All of the Prince's Horses and All of the Prince's Men

Lady Candice frantically raced around the palace looking for Court Visor Jan only to learn he had been taken to prison, along with her father. Her mother had also vanished, leaving her cursing with confusion, and concern for her baby brother who was still under ten years of age.

She hurried to the Palace Nursery to see if he was okay, the carers said he wasn't there and wouldn't give her a straight answer. Seeing it was a lost cause in trying to press for one, she decided to continue searching other areas for her brother.

"What is going on?" She pulled at her hair, clearly flustered that she couldn't find him after extensively running around the palace grounds. The only place she had not searched was the harem. Beastkind weren't welcomed there, so it would be her last resort.

She hurried off to the barracks to look for Jan's squad. As she was rushing through the courtyard between the Chamber of Petition's main stone building and Royal Guard Barracks, a stone hit her head.

"Hey!" She turned to see who hit her and saw Henka-guard hiding in the bushes near the carriages.

"Henka-guard?"

"Shush! Hurry, be quiet." Henka-guard gruffly waved her over to the bushes.

She followed him to a spot behind the carriage storage building and hedge wall: a perfect area to hide.

He grabbed her hand and crushed a Movement Talisman pocket paper scroll in the other. The paper disintegrated as a portal spell was activated. He pulled her through.

She gasped with surprise when she found herself before the demon prince. They were in his private audience chamber of white marble stone with plush rich red cushions positioned in a neat arc on the floor before the central sofa.

Lady Bluesteed, Abell-guard, Lyt-guard and the sekkat priests from the private meeting were all gathered. Everyone knelt or sat on the cushions, awaiting Lyon's address.

Lady Candice saw a malkin next to her who looked near-identical to Sinoir-sekkat. A few of her centurion friends were present, along with some of her mother's closest centurion confidants. Neither Genie nor Kairo were in the room.

"Sire!" She greeted him with the royal bow.

He gestured for her to be at ease as he sat on the sofa, and opened the conversation to the floor.

"I gathered you all here due to recent circumstances. You're all my loyal subjects, whom I humbly thank." Lyon demonstrated his appreciation with a royal bow to them.

Naturally, everyone showed great modesty toward his humble gesture. With greetings out of the way, Lyon turned his conversation to Lady Candice.

"By now you'll have learned of your father's incarceration. Your brother is also missing. I fear your family is in trouble."

Lady Candice's heart raced with strong conviction toward her father's innocence and concern for her brother.

"Your brother is safe. I had my guards ensure it." Lyon clicked his fingers.

"Neena!" A young demon boy dressed in an embroidered tunic, pants and boots ran into the room. The boy wasn't a centurion like his sister, but he had black hair and features similar to Lady Foster.

He slammed into Lady Candice's opened arms with distraught tears on his face. His big sister fawned over him with relief, and did her best to calm him down.

Nik-guard, a capon and another guard entered the room. They gave Lyon a royal bow and humbly accepted his gesture for a seat.

Lady Candice hastily checked that her brother was all well.

"Don't worry, he was treated well within the harem." Lyon reassured her.

"Harem?" Lady Candice swallowed hard, knowing full well the prejudice beastkind faced within that place. But since her brother was a demon, he would've been treated without that disdain.

Lyon wasted no time in bringing everyone up to speed, which had hearts racing with heightened emotions.

Lady Bluesteed asked about Kairo's condition.

"He's contained within a Purgatory Cell to block his magic. Although, there's no need for that as he can't use any right now anyway. While he's in the cell, he's safe."

Nik-guard nodded, feeling further respect for Kairo who had peacefully surrendered to the guards. His captain had reassured him that the boy would be fine.

"He surrendered?" Lady Bluesteed gasped.

Lyon corrected her. "He told me through a message that he chose the cell to remove himself from the situation and buy us time. While people are complacent to wait for his trial, he's trusting in us to take action. "

"Sire, if I may, what will happen to my parents?" Lady Candice soberly asked.

Lyon sighed. His silence answered her question. She was unable to hold back her tears, which stirred on her brothers. Lady Bluesteed hugged them both.

"I won't lie. Situations aren't looking good. The death of Countess Leela has tipped the scales in the Valide Sultan's favor. We need to be ready for an insurgency. It's impossible to avoid now." Lyon calmly confirmed.

The guards confirmed that the harem were already making their move toward the palace takeover.

"Sire, the guards are on your side." Nik-guard declared with a firm voice that had Lyon nodding with thanks.

"Your guard is correct." A seasoned veteran entered the room.

He was a tall and burly man with a shaved head, deep scars on his cheeks and across his steely gray eyes, and a short and scruffy beard. He was dressed with pinned stripes on the breastplate of his pristine, royal red-black leather armor, and a longsword sheathed at his hip.

He took long strides to stand before Lyon and give him a formal bow.

Lyon rose to formally greet his chief-in-command for his military. All the guards rose and gave the man stiff salutes.

"Kalious-janissary, thank you for being here." Lyon gestured to an armchair one of the guards carried into the room. It was placed next to the sofa.

The veteran nodded as he sat down. "’Tis an honor to be here, Sire. My guards stand ready to stamp out this dishonesty. Makes my blood boil thinking about it."

Lyon nodded. "It is indeed."

"Aldrick-pasha is an honest soldier. I worked with the man for many years fighting the borders. All this pish about tampering is fackle-wash."

"I believe you. But, as it may, our Valide Sultan has us in a bind." 

Kalious-janissary rubbed his beard as he gravely added to Lyon's worries. "I'm afraid I'm to add another. My scouts caught Crud Pirates delivering directives for a front line attack. They're doing runs all over the Etshian borderline. I fear the war you wanted to delay is going to be on your doorstep within a moon-turn."

"War?" Lady Bluesteed didn't hide her worry. Especially for the Pavilion where she was from. The merchant trade house of the main city was close to the border and would likely be the first to fall.

Lyon nodded, keeping his composure. Leela's death was the catalyst Valerr needed to accelerate situations.

"Kalious-janissary, deploy an elite squadron from the East Guard to the border under Lidhel-commander. If it's a fight Manfred-nun wants, then we'll respond tenfold."

Kalious-janissary nodded with satisfaction. It was the right call to make. They couldn't come across looking weak: better they took the initiative.

Lyon passed to the others actions to carry out. 

"Let's hope we can turn things around."

Everyone was eventually dismissed with a purpose and reaffirmed loyalty to Lyon's banner.