A gust of cold wind blasted in Cinder's face as he stepped outside, squinting his eyes against the bright sun and snow. He shivered, tightening his coat around him as best as he could. What did anyone ever see in this weather? All it did was look pretty. For people who had things to do, people who didn't have the luxury of free time for basking around in the landscape, it brought nothing but woe.

For a short moment he wondered if they shouldn't take the carriage after all; it would be faster, and less freezing. He quickly dismissed the idea. The snowy roads were in no state to be traveled in anything other than a sleigh. They could ride horses, of course, but a horse would only be a hindrance on the shortcuts he was planning to take.

Beside him Prince Gemstone looked quite pleased with the weather. Stomping merrily through inches of snow, he eyed everything around him like a winter wonderland, not seeming to care about the cold. Naturally, Cinder thought. A prince wouldn't have to worry about staying warm and fed in this freezing, inhumane cold.

At the side of the road Cinder stopped, pausing and waiting for the prince and Olive. The knight was the first to catch up with him. "What are you waiting for?" she asked.

Cinder looked around. "Are you the only bodyguard?" he asked. "No other guards?" It seemed a bit meager for the heir to the throne, no matter how skilled this one knight was.

Olive, however, snorted and smirked. "Of course not," she whispered. "There are guards trailing us on every side, but they're keeping out of sight."

He raised an eyebrow. "What for?"

"Oh, Gem doesn't like having too many guards up in his face," Olive answered. "He says it messes with his freedom."

Cinder glanced over his shoulder at the prince. He didn't look like a person who lacked freedom. Sure, he had to have the same duties as every heir to the throne. But could that truly compare with the life that commoners led? Who was more free, this boy or all the people who had to use up every waking minute for work to be able to feed their families?

"Freedom, huh."

Turning back towards the road, Cinder strode on ahead, scanning his surroundings for any traces of the hidden guards. He saw no one. Wherever they were, they had to be good at hiding.

With a few quick steps the prince caught up to him, his cheeks flushed from the cold, his stride vigorous. "Where are we going?" he asked, adjusting the straps of his pack as he went. "How far is the first place?"

"Just on the other end of the town," Cinder answered, picking up his pace. "About an hour from here."

He led the way, walking in silence, trying not to look at his companions' faces. In his head he was back at the workshop again, hoping Hestia and his stepsisters had informed the customers that he was away. He only hoped the whole thing had been a little less sudden; he had tried to complete the urgent orders in time, but some people would doubtlessly still be displeased. Customers and all that.

Cinder sighed quietly. He just hoped the others wouldn't spend too much in his absence, or he would come back to a pile of debts. Not so much that the prince's pay wouldn't give him the opportunity to pay them off, of course…if the prince paid him. If his pay was tied to actually finding his masked self…

Well, in that case he had a problem.

Was it too late to ask now, and quit if his suspicion was right? And would he be able to escape the questions if he did?

"Hey, shoemaker, I'm talking to you!"

Cinder jumped. "What?" he asked irritably, spinning around to glare at the prince. "This better be important!"

"Everything I say is important." The prince crossed his arms. "I'm asking what you think about the whole story."

"What story?" Cinder snapped, even though he knew exactly what he was talking about. "Be more precise!"

"The story about the masked stranger." The prince's eyes lit up, as if the very thought of that evening was enough to leave him glowing. "If you're so smart, maybe you can take something from it."

Cinder shrugged. "Never heard any details. I don't care for gossip and balls."

"But I already told you!"

"Not in detail!" Cinder picked up his pace even as the prince threatened to fall into stride beside him. "What am I supposed to make from a guy showing up late to a ball, then running back out at midnight without giving you his name?"

"That's a whole lot of information!"

"Nowhere nearly enough to solve a case like this!"

Truth be told, he was just stalling until he thought of an answer. And staying in character, of course. He'd rather play dumb than be caught knowing something he officially had no way of knowing.

"Alright," Prince Gemstone declared, instantly leaving Cinder to regret his every question. "Then I'm gonna tell you the whole story. As much as I remember."

Cinder could already feel his soul leaving his body.

Not at all discouraged by his miserable expression, Prince Gemstone recounted the entire evening, speaking of his late arrival, their dances, the drinks, the tour through the palace, and then finally the great escape. "Even the guards couldn't stop him," he concluded, looking downcast. "By the time I got to the stairs he was gone. All that was left of him was this shoe."

"Hm," said Cinder, slowly stuffing his soul back into his body. "And nobody thought about following the carriage?"

"It was too fast!" Now the prince sounded frustrated. "And the whole ground in front of the palace was covered in carriage trails. Nobody could figure out which tracks were the right ones…and then it snowed on all of them."

"And he didn't leave anything else either?" Cinder continued. "You don't make it sound like he stopped for his coat on the way out."

"That's the weird part." A shadow fell on the prince's face. "The servants said he did leave his coat when he came in. And didn't take it again. But…they couldn't find it anymore."

Cinder blinked; that part was new to him too. "What do you mean, they couldn't find it?"

"I don't know! It was missing!" The prince kicked a clump of snow over the road in frustration. "They looked everywhere and it was gone!"

"Sounds like someone stole it."

