Last Time on Ashes:
An inquisitive little boy, a dagger from the Kingdom of Hanada, a chance encounter and foreign bride.
Quote: "I don't understand anything! I don't remember anything! But I do remember that we are not at war with the water kingdom of the north, so why is one of their daggers stuck in the gut of one of your men?"

Chapter Ten: Secrets

My voice cracks, I wait for it to pass
Heart beats fast and words I can't take back
And so I pray I don't drive you away
'Cause I'm scared of what I have to tell you
-Pentatonix

The halls were abuzz with life. News of the arriving princess had sparked a fire of activity into the sluggish summer morning, sweeping through the castle galleries and up to the highest towers. There were people rushing everywhere, carrying a tethering amount of objects in their hands, and always in danger of crashing into someone and dropping the lot of it over their heads. Kyo only just managed to dodge and weave amongst the throng of harried servants and panicked nobles, whilst pushing Satoshi along ahead of him.

Satoshi kept Mist's hood over his face, still in danger of making a scene if he walked through the castle dressed as he was. With Kyo leading him, he received far less attention than he would have gotten otherwise. The prince still hated the feel of Kyo's hand pressing against his lower back as he urgently ushered him onward.

When a servant overloaded with folded bed sheets cut between them, Kyo darted left and Satoshi ducked right, nearly tripping over a small monster suddenly underfoot.

"Bulba!" Bulbasaur announced proudly, automatically latching his vines about Satoshi's ankles. The monster was probably heedless of how necessary such limbs were to the prince in his walk down the hall. Satoshi stumbled, falling into the arms of the man behind Bulbasaur.

Satoshi lurched free, looking straight into the face of his gentleman in waiting. Hiroshi's eyes were darkly shadowed and forehead creased with worry lines. But the instant he saw underneath the hood, his dark expression lit up with delight.

"Crown Prince!"

His shout set off like an explosion in the hallway. People stopped and stared, and everyone gave them a wide berth. Before Satoshi could try to quiet his servant, the man had engulfed him into a painfully tight embrace.

"Oh thank heavens! I thought- I thought you might have-" Hiroshi exclaimed, pulling away from the hug, but not yet willing to release his grip on the prince's arms. "But you're here and alive! Thank all the gods! You're alive!"

"Yes, yes. Very nice," Kyo hissed roughly dragging the duo out of the hall and into the nearest room. He kept a watch for curious eyes but thankfully, after the initial outburst, everyone was much too busy to care. It helped that Kyo's glare scared off anyone's gaze that lingered too long. "Servants should get back to work."

Satoshi, tripped up by Bulbasaur's vines and Hiroshi's unrelenting grip, stumbled quite helplessly into the small outlying room he was pushed into. The narrow room was bleached by the morning sunlight and sparsely furnished with sturdy oak tables and a swept fireplace. Satoshi recognized it as being one of the Solars intended for use by nobles that stayed within the castle. But this one seemed like it hadn't been in use for awhile. Perhaps not in an ideal location, with no overhanging look into the castle courtyard or near enough to the King's ear, it had been left abandoned for their own temporary use.

Kyo closed the door tight behind himself and glared over at the two boys and monster twined between them.

"This is the last thing I needed," Kyo hissed, "Trying to magick one idiot back to his rooms before anyone noticed just to run into the other idiot that let the former escape in the first place."

Hiroshi, who had far more shame than his prince, lowered his head. But Satoshi, who had suffered through a sleepless night of outrunning his own death, was far beyond meekly bowing his head. He met the man's glare full on.

"Hiroshi didn't let me escape," Satoshi snapped. "I fell from the curtain wall."

"Right," Kyo rolled his eyes. He waved the prince's challenge away, hinting more at the long evening he had likewise endured. Instead, he fell back alongside the doorway, issuing a string of orders to Hiroshi who was ready to receive them.

"Nobility are already here waiting to steal an audience with the royal family. The crown prince needs to be presentable before his royal Highness calls upon him. I can't pretend to be precognitive of our majesty's whims, but he could require the prince at any moment or not at all. The other servants will be too busy now to attend to the prince. I leave his cleanliness, dress and…" Kyo paused meeting Satoshi's glare evenly. "...manners in your hands."

