"Hm," came a sound of disapproval in the rather quiet bed chamber, "I think it would be better for the Crown Prince to talk to you tomorrow."

Rowena looked up as her maid helped her to get a spoon for the porridge in front of her. "But wouldn't that be less efficient?"

He had to look back at her, sitting on her bed with her food and a blanket over her legs, but the clothes she was wearing were not appropriate for a visit outside of family ties. It wasn't something he could have changed now, as the intruder had already been there, but happy he was not about.

Rowena, on the other hand, didn't care and didn't even think about such things. The prince in question hadn't realized what he was doing either, as he wasn't used to dealing with female nobles, with his travels to other continents, mainly attending courses about alternative Mana cultivation techniques and their application in swordsmanship.

And even Alan hadn't thought about the implications of the Crown Prince entering his sister's private room at this hour of the day while she was still confined to her bed. They were all too exhausted to care, and now it was too late.

'What a mess,' he thought to himself, 'at least she's not alone with him, so there's no reason for rumors to spread.'

"In any case, I won't be staying long. I simply wanted to thank you personally." Lucan was tired, but the fact that she had finally woken up was something that lifted a heavy burden from his shoulders. "His Imperial Majesty will probably have a word about this as well, but I wanted to see you with my own eyes and thank you first."

Blinking, with a spoon in her mouth and a blank expression on her face, she stared at the Imperial Prince for a few seconds. "Thanks for what?" she asked bluntly.

Taken aback, he cleared his throat and found his eyes fixed on the carpet beneath his feet, feeling the piercing gaze of the older Varnhagen offspring from his right as well. "I know this may sound dishonest coming from a prince who ran away, but I am very grateful that you managed to hold off the enemy and thus save the capital."

"But we didn't do that," the lady said as a matter of fact, "and I did even less. It was my first brother who took on the hardest part of fighting that Grade 4 all by himself."

Her brother flinched. "That is not true, as I was helped by our Holy Knights. And without your sacrifice, we could not have done it."

Realizing that the story that had been told was probably different from what she remembered, Rowena attempted a slight shrug, only to be met with a sharp pain. It annoyed her, but she didn't let it show so as not to interrupt the flow of the conversation.

"Right. But you took him on first, I couldn't do much to really help in the end," she said, looking at Alan to see if he showed any signs that she was moving away from the story he had told, "and in the end I was beaten badly, as you already know."

"That may be true, but with your level of Mana competence, there was no way you could have done much in the first place, but you tried so hard anyway. I really want to commend you for that." And it all happened while he was running away.

"Enough of that. What happened to the rest of the floating city and the surrounding towns?"

Her lavender hair had to be pushed aside to keep it from falling into the soup she was now trying to suck in at once. Her previously torn stomach wouldn't have that kind of speed now, though. The skin on her chest and back also hurt with every move she made - it was frustrating.

Lucan and Alan could see the occasional wince or clench of the jaw and knew that she must have been in a lot of pain right now, which was inevitable with her level of injury. Lucan, of course, did not know the extent of what had happened, but he did know about the wounds on her chest and back.

He had heard that she had somehow come between two attacks that had damaged her badly. A battlefield was hardly an organized space, so he could imagine how that might have happened, even without knowing all the details. What was important was the information about the terrorists themselves and their presumed motives.

"We secured the surrounding area. There were indeed some Visitors who had come up from the dry bed and tried to leave the basin, but most of the immediate vicinity was fortunately blessed." It wasn't of great quality, but it had stopped them long enough for the few Holy Knights the Lodden Empire had to arrive and pacify them. "You were right, as our knights reported. The few that attempted to come up were not controlled, they just happened to find a spot that was not blessed and got through."

"I did say that."

"How did you know? I have never heard of a Paladin with such great powers."

'Sure you haven't, so far only two people on this vast continent are exclusively contracted, and one of them is a support class in nature,' she thought and once again resisted the urge to roll her eyes, not wanting to disrespect him, partly because he hadn't done anything wrong in the first place, "It was an educated guess, you could say. After all, His Grace, the Grand Duke of Varnhagen, has an exclusive contract with one among the first two hundred. There are things one can guess when one knows how they work." She was lying, but there was some truth in it.

