A fresh layer of snow covered the grass outside of the Red Cloak fortress. Samson and Emily had been assigned guard duty for that morning, meaning they had nothing much to do but talk to each other.

With the two of them finally getting along more, it made making conversation much easier than it used to be. The two of them eventually grew tired of standing and sat on the stone ledge. A peaceful silence covered the forest until Samson began talking again.

"I'm sorry," he said.

Surprised, Emily raised her eyebrows. "You're sorry?"

"Yes, I am. Please don't invalidate my apology with sarcasm," Samson said.

Emily snorted. "Ah, I see. Using my own tactics against me. How clever."

"I really am sorry though," Samson said. "I honestly thought you were going to be the worst. You were obviously skillful during the Placement, but your attitude immediately made me hesitant to teach you. I never really gave you an actual chance."

Emily sighed. "I haven't exactly been easy either. I guess you could I didn't give you a chance either."

Samson didn't say anything, and Emily shifted slightly on the stone wall. "Is there any way we could, you know, not hate each other? You know, like, be friends? Because I'd quite like that."

"I suppose so," Samson answered softly.

"Samson, is that a yes or no?"

"Yes, it's a yes," he said.

Emily smiled. "Well, now that we've settled that, what else is there to do really?"

"Um, guard the front gate?" Samson suggested dryly. "Just saying."

Emily was beginning to conjure a witty response, but she noticed something near the edge of the forest.

"Samson, to the right. Is that Finley's group?" she asked. There seemed to another person with them as well.

"They found Felix," Samson replied almost immediately. "Not Autumn though. Oh..."

Emily frowned. "What's wrong?"

"I was going to take you to Brookbridge later, but something tells me that's not going to happen today."

"Brookbridge?" Emily asked.

"It's a town. You would be getting a sword there," Samson replied.

"So, we're not going there now," Emily muttered.

"I doubt we'll make it today considering they just found him."

"Well, drat."

"Relax, I'll take you to Brookbridge as soon as possible," Samson replied.

"Don't you think Celosia will have calmed down now that Felix has been found though? I mean, she's practically gone insane waiting for them to return with him. Maybe this will help?" Emily pondered and glanced at Samson. She hated herself for being able to play the role well.

Samson shook his head. "You're missing the point. Who is it Celosia hates most of all? Who is it who she finally caught, and Felix helped escaped?"

"That would be Autumn," Emily replied.

"Exactly, and who do we still not have?"

"Autumn," Emily said.

"Correct. Celosia will decide Felix's fate and then go back to obsessing over how she still hasn't found Autumn anywhere," Samson said.

Emily frowned. "To me it sounds as if you are indirectly insulting Celosia and her process."

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not insulting her by any means. Celosia has many flaws when it comes to her plans. She plans out of anger and rarely thinks with a clear head," Samson told her.

  "Well you have certainly thought a lot about this," Emily muttered.

"I have sort of had a lot of time to think about it considering I've been here since I was seven," Samson said.

Emily coughed. "So, you've been here for a decade then? My goodness..."

"But I wasn't insulting her. I was simply stating how things could be different around here," Samson assured.

"Oh? By all means please elaborate," Emily said, a cheeky grin on her face.

  Samson sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Like I said before, she does things out of anger and never really goes about things by simply being rational."

"Don't most of you act out of anger?" Emily interjected, but immediately changed her wording. "I mean, don't most of us, don't most of us act out of anger?"

"I don't," Samson replied.

He had her there. Although he could be quite obnoxious at times, he never once lost his temper with her. Finley hadn't either. That made two rational people, but that was only two people out of thousands.

"If Celosia chose to approach situations with a calmer demeanor, then I'm sure more things would be accomplished. I mean, think about it. She sends people out to go on wild goose chases to catch Autumn. She always loses her temper at meetings. You can pinpoint when she's going to explode. Haven't you noticed how she usually starts off being calm and then slowly becomes less patient as time clocks on?"

Emily couldn't quite believe what she was hearing. Samson's point all made complete sense. She nodded to answer his question.

"Celosia should be mapping out where Autumn hasn't been. She should be gaining more information from the failed plans. Instead, she does the same thing over and over again. She's not learning anything from her mistakes, and she's three years older than I am. She's old enough to understand she won't find Autumn if she does the same thing," Samson continued. "I think she forgets that Autumn isn't exactly stupid. She was caught once and escaped. Autumn learned from her mistakes. Celosia hasn't. Honestly, I'm quite puzzled as to why she hasn't utilized you yet. You would probably improve the decision making in this place."

