Despite how weak Shane really felt, it wasn't unbearable. He was sure that if he got a night or two of normal sleep without the exhausting sex he had been force to undergo the last two nights, he would be fine. Therefore, he was really pleased that Nielle would be in the dungeon for exactly two nights. 

When Elyan finally finished treating him, Shane was given permission to leave. However, Prince Brelle offered to lead him to the room.

Shane looked at him for a moment, wondering if it was worth making a move and trying to get a little something from him or not to risk it and postpond it for better time. However, since he didn't know if there would be a more suitable time, he chose to act.  

As they walked down the path to the gardens and reached a park where they had to walk through the trees, Shane stumbled and grabbed Prince Brell's clothes, stopping him. He gently held his head and pretended not to be feeling his best again, which worked enough for the prince to lean towards him naively.

,,What's going on? Are you still sick? Do you want to go back to Elyan?" he asked and lightly grabbed Shane's forehead, as if he was afraid that he had caught a fever.

Shane took advantage of his closeness and took a step forward. He bumped into him, knocking them both off balance before the prince could catch him. Their bodies fell to the ground, Shane ending up on top of Brelle, who just blinked in surprise in the grass and didn't move for a moment as Shane didn't move.

"I'm sorry," Shane spun violently to the side trying to get off his body, but Brelle wouldn't let him and gently caught him. He slowly sat down and leaned against the tree behind him, "I have a weird day today." he lied.

"You look really pale, let's go back to Elyan," he grabbed his forehead again and gently moved to his cheeks.

Shane, who hid stolen black pendant in his pocket, gently brushed prince's fingers off his skin and slowly got to his feet, "No need, I'll sleep and I'll better, thanks," he smiled.

As he didn't allow himself to be talked into visiting Elyan, the prince finally had no choice but to lead him to the palace, to a room where a bunch of Lacrisans were waiting for him. He then went back to his own work. 

"Shane… what did you do?" one Lacrisan asked. 

"Me?" Shane didn't understand.

"Prince Nielle is said to be in a dungeon," another said. 

"That's right, the king had him locked up, I didn't do anything, I just felt nauseous in front of him, nothing more," Shane said and went to the bed. 

"Who is the prince going to take?" one asked frightened. 

"I don't want to be with him for two days," whined one on the bed. 

"Last time he took you, what if he wants me now?"

"Don't panic...Shane," one Lacrisan knelt by his bed, "Did the king say he can't have access to luck? If he did, he won't take any of us for two days." he said.

"He didn't say that." Shane would remember.

His words threw everyone in the room into a palpable nervousness, whereupon Shane asked, "What's going on?"

"Every time Prince Nielle ends up in a dungeon, he takes one of us with him," one said.

"To the dungeon?" Shane asked in confusion. 

"The dungeons belong to Prince Nielle …all of them…of course he can do whatever he wants there." another said.

Shane got up angrily, "Damn," he forgot about this detail and went out of the room.

"Where are you going?" one Lacrisan.

But Shane didn't stop. Because he knew that if he stayed here, Nielle's words would start to make sense and they would really meet sooner than he thought. He wasn't going to wait here for Nielle to call him and force him to spend the next two days with him, definitely not when he finally had a chance to fulfill some duties. 

However, just as he was at the door, about to hide somewhere, he bumped into a member of Nielle's guard. He cursed under his breath as the guy looked at him.

"The new Lacrisan, the prince demands your presence," he stated, grabbing Shane's forearm.

"Shit," he snapped, "like why...he can't be serious." he didn't believe his bad luck these days.

However, the guy didn't answer and simply grabbed him again. When Shane immediately broke free, the guard took out the collar and waved it in front of Lacrisan in warning, "I have permission to use this if necessary."

Shane gritted his teeth and subconsciously clenched his fingers around the black pendant in the inner pocket of his robe. Only now had he acquired it… although it was the least important of all his duties, it was still more than he had accomplished in two days. When he goes to Nielle and he finds out what's in his pocket...all his efforts will be in vain.

"Choose," the guard said. 

And though he really didn't want to, Shane had no choice and so, to the relief of the other Lacrisans, he irritably made his way to the dungeons. Because apparently luck really was playing tricks on him with no intention of stopping anytime soon...and Shane was beginning to realize that nothing could go his way in this country.

***

After the king's servant led Nielle to the dungeons, locked him up, and made sure he wouldn't be comfortable for the next two days, he let him alone.

It wasn't the first time that Nielle ended up in a dungeon on the king's orders, so he knew that his servant wouldn't be coming here anytime soon. Actually, the king almost never showed up in the dungeons. When the air was clear, one of the guards let Nielle out of the cell.

"That moron, if he continue to piss me off, I'll have him locked up here, it doesn't matter that he's the king," he growled and read a report from his guards, which he didn't have time for today because of the audience. One of them was a report from a village near Alicante about a failed surveillance of suspects , the second contained information about his new Lacrisan, which he had sent from Laris by spies and arrived after two days.

"Sir...shall I prepare your rooms or not?" one of the executioners asked.

Nielle thought for a moment. His rooms in the dungeons were basically nice clean rooms similar to his own chambers, where he would sometimes endure the King's punishments if he had a lot of administrative work to do. However, he mostly didn't stay here and took advantage of the time he wasn't under the king's supervision and went out of the city.

And since the situation in the village where he wanted to temporarily detain Infeys was not the best, he decided to visit it.

 "I'm leaving, let that idiot who thought he would get rid of me if he collapsed in front of the king be brought here," he said and read slowly very interesting information about Shane's past that was more remarkable than he he thought. 

Anyway, he wasn't going to let his new Lacrisan do whatever he wanted here in his absence. His duty was still, though the king probably forgot it as always, to protect Rinsel from Lacris's spies. And Shane was clearly one of them.

And since no one else had the skills to control him...at least no better than himself, he intended to take him with him. After all, he has to repay him for the trouble he created so well today.

***

When Shane arrived at the dungeons, he was filled with a strange feeling as if someone was watching him. And the truth was that he was right. He went down the stairs past several guards, then he got to the cells where the local executioners let him go on and after a while he got to the corridor where there were other guys. All eyes were pointed in his direction and Shane felt like asking what their problem was.

When the guard led him to the end of the corridor, they reached another set of cells. They gradually made their way to a large room lit only by a number of torches and a fire in a lit fireplace. Nielle was sitting next to it. He was reading and looked like he was waiting for him. The light from the fire reflected off his white hair, accentuating its bright sheen even more.

Shane walked past several iron tables with torture instruments into the center of the room where the guard stopped, "I brought him, sir," he said.

Shane looked around and wondered why he hadn't realized sooner that Nielle owned the dungeons, so there was no way anything could happen to him them. But he didn't even have time to sigh when the guard hit him from behind with his sword below the knees and forced him to fall to the ground. Shane hissed in pain as he didn't expect to end up on the floor and looked up at the guard in irritation. He didn't feel like kneeling, but when Nielle got up and took a few steps towards him, he didn't get another chance to get up.

Nielle stopped right next to him and bowed to him contentedly: "Long time no see, huh?" he smiled in amusement.