We ended up walking through the Royal Maze. The Royal Maze seemed to be an synonym for miles of shrubbery that was impossible to escape from. I was beginning to suspect what happened to unpopular nobles or minor criminals. Instead of actually killing them, they were instead released into this maze, never to be seen again.

Aiven seemed unconcerned that we were going to die in the bushes. Maybe he somehow could foretell a way to get out, but that would probably be pushing my luck. Every so often I would hear a murmur of voices several shrubs away. To my surprise, none of them were screaming "help! help!" and pleading to be freed from this death trap.

I'm not very comfortable in enclosed shrubs.

Eventually we reached a dead end in the shape of a large circle. This was apparently where Aiven had been heading, for he sat down on one of the marble benches facing a fountain. Flowers were plotted around the fountain, forming a lovely, delicate picture that I'm sure I would have appreciated if I had known it wouldn't be the last thing I saw. The tall green bushes still blocked everything from view. Finished scanning and realizing that the only choice I had was to stay with Aiven, no matter what, I sat down beside him.

"Why the secrecy?" I asked casually, eyeing the shrubs.

He shrugged. "I didn't want to use one of the regular gardens and risk being interrupted and forced to make small talk. There's only a few more hours before you're introduced to Mage-King Sair, and I have a lot to teach you."

"Oh, that," I said, unable to feel smug. "I already know everything I need to know. Tullon taught me."

Aiven looked surprised. "And when was this?" he asked, as if he wasn't quite sure if he believed me.

"This morning and afternoon," I said proudly. "I can now speak, eat, and dance in the presence of the Emperor."

His eyes narrowed, as if he was somehow annoyed. No doubt mourning the loss of being able to yell at me. "Fine," he said. "Show me the Opening Ballad. If you can get through that and the Ending no one will pay attention to most of the ones in-between." He leaned back, crossing his arms and watching me.

I let out an over exaggerated sigh. "Aiven, there's no music. And you sort of need to stand up. I can't dance by myself."

Ridiculous as this seemed, I suppose Aiven hadn't thought of that. To my absolute delight, he turned a little red, and muttered what sounded like, "Maybe that's not a good idea."

Thank you, Aiven. The fact that you don't want to dance with me does wonders for my ego.

"Well," he continued, brushing back his hair with one hand and still looking slightly uncomfortable. "We should probably go over the manners anyway." With a long suffering look, I allowed him to drill me in Princess/Daughter of the Eternal Lah'nayin-meeting-Emperor manners, which mostly consisted of the same things Tullon had said: "This is what a princess should do, but since you're - you - you can probably be different if you want."

"Aiven," I said, deciding there was no way to make this seem causal. "I'm a princess, right?"

Aiven widened his eyes with mock astonishment. "Remarkable! Did you figure that out all by yourself?"

I lifted my head to glare at him, but when I met his eyes they were dancing in amusement. Reluctantly, I smiled. "Actually, I did," I said airily. "And usually princesses have lots of money," I continued seriously.

"If you want a new dress, you just have to ask," Aiven commented, still seeming amused with me.

I didn't laugh. "Do I?" I asked, watching him. "Do I have money that I can spend as I want?"

Aiven nodded, this time as serious as I was. His eyes narrowed. "You have money. But for now, I have to approve what you do with it. Why?"

I refused to let the fact that he had control over my money bother me at the moment. Instead I asked, "And Seers' are rich as well? By far as rich as royalty?"

He wasn't laughing anymore, only watching me as closely as I was watching him. "What do you want, Laeliena?" he asked flatly. That was what convinced me to come right out; when Aiven called me Laeliena, he was on the verge of definitely serious, not to mention unhappy with me.

I took a deep breath. "Remember Johen? You met him - briefly - in Sontái." I knew he remembered. He had been mentioned as the one I loved often enough.

"Johen," he repeated in a toneless voice. "What about him?"

