While Rin slept happily tucked in, thinking that the warm quilt and bed were the best she had ever gotten to sleep in, a silent uproar happened that afternoon in the prince manor. The place was inhabitated by close to 70 people between guards, servants and helpers and all of them would make the journey back to Detch but while they busily packed, the happenings of the day were amply discussed. The Prince manor was after all, a manor of an exiled prince from a foreign nation and its size, staff and furnishings were minimal compared to the ones of the imperial family and downright insulting when put beside his own properties in and around Detch.
Prince Lyn went back to his study at the main Hall. The one in his personal quarters would be the last to be packed as well as the effects in the room Rin was sleeping in and the contents would travel close with him as they were his most used and preferred things. He had thought to travel back by horse in two separate groups, not by carriage because it would be faster and less troublesome. That plan had gone to hell the moment he signed the marriage contract and new arrangements needed to be done in haste.
He signed the last stack of parchments left. Missives sent to the Imperial family thanking their hospitality and magnanimity in his exile. He bid farewell in person already and he was so fed up with these people that the only news he wanted to hear from them after leaving this forgotten lands would be that of his friend ascending to the throne. When that happened, only then would he extend his hand to help these lands without regard to the distance separating them. With the reports he had received, it seemed his friend had dodged the attempt to his life and reputation quite well, turns out the Emperors who had been called to investigate the unspeakeable relationship between the princes, found the Crown Prince in the arms of none other but the Princess of the Khals, the famous wandering doctor belonging to a tribe with knowledge that could bring people from deathsdoor and whose beauty had been praised to no ends. He had know she had been working as Prince Ken right hand in the shadow guards for two years now and that both seemed to have developed feelings for each other but did not act on them because of simple stubborness. The poison had forced their hands and bodies and she had chosen to reveal her presence beside the Prince to keep his reputation intact, if not enhanced because it was not anyone that could gain the favor of such a talented beautiful woman. It was such huge news for the people in this kingdom that his own departure became buried under the sensation caused by the episode.
-People today are concerned with the fact that this kingdom now is allied with the Khals by marriage, which manner of gifts will the Imperial family send to wash up the fact that the couple had not been engaged much less married when they were found together-Steward Lan explained-Since you were not found at the Prince Ken manor, only the people who wanted to kill know you were actually there and they have remained silent-
-Good, we are leaving this place tomorrow, but change the route to be taken to this-he passed a map to the older man. You and I will both lead two parts of the convoy and the shadow guards will also go with us-
Steward Lan knew that was not the original plan but with the recent happenings, they needed to change things and make the other party guess what they were going to do. The shadow guards would clean shop here several days after their departure but now, they were to travel together, all because of Princess Rin.
-My Lord-he ventured, I saw the family records and her title...
-I know-he said-her name is a complete mess. But it is cryptic enough that only she and I know what those words actually mean-he offered-Dont ask, I intend to keep the reason to my grave and beyond.
Steward Lan assented. He sent word to the Empress about it so she could take the necessary measures on her side to cover things up for a time. It had been easy enough to beat some sense into the shadow guards so they would not repeat what they saw before, much less call her the Phoenix Warrior. She was weak and needed complete secrecy to grow into her power overtime, otherwise the great powers of the world would try to snatch her away for their own use, most likey at the cost of the lives of anyone who had been in contact with her. Almost all shadow guards were orphans, but many took family and had children upon their retirement and worked as servants in the manor or in the many businesses Prince Hekili had all over the lands. None would want to see their families be slaughtered because they could not keep a secret.
-Was the Princess pleased with the maids?-he hoped so, the manor was very short on ladies and these 3 were hard to find as it was. Despite his misgivings about women, a few lived full time on the manor because they were married to the ex ghost guards turned servants that the Prince favored and the 3 maidservants had been sent by the Empress a couple of years ago, fully trained and capable of tending to a prospective Princess, maybe because mothers never lost faith that troubled children could do better.
-Yes, keep them at hand and give them materials to tend to Rin-he did not need add that only the best was to be given to his wife. It might be a marriage in name only, but he would not see her in anything but the most luxurious items his money could buy.
Steward Land asked a last question, the one he had been steeling himself to ask all day.
-My Lord, shall we prepare another room for you tonight?-It was mid afternoon, it was now or never and he dared not assume anything on this particular issue. He had seen how the Prince could be in close contact with this woman and his joy about it was so great that he would fight it out with whomever dared to question Lady´s Rin beauty or age. But he had also seen how his Lord kept his distance from women all these years, despite having reached marriagable age years ago when he turned 18.
Lyn stared at the older man and saw a faint blush on his cheeks after a while. The guards and Steward Lan knew that Lady Rin and the Prince had been very intimate the night before due to the poison but their upbringing was on the conservative side so no word was spoken about that.
-No need, I will sleep in the same quarters as the Princess from this day on-he added for further shock-I am her husband and my utmost duty is to protect her.
Steward Lan blushed even harder and Prince Lyn smiled faintly. He knew nothing would happen yet between them because the woman he had come to know would need to be pursued, pampered and cherished before she decided to touch him again, before he could see the smoldering look of desire in her golden eyes again and he was not the type of man to fall in love with just the sight of a beauty. But to his people, it would look as if they were on a honeymoon and living a legendary romance with just a few actions they performed.
Lyn was left alone pondering. He knew he had bonded her to him with the marriage and it had been a brilliant move on his part, motivated by gratefulness and blessed with the luck of many lifetimes. In the whole 70 thousands years of recorded history in his world, the Phoenix Warrior had manifested only 6 times and here he could brag that the seventh incarnation was his wife. However, he was no fool and had not survived so many things by being sloppy. For the sake of his long term plans, he would need to bind her even more tightly, so much that she would never even think of leaving nor betraying him. With what he knew about her life, that meant making her so madly in love with him that she would risk it all, and that love would have to be cimented on real life things such as their day to day relationship, trying to change the relationship to a real one, maybe even having some descendants together. He would have to work hard and provide her with her life´s dream come true.
By the time evening came and he left everything finally settled, he had come to a final decision about the matter. Slowly but surely, he would make her his, so completely that after he was done, she would be his willingly. He would come to remember today as the moment he set course in the right path for the wrong reasons and to think how naive he had been to think he could bind her when it had been him who had been at her mercy first.