“What now?” Carlyle asked.  “Are you going to interrogate your cousin?”

Lorelai rubbed the space between her eyebrows, a headache forming at the thought of her own kin trying to kill her. And Carlyle’s presence didn’t help one bit. He’s been either smiling weirdly at her or badgering her with needless questions the whole time.

“Your Highness,” Lorelai started, to which Carlyle cut her off.

“Call me Carlyle.”

“What?”

“Aren’t titles a mouthful? In exchange, allow me to call you by name as well.”

Lorelai thinks back to the breakfast scene where he momentarily lost his composure and called her by name. Her lips twitched, but she forced herself not to frown.

“All right. Since we are in this investigation together, let’s drop the formalities in private.”

Carlyle nodded in agreement.

“For now, we have a lead, but no evidence.” Lorelai pointed out.

When did it turn to we instead of I? When did she accept him as a partner and not a useless deadweight tagging along behind her?

“So…?”

“We have to investigate the source of the poison now.”

Maybe part of her for hoping that it wasn’t Lady Irene. Maybe what she was looking for was not evidence of her guilt, but evidence of her innocence. 

Lorelai briefly went to Alfred and gave him her next orders. “I want you to send someone to investigate who purchased Lethrindor recently and in what amount. In addition, I want the results from the investigation of the chalices as soon as possible.”

Lorelai rubbed her forehead and informed Carlyle. “It would take at least a few days to gather that information.”

“Not for me. I can teleport.” Carlyle reminded her.

“What?”

“I can go and gather evidence in person. What do you want me to do?”

Lorelai gaped at him. So this is why her father wants her to work with Carlyle.

“Are you offering to collect the information for me?”

“You did tell me to make myself useful, did you not?” Carlyle’s face betrayed the slightest hint of smugness.

“Yes, I did.” Lorelai confirmed. “Please go and find out who purchased Lethrindor in this empire recently.”

“We need a codeword.”

“A what? Why?”

“I plan to teleport over any information I gain during my investigation, and I need a way to confirm that it was actually from me, not a stray mage pretending to be me.”

That was a rather specific situation. But what he said was reasonable and Lorelai had no reason to turn down an extra level of security.

“All right. Select a codeword. Please make it discreet so you can sneak it into your reports. That way, if your messages are intercepted, they won’t even realize the existence of a codeword.”

“‘Eternity’. The codeword is ‘Eternity’.”

Lorelai raised her eyebrows, but before she could ask him why, Carlyle disappeared in a flurry of golden sparks. 

“Show off.” Lorelai grumbled, but her eyes linger in the air where he was. It was the first time she saw him use his magic, since he moved too fast for her to see last night when he knocked the chalice out of her hand. She was a little impressed. Maybe more than a little.

Now that Carlyle was no longer hanging around her, Lorelai went to give Lorenzo a quick visit. His breakfast hour had passed while Lorelai was interrogating the potential suspects down in prison. Now, Lorenzo was outdoor training his fencing skills in the knights’ training area along with the other knights of Ashburn.

Lorelai stepped out into the morning sunlight and made her way to her brother.

“Lorelai!” Lorenzo’s face lit up when he saw his sister. “Come have a spar with me!”

She walked past the knights, who greeted her with, “Good morning, Your Grace!” and she nodded to them in return. 

She picked up a wooden practice sword that Lorenzo offered her and moved into a starting stance. 

“How’s the investigation going?” Lorenzo asked as he made his first move. He swung his practice sword at her shoulder.

Lorelai deftly parried it. “Fine.”

“That doesn’t sound fine.” Lorenzo threw another blow, which Lorelai blocked.

“Prince Carlyle left the mansion to find evidence on the purchasing of the poison.”

“I can’t believe Father made you work with him.” Lorenzo groaned, his voice barely intelligible over the clashing of their wooden blade.

“I think Father wants me to keep an eye on him.”

“That makes more sense.”

“Lorenzo, you need to be more careful from now on.”

Lorenzo faltered for a moment at her words, but recovered just in time before Lorelai could strike his torso with her sword.

