Guardian Moon, 1191

Hilda held the crumpled paper tightly in one hand, while her other hand adjusted the collar of her jacket, pulling it up to protect more of her face from the bitterly cold wind. As she closed her eyes, the wind stinging her eyelids, she almost caught herself wishing to have never read the letter she held at all, choosing to stay home rather than make the journey to Fhirdiad in the early winter. But she couldn't have realistically made that decision, not when the trip was spurred on for one specific reason, although if she'd had more company with her perhaps it wouldn't have been quite as unbearable. She opened her eyes moments later, at the feeling of the horse she was riding slowing its pace; as they came to a complete stop the person directing the horse turned to look at her, eyebrows glistening with frost as they were narrowed at her.

"Taking the opportunity to sleep on me, hm?" Lorenz asked her, sounding completely unamused as she huffed, her breath catching inside of her heavy jacket. "Perhaps I should have you take the lead, as you clearly need the assistance with staying awake."

"I wasn't asleep," she snapped in reply, although her voice was muffled by the jacket still in front of her face. "I was just thinking about how stupid doing this in the cold is. We should've waited, they totally would've understood if we didn't make this trip until it was warmer, I know they would've!"

Lorenz shook his head, turning back around and giving the horse the go-ahead to continue forward in their journey. "You were the one who was quite insistent we do it now, Hilda. If anyone is to blame for us finding our deaths in the frozen tundra, it will be you."

"We better not die before we get there, I'll never forgive you if you let that happen to us. And I bet they won't forgive you for it either." Even though it felt like her hand was frozen in its tightly-closed position, Hilda brought it closer to her face, uncurling her fingers from around the letter that had called for their arrival in Fhirdiad, making sure to take hold of it in both hands so that the wind couldn't rip it from her grasp. "They're already going to have to deal with it just being the two of us, even though so many more were invited."

"Yes, yes, you keep repeating that as if there's anything I can do about it. Are you going to blame me for everyone else finding themselves 'too busy' to make this trip with us?" Lorenz sounded slightly exasperated, and that was completely justified with how long and cold their journey so far had been, starting long before sunrise several days beforehand in his home territory with their estimated arrival time being just before sunset in the capital city of Faerghus. The wind had only gotten worse as their trip had gone on, and they were bundled up as much as they could be without being rendered unable to move on the back of the horse, the only form of transportation they'd prepared for themselves for the duration, which needed constant stops for warmth just like its riders.

Hilda's eyes fixated on the letter, on its lovely lettering and clear message that had been penned not by some scribe, but by the sender herself, asking for the presence of any of her old friends from her previous life, before she knew how to answer what Lorenz had asked her. "No, I'm not going to blame anyone but the people who decided that this wasn't worth it," she said, before tacking on, "unless their name is Claude von Riegan and they've decided they're too important elsewhere to care about anything else."

"He's got a position that the rest of us can only dream of," Lorenz reminded her, a fact that never actually left Hilda's mind no matter how angry about the whole thing she could be. She knew that their friend and former leader had left Fódlan to pursue his birthright elsewhere, and that wasn't what she held against him. It was the fact that he'd stopped caring about anything that the rest of them had accomplished in the years since the war, because his own goals were all he seemed to be focused on. "You must not let it get to you that he chose Almyra over us, it was what he was working towards with every action he made."

"I know that, trust me." In her heart Hilda believed what she'd said, but she wasn't above getting upset over the decisions their close friend had made, for the better of himself at the cost of losing his relationships with others. "But it's whatever, we're at least decent people. Kinda funny to say that when you're one of the people I'm talking about, but…"

Pausing their progress for a moment before heaving a sigh, Lorenz replied, "That is not funny at all, Hilda, and I would prefer if you chose not to put me down for a change." She gave him a quiet apology, barely audible over the wind as it began howling once again, and after they were both certain they wouldn't be blown off the horse's back they continued on their way. It shouldn't have been too much longer until they were coming into Fhirdiad, and from there it was going to be quite the adventure finding somewhere to board the horse before they made their way to visit who had summoned them.

Unfortunately, with the season being what it was and the weather being brutal, their arrival into the city took twice as long as they were hoping it would from that point, and it was already growing dark as the city came into sight. By then they and their horse were beyond frigid, and they were looking forward to getting into somewhere warm, whether it was with their friend or merely in an inn that they found along the way. Boarding the horse was easy enough, once they'd gotten into the outskirts of Fhirdiad there were plenty of maps directing them to various stables that they could use; the maps were necessary for visitors and residents alike, with how much had changed in the city since the war. Even though this wasn't Hilda and Lorenz's first time in Fhirdiad, nor was it their first time since the war had concluded, they were still heavily reliant on the maps because their last trip had been lead by someone much more diplomatic and personable than either of them, and that person had done all of the sweet-talking to get their mounts cared for.

Lorenz may not have been as good at getting people to go along with him as Claude had been, but once they'd gotten to a stable close to their destination he was able to convince the person running it to take their horse for half-price, as they were there to visit with the king and his queen. "Wow, but you know that if Claude was here, he would've gotten half-price and free days," Hilda remarked once they were on foot leaving the stable, preparing to walk towards the grand palace where the royal family lived, a newer development in the time since the war. "And he would've arranged for us to get a ride to the palace, because we're not just some commoners, you know?"

"Look, they were nearly full and the man there didn't recognize me for who I am, which would never have happened if we were anywhere near Gloucester territory." Lorenz sounded annoyed, his teeth chattering in the pauses between his words, and he was rubbing shoulders with Hilda to try and warm himself up, something that she couldn't complain about because she was just as cold as he was. "Let's just hope we get let into the palace with the late hour, because if—"

"Because if, what?" she asked, unable to turn her head to look at him with how her muffler was so tightly wrapped around her. She couldn't see that he'd been stopped mid-sentence by something that had caught his eye, until she stepped ahead of him and he grabbed her arm with a thickly-gloved hand. As she was yanked backwards, she turned her whole body to look towards him to question what was happening, and she saw what must have distracted him in the first place, a person peeking out of an open door, eyes wide at the sight of the two of them.

They had a somewhat awkward stare-down with the person inside for a moment, no one sure what to say or if they were really looking at who they thought they were, but when the person began to wave at them, beckoning for them to come nearer, there was zero hesitation in either of their minds. If it wasn't who they thought it was, they were at least getting to feel some warmth for a few minutes, and if it was, then they could have some light conversation before continuing towards the palace. They looked at each other, considering the offer, choosing to step inside with the person holding the door open for them until they'd entered and he could close it to block out the chill.

Standing there in the entrance to the tavern they'd been waved into, Hilda took a proper look at the man, who was looking right back at her with his jaw slightly hanging. "Uh, don't tell me, but we know each other from somewhere, don't we?" she asked, not wanting to make assumptions but also not wanting to act like she didn't suspect she knew him. "Garreg Mach, fought in the war together, yeah?"