"My servants would never!" the prince said with a huff. "Nothing else went missing, anyway. Just this one stupid coat. Even though nobody even touched it."

"Coats don't just disappear into thin air, idiot! There has to be an explanation!"

"I know what I saw!" The prince kicked another clump of snow. "Olly's my witness!"

Cinder glanced over his shoulder to Olive, who only shrugged and sighed.

"He's not making it up," she said. "We're still investigating it, since it's horribly embarrassing for a guest's belongings to get lost, but not a trace. Nobody sneaking in or out. Nothing." She shook her head. "Nobody's come back to claim the coat since, either."

Cinder frowned. "Was it a good coat?"

"Brand-new. Probably expensive, the servants say." She looked just as puzzled as her half-brother. "All I can think of is someone so rich he can afford to lose it."

Staring ahead, Cinder frowned in deep thought. So his coat had disappeared, just like the rest of Sugar Plum's clothing. Except the one shoe. He wondered why the shoe, of all things, had stayed. By all logic—if logic could even be applied to any of this lunacy—shouldn't all the items he had left behind remained solid in the royal palace?

"Maybe he was just a collective hallucination," he said, half sarcastic.

"He wasn't!" the prince burst out, entirely serious. "Hallucinations don't leave behind real shoes! Hm? Check and mate!"

"Maybe a ghost," Cinder mocked.

"No way! He was alive," the prince said, his eyes glazing over again. "I can just feel it."

"Then the coat was stolen," Cinder concluded. "It's the only logical explanation."

"Unless it was magical."

Cinder swallowed. That comment was definitely hitting too close to the truth for comfort.

"Magic isn't real," he said, avoiding the prince's gaze. "Stop daydreaming."

"Sure is! But only if you believe," Prince Gemstone continued, pulling a face at him. "So a jerk like you will never ever see it!"

"Thanks, I'm not planning to!" Ever again, Cinder added in his head. Once had been enough, thank you very much.

"You don't have a soul."

"I know I don't. I sold it on the black market when I was twelve."

Prince Gemstone gaped at him for a solid moment. Then he snorted and hastily turned away.

"What's the matter?" Cinder asked impatiently.

The prince didn't turn back towards him. "Nothing."

Was it just him, or had the prince almost…laughed? At his sarcastic comment? There were people on this earth who found his remarks funny?

He shook it off. Probably just his imagination. Someone like Gemstone Crystalline, prince of the kingdom and also his own dream world, was much too stupid and out there to laugh at jokes like this.

"Magic aside," he changed the subject, "if you ask me what it really looks like…I don't think this person wanted to be at the ball."

The prince stared at him. There was dread in his eyes, but more than anything, a heated hostility.

"You said he mentioned his godmother sending him there," Cinder explained. "And nothing else about why he was there. Nothing about marrying you. And," he added as Gemstone opened his mouth to protest, "if he really had been interested in you, he'd have told you his name."

The prince glared at the ground. Even to him, the arguments seemed to make sense.

"That can't be right," he said at length. "He must've had his reasons for not telling me."

"I just told you why!"

"No! He's my true love!" The prince struck a dramatic pose while walking. "True love is never one-sided!"

"Your Royal Foolishness, that is the biggest nonsense I've ever heard you say and that's saying something!"

"It's not nonsense!" Now the prince looked smug. "You just don't know what love is."

"A scam to make people produce offspring."

The prince stopped walking.

"How," he burst out, "can you say that?"

Cinder stopped too, blinking at him in surprise. Out of all the things he had said, that was the one that got him up in arms?

"Listen," he said, clicking his tongue. "Unlike you, I've lived in the real world. I've seen love. It never ends well." Something stirred in his chest, memories of conversations, long-suppressed, and he pushed it all down. "So many people claim to have found the love of their life and a few years later they're married to someone they can't stand anymore. And even on the off chance the love is real—sooner or later one of them dies. And then what, huh?" His voice grew unsteady, and he swallowed. "Love is neither beautiful nor magical, idiot. Without it…the world would be so much simpler."

The prince looked at him again. It was the same look as yesterday evening in the workshop, that expression Cinder couldn't stand. Those eyes confused him. There was too much interest in them, too much curiosity. Almost a hint of compassion, and that scared him most of all. He didn't want compassion. He didn't want to be cared about or understood. He was an adult now; he fared fine on his own.

"You're so wrong."

The prince's voice was quiet, filled with an emotion Cinder couldn't name or understand. "You're so wrong," he repeated without any of the usual pompousness or triumph. "Without love…the world would just be sad."

"Really?" Cinder turned around, continuing to walk. "Would it really be sad if none of us ever knew it existed?"

There was a thud of quick footsteps, then Gemstone had caught up with him again. "One day," he declared, sounding like himself again, "you'll love someone too. Even as the jerk you are." He stuck up his nose. "And then you'll be sorry!"

Cinder stared at the clouds on the horizon, hovering on the edge of the blue sky with the threat of more snow. The wind picked up, biting into his face, sharp and mercilessly cold.

"Yeah," he muttered, so quietly the prince wouldn't hear it, "not happening."

It was enough if everyone else got hurt and was sorry. Watching their misery was enough.

Himself, however?

He would be happy alone, thank you very much.