"As you say, sir," Hiroshi bowed his head.

And with that, Kyo swept from the room. Satoshi waited half a beat after his departure before hissing out an expletive at the closed door. While Satoshi did expect Hiroshi to round on him, he wasn't expecting the force behind it. Hiroshi had grabbed him violently by the shoulders again, practically throwing him back. Satoshi stumbled backwards into the dining table, still tangled up in his monster's possessive vines.

It all seemed pretty excessive for a passing insult. But it wasn't a scolding that launched from Hiroshi's lips, but rather an urgent and angry question:

"Where did you go?"

A second passed before a nervous smile snuck its way across Satoshi's face."W-What?"

"Don't play dumb," Hiroshi gave him an unkind shake. "You weren't at dinner. And when I asked around, I discovered you didn't even have lessons with Kyo. He had been called away. Which means you lied to me. About that letter. About where you were going. And when I woke up this morning the bed was still made. You were… you were still gone." Hiroshi lowered his eyes. The sharp anger in his voice had dropped as well, slipping back into the choking emotion he had exhibited before. "When I found Bulbasaur wandering the halls alone… I thought… I thought- I had made a mistake. I didn't think you'd leave it behind," His loosened grip strengthened as Hiroshi met Satoshi's eye again. "So where did you go?"

Satoshi might have caved to the crack in his friend's voice. Guilt burned fresh in his chest as Satoshi realized for the first time what his running away would have meant for his gentleman in waiting. Guilt for abandoning his loyal servant (and possibly only friend) and even more for not even bothering to think of him before now. But something in Hiroshi's words caught and reigned the prince back in.

"And yet… you didn't tell anyone."

Hiroshi's face said it all. So Satoshi pressed on. "Your prince goes missing and you didn't think to mention it? To anyone?"

Hiroshi let go of Satoshi. He turned away but it was Satoshi's turn to go on the offensive. "You were suspicious and noticed I was gone at dinner. And yet you told not a soul? You even let a night pass by without alerting a single guard? And then when you found my monster wandering alone… instead of saying anything… instead of doing anything… you took Bulbasaur and… and just pretended like everything was alright?"

"I was looking for you!" Hiroshi spat out at last.

"Alone?" Again, Hiroshi couldn't meet his eye. Satoshi scoffed at his silence. "Highly impractical trying to scour a castle all by yourself… don't you think? Why? Why didn't you tell anyone?"

He only let the silence hang for a second before pressing the attack. The question was too painful, too urgent to let Hiroshi escape without saying anything.

"Did you like that I was missing?"

"No, of course not!"

His indignity and snappy retort eased the pain a bit in Satoshi's own heart. But not nearly enough. "Then why? You obviously thought something bad could have happened to me. Why stay silent? Why, Hiroshi?"

Hiroshi took to staring hard at the corner of the room. Not that his silence was at all surprising.

Satoshi ran a hand through his unkempt hair in frustration, "Of course. Why'd I expect anything different? Nothing's changed. Still keeping your damn secrets." He shot Hiroshi a glare before stomping his way towards the exit. He paused at the door, spitting out one last mean barb over his shoulder, "I can keep secrets too. You don't deserve to know anything, Hiroshi."

Satoshi had twisted the door knob just as his friend found his voice at last. It set an extra charge to his already quickened pulse. Somehow, Hiroshi knew exactly what was needed to stay his hand in this moment.

It wasn't a plea. It wasn't a question. It was an answer. Or rather a promise of one.

"I'll tell you," Hiroshi said.

Satoshi let go of the door. "Tell me what?"

"Things you want to know."

Satoshi turned back around. Hiroshi wasn't looking back at him, but rather pass him. As if Satoshi was too hard to look at directly. "Everything?"

Hiroshi gently shook his head. "No. Not everything."

"Hiroshi-"

"We'll trade. Information for information," At Satoshi's sour look, Hiroshi hastily continued. "I'm not doing this because I want to. Learning these secrets, not only could it prevent you from ever getting your full memory back, it could put you in danger. But you've forced my hand… Friends need to trust each other, right?"

