The door opened soundlessly in the quiet, carpeted hallway. Rosa's golden eyes flashed as she beckoned me inside.

"Come in."

My own eyes were as wide as saucers, taking in the room. "Okay, wow," I breathed. "This is your room?"

The door clicked shut behind me, and Rosa's maid-- who'd brought me here-- motioned me to one of the floral couches (!) near the giant, majestic bed (!!). Rosa flopped onto it like it wasn't a bed any different from the one she had at home.

"We don't have much time," she said, pulling out a bunch of papers from her sleeves. "Bina, make sure no one's around."

Oh, that must be her name. She was a super fast walker, and I'd been so out of breath trying to follow her that I'd barely even said a "Hello" and "Thank you" to her. With a nod, the maid (Miss Bina?) calmly walked out to the balcony attached to the room (!!!) and closed the elaborate glass sliding doors (!!?!?) from the outside. She stood there, back facing us, and Rosa turned back to me.

"Okay, so-"

"Wait!" I blurted out. "Wait, give me-- give me a few seconds."

She frowned. "Something wrong?"

"No! Nothing's wrong! Just, just adjusting myself to this new situation." I took a couple deep breaths, trying not to be overwhelmed. 

There. Was. So. Much. Color. And shine. And, and was that gold over there?! No, it must just have been painted yellow or something. For once I was seeing sparkles that weren't coming from Rosa, and I was-- I was just--

I mean, this was how Rosa lived! No, this was how she could live now!!! But Rosa left it that often to come to the dingy little restaurant all the time?? If I was her, I'd do nothing but lie in the fluffiness of this couch all day!!!!!!!

"Filly," Rosa said sharply. "We don't have much time."

I nodded frantically, but my eyes were still roaming around. "Right. Yeah. Just a moment."

She was completely correct-- in order for me to really become a 'partner' rather than a helper, I needed to hear the entire plan, and soon. I mean, that's why I was here in the first place: there were no other places safe enough for us to discuss this.

The restaurant was, of course, a public space; Mom was in our room; you never knew when the kids would come in at Rosa's house. There was Mother Lily, too. Even this sparkly, shiny Academy dorm room wasn't foolproof: we could never know who might be trying to listen in. At any moment, the spy himself-- Snow White-- might be secretly infiltrating this place.

That last thought sobered me up. I had no time to be imagining myself as a noble! We were here for business. And we didn't have much time. I slapped my cheek once, sort of lightly, and Rosa gave me a weird look. And if Rosa was giving me a weird look, that meant I really needed to pull myself together.

Taking one last long, deep breath, I gave Rosa a firm nod. "I'm ready now."

---

"Is there anything else that I should know?" I asked, two hours later.

Rosa sighed. "Plenty more, but--" she looked to the balcony, where Miss Bina had turned around and was looking at Rosa. "I think we're out of time."

"But if we go according to the plan in two weeks, we won't have the opportunity to discuss as much anymore."

"Eh. We'll find a way. But you're good with this so far?"

I pursed my lips. "For now, I guess." If uncertainty lined my words, that was because I was very uncertain about this whole thing yet. There were still some spots that were left vague because too many possibilities existed, and besides, Rosa's plan branched out so many different ways that it confused me. "Is there a way we can keep communicating?" Drawing was out of question, and I couldn't read.... Ugh. Maybe I should learn how to read. "If I need to, I could learn how to read, too."

Rosa shook her head. "No, writing anything down would be too incriminating-- we can't have that."

"What? But, but your sheet of papers--"

"Oh, these?" Rosa glanced at the bundle she was sliding back into her sleeves. She snorted. "Filian, what do you take me for! They're not written in a language anyone can read. And it's coded, too, in case there's anyone else from my original world here too." A sort of gleeful, maniacal glint entered her eyes, and I suppressed an instinctive shudder.

Of course it would be coded on multiple levels. This was Rosa we were talking about, she who sets up sixteen safety precautions before she did anything nefarious so that Mother Lily wouldn't catch her! I still sometimes remembered the ingenious way she'd used Roly Poly when they had been mere babies to make sure nobody saw her taking an extra apple slice from--

"Wait a minute," I said, an idea slowly dawning on me. "Then what if... I learned that language?"

"Learn an entire language? That's impossible."

"Not completely! I'm not trying to read everything you write, and I probably won't be able to speak it, but maybe just a couple things from it? So you can send me messages if you're in trouble or something, and I know that it's you?"

She blinked.

I blinked.

She blinked.

Then we both shot up together with a cry.

"Filly, you absolute genius!" cried Rosa.

"Right? Right?!" I cried back.

We danced around the fancy schmancy white table whooping, until Miss Bina came in silently and pointedly starting rearranging the cushions on the bed and sofa. 

Rosa whirled around to face Miss Bina. "Bina! How much time do we have left before the Prince leaves his office?"

Miss Bina looked outside-- I did too, but I saw nothing-- and replied. "Approximately 12 minutes and 50 seconds, Milady."

My eyebrows shot up. Well! That sure was specific. Like lady, like maid, I guess!

