The next day I told Oda my unbelievable story, my fib and Oriana's father's eight Dandelion Seeds included, she seemed more mad than glad.

"Her father is a guard here and wants to be part of the Royal family so he's forcing her to join? And he already has eight seeds? He must be cheating!" Oda shouted into the dark night, outside Otto's tower. It took all of my willpower to keep her quiet.

"There's no way of cheating in The Dandelion System, or else you helping me is too," I countered, and she grimaced as we start up the stairs.

"How many Dandelion Seeds have you collected today?" I asked her. Her dejected face told me the answer wasn't good.

"None."

We had eighteen in total now, not particularly a bad amount, but I was bewildered why she didn't get any.

"What happened today?"

"Good thing my henchmen protected me, there was a fraud. They tried kidnapping me. You don't have to worry though—they are dead now."

"Fraud?" I said loudly, and Oda shushed me. I bit my lips. "Anyways, let's visit Otto tomorrow. Meet me at the tower after dinner. I nodded. I knew my way and we had a sort of routine, now.

The next night we met, Oda told me she had stopped receiving letters and now simply told her henchmen to look for seeds. When we opened the door a familiar voice greeted us.

"Karina!" It was Otto and he was was his usual cheery way self. He helped me up from the stairs. His sister, ignored, stomped towards the wall where the loose brick was.

"Thank you," I said to Otto, and he smiled in return. He gestured for me to sit in his chair.

"You have to listen to this! I will be eating dinner with you tomorrow!" Otto announced. "I'm finally allowed to go outside!"

My heart nearly stopped at the news.

"What? Who are you eating dinner with?" I asked frantically. "Who told you that?"

"My mother said I'll be eating dinner with twenty lovely ladies."

"How do you know I'm one of the ladies?" I questioned, dreading that he mentioned me in some form. He replied with how a list of their names were given, and he saw mine. While I feared the dinner tomorrow, Oda was shocked by the collection of dandelion seeds in the golden chest. Inspecting each one, she counted thirty.

"Last time it was fourteen, now it's thirty!" I wrung my hands at the two new dilemmas and Oda cursed while putting the chest back in the hole and slamming the brick over it.

"Why is mother doing this?" she said despite both of us knowing the answer. Within a few days, when the chest is filled, she will give it to her favorable candidate, and she will win.

"Karina, don't you have any idea who it is?"

I didn't answer—I had no clue at all. The Queen didn't particularly pay special attention to someone. Otto frowned in confusion at our conversation.

"I don't have any idea," I admitted sheepishly. "Besides that, have you heard? Tomorrow Otto will eat dinner with us."

"Of course I heard," Oda said pompously.

"What should we do? If he speaks to me, everyone will know I have cheated!" I hissed at her, making Otto stare at us.

"Isn't there no way of cheating?" she mocked me. I glared at her before she added, "He won't. Mother will make sure he doesn't speak to anyone."

"What if?" I asked, but it fell on deaf ears. Instead, Oda pulled me up the chair by my wrist and dragged me out the room. Otto hurried to tell me goodbye, and I gave him a half-hearted smile before leaving.

"Oda!" I continued when we were in the dark staircase and she finally loosened her grip. "Why don't you seem to care? If Otto talks to me tomorrow, they will all know—"

"Karina, I know, but trust me, nothing will happen." The fury in her voice echoed onto the walls, and, restraining from sighing, I followed her outside the tower.

"Get a good night's rest, and be ready for tomorrow," she said and started walking away. The wind blew her wide skirt and her loose strands of hair. She paid no heed to it and continued to walk away, back straight and not turning back. Maybe it was my imagination, but lately she's grown colder. It was my fault, I admit, for not paying attention to see who the Queen's favorite candidate is—but we were supposed to work together.

I was shivering when I turned to look at the tower castle and saw that tower door was slightly ajar and not bolted in. What a careless princess. I was about to close the door when I heard some footsteps.

In a hurry, I pulled the door open again and this time heard the footsteps clearly. Otto was coming down!

"Otto!" I screamed. "Don't move!"

I tried my best running up the stairs in my heeled slippers and in the dark. If only Oda was here, but she wasn't.

I had to take care of this alone.

"Karina?" Otto's uncertain voice vibrated off the walls. I remembered how when I first met Oscar it was just like this. I had left the room and then returned to a dark one. However, this time we were in the staircase, and instead of Oscar's menacing threats it was Otto's helpless whispers.

