We made the journey to the Inn in what seemed like record time, given that not long after Vel took the lead, the rainclouds burst.

Her mount whinnied louder than before, the silly mare clearly frightened of the Farther Rains. Shadfex took over the ride, drawing us closer together and clamping his mouth down on the mare's reins, tugging her alongside us as I directed him towards Zonal City.

The air bit hard into my legs, prompting me to stretch an oiled skin over Shadfex's neck and head, cooing softly to his ear that he let me lead, I would care for the path. Seeing this, Yesvelda leaned further over her young mare and shared her cloak.

Finding the stoned path was a true joy, given the fields had begun making sucking sounds, as if begging to pull Shadfex and the horse later called Rone into the slick mud. I yelled over the winds threatening to make us deaf, that we were nearly there, though I couldn't see more than a few feet before us.

At last I spotted the warm lights from the inn and her stables, careful as I slid off Shadfex and hurried us in to my usual part of the stable, the sort of half-house between stable and kitchen. Inside, I set to unpacking the horses and helping Ysvelda to a warm tub of water.

Once the basics were covered, and a fire lit proper in the hearth, I knocked on the kitchen door. It was answered by a homely woman, Kida. She opened the door presently and pulled me inside by the arm.

Kida frowned, her warm face full of worry as she tucked a strand of greying hair behind her ear. "Child, you'll be the death of me. I was fretting about wondering when you'd arrive and wondering if we'd have to host that king of yours, nice lad and all, but such niceties make a woman nervous. Do I sit or do I not? Do I curtsey or bow?"

I smiled at her from under the chill of my messed and soaked hair. "You know I wouldn't have you bow or curtsey to anyone, not even Sebat, Kida."

"That's why I'm half worried you've run off on him again." Kida placed her arm across my shoulders and pulled me in by the water basin placed near the large window. "He nearly tore the place apart looking for you the last time before it crossed his mind that you'd run off to Portsmere. Once he managed to get word that you were safely holed up in that province of yours and that he couldn't get to you until the spring, he was nice enough. Even helped in the fields."

I hugged Kida and was delighted to feel her warmth, the woman had been kind to me since I was a youngling. "Actually, Sebat has gone to the northern borders and asked me to head to Portsmere, at once, for safety. He sends his regards and said he should like to visit once things die down up there."

Her eyes widened as the door behind us opened slowly, I turned and smiled at Ysvelda, offering out my hand for her to take. "Kida, this is Sebat's Queen, Ysvelda. I am supposed to take her with me."

Vel, for her part, appeared there like any other woman. Her clothes were plain, her hair was braided back, clean, though wet from her bath. She looked quite common then. No tiara, no silly jewels dangling about. I thought she looked quite lovely.

It was Kida who seemed oddly out of place with her sudden recollection of what it was like at court. She held onto my arm and did some sort of strange bob of respect, and elbowed my ribcage quite pointedly. "Wyn, I swear by the Gods themselves, you will learn to warn me about your guests. Sebat was more expected granted that you were chosen as his playmate so long ago, and brought up for the task, but a Queen?"

"Mistress Kida," Vel began, "if you please, I've only been a queen a few months. I've been lesser nobility my whole life, so please do not worry over it. I'd much rather be treated common-like."

Kida laughed, "Common-like? Wyn, I like this one. Much better than that stiffer who came to complain about your 'lost virtue' a couple of years ago."

I groaned at the recollection, coming to lean against the sink and beginning to scrub away at the dishes there.

"Do tell, Mistress." Vel smiled, taking up a stool near the fire-stove.

Kida looked at me, then turned back to Vel. "Well, we'll have to start from the beginning."

Vel piped in quickly, "But of course!"

"Not long ago, Wyn's mother, Kelianna, was in a similar state herself, a friend to the King, as they say. King Joren later married the Countess Helia and around that same time, Kelianna fell for a merchant out of Portsmere. Joren, seeing Kelianna's affection for the merchant, released her from his service, granting her money and lands. They parted as friends and a few months later, Sebat was born to Joren and Helia.

Kelianna found herself with child some small time later, and then Wynter was born. Kelianna and her husband brought their small family to visit the keep there in the city and young Sebat found a liking towards the toddler. He was then 7 winters and she was 3. An arrangement came that it would be a pity to break traditions, and it came about that Wyn would live with Joren and Helia, Helia having taken a liking to her, and possibly grow to fill a similar role as her mother, should she so choose.

As I recall, Sebat's liking for her gave way under the excitement of weapons training and she grew closer to Helia, adopting a sort of daughter role that the woman had missed. How many years went by, Wyn, that Sebat was pulling at your braids and locking you in the towers?"

Wyn sighed, rolling her eyes, "I was 6 when it started and it stopped when I was about 14. So 8?"

"8 years turned and suddenly Sebat changed, he treated her like a lady and tried wooing her. I believe that was about the first time you left him. You see, Wyn was confused as to why he suddenly changed and started following her about, making sure she was safe. She came to me and stayed a few days until Queen Helia arrived, saying that Sebat was to be leaving soon for a different kingdom. Something about foreign diplomacy and needing to grow up some. Helia took her back to the keep and Sebat left, leaving a flower on Shadfex's old stable door and a kiss on her hand."

"Wyn grew up a good deal in the two years Sebat was abroad and was growing fonder of the prince she wrote to weekly. When Sebat arrived home, Wyn stood watch in the solarium's terrace with Queen Helia, racing down the stairs and out to the courtyards when he entered. It was funny, seeing her tear through the castle and then stand there dignified as if she hadn't upset the laundry maids and nearly ripped her bodice open on her way out the doors."

Sebat dismounted his horse, strode to his Mother and then embraced her, before offering her his arm. A few moments later, he saw Wynter and he ignored her. Wyn then left the party and stayed locked in her room for the entirety of the feast and ball.

