Maize wanted to find Ress, but she didn't want to instigate Cade any more for the day. Forge's open threat from the library still echoed through her mind, along with the pounding pain that sent her directly to her room once she was certain Cade was out of sight.

Lying on her bed, closing her eyes, she tried to control her breathing through the anguish. It was a technique she learned when she first discovered the revenant, and it helped her until Ress discovered the herbs that helped ease her torment.

You're going to fail and you're going to get them all killed and you'll be alone and there's nothing you can do.

The taunts were endless and she knew they were just that but she wondered what would have happened if she didn't try to fight them. Would someone with the same torture but a weaker mind give into the devious suggestions? That would mean there would have to be someone else out there who suffered just as she. The chances were slim, especially when she didn't even know what was wrong with her.

The voice started the day her family died, and the woman killed her brother, and she had let her run free.

Free to remain living a life of loneliness and affliction.

Tell them. Tell them the truth. Tell them the truth and you'll die.

Gritting her teeth, she rolled over and tried to think of something else.

Of what she would say to Ress when she finally found him. Of what she'd do to Cade when she finally had the chance. Of what she could disclose to Laris and if he'd believe her, and how she could leave Lawson Forge behind to suffer the consequences.

The path of her purpose there was already beginning to waver, and she needed to refocus otherwise she'll lose her way. All while remembering that there was the ever-looming threat of Celese discovering their deception. She would have forgotten to send the letter had Ress not reminded her the day before.

One thing at a time. That was all they could do.

She didn't remember falling asleep and only stirred when Ress returned to her room, carrying what looked to be a dinner tray. The room was dark, and he began lighting candles as she slowly sat up in bed, watching him.

"You know, you're taking this footman thing pretty seriously," she said, trying to sound casual.

He frowned at her over his shoulder as he continued to move across the room. "And I think you're taking this Lady thing too seriously."

"What are you talking about?" she asked as she hugged her knees against her chest.

"Don't play dumb, Maize- it may work for Laris, but it's not going to work on me."

Now it was Maize's turn to frown.

Lighting the final candle, the light bathed Ress in shadows that made him look alluring and dangerous. "Why did you threaten Cade?"

"I didn't threaten him... I merely asked him to leave you alone."

"Why?"

"Because he's a distraction."

"This whole castle is a distraction."

"We're here for a purpose, Ress. We can't forget that."

"Are you saying that to remind me, or yourself?"

"Both."

"Do you know that he thinks you're manipulating me? That whatever you said to him, he's convinced you're just using me. He says I should leave you and work for him. With him."

Something in Maize shuddered. "You're not seriously considering it, are you?"

He let out a sigh. "No Maize. I'm not. As tempting as the offer is. I made you a promise. We made a promise to each other. We're going to do this and get out of Dreduor once and for all. I just hope we don't kill ourselves before we get there."

"Or each other."

He sat on the edge of the bed. "I think I have a lead on the herbs."

"You do? How?"

"It seems someone else in the castle has need for them as well, but no one was able to tell me who or for what. But it's going to take me out of the castle. And in order for it to work, I'll have to leave with the ones serving the Hunt and wait to come back with them when they return. Otherwise, my disappearance will become too obvious and we already have enough questioning looks thrown our way."

"So when would you need to leave?"

"Tomorrow morning, before dawn. The hunt begins the day after, and we'll return the day after that."

"And what am I supposed to do with you gone?"

He arched a brow. "How about everything we're supposed to be doing while we're here?"

With a groan, she lay back on the bed. "The library is extensive and I swear Forge is watching my every move. There's no way I'm going to be able to get any serious research done with him breathing down my neck. Or Laris for that matter."

"Then you're in luck because they're both going to be leaving for the Hunt tomorrow as well."

"Both of them?" Laris made sense, but that Forge would attend such an event as a lesser advisor...

"Seems to be that way, so get your goodbyes in before they go."

She scowled but he gave her that charming grin that always seemed to ease her temper.

"We do need to figure out what we're doing. With Forge. Laris. Cade..."

"Let me handle Cade," Ress assured her.

"And what, I'm responsible for Laris."

"As much as you want to be."

She didn't play into his insinuation, not as she was silently considering when she'd be able to sneak out to the gardens again, with the chance that she'd at least be able to see him one more time before they all went off to the Hunt.

"And Forge?"

"Forge is going to be a force both of us need to consider when the time comes. And the only way we're going to be able to get to that point is to figure out the true identity of the Legacy before he does, or at least before he knows we know what it is, and maybe we can discover the identity of his benefactors and cut out the middle man, and his cut of the profit."

"I feel like we're running in circles with no end in sight."

"So go to the source."

She cocked her head to the side.

"Lawson Forge is the one who lured us into this, so it should be Lawson Forge who gives us the answers."

"He won't tell us anything he hasn't already."

"So you search them out yourself."

"Are you insinuating I break into Lawson Forge's private chambers while he's otherwise distracted like a common thief?"

Ress gave her that grin again and held up a folded piece of paper.

"No, I expect you to break into Lawson Forge's private chambers like the master thief you truly are."