Damn it if you are curious about that ring though

You head to the palace with a bit of speed in your step. The streets are full of people so you moving isn't as fast as you would have liked. The sun's fading glow on the white washed walls of the buildings seeming to draw people out of their homes to appreciate the sight. Or they are all going down to the local tavern.

As you walk through the crowds you are catcalled more than once. Women that are heading out for the night seem rather desperate for male attention. Maybe they should go to Vatarie's strip club, though that could just exacerbate the issue. Ignoring all the whistles, shouted compliments, occasional suggestions of monetary reward for coming over, and general the more unimaginative 'Hey you', you make it to the palace hill.

Hurrying up it you reach the palace as the sun dips below the city's level. The top of the hill, for a moment, sits in an orange glow with all the buildings below you live in long casted shadows. Your hurrying to the gate is stopped for a moment for the sake of the view. You can't see the other hills due to the ring of trees but from the outside each hill must look something like an island of light.

You turn back to the gate and find it open with the guards bowing for your entry. You thank them as you walk through. Aurora might be having dinner by now but you doubt you'll need to find her. Lady Demise should find you pretty quickly once you're in the foyer.

Doing just that you look around, expecting her to appear in a doorway. When she doesn't do that within a few seconds you stretch our your perception. It isn't lost on you that Isabelle is likely here with Delilah and as much as you enjoy Delilah's company, Isabelle more than counters that.

You look at a door just before it opens. Lady Demise looked a tad disappointed she couldn't surprise you. "Lord Christopher. Are you here to visit Lord Lashay? He has been asking about you."

"What? No, I'm wanted to ask Queen Aurora for a favour." You didn't even know Lashay was still here, figured he'd gone back home rather than say around Ana's complete disregard for him.

"Oh?" Lady Demise's eyebrows quirked for an instant, you didn't even think the woman could be surprised. "Please follow me." She walked back through the doorway she'd come from, expecting you to follow. "Her Highness has been rather busy today so I am sure she will appreciate your visit."

You don't respond. Every time you engage with Lady Demise you feel like you give far too much away, even when you've nothing to give away.

She takes note of you silence and her walking slows every so slightly. "Delilah and Princess Isabelle are having dinner together, once you ask you favour should I let them know you will join them?"

"No, I don't think I'll be here that long." Nor do you expect digging through a vault will be all the speedy a process if the contents aren't cataloged all that well. Something is certainly possible.

Lady Demise makes a soft musing noise and once more you feel like she's extracted too much information. "Your time at the library must have been illuminating."

"In the sense that I hope Queen Aurora hired a better archivist." You mutter under your breath, the psychological damage bad record keeping inflicted upon you is still fresh.

"To some rulers the consideration of who comes after is not an issue. But even still you did find what you were looking for." From her tone she was expecting her knowledge of your whereabouts to have more of an effect. If not for Sarean having told you she was a royal spy it might have.

"Through little to no help of past archivists." You mutter. Time travel for a slap, must remember to invent time travel for the sake of slapping a bitch.

Lady Demise stopped at a door. Putting her hand on the knob she paused to say, "Elves are the subject of much writing, even if most of it is irrelevant." Ah damn it you did it again. "Your Highness." She opened the door while you sighed, not even internally you were so disappointed with yourself your sigh was louder than her call.

"Yes?" Aurora sounded tired

"Lord Christopher wanted to ask you a favour." Lady Demise walked into the room with you behind.

You were not prepared for what you saw in that room. Aurora was sitting at a desk, wearing a baggy brown tunic, sitting at a desk with what looked like bed hair surrounded by paper work, quill in hand. It was so different from how she always looked that it, in complete honesty, never occurred to you that ever looked anything but regal.

Aurora looked at you for a moment then went back to writing. "A favour?"

Lady Demise place a chair on the other side of the desk for you to sit in. You did so and she went to a cart, the smell of tea you'd grown accustom to in these moments soon hit your nose. "Yes your Highness." On the walk here you'd been debating how much to tell Aurora about what you want. Sitting across from her that debate ended. "I want to check something in the gift vault." You couldn't give much detail without spill far too much information, but you

Aurora examined you for a long moment. "And what is it you want to check?"

