Leonie had not been lying when she'd said the festival was the next week, because exactly a week after the incident on the market road, Dorothea was shoved in the seat of a carriage with Kjelle, the two of them making sure to say nothing directly to each other at the start of the multi-hour ride from Garreg Mach to their stop halfway to Derdriu. Initially there had been a little bit of grumbling, Dorothea asking if they could rearrange how everyone was sitting, but Leonie wouldn't hear anything of it. "We can switch where we sit tomorrow, okay?" she finally conceded after hearing the plea a couple of times. "But the least you can do is try to be friendly with her, just this once."

Seeing as Dorothea hadn't so much as attempted to speak to Kjelle since their showdown in the road, it wasn't a suggestion she was thrilled to hear, but one she'd expected nonetheless. "I just don't seem to understand why it has to be this way. Do you and Ingrid really need to be sitting together?"

"Uh, yeah, she told me she's going to talk all about her new boyfriend, and I'd rather her not have to yell across the carriage to do it." Leonie flashed her a smile, causing Dorothea to groan because she'd done nothing but hear Ingrid talking about Ashe and their plans for living their lives together for days; of course, that had been private information because Ingrid had only gotten around to telling Leonie she'd found her soulmate that morning, while they'd been finishing packing for the trip.

And talk about her boyfriend Ingrid did, but only for an hour or so, until she'd noticed that her audience wasn't super into the topic and she slowly came to a stop. "I know that Dorothea likes hearing me talk about him," she lamented, looking over at Dorothea, whose eyes were looking out at passing forest trees while they went down the rocky road. "But that's okay, I know soulmate stuff's a sensitive topic with you ladies."

Before Dorothea had a chance to give her response to that, Kjelle was the one to speak up, starting with a bit of a chuckle. "It's not so much 'sensitive' to me as it is 'completely awkward', but I'd listen to you if you wanted a new pair of ears to talk into."

"That'd be great, thanks!" Ingrid beamed, before shaking her head as if she'd just come into a moment of clarity, her eyes landing on one of Kjelle's hands. "Wait, won't I just bore you with all of the details? Make you jealous? Something like that?"

"What are you—" Cutting herself off when she realized what Ingrid was looking at, Kjelle pulled her hand up to the neckline of her shirt. "Oh, right, not everyone knows that about me, they think my…birthmark's my soulmate mark, when in fact it's not." As she'd spoken, she pulled the collar of her shirt down, exposing the colored mark for all to see, this time intentionally. As she was sitting right next to her, Dorothea got the best look, seeing the mark with its reddish, golden hues standing out against her skin. It looked almost like someone had taken the colors of a ripe apple and spread them throughout the marks, brilliant and beautiful and taking up skin on someone unworthy of it.

"You've met your soulmate? Was that around here?" Leonie asked, leaning forward to try looking at the color a bit closer to see if she recognized it. "Wait, no, don't tell me, it's why you came to Fódlan in the first place, to find them, and then you did!"

Kjelle chuckled again, putting her collar back in place to perfectly obscure the mark, nearly elbowing Dorothea in the face for getting a tad too close at looking at the color. "I know you'll find this incredibly bizarre, but my reason for staying in Fódlan was to stay away from my soulmate. The whole situation is rather complicated, and I figured that getting out of it was smartest for my health and standing back in Ylisse."

A silence fell over the group in the carriage, the background sound of horse hooves treading across the road and the wheels following suit the only sound for several moments, until Ingrid, noticing that the others were equally as confused, asked another question to clarify what was going on. "So, you met your soulmate but there's a problem with getting to be with them, so you left your home to spend time here instead?"

"More or less, yes."

Nodding as if she'd understood what kind of a decision that was, Ingrid slid down in her seat a little, arms crossed over her chest. "I think I'd choose not to be with my soulmate if that was the situation I was in. But thankfully, Ashe is just as open to being with me as I am with him, so that's not a problem."

"Hush, you," Leonie teased, gently stomping down on one of Ingrid's feet and making her yelp in surprise from the pressure. "Coming from someone who hasn't met their soulmate yet, I don't think I can understand what would lead you to make that sort of decision, but since I've gotten to know you really well, I know that you didn't just make it for the fun of it. There's a real, serious reason for this."

Dorothea, still a bit shaken from nearly getting knocked in the face for looking at the mark that had been shown off, thought to herself about how the "situation" was probably along the lines of Kjelle's soulmate not wanting to be with someone as pretentious and nasty as her, but the actual explanation was something completely unexpected. "It's difficult when you spend one afternoon with some friends and end the day with your sister's girlfriend's eye color on your collarbone," Kjelle dryly said, reaching up to where her mark was and resting her hand on it. "I'm sure they both know it, too, but what am I supposed to do there? Tell my older sister that I'm supposed to be with her girlfriend, not her?"

"That…that'd definitely be a problem that could create more problems if you stuck around," Leonie admitted, caught off-guard by the truth of the matter, and she looked over at Dorothea and her equally stunned expression. "Sounds like the sort of thing that'd end up happening to either of us, really."

"I'd rather not be a homewrecker on top of all of my other titles." Shaking her head, Dorothea scooted over as far as she could on the seat, trying to make more distance between herself and Kjelle than she'd already made. Even with the wrinkle in the story, she wasn't going to allow herself to be endeared to this foreigner, and she wasn't going to actually believe a word of what she'd heard. Why would this be the first time she'd heard a thing about a supposed older sister who supposedly had a girlfriend? Based on Leonie's reaction, it seemed to be the first time she'd heard anything either, and they were the ones that had been so close all this time.

Her words had not gone unheard, her action not ignored, and soon Kjelle was staring daggers into Dorothea's eyes. "And you think I'd like to wreck this relationship? This is my sister we're talking about, not some random person I'd met on the streets while…working."

"Aren't you a royal guard? Why not say 'met while guarding the royal family' or something like that?" Her tongue was acting without her permission, but there was something about watching Kjelle visibly recoil at the question that warmed Dorothea's heart for a moment. Sure, she was causing nothing but further division between them, but she was getting the upper hand on their battle for a moment and that was what mattered. "You'd rather steal from the poor than a royal, hm?"

"I'm done talking about this." Averting her glare as she took in several deep breaths, Kjelle looked across the carriage to Leonie and Ingrid, gritting her teeth as she explained, "Sorry, but just talking about the whole situation gets me angry that things played out like they did, so as happy as I am to talk about soulmates, I'd prefer them to be other people's."

That right there opened up the floor for Ingrid to talk more about hers, while Leonie and Kjelle both participated in the conversation as they pleased, and Dorothea stayed against the carriage wall, listening to them all with an air of disinterest clouding her mind. She'd just called out someone who'd been getting on her nerves and once again it hadn't worked out in her favor, because Kjelle was still in their good graces. She didn't know what it would take to get the other two to see her for what she was, but it was going to take a lot more than pushing her buttons verbally.

