A/N: Not a cheerful chapter. But we do get a hungover Casiphia, for what it's worth.

Chapter 4: Preparations

Life is a long lesson in humility.

~James M. Barrie

Luncheon in their quarters seemed like a wise choice after the assorted strenuous events of the night before, and Casiphia and Ilosovic expected the knock at their door to be a page arriving with a tray. To their surprise, there stood Queen Mirana.

"Your Majesty, please come in," Ilosovic said as Casiphia rose to her feet in surprise.

"Thank you," Mirana said with her customary graciousness, but also with a bit of a more complicated emotion.

Without prelude, she began. "Iracebeth is in one of her tempers today. She has broken quite a number of ornamental objects and thrown several chairs at the staff. Also she has raged at length about me and the two of you, as well as persons that I think she has invented in her own head.

"I feared as much, after her good behavior yesterday. That always seems to come with a price. She can seem so thoughtful and aware, and then she's the same ill-tempered child she's been her whole life, if not more so."

Silently Stayne drew his ever-present sword and handed it to Casiphia.

"Sometimes humor is all we have," she said to Mirana, who gave them a startled look. Casiphia handed the sword back over to Stayne and added, "I don't like his sword anyway; it's too heavy. Henrietta and I will be just fine."

"Casiphia, I try to forget that you carry a gun these days—much less that you named it—but you simply will not let me," Mirana said with a delicate shudder.

"I should think you would feel more secure in that knowledge," Casiphia said with a faint smile.

"Well, I can hardly blame you for relying on weaponry," Mirana sighed. "I still can't decide if I have done the right thing bringing Racie here, or if the physicians have done the best they can for her despite their feelings about her reign, or what will happen next. Honestly, I often rue the day my elder sister was born, and then I feel guilty for having such thoughts."

Casiphia took Mirana's hand and squeezed it gently. "We are all doing the best we can," she said. "It isn't as though there is a rule book written for such things. Iracebeth is as safe as you can keep her from herself and the rest of us, and we will do what we can to look after ourselves."

Mirana rose. "I don't suppose I've brought you any information you did not at least have a suspicion of. But I want to keep you informed, and you in particular, Casiphia, because Iracebeth's feelings towards you seem to fluctuate hourly. I was so pleased to hear about the conversation you two had, and I want to believe there is a part of her that still means what she said to you, but I don't want to take chances."

"I will not leave her side," Ilosovic promised.

"I doubted you would," Mirana smiled. "But it reassures me to hear it."

With that she left the room, leaving the knight and the lady to mull over the tangle of thoughts and emotions Iracebeth always inspired in them, and wait for a lunch that neither of them particularly wanted after their conversation with the queen.

That evening Stayne immersed himself in a hot bath, while Casiphia immersed herself in a bottle of wine she had filched from the cellar when no one was looking.

She drank her way through most of it before Ilosovic was finished with his soak, stumbled across the room, and toppled into bed. Ilosovic didn't know why she was so soundly asleep, but pulled the coverlet over her, climbed in beside her, and fell asleep himself with an arm draped across her waist.

Casiphia was mostly asleep the next morning when she felt someone shaking her.

"Wha'?" she mumbled. "Go 'way."

"My love, if I could, I would let you sleep all day," came Stayne's voice. "But Mirana has summoned us to another Iracebeth meeting."

Blearily Casiphia sat up, and Ilosovic handed her a simple gown. After she pulled that on, he unbraided her hair, brushed it out, and arranged it about her shoulders, then helped her to her feet.

"I owe you some kind of favor for this, don't I?" she mumbled.

"We can discuss remuneration later," he said. "Here, step into your shoes, and let us be on our way."

As they entered the audience room where Mirana, Nivens McTwisp, and several uniformed guards who had once been part of the Red Queen's retinue were already seated at a large table, Mirana could not help but notice Casiphia's bloodshot eyes and the way she shied from the light streaming in the windows.

"Casiphia, what's wrong?" she asked.

"Wine," Casiphia whispered. "A great deal of wine."

"Oh, child," Mirana said, getting to her feet and leaving the room, to return in a few minutes with a tall glass of white liquid. "Drink this—it will make you feel better."

Casiphia obediently did so, choking down the bitter draft. (Mirana's potions did not tend to be concocted with flavor in mind.) And sure enough, within a few minutes she began to feel more alert and far less queasy.

"Your highness, I am so terribly sorry to come to this meeting in such a state," Casiphia said, looking at the ground.

"Ah, Casiphia, my sister has driven people to far worse than a night of too much wine," she said, looking sternly at Stayne, who had the decency to look abashed.

"I've asked you here because Iracebeth's last days are surely upon us. The tumor is beginning to affect her breathing as well as her behavior, and there is no way to remove it without causing further damage. We need to discuss arrangements and make our last visits.

"Ilosovic, I must request that you see her. I suspect there are subjects you two need to discuss, and that no matter how you feel about it now, you will always regret it if you do attempt to make your last peace with her."

Stayne's expression indicated that he did not agree with this statement in the slightest, but he nodded towards Mirana and kept silent.

"Casiphia, I don't know what to recommend to you because I don't know what state you might find her in."

"I think I would prefer to avoid her and leave our last contact as the talk we had at the ball. I'd rather leave that as her last memory of me, if indeed she does remember it."

"Very well," Mirana said, making a note on a piece of parchment in front of her. "I would also like the two of you, and you also, Nivens, to be at her funeral."

The three murmured their assent, though Nivens looked a bit horrified at this request.

"Guards, I leave it up to you whether you wish to say a farewell to your former mistress. I will not hold it against you if you decline."

The guards nodded, and one muttered through his helmet, "I rather suspect we will decline."

Mirana made another note, and then turned to Stayne and Casiphia. "I have one further request to make of you two. I want to take your horses and go for a good long ride. Take a couple of guards with you to make sure you're safe, but I can tell you both need some fresh air and something to look at besides marble walls."

"Thank you, Mirana," Casiphia smiled.

"Your majesty," Stayne said, getting to his feet with a bow.

Once outside the room they glanced at each other, and then Casiphia headed for the stables at a run, Ilosovic not far behind, a handful of courtiers and staff looking startled in their wake.