Kayeni followed the now-impatient prince with a hint of mirth and annoyance in her eyes as, in quick succession, he insulted herself and the Galcolian nation as a whole, then insulted his own father, then insulted his own house, and looked as if he really, really wanted to wring her neck.

Really, he wasn't the first person to think that. But he was the first person that actually could, at the moment. Although she doubted it, given what she had read and heard about him.

Prince Bjorn Ansgar. First in line to the Valorhm thone, captain of the Castle Guard, avid hunter, and an insufferable pain in the ass with serious attitude problems. In a nutshell, someone that, unless something out of the ordinary happened, she'd have to tolerate for a long time.

She tried her best not to react to the prince with attitude problems - from the few minutes that she had seen of him, Kayeni could already confirm the words of the diplomats that had met him - rapidly insulted literally everything.
Wouldn't it be nice, she idly thought, if he had passable court skills. Because he clearly had none.

However, Kayeni probably couldn't keep all the annoyance out of her eyes as he strode along the corridor, almost borderline too fast for her. She didn't change her pace, though, preferring to infuriate him a bit more rather than actually acquiesce to his silent order to get this over and done with as quickly as possible. If he wanted to annoy her by casually insulting her by doing literally everything to make her annoyed - starting with trying to walk way too fast - then she'd be damned if she didn't do the same thing.

"Stone here, stone there, fire here and there, and the odd geyser." Kayeni mimicked his little princely tone. "Hmm. How interesting." She let a trace of humour thread her words - for god's sake, she could enjoy herself a bit here, couldn't she?

"What about that over there?" she said, pointing to what definitely wasn't stone, fire, or geyser - more like... hmm, maybe he'd describe it as "a vague humanoid shape that was dressed like a guard and was part of the scenery with no relation to their conversation". Now, that would be interesting.

But for now, she'd keep her annoyance in check and play a little game of mutual infuriation. Who would win? The prince with attitude problems and no filter, or her?

Kayeni wasn't sure when it happened, but by the time they had gotten outside, the prince's mood had gone from being infuriatable to... just a bit miserable.

Wow, she was smart. It probably hadn't been best to be prodding the bear, and now here they were. Although she vaguely remembered hearing somewhere he could be a bit - emotional - at times... she didn't entirely mean to have contributed to it.

Okay, maybe she might have done a teensy bit of it. But now she felt terrible.

So here they were. And she'd have to do something about it... which, now she thought about it, she could actually see a way to make this good for them in some twisted way.

"Prince Bjorn?" Without waiting for a reply, she plowed on. "You know what I've been sent here for. We both know neither of us wanted this to happen. But the fact is unchangeable - it's here now, and neither of us can do anything to change it." She perched on the bench too, a respectful distance away from him and barely even on the bench with how forwards she was sitting.

"So, let's make a deal. You don't want this, and neither do I." Her thoughts went a bit rampant. Maybe, just maybe...
"You can show me to the quarters I have been assigned to, and my guards to theirs, and consider your job as my 'guide' done here. If your father asks, you did a wonderful job. But frankly, I don't entirely want or need a guide." The unspoken implication that she could figure it out herself - of course she could. She could do it without any prince-with-behavioual-issues watching her every move.

"If you don't bother me, I won't bother you. We can both live in mutual peace, and we can perform just enough for your father and his council to be happy with it." Maybe Kayeni had overreached a bit here - she honestly had absolutely no idea whether he'd accept his offer or not. Because, while she might not have acted like it, everything she just laid out were essentially the only cards she had at play here. If he refused, she literally had no other choice but to stick with him, as much as she loathed it.

"Do we have a deal?" Kayeni's heartbeat picked up in a bit of anxiety as she looked at Bjorn, expression showing absolutely nothing of what she was feeling. It wouldn't do if he realized why, exactly, she was offering this deal, would it?

Kayeni - yet again - decided to ignore the hidden insult as he indirectly laughed at her deal. But - the main point is, he accepted it.

Really, that was pretty much all she could be thankful for. Because as the stuffy prince led her through the hallways yet again - soon, soon she'd be rid of being forced to follow him around - and tried to keep her mouth shut. The sooner she was rid of the prince, the better. She wanted to go out without anyone following her and to organize her thoughts, and the goddamned prince to stop insulting her.

"That sounds like an... interesting view. It sounds enjoyable." she said as they continued along the hallways. Empty words, conveying an even emptier meaning, as she simmered slightly inwardly at the blalant way that the prince was insulting her.

The worst bit is, she wasn't allowed to insult him equally back. She could infuriate him with small things, but she couldn't directly insult him - much as he was doing now. Because unlike him, she didn't have any power in this godsforsaken castle. She was a prisoner in everything but name, wasn't she? They wouldn't let her leave - at least, like this, they wouldn't. She had to stay - both because she was duty-bound to by the agreement she herself had witnessed her father signing, and because it would be impossible for her to escape.

Well, not impossible for someone like her, actually. But even her father had told her to not escape, and "wait to see how things turned out."

