The Primrose War

“My lord, there is a, um…”

Collar looked up from his perusal of a plan Cloudy had prepared for him for a retreat with him, her, and Rosewater. “What is it, Poppy?” Collar asked, covering the page with a book surreptitiously. He needed to make that a habit. He’d almost spilled the plan to Stride when the stallion had poked his head in earlier to let him know he was starting his second shift with Rosemary early.

“There’s a mare here to see you in a, uh… tabard. It’s not a Rosethorn tabard, and she doesn’t have a treaty flag.”

“Not Rosewater, then.”

“No, my lord.” Poppy flicked a look at the desk, then away. “Would she?”

“Stars, I hope not without an escort and not without notifying us first.” Collar rubbed a hoof over his mane, not realizing until that moment that he’d been worried that she might. “Did she give a purpose?”

“Courier, sir. She had a letter she would only give over to your care.”

Wise. Is that Bliss? He was curious about the storied beauty of the Garden Villa, but not overly intrigued that she might be there. “I’ll be out straightaway, Poppy. Please see her to one of the sitting rooms and ask her to wait.”

“Yes, sir.”

Collar stood and tried to push down the disappointment that she didn’t deliver it herself, or connive to have it delivered as she used to, with one of her clever little tricks about his favorite foods.

Maybe she’ll…

Collar shook his head. That was when she’d been playing a game, not seriously courting him. He set the page of planning into his center drawer and locked it with a quick spell, then left. It wouldn’t give Poppy much time, but he didn’t want to delay, either. Rosewater hadn’t spent much time delaying her response, after all.

He found Poppy and the young mare just about to enter a bottom level sitting room just off the main hall, still not fully set back to rights after the gala last night, with Poppy apologizing over the state of disorder in the sitting chairs and single couch inside.

“It’s alright, Poppy,” Collar said, startling the stallion. “At least we moved all the other furniture back out. I forgot how much work it was to clear out the gala rooms.”

“Ah. My lord.” Poppy cleared his throat. “I wasn’t expecting you for several minutes yet.”

“Forgive me for being anxious to hear news from the mare I just announced to the world that I’m courting,” Collar said with a wry smile and a pat on the other stallion’s shoulder. “Back to your post, corporal, and thank you.”

“W-wait!” The mare cried, tapping a dainty hoof on the ground and tossing her dark pink mane and ruffling her strikingly colored white-pink wings. “Aren’t you supposed to, um….” Her cheeks flushed pink, her eyes darting nervously from Collar to Poppy and back again. “Introduce me?”

“Oh, uh…” Poppy floundered for a moment before he found himself again. “Um. My lord, Zephirine Rosedown. Zephirine, Lord Primline Collar.”

“A beautiful name for a beautiful young mare,” Collar said, offering a crooked hook for her. “My apologies, again, for my hastiness.”

Zephirine’s blush grew at least a shade darker as she set her hoof on his. “N-no apology needed, my lord.” Her ears flattened as he raised her hoof to kiss lightly on the back.

“Of course it is. A gentlepony should never rush introductions.” Collar stepped aside and waved her into the room while he cast spells on the furniture to set it more to rights, shifting it by inches and moving pillows about in a delicate dance that set his concentration to the limit. “Please, I’ll have you comfortable when you deliver your news.”

“Th-thank you, my lord.” Zephirine gave him a halting bow and stepped inside, stopped, and turned to the chairs, then to the couch and froze with her tail flicking side to side.

“Take the couch, Zephirine, please. I’m used to chairs,” Collar said in a gently encouraging voice before he closed the door part way. “Poppy, thank you.”

“Of course, my lord.” He stepped closer and closed off the air around them with a variant sound shield. “She’s… very young and very excitable, my lord. I don’t think she’s a professional courier.”

“She isn’t. So far as we knew, the Garden had no need for couriers, official ones anyway.” Collar tapped the corporal lightly on the foreleg. “Back to your post.”

When he slipped into the sitting room and closed the door behind him, Zephirine was carefully arranging the pillows at one end of the couch under her shoulder, very carefully using her teeth and opposite forehoof to adjust it in place.

She startled when he cleared his throat and stared at him with wide eyes.

“Please, feel at home. I know these pillows aren’t the most comfortable.” He studied her for a long moment, cocking his head to the side as a memory tickled at the back of his throat. “I’ve met you before. Briefly, I think.”

“A-at the Commoner’s Gala, my lord. Stars, you’re handsome.” Her eyes bulged wider and she seemed about to choke on her tongue when he laughed and waved a hoof at her before pulling a cushion down from a chair and sitting on it on the floor. “Stars, my… my mouth.” She covered her muzzle with a hoof.

