Omisha | Princess of Menahem

Omisha kept the smile fastened on her face, nodding as the King responded in the proper way before returning her gaze to Peregrine. Nobody would take any notice, she was going to be betrothed to him after all and so it would be understandable that she wanted to pay as much attention to and learn about her husband-to-be before anything was officially confirmed.

For a moment she wondered what would happen if she failed. Would she have to remain married to Peregrine for the rest of her days? That sounded like a horrible fate, to be married to that spoilt jerk forever would surely kill her after too long. When she had first heard about this little deal, Omi couldn’t help but wonder about what marriage to Peregrine would be like, the romantic in her beginning to peek its head out and imagine a wonderful future. And then she’d met the guy and already she despised even the thought of getting married to anyone. How did her parents stand each other? Marriage was a useless thing that did nothing but tie you to somebody you hated and never let you get away from them.

‘Till death do us part’

Luckily Peregrine would be dead soon and she would be in control of how and when so very soon after they tied the knot, they would be parted. For good. If there was a heaven and a hell, Omi had no intention of going to the former. Why lie around on a cloud with boring do-gooders some of which she had probably murdered when she could be having a party down under? Unless of course, Peregrine was going down there. She normally didn’t associate with her targets, and when she did they normally weren’t so irritating as Peregrine was.

Was he even that irritating or had she just shut herself away for so long that ordinary people got on her nerves? No, he had to be as annoying as she thought he was, she was a good judge of character wasn’t she? Anybody would find him annoying, she didn’t just have unachievable standards that she expected people to reach. And even if she did, what of it? It could be useful to have these high standards in her profession, it prevented her from getting attached to anyone which obviously benefited her.

And so what if she lived her whole life alone? She didn’t mind it that much, and once she took over the rule of Menahem she would have her whole being occupied by running it and being a successful leader. She couldn’t be occupied by taking care of a husband and maybe a kid, no her kingdom would be her husband, her kid, her grandchildren, everything that she would ever need, it would be. And she wouldn’t let it down by becoming distracted or failing this mission.

Once the food arrived, she waited for the rulers to begin eating before picking up her fork and beginning to eat herself. The food was alright here, if a little odd, but the thing that irked her the most was the lack of plants. She wanted to be tending to her plants, creating her little ‘potions’, locked up in her room with only them and the odd beetle for company not here putting on a mask and holding it there, eating this strange food and having to pretend that she was falling in love with this pampered prince.

She wondered what would happen today, she had quite enjoyed walking in their garden so she wondered if she would be permitted to visit it again even if it was with the heir. Glancing at him she realised that he seemed to be slowing down the pace at which he ate his food, even though he hadn’t eaten that much yet and she paused in her meal for a moment to try and figure out what had caused him to do such a thing. Nobody had said anything that could cause him to act like this, so clearly his thoughts must have been the reason. Now she wanted to know why, and for some reason she decided to speak without first being spoken to. For a question like this it would be excusable.

“My lord, are you alright? You seem to be despondent, I hope that I have done nothing to cause you to act this way.”

She glanced at her mother, the woman seemed to be slightly shocked but overall pleased that Omisha had pointed it out in such a way. It made her seem caring and like she was looking out for the heir, and it might nettle him a bit that she had pointed it out. She wondered how Peregrine would answer.

Peregrine | Prince of Arathorn

Peregrine tried not to shrivel too much under her gaze. She wanted something. Obviously. She was asking a question now, so she wanted information. Why? She wasn’t the polite perfect girl he had previously thought she was. The fear of the unknown was giving her more credit and powers than she actually possessed. He wasn't sure what it meant, and he didn't like it. He felt like he was going to pay for something, because she had been very displeased with him.

After surviving a bear, he was sure that she would be able to get what she wanted. It annoyed him that it took a simple glance from her, and he was ready to flee. She was scarier than his own mother. He supposed it was because he had learned how to deal and handle her over the years, and Omisha was a totally new fish to fry. He straightened up, and he was determined to behave like a decent person. It was bad enough that he was close to useless without squirming around like a frightened child. He wondered if it was a good idea to get to know each other. At first it had seemed like a reasonable idea.

They were going to be married whether they agreed with it or not. Now his new view was why make themselves miserable before it was necessary? At least that was his own point of view. Perhaps if they knew each other they might have a real connection. At the very least perhaps they might have a cordial relationship. On the contrary he was very much aware that the exact opposite seemed more possible and easier to achieve. He shuddered at how long the commitment was. He would be with her until death parted them. Was there any way to avoid such a fate?

