Dimitri's eyelashes fluttered. The dead weight of his body kept him from moving, so he gave a small grunt.

"Gnnhh," he tried to groan from deep in his throat. A sting on his neck made him twitch, and at last he was conscious.

"Your Highness?" came a voice from his left.

He replied with barely a nod. "Nfhmn."

There was a tingle on his forehead a moment later; he released it was someone's hand.

"I'm... glad you're awake, I suppose," the voice, which he now recognized to be Webbs, said quietly. "Do you feel any pain at the moment?"

Dimitri tried very hard to lift his hand to touch the wound he felt on his neck. After a few tries he gave up and mumbled an affirmative.

"I see. Unfortunately the healing spells can only do so much for your more... intense wounds." He heard Webbs release a sigh. "But you're awake, and that's good, and that means you're recovering."

The prince managed to murmur out a "yes."

A tense silence followed. Dimitri knew what Webbs wanted to speak with him about, but with the aching and stinging and heaviness he felt he couldn't get away from it. He was now able to half-open his eyes and move his mouth, but his body was dormant.

Webbs swallowed, speaking carefully. "Ah, Lilliana, she helped with healing you."

"Mm." The noise was neither appreciative nor cold.

"Yes. She... wanted me to tell you that she wishes you the best."

Dimitri's eyebrows twitched. "You make it sound like she's gone," he muttered.

"To be frank she doesn't wish to disturb you so she's been running everything else while you take the time to recuperate."

"You mean she doesn't want me to see her. She feels guilty."

Webbs hesitated. "Perhaps you should ask her when you're back to being healthy."

It took all of Dimitri's recovered body strength for him to snort with derision.

Webbs seized on the brief pause afterward to be straightforward. "Why did you do what you did?"

"It's none of your concern." Dimitri rolled onto his side to face away from him.

"It is, and it's made me even more concerned for you."

"I don't owe you an explanation, nor would you understand it anyway."

"All that means is you won't admit your actions don't make sense,"

He gritted his teeth. "Don't lecture me, Webbs. What I mean is, you don't have the experience to understand."

"I don't need to, Your Highness," Webbs said sternly. "There's no one out there who'll share the exact same experiences as you, you know. Even if someone doesn't have a first-hand understanding of the events that made you who you are, they can still sympathize, and they can still give advice. We want to hear you out, Highness."

With great exertion, Dimitri pulled himself out of bed and stood. He went light-headed and his vision swam, but he held his ground. He walked briskly out the doorway, pushing aside soldiers and ignoring Webbs' indignant calls behind him.

Lilliana froze when she noticed the prince stalking down the hallway towards the kitchen door to the outside.

A few of the children around her paused to stare at him while he sat down heavily on the grass. Lilliana bit her lip and ushered them back to the game they were playing.

"Why does Mister Highness have a bunch of bandages?" Olivier asked.

Before she could answer, David asked, "Did he fight a bear?"

She gave him a look of incredulity. "A bear? Now, why would you think that?"

David shrugged, suddenly sheepish. "I don't know. Those wounds are big."

They are, aren't they. "That's very silly. But no, he was not attacked by a bear."

"Then what happened?" This time it was Lucas.

She exhaled with exasperation. "You guys ask me this all the time. It's just none of your beeswax, hear?"

Lucas giggled. "Beeswax," he repeated.

Lilliana cracked a smile. "That's right, and it not any of yours." Forcing herself not to look back outside, she started to the hallway. "Hey, how about a game of hide-and-go-seek-tag? Rules are no going outside, no locking doors, whoever was tagged first is it."

"I call it!" Gael cried, hand shooting up. Lilliana nodded and the others followed suit. "Since I'm it, I'll find everyone super quick."

Octavia stuck her tongue out at him. "Only if 'super quick' means 'super slow,'"

The girls laughed, but everyone accepted El's appointment anyway.

Lilliana's smile faded as they all dashed off. She needed some alone time later today.

The sun had risen over his head. Then it had dropped behind him. And now it was gone; the bright full moon took its place in a dreary night sky, abandoned by the stars. Clouds drifted by like smoke, soaking up the moonlight that should've touched the ground.

