Zaydan's willingness to help delayed the departure by a day as it meant the soldiers suddenly descended on the main palace demanding more rations for travel. The kitchens of the women's palace had all been almost emptied for travel but no one from the main palace took any notice. Honestly, if Marie-Fey had more time and slowed her departure time, there might have been more chance of questions being asked, but it was such a rush, there was no time for stock to be checked and discrepancies to be found.

Still, it was a relief when the first of the wagons set out the following morning, the others slowly following in its wake, Zaydan's men guiding the way as Marie-Fey watched from her balcony.

She was stunned nothing disruptive had actually happened in the four proceeding days. But nothing had. Everyone had cooperated. No one had informed the main palace of the mad plan – that she knew of at least.

But it was out of her hands. The women were each tucked away within the wagons, amongst their possessions, hidden away and compliant. She was sure she had Zaafira to thank for that. She didn't have command over the palace the way Zaafira did and they both knew it.

And yet Zaafira deferred to her, the same way Maanah and Gharam deferred to her. That, she felt, was what drove the rest to listen. The one who refused to bow to her was listening without comment, was following her lead to the letter and getting ready to leave without delay.

And now, as the women rolled away in their wagons, Zaafira stood at the doors to her balcony watching with folded arms.

"So you really intend to just stay?" she asked.

"Well there wouldn't be much point to me leaving, would there? I can't do anything without being here," Marie-Fey said calmly, turning around and leaning back against the balcony stonework, looking at Zaafira, Maanah and Gharam who looked back at her.

Zaafira's eyes were hard and steady as always.

Gharam was pale, eyes wide with stress and worry.

Maanah's expression was quiet and watchful, but Marie-Fey could see the underlying anger there as well.

She closed her eyes for a moment, folding her arms, then looked at them.

"You three need to hurry and leave, the last wagon will depart soon and you must be on it."

Zaafira gave her a dismissive wave at that and turned, heading for the doors without a second thought.

"We're staying," Maanah said, her voice firm and low.

Zaafira stopped to look back at them and Marie-Fey closed her eyes again, sighing,

"Do not sound so exasperated, how can you possibly think we would leave you?" Maanah snapped.

"I expect you to follow orders," Marie-Fey replied.

"M'lady—"

"No. No argument. I need you elsewhere. I need you gone from here and out of the way. I don't want you to stay. I won't have you here when he arrives."

"But we—!" Gharam started as Zaafira caught Maanah's arm and pulled her away.

"No!" Marie-Fey snapped, "you'll only get in my way. I don't want to worry about you while I handle other things. You're leaving with Zaafira. Today. Now. I don't need you here."

Gharam opened her mouth when Maanah looked back and said, "No, she's right."

"What?" Gharam cried, staring back at her, "You were the one who was adamant about staying with her last night."

"Yes, but she is right. We will get in the way of whatever she's planning. This is between her and Lord Zahir."

Gharam continued to stare at her as Marie-Fey narrowed her eyes. It was an odd turn of opinion, one only made after Zaafira had pulled her aside.

Maanah's hand gently closed around Gharam's arm, pulling her back.

"We should go," she said softly.

"Wait, wait!" Gharam cried, trying to drag her arm free, "I can't leave her alone. I can't! How can you suggest that we leave her?"

Marie-Fey straightened and walked to the threshold of the balcony, reaching across and taking the doors, clearing her throat and making Gharam look back at her.

"You are excused from my service until such times as we meet again," she said calmly and closed the doors on Gharam's strangled objection. She turned away, listening to Maanah drag Gharam out of the apartments, Zaafira's irritated voice cutting under them and returned her gaze to the wagons slowly making their way out.

And pointedly ignoring the underlying voice of doubt that was gnawing at her nerves because how could such a haphazard plan actually work? How could any of this work that did not result in her death?

She was, and always would be, afraid to die, no matter what anyone thought based on her behaviour. And between Maanah, Gharam and Zaydan leaving, she was depleting her support network for a final stand. She had Constantine, but there was a limit to how much she would involve him in this. At least she would try to limit his involvement.

She feared the horror she would soon have to expose him to. It was one thing to hear about what was happening in her life, it was another to witness what she had.

