With a fresh list of responsibilities that needed his attention, Jacob boarded the hovercraft with Atlas and returned to the palace. His king’s wellbeing came first and foremost, so he walked with the monarch into the building, listening quietly as the other man grumbled about Caspian’s newfound rebellious streak. Having been a watchful observer of the Maydestone family for years, he’d been surprised to find out that the prince had spoken out against his father, but he couldn’t say that he’d never expected it to happen. The prince and the king were two very different men with very different agendas and priorities. It had only been a matter of time before the heir to the crown snapped at his controlling parent. Privately, he couldn’t agree with Atlas’s anger about the situation, since he felt like Caspian needed the space to make his own decisions and build confidence in order to become a great leader. Outwardly, he murmured his condolences and assured the king that the boy would come around.

Once Atlas had been returned to his bedroom to sleep, Jacob left the palace again to pay the penitentiary an overdue visit. He was still seething that Matthew had directly disobeyed his orders, but he couldn’t tell the king about his insubordination. After the heated exchange that had just happened between the two royals, he suspected that it would be a bad idea to mention Iris’s name until the monarch had a chance to cool down. He wouldn’t have put it past Atlas to have her executed just to get revenge against his son for being disrespectful. Not wanting to rope her into their fighting, he would just have to handle the situation by himself.

So, he took a car alone and arrived alone, not bothering to greet any of the guards he walked past on his way into the penitentiary. Still in a sour mood, he intended to do what he’d come to do and leave without interacting with anyone else. With one hand resting on his holster to warn off anyone who might think he was in talkative spirits, he strode purposefully down the long, gray corridors until he reached the wing where the isolation rooms were kept. It was a part of the prison that he’d never liked. Even more so than the regular cells, the isolation rooms were dark and disorienting. They were completely closed in with cement on the floors, walls, and ceilings and nothing but one dim little light bulb to illuminate the space. Even the doors were foreboding. Instead of open bars, they were made of solid steel with just one thick, tempered glass window in the top that the guards could use to keep an eye on the prisoners inside. The entire area gave off asylum vibes, which was why the security guard had always despised it.

Walking through the wing, he noticed right away which room Iris had been transferred to. It was the only one in the hall that had an open door. He stepped up to the opening and peered inside, immediately irked by the sight of a soldier kneeling on the ground, trying to rouse the unconscious girl. Apparently he’d been right in his guess that she needed medical attention. The idiots at the prison were going to kill her if they kept doing things their way, so he was glad that he’d made the proactive decision to see to her condition, himself.

“What the hell is this?” he snapped, entering the room and dropping to his knees on the girl’s other side. “If she needs to be three-quarters prone, she needs to go to the hospital.” Muttering irritably to himself, he shooed the guard away and pulled out his phone to call an ambulance, hoping the soldiers hadn’t been so incompetent that he would lose her before she could get proper help.

--

At the hospital, Cas only had a few minutes to himself before a nurse entered the room. Glancing down at her, he saw that she looked nervous, and her eyes flicked over the room as if she was searching for something. “Is everything okay, Your Highness?” she asked tentatively. “I thought I heard shouting.”

[color=#b97703]“Everything’s fine,”[/color] he lied in a clipped tone, not wanting to talk or think about what had just happened anymore.

The nurse shrank slightly but approached his bed anyway, looking over his vital signs monitor and frowning concernedly. She could tell that his blood pressure had been elevated, giving away his recent distress. “You shouldn’t raise your voice, Your Highness,” she advised him meekly. “Your broken ribs are still mending, so any kind of pressure on your lungs could delay the healing process.”

[color=#b97703]“If you don’t want me to yell, then don’t let my dad back into this room again,”[/color] he grumbled.

At that, the nurse fell quiet, seeming unsure what to say, and he sighed. As much as he would have liked to keep his father out of his room, he knew no one in the building had the authority to tell the king what to do. [color=#b97703]“Forget it,”[/color] he shook his head dismissively.

She nodded awkwardly. “Well… is there anything else I can do for you?”

[color=#b97703]“No,”[/color] he replied. [color=#b97703]“You can go. I just want to sleep some more.”[/color]

“As you wish,” she bowed formally and slipped out of the room, dimming the lights on her way out to let him nap.

Once she was gone, Cas let out his breath in a long exhale and closed his eyes, trying to simmer down enough to get some sleep. Hopefully if he rested enough, he could hasten his recovery and get out of the hospital. He would have to stay put for twelve hours because of the injections, but he didn’t want to wait around any longer than that. He had to find Iris and make sure his father didn’t execute her or exile her back to the other districts.