The three men stood in the midst of a spare storage room. Like Balma and Sera, Genevie saw a shortage in food supplies as merchants, most fishermen, and traders couldn’t travel far from the shores because of rough storms plaguing the open seas. Most ships that ventured out never came back leaving most men to stay grounded.

            Destan even expressed his shock that the two men had a safe journey without any trouble to which Kai only replied, “We had a good guide is all or we’re just lucky.”

            Sehun kept the information of picking up his girlfriend to himself as he picked at the empty cans and bags that littered the floors and shelves, “How has everyone been surviving?”

            Their guide scanned the shelves as if looking for something to miraculously show up for him to eat. He ducked his head down before fiddling with the ends of his shirt, “Most survive off of rationing the food they already had, some take advantage of the few fish that are caught every morning, others resort to starvation…”

            “Has Emiyn done anything to help?” Kai and Sehun finished their look around the empty storage room, making their way to Destan who shook his head.

            “He can’t do much, it’s the council that’s really in charge of what goes on here and they’ve chosen to be greedy about it all.” Destan paused to laugh quietly before he met eyes with the two princes, “They don’t know that I’ve been taking small portions of their hoardings and distributing to people outside the palace. They just think that their shortages are because of the other greedy councilmen and beat each other over it. It can be scary.”

            Kai rubbed his chin as he mused over these councilmen. Greed could lead to misjudgments and desperate acts. “These men…you don’t think they’d have anything to do with the kidnappings?”

            Sehun caught on to Kai’s idea but added, “If they were, it would be an under the table sort of thing. Not something they’d openly talk about with each other…or at least not all of them would be involved, I think.”

            Destan thought for a moment to the nine men that ran the council. He quickly scanned through their faces picking out the ones he thought were shady, “There are some that could be but I don’t know for sure.”

            “Have we seen them since we arrived here?” Kai asked as they were ushered outside the building to the awaiting carriages.

            “Not that I’m aware of. Most don’t dwell in the palace except for the few closest to Emiyn and that’s only one or two of them.” Destan opened the door for the two princes who entered quietly as the other couch men seemed to be looking at the as they approached. The young man entered last shutting the door behind him.

            “Could we possibly meet them?” Kai continued as the carriage began to move.

            “I c