“What do you mean?” Lorenzo asked.

“My chalice wasn’t the only one that was poisoned. Yours was too.”

Lorenzo’s eyes widened with surprise. “What?”

“It’s a good thing you didn’t drink last night. Carlyle should have knocked the chalice out of your hand last night as well.”

“Hmm.”

The two siblings continued to exchange blows with increasing speed and power behind them. 

Lorelai was secretly suppressing the full scope of her fencing skill for a more even match with her brother, though she would never tell him that she was going easy on him because she didn’t want to hurt his pride.

"Do… you… have… a… suspect?" Lorenzo was huffing from exertion. His stamina was running out, more openings and gaps showing in his movements.

“Maybe.” Lorelai was slightly sweating as well, but nowhere as exhausted or out of breath as her brother is. 

Lorelai decided to finish the fight now. She deftly wove her sword into a gap in Lorenzo’s move and with a well-aimed twist, knocked Lorenzo’s sword out of his grip.

He stood and stared at her for a long moment, panting in exhaustion, then laughed, short and brisk. “You win again, Lorelai.”

Lorelai cracked a grin. “You need to improve your stamina some more.”

She tossed her practice sword to the ground and started to walk back to the mansion.

“Lorelai.” Her brother called her name. 

Lorelai turned back to him.

“I still don’t like the second prince. Not after what he did to me.”

Lorelai nodded. “I understand.”

Then she resumed her path back to the mansion.

After she changed out of her sweaty clothes, it was almost lunchtime. And true to his word, Carlyle sent over words shortly after noon.

“According to the Black Rock Intelligence Guild, a masked young woman purchased two doses of Lethrindor poison a week ago. Lethrindor loses potency over time, so the fresher it is, the more effective. The woman was wearing a hooded cloak, so they didn’t see her hair color nor the type of clothes she wore. She was around five feet and three inches tall, and she was of slight build. She was described to have the grace of an aristocrat. The location of the purchase was in Leyton. I'll be back within the hour, but I’m sure that will feel like an eternity to you.”

Lorelai’s hand clenched the written report so hard that it crinkled in her grip. She was less phased by Carlyle’s cheesy way of inserting the codeword than of the implications of his information.

A masked young woman. Five feet and three inches tall with a slight build. Location is in Leyton.

Sure enough, it could only be her cousin, Irene Ashburn, the daughter of Count Leyton. Now that she has a main suspect in mind, she needed the testimony of a key witness.

Lorelai made her way down to the kitchen. A group of kitchen servants startled at the sight of her.

“Is Billy here?” Lorelai asked. “Fetch him.”

There was a flurry of whispers among the servants as they tried to look for Billy. Someone left the kitchen and returned with a confused and scared Billy.

“Billy, come with me.” Lorelai ordered, as she stepped out of the kitchen and started making her way toward Irene’s room.

Billy looked frightened, but followed after her. “Your Grace, where are you taking me?”

“Don’t worry, Billy, you’re still cleared of any crimes. Do you remember the testimony you gave me this morning?”

Billy nodded, his eyes wide.

“I’m going to bring you to my biggest suspect and I need you to identify whether or not she was the maid who handed you the chalice.”

“I see.” Billy seemed the tiniest bit relieved to hear that he wasn’t returning back to the dungeon.

Lorelai stopped in front of Irene’s door. As expected, Irene was in her room. She could hear her cousin’s movement through the door.

Lorelai rapped her knuckles on the door.

The movements behind the door abruptly came to a stop. “Who is it?” Irene’s voice rang through the door.

“It’s me, your cousin.” Lorelai answered as pleasantly as possible.

“Come in, what do you want?” Irene sighed.

Lorelai opened the door, then beckoned for Billy to follow her.

Irene was sitting by her vanity, reading a letter. A letter that was most likely from one of her many admirers or a friend from her social circles. 

“Who’s this?” Irene stood up and demanded as soon as Billy entered her room. “Lorelai, what are you doing?”