Dimitri didn't move. His arms hugged his knees and he stared, expressionless, straight forward. Any glow that would've been in his eyes was gone, they were dull and glassy.

The physical environment was mostly quiet. A few crickets chirped beyond the stream, and the screech of the cicadas in the forest just barely reached his ears.

The voices of his loved ones were silent, which was almost worse. The familiarity of their cries was about the only constant in his life these days, so the lack of it left him cold and so unbearably alone.

He had always been lonely, he knew, but even before his only company was his thoughts, he had the solace of Glenn or Lambert or Patricia. The stillness was nauseating, and it certainly couldn't be called tranquility. Earlier in the day he had expected at least someone to come and check on him, but it never happened. Or, perhaps not expected it, but hoped for it.

Being truly alone scared Dimitri. What others often called peace felt like agony. Listening to his own thoughts without an outside source left him confused.

There was no parent to explain to him what they would've wanted, no restless soul guiding his character. He was his own judge now, and he didn't trust himself.

A bird landed near him. It hopped forward tentatively, then began to tear off bits of his bandages. He paid it no mind and allowed it to do as it pleased, resting his chin on his knees.

It continued to fly off with pieces of gauze in its mouth and then return for more and then fly off again.

Perhaps it's for a nest? Dimitri thought, eyeing it. Go on then, little bird. Take as much as you need.

Eventually it stopped tearing apart his bandages and instead watched him, tilting its tiny little head.

"Come back to say hello, did you, little bird?" he said aloud.

The bird looked startled, hopping back a step.

Dimitri turned his head back around to the front. "My apologies. I didn't mean to scare you."

There was no response. Because it was a bird, obviously.

"I wonder... do you feel beholden to anything?" Dimitri's expression turned thoughtful. "Unborn chicks? Biology, maybe?"

The bird refused to answer, but hopped slightly closer.

"It must be nice, I think. You animals aren't conscious enough to bend to the whims of other animals. You just do things without thinking about it."

It chirped at him once. Maybe it really was listening to him.

He sighed. "It must be nice," he repeated, drowning in thoughts he didn't want to listen to.

A loud clanging suddenly came from inside the castle, the sound of metal scraping against metal: weapons. Hearing the commotion and seeing soldiers clamor out through the doors, the small bird took to the air and flew off.

Dimitri watched it go, a vaguely disappointed look on his face. He turned around to observe the party of men rushing into the forest. "What are they after?" he murmured. "Maybe it's an animal. I didn't see any of them just now, but maybe there's a bear somewhere. Is it other soldiers, maybe?"

There was no bird to silently prompt him to do anything, so he stood up and immediately felt the soreness in his legs shoot through his thighs. He figured he should've expected that after being sitting down for a whole day. His stomach growled.

He decided to ignore it. Following the path the soldiers made through the trees, Dimitri continued to wonder what the fuss was about. His dazed state made walking through the dense flora difficult.

The incomprehensible yells of the soldiers grew faint in the distance and he paused. Their footsteps had trampled the grasses and judging by the damage done further along the path, they weren't being especially careful. They didn't seem to be tracking an animal after all. It didn't seem like they were tracking anything, to be frank.

Had they seen something? Or maybe they were tracking something and were just inexperienced. Dimitri didn't know. He hadn't seen anything during his time in the field, so maybe they went looking for something in the wrong place.

The path beaten by armored boots seemed to diverge in a few ways; the soldiers split up in their search. That was a better tactic, at least.

Dimitri ran a hand through his hair and considered going back, it didn't appear that they needed his help.

Even in his almost entranced state, Dimitri's senses still alerted him to the sudden presence of something. He knew the shift in footing before he heard it.

"Show yourself!" he demanded. He drew himself to his full height and assumed a commanding air. "Whoever's there, you are to reveal yourself immediately."

Nothing happened, but Dimitri knew he wasn't wrong. He eyed his surroundings suspiciously, straining his ears to perhaps catch hushed breathing or the crunch of a leaf.

And there it was: a quiet inhale through the nose, to his right. Behind the tree, most likely. He narrowed his eyes.

He wasn't submitting to assassins tonight.