The next time Dorothea checked into the conversation with full attention was also because of something that Kjelle said, but this time it wasn't out of annoyance or wanting to show her why she was wrong. Somewhere, in the late stages of their day's trip, the conversation had turned to birthdays, and after discussing that while the people of Ylisse used different names for the moons, they had the same numerical system, they were talking about when each of their birthdays were. Since she already knew Ingrid and Leonie's birthdays, hearing both of them share theirs wasn't attention-grabbing in the slightest, but she jolted straight up when she heard what Kjelle said about her own.

"Care to run that one by me again?" she said, pointing right at Kjelle, who looked beyond surprised to hear such a sudden interjection. "No, seriously, I have to make sure I heard it right the first time."

"Uh, sure, my birthday's on the twenty-ninth of your ninth…moon? That's what the word was, right?" Cue the supportive nods coming from the other side of the carriage, while Dorothea tried her best not to laugh out in her shock at what she'd just heard. "Come on, what's got you suddenly interested in what I have to say?"

Finally allowing herself to laugh, just a little, Dorothea managed to say, "That's my birthday too, that's what I'm interested in. What are the odds that we share a birthday, two random strangers who'd met out of pure coincidence?" It wasn't that statistically unlikely, but Dorothea hadn't ever met someone with her same birthday before, and even though it was someone she couldn't stand, it endeared her just a bit more to her. Between the shared birthday and the fact that Kjelle's soulmate was her sister's girlfriend, perhaps deep down there were some salvageable parts of her as a person.

That night was spent at a relatively shabby inn, rooms booked under Leonie's name which had been looked upon with disgust—she later told her companions that she may have owed a small debt to the innkeeper so the condition of their lodgings was based on that. Even with the musty smell and the occasional sound of small feet scurrying across the floor, it wasn't that bad of a night's sleep and they were able to get back on the road to Derdriu early in the morning without too much of a hassle. Conversation was light on the second day, everyone having exhausted much of what they'd want to talk about, but as the trip began to reach its end, their minds were pointed toward what was waiting for them at the festival.

"Hilda said it was going to be a lot of musicians performing songs they'd never get hired elsewhere to play, which makes it interesting," Leonie informed them, "but she also said that the crowd's going to care less about the music and more about mingling with each other. She also warned us that there may be some drinking and smoking happening, but we don't have to participate if we don't want to."

"Sounds like the seedy lounges I get booked to sing at, on a larger scale," Dorothea remarked, her elbow propped up on the side of the carriage as it continued on its way down the road. "I can tolerate the smoke, but the drinking? The actual act of smoking? No thank you, I'll pass."

Still on the same side of the carriage as her, but as far toward the other wall as possible, Kjelle added, "I'll pass as well, a trained knight doesn't partake in those sorts of things while on duty, and even though I'm not officially working, I feel guarding you ladies is in my best interest. Can't let my new friends find danger in that sort of crowd."

"That's really noble of you, thanks!" Ingrid said, her eyes shining as she looked toward Kjelle. "Me and Leonie are going to need the assistance, usually I get Dorothea as my wingwoman and lookout when I'm drinking, but in a crowd like what we might be getting? Best if I have everyone I can get to keep me safe from harm."

"It's my honor to be of service." Bowing her head slightly, Kjelle maintained her position for a few moments before sitting back up and acting like she hadn't just sworn service to someone she'd been treating as an equal moments before. "I look forward to what this festival brings, because I'm itching to get my feet wet with some intimidation. Haven't needed to be scary to keep anyone safe in a while."

This was a different side of her that she hadn't let be seen before, as far as Dorothea knew, but there was a bit of suspicion rising in her heart. She didn't want to start to fall for Kjelle's trickery just to find herself getting burned by it, yet at the same time, she was almost curious how close to her she could get before entering a place of danger.

Leonie, after watching Kjelle literally shake her toes when she'd mentioned getting her feet wet, couldn't help but chuckle and point out, "It should be relatively safe, I mean, it's being held in a big town with a lot of important people hanging out at it. It'd just be a bad idea for someone to try to start something, given how many off-duty guards are going to be in and around the place."

"But how many of you off-duty guards are there to work, and how many are there to have fun? That's the question."

"True, but I think you're forgetting we've come all this way for you to get to have a good, fun time here in Fódlan. There's no reason for you to think about it as an opportunity for you to work." Winking across at her, Leonie then said, "Personally, I'm looking forward to getting to kick back and hang out with some of my friends that I haven't spent as much time with since living permanently in Garreg Mach. It's been so long, since…"

She trailed off, leaving the person she was speaking to in the dark, while Dorothea and Ingrid shared looks across the carriage that let each other knew they were well-aware of exactly what had inspired Leonie to live in the church town to begin with. She'd been familiar with the area beforehand, but her decision to focus on picking up jobs based in the town stemmed wholly from what had driven her to leave her more freelancing lifestyle. "I suppose it isn't something you want to talk about?" Kjelle asked, tilting her head ever-so-slightly to the side. "Or is it something that needs a moment to linger?"

"Just a former relationship ending," Leonie finally finished, realizing that leaving her friend hanging wasn't the right thing to do. "And, goddess willing, we won't have to interact with him while we're at the festival. Hilda didn't mention him being there, after all."

Hilda didn't mention him being there because she hadn't found it necessary to do so, something that they all found out upon their arrival in Derdriu and their meeting with the pink-haired woman who'd put the whole plan in action. "Glad to see you all made it in one piece," she laughed, grabbing Leonie's arms and swinging them around a bit. "I was getting worried when you guys didn't show up yesterday that maybe you bailed out on me. Come on, everyone's waiting for me to get back to them and I'd rather not keep them too much longer. That's only fun when I'm doing it out of laziness."

She began to pull Leonie along with her, and so the rest of the group followed, into the heart of the hotel building she'd arranged for them to spend their nights at. While the carriage driver was responsible for bringing the bulk of their belongings up to the room, as part of his payment, Dorothea had hung back to make sure that her personal bag was in her possession the entire time, just because she was a recognizable figure that someone could try to steal from if she wasn't careful. Because of her hanging back for just long enough, she'd missed the initial finding of what was waiting for them, coming into the room to the sight of the pair she'd seen so intertwined with their arms separated across the large space from each other, Hilda hiding her face while Leonie was turned completely around, clearly pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance.

"Turns out that 'former relationship' of hers is here with us," Kjelle dryly explained, which Dorothea was surprised to hear being told to her. "You should have watched her visibly recoil, it was quite the display."

"I didn't know they ended with so much animosity between them, she'd always made it sound like they'd parted on decent enough terms." Shaking her head, Ingrid looked like she was going to approach the large group that was in the middle of the room, one of which was the man that had Leonie turning her back on everyone. "I wonder what the truth about everything is."

"It's fine, just keep him away from me and we'll be great." Between gritted teeth, Leonie made her stance known, and she slowly turned around to face Hilda, whose face had erupted into a sly grin. "You should've warned me first."

