As certain as she had been when she started out, doubt started to creep in as soon as she was seated in the uncomfortable chair in the entry hall of the Palace, the Dammeguard watching her warily, but a few at least giving her cautiously appraising looks.

Word of what she’d done last night, kissed Lord Collar in an attempt to wake him up, then fled before the Dammeguard arrived as reinforcements had surely passed through the ranks.

Whether or not the truth went with those rumors was harder to say as none of them seemed inclined to talk with her while Captain Pink went to speak with Lady Lace. She presumed it was Lady Lace, at least.

Minutes ticked by slowly, measured by the tapping of the hooves of the Dammeguard that watched her, waiting for the flag of treaty to fall, or mysteriously disappear so that she might be captured and the “Rose Terror” might be ended once and for all.

Or at least traded for some similarly huge concession as a herdgild.

To her surprise, it wasn’t Collar or Cloudy that came for her, but Lady Lace herself.

“Rosewater,” Lace said in a cool voice, her ears erect, eyes steady as she came to stand a few paces away, dismissing the guards with a look and a flick of her tail. “I find myself in the unusual position of owing you more than a small favor. Yet again.”

“My lady?” Rosewater asked, surprised.

“Through your action, I have a son still possessed of himself, and his wife-to-be still able to be herself freely.” Lace glanced at the departing guards, most of whom had ears pricked backwards. “And yet…”

Rosewater swallowed. Cloudy had told her, incidentally, what she might be worried to face. And yet… “I came to make a deal, my lady.”

“As Rosemary’s guardian? By the rules of herdgild, only family may demand to pay the price. Or the leader of the city.” Lace gestured back the way she’d come when Rosewater shook her head. “If you’ll come with me, I think we should take this discussion more private.”

“Is Collar—”

“He’ll be involved, but he is understandably exhausted. Cloudy is tending to him right now.” Lace waited for Rosewater to extricate herself from the chair, her expression impassively cool, contemplative and waiting. “You look exhausted yourself.”

Breakfast and a little more had been enough to remove the shakes, but the walk through Damme had sapped her energy again. “I am not unaccustomed to being tired, my lady. It doesn’t change what I need to do.”

As she followed Lady Lace up the corridor, the fragrance of her daughter crossed her tail, fresh and familiar, with the faint essence of the shampoo she’d chosen for Rosemary from Roseling’s wares. Collar’s was there, too, and intensified at the same rate as Lace led them to the left.

“Rosemary?” Rosewater asked, taking a deeper breath and drawing on her Rosethorn heritage.

“Was in discussion with me when this all settled in,” Lace said, her voice betraying nothing, and her expression as she glanced back telling her less. “We were discussing your shared mother.”

Rosewater’s breath caught in her throat and she stumbled as the revelation hit her harder than she thought it would. “My lady?”

“When we are in a more private place,” Lace said softly.

The interior of Prim Palace was much as she recalled from her brief visits for galas, but here and there she could see signs of change brought about by Cloudy’s involvement with Collar. Small changes only, but potentially important ones.

Flowers had been added to decorative pots that held small trees or ferns from far-off places, and more color and fragrance filled the hall—all of it subtle but noticeable to somepony who knew the Prims as relatively dour decorators compared to their Merrier neighbors.

Whether that had been done by Cloudy herself or as a concession to her…

“My husband,” Lace said after noticing Rosewater’s attention. “You knew he was a Merrier?”

She had, but whether she should… Rosewater shook her head sharply. She couldn’t live in that headspace anymore, especially considering what she was about to trust these ponies with. “I knew. I’ve studied your family as closely as I can in the past couple of years.”

Lace gave her a curiously studious look. “I see.” She held open the door, and Rosemary’s scent came through more strongly, though she could hear nothing beyond the portal, and Collar and Cloudy’s scents intermingled came through as well. “Please, Rosewater, inside, and we’ll discuss the deal in due time.”