Spinning on his heel, Dimitri placed a firm grip on the tree, trusting his gut that it was the right one. As quickly as his strength would allow, he ripped it from its roots and tossed it onto its side before seizing the person that stood in front of him. Whoever it was gave a shrill scream and burst into terrified tears.

Dimitri's eyes finally adjusted to the dim light of the forest.

And there was Lilliana, petrified beyond belief, face pale as a ghost.

Rat.

Witch.

Siren.

Wretch.

Weasel.

"Von Elway," he said, taken aback.

She stammered out an incoherent stream of words. The fear reflected in her eyes made him feel... odd. Whatever the feeling was, he didn't like it.

Apparently having heard the scream, a few of the soldiers made their way to them.

"Your Highness!" one called, out of breath. "We... we've been look— been looking for her. She got... out of her locked room, she was trying to escape!"

Lilliana gave a cry and whipped her head back and forth wildly. "N-no!" she shrieked. "I d-d-didn't! No! I wasn't!"

Another of the soldiers glared at her. "She must have tricked her guard into letting her out,"

Dimitri looked between the soldiers and Lilliana, who pleaded for him not to listen to them. "I... explain what happened in full."

"Highness." The first soldier dipped his head in respect. "We were patrolling the hallways like y— like we're supposed to, and the children in their room asked for Lilliana, and when we went to find her, she was gone..."

The prince stared scrutinizingly at the girl. "Is there always a guard posted outside her room at night? You seem to have forgotten to include him in your summary."

The first soldier swallowed, glancing nervously at the other two. "Well... not at night, you see, it's us who go around on first watch to keep track of things, but none of us stand there particularly..."

"So she didn't use any tricks to escape, you're all just incompetent,"

The third soldier, who hadn't spoken yet, flinched. "We... Yes, Your Highness. It was our fault."

"Mm." Dimitri kept his grip around Lilliana's arm firm. "I think you should round up your companions and go back to the castle. Go to sleep or something. I don't think this will be a problem any longer, so we won't need patrols."

The second soldier gave a start. "But, Your Highness, shouldn't we tighten our security now that this happened?" Under the intensity of Dimitri's stare, he cowed slightly. "I mean... with all due respect, didn't you just prove we need to improve our measures?"

"No. Like I said, this won't be a problem any longer, so do not question it. Just go back and make use of the opportunity to rest. I... will take care of this."

Biting back his inquisitive tongue, the second soldier nodded brusquely. "Highness."

However, the first one felt it necessary to ask more questions. "Your Highness, you plan to deal with Miss von Elway yourself? You two are prone to arguing with each other and you might end up... hurting someone."

"I will not repeat this again, I will take care of this," Dimitri said, his tone icy.

The soldier nodded and hastily ushered the others back through the forest to find the rest of their company.

Dimitri turned to Lilliana once again.

She continued to shake her head, sobbing and trembling.

At last, he understood what the feeling was. He felt ashamed for scaring her so badly. Right now, that didn't matter, though.

"What was your plan?"

Hearing his authoritatively daunting voice, she choked on her tears and begged, "Don't, don't, don't, don't h-h-hurt me, please, I swear I wasn't trying to escape, please, I didn't, didn't, d-d-idn—"

"Didn't what?" he barked. The young woman cringed and her cries became more frantic.

Snorting with exasperation, Dimitri whipped off her cloak and stamped it into the dust. "Tell me what you were doing."

Lilliana scrunched up her eyes and tried to pull herself out of his grasp, but he held fast. "N-n-n-nothing, I swear o-o-on Sothis!"

"For the love of Faerghus, tell me what you were doing!" he roared, causing her to scream again.

With a great heave, she pulled herself away from him and sprawled onto the ground, whimpering pitifully. Words spilled out of her and she babbled so quickly Dimitri could hardly keep up. "Nothing, nothing, n-nothing, I knew about this p-p-place just about a m-mile into the woods a-a-a-and I thought I'd g-go see it for myself and b-b-be alone, and, and, and, I wasn't trying to escape, and, and, you have to believe me!"

He crossed his arms. "Place?" he spat. "Explain."

