Finals are done. I failed a class this semester and barely passed another. So that guilty depression tied to my grades is coming in SWINGING rn. But we ain't gonna talk about that! I'm back to break more hearts! Hurray!

Enjoy ;)

~

Sophie shoved her way into his room and slammed the door shut before pressing her ear to the door to listen for anybody who might've followed. Ruy knew better than to speak. To interrupt her focus and panic could mean death.

Just then, he realized she held a steak knife in her hand, and her eyes darted about like a deer scanning for a coyote they had lost track of.

"Is this room secure?" She asked quietly, scanning the room for any weak points. Paintings with the holes poked out to make for spy holes or secret cupboard doorways that could reveal whatever she was running from.

"Sophie, I was a soldier. I know how to secure my room! What do you want?"

Sophie continued to secure the room. Pulling the curtains together and stuffing pillows underneath the door cracks. She forced the door to his studio open before he stopped her. Sophie stopped for a moment, taking in the room with wide eyes. Ruy pried her away from the doorway and shut the door, forcing her eyes to meet his.

Her mouth dropped slightly, and she began to take deep breaths, her eyes dilating as she looked at Ruy.

"What do you want?" Ruy repeated, refusing to look too intently at her lest his resolve crumbles again.

Sophie gulped down her panic and flipped the steak knife in her hand, glancing around, "My courtesans are missing."

Ruy crossed his arms, waiting for her to continue. When she gestured to him for a reaction, he burst out into laughter.

Sophie's eyes widened, and she grabbed his shoulders, shaking him as he shoved his mouth in his hands to muffle his laughter.

"What are you laughing about?! My court is missing! The Senate-"

"Sophie," Ruy wiped a tear from his eye, "nobles go missing all the time. They are gone for a walk about the gardens to gossip, they are in a broom closet with their secret lover, they are poisoning some enemy's wine, you name it."

Sophie's face dropped, "But... the party is over. And their chambers were all empty!"

Ruy rolled his eyes, "Sooo... maybe they all have secret lovers. Or maybe they ALL have enemies to poison or threaten. Welcome to royal life, Blondie," Ruy chuckled.

Sophie pursed her lips, looking away to hide the crimson staining her cheeks.

"I may have overreacted." She grumbled, gently dropping the knife onto a silver tray holding Ruy's rings and a pack of beaten tarot cards he had found.

"I'll admit. It is a TAD interesting that they are all missing at the same time but-"

A bloody scream echoed through the castle and rattled even in Ruy's room. Ruy pulled Sophie behind him, not cringing when she gripped his shirt so hard it felt like it would tear as the sound bounced off the stone walls. Silence fell upon them, the only sound being their haggard breathing.

"I'm overreacting, am I?" Sophie spun on him. Ruy huffed and sprinted after her as she flew back down the tower stairs towards the now growing clamor in the main hall.

The main hall's dark stone seemed ever more eery as they approached. The simple candlelight blazing in the wall sconces seemed more taunting than comforting. As if they knew they were the only thing lighting all their lives at the moment. Sleep-riddled courtesans muttered over one another, pushing against the ring of guards to get a better look.

Ruy tried gently pushing through, but the land-locked body around the scene made it impossible. Sophie ducked beneath his arms and slid between the bodies, easily snaking her way to the center.

"Sophie!" Ruy tried to find her head of gold, but it was lost over the horns and wings of his people.

Losing his temper, Ruy straightened and flared his wings, "That enough! Back away or I will have you all sent to the cells!"

The group instantly disappeared, parting to make room as he strode toward the corner of the circle. His knights straightened at his approach, stepping aside to let him through.

The scene made him screech to a stop. A young Inalian courtesan was splayed on the white and black tile, red pooled around her in a slowly growing puddle. Her beautiful purple dress looked more maroon by the second as blood trickled from her stab wounds. Her gut was almost a slab of meat. It was a fresh kill.

Sophie was quiet as she knelt beside the body, holding her hand and gently shaking her shoulder as if she would wake up.

Sarai, Cato, and Kalem stood over the body, glaring at Sophie. Lysandra stared from the balcony above, but her face was empty. She stared at Sophie for a beat before silently slinking into the darkness of the bedchamber hallway. She looked to be speaking with someone before stepping out of view.

"W-What-" Ruy spun as a young man pushed through the crowd and sobbed at the sight of the woman.

"My love!" He sobbed, stumbling to his knees and pushing Sophie away from the body. Sophie stared at the woman's face with tears, not even fighting as the man lamented. Nor did she pay attention when he whirled on her.

"You! You-you pretender! We stood by you- the Senate was right! You are no true queen!" The crowd gasped and shuffled away as Sophie blubbered.

"What? But the Senate were the ones who ordered me crowned- you were there!" Sophie insisted. The woman spun round to the faces of the rudely awakened court. Glares and quivering faces of fear met her.

"Get her away from Halloy! My beautiful Halloy!" The man cradled the woman to his chest, sobbing so loud it echoed off the walls. Sophie screamed as she was pulled away from the body, straightening to a rigid captured stance.

Sophie weakly glanced over her shoulder to the body holding her still. The middle Dunmer prince held her shoulders tight, panting like a wild animal. He looked ready to call for her execution then and there. Kalem threw her into the small crowd of guards, who caught her in an iron grip, holding her arms behind her back and forcing her spine straight and rigid.

