It was almost sad, really.

Calmly sitting in her hiding place, the Seer was doing the exact same thing she had been doing now for several hours. To her time didn't matter, she was raised without any natural light source or method of keeping the hours in order, she could spend a few days doing the same task without realizing the change. What she was doing now however, was watching someone doing the same thing for several hours as well.

Searching.

For what, Rose could only guess. Like usual she ignored the whispering voices in her mind telling her what they were sure it was. It was silly how she was searching. Trying every door handle she passed, knocking on walls, playing with things on shelves. As if any proper secret passage would just open from moving a skull from one place to another. Puzzles like that are too obvious, and lacked the gracious subtlety.

Still, that didn't stop the troll girl that Rose had been watching since she noticed her brushing her hands against the purple walls. Now she was pretty sure she had been searching for cracks that could be around the doors of a hidden causeway.

The blonde was no fool, she knew exactly who the troll girl was. Another of the Condescension's pets, the new princess of Derse. Her name she wasn't sure of, though they had been introduced when the girl received her title. They hadn't talked much since, Rose never seeing a reason to stick around and have a conversation with her, a follower of her Imperial Bitchiness.

But what reason could she have for trying to find some passage way if she was on the side of the one in power? Now, several hours later of watching the girl continue to fail, the human made a decision.

She rose stiffly, even though it hadn't been that long that she was sitting. She had to change places often enough since the girl seemed dead set on searching the whole palace till she found what ever it was she was looking for. Silently Rose quickstepped away from her hiding place and around a corner.

Pausing to take a deep breath she shut her eyes, shouting mentally at the voices to be silent. It was hard enough talking to someone she wanted to get to know on her own, let alone with all the voices of the Elder Gods arguing in her mind. Releasing the breath she rounded the corner not too quietly and a look of surprise came to her pale face when she saw the troll girl.

"Are you lo- oking for something?" She asked, mentally kicking herself for the squeak her voice came out as.

Was that a crack in the wall?

That was a crack.

She definitely found a crack in the wall.

Feferi excitedly traced a finger down the crack, her shark grin frozen on her face as the anticipation of finding the entrance to the temple bubbled within her, bringing her to near exploding point.

Then nothing.

She sighed and moved along to a nearby bookshelf, a dusty old thing. One got to the Temple of the Horroterrors via the palace, she was sure of it, and if it was hidden, there must be a secret passage. Simple logic to Feferi.

She pulled out a zoological book and peered into the gap it made. Nope. Nothing. Nada. Another sigh and another failed attempt.

The princess put her hands on her hips and frowned. She had been here for an irritating amount of time, hunting from room to room like some storybook heroine out on an epic quest. The little knowledge she had gathered pointed to a hidden entrance, with the ‘hidden’ aspect becoming glaringly obvious. She began to glance around the room, sticking her tongue into her left cheek as she did so. It would have to be something so obvious, so every day, that no one would suspect it…

Her face lit up like the morning sun and her fins flared out. The chair! The dirty old chair in the corner no one sat in, it must be because that’s the key! Brilliant! She ran over and lifted it high above her head, looking around at the spot where the furniture used to sit.

…

Wait for it.

Any second now.

Nothing happened. Feferi slowly lowered the chair as she realised the reason no one sat in the dirty old chair in the corner, was because it was a dirty old chair in the corner. The repeated disappointments were beginning to overpower her normally unstoppable optimism.

Are you lo- oking for something?

Feferi spun around immediately and looked at the shorter human. Her giddy nature quickly defeated her caution as she grinned. The Troll looked as sickeningly perfect as a princess should be. Her dress was extravagant, puffy around her legs with the padded chest that irritated Feferi so. The dress also had a slightly lowered waist to make it appear its wearer didn’t have unreasonably long legs, at least by her royal dresser’s vicious standards.

“Hi! I’m looking for the Horrorterror plaice!” She announced. Was it a wise move? Probably not, but there was no harm in a princess exploring her own moon right?

“I’ve been looking for-glubbin’-ever. I mean, I know it must be aboat somewhere around here…” She wondered momentarily if she had overdid the fish puns with her new acquaintance, but the thought passed as quick as the new one had entered her head.

“Hey wait a minute... I recognise you..."

The revelation hit Feferi like a ton of bricks. She leaned down to Rose’s height and whispered in awe.

“Are you from the temple?”

She waited there, slightly hunched down, eager for a confirmation.

If Rose was taken aback at the girl's bluntness she refused to let it show.

