[Opener is "Oh No!" by Marina and the Diamonds]

"Crap." Royal saw Oscar fall. But then he looked up. "We'll be the same as him in another minute. Better just jump."

"But--" Cinder really had no reason to disagree, she was just shocked.

"I know, but there's no time to look for him from up here. If he survived that, we have to find him on the ground before the lancers do." Royal tried to sound calm--pretty successfully actually. "We'll be above water in a second. I think we can jump. No time to parachute; the lancers would only catch us for sure."

He stepped back before they could do so now.

But they drew back as it neared water, fortunately. They didn't usually fly over water.

The plane was near crashing and still on fire a little.

Royal tossed out a few of the crates while he had the chance. They should have been able to float, being waterproofed.

Cinder was watching the water.

It was close now.

"Just go," Royal called.

By now Cinder was more nervous about being here alone than being in company she didn't like.

"What about you?" she asked.

"I want to level it out so it lands," Royal said. "Maybe it won't break into pieces then."

He moved towards the cockpit.

One of the crates fell onto a dust vial that had not exploded before (apparently it was unseen by them).

Cinder saw it just in time to throw up a sort of shield.

The impact sent her sprawling out of the plane haphazardly into an impromptu dive.

She hit the water at a speed that hurt like hell but did not knock her out, thankfully.

The water was icy this close to Argus, but not literally, or she'd have been too numb to swim in seconds.

There was another crash. Royal had also been thrown off the plane.

He struggled to float.

"Well...that didn't work," he said, as the plane sailed over their heads and hit the water hundreds of feet away.

It didn't break into pieces, but one of the wings did crack.

And, of course, since the doors were open, it sunk promptly.

Royal took this better than you'd think.

"I'm sure they can fish that out..." he said philosophically.

* * *

Using the case as a flotation device, they got back to shore after about 40 minutes. The current didn't help them much.

By then Cinder was thoroughly pissed off, as she hated water.

But once she was on the shore, she rushed to find Oscar.

The lancers could have found him by now, but Grimm usually didn't attack Oscar anymore, though Cinder didn't know that.

And they seemed to have turned their attention to the pirates, because they had gone back the other way.

Also Oscar, being unconscious, didn't emit emotions for them to find, so it might have saved him to have been out cold when Cinder did finally find him.

Perhaps by some blessing from above, he'd hit a bush and not a rock, and nothing appeared to be broken, though he would be sore for days.

At least he wasn't dead. Cinder let out a sigh of relief.

"So, he's okay?" Royal did seem genuinely concerned.

Cinder lacked energy to be disagreeable.

"He'll live," she said. "I think..." She wasn't a doctor for crying out loud!

"Well, that was fun." Royal was either being sarcastic or trying to be cheerful. "The kid did pretty good. I guess Beacon lives up to its reputation."

Cinder made a scoffing sound. "He learned that on the road."

"I don't think they'll look further. They'll think we died for sure, along with their cargo, which I'm sure will make their hearts bleed far more," Royal said. "Who knew Teach was such a SOB? I just don't get the entire appeal of the whole operation. But the base will have sent someone to find us by now."

"Before they could get here, my--team would find us," Cinder said. "If they could.... But no, all those Grimm must have darkened it. That has to be why they aren't here yet."

She was right about that, and they were currently freaking out about it.

"But they're gone, and the air will clear, if we just wait," Cinder mused. "Of course those songs would make it faster, but they took the scrolls..." She was talking to herself there.

"You lost me," Royal said. "But if they can find us, fine. I feel a little bad for Fay though."

"What?" Cinder blinked.

"You know? She won't get her order, at least not as soon as she wanted. That's really the worst part of this." Royal was making a joke.

He didn't get a laugh.

"Right, the kid is the worst part," he said more soberly. "I was kidding."

"Do I look like I'm in the mood for jokes?"

"You're never in the mood for jokes, so what difference does it make now? Plus the Grimm will ignore us if we stay upbeat," Royal pointed out.

Right...survival tactics.

Cinder couldn't say that didn't matter, so she lapsed into her usual sullen silence.

"Well, nothing to do but dry off." Royal was one of the people who talked to themselves to sooth their nerves, clearly, which he continued to do while taking some of the fire dust and then gathering some fallen wood.

Cinder moved Oscar to a slightly more comfortable position, though not much better, on open grass.

He didn't come to.

Ruby would kill her if he had a concussion...if Winter didn't do it first.

