Duke Arkwright's Study, Fort Sunder - Later That Night

The fire in the hearth crackled, casting dancing shadows across the oak-paneled walls of the study. Seated in a high-backed leather chair was Duke Alistair Arkwright, a man in his late fifties whose broad shoulders and stern face spoke more of a lifelong soldier than a refined noble. His hair, once dark, was now a distinguished silver at the temples, and his eyes, the color of flint, were fixed on the report in his hands.

Standing at rigid attention before the heavy desk was his castellan and most trusted knight, Sir Gareth. A man in his prime with a neatly trimmed beard and a scar cutting through his left eyebrow, Gareth wore the Duke's colors—deep blue and silver—with an air of unshakeable competence.

"The log from the Eastgate checkpoint, Your Grace," Gareth said, his voice a low baritone. "Processed just before sundown. Party of five. Led by Princess Elise of Melium. She presented her royal seal."

Arkwright's eyes didn't lift from the parchment. "Elise... the one they call the Cursed Heir. What in the Seven Hells is she doing in my territory? What was her stated purpose?"

"Family business in Red Hollow Pass, Your Grace. That was all she offered. The border sergeant noted she appeared... frail, but composed. She was accompanied by her sworn shield, Seraphina."

"A knight loyal to a fault. I know of her," Arkwright grunted, finally setting the report down. "And the other three? The log is vague."

"That is the peculiarity, my lord," Gareth replied, leaning forward slightly. "Two women and a man. Not dressed as retainers or guards. The sergeant's notes say they interacted with the princess with a... concerning familiarity. Casual. At ease. Not the deference one shows to royalty, especially not a Melium royal. The man, in particular, was noted for his reflexes. He single-handedly subdued a fleeing smuggler at the gate with startling speed."

Arkwright steepled his fingers, his flinty eyes narrowing. "Sellswords? Adventurers foolish enough to attach themselves to a walking catastrophe?"

"Unclear, Your Grace. They carried no guild sigils. Their papers were issued under the princess's seal as temporary travel companions."

"A princess in exile, traveling with mysterious, capable companions under her own authority," Arkwright mused, a deep frown etching lines into his face. "She is a magnet for trouble, Gareth. Where that girl goes, the Deathless King's shadow is never far behind. I will not have an undead incursion in my lands because some foreign royal decided to use my roads as a hiding spot."

"It is a concern," Gareth acknowledged.

Arkwright's thoughts shifted, his gaze drifting to a different, more troubling file on his desk. "What of the other matter? The expedition Solaria's Guild dispatched into the depths of 'The Maw'? Have they reported back?"

Gareth's posture, if possible, became even straighter. "They have, Your Grace. The team survived and extracted. However... they failed in their primary objective. The 'anomaly'—the sentient serpent-dungeon lord they were sent to eliminate—was not destroyed. They engaged it and its allies but were forced to retreat after significant casualties. The target remains at large."

The Duke's fist came down on the desk with a soft but solid thump. "Failure. And now a cursed princess from a neighboring kingdom arrives on my doorstep with strange, capable followers at the same time a dangerous dungeon lord evades a Solarian strike team?" He shook his head, his voice dropping to a gravelly whisper. "This is no coincidence. I can feel the threads tangling."

He looked up at Gareth, his decision made. "I want the princess's group watched. Discreetly. They are likely heading for Red Hollow Pass as stated. Have our eyes along the road report their movements. But your primary focus is on those three companions. I want to know who they are, where they came from, and what their real connection to Princess Elise is. If they so much as look at a village sideways, I want to know."

Sir Gareth placed a fist over his heart and bowed. "It will be done, Your Grace. I will dispatch our most observant scouts at first light."

"See that you do," Duke Arkwright said, turning his grim gaze back to the fire. "The peace of the frontier is fragile. I intend to keep it from shattering."

At The Traveler's Rest, Elise's Room

The room in The Traveler's Rest was dark, save for a single candle guttering on the bedside table. Elise lay on her back atop the covers, still fully dressed, her storm-gray eyes wide open and fixed on the shadowed ceiling beams.

Every time her eyelids grew heavy, a cold jolt of fear would shoot through her—the fear of the vulnerability that came with unconsciousness, the terror that the curse would creep in when her guard was lowest, or that some new threat would find her defenseless.

A soft rustle of armor came from the chair pulled close to the bed. Seraphina sat vigil, her sword across her knees, her gaze never leaving her princess.

"Your Highness," Seraphina's voice was a low murmur in the quiet. "You need to sleep. You cannot walk the road tomorrow on will alone."

"I know, Sera," Elise whispered back, her voice thin. "But every time I close my eyes... I feel it waiting. My mind... it will not be still."

"I am here," Seraphina said, her tone solid as iron. "Nothing will reach you."

"I know you are. Thank you." Elise turned her head on the pillow to look at her knight. After a moment of silence, she asked, "What do you think they are doing right now? Adam and the others?"

In the dim light, Seraphina's jaw tightened. "I do not know. And that is the problem. They are... an unknown variable. We should not let our guard down around them simply because they fought the lich once. That could have been a ruse."

Elise sighed softly. "Sera, you must not be so suspicious of everyone who shows us kindness. They saved us."

"That is true," Seraphina conceded, her fingers tightening on the pommel of her sword. "But kindness can be a strategy. A way to lower defenses. Think about it, Highness. Adam... he suppresses your curse. Something the greatest healers and mages of Melium could not do consistently. How? With what power? And he does it so easily. What if... what if it is not suppression, but control? What if he is not holding the curse back, but is somehow connected to it? Or to the lich himself?"