To keep from speaking with a squeak in her voice again, she took a deep breath before opening her mouth to reply when the troll continued speaking. I really should have just said nothing

"We've made one another's aquaintence previously" She said with a slight nod. Even though their heights were just a couple inches appart, it felt like the other girl towered over her. It was hard not to fidget or not look away from the girl's eyes. Her eyes were really pretty.

She took a small step back from the troll when she leaned in closer and, she wouldn't be able to explain why, but her face flushed at the question. Half embaressement, half rage. For the girl to not recognize her or her title, something she had worked years for, was vaugely insulting. So she did what she saw as the stupidest thing she'd done since the Condesce took power.

"Yes." Even though it was a few years now since she'd left the Circle, having people look at her with awe was still strange. Rose looked away from the princess' eager face. Yes. I'm the Seer" She added, now deflated from her momentary anger.

She was distracted now, trying to silence the agitated whispers in her head. Anger was dangerous for just this case. "Why do you want to find it? Going in there is not allowed for any but members."

Curious to ecstatic in about .5 seconds. She perked up and returned to her full height as her facial fins flittered slightly, just before Rose finished talking.

"Tee-hee!" She giggled, brining a hand delicately to her fanged mouth. A bizarre combination if there ever was one. "You humans are absole-utely ADORABUBBLE!" She declared excitedly, apparently enjoying seeing the small girl blush.

She then looked panicked. Her eyes widened under her goggles and her fins dropped.

"Was that insensitive? Was that bad? Did I say somefin bad?" She quizzed, repeating herself. Her arms swooped forwards and grabbed Rose's hands, holding them up between them. Feferi put a serious face on.

"I'm reely, reely sorry."

It then occurred to Feferi that she had been asked a question. Her eyes lit up in remembrance.

"Oh! I wanna sea them because I have this thing!" She delcared, freeing Rose from her delicate grasp as she stuck a hand down her own dress and pulled out a small necklace. She showed it off to Rose. It was not very detailed but it was clearly a horrorterror emblem.

"My mother had this, I found it after...she died. I had to go through her stuff. I'm not sure if this makes her one of you or...somefin." She shrugged. "I was just curious..." She said, her voice trailing off. Her fins drooped slightly and she looked down at her feet.

Rose kept her gaze fixed elsewhere while the girl questioned and apologized to her, shrugging off the words without giving them any real attention. "No, you did nothing wrong, Princess."

How peculiar it felt, using that term. Derse hadn't had a princess in her life time, and even on Prospit the word wasn't really used. As many times as one read or wrote it, it was much different to use it to address someone. If the Queen had decided that Derse needed a Princess more than a Seer, would she have a harder time calling someone else with that title? Would she even be still alive, like so few of the original aristocracy was, if she hadn't had the training that was now useful to the Condesce?

She snapped out of her thought trail before she could slip into one of her trances and gently pulled her hands away from the troll, but her eyes locked onto the pendant of the necklace.

"Meddling with the Horrorterrors is very dangerous, Princess. The innocence of Curiosity is easily tainted." Without asking Rose reached out and held the necklace, stroking her thumb over the emblem. There was a hum of energy to it, one that someone felt rather than heard.

"It appears to be authentic.. Your mother you say?"" She pushed a bit of her own magic into the decoration, eyes tinting noticeably darker before she let the necklace go. Shaking her hand out like the pendant had bitten her Rose looked at the troll, "What can you tell me about your mother? What do you want to find with this... hunt?"

Filled with the relief that she had been spectacularly politically correct, Feferi hadn't minded when Rose had taken the necklace. Though she couldn't help but eagerly peer over to look at what the Human was doing. The warning was taken in, but she didn't respond, as if hoping if she were quiet, the Seer wouldn't mention it again, and that would make the journey somehow safer.

Then Rose flinched and dropped the jewellery piece. A little desperate squeak left the Princess' mouth as she dropped down to scoop it up off the library floor, holding it like the treasured item it was to her chest. She had very little to remember her mother by now, and she was desperate to keep what memory-locked items remained.

She looked up at Rose when questioned.

"Um, yeah, not my 'reel' mother, because Trolls don't. I mean, a Carapace but....but you probably knew that." She stammered, though feeling a bit better now she was holding the emblem a bit closer, trailing a thumb softly over its markings.

