"What do you mean?"

For the second time that day, Edwin was a copy of his father, and for the second time that day, Robin hated himself for noticing it.

Robin stole a glance to Andragoras before he spoke, hoping the captain would give more details than he could. He got nothing in return from the man, who still remained silent and still as a stone since news of the queen's illness.

"I mean, that out of the four guards that came with us, the one that made it back couldn't give us information."

"Or wouldn't." Edwin slid a hand through his hair. "Robin, it may occur to you that he simply didn't want to tell the truth." A slight twinge flicked at his lips and he motioned toward Andragoras. "No offense to either of you, of course, but sometimes people just don't want to give information no matter how much they're threatened or bartered with."

A rising knot formed in Robin's gut, one he'd felt plenty of times before, yet rarely towards his brother. This knot threatened to bubble over with sharp truths and anger, with demands to be listened to, with rage.

He shoved it back down. It could come out any other time-- just not now. Not towards Edwin.

"You're not listening, Ed." That same anger wormed its way into his voice. "He was afraid of it only when we spoke of home, no other time. Besides, you know what happened when we got here."

"I know two different stories, you mean. Yours and Eudes."

"He chopped off his tongue."

"And you let him go."

"Because he was innocent!"

"You literally just told me he tried to kill you!" Edwin's voice rang out through the garden, high and loud enough that one of Andragoras' stationed guards turned in their direction. "That," he continued, voice softer, "is the very definition of not innocent."

"I wasn't talking about that part. I meant the knife--"

"The knife? What knife, Robin, when? When he tried to use it against you the first time or second time?"

Robin's fists clenched so tightly his fingernails bit into skin. The heat he tried to hold back only rose to his cheeks, his throat.

He forced himself to sound calm when he spoke. The wavering words didn't help him. "There wasn't a second time, that's what I'm trying to tell you."

Everyone he commanded or traveled with would have gotten the hint. Heard the anger. Known to back down.

Why his brother didn't in that moment was a question for the ages.

"So he only attacked one of those times then?"

The fire turned to ice.

Robin's hand slammed into the closest thing he could-- in this case through -- a bush of flowers. An attack of rustling followed, brought with a sharp, bitter stinging to his skin.

"If you would shut the hell up for a moment and let me finish my damn story you wouldn't have to waste your breath on pointless questions."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Robin's stomach dropped. A bottomless black hole tugged at his gut, threatening to drag him down with it. That was Ed, not a guard he met minutes before. His brother, not soldier.

As the sharp frustration bowled into the younger man, Edwin's eyes changed. It wasn't sudden or drastic, as Robin's has been, but slow. Silent. They grew wider, the whites of his eyes brightening only because his eyebrows raised, but there was a darkness to them Robin couldn't have anticipated. Edwin stepped back a few feet, ending with one leg slightly behind the other, his hands raised to his chest in surrender.

Except, it wasn't. To Eudes it may have been, certainly to the council it was, but Robin knew that stance.

He was ready to fight.

"Enough. Both of you."

The brothers jumped as Andragoras' voice boomed over the heavy silence. His mouth, nearly hidden by mustache and beard, contorted to a hard scowl. "You are princes, not children."

Any bit of snide response Robin held disintegrated under the stern gaze of the captain.  Their eyes made contact for only a moment before Robin looked away, a different type of heat building in his cheeks.

"If I may, Prince Robin, you'd do well to remember your brother is an heir, not a soldier. There are some practices he may not know."

Andragoras turned to Edwin, arms clasped being his back. "And you, your highness, please keep in mind who you are speaking to. A conversation you have here will be different in many ways to a conversation you hold with his majesty."

Edwin didn't look away, but lowered his hands.

Andragoras just sighed. "If I may speak..."

He trailed off, gaze flickering from one brother to the other. Robin just waited, expecting the pause to only be long enough to gather thoughts until he caught his brother give the captain a small nod.

Permission. Formalities. Here, they existed.

He followed suite, feeling Andragoras turn to him as well. The approval felt wrong, like he gave something he didn't have.

The captain went back to Edwin, composed as if he hadn't just demanded their silence with a few words.

"I agree, your highness, the man could have had a knife with him and used it. There could have been two attacks."

"But you disagree."

"I searched him myself, once when we captured him, once before we entered the grounds, and once before he gained an audience. Once his initial weapons were removed, he held none and had no unobserved opportunity to gain another."

Edwin still frowned. "Those are your words, Captain, and I understand you believe it, but he must have had a moment--"

A wave of frustration shot through Robin. His brother still didn't believe them--

Andragoras held up a hand in Robin's direction. "You search for truth on your own accord. Your mother taught you this, I gather?"