"Okay," Rosa was saying, as we sat ourselves back down on the couch. She leaned over the table, bringing out a pen and paper from below the couch. "We don't have time for me to teach you the language itself, but I'll teach you some of the important stuff right now."

"How would that--"

"Here." On the paper, she drew an oval with a line that cut through it. "This is a theta."

I peered at it. "Thayta?"

"Yes. θ. This is going to stand for Leonard Avelaide, also known as The One Whom I Must Not Meet, also known as the dude who always dies. So if I write this, know that I'm talking about him."

Oval with a line. Thayta. Leonard Avelaide. I nodded. "Got it."

"And this is delta," she continued, straight up just drawing a triangle.

"It's a triangle!"

"Well no, Δ is a letter from the Greek... okay, yeah, it's a triangle," she decided. "The triangle stands for the Crown Prince."

Oh, that was easy. Triangle, like from a crown! "Triangle is the Crown Prince," I repeated.

"And this is mu--"

"Myoo?"

"Yes, μ, and since I hate writing μ because I always make it look ugly, this stands for Glitcherman."

Weird ugly grass-looking squiggly line is Glitcherman. Ugly, grass, Glitcherman. Ugly, grass, Glitcherman. "Okay, and?"

"And σ, Sigma, is........"

In five minutes or so, I had a little scrap of paper with all these weird signs on it. There was a sign that would mean her, and a sign that would mean me, and a couple of stuff like f(), and how if one of these signs went into the unclosed circle like this: f(θ), then it would mean "plan regarding θ", or the plan that included and was for Leonard Avelaide.

I gulped, staring at the f(θ) like I could bore holes into this paper with my focus. A chill ran up my arms, and I wasn't sure if it was from fear or from the creeping cool air that was blowing from the now-open balcony, or both. Was I really ready for this? From what I'd heard from Rosa, it really didn't sound like I'd be in any danger of dying, that was for sure. It was still a hard pill to swallow.

Rosa was rummaging through her belongings, Miss Bina doing some last-minute prep. "I'll teach you some other stuff later, like action words. For now, memorize that, and then eat it."

My head snapped up. "Eat it?!"

"If someone else finds you in possession of those signs, there would be no point!"

That was true, but?? "Can't I just burn it??!" Like probably anyone else would do?!?

Rosa surfaced from her pile of things she'd hauled from her closet. "Sure, if you conveniently have a fire around. Otherwise, eat it. Aha!" She placed the hat she found triumphantly on her head. "Mkay, I'm ready. Bina?"

Miss Bina glanced outside again. "Three minutes and 21 seconds to spare, Milady."

"Perfect." She turned to me, sighing, the floppy hat covering half her face directly. "Wish me luck in wooing the triangle."

Triangle, crown. Crown Prince. Ooh, this was sort of exciting! Feeling like a real spy in one of Mother Lily's high society adventure romance novels, I nodded, beaming. "Good luck, Ro! You can do it! Take the, the triangle by the storm!"

She sighed again, turning towards Miss Bina, who was standing by the balcony. Then she paused. "Hm, by the storm? Maybe some wind generators might actually be helpful...."

My smile faltered. "Wait, Rosa, you know I didn't mean that as a--"

"Okay then, bye Fi! Footman's waiting for you at the gate!"

And with that, Miss Bina and Rosa climbed off the balcony on a rope.

I spent exactly thirty more seconds just staring after them (hear me out: I knew they were going to be doing some spy stuff, but I didn't know they were going to be this devoted to spy stuff, you know???) before I rushed out to the balcony. "Wait!" I cried, but alas-- I was too late.

With an expert flick of her wrist, Miss Bina was tossing the hanging rope onto a nearby tree, concealing it entirely, and Rosa was already sprinting full-speed into the distance.

"Excuse me, Miss Bina!" I called, and she stopped, leveling a steady gaze up at me. "Sorry to bother you, but I don't know the way out to the gate!"

She pointed the opposite direction to where Rosa had run off. "Take a right at the fountain, and two lefts at the hedges with the statue. Then go straight."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you very much!" I waved her goodbye, and she gave me one curt nod, then rushed away, as speedy and as effortlessly as a deer.

Thank goodness I'd caught her before she'd left, though. At least this time, I wouldn't get hopelessly lost in this giant Academy again!

---

...I was hopelessly lost in this giant Academy again. But unfortunately, that was not the problem. Just when I'd thought that getting lost would be the worst thing that could happen, I was now proven entirely wrong.

"I'm going to go on a date with the next girl I see!" boasted a very booming, very obnoxious voice.

A second voice scoffed, his voice nasal. "Even if it's a maid?"

"I'm not one to discriminate!"

"And what if they say no?"

"Then I'll follow them until they say yes!"

"Even if it takes you a month?"

"Even if it takes me a month."

I gulped, shrinking away even further into the corner of this dead-end hedge.

"You better keep your promise," laughed a third voice, as footsteps grew closer and closer.

"Oh, I swear it on my name," boomed the voice I wished I didn't recognize. "On the name of Drew Zimmerman, I swear it!" 

---

A/N: This is late. I'm sorry! I'll do better! I swear it on Drew Zimmerman's name as well!!