Satoshi only just managed to not return the painful smile Hiroshi had given him. He'd have to do something to earn it first. Instead, Satoshi crossed his arms and stared his cousin down.

"You first."

Hiroshi sighed deeply but seemed resigned to the agreement he had gotten himself in. He scraped one of the chairs out from neath the dining table before sinking down into it. Resting his face in his hands, he pulled his resolve from somewhere down deep.

He looked up when Satoshi dared to draw near. Even Bulbasaur seemed pulled in by the weight of the conversation, silently trailing behind that of his master.

"Haruka was telling the truth. You didn't always live at the castle. In fact, there was a long time where you lived away from Tokiwa, away from both your father and mother."

"I figured you were the one lying, not Haruka," Satoshi huffed angrily.

Hiroshi flinched at the unkind remark but had enough sense to not refute it. "It's your turn then."

"Seriously? That wasn't anything I didn't already know."

"Starting small. You made me go first," Hiroshi had his own unkind smirk ready. "You can't expect me to play all the cards in my hand."

"Fine." Satoshi shuffled over to grab a chair of his own. Bulbasaur just managed to avoid getting caught underfoot as the prince settled down quite ungentleman-like into his own seat. Resting his chin against the arm he had slung over the backrest, Satoshi grumbled, "I didn't fall from the curtain wall on accident. I was running away."

It was Hiroshi's turn to scoff. "I could have surmised that on my own."

"Then it was a fair trade for your secret. Now, it's your turn again. And tell me something I don't know. Why did I return to Tokiwa back then?"

Hiroshi twisted his hands about in his lap and worried on his bottom lip. Satoshi could tell he was needling around in his mind for anything but the plain truth; the thing that Satoshi desired most. However, this was the closest thing to answers he had managed to get from his gentleman in waiting. So Satoshi pulled Mist's cape closer about himself and refrained from impatiently interrupting. No matter how much he wanted to.

"I… don't know why…" Hiroshi's eyes were darting about like a flickering candle, still avoiding Satoshi whenever possible. "You were found… injured. So you were taken to the castle for treatment."

"I was injured?"

"Poisoned." The word burned like acid and Satoshi unconsciously found himself clutching at the scar hidden underneath his sleeve. Satoshi almost thought he saw Hiroshi's eyes glance to the same sleeve. "When you came to the castle, you were delirious with fever. You didn't recognize anyone. You couldn't even string a coherent sentence together. We tried antidotes but the poison was strong and full in your blood by then. All we could do was make you comfortable and hope you'd pull through."

Satoshi gripped the sides of the chair he was sitting in as if he were suddenly in danger of falling. Bulbasaur looked up at him and crooned its name in what could have almost been misunderstood as concern.

"So I lost my memory… to poison?"

"We think so. Probably."

"Was someone trying to kill me?"

Hiroshi closed his eyes and answered in a very small voice, "Yes."

"Why?"

Hiroshi met his eye at last. But Satoshi wasn't sure what to make of what he saw there. Pity? Understanding? Contempt? "Because you're the heir to Tokiwa."

"That's all?"

"What other reason would a person need?"

"I don't know. It just seems too simple, is all." His hands were shaking. It was all Satoshi could do to hold them still. He couldn't remember anything. No flash of feverish delusion. No hazy image of his assassin closing in. Just the odd burning pain flaring from the scar on his arm. Was this really the truth? "Why would my father keep this from me?"

"It's been two years and the culprit responsible is still at large. Your father, His Majesty, didn't want to alarm you."

"Alarm me?" Satoshi snapped, jumping to his feet and causing Bulbasaur to scurry under the table. "Am I really safer not knowing? What if they try again?"

Hiroshi opened his mouth to respond but let it close again. A small smile stole across his lips as he stared back down at the floor, "You're angry."

"Wouldn't you be!"

"No, you're right. It's not fair. You should have been told." A beat and then, "I'm truly sorry, Crown Prince."

Satoshi found himself disarmed by his friend's genuinity. Now he was the one who couldn't meet Hiroshi's eye, choosing instead to run his fingers idly along the wooden seams of the chair. "It's alright."