The tiniest glimpse of a smile crossed his eyes as he spoke, gone the moment Robin realized it was there.

Ed's eyebrows raised. "Her more than Father, but.. they both have a hand in it."

"That's good. Search for truths on your own without other's corruptions. Learn to find the lies. They will come for you from everyone once you are the king." Andragoras reached for Edwin's shoulder and placed a hand on it. "But you must always have those you trust without a doubt. Perhaps not their words, but their actions, whether they be good or bad. If you trust no one, you become cold and distant from everyone, detached from your own subjects. I ask you this, your highness -- do you trust my actions as captain of the guard?"

Edwin pulled back, face somewhat pale. His eyes darted from Andragoras to Robin and back again as if hunting for approval of something.

Robin locked eyes with his brother and held his hands up. Everything Andragoras said was his.

Thank God he wasn't in his brother's place.

"I don't know how to answer that," Ed finally said. His gaze turned back to Robin, to which his brother shrugged.

"It is simply a yes or no, sir." Andragoras followed Edwin's gaze to Robin and shifted so he blocked the view. Robin bit back a grin. At least it wasn't just him who received full brunt of Andragoras' lessons.

The captain continued. "Not an answer to what I tell you, nor should you look to your brother. Do you trust my actions?"

"Yes."

The answer from Edwin was careful, yet sure.

"Then trust that if he had a weapon, it would have been found."

Edwin signed. "Why would everything play out the way it did? My father wouldn't have..."

He trailed off, rethinking his words. "The King would have no reason for this."

"I agree." Andragoras stepped to the side again so the three could see each other. Any hint of opinion was hidden by a solemn glance. "There is more to whatever story brews than only him. The issue lies in discerning all that has happened and will happen."

"Will happen?"

"Yes." Andragoras shifted his weight, voice lower than before. "The Kallan messenger was killed on unstable ground. Ismena is neither Kallas's territory nor ours, though both sides have been pushing more and more toward it."

Like Krativ.

Robin's blood ran cold, heart thundered in his ears. Kallas and Erakim couldn't fight for Ismena. Not again. Not for or against. Not like Krativ.

Not a bloodbath.

Yet they all fought for it. Or would fight for it.

Not again.

"Not if we can help it."

Robin blinked, eyes wide, and found Andragoras, his arms crossed and jaw tight, starting into his face so hard it was like he tried to read his thoughts. Or could read his thoughts.

It took him a moment too long to realize he said the words out loud.

Robin forced himself to slow his breathing. To not show what he'd already given too much of. He was a prince. A soldier.

Terror wasn't an emotion he could let fly.

So he pushed it down. Held onto it deep in his guts so later, when he was in his nest, when he was alone, he could let it show. Until then, it couldn't show. Krativ could be only a passing thought-- and even then, thoughts were more time than he could spare the place.

Andragoras sucked in a breath, suddenly decades older than he was before. Battles and bloodshed screamed in his eyes, a door left open to the darkest part of his mind Robin dare not go, all to a world of knowledge no man should have the burden of holding.

The door slammed shut. "We need to be careful," the captain mused. The smallest quiver of worry edged through his voice, a quiver only Robin could catch. "Right now, we know of a movement but we do not know where it starts and ends. There are too many possible players. Too many possible targets. And if the queen is ill..." he trailed off, not daring to finish the sentence.

Robin could for him. If his mother's illness ended in anything other than her expedient recovery, there'd be a new kind of trouble on their hands.

His mother.

He twisted toward the sun, frowning as he found it hidden behind the trees. He'd meant to visit her before Eudes' council meeting but spent so long with the captain and their shared tension he'd bet money the window closed.

Ed, it seemed, shared his thoughts. "Thank you, Captain Andragoras, for your wisdom" he said, bowing his neck slightly. Andragoras mirrored the motion. "If I may steal my brother from you, my father requested us at our council meeting this evening and we'd best not be late again."

Robin would best not be late again. Last time he was, the entire room got a lesson in Eudes punctuality quotes for at least an hour, which ran the full meeting well into the night and afterward, when everyone had left, he continued to degrade Robin in heartless words that the prince traded back. As proof of miracles, both men walked out of the room that day, alive and extremities fully intact.

He nearly feared what would happen if he were to arrive late for the second time after that word lashing.

Nearly.

The brothers turned to leave, Ed a bit faster than Robin. The older brother locked eyes with the captain for a moment, long enough to watch a grim nervousness seize the man's face. His arms moved, fingers shifting to a sign they used too often on guard.

Be careful.

All the prince could do was nod.