"I found a record of a ring that one of my ancestors gave to Queen Tira." You curt response was only notable in Aurora from a slight pause before she spoke again.

"I'm sure it wouldn't have remained in the vault for that long."

"I'd still like to check."

Lady Demise placed a cup of tea of Aurora desk. Aurora took it and slowly sipped while staring at you. Lady Demise gave you your own cup and you took a sip to fill in the silence. "I think it rather bold to ask a favour. The last time we spoke you were fucking my daughter in my bed. I think you are already somewhat indebted to me."

You chocked on your tea a little, the memory of Aurora drumming her fingers while you tried to cum inside Mary echoed in your mind. Instead of sputter out an embarrassed response you lowered your cup and thought to yourself 'what would Eve do'. "A bed Lady Demise brought us to, and an act you wanted to happen. A pregnancy would make a marriage far easier to force."

It was Aurora's turn to sputter, though for her all you got was a fraction of second of pause before the cup was lowered from her lips. "Perhaps." She put her cup down and shifted in her seat a little. "Fucking of my daughter in front of me aside. What do you want with a ring given to a Queen who lived almost a hundred years ago?"

"It is odd." Lady Demise commented. "Most gifts to Queen Tira were more concerned with the male form." She had returned to the tea cart and was pouring something new into a cup.

Aurora's eyes darted to her. "My ancestors, proclivities, do not seem relevant." She didn't snap at Lady Demise but that was clearly the effect it had. "What is your interest?" Aurora shifted in her seat again. This time moving her upper body far more. In her loose tunic her chest waved, as it did you saw two rather distinct points poking through the fabric. Aurora noticed where your eyes had gone and leaned back in her chair.

You were determined to not get flustered and took another sip of your tea. "Do you want to elaborate or do you want me to owe you a favour?" It was risky for obvious reasons but putting the contingent of the favour on non-divulgence was really the only play you could think of, Eve would no doubt be a little disappointed at the bluntness.

Aurora took a deep breath. With her new posture from your eyes all that did was push out her chest and make the two nubs underneath it stand out even more. "A favour?" She chewed the word and finger drummed on the table. "Such as marrying Mary?"

Walked right into that one. "A non-marriageable favour." You didn't want to have to start putting caveats on it but now you've started you can't really stop can you.

"You were considering having another child." Lady Demise said as she place a new cup of something before Aurora.

You froze trying to figure out that implication of that suggestion but only running into the one. You were glad you hadn't taken a sip of your tea, if you had all Aurora paperwork would be drenched. "Thank you Lady Demise." Aurora said curtly picking up the new cup for a deep drink. Doing so tilted her head back and your eyes were drawn to her neck as she swallowed.

"Always, my Queen." Lady Demise wasn't smiling but you could hear it in her voice as she took the now empty cup from Aurora.

Aurora turned her eyes back on you and for a moment you felt a very familiar hint in her eye before she stifled it. "Very well." She stood from her desk and walked around it. "You may-"

"Mum, are we having - oh it's you." Isabelle's voice preceded the door opening, the sudden drop in her tone as she saw the back of your head a little hurtful. "Delilah wanted to know if you're coming to dinner."

"Princess Isabelle." Delilah's slightly terrified voice from behind her implied Isabelle had run off. They arrived and you saw the instant Eve took over control of their face as the mixture of fear and awe at seeing Aurora snapped into calm polite indifference. "Your Highness." They bowed only slightly.

"Daughter. I was just going to send Christopher to the vault." Aurora walked over and hugged Isabelle.

"So you'll be joining us?" Isabelle perked up at the idea of you being gone.

"Once I've finished my work." Aurora let Isabelle go and returned to her desk and all the paperwork on it.

"We would like to accompany Christopher. If that it allowed your Highness?" Eve walked into the room and stood beside you, their hand playing with the hair on the back of your head. You guess the vault would fit rather perfectly with sneaky sex they'd implied was on offer if you went with them.

"I'll take them." Isabelle sounded unhappy at idea of you taking Delilah away.

"That won't be-" Aurora started.

"No it's fine I'll take them." Isabelle grabbed your hand and tried to drag you out of your seat. You would normally resist but you do want to go to the vault and this seemed a good way to get down there without putting caveats on that favour you owed her.

