After making sure I was okay, warning me to not exert myself too much while my wound still healed, Auron snuck away from the council room to properly check up on Sabre. That and he didn't want to be mistaken for a servant again by my mother. I didn't even know how he had entered the castle in the first place without being stopped and questioned by a servant or guard. Though, perhaps the guards were too busy searching for Mace's group as not even one was standing outside of the council room.

As I knocked and opened the door, I revealed a large circular room that took up the majority of the castle's eastern tower. A dark, wooden table sat in the centre surrounded by ten chairs of the same material. One of which was a carved replicated throne for my mother to sit on. As soon as I was married and had received my title as king, it would be my seat.

Unlike the rest of the castle where it looked to be unloved from the tearing wallpaper and dust-coated rugs, the council room always appeared to be brand new. A fresh coat of green paint was set over the walls, the strong smell overwhelming me, making me turn my head upwards to see if the job had been completed fully to where it reached the roof several feet above us. It had.

Sat in her chair was my mother and stood at her side was Lady Lorella. The latter looked very happy — too happy — as if her plastered smile was forced.

"Ah, Kay, you've made it. I've already told Lorella here about our situation between Icrodeia and our kingdom, about how Sabre was only a temporary measure. Now that Icrodeia has attacked us, Lady Lorella will be engaged to you very soon." Her hands were placed carefully on her lap, displaying the wedding band she still wore gifted to her by my father.

Would there be no break from choosing suitors and thinking about a fiancé?

"Mother," I felt a muscle twitch in my cheek, "I thought you were resting." The last time I had seen her, a servant was guiding her to her chambers to get some sleep.

"I am. As long as I'm not using my magic just yet, it's still counted as rest. You have no need to fret."

Lady Lorella curtsied, looking up at me through her long lashes. "It's great to see you again, Prince Kayne. I heard you had been injured at the ball last night, I hope you're okay."

"I'm doing as well as I can be, thank you." I bowed back, keeping things as courtly as I could.

Was my engagement with Sabre really over already? I knew it would happen eventually, but now? Even as we were still recovering from the ball? I was just beginning to enjoy having her around more than usual, to revel in the thought of spending my future with her. I didn't know why my mother was so persistent in getting Lorella specifically to be my suitor.

"There's no need to be so formal, you'll need to warm up to each other in due course. Lorella, I don't know if you've heard, but my son appreciates the nickname Kay whenever he's not on any official royal duties." The queen's returning smile was more of a torturous smirk, she knew what she was doing.

"I do n-" I ground out between my teeth, only to be interrupted by her.

"Why don't you give Lorella here an in-depth tour of the castle grounds? It will give me some time to speak to your father in private about some matters if he turns up."

That I raised my brow at. What did the High Fae Queen have to discuss with the lord? Was she planning to get more forces for this war?

"Of course." I offered my arm to Lady Lorella after sighing inwardly to myself.

She took it gracefully, pushing herself closer to my side than I would have liked. "Lead the way." If it was even possible, her smile grew tenfold. It was almost worrying.

We walked in silence to the main entrance of the castle. Where was I going? I had no clue. If I had known I'd be giving a tour of my home, I would have thought out a path beforehand. Nor did I even know what to say to Lorella — my now soon-to-be fiancé.

Tension and fear could be felt in the air from the attack as we walked around the castle's gardens. Even the gardeners hired specifically to keep the hedge carvings in shape looked on edge.

The lady on my arm swept the surrounding area with her gaze, searching or checking for something, before the fake smile fell from her lips. "What's actually going on?" No more was the sweet, high-pitched voice and the thought out movements. Now, she had switched to a more serious version of herself. "Why am I suddenly your fiancé when I was only introduced to Lady Sabre the other day? She hasn't... died, has she?"

"No, no! Sabre is okay. Injured, but okay." I didn't know what I'd do if Sabre had actually died that night. If the guards hadn't burst in and called the medics as soon as they arrived... I couldn't bring myself to think about it.

Could I tell her? I wasn't even sure of what my mother had told her about what was going on. Could I let Lorella in on everything if I didn't know if I could trust her fully yet? Though, if she was permanently going to be my fiancé and wife for the foreseeable future, as much as I didn't want her to be as Sabre had a hold of my heart, perhaps she could be of some use.

