"Let him go," Orin spoke softly.

"Why?"

Ariadne fought with herself every moment she stayed on the balcony. Her hand gripped the edge of the doors, her torso leaned forward, pulled by some unknown force towards the ball room; while her mind willed her to stay with him.

With Orin.

"He's dramatic. He cannot help himself, it is who he is," Orin blew out a breath.

Ariadne made her decision in that moment and walked back to Orin. She placed her hands on the cool stone and gazed at the tapestry in the sky taking shape before them. Orin sighed.

The moment was gone.

Ariadne felt her blood begin to boil again. Kallen certainly knew how to ruin what was shaping up to be a wonderful night.

"Lord Orin, would you be so kind as to take me back to my rooms?"

Ariadne's words had the desired effect as Orin's jaw ticked nervously and his cheeks turned a slight shade of pink. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye before he turned to her.

"Whatever game you two are playing, I will not be stuck in the middle. I will not be a pawn," he warned.

"I'm not playing a game, I merely asked if you wanted to come back to my rooms and finish our conversation," Ariadne said plainly.

"Oh," Orin's jaw stopped moving and he muttered something else under his breath.

Ariadne bumped shoulders with him gently.
"My rooms are quieter and we'll at least have some sort of privacy. I'd like to talk about my mother," she smiled.

"Alright. Just know this, Kal is going to be furious. There's no telling what he might do," Orin held out his elbow.

Ariadne took it and they stepped forward together, skirting the edges of the ball room. Couples danced blissfully unaware around them, the music had changed back to another beautiful waltz.

"I noticed you don't call him king Kallen, why's that?" Ariadne asked.

Orin's jaw moved again and she waited patiently.

One second.

Then two.

Three...

Just when she thought Orin wouldn't reply, he gave his answer.

"We grew up together, in the castle. His father was friends with mine. I've never seen two friends so alike they could be as brothers." His smile was wistful and faraway as he remembered.

"What happened?"

They approached the grand doors and the conversation stopped for a while as two soldiers opened the door, and they walked slowly down the corridor. When they turned a corner Orin stopped. Ariadne stumbled slightly, but righted herself.

"My father... One day Kallen caught him carrying secret messages to the Moon Fae. To Lorelei." Orin's voice was laced with a quiet pain.

Ariadne didn't know what to say. She didn't pretend to understand his pain, but it didn't mean she couldn't see the waves of it rolling off him. She laid a her hand on his, and her fingers slipped between them. They felt at home, like their hands were made perfectly for one another. She waited for his fingers to remove themselves, but it never happened.

They moved onwards again as Ariadne looked up at him. His eyes were guarded, shoulders tight as his next words came.

"I had left court to become an ambassador between this world and yours. I was away for some time. I came back eventually... Several days after my return, I learned that Kallen's father had sentenced mine to public execution for treason. While I had been away."

Ariadne held her breath, the words stuck in her throat.

"Kallen didn't vouch for your father?"

"No, he had been the one to send me away. He was the one had given me the position of ambassador." Orin's voice wavered.

A servant came down the corridor and the conversation stopped again. Orin pointed out the carved statues above the arches.

They were made from black stone, and the over all look of them was eerie. Their faces, if you could call them that, were frozen in varying degrees of open mouthed snarls. Some were more human looking with wide lips and tongues, while others were fully animalistic. Snouts, fangs, even the suggestion of a mane for some. But the eyes were the same for them all, red rubies inlaid in deep sockets, framed by angry brows.

There was one that Ariadne refused to look at again. The first glance had been more than enough for her. It had an elongated snout, open to a devilish degree, while a forked tongue slipped between two sets of ferocious fangs. One set dropped down from the top of the beasts maw, while the set at the bottom stuck up from the gums barely concealed by the beasts wolf like jaw. Stone fur covered every inch of the gargoyle but the eyes... They unsettled her the most. They were more round, humanoid in shape and unlike the others, the gems in the sockets were aquamarine blue. It was so unsettling Ariadne jumped when Orin spoke.