I sat up straighter, feeling sincerely happy rather then the misery I'd felt the last few times I'd thought of Johen. "He mentioned in Sontái that it cost a large amount of gold to take the Quov'in stone from his wrist. But if we have money, we can do it! I've never really thought of myself having the resources a princess has, but I do." I met Aiven's eyes, silently asking him to share my happiness, but running up against a blank wall. "Don't you understand?" I tried to explain. "He can be freed from it. He won't have to be trapped in the kitchens of a foreign country. I can give him enough to go home, or bring him here, or anything. He won't suffer anymore!" I smiled enthusiastically at Aiven.

"Do you understand," Aiven said in a careful voice, "exactly what removing a Quov'in stone entails of?"

I rolled my eyes. "Honestly, Aiven, do you think I do? I'm a thief - a princess - the Daughter, not a Healer or Mage. Since you obviously do, why don't you enlighten me?"

He continued in that careful, empty voice. "It's not foolproof. It's possible the subject will die from the removal, as it is possible they would die putting it in. More to the point, the three Healers required to remove it risk their lives as well. Quov'in Stones aren't made to be taken out, so it's a long complicated process. It's not safe."

"Well, some people obviously do it, don't they?" I snapped, angry with Aiven. I knew it was unreasonable, but he was taking my joy out of finding a way to help Johen. "Look, people will do it for money. I just need to have enough. Do I?"

Along with carefully speaking, Aiven was now carefully not looking at me. "It takes a large amount of gold, as you said. You will need your money for your country."

"Aiven," I ground out, "do I, or do I not, have enough money - which I can spare - to pay for the stone to be taken out?"

"Is it that important that this Johen be helped?" He said that as if he already knew the answer, so I answered in turn.

"You know it is. I would do it for anyone, but especially for Johen. We grew up together. He's family," I said determinedly.

Aiven finally looked up and met my eyes. He smiled lopsidedly at me. "Family," he said softly, and I remembered when he had once asked me if I loved Johen. I'd admitted to not being sure - did Aiven remember that? Did he even care? I looked away first this time.

"It's really important, then, isn't it?" Aiven said quietly. "Then yes, the money is not a problem. But -"

For a second I saw something in his eyes didn't translate into anything I recognized. "But what?" I asked as softly as him.

"For the Quov'in stone to be removed . . ." He halfheartedly smiled. "There's nothing else. It will be possible. It can be handled." He turned away, smile slipping into nonexistence.

It was easy to see he was hiding something, but it didn't seem like something that would hurt Johen, so I assumed it could wait. For the moment I just waited, wondering if now that Aiven had decided to take care of the removal, he was done speaking. He wasn't, of course. That would be letting me get away too easy.

"Do you ever wonder," he asked, sounding much more contemplative then I'd ever heard him sound before, "what it would be like if we didn't live like this? If we weren't all royalty and Mages and Seers and prophesied wonders? If we were all just common folk that liked in a village with nothing to worry about rather then if next year's harvest would survive, rather then if next year the world would survive? What would happen if we didn't have to be concerned about all the politics and were allowed to live and interact with people just based on our own concerns and feelings?"

Actually, I didn't wonder. For most of my life, I'd actually wondered what it would be like to live on this side of the money line, not the other way around. I did, although, wonder about how many different facets Aiven had tucked away in his personality. I had never considered him as trapped by being a Seer as I was following his orders.

"You wouldn't like it, Aiven," I replied softly, seriously. I moved to stand beside him. "You wouldn't be able to live such a normal life."

He looked at me with raised brows, and I saw the spark in his eyes I was used to. It relieved me. The wistfulness that had been there a moment before had . . . scared me. "Was that a compliment or an insult?" he asked.

I bit back a smile. "A compliment, actually." He raised his brows even higher, and I blushed and looked away, realizing I'd just said I was complimenting him. "It's that you aren't like most people," I hurried on. "You just have that command, which though can be very irritating, makes you a leader. The best you could do as a villager would be as the village Headman or on the Town Council. You're the kind of person who stands out and makes a difference." I kept my eyes on my feet, knowing that in the past five seconds I had said more kind things about him then I had in the entire time we'd known each other. "Not," I concluded tartly, "that it means I don't mind putting up with you when you're acting imperial and domineering. I do. And I don't forgive you."

