Arst made a point to avoid the prince as much as possible. He left the house when he was home, came back when he was away, and always found random chores to do in order to avoid interacting with him. He cleaned, rearranged the cabinets (and if he 'accidentally' displaced some of the prince's brushes, well… he would deal with the consequences later), and ostensibly practiced on his own in the courtyard. The prince tried to engage him in conversation a few times, but Arst's replies were always curt, and eventually even that stopped after a while. It was like they reverted to how it was at the beginning, except this time Arst was much too irritated to care about the awkwardness.

Even Nils noticed something was wrong.

"What's with that attitude?" he asked one day when they were alone in the house.

"Hmm?" Arst feigned ignorance, because he did not want to deal with Nils right now.

"You're just…" He made swinging motions with his hands to emphasize his point. "…oozing contempt whenever Lin is in the room. It's disrespectful."

"Maybe Prince Lin should avoid being worthy of contempt, then," Arst bit back.

"What is wrong with you?!" Nils looked incredibly offended. "When has Lin ever done anything to warrant such attitude from you?"

"When indeed…" Arst echoed bitterly. The traces of his ordeal were now gone, but he was not going to forget about it any time soon.

"He's been nothing but patient and courteous! In fact, I think he's been far too lenient with you as of late. You should be put in your place."

"Why don't you do it, then?" Arst asked him defiantly. "What's stopping you?"

The question took Nils by surprise. "I… You're a high-ranked concubine. It's not my place…"

"Then keep your opinions to yourself. Or take it up to your precious Lin, maybe he'll do something about it for once instead of letting others fight his battles."

"You…"

"Drop it, Nils. I don't want to waste my time arguing with you."

Nils' cheeks flushed in anger. "Now, listen here…"

"I said, drop it."

"What is going on? I could hear you from the gate."

Startled, they both turned to see the prince standing in the doorway. He was eying them suspiciously.

Nils was the first to recover. "Lin! Arst is being really disrespectful toward you."

The prince sighed wearily and massaged his temples. "This is not new."

Arst nearly protested at the jab, but he had to concede that the prince was right. He just did not believe that it was unwarranted.

"Drop it, Nils."

"But Lin…"

"I am tired. I do not need you two arguing loudly." Before Nils could protest any further, the prince crossed the room toward the study area and sat down at his desk, pointedly ignoring them. Nils just stood there, looking disgruntled, caught between the urge to speak up and the desire to respect Prince Lin's wishes.

A few days later, Arst found himself facing the prince at practice again. They had managed to avoid getting matched against each other for a while, but it was only a matter of time before they circled back to each other.

Arst sighed, trying to prepare himself to go easy. His previous round against Soren had been a close one, and his blood was clamoring for more worthy competition. Maybe he should end this quickly and seek another partner as soon as possible.

They got into position, and when the signal to start was given, Arst lazily swung his sword at the prince. Such a weak and obvious swipe should be easy to intercept and disarm, but to Arst's surprise, the prince did no such thing. Instead, he stepped back quickly to avoid it, and took advantage of Arst's confusion to lunge at him from the side. Arst parried out of sheer reflex, before he remembered that he was supposed to leave himself open. He had no time to readjust, however, because the prince attacked again, trying to find an opening for himself. Arst blocked again, and before he knew it his instincts took over and he retaliated with a swift strike that sent the prince's sword flying to the side. Realization struck a second too late. Arst cursed inwardly. What was he doing?! Getting into it just because the prince achieved one good move on a fluke…

The prince's expression was more akin to confusion than anger. His eyes were fixed on his sword, as if he could not understand what it was doing on the ground. The neighboring groups who had noticed what happened started whispering, and this time Arst could make out what was being said.

"Uh-oh…"

"Wow, he's done it again."

"He must be a glutton for punishment."

"Look at Prince Lin's face, hah!"

"Arst, dude…"

The last one was Soren's voice, full of admiration.