Heck, Hazel would do it first.

Not that it was her fault they'd followed her!

Why had they?

"How did you get captured?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh...well, it's was really pretty stupid," Royal said. "It was my fault, but I guess there's no helping it now. He tried to tell me it was a bad idea. I thought we could stop them before they took off. They were too ready for us though. But I have to hand it to your friend Shine, she's pretty smart. She guessed exactly what they did, looks like."

"The Mind Grimm part?" Cinder wouldn't have put it past her.

"No, she didn't say anything about that. That was the surprise," Royal said. "Ugly things were in the back of the ship already. I'm certain they weren't mine. They must have moved them there somehow. I don't even want to know how one accomplishes that."

Cinder shrugged.

"But why did you even go with Oscar?" she said. "Because it was your ship?"

"Yeah, that and I was a little concerned there was something going on," Royal said. "And then they said you were kidnapped."

Cinder frowned. "So?"

"So? That doesn't sound dangerous to you? Most smugglers wouldn't kidnap someone. And it sounds like they had plans. People must still be pissed about what happened years ago." Royal said that like it was surprising.

"Oh, yeah, imagine that," Cinder said. "The only one who's not pissed is you."

Royal finally got the fire lit.

"I don't follow," he said.

"I mean what the h--- is your deal?" Cinder could no longer suppress her curiosity. "I heard what Emerald said."

"I know you did."

Silence.

"And?" Cinder prodded.

"You're interested suddenly?" Royal said, rather tersely. "I didn't think you wanted to know anything about me."

"Why on Remnant would I want to?" Cinder said.

"Then you don't now."

Well, she walked into that.

That only made her more angry.

"People don't just brush off things like that," Cinder insisted. "Why didn't you tell Emerald?"

"I didn't want to. And I'd think you'd understand that, of all people, so how about dropping it?" Royal was terse again.

Cinder was surprised enough to stop talking.

The silence after that lasted for an excruciating amount of time.

The grass was cold. Evening was still early in this part of Remnant, and it already was going to be dark.

Cinder shivered.

She used to be fine in cold...when she had fire powers.

The two went a while without saying anything.

Finally after she could stand it no more, she spoke.

"This entire thing was my fault, I suppose," she said, almost as if to no one at all. "I should have known better than to get so close to them myself. I of all people should be more careful."

Royal glanced up after looking in the fire for all this time. "So why did you?"

"I don't know." Cinder glanced at the flames. "I...I was sick of not doing anything personally."

She recognized this now, though she'd lied to herself about the reason before. "I was bored."

"Bored?" Royal was amused. "I guess I was right. Life is too quiet in Eurus."

"Don't mock me." Cinder could do nothing to stop him if he chose to do so at the moment. "It's not in my nature. It never has been. If this is a step up from plotting people's deaths, it's still reckless. But...well, what does it matter? None of it matters. As long as it only affects me. But I didn't think Oscar would get involved. I didn't even think he was in Argus."

"That's because he wasn't till about an hour before we got taken," Royal said. "Oscar worries about you, I guess."

No response.

"And you actually like him," Royal noted.

"I don't!" Cinder lied.

"You do. No one can fake that," Royal said. "Finally found someone you like. I was starting to think that person didn't exist."

"Shut up!"

"No, it's impressive really. I can't imagine being able to dislike that many good people. Must be a talent."

"I find good people annoying."

"But you need them. Bad people wouldn't have let you off so easy," Royal said.

No arguing with that.

"You try to act tougher than you are, that's the problem," Royal noted after a pause.

"I don't need this," Cinder said. "I get it. Everyone says the same thing. I'm well aware."

"A lot of people do that. I don't know why," Royal muttered. "Mercury is like that too."

"Don't compare me to him."

"You used to boss him around. Maybe you've rubbed off on him." Royal ignored her. "Or he was like that already. Whatever happened to him in the past must have been pretty bad, for him not to trust anyone that much. I don't know what happened to you, but it couldn't have been much better."

Pause.

"It doesn't matter," Cinder said slowly. "I've started to think I'd have been the way I was no matter what. Or...no, I just don't remember a time when I wasn't this way."

"What way?"

"Violent...angry...eager to hurt people rather than let them get to me." Cinder could say this quite freely. "At one time, I thought that was strength."

"But not now."

"I wavered. I might have killed those b-----ds if Oscar hadn't stopped me."

