Kingdom in The Sand

The Royal Society

Beldon never did answer Marie-Fey regarding The Black Rabbit's statement. She was wary of bringing it up around the rest of her family because the chances were, if she didn't know, they didn't know. Secrets weren't exactly the family forte – well, depending on the secret.

She was still considering it the following night as she watched Beldon and Zaydan on the terrace below, half in moonlight, half in golden candlelight from the ballroom's open doors.

It was another assembly, though this one without Sophia, who had left on her honeymoon at some ungodly hour that morning, so she didn't have her around to help negotiate the event. That being said, it was another event to negotiate where negotiations had become significantly easier since she'd gained herself a visible husband. Despite the ease of having a 'husband' now, it irked her to no end at the same time.

Said husband had been out on the terraced garden for a good fifteen minutes, talking to Beldon and it was almost amusing how expressive the pair of them were in just their body language alone. She could easily tell when they were amusing each other or annoying each other.

Why they had spent so much of the evening in each other's company, she couldn't say, but she was reminded again of how alike the pair could be – which made them insufferable when together – even from a distance.

She stood in one of the balconies above, arms folded, leaning against the pillar as she watched them, momentarily distracted from the activity around her as she watched Beldon wave a dismissive hand through the air then reach back with a gesture to indicate his own back, hand subtly curling like a curl and she could deduce that he was discussing the scars on his back.

Were they really talking battle wounds?

She rolled her eyes.

If they were trying to out do each other on who was the more scarred up...

Beldon's hand suddenly rose to Zaydan's throat, fingers sliding under the collar to ease the velvet of the cravat and the buttons aside. It was a strangely intimate gesture and Zaydan didn't counter him, just let him look at whatever he was looking at around his neck and collarbone.

Whatever Beldon saw made his eyebrows rise and only then did Zaydan pull away, stepping back out of reach and neatly closing up his collar again.

What was that about?

She straightened up, considering going down there to ask, pursing her lips as Luka stepped out to join them, Beldon gesturing between them then grinning at Luka's obvious sigh of despair, then something behind Marie-Fey made her turn.

The alcove behind her was mostly in shadow and, for just a second, she thought she was seeing on of the ghostly women yet again, but when the woman stepped out into the moonlight, it was just Zaafira and Marie-Fey's shoulders relaxed and she frowned at her.

"What?" she asked as Zaafira stepped forwards, but her annoyance dimmed – slightly – when she noticed how pale Zaafira's skin was. She actually did look almost ghostly in the moonlight.

"Where's Zaydan?" she asked.

Marie-Fey raised an eyebrow at her, then nodded towards the balcony. Zaafira moved over to look down and Marie-Fey only then noticed the letter clutched in her fist.

She debated for a moment, then tilted her head slightly. "Is everything alright?"

"Not exactly," Zaafira said and then, to Marie-Fey's surprise, she held the letter out to her.

Taking it, she paused, glancing at Zaafira, before smoothing it out. She scanned the short neat script and her mild expression slowly turned thunderous.