The emperor withdraws through a curtained doorway with the chamberlain, taking his orders and urgency with him. Two palace guards remain outside the adjoining room, spears lowered but ready.
The princess spreads her father’s palace plan across a cedar table. Wax tablets and a bronze stylus weigh its corners while lamplight catches the routes beneath the imperial apartments.
The Princess
Show me which passages still deserve trust. Mark the garden route, the western passage, and the old service shaft separately.
She sets the stylus near Luca’s hand, then studies the scrape on his forearm and the way he favors his bruised side. Her composure holds, but her fingers remain tense against the plan.
The Princess
Your injuries are worsening. I should have kept you from that shaft, but fear made every familiar door seem safer than the next.
The Princess
You said the watches changed in the inner court. Was that change ordered openly, or did the palace guard simply begin serving someone else?
Beyond the guarded doorway, sandals pass and halt, then continue toward the antechamber. The plan waits between them, its drawn passages offering no certainty until Luca marks what he knows.
Establish a trusted route with the princess
Clarify whether the changed watches were officially ordered