Ch. 6: Deception

Adrian made his way through the secret passages towards where he believed the Rose Princess' chambers to be after breaking away from Sydney, who agreed to wait for him in a specific part of the intricate network of sewer tunnels underneath the castle. She had insisted that she wasn't feeling well, and would only slow him down. Despite the fact that the castle was similar fundamentally to the one in Ortain it became increasingly obvious that the additions that had been made, such as the dungeon in the courtyard where Jasper's cottage had been in Ortain's castle, were more extensive and subtle than he realized. After a while of wandering in the general direction he believed to be correct, Adrian lost his reference point. Lost in an unfamiliar area, he was forced to exit the passages to find out where he was. He chose a steamy bathhouse as his exit point.

As soon as he closed the secret door behind him, he regretted his choice for multiple reasons, starting with the fact that the door fit into the wall so well that he couldn't figure out how to get it back open. Unfortunately for him, this was low on his list of concerns, because he heard a familiar voice curse, "I just wanted one bath without interruption."

The Rose Princess paused for a moment, thinking, "I told them that I did not need anyone to come in until after I am finished. Do not touch anything, just leave."

Her arm appeared out of the red… Blood? No joke, her arm came out of the blood that she was bathing in long enough to point out a door that he could barely see through the steam. He stammered an apology in a high pitched voice before slipping through the door as quickly as possible, grateful for the haze that made it impossible for them to make out anything accurately beyond voices. Once clear of the danger of being spotted by his enemy, Adrian released a breath that he hadn't even realized that he had been holding and looked around the room that the Rose Princess had directed him into, half expecting a corridor full of elite guards, too surprised to immediately react to his appearance. Instead, he found himself exactly where he needed to be; in the Rose Princess's private chambers, themselves, completely alone.

Her chambers were nothing like he had expected. Given the evil and sadistic sociopathic nature that he had already seen from her, he expected mirrors, self-portraits, and disturbing, graphic images covering the walls and some sort of trophy case with things she had stolen displayed inside, from severed heads to weapons and jewelry, hopefully including the Kingstone. Instead of anything gruesome and self serving, though, the only portrait on the wall was one of a young Rosemary, sitting with a straight back, an innocent smile, baby blue eyes, and a white rose in her hair. She looked beautiful and happy in the portrait, which made him seriously doubt that it was really her, even though her name was signed on the rose in red ink. The only mirror was a full sized one, shoved in the corner and covered by a thin black shroud and a layer of dust, and there were only three weapons, an ebony black blade with a deep blue jewel at the hilt, a small dagger, and his Whiteblood sword, displayed on top of the dresser in mint condition. The rest of the room was surprisingly neat, with a small balcony, a hardwood floor with a red carpet that matched the walls and the perfectly made bed with red satin sheets. Adrian immediately made for the weapons on the dresser after a long moment of taking in the room, but his hand went right through his sword, and the other sword. Even the knife was some sort of mirage. He frantically searched the dresser, but other than clothes, the only thing he found was a bag of coins hidden deep in one of the drawers. It seemed that the coins this country used were the same as Uriah used, another strange similarity that he just added to the growing record. He left the money in the drawer, with no pockets to carry it in, and slammed the drawer shut.

"Need that money, by the way." A familiar voice behind him remarked. He spun around, accidentally grabbing at the fake weapons as he backed into the dresser. She noticed.

"They're not really there. Don't you hate that type of magic? It's tricky, meant to annoy thieves." She mocked, leaning smugly against the wall, her red nightgown blending in with the paint. Even though her hair was wet, with red bloody streaks from not completely washing it, the way her wet, porcelain white skin glistened in the light made her look strikingly beautiful.

"Takes a thief to know a thief." he reminded her, trying to ignore the distracting allure that she was obviously well trained at flaunting. It didn't help, for as much as Adrian was used to attractive women with large fortunes trying to seduce him for political reasons, no other girl had half the allure of this petite sociopath.

"You are partially right, I am definitely a thief. I'm also an assassin, but you clearly aren't, because you don't know anything about how a thief thinks." She chided.

"And how does a thief think?" She sighed, mulling over his question in her head. It irritated him how good she was at distracting men.

"A thief tends to hide everything important in a hard to find spot, but it's gotta be easy to access." Then, she did something completely unexpected: She took a key that she had hidden around her neck and unlooped it. Then, she tossed it to him.

"The only set of drawers in this room is my dresser. There are no other secret hiding spots in these walls. Everything I steal personally, or value in any way, is in a secret compartment on the side. Hidden keyhole in the back corner, on the lip of the left side.He found the keyhole after a bit of searching, but held the key, indecisive. This made her shift her weight, cross her arms, and sigh, annoyed.

"If you haven't noticed, I'm extremely calm right now. I'm not acting, that bath just calmed my bloodlust and cleared my head, but I could still easily overpower you in a fight. On top of that, there are multiple guards just outside this room. If this was a trap, it would be dishonorable and a waste of my valuable time." She reasoned. He realized that she was entirely right. She held all the cards, if she really wanted him caught, it would be as easy as a single shout.

He unlocked the drawer and went through the contents, all the while keeping one eye on the princess, who rolled her eyes and made show off cleaning her fingernails.

The mirage weapons on the shelf were in the drawer, along with two sets of high quality leather armor, one purple, and a blue one that easily could have been fished out of his own closet. Below the gear was a bunch of jewelry, shiny, expensive things, and a thick layer of highly valuable coins, the type that only rich people could carry. She was obviously an extremely talented thief, but one thing was missing.

Adrian grabbed the first sword he could reach, the black one, and angrily charged at her, placing the tip to her unsurprised and vulnerable throat.

"Where is the…" He trailed off, looking her in the eyes. These were eyes that he recognized. They were baby blue, which made him realize that she was definitely the girl that he had chased back in Ortain, even though all of the human emotions that she had conveyed through her expression back then were gone, unreadable, or maybe just pushed down and hidden so deeply that not even she recognized them. Just like before, though, the started to pull something deep inside him to the surface, but it slipped away.

"Toilet's through that door, if you were going to ask." She mocked casually.

"Where is the Kingstone." He asked.

"Everything I steal goes into that drawer, unless I give it away. The only exceptions are food." She told him. It was amazing how someone could look so annoyed with a sword pressed against her throat.

"Where did you put the Stone?"

"You know I lie a lot?" She asked.

"I've figured that out. Just tell me what you did with the Kingstone."