Playing up her innocence, Hilda replied, "I didn't know I'd need to. Didn't have to tell you who else was going to be here, didn't know I'd need to name any specific names."

While Leonie groaned and muttered things about how that was so far from the case, Dorothea caught herself looking at the group, much like Ingrid was already doing. She didn't know a single thing about the man who'd caused Leonie so much heartache, but she knew he was one of the several in their bunch. By the end of the festival, she would probably be familiar with the entire story, but for now, as she held her bag tightly to her, she could do nothing but guess who it might've been. Based solely on the kind of person Leonie was, she figured it was probably the bulky guy who stood tall and broad among his friends, but she wasn't going to feel confident on that guess until she had more details.

After a quick stop at the room she was given (completely to herself, with a key firmly placed in her hand that the innkeeper said was the only copy), Dorothea had changed into her show-watching clothes and was ready to take on the night with Leonie's friends, all of which were ready as well. "We're obviously just going to be waiting for your slowpoke friends to get ready," Hilda teased when she rejoined them, big words coming from someone known to be incredibly slow with her preparations. "But I guess it can't be helped, you waited until day-of to show up around here."

"That wasn't my decision to be made," Dorothea shot back, before Hilda grabbed her arm and dragged her toward where the rest of the group was waiting, no one quite as dressed up as either of the ladies were. Soon enough, she had several pairs of male eyes gazing at her in her performance-worthy dress, standing in front of them awkwardly while Hilda explained everything she knew about her; that she was Dorothea Arnault, yes the songstress, yes a decent person, no not there to perform.

One of the men, with dark hair and deeply tanned skin, took Dorothea's hand into his own and gave it a gentle kiss. This was behavior she wasn't too put off by, given that much seedier-looking and unfamiliar guys had done that to her all the time during meetings before and after her shows, and the fact that Hilda—and Leonie as well—knew this guy made it all the better. "You're just as radiant as I imagined you would be in person," he said, voice dripping with faked interest, something else that Dorothea was used to. "All the years I've heard about your voice being a blessing from the goddess and now you stand before me, what a treat!"

"Cut out the theatrics, Claude, you know you're not getting anywhere with that sort of fakeness." At least Hilda was listening in and could hear how clearly false the interest in his voice was, and Claude let go of Dorothea's hand at once, smiling at her with a bit more of a genuine look in his eyes, one that was completely shattered by his wink that confused her, making her unsure of what his real motivations were.

"You're right, I shouldn't try to trick the goddess into making her my soulmate by lying through my teeth about my interest with her. She'll have to wait until the liquor's flowing to see if I get more interested." Barking out a laugh, Claude leaned over and elbowed the man beside him, the bulky guy that she'd noticed before. "How about that, if it takes me drinking for the first time in moons to finally find my soulmate!"

The other man looked at Claude, then at Dorothea, then right back to Claude, shaking his head. "I dunno, if you're not already into her just looking at her, I don't know how much drinking's gonna do to help you out. She's pretty and getting flirty with her shouldn't be too hard." He paused, turning his eyes to Dorothea yet again. "My name's Raphael, by the way. And I do think you're pretty, miss Dorothea!"

"Aw, thanks, I appreciate the compliment," she said, hoping that she wasn't going to notice his eye color on her leg the next time she got the chance to look. "As for you, sir," she continued, her words directed at Claude, who'd gone back to looking at her with a rather playful expression, "I'd hope that you don't end up as my soulmate simply because of your rather scummy way of trying to find yours. Why can't you build your potential relationship on honesty, instead of being some fake guy?"

"That's a question for the ages, one I'm not at liberty to answer right now," he replied without so much as a flinch. "Just worry about finding yours and call it a day, since someone who's taken would've said so the moment I'd kissed her hand."

Not wanting to deal with yet another difficult person who seemed to have it out for her, Dorothea gave a fake, haughty laugh before looking at Hilda from the corners of her eyes. "I'm going elsewhere until we're all ready to go to the concert, I'm not putting up with this," she said, to which Hilda gave a very unamused look but didn't argue. That was how Dorothea managed to spend the better part of half an hour sitting across the room by herself, casting glances over at the group of others that they were to be going with and seeing them all occasionally looking right back at her; it was beyond obvious that who she was had become a topic of conversation, which was standard any time she went anywhere outside of her routine places in Garreg Mach.

She mentally checked out of the room for a while, lost in her thoughts about how she never should have agreed to come and how she would have enjoyed things much more if she were back home alone, but she was brought right back by a strong hand resting itself on her shoulder. "Before we go to this festival, can we talk?" Kjelle said, sounding serious but nowhere near as standoffish as she'd always had up until then, causing Dorothea to question agreeing to it. But at that point, she'd prefer the company of a woman she didn't care for over the guys who thought of her as a joke, so she allowed the conversation to occur. "Okay, thank you. I just wanted to…"

Her voice trailing off, Dorothea couldn't help but make a comment that felt like salt in the wound of someone who'd forgotten what she wanted to say. "Wanted to waste my time perhaps? Or is there an actual point to this?"

"…I wanted to apologize. For all of it. We started on the wrong foot, I never made an effort to fix things, then you got hurt because of me and none of that was my intention. I aim to protect people, not hurt them." Sighing, Kjelle hung her head, her dark hair falling forward to partially obscure her face. "If my parents knew what I'd been up to out here, they'd be beyond disappointed in me, and a lot of that would be because of how I've acted toward you, for no reason at all."

"I haven't made it easy to like me, let's be real." Admitting her own guilt in their disdain for each other wasn't simple, but it certainly made Dorothea feel a bit better about things. She would never say that she liked or even appreciated Kjelle being around, but they had just enough in common that hating on each other was a waste of time. "I could've done better to not be jealous of you and everything you have going for you, but what's in the past is in the past, can't change any of it."

"Of course we can't, but we can make sure it doesn't keep happening going forward." Lifting her hand off of Dorothea's shoulder, Kjelle pulled it back slowly, but not before Dorothea noticed it was the hand with that dark, carefully-painted mark that couldn't actually be a birthmark. "I'm looking forward to being your guard tonight, and during all of this festival business. Just say the word and I'll push someone else into the ground."

The attempt at making a joke was not lost on Dorothea, but her eyes were transfixed on the mark that she was staring at, her mind slowly turning circles over where she had seen that exact design before. She knew, without a doubt, it wasn't just some random symbol that had appeared on Kjelle's skin like an actual soulmate mark was, but she couldn't place where else she'd seen it before. "I'll keep the offer in mind," she said after realizing that she needed to give some sort of response to what had been said. "But I'm hoping that everyone's too busy looking at the performers to notice who I am."

It was wishful thinking, something that Dorothea knew wasn't going to come true in any capacity, but she could be genuinely hopeful that physical altercations weren't going to be needed. When everyone had gathered once more, Ingrid and Leonie both apologetic for taking so long but both looking well-dressed for the occasion, they set out for where the festival was to be held, within one of the city parks nestled in between Derdriu's busy business sector. Upon arrival, it became clear that the reason Hilda had extra tickets was because they weren't that hard to come by, as there were very few other people there at that time; rather than seeing that as a blessing, Dorothea found herself panicking that she was going to be accosted by the others in the group she wasn't as familiar with the whole time they were there.