Arst did not need their admiration or pity. This was not a game, this was sick reality. He closed his eyes for a moment, cursing himself for this slip-up. It would only be a minute before Instructor Li came yelling, and then... But before the man appeared, Prince Lin bent down and swiftly scooped up his sword. He turned back to Arst, sword pointed in his direction. "Again."

Arst glared at him. Was he offering a chance to prove himself submissive? Would his punishment be reduced if he did? But Arst's blood was boiling with anger and adrenaline. His competitive spirit was not quelled—quite the contrary. He knew it was too late. He had already earned himself a beating, so what would a few more blows do, at this stage? If the prince wanted to teach him a lesson, then he would have to earn it.

Arst readied himself and moved the moment the prince announced the start. Prince Lin was ready for him, this time, and held out when he blocked Arst's powerful strike. But Arst was relentless, not leaving him any occasion to recover and go on the offensive. One swing from above, parried. One from below, parried, just in time…

"Dragon Swarm!"

Even without mana poured into the move, the arte was a powerful one. The last hit caught the prince on his side, under his guard, and he was sent tumbling down with a cry of pain. Arst felt a spike of guilt momentarily. No matter his feelings about him, actually hurting a sparring partner was bad form. But when he thought about what was awaiting him, he could not find it in himself to care much about the prince's state.

Of course, Instructor Li witnessed it all, having reached them shortly after they started. He rushed to the prince's side, asking him if he was okay.

"I'm fine," the prince responded, a little out of breath.

"Spirits! Lin, if you keep eating dirt like that every time you spar with your concubine, I'm going to think you have weird kinks," came Xing's mocking voice. Two other cousins snickered at the joke, but the rest of the trainees, sensing their instructor's imminent explosion, wisely stepped back and fled the grounds.

"Young Master Xing!" Instructor Li hissed in barely contained anger. "A report will be made to Lord Yan. Please leave now."

Xing's smirk showed them exactly what he thought of the threat, but he nevertheless left with his entourage, laughing with them all the way out.

Arst kept his eyes on the prince, who was still one the ground. His expression was hard to make out, as his hair, which had come undone during his fall, obscured most of his face.

"You!" Instructor Li exploded as soon as the last trainee disappeared. "How dare you?! Have you learned nothing from last time?! Do you need a reminder?!"

Arst did not, saying so would be pointless.

"Inside, now!" the instructor barked. "Remove your shirt and kneel!"

Arst squared his shoulders and walked toward the hall with determined steps. He would not show weakness this time. He would bear the beating proudly, his back straight, and no sound would escape his lips. However many blows Rian Li was planning to inflict on him, he would endure them all without a complaint.

When he stepped into the hall, he was soon followed by Prince Lin, who had half run after him. The prince caught his wrist when he reached for his shirt's hems.

"Leave," the prince ordered.

Arst blinked, the words not registering immediately. His eyes shifted to Rian Li, who had come in after him. The instructor looked as confused as he felt.

"Leave," the prince repeated. "Wait for me at home."

"Prince Lin, what are you saying?! This man deserves to kneel in repentance."

The prince let go of Arst's arm and turned toward their instructor. He spoke in a clear, assured voice that Arst had never heard before. For a moment, he almost appeared leader-like, but Arst dismissed the thought as soon as it came up. "Master Li," Prince Lin said, "do you think me so incompetent that I cannot handle my own concubine myself?"

The man gasped and hurried to bow in apology. "Of course not. I was merely hoping to spare you the burden."

"This man is mine," Prince Lin declared. "No one is allowed to touch him but myself. Is that clear?"

"Y-Yes, but…"

"Rest assured, he will regret his impudent act." His eyes shifted to Arst briefly and his lips widened in a dangerous smile. "I will not stop until he begs for mercy."

