-In Shades of Death, She was Painted.-

It was Heero that led him to his room. And when the stoic young male opened his door, Duo very nearly started dancing in amazement. JACKPOT!! I've hit the holy mother load! The room was… Incredible, to say the very least. It was huge for one thing, and the glossy wooden floor was partially covered by a thick rug with the designs on it of a large golden tree stretching from one side of the chambers to the other. But that was only the start. An bed large enough for six people stood against the wall opposite of them, and as he guessed earlier, it was surrounded by a veil of beautiful gold tinted crushed velvet. The majority of this fabric was gathered against the two front bedposts with long white ribbons, so that the plush bed behind it was visible. There were stacks on matching pillows stacked there like little bits of forgotten dawn caught clouds. And on either side of this miraculous bed that he was going to be allowed to sleep in, the walls were broken by large windows like the stained glass below. The sun caught in these and made patterns dance across both floor and ceiling alike, and it looked like a dream to Duo. Along one of the shorter walls rested a wide dark wood dresser and next to that a beautifully carved floor mirror that currently reflected his stunned image back at him. The other wall… Was still pretty, but now also a little creepy.

There was no furniture on the East side of the room, just a mural that went from wall to wall and ceiling to floor. It showed a spring time garden scene, or so he thought judging by the fresh grass. There was a large tree in the center of the painting but this was not your pretty apple blossom plant here. It looked like it was dying. The leaves on it's branches were the color of tarnished gold and he fancied he could see one of two just barely hanging onto there branches. And the trunk seemed dry and crumpling. Hell, there were even pieces of it resting in the lap of the girl who was sitting at it's base. Girl? Duo's eyes widened and he walked in to further examine the female in the painting on his wall. She was probably about twenty-five, he guessed, but looked a lot younger. Part of that was due to the clothing she was in, a light blue gown that was fluffed up around her stockinged legs and dress up shoes, and then a white bonnet that framed her delicate features. A few blonde ringlets had been caught outside of this and hung free over her porcelain cheeks and one even appeared to be stuck on her heart shaped lips. He hadn't realized he was leaned over and staring at her face onto Heero stepped up beside him and he bumped his head on the wall when he looked that way.

Duo straightened up while ruefully rubbing his head, eyes glancing to the wall once more and noticing so many little things he felt like he was getting a headache. She's got a cut on one hand, her left, above the knuckle. There's a smile on her face, but the artist put tears in her eyes. One flower, looks like a white rose, in sticking out of the covered basket by her side… And what looks like a baby's bottle. And the half of a flowerbed that can be seen doesn't have flowers in it, it's got… Are those bones? Duo's heart thudded painfully as Heero abruptly spoke and shook him out of his careful study.

"It's detailed, isn't it?"

He pulled his eyes away and closed them, still seeing the girl's, woman's really, face behind his eyelids. "Yes… Very. She looks real, and so does the scene."

The guard nodded and reached out a hand to lightly touch one of the leaves on a low branch. "She was… And the tree still is. This was the king's late wife, Elizabeth."

Well, that makes sense… Kind of. She looks a lot like what I thought I saw outside before this joker grabbed me the first time. He opened his eyes and gave Heero a 'go on' look. "How did she die? And gods, she looks so young, how'd she end up married to a…" He blinked and seemed to remember he was talking to the king's guard, "A fine older gentleman like His Majesty downstairs?"

He was surprised when his quick answer earned him a laugh from the stiff male. "Fine older gentleman, indeed. I know what our king looks like… And let me tell you, he only started looking this badly in that five years or so. Before it was only mild..." Cold blue eyes shifted downwards, and although Duo wasn't about to stare at 'Elizabeth' again, he knew that what Heero was studying when he responded, " She killed herself… But she would have died anyway. It's a complicated story."

He smiled, "Well, I know you are probably busy now, so I guess I won't pester you asking, but eventually, if you have some free time I'd like to hear it… This picture interest me, as does this castle and the lands here as well. I'd like to learn all I can." And just possibly somewhere in all this I'll get some information I can use. Either to do what the king wants, or to sate my own curiosity on the matter.

Although he receive a somewhat cold look from Heero, he at last got a nod. The brunette stepped back and headed to his door. "That would be fine. Although I'm sure you'll hear about it at dinner in the kitchen. People around here can never seem to keep their mouths shut when there is a new ear to listen." And with that he stepped out and closed the door behind him with a final sounding click.

