It had been a while since Emerion had gone to have a conversation with Anathema.
Arlienne had finished filling out the refund documents before the Captain finished processing them, which hadn't taken long.
He left the ship promptly after, the papers tucked under his arm with the ease of someone who has completed the first part of a plan and found it satisfactory. As promised, Anathema's two guards remained in the dining hall.
Arlienne ordered three plates of sushi.
She sat with one leg crossed over the other, her posture relaxed, the faint aroma of vinegar and fresh fish rising from the plates as the waitress set them down.
She ate with perfect etiquette unhurried, precise and wore the expression of a noble girl with nowhere in particular to be and nothing in particular on her mind.
The guards stood a few feet away.
"Why is she not suspicious yet?" Ryuuken whispered to Rui, keeping his voice low enough that he thought it couldn't be heard.
Rui made a sharp hissing sound. He replied without moving his mouth much.
"I don't know. But it's better if she doesn't get suspicious."
He observed Arlienne carefully. Her expression hadn't shifted once since they sat down the same polite, slightly mysterious smile, the same clear blue eyes that gave nothing away. It was the kind of face that made it genuinely impossible to determine whether she was thinking deeply or not thinking at all.
"It's been an hour," Ryuuken whispered again, concern working its way into his voice. "Do you think Mui will be okay? It should've been over by now. The captain should've given us a signal."
"I know," Rui replied. "But trust Mui and his decision to make the deal. Our job is to keep an eye on the silver haired girl."
He kept his tone steady. Underneath it, the worry sat anyway. They both understood that Emerion wasn't an easy opponent but Mui had the captain's two slaves helping him, which should have turned the odds. Should have.
"Hey." Arlienne's voice reached them without any particular emphasis. "Do you guys want to eat?"
Both guards straightened involuntarily.
Rui's first instinct was to refuse. The food could be compromised. But he paused the dishes had been placed fresh in front of her, steam still faintly rising, ordered from a waitress who had no reason to know who they were or what they were doing.
Refusing would be conspicuous. Joining her would make them look harmless.
He put a subtle hand on Ryuuken's arm before Ryuuken could speak.
"We would be honored to join," Rui said, walking toward the table.
Ryuuken glanced at him but followed.
Up close, her presence was different. Not threatening something else.
Her blue eyes were clear and unhurried, her movements refined in the specific way of someone who grew up in rooms where refinement was simply the expectation. The polite smile hadn't moved.
Ryuuken thought, not for the first time, that if he didn't know her lineage he might have been genuinely charmed. That was almost certainly the point.
"You two seem very loyal to your lord," Arlienne said pleasantly. "What are your names? I don't remember us introducing ourselves."
"Why do you think we need to introduce ourselves to you?" Ryuuken said, his voice coming out with slightly more edge than he intended.
Rui discreetly pinched him.
"My apologies on behalf of my friend," Rui said smoothly. "He is an Imperial Knight very protective of his lord. And given our recent interactions, some hostility is understandable."
"I see." Arlienne lifted another piece of sushi. "You remind me of my brother. He also tends to hold grudges over past actions." She ate with unhurried precision. "I hope the talks between Anathema and my brother go well."
She gestured lightly toward the remaining plates.
"Why don't you eat as well? I'm sure you must be hungry."
Rui found no solid reason to refuse. He picked up his fork. Ryuuken followed a moment later.
"My name is Rui," he said after a beat. "I am an advisor to our lord. And this is my friend, Ryuuken."
For just a fraction of a second so brief Rui genuinely wasn't sure he'd seen it Arlienne's smile curved slightly higher.
"I see," she said. "I'm Arlienne, and my brother's name is Emerion. I hope we can at least be acquaintances."
She finished her food. Despite eating with such deliberate elegance, she had somehow moved through all three plates faster than either of them.
She rose from her seat and extended her hand to Rui. He hesitated for a moment, then shook it.
"I'll see you around," she said pleasantly. "I need to take a walk after eating."
She excused herself and walked out of the dining hall at a pace that was neither hurried nor slow just a person finishing a meal and moving on with their day.
The two guards sat in the silence she left behind.
The silence stretched for a full three seconds before either of them processed what had just happened.