After some hours, watching the wagons roll away, Marie-Fey finally rose from her seat and pushed open the balcony doors to the complete and utter silence of the palace.

She drew a slow breath then, silent as possible, walked out of her rooms, listening to the quiet of shadows in her wake as the sunset started to fade.

Peering through the rooms as she passed, her palace was well and truly abandoned.

Items still remained, here and there, but in the most eerie sense.

The women had only been allowed to take essentials. So, despite the furniture being removed for the 'new replacements', their clothes and personal items still remains, draped or hung up like ghosts, piles of books or makeup tucked to the side on the floor, waiting for their mistresses to return them to their new homes that were not going to arrive.

Marie-Fey wondered how long it would take the main palace to notice the absence of life from across the compound walls. They were so preoccupied with their side of life, they never interacted with her palace. But there was always such life, such a buzz that had instantaneously been snuffed out, would they notice the change in the air? Would they think it strange that Zaydan's men had left in such a hurry? Would they wonder why the guards who usually protected the women's palace were spending so much time away from it? Would they question why their young mistress had thrown them out until the palace had been refurbished?

Or were they so preoccupied with their duties for the arrival of their master, that they would trust Marie-Fey to do her job and see that her palace was ready for Zahir's arrival, while they focused on their side of the wall?

She could only hope.

Because it was too late to change things now.

Too late to call them back as she stepped into the grand entrance hall just as the last of the light faded and looked down towards the closed doors that stretched darkness out towards her.

After a moment, she shook herself.

Enough. She had things to be attending to.

She was on her own and needed to see that both she and Constantine were fed before she got to work.

She turned away from the doors and her heart almost left her chest as someone stepped out of the shadows.

"What are you still doing here?!" she snarled, glaring at Sobia as the ancient witch of a woman sneered back at her.

"I'm here to see if you die or not," she said simply, her voice dripping with condescending amusement.

"Wonderful. Well if it goes wrong, at least I have someone to sacrifice to Zahir," Marie-Fey sneered back and Sobia just laughed at her.

"You're mad, girl," the crone cackled, "You were mad for coming here and you're mad for trying to fight this change."

Marie-Fey let out an irritated scoff because she knew that already and there was no way she was explaining her reasoning of desperation to the hag.

Straightening her shoulders, she swept past and Sobia snorted.

"I'll have your dinner brought to you and the young master," she said simply, making Marie-Fey pause and look back at her. Sobia sneered. "Don't want you poisoning yourself before your grand finale," she said, her tone snide and Marie-Fey glowered before turning and storming away, closing the doors on the palace for good and walking back across the courtyards to her own.

She paused as she entered the gates, eyes travelling to the tower with the hidden room, before walking inside and to the laundry room tucked away in one of the back corners where it might never bother the mistress. Lighting the lamps as she went, she pushed into the room where they kept the fresh sheets and began pulling the rolls down from their shelves, piling them on the floor as she counted.

"What are you doing?" Constantine asked as he appeared in the doorway.

"I need a way to transport stuff, sheets are the way to go."

"I see," Constantine muttered, before shrugging off his jacket, rolling up his sleeves and gathering the sheets up, dropping them across his shoulder. "Where are they going?"

"The astronomy tower for now," she replied, hauling several rolls up into her arms and walking out.

"Your little traitor is here," Sobia's voice rattled out as they crossed into the main hall.

Marie-Fey looked over her shoulder to see Zufar limping behind Sobia into the shadows of the doors, staring at her with pale skin and white eyes.

"Go find the maintenance room and locate a sledgehammer," she ordered simply.

The other three stared at her.

"A sledge— why?" Zufar asked in confusion.

"I have a wall to knock down," Marie-Fey said simply and continued onto the tower as the others stared after her. "Hurry up, we don't have all night!" she called. "We must get started; this will be a disturbing time for us all."

Zufar scarpered, Sobia followed at her own pace and Marie-Fey led the way up to the astronomy tower, dropping the sheets down and walking over to the bookshelf in question, opening the hidden door and Constantine peered into the darkness.