"I don't think you would have," Royal said. "You had chances more than once before that."

"You don't know me," Cinder said.

"Maybe I don't, but Oscar does. If he really thought you would have done it, he would have knocked you out, not told you to stop. Just makes sense--you don't give a real killer that much leeway."

"You haven't known Oscar that long or his teachers." Cinder forgot her caution for a moment in her belief in this. "They would talk anyone out of killing, except Tyrian, and he can't be reasoned with anyway. Couldn't be, I should say."

"Makes me wonder how they talked you into joining them, but I guess I'll never know," Royal said. "All this mystery might kill me."

Cinder frowned. "How much did Shine tell you?"

"Nothing at all about that. She seems to respect people's privacy. I guess I get that." Royal shrugged. "But it just made me wonder more. They're odd. Nice, but odd. I think I get it though. I think if they told me to follow them to the end of the world, I'd do it. There's something about them that draws you."

Cinder nodded before she thought but then shook her head.

This was no time to be swayed by any insightful comments.

[What a thing to think.]

"So is it true that they actually convinced Salem to surrender?" Royal asked. "Or is that more of the tall tales?"

"Most of the true ones are that tall," Cinder said. "And...Likstar, she had a plan. From what I understood, she had it almost from the start, long before I ever was privy to their counsels. I think I was a part of it, looking back. I think she had it since the minute Atlas was falling and she saved Ironwood. I'm never going to forget the shock I felt when Salem was going to try to kill her (I don't think she'd have succeeded now) and Shine just told her she would never get rid of the gods if she did. Salem stopped. That was the first time I ever saw her stop something she was going to do for something that wasn't someone just giving in to her."

"Wow." Royal didn't seem to find this weird. "What did she say to you? Shine, I mean."

"'Screw you.'" Cinder remembered that all too well.

"You're serious?"

"She didn't like me then." Cinder shrugged. "No one did. Not much has changed."

"I think she likes you now."

"Ugh, she likes everyone--almost."

"Everyone but Callows, I take it. What about that one guy, the one who screwed up the elections, didn't she talk him around too?"

"Watts?" Cinder still didn't like Watts after all this time away. "I've never heard her say she likes him. But she can trick him easily. It's one of the few things I enjoyed her doing. Sadly, I didn't see it firsthand."

"What changed her mind then?" Royal said. "What did you do?"

"Nothing at all!" Cinder said.

She paused.

"We both were captured, thanks to Watts mostly." She could have said Mercury too, but didn't see the need to. "Kanap put us next to each other. I tried to threaten her many times, and she laughed at me."

"I can't see that making you warm up to her." Royal had gauged this much of Cinder's character so far.

"It didn't," Cinder said. "Somehow she tricked me into telling her about my life. After that she...said some things that I'd never heard before. As it is, I hated it. I thought she was crazy. But then her stupid partner saved me. He didn't have to. And they let me go. I ended up in trouble again not long after, and they bailed me out, and they gave me a deal. Either join them, get them the Relic, and help them stop Salem, which somehow Shine had guessed was what I wanted all along, or...well, they never said they'd do anything, but Shine promised me I'd end up dead or worse if I didn't."

"So she did threaten you?"

"No, she wouldn't have done it, but she knew Salem would have. And it almost happened, so she was right." Cinder was rather cavalier about this now.

"But you wanted to stop Salem? I thought you worked for her."

"She was more powerful than me. I thought she was in my way. I didn't like her controlling me." Cinder looked at her left hand. "Of course, I gave her a free pass to do so. I had to get rid of that later."

"They helped you do all that?"

"Yes..." Quietly.

"Those are good friends," Royal said. "Who does that? And you had never done anything for them."

Anything but hurt people they liked, Cinder thought to herself.

She shook her head. "It makes no sense."

"Yeah, but whatever it is, I like it," Royal said. "I wish I could do that."

"You seem fine with ex-criminals in general," Cinder ventured to try again.

Royal stared at the fire.

Cinder assumed he would refuse to answer again.

But after a pause, he said, "Well, it's not that simple."

She tensed but this time in anticipation.

Emerald would be sorry if she missed the explanation, but Cinder had no intention of jinxing it by saying a word.

