"It was rather easy to find him by the path he burnt through Elodesian patrols, helping some of our people get out of Elodus." Percival confirmed.

"Nope, no locate spell, I've got ehhh, deadlines to meet." Camus responded, not going into further detail on that matter. "That plan works though, wouldn't be hard for people to believe I got a little too adventurous."

Eric coward as Richard stared at him from his throne. Those eyes, those eyes before...before Pendragon fell. He knew those eyes well. His father's fury, it's...it's just striking. Richard said "She is your sister, you are her brother, you are supposed to look out for her"

Eric protested softly "I was"

"No you weren't!" was the thunderous roar that came from his father "This was childish "Amelia loves Will but just doesn't know it yet" crap you and Kira were trying to pull at the ball. Except, a million times worse!"

Eric barked "If you're so against what I did why did you betroth her?!"

Richard glared back as Eric shrank a bit "Because unlike you, I think about Amelia's happiness before I act."

"Somehow unsurprising," Ryker said. "What about this Gaheris that we're going to find?"

"Not that hard," Suzanne said, nodding to him. "Sponsor?" she asked as she began to angle back towards Arcana.

"Please, Amelia, let me make it up to you," Will pleaded, stepping forward to close the space between them, even as Amelia stepped backwards toward the fire behind her. She looked up at him defiantly, though her resolve faltered as she saw the fear in his eyes, the desperation in him.

Will was on the edge of confessing everything, the words were on the tip of his tongue. His father did this, his father pushed for the betrothal, his father... his father would punish him if he didn't make this right. The punishments he'd do.. but he couldn't get the words out. "What's actually going on Will?" Amelia asked quietly, and Will took a step back, panic shooting through him. Had she noticed.

"I don't know what you mean," He said hurriedly. "I-- I just want things to go back to how they were. I want to read books and make fun of the air heads, and talk about what we want to do in the future," he stammered. "I want to sneak into the kitchens and steal snacks, and hide in the rampart towers from our responsibilities again. This isn't what I want."

"He's an interesting one, that requires some nuance to understand." Percival prefaced. "He carries the power to charm those who feel no hostility toward him, but is also very secretive of it for the same reason I am. He, however, refuses to use his powers in most situations because he has been raised on the stigma of those around him believing anyone who cares about him or feels love for him must have been charmed. If not for his dedicated girlfriend he has, I believe he would not be the kind-hearted man I know him to be."

Camus waited until he rejoined her, various glowing mushrooms in his arms, to answer that question. "Yeah, I have a sponsor who taught me some basic magic, like my physical enhancement magic and most of the necromancy I use. He even funded my education here, with the requirement that I begin pushing patents for new spells monthly after three months up here." He let out a dramatic sigh. "No idea how I'm gonna uphold an insane requirement like that, but thankfully necromancy is a rarely explored magic format. I might be able to do something. He only wants me to attempt patents monthly, I don't have to actually GET the patent, after all..." He began mulling over the situation in his head, already plotting ideas he could attempt to look into.

Eric said "What am I going to say to her?! Oh, that I'm sorry! Yeah, a fat load of good that does when she's already betrothed! The damage is done! She is never going to forgive me for this"

"How do you know that!" Richard barked back "You are going to take my place sooner than later, you need to man up and face the concequences of your actions. Talk to her, I won't lie...she will not be forgiving at first but she'll appreciate the effort...but Kira can not solve this for you."

(Amelia also definitely asked and insisted Richard not tell Eric to go talk to her, bc then it's disingenuous and not Eric's idea)

"Makes sense, can't prepare for what you don't know," Ryker agreed.

"That is a great many patents," Suzanne hummed. "I don't envy you for that."

"We could...pretend like it doesn't exist," Will offered. "I know this is a little backwards, but let me take you on a proper date." He took ahold of one of her hands, and while she still looked upset, she didn't seem as angry anymore. "I should have asked you far sooner, and I'm sorry I didn't. Amelia Elodus, will you go on a date with me?" he asked.