For the first time, Arst felt something akin to fear. He had been ready to take anything Rian Lin threw at him, as he now knew what to expect from the man. But the prince was another matter, and Arst did not know what he was truly capable of when provoked. Clearly, he had taken his remark about letting others fight his battles to heart. And unlike the instructor, whose primary goal was to threaten and intimidate, the prince had a personal investment in making Arst pay, especially after the hit from earlier.

Without any further regard for the instructor, Prince Lin stalked out of the training hall, and Arst followed him with apprehension. Tonight was going to be another restless night…

The walk home from the training grounds never felt so short. The prince spoke to Arst as soon as they crossed the threshold. "Once you have freshened up, go to the kitchen to supervise preparations."

"Shouldn't Nils…"

"Nils is away tonight, so you are in charge. Do not think that I'm letting you go easy. Your duties comes first, that is all. I will deal with you later."

Was this another form of torment? To make him wait and worry with anticipation, unsure of what to expect?

"I will use the bathhouse first. You can use it after I am done." Prince Lin did not wait for his response. He picked up evening clothes from his wardrobe and headed toward the bathhouse, while Arst was left to ruminate on his fate. With rising dread, he tried to imagine what kind of revenge Prince Lin had in stores for him. Would he beat him with a stick, like Rian Li did? Or—and Arst could not repress a shudder at the thought—would he use a whip instead? Arst knew that whips were Lars Long Dau's weapon of choice for punishment, so it would not be surprising to see his son adopt his methods.

"It's okay, it'll be okay," he muttered to reassure himself. Just a bad night, and then he would go to old Minah for help, and a few days later he would forget all about it.

Unless… Unless the prince had other things in mind, things that no healing arte could erase.

Arst forced himself to stop this train of thought before his mind could come up with sordid details. There was no point in torturing himself with what-ifs. He would take what came to him in stride, and not linger on it a second more. To distract himself, he composed a letter to Karla (omitting the recent events, of course—there was no need to worry her), and he found some comfort in imagining her reading it to their family. Nevertheless, the feeling of trepidation did not completely go away.

After dinner, Prince Lin told Arst to sit and wait for him, while he retrieved a box from a shelf. Arst watched his movements with apprehension, but when the prince opened the box, it turned out that it contained nothing but a shogi board and pieces. To Arst's confusion, he laid the board between them and started setting up the pieces.

"Do you know how to play?" he asked.

"I… Yes?" Arst replied, unsure how to react.

"Good."

Arst watched as the prince aligned the pieces, too unsettled to offer his help. This was far from anything he had been expecting.

"Now," Prince Lin said once he set the last pawn, "let's see if your mind is as sharp as your sword."

Arst understood at last. This must be one of his games, another way to play with his mind. Perhaps he wanted to test if Arst would finally submit and let him win. But unfortunately for him, Arst had gone too far already, and was not about to back down. It had been a while since he had last played shogi, but it was a game he used to enjoy playing with his father, and he had gotten quite good at it over the years. If Prince Lin thought he could defeat him that way, he was in for a surprise.

Surprisingly, Prince Lin did, indeed, defeat him—quite spectacularly, in fact. Worked up from the day's events, Arst played far too aggressively, and the prince had no trouble anticipating his moves and using them to his advantage. Arst chastised himself for underestimating him. Being weak in combat did not necessarily mean that he was bad at everything, which Arst should have known, and yet had been too angry to see.

Prince Lin looked at him expectantly, but Arst was not going down without a fight.

"Again," he said.

The prince smirked and started laying out the pieces again. "Somehow I knew you would say that. Maybe try not to rush in so openly this time."

Arst's chest burned in shame, but he swallowed his pride. He had learned his lesson. "Noted," he answered humbly.

This time, Arst spent the opening focused on building his castle and strengthening his defenses. He let the prince start the attack and took his time analyzing his moves to avoid falling into his traps like the previous match. As the game progressed, Arst temporarily forgot the reason they were playing it to begin with, too caught up in the development on the board. When observed with a clear mind, the prince's style was quite impressive. Where Arst and his father tended to play aggressively and rely on instinct, Prince Lin's every move seemed carefully calculated, and his formations left little overture. Despite his caution this time around, Arst often found himself having to sacrifice pawns to make progress, and slowly but surely, the prince's army crept closer to his king, until there was no way out.

