A merchant group arrived by the estate, accompanying the Second Prince of the Kingdom three days later. Three full wagons stopped and proceeded to display their wares for the attendants at one side of the estate.

As for the higher end items, they were brought before the Sixth Prince to take a good look at.

Somnus chose to ignore those distractions and instead took it upon himself to entertain his royal visitor in one of the private gardens.

A tall handsome heron with long, straight flaxen hair, cream coloured skin and pure white wings walked alongside Somnus, the stark contrast of their hairs and height being the point of interest of the servants following them to their destination.

Though the height and body structure difference is a given since Somnus is still a growing fifteen years old and the heron prince is twenty years of age.

Once there, Somnus dismissed everyone to give the two of them some privacy and personally prepared a slightly sweetened hibiscus tea for the two of them to share from his personal canisters.

"You're looking rather tired, Somnus. Having a hard time keeping it a secret from your own brother?" The heron prince asked as he picked up his teacup.

"Speak for yourself, Peiren. To think you'd have to make use of the merchants to come here instead of your usual visit."

The heron prince chuckled at that. "I know. I find it ridiculous as well but an opportunity arose so one must take it."

Silence befell them quickly after that as they drank their tea.

A sigh that escaped Somnus broke that silence after a few minutes.

"So, how are things in the Capital?" He asked, side eyeing his guest.

"Pretty bad. We are still keeping the lid on the king's death and Xanthus is taking the brunt of the stress."

Somnus looked into his teacup, staring at his reflection.

If the King's dead, then how come the news hasn't shaken the kingdom to its core? Surely such news would quickly spread, even to their remote location?

"How long ago has it been?"

"Five days. Right after the request from your Governess came in. We suspect the people from the Central church have plotted this."

"I…see…"

Noticing the downcast expression and the change of tone on Somnus, Peiren looked over to give him a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry. We will not let this get in the way of our plans to send you back home."

"I'm not worrying about that. However, will the royal family be okay once they point their fingers to the Central church?"

Peiren chuckled as he set his cup down. "Our politics should be the least of your concern."

Somnus placed his cup down as well with a loud clack, looking at the heron prince.

"I wish I could let it go easily. However, our Lady Eury is from the Central church you are accusing. I do not want her to be falsely accused."

The corners of Peiren's lips quirked upwards. "Your Lady Eury, huh…"

×××

After finishing his dinner in private, Peiren stood by his bedroom window, his gaze unfocused as he idly played the ends of a lock of his hair between his forefinger and thumb.

A knock on his door interrupted his thoughts as he turned to look at it.

"Enter."

A young heron butler-in-training entered the room, bowing politely to him.

"The Governess said she's willing to meet with Your Highness an hour from now."

"Ha!" Peiren scoffed in disbelief, making the butler flinch. He then waved the butler in a dismissive manner. "Tell the Governess if she doesn't want the princes to be dragged into this, she better have a good excuse for making me wait."

Once the door closed again, Peiren turned to the flower vase on the side table of his bed, staring at the short, freshly cut stalks of clustered white malva flowers that were placed there for his arrival.

He reached out to one of the stalks and burned the flowers that are known to be the symbol of their central faith.

×××

"So, what did you end up buying?" Somnus asked as he lounged in his brother's bedroom as if it was his own, eating two pieces of grapes at a time as he reclined on the couch with one leg resting up the couch's arm.

"You're eating one of them right now." Letum grumbled. "I was saving that for later."

"You shouldn't have left it in the open, brother."

"I didn't expect that the pretend lord of the estate would come and steal them openly from me."

"I seem to remember that the 'pretend lord' you're talking about was the one who gave you extra allowance."

Letum rolled his eyes. "You've let their way of humouring you and your little hands-on study get to your head. Lady Eury still runs this estate after all."

Somnus shrugged at that, popping more grapes into his mouth. "What else did you buy? Surely you didn't waste the extra allowance I gave in stupid little trinkets."

The younger prince blew out air from his nose loudly, a little annoyed by his brother's pestering before reaching into his inner pocket and producing a folded paper and handing it over.

"Information from outside." He told him plainly. "Beyond the borders, to be more precise."

Somnus smiled at that, taking the piece of paper and unfolding it halfway to read it. He looked up again when he heard a small clatter on the table, curious as to what it was.

He saw a small, drawstring pouch filled with what he assumed to be high end inactive runestones, processed by some company from the Empire.

"I'm surprised they have that much on them, considering those things to be rare finds, even for a territory like the Empire."

"I'm sure they've mixed in fakes, or mid-grades at best. I didn’t try to be cheeky with them and accuse them of doing so, in case they blab about my other purchase."

Somnus folded the paper and burned the evidence of their obvious ploy of trying to get some news from their homeland.

From the look of things, it seems like their eldest brother had become Emperor after staging a coup d'etat some months ago against their father and have sent the dethroned Emperor, his step-mother and the Imperial Consort to one of the rarely used summer palaces owned by them.

Rumours of Xanthus taking a shine on a young noble lady also found its way into that piece of paper, though it didn’t go into detail.

It also looks like what Peiren had said about keeping a tight lid on the King’s death was true, and to quell the anxiety of not seeing the heron king for days now, Xanthus had announced that the king has fallen ill and that he will be taking over the duties left unattended.

“Somnus, you’ll tell me the truth when the time comes, yes?” Letum asked quietly as he pulled open the drawstring bag, squatting in front of the table without a care for his dignity as a prince to inspect each runestone carefully.

“Of course. That day will come soon, don’t worry.”