"Kalem, get off of her!" Ruy spat, pushing through the crowd past the newly named corpse of Halloy.

"Get her to the cells!" Kalem spat. Ruy grabbed his brother's shoulder and spun him to meet face to face.

"Kalem, you could not be serious! No one saw the girl die, no one saw Sophie-"

"You mean that no one saw the assassin sneak away and kill one of her own courtesans? Her own flesh and blood! This is the very thing she was born for- made for! All of the Morrettis are! Who else could it be! Everything was quiet when she left, brother! Don't be so blinded and let your," Kalem stopped himself, glancing at the people around before quietly spitting out, "infatuation with her cloud your judgment!"

Ruy sputtered, watching hopelessly as the guards began to drag Sophie away.

"Ruy! Ruy, tell them they are wrong! Tell them! Please! Ruy!" Sophie kicked and screamed. The guards lost grip on one of her arms, allowing her to grapple onto the stone doorway before the dungeons.

Sophie's hair stuck to her tear-glistened cheeks, and her nails bled red as she resisted the guards pulling her down. Ruy surged forward, but his brother stopped his path.

"Don't forget the eyes watching, brother! Let the assassin resign to her own fate!" Ruy's chest shuddered as he readied to defend her. To tell them he had Sophie in his chambers late at night, so they knew she didn't murder this woman. That he knew the Cyevan code, and it forbade killing the innocent. He could tell these people, speak for Sophie!

His eyes settled on Henrietta, whose teary eyes turned to him. Had the noblewoman ever seen a dead body before? He supposed not.

Henrietta turned towards Sophie, "You heinous monster!"

His fiance. His position. His new world. He had a role to play. A job to still serve.

But his heart sunk to the Dunmer caverns below as he watched his old world scream his name.

"Ruy! I didn't do anything wrong!" Sophie's hand was pried free from the crevice of the doorway. The Bastard Prince listened as Sophie's screams for help muffled the further into the dungeons she went.

Until they were all but silent.

Ruy paced along the shag carpet, following the pattern he had pressed into the fibers for the past 35 minutes. His mother and two brothers sat on the couches, consoling themselves in ways they understood. Sarai simply sipped on her tea and kept nervously glancing towards the window where Halloy's body was poked and prodded for evidence in the ballroom. Kalem kept getting up from the cushioned couch, glaring into the fire and spewing whatever useless nonsensical hatred he thought would help the situation before sitting back down, only to repeat the cycle. Cato just picked at the cuticles on his fingers, sniffling every once and a while.

"I'm telling you, Sophie didn't kill her!" Ruy repeated for possibly the hundredth time, turning to his family.

"Son, the world knows her. She is a dangerous woman who comes from the longest line of trained assassins and a fickle royal line. She wasn't in her chambers during the murder nor does she have an alibi by anyone else." Sarai sighed, stirring in more honey to her tea.

'She was with me', Ruy wanted to confess. She told him she was worried about her court missing, and he laughed at her. Laughed in her face, even.

She was right, a woman was dead, and now Sophie was being jailed for a crime she did not commit.

"Brother, I do not know what type of, uh, relationship you and Miss Morretti had back in those dark ages," Kalem started.

Dark ages. Times of dancing and love and joy. His time being an assassin in Inalia and nothing more. And now they were nothing but dark ages.

"But you cannot allow it to cloud your judgment! She is an assassin, someone showed up dead, and the dead person's lover claimed she did the killing! What more do you need!" Kalem chuckled at the end as if it were a closed case.

Sarai cleared her throat, "Kalem, darling, you are not helping."

Kalem snapped his head towards his mother, matching her blazing eyes, "What? How am I not helping? Oh, because I'm calling out your favorite son on his nonsense!" Kalem snapped, spinning to grab his coat. Ruy's face dropped, turning to his stepmom.

Sarai breathed out through her nose in a short, calculated breath, clearly tired of this conversation. Ruy assumed they may have had it before, "Kalem! I don't-"

"I'm going to find dad! Wherever he is. Maybe he will see reason, even if he doesn't like me like you dote on him!" Ruy grunted as Kalem shoved a finger into his chest, rubbing the spot sorely when Kalem stormed out of the room.

Ruy made eyes with Cato, who hopelessly shrugged. Oh yeah, this is a conversation they had before.

"If I may, my queen," Eira appeared at the door, dipping into a quick curtsy before the royal family.

Sarai waved Eira in, clearly exhausted, "Speak, child."

"I'm not actually the one who should speak. I believe my friend has pointed out a discrepancy in this open and closed case Kalem keeps spewing on about."

Ruy's heart dropped, and he quickly glanced at Henrietta. Would this friend reveal that Sophie had snuck into his room and wasn't at the ballroom? The poor girl rested her head on one hand as she scribbled the night's events to her brother Zuberi. The talented Seer may be able to help with the night's events, Henrietta had explained.

"Is it that poor lover of hers? Poor Halloy must've never wanted to leave him behind."

"Actually, this 'Halloy' was never into men. So this lover is not who he says he is are." They all froze as the Inalian Senator strode in behind Eira. Senator Atlas pulled down his hood, smiling tightly at the family.

"And her name is Anna, not Halloy."

My ever-so-faithful beta reader Knowledge Bear and I have finally drafted the outline for the rest of the series. And oh boy, it's a doozy. And I, for one, am excited to write it.

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_Sibylline_