He laughed, and it dismayed me quite a bit how much I liked that laugh. Still, I cracked a small smile. "I think," Aiven said in an amused tone, "that we'd better go back t the palace. Consider how agreeable you are at the moment, you can only get worse, and that would be such a disappointment."

I mock glared at him and stuck my nose in the air, mimicking the tiny steps most ladies at Court confined themselves to. Smiling companionably, we walked back into the tangle of shrubs, preparing to dash through them again.

But I couldn't quite forget the wistful look when Aiven had wondered what it would be like if we could act on are feelings. And I couldn't stop wondering what Aiven - what I -would do if we were allowed to.

****************************************************************************************

We didn't actually make it out of the maze right away. It seemed like we would, as Aiven confidently turned corners, sharing ridiculous pieces of court gossip with his own acrid comments inserted. It turned out, however, that he no more knew the way out of there then I did, not having bothered to mark the way in, and sheepishly admitting that finding the clearing was luck. We ended up spending an hour and a half wandering through it, as the time for my introduction to the Emperor drew nearer.

"It would be just be luck if we missed the audience being trapped into this thrice-cursed maze," I muttered. I scowled at the tall hedges we walked by. "I swear I saw that twig before," I said, glaring at the offending twig that stuck too far out of the hedge. We walked on.

We reached an intersection and stopped. "I've heard that if you chose one direction and keep to it you eventually leave the maze," Aiven offered hesitantly.

"We'd better, or I'm going to go mad," I told him. "I don't think I can stand much more of these identical paths. I feel completely lost." Twenty minutes later after continuously going left, we reached a dead end.

I whirled around to glare at Aiven, who cautiously stepped backwards. "I guess that theory doesn't work," he offered, unable to contain a smirk. I narrowed my eyes at him furiously, then lifted my head up the sky - and screamed.

A hand clapped over my mouth, cutting me short. Honey colored eyes blazed at me. "What in the Lady's name are you doing?" he demanded.

"Getting us out of here," I said grimly once he removed his hand. "In case you haven't noticed, we're trapped, and I'm definitely too young to die.

He just looked at me, then stepped back. "Fine," he muttered. "Scream."

It turns out that no one really cares if there's a screaming girl in the Royal Maze; I didn't hear a single voice call out to ascertain I wasn't being murdered. When I finally stopped, hoarse from yelling, Aiven narrowed his eyes. I thought that he was about to yell at me for really screaming - but I was wrong. Instead he jabbed a foot into the dense, scratchy hedge, and then a hand. He hoisted himself up on top of the seven-foot hedge, lying down on it to distribute his weight. "Well?" he said down to me. "Aren't you coming?"

"And you call me ridiculous," I murmured, pulling myself up, which was much more difficult then Aiven made it seem. Interestingly enough, it was possible to crawl along the top of the hedge, occasionally jumping down and then up again as we made our way out of there. I don't even want to think about what it looked like to the people in the maze, but I was just glad to be on my way to freedom. When we finally landed outside the hedges, I promptly sat down on the grass. "Lahtorli," I murmured, twigs sticking to my clothes and my hair, my dress tangled about me. "will never have any mazes. Never. And if it does, my first royal degree will be to destroy them."

Smirking, Aiven pulled me to my feet and led me back to my suite, saying I had twenty minutes to prepare to meet Mage-King Sair, Emperor of Bast.

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"Well," I asked Mariva nervously, "Do you think I'm ready to meet the Emperor?"

"Damslae," Mariva responded in a tone of deep satisfaction, "you're ready to meet the Lady herself. Besides, I can hardly imagine you being made nervous meeting Mage-King Sair, considering all the other people you've met so far. I think," she said, smiling at me, "that you're more interested in what a certain Seer thinks about you in your awfully pretty new dress."

