"Prince Iroza? Are you quite alright?" He blinked, internally cursing himself as he came back to the moment and noticed Rama looking at him with a furrowed brow.

Bad Iroza.

No daydreaming.

He smiled awkwardly, inclining his head.

"Apologies, General. I was lost in my own thoughts."

Rama clicked his tongue. "That's an unfortunate habit, Adjutant. In this line of work, you must be ever vigilant! Never a moment's rest. At the top of administration there is only ever work, and we must never let our minds wander aimlessly. Take it from me, why..."

Someone cleared their throat by the doorway.

Ji stood there, looking hesitant as he entered the room.

"General? Is this a bad time?"

Rama looked over with a frown. "I suppose it depends. What is it?"

"My apologies, in either case. Your lady wife was visiting the market and has sent you an array of sweets to enjoy, along with your daily tea and..." Here he paused, glancing slightly at Iroza before going on. "Medicine."

The General brightened immediately, though he sent his representative a look with that last part.

It was short-lived.

"Ha! That woman.. She knows me, true enough. Too well!"

Shuffling some papers around, he nodded seriously at Ji.

"Very well, very well. Send it in!I haven't eaten in a spel, after all. Good, good."

As General Rama started clearing space for his food, Ji clapped his hands and a pair of servants walked into the room pusthing a cart.

A cart waylaid with silver dishes.

Dishes of meats, sweets, and tea. Salt and sugar and..Vinegar?

Strong smells.

Iroza sighed, trying not to inhale too deeply.

Gross.

Ji looked over at the sound, raising his brows at Iroza. "Will his grace-I. That Is, will your Adjutant be joining you in your meal, General Rama? We can send for more-"

"Oh, that's right!" Rama cried, whirling back to Iroza with a scandalized expression. "My apologies, Adjutant. if you Wish to join me, you need only ask.. We could even continue our discussion!" Here he paused, looking slightly lost for a few seconds. "Though I admit, the topic of it has slipped my mind. Remind me, would you?"

"The importance of maintaining vigilance, and how there's never a moment of rest in this job," Iroza recited, straight-faced as could be.

Rama went slightly pink, before going on with a laugh and raising a single finger. "Ah, yes, of course... Well, consider this another lesson! No man can go without food. It fuels the body, and soothes the mind. Remember that, Adjutant."

Die.

"Of course, General" Iroza said with a nod.

Ji tilted his head. "Shall I call for more dishes, Adjutant? It wouldn't be any trouble."

Iroza thought about it, really considering his options, and-

Actually, no.

He didn't think about it at all.

"I would love to, General, but I'm not particularly hungry at the moment. One of those days. I'm sure you understand. Please, accept my apologies. I don't wish to be rude, and I am grateful for the invitation."

Not his best excuse, but whatever.

Iroza had just had enough for now and wanted out.

It had beern hours, and Rama hadn't let anything slip.

No nefariousintent.

No secret plans.

No hidden codes.

No subtle looks.

If he didn't know better, he would just think the man was incompetent.

He was.

But there had to be more to it than that.

"I see, I see."

Rama muttered to himself, even managing to sound concerned while his gaze was fixed upon the food being tastefully arranged on his desk by the two servant girls.

One of them, the suspicious one, glanced over at Iroza.

He carefully averted his own eyes.

He was on to her, goddammit.

Whatever.

He might as well try to get something out of this whole meeting.

"Since I won't be sticking around... General Rama," he prompted.

The man looked up with a start, as if only now remembering he was even there.

"Since l wont be sticking around, I felt it would only be right to ask it you had any tasks for me?"

Rama squinted at him for a moment before nodding decisively.

"Hmm.. Yes. Yes, I suppose that would be proper. Good thinking, my Adjutant!" He shoved several platters out of the way, the metal scraping against the wooden desk as he did so, and pulled a few bundles of papers towards him. "'Let's see here.. No... Not that. No.. Well- no, of course not." Iroza largely tuned the muttering out as he waited.

He looked around briefly, and that was a mistake.

Ji smiled pleasantly at him, and the two girls demurely kept their eyes on the floor as they waited for General Rama to finish sifting though his mess of papers.

Iroza stopped just short of tapping his foot or whistling.

"Here we are, this should keep you suitably busy for a while" Rama said, finally grasping a small pile of letters all loosely bundled together with a small leather strap.

Other papers fell to the wayside as he pulled them from the pile.

"Just a few messages I need delivered. Letters, and the like. Nothing too strenuous for my Royal Adjutant."

"Supreme Royal Adjutant, General," Ji corrected with a patient tone.

