Joe's usually stoic face was streaked with tears, his eyes red from both the smoke and the sorrow. He looked up as Krystal and Jaehwan approached, but said nothing even as she knelt beside the man he cradled. His legs were stretched out to provide a pillow for the Prince, but from the looks of the intense burns that covered Yunho's body, Jaehwan wasn't sure that the gesture even mattered.

The Prince was burned badly, his clothing and skin melded together in such a way that Jaehwan didn't think he could survive. His breathing came ragged and he trembled in his servant's arms, not aware of the world around him at all. Both the sailors looked at a loss for what to do, and Jaehwan was no better. 

And yet Siwon was. The strange man stepped close and looked down at the Prince with a surprising pity in his eyes. "Do you have a blanket?" he asked Krystal in a voice no longer coated in condescension. And when she shook her head in the negative - they hadn't planned to be gone that long and had only brought a little food and supplies - the man went into motion. He stripped off the outer layer of his robes, undoing a wide belt that kept them secured around his waist, and stepped toward Yunho while holding the fabrics. Krystal looked like she might tell him to back away, but to Jaehwan's surprise she did not, and merely watched as the man settled the robes about the Prince's form.

"He may be going into shock," he explained as he tucked the edges of the fine silks closer about the wounded man's body. "This won't do much, but they'll do until help arrives." He gave Krystal a long, sharp look then. "You do have help coming, don't you?"

"Of course," she said imediately, brow furrowing in anger. "The King is sending his troops."

Well, Jaehwan thought that might be a small stretch of the truth... the King would be sending his troops only if Jessica and Sohee could prove their case. The sisters were quite positive that Sukjin would believe them, but Jaehwan didn't want to count on it. Like they said, don't count chickens before they've hatched!

Siwon's lisps pursed as he looked down at Yunho, nodding his head slowly as if in conversation with himself. "Very well, I shall wait here," he finally said, and settled down cross-legged near Joe. "The thing is, Krystal... Eldresan was not involved. And we were not partner to this crime, nor the attack on your ship. Yes," he added when she snapped her head around to look at him, "I know of that. I think most people here in Kelsar with any kind of connections do."

He rolled his shoulders and continued. "The thing is, I do not want the attempted assassination of the Princess of Remasan and the, uh, capture and maiming of a Prince of Maklar to be held against my King. As such, I will tell you." He looked at her then, his dark eyes seeming to bore right through her. "If you ride hard, you can catch Changmin and bring him for trial. He only left at the sunrise, and he is with his family in a carriage."

Krystal had stiffened at the revelation, and without seeming to realize what she was doing, she had grasped the hilt of her sword. "Two hours ahead of me at most," she mused, looking southward. "He would have taken the trade road if he had a carriage. Joe-"

"I will not leave him, Princess." Joe's voice cracked with damage from the smoke, but he held her gaze firmly. "I will not. My place is here."

She frowned but nodded at his declaration. "Very well. Jaehwan, would you come with me?"

He was taken a bit aback at the question, unsure that they ought to be haring off after someone with ony the two of them. Instead of answering her, he turned to look at Siwon. "How many men did the, uh, did Changmin have with him?"

From the corner of his eye he saw Krystal start before a slight blush tinged her cheeks. He was right, she wasn't thinking straight through all of her anger, and he thought that maybe she would change her mind. But then Siwon said, "He had six," and Krystal's face settled into determination.

"Thank you," she told him, then moved for her horse. Apparently she didn't think six was too many, and so, unwilling to leave her heading off alone, Jaehwan turned to follow her. 

Then he paused and turned back to Siwon. Whoever this man was, no matter that it seemed he had connections that Krystal did not trust, he had done Yunho a kindness that he had no reason to have done. Jaehwan gave him a bow, as deep as he would have given anyone else, and when he had risen Siwon's eyebrows had climbed high on his forehead in surprise. "Excuse me," Jaehwan told him, gave Joe a squeeze on the shoulder that h