It wasn't alright, not really. And though Satoshi wanted to put the sole blame on the young man in front of him, he knew Hiroshi didn't deserve it. Though it would be easier. Instead, his frustration was displaced; without an object to focus on, it swirled unchecked around him. Aimless, Satoshi was forced to accept the frustration and swallow it down deep. For now.

Satoshi sank back down into his chair. "I climbed down from the castle walls with Bulbasaur's help," he paused to rub his shoulder before continuing, "And then I went into the woods."

Hiroshi couldn't help himself to interrupt here, as Satoshi knew he would. "What on earth for? Surely you could have stuck to the king's road until daybreak."

Satoshi let out a deep sigh and inexplicably found himself staring down into the red eyes of his monster. It blinked wordlessly up at him.

"I was planning to capture the monster Pikachu."

It was Hiroshi's turn to exhale. He cradled his head in his hands and half laughed out his reply, "You didn't?"

Whatever Satoshi expected his cousin's reaction to be, this wasn't it. It was very much kin to the reaction he had had upon learning that Satoshi had asked for a Pikachu as his monster in the first place. He was amused by the news- almost certainly holding back another secret behind curled lips.

"You think I couldn't? I did!" Satoshi snapped, his anger flaring red in his cheeks. "I even found a nest!"

At this, Hiroshi's face lost all humor. The prince thought for sure this would be where Hiroshi would start chastising him for losing all sense, as any reasonable servant would. But yet again, Hiroshi surprised him.

"Did you catch one?"

Satoshi couldn't make heads or tails of it. On the surface, Hiroshi's words were a flat albeit polite inquiry. But there was an earnestness there too and an expectation that weighed heavily in the leveled stare he sent Satoshi's way.

The air felt inexplicably thinner as Satoshi fumbled his way through a stumbling response. And as he responded in the negative, he saw the disappointment physically deflate his gentleman in waiting. They sat for a moment in a prickly sort of silence before Hiroshi rose back to his feet.

"Well, that's for the best," he said absentmindedly. "For what would you do if you had caught one? Stuff it in a basket?"

He chuckled only half heartedly before making way for the two of them to leave the room. But Satoshi wasn't ready to leave the secret sharing session yet. Especially when his was the last secret spilled; still left exposed and raw in all its disappointment.

"No, Hiroshi, wait. It's your turn now."

"Good heavens, Crown Prince. Do you intend for this to go on all night? We need to get you ready in case your father calls upon you."

"I still have information to trade. I want to know more. All of it."

"Really, Crown Prince. I know the rest. Kyo rescued you, I suppose? There's nothing more to tell and we are wasting time here."

"No, that isn't all of it. It isn't. Not even remotely." Although even as Satoshi said it, he felt odd. How much of what had happened to him did he really want to share? It was natural keeping the nature of his conversation with the soothsayer and Mist from Kyo. But he felt protective of it, even now; among whom he assumed a friend.

It was easy to understand why he didn't want to mention the prophecy. It frightened him. And speaking of it would make what happened far more real. It was easier to push it away and pretend.

But why did he want to protect the mystic? Simply because of an empty promise of escape? Or was it because of their agreement?

"All good things come in threes," Satoshi said a good deal softer, choosing his words with far more care. "Three secrets each. Just one more and I'll let it go."

"What else then," said Hiroshi with certain exasperation. He was still pointed towards the door; still intent on leaving and keeping on the secrets he was surely sitting on to himself. If he hadn't regretted opening pandora's box with his prince yet, he certainly did now.

"Oh no you don't. It's not my turn. It's yours."

"Fine then." He threw open his arms as if inviting a dagger in. "What would you have of me? I am not the reservoir of answers you seem to take me for."

"You have plenty."

"Even a plethora is finite," Hiroshi sighed, his eyes searching the corners of the room as if they might be hiding something he could hand over to his nagging prince. "I already said I don't know anything more on that point…"

"Why did I leave Tokiwa originally?"

"I- I don't know."

"Why does my mother seem not to know me?"

"I don't know."

"Why do I seem to remember a Pikachu… something about a Pikachu. Are Pikachu poisonous?"

"No."

"Then did I have one before?"

"No? No. I- I don't know." He was clenching his fists so hard they were shaking. "Argh! I told you I can't answer all your questions!"