Prince Lin's expression was extremely smug. "Are you ready to beg for mercy or can you still go on?"

Something in the phrasing caught Arst's attention. "You…" The realization came upon him like an avalanche, leaving him light-headed with relief and his mind reeling with too many questions. "Is this what you meant when you told Li that I would beg for mercy?"

Prince Lin's smirk widened wickedly. "Well… Are you ready to beg?"

Arst was speechless, caught between the urge to curse or to laugh. Both at once, maybe. "No way in hell!"

"Then prepare for another humiliating defeat."

And lose Arst did. Spectacularly.

On the fourth round, he thought he was starting to be able to predict the prince's moves, but the man changed strategies midway flawlessly, scoring another victory. Arst called for yet another try.

"You haven't learned your lesson yet, I see." Prince Lin chuckled. He started setting the pieces on the board once again.

"In truth, you're a sore loser, aren't you?" Arst remarked suddenly.

"And you don't know when to quit," the prince shot back. A fair assessment, Arst had to begrudgingly admit. "You are right that I do not like losing," Prince Lin admitted after a moment. "However, I hate being taken for a fool even more." His smile faded and his eyes grew glossy in reminiscence. His hand lay on the board, the pieces forgotten.

"You didn't know," Arst asked softly. "Did you?"

Prince Lin blinked once. "I suspected that he must have bribed the others somehow. I never imagined…" He chuckled darkly. "I should have known. This has Uncle Yan's meddling written all over it." He looked up to meet Arst's gaze. "The first time you defeated me, I was surprised. That was the first time in a long while since anyone had come at me seriously. I was… a little glad, I suppose. I thought it meant you were incorruptible."

"But the next day I submitted like the others," Arst said. He was starting to understand the prince's mindset that day, and the frustrating conversation that ensued. "That's why you wanted to talk about it," he realized. "I thought you just wanted to mock me, but you… You were just disappointed. Am I right?"

Prince Lin nodded. "When he asked you to stay behind, I thought he was going to try to buy your compliance, and I was almost certain that you would reject his offer. That is why I did not stay. I… wanted to trust you, I suppose…" He shook his head sadly. "But it was not an offer, it was a threat. Had I known…"

"You do, now," Arst pointed out. "And you stopped him today."

That was something. That was everything. More than the comfort of being spared another beating, what provided Arst the most relief was the knowledge that his first assessment of the prince's character hadn't been wrong, after all. Prince Lin was different from his father. He had never wanted him to be treated cruelly, and was even willing to step up to protect him.

"I'm sorry," Arst blurted out. "About earlier. I shouldn't have come at you so strongly. I took out my frustrations on you unfairly."

Prince Lin brought his hand to his side, where Arst had hit him earlier. "I'm fine," he said, massaging the spot. "It's nothing compared to what you went through because of my inadequacy."

"It wasn't your fault." It wasn't. It wasn't. Arst was still a little giddy from the realization.

"Arst," Prince Lin addressed him seriously. "I know you resent being here, but… if it is not too much to ask, I would like us to have a more cordial relationship. Unless you cannot let go of your hatred…"

"I don't hate you, not anymore," Arst said. Then frowned. "Not for now, at least. I am not sure I can completely trust you yet, and I hope you can understand why. But yes," he added with a small smile, "I would like that too. We will be stuck together for a long time. This situation will be easier for both of us if we learn to get along."

"Indeed..."

"So," Arst changed the subject. "What do I get if I can beat you at this?"

Lin tilted his head in thought. "If you win, you can have the bed tonight," he eventually proposed.

Arst grinned. "Now I definitely won't lose!"

Arst did not get the bed that night. Nor many nights after that.