The Firelands

68 - The Masked Princess

10th day of the forth Month, Worth's Moon

8:00 pm

Fountain City

"So... a dragon."

"Yes... That was a dragon."

"And... a dragon rider."

"So it seemed."

"Who wanted to kill you."

"... A figure of speech, I'm sure."

"So that's why we're sat in a sewers while a water city above us tries to avoid burning."

"You chose the sewers."

Kalen frowned at Cascadeia from where he sat across the tunnel and Cascadeia gave the middle distance off to her left a very innocent look, so he kicked her foot and she sneered at him.

He sighed and tilted his head back – before thinking twice about it, even if this area was clean in appearance, he didn't actually want to touch too much, his over shirt was already sacrificed to the floor for seating.

"So why is a dragon rider chasing you?" he asked and Cascadeia bit her lip.

"I may have annoyed her," she admitted.

"Oh yes?"

"... Well she does look stupid standing on its head," she insisted and Kalen rolled his eyes.

"And here I thought someone such as yourself would be better at controlling your words."

Cascadeia looked at him out of the corner of her eye, then raised an eyebrow. "And who might I be that I warrant such an expectation?"

"Would the only princess of the Mask Kingdom not be more genteel?" he asked and he saw the tiny muscles in Cascadeia's body tighten.

Slowly, she turned her head towards him, looking at him, her mouth a steady line, like she were examining him. "Now," she said carefully, "How would you know that?"

"People talk, I hear," he replied simply, "though we did not know you by face, seems others do."

"I am a Masked Princess, people do not know me by face," Cascadeia said. "Who is this person who told you?"

"Someone I trust and has no intention of causing you harm. Will you trust my word on that?"

Cascadeia looked at him for a long silent moment, then leant back. "I trust you," she said, "Though from our last meeting, I believe that is more then you do for me."

Kalen winced, looking away. He knew this topic would come up, but he hadn't wanted to confront it. Far easier to just pretend that it had never happened then face it – but then, he hadn't been as hurt or insulted by it as she had been.

"We had our reasons for what happened in the Winter Realm," he said, looking at her.

"I know," she said, her tone light, her eyes less so. "Theth said I was not to be trusted. You believed him."

Kalen looked at her, opening mouth and she held up a hand to stop him.

"I am not angry that you chose to trust the word of a companion over the word of a girl you barely know – I am neither petty nor unrealistic. In fact it would have worried me more should you have ignored his word, Theth is clearly not a fool."

"I do apologise though," Kalen said, "For the slander of character."

"Apologise accepted," she said, with a shallow nod of the head. "I do understand Theth's suspicions, I know we both have people chasing us. But just as you cannot share with me your reasons for adventure, I cannot share mine."