"Yes, yes. I know the title. It's justa mouthful, is all. One Word too many. Or is it two words too many! Heh. Just as well it wasnt up to me to come up with it, I suppose," he said grudgingly.

He stood with a grunt and placed the bundle of letters in Iroza's hands. "Here you are, Supreme Royal Adjutant. Deliver these messages in my name, and so forth."

Ji cleared his throat then, drawing both their attention to him.

His face looked a little tense, which immediately had Iroza paying even more attention to the exchange.

"Are you sure you wouldnt rather leave the deliveries to one of your loyal soldiers, General? lt's just," he hesitated, then went on. "Courier-duty seems beneath a Prince. Dont you agree?"

Rama thought on this, and Iroza decided he didn't feel like leaving it up to that man's whims.

"It's no bother at all, Representative Ji. I'm more than up to the task, and I've always been curious as to how these things go," Iroza said with a smile, inserting himself back into the conversation.

Rama looked over at Iroza, then back at Ji with a grin. "See there? My Adjutant is fully capable and eager to learn! That's my teachings at work, right there. Dont you worry, Ji. He'll have no trouble with it."

There was a short pause.

Rama seemed content to leave it at that, but Ji still looked conflicted.

Best to prod him before he comes up with another excuse.

"Do you have some other issue with my taking on this task, Representative?" Iroza asked, feigning a casual tone.

After a brief second of hesitation, Ji turned to bow to Iroza and Rama both. "Not as such. My apologies for making assumptions, Adjutant." Standing upright, he nodded to Rama. "General, I withdraw my objection."

"Noted," Rama said with a grunt, already looking distracted.

"No apologies are needed, Representative. I understand your concerns." Iroza said, suppressing a smirk.

He nodded to the General. "By your leave, General."

Rama sat back down with a sigh. "Yes, yes. You have it."

Iroza stepped back and nodded in a respectful manner.

He would bow, but actually no he wouldn't bow because he was a prince.

It wasn't arrogance, it was the hierarchy.

And arrogance.

Even if he was taking orders from this guy.

"I'll see it done. General Rama, Representative Ji," he said, nodding to each of them in turn.

Then he turned and walked out of the room, letting his face drop once the guards and servants were all behind him.

Spirits, but his face was tired.

Playing the part of a suck-up was hard work. After all of this, he had a newfound respect for all of those bloodsucking, two-faced nobles he had met.

Not much respect, but more than he had before.

But he still hated them.

After a few minutes, he stepped out of the General's mansion, taking a deep breath of the disgusting urban air and appreciating the decrepit city-scape.

Still a shithole.

"Lovely," he said dryly.

Only rarely could he be like this.

Glaring out at this place that he hated.

Oh well.

He wouldn't be here forever.

He wouldn't.

After a quick scan of his surroundings confirmed he was alone, he looked down and started flipping through the different letters.

His eyes flitted across the lines, disregarding the letter as routine or inane after a few words each.

He couldn't tarry long.

Mai had been confident they weren't being watched at the time, but Iroza wasn't so complacent as to treat that as the standard.

He just had to look through them all.

See if any one of them had something, anything.

Anything to tip him off.

Some sort of clue, hint, or slipup.

Some kind of-

He stopped.

"What's this?" he muttered, thumbing the edges of the letter.

A letter addressed to what appeared to be one of the prison wardens.

Warden Pola.

Three things set him off about this letter.

One.

It wasn't addressed to the head warden, who Iroza was pretty sure he had been introduced to at some point.

Two.

It wasn't written in Rama's hand.

Now, either of these things could be easily explained by coincidence or oversight.

Perhaps he had delegated the addressing of this letter to one of his grunts.

Iroza had done much the same on several days, and it sucked.

Perhaps he was sending some sort of personal correspondence, or letter of termination, to this particular prison warden.

But the third thing was what cemented it.

"Wrong seal," he said.

It was the only one missing Rama's seal. Instead, it had some symbol Iroza didn't recognize.

A multi-tiered circle.

One outer ring.

One larger, middle ring.

And a small inner dot.

He tapped it, considering.

Then he nodded.

"Yeah, something's up."

Rolling his head to crack his neck, he sighed.

This probably meant he was overdue a visit to the prison.

Even if it amounted to nothing, this was his only tangible lead so far.

After a week and a half of trying to figure things out while working directly under Rama's nose.

This was it.

A suspicious-looking letter.

It wasn't much, but he had to at least check.

What a drag.

A thought came to him, and he grinned.

"Mai's gonna be pissed."