Emily's jaw dropped.

Samson noticed. "You'll attract flies if you leave your mouth open like that."

"You're basically saying Celosia is a bad leader," Emily pointed out.

"See, I never said that," Samson replied, growing slightly frustrated.

"You implied it."

Samson let out somewhat of an awkward cough.

"My, my, Samson," Emily teased. "I caught you."

"You didn't catch me. I already told you I never said she was a bad leader," Samson answered.

"You take things too seriously sometimes," Emily pointed out, watching Samson's face turn red. Out of anger or embarrassment, she didn't know. "Ah, I'm only kidding Samson. Don't dwell on it too much."

As Finley's group drew closer, Emily and Samson pulled the heavy front doors open. They went by so quickly that Emily wasn't even able to get a glimpse of Felix.

"What do we do now?" Emily asked, still gripping the iron handle on the door.

"We'll have to wait out here until guards switch out with us. Then we can go inside and see what's going on," Samson said.

And soon enough, two guards came to replace the two of them. They notified them that the dining hall was gathering to discuss what was going on with Felix.

While Emily saved a seat for Samson in the dining hall, he went to get both of them lunch. She watched him disappear in the crowd before turning her attention back to where Finley's group stood. Emily could see Felix was being held tightly by the man Wells. On the other hand, Finley had a stern expression glued to her face. She remained almost perfectly still, like a statue.

Samson eventually returned with two trays with bowls of soup on each of them. Emily only then realized how hungry she was, even if the food wasn't the best.

"Thanks," she told him as he set the tray down.

He sat down too and ate the soup. Both of them carefully observed the dining hall, taking in every single person there. They did this often, almost every single day. Samson had told her it's important to know who everyone is, even if you really don't want to. As someone taking on a role like she was, she couldn't help but agree with him.

"You know," Emily finally piped up, slurping her soup. "This truce is all the evidence I need."

Samson stopped eating.

"HaHA! I told you I could prove it. Especially after your apology—"

"Maybe I'll take my apology back..."

"Okay, okay, no, don't do that. I'll shut up about it," Emily insisted. "Honestly, I kind of wish we could just skip this meeting."

She tried hiding a smile when she saw Samson's forehead crease. 

"I'm kidding!" she exclaimed, returning to her bowl of soup.

This was the very first time Emily had seen Felix. After all, he had already been gone by the time she arrived for the Placement. She couldn't decide whether he looked the way she expected him to look or not. Either way, as boredom gripped her, as she went to put her head down, Samson nudged her.

"Looks like Celosia wants us up there," he said.

They both stood up and made their way to the front of the dining hall. The scene before her eerily reminded Emily of the Placement. It was the way everyone's eyes were on her. But this time, their eyes shouldn't have been on her. She was merely there as an almost leader next to Celosia. As the rest of the Red Cloaks filed in, someone caught Emily's eye from across the dining hall.

It was Sylvia.

Her eyes were focused in on her. Emily shifted closer to Samson. He glanced at her and leaned over to whisper in her ear.

"What's wrong?"

Eyes just leaving Sylvia, Emily stood on her tiptoes to answer Samson. "Sylvia's here. She won't stop glaring at me."

Samson followed her gaze, spotting Sylvia as well. She was still glaring directly at Emily.

"Do you want me to do something about it?" he asked.

"Oh no, no need for that," Emily whispered. "She just creeps me out a little."

Samson nodded in agreement, obviously slightly unnerved by Sylvia's constant staring as well. Emily soon forgot about Sylvia when Celosia began talking.

"Good evening to all of you. Almost a month ago, we were betrayed by one of our own. He escaped and helped our biggest enemy, Autumn, escape as well," Celosia began.

That was something else which Emily didn't understand. Why was Autumn their biggest enemy? No one seemed to know the answer to that question. Maybe Samson would know. He seemed to know a lot of things about this place.

"Thanks to Wells and Finley's group, we have successfully captured the one whom caused such an uproar in the first place," Celosia continued.

The crowd starting hurling insults at Felix. He didn't flinch, his expression stern. Celosia waved a hand to silence the roaring audience. The noise soon died down and she continued with her announcement.

"Now as you know, treachery is an unforgiveable crime, and one I cannot allow to fester among us. Therefore, it has been decided that Felix will be scheduled to be executed in weeks time."

Emily felt sick.

The crowd cheered.

Felix paled.

"The exact hasn't been determined at this moment, however, we are hoping the announcement of the execution will draw Autumn in."

