PeaceMaker

Dominic stared at Kalmin for a few seconds in silence as Kalmin looked at the door. He waited for Kalmin to turn to him before asking, "So are you going to start now or is there something else that you have to do?"

"Sorry about all of that," Kalmin sighed, loosening his shoulders and sinking deeper into the chair for a moment before sitting back up. "There were a few… things I needed to do before we could start."

Dominic nodded in understanding, his head tilting to the side as he observed Kalmin before speaking. "So what did you have to say? I have a little guess on what it might have to do with…"

Kalmin's eyebrows raised curiously, "Really? What do you think?"

"Boris," Dominic spat out, watching for Kalmin's reaction. "It's about him isn't it?"

Kalmin stared back at Dominic stoically before nodding his head. "Yes, it is."

"Hah…" Dominic sighed, "I was wondering why you would go out of your way to make sure he doesn't come and then tell Litian to tag along just so you can make sure he has no reason to come along."

Kalmin sat quietly listening to Dominic's words. 

Dominic looked away in thought, his elbow resting on the armrest of the couch and head leaning against his wrist. He glanced back at Kalmin, "Did you think that he was going to follow us? Is that why you made all of those unnecessary twists and turns too?"

Kalmin hesitated before nodding, "Yes. Something like that."

Dominic sat quietly before sighing. "Having to go through all those lengths just to tell me one thing… it must be something important about Boris."

"Not just Boris alone, it's something that was left out of the meeting that I felt like you had to know," Kalmin retorted. 

"Not just Boris? I mean you did say earlier before this meeting that it isn't going to be the only meeting I'll be having in order to get a recap of what happened in the kingdom," Dominic questioned, "I thought there was tomorrow to continue talking about all those things?"

"I don't think this is something that will be talked about tomorrow either,"

"So it's something that was avoided today and will continue to be avoided later on?"

Kalmin nodded. 

"Hmm~" Dominic muttered, "then go on and tell me."

"It's about Grayson too and why he wasn't seated at the council today,"

"What happened?"

"It happened here," Kalmin reported as he stood up from his seat. He walked out of the middle seating area towards Dominic's desk and stopped when he stood in front of the desk. Turning around, he locked eyes with Dominic who had moved on the couch so he could look at Kalmin. "The fight between Grayson and Boris."

Dominic's face immediately twisted in confusion. "The fight between Grayson and Boris?" he repeated, standing up from the couch and walking towards Kalmin, "what type of fight?"

Kalmin thought about it and faced Dominic. "Well.. not really a fight. It was a rebellion. An assassination attack, really."

Dominic's heart fell to the ground as the word hit him like a hammer. "Assassination Attack? Grayson planned an assassination attack against Boris?"

"Yes," Kalmin nodded, "right here, in this room."

Dominic stood there, his face blank from shock and failure to understand. "What?"

Kalmin peered at him for a moment. 'So that's the expression that you give when you hear about this…how scary,' he thought to himself. The emotions on Dominic's face, or rather the lack of emotions on his face but in his eyes said a lot more than the one word he had muttered. 'Why are you reacting this way about someone like him?' he pondered, 'that blank, confused expression and those crestfallen eyes… why exactly are you like this?' 

Something about that expression put Kalmin on edge, like he was seeing something he wasn't supposed to, realizing something he shouldn't try to uncover. 'It isn't like this I didn't expect to see this… it's that I didn't know I actually would.'

He let out and walked up beside Dominic, leading him to the chair behind the desk. 

'Something tells me that it isn't because of the fact that it was an assassination in itself, but the fact that it was towards Boris,' Kalmin pondered as he let down Dominic gently onto the chair, 'the worst part is that that worry in his eyes… it doesn't look like a one-time thing.'

He picked up a seat from the table and chair near the walls of books and carried it to the desk, sitting down on it and peering intently at Dominic. 'It looks like he's more than capable of acting like this again if something were to happen to Boris.'

Dominic looked up at Kalmin, his eyes snapping out of their shock, and instead was filled with worry. "When? When did this happen?! What happened after?" Dominic asked, sitting up in his seat as he threw questions at Kalmin. 

'Ah.. I don't like that look in his eyes,' Kalmin thought to himself as his head tilted to the side, listening to Dominic's questions. 'There's something more behind those eyes… emotions that feel dangerous. Emotions towards Boris that weren't supposed to be there,' he pondered as he shivered, feeling the weight on his shoulders as he slowly figured it out, 'if that look in his eyes persisted for longer… something's going to happen soon…' 

"Kalmin? Kalmin, are you listening to me??" Dominic called out, his voice filled with frustration, "answer my questions!"

"Yes, your highness," Kalmin replied, letting out a deep sigh and sat up straight as he began to answer Dominic's questions. 'This is worrisome.'

*

Adia walked around aimlessly in the hallway, unsure of where she was and where she was going. 

"I always knew I had to work on my attention span!" she scolded herself, "now I ended up losing them and can't even figure out what that was all about…"

She tipped her head back and stared at the ceiling as she groaned. 'You don't have enough time for all of this self-criticizing,' she snapped at herself, slapped herself across the cheek, 'you're lost in this big palace on a floor you don't even know and have no one escorting you. Worst case scenario, you get lost in a part of the palace that no one can find, best case scenario you get found by someone and it's Boris. Worst, worst-case scenario, you're found by some guard who has no idea of who you are and you get kicked out of the palace as an intruder or put in jail. Then you'd end up getting embarrassed for life when Boris comes to pick you up either from jail or from the streets again.'

She let out another groan as she quickened her steps in the hallway. 'Can't let that happen… maybe I can find some maid to help,' she mused as she looked around the hallway, 'if they ask who I am then maybe it'll be a nice maid and they'll listen for long enough that I can tell her who brought me here and she'll take me back to the dinner chamber.'

She walked silently for another minute before letting out another long groan. "Why is every single hallway like the last?? How do people even get around in this big place?! I feel like I can get lost and won't be found until a week later in this place."

She pouted slightly, kicking at the ground for a few seconds before continuing. "Let's just try to find a nice ma-" her words are cut off when she sees someone in the distance coming out from a flight of stairs. "Is that-" she thought to herself as she squinted her eyes, "it is! That Commander."

Immediately, she stepped back a bit out of Litian's line of sight before following her. 

'I don't know where she's going, but regardless, she can take me back,' Adia noted to herself as she followed Litian. They walked for a bit, Adia following Litian from a distance as she descended down another flight of stairs and then down after walking around a bit, found another staircase and descended down that one. 

'What's with these nobles and staircases? They always have to be going up and down one huh,' she thought as she followed Litian. This time they seemed to be heading in a  different place, somewhere somewhat familiar to Adia. She followed Litian out another door and found herself outside in an open hallway she had walked through the day before. They turned the corner and Adia immediately recognized where they were. She stopped and stared out into the field.

'The sparring grounds..' Adia thought to herself as she looked out into the large expanse of land on which she and Boris had fought on. She looked forward again, 'why is she at the-' her thoughts were cut off when she realized Litian wasn't in front of her. 'Ah… fuck. I lost them again…' she thought to herself, 'me and my attention sp-"

"You," a voice called out to her from further beside her, in the direction of the sparring land. 

Adia turned to the voice, her eyes locking with Litian who held a sword in her hand.

"You've been following me for a while now," Litian muttered, "who are you?"