"I could never forget you, Hilda, and not you either, Lorenz!" The man shook his head as if he was trying to clear it and he looked around the tavern for something in particular. When he didn't find it he merely motioned for them to follow him to a table nestled back in the corner. "I'd heard that the two of you were coming into Fhirdiad for important reasons, how fortunate that our paths crossed before I headed back to my territory!"

Lorenz pulled out a chair and threw down his bag of belongings and took off some of his now-unnecessary coverings but chose not to take a seat, while Hilda merely watched as the man sat in the one chair at the table that had been previously claimed. "Ahem, how did you know that we were coming this way, Ashe? We were unaware it was public knowledge."

"Oh, it's not public knowledge by any means, I was just at the castle meeting with the king and he mentioned your arrival as being imminent. There are exciting things happening here in the capital, after all, and only a fool would choose not to show their face around here right now!" Ashe sounded downright giddy as he spoke, and Hilda was watching him as he was almost bouncing in his chair, making her think about how that was the way she'd felt while horseback for so long. "But I'm certain you two don't want to be held up by someone such as myself, you'd like to move right along, so—"

"We're cold, and we're starving, do you think they'll get too mad if they have to wait a bit longer for us to get there? I mean, with a new baby around they can't be getting that much sleep anymore." Having interrupted him without thinking too much about it, Hilda looked at Ashe sheepishly, but he didn't seem bothered by her outburst and instead told them that he thought it would be fine if they stayed there at the tavern for a bit with him. "Wait, didn't you say you were heading out? In this kind of weather?"

"It's fairly common weather around here, Hilda, have some sense about you." Lorenz didn't sound quite as interested in eating tavern food, being so accustomed to eating food prepared for him by personal cooks, but he'd already stripped down to his usual clothing and wasn't ready to bundle back up. "We cannot hold him up if he chooses to leave."

Waiting until after Hilda had finished pulling a disgusted face in Lorenz's direction, Ashe explained, "Well, I do have somewhere nearby I am staying tonight, then it's back to Gaspard territory for me for a while. I don't exactly come to Fhirdiad much right now, but meeting the newborn prince was a reason to make the trip. But…enough about me, you two had to travel so much further for the same reason, and in such frightful weather! How was the trip? Was it bearable?"

"Only just," Lorenz replied, as Hilda grimaced, unable to find the words suitable to describe the trip in the snow and cold. "We are merely here for the queen's sake, and to meet the prince for ourselves. Unfortunately, no one else who was invited was willing to make the trip, but two is better than none."

"I'd say! You are more dedicated to Queen Marianne than some people are to the king they've known their whole lives, or, at least that's what I was told when I was there." They were slipping into conversation like it was natural and like they had been regular acquaintances when they were students at the monastery, but Hilda was pretty sure she could count the number of conversations she'd previously had with Ashe on one hand, if even needing any fingers at all. He seemed lively, eager to talk to people he knew from before, and she wasn't going to turn down some friendly conversation after having had to listen to nothing but Lorenz for the entire time they'd been traveling.

She looked at the two seats that hadn't been touched yet at the table and pulled one out for herself, sitting down and feeling her legs cursing her for making the choice, but she was committed to the task at that point. "Sucks that so many people decided that their lives are more important than visit a friend," she remarked, propping her elbow on the table and resting her head on her hand, immediately feeling the exhaustion of the day's travel hitting her straight in the face. Having to mask that she suddenly felt like napping for days, Hilda gave Ashe a once-over and saw that he looked underprepared for the elements, and an idea formed in her mind. "Say, you said you know somewhere near here that you're staying tonight, right?" she asked him, recalling that all they'd done was find themselves a stable for the horse. "Do you think they could offer up a couple beds for Lorenz and me?"

"I can't say that they can, it isn't an inn of any sorts, but rather an orphanage someone I know is putting together. I know I'll be sleeping on a cot for the night, but it's a free bed and I cannot complain about that." Ashe seemed to be disappointed in himself that he had to deliver that sort of news, but he bounced back right away when he added, "I'm sure that you could stay in the castle for the night, given the late hour. Who is your contact for getting inside, if you don't mind me asking?"

"We have to have a contact?" Sounding surprised to hear such a thing, Hilda retrieved the invitation that she'd received for the occasion and read it over again, even though she knew the words on the page by heart at that point. "Uh, Marianne didn't warn me about that when she sent this. Don't think she'll be there opening the door, do you?"

Ashe laughed, while Lorenz watched the two bantering on with disgust in his eyes. "Not at all, but I can get you inside the castle without issue. We'll head over there once you've warmed up a bit and I've finished my drink, if that's fine with you."

"I'd rather not be led astray by a drunkard," Lorenz spat, only for Ashe to hold up his glass and point out that it was cider, not anything alcoholic, and his demeanor changed. "Very well, if you truly are sober of mind I suppose following you to the castle wouldn't be the most destructive thing we could end up doing this evening."

"Then it's settled! If I remember correctly, the guard tonight should be…hm, perhaps he'll let us in without any sort of issue." Taking a sip of his drink, Ashe noticed that Hilda was still watching him and offered her a taste, which she accepted eagerly. "It's nothing much, just the most delicious cider you can find in all of Fhirdiad, if not Fódlan itself. This tavern is where I come every time I'm in town, just to get a taste."

Hilda put the glass to her lips and let herself take a quick drink, the spiced liquid hitting her tongue and making her realize how thirsty she was. She might have drank more of it than Ashe was expecting, but she did hand it back with half of it remaining. "Thanks, that really is delicious. I wonder what they put in it, and if I could get some of it to make for myself back home. We don't exactly have the best ciders around."

"It's a secret recipe, unfortunately. I've asked many times if I can get a copy of it for my own kitchen at home and the owner and his daughter both shoot me down every time. A shame, I would think that someone wanting the recipe would be a positive thing." As he continued drinking he kept talking with Hilda about recipes and making things for themselves, and Lorenz watched them both with narrowed eyes, feeling far from home there in the somewhat grimy tavern. He didn't regret stepping inside in the first place to check to see if the man they saw was the one they knew, but he regretted staying as long as he had, and he was going to do something about it.

The bundled clothing was put back on to the sound of the lively conversation the other two were having, and Hilda didn't notice that her riding partner had gotten ready to leave again until he was pulling his gloves on his hands. "Hey, Lorenz, where do you think you're going without us?" she asked, pushing herself back to sitting tall to try staring him down. "Didn't you hear Ashe, he's going to take us over to the castle, you can't just walk over there yourself and expect good things to happen."

