"I knew that lock wasn't enough to stop you."

Saer Lon was by the window across the room, hip propped against the sill and a bottle of liquor in her hand. She didn't even look Ulsper's way as he slid into the room and closed the door behind him with a soft click.

"Then why did you even bother with it?" Ulsper answered, voice low. He stuck to the shadows by the wall, cautious of anyone who might be able to see into the window from outside. From his vantage point, it looked like there was only one building with a window on the second floor facing them, but its curtains were closed.

Saer Lon shrugged, still looking out at the early-morning activities in the street below. She took a swig from her bottle, then let it dangle from her fingertips, her index and middle finger on either side of the ceramic neck.

Ulsper moved forward along the wall, glancing around at the state of the room, with its worn furniture standing dusty and laundry strewn over the back of a lone wooden chair. It looked as though it hadn't been cleaned in weeks.

"You've changed a lot since I last saw you," he said, cautiously. "I was surprised to learn that you run this place. I hadn't realized you'd left the King's Guard."

Saer Lon flashed him a dark look before quickly averting her gaze again. "I had a change of heart," she said, bringing up a finger to trace a shape on one of the glass windowpanes. "After seeing what they did to my brother. Besides, I discovered this place was selling for cheap, and it gave me an easy out." She gestured to the messy, unlit room around them, the bottle swinging in her hand. "Isn't it wonderful?" She ended the question on a short, mocking laugh.

Ulsper didn't smile. "I need to know if I can trust you," he urged. "Your sister-in-law seems to, but she doesn't know—"

"I want to forget it, Ulsper," Saer Lon interrupted, taking another drink before pushing away from the window. "I hope she never finds out. I intend to make sure she doesn't ever have to."

She staggered toward the chair in the middle of the room, and pushed some clothes off the seat before collapsing on top of it. "You're safe here."

"You'll have to convince me," Ulsper replied. This bereft woman was completely different from the self-assured guard he had met three years earlier, proud and sure in her actions. He had disagreed with her convictions, but her outlook had always been for the best. It was a shock for him to see her so grim and hopeless now.

Ulsper slowly stepped out of the shadows, and gently took the ceramic bottle from Saer Lon's grasp, setting it on a side table wordlessly. She grabbed his wrist before he could turn away.

"Ulsper, if I had known, I never would have—"

She broke off her whispered plea when Ulsper looked down to meet her desperate gaze.

"Why did you do it?" he asked, voice flat and cold.

She let her hand drop to her lap. "There are rumors...when Yun Sao killed the royal family, they had a difficult time locating the body of the youngest prince. It's more likely he was just mistaken for one of the slain children of the oldest prince's concubines, and so was never identified properly."

"So you betrayed those people because the king thought the youngest prince might still be alive." Ulsper grit out. "Seventeen years later. Just because they were as old as the prince would have been, you sent them to their deaths."

"Yun Sao doesn't want to risk anyone with Lanfu blood trying to reclaim the throne," Saer Lon explained. "Back then I was foolish enough to believe his empty words and wanted to support him. To create a better Andilir. Could you blame me? A life where my mother didn't have to sell herself in exchange for food and shelter, and my sister and I didn't have to kill for a living. I've always been jealous of the noble ladies who just get to sit and look pretty. Only now do I realize how abominable it was, to send a group of young men to a terrible fate because of my own selfishness. If you hadn't intervened—"

"Sylterra is a neutral third party to the conflict between the old Loyalists and the New Patriots," Ulsper interrupted with a warning look. "I was merely sent by my country to observe. To intervene would have been to break that neutrality, and I did not do that."

"Of course.  But without you, my brother would be dead," Saer Lon continued. "And for that, I am immensely grateful. That is why you can trust me."

Ulsper gave a short nod. Her explanation was satisfactory enough that he would not immediately leave with Suthe and seek shelter elsewhere, but he would not let down his guard, either. The longer they stayed with Saer Lon, he figured, the more likely it would be that she would revert to her New Patriot ideals and turn them in, perhaps as a desperate bid to free her brother.

"You need not involve yourself any further than this," Ulsper said. "We only plan to stay here for a short time, until I can speak to the general. About—"

"About the Twin Blades?"

Ulsper stilled, and looked back down at her. "Yes. Nem Koel told you?"  He would have to warn the girl about being too trusting and telling their business to others.

Saer Lon nodded. "What I don't understand is why you're trying to learn more about them before actually finding them. You do realize three of the four countries in the Central Territory are racing to find them? It'll do you no good to know the blades' history if you don't have them at your disposal, first."

"But there's no hope of finding them unless we know more about them," Ulsper countered. "If we know how they originated, we'll know what groups were in charge of keeping them over the years and where they would have been stored before they fell into disuse and became a legend. It's better than just blindly ransacking villages, hoping to find them stored in a cupboard somewhere."

Saer Lon heaved a sigh. "Seolosu will probably tell you to start with the jewels first, then," she said.

"The jewels?" Ulsper's gaze slid to the ceramic bottle, gleaming an innocent white on the side table. It hadn't been very heavy when he'd relieved Saer Lon of it. Was this just a drunken ramble, or did it hold any truth?

Saer Lon's cheeks were a rosy pink in the light streaming through the window, and she squinted and leaned back, into the shadows of the room. "Well, obviously if they originated in this country, as the legend states, they would have been inlaid with some sort of jewels," she said, her s's slurring on the last word. "The north of Pretia was renowned for its jewelers at that time, and all weapons were designed to glitter like the stars and show the nation's prosperity. It's only a shame that the skill of jewel inlay and design has now become a trade of only the most privileged in Andilir's capital."

"You think we'll find the answer in Sang Bur, then," Ulsper stated.

Saer Lon shrugged again, and nearly fell off her chair. Ulsper caught her shoulder and helped right her, and the woman's head lolled to the side to face him. This close to her, Ulsper could smell the whiff of alcohol on her breath.

"Northern Pretia was full of forges and mines," Saer Lon reasoned, suddenly quieter at their proximity. "Why wouldn't the swords have been crafted in the traditional Pretian style?"

"Well, for starters, they were imbued with magic," Ulsper countered. "That alone could have altered the design of the blades."

Saer Lon struggled to sit upright again, and Ulsper carefully let her go. "Well, what do I know?" she said. "I know you hate me for what I did and would sooner listen to the advice of a wood rat. But I doubt Seolosu knows much more than I do."

"Hate is a strong word," Ulsper said. "I disapprove of what you did, but your intentions—"

"Were selfish," Saer Lon interrupted, and Ulsper caught the way her face crumpled with disappointment and regret before she turned away from him to hide her reaction.

"The only thing you can do is learn from your mistakes," he said, and this time his tone was gentler than it had been. "We all have done things we regret."

"Not on this scale," she muttered to the far wall with a sniff. "I'll never forgive myself."

Hesitantly, Ulsper reached out a hand and set it on her shoulder. She gave a start at the touch, but eventually turned back to look at him, tears streaked down her face.

"I'll take your words into consideration," he said, voice still soft. "You should get some sleep."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Well, Saer Lon's character did not turn out AT ALL like I had originally planned.  In fact, this case might actually be worse than when I was planning Nara's character from Ballad and those plans went haywire as well.

If you're still reading, thank you for your patience with these random, very slow updates.  And happy almost-New Year!