Yelena and Arcane lingered in silence through the garden. He continued to watch her with an intense eagerness, even as her gaze remained distant with her thoughts.

"Trouble in paradise?" Arcane asked offhandedly.

She didn't answer but bit her lip absentmindedly. Her head drifted off to the conversation with General Tesso and stayed there.

"Is everything alright?"

"Hmm? Oh!" Yelena gave her head a tight shake. "I'm sorry. I've been distracted."
"It's fine." Arcane waved it off. "You seem to be having a lot on your mind lately."

Yelena sighed and sat down on a bench beneath the roses. "That's putting it mildly."

"Everything okay between you and Valek? I don't usually care much for gossip but there's been talk."

She raised an eyebrow. "What kind of talk?"

"Never mind." He looked away, embarrassed.

"It's alright. We haven't been really discreet about it." Yelena twirled her bow idly.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She shrugged. "There's not much to say. We're fighting more and…" Her mouth quirked into a rueful smile. "…always over the same things. It also doesn't help that we're apart all the time. And when we are together…well let's just say I can be a trouble magnet. All this running back and forth we do makes it impossible to sit down and have an actual conversation about our issues."

"That sounds exhausting."

"It is. I miss the days when we just looked forward to being together. Now we're just worried we're going to say something that'd set the other person off."

"It seems like it's imperative you make time to talk then."

"You're probably right." But she grinned sheepishly. "And it's probably also time to stop being so immature about this. It's really no accident that I've been taking up every offer of yours to get away lately."

He pretended to look horrified. "You mean you don't actually enjoy my company?"

Yelena laughed. "No I do! It's just..." She sighed. "It's silly but sometimes we would be so happy that I get the worst urge to just leave. That way we can remember that moment together as being peaceful. Does that make sense?"

"So, not very ironically, you went the roundabout way of saying you like to run away a lot."

"In a nutshell." She said with a small sadness. "I haven't had a lot of love in my life. Being too happy can be enough to scare me sometimes."

"Love shouldn't be scary."

"It shouldn't." Yelena stood up. "But it's time to stop feeling sorry for myself. I have to be willing to work for this relationship. Thanks for listening to my bout of self-pity."

"Glad I could help." He closed the gap between them. "Though if things don't work out, you can always…well."

Yelena frowned and stared at his shadow as it began to darken hers. "Um…"

Arcane laughed. "I'm kidding, Yelena."

She didn't smile. "I'm not comfortable with that kind of humor."

"No? I could have sworn…"

"No. No." She held up her index finger and jolted several steps back. "I never made that indication."

He held his hands out. "Come on, Yelena. You're the all-powerful Soulfinder. You never knew?"

"I try not to pry unless necessary because it's unethical. Your surface emotions made you amicable until I rebuffed your advances just now."

"Can you blame me for being angry at being led on this way?"

"Led on?! Are you out of your mind?!"

Arcane scoffed. "Don't play innocent. You were being friendly and…"

"I was friendly to you because we were friends. Were friends."

"Really now? Fighting constantly with the lover, coming to your convenient male friend to vent, not so subtle hints at how you could be happier…writing was on the wall, Yelena."

"I suggest you leave now."

She began to walk away but was accosted by her admirer.

"No wait." He held his hands up. "I knew this might be too soon. But it doesn't have to be now. What I want you to know is-"

"No. Whatever it is you're thinking, no." She held the bow between them as a wooden fence. "Stop following me. Stay the hell away from me."

Seeing that she had every intention of using her weapon, the suitor wisely withdrew with a curse under his breath as his consolation prize.

Yelena stiffened and watched him depart. She turned and narrowed her eyes as her breath hitched. With a sharp blow, she stabbed the bow into a rose bush.

There was a cry as a man staggered out, hands up in surrender. The weapon had missed his neck by a marginal inch. He wore the uniform of a gardener: a white shirt with red diamonds on the collar and breast pocket paired with black pants.

"You're not a gardener. So what the hell are you doing?" Yelena cut him off before he replied, "And the truth. You know I can tell if you're lying."

The man brushed himself off. But he couldn't meet her eyes. "I was tailing you."

"I can see that. Why?"

He met her eyes. "Valek ordered me to."

Yelena seemed confused but her shoulders relaxed tremendously. "Was my life in danger?"

"Something like that." The man gestured towards Arcane's path.

She groaned. That was one mortifying story she hadn't planned on ever mentioning to him.

"I can tell him that you two were just having a casual conversation." He stammered.

