"You must have a mistaken impression of me," Elyon sat in the center of the room with the Lord Cedric smiling at her almost conciously and Elyon's cheeks heated at the presumption she'd made. "Mon Elyon, I am three years after the young Prince. For how much were you presuming I was older?"

"I.." Elyon faltered under his gaze - it wasn't that she had thought very particularly older of him, but that she had mistaken Prince Phobos as younger than of near twenty seven. That made Cedric only eleven years over herself, and Elyon wondered how the country had come to being run by so many so young. And that cry. It's ghost still echoed in her ears; the solid moan of a frustrated man. Something was wrong with Phobos and Lord Cedric was keeping her away. Perhaps the poor man was dwelling on his country; in this long discussion they had reached the minor subject of the ruins, and Lord Cedric had admitted to her that a cross between rebels and a lack of Phobos' interest had brought the country into ruin. And funnily enough it was the closest to a truth Lord Cedric had told her since she'd heard that cry of inner turmoil. "I don't know."

And with that he captured her chin in his long, caressing fingers, and with that Elyon was forced to fall into his gaze and Elyon felt her stomach tingle as Cedric drew around her bottom lip with his thumb. "Beauty hides our sins, mon Elyon."

Who's sins? Hers?

...

Will had lumbered the sheer mass of Caleb to this point; a mere twenty feet from the silver dragon, and the skies were beginning to yawn and darken in colour. It didn't help that the moonlight had overshadowed the world, so that Will found his closeness being oddly romanticized in her mind, so that if it were cold she'd never know for the heat on her face and of that coming simply from his closeness. He was being a brat; the sheer weight of his fifteen year old body was built up with pure muscle too, so he was every bit as heavy as though she was carrying a fully grown man on her back, and by all means if he was holding any weight of his own; dropping it to her would surely end up with a tangle of limbs on the ground as her breath was already heavy, and as he smiled from inches away, Will flickered a wondering if maybe he wasn't lying after all. It would be a far greater punishment for him to have to endure the nearly hour with her, than if he'd more cleverly allowed Irma and Hay Lin -now clambering behind fifty feet back to mimic her deathly situation - to walk with him home for recovery so that he could guilt her in the morning. That was until another of those loud, pretentious cries of mocking 'pain' reminded her of how much he was enjoying this. Will tried to frown, but knew her features were burning to oppose her as she glared falsely at him. "God Caleb, are you even walking or am I just carrying you?"

"Is that an offer, because I'd have to decline; not wanting to labor a lady such as yourself." The sarcasm was evident, and for the long mile he hadn't bothered once to deny himself the smug smile across his features whenever it seemed to want to grace over his mouth and his softened eyes. But it was just as her breath had hitched a little, and her concentration had flitted from the road to him; it was just as she realized that this was maybe the closest proximity she had been for an extended period to the boy, and she was just noticing and counting every lash on his face when she finally realized that they had stopped and that he was staring right back at her with a frown on his face - a frown only deep enough to be wondering why she was staring at him. He smiled then, and Will felt a deja vu that surely it was usually him staring at her. "Why do you do that?"

"You're very handsome you know." It wasn't a compliment; not as she saw it and by the guilt flash of his eyes to the ground she supposed he understood that she was stating a fact more than a kind word. But she had expected him to be proud of such a fact - in the same way that Cornelia would grace a flick of her hair just to remind everyone of how pretty she was - and Will had expected his ego to shine through, but Caleb only glanced up and waited as the fast duo of Irma and Hay Lin pushed past (well it was Irma who had pushed, while Hay Lin had wanted to hug Will goodnight, but the effect was still the same and Will's eyes were quickly back on Caleb).

"A gift, I think." Will held off the urge to smile, because he didn't really seem to be joking, and if anything Caleb looked grim to tell her the fact. "My brother wanted me to suffer."

"Your what?" Will had sounded more shocked than she'd wanted, but it had been months now, and in a week Cornelia would be fifteen, and already two of them had aged, but Caleb was yet to tell them anything much about himself. Well, what was she to say if the others knew, but she rarely was gifted such a preview of Caleb. It was hard to picture Caleb with anyone at all, but a brother seemed least of all because the only three young enough were to be Aldarn, the Prince and.. "Is it Drake? He doesn't really look li-"

And he'd pressed his finger on her mouth again; he did it more often, it would seem, since he'd realized it would get her to shut up, and Caleb shook his head. "I don't share blood with him.. He just wishes to punish me so."

And Will didn't know what to say and wished that Caleb would take his arm off of her, because she'd seen a pain that made her urge to step back. Away from his warmth in the night, because who was she to steal it when he clearly felt cold enough without him burdening her. "I'm sorry that I got so angry about Cornelia."

