The next morning, Shemira told Aravis all about their new quest. Aravis thought that her newly earned trustbadge would be very helpful. She had gotten the assignment of King Oska to stop the rebels and to stop the Bearers of the Crystal, and now, she was going to help them instead. The girls traveled back to Rilat.
Meanwhile, an elf woman called Alea, who has been wandering around the country after her monastery burned down, arrived in the capital city. She looked around for a moment, trying to find a place to sleep. In the city, she found two inns. One was called The Silent Inn, the other one was called Round 'n' Rebellious. The second inn was the only round building in town, and as it was special this way, Alea decided to stay here. She walked in, finding herself in a rustic, fresh smelling, yet very quiet tavern. She walked to the Innkeeper, a young woman, and asked for a room. The woman handed her the key and Alea walked upstairs to leave her pack behind before she would check out the city.
In the city, Alea looked for the local library and read some books there. She found a particularly interesting one, with the maps of the castle drawn on it.
That evening, Aravis and Shemira arrived in Rilat. They decided to stay at The Silent Inn, as Aravis had to stay in her role. Early the next morning, they wandered over the almost empty market square, asking around for information about the wedding to the few people that were on the streets already, one of them being Alea. Alea didn't know about the wedding, but she decided she wanted to help. The three women decided they were going to start their mission by talking to the stable boy that the princess was actually in love with. After some brainstorming, they decided they were going to start at the castle's stables. The guards at the gate didn't really help. They wouldn't let the girls in, since they had no reason for entering the castle. Proudly, Aravis showed them her trustbadge, the same one that the guards were wearing. Aravis entered, leaving Shemira and Alea behind, to keep the guards busy.
The stables consisted of three halls. Aravis started in the hall most to the right. Here she saw stables with expensive-looking horses, probably all thoroughbred. She spoke to some people there, but non of them seemed to be the one she was looking for. They were either too old, too grumpy or too disinterested. After that, she went to the middle hall, where the stables were filled with big, muscular steeds, horses that were born to battle. Also in this hall, she didn't find anyone suitable to marry a princess. She went on to the last, most left hall, where she saw mostly drafters. She heard some angry swearing coming from the back of the stable. She hid herself in a stable, where the donkey that was inside looked at her with a weird look on his face, like he wondered why a blue Water Genasi entered his little house. Aravis pet the animal and saw the words 'I <3 Mokkie' carved into the wood of the wall.
When the angry man had left the stables, she walked over to the back, where the yelling came from. There she found a young man, covered with dirt, sadly sitting in the corner of an empty stable. She offered to clean him with the help of her magic, which worked pretty well. Now that the stable boy was clean again, Aravis could take a better look at him. Yes, he seemed like someone a teenage princess would be in love with.
In the meantime, Alea and Shemira were keeping the guards, a man of almost thirty years old and a man in full armor, busy. Shemira told them a long, really long story about her religion and her grandmother Shakira. After that, the ladies had no idea what else to say, hoping Aravis would come back soon. 'Sooo, you come here more often?', Shemira said, trying to flirt with the guards to keep them busy. 'Well, I'm a guard, this is my job', the man replied. After some flirting, Shemira managed to even get a date with the guard, whose name was Edward. Alea, who has lived in a monastry for over a century, didn't know anything about people, especially not flirting, yet she gave it a try. She had absolutely no idea who was in the armor, he could be a fifty-year-old, who knows? She actually came across very convincing, and the knight said she could come with him to the opening banquet, hosted to welcome all wedding guests that weren't from Rilat, only if she would wear a fancy looking dress, as most people there would be nobles or rich citizens.
