Katyana offers a solution

"Sir Benedicht will remain," you say to Katyana. "What you say to me may be said in front of my Kingsguard; they are trustworthy."

"With all due respect, King Xavier, do you command your guards or do they command you? My own guards, you will observe, await outside this room."

"Lady Katyana, I command my Kingsguard and they are sworn to obey my orders. However, I also trust their judgement. If Sir Benedicht has such strong feelings about the matter that he is willing to put his honor on the line for it, then I must concur with his assessment. Furthermore, my own wisdom also tells me that having a guard present is in my best interests at this time. I am not severely injured, but I am in a weakened position. I believe I have demonstrated that you may trust me with your life, but the reverse is not necessarily true. You are, after all, the daughter of a man who has reason to hate me and a history of killing his enemies whenever he has the opportunity. Finally, I must point out that you, my Lady, have a reputation for leaving daggers stuck in the chests of those who underestimate you - daggers such as the one hidden in the left sleeve of your cloak."

As you finish, two more daggers appear in the room - those in Katyana's eyes as she glares at you. Then, without another word, she opens her cloak and begins to disrobe in front of you.

"Lady Katyana, I don't think this is necessary."

She does not respond, but continues to release the buttons on her cloak until it drops away. Surprisingly, she wears nothing at all underneath it - and it occurs to you that while she is quite obviously slim of stature, it is this lack of underclothes which made her look even more so in the cloak. She is definitely a woman grown, with the breasts and hips of a woman, her body not well-muscled but toned and fit as one who has trained for combat. The lack of restrictive clothing under the satin-lined cloak would make her deadly fast should she need to be, and this would give her the needed advantage over a stronger, bulkier opponent. You understand now how she has acquired her reputation for striking with the speed of a viper.

"I believe that there is an Elyssian custom of offering a sheathed blade as a sign of peace, King Xavier" Katyana says as she stands before you fully revealed. "I offer such a blade now: the dagger which is, as you say, concealed in the sleeve of this cloak. I trust you can see for yourself that I carry no other weapon. Sir Benedicht, Knight of the Kingsguard, do you concur?"

"Yes, my Lady," Benedicht says, impressively keeping his voice level. "You are indeed unarmed."

"And have I convinced Your Majesty that I do not pose a threat?" she asks, turning her eyes back to you.

"Sir Benedicht, I believe you can leave the room now," you tell him. "Please wait outside with Lady Trina and Mshindi, I will have need of you shortly."

"Yes, Sire. I take my leave." Benedicht bows his head, and then steps out the door, closing it behind him.

"Lady Katyana, you have my permission to take the riding cape from that wall and clothe yourself in it, for the moment," you tell her.

"That is chivalrous of you, King Xavier," Katyana replies, "but I wish to impress upon you that I bare my soul now as well as my skin; I speak with nothing to hide."

"As you wish."

"My purpose in coming here was threefold," she says, her voice dropping lower as if she is afraid that the guards outside the stout oaken door may still hear her, and she takes a seat in the velvet chair directly opposite you. "First, as you have no doubt guessed, my men are to observe the city of Elyssia during the anniversary celebrations; to look for weaknesses in your kingdom's defenses, assess the strength of your armies and the loyalty of your allies, and determine your readiness to face a siege."

"Of course," you say. "Lord Velimir would be a fool not to take advantage of the opportunity to gather intelligence; under similar circumstances, I am sure I would do the same."

"My second task," she goes on, "was to engage you directly and offer the opportunity to negotiate for a peaceful coexistence between Elyssia and the House of Reznik. My father anticipated that you would jump at the opportunity, though it was a peace he intended to maintain only insofar as it would be convenient for him. As part of that agreement..." Katyana hesitates for a moment, and you sense that she is finally about to give you some information which you did not already know.

"I can tell this is difficult for you, Lady Katyana," you say to her. "As much as I would like to have inside information about Lord Velimir's plans, I would not ask you to betray your own kin. I did take an assassin's arrow on your behalf, and I will not deny that it is only right for you to feel some obligation toward me for that deed. But there is life, and there is honor. I do not require you to sacrifice the latter for the sake of the former."

She looks at you, and it may be your imagination, but perhaps there is a glistening of emotion in those cold, calculating eyes. All her masks and carefully executed mannerisms seem to fall away now, as if she has shed a second cloak, and for the first time it is as though Katyana herself sits before you, not Lord Velimir's captain and daughter. "Do you not understand, Xavier?" she whispers. "What you did in the Great Hall... you had no way to know that the arrow would be deflected and spare your life. That was pure chance. You saw danger, you knew that the danger was directed at me, and you willingly offered your own life for mine. I have been taught since childhood that the measure of a man's strength is in his will to wield power and bend others to his bidding... but my father, the strongest man I have ever known, would not have been strong enough to do what you did."

"I am sure your father would act as I did to protect his daughter," you offer.

"I am not so sure... I would prefer not to know, I think. But I am sure that he would not have done so for anyone else in the world, least of all for you or one of your kin."