While she wasn't the usual annoying princess that he had come to expect, he doubted he wanted to spend his life with her. He hadn’t ever met anyone that he could say he wanted to spend his whole life with. Was it too much to expect? He realized that he didn’t meet people, so it made sense to marry him to someone who would do their kingdom good.With the way his life was going it would be highly unlikely that he would meet his soulmate. He slowly focused his gaze on her more, when she spoke to him. He was annoyed that she was so observant.

Not even his parents had noted, and everyone at the table paused to look at him. He would keep that in mind about her. Perhaps it would be useful later on. Somehow he hadn’t been overly tired yet. While it had been hard pulling him out of bed, otherwise he showed none of the fatigue that a midnight jaunt might cause. It prickled him that he had to find some fake excuse. He was a fairly quick thinker, but he wasn’t in the mood. She thought he was immature and petulant. He decided to roll with it. He sat back in his seat in a more languid reclining lounging lazy pose.

After he crossed his arms in a comfortable way he began to speak. “The food wasn’t to my liking. The meat was too dry, the gravy too salty, the eggs were overdone and hard, the bread was too cold to melt the butter. I tried to eat it, but I couldn’t bring myself to force down too much more. I was disappointed, as I normally look forward to my breakfast.” There was his long wimpy pitiful excuse. In his head he added, “You are sitting and staring at me.” He would never ever say that aloud for so many reasons, but he allowed him that in his head. There. His reason for being “despondent” was as dumb as he could make it.

She would think even less of him. At the moment it was hard to care. Did he want her to think well or did it even matter? She sounded like she might care. He could see from the looks and attention that she was getting that they were looking upon her with approval. He appeared to be the spoiled brat. It wasn’t a good thing that she was able to get so much popularity from such a simple question. To him it sounded more like a polite inquiry. She had noticed, so she must say something about it. “How was your night’s rest?” he said it quite pointedly, so she couldn’t miss it. “Are you enjoying your meal?” he asked with a touch of sardonic asperity.

He wondered if they should plan to do something. She seemed to like outdoor activities. He wondered if she would be willing to compare weapons and fighting moves. She knew more than she was putting on, and it would be nice to get a fuller idea. “I could show you the armory or we could go for a walk after the meal is finished,” he told her, making some suggestions. He wondered if the parents would say anything against it. According to propriety, they needed plenty of chaperones. Perhaps it sounded like a consequence of being noticed.

He was being kind and trying to spend time with her. He wasn’t even sure what he was doing, but he figured they should do something. He realized how woefully inadequate he was to handle diplomatic exchanges and read the political waters. He didn’t know how to react, and he wasn’t fully aware of what was going on right before his face. His parents hadn’t taught him, and he wasn’t sure if it was something that one could be taught. It appeared to be more of a natural knack that one had to learn. At least one had to be intentional about it. How would he know? It was something he had never been interested in.

Omisha | Princess of Menahem

Omisha kept her gaze focused on the prince as she awaited a response. It irritated her somewhat that she had exposed herself so soon, made her opinions and skills so obvious within 24 hours of knowing him but she supposed that it couldn’t be helped. Maybe it had its silver lining as well, Peregrine seemed to be a bit more wary of her and that was a bonus when it came to irritating princes. She wondered if she could salvage what she had broken of her mask, maybe she could pretend that what she had shown was her true personality, that she was no ordinary princess and therefore was more trustworthy and special. Peregrine hadn’t seemed to appreciate her little miss perfect act when they had first met and had seemed to prefer how carefree she was when they had begun the race last night so it seemed likely that she would be able to gain his trust if she acted that way.

She was aware that though the two heirs had little say in who they had been forced to marry, they had enough influence to see how quickly the marriage would take place if they were smart enough. Perhaps if she acted the right way, Peregrine would help her out by deciding that he wanted to marry her and speeding up the process. Then she would be able to dispose of him sooner and be back at home before too long. For a brief moment she felt slightly guilty of what she was planning to do but that quickly faded. She’d gotten used to the manipulation and murder over time, now she wouldn’t even let herself feel even slightly bad for planning to manipulate this prince into loving her.

