"I'm sorry. I'm so so so sorry," Logan whispered as he sat in front of the cell, hand reaching through the bars and cradling Roman's face.

Roman shook his head with a small smile, "Logan, I'm fine, I promise."

"He nearly killed you!" Logan whispered harshly.

"He tried to kill me. There's a difference. And I'm fine." Roman told him again, he gestured to Janus and his brother across the hall from him, "Look around Lo, they could have done worse. I'm fine, I promise."

A few minutes ago Tafe had come charging into the prison with several guards following behind him. The general had forced Roman out of the cell and locked the door again, trapping everyone else inside the cell so they couldn't stop him. Logan and Virgil had finally caught up by then and Tafe commanded the soldiers to hold the two back while he drew his sword and attacked Roman who managed to dodge for a bit of time. Logan and Virgil had managed to escape the guards and divert Tafe's and his guards' attention just long enough for Ira and Markus to enter the room and convince the general not to kill Roman. The prince had been forced into a cell across from the others and Tafe, along with Markus, Ira, and nearly all the guards left again.

Now, the only ones left in the room other than those in cells were Logan, Virgil, and the two guards that had been assigned to keep the two from 'doing something stupid'. Virgil was currently sitting with the others and trying to help Janus calm a very upset Remus and Patton. This gave Logan and Roman a moment to be alone, well, as alone as was possible given their situation.

Logan had already explained why his uncle had been driven to nearly kill the prince. To be honest, Roman wasn't too upset. He was to busy being so happy and proud because for one, Logan had just come out to his very homophobic uncle despite knowing their would most definitely be consequences, and that took a lot of bravery. And for two, Logan had confessed to loving him and wanting to be with him contradicting everything he had said to Janus just a few hours ago. Though there were a few doubts that still lingered, of course.

"How are you?" Roman asked, taking hold of Logan's hand between the bars and squeezing it repeatedly as if massaging it.

Logan looked confused for a moment and quickly examined himself for injuries, "I'm fine," he said when he found none.

Roman shook his head, "I mean, how are you emotionally."

"Oh..." Logan muttered in realization before he gave a small shrug, "I don't know. I'm not good with emotion."

"That's okay, you don't have to be." Roman said with a small smile, "How's Ann?"

Logan looked back to the youngest boy, "He's... scared. That's what he says, but he's being very brave," Logan turned back to Roman, "like you I suppose, you're very brave. You did not panic when he attacked you, if it had been me in your shoes I could not say I would have done the same."

Roman tried not to frown, right, brave.... the truth of the matter was that Roman was absolutely terrified right now. He had been for a while now. But he wasn't allowed to show that right now, was he? Roman had no excuse to be afraid, unlike everyone else. He was supposed to be brave, never fearful. He was supposed to be strong, never weak. He wasn't supposed to be scared or frightened, or nervous... was he?

The prince summoned the best fake smile he could, "Why would I panic when I knew you were there, trying to protect me?"

"That was mostly Virgil," Logan admitted shyly, "He was the one who was able to escape the guards first, he had to help me."

Roman hummed, "I don't recall Virgil being the one to jump in front of a sword for me."

Logan sighed and nodded his head, "How was your night? Did you get a chance to speak with Remus at all? How is he?"

"He's different but good different, more confident." Roman smiled, "He's told me so many stories about the last couple of years, and-"

The sound of the castle bells ringing made the guards in the corners stand tall and Virgil flinched from where he sat. When the bells were finished two of the guards, their guards moved towards Logan and Virgil, "We have to go, you two have classes," Quinten said, Quinten was Virgil's assigned guard. The other man, Franklin, was Logan's guard. The two never left Virgil or Logan's side unless they were in the bathroom or sleeping, and even when they were sleeping two other guards would come around to replace them.

Logan held tightly to Roman's hand, "What? No! We're not-"

"It is not your decision sir, it's an order from the Kings and Queen," Franklin said.

"No!"

"We have orders to force you if necessary, please do not make us act on them."

"But-!"

"Logan," Roman said quietly, "It's fine, you need to go my love. You can't be getting into trouble, I won't be able to sweep you off your feet if you do. Go on, we'll be here when you get back."

The wizard frowned, "But-"

"It's fine, go, okay? When you come back you can bring a book with you, and we'll read together like we did when we were kids."

Logan watched his prince for a long time in contemplating silence, he wasn't good with emotions, he knew that better than everyone. But he knew Roman better than he knew himself and even he could see the fear Roman held and how worried he was. Still, he resigned himself with a sigh and a nod before he and Virgil were herded out of the prison tower and towards the opposite end of the castle.

Toward Ira's side of the castle, where she and her students lived, and where she held her classes.

This would be Logan and Virgil's first set of lessons with her. The two of them had tried to argue multiple times that they did not need or want to attend these lessons but of course, this had only been ignored. Markus wouldn't even listen when Logan had explained that Virgil still feared Ira, he had just laughed and said 'any sane person would' before reestablishing that fear did not excuse them from attending. Ira's 'classes' were required and mandatory, not attending them would have serious consequences, as Tafe and Ira had both already explained.