In a rose garden. Alone. While the moon was out. And under the pretense of liaison duties. Yelena groaned again, wanting to smack herself with the bow for her thoughtlessness or to disappear, whichever would be faster.

"Actually," She told him, "There's no need to do that. I'll talk to him myself."

The "gardener" might have lost all the air in his lungs from that sigh of relief.

When Yelena made it back to the suite, the lanterns were still lit and her lover, still in his dress uniform, sat at his writing desk working a substantial portion of his firestorm into the report.

She sat wordlessly down on the couch and waited. When he didn't speak or make any indication as to her presence, she counted to ten in her head and said, "I'm sorry."

He waited another ten seconds before setting the quill down. His voice took on their characteristic deadpan. "Do you want to follow that by telling me what you were doing or thinking?"

"We were just talking. And I wasn't thinking." Yelena looked up. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

Valek came to sit beside her but he was still too angry to take her hand. "Why did you go with him, then? To get away from me?"

"Partly. Mostly I just wanted to talk to somebody."

"About us, I'm assuming."

She crossed her arms and considered; tried to remember her political training. "It can be easier to talk to someone who isn't a mutual friend. Things have been so tense between us this past year: every other conversation we have ends in an argument; I had a lapse in judgment."

"I see."

They sat without speaking for a long minute. The powerful wind thrust until branches snapped in the distance. Their breathing was slow, shallow, and uncertain.

Yelena finally broke the silence. "You shouldn't have had me followed. You know how I hate it when you do something like that without my permission."

"I had a bad feeling."

"I'm more than capable of taking care of myself. Especially where another entitled General's son is involved."

He wasn't sure if there was a reference tied to that, but knew better than to ask. "I know that. But with the recent horrors of the Bloodrose clan, I've been feeling paranoid lately. You remember how Opal just disappeared. And she's deadly with her training."
"Not good enough, Valek." Yelena said with exasperation. "You still could have asked for permission before having me followed. I probably would have let you if you just told me you were worried."

"Or you could have just not gone with him in the first place." And this was why he'd never survive a day in her job.

But by now they both had the chance to be angry and to say their harsh words. That should mean it was time to make up.

"You're really something else, Valek." She stood and strode to the door.

…Should.

"Where are you going?" Panic displaced all logic and level headedness once more.

The doorknob creaked as she held it mid turn. "I need time to myself. I can't stand being around you right now."

Valek ran a hand through his black hair and sighed. "Do you want me to apologize? I'm sorry, Yelena. I shouldn't have implied this was in any way your fault." He swallowed. "Please don't leave, love."

"Thank you. But I still have to leave."

"There's no reason for that, love. We've resolved this."

She pushed a sharp breath through her teeth. "You're not listening. I have to leave."

He wasn't given a chance to reply. She opened the door and left the suite.

Yelena propped her stiff neck up on one hand and willed her mind back to the present the next morning. Her other hand began to wander across the page with its intricate ink design at the corner. It took ten seconds after walking out in her firestorm to realize that her only option for sleep was the floor of Dilana's narrow room. Martial law meant no checking into inns past curfew and narrow barracks. Everyone in their place.

One of these days they were going to have to work out alternate sleeping arrangements in Ixia. If, that is, they could even work anything out at this point.

A cough sounded from across the room.

Yelena sighed. This was exhausting. But it would be even more exhausting to let things continue to go on this way.

Another cough, more unrelenting this time. Her green eyes snapped up when they morphed into retching.

The food taster clutched the collar of his uniform and doubled over. Yelena was at his side the next second, demanding the name of the poison from his dying breath.

…Abalormist. One of the few poisons she remembered ingesting aside from My Love. And its effects were far worse.

Valek sprung into his battle ready position when she rammed the door open.

"It's the Commander." Yelena hurried in and explained the situation between short breaths.

He sat back down. "That narrows the suspect list down. The herb won't be in season until the Cold Season. So that means the assassin would have to use a dried specimen…and be resourceful enough to find someone with one on hand."
"Could one of the Generals be involved? They would be wealthy enough to afford it."

"Maybe." He stroked his chin. His eyes darted to her. "Did you taste any of the food on the table?"

"Not yet. I usually wait until after the Commander's food taster finishes."

"Alright. I'll go find out who has been in and out of the Castle this past month. Can you please go interrogate the Cook?"

"What about Ari and Janco?"

"They just left on a special mission with Maren. Looks like it'll just be the two of us." He offered a smile. "I know. It's not much of a makeup date, eh?"