Slowing my pace, I explained from the beginning what had taken place between Icrodeia and Racaea. From the spy being found outside of the castle walls, to his interrogation, to the plan we had made and the events of the ball. All of it, aside from the fact that Sabre was the potential item Mace wanted. If she knew that, I didn't know if she would spill the secret to the wrong people.

"What do you plan to do now?" There was no outrage. No shock. No moment of hesitation to take in the information she had received. It was as if she already knew or suspected what was going on.

What did I want to do? I hadn't had a chance to properly think about it. "Ideally, I want to head over to Icrodeia to negotiate terms."

"Then why don't you do just that? Nothing is stopping you." Lorella walked on ahead, quickening our pace as we approached some servants tending to some litter guests had left behind from the ball last night.

"It's not that simple. There are safety concerns, the need to plan the route there and back, to find steeds for the journey, to prepare supplies, to decide who would accompany me. I can't just leave when I'm needed at the castle either." It was too much to plan with too little time on my hands.

"Isn't that what the High Fae Queen is there for? She can hold down the fort while you're gone."

I laughed at her words. "You sound very desperate to get me out of the castle. Are you planning to hire some assassins to kill me out on the open road? Maybe plan a siege of the castle while I'm gone too?"

Lorella snorted and shook her head, something that reminded me of a wild horse. "If I wanted to do that, I'd wait until we'd actually been married for a little while." This new smile of hers was real, not like the other I had seen when she had been with my mother. Before I could get a proper glimpse at it, it vanished underneath her shield once more.

"If you say so."

She rolled her eyes. "My father has mentioned that Icrodeian forces have moved towards the border."

The lord was one of the wealthiest people in all of Racaea. Not only did he own several estates across the kingdom, but a large chunk of the army too, so much so that he even occasionally called himself a general. That was likely how he was up to date on what was happening at the border between the two lands.

"I don't want my home to be taken over by Icrodeians," Lorella continued. "That's why I'm so persistent. However, I want this war to end peacefully while my father has other ideas."

"Oh?" Whenever the lord put forward a proposal during council meetings, they never brought much peace and goodness into our kingdom. I didn't have much hope for what he had schemed now. "What is he planning?"

Nervousness shone through her warm, brown eyes. "I overheard him talking to some of his most trusted soldiers. He explained that he's going to wait for the Icrodeians to make a move that could be deemed as threatening, and then he'll just attack them to get this war underway. My father wants to fight his way out of this when he doesn't even truly know what's going on."

I chewed the inside of my lip as I thought. "So, you're saying I should specifically withdraw his patrols just in case?" If there was any hostility from Racaea, we would be proving Mace's point about how the fae were bad people. There wouldn't be any chance to recover from that, no hope for peace.

The lady shrugged. "Your words, not mine."

A silence eddied between us, settling a feeling of awkwardness over us like a thin blanket of snow.

Where did that leave us now? If Icrodeia had made their way to the border, we didn't have much time to act. We needed a solution and fast.

"For now, I'm going to continue to look through the records in the archives for the past exchanges between our two kingdoms. If that doesn't produce any results, I'll further consider taking a trip to Icrodeia." It was all we had for the time being. I still needed to talk to Sabre and Auron to find out what they thought. "Unless you have any other ideas?"

Lorella frowned. "I don't yet. If I do think of something, I shall let you know."

The quicker we could figure out what Icrodeia wanted or why Mace was so determined to destroy the fae, the quicker we could potentially stop this war from happening. If the war didn't have to happen, then I wouldn't need to marry Lady Lorella either.

From what I had deduced from our meetings, she was a nice enough person. But a part of me had been secretly excited to be engaged to Sabre.

"I'm going to unpack my belongings in my new room." The lady curtsied as some servants hurried past. "If you need me, I'll be there."

"I will get in touch if I discover anything."

With a stiff nod, I watched as Lorella made her way back into the castle, leaving me to wonder how in the forest's name I would be able to dig us out of this deepening grave.