"And I think a certain lady has had a little too much wine for supper," I retorted.

"Excuse me, I wasn't the one who went climbing on top of Royal Hedges where just about anyone could have seen me," she said in mock reprimand. Dropping the act, she continued with a smile, "you have no idea how much I wish I could have been there. Of all the court activities."

"Oh, be quiet," I told her with a laugh. "You're just jealous because I thought of it first."

"You've found me out," Mariva said innocently. "It's exactly how I plan to spend my time with Corln on our next garden walk. Hedge-climbing: one of the main attractions of Bast."

I laughed and turned to the mirror. "Well," I said with a sigh. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

"Trust me, you're far more ready then I've ever been," Mariva said, grinning, and I stuck my tongue out at her. "Go on," she told me, "before I start making kissing sounds. And that will be awful hard to explain to Aiven if he walks in here." She left her seat and looked me in the face. "You'll do fine," she said reassuringly. "Just remember, everyone here is trying their hardest to make you happy. They'll be too busy being nervous to notice if you're nervous." Kissing me on the cheek, she spun me around and opened the door. "Have fun," she said merrily, and closed it tightly. I immediately felt as if I had lost my lifeline.

Aiven was looking at a tapestry went I entered the stairwell, but quickly turned to face me. I swallowed hard. Again, he looked resplendent in the Seers' long, flowing robes. This time, though, he had a sash around his waist, under most of the robes but still visible. On it was a square shaped plaque with a horizontal line cutting it in half. I recognized the picture on the lower part; it was Sontái's crest. The upper part was, at a guess, Aiven's own sign. Again, the white fabric seemed to move though there was no wind. My eyes wandered to the pendant at his neck, the one with the rune on it. "What does that mean?" I asked, raising my eyes to his, which in this light were a dark, dark brown, rather then amber as they were when sunlight hit them.

It seemed to take a few seconds for the words to reach him, for which I was profoundly grateful. Mariva and I had sent hours on my appearance. My dark, dark red gown, several shades darker then my hair, had a high waist and split skirt. The material of the bodice and overskirt was very sheer, but layered together to make it cloudlike, almost. It floated down at the skirt over the red velvet underskirt, and the edges were embroidered in brilliant gold leaf and flower designs. My hair was pinned to my head in tight coils, except for two long side strands that hung down my face. The red earrings Lady Jainalii had given me when I was presented to Sontái's court were in, and I wore a favorite plain gold ring of mine. A gold chain was around my neck, half way between my neck and the moderately low scoop neckline.

Aiven's eyes swept overly for barely a second before he fixed them on my face, but I was certain - well, almost certain - that he was impressed. He smiled slightly. "A Seer's secret," he said casually, offering his arm.

I stared at it in suspicion. "Aiven, we have a long, narrow stairs to descend, a courtyard to cross, and who knows how much of the castle to navigate before we reach the audience room. Why are you offering your arm now?"

He dropped it like he had been stung. "Instinctive politeness," he muttered. "Lord only knows why I was showing it to you." He turned around, jaw clenching, and began to walk down the stairs.

I stared after him in astonishment. "You can't be mad at me!" I burst out. "I haven't done anything! I was just being practical." I moved a few steps after him, then stopped as he turned around to look up at me from three steps below. "You look very nice," I offered weakly, knowing the comment was no help, not to mention that it didn't even begin to cover how Aiven looked.

He looked up, meeting my eyes. "And you look lovely," he said, his face polite, blank. He gestured briskly down the stairs. "We should move. I don't want to be late." He turned around and continued walking down the stairs, as I looked after him, stunned. That was all? A blank face and an impersonal compliment? And I love you too, Aiven, I thought sarcastically as I hurried after him.

"Shouldn't you wait for the special guest at dinner?" I asked as I reached him. "After all, there wouldn't be much of an audience if there's no one to introduce.

He raised an eyebrow. "I have no doubt that you would have managed to get there even if I abandoned you," he said.