A few weeks later, she caught a hide ball and he chased her. A few more months down the road, she claimed her position as his mistress. About a year later, she took off as he wouldn't push a law through protecting young women from the advances of older, male courtiers and he followed her, not knowing how to get to her as the land of Portsmere was locked by land and sealed by sea. And I believe that you know their story from there.

However, in the time prior to the law being passed, they split amicably, each choosing to find new partners, one of which was the Lady Jesside. Wyn found a Lord Mycel. Jesside and Mycel are now married, are they not?"

Wyn faced Vel, "with three children in nearly the same number of years."

"Well, Miss Jesside, nosy as can be, came here to inform me that my former charge, a young Wynter, had taken to the prince, a lad four years her senior, and was of all things shocking, had given herself to him. As if it weren't completely natural, given the circumstances. Two young adults, living together under one very large roof, with very similar courtly experiences? So I says to her, off-handedly, 'Would you deny such a fine, young man?' and she stormed out of here. Wasn't until I wrote to Wyn and she arrived with Sebat that I found out that indeed, Lady Jesside did not deny the prince."

I peeked over my shoulder at Ysvelda, hearing her laugh ring out softly.

The dishes are cleaned, the counters swept free of all debris, and I dry my hands thoroughly on a roughly woven cloth. Stifling a yawn, Kida suggests we make for bed, its late and she intuits that I'd like to keep moving. I nod in agreement, suddenly concerned about how we'll share the small room.

Vel seems relaxed and ushers me aside into my own bath, sharing that it was only fair that she return the gesture. Shadfex and Rone have already been seen to by the stable-hands and currently stand, asleep, in the far end of the room. Our bags lie where I had thrown them earlier, only a few of them are open now.

I'm grateful for the curtain around the bathing tub as it hides my bareness. It's not that I fear Vel seeing me nude- we're both women and in all truth, when we travel around about the country for a variety of fairs, we change around each other. It's much too hard to avoid.

It's now that things seemed to have... progressed between us that I feel nervous. That's not to say that things between us have never been charged, they have always been rather intense for our circumstances.

These are thoughts that I muse over in the small metal tub, a curtain ringing the corner off and a fine drizzle landing just outside the wall. I scrub at my hair, seeking to part the small particles of dirt and sweat from it, and then turn to my skin once the bubbles lose their froth.

I take a pitcher of the now cooled water that lies adjacent to the basin, stand and let it rinse away the suds, allowing a few more turns to finish me off. Stepping from the tub, I go to the small stand behind the curtain as I am and pull from it a sleeping gown of lilac.

The dress slid easily over my form, clinging little as I tied back the stays from the waist and replaited my hair. I came out from behind the curtains nervously. While I had spent much time with Vel, I had never so much as attempted anything other than a slight nap in her presence.

I pulled a bit of hay from a pile near the horses, already dozing away ,and spread a rough sleeping sack over, knowing from experience that it would make a suitable bed for myself. I looked up at hearing Vel ask something.

"What are you doing? You don't really intend to sleep there?" She asked, sliding away from the bed I had personally used with her husband in the days after their betrothal was announced. It made me feel odd.

"I'll be quite fine, your Grace. We won't be sleeping on so fine of beds in the near future for quite some time, so I suggest we each get our rest and take it for all its worth." I articulated, while checking the door locks were slid in place and the curtains were drawn.

I turned back to see her padding over to my makeshift bed coming to bend and spread the fabric of the roll out farther. She looked at me from the side, her head upside-down.

"I can never get warm enough to sleep on my own. In the manor, my sister and I shared a bed. When Sebat began sleep elsewhere, he brought me a dog." Vel laughs, but I can see there's something hidden in the laughter. "If you slept in the bed, we'd both be warm and comfortable. You're right about the beds though," she continues through my silence, " we shan't have very good ones soon, so sharing a nice one seems most agreeable, don't you think?"

Seeing the alternative included sharing a pile of hay, I relented. Vel sawthis and turned the covers down, fluffing the pillows as if we're no more than sisters. As if she's not a queen and I'm not a courtesan.

I climb in the bed, choosing to opt for the open side nearest the small window for fear of someone finding out who inhabits the rooms. My hands feel for the blades Sebat and I both placed under the mattress, for all his faults, he always wanted me to be able to defend myself. I find them and exhale a small breath that I have unconsciously held since we made to leave Halva.

Vel shifts into the bed and I blow out the candle beside me on a small stand, smiling as I hear her small voice whisper "Goodnight."

I snuggle down into the quilts and place my hand on hers, "Goodnight, Vel. May your dreams be sweet." I withdraw from the contact, prepared to simply fall asleep, but her hand finds my cheek and her face looms nearer, pale in the slight light coming from the moon out of the window.

She presses her lips to my forehead and then to my lips, pulling away gently. "They will be, I have you."

I drift asleep, only to wake to her shifting my head on her arm and her feet freezing cold on my calves. Her eyes are shut firmly, only her mouth's twitches at the corners give her away.

"You know, for such a lovely, normal head, yours is incredibly heavy."

"I didn't intend to fall asleep on you." I retort, smirking and readjusting my body to alleviate her now numb arm.

"I never said I minded, just that you had a heavy head." Her eyes dance all emeralds and copper as her soft skin blushes.

"Incredibly heavy."

"Isn't it?" she smiles, twirling some strand of hair that neither of us can quite determine the owner.

I roll my eyes, checking to see if I can gauge the time based on the light out of doors. Midmorning. Good, plenty of time to prepare for the following night's journey. Vel sits upright and her hair catches the sunlight, throwing about her a red halo with a braid falling over one shoulder.

"You know, my hair will give us away. Do we have any inks?" Vel asks.