“It’s fine, Zephirine. It’s flattering, if I’m being honest.” Collar forced himself to follow the line of Damme pleasantries and glanced around for tea, but found none. Of course. He’d given Poppy no time at all to prepare the room. And then sent him back to his post. “Please forgive me for my own hastiness. I should have tea prepared for visitors, but I’m afraid that I have…” He twirled a hoof, looking for the words.

“You want to know what your lady love has to say,” Zephirine breathed, her eyes shining again. She ducked her head to pull a letter from a day-bag rather than a courier’s satchel under her wing. “I have her reply, m-my lord.”

“Collar, please, Zephirine. At least in private.” Collar took the letter, but settled it to the table instead of tearing it open as he wanted to. “How is she doing this morning? I would hear it from a resident and friend of hers.”

“Well. Stars, she was beaming all morning at breakfast, and it’s so amazing to have her there living with us. I don’t know if you know this, but I was only eleven when she stopped coming by, and it was… stars, my lord, it was hard missing an aunt, and my brother took it even harder.”

Before Collar could say anything, she went on.

“And we have you to thank for it, don’t we, my lord? She came back to us because she found love that… that she can’t touch?” Zephirine was half off the couch, her forehooves dancing. “She loves you and because she has love, she can share some of it with us again, right?”

“I…” Collar stared at the mare, the earnestness in her eyes drawing his thoughts to a stop. He could claim that was his doing, but her first trip to the Garden had been inspired by Cloudy, not him, back when he’d still been suspicious of her motives, before he’d seen the heart she hid. “I wish I could take the full credit for her coming back, but Cloudy should take most of it. She encouraged her to open up again first, and when she did…”

He waved a hoof and closed his eyes, then opened them wide. “I saw her. Stars, the first time I saw the first hint of the real her shining through, I thought she was playing a game, but the more she and I talked, the more she let herself be open, the more I saw the beauty of her heart. I have you, all of you at the Garden, to thank for that, don’t I?”

Zephirine, her mouth open to continue her stream of thought, openly stared at him. “You… didn’t fall in love with her at first sight?”

Collar chuckled. “I’m afraid not. We had… differences. But we’re past that now.” Collar paused as the door opened again and Cloudy poked her head in, dipping her ears, then backing away to let a floating tray covered in light golden magic float in and settling on the table.

“Heard through the grapevine we had a visitor,” Cloudy said shortly and bobbed her head to Zephirine before hedging further into the room, then hopping and bounding forward with a yelp before the door closed again behind her. “Stars, she can be pushy.”

“She can be,” Collar agreed with a laugh. “She doesn’t want you to lose your touch with diplomatics even if we’re not dating at the moment.”

Zephirine flicked a hoof between them, staring open-mouthed. “W-w-wait—” Her mouth clicked shut all of a sudden. “Wait! Sorry, sorry, not my business.”

“It’s… fine,” Cloudy said with a small effort visible in the set of her ears. “We agreed that things had changed. Not in how we feel about each other, but in how our relationship needs to progress. Collar fell in love with Rosewater and, honestly, so did I. But Rosemary and I…”

“Oh. Oh stars, I remember seeing the two of you at the Garden, now. I wondered what happened…”

Cloudy’s expression tightened, then relaxed, and she smiled faintly. “It’s okay, Zephirine. It’s… political. Sort of. And not sort of, too.”

Zephirine cocked her head. “Oh. ‘It’s complicated.’”

Collar rolled his eyes. “Yes. Very. But to make the most ponies the happiest, we all agreed to this arrangement. I’m courting Rosewater, and Rosemary and Cloudy are courting each other again. Sort of.”

“It’s complicated,” Zephirine and Cloudy said, only slightly off-tempo, giggled together and tapped hooves before sitting down opposite Collar.

“So…” Zephirine seemed to relax more with Cloudy there, as if having another Merrier present made things seem safer. “You’re in love with her, too?”

Collar listened while the two mares caught up, tossing names back and forth that he stored for later, and poured hot water and started tea to steeping. He dropped three dollops of honey in Cloudy’s tea at the right time, and raised a brow when Zephirine’s ears rose she leaned over to sniff.

“Honey?”

“Um. Please. Is that blueberry honey?”

“My favorite,” Cloudy explained, bending down to swirl her tea about with the long rod attached to the steeping bell.

“She likes her tea strong and sweet,” Collar added, offering to drop some in Zephirine’s tea. “I have some cream here, too.”