"I want to know why you're considering abandoning me," I muttered under my breath. He only smiled, and opened a door.

I looked into it warily. "What's this?"

"The Mage-Way." He opened his hand to reveal a flat circular token. "Transportation for the privileged."

"You mean the rich and lazy."

"Well yes," Aiven laughed. "Just about." He stepped inside, and pulled me in with him. I was a little bit uncertain about this, considering how it was supposed to carry people quickly down to the ground. Plus, the room's walls were slightly hazy, so that I couldn't quite see them. They looked like white walls obscured by haze, and when I looked down and up there was a hazy white ceiling and floor. It was slightly unnerving. Aiven closed the door, then pressed the token into a slot in the side. Taking two steps, he stood next to me - and then the colors started.

It was like the white mist turned blue and shot across the room from the ceiling, then one of the side walls shot purple mist then another was projecting green, then a myriad of colors from every conceivable directions, tangling and entwining with each other, though never blending. I felt a slight, stomach lurching sensation and stumbled, tripping. Then, as fast as they had come they were gone, leaving only the white mist and I was receiving a very close view of Aiven's white robed chest.

Blushing furiously, I stumbled upright with the help of Aiven's arms. He was looking slightly amused, which I supposed was better then the indifference he had shown earlier. "Why didn't you hold on to something?" he asked, like it was obvious. He indicated rails on the hazy walls, which I hadn't noticed before.

"Maybe because you didn't tell you and I've never been this way before?"

He looked at me in astonishment as he retrieved his token and opened the door. "Then how did you reach your rooms?"

"I climbed," I grumbled, and Aiven burst out laughing.

****************************************************************************************

Considering all the expectations of me acting like an idiot, my introduction was fine. There was no repeat incident like when I was first ate with the Sontái Court, and spilled the bowl of marbles which the serving boys slipped and crashed on. Tonight, I was on my absolute best behavior. I curtsied correctly, spoke correctly, smiled correctly, ate correctly, breathed correctly, blinked correctly - all in all, I felt like a trained dog. At least, I'm sure I would have if I had really been paying much attention to myself rather then what I couldn't do. Most of my attention was fixed on the Emperor.

He was sitting on his throne when I entered, but even sitting, he looked imperial. He was exactly what a classic Emperor should look like; in the middle of his fifties, he was tall, well built, and radiated power. His face was serious but had laugh lines, and his black hair was interspersed with gray. The first thing I noticed about him was the sense of keen brilliance that was held in his eyes.

All right, I lied. The first thing I noticed was that the gold chain he was wearing would go fabulously with my eyes, but that was beside the point. The first important thing I noticed was his intelligence.

Some official at his right introduced me, complete with every title I had, every title the Eternal Lah'nayin had, and every title that was feeling neglected and so had to be brought back into the spotlight for a moment.

The dinner was small, consisting of only Aiven, Mage-King Sair, Corln, the other Mage - Lauten? - and myself. Oh, and two of the Emperor's advisors, Duke so and so and Vizier so and so, but I was too nervous to pay much attention. I did exactly as Tullon had instructed, and if I mixed up my spoons, no one seemed to notice.

Even Aiven seemed to relax a little. Then, when Vizier so and so started to speak, his eyes glazed over - and with boredom, not a vision. I began to breathe slowly, an not worry about what was going on as much. Small bites, nice smiles, nodding head - I was positive I hadn't given Aiven a single thing to complain about. When the dinner ended, I graciously said goodnight, everyone curtsied and bowed, and the Emperor bid me a warm farewell and left. Then I glided across and out of the room on Aiven's arm, and the door a closed behind us.

I spun around to face Aiven immediately, not caring we were in full view of the soldiers guarding the door. Well?" I exclaimed, "How was I?" I couldn't help grinning, feeling an enormous amount of success. Even Aiven, who had barely said a word to me all dinner, must have been impressed.

"You acted like a true princess," he said blandly.