"Then- then…" Desperately Satoshi tossed through his mind for something he could ask about that Hiroshi would be willing to answer. Some small insignificant detail that would mean more to him than it could to his servant. "When I left Tokiwa…" Satoshi could see Hiroshi tensing up again, preparing to deliver another non-answer. "Where did I go? Where was I all those years?"

Hiroshi almost looked as if he wouldn't answer. But perhaps pushed to his limit by Satoshi's needling questions, this one seemed the most benign. He couldn't know the effect its answer would have, or he'd never have shared it.

"Hanada."

Satoshi felt the pit of his stomach drop. And that was how Satoshi knew it had to be true. The papered walls were swaying behind his gentleman in waiting's concerned face. If he had been standing, Satoshi wasn't sure he could have been able to remain so.

Satoshi could still see the eloquent dagger in his mind's eye and the chalky white horror that had painted itself on Kyo's face upon seeing him there. It all connected into a sickeningly and confusing sort of sense. It answered nothing and somehow opened a thousand more questions. But it told him one thing for certain.

That dagger from Hanada, the wounded spy and the foreign mystic, all had something to do with him. And yet, Satoshi still couldn't remember why.

"Crown prince? Crown prince, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Hiroshi." He must have looked quite ill while being shaken by his newfound understanding or Hiroshi wouldn't be hovering quite so close by. On principle, Satoshi refused help on rising from the chair. Though perhaps he should have been a little less prideful. With his monster's vines still twined between his legs, Satoshi almost face planted into the chair opposite. He neglected Hiroshi's waiting hand again, shuffling shame faced towards the door.

"Did that answer… satisfy you, Crown Prince?" Hiroshi's stare was probing and Satoshi pointedly avoided it.

"Yes. It was… fine, I guess. I don't understand it though. Why Hanada?"

"I don't know, milord."

Satoshi couldn't help the smile that stole across his lips. It sounded like the first genuine lack of knowledge Hiroshi had given all evening. And for once, Satoshi was willing to accept it.

As Hiroshi fetched the door, he gave one last utter of "your turn" before leading them into the hall. They traveled the rest of the way back to his sleeping quarters with Satoshi carefully skirting around the full details of what had happened in the woods. He had been chased out of the woods by the Pikachu and survived by some miracle. And when he had gone to the healer's hut, he had unluckily run into Kyo. The woman's cape was bought and paid for from the healer to help disguise his identity back to the castle. Not knowing the healer in question himself- Hiroshi didn't seem to question the quality of the cloth being owned by a simple village healer. The lies fell freely and easily from his lips. And both the prophecy that hung heavy in his heart and the mysterious stranger that promised to rescue him from all this were kept tightly locked inside.

Just as Hiroshi had said, there was no need to play all his cards at once.

Satoshi felt sufficiently scrubbed, plucked and pruned within the hour. Hiroshi practically scalped the prince in working the brush through the twigs and tangles in his hair. His skin was shiny and pink after a thorough bath that yet again, Hiroshi assisted with. Usually, Satoshi could demand privacy, but in this extreme instance- Hiroshi refused to be dismissed.

Satoshi tried to dress himself in his usual day tunic, much to Hiroshi's dismay. The prince had already laced up his boots when Hiroshi had walked in almost dropping a colorful menagerie of cologne bottles in alarm.

"No, milord! You can't be wearing that!"

Satoshi looked down at himself then back at his dismayed servant. "This is what I always wear?"

"But you are going to meet with your fiancé and her family. You must wear your ceremonial uniform."

Hiroshi gently set down the cologne of which foul smelling liquids, in Satoshi's opinion, there were far too many. Then he breezed quickly to the wardrobe, shuffling through the costumes before yanking out a particularly dusty piece crammed in the far back. It was a gaudy and exuberantly magnificent doublet, looking as ill-used as an elderly butler. It was stitched together of a heavy brocade fabric in a deep scarlet sporting a row of antiqued buttons down the front. The fashion was at least five years too old and the doublet at least two sizes too small. Satoshi gave the proud little thing the exact look that it deserved.

"Don't be like that," Hiroshi grumbled, mildly offended. "Just because it's not in your preferred black."

