Tulip nearly dragged Freya, dodging between rooms, sneaking down corridors until they finally came upon a servant exiting a small staircase. She motioned for Freya to follow as she ducked into the dark, small steps and close-in walls punctuated every so often with a window.

“This will go to the very bottom floor if I recall correctly,” Tulip said. “Are you okay going on your own?”

Tulip stopped short of an exit one floor below where they’d started.

Freya nodded, “Thank you for this.”

She embraced the other mouse.

“It’s what I do, well it’s the least I could do.”

Freya paused at the threshold of the next step.

“Did you ever tell Holly about how Captain Bell… what he did?” Freya asked.

“No.”

Freya sighed. “Don’t, please. I need you to be a neutral arbiter to tell her that I really didn’t mean for her to…”

Tulip took one step back up. “What’s done is done. Give her some space. I don’t know the particulars of what is going on between you two, but I think you should consider… well, just give her some space. Imagine how you would feel if it was you and you saw Holly with Lieutenant Chin-Hwa.”

“He wouldn’t… he wouldn’t do that.” Freya leaned against the wall.

“You honestly don’t know. Some of these lordlings? Even some of the lords? They’re ruthless sometimes.”

“But if he was continually dropping by on Holly, even to the point that he probably visited her more times than he visited me…” Freya's hand went to her mouth.

“Yep.”

“I… I’ve made a terrible mistake, haven’t I?”

“I’ve recovered from worse, you live and the raven blesses you with a bounty, and then Inurajg blesses you with an empty stomach so you eat the bounty. It’ll all even out in the end.”

The two grasped paws for a second.

“Give her my apologies,” Freya said.

“She won’t accept them from me, but I’ll make sure that she gets the sentiment.”

The two parted, and Freya continued on to exit out the back, avoiding any and all prying eyes as she departed.