"Jess." Silent moments. Jess, reeling still from a dizzying flood of pleasure, shame, and sweetest revelry, was surprised to find herself crying softly in Rowan's arms.

"Jess, are you okay?"

Jess blinked away salty tears, smiling into Rowan's eyes. “I think I halfway love you, you know.”

Rowan grinned. "And too shy even to make a pass at me, back at Highrock, or respond to my flirting, no matter how I teased you. And here we are, both courtesans if we take that coin, and I know neither of us will." She shivered and laughed. "And how we savored this last hour, partaking of sweetest revelry, a world so different from our own."

Jess sighed in her friend's arms. “Maybe it was more than that. I think, maybe, we were also giving Cornelius the sweetest gift we could, before we take everything away.”

Rowan's gaze turned hard. "You know what has to happen, Jess, and I don't like any more than you do."

Jess clenched her eyes shut, nodding once.

“Is it on him?”

Jess nodded. “The acorn is in his pouch.”

Rowan looked down at herself, and Jess knew she felt the afterglow still, as did she. Rowan blushed sweetly at she grinned at Jess, for all that her gaze was hard as steel. “We make quite a pair, don't we?”

Jess smirked. “No doubt everyone knows.”

Rowan shrugged. “What of it? We are Squires serving king and Crown. No matter what filth we allow inside us, no matter the stains and blood we pour on our soul, if we make Erovering that much safer, the Crown cannot do other than love us.”

Jess sighed. “What happens in the halls of Highrock, stays in the halls of Highrock.”

Rowan nodded. "And what a Squire does with blackened dagger is never spoken aloud at all." She winked. "Besides, after this night, gods willing we all survive, the revels Eloquin will provide for us will blow your mind." She smirked. "Putrice did but steal from Eloquin's own stash. A week to drown all sorrows with the most illicit of pleasures and all the company you could ask for, then a week with nothing to drink but well water and bitter tears from hard training, purging all weakness away."

Jess nodded. “And when it's all done, it is as if it never was. None of us pure after this night, yet all of us equal, in each other's eyes.”

Rowan smirked. “Though whether or not Eloquin will ever love me is a question I will try not to torment myself with too deeply, considering how often I play the tart.”

Jess softly stroked Rowan's cheek. “He loves Lady Vaila, you know. They share the flower that blossoms so sweetly, for all that she hides in her mother's garden, almost never seen by a soul who does not tend to the rooftop garden.”

Rowan's gaze turned soft. "I know, Jess. A garden that no matter how sharp the fancy to explore it strikes me, I find myself never really curious enough to step upon those stairs leading to its entrance, when I get close." She shrugged. "Protective magics, no doubt. And if I thought Vaila and Eloquin still held a spark..."

Jess smiled. “They do. I see it every time he looks her way when he visits the garden, gazing at his little girl... for all that he turns around and leaves, the moment she looks his way.”

Rowan sighed. "Well then, at least I can console myself when Eloquin coolly pretends I'm just another Squire, not a girl after his heart." She swallowed and focused on dressing, her words tentative. "You know that... all this aside... as sweet and wild as it was..."

“One day you will make a man a proper wife, and never leave his side?” Jess flashed a bittersweet grin. “I know. And you deserve that love, no matter what happened in your past, Rowan. In the meantime, we are bloodthirsty hellions determined to savor all of life's pleasures, dark and sweet, even as we kill for king and Crown in defense of our friends.”

Rowan smirked. “That about sums it up, Shieldsister, and I would recognize Neal's knock anywhere.” Rowan's gaze turned strange. “Jess... tonight... I know how sacred you feel life to be...”

Jess sighed. "I know. You, me, Erica. Herbs from the garden by dawn. They will harm no life that has already quickened, but will put that part of ourselves to sleep. Because babies deserve tender mothers, not blooded killers. And for now? All three of us, as savage hounds of war as the king could ever desire, let loose upon his foes."

A second knock upon the door, rapid, insistent.

Neal and Malek, gazing at Jess and Rowan both with sweetest relief, then growing consternation.

Neal looked downright embarrassed. Malek flashed a cheeky grin.

"Embracing an Agent's lessons after all, hey, shieldsister?"

Jess smirked, cheeks flushing hotly, suddenly too tongue-tied to think up a witty response.

“Did he take the bait?”

Jess nodded. “He did indeed. The acorn is in his coat pocket. Unlikely to be thought much of, even if he does feel it through armored gloves.” She turned to Neal. “Did you all stay out of sight? Is he safely off?”

Neal was still gazing at them both. Jess felt her cheeks heat up all the more, Rowan's as well.

"Stop it, Neal. We are Squires on a mission."

Neal bowed his head. “You're right, Rowan. I have no right to judge. I apologize.”

Rowan smiled. "I'm already over it. Is our gear ready?"

Malek nodded, none other than Lucas bringing it in, smiling and shaking his head. “I know you were both just acting as Agents of the Crown would, but by the gods, Cornelius was lucky.” Lucas's grin turned wicked. “Too bad his luck won't last.”

Jess and Rowan both frowned at that.

“You guys do know what has to happen, right?” Neal's voice, suddenly filled with concern.

“Yes, Neal. As much as I regret the fact... if he's involved, as he surely is, if things are as horrid and duplicitous as we know they are... this is how it has to be,” Jess whispered.

Rowan grimaced, but nodded as well. “But by all the gods, you can't ask us to be the ones to strike him down. I don't mind charming a heart to love me, but I could never betray it... not like that. An enemy turned, his secrets laid bare, are as far as I would ever go. I am a Squire, Neal. But tainted as I am, I could never be an Agent of the Crown.”

“Good,” declared a relieved Neal. “Because we need you far more than they. Don't worry, Rowan. I don't think Eloquin would let either of you to be involved in handling Cornelius. Our master can be hard, savagely so, but he is never cruel. Not to the students he loves as fiercely as any mother bear ever did her cubs. But magic acorn or no, we have to get going. We did in effect pass along the message that we are coming, and our foes are preparing to spring what traps they have upon us.”

"Not if we spring them first," Rowan fiercely declared, dress once more removed, donning her armor at a brisk pace.

"Exactly." Malek smacked Jess's helmed head some moments later, all of them fully kitted once more, making as discrete an exit as they could.

“Jess.” Malek, gazing so intently at her, all of them mounted and riding once more.

“Not a word, Malek. Not one damned word.”