A/N: So I hope you enjoy this chapter. Its very dramatic. Um, yeah so please. I got one for the last chapter, but I'd really like to get caught up with # of chapters=# of reviews.

affannato-anguished

affrettando-hurrying, pressing onwards.

She was tempted, on her way through the cold marble passages, to stop and go do something reckless. To brutally insult the next noble she passed, to burst into another's apartment uninvited, or to start destroying the palace one wall after the next. It would be perilous enough just to go to the kitchen and grab a cup of tea, therefore being tardy for her audience. But she was either braver than that, or too cowardly. Either way, it was too late for her now, her here before the golden doors.

She eyed the guards on either sides of the door, but they took little interest in her even as she walked up to the door. Reluctantly, she knocked, gently and shortly, though the noise echoed through the dead silent hallway.

"Enter!" It was a voice that could only be his and now the guards acted, now opening the doors into the throne room.

Her first steps were affannato and slow, but then she realized that even if her terror was completely expected by everyone, she couldn't show it, and her steps quickened affrettando. She was grateful for Ito-san, because she had run out of Aly's apartment with a wrap, knowing Aly's tendency to freeze (and it matched Aly's clothes, which wouldn't be the case had Gino remembered). And it was cold, walking up that red carpet, towards the three men.

Schneizel's surprised expression did not startle any kind of smirk or satisfaction from her—but then the Emperor dismissed his son, and Schneizel passed her on his way, and she could not resist shoving his own words down his throat, "Did you not know? I know I tried to keep it under the radar but I would expect you to know. I'd hate to think you were losing your touch," and he looked momentarily perturbed, but then thought of his own unsettling retort.

"Enjoy your audience."

And she was left all alone in the throne room with the Emperor and his knight.

She could feel Bismarck's one good eye boring into her, examining her, and probably smirking at the longer hem of the different dress. But she didn't care; it was the man in the throne who worried her today.

When she finally reached the edge of the dais, Bismarck spoke up. "Emperor Charles, I present to you Lady Aly of Asplund and Nice, niece and heir of Lloyd, earl of Asplund, and daughter of the ambassadors Deacon and the late Louise." She dropped into a curtsy and stayed there until told to rise, in a voice deeper than her father's and more commanding than Schneizel's.

"Rise, Lady Aly." And there he was, sitting on a throne made from others' sorrows, high above her diminutive height.

"Your majesty," she acknowledged, then falling silent.

"Schneizel showed me your plans for the Christmas concert. They were quite good, especially coming from one so young."

"Thank you, your majesty."

"And I was pleased to learn that the maid I sent you had helpful talents. Next time you should bring her here with you, so she can entertain us why we talk."

Next time? Aly gulped and risked, "I would have to defer to her decision in that matter?"

His mask remained immaculate, though his voice seemed to change, almost imperceptibly. "There is a belief that caged birds don't sing. But they do, for the sake of their necks." He rose from his chair, while at the same time Bismarck backed up, melting into the shadows. "Join me."

It was not a request. Aly struggled up the five steps and stopped at the top, a scant couple of feet from the Emperor's large 6'2'' frame. And he reached out and lifted her chin, forcing her to stare into his face and shake from more than cold. "You show so much potential, Aly of Nice. But we'll have to get you away from that Weinberg boy before he burns your icy beauty."

She was not going to talk about Gino.

"Not surprised? Good. I know all about your little tryst—but it isn't even that. You've too much pride and you think you're too young." He had let go of her now and was walking around her in a circle, "I'll tell you a secret," he leaned in close to one ear, "you're not."

She doesn't know what he's talking about, but the few ideas flitting around are not all pleasant. And she's puzzled, because this subtlety doesn't seem his style because he's already the damned Emperor and can do anything he wants, but then again, he is Schneizel's father, and the bastard must have gotten his slimness from someone, and maybe the Emperor is just enjoying this slow torture.

She's not surprised he's a sick bastard as well as xenophobic and just generally cruel and unfair.

She remains silent.

Then he stops, in front of her again, and—oh God—he's caressing her face like Schneizel in their first encounter but it's ten times worse because it's the Emperor and he's so much older and has no sex appeal and his hand is ice cold. "But it was a pity you didn't refrain from stopping your little boyfriend's duel the other day. Besides failing to eliminate the weaker knight, it showed weakness. Your mother would've never done such a thing."

Her mother! "What?"

It was the first thing she had said in ages, but the Emperor's face remained blank, where Schneizel would've smirked. The Emperor's voice did have a slight lilt when he spoke again, however. "Yes, Louise. But you're not prepared for that yet." He withdrew his hand. "Maybe I should just let Schneizel have his fun in breaking you." He turned and walked away, leaving Aly alone in the cold, cold, throne room.

He had been looking for her for a long time. She had promised that she would return to her quarters immediately when Ito-san ran out to give her a wrap. Aly's father hadn't seen her, and even with the help of Ito-san and Anya they couldn't find her. He had even asked for Nonette's help (because they had gotten on well when they met, being fellow women fighting for justice. That was the one thing he could use to defend Britannia in his arguments with Aly; even she conceded they were equal opportunity for the sexes, but claimed that didn't mean she would forgive the country some of its faults.)