They were supposed to keep an eye on her.
They were supposed to stop her from leaving the dining room even if it meant fighting.
"She left," Ryuuken muttered.
Then he turned to Rui.
"You idiot!" He punched Rui on the head. "She got away!"
Rui rubbed the back of his head with the expression of a man accepting a consequence he had, in retrospect, seen coming.
"I can still use my technique and hide in her shadow," he said, already pushing his chair back. "Let's go."
They stood.
"Excuse me, gentlemen."
The voice came from directly in front of them.
An elderly woman in a white apron stood blocking their path with the complete stillness of someone who has decided where they are standing and has no plans to move. Her posture was straight.
Her gaze had the particular authority of someone who has been doing this for a long time and finds it effortless.
"You are not allowed to leave without finishing your food," she said.
Rui blinked. "Pardon?"
Ryuuken scoffed. "What are you talking about, you old hag? The girl already paid. Why are you stopping us?"
He reached out
Clang.
The pan connected with Ryuuken's face with a sound that carried cleanly across the dining hall. He went backward and hit the floor with the full commitment of someone who had not seen it coming even slightly.
Rui stared.
He had no idea where she had pulled the pan from.
"You have no manners," the old woman said, looking down at Ryuuken with complete composure. "First you try to leave without finishing your food, and now you insult me?"
People were beginning to look. It was approaching lunchtime and the hall was filling.
"We're sorry," Rui said quickly, bowing his head. "We can pay more if needed, but we really must leave urgently."
Her eyes didn't soften.
"If you had urgent business, you should have finished it before coming here. Wasting food is unacceptable."
A younger woman entered from the kitchen doorway, drawn by the raised voices long dyed-brown hair tied neatly, deep brown eyes, the same white apron. She looked at the scene with gentle concern.
"Lady Misselda, are you okay?"
"Yes, Lily," the old woman said. "I was just stopping these two from leaving without finishing their food."
"But this old hag doesn't understand--"
Rui grabbed Ryuuken's arm.
"I'm sorry," Lily said, her voice calm and unhurried. "But the rules are posted clearly on the menu. You're not allowed to leave without finishing your meal, even if you pay."
Rui looked at the menu he had not read.
"Can we pack the food in containers?" he asked.
"I'm afraid not," Lily replied gently. "This isn't a restaurant."
The full weight of it settled over him.
Arlienne had ordered three plates of sushi, gestured for them to eat, shaken his hand, said goodbye, and walked out.
She had trapped them with sushi.
Rui returned to the table and sat down. He picked up his fork and began eating with the expression of a man who has accepted something he cannot change.
"What are you doing?" Ryuuken hissed, leaning across the table. "We need to catch her."
"We can't leave unless we finish," Rui replied quietly. "And people are staring."
Ryuuken clenched his jaw. He looked at the food. He looked at the door. He sat down.
"You should learn some manners from your friend," Misselda said, and smacked Ryuuken on the back of the head with the pan.
His face went directly into the plate.
The dining hall burst into laughter the full, uninhibited kind that builds when something happens that nobody was expecting and everyone was secretly hoping for.
Rui continued eating in silence.
"Could my day get any worse," Ryuuken muttered, lifting his head. Rice and fish clung to his face with cheerful persistence.
The laughter grew louder.
Rui ate his sushi and stared at the middle distance and said nothing.
Arlienne moved through the deck with measured steps, her posture relaxed, her blue eyes doing the opposite of relaxing. The hum of the ship, the salt in the air, the movement of crew members in their routines she took it all in without appearing to.
The captain played his cards, she reflected. Almost clever. I'll admit that much.
She was still turning the shape of it over in her mind when she walked into someone.
The collision was light. The reaction it produced was not.
The blonde-haired girl froze for a fraction of a second a very specific fraction, the kind that belongs to someone whose body has registered something their composure hasn't finished catching up to. Then she assembled herself, smoothing her expression into something calm and unhurried.
"Oh-- it's you, Arlienne. I'm sorry, I wasn't looking," Riruka said. She wore a long white dress that caught the daylight softly. Her voice was even. Her eyes carried a trace of surprise that she was managing well but not perfectly.