After all, she knew about the Pied Piper from her life as Celia, but the things she had deduced about Leviathan came from her own experience as a contractor. Certainly, she didn't know if her assumptions were correct, but some of them were definitely true.

For example, that her Gamble had nothing to do with murder. "I'm impressed, truly," Lucan said with a wry smile, his eyes still glued to the floor, "we couldn't find out anything on our end, unfortunately. The damage from all the water falling back on the capital was quite severe and we couldn't even repair as much as we wanted to because there are still Visitors floating around in the water."

'Shit, I thought this might happen.' She gritted her teeth at the information. "The salt burns them, but it doesn't kill them. In fact, the pain might make them disoriented and unable to find refuge by going back through the Surface, even though it's right under their feet. The water is stagnant, so they won't move and will sink very slowly. You have to wait a while." Even an immobile Visitor was dangerous if they accidentally got too close while trying to repair and reinforce the pillars.

"We've already decided to wait. There is still a connection to the palace, even without the front entrance, and the people have been informed to stop using the waterways for the time being," the green-eyed prince explained, "The problem is that some bridges have also been damaged.

'Sounds like a hassle.' With a sigh, she took another bite of the puree she had been served and considered the situation. "Everything should be back to normal in a few days at the most. There will be a lot of changes after that, so focus on that and don't let this ruin the mood of your nation. Since they only came to play around, don't give them the time of day."

It was clear who she was talking about, but her wording made Lucan finally look up and stare at her. "Well, I guess you are right," he eventually admitted, "the Emperor and I thought so too. Terrorists at such a festive time? If we were to become discouraged, it would only give them what they wanted." But no one really knew what they wanted.

In truth, not even Rowena knew for sure, even though she was the one they had focused on the most. Alan was just a tool for her to react. They knew about Pan.

While she took another spoonful of her warm meal, feeling full rather quickly, the prince got up from his seat. "I have the feeling that I shouldn't impose on you any longer, we will have the chance to talk more tomorrow, if you are able to get up already."

"I wish you a good night, Your Highness, the Crown Prince."

"I wish you a good night as well, Lady Rowena," he said, then looked over at the taller man to his right and nodded in his direction, "and you too, Lord Alan."

The latter didn't say a word, just gave a nod of his own as the prince left the room, leaving him, Rowena and her two maids behind. All were aware of what had happened at the palace entrance.

"I won't keep you from going back to sleep for long," he said as he watched his sister's maids clear away the dishes in front of her, "there's just one thing I need to know."

"Then I will try to give you a satisfactory answer." She had just eaten, but she could already feel her energy draining by the minute merely by looking at his serious face.

"Since when have you been in contact with that creature you made a contract with?" He had never seen a contract being made before, yet he could tell exactly what had happened and he knew that it couldn't be undone.

Surprised by his question and a bit hurt by the word "creature", she opened her mouth and closed it without a word. It took another minute for her to actually think about it. Again, lies were always best with some truth in them, as she always said.

"When I was under house arrest, he just showed up one night when I was alone downstairs." The first time they bonded, it was necessary for the Numbered to come through the Surface to see the person with whom they had an affinity. 'Though I don't know why.'

'Because of the mark.'

'What mark?' Her eyebrow almost physically raised at his mention.

'A person who is meant to bond exclusively with a Numbered is marked. Only the higher-ranked Numbered in question can tell, but the lower-ranked ones will feel it and be appalled,' he gave an unusually wordy explanation, 'But we don't have a connection to the marked one, we only know it is there until we can see their soul clearly.'

'Yet another info I have never heard of. Who marks them?' But she shook her head slightly at her own thought. 'No, sure I know. Now that I know they can see the future, it's obvious they probably pick and choose whatever they see fit in the long run.' It almost made her laugh.