Amelia looked up at Will, resisting the urge to yank her hand from his. "I'm still upset with you," she said, but the strength behind her voice was gone. The fight in her was dying. This was what she was set to be: the wife of William Gavin Jr. She had to get used to it, and shouldn't she try? This was her chance to find pleasure in this situation, wasn't it? He was trying to do it right.

"I'm not asking you not to, I'm asking to make it up to you," Will replied, bringing his other hand up to cup Amelia's cheek. "Will you let me?"

Amelia's whole body was screaming at her. WRONG. WRONG. Wrong. wrong. wrong. She shoved it deep, ignoring how desperately counter to this her entire being was pushing her, as she nodded slowly. "I will," she said quietly, her eyes dropping to the floor.

Will thought she looked like the perfect demure princess, her eyes cast away as her chinks pinked. He moved his hand to her jaw, angling her face up gently as he met her eyes for a moment, before he stole a kiss from her, pressing his lips gently against hers.

Something fractured inside Amelia at the kiss, as she closed her eyes and kissed him back for a moment, begging herself to enjoy it. Her dreams of a knight in shining armor come to rescue her from the locked doors of her castle, of chivalry and the intensity of romance and love, of a princess become fire and passion, all of them shriveled up and died in an instant, as duty beat them into submission, and Amelia accepted her fate as a princess betrothed.

"Mhm. The worst one to worry about will be Gareth, if he's still alive. The madman has a knack for spreading enhanced diseases to his enemies, debilitating or outright killing them in moments." Percival frowned. "Moderately worried over him leaving both no corpse and no trail. The man has never been the clever or stealthy type."

Emily bowed her head slightly "Lord William."

Eric asked "What if William's father..."

"No" Richard said firmly, his gut feeling hard as he assumed his thought.

"... said it was okay to call off the betrothal." Eric said in utter confusion "Father, what did you think I was going to say?"

"Nothing, it's not important" Richard said looking at him. "Just know that if you were somehow able to convince him, then our agreement would be null and void and I can call it off. However, that's only if both William Sr and my future son in law agree to it fully." Eric was quiet, there was still hope. However, he wondered what his father thought he was going to say."

(Skipping to dinner time)

Will sat quietly at the set dinner table, waiting for his father to arrive home. He was relieved that he had actually succeeded, and hoped that him relaying the info would be enough, that he wouldn't...want to verify.

Amelia entered into the dining hall, wearing her evening dress and took her seat to left of her father, across from Eric like she always was. She was quiet, but her mood seemed remarkably improved, though still different.

Ryker peered quietly at the border station in the distance. "That's a lot more guard presence than there was a couple days ago," he remarked, frowning.

Gavin Sr. soon entered his home, a servant helping him take his coat off and depart to clean it before he made his way to the dining room to see his son. "Good evening Will, I trust you've done as I asked?"

"A great deal more, yes..." Percival agreed with Ryker, looking over the sizable Elodesian force present. Had they caught wind of the trio's trip down there? He hoped not, but there had to be a reason for the heavy guard presence.

In the dining room, Bradley stood guard to the far end of the room, near to the kitchen door. Dining room duty was always the worst, having to watch over the royal family while they ate all that extravagant food. This, much like hallway duty, was a very boring job that involved guarding nothing of importance, in a place that would see no action or activity. Such was life as a relatively new royal guard. Hopefully he could get more interesting locations once all their best started getting shipped out to hunt for rebels, but nothing he could do for now. Just boring, hunger-inducing dining room guard again.

Richard looked at Amelia and said "That's lovely, Amelia. I will have to ask to keep it on Castle Grounds. Sad to say, but the defectors...still..." he kept his composure but there was a little twitch of frustration "despite Commander Vxal's best efforts, have gone unnoticed"

Eric looked away, the gravity of how bad it really was starting to sink in very slowly.