For the first time, Emily noticed Felix flinch. She connected the dots. They were using Felix as bait to lure Autumn back. She hated to admit it, but it was a clever idea.

"Now that that's out of the way, I have nothing else to say. All of you may continue with your evening," Celosia said, voice now lowered and talking to Finley's group.

Wells roughly escorted Felix out of the dining hall, the rest of the group following behind. Emily's eyes remained glued to the group until they completely disappeared. Celosia came over to her and Samson.

"I expect both of you to return the guarding the gates until nightfall now that the meeting is over. I will send guards to switch with you after that," she said.

"I was going to ask you permission to take the Phoenix to Brookbridge tomorrow," Samson said.

Emily could almost hear an edge to Samson's voice, and it caught her off guard. Why did it catch her off guard? Well, the more Emily was around Samson, the more she realized how calmly he spoke. Soft-spoken wasn't the right word to describe his voice, because he wasn't quiet. But he was very articulate, and not only that, but rarely ever raised his voice. Sure, sometimes he would grow frustrated, but Emily couldn't tell by listening to his voice. She would have to look at his face instead.

So, why exactly did his voice sound so aggravated now?

"Going to get your sword?" Celosia asked, snapping Emily out of her thoughts.

"Oh, yes, I sure hope so," she answered, glancing at Samson.

"Well, you are granted permission for tomorrow. But for now, return to your guarding duties," Celosia said.

She swished the rest of her cloak and went her own way, flanked by guards behind her.

"She sure knows how to make an exit," Emily muttered.

Samson elbowed her.

"So, I guess it's back to guarding," Emily said, shivering when she felt an odd twinge in her shoulder, right where the scar was.

Samson nodded. "Back to guarding. Later this evening, after dinner, we'll pack so we can leave early tomorrow."

"Sounds like a plan," Emily said as they entered the hallway.

Just as the two of them were nearing the front doors, a strong force rammed into Emily's back, knocking her off of her feet.

Samson whirled around to find Emily flat on the floor and Sylvia holding her down.

"This is why you should always watch your back!" Sylvia hissed. "This right here is how the Placement should have gone."

A crowd was beginning to form around them. Samson even went to help Emily, but she stopped him.

"Don't," she growled, a hand breaking free from Sylvia's grip and landing a punch to Sylvia's gut.

Sylvia groaned and let go of her, giving Emily enough time to scramble up. Sylvia went to lunge at her again, but someone stepped in between them.

"Get. Out. Of. The. Way," Sylvia snarled, digging her nails into Samson's arm.

"Sylvia, this is ridiculous," Samson said. "You're making a scene."

He was right. Emily flushed red when she realized how many people were watching.

"I said get out of my way, and I won't ask again."

"Empty threats. Empty threats are always spilling out of your mouth, aren't they?"

Surprised, Samson glanced over his shoulder to see Emily standing her ground.

"How dare you," Sylvia began.

Emily shook her head. "No, how dare you." She went around Samson. "This just shows how incapable you are of being Celosia's right-hand man. She once told me Red Cloaks were supposed to function like a well-oiled machine. How can anyone expect to do that when people are attacking each other?"

Sylvia's eyes darkened. "You. You're pathetic. You act like we're all supposed to get along and have nice little friendships. You're the one not capable of being her right-hand man."

"That's enough!"

Both Emily and Sylvia jumped. Emily's eyes grew wide when she realized it was Samson who had raised his voice; Samson.

"You have no place to call her pathetic. The Phoenix fairly won her place, she fairly secured her place. Even after she had been stabbed, she continued to fight. So, like I said before, you have no right to call her pathetic. And I will not allow you to continue attacking her like this. Consider me her right-hand man. Because she's right, we have to function, we have to work together," Samson declared, standing in front of Emily once again.

Emily had to keep her mouth from dropping to the floor.

Sylvia shook her head, laughing. "You both are pathetic. Just wait Emily. One day you will regret coming here. Believe me. Both of you will see things differently one day. And I'll be waiting for that day."

Emily and Samson cringed as Sylvia slunk away, the crowd soon dispersing as well.

Emily turned to Samson, a smile soon forming on her face.

"Well, if that wasn't a declaration of a truce, then I don't know what it is."

Later that evening, Emily stood in front of mirror in her bathroom, watching as Samson showed her how to fix the collar on her coat. The preparations for the evening were in full swing, and Emily was unsure on how to do almost everything.

It had been hours since Sylvia attacked her in the hallway, and a cut above her right eyebrow wouldn't go unnoticed. Samson had couple of scratches himself.