I frowned, my happiness draining away with his one phrase. "What's that supposed to mean?" I asked. Aiven didn't seem too fond of real princesses.

He sighed in aggravation. "You're reading too much into it. You were perfect, Laeliena."

Damslae, I corrected silently, unreasonably hurt. "Well, do you think I'll be ready for the banquet?" I asked, forcing a smile.

He shrugged. "Yes. I suppose Tullon's showing you the dances?"

"He did today, but I thought you were going to," I replied, sounding a little irritated myself.

"Why ruin what's working?"

I gave an exaggerated sigh. "All right, Aiven, what's wrong?"

He looked puzzled. "Wrong?"

I glared at him. He glared back at me. One of the guards coughed, and everyone glared at him - including the other two guards, who had been listening intensely to our conversation.

Aiven started walking, so I hurried to catch up. Neither of us said anything until we exited the main castle and started walking across to the Towers. In the middle of the lantern lit path, Aiven stopped and turned to face me. I was an inch away from crashing into him; both of us immediately stepped back.

"Damslae," he said, looking at me, seemingly troubled - and when was Aiven ever troubled? "I - are you sure - ?" He stopped, and just looked at me.

"What?" I asked, half bemused, half annoyed.

He looked away, jaw clenching and unclenching. "About the -" he started again, then stopped with a groan. "Never mind," he said tightly.

Never mind? Not likely. "Tell me," I pressed, tilting my head.

He shut his eyes. "It doesn't matter," he said. "I'll take care of it."

I looked at him warily. "You'll take care of what?"

He shook his head, and I stared at him in growing aggravation. "What are you going on about?" I demanded.

"Nothing."

"Obviously not nothing, if you're having so much trouble talking about it," I said scathingly. "You can't possibly not tell me after you've gone on about this mystery.

His teeth clenched. "I don't want you hurt, Damslae," he finally said, and then flushed and started walking towards the Towers, as if he had said too much. I followed, bewildered to his meaning but unwilling to press. What did he think would hurt me?

"Have you found anything else out about removing Johen's stone?" I asked in an attempt to change the topic.

He stiffened. "Yes," he said tightly.

"And?" I prodded, feeling my excitement rise. "When can it happen?"

"It will be soon. I've already sent out letters to some professional Healers.

I smiled at his back. "Thank you," I said sincerely. I hesitated, then continued; "How painful will it be?"

He paused, then determinedly continued forward. "It will not hurt Johen very much, or very long," he said stiffly.

"But there's the possibility of death," I fretted, knowing I should stop talking but unable to.

For the second time, Aiven spun around. This time his eyes were blazing. Before I met Aiven, I had never thought brown could look so much like fire, I thought dazedly.

"Your precious Johen will be fine, all right? I'm doing everything possible so that he'll be fine. There's no need for you to worry about him in the least. I'll take care of it."

"So majestic of you, taking care of everything," I automatically retorted, then could have slapped myself. I was so used to shooting answering volleys that it often seemed hard to carry a calm, rational discussion with Aiven. Actually, I didn't think I'd ever had a rational discussion with Aiven before. We always became too wrapped up in what we were talking about.

Aiven pushed his hair back in a frustrated motion. "You wouldn't want to take care of this," he said in a clipped voice that I heard truth in. I swallowed, wondering exactly what entailed in removing a Quov'in stone.

In silence, we entered the Tower, and Aiven produced the Mage token again, and we moved quickly through the swirling lights. I thought he was going to leave me at my door without a simple goodnight, and I had too much pride to be the first one to speak. Leaning against my door, I watched him take several steps up the staircase.

Be that way, I thought sulkily, turning and opening the door. I felt another completely irrational knot in my stomach, and my eyes felt too heavy.

"Damslae?"

I spun around, to see a fleeting smile cross Aiven's face. "I don't think I ever told you that you look breathtaking," he said, his eyes meeting mine. He smiled again, a little sadly, and then disappeared up the stairway.

I went to sleep with a much lighter heart then I would have a few moments before.