"If you had been killed in my hall, it would have given Lord Velimir all the reason he needed to attack," you point out, "and under the circumstances, it would be viewed as justified. Elyssia would have had a much harder time mustering her allies, I should think."

"You attempt to diminish your own gallantry, King Xavier. You had no time to think of such things. You had only half a heartbeat to react, and you acted to save my life while placing your own in serious jeopardy. I might even have killed you myself, had I not seen the arrow and realized what had happened. In that one moment, you called everything I thought I knew into question. I have spent the last two hours considering this, as your healer tended to the wound which you took on my behalf, and though I do not now claim to know everything, I know one thing which I would have denied before today: that the King of Elyssia is not my enemy."

"Nor is the daughter of Lord Velimir my enemy," you say to her.

"And so, I will tell you this now: as part of the peace accords which my father wished to secure, he would have Elyssia confirm that the House of Ingolstadt is the true ruling house of the Kingdom of Bavaria."

"Excuse me?" you can't help but say, startled by the seeming non-sequitur. "Why would Lord Velimir wish for me to agree to something so obscure?" You search your memory for the lessons you have been given regarding the various ruling houses of surrounding kingdoms; it was a difficult subject to master, as the last century has seen so much change that it is hard to keep track of it all. "In any event... did not your father destroy the House of Ingolstadt? It happened when I was still a blacksmith's apprentice, but I am quite sure that the castle fell to his attack, and that a cousin to the Ingolstadts now wears the Bavarian crown."

"King Stefan is my father's puppet, and he has proven most cooperative and useful; but Lord Velimir wishes to become King Velimir, and wield the power of the throne directly. That brings me to the third and most important objective with which he charged me: to bring to him the one you call the Vixen, by any means necessary."

"But why -" you stop yourself as you remember Valerie's words to you that very morning, though it seems to have been days ago what with all that has happened: "This girl... she has been raised as a lady, perhaps even as a princess." "The Vixen is a daughter of the House of Ingolstadt," you say, your own voice now even quieter than Katyana's.

"She is the last survivor of that house," Katyana confirms. "Princess Liesel escaped my father's attack upon the castle. He has been searching for her ever since, and when rumors reached him about the Vixen of the Elyssian woods, he thought that perhaps it might be her. It was unlikely, of course, but although all his leads pointed to Elyssia his spies were unable to find her here, and so it was not so hard to believe that she might be hiding in the woods as an outlaw; and the young princess was by all accounts a prodigy with the bow. My father sent me here along with twenty of his men, most of whom have been spending the last two weeks roaming alone through the woods, hoping to bait her into making an appearance. Then, during the opening ceremony, I chanced to see her standing next to you on the balcony. I could scarcely believe it myself... but there she was, before my eyes."

"How did you know?" you ask.

"Because she is the very image of her mother, the late Queen Seraphina," Katyana says. "Even at a young age, the resemblance was obvious, and so my father familiarized all his spies with portraits of the Queen, that they might recognize the Princess when they saw her. Now, of course, it is absolutely confirmed. I saw where the arrow struck you; if you had not intervened, it would have gone straight through my eye. I very much doubt that there is another young blonde woman in your kingdom who can shoot so precisely. The woman I saw with you is Princess Liesel, and she is also the Vixen; they are one and the same."

"And your father intends to **** her into marriage," you say, "thereby making him rightful King of Bavaria, and Elyssia would be bound by treaty to recognize him as such."

"Yes," Katyana says, dropping her eyes. "And now, I am a traitor. I do not know that I can go back to him, even if I am not revealed as such. I am not sure that I want to."

"You need not decide that now," you tell her. "But, if you wish to return to your father, it should not be so difficult. The first part of your purpose here is already achieved, if your spies are competent. I believe I can fulfill the second part; negotiating for peace is certainly something I am willing to do, for as long as I know that Lord Velimir has no intention of honoring it, the deception cannot harm Elyssia. I will even acknowledge the House of Ingolstadt as the ruling family of Bavaria, since I will not hand over the Princess and would not even if I still only knew her as the Vixen; besides, as long as she lives, she IS the rightful heir to the throne. As to the third matter... you need only tell him that the Vixen attempted to **** you, and that as a result she has been put to ****. Of course, I will not execute her, but Lord Velimir need not know that."

"I do not know what I find to be more astounding," Katyana says, smiling slightly. "The fact that you are willing to show me such kindness, even now... or the fact that I believe every word you say is true." She stands up, and rubs her hands over her still naked body, clearly feeling slightly chilled - a difficult thing for a woman to hide, after all, when her breasts are exposed! "There is one other thing, Xavier, which I believe has yet to be said."

"What is that, Katyana?" you ask, taking her cue and forgoing the title.

She approaches slowly, almost nervously, and when she reaches you she leans over - not far, as she does not have to in order to reach you - and touches her lips to yours, tentatively at first but then more firmly, the slow and careful kiss of a maid who has never been kissed before... and perhaps she has not, as what man would dare?

Then she pulls away, her eyes looking into yours. "Thank you, Xavier, for saving my life," she whispers.