The door closed behind Rosewater, and she moved towards the seat closest to her, also the closest to Collar. The spark was in his eyes again, shining with curiosity as he studied her, and while the tiredness that maintaining such a defense must have cost him still hung about him as a malodor might when a miscreant leaves, he seemed vital and whole again and would be right once more with time.

Cloudy sat at his side on a pillow on the ground in the Merrier fashion, and Rosemary sat at a further distance, also on a pillow. The straight, high-backed chairs Collar and Lace sat in were decorated with stained blue and purple wooden inlays bordering a comfortable cushion.

“I am pleased you are well, my lord,” Rosewater said as she hesitated in front of the chair obviously meant for her, not sure if she should take a seat yet. “I was worried when I had to leave you.”

“I don’t recall everything,” Collar said, lifting his teacup towards Cloudy. “She filled me in.” His eyes steadied on hers, as he added, “And while I appreciate you trying to kiss me awake was a spur of the moment tactic, it is the last kiss you’ll get from me.”

Cloudy’s ears twitched. She, at least, had understood the meaning of the gift. It seemed like she would either have to spell it out… or he had understood it, and this was his rejection of it.

She took a short breath and glanced at the book sitting in the center of the table. He did as well, and when his eyes rose again, she saw no understanding of what it meant, but Cloudy’s expression showed a hint of interest, poorly hidden.

“I apologize. I had not meant to discomfit you, my lord. In truth, I was terrified that… that all of us had lost you.” Rosewater pressed a hoof to her breast, not yet moving to take her seat. Dammer courtesies required her to stand until she was invited to sit and partake in the discussion. “I came here today to discuss with all of you a proposal and an alliance of formalized intent regardless of other outcomes.”

Lace’s brows rose before she glanced at Collar, her look questioning.

“Regardless of other outcomes?” Collar asked, looking to Cloudy for insight.

“Listen to her,” Cloudy said softly. “Let her present her proposal before we make any decisions.”

“Very well.” Collar nodded to the chair. “Then, please. Take a seat.”

“Before I do…” Rosewater opened her saddlebag, making every pony there flinch aside from Rosemary. When she drew out the gold-sealed envelope, the wax glob still faintly luminous, and set it on the table atop the book, they relaxed. “I have a confession to make about my relationship with Rosemary.”

“What?” Rosemary startled off her pillow, taking a half step towards her. “But—”

“You’re sisters?” Collar blurted, his ears practically leaping to attention and his attention rapt.

Rosewater smiled and turned her head, nose lifting. “What you are about to hear and see does not leave this room. Please. I will give any assurance. Roseate must not know. I fear she would try anything to take her away from me.”

“Mother,” Rosemary whimpered. “Please.”

Lace’s eyes widened, and as Rosemary’s voice creaked on the word, Collar startled. Cloudy only looked interested, as if she’d guessed.

“Please, my lady, my lord, open the envelope,” Rosewater said, her tongue feeling thick as she raised a hoof for Rosemary, and in the next instant lost her voice as Rosemary rushed to embrace her, babbling apologies and assurances that she hadn’t said a peep about their secret relationship.

It was all Rosewater could do to hold her mask in place and keep the tears from flowing even more rapidly, to keep the fears at bay, to keep the wound she kept picking at on her soul from bleeding more.

She watched, her mask in place, waiting for the rebuttal, the denial of her love for Rosemary as a mother, and the deeply ingrained protective instincts that drove her daily, that fueled the fears she used in her magics.

Lace opened the envelope, her eyes darting back to Rosewater and Rosemary as she pulled the official papers out, two simple pages of the finest paper, decorated with the gold of Celestia’s mark at the top, proclaiming Rosewater Star Rosethorn to be the lawfully recognized adoptive mother of Rosemary Carnation Rosethorn, and granted all rights and responsibilities of being her mother.

In that set of rights was the right to demand to negotiate herdgild.

Wordlessly, Rosewater watched as she passed it to Collar and Cloudy.

All the while, Rosemary held close, her horn to the side of Rosewater’s neck as she held the mare close and hid her from the possible fallout.