“Just cream, please. Too much sugar and I feel like I’ll vibrate out of my coat.” She reached out and tapped the stirring rod. “Just below the rim.”

A statement Collar had no issue believing would be literal if she had too much. “I understand she also made a visit to the Treaty Office this morning in Merrie?”

“Oh! Yes! I don’t know what all that was about, but she took Petal, and Prism, and White Rose with her, and they were all in a snit when they came back. Something about the bridge guard being different. I didn’t hear much, but White Rose was really annoyed by them. I guess Roselight wasn’t there today.”

The name flicked a memory from a report. Just a small one from Platinum about one of her subordinates who seemed sweet on a mare by that name. “Oh?”

“Oh yeah. She and Roselight have a Rose Night every now and then with a sweet stallion from the Garden Village named Rosewood Kiss.” She leaned in close. “He’s also a Merrieguard on bridge duty.”

Interesting. If Roseate was mucking with the daytime bridge schedules, perhaps it meant she was trying to push the normally rotational schedule into chaos. Perhaps punishing those she considered to be city loyalists… or rewarding those she considered loyal to her. Among the Dammeguard, day bridge duty was considered a plush and cushy position, even if it meant long hours and dealing with a sometimes irate public. They could stand around most of the day.

Nighttime bridge duty was sometimes scary, but often boring and tense at the same time. He imagined that it was only boring on the other side of the river, not having to deal with raids or infiltrations or even to be on guard for them.

Though… if they were punishing the city loyalists…

Collar snapped himself out of his strategic ruminations and settled back on his chair. “Well. I’m glad to hear she had most of a good morning. How was she when the letter was delivered?”

“Making lunch,” Zephirine said shortly around the rim of the mug, then sat back and tapped a hoof on the floor, her eyes darting to the letter and back.

Cloudy cleared her throat. “Are you just going to let it sit there? Stars, Coll, I know you’re dying to know what she wrote.”

Collar glanced at the steeping tea, sighed, and picked up the letter with a spell. On the back was written a simple message, ‘Break the wax, my lord.’ He showed it to Cloudy briefly before bringing it back and sniffing at it, then inspecting it more closely. There appeared to be a small bubble under the wax, a bulge where his seal had been partially melted and then resealed.

Cloudy’s smile widened, then clamped down as she took her mug of tea, her eyes shining as she hid the delighted grin behind it. “She’s not done playing games, it seems. I wonder what delight she’s sent us this time?”

Zephirine looked like she was about to pop from excitement.

Before she could, Collar chuckled and snapped the wax around the bubble, trying to preserve whatever pocket of scent she’d most likely trapped inside. But as soon as he started cracking the wax, a sparkle of magic glittered across the surface and the bubble erupted in a puff of pink and green swirls glowing faintly as the perfume atomized itself and activated.

As it descended over his nose, he had the brief sensation of no longer being in a castle with the suddenly sharp and acrid smell of stone. Then the castle was back, but when his eyes fluttered closed to take in the scent descending on him, he was in a glade surrounded by blooming roses wrapped with layers upon layers of lilacs, lilies, and thick, short-bladed grass all around him, all of it fragrantly expressed in the brief moment before he opened his eyes.

And somewhere close by was a hint of Rosewater nearby.

Disappointingly, the vision vanished when he opened his eyes and only a dim reminder of it came back when he blinked again.

What lingered was her. An indefineable essence of who she was. Calm, for the most part, a touch of excitement so he could almost see her ears twitching, and his heart beat a little faster at the suggestion of a promise that he could smell her much more clearly soon.

“That…” Cloudy murmured, settling back down to sit, blinking. “That was something else.”

Collar nodded slowly, using a spell to gather up the remnants of the wax blister. If there was a hidden message, Rosemary would be able to uncover it with the remnant of perfume he could still smell was lingering on the shining shards. “Did you see her?”

Cloudy gave him an odd look. “I smelled a hint of her, and I saw a glade. I think… I think I even know where it is in the Villa grounds. But this time of year…”

“She’s the best,” Zephirine said proudly, puffing out her chest. “I watched her make the perfume. A drop of sweat, a dash of denatured alcohol, and a few dried flower petals from Lover’s Glen. But…”

Collar glanced at the young mare. “But she did something with it all you didn’t understand.”

Zephirine nodded. “One moment, it was just a pretty smell. The next…”

She used her talent to bring me hope and calm.