That wasn't the case, because as night began to set in the city, more people flocked to the park, and when music began being played on several different stages, bands with their guitars and keyboards and vocalists that clearly needed the accompaniment, there was barely room to move, even in the middle of their large group. Right as she began to feel at ease, Dorothea felt her hand being grabbed once more, once again by the man who'd held it earlier in the day. "Let's try things again, now that we're not being overheard," Claude said, loudly enough for her to hear him and scowl at the words. He saw her reaction, even with the dim lighting, and chuckled. "That was a joke, Dorothea, live a little! I'm not going to try anything with you that you're not interested in."

"Leave her alone, Claude." Right as Dorothea was going to tell him that she didn't appreciate his poor taste in jokes, Leonie happened to see what was happening and stepped in, carefully pulling their hands apart. "It's been years since I last saw you and I haven't even gotten a hello, but you're all over my friend like you've known her forever. What's up with that?"

"Do you blame me? She's a singer, and a damn good one at that, I'd be stupid to not wish she's my soulmate, but unfortunately I'm already sure she's not." Sighing (even though it was only obvious he'd done so by the look on his face), Claude chose to hang his head for a second before pulling Leonie in for a hug, difficult in their tight space but somehow managed for a moment.

While they were embracing, Dorothea found herself being grabbed by someone else, this time with an arm draping itself over her shoulders, and she turned her head to see who the culprit was. This wasn't someone she'd spoken to, but someone she'd seen there in the large group, a taller man with purple hair hanging to one side of his head. Immediately on edge with him, she tried to pull away, but he only followed her movements. "Careful now, you could run into someone else and I fear that could ruin their concert experience," he told her, leaning down so that his words were delivered straight into her ear. "I merely wanted to thank you for gracing us with your presence this evening, I know it must be a shock to be among fans of performers who are not yourself, but we appreciate you being here."

"I go to other people's shows all the time," she spat, "so let go of me before I give you a reason to regret touching me in the first place." Right as she was going to reach toward where Kjelle was standing with her foot, to get her to own up to her word, the man holding her let go and turned away, back to watching the performers on one of the stages. She set her foot back down and inched away from him, until she was on the other side of where Leonie and Claude were still talking to each other, faces dangerously close so they could hear the other's words, and found herself just about bumping into Hilda.

After eking out an apology for getting so close to someone she was only moderately familiar with, she fully expected Hilda to tell her she was being a distraction, but the look expressed between her pink eyes and pinker cheeks gave other ideas. "You know, I totally came here with everyone hoping that we'd all disperse and find our soulmates by pure luck," she admitted, twirling a strand of her bangs with a finger, and even though the festival had only just begun, it was clear that Hilda had already had a few drinks. "But we're just sticking together like glue, and it's got me thinking…maybe we're all soulmates with each other somehow? And maybe that means that you're mine, which would be just the best!"

"I wouldn't be opposed to that, really," Dorothea admitted, thinking about how much she'd heard about the kind of person Hilda was behind closed doors and how she was more than the airheaded, bubbly persona she put on in public. "A cute girlfriend like you to take to all my shows, a reason to spend time outside of Garreg Mach on the regular, you'd be the complete package."

"And all it'd take to find out if you're mine forever is getting a little flirty." Batting her eyelashes a few times, Hilda seemed to be beckoning Dorothea to be the one to initiate the flirting, but she didn't know where to start. That led to her saying to give it time, that she'd come back to it later when she had a good thing to say that could be construed as legitimate and not just a fake attempt at getting her soulmate mark to take on color.

Knowing that every moment she spent there with Hilda was a moment she was expected to try flirting with her, Dorothea decided she'd be better off risking it with the guy who really just seemed to be idolizing her, so squeezing back through the crowd around them she went until she was facing him once more. But before she had the chance to say anything, she had yet another person grabbing her, this time forcibly spinning her around to face them—and never before in her life had she been so thankful to see that it was Leonie there yet again. "Sorry about that, I know that Claude's not everyone's cup of tea and I wanted to tease him a bit for talking to you before he tried talking to me." She looked like she was going to say something else, even after Dorothea thanked her for stepping in, but whatever words there were seemed to be whisked away by a breeze in the air, which had her shaking her head. "I'm hoping that while my back was turned, a certain guy here with us didn't start anything with you."

"I don't think so?" she replied, only having spoken to two people between her two encounters with Leonie. "Unless he's got a head of—"

"Purple hair? That'd be the one."

"—oh, then, he might have talked to me." Even though referring to what had gone down between them as "talking" wasn't quite correct, it was the best way that Dorothea could think to do it. "Is that the ex-boyfriend of legend I've heard so much about?"

Rolling her eyes, Leonie carefully maneuvered so that she was now on the other side of Dorothea, acting every bit a guard between her and where the guy had been. "Sure is, and let me tell you, he'll want only one thing from you, and that's to get you in bed after this, soulmate or not. Don't bother with him, he's not worth your time."

"Noted." Thankful she'd been stopped when she had, Dorothea could only wonder why Leonie was no longer her cheerful self when talking about him, but that wasn't a question to ask during an event like the one they were at. Realizing that, by doing all of this talking and choosing to be social, she was being quite the awful guest there at the festival, she promised herself that she wasn't going to get into any more unnecessary conversations with the people she was there with. If she wouldn't want people at her shows doing something, there was no reason for her to be there doing it.

A good idea in theory, she hadn't accounted for the alcohol that many people around her were taking in, and by the time the second set of shows had started, a fair majority of the crowd was inebriated and acting like they'd forgotten all about show etiquette. People were pushing their way through the crowd to try and find their friends, spilling drinks everywhere they went, and before too long Dorothea felt that her dress was a bad idea to be worn because it was taking in every liquid someone spilled on it and holding it tightly to her skin. Her friends were not immune to the choice to drink, but she'd at least expected that from some of them, and so when she was approached by them slurring and stumbling over words she didn't find it too concerning.

It was when the guys they were there with, who'd already made it clear their intentions for the night, started getting more aggressive with their flirtatious advances, that she realized that she wasn't getting through the night without having to talk to people over the sounds of music. Her telling Hilda that she'd come back to flirt with her didn't seem like a necessary word to keep, because she never saw the pink-haired woman again that night; instead, her time was spent between babysitting Ingrid (to keep overly touchy people away from her, since soulmate marks were hard to see in the night's lack of light and she was just drunk enough to start getting emotional when people made advances) and talking to the men of their group, all of which wanted to compliment her beauty over and over.

The only exception to that was Claude, because he wasn't drinking either and his sobriety was a welcome gift to Dorothea's night. It seemed that he was the only one of the men to stay away from drinking, while she and Kjelle were the only women, and since Kjelle was just as invested in keeping all hands off of Ingrid as she was, that meant that Claude's presence was just for conversation. "Let me get this straight," he started at one point, a fist curled under his chin to make him look deep in thought. "You're a beautiful, accomplished performer who has received her fair share of publicity across the world, and yet you've still never met your soulmate?"