"I'm reminding you both that leaving is something we need to get to doing, before midnight passes and we haven't gotten to the castle yet." He sounded snappish and annoyed, and based on how he was still glaring at them both he felt just like he was speaking, so Ashe downed the rest of his drink and both he and Hilda rose from their seats, ready to step back out into the cold night and finish the journey they'd started. They weren't far from the castle's gates, where a gatekeeper recognized all three of them, even with the layers on the two foreigners, and let them onto the grounds of the building.

Right as Lorenz was going to make a comment about how he would have been able to do that part by himself, a loud whistle came from closer to the building's doors, and lanternlight began to fill the dark air. "Whoever's deciding to pay our king a visit, turn around and head home, it's too late to let you in," a sharp male voice called out, one that made Ashe look at the other two and raise a hand to stop their forward progress, while he ran ahead to confront whoever was guarding the door.

It was a chilly couple of minutes standing there in the night for the two, and Hilda got desperate enough for warmth that she started rubbing up against Lorenz, him looking down at her in confusion and disgust before wrapping her up in an arm to help share body heat for a moment. Ashe did come back, breathless, to tell them that he'd managed to get them entry to the castle, but that their time together was to end there because he was going to head off for the night, and they both thanked him for what he'd done before he took off in the other direction. When they made it to the door, the night guard looked at them with a sneer on his face, before seemingly recognizing them both and dropping the expression, if only slightly.

"Were you familiar with whoever that was?" Hilda asked Lorenz once they were inside and the cold air wasn't assaulting their entire bodies any longer. "I think it was too dark for me to really tell, not like it matters though, right? We're here, we aren't going anywhere else right now, who cares who's outside!"

"Bring your voice down, we do not want to insult the king or queen by being so loud inside their home." Already removing his gloves and flexing his frozen fingers to try and limber them up, Lorenz looked around the main hall of the castle, seemingly impressed by what he saw. "It looks much different than it did the last time we were here. Almost like a married royal couple shares this place now."

"A married royal couple with a baby," Hilda corrected, suddenly feeling giddiness for why they'd been invited in the first place. She still couldn't believe that one of her closest friends had grown so much that she'd not only become queen of the neighboring kingdom, but that she'd become a mother as well. "I'm so excited to meet him, you have no idea how much I'm going to cuddle that cutie when I finally get the chance. I hope they don't mind too much that I'm going to spend all my time with him, but…where else am I going to get to play with a real baby?"

Instead of replying, Lorenz rolled his eyes and started heading deeper into the castle, finding that most of the side rooms were darkened for the night. They soon made their way into the throne room, which was illuminated with lanterns and candles that highlighted the portraits on the walls of the former royals that had called the castle home, the largest canvas hanging over the empty throne and depicting the parents of the current king. "They're not in here?" he asked in disbelief, eyes focused on the bare throne. "I would have figured that—"

"What in the goddess' name are you two doing in here?" The voice that spoke, without a doubt, belonged to King Dimitri, and they both turned to face where it was coming from, seeing the man standing in an adjacent doorway wearing some of his normal regalia but stripped down from what a typical appearance would have looked like. "You were expected hours ago! Did something go awry on your journey? I warned Marianne that inviting you in this season, with the kinds of storms we get around here, might be dangerous, but she insisted that you'd find your way."

"And found our way we did!" Hilda replied, forgetting for a moment that she was speaking with an actual king and deciding to skip over to him, Lorenz calling for her to stop before chasing her down anyway. She wasn't intimidated in the slightest by the man in the doorway, even though he held such a lofty and regal title; if anything, Hilda felt just as comfortable with him as she did with Claude, and she considered herself to be pretty comfortable with her former house leader from back in the day. "Look, nothing was stopping us from making it here to see you, not even a tiny snowstorm."

"But at such a late hour? You risked life and limb to make it, and I suppose that is deserving of something." Dimitri pursed his lips together in thought, before waving for the two to follow him, turning around and heading further into the castle via dimly lit corridors with winding staircases and vacant rooms on all sides. "To be frank, it's miraculous that you were allowed inside tonight. Felix was told, in explicit terms, to keep anyone who was not a knight in my service outside. How did you get past him?"

"Your Majesty, if you are going to assume that we did something to incapacitate him, please refrain from doing so." Not sure of how their appearance was being taken by the king, Lorenz wanted to make sure he covered all bases before they were walked straight to their deaths. "We found a former classmate and he was able to get us inside before retiring for the evening himself."

Dimitri stopped walking for a second before chuckling and continuing on, Hilda taking the moment's pause to turn and look at Lorenz with a stunned expression, judging him for choosing to tell the truth rather than wind some crazy tale of how they broke into the castle. "I would suppose you are speaking of Ashe, hm?" he asked, to which they both said that he was indeed. "He was meant to be back at the orphanage before sunset, what was keeping him out so long, I wonder?"

Knowing the true answer to that statement, and knowing that Lorenz was going to tell it to him if she didn't act quickly, Hilda thought fast on her feet and replied, "I think it was orchestrated by the goddess for him to be waiting for us when we got in late! I mean, we've never really been to Fhirdiad in the snow, we probably would've gotten super lost if we'd be left on our own, it was such a blessing to have Ashe waiting for us!"

"That would seem likely, I will admit. At any rate, it is quite fortunate that you made it before nightfall, otherwise who knows if you would ever make it at all." Dimitri's voice was lowering with every word, and he stopped once again, this time in front of a wooden door left ajar only slightly. "Shall we enter for you to meet the young prince?" he whispered, pushing the door open a bit more. "He's quite the…beautiful, stunning child, if you ask me."

"You're his father, of course you'd think that!" Hilda waited rather impatiently for the door to be opened further, so that she could blitz past Dimitri and enter before either of the others, bringing her hands to her cheeks in happiness when she saw the person already in the room. "Marianne! It's so great to see you again!"

"Hm? Oh, hello, Hilda. Lorenz too, I suppose?" Marianne's tired eyes were reminiscent of how she'd looked when she was younger, but with more life inside them, and she watched as Hilda stepped aside to show that yes, Lorenz was with her, but when Dimitri shut the door after he entered she looked slightly confused. "I would have thought a certain someone else would have come as a surprise. Claude isn't with you?"

"No, he's too busy doing stuff in Almyra, you know how he is," she answered, approaching the rocking chair that Marianne was sitting in, a thick blanket covering her from her feet to her neck. "It kinda sucks, don't get me wrong, but at least the two of us could make it! Now where is he, I've been looking forward to this ever since I first found out about him!"

"Patience, Hilda, the last thing you want is to hurry a queen when she isn't ready." Coming up beside her and putting a stern hand on her shoulder, Lorenz smiled at Marianne and got a weak one in return. "Look at her, she's simply exhausted. You want to make her move quickly to whet your appetite for seeing the child?"

Hilda pouted, side-eyeing her friend. "That'd be appreciated, yeah. We totally didn't just ride all this way in the snow to come away from things empty-handed."