Elise pushed herself up on her elbows, her expression a mix of exhaustion and gentle reproach. "Sera. That is a leap of logic born of fear and too many betrayals. I felt what happened. The curse recoiled from him, not the other way around. It was afraid. Or... repelled. There was no sense of connection, only opposition."

She reached out and placed a hand over Seraphina's armored fist. "I understand your caution. I share it. We have trusted the wrong people before. But we cannot navigate this path seeing enemies in every shadow. We need allies, even strange ones. Adam and his companions... they are powerful. And for now, their goals align with ours. We must trust that. Until we have reason not to."

Seraphina looked down at Elise's hand on hers, the fierce protectiveness in her eyes warring with her ingrained distrust. Finally, she let out a slow breath, the tension in her shoulders easing a fraction.

"You see the best in people, even now," she said, her voice gruff. "It is your strength. And your greatest vulnerability. I will... try to temper my suspicions. For you. But I will not lower my guard."

"That is all I ask." Elise said, lying back down.

The pillow cool against her cheek. Silence settled over the room again, but the memory of the afternoon's awkward moment—the uneven floorboard, the sudden fall, the strong arms catching her—played vividly behind her closed eyelids. A faint, unbidden smile touched her lips. In the grand, terrifying tapestry of her life, it was a small, human stitch.

"You know," she murmured into the darkness, her voice lightly amused. "Something rather... unexpected happened earlier. When Adam and I first entered this room."

Seraphina, who had been meticulously polishing a spot on her vambrace, looked up. "Oh?"

"Yes. The floorboards are quite treacherous. I lost my balance and nearly fell." Elise kept her tone deliberately casual. "Adam caught me. Quite swiftly, actually. We, ah... ended up on the bed together for a moment. It was all very accidental, of course."

The soft scritch-scritch of the polishing cloth stopped.

The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees.

Elise peeked one eye open. Seraphina had gone perfectly still, her face a mask of slowly dawning, glacial horror.

"He... what?" Seraphina's voice was dangerously calm.

"He caught me," Elise repeated, sitting up slightly, a hint of a playful smile now visible. "It was chivalrous, really. I would have hit my head quite soundly otherwise."

"On. The. Bed." Each word was bitten off, precise and cold as shards of ice.

"Well, yes. The momentum, you see. He was rather solid. It was all over in a second." Elise waved a hand, trying to dispel the storm she saw brewing in her knight's eyes. "Honestly, Sera, it was nothing."

"Nothing?" Seraphina shot to her feet, her armor clanking with the violence of the movement. The candle flame guttered wildly. "HE MANHANDLED YOU ONTO A BED?!"

"Shhh! Sera, keep your voice down!" Elise hissed, glancing at the door as if expecting the whole inn to come investigating. "He did not 'manhandle' me! He saved me from a fall! It was an accident!"

"ACCIDENTS DO NOT END WITH ROYALTY IN COMPROMISING POSITIONS WITH MYSTERIOUS MEN!" Seraphina roared in a whisper, her face inches from Elise's. She began pacing the small room like a caged wolf. "I knew it! I knew there was something about him! First he magically soothes your curse, now he's catching you in bedrooms! This is a pattern! A sinister, smooth-talking, violet-haired pattern!"

Elise couldn't help it. A giggle escaped her, which only seemed to fuel Seraphina's fury.

"This is NOT FUNNY, YOUR HIGHNESS! This is a security breach of the highest order! I should go over there right now and—"

"And what, Sera? Challenge him to a duel for the crime of preventing my injury?" Elise asked, her voice laced with fond exasperation. "He was a perfect gentleman about it. He let go immediately and apologized. He was more flustered than I was."

Seraphina whirled on her, pointing an accusing finger. "FLUSTERED? THAT'S WORSE! THAT MEANS HE NOTICED! HE WAS AWARE OF THE IMPROPRIETY! THE AUDACITY TO NOTICE WHILE HOLDING THE HEIR TO MELIUM!"

Elise let out another soft, fond sigh. "Sera, truly, enough. It's late. Your outrage is keeping us both awake more effectively than any curse or assassin."

Seraphina crossed her arms, the metal of her vambraces scraping. "My outrage is justified. But... very well." She forced herself to take a deep, deliberate breath, the rigid line of her shoulders relaxing a fraction. She watched as Elise settled back into the pillows, a genuine, unburdened smile still playing on the princess's lips—a sight so rare it disarmed Seraphina's fury more effectively than any command.

'She's in a good mood,' Seraphina realized with a pang of mixed worry and relief. 'Despite everything... she's actually happy. Or at least, amused.' She couldn't bring herself to ruin that. The anger simmered down to a low, stubborn grumble in her chest.

"Fine," Seraphina muttered, her voice finally losing its sharp edge. "I will... table my objections. For now." She fixed Elise with a stern look, the kind she'd used since they were children. "But you must promise to be more careful, Highness."

Elise's smile widened. "Sure, dear Sera. Now, please, try to get some rest yourself. That chair cannot be comfortable."

Seraphina gave a curt nod, shifting in the hard wooden seat. Comfort was irrelevant. But as the quiet of the deep night enveloped the room, her vigilant gaze softened as she watched Elise finally drift into a peaceful sleep.

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