[What's been going on with Reynard?]

A week had gone by since Reynard had dropped the Crown Princess off at his close acquaintance's residence, otherwise what used to be Ogden Cove.

Reynard was worried that the Princess won't be able to fare well with the difficult personality of Mama Ruth, or than in another case scenario, Mama would think better of it and give the Princess up to the guards.

But since he had some problems of his own going on at home, he wasn't able to pay Her Highness another visit to make sure she was okay, for he knew that the Princess trusted him.

"Mother," Reynard spoke softly as he opened the door to his mother's room. "How are you doing?"

There, on a lone bed against the far wall, lay a woman. Weaker and frailer than he remembered her to be, Reynard's mother, Amice had her head flat against a pillow which needed washing, and her lovely black hair which looked quite brown due to prolonged uncare, was spread around her like a wreath. Even though she looked very near death, when she opened her eyelids to display a lovely pair of blue eyes, she looked like the most beautiful woman Reynard had ever seen.

As she smiled for her son and weakly nodded at him to come over, Reynard realized how much of a grave danger she was in.

"Feeling any better?" Reynard whispered as he came over to his mother's bed and sat on the floor beside her face. He folded his arms and leaned against the bed, staring in awe and worry at his mother.

His mother raked a gentle hand through her son's hair and sighed. "You needn't fret about me. I hope you're helping your sister around the house well," she croaked.

Reynard nodded as he took a hold of his mother's hand and massaged it, so full of love and care. "Although Rosa's a machine on her own, I do pay good mind to help sweep up or help when she's cooking. Especially after father's left for the knights, we don't need to cook much anyways."

Amice nodded, looking at her son. "Have you received any letters from your father?"

"Yes," Reynard said as he let one hand go of his mother's and pulled out a piece of parchment from his pocket. "Though it doesn't say much. Just the usual: 'Love you, take care, hope you're doing well…' Do you want me to read it to you?"

Amice shook her head. "Not yet. I heard that the Crown Princess has been... is it true?"

Though, somewhere in his consciousness, it did hurt him to lie to his mother like that, he knew how essential it was to leave no grain spilled.

"Yes, I'm afraid it seems so," Reynard sighed, making himself look sad and grieved. "I'm hearing that they found her blood and a letter from her killer saying all sorts of insolent things which I'm sure you wouldn't want to hear. It's the most awful scene, indeed."

Amice sighed. "Whether it be true or not, I do feel sorry for the poor soul."

Reynard cocked an eyebrow. "How so?" he asked, eager to know why his mother thought so.

Amice played with a strand of her hair as she stared into space. "It's just..." She sighed. "It's just that it was never her fault that she was born that way. I've heard rumors about how kind and lovely she is, so it just seems so..so vile, to just sacrifice her after exploiting her divine nature. If her mother, the Empress, was still alive, I'm sure she would've had second thoughts about this wretched prophecy."

Reynard nodded solemnly and pressed his mother's hand. "I understand."

Amice nodded. "Now stop wasting your precious time and help your sister. Come on, now. She told me she needs to go to her stall today so she won't be around for a while. Go check with her if there's something you must do before she leaves."

Reynard rolled his eyes and kissed his mother's hand before standing up. He pecked her n the forehead. "Alright, then. If you need anything, just call, alright? And Aunty was saying that she's always available if we can't handle the workload."

Amice frowned at her son as he walked away, whistling. "Don't you dare agree to her offer, you hear me? How shameful would that be?" she called after her son as he shut the door.

After Reynard had made sure that he was well away from his mother's room, his legs gave way and he crouched down, shaken. "Oh God..." he muttered to himself.

He heard footsteps. Reynard lifted his head and saw a pair of brown walking boots. As his eyes trailed up to the face of the person that was looking down at him in puzzlement, he sighed.

It was his sister, Rosa.

Reynard stood up, grunting. Rosa decided not to ask him why he was on the floor.

"Mother isn't doing well, is she?" she whispered sadly as she glanced at the shut door of her mother's room. "I've been mixing all the bitter medicines that she refuses to take into her porridges every morning but she just doesn't seem to get better."