"H-h-h-hot springs, kind of, a-a-a-and, my family and I went there wh-wh-when we stayed here, and—"

"I think you're lying to me."

Lilliana curled up into the fetal position, covering her head with her arms and weeping. "I-I-I-I'm not!"

Dimitri's eyes softened ever so slightly. "...I scared you with that tree, didn't I?"

"Y-y-y-you're s-s-scaring me with your s-s-s-screaming!" She shrieked.

He felt a bit dumb. "O-oh, well—"

"J-j-j-just don't d-do anything to m-me, please," she blubbered.

"I won't," he said, considering holding his hands up to reassure her, but realizing it probably wouldn't help. He leaned back onto the tree that he left on its side.

It took what felt like hours for Lilliana to calm down. Eventually the blood flowed back into her face and her shuddering began to ease, and her tears dried up.

She sniffled and wiped her nose with her hand. "Wh-wh-why didn't you hand me over to th-them?"

Dimitri rolled a rock around with the toe of his boot. "I didn't think it was necessary."

"O-oh."

No one spoke. The moon, beginning to sink in the sky, was covered by clouds.

Dimitri offered a compliment as a peace offering. "You're... very good at escaping locked rooms."

"They're... the locks are often easy to... m-m-manipulate." she stared at the ground. "I've been here before."

"So you have."

During these spells of silence, Dimitri felt there was so much to be said that just wasn't. They were both too scared to say anything of real importance, so they watched the dirt and kept their mouths closed.

Lilliana struggled to her feet and stood opposite the prince. "Can I... ask you a question?"

He nodded.

"Okay." She pursed her still-trembling lips. "Why... why did you—"

"'Why did you do what you did?'" Dimitri finished her question for her. "You know, Webbs asked me the same question."

When he fell silent, she pressed the matter. "Can you tell me what happened, at least?"

He huffed and turned his head. "It's not... entirely your fault, if that's what you want to know."

"It's not, actually," she said. "I... just want to understand why you... did that,"

"You wouldn't understand. I'm not being hostile to you, but you just wouldn't."

"I think I would. I can understand things if they're explained to me. I'm not that stupid."

Dimitri looked to be choosing his words carefully. "There's... I have a goal. It's a goal that I need to reach for the sake of others. What they've done for me can never be repaid by anything I could do, but this is the only way I can... give them some amount of peace."

Lilliana stared at the forest floor. "Dimitri. I think you need to, you know, m-move on, from it. You can't become a better person without learning to live with the things that happened in the past."

His tone quickly grew bitter, and his eyebrow twitched. "This is self-sacrifice. Everything they've done gave me a life I don't deserve. Living it the way they would have wanted is the only way I can bring them peace."

"You're distorting what they would've wanted, Dimitri," Lilliana protested as inoffensively as possible. "Why are you so beholden to them? You need to live the life that they gave you to the fullest."

Dimitri turned on her quickly. "Oh, and I'm supposed to believe you aren't beholden to others?"

She hesitated for a moment. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you're being a hypocrite. Don't call me out for being beholden to someone when you're exactly the same." He snorted derisively.

"Oh? And how is that?" Lilliana clenched her jaw, looking angry.

He advanced a few steps to poke her hard in the chest. "You need everyone to like you all the time, and you need them to be infatuated with you. If they aren't, then you know you're going to be left behind because none of them care for you."

The way she bit her tongue only spurred him further. "You want validation all the time, every day, because you didn't get any from your mother and father back home. But since you don't have the personality to find any friends, you manipulate people into liking you. Even then, you know it's a shallow relationship, so you chase men around to get the love you think will fix it, and then you leave so they can't leave you first."

Lilliana bristled at this. "How dare you say that. I'm trying to be considerate and understanding, and you proceed to slander me,"

"Slander you?" Dimitri gave a sharp laugh. "I have no need to! You slander yourself and your family all on your own! You loved your father so much, but once he died, you felt abandoned, and now you just want another man to depend on like your father. All you're doing is chasing around the validation that you missed once he died."

Tears stung at her eyes again. "I... I have a reason for it! You just don't want to admit that maybe your family didn't die for you, they just died!"

