When he got up, he was completely drained. His whole body ached, he had no idea if his luck was even enough for him to stand up without falling, and mentally he wasn't in the best condition either. He gritted his teeth as he remembered last night letting the anger filled him. After Nielle rode him for an unbearably long time and forced him to numerous involuntary orgasms, he dragged him in the water. Shane felt like the last two rounds weren't even real.

His whole situation was driving him crazy, but since anger didn't solve anything, he just took a deep breath and thought about how to deal with it. Preferably with achieving some benefits.

He was thankful for the rest of his luck that Nielle hadn't used that disgusting collar on his neck yesterday which was still strangling him. But that didn't change the fact he was pretty pissed off at the prince. Therefore, he decided that today he would at least do something to get rid of him temporarily and start fulfilling his missions.

When the Lacrisans called him to breakfast, he didn't go. Actually, he didn't even know when he got into the room, whether he collapsed or how much he slept. However, he didn't feel like eating, his stomach hurt, and although he was hungry, the looks of the Lacrisans, who didn't seem to know what to say to support him, sufficiently discouraged him from joining the table. That's why he just waited with his mind full of thoughts until Nielle came to the room.

Unlike him, he seemed as if he had gotten the best luck of Lacris, which was true. He looked satisfied, full of energy and clearly not bothered by the pain in his ass like Shane, which was really strange after the rounds he rode on him yesterday.

All the Lacrisans stood up to greet the prince and although Shane knew he should if he didn't want more whipping, he didn't have the energy for unnecessary movements.

Fortunately, Nielle seemed to be quite in a hurry, so he just said, "Get up, we're going."

"Where?" he didn't understand, but Nielle walked towards the door, whereupon he slowly stood up and followed him.

He wanted to kick him off the stairs they were going down, but he knew another kind of revenge would be better, so he held back and did nothing. Plus he couldn't afford to hurt Nielle in the palace where everyone was against him. At best he would end up sent to Lacris…at worst he'd be executed…he didn't know in what order.

Although Shane didn't feel like talking to Nielle, he finally asked again, "Where are we going?" he didn't know.

"Audience," he clarified.

Nielle wasn't really enthusiastic, as he hadn't expected to have to see Shane early in the morning, and in person. As the king summoned them all to the main hall today, as he sometimes used to, and began to ask general questions about the status of their duties, things became complicated as always. Nielle wasn't left out of the seemingly friendly lecture.

After the king praised Louis for his work, after he supported Brelle in his activities, although he didn't care at all since with them his second son wasn't a threat to the eldest, he came upon Nielle, to whom he had nothing nice to say. Even though he was visibly doing the most.

"The king said that you should be at the audience as well and listen," Nielle explained to Shane as he remembered the king yelling at him for not having the new Lacrisan with him when Louis knew full well that he was supposed to be taking Iuwine to the audience. He didn't even let him to send guards for him, but he ordered Nielle to go himself.

They entered the main hall and after Nielle stopped by his brothers in front of the throne with the king, Shane stood to the side. 

"I brought him father, he's fine as you can see, you can keep going," he said.

Shane looked at Nielle with disbelief, as he really wasn't feeling fine, but the king had already spoken to him, "I don't know if you've gotten the chance to meet the rest of my sons...I think it would be appropriate for you to get to know each other," the king explained.

"I introduced them-" Nielle began, but the king cut him off.

,,I speak! Haven't you learned not to interrupt the king's speech!" he barked.

Nielle's eyebrows furrowed, but he didn't speak, as it was impossible to have a normal conversation with his father.

"It's true, father, we met him," Louis said.

The king's voice changed when he talked to his eldest son, "Did you? Well then...where did we end up?"

"I said what was the results of the medical tests that Elyan offered at Nielle's instructions," Brelle said. He didn't really reveal anything about the theory with the Infey, since it would only complicate things and told the version Nielle had planned. Brelle had no reason not to cooperate.

Nielle was quite grateful that Brelle never caused trouble, even though he always had the most opportunities to do so. Anyway, the king believed his words, which was beneficial for Nielle.

"Louis, do you agree?" the king asked.

"I'm not in charge of the murders father, I believe Nielle is capable enough to solve the case...I heard there are criminals in the dungeon and they are to be punished today," he said. 

The king smiled contentedly: "I'm really glad to see that you keep yourself informed about everything, even though it's not primarily your job," the king praised him.

The conversation continued. Shane listened and got the impression the king couldn't even be serious. He wondered if he really had to call an audience for such nonsense. At Lacris, the king also convened a weekly meeting with the princes and discussed with them their progress and the work assigned to them. However, while there had always been some sort of hierarchy among princes, he had never seen a hierarchy like this with this king right now.

Practically every time Nielle said something, the king reacted angrily, displeased, or cut him off...on the other hand, when Louis spoke, the king couldn't be more pleased. Although sometimes Louis only complemented Nielle on something that the king didn't allow Nielle to finish. The whole discussion looked comical and unrealistic. Shane couldn't believe that one man would treat his sons so unfairly. But he did, and Shane hypnotized Nielle for a while, trying to see if it at least aroused any feelings in him. But that didn't seem to be the case.

Nielle acted as always. He didn't have clenched fists or a tense attitude, and if it weren't for the situation from the past few days where Shane had seen how the king was treating Nielle, he would have thought it was just a one time thing. But it wasn't. Remembering how Nielle had come to the chamber with a bloody forehead…the dialogues they had with each other in his presence, he was sure that the king hated Nielle, at the very least.

Shane recalled what a strange country and government lay before him. He continued to listen to the weird nonsense in silence before they got back to the subject related to him.

It was practically nothing important. The king merely asked if he was being well taken care of as a new gift from Lacris, as if it mattered. Shane knew, than in reality he was probably just looking for another opportunity to take Nielle down. Nielle told him that he was giving him first class care, which made Shane want to laugh out loud, but ended up not doing so. 

Louis said he had nothing to add as he was going to talk to Nielle in private as he obviously didn't want to harm his brother by telling the king the truth about how he was treating Shane.

Brelle said he only saw him briefly and knew nothing about their relationship.

Shane just listened to them in silence, since no one personally asked him anything. And if they asked, he wasn't planning to say how tired he felt. For words weren't enough to express, and though the king seemed to take any chance to punish Nielle, he didn't think that his words were something that wouldn't be objected by one of the other princes. At least Louis would probably stand up for Nielle.

A strange situation continued a while, with everyone commenting on things they knew nothing about, before the whole meeting drew to a close. The king praises Louis one more time and when everyone started to leave and no one expected anything else to be discussed, Shane took a step behind Nielle.

At that moment, a loud bang echoed through the hall. The fall of the body to the ground created an echo in the room making everyone look in his direction as Shane just crashed to the floor. He was lying on it with slightly narrowed eyes, wondering if he had done it on purpose or if his legs had buckled because of how exhausted he felt. 

He had the impression that it was partially true for both, but despite that, he didn't intend to get up. He felt sluggish, tired, and as he could see quite a bit of shock on Nielle's face through his blurred vision, he smiled softly. 

Although he wasn't sure if this would be enough to get Nielle into trouble or if it would at least get him some punishmen it was obviously worth it. Because no matter what anyone said, from what he saw, the king was the kind of person who would take any chance to punish Nielle...especially when he had clearly lied to him a while ago about how well he was taking care of him. What he really was but in another sense of words.

And even if his collapse wasn't the prince's fault, the king wouldn't care about it, since he hated his youngest son.

And Shane couldn't wait to see what trouble he'd just caused Nielle.