“She looked really tired, but the wax was whole again in moments, and there was some kind of glowing pattern on it. She made me promise not to crack the wax. Or let anypony else crack it.” Zephirine cocked her head. “It was really lucky that pretty mare didn’t wait. I’m not sure I’d have been able to give her the letter without her being super suspicious.”

“For the best, but you can trust her if you see her again,” Collar said, sliding the wax into the envelope at the same time he drew the letter out. Disappointingly, no text started to fade into view, but he suspected Rosemary would have to do something else with it to reveal any messages. More magic he’d have to ignore. Not that he wanted to after that. If she could activate the perfume again…

His words were on one side, hers on the blank back and at the top there was a suspicious gap where a message might hide, if one knew to look for it. Otherwise the hasty scrawl below it would look like the writer hadn’t bothered to properly set their lines first.

My love,

I would be honored to be your date. A day hence? You left no mention of time, so in the manner of duels, I choose the time and weapon of choice. A kiss, and tomorrow noontime for lunch.

I only regret we won’t be able to dance as we did our first night together.

My hopeful regards,

Lady Rosewater Rosethorn

Collar felt heat rising in his cheeks at the mention of their first night together. Their first night in bed together, even if nothing happened. But the next day…

Or does she mean the first first time? Her, awkward and scared and alone, confessing just how nervous she was. The words on her letter were playful, but…

“She’s nervous,” Collar said gently as he passed the letter to Cloudy to read, glancing at Zephirine to see if she’d sussed out anything. She seemed a little more than politely curious, studying him from horn-tip to hind hoof as if she were committing every line of him to memory.

“And excited,” Cloudy said after giving the letter a quick look and sniff. “Tomorrow is faster than I thought she’d agree to.”

It’s later than I hoped. Stars, he wanted to go there tonight. He wanted to see her tonight. Hold her. Fall asleep with, and then wake up with her again. But the danger was too great.

“But you should take it to Rosemary,” Cloudy added, sniffing it again and raising a brow. “She’ll be more than happy to see a scrap of writing from her mother.”

Collar pursed his lips and nodded, his heart fluttering and trying not to hide the potential for a hidden message indicating a rendezvous sometime tonight. Somewhere out of the way. Someplace they both knew.

Except she’ll need a pony to accompany her. So far as he knew, none of the residents of the garden were so skilled at subterfuge and infiltration as she was. Unless she could drain herself to hide another until he could take over for her. Or if… Prism’s talent for bending light would help her, but not against the noses and ears of counter-agents.

Losing her to the Garden had been understandable, but still a blow to the Dammeguard’s ranks. That she still visited her parents on occasion gave him hope that she was happy and a good, useful example of…

Stars, listen to yourself. Collar bobbed his head again and cast away thoughts of political plays using Rosewater’s friends. “Soon enough.” He bobbed his head to Cloudy. “Could you fetch my letter tray?”

Cloudy smirked as the door opened and the tray floated in, on a diluted purple field to settle on the table. “Lace sent Poppy to fetch it as soon as we were informed a courier was here.”

There was even a brilliant blue candle and a striker, not a normal part of his writing kit, and a single, blank envelope laying underneath both.

He hid a smile behind an exasperated sigh and roll of his eyes that he hoped would distract from the flush he felt in his cheeks, rising up to envelope his cheeks.

It didn’t take him much to write the words he knew he had to write, and wished he could spare a little time with Rosemary to add a secret message. But he couldn’t hold her for however long it took for Rosemary to gather the ingredients needed for such a thing, or however long it took to write. Truth be told, he had no idea how it was even done except by scent magic.

My lady Rosewater,

I write back in haste, I know, but I wish not to keep your courier overlong in case she has other duties to attend. I wish I had more time to think on your words and find the right witty repartee as has become our custom in the quiet moments between meetings, but I can’t.

Of course tomorrow at noon will work. I will meet you myself at the Rosewine Bridge and escort you thence once our meal is done.

I ask only one boon, or three boons for one thing. A kiss beginning, middle, and end.

Let that be a promise for at least three dances to come.

Yours,

Lord Primline Collar

“I regret,” Collar said as he clicked the striker over the candle’s wick until it caught, “that I have only tea at the moment to speed you home, but I must ask that you do be speedy as you can on your way and deliver this to her hoof alone.”

Zephirine squeaked around the lip of her tea mug and dipped her ears in acknowledgment before she swallowed the tea and set the mug down. “I will, my lord, of course.”

Collar fished a silver buckle from his day bag and held it out to her along with the letter. “And afterwards, treat yourself on my buckle.”

