It was my hope that we were sufficiently disguised. Since I wasn't very experienced with hiding from anyone- let alone from the Icehearts- my hope was all that I could give. I had decided to allow Holly to handle the process of transforming our iconic faces into generic, everyday visages that could easily be forgotten in a crowd. 

She had placed carefully woven Aural illusions over both of our faces, meticulously designed to emulate the average features of a resident of Glaisse. My eyes had been brightened, and hers had been dimmed, making them more or less the same shade of blue. Likewise, my skin had been lightened, and hers slightly darkened. With both of our modified looks, Holly could've been my sister.

I sat on a grimy stool in front of a cracked mirror that was covered in so much dust that looking into it was barely better than gazing at a wall. My shoes were already caked in mud, and I was sure that my pants were on their way to a similar state. Holly stood behind me, her long, lithe fingers working the knots out of my Illusions in order to increase their verisimilitude.

"Is this good enough?" Holly sighed. "I would really like to get out of here."

"Yes, yes, it's great," I nodded. I, too, was quite eager to leave the rundown, Lekhone hut. It had been the most readily accessible of many abandoned dwellings throughout the poorest district of Glaisse, but was still decidedly unpleasant. Especially for the future King and Queen of Lessaenes. It consisted of only three small rooms, separated by crude, cloth partitions. Its previous inhabitants had left behind a pot full of something smelly rotting on the no-longer-functional stove as well as a whole host of unrecognizable items strewn across the floor, in various stages of decomposition. The state of the place had very quickly dashed any hopes that I had of finding items that were worth salvaging in it.

"Hey, Holly, what happened to your other outfit?" I asked, noticing that Holly was now wearing a striped shirt and white pants- definitely not what she had been in just that morning. It surprised me that anyone, even a noble, in our situation, would feel the need to change out of a perfectly clean set of clothes in the middle of the day. 

"I snagged it on something in the garden," she replied with a shrug as we stepped through the low doorway into the streets of the Lekhone. "I just left it there- after all, we might've gotten caught if I had stayed to try to get it loose."

"That's evidence against us!" I hissed, disappointed that my intelligent Queen could've made such a blunder. "What if someone finds it?" I was sure that someone as meticulous as Queen Saralee would be more than capable of finding the blouse and identifying its owner. 

"It's a blue blouse," Holly rolled her eyes. "There must be thousands like it in the Empire. It means nothing."

"I suppose that's true," I nodded, somewhat assured by Holly's confidence. I began to cross the narrow road, whistling as I walked. I had not expected to run into many people in this rundown part of the capital, but my expectations couldn't have been farther from the truth. Even the Lekhone was filled with revelers, passing around fried food and bottles of illegal, diluted halfie juice. The piles of trash and excrement that usually filled Glaisse's outermost neighborhoods had been temporarily swept to the side to make room for the festivities, turning the streets from absolutely squalid to a more tolerable shabby.

We walked quickly, with our hats pulled tightly over our ears and our hands shoved in our pockets. The residents of the Lekhone, mostly immigrants from Rhena and other various traveling riffraff, were not known to think very highly of Lessaenites. The last thing we wanted was to be stopped and publicly ridiculed by such lowly creatures.

"So, Teren, what exactly are we doing?" Holly asked, turning to me, as we reached the wall that separated the Lekhone from the Populati.

"That is a good question."

What exactly were we doing?

"Yeah..." Holly prompted.

"We're going to the Elitia," I pronounced, attempting to sound sure of myself. "We're going to kill the Queen."

"Right," Holly nodded slowly, not looking very convinced.

Soon, we approached the wall that separated the Lekhone from the Populati. Fortunately, we were let through the small gate without any problems due to our trustworthy blue eyes and papery skin.

Ah, the advantages of looking like a Lessaenite. I could get used to this.

"You know, we might be messing everything up by acting too soon. I've heard from several very reliable resources that the Flame is preparing to act on the third day of the Festival of Lumys- the planned day of Princess Tara's wedding. Perhaps, it would be best to wait for them, and execute our attack at the same time as theirs. That way, the Icehearts would already be distracted by the Flames, and would barely notice us."

"I don't need the Flames' help," I scoffed, rolling my eyes.

"Stop letting your ego ruin you," Holly warned. "You can't run a one man show for long. You need to use all resources that are available to you."

"Fine, then," I grumbled, still dissatisfied. I would go along with Holly's plans, so as to not cause any trouble. After all, she had connections with important people in both the Iceheart court and the rebellion.

I mentally decided that this was the very last time I would give up one of my glorious plans for Holly's sake. I loved her, but I didn't love her that much. When I became King, it would take a lot to convince me to let go of one of my spectacular, genius ideas.

"What are we going to do in the meantime?" I asked. "We've got a week before the Festival officially starts."

"This is Glaisse," Holly smiled. "Why are you talking about having nothing to do in the only city in the universe where you can go surfing and skiing. Come on! You're about to have your mind blown."

With that, she grabbed my hand, leading me onward toward the center of the city.