He recoiled with a snarl. "I can't begin to believe the nerve you have," he hissed.

Lilliana rubbed away a teardrop. "Your sense of self-worth is so inflated all because you think that everything that happened was centered around you. Wake up, Prince, nothing about your family's death was for you, and they don't give a damn what you do with the life you have."

Raising her voice close to a shout, she continued, "No one's watching you from high in the sky, and no one's telling you to be a horrible person, that's just you."

Dimitri was almost shocked into silence. Then he sprang forward, reaching for her neck. She recoiled, but not enough to evade him; he tore the necklace off from around her throat. With a yell of fury, he threw it as far as he could towards the stream that wove between the trees. Hearing a splash a moment later, he knew it found its mark.

"No!" Lilliana's anguished cry echoed through the forest, and she raced to the stream. Her skirts submerged in water, she scrabbled around hysterically for the necklace. Dimitri stared at the hand he had thrown it from.

Past the blind rage that fueled him to do such a thing, he really wondered why he had done it. When she sat back on her haunches, distressed and defeated, he felt a flash of regret.

It grew larger as he joined her at the stream, surprisingly apologetic.

"I— I'm sorry, I really shouldn't have... I wasn't thinking, I'm sorry, I should have been thinking, I shouldn't have done that," he stuttered.

She glared up at him, tears flowing down her cheeks again. Lilliana von Elway struggled to her feet and planted one squarely on his back, kicking him as viciously as she could into the stream.

Taken by surprise at the force behind her kick, Dimitri tumbled forwards into the water, smacking his nose against a rock in the process. He surfaced after a moment to gasp for breath, his clothes sopping wet and his nose leaking blood. Hardly believing it, he touched the heel of his palm against his stinging nostril and observed the red mixing with the water on his hand.

Looking up, he noticed Lilliana had tensed. Her face was still vengeful, but she seemed to be deciding between fight or flight.

Dimitri swallowed and once again pressed his hand to his nose to quell the flow of blood. "I... I'm s—"

"Don't apologize," she cut him off with a sharp tone. "You're right. I'm insecure, and scared of people abandoning me because I know all of my relationships are hollow. But I'm not the one who murders while considering it kindness. I have my own issues, but I'm not anywhere near the level of ignorance you have."

He cast his eyes downward. "You have every right to say that."

"You're damn right I do." Lilliana spat. "I also have every right to shove you under the water until you drown for the hell you've put me and my sister and the children through."

For a brief moment, Dimitri thought she would. He wouldn't allow her to finish the job, as he had a mission to complete, but he figured the satisfaction it would bring to her would be worth seeing.

Suddenly, he felt her haul him up by his shoulders.

She grunted at the effort. "But that won't help either of us at all, would it," she said through gritted teeth.

When they stood facing each other, Dimitri in the stream and Lilliana on the rocks, both tired and emotional and soaking wet, there was an unspoken understanding that passed between them.

"So we're both hypocrites," Lilliana said, touching the spot on her neck where her necklace would be.

Dimitri nodded, clutching his nose. "We're both hypocrites."

Even in the seriousness of the moment, Lilliana wearily fought back a smile at the nasally quality of his voice. It took too much energy, though, so she ended up giggling.

The prince turned away, if only to hide his own embarrassed grin. "We should... head back. It's almost daylight." he said, clearing his throat.

She nodded and started off to the path out of the forest. "You think Webbs will be looking for either of us?"

"Seeing as I'm missing from the front field, probably," Dimitri was quick to walk beside her. "But who knows if he was informed of the party that came to look for you. I hope he's sleeping."

"Mm."

The barest hint of sunlight cracked at the horizon, lifting up the layers of indigo sky to reveal a deep pink. Orange clouds dotted the area around it, having left the moon alone for the time being.

It was very lovely. The pair admired the sunrise together this time.

It was morning for the rest of the castle inhabitants just a few hours later. Lilliana made her way to the kitchen to start breakfast preparations, and Dimitri headed to the fields to practice with his weapons.

On his way out, he stole a glance at the young woman, and then looked away.

Lilliana's gaze darted to him once or twice, and then she looked away.

Then their eyes met, and the two smiled at one another.