Areo watched the subtle shift of expression on Doran's face as the Prince studied the chess board before him. The two of them sat opposite one another, both mulling over their next moves, waiting for Doran to strike. He reached out tentatively, before withdrawing his hand to think on his move further, prompting a chuckle from his Captain of the Guard.

"Is my contemplation amusing to you, Areo?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow up as he glanced to the other's face.

"Certainly, considering you have me cornered, Doran. Any move you make could be my last and yet you think on it for so long."

"I'm planning ahead, thinking of all the ways you could wiggle out of my grasp." Doran reached out again, hesitantly picking up the rook, and moving it three spaces up. "Check."

"See?" Areo shook his head, rubbing his chin as he too took in the landscape of the board, trying to find a way out of the corner he was backed into. He could surely protect the king with his queen, but that would surely sacrifice his most valuable playing piece.

It was Doran's turn to be amused by his friend's determination in memorizing the board, and he sighed contentedly as a soft breeze rushed past the two. The chess table had been set up on a small balcony, overlooking the gardens so Doran and Areo could take in a bit of sun as they contested one another in a battle of strategy. The breeze that rolled in carried the mellow scent of ripening persimmons fruits, as well as the salt from the sea, but it also brought something else; laughter.

It was a lovely sound, Ylsa's laugh. Her voice was so quiet and demure, but when she laughed it was clear as a bell; enchanting, bewitching almost, at least Doran thought. He did so love it when she laughed, and she was doing so more freely now, as she grew more accustomed to her new life. It made Doran happy, and he smiled blissfully. Looking out over the Gardens, he squinted, wanting to pinpoint just where his betrothed laughter was coming from.

Meanwhile, Areo was having a hell of a time getting out of Check. Any move he could make that wasn't with his queen was a surefire checkmate, but he was so reluctant to sacrifice her. It took him several minutes of deciding, but finally he relented, accepting the inevitable, and moving his queen to block Doran's rook. He'd have to take this sacrifice and bear it. Doran didn't look back to the board right away, though. Instead, his gaze was locked at a point in the distant garden, and when Areo shifted to better look at what he was staring at, he understood why.

"I've asked Lady Ylsa if she would like me to remove Soldier Pallor from duty here in the Watergardens," Areo said quietly, as the two old friends watched Doran's fiancé laugh in delight as she was teased good naturedly by Jerris, the soldier boy who had won her friendship with his genuine nature. They sat beneath the fig tree he had helped Ylsa to plunder at their fated meeting, which Ylsa had been fond of meeting him under since. He was only joking around, holding a branch with a flowering vine hanging low off of it, shaking petals from the flower over Ylsa. She, in turn, probably meant to playfully throw one of the overripe figs that sat on the ground at him, but ended up really catching him hard on the side of the head with one.

Areo's gaze shifted to Doran, who was smiling a strange, almost reticent smile as Ylsa's stricken apologies replaced her laughter in the late Autumn air. He shifted slightly in his chair, before casually glancing back at the board, reaching out without much thought to move…his knight. He seemed to overlook the easiest move on the board, of taking Areo's queen with his rook, and instead haphazardly placed his knight in a disadvantageous position. Areo shot him a confused glance, but found the Prince had already returned his stormy gaze to the couple in the garden.

"No, I'm happy she is able to find friendship, even in adversity," Doran said distractedly. "…That is just her nature, isn't it?"

"….Prince Doran?" Areo was honestly a bit confused by Doran's reaction; He was almost acting as if he was some jilted lover. But of course Doran was always the first to attribute his fondness of Ylsa to duty, and civility, not of romantic interest. This reaction seemed to directly contradict this, though.

Jerris was now gently picking unblossomed flower buds from their stems and flicking them at Ylsa, who was at first trying to feign insult at the little sap-speckles that were flicked onto her dress from the snipped stems, but eventually picked up her laughter once more. Areo sighed; Ylsa would have been the first to deny it, but the flirtation was apparent to him, and to the Prince. Feeling an awkward air settle over the two of them, the Captain reached out, knocking over Doran's rook with his queen, placing his token directly in the path of Doran's king; a clear win.