“Interesting.” Crown sat on the ridge overlooking the Rosewine with a spyglass to her eye, not even bothering to hide that she was watching the traffic. There wasn’t any point. Everypony who knew what had happened last night was trying their damndest to find out anything they could about the sudden shift in apparent power dynamics.

Rosewater had just declared war on her mother’s intent. Openly.

“It’s terrifying,” Silk said from beside her. She couldn’t quite hide the tremor in her voice. She’d come straight to Crown to tell her everything after her meeting with mother, not even to go home to let Vine know. Crown destroyed, Rosary being prodded into a dangerous mood. “What do you think she’ll do?”

“Bide her time for now. Stars, what can any of us do? Did you see this coming? Did Roseate?”

“Almost certainly not,” Silk replied with a snort. “Can you imagine mother sitting still while Rosewater courted a stallion?”

“She did that one time,” Crown said with a light shrug she didn’t feel.

“Because he was her first cousin.” Silk nipped her neck. “You wanted to tell her.”

“She didn’t deserve to be branded with incest when she didn’t even know.” Not that it was unknown. She had to have suspected, even if he didn’t talk about his reason for being there. Even if he hadn’t recognized his uncle’s features in her. “Maybe she wanted to believe that there was a chance, and didn’t want to ruin it by looking for the truth.”

Silk made a noise low in her throat. She knew, better than most, the weight of that brand, even if it was secret and in full fairness not entirely wholly on her shoulders. Too young, distant mother, her only caretakers the disinterested staff. It was easy to see two young ponies clinging to each other for support as their bodies changed and matured taking one step further with the thought, ‘just once is alright.’

Crown shook her head slowly. “Whatever her reasons… this is… Collar actually kissed her?”

“First, yes. He initiated. It’s been going on in secret for… stars, I don’t know how long. Years?”

“Then why doesn’t she already have a foal of her own? Why hide herself away? No. Think about it logically, Silk. This is new.” Crown raised a hoof, ready to list off points when a pegasus landed at the bridge, wearing an unusual tabard, but clearly a courier of some sort. Just not one from either Damme or Merrie. “And… so is that. Do you recognize that tabard?”

Silk raised her ears and accepted the glass, peering through it. “The pegasus? No. The crest? That’s the Rosewine family crest.”

Crown waited for her sister to make the connection. “She was a volunteer at the Commoner’s Gala. I saw her several times while I was there.”

“What’s she doing coming from damme in that tabard?” Silk stared for longer, tracking the bright tabard through the queue. “She keeps checking under her wing. Flight bag, but not very good if she’s a courier. The tabard, though… that’s the Rosewine family crest.”

“And Rosewater is staying with the Rosewines. She hasn’t even been back to her home since before the gala.” Crown glanced aside at her sister and strengthened the sound scrambling field around them. “Since she was with Dazzle and Collar went on his ‘patrol’ for two days and disappeared.”

Silk lowered the glass and glanced around, ears perked. “You’re suggesting that Rosewater and Collar spent the night together.”

“I am. I’ve been out in that direction on patrol. There’s nothing out there within a day’s march. Half a day, since he returned a day and a half after he left.” Crown shook her head. “Maybe he went to Dammehollow, but we’d have heard about a visit by him there.”

“What if he went north?”

“To where?” Crown snorted and shook her head. She’d studied the maps of the north in case Roseate sent her out on patrol that way. “The only thing north is the old Imperial road and the trackless forest.” Crown snorted and shook her head. “No. That was a lie. Wherever he went, he wanted everypony, including his own ponies, to believe he went somewhere he did not, but nopony has given it too much deep thought.”

“Mother has. By now at least if not then.”

“Of course she has. She complained at me for missing it this morning.” Crown glanced at her sister. “What did she ream you about?”

“What I told you about what I saw. I apparently didn’t try to stay longer and see Rosewater leave.”

Crown flicked an ear. She would have to ask Note what he knew. If he could tell her. It was likely he didn’t know much more, though. She shook her head and dismissed the idea almost immediately. After last night… stars, she had to start making other plans.

She accepted the spyglass back and watched as the young mare took off again immediately after passing the checkpoint, landed in line at the other end, and worked her way through the line again before taking off again straight to the villa.

“She sent him a letter.”

“They’re courting. That’s not unusual,” Silk said, her voice resigned. “But mother will chew our hides for not intercepting it.”

“How?” Crown barked a laugh. “The slowest pegasus in the air can still outrun a unicorn.”

“Rosewater, Collar, Lace, and Roseate might. Rosary, too, if she tries. Maybe.” Silk shook her head. “I could, with enough preparation and length of silk.”

