Sarphi's POV

I kept Prin in the dark the entire way back to the bakery, even though I was so tempted to burst into laughter whenever I thought of what I had heard the farmer's wife say to the gardener. My shoulders were somewhat relaxed, which they hadn't done all day. I knew that she had an idea of what was happening, but she wasn't allowing herself to be happy until the words left my mouth.

It wasn't until Ka was hiding behind our screen, shrugging at her feet and legs did we actually have time to talk about what was going on. Ka didn't seem too pleased that she'd be getting cleaned up, but we had reminded her that the cake was going to be closer if she washed quickly.

"What is it?" Prin all but hissed to me when we stood in the kitchen, the two of us examining Ka's dress and taking turns scrubbing and picking off bits of dirt. I felt like we could've just used magic for this, but Prin had insisted that we at least tried to get it out by fair means.

"I don't think that the farmer's wife is good at keeping secrets," I told her with a wide grin on my face. "I really think that Queenie should get another minion to work for her, that is if she wants to stay ruling the village."

"Sarphi," Prin whined. "You're not actually telling me what happened. What did you hear?" I noticed that the more dirt was leaving the dress the more irritated she got. I wasn't cruel enough to keep it dangling over her head for much longer.

"She basically told him that she had the cake. She literally told him that she had the cake." At least, I was pretty sure. If she was willing to say something so close to the truth, then it wouldn't be long before she spilled.

"She what?" Prin asked with disbelief, her hands stopping their movements.

I nodded and put my hand on the back of hers, using her hand to scrub the dress for her. "Yeah," I replied, still grinning. "I'm pretty sure that she really just told him that the cake was inside her house."

"But what about the cake at the hall?" Prin questioned quickly. "What about Niko and Cade? Why were they forced to leave due to a spiking if the farmer's wife was such a-" She stopped talking, probably a little too shy to say anything bad about the woman.

"Because they've been friends forever," Ka's voice said from just behind us. She was dripping wet in the middle of the doorway, getting footprints on the floor. "Do you have a towel? Or a piece of cloth please?"

I nodded and quickly took my hand away from Prin's, rushing back into our room and getting a spare towel. "I told you to shout to us," I scolded softly as I wrapped the towel around her legs. Crouching down. "You scrub really quickly." I gave a small smile, trying to pretend like we weren't talking about too much whilst she wasn't there, but she seemed to know what was going on.

"The missing cake was real, right?" Ka asked quietly. "It was fun to play, but it's not that fun when it's real. I like cake." I couldn't agree more.

"Yes, it was real," Prin informed quietly as she finished cleaning out most of the dirt from the front of the dress, turning it over to address the back. "Though, I don't even know if it's been resolved. If the farmer's wife told your father that she had the cake, then surely, we're home-free?"

"We're already at home," I pointed out, but I got ignored.

"I don't know if my father is smart enough to put the pieces together. You know, the part about you guys taking me to play games and stuff. But I also don't know if he'd recognise the fact that the cake she's talking about is the one for my birthday." Ka was talking a lot more now, and she was making much more sense than she was before. It was like I was looking at a different person, which made me feel rather uneasy.

"You're smarter than you pretend to be, huh?" I asked slowly. I stood up and crossed my arms over my chest. "Is that a way for you to get whatever you want?"

Ka gave a sheepish smile. "Yeah, kinda." She nodded quickly. "Some of the other kids and Darman said that it's a good technique here. You gotta act all the time to do well here, and if I do well, then Queenie stays away."

"Darman?" Prin questioned, glancing over her shoulder at us. "Who's Darman?"

Ka looked at her as though she'd begun singing and dancing. "You don't know Darman? He lives across the road from you. He's the one with the long blonde hair, good with weapons?"

Prin paused. "Across the road?" she repeated thoughtfully, her face losing some colour. "I know him, but I didn't know that was his name."

I frowned a little and nudged her elbow. "You okay?" I whispered, though Ka would most definitely still hear.