"Those were hand carved by the masons of Allanora, imported here when the first king built this castle."

"What do they represent?"

Ariadne shivered.

"The many faces of treachery. Over time, other King's have added to them. Kallen has yet to add any of his own."

Ariadne looked away and pointed to the one that unsettled her the most.
"What about that one?"

The corridor was deathly quiet, and Ariadne looked sideways. Orin stood gazing at the gargoyle head she had pointed too. His skin was pallid, almost grey as he stared at it. His hand had let go of hers and hung at his sides, both balled into white knuckled fists.

His throat moved barely as he gritted out the words.
"It's a reminder that even the closest of friends can tell lies."

Orin abruptly turned away from it, and stormed ahead of her. She had to run to keep up with him.

"Orin. Wait..."

Her heeled shoes tapped out a fast beat as she tried fruitlessly to catch up to him.

"Slow down. Please?" She begged.

Ariadne was lightly panting at this point, and finally Orin slowed slightly, as they turned another corner. The columns flanking the corridor either side of double doors signalled they had reached Ariadne's rooms. Ariadne caught up to him and placed a clammy palm on his elbow. He shrugged it off.

"Ariadne... This court is no place for you. Why are you here? Why did Kallen bring you here," he hesitated.

Ariadne didn't know. So she did the only thing she could. She opened the doors to her rooms and took Orin's hand, tugging him inside with her. She looked left and right, making sure no one was in the corridor, and closed the door. She dragged over a chair and put it under the handle, then sat on the end of her bed.

"Kallen wants to find my father too, and his daughter."

"But his daughter is you," Orin sounded frustrated and confused.

Ariadne didn't blame him.

"True, but Kallen doesn't even know my name."

Orin looked at her, puzzled.

"You didn't give him your full name, did you?"

Ariadne played with the edge of the duvet before she answered.
"No."

"Smart girl," Orin replied.

Ariadne scoffed.
"My mother read me the human stories of Fae as a child, do you honestly think she wouldn't school me in how to protect myself too," Ariadne's voice rose slightly.

"I would not expect less from the daughter of the Sun Fae. Princess or not."

Ariadne reached in her corset for the letter opener. Yes, she had took off her ring. Yes he had seen she was Sun fae, but she hadn't told him Who her family was. He must have figured out for himself. Ariadne panicked.

"Looking for this?" Orin held up the letter opener. It hung between his thumb and forefinger.

Ariadne burst up from her bed and rushed at Orin. He danced sideways and chucked the letter opener across the room.

Ariadne scolded herself for being so stupid. Every Fae had their own motivations, why should Orin have been any different.

The anger in her body had no where else to go, as she took off her ring sneakily and put it in the pockets hidden in her dress, thank the God's. In a burst of speed she had Orin pinned against the wall, her mouth opened in a snarl.

Her fingers elongated into black talons as flames kissed her skin. Orin's eyes widened, and he pushed against her. She pushed back, stronger, for the moment. Whatever had laid beneath her skin before had been waiting. Biding it's time, until now.

"You're a Pheonix... An actual Pheonix," Orin gasped.

The words washed over her like a bucket of cold water and her talons retreated. Orin pushed her back lightly, and she let him. Her steps were slow, trance like. She shook her head once, twice.

"Your father was a traitor, that was his likeness carved up there." It was not a question, but a fact.

Ariadne had figured it out.

Orin stared at her, his temperature flared.

His against hers. A standoff. Slowly, Orin's disappeared, as if he knew he didn't have a chance.

"What's a Pheonix?"

Orin coughed.
"You do not know what a Pheonix is?"

"I know what Pheonix is... But what do you mean I'm a Pheonix," Ariadne asked.

"I have a lot of explaining to do."

"Yeah you do," Ariadne retorted.

Her temper was shorter than she had meant it to be, but God's how these Fae infuriated her.