Most of the day was spent at the catkin palace. After Olentri and I had returned to the group, we all went for lunch. Just like you would expect for a royal household, it was a lavish affair. By the time we were finished, I was stuffed. We stayed for some time after dinner, but there was a little bit of an atmosphere between Altria and her mother. Well, when I say atmosphere, I mean that Altria was talking even less than normal. Especially to her mother. She wasn’t happy that she wasn’t in on the discussion and knowing Altria, she had already guessed that it involved her.

As the evening rolled on, it was Lillia that suggested that we should leave. I think we were all grateful that she spoke up.

“Olentri, thank you for all of your hospitality today.” She said.

“Think nothing of it. You're always welcome in our household Lillia, as are the rest of you.” Replied Olentri.

“Well, we have a lot going on tomorrow and while I hate to say this while we’re all having such a good time, but we all should really think about heading back to our lodgings soon.” Lillia continued.

“That’s a shame, but I wouldn’t want to keep you. It’s tomorrow you all stand before the high king, isn’t it?” Asked Olentri.

“It is and we're meeting the city’s guild master tomorrow morning as well. The others have all done such things before, but being as this is a first for Theo, there are a few things we would like to run past him before the meeting.”

“Of course, I understand. Yes, your father is a little more formal than we are here, and I can understand your concern.”

“Then we will take our leave. Thank you again for today.”

“I’ll have Timothy see you to the exit, would you mind waiting there for Altria? I'd like to have a few moments with her alone.”

“No, not at all.” Replied Lillia.

“Hold on, I’ll come with you now. There’s no need to wait.” Altria said, seemingly not wanting to stay any longer.

“Please Altria?” Asked Olentri.

“I think you should talk to her. There’s no harm in us waiting a little longer.” Suggested Lillia.

“Fine, but it will only be a short talk.” Altria said finally agreeing.

The rest of us said our goodbyes to Olentri before being shown to the front hall by Timothy. Altria stayed behind, just as Olentri had requested, but it really was only a few minutes before she joined us again.

“Are you done already?” Lillia asked as Altria returned.

“Yes, she only wanted a brief word.” Replied Altria.

“You sure? We can wait.”

“I am. She said all that she wanted to. Come on, let’s head back to the guild. Serin still needs to run the basics of etiquette into Theo, before we head to bed.”

“Okay then.”

The five of us headed back across the green park and back towards the rest of the city. After a few short minutes we were back at the wooded strip that bordered the entire park. Then shortly after we were back onto the paved city streets. It was just as strange as the way in. The sudden change of scenery was striking, as we again had to deal with crowded walkways, while we made our way back to the guild.

Altria still seemed to be brooding as we walked and hung back just a little way behind the group. I wanted to say something to her, but I knew I would just be tempted tell her everything. I wanted to keep her mother onside, at least until it was done.

“Are you okay? You look a little distracted.” Serin asked, walking alongside me.

“I’m fine… It’s just, well Altria seems a little annoyed.”

“I’m sure it’s not with you. You know what families are like. The queen asked you to keep whatever you spoke about a secret, it’s not like you can just ignore her.”

“I know.”

As we approached the guild, I started to wonder about Celine again. She could go without her food, but it had already been quite some time since I’d last fed her. She hadn’t reappeared since I last told her to keep out of sight. If I got the chance tonight, I planned to get away and check on her, but with Serin teaching me etiquette that wasn’t looking likely.

The guild was just as busy as we had left it and we decided to head up to our room right away. When we got back upstairs, we all lounged around on our own beds. Before Serin got started with my lesson, there was something I wanted to ask.

“Lillia, in your report to the guild. Did you include everything that happened?” I asked.

“No, it would be far too long.” She replied.

“What about how the demon woman died? You know about how we aren’t sure about who killed her.”

“I left that part out.”

“Or about what she said to us?”

“I didn’t include that either.”

“Tomorrow, when we go and see the guild master… do you think we should mention it if we’re asked about the specifics?”

“Hmm, I’m not sure…”

“I think we should leave it out.”

“Why?”

“Because they might think it raises questions for us, things that they might not want us looking into.”

“I agree with Theo. It might be alright for me and you Lillia, but it’s probably best for Theo and the others if they don’t think we’ve come across any sensitive information.” Altria said backing me up.

“Okay then, we won’t mention any of that tomorrow. It isn’t anything that they need to know.” Agreed Lillia.

“Thank you. I’d appreciate the guild having no reason to look into me.” I said glad to have that out of the way before we went there.

“Come on Theo, we should get started.” Serin said getting to her feet.

“Yeah, otherwise we’re going to run out of time.”

Serin spent the next couple of hours running through with me exactly how, I should refer to the royals and nobles whilst we were in court. When I should kneel, bow and all of that. Some of it was pretty self explanatory, some of it I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t been told. Considering how easy it could be to cause someone offence in these situations and how dire the consequences of that could be, I was glad of the instruction. I wasn’t entirely sure if I was going to be able to recall everything after one lesson. At least if I had the basics, I could follow the others lead tomorrow.

By the time we had finished, it was late evening and almost time to head to bed. I had little opportunity to leave the guild now and try to meet with Celine. In the end I decided that heading down to the baths would be my best bet. The girls all wanted to wash up before bed as well, so we all headed downstairs as a group. We parted ways at the entrance to the baths.

As it turned out, it wasn’t going to work. I had hoped that by this time of night there might not be that many people in the baths. It turned out I was wrong. I was obviously being optimistic, because considering just how busy the guild was in general, it shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise that the baths were still full.

After washing up, I decided to have one final try to find a quiet spot where there would be little chance of us being caught. I found myself in one of the toilet cubicles weighing up whether I could cope doing something like that in such a place. In the end I decided against it. There was no way I wanted to try and do that, not when they were in such a poor state. The smell alone was more than enough to put you off.

Having given up completely I headed back up to the room. I’d taken so long trying to scope out somewhere to feed her, that all of the girls had already returned to the room ahead of me. I really was out of options for today. I just hoped that she could hang on until I found an opportunity. Hopefully, I would find a chance to slip out tomorrow alone, once we had paid the king a visit.