[Center][b]Royal Blood[/b][/Center]

Auric couldn't help but tense up a bit when he heard Xavier chastise Rayne. For a second he thought for sure they'd all be thrown out, but fortunately it seemed his own words had calmed Penelope down, and in turn Xavier. He relaxed a bit as Xavier replied to all of the remaining questions.

[Quote=Xavier]
[b] "Light illuminating the rune will activate it, followed up with a vocalized or telepathic command."[/b]
[/Quote]

He was a bit mystified by this answer, as it didn't seem to actually answer the question. He was asking for answers as to where the king was supposed to get the torch to burn the rug and things like that. But thinking on it more, he decided not to press the matter, after all Rayne had done a particularly good job of ticking off Xavier, so maybe he was just not wanting to divulge more information? Regardless, Auric thought that this whole defensive system was rather bizarre. From what he was hearing, someone getting attacked would have to find a torch (or take the time to cast fire magic), wait for the carpet to burn away, then issue a command to the gargoyles to kill off the intruder. In that amount of time any well trained archer could've put plenty of arrows into him, even if the victim was in the perfect spot for such a thing.

It was while he was thinking of these things that Xavier decided to leave. Auric couldn't help but softly breath a sigh of relief that the king had not thrown them out or worse. Still, their conversation piqued his interest.

[Quote]
Xavier slowly stands up as well with a sigh, he didn't enjoy the presence of foreigners in an internal affair, but at least he tolerated them. "Now I must attend to my personal adviser's wishes." With that said, Penelope snapped out of her dazed state to glare at her father. "You keep her around even now?..." Xavier glares back at his daughter. "Silence is a virtue in front of guests, Penelope... Please do not start this here." 
[/Quote]

An adviser? It would be rather silly if indeed the adviser did turn out to be the cause of this mess, although right from the get go he felt something amiss. First of all, why would the crown-prince care about what the adviser wants? True, it is a good idea for leaders to seek out good counsel, but the language of Xavier's sentence there stuck him as odd. Shouldn't the adviser be attending to the king's wishes? The other thing that seemed a bit suspicious was that Penelope sounded majorly distrustful of this adviser, enough so that she temporarily broke out of her daze to protest. A theory formed in Auric's mind that perhaps this adviser was somehow connected to this, most likely the mastermind of the whole operation. Naturally they would need to gather a good bit of evidence to prove this, but Auric's mind turned to this mysterious adviser as a prime suspect.

At any rate, they weren't going to get many answers by just sitting here and forming ideas, he thought. He shuffled in his seat a bit, clearly anxious to start heading for the shop. Before he wanted to go, he decided to ask Penelope one last question. Turning his attention towards Penelope, he said in a gentle tone [b]"Adviser? Pray tell, who exactly is this adviser?"[/b]

Penelope looks at Auric, her eyes were mixed with feelings of appreciation towards him and sorrow, even some anger, at the mention of the adviser. [b]"A woman who appeared mysteriously a month ago... Her name is Mauvais. She says she was born here... I doubt it."[/b] She hesitates a moment, then steps out of her chair. [b]"Can I... Come with you? I'd rather not be alone... Right now... And this place is not a home right now..."[/b]

Auric was taken a bit off guard by the princess's second question. His first instinct told him no, she would be far safer in the castle. Then he went over reasons to let her come along with them, she could get the party out of a nasty scrape with the locals, and possibly (though admittedly this was quite a risky prospect) lure the assassin over to them. Still, if she was taken down during the investigation, the whole mission would collapse on top of itself. Lacking any clear idea, he said [b]"Hmm..."[/b] He did this primarily to buy time to gauge the reaction of his comrades before making any hasty decisions.