Perhaps it would be smart to make herself feel neutral about him and establish her feelings based on how they interacted after. Why should she put herself through misery because of some guy? He certainly seemed to be enjoying being stuck-up and getting on her nerves and she did not want to give him that satisfaction. Though she knew that her decision came from a place of resentment she didn’t care, she would not give him the satisfaction of getting under her skin.

The thought of failing in her task plagued her once more. She didn’t wish to be stuck with Peregrine for her whole life, she couldn’t live with that idiot forever! Then again, maybe it would give her a break from all of this killing. She knew she was a woman yet she still felt like such a child, it wasn’t fair that she had had her younger years taken away from her just so she could benefit her father. No matter what he said about it being for the kingdom, she knew it was just for himself. It enabled him to brag about how brilliant his daughter was and how brilliant he was for being able to keep a dangerous ‘monster’ under control. Some days she wished she would snap and just rain destruction before finally killing herself in a glorious display. It would be her final show, going down in history as the young assassin’s final performance. But of course she couldn’t do that, it would be absurd.

It amused her how Peregrine reacted, it was immature and dumb but its stupidity was what made it so funny. Of course she couldn’t laugh, but she couldn’t help the smirk that appeared before she wiped it off of her face. She glanced at the other royals, noting her mother’s mildly shocked expression and mirroring it as if she were astounded at how rude a prince could be. She was already aware of this face of course, but no need to have everyone else know. At his next question, she hesitated before answering to further the illusion of being shocked at his answer to her own enquiry. “I had a very fulfilling rest, thank you for the excellent rooms,” Omisha nodded her head politely towards the king and queen, “Though I am still not used to how different your air is from ours, it did not affect my sleep. I find my food to be very filling, I appreciate Arathorn’s way of making their cuisine.”

She stopped talking after bowing her head again, the two Menahem royals allowing the Arathorn rulers to make the choice of whether Peregrine and Omisha would be allowed to go for a walk.

Omisha | Princess of Menahem

Irritation was beginning to surge through her bones. She could understand being rebellious against strict parents, but did Peregrine not have the decency to at least try and be civil? He didn’t know how lucky he was. His gender, his parents, his wealth, his ranking in society. His entire life was handed to him on a silver platter yet he couldn’t even bother enough to fake a little bit of a jolly mood. Being a royal was all about faking, she doubted that all kings and queens adored having to rule a country, though she was more than aware that some certainly loved it.

This prince’s pouty attitude was just reinforcing her already negative opinion of him. If he’d been allowed to behave like this his entire life, he should not be so upset that some bad things happened. So he had to get married to her, oh boohoo! Was he simply forgetting the fact that her fate was to be wed to…him? She was certain that if she failed and had to get married to him, he’d suck her entire spirit away like a leech. Eugh. She could just imagine, spoilt king expecting a timid little perfect queen. She might even be forced to have kids. She had to keep herself from retching at the thought, forced to put her life on the line and then take care of a bunch of little gremlins and a man-child?! There was no fate worse than that.

She was comfortable enough where she was at the moment. Sure she had to do a little killing, but was that really such a bad price to pay for a little bit of freedom? It wasn’t like she had sold her soul for it.

She was brought back down to earth by the sight of Peregrine plastering some weird grin on his face. It took a moment for it to register but the moment it did, a spark lit. Maybe this meal wouldn’t be so boring. After all, two could play at that game. Without even checking to see if parents were inspecting her, she let her mouth spread into what could be called a slightly flirty smile and she winked, before resuming her perfect little princess look. Pretending that she was ignoring the prince’s grin, she looked back at the rulers, praying that luck was on her side. It appeared so, as nobody seemed to have noticed her little slip before she covered herself back up. The small smile she placed on her lips had to be stopped from spreading at the realisation that her little slip that only Peregrine had seen would probably annoy the pampered brat. He was the only one who knew her ‘little secret’ and she was fairly sure that they both knew she wouldn’t be slipping up in this game anytime soon.

She wondered what everyone was thinking at this moment in time. Peregrine seemed rather pleased with himself and she wondered why, perhaps he had thought of another ‘genius’ idea. Hopefully this one wouldn’t involve a bear attack. Her mother remained as unreadable as ever, and the King and Queen of Arathorn were a mystery to her at the moment. She’d only properly examined them twice after all, and two times was not enough to gather enough information on anyone, even for a genius.