...

Prince Phobos had waited until the salt water on his cheeks had dried invisible, before he'd gone to collect the key to where he knew that Cedric was lurking. The murmurers had told him that they'd seen him - yes, Prince Phobos had not left the ballroom unguarded when he'd locked the door to a future he'd never been old enough to face. At seven years old, Prince Phobos had known, on the very week that it all occurred Cedric had once set his eyes on a ball, but it was a fact Cedric had only spoken back before Elyon pierced Prince Phobos' very lungs; back when he smiled with leisure rather than force, and back when he would ask Lord Cedric to talk to him simply because Phobos liked to see the poor man quake in the murmur room. But Prince Phobos had only set eyes on the ball as it had been when he closed the door and locked it. Empty. Dead. Like Phobos' very soul that day that, he believed Cedric's own father had led him around the castle, yammering a confident drawl of how the ten year old prince would own this all until his sister would take it.

It was before his sister had disappeared into the night and before Prince Phobos had understood that his mother and father were not expected to return. They had surely only been gone for three days. Prince Phobos walked with more difficulty than he let on, and Phobos made the speed look lazy rather than ailing, because Cedric was not to know until the brute again ventured to his mother's door, that Phobos had use his soul to lock the door with flowers as beautiful as his mother's eyes. Prince Phobos pushed the heavy key into the largest arching door that remained inside the castle unopened. The only other entrance was not for him to see, and in fact Cedric and Elyon had more right than he did.

The door echoed a loud, rusty click as it opened after seventeen long years - Prince Phobos at ten had had no taste for the dancing of a ball, and since the boy had grown, Phobos hadn't the heart to open it again. He had missed his fourteenth birthday; when right had allowed him to grace these balls, but his own sense had stopped him. Who would he ever invite to attend.

Elyon's eyes were on him when he pushed in; slowly; leisurely; with damaged muscles which were torn and twisted where no one could see, but Phobos forced a smirk to grace his lips despite his eyes finding the brooch at once. Stolen. The bitch had stolen his mother's jewels and had the nerve to wear them. And now how dare she smile at him with such a light in her eyes - a light that claimed she adored him, despite these acts of vengeful torture. "Phobos.."

"I.. Had a fall." His eyes ventured to Cedric's - ignoring the dirty clouded grey of Elyon's worried features - and the despicable menial had had the nerve to meet his gaze. Phobos traveled back upon his sister; this time forcing his eyes on her face. She probably didn't even realize she was wearing his mother's bronzed clasp. He'd seen it before, in his worried mother's fingers, but never on her dress. It was new when she'd left him, but now his steel blue eyes were only allowed to grace Elyon's disgusting face. "We'll be eating soon if you'd like for us to go."

There it was again - the light in her eyes, before her stomach rumbled and Phobos knew she had not yet eaten today. She'd been skulking with Cedric for so long she could have diminished in starvation. He wished she would.

...

Irma Lair pressed her face against the window and prayed that neither Caleb, nor Will would notice. It was a miracle that Hay Lin didn't.. It was a miracle Irma'd never noticed it before - because Caleb was always saying things to Will, and Irma had cracked the window open so that the sounds could travel from the pair only inches apart, not a few feet from the 'Dragon; Caleb was yet to pull his arm from Will's shoulder and Irma wondered how a boy could be in such adoration to share those sorts of words, yet he didn't seem to realize what he did. "I'm sorry that you're so pretty."

That was it. It had to be. The moment of truth when Will's eyes startled up to his and she blushed. Irma's nosed pressed harder against the cold glass and waited for the pair to jump each other kissing, but Will only smiled at him morosely. "Cornelia is pretty."

"Cornelia is beautiful." Caleb had nodded and agreed and Irma wondered if they'd notice her throwing a plate at him out the restaurant door for being so insolent. "But you're the one who hides any prettiness you have."

"Thank you.. I think." Will had laughed then, and Irma truly couldn't see what was funny, but then Caleb slipped his hand away and began a confident trek to the door. She laughed even louder and Irma frowned as Hay Lin snuck up beside her to see what was interesting; a toothbrush hanging from her mouth as Will grinned, walking backwards. "I thought you couldn't walk."

Caleb joined the grinning and Irma knew that hope was lost. "It was emotional trauma that prevented me."

"Riight."

...

Later, in the hours of the night, after gleeing every time Prince Phobos' eyes wandered to his sister's chest, Lord Cedric bowed before the alleged Prince of Darkness. Shaking, Cedric could hear the man shaking and Cedric winced when Phobos lifted Cedric's head and forcefully slapped him. Atonement of his sins; for the prince was too enraged to shout.