"Hidden towers – I'm getting the feeling these are becoming cliché within this family, but very well," he said blandly and Marie-Fey just frowned at him until he held up his hands and went to light a torch. Handing it to her, she pointed to the latch in the door and, with the same effort it had taken Zaydan, he hauled the trap door up and free, before gathering up the sheets and following her up the tower without comment until they reached the small, empty room with its single narrow window.

Constantine looked around, confused, before looking at Marie-Fey for an explanation but she just made her way back to the astronomy tower after he dropped the sheets and waiting for the sledgehammer and dinner.

Sobia arrived soon after with enough food for all four of them – which was not what Marie-Fey had wanted. She didn't care to eat with either Sobia or Zufar but she took a seat regardless and waited for Sobia to serve her – which the woman did without comment.

Zufar was fidgeting opposite her as she took a sip of her drink and she set it down hard, making him jump and the other two look at her.

"We have a long, hard job ahead of us," Marie-Fey said simply, "Through that hidden door is a staircase to a tower and from that tower we make our way down to a corridor which travels all the way along from here, past the palace and on under the main palace. It will be a long walk back and forth. At the end of that tunnel is a hidden chamber. I'm afraid to say the room has multiple corpses inside."

Constantine and Zufar stared at her in horror.

Sobia didn't look horrified, but she looked decidedly serious in that moment.

"The sledgehammer is to bring down the wall that blocks the passage between here and the tunnel. The sheets are to carry these bodies from their underground tomb out of the palace. We need to gather them all up and move them out of the compound completely. And from there, we need them moved out of the city – quite possibly out of the state."

"W-why can't we call the guards in for this?" Zufar asked, eyes wide.

"You are a guard," Marie-Fey frowned.

"But more. Others. Why is it just us?"

"Because these actions go against my husband and I do not have many friends within this kingdom. Admittedly, neither of you are my friend but one of you owes me, the other..." Her eyes flicked to Sobia and the old woman just chuckled.

"The other is curious," she said simply.

"The other is curious," Marie-Fey repeated. "Either way, I do not trust those of the main palace to assist me, nor those of this palace. I have such a short space of time to make everything I need happen and I cannot afford to waste time on people trying to sabotage me." She shot Sobia another look, then started to eat.

"But.... Why are there bodies under the palace?" Zufar said.

"That will take too long to explain. If we succeed then I might explain it to you fully but for now, we must hurry and finish our meal because this will take longer than the night we have."

The other three watched her as she ate, then followed her lead and finished their meal.

With that, she led the two men – Sobia trailing behind – into the hidden tower, up the stairs and to the small room. There, she pointed at the wall. Where she indicated, there was a small chip in surface. Some days before, she and Zaydan had opened up the trap door again and she told him to leave so she could test something. Once in the tower, she had driven a small dagger into the stone, watched it crack and she had released a breath of relief. She had needed to see that the stone could break, meaning she didn't need Zaydan to stay. She didn't want him and his eyes with her because she didn't want Zahir to literally see what she was doing, so she needed to test that she could break the wall and Zahir didn't have some sort of protective barrier between the hidden tunnel and the outside world.

So now, she pointed and simply waited until Zufar hefted the tool up and brought it slamming down on the stone.

After several minutes of striking the wall, Constantine took over, bringing the hammer down with resounding crashes on the stone, the others standing back to avoid being struck by flying chips.

He and Zufar switched out several more times until they were sweating and gasping for breath but there was a hole large enough to easily walk and carry things through.

Constantine dropped the hammer with a sigh and peered into the darkness.

"Come on, we have a long way to go yet," Marie-Fey replied, taking the torch and leading the way.

The small group trailed after her into the darkness, the silence broken only by the soft drifts of fabric and click of hard heels.

She could feel the growing tension of her companions behind her as she walked and quickened her pace. She didn't care to extend the process longer than need be. There was no way she could ever really prepare them for what they were going to see in the chamber.

The door loomed out of the darkness at the last second and she stopped abruptly, the others jarring to a stop behind her. Taking the key from her pocket, she fitted it into the lock and then looked back at them.

"If you need a moment, take a moment to compose yourself, but we do not have time to delay for long," she said calmly, then turned the lock and dragged the door open.