"It's fine. I wasn't looking either, Riruka," Arlienne replied.
Her gaze moved not obviously, not rudely, but with the particular attentiveness of someone reading a room rather than occupying it. Riruka's right shoulder.
The thick cloth wrapped around it, visible against the pale fabric of the dress in the direct daylight. The way Riruka's hand moved toward it instinctively, then stopped itself mid-air the pause of someone who has realized that covering the thing draws more attention than leaving it.
That half-finished gesture said considerably more than the wound itself.
"Forgive my curiosity," Arlienne said, her voice gentle. "But are you injured?"
Riruka's posture shifted barely, the kind of shift that happens below the level of conscious decision.
"W-well… yes," she said, producing a small laugh. "My sister and I were just pretending to be warriors with knives. She accidentally hurt my arm." Another laugh, lighter this time, designed to make the explanation feel incidental.
Arlienne recognized the tactic immediately. She had used it herself in council chambers when she was twelve. The laugh was meant to lower the temperature of the question, to transform a potential concern into a harmless anecdote. Riruka's version was missing the polish that came from years of practice the timing was slightly off, the laugh arriving one beat too early.
"I see," Arlienne said, her expression shifting smoothly into one of easy belief. "I hope you recover quickly. Are you performing tonight?"
The relief that moved across Riruka's face was immediate and genuine her shoulders dropping by a fraction, the controlled quality leaving her voice as the subject changed.
"Yes, I am. It's in a few hours. I hope you'll come to watch." Her voice dipped slightly. "I was supposed to perform yesterday, but I didn't get the chance because of that fight."
"I'm sorry about that," Arlienne said, and meant it in the specific way she meant things acknowledging a truth without attaching particular guilt to it.
"I'll come to hear you sing, of course. I need to change my clothes first it's getting a bit sweaty. I'll see you around. Bye."
She turned and walked away.
Behind her, Riruka watched the retreating figure with a frown settling slowly across her brow. Something in that brief exchange had moved in a direction she couldn't fully account for. Arlienne had controlled the entire conversation without appearing to had arrived at the topic she wanted, received the response she was reading, and left before anything could be redirected.
Riruka stood on the deck in the daylight and found the feeling unsettling in a way she didn't have a name for yet.
Arlienne stopped before a specific door in the ship's interior, raised her hand, and knocked twice.
The door opened. Seraphyne stepped aside.
"Arlienne? Come in." She closed the door behind her. "How did the conversation with the captain go?"
Arlienne settled onto the couch, crossed one leg over the other, and looked at her aunt with the expression of someone about to say something they have already decided to say regardless of the response.
"Would you freak out if I said something stupid… but very likely true?"
"What are you doing here, you nerd?"
The voice came from the direction of the second couch. Arlienne felt a faint, controlled twitch somewhere in her expression.
"Nyxelle," she said, her smile polite and sweet in the specific way that Nyxelle correctly identified as sarcasm delivered at low temperature. "You shouldn't interrupt when adults are talking."
"Well, you're sixteen," Nyxelle said, looking straight at her. "So technically you're not an adult."
Seraphyne raised one hand.
Both of them stopped.
"Arlienne," Seraphyne said. "You wanted to say something. Is something wrong?"
Arlienne looked at her aunt, then at Nyxelle, then back at her aunt. She took a brief, measured breath.
"Yes. The thing is--my brother has been kidnapped by the captain. I just can't prove it."
The room went quiet.
Not the ordinary quiet of a conversation pausing. The quiet of two people whose understanding of the current situation has just been revised completely and simultaneously.
Seraphyne's eyes widened. Nyxelle's mouth opened.
"What do you mean by kidnapped?" Seraphyne said. She placed both hands flat on the table as she sat forward, and the warm, gentle quality that characterized everything about her had been replaced entirely by something sharper and more present. Her eyes had changed. It was the first time Arlienne had seen her aunt look like this and she filed it carefully.
"Well…" Arlienne said, with the slight sheepishness of someone who has delivered a sentence and is now navigating its consequences, "kidnapped usually means when someone is taken somewhere by force."
Nyxelle pressed her palm to her face.