"The draft in this room gets to be too much if the door is open, I'm sorry," Marianne apologized, carefully knocking the blanket she was under off of one shoulder, then the other. As it fell to the floor, the child she'd been hiding underneath it became visible, and at the first peek of the dusting of pale blond hair on his head Hilda nearly squealed in excitement, while Lorenz dug his fingers into her shoulder as much as he could to try restraining her. The child was asleep, eyes closed and mouth suckling on the air as if he was dreaming about eating, and he looked more like a doll than someone real, a consequence of being born into the position he was.

"He's so cute, and he definitely got all of those looks from his mom," Hilda joked, knowing very well that Dimitri was somewhere behind her and could easily kill her if he deemed it necessary to do so. "I mean, how else could you explain how tiny and adorable he is?"

"Shush, he's easily more Dima's than mine, you'll see that when he's awake." Rocking herself back and forth to maintain the child's peaceful sleeping while there were voices speaking around him, Marianne looked at him for a second before turning her attention back to her guests, giving that tired smile once more. "This, my dearest friends, is Prince Lambert Edmund Blaiddyd of Faerghus, and I am so happy that you are here to meet him."

There was something about seeing Marianne holding an actual baby, one that she'd birthed herself, that made Hilda's heart swell with pride. This was the girl that she'd always been worried about when they were younger, afraid that she'd disappear and never be seen or heard from again, and now she was an actual queen with a prince as a son. "I'm so happy we get to meet him," she said, stepping as much closer as Lorenz's grip would allow. "I mean, it's not much meeting when he's asleep and so tiny, but there's time for that to change."

"Yes, of course, there is plenty of time for that to change. I would be fine with as many visits as you can allow yourself to make, but I do understand the distance is a bit much to make it a regular thing." Dimitri's voice was soft, like he was making sure to keep himself in check around his infant son, but with it came a commanding tone that made going against it feel impossible. "But at the end of the day, the decision for visits is ultimately up to yourselves and Marianne, I can only allow them."

Lorenz was transfixed at looking at the child, some sort of gears turning in his mind as he watched the sleeping boy. "At this stage, coming to visit seems natural, but I cannot be so certain about many visits as he ages. There is simply something about a grimy-handed child that makes me wary to spend time with him."

"Implying such a little guy could ever get to being grimy-handed, how could you!" Her voice picking up in volume just a smidge, Hilda immediately faced the consequences when Lorenz dug his fingers into her just a bit more. "Ow, okay, I mean, he's a kid, don't all kids get a little dirty? Didn't you get grimy-handed once upon a time?"

"A member of House Gloucester would never be caught in such a state, and you know this better than most," he shot back. "Please have some sense about yourself." If they weren't in the presence of actual royalty, and a child, Hilda might have continued arguing with Lorenz, if only because teasing and frustrating him was mildly entertaining, but she knew that she was going to be held to a higher standard given her surroundings. Instead of provoking him further, she muttered an apology and went back to staring at the child, something that he noticed. "I suppose you'd like to actually get closer," he said, letting his grip go entirely so that she could approach even more. "As for myself, I'd like to think about finding somewhere to retire for the night."

"At this hour, any rooms available in the town would be less-than-savory," Dimitri told him, "but we were expecting you to stay here at the castle during your visit. Shall I show you the rooms we had arranged for the occasion?" It was an offer that he didn't want to turn down, given how unusual it was for the king himself to be doing such menial tasks, and so Lorenz accepted it wholeheartedly, leaving the room following behind him once more with their belongings that they'd initially left near the door in his possession.

That left Hilda, Marianne, and the baby alone together, and the second she didn't hear the door shut behind the two men Marianne visibly shivered. "It's getting drafty in here again, could you give me back the blanket?" she asked, kicking at it with her foot. "If he gets too cold he'll wake up screaming, and I would rather not have you see that upon first meeting."

"I have a better idea." The reason for the draftiness came from the door being open, so Hilda's idea was to run to close it, then to come back to the queen and get to see the child more. She made it as far as shutting the door before she heard a soft wail, and she spun on her toes to see that the prince was now being held in a different position, one that allowed him to recline onto his mother rather than being cradled in her arms, and he seemed to have woken up peacefully from the adjustment. Her heart was pounding as she leaped across the room, taking the largest steps she could ever recall taking, and once she was within reach she was squatting down to look the prince right in the face. "Oh man, he really is more Dimitri than you, isn't it?"

"He'll grow up to have a face no one will be able to resist, certainly. Are his eyes open?" Hilda had to lean in closer but ultimately shook her head, as the boy was still mostly asleep and had his eyes held shut. "What a shame, they're so light and lovely, you'd lose yourself staring into them."

"Let me guess, you've done that a bunch, haven't you?"

Marianne gave a quiet hum as her initial response, leaning her head back against the chair as she rocked a bit more. "I've thanked the goddess over and over for blessing me with someone as perfect as he is. There is not a single thing about him that I would change, that's how in love with him I am."

"I really never thought you'd become this kind of person, so obsessed with your own child and all that. Love really changed you." It wasn't a complaint, because Hilda wanted Marianne to be happy and she clearly was, being married and having a child and taking the position of queen of an entire kingdom. But at the same time, she missed the person she could find herself talking to for hours on end, exchanging letters when the distance had them separated and sending jewelry that had been specially made for her. "It's nice to see you like this, I hope every time I come to Faerghus you're this way, because…yeah, seeing you smile and holding your baby makes every part of the trip worth it."

"I do still apologize about the weather, it's always colder in Fhirdiad than it is back home but at this time of year, it's simply the worst. We should have planned through things better before if we intended on having visitors." Leaning her head back forward, some of Marianne's long blue hair fell into her face, clearly unwashed and having been pulled back messily in the first place. "I promise I will never ask you to visit in the wintertime again."

Looking up at her friend, rather than the child, Hilda waved a hand to dismiss the notion entirely. "No need for that, I'll come visit you as much as I can, no matter the weather. It's not like I've got much else going on, with Holst taking care of things at home and me…you know, not exactly having anyone in my life in any other sense."

"You aren't intending on wooing a man around here, to move yourself closer, are you?" That was another notion that Hilda dismissed with a handwave, although she couldn't help but crack a smile and a laugh at the idea. "I would love to be able to see you more frequently, Hilda, but that would be unnecessary. You'll find a proper man near your home, not everyone needs to uproot entirely to find happiness."

The door to the room came back open at that point, Lorenz and Dimitri both walking inside in complete silence, as both women turned their attention from each other to them. "The snow is starting to come down decently, which means the day's guards will be arriving earlier than usual, I'm sure of it," Dimitri announced, entering with hasty steps that led him straight to Marianne's side in the chair. "We should all make the choice now to get some rest, so that tomorrow we can do proper catching up."