"Oh no. It's not the color that bothers me, Hiroshi. It's only mildly hideous."

"Come off it."

"It's also a better fit for Haruka. Though if she should suddenly desire male fashion, I'd steer her clear of that monstrosity."

"That's quite enough," Hiroshi laid the doublet out on the four poster with more kindness than it deserved. It looked like quite the ugly blood stain laid out against the dark bed sheets. "It will just take me a moment or two to let out. It will fit well enough before you are summoned."

Hearing none of Satoshi's protests, Hiroshi ran off to fetch his sewing materials. Though Satoshi wished he could have faith that his gentleman in waiting would salvage the doublet, he knew Hiroshi's skill with a needle all too well. What Hiroshi lacked in skill, he made up for in double the enthusiasm. He certainly didn't like it when Satoshi tried to offer suggestions. Heaven forbid the prince affect whatever vision Hiroshi had. Never mind that Satoshi actually knew how to let out and take in clothing.

It was one of the weird skills that Satoshi somehow had that his servant didn't. Satoshi knew how undo Hiroshi's sloppy stitches with ones that were smaller, neater and almost invisible. And he was well practiced at doing so. No matter how well meaning Hiroshi was, he had no business trying to mend clothing. That was better just left in Satoshi's own hands, prince or not.

But, as Satoshi turned over the doublet in his hands, he knew didn't want to waste his ability on so ugly a piece if it meant he'd have to wear it. Tossing the doublet back down onto the bed, Satoshi cast one last careful look about the room. Bulbasaur peeked at him from under the stool in the corner. And without needing to be told, wandered noiselessly to his master's side and wrapped a kind vine about his ankle.

Just in time too, as Satoshi snuck his way quietly out of the room. He closed the door softly behind them. And with a stifled chuckle, Satoshi hurried away with his monster close at his heels.

Satoshi hoped to wander the halls just long enough for Hiroshi to give up on preparing the formal costume. If he wasn't around to measure, there could be little done to take out the doublet.

However his good mood was instantly soured at the sight of the increased amount of guards placed around the corridor. It seemed Kyo was good to his word at increasing the guard outside his room. He politely nodded to armed men, trying not to let the frustration show on his face. Not that they'd care much how their prince felt about their presence.

How in the world would he be able to sneak out again?

Ducking around the new obstacles placed so obstinately in his way, Satoshi wandered off, feeling far lower than he had upon escaping his room. He made his way aimlessly; head too full of things to be much conscious of where he was going.

He eventually found himself along a corridor with outward facing windows placed in view of the stables. Idly, he leaned against the cool stone frame, taking note of the many steeds and their colors lined up in the stalls of which he could see. It was as much a bustle out there as it had been within the castle walls. He could see many of the steeds were adorned with the crest of Quena, the black tulip. But there were a fair number from nearby kingdoms as well, perhaps from nobles eager to visit a royal wedding.

He spotted a few sigils of Nibi, the multi-faceted diamond. Tamamushi had even deigned to make an appearance with their royal purple crest of the hideous monster Gloom. They were the only kingdom brazen enough to emblazon their banners with a monster.

Satoshi was just about to pull away from the window when a new grouping of Rapidash and its carriage rolled towards the stable. The carriage wasn't as grotesquely ornate as Domino's had been. In fact, if not for the standard four rapidash leads, Satoshi might had assumed it was just some lesser noble with a longer distance to travel than most.

But then a cavalcade followed the first, three more similarly simple carriages of the plain wide windows and simple gold leafed embroidered borders on the doorways. The art was as simple as if a gold painted vine had simply kissed the sides of the gate as the vehicle rushed by. And yet, Satoshi felt a strange aching familiarity that drew him in. It was then hardly surprising to see the flash of royal blue and the cresting tide wave of whose sigils Satoshi had only seen that morning etched on the hilt of a dagger.

Before Satoshi could fully process this unwelcome discovery, calls of "Crown Prince" began to echo down the corridor. Satoshi came away from the window as if struck. He whirled about wildly, nearly tripping up over Bulbasaur as he did so. Satoshi couldn't run with Bulbasaur chained to him as it was. And there were hardly any places to hide in this wide open corridor. But the prince wasn't ready to be fastened into the doublet just yet if he could help it.