The small banquet would take place in the dining hall, and the Red Cloaks who were considered higher-ups were permitted to attend. This was Samson's first year attending. He had been a higher up for a couple of years, but this was the first time he had chosen to attend. With his new friendship with Emily, he felt slightly more comfortable with attending.

He had never loved the higher-ups, their snobbish tendencies making for a mostly uncomfortable time. His parents were the talk of everything typically, about how he better "make them proud" and that they "put a lot into his success". Other than that, there wasn't much to talk about.

"Does this look fine?" Emily asked, snapping Samson out of his train of thoughts.

He blinked, lowering his gaze toward Emily's collar. She was staring at his reflection in the mirror.

"Yes, that looks fine," he replied, watching as she began to comb through her curly hair.

He was used to her wearing it up, but today she had decided to take it down. She had told him the reason she kept it up in a ponytail was the fact that her hair would become quite frizzy otherwise. Why he remembered this detail was beyond him.

"You're really trying to tell me that you've never, and I mean never, been to any of these dinners?" she then asked, giving a quick twirl in the mirror.

"Yes."

  "Well, I'm sure it will be," Emily paused, trying to find the perfect word. "I'm sure it will be tolerable."

"Tolerable is the best word you could use to describe it."

  Emily let out a quick laugh as she left the bathroom. Samson soon followed, and Emily hated to admit it, but he looked quite nice.

"Time to go I suppose," she said. "Ready?"

This time, Samson only nodded, leading the way toward the dining hall. When they opened the giant doors, Emily's eyes widened at the sight of the decadent food spread out across the dining tables. Most of the Red Cloaks were already sitting, digging into the food and some even drinking glasses of wine.

She glanced up Samson to gage his reaction, and sure enough, his skin had gone a shade lighter.

"Samson, are you okay?" she asked, gently nudging him.

Samson nodded, but his stomach was churning. He had eaten the food the Red Cloaks had provided. He had eaten it for years, wondering how they cooked things so awful for the people trying to help them. He had assumed they were simply unable to provide really nice food, and so naturally he brushed it off. But now, now he could see where the food was going.

It was going into these elaborate get togethers that were only there for petty and shallow conversations. If he had attended the last two years, then he would have seen this much earlier than now.

This was unfair. Everyone here deserved to enjoy this kind of food. This wasn't what he expected at all.

"Come on, Samson. Let's sit down," Emily said, voice low.

"Okay."

The two of them sat down together at the end of the table, trying to avoid eye contact with the rest of the Red Cloaks.

"I don't know if I can eat this," Samson whispered, not even meaning to say it out loud in the first place.

Emily stared at the food for a couple of seconds before turning her attention back to Samson.

"We don't have to. It's okay," she said.

  Samson sat back for a moment, and then reached for the some of the food in the middle of the table. He placed a couple of biscuits and slices of ham on a plate before lowering it next to him on the bench. Emily wanted to ask him what he was doing, but she decided it would be best to not ask.

They soon left after making some lighthearted conversation with the rest of the Red Cloaks. But as Emily veered off back to their rooms, Samson continued toward the prison.

"Samson, what are you doing?" Emily asked.

"I'll be up in a moment," he said, gingerly holding the plate of ham and biscuits in his hand.

Samson heading toward the prison raised a couple of question, and so after waiting for him to disappear, Emily soon followed, wanting to know what was going on.

  The prison door closed shut, and Emily slowly opened it, peering inside. She watched as Samson held out the plate of biscuits and ham in his hands. He carefully kneeled down, sliding the plate under one of the prison cells.

It was then that Emily realized he had snuck the plate upstairs to give to Felix. Her eyes burned, tears bunching at the corner of her eyes. She brushed it off though, making sure to head back to her room before Samson would notice she was there.

Meanwhile though, Samson felt lightheaded and deflated. Even if he was with Emily during the dinner, it had made everything ten times worse. He trudged back to his dorm room. Emily must have already gone to bed. Deep down he couldn't help but feel guilty for not telling her where he gone, but what she even think about what he had done? She was the Phoenix. He was almost certain she wouldn't have tolerated him giving the biscuits and ham to Felix when he had refused to eat it in the first place.

Because now that he had seen all of that, it only proved what he had been worried about this past year.

He truly was starting to lose sight of what his parents wanted for him.

He truly was beginning to forget what his parents taught him, and now was beginning to believe it was all a lie.

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Note: So that was chapter thirteen! Once again, thank you so much for reading the story so far!
-IML