“In the right circumstances, perhaps.” Crown followed Zephirine’s flight all the way back to the Villa, where her line of sight was broken by the screen of trees around the main building. Even so, she caught sight of a flash of white between the limbs before even that was gone.

Hardly concrete proof, but it seemed like Rosewater had been waiting for her arrival.

“What did you think of what happened?” Silk asked, her voice quiet even despite the fuzzing sound field around them. “About… Rosewater courting Collar.”

“You’re sure it’s that way around and not mutual?” Crown asked, glancing aside at her sister. “I saw them both the day of the Commoner’s Gala. How easy they were with each other, even considering Collar was there with Cloudy. And remember how we thought they were serious.”

“Serious enough for mother to try and abduct her. Pretty sure the exile would be null, but she’d have still tried.” Silk was silent for a few breaths. “But you didn’t answer my question.”

“You really want to know?” Crown snapped her scope down to a small tube a little longer than the breadth of a hoof. “Can I trust you?”

Silk winced. “Fine. Trust for trust.” She steeled herself visibly. “I want them to be together. Stars, Vine wants her and Dazzle to be together because she’s already imagining a full romance novella for them. But… this wouldn’t just put Rosewater in charge. It would end the war, Crown. Stars, I told you the speech she and he gave. She sounded sincere. What would Rosary do?”

Crown tucked her chin to her chest and flattened her ears. “I don’t know.”

“I gave you enough for mother to pile on me and throw Vine and I to the wolves. Give me something back, Crown. Please.” Silk’s earnest plea drew Crown to meet her older sister’s worried eyes. Her lips were tight, her ears flat.

“Nothing I could give you would match the weight she holds over you, Silk.” Crown closed her eyes and shook her head. “But… trust and trust. I love Vine, Silk, and I would hate to see her harmed by something I did.”

“She’s the best of us.”

“She is. I want them to succeed. Rosewater and Collar. I… have my doubts that Rosary, Powder, and Well are as far from us as they make it seem. Stars, Rosary has two children to keep care of, and Powder and Well might as well be one mare as far as Kestral is concerned.” Crown shook her head. “They’d never risk harm to their children. No matter the cost to them.”

“You’re certain?”

Crown thought about Rosary sobbing too close to a window, picking up the vibrations from the panel. Listening to what her sister told her husbands in broken words about what Roseate said, what she was going to have to do.

She had stopped listening halfway through and gone home to drown the memory in wine.

“I don’t trust them because they would sell us all to mother for a promise.” Crown shook her head. “But I see what Rosewater has done to keep her daughter safe, and… it’s not easy. But I trust her more than them. I just don’t know what we can do to help and keep ourselves safe at the same time.”

And ensure that Rosewater keeps on the same path. But there was also, clearly, more that Silk hadn’t told her, and wouldn’t until they had built up enough trust with each other.

“It would help,” Rosemary said gently as she melted the wax slowly under the bell glass, the heat barely enough to release the fragrance into the sealed jar, “if you weren’t crowding around so much.”

Collar backed away obediently, ears flat. “My apologies. I’ve never seen this done before and, well, when you did it for Rosewater’s first message, it was barely five minutes before you had it done.”

“She sent me a pure sample of the key the first time,” Rosemary said with a small huff. “If you’d opened the letter with me, I could have managed to capture it much more easily, I assure you. But I need to capture the purest essence I can from hot, not burning, wax.”

“Oh.” Collar glanced at Cloudy and settled in on Rosemary’s other side, his tail flipped over hers. “Well. I will sit here quietly and watch. And do not tease you with neck nibbles.”

Rosemary gave him a sidelong glance. “And why not?”

“Yeah. Why not?” Cloudy asked as she settled in on Rosemary’s other side and gave her a light nip just below the ear. “I assure you, she is very tasty.”

Collar, the dear, coughed. “I’m sure she is.”

Rosemary clucked her tongue and leaned in against Cloudy, giving Collar his space. As much as she wanted to be with him, that wasn’t going to happen for some time yet, and what she could do was help him romance Rosewater and do her part to help subvert the laws in Damme.

When the wax was all a pool of glistening blue at the bottom of the bowl, Rosemary gave the bowl a few taps to release any pockets of perfume or air still stuck in the mix and surrounded the top of the flask with an impermeable scent barrier, then cooled down the air until the perfume condensed back into a few precious drops that wanted to boil off again almost immediately.

“Letter,” Rosemary said shortly, shifting bowl and flask aside to make room for it. She’d already sniffed out the location of the hidden words, and all that was left was to bind the perfume to the paper again, forming a key inside a lock too tiny for pony eyes to see.

