we have recovered Prince Marlon's body. We have been sent to take you to see it, if you so wish."

Better to just get it over with.

She didn't look at them, her only response to finally release the stance, and jab forward at the dummy that was before her, the sword pushing through, and then pulling back out, completely gutting the dummy of the entirety of it's straw innards.

Then she turned and looked at them, her sword bleeding shadows like it was blood. Her eyes were dazed as if she was completely unaware of her surroundings.

"What did you say?"

What the hell...!? We are crazy for agreeing to this.

Well okay, she was not exactly in the best mood to talk. Neither were they, because they were scared of her. Hell, who wouldn't be? Sure, she was nice enough when she was in balance, but this? This was sure to be playing havok with her nerves, and everything else.

One had to remember that she was a paladin.

"We need you to follow us. There is something you should see."

That's about it. No more mentioning Marlon in the same sentence. That was about as diplomatic as the guard who had said the above statement could get.

She was puzzled, why were soldiers talking to her like this? She was princess and paladin, and never had two guards been so...guarded in their speech to her. It puzzled her, angered her, and her first instinct was to strike out; her sword thrust back and forward.

"SEREFINA!!!"

Pausing the sword only a short distance from the guards throat, as she looked over at the person who'd called her name. It was Bridget.

Her eyes were rimmed over red from crying, but she'd finally come out of it enough to check on her brother's wife. Only to come across the scene as it was.

"Please Serefina. They are not part of this."

He had finally made it to the outskirts of the city, and let me tell you, he was exhausted. He'd jumped off a ship, swam until he couldn't, washed up to shore, and then immediately started walking in order to prove that he wasn't dead before they announced it to the public.

And let's just say he wasn't in the best of moods either.

So, when he ran into a guard who was patrolling, he wasn't exactly looking or acting very prince-like. Instead, he just grabbed the man, and before the guard could reach for his sword he threw the man down.

"Alright. I'm Prince Marlon, I'm not dead, and I need you to get me back to the castle now, before I collapse or something. If you don't do this, then when I do get there, I'm going to find out who you are and hold you responsible for anything that goes wrong in the meantime."

Well, at least the princely tone was still there. One had to wonder how the guard would react to supposedly dead prince ordering him around, though.