"What do you mean?" asked Ashe, finally.

"I mean that it's possible Rasler isn't completely dead. He's living somewhere between here and death."

"Then he's trapped there?"

"For the moment, yes."

"..."

"...my lady, I would like to make you an offer."

"What offer?"

"...if you would allow me, I would like to accompany you on your quest."

"What quest?"

"Surely you can't plan to let Rasler live on like this?"
"You assume too much, especially considering you are an enemy soldier on Damascene soil. I would be completely justified in having you hung on the spot" Ashe spat out fiercely

"Please, my lady. I need to do this, for me."

"Ah, so all this is for your own benefit?"

"In a way, yes."

"…your motives are questionable. You're lucky I loved him so much, otherwise your body would be hanging from traitors' hill before you even had a chance to scream."

The knight shivered at the implication.

"Well, since we'll be traveling together, my name is Bacchus, or Sir Bacchus if it pleases you, my lady."

"Bacchus is fine. You must not forget that I am the queen, after all."

"Of course, my lady."

"Meet me here tomorrow, at sunhigh. We must work out a plan to sneak away. It will be difficult, as you can imagine, for a queen to get away from her courtiers."

"Of course."

"Goodnight, Bacchus."

"Goodnight, my queen."

"I am not YOUR queen. I am the queen of Damasca, and you would do well to keep that in mind." With this, the Lady Ashe stormed past a shocked doorman, who quickly recovered and resumed his place of standing as still as a statue.

The lady Ashe sat at her vanity, upright and straight as an iron rod as one of her maids, Grace, brushed her hair.

"Grace, what do you think would happen if I was to leave?"

"I'm not quite sure I understand what you're sayin', miss."

"If I were to leave the palace."

"Well, I'd be out of a job."

"Seriously, Grace."

"I'd imagine you'd be greatly missed. You're quite well-loved in Dalmasca. You saved our kingdom. Some people may take it as a sign of bad things to come if you were to just disappear."

"…" Ashe paused for a minute. She hadn't completely thought this through-shouldn't she wait? Shouldn't she demand this Bacchus present some sort of factual evidence? Her immediate answer was no. She couldn't wait. If there was any chance of Rasler being alive…

Ashe just knew this needed to be done. It wasn't at all rational, and went against everything she had been taught since she was a little girl. But this might just be her last chance to ever see him alive again. For once, she had to do something for herself. Yes, it was incredibly selfish, but she decided this was one time her needs had to be put above the kingdom's.

The Following Day

Ashe slowly crept along the corridors of the palace. If anyone were to catch her sneaking around…she would have a lot of explaining to do, considering she was supposed to be ill, trapped in her bedroom with a thousand maids hovering over her.

Footsteps. Ashe quickly hid behind a large stone column.

Clank

Getting closer now…

Clunk Clank Clunk

Ashe could hardly breathe.

Finally, a voice

"I can see you, my queen"

Ashe recognized that voice. Basch: the last person in the world she wanted to see right now. Cursing under her breath, she slowly came out from behind the column, putting on the most intimidating face she could muster.

"You shouldn't curse, my lady. What if someone were to overhear? We wouldn't want it getting out that our Queen is some type of barbarian now, would we?"

"Coming from a soldier, that's about the most ironic statement I've heard in a very long time."

"Touché, my queen. May I ask why you're creeping around the corridors with a very nasty sickness that should leave you stuck in your room for days?"

"…" Ashe's heart rate sped up. Basch was supposed to be a traitor. He was currently impersonating his brother in Arcadia, but had come back to "represent the state of Archadia", but Ashe suspected he had been a lot more homesick then he let on.

Could she trust him? He was working for Archadia now. But still, he couldn't have completely traded sides that quickly…but if word got to a neighboring country that their queen was leaving…invasion, riots, any matter of thing could happen. She bit her lip, thinking.

"I know that look, you're thinking about something important."

Ashe decided that maybe loyalties weren't so easily moved.