Collar’s brows rose as he read both pages of official documentation before he set them back down on the book at the center of the table.

“How long?” he asked.

“Since I was sixteen,” Rosewater said, her voice creaking over the words.

“Stars be merciful,” he whispered.

“You have nothing to fear here, child,” Lace said in a kinder voice than Rosewater would have expected. “We will keep your secret, and it will not even be spoken outside of a silenced room. Or written anywhere. I would, however, caution you that keeping this secret for too long.”

“I cannot tell it too broadly,” Rosewater murmured holding Rosemary closer. “She took my Carnation away from me, my lady. It was only because I fought for her that Rosemary didn’t follow.”

“I understand you’re afraid for her, but here she is safe, and if you’re here to deal with us directly, as her mother, then that will supersede any attempt to negotiate by Roseate.” Lace raised a hoof and lifted the documents. “You may even leave these here and know they would be as safe as they would be in Princess Celestia’s own treasury. We will keep her safe, Rosewater, and your secret.”

“How… did you plan to keep it secret if only parents can negotiate?” Collar asked, his expression serious, but softer than it had been a moment before.

“Only parents may demand the right,” Lace corrected him quietly. “But the wronged party may opt to treat with anypony, and Roseate’s own actions of last night would harm her reputation with us enough to want to treat with another. Her guardian, for example.”

Collar swallowed again, and closed his eyes. “Stars above. So much makes sense now.”

Rosewater didn’t answer, holding Rosemary as shock wore off and the tears started coming, then the sobs. Being able to be open even with only a few ponies…

“Shh.” Rosewater murmured in her ear, her own mask cracking and flaking away as she held her daughter close, held her and rocked her side-to-side. This, she hadn’t planned on, being so vulnerable when she hoped to…

“Mommy,” Rosemary whimpered.

Rosewater let go of the mask, holding Rosemary closer, tighter, and sitting back on her haunches to clasp her daughter with both forelegs. “I love you so much. I’ve missed you so much.”

My mother. To think it was safe and comforting. Rosemary sobbed it aloud as Rosewater held her and rocked her back and forth slowly. It terrified her. It filled a need she’d known for almost a decade of her life. To acknowledge the mare she knew as her second mother to the world. To make them see her as the kind, caring pony she was inside.

Her thoughts scattered to the wind as her mother’s tears trailed down her back as she whispered “My child, my child,” over and over into her mane. Safe. There in Rosewater’s embrace, she was safe. She always had been.

Carnation was her loving, sweet parent, whom she could always bring her problems to and work them out. When they couldn’t be worked out, or even talked about, nightmares and dreams that terrified her, she went to Rosewater to feel safe. The fierce protector who guarded her from harm.

“Mother,” she whispered as her sobs diminished into stillness again. “Why now?”

“Because,” Rosewater whispered back, “I need help. We need help. And…”

Collar cleared his throat. “We had no idea.” His voice was strained.

“She is not my birth daughter,” Rosewater said more strongly, not letting her go. “But from the moment she came into this world, I was there. I held her in my forelegs while the midmare cleaned her and Carnation recovered. I held her while she took her first look at the world and saw two faces looking back at her.” Her mother hugged her close. “From then on, I was not Carnation’s daughter. I was Rosemary’s mother. It only took me a while to realize it.

“Her first steps were from Carnation to me. Her first words were spoken in our presence. Her first laughs, her tumbles and her scrapes. Everything my mother never did for me, I did for her.” Rosewater loosened her hold and settled back more firmly on her hindquarters. “I have never stopped loving her, through all the trials and tribulations of raising a foal through her teen years.”

Rosemary lifted her head from her mother’s shoulder to look at each of the faces, all in various stages of shock, staring back at them. “I have never once thought of her as my sister,” she said, her voice hitching only slightly. “From my earliest memories, she has been there, guiding me and teaching me along with Carnation. She has always been, in my heart, ‘mother.’”