"I didn't know she was apart of anyfin, maybe she just flounder it? but....I just want to sea if I can find anyfin aboat her. That's all..." She finished. She was about to avert her gaze from the Seer when she caught a glimpse of Rose's eyes.

"...Do all humans do that?" She asked naively, now frowning curiously at change her new friend's appearance.

Rose didn't apologize for dropping the necklace, her eyes fixed on her fingers. Something was keeping her from finding all the secrets in that pendant, and she did not like the feeling running through her body. Deciding to investigate later Rose finally turned her attention the Princess she had questioned.

"Yes, I do know." She said not unkindly, but as plain as stating a fact. She frowned at the girl's naivety. "We do not let pieces with power tied to them be simply found. She must have been a member of the Circle.."

Rose tilted her head at the question that seemed to come from no where, not even knowing what the other girl was referring to. "A lot of people in general will try to talk you out of poor decisions. I suggest you give me that pendant and forget this. You will find nothing good about her by prying into matters that are specially hidden, Princess."

She held her hand out for the necklace which the girl was holding to her so tightly. She was planning a trip to the circle, maybe she could force it to give her it's secrets then.

Feferi stared straight into the bizarrely coloured eyes of the Seer, and tightened her grip around the necklace.

"No." She affirmed. "No, it's mine."

She wasn't being aggressive, passive or otherwise, but she seemed certain to cling onto it, to the point where she stuffed it down her dress. She placed her hands on the hips of her dress, where they sunk into the padded fabric slightly. She began to frown and for a moment it wasn't hard not to see a baby dorky Condesce in her.

"And I want to go to the circle. My mother is DEAD, and I want to find out more about her! I am NOT a child, I can look after myself!" She continued, before, admittedly rather childishly, puffing out her cheeks and spreading her fins like a lizard's frills.

She took a moment and sighed, looking down at the floor guiltily.

"I'm sorry, that was rude of me." She meekly apologised, before biting her bottom lip. She looked back up, her eyes now desperate. "Please? I wont be any bother I promise!"

Rose dropped her hand to her side. She was only trying to be helpful, and here this girl was making a problem of it. She had known initiates that had done something silly as this and they all ended in various levels of possession.

Of course, this girl was the Princess. Looking at her now, it wasn't hard to see why the Condesce had taken a liking to her.

And suddenly, Rose didn't mind what came to happen to her. The voices in her head all agreed, and she found herself listening closer to them than usual.

"No, I apologize princess. I underestimated what this meant to you." She stopped and looked around. Strange how even in the middle of the day the Palace was so empty. It had been a year now and it was still strange not to see people rushing all over the place, living lives. "You are correct, you are not a child. But I will warn you one last time, this is dangerous. Incredibly so. There is a reason why the Circle is this closed off."

"I will show you the way if you still wish to take this risk, but I will not be held accountable for anything that may happen that I cannot protect you from. Deal?"

She held out her hand to shake and then pulled it back the moment it looked like the taller girl was going to reach for it. "Shake only if you mean in." She said, slowly extending her hand again.

Feferi paused when Rose told her to shake hands only with conviction. Feferi bit her lip again, feeling anxiety wash over her like the ocean's tide. She swallowed. She was a big girl, and she could handle herself just fine, she thought. She wouldn't need the Seer to look out for her, it was only a temple.

Still, she could tell there was something bad about this place. Rose wouldn't be so cautious about taking her down if it was all cuddles and purr beasts, right? She clenched her hands into fists.

Then her little frown returned to her countenance as a wave of confidence hit her with enough force to hold out her hand and shake on it. It was a bizarre sensation, yes, but she felt almost empowered. She was going to do this. She was going to find out about her mother and it was going to be AWESOME.

"I'll do it!" She declared, her face returned to her default shark grin. "I can look aft-er myself. I PROMISE"

She only just realised she was shaking the Human's hand a bit vigorously now, and quickly stopped. Clasping her own hands behind her back and waiting expectantly.

At the contact Rose's eyes darkened slightly again, but of course she didn't notice it. After all without a mirror it's hard to know what'd going on with your head unless it's suddenly severed, in which case you see your feet or the inside of some basket.

The girl's enthusiasm was still worrying, but she had made a promise and now she had to keep it. "[color="#b536da"]Are you ready to go now? This is probably going to be the only time I am free in a while.[color]" If she's like this she'll probably forget about this silly idea by tomorrow. She thought, but to her dismay the girl eagerly agreed to go now.