"Don't move," I repeated, voice softer now. I took a few more steps and sensed that he was only a few steps above me. Cautiously, I stretched out my fingers and touched smooth skin. His face.

"Lets go back now," I reassured him, and felt his fingers touch my hand before wrapping around it. His fingers were warm and as smooth as silk. As expected from royals who never did hard work.

"I don't want to. It gets lonely," his whispered. I wanted to go with him, but I throw away my empathy. I didn't want to be left with Oscar again.

"Lets go back, please," I begged and took a step. Otto wouldn't budge.

"I don't want to." He could be stubborn when he wanted to.

"Otto." I stood there with his hands over mine for a while, both of us at stalemate. I felt a chill on my back, and remembered the open tower doors. I had to bring him back before he noticed.

"One day you can go out," I said, my tone cheerful, "with Oda and I. We will play in the garden and you can play your flute for us. It won't be long, but as of today you have to go back."

"Really?" he asked, sounding wary, but he started to take a step back, his hands still pulling me along. "You promise?"

"I do."

"Fine, I'll go back today," he said. I sighed, glad to have persuaded Otto back to his room. We both walk up the stairs side by side. "But will you stay with me tonight?"

"Only until you fall asleep," I compromised. The door to his room was open, only one lantern was lighted up, making it darker than before. His room looked as lonely as him, bare and colorless. Otto lets go of my hands before slipping under his blankets. I realized he doesn't change into his sleep-wear. Does he even have a change of clothes?

Biting my lips, I sat in the chair next to his bed. His eyes caught mine and he smiled melancholically. He smiled so often—even though there was nothing to smile about. Not in his sad life.

"Now sleep," I said.

"Let's talk for a while. Just until I fall asleep." Despite his innocent face, he had the commanding nature of royalty like Oda.

"What shall we talk about?"

"Your promise. Tell me more about it," he said, white lashes fluttering. He must be getting sleepy.

"It will be a warm day, in spring," I began, picturing a time when me and Catalina had a picnic. "Oda and I will bring friends over, and we will have baskets full of pies and tarts. There will be tables and chairs in the garden, lined up in the way it is for a tea party. We will eat like we are at a banquet. The garden will be in full bloom, and we will make flower crowns for one another. We will dance as you play your flute."

I stopped. Otto's eyes were closed. He had fell asleep already.

He looked like a corpse asleep, deadly beautiful, haunting, and yet enchanting. I stood up and blew out the candle. In the dark, I reach out to stroke his hair, silky and wispy to the touch like they look to be.

"Goodnight, Otto."

When I returned to the dorms in shivers, it must've been past midnight, judging from the dimly lit halls. I open the door to my room and see Aideen, who cried the moment she saw me.

"Karina! Where were you?!" She wound her arms around herself, shivering. "Winter is approaching—don't stay out so late!"

"I was with Prince Otto, don't worry." Her eyes widened and I regretted saying it.

"It's night, what were you doing with the Prince?" she exclaimed loudly, and I clapped a cold hand over her mouth.

"I was only telling him a story!" I whispered, and listened for footsteps. The silence relieved me. "Don't you dare speak so loudly again!" I scolded her, and she nodded in embarrassment. However, my heart quickly softened when I see her apologetic grey eyes.

"You should get some rest now. I'm sorry to have worried you."

"You should rest too, Karina. There's water in the washstand," she told me before bowing and leaving my room, closing the door softly.

I dipped my hands into the basin of water, which is lukewarm. Guilt floods me when I realize Aideen must have gotten it from the well a long time ago. I unpinned by hair and let it cascade down my back. I changed into my nightgown while trying to stop my teeth from chattering, and nestled into my bed.

The only thing on my mind was Otto. It was cruel to lock him up in tower, alone day and night—he was ecstatic to finally eat dinner with us and didn't want to go back to his room. He had treated my careless promise as a dream, a fragile dream that was ill-suited to be a bedtime story. Couldn't they give him a chance? Couldn't they allow him to renounce the throne? Was marrying him off the only solution?

I had thought it was silly of the prince to run away from his duties, but I would do the same if it meant being alone all the time.

"I don't want to. It gets lonely."

That's all I heard that night, as I drifted off to a sad dream of white feathers and cages.