Seraphyne pinched the bridge of her nose. She held it there for a moment, visibly managing something.
"I didn't ask for the literal meaning," she said, with the careful precision of someone choosing each word. "How did it happen, and why would the captain kidnap Emerion?"
Nyxelle stayed quiet. She understood the current temperature.
Arlienne straightened slightly and gathered her thoughts.
"The captain suggested my brother have a private conversation with Anathema apparently Anathema was regretful about what happened yesterday. His guards stayed behind in the dining hall with me, and I was occupied with the refund documents."
She paused. "It has been almost two hours since my brother left. He is not a very social person, so I doubt he's in there having a bromance."
"This girl," Seraphyne muttered to herself, quietly enough that it was clearly not meant as a compliment.
She looked up. "You let him go alone while you were dealing with paperwork? What kind of sister does that?"
"A smart one," Arlienne replied.
Seraphyne and Nyxelle both stopped.
"What?" Seraphyne said.
"I've already formed a plan to rescue him," Arlienne said, and the smirk arrived with it settled and certain, her blue eyes carrying the particular brightness they got when she had been several steps ahead of a situation and has now reached the moment where that becomes visible. "I needed to gather information first. Which I have."
"How are you sure he's even alive?" Nyxelle asked.
The look from her mother arrived before she finished the sentence. She closed her mouth.
"Judging by the expressions of Anathema's guards, they find the situation suspicious as well which tells me the captain is running his own agenda separate from Anathema's interests." Arlienne's voice was measured and thoughtful. "The captain wouldn't risk harming the lord of House Corvus, and the same logic applies to my brother even under a false identity. He strikes me as a strategist someone who keeps assets alive for negotiation rather than eliminating them. Both boys are more useful to him conscious."
Her voice wavered by a single degree at the end of it. It was a calculated assessment and she knew the margin of error in it and she was not going to show that in this room.
"What do you mean by disguised as commoners?" Seraphyne asked, her eyes narrowing.
Arlienne recognized her mistake the moment it left her mouth.
"I can explain later, Aunt," she said, allowing something softer into her voice. "But rescuing my brother is more important right now. And I need your help."
Seraphyne looked at her for a long moment. The sharpness in her expression didn't disappear but it rearranged itself into something more purposeful.
She nodded.
"Where do we look?" Nyxelle asked, glancing around as though the answer might present itself. "This ship is enormous."
"The restricted areas," Arlienne said immediately. "Places where passengers aren't permitted."
"Security will be tight," Seraphyne said, arms crossed. "We can't bypass it without drawing attention. The captain has clearly been managing both sides of this with careful language."
"Don't worry," Arlienne said. "I have a plan."
Her smile shifted not wider exactly, but different. The warmth that usually lived in it retreated slightly, replaced by something more deliberate.
"Why would the captain kidnap Emerion in the first place?" Nyxelle asked, her expression sharp.
"I have a theory," Arlienne said. "The captain simply didn't want his business interrupted."
"Business?" Nyxelle echoed.
"I don't have enough time to explain everything right now." Arlienne turned fully to Seraphyne and let her expression do something it rarely did open, slightly. Her blue eyes widened just enough. The tilt of her head was subtle and precisely calibrated. "But do you trust me, Aunt? We are family, after all."
She used it sparingly because it worked.
Seraphyne let out a slow breath. She rubbed her temples with two fingers, closed her eyes for a moment, and then straightened with the particular resolution of someone who has made their decision and is done deliberating.
"Of course I'm obligated to help. I still don't fully understand why the captain would do something like this." She looked at Arlienne steadily. "But you're right. We're family. That means I'll trust you." Her gaze moved briefly to Nyxelle. "The same goes for you. We're rescuing Emerion."
She looked back at Arlienne.
"Tell me your plan."
"With pleasure," Arlienne said.
For just a moment brief enough that it might have been imagination, quick enough that neither Seraphyne nor Nyxelle could have been certain they saw it something passed across her expression. Not the warmth. Not the smirk. Something underneath both of those things, older and quieter and considerably more calculated.
Then it was gone, and she was smiling again, and the room felt slightly heavier than it had a moment before.