"Checkmate," Areo said, breaking Doran out of his internal musings over the pair in the garden, brining his gaze back to the board. He seemed to stare in shock at what lay before him, but a sort of bittersweet smile spread across his features as he came to terms with the apparent loss.

"I have been usurped while I wasn't paying attention it seems," he said, starting to return the pieces back to their starting positions. Areo honestly could not decipher if the prince was talking about the Game….or something else.

"He's handsome."

"I suppose."

"He's fit, isn't he?"

"He's a soldier, of course he is."

"And those eyes, those dreamy eyes!"

"Telen, you're drooling." Ylsa covered her mouth as she laughed at her handmaiden, who was quick to smack the drool off her own chin and turn her face away in a huff.

"Whatever! He likes you! Lucky brat!" Telen stuck her tongue out teasingly at Ylsa, as the two of them soaked in the heated pools of the bathhouse.

"Well, yes, he's a kind boy, and I like him too," Ylsa pointed out, carefully inspecting the various bottles of scented oils and perfumes that she was reticent to add to the water, but curious to smell.

"I don't mean as a friend, you daft girl," Telen went on, rolling her eyes, though Ylsa just fixed her with a sarcastic look; she was growing used to the dornish woman's friendly barbs. Ylsa had been beating around this particular bush all afternoon, after she'd returned to her wing of the Palace covered in speckles of sap and flower petals after her little romp with her new 'friend'. And Telen, for one, was not on to entertain such pussy-footing. "Your friendship is not what's on that boys mind, and you know it. It's probably your tits, from when he saw you in the pool." Ylsa sputtered at that; Telen's blunt way of addressing the most sensitive and awkward of topics, she was not used to however. Knocking down a bottle of lavender oils into the water, she scrambled to right it.

"No he's not! He's extremely gentlemanly!" she defended him, looking honestly shocked. "He hasn't touched me once without me allowing it, and he's only ever been kind to me, he wouldn't have those sorts of things on his mind! He was very sorry that incident ever happened!"

"Ylsa, please! You're so innocent it's painful!"

"It's not my fault you have these ideas awful in your head!" Pouting and looking away, she sunk lower into the water, until it reached almost to her eyes.

"But you like him back too in the same way, don't you?" Telen, grabbed one of the towels by the edge of the bathing pool, wrapping her long, course hair up into a twist so it wouldn't get wet.

"Of course I don't!" Ylsa rose to speak, but quickly went back to her submerged state, eyes glancing over at her handmaiden. " …I'm engaged to be married."

"So?" Telen shrugged. "You're your own person, Ylsa, and trust me, your virginity is NOT the most valuable part of you."

"Hush!" Red in the face, from the conversation as well as the warm steam rising off the water. "I'm going to be married! And I don't feel that way about Jerris!"

"Then how come you keep flirting with him?"

"Flirting!" Having had just about enough of this, Ylsa rose from the water suddenly, grabbing a towel, and wrapping it around herself as she quickly stepped out of the bathing pool, her wet hair limp at her shoulders. "I have not been flirting!"

"Yes you have! You're always giggling and playfully throwing things at him and smacking him; what do you think flirting is?"

"Not that!" Ylsa looked honestly uncomfortable at this revelation, wondering if it appeared that she'd been flirting to EVERYONE and not just Telen. She was a naturally playful girl, she'd always been, it's just….after the arrival of her stepmother, her playful side had all but disappeared. Only now was she feeling free enough for it to reemerge, and now she had to worry about it coming off as flirting? "I haven't been…. Trying to flirt, anyway. I honestly don't see Jerris in that way!" Telen had been callously unbelieving before, but seeing this earnest shift in Ylsa's composure, she dropped the smile from her face, eyebrows knitting together.

"…Really?"

"Yes, really!"

"…Well, then you'd better stop joking around with him, I'm not the only one who's been whispering things like that."

"What!" Squeaking in dismay, Ylsa felt anything but relaxed after her bath, and when another handmaiden brought her a dressing gown to wrap up in, she tied the sash haphazardly, and sped off without even putting her shoes on or tying up her hair. With the skirts of the robe billowing around behind her as she left, she left a trail of water droplets along behind her, as her hair dripped down her shoulders. With a Stoney look on her face, she made her way up to her quarters, and when Telen tried to follow after her, found that Ylsa had closed and locked the door to her chambers behind her.