Meredith sat down on the other desk in the room as the prince was busy with his usual mountain of paperwork, schoolwork, and other princely things that needed his attention. Her loyal dire wolf stood on guard next to His Highness as Meredith completed her own schoolwork before her. Though she didn’t rank as high as Alaric or Roseline in terms of academics, that didn’t mean she was lacking in her studies.

So, most of the time Meredith would focus on her own schoolwork while Alaric focused on his. They would usually do this after they were finished with classes for the day, both preferring to get their work done without much haste.

It was an unspoken rule that no one was allowed to enter Prince Alaric’s room during this hour considering how disliked visitors who came unannounced. It was already hectic enough as it is with his fiance that demanded to see him most of the time - though she hadn’t appeared before him in recent weeks - so he appreciated the peace and quiet he would get.

However, on this particular day, that rule seemed to be broken as he could hear the knocking on his door without even having to use his Wind powers. For a split second, he wondered if it was Roseline coming to drag him out for a quick discussion on their next monthly meeting until he heard the voice that echoed throughout his room.

“Alaric, open up! It’s your favorite cousin, Alex.”

At the sound of Alex’s voice, both Alaric and Meredith shared a look that said “why is she here so late?”

As the princess’s knocking continued (and didn’t seem to be stopping any time soon), Meredith backed away from her desk and quickly headed towards the main door. Though Alex had an infamous title for being spontaneous and unpredictable at times, this would be the least worrisome thing she had done. By the time Meredith reached the door, she had already decided that family or not, she wouldn’t let someone interrupt the prince’s private time unless it was an urgent matter.

Just as the guard opened the door, Alex’s hand was still in the middle of knocking. She beams as she sees Meredith opening the door and before Meredith could even ask Alex what was she doing here when it was close to curfew, the princess had already opened first.

“I need 10 minutes with Alaric, stat!”

“Your Highn-”

Alex waved her index finger around, signaling Meredith to stop before she could intervene in her words.

“It’s just 10 minutes,” she asked again, “Just a quick 10 minutes and I’ll yeet myself out of your room without a second to spare.”

Meredith is about to turn her down again but to her surprise, the male answers the offer himself. His voice nearly catches her off guard - nearly.

“Knowing Alex, she’s not going to back down so easily,” he sighs and gestures for Alex to step inside. “Let her come in, Meredith. We’ll all be stuck in the same situation an hour later if we keep turning her down.”

Only Alaric himself catches the glare in Meredith’s expression before her face returns to its usual stoic state. Her expression wasn't without reason, it was all because Meredith failed to notice his presence. Both of them knew how much Meredith disliked it when Alaric would purposely use his own Wind powers to block Meredith from detecting him. She didn’t like not knowing where he would be in case anything were to happen to him while she wasn’t by his side plus she would be dead if the royal family found out he was injured under her protection.

Her dire wolf was right next to the prince as well and at the sight of her loyal company does Meredith come to the realization that His Highness had managed to extend his concealing magic to people other than himself, something that he wasn’t capable of before this. She wondered when he had managed to increase his skills since she wasn’t aware of this recent development.

“Well, that’s certainly something new to report back to the King and Queen.”

Meredith moved to the side as Alex stepped into the dorm and settled herself on the sofa, her eyes b with eagerness as Alaric sat down opposite of her. Both the prince and his bodyguard were wondering what sort of issue was swirling its way around Alex’s head to the point she must come to his room unannounced. All they could hope was for Alex’s worry to be mild and she would keep it short.

From the way Alex’s leg seemed to be bouncing up and down restlessly, Alaric could already tell it was something of utmost importance to her. So when the three of them finally settled down - with Meredith and her dire wolf standing beside the sofa Alaric sat - Alex wasted no time into getting straight to her point.

As much as she should have worded her sentence in a much more proper manner, her words came spewing out of much too quickly due to her own impatientness. This was, of course, nothing out of her usual personality. The sooner she got her answers, the quicker she could put her mind to ease.

And so, she shoots her question out in one speedy breath.

“Why haven’t I heard anything about the first-year who almost set fire to, not just me, but the entire second-year class?”

Her question takes a second longer for the others in the room to digest and even when they come to understand the question, the room is still quiet.