But talking was better than this uncomfortable silence as the overly tall prince led her through one stone hallway and up another, then down yet again. She could have sworn he was trying to make her get lost - or maybe it was just her being unfamiliar to the castle for now.

In her defense, everything was unfamiliar. Starting with literally everywhere smelling like a combination of old fart, stinky mud and smoke - she had been in this smog for barely a few hours and she already felt like she was going to be sick.

How she wished for the crisp air and the blue and white banners of her home.

"Is my presence requested at your dinner? I'm sure that your father would want to introduce me to the rest of the court." She started, then stopped, inwardly kicking herself. Of course the prince wouldn't know if his father wanted to be there or not. She was just too anxious to know how long she could spend out.

"If you don't know, that's fine," she hurriedly tacked on. She could find out herself, after all, right?

Kayeni - like she was beginning to do a lot - decided to, yet again, ignore the prince's jab. Now simply wasn't the time to crack - although, given the prince's attitude and the way he still kept insulting them over and over, if he kept up on this insolent attitude, it really was a matter of time.

Couldn't the imbecile control his mouth a little bit? Or at least be somewhat civil? Granted, she definitely hadn't been expecting fanfares and roses, but definitely more than insults thrown by what was forced to be her prospective groom.

If he wanted to go anywhere in his miserable life, he'd have to stop shouting slurs at everyone that came across his path that he didn't like. In other words, "learn a bit of self-control". However, she doubted he'd be able to do that, considering how much pampering he must have gotten to get to this stage.

Gods, why couldn't he just stop yapping and just think about what he was saying before saying it?

Of course, she didn't say it out loud. But she most definitely thought it as a bit of a raincloud above her head as she followed Bjorn, yet again, through the castle that was his. Quickly looking back to her guards, she nodded in silent approval that they could stay there, before hurrying after the retreating back of Bjorn.

"It's common courtesy for the visitor to your castle be invited to dinner." Finally answering Bjorn's first remark, and feeling like a teacher teaching a young child at the moment.

Now she knew that her tutors felt when they first started tutoring her. Nonetheless, she continued on.

"Court protocol also dictates that regardless of whether they accept or not, he offer should stand, whether you want it or not. So, regardless, of your opinion, unless Valorhkian court procedures are vastly different to literally everyone else in the world, I would assume that later in the day someone will come to ask me if I would like to go." A bit of bite entered her words near the end. Screw being kind to this imbecile. He had shown nothing but disrespect and scorn to her. Why would it be fair for her not to reciprocate slightly? Not as blalantly as he was doing, but more an undercurrent. Such as using a patient tutor-voice that usually they'd use for younger children on this... man-child, really, if Kayeni thought about it.

It might have been slightly impulsive and rash on Kayeni's part - and probably not the best court behavior - but then against this... behaviour, what else was she meant to do?

Her face was slightly flushed from slowly losing her temper, bit by bit. Kayeni was usually really good at dealing with idiots, but this one was slowly putting her limits to the test.

He just needed to learn when to keep his damned mouth shut. That was it. She was perfectly aware that she might have been yapping a bit - but it was completely worth it as his annoyance spiked. From what she had seen, at least, his moods could swing from being annoyed to angry to sad to happy in the space of seconds, and she was already regretting slightly having shown much sympathy to... the man-child... earlier.

Gods, couldn't he just deal with life? If he was upset, what did he think she thought when she was sent here? That it was all sunshine and roses?

After yet another insult thrown at her, and her anger buried even further down than previously - she really needed to get out of here, didn't she? - Bjorn asked a question, and it took Kayeni a second for it to penetrate the veil she had unconsciously cast around her mind to stop lashing out.

Bjorn... had asked a question. About what they ate in Galcolia?
Really... it was a step in the right direction. Maybe. But... okay. Hmm.

Choosing to answer the question, Kayeni buried every cent of apathy in her voice deep down in the little box she used to contain unwelcome things, and hesitated a few seconds before responding. "Well... Galcolia isn't all mountain and snow, unlike what you may think. But even in the mounains and snow, things can still grow." Maybe Galcolia was mainly mountains and snow, but there were some lowlands in places. But that didn't need to be mentioned - from what she had herad him describe Galcolia as, it was clear his view was Galcolia was all mountain and snow, and Kayeni could do very little to convince him otherwise.

"Kale, for example." Maybe it would be referred to as a "damn common leafy vegetable", but in all honestly she liked eating the crispy kale chips that the castle kitchens always had throughout the year. "The snow might be considered a barren wasteland for all you Valhorks who live right next to blazing hot volcanoes - " that smelled like trash and she didn't know if they would erput in the next year or not, " - but even in winter, if you know what's the right things to plant, it's always possible." Kayeni wasn't giving away any trade secrets to the prince. He could go on believing that the Galcolians lived off kale if he wanted to. No way he'd ever hear of anything else about their trade routes, that, as far as she was aware, were more or less secret.