"Of course, Dima, that sounds like a solid plan." Offering up the still-slumbering child to his father's waiting arms, Marianne rose from the chair once she knew she wasn't risking harming the baby by doing so. She made sure to pick up the blanket from the floor and handed that over as well, Dimitri doing the work of wrapping the boy as well as he could before heading to leave the room. "We will have to talk more in private before you leave," she whispered to Hilda, who nodded in understanding. "There are things I would like to discuss with you."

Knowing that she was now going to dwell on whatever it was Marianne needed to talk to her about, Hilda gave her a wink and waited for her and Dimitri to get moving before she followed suit, getting to the doorway before Lorenz followed in line behind her. They moved single-file down the hall for a few steps, before the royal couple turned down a corridor and Hilda was forced to stop by Lorenz wrapping his arms around her. "Our rooms are the other way," he told her, leaning in closer until his body was pressed up entirely against her back. "One across the hall from the other, one for yourself and one for myself."

"We knew it would be that way when we came, it would be everyone on their own when we slept, we just didn't know where we'd sleep." She could feel the hair on the back of her neck standing tall from the inherent chill in the building, although his body heat was beginning to warm her up. "Did you take a good look at the rooms? Are they…you know, going to work?"

"As far as I know, aside from the guard at the front and the couple themselves, we are the only other people in here for now, so even with them being across the hall we can make things work out." He flipped strands of his hair out of his face before leaning down to kiss the top of Hilda's head, her sighing at the physical affection. "Come, let us get settled in before we decide what else to do tonight. We have had a long day, after all." There was a sense of urgency in his voice as he was goading her to let him direct her towards where their rooms were, and she knew exactly why that was.

It may have been a pretty well-kept secret, to the point that no one outside of the two of them knew anything about it, but when they were alone it became impossible to ignore that they were entangled in some kind of web of carnal desires and physical attraction. She certainly felt nothing for him, and she assumed he felt nothing in return, but they'd grown awfully close in the time since the war, turning their overall loneliness into companionship that ended when it left whatever bedroom they were sharing that night. Sure, Lorenz was a pretentious guy who wasn't the most pleasant to be around, but when he was just as desperate to have something going on in his evenings as she was, they'd figured out a way to keep things from being awkward when they were interacting outside of sleeping together.

The rooms they were given were both nice, but Hilda really had gotten accustomed to sharing her bed with someone else over the course of the journey to Fhirdiad. Having to actually sleep alone was going to be weird after all of that traveling, but…at least she was going to get to spend some time with someone else before she fell asleep. And when morning came, like they always did, they'd pretend nothing had happened and go about their lives exactly as they had before. Someday, something was going to have to change, but as far as she could see that change wasn't coming for them, so why bother waiting for it?

That morning came a lot quicker that Hilda was anticipating, and she felt like she'd only just gotten to sleep in her own bed when there was a knock at the door, followed by a deep voice asking for her presence. "I'll be right there!" she called drowsily, untucking herself from the thick quilts that covered the bed and making sure she looked at least passable before heading for the door, taking a cursory glance at the clock in her room before opening the door to see a familiar face from the academy and war days. "Oh, hey there, Dedue! What brings you around so early?"

"Early? This is standard time for my arrival, I'm afraid. I assume you are not ready to join His Majesty for breakfast?" Dedue was looking right over Hilda's head as she stood in the doorway, knowing that if he looked down he'd see a woman in her nightclothes that may not have expected who had greeted her. "Shall I return in a few minutes, to allow you to get dressed and prepared for the meal?"

"Please and thank you, I just woke up," she admitted and he gave her a grunt of understanding before allowing her to close the door and slowly walk back to her bed. She should have known that there was not going to be something as precious as a good night's sleep when she was visiting royalty with an infant, but she'd hoped that she would've at least been able to sleep in. The one solace she could take in it being such an early, barely-sunrise hour was that Lorenz would be even more a mess than she was, and she was pretty much as messy as they came.

She ripped open one of her bags to pull out the outfits she'd packed for her trip, scattering jewelry and accessories across the floor as she scavenged for the perfect clothes to wear. It was still cold, she could feel that in the bedroom, so wearing a short skirt was out of the question, and it made her wonder why she'd packed it in the first place. Settling on a pair of pants that were embroidered with golden thread along the sides, she matched it with one of her many blouses and jackets she'd packed, and got right to getting dressed. After the clothes were on came the hair, but as long as she had it pulled up to some extent she didn't care what it looked like. Lastly came all of the bangles that she could manage to make work with what she was wearing, rings on fingers and ears and necklaces that fell squarely into the cleavage her blouse created on her.

Even if she wasn't there in Fhirdiad to make an impression, she could still look amazing while she was around, and after slipping on a pair of boots to keep her feet from freezing she opened the door and checked the hallway. Dedue wasn't back, and Lorenz's door was still closed so she wasn't going to try pestering him or rummaging through what he'd brought with him. She could have decided to get adventurous and see what else was in this part of the castle, which was clearly a guest wing meant for visitors such as themselves, but she didn't want to get lost and then confuse Dedue whenever he did return. So she merely closed her door behind her and waited for him to reappear, and when he did she noticed that he took a quick look at how she was dressed, nodded sagely, and waved for her to follow him down to the dining hall.

There were a lot more people present for the meal than Hilda was expecting there to be, and when she poked out from behind Dedue's massive frame when they'd entered the hall, there were several cheers of greeting from people she hadn't been expecting to see. "I hope you don't mind the other guests we invited," Marianne quietly said, looking straight at Hilda as she spoke. "They were all either visiting the area or live nearby."

"Mostly the second option," Dedue pointed out, turning back towards the door they'd just entered through. "But I will return, there is still one person missing from the meal." It didn't take but a couple moments for Hilda to realize he was talking about Lorenz, not seeing his obnoxiously purple hair anywhere in the room.

"Can't believe you decided to show up so late at night," someone grumbled from their seat at the table, and Hilda's eyes shot right towards the speaker. It was the guard from the night before, and while she could have felt sorry for Felix for still being awake he did not seem pleased to see her there. "If it weren't for Ashe I would not have let you in. End of story."

The woman next to him waved her hand in his face, trying to shush him before his bad attitude spread too much beyond himself. "You did the right thing for everyone by letting them in! Even if he hadn't been with them, you should've remembered they were coming and let them in, I know I would have if I were night guard last night!"

"Glad someone wouldn't be a huge prick to us in the cold, Annette," Hilda said with a smile in the orange-haired woman's direction, her beaming at the words even though Felix next to her still seemed angry about it all. "Anyway, I know he'd said he was going to be around overnight, so it's kind of surprising that Ashe isn't here, you know?" She wasn't sure what it was that made her want to thank him for his kindness the night before, but she did want to get another word in before their lives parted again.