After a moment it dawned on her how little she truly knew about anyone. Sure she could spout all this useless information about what someone’s favourite food was, their current economical status, their favourite colour, the little habits they had before bed, but none of that was really knowledge. She’d acquired almost none of it herself, and the bits she had weren’t really gotten from actually knowing someone. For goodness sake she didn’t even really know her own parents! And for a moment she felt a twinge of longing for this mission to fail. Not because she liked Peregrine in any way, shape or form, but because perhaps it was a way to get to know someone without having the goal of murdering them in mind.

Psht, what was she? A prince? Maybe she wouldn’t mind the thought of failing this as much if it were anyone but the boy sitting near her but she didn’t have that luxury. It was murder or hell. She knew which one she’d rather have to suffer through. Omisha wished that he was different. Not so much like himself. If only he could do something spontaneous and drag her into it, spice this day up a little whilst still allowing her to maintain this perfect image.

“Don’t you get tired of being perfect? Come on. Break out of it for a while.”

Was that her imagination or had Peregrine just whispered that to her. Had she said her wish out loud? Her eyes darted to the parents, but everyone looked normal. Relief coursed through her veins, she hadn’t ruined this yet. This was strange, she knew that she hated this boy’s guts and she did not want to be hanging around him alone yet she couldn’t help but feel excited at this opportunity. Perhaps it was because, though she hated Peregrine, she hated this boring, stuffy meal more.

He held his hand out and she glanced at it. She wanted to take it, oh how she wanted to take it just so she could escape but that would shatter her image. Resolutely she turned her head back to her plate and pretended that she couldn’t see him. She could suffer through this she supposed. It would only be a couple more hours of agony.

Her hand was grabbed and she whipped her head around. What on earth was he doing?! Remembering the audience, she let out a little yelp as she was dragged away, the very image of a helpless little princess, too meek to battle away the very annoying and ‘stronger’ prince. At least the anger wouldn’t be focused on her. In fact, this was a brilliant outcome to this day but of course, as they came to a halt, she realised that she couldn’t let Peregrine know that.

Glancing around, she had to admit that she was impressed. The armoury was not as bad as she had expected to be. Perhaps the prince was lowering her expectations of this place. As he spoke she transformed her face into an expression of anger and disgust.

“What on earth did you think you were doing?! What do you think you’re doing now?! This isn’t some…stupid game we’re playing that doesn’t affect anyone, this is real life and there are no redos. You do realise, of course, that my mother is not backing out of this deal and the only thing you’re doing with your immature and childish behaviour is making them want to tie the knot quicker?”

She had to stop herself from adding on what she had almost blurted out.

And it makes my job a whole lot harder.


(Sorry this is a very out of the blue response! Totally understand if you don't want to continue or anything, I just wrote this out of boredom and wanted to put it down before I forgot about it :))

Omisha | Princess of Menahem

This entire marriage idea was pathetic. How could her father have ever thought this would be a good idea? In less than a week, Omisha had broken her cover more times than she would’ve liked. What was it about Peregrine that caused her to get so irritated and drop her pretences? Was she that out of practise? The prince’s constant needling was getting to her more than she had thought, perhaps she had bitten off more than she could chew with all of these fake personalities.

Her gaze wandered over to the swords, how easy it would be to just get the job over with now and walk out of here without a second thought. She’d never have to think about this stupid prince, this stupid castle or this stupid land again. But, of course, it would not be so easy. There were simply too many people who existed within these walls, the entire castle was just one huge mass of people and a rashly committed murder would not end well.

What a sad sort of life being a guard must be. It wasn’t often Omisha really thought about how lucky she had been to have been born a royal, but there were occasional moments. She didn’t like dwelling on it for too long, however, it always made her feel guilty. It was strange to think about how her life differed from other people, even from royal to royal lives were led in such different ways. There were princesses who hadn’t been raised like…her. Princesses who cared and were meek and kind and gentle, givers of life. Omisha was a taker, she took joy, laughter, life. She’d never given a positive thing in her life.

Why was she thinking like this? She rarely took time out of her day to just think, being away from home and having to face a spoilt prince would do that to a person she supposed.

Omisha wanted to scoff at Peregrine’s next words. She wanted to laugh, scream, cry, she wanted to do so many things. Instead of doing anything she wanted to, she ignored Peregrine’s whining and glanced around the armoury. An ant crawled along the floor, one motive in it’s simple mind. If only her life were as simple as that ant’s was. It moved towards her and for one moment she contemplated sitting down and just watching it. Instead she looked at Peregrine and crushed the ant beneath her left foot. That was just like her, taking away an innocent life for no reason.