"Alright, fine. Follow me, Princess." Rose turned and started walking down the hall, stopping to listen every so often to make sure they wouldn't run into anyone. Several times she had to double back and take a different path, and every time Feferi would try speaking she'd hold a hand up to silence her. They stopped in front of a disused bedroom. "You wait here." She instructed before walking down the hall to the next room and going inside of it.

The room was completely dark but Rose had no trouble making her way to the large bay window and onto the small balcony that was there. Moving quickly so as not to be spotted from anyone below she climbed onto the railing and lept to the next one, just catching it instead of falling to her death. Quickly she clambered over the side and through the window into the silent room, stopping for a second to look around.

There was an overturned desk near the door, and a large pill of bedsheets just next to her feet, Other things in the room appeared to have been kicked over and never righted, with a thin layer of dust over everything. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness faster than usual, but Rose didn't even notice as she walked to the door and unlocked it. She pulled it open with only a slight difficulty and then grabbed Feferi's hand. At least she was still waiting outside the door like she'd been told to.

With a tug the Princess was in the room and the door was locked again behind her. "Now listen, and listen closely. Do not make a sound while we are down in that tunnel. If for any reason the light goes out, you grab my arm and do not let go, but you do not stop walking. Do you understand me?"

The princess clapped her hands together excitedly once Rose had promised to take her, it was one of the most exciting occasions she had ever been through! Sneaking around the palace like some a pair of secret agents, Feferi remembered doing this as a child. She unknowingly adopted a slight crouch, as if somehow an aura of invisibility would surround her, or it'd help her tall body become harder to spot.

She tried to ask where they were going a few times, but was stopped with a quick gesture from Rose. After the third attempt she just blushed and remained silent, feeling rather foolish in the presence of the Seer, who seemed to have everything under control.

So was then commanded to remain still, as Rose ran off, and so Feferi had diligently stood. Then the seconds ticked be and the Princess became less convinced that Rose was just checking around the corner. Seconds turned to minutes and she was sure Rose had left her on her own.

She beamed like Skaia when Rose opened the door, and pulled her in. She nodded throughout her instructions, as if already practising the 'shut up and follow' rule now in place, and was prepared to follow Rose to whatever ultra super secret special passage that lead the Temple.

She punched the air in a combination triumph and still building excitement, when Rose looked away.

"Good. Now shut your eyes." She instructed looking back over her shoulder, waiting a few seconds to make sure there was no peaking. Quick to work before Feferi's eyes could get used to the dimness of the room she walked over to a wall, knocked on it a few times before going to a different spot and repeating the procedure. This plus a few other things were done in several different places and a muttered Word from Rose before a muffled hiss was heard.

Making sure that Feferi's eyes were still shut she took her hand and lead her over to where a hole had opened in the floor. "There is a hole directly in front of you, it doesn't drop very far but crouch and move along the direction there isn't a wall. When the ceiling is high enough to stand, do so and wait for me." She instructed, waiting for Feferi to do as she ordered before going down in the passage after her.

The hole reached just to chest height and she knelt down before whispering the Words to seal it. The passage shut above her head and she said the spell for her floating light. Rose was surprised that she could see well enough without it, but doubted Feferi would have the same ability. Sending the light ahead of her Rose crawled forward out of the low tunnel. "You can open your eyes if you haven't yet." She said to the troll, rising and shaking dust from her skirts.

As the commands reached Feferi from the darkness caused by her closed eyes she felt puzzled. Asking to crouch down with her eyes closed was not what she had previously envisioned on her grand epic quest to the Temple of Horrorterrors. She didn’t move at first, contemplating if Rose was about to pull a cruel joke on her.

Fortunately she decided to keep putting her faith in the Seer, and headed onwards into the hole, though at a snail’s pace. Every step was slow and cautious, as she tried to feel above her. Getting to a point where she could stand up properly didn’t come soon enough. Being allowed to open her eyes was also something she didn’t realise how much she took for granted, though she recoiled from the bright light, her eyes built for the darker ocean, and let out a little squeak. She gave a slight embarrassed blush.

Then the journey went underway proper, trekking through the cramp darkness. Feferi felt less impressed than she thought she would.

“…I like your lipstick!” Feferi declared, hoping to alleviate the boredom. “I mean, I have to wear lipstick to knot have black lips but it looks reel-y nice on your skin…um….I…” She stammered, quickly realising she didn’t know the Seer’s name. She panicked.

“Hi! I’m Feferi!” She said before stopping and holding out her hand. “What’s your name?”