But she laughed. "Who needs dinner and wine when we can have danger and intrigue to keep things lively between us?"

Yelena's smile faded as she drew figure eights on the wood of the table. "You'll be tasting the Commander's food now at an actual risk." She glanced up at him. "I'm worried."

"You're forgetting who taught you everything, love."

"You need to swallow to taste Abalormist."

"Then it's imperative we find whoever is behind this as soon as possible."

Interrogating the Cook was easy enough. Sammy insisted that he and his select helpers – whom he knew by name and face, thank you very much – were the only ones allowed near the food. The same person served the Commander each day.

But was he familiar with the person who served the Commander?

Sammy shrugged, turning back to his oven. People never liked being reminded of how little they were paying attention.

Yelena smirked. It was almost too easy.

"No one has ever spoken to the server. They only remember that he has short black hair and green eyes. I wonder how many people in the world fit that description." Yelena tapped her fingers against the back of a chair.

"Nice work." Valek produced a list as he spoke. "The Commander's server doesn't typically leave the Castle without clearance – none of those with jobs this intimate ever do. But the old one has recently retired, creating the perfect opportunity."

Yelena grinned. "We managed to finish before the end of the day. I didn't know we were this good."

"I suppose we'll have to settle for dinner and wine now."

"Good. That way we can talk. About where we're going to sleep for one."

All traces of humor left him when he realized she was serious. "Where we're going to sleep?"
Yelena nodded. "I think it could be a good thing to have a space where one of us can retreat to when things get…tense."

He pressed his hands together and touched them to his lip. "'When' things get tense? Like sometime tonight?" He cut her off before she could reply, "Because it just tends to happen 'every other conversation'?"

"This might make it better so we wouldn't have to be like this."

"Like what?" He nearly snarled.

"You know. I shouldn't have to say it."

"Maybe you do."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Like we don't like each other. Like this is all temporary until one of us realizes that what we really have is just… the danger and the intrigue."

"Is that what you believe?" He challenged, "That what we had for an entire decade was nothing but an adrenaline rush?"

"I hope it isn't." Yelena said quietly as she stood and straightened. "I'm going to have to take a rain check on dinner tonight."

"Fine." He gave her a wintry smile and made to appear as if he wouldn't care if she decided to return to Sitia at that very moment. "I'll be busy tasting the Commander's food anyways."

Her eyes widened slightly but she shrugged and left the room.

"It was Blackberry Poison this time." Valek leaned back in his chair three days later. "I've never been fond of that fruit."

"That's the second time since you started." Yelena stood and began to pace in small, agitated circles around his suite. "How much longer is it going to take to train that taster?"

"If you recall, this takes time, love."

She took a sharp breath and stopped, covering her eyes with one hand. He felt a pang of guilt. But not quite enough for the costs to outweigh the benefits.

"But there's a new player." Yelena was saying. "We need to find out who he or she is. The sooner we do, the-"

"Or we continue to wait to see what happens after we lull that person into a false sense of security. If they're involved with the same person as the server was, then it'll only be a matter of time before they slip, being this brash. In the meantime, the Commander will be safe."

"Because you're the shield." She said despondently.

"Which I've been since the inception of the order. And yet, here I still am."

Yelena approached him. "But we're going to spend our last week together worried about your safety."

"Odd, eh? As it's usually yours we're worried about, love."

She punched him playfully. "Only because I don't sit in an office all day doing paperwork."

He looked affronted. "Have you ever tried to reassign a burly Captain from his comfortable quarters here to the border where your bed is a pile of pine needles? It's much harder than helping a puff of air move on."

"Puff…of…air…?" Yelena sputtered through a burst of giggles. "Did you just call a soul a puff of air?"

Valek flicked his fingers and traced a semicircle in the air. "Puff."

"Oh it's going to take me so long to take this job seriously again. You're evil."

"So I've been told." He took her hand and stood slowly. "Should we skip dinner tonight?" His fingers trailed up her arm and he brushed his lips across her cheek.

"Ah…it would lower the risk." She slipped her hands beneath his jacket, enticing a delighted shiver.

Of course his idea of a lower risk had to do with the odds of another fight. She was probably thinking more pragmatically.

Either way, he kissed her, throwing the disagreement (and any future ones) into oblivion.

The last thing he wanted was for her to wonder why he was in absolutely no hurry to train the new food taster or to even find the Commander's would be assassin.

A bit of a slow chapter. There will be one more part to this seven months ago thing. :) I think we can all read Valek's motives here but stay tuned to see what happens next!