“As Nela and Roan approached the gates of Mapjess, they were quickly noticed by the guards who let them through without troubles. There was only a select number of people who could be coming from Cliforge Castle in a carriage and none of them were people that the guards could afford to inconvenience, nor did they have reason to.

“He will be in the mansion, I presume?” Nela said to Roan, who was riding alongside the carriage, as they had slowed enough to be able to talk comfortably now that they had entered the town.

“The Lord, the King or your father?” The response came. It was a valid question considering all were present and none were people that she should really ignore for long given her status. Though, they both knew that it was a superfluous question since all three of them should be in the same place. Nela knew that Roan was being a bit irreverent when he asked the question but given her conduct of the past few weeks she couldn't bring herself to say anything about it.

“In that order.” Nela avoided the question by asking about all three of them, she would have to meet them all eventually, now that she was in Mapjess. The difference was that she was using her societal position to try and put off meeting her father for just a bit longer. She knew she had to meet him, and she wanted to, but anxiety was not such an easy thing to get over.

“In the mansion, indeed.” When Roan confirmed her original supposition, Nela gave a slight glare in his direction before going back to looking at the passing streets. Not that he could see her glare, Roan was at the front of the carriage.

“Greetings Lady Burgess, the Lord is currently in the study with the King.” As the pair approached the entrance of the mansion, one of the door guards greeted her. She quickly thanked them in passing, looking to meet her father and get the awkwardness over with. But the words caused Roan to momentarily pause before moving again. ‘He said nothing of the Marquess.’

“After all the travelling, are you sure that you do not want to at least take a few moment’s rest?” Roan asked, though he knew the question was a little flimsy. ‘All the travelling’ had been across Braydon’s territory, which could easily be done within a day at a leisurely pace in a carriage. And they had been going a fair bit faster than that, making it to Mapjess from the construction site before evening. He had to try however as Nela had clearly not noticed a critical part of the guard’s greeting and he could already foresee an embarrassment on her part if she went directly to the study at that moment.

“Why would I? It is not like we have spent days travelling. I can take a rest later on.” Nela’s response made Roan visibly cringe, something that went unnoticed by her as she had not turned around to look at him as she responded. Roan could not bring himself to just straight up say that her father was likely not even in the mansion, but he knew that she would cause herself even more embarrassment if she did not realise that point.

For her part, Nela was just too focused on thinking what she was going to say to her father. She had no clue that Roan was trying to stop her from just charging in headfirst. It was the first time that Roan had seen her ever just completely miss something so critical, but it was also the first time that he had seen her deal with such a personal problem. It was clear that she was better at thinking through everyone else’s problems than her own.

*knock knock*

“Come in.” Before Roan could think of something else to convince her with, they had already reached the study and Nela had knocked on the door. What would come was going to come, and he would just have to watch to see how Nela would handle it.

“Come in.” As they were discussing how things were currently going, a knock on the door interrupted the conversation that the King and Braydon were having. Since they had been talking for a while already, they decided to end the discussion using the new arrival as a convenient ending point.

As the door opened, they both saw Nela followed by Roan entering the room and scanning around it, looking for someone, her calm expression slipping as she did. Seeing it happen, Roan gave a small sigh before coughing, bringing Nela back to reality. He was glad that she did not massively embarrass herself as he had envisioned but it was clear to everyone there that she had been hoping to see someone who was not in the room.

“Greetings, your Majesty. I have returned.” Nela greeted the King before addressing Braydon, clearly slightly more comfortable addressing the latter. She knew that the King and her father had been close friends for years, and by this point he would definitely know that she had been avoiding her father. Even if it was not there, she did not want to look to see if there was disappointment in his eyes.

Braydon, on the other hand, while he might have grown a good relationship with her father after spending several weeks with him, was a more comfortable presence to her. He felt more like someone of her generation than the King did, making her more at ease, even if Aled was technically of their generation too. She would rather face him than face the closest analogy to her father in the room.

“Would you allow me to have a private discussion with my advisor, your Majesty?” Braydon could clearly tell what Nela’s mind was focused on. There would be no point talking about official matters for the time being, it would be better for him to talk to her about her father than try to continue on with anything that he might want her opinion on.

“Go ahead, we should continue tomorrow. I am guessing that your discussion might take a while.” Aled could tell as much as Braydon could, and since Nela had returned he could at the very least give Braydon room to talk with her. It would only cause him problems if both Braydon and Cinar were to be affected by personal matters at such a time.