And he had been sure she was going to be in that last place—the very room he first met the little ghost girl—he was expecting to find her playing, desperately trying to find a way to absorb herself in something other than her life.

But she wasn't.

He just hoped she hadn't done anything stupid. He thought he knew her well enough to know, that even with fraying emotions, she wouldn't do anything normal stupid. She wouldn't be busy jumping off buildings, or even doing Gino-stupid things, like trying to rescue some poor person about to be executed—though of course, even he wasn't so stupid anymore; he had wised up some over the years, and he probably would have been too cowardly to do something like that anyway.-but Aly could very well be off doing some special kind of stupid.

Stupid like when, a year ago, she'd forgotten about Anya's birthday. She had ridden on a horse—Aly couldn't drive at that time—through thunderstorm to a camera store to buy a new camera for her pink haired friend. This being already absurd, a giant of a hailstone would have to hit her, knocking her out—and to think, she got mad at him for being dramatic. At him!

Rain. It was raining outside. Gino groaned.

Aly didn't notice the rain at first, and once she did, she welcomed it. It seemed fitting, for such a day.

Once Aly had managed to thaw out in the Throne Room, she had fled. She hadn't gone down the same secluded hallways in years, but her found the once beaten path quite easily and she could actually run, without fear of meeting other nobility, had she not the stupid shoes. Even so, it did not take her all that long to find a door leading to the outside, and then she made a bee-line for the nearby forest.

She had not trouble finding the little altar she and her father had made for her mother soon after they had moved to Pendragon. She used to visit almost daily, but now she only went occasionally, not much more than once a month. She wasn't sure about her father's habits, and that was strange, because they used to be so close. She supposed trusting and confiding in anyone was always hard in country like this, especially when they directly served the empire. But Gino was even more intimately entwined with the Emperor and politics, even if he was less aware of the empire's policies and political strategies, and she told him incredibly confidential stuff. Not that she didn't trust her father, but they were just so distant.

She tripped over a root, just as she reached her mother's altar, and landed in the mud, effectively ruining the dress.

She squinted, trying to read the engraving on a stone marking this spot, but it was raining too hard, and try as she might, she couldn't get the Emperor's words out of her head.

He had instructed Anya to keep looking for Aly in all the hidey holes Anya knew the castle. He told Nonette she could go home, but he gladly accepted her offer of looking in town, though he doubted Aly would be prowling the streets. Which left him and Ito-san to look outside.

He started looking in the normal places, where all the sane people would go if it started raining outside but they didn't want to retreat inside.

"Gino Weinberg?"

Gino whipped around and saw someone climbing up the stairs to the gazebo currently functioning as mission headquarters. "You're the Earl Maldini?" The man inclined his head. "Prince-"

"Schneizel's aide, yes."

Gino's eyes narrowed. "What do you want?"

Arching his eyebrows, but not mentioning Gino's hostility, the soft spoken man said, "My Prince sent me with a message."

"What?"

"He says that the Emperor discussed the Lady Aly's mother with her."

"They discussed Aly's mother..."Gino racked his brains for something. Then, "Of course! Shit! She'll catch pneumonia or something there!" He turned, about to start toward the forest, but turned back to the Earl Maldini. "I hope your Prince knows that I have a bad habit of not always returning favors."

The Earl grimaced. "He does not consider this a favor. From his irrational behavior-"

"Prince Schneizel acts irrational?"

"Don't we all?"

"Of course. Go on, I didn't mean to interrupt."

"I would guess the matter is more of one of revenge."

"But...who against?" Gino didn't see how this could be a revenge against anyone.

"Who do think Prince Schneizel bothers plotting against?"

"Aly?"

"My Prince has bigger fish to fry, though in time, his plans account for all. Now, go save your princess."

When Aly had shown him her mother's altar, he had known she had finally accepted him. It was not long after his...affair with the family Japanese maid, and he doubted whether he could've pulled through if not for Aly.

In the past, he had noticed that Aly hardly ever cried. Only at the most fearsome injuries would she sniffle, and he knew she couldn't have been happy growing up in Pendragon, despite his presence. So he was surprised when, one day, Aly had walked in on him crying in his too-new-rooms at the palace, and instead of whatever a normal person would have done—even at this point none of his friends were normal, so he was never sure of what the actions of the elusive normal person would've been—she had taken him to her mother's altar. And he had seen her cry.

Gino clicked on his communicator. "Anya, I found her."

"Where?"

"In the forest, by an altar dedicated to her mother."

"How is she?"

He kneeled down, grimacing at the mud. Gently, he examined Aly. "She's out cold. But otherwise physically, she seems fine. I won't be surprised if she gets sick though."

"Stupid."

"Yes. And very Aly."

"I did appreciate the camera at least. Her mother's not going to be able to do so."

"I would guess that Aly's a little past the point of sacrificing herself for her dead mother at this point."

"I guess she has gotten better."

"Contact Ito-san, will you? She'll need to give Aly a nice, hot bath."

A/N: So yeah. Hope you liked it. I plan to publish another chapter by the end of the month if I get sufficient reviews. There's lots of review material in all of that, so just tell me what your favorite/least favorite part was, or predict what will happen next, or something like that. :)

DFTBA