"It seems weird, doesn't it?" Royal said, much subdued than he usually spoke. "Not minding. Well, the thing is, that's not entirely accurate. I suppose I had the same thoughts as Claw and Piper did at first. But I kept them to myself. I decided to let it play out. Then I realized that they weren't like that. I knew who you were from the first moment I saw you, but Emerald was so excited to find you, I knew there had to be more to it than the story everyone has heard. I wouldn't call myself less judgmental than other people, just more willing to think about the parts of a situation that they don't know about. To wonder if there's more to it."

That was incredibly like being less judgmental.

"Isn't that just what any sane person would do?" Cinder said.

Not her usually. But most people.

"You'd think so." Royal seemed to still be thinking of something else.

Cinder frowned at him.

"There was someone in Atlas," she said finally, as if she'd just figured it out--and she just had, but she'd always been able to pick up on grudges, if nothing else.

"What?" Royal said, but not what as in "what are you talking about?" More like what as in "what did I say that gave it away?"

"I don't know what, but there was something about your father that wasn't as simple as just dying," Cinder said. "It's all that makes sense."

"You got that out of what I said?"

"I got it out of what you didn't say."

Pause.

Royal was mad for a moment, then he seemed to give up on it.

"You're good," he said. "I guess Likstar trained you well, huh?"

Cinder shook her head.

"Well, it's none of my business," she said, though she wanted to know.

"It's not," Royal said. "You're wondering if it was something you all did. Like I said, it wasn't really. The only real culprit involved in it was Watts. He knocked out communications and the heating grid. My father died of exposure. Caught in his warehouse, couldn't get the locks open. The cold got him before anyone else ever noticed he was trapped."

"That would have taken hours." Cinder was puzzled.

"Yeah, they weren't in the mind to really be worried about him," Royal said.

Silence.

"I told him a dozen times not to have only electric locks on that place, just in case that happened. He always said Atlas would have never lost full power like that--it was too well backed up." Royal rubbed his head. "But a hacker doing it made that not matter so much. Only the rich people's homes had their own generators with private passwords on them. We had one in our mansion, but he was in Mantle. Didn't do him any good."

"So you were rich." 

"Why does that matter?"

"It's just odd that you're flying for Argus, unless you lost it all."

"Most of it," Royal said flatly. "I suppose enough was in the banks, and life insurance being what it is, I'd do fine, I suppose, if I didn't want to work."

Silence again.

"Even so this was still our fault in a way," Cinder returned to the subject. "So you just didn't tell Emerald about it because you wanted to keep it to yourself if you were angry?"

"I'm not angry, not at her," Royal said.

"That means you're angry at someone."

"No one you need to worry about."

"If that were true, you'd just give me a straight answer," Cinder insisted.

"It's really not your business, is it?" Royal said.

Pause.

"My life is none of your business. That never stops you from asking about it," Cinder shot back finally.

Another pause.

Royal finally chuckled. "Okay...that is true. I see. You're sore that I know all that stuff, and you want to have dirt to balance it back?"

It wasn't quite that simple--but of course, it was partially right.

"I guess it can't hurt me if you know. I just don't like talking about it," Royal said.

That had worked? Wow...Cinder would have to use this logic more often.

[Not recommended.]

"I didn't really want my father's money," Royal explained. "Like Winter, I guess. Only I didn't quite have the face to walk away from it completely. Or she got cut off. My father wouldn't have done that--not from affection, I thought, just that he'd have felt it looked bad, and everyone knew Jacques Schnee couldn't control his daughters. They talked about it behind his back. My father wouldn't have allowed that in his family. We have an old bloodline or something. Not that it matters now, but he cared about pedigree a lot."

"How old?" Cinder asked.

"Some rumors that we were related to one of the old kings of Remnant, way back," Royal said. "It couldn't be proven now, but that's why my name is Royal. Stupid, right? My father was real proud of it. I guess my mother agreed to the name because she thought it had a good sound. I always wished they hadn't. I got called 'prince' so many times growing up, I think I hate the idea of royalty."

"Better than gutter trash," Cinder said.

"Is it?"

She wasn't actually sure. Mocking is mocking.

"People would prefer to have a rich family be the reason they were mocked instead of not having anything," she said.

"I don't know about that. Ask any rich kid if that's really true. Does anyone prefer to be mocked?" Royal shrugged. "But it's gone now. I'm glad it is, really. Though I feel bad that so many people lost their jobs, but the world turns. Some of them asked me for help, but I couldn't really do anything. The factory is long gone."

"Factory?"

"For shoes. Ever hear of the Perfect Fit Factory?"