As Jabari cut in, Omi barely supressed a sigh from escaping her. Her façade was slowly but surely slipping through the cracks, how was she going to keep living like this? Expressing her emotions felt strangely foreign, perhaps that’s why she was constantly yelling at Peregrine. So much built up frustration had to be released somehow, and that was the only way she knew. She couldn’t very well ride a horse out into the forest could she? Not in broad daylight anyways.

She forced a perfect smile to her lips, it felt more natural to be faking emotion than to actual experience it at this point. She couldn’t supress an eye roll when she heard Jabari call her ‘my princess’, she despised language like that. It was overrated and completely out dated anyways, she was no one’s princess but her own. She didn’t even feel like a princess – that was a title for the perfect, pretty women that had never seen a sword and sang to birds in the morning – and wasn’t that half of the job?

“Yes, thank you Jabari.”

As the guard moved behind her in order to follow her next movements, Omisha nodded to Peregrine and began walking out of the armoury. For a moment - at the entrance - she paused, glancing back at the prince with a partly open mouth, as if about to say something and then she morphed her lips back into a small smile and stepped into the courtyard.

Perhaps leaving the armoury was a bad idea, she was beginning to think that Peregrine’s annoying habits might be her only chance at escaping this deadly deal.

(this is annoyingly short and slightly nonsensical but my writing should improve as I get back into the groove of things)

Peregrine | Prince of Arathorn

Jabari Algarotti | Omisha's Guard

Peregrine stared at Omisha, as he watched her retreating form being blocked by the guard. What would happen if one of them died? Would the treaty be off? Perhaps he should off her and be done with this whole business. He knew that in reality he wouldn't go that far. Although he was trained to protect himself, he didn't see himself going around stabbing people just because he might have to marry them, no matter how infuriating he found them. He could be a brat, but he wasn't a killer. He had never had to. He only killed when he was hunting, and he had never been in a battle. How well would he be able to avoid her while they were married?

Finally, he realized he had no idea what to do with himself. While it was extremely dumb to get her mad at him and then suggest some kind of controlled dueling, he still thought it would be interesting. Maybe would of them would accidentally finish the other off. "Where are you going?" his voice was curious instead of demanding. "I was going to let you take your anger out on me while dueling." His mind was screaming at him not to be stupid, but to live.

Jabari wondered if Omisha had ever had to work so closely with someone that he guessed might become a target if things didn't go the way her parents wanted them to. She was certainly showing a side of herself that she often seemed hesitant to show her parents. A human side that could possibly undermine her work. How had Peregrine affected her? Even though he, much like Omisha, was used to keeping his emotions to himself, he still had times to vent some of his lesser ones. It didn't occur to him that this was why she didn't hide around Peregrine. He knew to keep any serious displeasure to himself, or someone would have a talk with him and possibly fire him from being a guard. At the very least he would be demoted to make sure that he was still fully committed.

If he knew Omisha's thoughts, he probably would inwardly roll his eyes. Of course she was his princess. He had sworn to die to protect her if necessary. It brought about a feeling of some kind of ownership, because he was supposed to take care of her safety. He could feel something about her that wasn't pleased, and it wasn't fully related to Peregrine being an idiot. In her already agitated state, he could tell that he had contributed somehow. However, she wasn't in a mood to punish him, so he knew to just be thankful.

His mind was slightly elsewhere, as his feet began to thump on the hard pavement of the courtyard. He could discern that the princess should probably get a chance to cool down somewhere until parents called for her presence. If she was upset, he wasn't sure what would happen, but it would put him into unknown territory that he didn't want to mess with. She shouldn't need too long, as she was a master at stuffing down her emotions. Jabari had two ideas. He could take her to see her poisonous plants, or he could let her look at the horses. Because she was supposed to be a timid princess, she probably wouldn't delight as much about walking among the horses that might be out.

Jabari winced and froze for a moment waiting to see how Omisha would react to Peregrine's invitation. Sparring would probably give away her skill, and might make the prince aware of what he was dealing with. However, he knew that beating someone up was a very tempting offer. What would Omisha do? He looked around trying to figure out a way to keep her going. "Please princess, not in these conditions." He knew that she would never be able to spar against Peregrine in public with others watching, because it would be a dead giveaway. In addition her fighting would mean that he couldn't interfere. If she got hurt, there wasn't much he could do to prevent it.