But Pan didn't find it very funny. 'It is indeed so.'

'Well, that puts a damper on a lot of things, doesn't it?' A sigh followed. 'It explains why people with exclusive contracts never seem to be bothered by low-level Numbered and their short-term contracts.'

It had never occurred to her, but it made a lot of sense... like all the other things Pan had told her lately.

Things that had already been studied and calculated, so much so that there were hordes of scientists coming to the same conclusions and calling their theories "accepted". But there was always that little twist that they couldn't have figured out on their own, that tiny detail that added the missing piece, like a key to a riddle.

Pulled from her thoughts by two hands gripping her shoulders, Rowena froze. "Is something wrong? Are you feeling nauseous?" Slightly shocked, she stared at her brother, who had suddenly stood up and closed in on her face, cold sweat dripping from his temples.

She must have been more out of it than she thought. "No, I was just lost in thought," her words came out as she looked at him wide-eyed.

Realizing what he was doing to a patient, he let go immediately and sat back down. "I'm sorry, I haven't slept, so it seems I overreacted."

"It's alright. I appreciate your concern, but I'm really fine."

"How can you be fine?" he said, sounding more bitter than ever.

Now that they had taken care of the most urgent matters, looking at the damage, the details of the attack, and all the implications in broad daylight, it all felt too chaotic.

Besides, he could tell that there was more to it, but he didn't want to accuse her of lying, at least not in this situation. Such a thing was a delicate matter in itself.

He excused himself, feeling a headache creeping up on him as he walked down the corridor with heavy steps. Why did it have to choose his sister?

'You know by now that it isn't that easy, don't you?' a faintly sultry female voice intruded upon his thoughts, making him almost scrunch up his face in front of two palace maids heading in his direction.

'Stay out of my head. Leave me alone.'

'You know you can't ignore me forever, my boy.'

'I'm not your boy, and I've managed to do so very well for the past five years. Don't challenge me, monster.' At his anger, the lady, who he knew was covered in vines instead of clothes, laughed with amusement.

'I am a monster, that much is true. But can you afford not to shake hands with this monster? How will you protect your precious siblings hereafter? Have you failed to notice your infancy in that last battle?'

For a moment he stopped, his lips pressed together in a tight line. 'Silence. I will never accept your contract.'

'Whatever you say, my boy.' The last he heard was her laughter as she withdrew from his mind.

 

With an exasperated sigh, the woman in the dark hood stood up to her, tossing her hair in annoyance. "So what, she's stronger now? Was that what we wanted?"

The small figure sitting on a rock, looking up at the night sky, simply smiled. "It was what had to be done."

"What are you complaining about anyway, bitch? You didn't have to be there and almost die for this shit," an angry man shouted as the sound of suppressed laughter echoed through the night, "and what's so funny, you bastard?"

"You," he said simply, laughing out loud now that he had finally opened his mouth, "you look like a wet rat, even when you're dry. Does that come with the contract or were you born this way?"

"Asshole, as soon as we meet our goals, I will drown you slowly and agonizingly." He couldn't believe that he had to do so much to help this rotten smelling idiot.

Sure enough, that made the only woman around laugh as well.

Of course, that put Leviathan's contractor in an even worse mood. He was about to retaliate when a loud clap caught everyone's attention.

"Calm down," said the one standing beside the small figure on the rock, his voice deep and commanding in his presence, "fighting among ourselves won't help."

"Hmm, that is true," said small figure agreed, "and now that I have seen her in person, I must confirm something." Norn had shown him something quite interesting, downright exhilarating, tickling the part of his brain he shared with the Numbered that was by his side.

He was barely heard when someone behind him started arguing again about some trivial matter, bringing in members who weren't even there. He couldn't have cared less, as his short legs began to kick the air happily as they hung freely from his sitting position.

'I'm looking forward to seeing her again soon,' he thought to himself, as the tall man next to him just closed his eyes to sigh about their bickering companions, 'like Aurora, everything will be dragged to light. And when there's no one left to pawn, who will rise to be king?'