You left Aurora's office behind Isabelle with Delilah right behind. Just before the office door close you heard the distinct sound of an argument starting. Aurora and Lady Demise act more like sisters than Queen and Spy Mistress.

Isabelle led you in silence to a staircase going down. The three of you went down, then went to a second staircase and descended again. That level had no light at all, so Delilah's glowing red dress came in handy. Isabelle seemed to to cling to them a little tighter on this level. You told yourself it was becasue she was sacred of the dark, mostly becasue it was nice to think of her have such a childish fear.

She lead you through a door and you reached what you assumed was the vault. At least based on the fact their was a big hunk a metal set into the wall. What made you think it wasn't the vault was the lack of handle, or dial, or anything at all on said hunk of metal.

Isabelle walked over and pressed her hand against it. You relaxed your eyes to see the obvious magic going on. The wall glowed in various places, but not around Isabelle's hand. "Dwarven work." Eve said softly. "Could take-" she was cut off by the wall opening. No grinding of metal on stone or even a squeak of metal on metal, the metal wall just gilded open for you.

Inside was not reliant on Eve's glow to maintain thankfully. The ceiling produced a slightly harsh white light. The vault was pretty much exactly what you were hoping for. Just inside the door started rows of shelves that looked made of stone with symbols carved into ends at each shelf's height. You looked for a ledger of some sort, and sure enough just inside the door was a little desk with a shelf of books on it.

You walked over to them, saw the very useful date stamps on each and pulled out the one you needed. Flipping through to Queen Tira you found the ring you wanted and the location it was being stored.

Delilah joined you as you headed for your target. They asked what exactly you were looking for but at the word 'letter' they gathered it had to do with your mother and didn't need any more details.

You saw your destination coming and prepared yourself for an empty shelf just in case this was some long winded lesson from your mother about relying on prophecy to do the work for you. When you saw the ring you did feel more than a little relieved that wasn't the case.

It was exactly how it was described. Silver, black gemstone, writing on the sides you. You picked it up to examine the writing a little closer. It was tiny, almost looked like two lines rather than just the one.

"How can that be-" Eve was cut of by a sudden blindingly white glow from your chest.

"Gaaarrrr." You all collective exclaimed, covering your eyes.

When the light receded and your vision returned you looked at the shelf you'd come here to find. "Damn." You might have prepared yourself for the ring to be here but it was still disappointing that it wasn't. Either your mum had just left the letter in a coincidental book, the ring had been moved without her being able to tell, or there was something else here you were missing.

"Where'd what go?" Delilah asked.

"What?" You asked as you looked around the surrounding shelves for a letter or some other indication your mother had left.

"What ring?" Delilah asked, she and Eve must be talking, though odd Eve isn't talking aloud.

"Have you got what you wanted?" Isabelle asked tapping her foot impatiently.

Maybe your mother sent you here to get you to owe Aurora a favour? Lady Demise's suggestion popped into your mind, really kinda hoping this wasn't your mum's way of getting you and Aurora in bed together. Not that you were opposed just that surely there were better ways. "Yeah I'm done." You said after finishing your second check of the shelves. "Wonder who took the ring." You mused as the three of you left. There was nothing in the ledge here or at the Royal Library about the ring being re-gifted or smelted. Could be a paperwork oversight, would be weird if someone broke into the vault just to nick a ring and nothing else.

Heading back upstairs you looked at Delilah expecting them to be a bit bummed about not getting any but they seemed deep in thought. "We're having dinner now so you can go." Isabelle told you.

You considered pushing back on that, no doubt Delilah would support you being at dinner, and after what felt like a waste of your day you were feeling like an argument would make you feel better. However this is Isabelle, an argument with her seems more likely to result in her plotting some elaborate revenge.

"Bye." You said to the pair. Delilah waved but didn't try to make you stay, she and Eve must be having quite the conversation.

As you were leaving the palace you heard footsteps and turned around to see Green. "Hey Gre-" You were cut off by their lips pressing against yours. You melted into the make out session until she broke it.

"Mary asked if you wanted to join us for dinner." Green's tone was the same professional one she'd had when you first met but the hands rubbing you were not.

"Um, sure." You didn't really know how else you could respond after the kiss. As you were walking you figured out that was why she'd kissed you first.