*Princess Belasarius*

God above, he was naked that whole time! Did he HAVE to be naked the entire time?!

I will spare you, dear reader, of what I did with that memory the rest of the night. Suffice it to say it was not…proper royal behavior. And besides, it was the only thing I could think of to get my mind off the attempt on my life that very same night. Despite all outward appearances, I did not, in fact, have it together. And despite my orders to Gravestone, I did not get a good night’s sleep. Even after the…activities, had run their course, I was still too shocked by what had happened to sleep, as every dark corner of my room vexed me.

Which is how we end up with where I am at the start of this chapter. With me, laying in my bed, staring up at the ceiling for the past five hours. I would very much like to die now, please.

Whatever, the sun is at least a third of the way up, I’m getting up.

I slip out of my nightgown and into whatever I can throw together in my sleep deprived state. Fortunately, nothing that important is happening today so there’s a chance I won’t be hounded by every official in the castle telling me to dress “properly”. As I do so, my mind turns back to the words of one of the assassins. What in heavens’ name is a White Eye? Well, I had every intention of finding out. And I knew just where to start.

***

TWO HOURS LATER

After eating breakfast and trying to maintain my ruse of “no everything’s fine, no one tried to murder me last night” in front of my father and the many suspicious servants, me and Gravestone made our way down to the castle library. My mess from yesterday was thankfully cleaned up, including the book about ancient trade routes which I have decided I will no longer be looking at. “Okay,” I said. “Forgive me if this comes off as insensitive but, can you read?”

“Yes,” he replied with the simple tiredness of someone who has probably answered that question a few times before.

“Excellent!, You start over there, I’ll start here. If anyone asks, we’re researching…” I take a deep breath as I throw myself back into the madness. “...ancient trade routes.”

***

THREE HOURS LATER

It isn’t that I expected to find the info neatly gift wrapped for me with a cute little bow on top right away, but considering that this library could house half of the castle town below, I was expecting a bit more than what I had found by this point. Which was nothing. “I found something,” said Gravestone, who was now officially in my nickname category of friends. I’m thinking Big G.

Gravestone laid a tome so old the cover was falling apart on the table, already opened to a specific page. He pointed down to the upper right of the right side of the pages, wherein was drawn a portrait of a group of men and women in robes with a white eye symbol emblazoned on the front. “Most of the page is, well look at it.” sure enough, upon inspection of the rest of the page, most of it was unusuable, the book clearly kept here to preserve whatever was in the rest of it, likely due to this being the only one of its kind left. “But here,” Gravestone continued. “You can clearly make out the letters W, E, and L, in the order that would spell White Eye Cult. Which, given the photo next to it and the whole robes and symbols setup, cannot be a coincidence.”

“The best lead we have so far is assumptions made from a thousand year old tome damaged practically beyond repair,” I said with an exasperated sigh. “Inspectors we are not.” I rub my temples, and then stare at the clock. God, we really had been here for three hours. “F*ck it, I need some light reading.”

“Well, I saw the latest volume of Lovers’ Paradise, if that interests you.”

I look up at him, surprised. “It DOES interest me, actually, thank you. If you would please retrieve it?” When he returned, he asked if he could look at it after I was done. “You read Lovers’ Paradise?”

“Is that so hard to believe?” he asked.

“You are a shifter killing machine, it’s a tad unorthodox.”

“That…is entirely fair. But, yes, I do rather enjoy the odd serial romance. At worst it fills travel time that would otherwise be spent lost in thought, and at best it can often move me to tears.”

“Right?” The volume was forgotten as we decided to instead spend the next hour discussing our favorite stories. And while Gravestone’s opinions on one or two of those stories could use some…unpacking, I found myself utterly enthralled the rest of the time.

But all good moments must come to an end, and in this case, that was embodied by the authoritative sound of the commander of the guard shouting, “Princess Belasarius!”

At the din of her oppressive shout, we scrambled to hide every tome taken on any random shelf we could find. The moment we have the last incriminating tome safely tucked away, Commander McAllister, 210 lbs of muscle and discipline, marched up to us with a bow in my direction. “My Lady, I trust your studies are going well?”

“They uh, they are indeed,” I said, doing my best to act casual. ‘Can I, uh, can I help you?”

“I wish to speak with Mr. Gravestone, and Advisor Price wishes to speak with you alone.” Oh. Joy. Another two hour long lecture from the most boring man on the face of the planet.

“Oh very well, I will be along shortly.”

“And I suppose I will be following you?” asked Gravestone.

“Yes. you will not speak a word until we arrive, is that clear?”

“Y-Yes ma’am,” said Gravestone, shooting to attention before meekly following. Not how I saw my day going, but at least we have something approaching the timezone of a lead.