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A muscle in the fire prince's jaw pulsed at the mention of the violet-haired youth's name. However, Ruehl couldn't allow his newfound disdain for Alti's behavior in the square show so obviously here. Not to Ceris. Not until he actually found out what happened.

Taking a convenient seat by the door, Ruehl replied softly, "He's... he's perfectly fine, Ceris. I'm confident Haar is the only one to require your attention. ... Wait, er... he can't.. hear me or anything, can he?" The prince looked a bit uncomfortable at the thought.

Malachai eyed the knight skeptically before nodding. Swiping his juicy apple back from the other's hand, he took a deep bite from it. He took the nudge with grace and began walking in the direction of the inn. Pointing his forefinger of the apple-holding hand back at Xel, he shrugged, "You know, this does not make me your 'go-to' guy. Just because we both know about some forbidden love, I'm not sparring with you on weekends." Azure hues had to look straight ahead while finishing this sentence to avoid running into a merchant cart.

Reaching the inn, he wrenched open the door and stepped inside, passing off the wooden panel for the knight to close behind them.

"So tell me, where's this kid?"

With his excitement still at full capacity, Dax still took no notice of the civilians' odd behavior. Even their boating accident, at that moment, was nothing compared with the utter relief he was feeling. He felt as if he could just spend the rest of the evening right there...

But it was then he realized exactly where 'there' was.

He pulled back a few inches from Sayael, face flushed slightly. Whether from continued excitement or embarassment was hard to tell. Either way, he beamed at the others. "Well.. After being thrown from the boat you guys weren't anywhere to be seen. I thought for sure you might have.. drowned," he said, shaking the dreadful though from his mind. "Luckily, a couple fisherman picked me up and next thing I knew, they had taken me to their place."

"But what about you!? There's no way ol' skinny arms over there would have made it here by swimming," he said, gesturing toward Faryn, still finding himself able to thrown in some sarcasm.

Ruehl glanced uncertainly in the direction of the two foreign clerics, wondering if his question would pose any poor external media for the royal family. Deciding if he phrased it properly, he might be able to get away with it... he proceeded, being sure to keep his gaze focused on Ceris rather than the shirtless Commander in the room.

"As a prince... you know, I'm constantly still trying to learn new things about my kingdom... and the way it er, operates. I was just going to ask what the purpose of that mark on his um, shoulder is? Can you explain it to me?" he asked. His words could have been smoother, but he'd gotten the point across.

Malachai's steps followed Xel's up the stairs and he rolled his eyes at the other's jaunty behavior. Chuckling, he stepped over the threshold of Peyton's room. Perhaps the name 'Peyton' hadn't sunk when Malachai had agreed to take on the favor from Xel-- and perhaps Xel had hoped for that. The adopted prince didn't know exactly as he looked at the handsome blonde teenager in much need of an attitude adjustment. He made a gesture at Cain and muttered to Xel, "Since when did Haar's boy get a boyfriend?"

"Of course he swam all the way to shore!" Sayael replied with a grin. He scooted over in the large chair he was sitting in, making enough room for Dax before he pulled the other prince off the arm of the chair to sit next to him. And by how tightly he was gripping the other -- looking much like a young child with his most precious, and rather overly large, teddy bear -- it was obvious he wouldn't put up with any protests. Dax was stuck sitting there, whether he liked it or not.

"Yeah, Faryn swim, I walked, and Jillian flew," he continued, his emerald eyes brimming with mirth. He hadn't looked like that even ten minutes prior -- it had, quite obviously, been the arival of none other than the blond Ice prince that had made Sayael so overwhelmingly... happy.

Jillian had managed to shake the people off with those last words and, looking highly relieved now that he could be... normal and at least slightly more relaxed, he joined the others. He glanced from Sayael, to Dax and then, finally, to Faryn, his near-black gaze resting there for several moments before they returned to Dax's face.

"As a matter of fact, I did not fly," he replied rather clamly, his expression soothing and most deffinately on the positive side, though not nearly so elated as Sayael's. "We tred water for a while, trying to find land... and were lucky enough to, eventually be picked up as well," the minty-haired teen said, opting to leave out the details. "They took us the last length and we managed to reach shore without too much harm done." Faryn, now, had left. His dark eyes followed the teen slowly, a slightly pained expression on his features -- one that turned to surprise as he felt Sayael give him a light nudge with his foot. He smiled slightly in spite of himself and nodded slowly to the pair. "I'll go... see what he's about, then," he said softly. And with that, he followed the prince to his room.

He knocked quietly on the door. "Faryn...? May I come in...?" he asked slowly, his voice muffled slightly through the door.

A smile couldn't be helped at the boy's adorably shocked expression. Muertian hadn't planned against Rosaline by any means, but he'd at least hoped the pink youth had tried Dizzipop before. "It's... er... well... kinda like soda. I just wouldn't stand up for a bit, if I were you," he tried to explain, "If you've never had it, Dizzipop can make you a little... off-balance. The bubbles, I mean."

It was quite an enjoyable drink by most standards. They would just need to be careful. "I'm sorry... I'll get you something else if you like," he offered, taking up the hint that Rosaline didn't want to talk about the gift.

"Well, certainly, I can explain it to you. Don't be embarrassed about not knowing, my Prince, the last Commander died when you were young and as you probably remember our country's army and such were run by the generals until Haar was made the new commander. Anyway, all of the generals have similar marks on their bodies somewhere in order to identify them in case they were to fall into enemy hands and be so mutilated that other features become...unrecognizable. Haar has his mark on his shoulder, and he has it for the same reason..." The healer explained with a morose expression.

"Boyfriend?" Xel repeated the word loud enough for guests in the room over to hear so, of course, the two teens heard the older knight quite well. Turning towards Malachai with a frown, the brown-eyed man continued, "An escort, my friend, simply an escort. Isn't that right, Cain?" He asked as he turned a suspicious glare on the younger knight. Cain blushed heavily before whipping his head back towards the window, "Correct, Sir," he stammered.

Turning back to the fire-user with a grin, Xel murmured, "See? What did I tell you, just an escort."

"You know, I was thinking of blaming it all on you actually," Dax said, lounging back as best as he could in the snuggly-fit chair, leaning some of his weight over onto Sayael's shoulder. Before, he would have been horrified at being in such a close proximity to anyone, especially this certain Prince of Darkness, but throughout their journey, he gradually began warming up to the boy. At least, more to him than anyone else. In fact, for some reason or another, Sayael was the only person he had actually given a chance to really get to know him. Something just seemed to.. draw him to the dark-haired boy.

"You, with your wild ideas and shenanigans," he continued before pausing to glance over at the other prince. "But blaming it on Faryn instead would just be so much more amusing. If we're lucky, we'll be able to loosen up or at least find his sense of humor while we're out here... Speaking of which, do have any idea what we're going to do next or are you just winging this whole trip?" Before, the idea of simply 'winging it' would have terrified him. Having a set plan was always such a comfort, but he actually trusted Sayael.. to an extent, at least.

Afterall.. They weren't dead yet.