Caia....

Thaddeus and Nathaniel were perplexed at finding an empty cloak outside the hall. After all, they were discreet in their tactics, but was it possible they missed something? It hadn't been even 10 seconds from the time Thaddeus had run around the back and Nathaniel hadn't taken an eye off the figure and yet, here was the cloak and the figure was gone in a blink of an eye with only a faint scent of the perfume on the cloak and a slight scent at the door to even prove he or she was ever there in the first place. The only thing left to do was to be more vigilant in the time remaining in the evening and tell the princes in the morning, allowing them to still enjoy themselves.

As Thaddeus took his seat next to Eric, he found that the elder prince was engaged in a conversation with a lovely young lady whose face was vibrant and lively and yet took on a mature note, as if her travels had taken her beyond where she ever intended and often tragically so. Her figure was pleasant and almost catlike in her grace, curving like blown glass. Eric noticed that Thaddeus had sat and introduced his conversation partner.
"Oh, there you are Thad, I was wondering where you'd gone. This is Caia, she's an explorer of sorts and she and I were talking about her exploits...absolutely fascinating."

The woman extended her hand and, almost instinctively, Thaddeus took her hand and kissed it briefly, taking note of her scent in the moments her wrist was close. No luck. A very different scent from that of their watcher. He sat, satisfied he'd done his due diligence. Eric, however, looked a bit annoyed at what he viewed as an attempt at to sabotage his conversation, but under the circumstances, he allowed the gesture to fall by the wayside as Thaddeus excused himself. Undeterred, Eric and Caia continued their conversation while Andrew was otherwise occupied with Romi, Sara, and Martha on the other side of the table with Nathaniel.

Hours passed and villagers began to funnel towards the exits, bound for their warm beds and deep slumber. The conversations held the princes both until deep into the evening as Matthew was preparing to close the main hall for the night. Eric said his good byes and Caia went out one door while the princes' party went out the other. The peculiarities of the night weighed on the two men charged with keeping the princes safe and on the way back to their home away from home, it became clear that all was not well in what was supposed to be paradise as the conversation on the cart revolved around nothing else, but the princes could not know the details of the night just yet, not until tomorrow when the festivities had been mulled over and processed. So with the princes trying like crazy to hear any detail, the guards kept to themselves.

As the group arrived, the princes insisted.

"What happened tonight, Nathaniel?" Andrew asked, putting an arm on Nathaniel's shoulder. Nathaniel kept silent. Eric dismounted the cart and approached the two while Thaddeus trailed behind, carrying the cloak concealed within his own.
"Come on, Nate. Let's have it." Andrew persisted. Again, Nathaniel was silent, this time looking at Thaddeus, who spoke up this time.
"Let's go inside, we can talk there once the girls have gone to bed. This isn't for outdoor conversation." His eyes were brooding and serious and the princes became sober instantly despite their enjoyment of the merriment of the night.

The ladies had arrived a few minutes prior to the princes' party and had already begun turning down beds and the like for the evening. Once the men had entered the main room, Martha and the women greeted them briefly and excused themselves to bed for the night. Thaddeus took off his cloak, setting it across the conversation table along with the second cloak and sat in the chair it was closest to. As Nathaniel came into the room, he sat in the remaining chair.
"Please, sires, take a seat." Eric and Andrew pulled two chairs from near the fireplace and sat with their cohorts at the table. Thaddeus began recounting the events of the evening from the time they arrived at the gathering at the main hall, leaving nothing out as he could recall. Nathaniel added in what details were missing from the time Thaddeus had left the room. All the while, the princes were silent.
"When I rounded the final corner and reached the back exit," Thaddeus explained. "There was no one and I found this." He reached beneath his cloak and took out the one he'd found.
"There is a fragrance I cannot identify on the collar, but if you take a moment to assess, you'll find it quite feminine. I am sorry for lingering so upon kissing the lady Caia's hand, but I had to be sure."
Eric nodded, understanding finally what had been so irritating at the event.
"I had hoped to find further reason to give chase in any direction, but there was none, so I came inside, where the fragrance was still lingering a bit at the door. I thought it might be possible the watcher had only left the cloak behind to throw me off the trail in spite of my attempts at secrecy, which would have been seen by anyone else as completely normal. It was as if whoever it was heard me somehow, but my voice was only but a whisper at the time." Thaddeus was perplexed once more.
"Well," Eric began. "It seems clear we're not alone here, but we're not exactly here for vacation, but rather to make plans. We need to know what's going on here, but without any idea of what we're looking for, I think it's best to simply be on our guard at all times. We may be able to rule out a person or two, but fact is, we have no proof yet. So we need everyone to keep our wits sharp and quick."
"One other thing, though," Andrew added. "It's clear to me that our observer is an adept tactician and that fact alone should mean we must do any kinds of planning behind closed doors or in the confines of controlled spaces. We could do that in the girls' quarters when they go to run their errands. If we do that, however, we need to make sure that there is always a pair of ears on the other side of the door to keep secret every detail of our plans. Above everything, we must control the room."
"Agreed," the rest echoed.

Morning came and went the men slept long and deeply, their slumber moving into the afternoon when Eric arose first and went into the dining room, where the ladies had already sat and were eating lunch, chatting among themselves.
"Good morning, ladies," Eric greeted.
"Afternoon, you mean," Martha corrected.
"Oh my! I must have had an even better time than I originally thought."
"We could hear you all snoring from our rooms," Sara interjected, smiling and giggling. Martha tried stifling a laugh, but failed spectacularly, causing Romi and Sara to join in. Eric held together longer than the rest, but his resolve wore down and suddenly he was overwhelmed and the laughter took him over to such a degree that his face flushed red and tears flowed freely down his cheeks. All the laughter brought the rest of the party from the main room and into the dining room, wondering what had brought it all on, but Eric and the women were laughing too hard to answer in complete sentences before they fell apart once more.

A knock came at the door as the company struggled to regain their composure. Caia stood outside and was greeted by Eric.
"Hi," Eric started awkwardly.
"Hi," Caia responded in kind, but then continued. "I was just in the area walking and was curious if you'd want to get out and see a bit more of town?"
"Uh, sure. Sounds great, actually. Let me grab something to put over my shoulders." He went to the chair and grabbed his cloak and belted his sword as Caia crossed the threshold to wait for a moment inside. "Don't worry guys, I won't be gone too long." And with that, the two closed the door behind them.

Thaddeus had stood when Caia had come inside the cottage and took a few steps toward the door to be more welcoming. As the door closed behind the couple, he returned to his seat and, looking at the tabletop, his heart began to beat in his ears and his stomach was in his throat. Goosebumps and the hairs on his neck stood at full attention. What began as a lesson in tactics had now shifted into a very real understanding that their visit had taken a very dark turn. As he sat, he looked over to find that the cloak he'd found the night before was now missing.