"That'd be right," she replied without so much as blinking, not exactly happy to hear him calling out her plight in such simple terms. "What's your point?"

"It's almost like if an attractive, charming prince from a neighboring nation was also desperately seeking his soulmate, that's all." Someone nearby them loudly groaned at the moment he'd finished speaking, but given their surroundings it wasn't exactly a guarantee to say that it was in response to his words. "Anyway, enough about that, you ever think about just giving up on finding your soulmate and staying with someone else instead?"

"Considered it once upon a time, realized it wasn't fair to others to do that, watched the woman I loved find her soulmate with someone else and understood why I chose to let her go in the first place." There was no way that Dorothea was going to admit to who she was talking about, but she would say it over and over again that she felt jealous of the man that Ingrid was meant to be with, especially since she still hadn't found her own soulmate.

Claude nodded slowly, taking in her words and really thinking them through. "That's noble of you. Was her soulmate someone right under your noses or something? That's my biggest fear, that my soulmate's someone I've known forever and just haven't tried getting flirty with before. What a risk it'd be to do that with some of these people."

"Oh, yeah, he was someone she'd known before, they'd just reconnected and things fell right into place for them." With how few actual friends she had, Dorothea knew that Claude's fear wasn't anywhere close to her own, but she could at least act supportive for him. "I'd say make it clear that you're just trying to cover your bases before flirting with them, so they don't take it personally if they don't like the advances."

"Smart idea, you should add 'brilliant' to your list of accolades." Bowing at her, Claude disappeared into the crowd, never to return that night as far as Dorothea was aware, but his compliment warmed her heart and made her rethink her initial read on him. He may have been eager to find his soulmate, but he was also aware of the awkwardness doing so could bring and definitely had a good head on his shoulders. Whoever ended up with him was going to be a lucky person, but there was one aspect of what he'd said that struck her as odd, his momentary ramblings about a prince. Was that a veiled hint or something? Not like it mattered, especially not where they were.

"Everyone seems to be having more fun getting drunk and socializing than actually listening to the music," Kjelle loudly pointed out in Dorothea's direction, reminding her that she was still there and still very much sober. "Do you think that any of them will remember this come morning?"

Pausing for a second to consider the possibility that very few people would remember the festival for the music, Dorothea ended up shrugging. "Can't say for certain, but it's not like we've been able to listen to too much of it, hm?"

"I don't know what you mean, I've heard my fair share of the music. Being a guard by profession has taught me how to both pay attention to what event I'm at while still diligently doing my job." To solidify her stance, Kjelle looked over at one of the stages and kept her attention there, while her arms behind her were keeping Ingrid somewhat boxed in, which seemed to work suitably for her. Even though she was clearly drunk, Ingrid was bopping along to the sounds they could hear around them, and while being in such close quarters with the person trained to protect, Dorothea felt that she was safe with just one person watching over her.

That was what led her to make the decision that she did, to go explore the crowd herself on the off-chance that her soulmate was among the throngs of people. "You keep your close professional eye on her, then, I'll be back." Giving Kjelle a thumbs-up (something that once felt impossible with them being at odds), Dorothea began weaving through the crowd in a direction she hadn't seen anyone from their group go in. There were so many people they'd come into the festival with that she'd lost track of, and she knew she ran the risk of never making it back to where Kjelle and Ingrid were by leaving them, but something in her heart told her that doing some exploring was the right course of action.

After several minutes, an entire song playing from one of the stages during the time, she ended up at the edge of the park, where the vendors shilling drinks and food were lined up, people wrapping around their stands to place orders. Her stomach growled at the scent of some of the offerings, but her hunger was quickly diminished by the overpowering scent of her alcohol-stained dress beginning to waft up to her nostrils. "Wearing this may have made me look good, but it definitely wasn't a practical choice," she laughed, feeling the soggy dress with one hand while she used the other to shield her eyes from some of the smoke that was forming due to fresh-cooked food being prepared right in front of her.

"Practicality only matters when appearances have no importance, my dear," a familiar voice said, and Dorothea took a moment to place where she'd heard it before. She was unable to correctly match it to a name or even a face, so she looked around her until she saw the tall, purple-haired man from before, and instinctively scowled at him. "Oh, I see Leonie got to you about me, what a shame. Her opinion on my personality is irrelevant, you know."

"And how would I know that, exactly?" There was a combative tone to Dorothea's voice, as she realized that she'd traded one enemy for another in such a short period of time. "All I know about you is that you're her ex-boyfriend that clearly screwed her up a bit, because she left home to flee you, and you're expecting me to welcome you with open arms?"

"Not open arms, per se, but with a smile, perhaps? A gentle greeting as you would give any potential suitor?" There was an air about this man that was beginning to put Dorothea off of him completely, but the way he stood so tall, so regal, and dressed just as formally as she herself had, it almost seemed bizarre that this could be someone that a rough-and-tumble woman like Leonie would ever be involved with. "Shall we start over at the beginning, with proper introductions without the pretenses others provided?"

Glancing around her immediate area, Dorothea saw that there were plenty of bystanders who could jump into the fray if she started screaming, so she let her guard down to humor him. "Sure, but you start. I feel me introducing myself might be unnecessary."

"Even though I know exactly who you are, I would prefer if you do it anyway," he said, before giving a grand, sweeping bow-like gesture in front of her, reaching out toward her looking for her hand to hold. When she offered him the one that she'd pat her dress with, he cringed at the dampness but took it in his own anyway, giving it a gentle kiss on top. "It is a pleasure to be properly acquainted with you, my love. I am the esteemed Lorenz Hellman Gloucester, heir to the Gloucester territory in Leicester and future speaker of the political roundtable. Anything I can do for you, please allow me to do it with zero hesitation."

There was definite hesitation in Dorothea's mind when she heard all of that, a clearly rehearsed introduction that he must have used on countless women before her. "Then let go of my hand and speak to me like I'm a real person, not some toy for you to play with." He winced at her sharp words but did as she commanded, letting go of her hand and going back to standing at full height in front of her.

"My…apologies, my love. Usually I would not be quite so forward, but I have had a few glasses of wine this evening and so my formalities have been thrown to the wayside." The sheer pretentiousness of that statement made Dorothea want to run back into the crowd to get away from him, but somehow she knew that Lorenz would be able to find her again. Besides, he wasn't being a creep, he was just being a bit too much at once.

"I forgive you. As you already know, I'm Dorothea, songstress who's a bit out of her element being in the audience for a show. Now let's cut out all the over-dramatic stuff and just talk like real people, shall we?" She could tell that Lorenz wasn't exactly thrilled with her introduction, but she wasn't giving him any more than she already had. "Either we have an actual conversation or I'm finding someone else to talk to, those are the two options."