Reynard pursed his lips as he stared at the floor. In front of his elder sister, his thoughts almost always went blank.

"I'm going out to the stall," Rosa said as she stood straighter and fixed her day hat in a mirror on the wall. She stared at her fair skin, rosy cheeks, lovely red lip and long, silky black hair that was tied in a bun at the back of her head. Two little strands at her temples had escaped from the clips and framed her lovely face and equally lovely blue eyes. She fixed her blue day dress around the waist and checked her shoes once.

"Sephni must be burned out as she's been running our pottery stall the whole morning. It's my turn to go and ease the pain off her shoulders. God bless her for being such a hard worker," Rosa uttered as she grabbed her things. "There's not much you need to do in the house. I've already washed the dishes and cleaned the kitchenette. You just need to go and get the medicine bottles refilled and dust the shelves. Some guests might come over today, so we need the house spick and span, got it?. I won't be long!"

With that Rosa Isabeau Gradral took off with her supplies, for she was a working woman. Reynard and his mother remained in the house.

Sighing, Reynard put his hands on his hips and looked around his small, cozy house. It was already quite clean but still, Reynard picked the dusting cloth up and started smacking it at the shelves. Soon, he heard his mother cough from her room and he ran to check up on her.

"Mother, is everything alright?" he asked worriedly before he had even opened the door.

His mother was sitting up with a glass of water in her hands. She was holding her throat as she coughed, her face looking very red. Reynard ran to help her and he quickly pulled her drawer open to take the medicine from it. Unfortunately, it was finished and like Rosa had instructed earlier, he needed to get it refilled.

"Drink some water, Mother," Reynard said gently as he eased the content of the glass down his mother's throat and patted her on the back. "I'll quickly go and get these refilled. Please wait till then!"

As fast as he could, Reynard rushed out of his house and ran to the apothecary, bottles clenched in hand. As he approached the stall of the apothecary, he slowed down and breathed. Fortunately, there wasn't a long line at the moment so he stood in wait and beamed when his turn came.

The apothecary, Stace Radomir smiled at his regular customer.

"Ah, how's your mother, Reynard, my boy?" the middle-aged man asked as he took the bottles from his hands. "Has my new prescription had any effect? I had expected her to get better, truth be told."

Reynard pursed his lips and shook his head. "Just momentary relief, these medicines bring, Mister Radomir. I'm afraid my mother won't be able to last much longer if things keep going like this."

Apothecary Radomir sighed. "Well, let us all hope to the Gods. Here you go, my boy. That'll be 10 silvers."

Reynard fished out the coins from his pocket, handed them to the apothecary and went off back where he had come from.

As he got nearer to the front door of his house, he heard unfamiliar voices from inside. Silently, Reynard pushed back the door in an alarmed stance and was appalled when he saw three strange men standing near the doorway.

"Who're you and what business do you have here?" Reynard asked loudly and firmly, giving off the impression that he was the bigger man in the room, when clearly, he was no match for the men in armor. He was the tallest man here but these men were bulkier. Upon closer inspection, Reynard recognized these people as one of the palace guards.

'Crap,' Reynard thought.

"Ah, yes," The man closest to him outstretched an arm and Reynard shook his hand. "We've come to inspect the house. You can address me as Sir Alan and these two here are Sir Baldric and Sir Carsen." The two accompanying guards nodded in unison, their swords clinking to their armored thighs.

Reynard nodded slowly, studying the three men. "Sires, if you could just wait a moment. Let me go give this medicine to my sick mother and then I'll attend to you, if that's alright?"

Sir Alan nodded, his bushy mustache twitching. "Sure, that'd be fine. Carsen will accompany you while you do so."

Reynard wasn't going to ask for some privacy, because if he did, he knew that the guards would grow suspicious of him. Instead, he let Sir Carsen follow him into his mother's room and watch as Reynard made his mother gulp the medicine down.

Amice really was shocked at the appearance of the strange man but she recognized him and nodded in acknowledgement.

"Alright lad, out you come," said Sir Carsen gruffly as Reynard exited the room. "No fishy business here, Sir." He nodded to Sir Alan.

Sir Alan nodded back. "Right. Search this place down, gentlemen."