"That would be because he had bigger things to handle. Gaspard territory can't rule itself, he can't go off doing whatever he wants too often." With a friendly laugh, Dimitri seemed to have already considered that particular invitation, which made Hilda glad that he was the one in charge of things instead of certain others. "I could say the same for someone else here, but he's doing us a favor by guarding overnight when we need it."

Felix rolled his eyes, shooting a daggered glare in Dimitri's direction. "If you'd rather me go back to Fraldarius territory, I'll do in a heartbeat, boar. I'm doing this for the prince and to make sure Dedue doesn't keel over from constant fretting over you."

"And we all thank you for it," Marianne cut in, sounding a lot more confident than she usually did. "Especially in the instance of last night with our late visitors, it would have been disastrous if they hadn't had a guard to let them in."

"Sure, we're going to make them being here a positive thing." Grumbling something under his breath, Felix had something else whispered into his ear by Annette, who seemed to have the power to calm him down with some efficiency—they were probably connected in some way, Hilda realized. Probably not a situation like the one she had with Lorenz, but she hadn't heard anything otherwise.

She decided it would be best to take a seat at the table and wait for the other two to arrive before she got too muddled in the conversations, but no sooner had she drawn her own chair that Dimitri was getting to his feet to come to her. "Here, please find a seat closer to the queen, she's been looking forward to this visit for a while," he said, pulling out the chair right next to Marianne's. "I can go one meal without speaking with her, I assure you."'

"Oh, uh, thanks for that," she replied, pushing in the one she'd chosen to take the one she was offered. When she was seated she looked at Marianne, who looked just as exhausted as she had the night before, before noticing that there was a distinct lack of a child around. "I don't mean to be nosy, but where's the kid? Shouldn't he be here?"

"The nurses are handling him this morning, so that we can have some quality time with our friends, both near and far," she replied, the exhaustion prominent in her voice. "It isn't frequent that we allow them to be alone with him, and it certainly has us both on edge."

Hilda glanced towards Dimitri, who had gone back to his seat and was having friendly conversation with Felix and Annette. "I totally couldn't tell that was going on, not even a little bit," she said with a laugh, turning her eyes back to her friend. "He seems really…chilled out, compared to how he used to be."

"That's what finding this sort of life does to a man, I suppose." Marianne yawned, covering her mouth with the back of her hand as she did so. "I only wish he did more overnight to make sure that we both get equal sleep, there are many times I'm the one who has to stay up comforting the child when he could do it just as easily."

"He'll learn how to behave someday, I'm sure." Having such a normal talk about domestic life felt strange to Hilda, as if she was masquerading in a place she shouldn't have been, but when she heard Lorenz's voice coming into the room her life flashed before her eyes for a split second. With what she was doing, how she was behaving, it was possible that she would have to marry into the Gloucester family to protect the dignity of them both, and she didn't want that for herself, but if it came to it, she'd be just as active in these parenting conversations as Marianne was. Bringing herself back to the real world, where that would never possibly happen to her, she laughed again and asked, "Say, Marianne, what was it like knowing that you were going to have a kid with that man?"

"It was…humbling, among other things. I never thought my life would get to the point where having children was a possibility, so to experience that was quite the shock. I do think it was more shocking to Dima than it was to myself, of course, but he was beyond grateful to have a son he could name after his father." She didn't seem surprised or even bothered by the suddenness of the question, and her answer seemed well thought-out and properly worded. "I wouldn't change a thing about having my sweet prince, and I would hope you weren't asking me this expecting me to say I would."

"N-no, of course I wasn't!" Hilda felt like explaining the reasoning behind her question would get her into deep water she wasn't ready to tread, but when she felt a hand on the back of her chair, before Lorenz had pulled out the one next to her and taken a seat, she was almost convinced that she was showing her hand across her face.

He didn't seem to notice, or to care, that he was coming into a conversation between friends, and got right to making his presence known to everyone. "I must say, the bed I was given for the night was easily the nicest place I've ever slept outside of my own home," he proudly announced, Marianne mumbling a thanks for the glowing compliment. "Yes, well, if I could recommend that you share the makings of your beds to the inns around Fódlan, I certainly would. There was not a moment last night where I felt like I was in any discomfort."

Hilda could tell he was laying the praise on thick, knowing that he had been all against sleeping in the bed by himself as she had been leaving the room, claiming it wouldn't be comfortable enough without someone to hold on to. "Same here," she reluctantly replied, wanting to keep their conversation innocent. "It's definitely the kind of bed I'd like to sleep in while I'm out traveling outside of my home territory."

"Thank you both for that, we've made sure that the furniture here is as comfortable and inviting as the people are." Marianne was smiling, masking her exhaustion for just a moment before the expression faded and she yawned once more. "I hope that, with this meal, I find more energy to get through today with. Lambert had me up most of the night with his fussing and I had no clue what to do."

"Shouldn't a queen have maids and nurses to rely on for such matters?" Lorenz asked, showing that he really had missed the meat of the conversation that had been going on. While Marianne took the time to explain to him what she'd already said once, Hilda zoned out of their discussion and instead tried listening in to the one going on with the others at the table. She kept hearing Dimitri laugh, and Felix give snappy responses, but she was at a loss as to what they were actually talking about.

Annette noticed that she was looking and listening in their direction and smiled at her, looking like she was having the time of her life there in the dining hall. "And what do you have to say about the relationship between Fódlan and Almyra?" Dimitri asked, after noticing where Annette's eyes were focused. "I am sure that you have many opinions on the matter, do you not?"

"I…guess I might, living right near the border and all," Hilda answered, knowing that the question was less to do with the actual relationship between nations and more about the person currently in charge of Almyra. "Holst usually takes care of all the big stuff, I only do a bit of communicating here and there whenever possible."

"With their king, correct?"

It felt like a fatal blow to Hilda's chest to have to answer that particular question. "You got me. He doesn't answer most letters, I'm pretty sure he doesn't read half of them, but if we need to get a direct line to their king…I'm your woman."

"Claude does have quite a bit on his plate, taking the throne of a country on his own. It would make sense that he doesn't have the time to reply to every piece of correspondence that goes his way from old friends." Hilda was certain that Dimitri was referring more to the invitation to their particular get-together than anything else, but all she could think about was her own personal letters that had never gotten a reply. If it was penned and sent on Holst's behalf, it would get a response within a reasonable amount of time, but if it was something from Hilda herself she was lucky to get anything back. Ever since Claude had left to rise to the Almyran throne, she had received perhaps two letters from him, and that had been during the end days of the war that he had left.

So much had happened since then, and while she had seen him once in person (at the wedding of the royal couple of Faerghus, but it had been in passing), it didn't take away from the fact that she still felt slighted by his disappearance. How badly she wished he would have shown up to come to Fhirdiad with them on this trip, so that she could have begun distancing herself from Lorenz and instead perhaps pursuing the man she'd wanted all along. "Look, you've made her think too much," Felix said, pointing out that Hilda had yet to say anything in response to Dimitri's last statement. "Figures that you mention Claude and her mind stops working."