He made an expression that showed he was weighing his options carefully, his bottom lip twisting as he thought about how to proceed. "I suppose a normal conversation is possible," he conceded, offering his hand out to her again and watching her give him a no-nonsense look in return. "What? I merely want to offer the lady my hand as we go walking through the crowd."

"Yeah, I got out here by myself, I don't need you acting like a knight to get me back into the middle of things." Giving him a gesture that signaled she was done with the conversation, she took a couple of steps before she heard him let out an exasperated scream and follow her without any hint of his noble behavior. "I don't think I said I wanted you coming with me, so you can go ahead and get back to your wine sipping and woman chasing, that's completely fine by me."

"That may be fine by you, but knowing that such a lovely and radiant and—"

She spun around and nearly sent a knee into his leg to stop his sentence. "I'm not some 'princess' who needs protecting, Lorenz. Maybe I'm starting to get why Leonie left to get away from you, because I'm feeling like doing the same."

"—there is much more to that situation," he sputtered, "but you would never stay still long enough to hear it! My love, please, have some sense about you and let me stay with you!" She glared at him, as he had desperation written all over his face, and did exactly what she'd wanted to do before: running into the crowd with the hopes that he would lose her in the darkness and swarm of people. While she wasn't fully successful, by the time he did find her again she was in the same vicinity as several others who heard his impassioned pleas for her to speak to him and stepped in, getting him to back off.

As he was finally learning his lesson and walking away, Dorothea decided to rub a bit of salt in his wounds and said, "I'll be seeing you around, 'my love'. Better be prepared for the next time we meet," and waved her hand delicately toward him as he retreated into the crowd. It wasn't going to be worth looking for her soulmate when the chance of other encounters getting so heated and excessive was so high, so she decided to stick around people who'd have her back, both strangers and familiar faces alike.

After midnight, when the festival ended and the music stopped on all stages, people were leaving the park and heading back to their various places of lodging for the night. She was able to find Kjelle and Ingrid, and despite not knowing where anyone else in the group was, the three of them made their way back to where they were staying, making sure that if nothing else, they got there together in one piece. After getting Ingrid into her room and making sure she had plenty of water to help her come morning, the other two ladies congregated outside of her door, both looking exhausted in the light the hallway had to offer. "I don't think I've ever been to a festival that out of control, and I go to ones with the Ylissean royal family as their guard," Kjelle said, running a hand through her mussed hair in an attempt to straighten it out a bit. "What about you? You see anything like that before?"

"My shows are always more intimate, that was a nightmare I never wish to endure again," Dorothea replied with a bit of a smile, before thinking about how many times she'd been accosted by people who were drinking. "I think this may be my one and only time going to something like this, but I'm glad that we were able to do it. Definitely an experience I'll never forget."

"I'll second that." A smile forming on Kjelle's usually stern face, she let their cordial conversation linger for a moment before looking down the hallway in both directions. "I was intending on waiting up for Leonie to get back, but I don't see her and I'd like to get a good night's sleep before whatever tomorrow has to offer. You won't be offended if I head off now, will you?"
Just thinking about how even days before, this conversation would not have been possible given their heated feelings for each other, Dorothea considered making a comment that would call back to that animosity, but she felt too tired to pull it off successfully. "Nope, I was beginning to think it's my time to retire as well. See you in the morning, yeah?" She did not receive a verbal confirmation, but rather a slightly larger smile in her direction, and the two amicably parted ways for the night.

Thankful that her room had its own bathroom attached, Dorothea knew that trying to sleep while smelling so strongly of other people's liquor would never end well so she decided to take a quick bath before falling asleep. As she pulled her dress off, she realized that no amount of cleaning it would fully get the saturation and smell out of it, so even though she loved that dress she knew it would be staying behind in Derdriu when she left, but any sadness she may have felt about that evaporated once she was standing there in the bathroom in nothing but her undergarments, feeling sticky and in desperate need of being washed.

She'd happened to look down at her legs, at her inner thighs which had begun to rub themselves raw from being damp and all of the walking she'd done at the festival, but the redness wasn't what caught her eye. It was her soulmate mark, which was no longer just the intricate black design it had always been—there was now color to it. A purplish-gray color, which hadn't been there earlier when she'd gotten dressed in the first place, meaning that somewhere in the middle of the festival she'd met her soulmate and couldn't be sure of who they were because she hadn't been able to make sense of anyone's eye colors!


The night was a sleepless one, as Dorothea spent her time listening to the sounds of people in rooms around her having some very horrible nights as well as processing the possibility that her soulmate was some person she'd been flirted with that she hadn't caught the name of. By the time morning rolled around, she felt hopeless on finding who her intended was, but she felt like there was a chance she would be able to piece it together once she could talk to her friends and see if they had any leads. When she got out of bed, the first thing she looked at was her leg, making sure her tired mind hadn't played tricks on her and that the mark really was colored in, and when the purple and gray hues and tones were staring right back at her she knew she hadn't imagined a thing.

Getting dressed in a shorter skirt, so that she could show the mark to a trusted friend if necessary, Dorothea's morning preparations were quick and she was ready to go for the day even if she'd barely slept a wink. When she got to the dining area of the inn they'd stayed at she saw no one else that she was familiar with there, everyone who was already down for breakfast being unrelated guests who must have also booked rooms there that night. A table to herself meant a whole collection of chairs for if any of her friends came down to eat as well, but even after her meal of toast and tea she was still sitting there by her lonesome, which she supposed made sense given the night everyone else had. But there were her two sober companions that could have come down, it didn't make sense that either of them would be sleeping in like those who'd been drinking.

Rather than merely sit by and wait for someone to join her, she took initiative and went back to their hallway of rooms to see if anyone was awake and ready to socialize, starting with a knock on the door she knew led to Kjelle's room. There was no answer and the door was locked, so she immediately felt guilty in case she had just tried waking someone who was still sleeping. "Sorry!" she loudly whispered into the crack of the door, just to cover her bases with a quick apology, and then she was going down the hall, trying to guess whose room was behind each door.

Eventually, she realized that there was no real way of knowing who'd ended up sleeping in any of the rooms, given that people had staggered back to their beds after she'd already turned in for the night. The only one she knew for certain was Ingrid's and she wasn't interested in bothering her right then, because the information she'd have would be minimal at best. A saving grace for Dorothea was that, in the middle of her searching, one of the doors opened and Leonie came trudging out, hair loose and a complete mess hanging down her back. "What time is it?" she asked, grabbing the side of her head as she squinted her eyes in the bright sunlight. "I don't have a clock in my room."

"Late enough for you to already be out of bed, sleepyhead," Dorothea teased in return, skipping over to her as a bit of a reminder that she wasn't battling a hangover like so many others were. "How was your night? Remember any of it?"