She smiled and nodded very unconvincingly. "Yeah, I was just a little surprised to learn his name. I've seen him around a few times."

"You have?" Ka inquired with a strange look on her face. "He is hardly ever seen. He's like a shadow, a shadow full of darkness. He's only seen if he allows you to see him."

The room was eerily silent for a moment, only interrupted with Onyx barking loudly, snapping us all out of our thoughts.

"Well, that's creepy and somewhat terrifying," I commented as I took the dress from Prin and moved over to Ka, gesturing for her to lift her arms so I could put it on her. "Good as new. Or at least as close as we're going to get today."

Ka complied and lifted her arms, standing up and putting her shoes back on. "And now, it's time for wishes and cake." She clapped her hands excitedly and walked over to Onyx, patting his head. "Can't I just play here, and you bring me cake?" She gave us the puppy-dog eyes.

I bent down a little. "If playing cute is rule number one, then rule number two is not trying to be cute to those who are also aware of the rules." I grinned and shook my head. "We have to go and keep our faces clean in the eyes of your father and the rest of the village."

Prin snorted and pushed herself off the wall. "Okay, I think that's enough for strange sayings. Let's just go and see if there's actually cake there."

I nodded. "And if not, then we have more." I reached into the cupboard and pulled out another cake box. It had been kept cold in there, and it was almost perfect. "It's not decorated at all, but he saw the decorations earlier, right?"

Onyx licked his lips and ran around Ka, volunteering to be the excuse if anything went wrong.

"Are we going back to the hall, or the farm?" Ka asked, shifting from foot to foot. "I don't like the farm."

"I don't blame you," I said quietly before clearing my throat. "We're going to the hall, maybe it'll be even more interesting than it was the first time." I put a gentle hand on her back, urging her forward.

"It wouldn't have to try very hard, no offence." Ka moved towards the door, dragging her feet begrudgingly.

"None taken," Prin said with a laugh, taking the box from me. "It's not really our scene at all."

I opened my mouth to argue with her, because I rather liked parties and such, but I somewhat agreed. This birthday party was more like a village meeting rather than a celebration of Ka. "Maybe we can do something different next year?" I tried to sound cheerful and optimistic, but I didn't know if we would still be here this time next year. I longed to see Senka, Acer, and Aknon again and to get out of here.

"That'd be the best thing ever!" Ka cheered, clapping her hands and racing to the door. "I won't tell father, that'd be a bad idea, right? It should be subtle, and when you make good friends with him you can convince him to let me get a puppy too, right?"

I laughed and nodded just to please her. "Sure." Then the four of us were off again, heading to the hall.

The hall was quiet when we arrived. Everyone was whispering to each other in tones I couldn't hear.

Ka looked around with a small frown. "What happened?" she whispered up to us, looking just as confused as I felt.

I glanced at Prin and shrugged. "Why don't we ask your father?" I urged in my own whisper as we headed in his direction. He hadn't seemed to notice us, as his back was to the door. "Sir?"

He turned, his expression a deep frown, which only lightened slightly when he saw his daughter. "Welcome back girls. I see that you did a fine job with Ka's dress and cleanliness. For that, I thank you." He sounded like he was holding something back. I didn't know why he wasn't saying what he wanted to say, but it filled me with an unsettled feeling.

"Why's everyone whispering?" Ka asked boldly/ "Did we come too late? Has there already been cake? There's no surprises, so why's it so quiet?" She crossed her arms over her chest.

The farmer awkwardly cleared his throat. "Ka, could you please do me a favour and go play with the others?" I didn't know which 'others' he was talking about, but I supposed he meant the other children.

Ka huffed and stomped her foot, before nodding and stalking off, looking like she would pounce on anyone who got in her way. Onyx trailed after her, glancing between us a few times before catching up.

"Girls, we have some serious business to discuss."

Why did that sound like a threat?