"Sorry that I was thinking about my friend," she snapped, "but go on, keep acting like I'm just sitting here like a vapid woman who can't think about men without going crazy about them! I'm waiting, you can keep telling me that I'm thinking about something that I'm not!"

"Calm down, there's no need for an argument right now," Dimitri interjected, looking between the two with his one good eye. "In fact…Dedue! Arrange for the meal to begin, everyone is beginning to get quite testy in their wait for food!"

Ever the loyal right-hand-man, Dedue gave a nod and went into the kitchen, only for multiple castle staff members to leave it almost immediately, bringing with them large platters of food meant for everyone to enjoy. At once the conversations died down as people began to grab what they wanted to eat, and after everyone had selected their fill and a prayer to the goddess was delivered (at Marianne's insistence), they begun to feast. The food was moderately tasty, Hilda had certainly had better in the past, but she knew that there was at least one person at the table that didn't mind what the food tasted like and she assumed that it was cooked to his standards, rather than everyone else's.

Halfway through the meal she felt a pair of lips come dangerously close to her ear, Lorenz whispering to her, "I heard you speaking about Claude, surprised you chose to not come out and say anything about your romantic advances," before pulling away and returning to eating. She felt her face heat up in anger at the timing he'd picked to tell her such a thing, where she couldn't retaliate without causing a scene, and she made a mental note to bring that up with him at a later time. It was no secret between them how she felt about Claude, but for him to mention it in such a way right her irritated her in ways that she had to resist acting on. The last thing she needed was to upset everyone else that was present, just because she had a bit of a score to settle with Lorenz.

Instead of dwelling too much on what had bothered her, she tried to focus on the meal but her mind was too occupied with figuring out how to make him pay without losing her way home to really think about the food she was trying to eat. Marianne must have noticed her apprehension with eating, because soon she was leaning over to whisper, "Is anything the matter? Do we need to go somewhere to talk privately?"

Without thinking much of what consequences causing that sort of scene would bring, she rolled her eyes and pushed back her chair. "Yeah, actually, sounds great. Let's go find somewhere nice and quiet for just the two of us," she said, making no effort to keep her tone civil or her voice low, and Marianne looked a bit mortified to have to back away from the table to join her, but they both left the dining hall and headed for a nearby holding room. Once the door was closed and the latch locked in place, she looked at her regal friend who was giving her a worried, motherly look. "Why did you offer to bring me somewhere just the two of us?"

"I could see in your face that something was wrong, but I didn't want to address it in front of everyone. Shall we talk about it together, or is this something you want to keep to yourself?" On one hand, Marianne was aware of how obnoxious Lorenz was, and she would understand if the explanation she was given was merely that he'd started getting under Hilda's skin, but on the other Marianne was also most likely observant enough to notice something was up. Either way, the situation could turn ugly if the wrong words were chosen, and Hilda felt like she needed more time to make the right decision. "Hilda, dear, please answer me."

"It's…Lorenz," she ultimately decided on, hoping the exasperation she spoke with would do most of the explaining for her. "I'm just tired of him being himself, you know how it goes. Can't believe I really made this trip here with him, the only good thing about it was how little work I had to put in for the travel."

Marianne nodded, fully understanding the struggle but not completely buying it. "You two seemed to be in good spirits last night, if tired from your journey. What happened overnight to change things? What happ—oh." Bringing her hands up to her face, Marianne covered her mouth before closing her eyes and making the motions to give a silent prayer to the goddess.

It was then that Hilda knew that she'd made the wrong choice in admitting to there being any problem at all, even if she didn't know what it was that Marianne was guessing was going on. "Nothing happened, don't worry! It's always been like this, ever since the war ended and you and Claude left us. He's pretentious as always, and likes getting under my skin because he knows he can."

"May the goddess lead you in the direction you need to go in during this difficult time." Marianne's words seemed pointed, but were given with just enough grace that she didn't seem to truly be aware of the illicit activities that had been going on under her nose the night before. "I have full faith that you'll find your way to repair your relationship with Lorenz, and that you will find happiness wherever you go."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure I will." Finding happiness should not have been in the same breath as repairing a relationship with Lorenz of all people, but Hilda knew when she'd caused enough trouble and she was way over that line. "Can we go back now? I'm sure our food is cold and it was already only half edible, can't wait to see how it tastes when it's frozen solid."

"Yes, let's go back, and when we are properly finished eating I want another bit of time alone with you, this time with Lambert with us. You will have to hold him for yourself, after all." They exited the room together, and even though nothing had happened other than a slight admittance of what was wrong and a prayer, it felt like they were walking back into a completely different world. The conversations at the table had died down, and it seemed that everyone else was just about finished with their meals, and that did not change when the two took their seats once again. Because everyone else was done cleaning of the table had started, and there was enough time for them to each get a couple bites before their plates were cleaned and the meal was officially adjourned.

The moment he could, Lorenz was trying to grab Hilda's arm to pull her aside, but Marianne, knowing what she'd said and what she'd heard, was able to grab the other arm faster and without causing anyone to grow concerned. "Oh, you really did mean after we were finished eating, huh?" Hilda asked, seeing Lorenz out of the corner of her eye looking disgusted at not being able to have his conversation. "I'm excited for this, I want to see that baby."

"He'll be in his nursery at this time, I'm certain. Come, let's hurry before the nurses decide to take him on a tour of the halls." There was a giddiness in Marianne's step as she led Hilda deeper into the castle, slowing down once they got to a brightly-lit portion of the building. The hallway they were in opened up into a room with many windows, all letting the sunlight and the clear blue sky come into the building, and from there they turned into one of the adjoining rooms. There, in the lightly-decorated room bustling with nurses and maids, was the cradle belonging to the young prince, empty as he was being held by one of the most senior maids present.

The exchange of him from the maid's arms to his mother's took a matter of seconds, and when Marianne looked at Hilda while holding the child she looked reinvigorated, her tiredness having slipped away. "He's actually awake, how cool is that!" Hilda cooed, coming closer to the prince's face. "He really does look just like his father, what a shame that is. If he looked like you he'd be ten times cuter, minimum."

"I happen to think Dima is plenty cute, thank you very much," Marianne retorted, bouncing the boy as he stared with unfocused eyes towards the light coming in from the large windows. "Of course, I would say that Lambert is much cuter, but that may be more of a mother thing than anything else."

"To each their own, I guess." Laughing, Hilda could have sworn she saw the corners of the boy's mouth turn up at the sound of her laughter, but she couldn't prove it when he looked so confused, unaware of what was going on around him. "He's going to be one lucky kid, growing up in a peaceful Fódlan with two parents who love him so much…and me, he'll have me around for him too." In that exact moment she'd decided that the trip to Fhirdiad was always going to be worth it, no matter the circumstances, and that she was never going to turn down an opportunity to come visit her favorite child and her best friend, even if it was frigid and blowing snow as far as the eye could see.