He sighed to himself hoping his urgency for her to leave wasn't doing a complete turn around for it actually happening. He snapped at Peregrine. "I told you no. Do you not care for anyone besides your own desires?" he was rudely interrogating the prince. "Now leave the princess alone." He wanted to rant that he was too dumb to know what was at stake, and he was hardly trustworthy. He could very much see someone getting accidentally stabbed causing tensions to rise. He gave up on trying to reason with the idiotic Peregrine. Omisha would be going back to the dining hall with the adults. They could keep her away from sticky Peregrine's fingers. Subtly, he steered her in that direction. She would have to get a control of herself there.

(Sorry it took so long and is awful)

Omisha | Princess of Menahem

If Omisha was more inclined towards dramatics, she would probably be considering ending her own life if her mission failed. Fortunately, (or perhaps it was unfortunate) she was not the type to even think such a thing. She had never had to think about failure, for the majority of her missions were formatted to suit her strengths specifically. This, however, was something new. She was no stranger to having to learn about a target face to face, but more of an acquaintance to such a thing compared to a friend. She was used to easily slipping in and out of a house, no strings attached. She rarely even saw a face.

Of course she knew what her targets looked like, but most of the time they were fast asleep in a dark room. Though she could always make out enough features to pinpoint each person as her target, she rarely had to talk to them. And she'd never had to be herself when she did talk to them.

It was much easier to take a life you knew if you knew them as someone you were not.

In the same way that you feel no grief when confronted with the death of someone you didn't know existed until that moment, Omisha felt no grief when killing someone she had known as an actor. In her mind, if Omisha the assassin did not know the target then why should she feel grief? The only person who would mourn would be whichever persona she used to get close to the unfortunate soul her father had picked out for her. And she did not use that persona for the killing.

Peregrine was different.

She had met him and all of her training had gone out the window. She had had to act the 'perfect princess' part but when alone with him she had to put on something new. It was confusing; Sure he was a brat with seemingly no thought or care for others but he had actually wanted to get to know her. No one had known her for quite some time.

She hadn't been able to fall asleep yesterday. Instead she lay awake and listened to the silence. It was the only thing that had kept her from thinking and thinking was a recipe for disaster. Still, some thoughts had managed to slip through. Was this endless cycle of pain really worth it? For all she knew, her actual jobs hadn't even started yet. She had power over her father, power which she enjoyed, but she was also nothing without him. Without direction she was completely lost. Her whole life had been one order after another and though she hated to admit it, if she had no ultimate motive in mind what was the point? Everything she did was in order to achieve something else, and as soon as that was achieved she went on to her next task. What was she without that?

Peregrine's voice jolted her out of her mind. Perhaps that was a good thing, anyone left to stew for too long never ended up with feelings of joy. Omisha often ended up feeling overwhelmed with nothing to occupy her but thoughts and that was a very unpleasant feeling. Still, the words that had interrupted her were moronic. She shook her head slightly, a slight grin appearing on her face at the thought of him seriously considering that. Perhaps it was because she was a woman. Or he just simply did not know her talent. She was sure that Peregrine had been trained well in combat, but certainly not in the same type of combat as her. And certainly not to the same extent. "Anger?" For the first time in this interaction, Omisha's voice was light. The fact that she had found his suggestion humorous was hardly hidden, either in her body or voice.

Her head turned towards her guard. Jabari meant well she was sure, but sometimes he could be rather irritating. Even a child would be able to tell that Peregrine's invitation would be stupid to accept. Unless, of course, she wanted to be discovered. Which she didn't. If any part of this mission was uncovered, she wasn't quite sure what she'd do. Any action she took would have to be ridiculously planned out to the point where even saying something unprompted could bring everything crashing down immediately. That was too much of a hassle, so she simply would not be discovered.

A lot of this job was about trust. Every time she was not underneath her parents' eyes, they were trusting her to not mess up. So far, she had not disappointed them. Starting this late in life would just be sad.

Jabari snapped at Peregrine, one of the few times she had seen the guard actually break his usually stoic appearance. She couldn't have put his words better herself. Well, she probably could but it would take some mental effort and she didn't really have the time for that here. It was obvious where he was trying to steer her to, but that was fine she could cope with the adults. They fell so easily for her manipulations and that was a lot easier for her to cope with mentally. At this point, anything to get away from the truth she was confronted with when around the bratty prince.