Silence.

That was what answered her question which would be a first for everyone in the room. Most of the time, either Meredith or Alaric would answer a question that would be difficult for the other to address but it wasn’t the case for Alex’s inquiry.

For a moment, Alex almost thought someone pressed pause in real life seeing how still everyone was. She’s about to repeat her question once again, wondering if somehow she managed to confuse them or that they didn’t hear her properly (which would actually be the least likely reason).

Alaric speaks up before she could open but it’s not what she expected to hear from the prince himself.

“... Alex, what do you mean?”

Alex blinks once. Twice. A couple more times before she scoffs, finding it funny how Alaric was pretending to be oblivious in front of her.

“You know, the thing that happened a few weeks ago?”

Alex tried to continue on before realizing that she couldn’t seem to grasp the details in her own head herself. It was as if the memory was right in front of her but was kept hidden and under wraps, somewhere she couldn’t reach no matter how hard she thought of the event she was going to tell Alaric just a few minutes ago.

It wouldn’t take a genius to see that Alex was struggling with her words but Meredith and Alaric decided not to interfere with her thinking, waiting patiently for the princess to continue.

“God, I can’t remember but I swear it’s on the tip of my tongue!” She lets out a frustrated sigh, putting her fingers on the side of her head as she hoped massaging her brain would bring some memories back into view.

“It was some big fire that was a huge deal when it happened - Roseline was talking about it, that’s why I came here,” her muttering doesn’t go unnoticed by the two Wind users.

The guard and her master shared a look, both of them baffled as they tried to understand what Alex was questioning them about.

A fire?

When had such a thing happened?

Alex folded her arms over her chest and leaned back into her seat, “I don’t have the best memory but come on - remember when that student? Did the thing? Fire? Huge fire? Ring a bell? Roseline saving the day?”

It’s Meredith who comes into realization first, “Your Highness, are you perhaps inquiring about the first-year?”

Alex snaps her fingers at Meredith and bops her head up and down eagerly, “Yes! That first-year who nearly snuffed out the entire first and second-year fire students.”

The two girls don’t realize when it takes an extra second before the answers dawns on the prince. His expression turns grim for a moment before quickly lets the emotion dissolve from his face, not wanting to worry Alex any further in case she got too worked up and ended up making things worse.

“ I’ll look into it, Alex. Expect news to come to you as soon as possible,” he stands up from his seat, glancing at Meredith before looking back at Alex one last time. “Meredith, please Alex out. I’ll excuse myself for the day. It was nice seeing you as always, dear cousin.”

The princess doesn’t seem satisfied with his answer but as he was already leaving the living room, Alex had no choice but to oblige and proceeded to exit the room. She gives a mocking salute to Meredith, waves goodbye to the dire wolf, and doesn’t waste much time as Meredith sees the princess rushing to get out of the male dormitory area before the teachers made their usual rounds.

Meredith reunites with the prince in his studies and this time, the atmosphere was visibly heavier than it was before.

“You seem worried, Alaric… And for good reason.”

“Memory manipulation,” he sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “That’s only something one type of magic is capable of.”

Her answer doesn’t miss a beat, “Darkness magic.”

“Yes,” Alaric pinched the bridge of his nose as he felt a headache coming up. “...How is this even possible? We don’t even know how many people were affected and to do that kind of spell so discreetly-”

She could see how his eyebrows furrowed together, his thoughts beginning to sink in. She stopped him before he could continue to dig himself into a deeper hole, “At ease, Your Highness. Rest assured, I’ll conduct an investigation with Deacon and we’ll do our best to gain as much information as possible.”

He tosses a grateful smile towards Meredith, already knowing how much he could rely on his trusted friend. Having her on his side always proved to be a relaxing factor that he appreciated and was grateful for all the time. However, his mind wanders back to the mention of his fiance and his expression changed from relieved to puzzled.

“Alex mentioned that it was Roseline who asked her,” he mutters under his breath before his eyes shoot back up to look at Meredith. “Then, does this mean Roseline wasn’t affected by the memory manipulation? Looking at how Alex also seemed to remember at least fragments of the event as well as emotions related to them, it’s possible, isn’t it?”

“According to studies