They bantered back and forth for a while, Hilda eventually getting her hands on the child and holding him for herself, unable to focus on anything happening around her when in her arms she held the new prince of Faerghus. Eventually, though, he was given back first to his mother then to the nurses, and the two women left the room for one nearby, which was empty minus general sitting room furniture. "So now that you have gotten to spend time with Lambert, I want to speak with you about something," Marianne said, lacing her fingers together before letting her hands rest in front of her. "It's quite the serious discussion, so please do your best to handle it maturely."

"I can handle things plenty maturely, thanks." Hilda cracked a smile to try and get Marianne to do the same, but when she was given nothing but a stern stare back she knew she was in for it. "Okay, okay, joking aside, I'm able to handle things exactly like you need me to. What's this about, since you brought it up last night?"

"There have been…rumors I've heard about your behavior and I wanted to make sure that everything was fine." The graveness in Marianne's voice didn't match the gossipy-hen kind of subject she'd brought up, and Hilda was confused about where it had come from, especially given how she'd wanted to have this talk before she knew anything about Lorenz. "I received a letter from Leonie recently, catching up about life and how she wouldn't be able to afford a visit anytime soon, but that she didn't want to come on someone else's money so she would wait until she could pay for herself. She mentioned something most peculiar in the letter, though, and it made me worry about you."

Hilda winced as she thought about all of the things it could have been related to, her interactions with Leonie few and far between since the conclusion of the war. "The last time I saw her, we happened to run into each other in a hostel as I was checking in and she was leaving. Was she concerned about someone like me being in a place like that?"

"Yes, she did mention that incident in specific, but she also mentioned that she saw Lorenz around nearby and she was wondering if you two were on bad terms or meeting to settle some political things. If I wasn't aware of what you'd already told me I'd assume the latter, but now that I know you aren't getting along with him…" Marianne sighed, looking at Hilda with eyes beginning to brim with worry. "Please, tell me you aren't going around fighting with men just because you don't agree with them."

The hollow laugh that Hilda gave was out of instinct, the fear that Leonie of all people had figured out there were secret rendezvous and trysts going on between herself and Lorenz finally able to escape her chest. "No, I wasn't even aware that he was anywhere near there. I was out doing scouting stuff for Holst and got tired, and the place looked nice enough to stay in for a night. Crossing paths with her was neat, and I sure am glad I didn't see Lorenz out there too, now that I know he was there."

"Hilda, please do not feel like you have to hide the truth from me." If Marianne knew that the truth she thought she was looking for was tame compared to the actual truth—Hilda remembered that night all too well, as she'd ended up leaving early the next morning without a critical piece of clothing that Lorenz then had to send back to her—she would be even more disappointed than she was prepared to be. "I want you to know that, just because I have a much loftier title than I had before, it does not mean that how I treat you has changed in the slightest."

"I promise, Marianne, I'm not hiding the truth. I didn't see Lorenz while I was there, Leonie was just being concerned and she didn't have any reason to be." Deep down Hilda knew that lying about things would come back to haunt her at some point, but the only way that would happen would be if Marianne approached Lorenz about the same event and got his side of the story. Would he be willing to lie to keep their whole arrangement under wraps, or would he take the opportunity to make her pay? She couldn't dwell on what he would or wouldn't do, and instead had to hope that Marianne would just accept her word.

That was what she did, much to Hilda's relief, as the seriousness of their conversation disappeared and they began talking again like they had in years past. It was refreshing to see Marianne so upbeat even if she was tired, the horrors of her past seemingly having been washed away by her life changes, and Hilda wanted to feed off of her positive energy in order to survive everything that she knew was coming for her whenever she had to speak to Lorenz next. Just the thought of going somewhere alone with him and having to talk about how much she hated him acting like her talking about Claude was a bad thing made her stomach turn, and she knew that was what was coming for her in the near future.

There wasn't any way that she could find a different ride home when the time came, and she knew that she'd have to endure that long journey with Lorenz chiding her for what she'd said and what he thought she was implying by it. Even if they could settle things beforehand (which they were going to, they still had several days left on their trip and she knew Lorenz would want some more companionship before they went to leave), he would still take the time to outline everything he felt was wrong with how she'd answered the king's question. It wasn't even that big of a deal in her mind, but to him it was the biggest, and she'd never hear the end of it regardless of how she handled it.

The idea of asking Marianne if she could potentially stay behind and live at the castle did cross her mind a time or two during their conversation, but she thought better of it if only because she knew if she tried that, she'd get roped into being a maid and she was not going to spend her time doing work. She'd have to just hope for the best and pray that their trip home was in much better weather conditions than the trip out had been, so that it would be quick and she'd be back in Goneril territory and dealing with Holst again. Maybe after the trip was over she'd be done muddling in the Lorenz business, and she'd be able to move on to greener pastures like she'd always hoped she would.

It snowed every day they were in Fhirdiad, meaning that going out and doing things was difficult and Hilda wanted to spend most of her time getting to hang out with the prince by a raging fire. She did let them convince her to go out one day, when the snow had broken for just a little while, and when they passed by the tavern they'd stopped in when they first got to the city she pointed it out, excited she recognized it. "If you found Ashe there, everything makes more sense than it had if it was just a random encounter," Marianne told her, smiling at her friend's enthusiasm. "He loves that place so much. He and Dedue helped them get a menu together when they first opened."

"Huh, never would've guessed that," Hilda said, thinking about the burly guard and how it seemed strange he'd do anything outside of the castle walls. "Bet their food's to die for, if they follow their cooking instructions. All of the meals Dedue's helped with have been really good, even if they're, you know, cooked to be a little flavorless."

"Oh, you noticed that too?" The fact that Marianne seemed to be trying not to laugh at her own question made Hilda feel better about making such a statement. "It makes it easier for someone to ask Dima how his food tastes, since it, well, doesn't taste like much at all. He can just throw random guesses out there and be close to right." They both began laughing after that, Dimitri in front of them overhearing the conversation's conclusion and looking playfully irritated at it, and from there their trip through the snow-covered city went off without a hitch.

When Hilda thought about her trip to Fhirdiad to meet the prince, those were the moments she wanted to remember, ones filled with laughter and joy, not filled with petty drama that she never should have gotten wrapped up in.

A/N: I started writing this over a year ago and then was unable to continue working on it due to other projects needing my time and attention; with how I've decided to work gift fics this year it allowed for me to repurpose this from passion project to a story for someone. honestly I still love it as much as I did when I started writing it, so I'm excited to see where it continues, because yes this is a multi-chapter piece. stay tuned for more of Hilda's misadventures and travels, I suppose!