"You're kidding me." Cinder had heard of that factory, bought shoes from them once--well--okay, she'd stolen them. Before she started making her own.

They were really expensive.

"I'm honestly surprised you didn't recognize the last name," Royal said.

Cinder had never been that interested in the business.

"They sold shoes outside of Atlas too," she said.

"Yeah, but not much. And the embargo pretty much put an end to that. Things had already not been doing well when Atlas fell, which didn't make Dad very happy." Royal rubbed his head. "I guess you've figured it out by now. We didn't get along so well."

"Who does?" Cinder didn't know many people who liked their fathers...or mothers, for that matter.

"Some people do," Royal said. "But not us. Frankly, I thought he was a jerk. Looking back, I'm not sure I was so nice either. But you don't notice that when it's you. He ignored me most of the time. Then I decided to join the military, Schnee style, and he just about blew his top. He said not to tell anyone who I was. Of course they found out later, but I always told them my family was fine with it. I guess it never got back to him with any kind of mockery."

"I think Winter would be interested to know she inspired this." Cinder was dying to tell her that to her face and see what she did.

"Oh, don't tell her." Royal shook his head. "It's too embarrassing to think about now. But we...basically stopped talking for years. And then...the embargo. Argus still had radio contact with Atlas. I could have contacted him. I didn't. But he contacted me. I didn't return his calls until right up to that last week. Then I heard about the election, and I decided to. Maybe I had some premonition about it."

Cinder was all ears now.

"So what did he say?" She forgot to be snarky.

"That was the weird part." Royal was staring at the fire again. "I expected a lecture for not calling, for not being in Atlas when it needed all the help it could get, etc. Instead he just said I should come back, that it looked like trouble, and Grimm were everywhere. Then he said something I'm never going to forget for the rest of my life."

Cinder waited.

"He said he knew he hadn't been the best father, and that we'd spent a lot of time fighting about stuff that didn't really matter," Royal said slowly. "That he understood sort of why I'd gone my own way and maybe he would have too. He said once his father was like him, and he'd stood out against him, but fell into line later, and he always thought I would too. Family pride and all that. But with Jacques Schnee's arrest and things blowing up, it almost looked like a family name didn't mean what it used to."

"I see," Cinder said. "So you learned that people change or something? That's why you have an outlook like that?"

Royal laughed. It was a bitter, hard laugh.

Cinder guessed that she was off, but she wasn't prepared for why.

"To me," Royal said, "it was like some sick joke. I'd thought about him saying things like that for so many years, I didn't even believe it. I guessed he was just trying to get me to come back. So I said I wasn't going to fall for that line. It wasn't the first time he apologized to me, but things never changed. And he'd already angered me since he fired my tutor, who was, honestly, more of a father to me."

The parallels to the Schnees were just astounding.

"I told him I didn't buy anything he was saying," Royal went on, still bitterly. "And that I wouldn't leave my job. He told me he wasn't asking that, that he just had been thinking about things for a while and wondering if he'd been the best boss--or best parent. He wasn't sure I was being respectful.... Well, I got mad and I hung up."

Cinder wanted to see where this was going.

"And Atlas fell," she said.

"Oh yeah, communication got cut off completely after that," Royal said. "We had no idea what happened for the longest time. It wasn't till 4 months after it fell that an employee of ours finally found me to tell me what happened to him. Up till then I was sure he'd turn up in Argus. I couldn't believe he'd have died like that. But he was old..."

He poked the fire. "It's not something I'm proud of now, and talking about it, well, it's like speaking ill of the dead. The thing is, maybe he was serious. Maybe he had thought all that for a long time and he just didn't know how to change. In my better moments, I could admit that I didn't know either. Both of us were clueless about it. Maybe he never knew any better because his family was the same way. Maybe he was jealous or envious all those years and took it out by being harsh. The thing is, I'll never know."

Cinder was silent.

"See, it's not much of a story, is it?" Royal said wryly.

"I still don't get something," Cinder said. "How does all that lead you to treat us any differently? If we hadn't done what we did, maybe you'd have found out."

"Don't you think that's giving me a little too much credit?" Royal was frank. "If he had lived, would I actually have reassessed my actions? Probably not. I wasn't really trying to. It was because of what happened that I realized that you don't always get another chance. I didn't think people changed back then. I told myself for years it would never change. I think I was threatened by the idea that it could happen and I would have been wrong."

Cinder didn't expect to relate to that sentiment as much as she did, but she did to her core.