Duo's skin crawled a little as he realized he was alone in a new area with nothing but some dead woman's painting staring at his back. He sighed and wandered over to the window to hopefully feel the sun's warmth and shake his childish fears. The view he got was enough to make him momentarily forget about the child-like woman on the wall. It was the garden again, though not the one he'd stopped in on his way into the castle… Apparently the whole castle was surrounded on all sides by it. This one didn't have the tall still green trees he'd seen out front, it had something even more interesting. A hedge maze.

The tall angular bushes stood, from what he guess where he was, about seven feet above where anyone's head would be if they were the one's walking through it. Duo could follow the path from the single statue guarded entrance he saw through about ten twists and curves before the maze started to tilt down a slight slope and out of his line of sight. It actually looked challenging and was something he was going to have to check out later… Although, he would let someone know before hand, just in case. Something about the idea of running through the green labyrinth below his window made him smile and feel a little like a kid again. He could just imagine some young boys playing games in there. Knights off in search off the wicked dragon, or maybe two regular peasants off to find the long lost gold of Captain Johnny Steel, or even a pair of children who just happened to stumble into the witch's forest… He could hear the laughter and story unfolding as the day grew long and the sun drifted across the sky. He could see-

… He could see the angel from before walking out of somewhere below him, looking around, then approaching the entrance of the maze he'd just been contemplating. Duo stared at the boy slowly walking across the grass below him in shocked stillness, utterly captivated. And then the blonde lifted his head and stared right up at the window and at him as if he had known someone was watching.

-----

It seemed to Duo that they were staring at one another for days, but in truth, when the blonde just as suddenly turned and walked into the hedge maze, he saw that the sun hadn't moved at all in the sky. But he could remember having the time to study that perfect, upturned face. He had noticed the faint traces of pink that stained those near white cheeks, as if the boy was shy and blushing, and he could remember even having the time to count each of the golden buttons holding the prim coat closed over the boy's chest. Thirteen of them, and all properly closed.

And that was something else, the boy had changed. That white robe from before, almost like he'd just gotten out of the bath and that was something Duo would have liked to see, had been replaced by a more fitting outfit. The blonde had been wearing a dark blue tunic, probably satin, over slightly lighter leggings. All the metal, from his shoe buckles to his buttons and even a ring he had seen glimmering on one pale little finger were gold. He had thought real clothing would make someone like this stranger look more human too him, but instead he looked all the more fragile… He didn't seem to fit into the backdrop of the world around him. It was like someone had painted him here and then forgotten to give him his own world. He paused and frowned. Painted?

He whipped around fast enough that his elbow went slamming into the frame of the window. After letting out a stream of creative curses, Duo made his way over to the mural on the wall while rubbing his elbow with his opposite hand. Ignoring the chills the thing now gave him, he dropped to kneel before it and stare at the woman caught so vividly in oil paints under the tree. Although he had started to suspect it over by the window, he still felt a shock of surprise as he compared her delicate features to the unnamed boy he had seen twice now and found them nearly identical by his memory. This pretty doll of a woman, the king's wife, had to be related to the boy. He would say sister, but the boy looked so young, and that wouldn't explain why he was here now after she had passed away… And thinking of mother and son bothered him for some reason he could quite put a finger on. Maybe it was that she looked no older then twelve until you started to really focus and he thought anyone touching someone like her would seem criminal…And that if it were true, it probably meant that the angelic youth he was obsessing over was also from that rotting king. And that was hard to believe.

But they were undeniably related in some form or another, which meant if Heero thought he could get all the information he needed about her at dinner, he could very likely find out about this boy too… Or so he was hoping.

After about ten minutes of considering the painting again from a few new angles, Duo stood and decided it was about time for him to utilize his new home. He would bath before dinner (and in a tub, no less! No half dirty forest stream for him today!) and then use that gorgeous bed over yonder to take a nap. Something told him it might be a trying day, and he rarely ignored those feelings. So as the demon went about his new chambers preparing and lost within his own deep thoughts, it was no wonder he never saw the beautiful cerulean eyes in the painting following him.

-----

When he entered the kitchen later that night, it was too the sound of good natured laughter. He could hear silverware already clanging against plates and glasses being set down, and blamed his slight lateness on having to stop twice and ask for directions… By the time he has it memorize he'd probably be leaving anyway. But that comfortable sound made him happy that the king had allowed him to eat with the rest of the staff rather then him. Just the idea of those wrinkly lips closing over sparkling silverware. Yuk. He had to pause as he at last entered the dining area/kitchen, and watch the scene before him with a slowly widening kitchen. It looked like a circus.

