I found the former Vyndoli princess, as I had expected, in her rooms thrown carelessly atop her bed in a puddle of tears. I hesitated in the doorway as she had not heard my entrance but then I closed the door silently behind me and crossed the room to sit at her side. I reached out and touched her shoulder gently and she jumped as she turned to face me. Her dark hair had come partly undone and the strands blew about her face in an untidy mess. She breathed and one blew away from her lips.

"P-Princess!" she gasped, wide-eyed, and then sat up straighter and made a pathetic show of straightening herself. I placed a hand gently on her forearm to still her and gave her the kindest smile I could.

"Do not trouble yourself. I only come to offer comfort," I told her and watched as she visibly relaxed. I patted her arm before withdrawing from the contact. "I know you are distraught. I know that this was not what you expected. You were under the impression that our families had an arrangement."

"They did. My father told me-"

I held up a hand.

"Men lie," I said simply, maintaining my smile as best as I could. "You're far too old to not have learned that lesson already. Your father told you that your match was agreed upon just as my father told me the road to Vyndoli was safe and my brother told me that I could choose who I married. Men lie, Princess, that should have been the very first lesson you learned."

She frowned and stared down at her hands as I stood and walked over to where a decanter of wine and two glasses sat ignored on a nearby table.

"The second," I said as I poured "is that if you wish not to be discarded, you must make yourself indispensable to them. And, I'm afraid, love and duty are not enough."

I turned back, handed her the glass, and sipped from my own as I stared down at her from over the rim. She was pretty enough with her dark Vyndolian hair and plain, empty eyes. But she had been bred for one thing and now that it was stolen from her, she was a ship without a sail, lost with no direction, nothing pushing her onward.

"For me, I've used my wit. Men do not like to admit that a woman can be clever but my military strategies have won some of my brother's best-known battles so, as controversial as the move may be, he still seeks my counsel in all matters of war. That may change but, for now, it is enough. You must find your strength, something outside of your beauty, something that will not fade. If you want to be important at court, you must bring something to the table."

"But your brother has banished me from court," she reminded me, her eyes filling with tears again. "He didn't... he doesn't want to see me."

"I know what it's like to be unwanted," I touched her forearm in comfort once more. "But men are fickle. They do not know what they want. What Acton wants today may not be what Acton wants tomorrow. He is surrounded by noble women, beautiful women who have been raised to stand silently and look pretty. They are all the same. What makes you different?"

With that, I stood and, setting my wine glass on the table, headed for the door. As my fingers brushed the bronze knob, I threw a glance over my shoulder.

"You will always have friends in Etzera, Princess. We will never forget what happened to your family. But, if I were you, I would pick the widows."

"Excuse me?" she called back, eyebrows knitted in confusion. I smiled.

"As wise and noble a cause as dedicating one's life to God may be, the nuns, I'm afraid, require certain vows that are such a pain to get out of," I told her and, as a smile touched my lips, I winked. "If you should have need to, of course."

Her smile told me she understood my meaning and I left her in her rooms feeling much more hopeful than I had found her. And she should. I had just informed the former princess that I did not think her part was yet played in this and I meant it. 

My brother was infatuated with Lady Kyla but he would be a fool to ignore the opportunity sitting in front of him in an elegant dress and a beautiful face. But if I were to convince him of this, it would take every chance I had to get him away from the Lady. Perhaps devise some scenario in which one of them was forced away from the palace. Of course, that task would be nearly impossible given my most recent orders to travel to the front with Tyne and his men. 

Speaking of which, I thought I heard their voices now. I paused and turned to find the ruckus coming through the open door of the dining hall. I pushed it open and stepped inside to find a table of men engaged in raucous conversion and bawdy laughter. Hawk was standing to the side, smile on his face and cup to his lips. The other two and their leader did not seem to be present. He caught my eye as I crossed the room to him and I saw a hint of surprise in his expression. I almost smiled. This was a much different Hawk than the man I had seen standing stern-faced at his master's side only hours before.

"Princess," he bowed slightly in greeting as I approached. His men did not seem to notice my presence and continued their commotion as I settled in next to him, folding my hands carefully in front of me. "I can tell them to settle down if it pleases you."

"Nonsense," I answered, unable to contain my grin as one of the men mimed an act of fornication and Hawk cleared his throat and, red-faced, turned me away to lead me to a private table in the corner. "It is good to see men enjoying our ale and camaraderie again. I'm afraid it's been a rather grim place since the war began."

He nodded in understanding as we sat.

"War weighs on a man," he said simply and I watched him as his gaze drifted back to his comrades.

"Not just men," I told him and he looked back at me. I smiled. "This is a test, you know."

"Pardon?"

"This battle. At the border. My brother means to use it to test your leader. The way that a man fights for a cause that is not his own, out of duty, says a lot about his character. That is what my brother wishes to ascertain. Tyne of Vyndoli's character."

"In all fairness, Princess, killing Rirdans is Tyne's cause. So, if your brother means to test him, he hasn't given him much of a challenge."

I reached over and took the cup from the table in front of him. I smiled at him as I sipped. He looked surprised but amused by my boldness.

"We will see," I told him, handing it back. He snatched it and tipped it, draining the rest in a gulp. He set it down on the table, hard, in the way of men proud of their drink. "Do not underestimate Acton."

"Do not underestimate Tyne."

"I believe I have been," I told him but my eyes strayed casually to the men bursting into laughter across the hall. "Since you arrived."

I waved and a servant brought two more mugs of ale. Hawk began drinking his the moment it was set in front of him. I refrained, watching him down it to the dregs and wipe away the foam from his beard.

"He freed me from prison," he told me then and I raised my brows in amusement, pushing my still full cup of ale toward him as an offering. He took it, tilted it toward me in recognition of the gift, and took a much slower sip from the top. "A prison I was locked inside of for the simple fact of my birth, what I looked like, and my accent. He freed a hundred of us that night, broke the bonds and killed the guards, and we ran. We lost some in the process but those few moments of escape were the most I'd ever lived in my life. I vowed to follow him then, to see what other great things this man might do. And I have seen plenty in the two years since."

"The loyal three," I smiled, as he took another sip and I motioned for a refill. "But you seem to be the most outspoken of them, Mr. Hawthorne."

The mention of his real name earned raised eyebrows from him though it seemed that he was more impressed than surprised.

"I was warned the Etzerian King had spies in Vyndoli," he said.

"The Princess too," I replied and he shook his head, a smirk on his lips. I pushed the full cup toward him and said. "Spies who saw Mr. Remy Wells leaving the confines of the palace this afternoon."

Hawk's smile faltered but only for a moment. His eyes seemed to clear and he looked up at me then, setting his cup down, and truly meeting my eyes for the first time.

"I know what you're doing," he told me, gesturing at the empty cups littering the table in front of him. "And you aren't the first to try it. I could tell you everything about Tyne Sutton. But here is what you need to know, Princess. He is a good man who does good things for the sake of being good. No matter how hard it might be. He is honorable, fiercely loyal to his duty, and has the purest heart of any man I've ever met."

With that, he slapped the table and took another drink but, when the sipping subsided, he emerged with a playful smile on his face and a chuckling reverberating from low in his throat.

"Though, I imagine, the way he looks at you, the purity of his thoughts may be a different thing entirely."