"A lot more than I'd like to, I'm never taking Hilda's offer of free tickets to anything again." Her words were slow but clear, and even though Leonie looked rather rough she didn't seem to be actively battling herself getting sick, which was a fantastic sign. "The number of lips mine touched in that crowd was way too high for my liking, but I wasn't thinking things completely through when I was doing it and…ugh." Her hand slid back onto her neck, which she seemed to grip tightly. "Definitely not anything I'll be doing again, that's for sure."

The placement of the hand spurred a train of thought, and without considering the consequences of the situation Dorothea asked, "Did you find your soulmate in all of that? Is that why you'll never be doing it again?"

"I—well—you know, I don't have to answer that." Leonie glanced around the hall quickly, before coming closer to where Dorothea was standing, her hand staying firmly planted on the back of her neck. "But I will, since I know you're not going to make a huge deal of it. I did meet mine last night, and I think I know who it is."

"That's awesome, I met mine too and I have no idea who they are." Gesturing toward the edge of her dress, Dorothea was implying lifting it to show Leonie as a gesture of solidarity, but when she saw her friend's hand not so much as moving a twitch, she dropped the idea completely. "Only person I know for sure I flirted with last night was Claude, and that was really more playful than anything, what color—"

"Does his eye color really matter right now?" Leonie cut her off, not speaking sharply but quickly to keep her from getting too wrapped up on that possibility. "If it was playful, it probably wasn't meaningful from either of you."

Thinking about her initial reading on him and how she'd been put off by his joking forwardness and hadn't quite gotten past that, Dorothea conceded defeat on the matter. "Yeah, I suppose that's true, should keep that in mind. But I don't know who else I talked to," she lied, knowing full well that she'd had quite the encounter with Lorenz, but also knowing that bringing that up would only upset Leonie. "Guess we'll just have to wait and see for when someone puts out a call to get to meet me because my eye color's on their skin and they can find pictures of me to check it."

"Bet you can't wait to find out who it is," Leonie told her with a knowing smile, not because she knew who it was but because she felt the same way about her own soulmate. "Meanwhile, here I am hoping that my soulmate actually saw his mark with my eye color so I'm not breaking the news to him next time I see him. Since, well, I know his mark's not exactly somewhere he'd be looking after a night of drinking."

"Then it's not on his inner thigh, that's for sure." Cue Leonie grimacing a little, to which Dorothea tilted her head with narrowing eyes. "Uh, if it was there he'd see it pretty easily, wouldn't he?"

Her hand beginning to slide on her hair, Leonie's face had frozen in her partial grimace, as she looked around the hallway yet again. "Yeah, and it's not on his inner thigh, but why are you guessing where my soulmate's mark is?"

"It…seemed like an appropriate thing to do?" Confused at why Leonie's mood had shifted as sharply as it had, Dorothea tried to come up with something to say to bring their conversation back to where it had been but it was clear she'd lost Leonie in that misstep. But nothing she could think of felt like it would work, so she sighed and said, "Well, anyway, this place has a decent breakfast offered today, would you like to go grab something?"

"Er, yeah, might be the best thing to do." Without any further standing around, Leonie readjusted her hand on her neck and headed down the hall, Dorothea following her with her eyes still narrowed. This type of behavior was so unlike her that it was obvious she was trying to keep someone in specific from seeing her colored-in soulmate mark, but who that someone was, Dorothea could only guess. When they made it down to the dining area, the place had filled up more than before and finding a table big enough for more than the two of them would have been impossible, so they were lucky to not be expecting any joiners.

While sitting there, Leonie finally took a band from around her wrist and tied her hair back with it, leaving it hanging just loose enough that she could throw the end of the ponytail over her shoulder but keep her entire neck obscured from curious eyes. "So, uh, what color is your mark?" Dorothea started, trying to drum up conversation on a touchy subject while it was just the two of them there. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but I'd like to know if you'd let me."

"I'll share mine if you share yours."

That seemed like a fair enough demand, even if Leonie sounded slightly annoyed when she'd said it, so Dorothea reached down to her thigh, resting her hand on the mark as she thought about what she'd seen when she'd looked at it. "It's like a…purple, but there's more to it than just purple. Gray, almost? It's really pretty to look at, if you want to see it."

"I'm sorry, run that by me again?" Now more interested in what she heard, Leonie leaned over the table while Dorothea repeated exactly what she'd said about her mark, and when she looked to her friend after giving the information a second time, she was met with an expression of pure horror. "You…you're kidding me, aren't you? Just making up colors?"

"I said I'd show you if you want to see it, I'm not joking about any of this." Now Dorothea was finding herself concerned with what aspect of her news was worthy of that particular reaction. "They're not Clau—"

Leonie slammed her hand down on the table to interrupt Dorothea's statement. "Mention him one more time and I'm going to scream, he has green eyes and he's definitely not your soulmate. But I know one—and I mean one—person who has eyes that match that description and if you're his soulmate I don't know what I'll do."

Her little outburst had attracted the attention of several people around them, other people down there getting breakfast finding that they had quite the show to witness as well. Beginning to pale as she started to consider why this was such a touchy subject for Leonie to approach, Dorothea looked around looking for any sort of salvation from the awkwardness. If only someone else she knew was down there, then she'd be able to make a break for things without causing too much more of a disturbance. "I'll tell you that I didn't actively seek him out, if I'm thinking of who you're talking about," she admitted when she realized she was trapped in the conversation. "He was the one who kept trying to talk to me."

"And you should have ignored him, he's not worth your time or your attention, soulmate or not." Taking in a deep breath, Leonie's mouth moved for a couple moments without her speaking any words at all, her clearly thinking through what she wanted to say next to Dorothea. While all signs pointed to things continuing being heated, when she did speak next it was much more subdued. "We'll have to discuss this some other time, I'd hate for him to waltz right in here and overhear us."

Gone was the rush of excitement and intrigue that had come with the discovery of her soulmate mark being colored in after so long, because Dorothea understood that in finding her intended other half, she'd deeply hurt one of her closest friends. That was a bridge they'd have to cross at whatever time Leonie felt was appropriate for it, however, and so for the rest of the time they were in the dining hall, conversation stayed firmly away from soulmates or even the night before. The moment she could, after finishing her meal, Leonie headed out to go back to her room and Dorothea followed her, less to try talking to her again and more to make sure that she did, in fact, go back to her room.

When they got to their hallway they were met with Ingrid, looking quite rough and still in the previous night's clothes, slamming her hand against the door to Kjelle's room over and over again. "Whoa, she's probably not in there if she hasn't opened up after one of those knocks," Leonie told her, all negativity erased from her voice. "She's probably out with Hilda and the others, knowing her."

"No, she's not, didn't they come find you?" Even sounding as bad as she looked, there was a bit of a panic to Ingrid's voice as she delivered that question, and her worry germinated quickly in the minds of the other women. "Hilda came by a bit ago asking me if I'd seen Kjelle, which I haven't. You think she's okay in there, then?"

"I still don't think she's in there." Leonie's eyes tracked toward Dorothea for a second, before turning away quickly. "Right, you wouldn't care where she is, most likely, so this problem isn't one you should focus on solving. Don't worry, Ingrid, I'll handle getting her out, you go rest or eat or something."