It was as if, when she finished layering the few droplets of perfume over the page and activated the spell, she actually turned an invisible tumbler as the text bled into view in the span of a heartbeat.

Meet me tonight near our first date. Bring an escort. We have things to plan.

“Fascinating,” Collar murmured. “The last message was short, too. Is there a reason for that?”

“Not anything about her asking for a secret rendezvous?” Cloudy said with a huff. “You want to know about why it couldn’t be more?”

“Well, obviously. If it could be longer, just think about how much we could send back and forth without Roseate knowing. Right under her nose, even if we had to send them via registered courier with copies sent to the palace.” Collar glanced at Rosemary, then Cloudy. “You know we can only keep our correspondence like this secret for so long.”

“And why not? You’re both consenting adults. You’re not negotiating on behalf of the city.” Cloudy huffed.

“Because she’s going to insist that we are doing just that, and we’ll need to provide proof that our letters are nothing but saccharine and sweet, tooth-rotting lovers’ letters.”

“The reason we can’t,” Rosemary said gently, turning the scroll over and checking twice before she called her quill to her and bound a little ink to the final droplet. She wrote out a single word, ‘Love,’ and made it disappear, twisting the spell so the ink bled into the clear perfume.

When she turned it over, it was just barely possible to read ‘Love’ in broken bits and pieces through the other letters it had gone through. “The spell doesn’t care if it’s new ink or old. It disappears. It’s best, for the finest precision, to mix ink and perfume first, then bind it rather than write it and mist it after, as some lovers do to send entire ‘secret’ letters to each other.”

“And writing broadly spaced lines, enough to fit even a small message in between…” Collar sighed. “It’s well known in Merrie, isn’t it?”

“Sadly, yes. Even pegasi and earth ponies can do a form of it with their magic, though theirs is not quite so finely applied as ours.” Rosemary gave Cloudy a glance. “But in some cases, it is more effective.”

“Mistwriting,” Cloudy said with a shrug. “She’s right. I’d end up blanking out an entire page, but it would take another mistweaver to uncover the writing.”

“And… is there anything stopping us from blanking out writing and then writing over top of it?” Collar asked with a raised brow.

Cloudy glanced at Rosemary and shrugged. “I’ve tried it, but all I did was bleed ink all over the page. Anyone who has has likely kept it secret how they did it.”

Collar sighed. “Of course. Well… I may ask you and Rosemary to experiment some more and see if there’s any way you can work it out when working together. It could be a vital tool.”

“A spy project? For your prisoner?” Rosemary asked in a teasing voice. “Why, I might just send Rosewater a few choice words of my own and tell her just where you like to be nibbled.”

“Excuse me, but you don’t know where my nibble spots are.”

“But I do,” Cloudy purred in a low voice. “And you’re asking us to work together. Who’s to say we won’t write a dissertation on how to tease you into a gibbering pile of horseflesh with a few well placed love nips before you have us write the actual letter, hmm?”

Collar laughed and nipped Rosemary’s ear. “Fine, fine. But I would like you to try. Even if it comes to nothing.”

“Mmm.” Rosemary cocked her head slightly. “Let me think about it, Collar. If it comes out that I’m helping you with this… Roseate’s argument will be that I’m a traitor and Rosewater’s negotiations will be terminated.”

“And yet, we’ll still have our courtship,” Collar said gently, kissing her cheek. “I know it means a lot to you to see this through. I won’t demand you do anything that would compromise that.”

“It’s tempting. I won’t lie about that. Even openly defecting is tempting now that you and Rosewater have a way to see each other that doesn’t require the treaty.” Stars, she could actually go outside this room without requiring at least one guard if not two to go anyplace interesting. But… it would also make Roseate believe that Rosewater might already be pregnant. “But… I can’t. Not yet. And it’s not so onerous, you know. I have plenty to read, and I’m even starting a history.”

“I’d love to read it,” Collar said in a soft, earnest voice. “I’d love to see your perspective of everything.”

She kissed him. Lightly and chastely on the lips. “You will. You’re a part of it, love.”

“It’s all still here,” Rosewater murmured, touching a hoof to the long-dead embers and glancing to the side where the stones she’d arranged to mark the place just in case the fire pit had been washed away in the rains. But they were still there. Soggy, yes, and the remnants had mostly washed out of the circle, leaving dry-packed sand and dirt with rivulets marking the flow of water. But nopony had come to disturb the space.

