Roughly three days had passed since the exchange between the King and his wife, resulting in a blanket of uncertainty to cover the palace. During this time, the Queen had consulted with her daughter, formulating an escape plan for her beloved granddaughter Airianna. With their plan of action surrounded in secrecy, all appeared calm and unchanged, leading the King to suspect that something was definitely in the works. Due to their diligence in upholding the façade, his paranoia increased aggressively, causing him to lash out unexpectedly to anyone who happened to be near him or passing by.

Dinner had concluded for the evening, and the table had been scarce. Since the day of discovery on the motives of her beloved husband, the Queen had noticed a very evident decrease in attendees. With the erratic mood swings of the King, it seemed as if no one wished to get on his bad side, or be on the receiving end of one of his increasingly common tirades. As she gracefully strode to her private quarters, she slowed her pace as her gaze took notice that her door was ajar. Pausing briefly outside, she placed a gentle hand on the cherry wood door and slowly opened it.

Standing before her were two young men, currently murmuring fiercely between themselves. With a small and warm smile, the Queen entered and quietly closed the door, only pushing with more force when it was about to click so that the sound resonated within the sitting room, drawing the attention of the two of them. Their heads snapped up, eyes wide as their gazes honed in on her. With a quick glance to one another, they turned to face her as one, bowing respectfully before walking into the open embrace of their grandmother.

“Lucien. Alonzo.” She kissed both twins on their heads respectively before smiling up at them. “What brings you here, my darlings?”

Both smiled as they stepped away from her, extending their left arms as an indication for her to please take a seat. With a soft smile and nod, the Queen complied, gracefully taking a seat in one of her lovely armchairs before neatly folding her hands in her lap. Her keen eyes focused intensely upon the two of them as they stood up straight once more, waiting patiently.

Despite them being twins, they still held their differences. Lucien was the eldest of the pair, standing with the slightest bit of a slouch from his endless hours of studying. Because of this dedication to the pursuit of knowledge, his skin retained a soft rosy color, instead of the rich light caramel skin tone his brother had. Dark brown hair, similar to hers, remained short and neatly trimmed. Though not lanky, he did have a very lean body.

His brother, on the other hand, was far from lean. Unlike his pale brother, he spent his days out in the blazing sun constantly training to better himself. While Lucien had a slight slouch to him, Alonzo did not. He stood straight-backed, his head held high as he focused keenly on his petite grandmother. Due to so much time out in the sun, his once dark brown hair had turned light with random streaks of blonde where it had been bleached, medium long locks tied back into a simple and low pony-tail. Shared by the twins were heterochromia, where Lucien’s left eye held a vibrant light green color and his right eye was a light violet. Alonzo held the exact mirror image of those eyes; his left was violet, whilst his right was light green.

"Grandmother, we've both been thinking about the plans," Lucien started, a nervous tone evident in his voice.

"And we decided that we wanted to play a more active role in helping," Alonzo finished, his older twin nodding in agreement.

"I see...” She spoke slowly, her voice trailing off as she continued to glance between the two. “And what would you propose?" she asked, unable to hide the worry that ebbed into her tone.