Rhea was the first to clear her throat and look up. "We snuck in last night before everyone else showed up. Stayed in the diplomatic suite. Grimm didn't want an audience."

That shook Thirtyx out of his spiral. "King Grimmary is here?" His gut churned, struck unexpectedly by a miasma of fear and remorse and the regret of a years-old betrayal…

The calming potion helped him shove it all down.

"Was here," Benn corrected. "Headmistress Azirenne helped sneak him out while the professors were meeting, and everyone else was at the gates."

"That's why we couldn't come last week," Rhea added. "Grimm’s schedule… well our schedule, too… it was all sort of delicate this time."

As his emotions subsided, Thirtyx became acutely aware that several things weren’t quite right. The king had accompanied his nearly-of-age children halfway across the continent to school, coming and going in secret. Despite Rhea and Benn’s playful banter about their luggage, Thirtyx could see now that they were acting cagey. Both had dark circles under their eyes, and while Rhea had commented on Thirtyx's loss of substance over the break, she, too looked noticeably more gaunt.

And why did Benn have calming potions at the ready?

A little bit of the guilt in Rhea and Benn's eyes crept into Thirtyx’s. "I'm, um... I'm getting the impression that a lot of things are delicate right now?" He held up the empty potion vial before setting it on the nightstand.

Benn and Rhea exchanged a pointed look. Benn shifted his weight awkwardly. "We had a bit of a rough break."

"Which is no excuse for us not writing to you," Rhea said quickly. "We could have found the time. Somewhere. But yeah, there was a lot going on that we didn't expect."

It was Thirtyx's turn to look concerned. This wasn't the first time the prince and princess had to withhold privileged palace information from their Verith friend, but Thirtyx could tell this was far bigger than the name of a protected agent or the timing of a dignitary visit. He knew, in part, because he now felt sharper and more alert than he had for weeks. Perhaps his panic attack had been partially due to the sudden, powerful influx of energy after so long running on fumes.

Thirtyx took a few moments to decide how to proceed. One one hand, he was worried about his friends and what they’d been through during the break. Were they in danger? Could Thirtyx help? If so, it would torture him to not know. But on the other hand, he had always respected his friends' need to keep protected intelligence protected—especially when he couldn't deny knowledge of whatever they told him.

Staying true to that philosophy was the only way to buck the Verith stereotype and convince everyone he wasn’t part of some elaborate conspiracy against the throne. The guilt in his stomach thrummed again. All those suspicions about Veriths weren’t entirely unfounded. 

Dwelling on the metaphorical skeletons in his closet—skeletons even Rhea and Benn didn’t know about—was useless, so he drove the matter from his head with a heavy sigh. "Look, I understand that you can't talk about it. Just... let me know that you're okay. Please? I was worried when you didn't come back early, but I may be even more worried now."

The twins exchanged another look. Rhea tucked her hair behind her ear, but it wasn’t lost on Thirtyx that her fingers brushed her right earlobe, where she’d traced a small sigil so many times she merely needed to touch it to reactivate its power. A flash of satisfaction—the brand that accompanied being fed—coursed through Thirtyx's system. The twins had opened a line of mental communication.

Judging by the subtle shifts in their expressions, they weren’t trying to hide their silent sidebar. Thirtyx was typically amused by the out-of-context brow furrowing and eye narrowing and mouth twitching, but they presently made him feel like he was on trial. At long last, Benn shook his head and turned away from his sister. "Rhea, we share a room." Benn gestured from Thirtyx's bed to his own. "With as much practice as Grimm’s demanding, hiding this would be a nightmare. And I like to think he knew that before he set this up."

Rhea stared at her shoes. "I know. I just wanted to protect him, but..." she looked over her lashes with a sort of weary resolve. "It would really be nice to have someone we can talk to about all this."