So, here they were, on the opposite castle tower from where they had been with Franklin and Quentin gently pushing them inside. The classroom was dark and warm. Dark curtains had been pulled over the open windows which failed to let in any light or cool the already warm room. Old wooden tables had been set around in a half-circle facing away from the door. At the front of the room, towards where the tables faced, was a chalkboard, and a darkly colored teacher's desk stacked with numerous books, papers, bottles, pens, and much more. It sufficed to say that Ira was obviously not the organized type. The center of the half-circle was empty except for several layers of rugs covering the floor. A fire had been lit in the fireplace and that paired with all the bubbling cauldrons sitting on top of the desks made the room very stuffy and hot.

Virgil and Logan paused at the entrance to take the room in. Students sat at the tables, two or three per table and cauldron. Ira was at the front, teaching supposedly. She paused her lecture to look over at them before rolling her eyes slightly, "You're late," she said as she waved her hand and the door slammed shut behind them causing Virgil to jump back into one of their guards. "Virgil, you are to sit with Erwin and Michael. Logan with Heather."

She pointed to each table and the two glanced at each other. "Virgil doesn't spe-" Logan began

"Yes, I know that," Ira said.

"Wouldn't it be easier for everyone if I worked with him? I could translate for-"

"Erwin, surprisingly, understands sign somewhat well. If there are any issues, he can write it down. You did say yourself he's willing to make that accommodation."

"Yes, but if I worked for him he wouldn't-"

Ira sighed as she tiredly let her arm and the book it held to her side, "Mr. Croft, I understand you harbor feelings for Prince Virgil and you're very close to him but I'm sure you can be apart from him for the remainder of the class. Some might consider this an obsession, and according to my understanding you're both courting other men so is this behavior really appropriate?" Logan and Virgil both turned red with embarrassment, and some anger, as students around the room laughed at the comment. "What is it, Mr. Croft? Aren't you going to talk back? No? Good, both of you take your seats, and Mr. Croft you can stay behind when class ends." Then she lifted her book and began teaching again.

Virgil glanced at a still embarrassed Logan before shuffling his way over to the table he had been pointed to. Michael waved and Erwin signed a greeting to him, it wasn't the best but Virgil could tell what they were trying to say and it was obvious that they were indeed trying. He just gave them a fake smile and let Erwin know he didn't need to sign back if he didn't want to. Logan eventually headed to his own seat as well, his desk partner, Heather apparently, moved her stuff for him. She seemed annoyed to no longer have the table for herself.

"Look," she whispered, turning to face Logan with a glare, "I'm the smartest in this class, and I'm about to advance to the next level. If you ruin that for me then I'll make sure you regret it, I don't even care that you're General Tafe's nephew. Nothing is going to stop me from reaching the top." Logan couldn't help but roll his eyes and, begrudgingly, turned his attention to Ira and her lecture. This was going to be a miserable class.

A few hours had passed since the class had arrived, cauldrons had been put away now as they were done with the potions portion of the lesson. Neither Virgil or Logan had done particularly well according to Ira's grading but both had managed to keep their potion from exploding, which isn't always the case for them, though a couple of other students hadn't been so lucky.

They had moved onto spell work, for now, Ira was just having students show whatever they could. Logan had done well enough, seeming to do better than about half the class. Virgil didn't do so well, somebody had made a comment about his mutism affecting his magic and in an effort to prove himself he accidentally lit someone- not him or the person who had made the comment- on fire. Which had put an end to his demonstration pretty fast.

A few minutes later and Ira ended what was basically wizard show and tell and had one of the students handing out textbooks. Logan had only just gotten his when a loud clatter came from the opposite side of the room and sent everyone's heads turning. Erwin and Virgil had fallen out of their seat and onto the ground, Erwin because of Virgil. Erwin was rubbing at where he had hit his head while Michael tried to pat out another magical fire that had ignited on the textbook and made a joke about Virgil's magic possibly being linked to fire.

Meanwhile, Virgil's eyes were locked on the textbook and had a look across his face which Logan had now come to learn meant a panic attack was on the rise. Logan looked down at the textbook only for his eyes to widen at the title; 'Staeton Kingdoms Official Textbook for Beginners Dark Magic. By Rita Scott'

He stood to go help but Ira shot him a look, which he ignored, and before he could even approach his friend, Franklin had pushed him back into his seat. Quinten went up to Virgil, attempting to help the boy up only for Virgil to kick the guard's legs out from underneath him before taking off at a sprint out of the room and down the hall, Quinten running off after him. Logan was up in an instant, only to be instantly pushed back down again.

"Wait, I can help. He's in distress, scaring him like you are will only make it worse and-"

"Sit. And listen." Franklin said, gesturing to Ira as he moved to stand in a position to make it harder for Logan to attempt to leave. Logan looked between the two for a moment before huffing out a breath and turning back to Ira. The sooner this class was over, the sooner he could find and help Virgil, besides it wasn't as if he needed to practice the magic, just listen to Ira talk about it.