Hearing the calls coming from both ends of the hall now, Satoshi found himself backed into a nearby tapestry. He had half the mind to throw it over himself and pray they'd somehow miss his boots sticking out from underneath. But as he stood helpless, Satoshi felt the cold draft lapping at his ankles. Hardly able to believe his good fortune, Satoshi lifted up the heavy canvas to find a small servant's passage hiding underneath.

He ducked inside just as a clatter of footsteps sounded by in the hall outside. With Bulbasaur sulking reluctantly behind, Satoshi silently made his way down the dark and narrow passage. He couldn't hope to remain undiscovered for long. Though currently unused, the passage wasn't unknown to those that were looking for him. It wouldn't be long before they'd think to search this way. Or long before a servant simply needed to use to passage to deliver something to another section of the castle.

Satoshi used the wall as a guide as he stumbled down its unlit expanse. And as he walked, Satoshi couldn't help but marvel at what he had discovered just moments before. Hanada royalty were here for his birthday feast and possibly for the wedding as well. Was it their King, the sour faced old man Okido who condescended to travel all the way to Tokiwa? That seemed unlikely as Okido and his own father had never seen eye to eye. So then perhaps it was Hanada's heir apparent, Princess Nanami, who wished to make an appearance? That also seemed unlikely. Whatever connection Crown Princess Nanami might wish to form between their kingdoms would be better forged through papers and not by entering the territory of one with whom they had only ever managed a tentative peace. Unless she wished to appeal to himself, rather than his father.

No, more likely it was to be the Prince Shigeru. He was only a few years Satoshi's senior and much more likely to gain from the society afforded to him through such an event. It was well known that Shigeru remained in want of a wife himself. With such a conglomerate of nations joining to celebrate Satoshi's coming of age and subsequent marriage, he'd never have a better pick of women, both noble and royal alike, desirous of their own advantageous match.

Then came the passing thought that he might have known Shigeru before. But he instantly dismissed it as ridiculous. If he had indeed been hiding away in Hanada, there was no surer way of being found out than by keeping company with the kingdom's local royalty.

The sound of raised voices broke through Satoshi's thoughtful reverie. He paused, causing the equally blind Bulbasaur to knock into his legs. Bulbasaur gave him an indignant croak that Satoshi shushed.

With some alarm, Satoshi recognized one of the raised voices as belonging to his father, the king. The other was younger, much too young to be addressing his father in such insolent tones. Though Satoshi couldn't yet make out the words through the limestone walls, there was a kind of arrogant and careless ease to his tone that bespoke of experience in speaking his mind. Royalty then. A relation of Domino or… someone else?

Irresistibly curious, Satoshi couldn't help trying to follow the voices that bounced around the passage around them. Occasionally tripping in the dark over a loose cobblestone or Bulbasaur's protective vine, Satoshi somehow made his way to a place where the passage emptied out. All at once and with some surprise, Satoshi realized he had come out on one of the walkways that twinned and overlook the throne. He recognized the tapestry blocking the entrance through the sun that bled through its unmistakable patterns. It was one he had thought rather unsettling, as he found all those that featured himself in childhood. It was a cartoonish caricature of the prince prancing alongside a king smiling down on him as pleasantly as a sun beam. Something so sickening idyllic, Satoshi was certain had never been replicated in reality.

Though he might have been able to peek about the edges of the tapestry, standing as he was on the overhang, it would be impossible to see further than the banister. It was fine though, as the voices were far clearer from this perch. His father's voice rang loud and strong, so well that Satoshi could just imagine him seated down below on Tokiwa's throne.

He had witnessed the throne both with and without its ruler before. It was an impressive gnarled bit of wood twisted meanly into a seat for their kingdom's many rulers. Taken from a great tree felled in Tokiwa's own woods, it still looked the part with branches that stretched far above the lower level of the room. Every Tokiwa King was taught to admire and marvel with pride at its expert craftsmanship. Kyo often boasted of how Tokiwa was the only kingdom who's seat of power hadn't needed gold nor gem to inspire awe.