"No, it all just showed me what was wrong," Royal said. "But it was just a few weeks before I found out that they had that ceremony in Vacuo. It was on TV. Everyone saw it. I remember thinking it was weird, what happened. I went back and re-watched the recording of it. I got to thinking, something made those people decide to save the world instead of just doing what they were doing before. I was skeptical at first, and, I'll admit, skeptical when I met Sustrai and Black, like I said. I figured they could have faked it for the sake of money or amnesty...but then I knew they didn't, after I saw them going to save people who were jerks to them before and risking their necks for it. Better than we were, for that matter. Even you, though you try pretty hard to hide that you're doing it."

Cinder frowned at him.

"It all just confirmed it. I was wrong. People do change," Royal said. "So I promised myself I wouldn't rest till I figured out what made them change, and I'd find some way to change too. Be the kind of person who'd let people have that chance. It might sound like a stupid goal, but if you can't prevent your mistakes, you have to learn from them. Come to think of it, my father used to say that. So did my tutor. So maybe I am a little like them after all. That's the story. Not quite what you thought. You thought I was going to try to get revenge?"

"I did." Cinder didn't find this hard to admit after all that. "I would have."

"Would you actually?" Skeptically.

"I would have in the past," Cinder said, shrugging. "But I have to burst your bubble. I'm not like the others. We didn't change for the same reasons. They actually wanted to. I was forced to. I stole power from people, and they hated me. Shine offered to help me, and Wally supported her in it. I owe them for all that, which is the reason I trust them more. Oscar...well, he healed me. I never had any personal issues with him. But it isn't kindness. It's just...a debt."

"That's something," Royal said. "Why do you always put yourself down?"

"I'm not," Cinder said. "I lied about what I really was like for a long time. I just don't lie anymore."

"I think you do," Royal said. "I think you're a little afraid that if you had changed more than just because it was by force, it says something about you that you don't like."

"Excuse me?" Cinder almost snapped a twig.

"I don't know your damage, but you don't like to look weak. I'm guessing change would be weak," Royal said.

Cinder glanced at Oscar.

He was still out cold.

"Change isn't always weak," she admitted in a lower voice. "But I refuse to pretend to be the victim anymore. I always was, in my mind. If I ever was criticized I thought about how I could have been a good person if I just didn't have no parents, and wasn't hungry, and didn't have a boss whose idea of discipline was a shock collar, and her two little devil kids--well, if that wasn't true, then it would just mean I was responsible for not only who I was then, but what I am now. That I had a choice. Emerald and Mercury had similar lives to mine, but they are what they are. Something was already different about me to begin with."

"I suppose so, but aren't we all different?" Royal said. "Is it really worse?"

"I don't know how you can doubt that. Surely you didn't miss what they said up there." Cinder was letting herself get more worked up than she should have wisely. "I had magic. I had Grimm...parts. If it hadn't been a curse, I never would have given it up. There's no courage in accepting the inevitable. That's why I don't put myself in the category of people who chose it because they wanted to."

Surprisingly, Royal seemed to accept that.

"I guess I see your point. It would be nice if we all wanted to change," he said. "But if you're saying that your need to get hit in the face with reality makes you less right, then I can't claim to be better than that myself. It's still a step up from those creeps not even caring to be warned about it. That almost seems worse than us."

"Once, I was just like them," Cinder insisted.

"I still have a hard time really believing that," Royal said. "Maybe you thought you were, but there's something about them that just didn't strike me the same way. At least about Teach."

"If you had met me back then you'd disagree."

"Then it's lucky I didn't," Royal said roundly. "Neither of us, for that matter. Sounds like we'd have probably been enemies back then. But it doesn't matter at all now."

Cinder was still puzzled by this view of it.

He could have been Shine for how unorthodox that was--or Pyrrha.

"Well, if the most embarrassing part of the evening is out of the way," Royal played it all off, "I'd still like to hear more about Salem. After all, you're going to forget about it and go back to pretending to hate me tomorrow, and I don't want to miss this chance."

"I forgot it already," Cinder said haughtily. "Not pretend."

"Sure, whatever." Royal didn't care.

["History"--Matthew West]

https://youtu.be/Snh8gWHfnhY

[Well, there you have it.

Royal's backstory was partially conceived of by my sister, but I think I made it fit well with his character as we see it now. Everything makes a lot more sense, doesn't it?]