“I’m impressed,” Prism murmured, wandering around the edge of the small clearing and peering down the trails. “You can just barely see the city from here. Very… well, if you don’t mind me saying, very risky.”

“It was.” Rosewater stared up at the darkening sky. “It still is.”

Prism snorted. “At least you’re better able to care for yourself than most of my primaries in the past.”

“Have… you had to protect many ponies from us?”

“From you?” Prism stopped her circuit of the clearing to come sit on the other side of the dry fire pit from her. “Not you. The fear of you, though. And your sisters. And the other infiltrators. It’s always some scared bureaucrat thinking that Roseate has it out for them specifically because of reasons I didn’t care to listen to after the first three gave me some theory about how raising the import duty on beans from Merrie—”

“That one’s real. You have no idea how incredibly petty Roseate could be.”

“Seriously? She had you going after low level tax advisors for that?” Prism snorted and tossed her head. “Stars, I almost wish you had gone after him when I was covering his butt. Literal bean counter.” She cocked her head to the side. “I’m not entirely sure his cutie mark wasn’t a pile of beans.”

Rosewater laughed and flicked her ears. “I didn’t take it. I asked mother for too much for the task to be worth it to her. She may have given it to a pegasus to harass him for a while. I don’t know, because she… I didn’t want to know what she did. I wanted as little to do with her as possible.”

“Understandable.” Prism flicked her tail and focused on the ground beside Rosewater. A flicker of her horn and a prismatic image of herself flared to life, then settled into stable colors, matching her entirely, but with the blue armor of the Dammeguard day watch clad about her form. “Did you ever see me?”

“Once or twice. When I was doing daytime reconnaissance as Rosetide. Before the time Crown was captured in that failed raid.” Rosewater shrugged and looked the image of the mare over. “When you said you were good at veiling, I didn’t quite know what to expect. Light, yes, but… you’re nearly as good as Glory.”

“You’re better at sounds than I am.”

Rosewater snorted. “That doesn’t help much if they can see my shadow or see through my disguise. I can’t veil completely for long.”

“But you still do it quite well,” Collar said, startling them both as he let his dome drop, revealing both he and Cloudy. “Cloudy was quite impressed with your ability to veil during your first chase.”

Cloudy nipped his neck and danced to Rosewater, stopping just shy of giving her a kiss. “I… wish we’d had more time to catch up last night, Rosewater. I wish we had more time now.”

“As do I…” Rosewater tipped her head to the side and nuzzled her lover’s cheek. “But I asked you here for a purpose. We need to plan. Collar and I need to have time to have sex regularly. I don’t know when my cycle is.”

Prism chuffed lightly. “Right to the point. Good. We’re exposed here.”

Collar clucked his tongue and flattened his ears. “We were exposed during two of our dates and nopony came to investigate the campfire.”

“Because your ponies are considerate of others out on romantic encounters,” Rosewater said gently. “I knew that if I made it look like a romantic getaway there was a decent chance no curious pegasi would want to interrupt two lovers having a romantic dinner in the open.”

“I hope you won’t rely on such presumptions tonight,” Prism muttered, but relaxed minutely out of the corner of Rosewater’s vision.

“They’re all watching the river and beyond tonight,” Cloudy said more firmly, glancing past Rosewater to the opening in the clearing that let them see out over both cities. “We’re almost certain Roseate is going to make a move sooner than later to disrupt your romance.”

“Which is why I must also move more quickly,” Rosewater said, her jaw firming as she glanced past her to Collar and flicked an ear for him to join her. “Here is no good. Obviously. There’s a logging camp farther up with a permanent residence for the woodskeeper during the harvesting months. Could we use that?”

Collar grimaced. “When I imagined what you wanted tonight in your secret message, I had… I imagined…”

“Prism will likely escort me to our meetings for mating, Collar. She must deliver me to your care and ensure that I do not deviate to meet with another male.” Rosewater snorted and tossed her head. “My ancestors made everything more complicated. But… it feels good to cross again with a pony that I can trust by my side.”

He nodded, unhappy but apparently understanding. “It’s… stars, Rosewater.”

She stepped up to him and lightly kissed his lips once, then let herself indulge in a longer, more intimate kiss of shared breath when he reached for her. “I know. We can find someplace private, Collar. We can make it romantic. I love you, I want what you want.”

Cloudy kissed both of their cheeks. “We. We can make it romantic. All of us. Rosemary… maybe she can cook?”

“She can.” Rosewater leaned her forehead against Collar’s and let the weariness of the day settle over her. “Just give me a moment, and we can talk about what we’re going to do.”