Satoshi could almost 'see' his father sitting below, clutching the gnarled armrests as he leaned forward and glowered down at the voice that dared match his own. Of the adversary, his voice could do little credit. Satoshi was left to imagine a shadow that matched shout for shout.

"You have no right to be here. Leveling these unjust accusations against me- how dare you blight my halls with your scheming entourage. I had half a mind to keep you waiting outside the castle gates."

"Now that would hardly do. You have to put up the appearance of civility after all."

"You were certainly not invited."

"I do not need an invitation. I condescended to attend despite risk of censure and ridicule, as keeping company with your ilk would certainly tarnish me."

"Of my ilk?"

"Liars. Criminals. Kidnappers and murderers."

At this, Satoshi felt his heart catch. What gall the stranger had to charge the King with such a detestable allegation. Satoshi hadn't known any of their allied kingdoms to lack such diplomacy- but surely no one without royal birth could be safe when threatening his father.

"You dare call me that? You who stole him from me in the first place!"

"So soon you forget, Your Highness… He came to us."

"Get out."

There was a sudden noise as clearly the offending noble was being extracted from the chamber. The man spat out a few bitter retorts though they were desperate and pitiful when shouted from the arms of guards as he must have been. Something about how he had every right to be there or how he couldn't be tossed out. Satoshi hardly heard him. Because upon hearing that the mysterious man was being removed, sound had become a roar in his ears.

He moved without thinking, bursting out from behind the tapestry and throwing himself against the banister. Mindless of the consequence, Satoshi was only desperate to catch a glimpse of the audacious individual that had implied his father had stolen him back again. Because Satoshi knew he had to be from Hanada. And because Satoshi knew exactly who he had to be.

Satoshi locked eyes with the young man who was currently hung between the arms of two turning guards. He was dressed smartly in vivid fuschia as only a man of class could, with a broad feathered hat that might have looked ridiculous on anyone but himself. He was struggling until the prince appeared on the balcony; freezing just as surely as Satoshi himself had.

Before abandoning his hiding place, Satoshi was sure he had guessed the man's identity. But upon seeing the young man's handsome and disarming countenance, Satoshi saw he had been mistaken. He hadn't guessed his identity because he had already known it.

The face was longer and touched with the grit of a coming beard, but Satoshi knew the face. He knew the eyes that squinted when he stared at things he didn't approve of. He knew the smile that would take those lips into a pleasing crooked slant. He knew the messy brown hair that was so unkempt, so like his own.

The man was a prince of Hanada. The man was Shigeru. And somehow, he wasn't a stranger.

And if Shigeru's own shock at seeing Satoshi there didn't make Satoshi sensible of their former acquaintance, the next moment would cement it. The second of shock passed away and brought instead an alarming softness to Shigeru's face.

"Sato," Shigeru said. And somehow the word fit perfectly in his mouth.

"Satoshi?"

The moment shattered with the interceding voice. Much to his own chagrin, Satoshi found himself suddenly the object of every eye in the room. Including that of his father, who was no longer sitting on the throne.

"Satoshi? What are you doing here?"

To Be Continued…
Please Read and Review!

Dun dun dun! Well, the chapter was titled Secrets, after all.

IRL news: I'm going on vacation in little less than two weeks guys. It shouldn't affect my writing schedule too much as I'm currently on track. But with the vacation and returning to my teaching shortly there after, it is possible that things could get delayed.

However, let's work on the assumption that that won't be the case. You should be able to expect the next update in the October/November time frame.

GLOSSARY

Satoshi= Ash
Hiroshi= Richie
Haruka= May
Kyo= Koga
King Okido= Professor Oak
Nanami= Daisy Oak
Shigeru= Gary
Nibi= Pewter City
Tokiwa= Viridian City
Tamamushi= Celadon City
Hanada= Cerulean City
Quena= Mt. Quena

Special thanks to those who reviewed last time! Thank you Starymoon, YumeTakato and Mrs. Nose. Your reviews are always appreciated! And if you haven't reviewed before, please drop a note. Knowing I have readers who are excited to read more only encourages me to update faster!

Next time, Satoshi reluctantly meets with his fiancé.