There were cooks and maids bustling frantically around, dropping off plates on an outrageously long table, and even a few settled down themselves to gorge before having to continue. And there was just something cute about the way all of the guards seemed clustered together at one end as if they were so damned proud of their positions. A few more heavily armored men sat at a single table of too the side, and he was left thinking about knights and wandering… And then lastly, there was that man who got up on the wooden bench, stepped onto the table, and walked over it instead of around to plop on a seat next to Heero and throw a chummy around his shoulder. Duo nearly choked as Heero calmly turned and upended his glass over the cheery young brunette's head and the rest of the table burst out in cheers as red wine stained his locks and ran down his cheeks.

It was as Heero was surveying his hand work and getting a grin in return that he spotted Duo, and surprised the newest castle 'employee' but lifting an arm and waving him over. Duo was quick to hustle over after that and drop into one of the few chairs open on this end of the table, this one across and to the side of Heero. He looked different out of uniform, the prophet was happy to note, less like a statue and more touchable. And as if proof of that fact was the wine drenched boy who gave Heero a playful shove before grabbing a napkin and tending to himself, and then the black haired youth to the other side of the guard who seemed to be watching all of this with a neutral expression, but with one hand laying on the table and just barely brushing his. It gave some show of closeness that Duo couldn't help but see and feel an old jealous twinge for…

Heero at last turned away from the other brunette, and when he did Duo noted some of the similarities between them, and then addressed him, "Duo. This is Jalyn, my cousin. He works in the castle stables most of the time when he is not making a riot indoors. And this is Wufei, a friend."

Duo gave his respective nods to both parties, noticing that Jalyn was now eyeing him with a curiosity he often saw, (and a 'fresh meat' expression he rarely did) and that the so labeled Wufei was just staring at him with that cool neutral look, though Duo was certain he'd seen one of his sharp black eyebrows twitch a little at Heero calling him a friend. Mm, I think there's more to them then they care to share… How fitting. "It's a pleasure to meet you all."

A pretty little maid came flying by and dropped a plate in front of him, and Duo stared down at it's over loaded surface with such wide eyes that Jalyn laughed and commented, "Ain'tcha never seen food before? And you better watch out, she'll be back in a minute and dropping a glass too."

"Of course I've seen food, plenty of it, but not so much on such a little surface… And not all of these types." And indeed Duo barely managed to lean back in his chair before another maid was dive bombing another glass of wine beside his plate and gone again before he could murmur a thanks.

"They often don't have time to comply when someone asks for seconds, so they handle it in over discharge the first time and then just feed whatever couldn't be eaten to the castle dogs." Came the helpful reply from Heero as he continue working into his own mountain of meal.

Finally, that got a reaction from the ebony tressed Wufei. A snort. "It's wasteful and foolish. In any other kingdom people would be executed for such a display, but here it's just common action."

"Aw, you're just bitter 'cause this kingdom's so well off and nicely organized that they can do that, and your own ain't."

Wufei leaned forward and gave Jalyn a sour frown, "My own kingdom and people aren't such frivolous fools to think this type of financial era is going to last forever. -We- would be stocking up and keeping track of our extra supplies as we went about our training. -We- wouldn't grow more then our farmers could keep care of. -We- wouldn't-"

"Wufei… We are aware of the differences between your people and the people here. Jalyn, why do you bait him like this -every-single-dinner?" By the look on Heero's face, Duo could guess that political debates were common place between his impish cousin and the now huffing Wufei.

"Because no one riles so cute as your boyfriend does, Heero." Jalyn sensed his cousin's reaction, leapt off his seat and went dashing madly out of the hall before the red faced Heero could nab him.

After the two lovebirds, Duo barely kept from smirking himself, finished arguing and calming one another across from him, it was Wufei that turned towards him and stated rather out of the blue, "So, you wanted to know about Elizabeth and what happened to her, did you?"

Silence descended on the entire room like a thick blanket…

Everyone was staring at him now, even the cooks standing before the hot stoves craned their necks to look over at him, and most of the people around him were openly gaping, their food laying forgotten before them. Duo felt blood rush into his cheeks, but kept his gaze steadily on Wufei's as he nodded.

"Yes, I want to know… What happened to the Queen of this castle?"