While the two switched who was the one banging on the door, Dorothea hung back, trying to think of how she could express how wrong that assumption had been without coming off as too much of a problem-starter. She looked down at her feet, eyes glossing over the still-healing gash on her leg from their fight in the street and thinking about how if it were a week ago, she wouldn't care in the slightest, but now? Why, now she figured that she was about as close to being friends with Kjelle as she was ever going to get, so her seemingly having disappeared was a big problem.

"I'll go see if we can get a key into her room, they're bound to have a skeleton key to every room on the floor," she mumbled, just loud enough that she could be heard if anyone had wanted to listen to her, but without any reaction given she determined that she was being ignored. Upon getting to the front desk, she found Hilda already there, looking nearly as rough as Ingrid (with the exception of being freshly-showered and in a new outfit), and she compared plans to make sure they were there to do the same thing.

That did mean that it was Hilda that carried the key back up to the room, with the flirty promise that she'd bring it right back to the confused person at the desk, and it was Hilda who opened the door to find the room completely empty of anything that told them Kjelle had been there the night before. "What the…?" she started, looking around as the rest of the ladies came in after her, all of them in shock at what they were seeing.

Between the various expressions of surprise at what they'd found, Dorothea found the time to explain something that she found odd. "This doesn't make any sense, I was with her last night just before she came into her room, she and I parted ways right before we went to bed. Something must have happened to her…"

"Whatever happened, it didn't happen through the window," Ingrid pointed out, noticing that the glass was firmly intact and there was no sign of it having been opened recently. "So she may have just walked out on her own, but why not tell anyone?"

Pushing her fingers into her temples, Leonie closed her eyes as she realized something strange about the day for herself. "None of us woke up super early, there's plenty of time this morning for her to have left, but to go where? It's not like she would've met someone last night and wanted to see them again."

"I mean, I was up early enough, but she would have already had to be gone by then since I did come looking to talk to her fairly early on." Dorothea was shaking her head, the whole scene they'd walked into making no sense at all. They collectively checked the room from floor to ceiling and found nothing out of place or left behind, with one single exception: a scrap of paper that had an address in Derdriu written on it. As it was Ingrid who'd discovered it, she couldn't make heads or tails of where it was so she handed it straight off to Hilda, who dropped the key to the room in her shock at what she read.

"This address, I know this exact place," Hilda said, stumbling over every word in her complete disbelief at what she was reading. "That's the address of the transportation hub here in the city, she must have wanted to go there for some reason. You think she was interested in doing some sightseeing of her own, ladies?"

"That seems possible, but why?" There was a distinct lack of answers they were finding, even if they had a potential location to go looking, and Leonie seemed like she'd experienced her day's second betrayal in that moment. "Why wouldn't she invite any of us? And how did she get that address, anyway?"

Those were all questions none of them could answer without asking Kjelle themselves, so finding her to find everything out was the top priority in that moment. Hours later, when they finally arrived at the transportation hub, where horses, carriages, and more experimental modes of transport were located, there was no sign of her, and every person that was asked if they'd seen a small, dark blue-haired woman who was unfamiliar with the area didn't know who they were talking about. It was almost as if she'd disappeared from their lives as quickly as she'd initially entered them, but without a single goodbye or explanation for why she was leaving.

They decided, since she was a grown woman who seemed to have made her own decision to go somewhere without them, the best thing they could do was sit and wait for her to come back. "Good thing you weren't just coming to Derdriu for the festival then, huh?" Hilda asked, which came as quite the surprise to Dorothea to hear, even though Leonie wasn't fazed in the slightest by what was said. "She's aware of when you guys are going back to Garreg Mach, she'll turn up before then, I'm sure of it."

"Hold on, when was someone going to tell me that we weren't going back right away?" Feeling like it was a perfect time to jump in before they'd moved on, Dorothea got no response, making her feel like she'd been intentionally denied that bit of information in the attempt to get her to agree to going in the first place. "Okay, well, if we're staying for more than a couple days, I'm going to have to go shopping for some new clothes. Didn't pack for more than a few nights here."

Shopping was a necessity, but when they were there to spend more time with Hilda in specific—the guys having all gone their separate ways back to their lives before the ladies saw them again—it wasn't too outlandish to think it wasn't already going to happen. Their days spent together as a foursome felt rejuvenating, like a breath of fresh air compared to the monotony back home, but Kjelle's absence with the group was strongly felt. Every day she didn't show back up was another day that they were left wondering what had gone wrong, why she didn't trust them with that information.

Then, things changed on the eve of them going back home, when they met with Marianne for drinks and dinner on her one night in the city that overlapped theirs. Hilda did nothing but chide her for having to miss out on the festival, but Marianne didn't seem too torn up about not being there. "I know you would have loved me being your buddy when you were all over every poor man and woman in the park, but I had other things to attend to."

"I know, you've got your big-girl job learning the ropes to take over running things for your father, it's not a huge deal. Wasn't that exciting for me anyway, I got all sorts of action but not my soulmate." Heaving a dramatic sigh, Hilda looked over at the other ladies, all three of which were just watching the conversation intently. "Please, you already knew I was sloppy like that, we don't need to judge."

"No judging here," Leonie said, while Dorothea shook her head and Ingrid merely stayed completely neutral. "I was doing a lot of the same, with a bit of a different outcome." They were able to laugh about it and get into their meal, which was so graciously paid for by the person who was visiting to prompt it in the first place. Speaking with Marianne was always a pleasant time, and while Dorothea had only met with her a couple times before, with Hilda present on each occasion, she was definitely someone she would have liked to have been friends with when she was younger.

It turned out that Marianne had been coming from somewhere that wasn't her father's home territory when she'd been on her way to Derdriu, and after dinner had been eaten and drinks had been sipped on and enjoyed, she pulled out an envelope that she'd tucked into a pocket in her skirt. "While I was on my way back home the other day, I crossed paths with someone at a stop in my journey who was curious if I was on my way here, and if I was if I could be a messenger for someone they'd received a letter from earlier that day." She handed the envelope, sealed with a regal-looking wax stamp, over to Leonie. "I thought the coincidence was too great to ignore and accepted the task."

"A letter from someone who knew I'd be here longer than just a day…" Trailing off as she looked carefully at the seal, which had a familiar-looking symbol on it, she opened the letter and held it out so that her friends could read it as well. By the time all three had finished reading it, they had some answers they'd been looking for, but more questions that needed answering, and there was only one way to solve it—by finding their way to the address written on the front of the envelope that seemed to be their only clue to where in all of the great country of Ylisse that their friend had returned to.

I've decided that I can't keep secrets any longer and need to make my soulmate mine, even with her relationship with my sister being so great, Kjelle had written, in smudged ink that was clearly written at a fast speed. I'm sorry for not telling you ahead of time, but I'm making my way back home starting today. Thanks for everything you did for me, but it's time I go back on my own.