“Carnation,” Prim Lace said, her voice quiet and tremulous. “You never told me…”

“We didn’t know who to trust, my lady. After Roseline’s death,” Rosewater said, her voice firming. “A hint of it in the wrong ear with the truth behind it and Roseate would have found ways to use us against each other. What would I not do to keep her safe? What have I not done? Things I am not proud of. For her sake.”

“When I inhaled Mother’s Kiss, I didn’t see only Carnation. I saw Rosewater as well. Growing up, they taught me never to talk about our home life, but when we were at home, I saw them as my parents. Odd family that we were, I never questioned that they loved each other and me as dearly as if they had been married.”

Collar’s cheeks flushed. “Stars above… because they were aunt and niece.”

“Roseate started that rumor.” Rosemary cringed again when she thought of the first time she heard it. “It was… when I was ten, and starting to wonder why my moms were different. She must have heard my curiosity, and spread the rumor to filter back to me.”

“Carnation stopped me from dueling her,” Rosewater said, ears ticking back. “We could never prove it.”

“But…”

“But we were wives of a sort,” Rosewater went on, bobbing her head to Lace. “At home, we lived the lives of wives, preparing meals, tutoring our child, loving her, loving each other sans the intimacy.”

“My apologies,” Collar said, looking away from Rosewater to Rosemary, then Cloudy. “Is that sort of thing common?”

“Family is so very important in Merrie,” Rosemary said with a faint smile. “I’ve seen siblings parent nieces and nephews without a concession to what it looked like to Dammers, but we couldn’t even do that. All we could do was feel it in our hearts, the safety of our home, and only rarely, outside it.”

“And now here,” Lace said firmly. “I wish I could offer you a free pass as any other mother would be given to see their child, but given that you wish not to reveal it at this time, all I can do is hope that your offer entails frequent visits for her negotiation.”

Collar cleared his throat. “Speaking of which, we should move to discussion of negotiations to at least nod to the fact that you’re here under treaty to do them. But I will agree with my mother. Any time you visit, Rosewater, you may be free to see your daughter.”

He didn’t hitch over the last at all, Rosemary thought. “Wh-what happens if you come to an accord on how to release me?”

“Then you will be released, as per the requirement of negotiating with a guardian directly, to Rosewater. But I suspect that you did not come here to simply ask for her release?” Lace raised her head slightly to almost look Rosewater in the eye, missing only a few inches of height to do so. Her son was able to do so without raising his head, and would need to stoop slightly to do it proper.

“No, Lady Lace. You are correct. Rosemary committed a crime in your city, and I don’t expect you to let her off lightly,” Rosewater said with a hint of a smile playing at her lips.

Rosemary jerked back from her mother, staring at her, then smiling as she began to see the shape of the plan Rosewater had put together. “I agree,” she said after a moment, and nodded.

The ramifications of agreeing to a long imprisonment weren’t as important as something that might end the war, after all. And if Rosewater intended to use this as an opportunity to get her hoof in the door peacefully…

And, she thought as she separated from Rosewater’s embrace to settle beside her and got a better look at Cloudy, it would give her the chance to truly reconnect with a love she’d thought lost.

Collar was still adjusting to the idea that Rosewater was a mother. But the papers were staring him in the face, as was her mien around Rosemary. All the signs he’d learned of a mother were there when he looked back, obscured by the need to keep it secret. Her need to protect Rosemary, even to the mare’s detriment, even that stunt by the river, a mother letting her daughter know she wasn’t alone in the only way she knew how.

It was easy to accept that Rosewater was Rosemary’s mother, and might have even believed her to be contrite.

“Her crime was hardly heinous. It was the intent we are most anxious about. I would let her go to you for her promise to quit the war.”

“She would never allow it,” Rosemary whispered. “I’d be a traitor for ‘quitting’ while I was still unmarried and without foal.”

Collar grimaced. “That three year age gap between your majority and second majority has a more sinister purpose, it seems.”

Rosewater shook her head. “No. It’s meant to keep ponies from making mistakes they’ll regret in the full passion of youth. Roseate has corrupted it, like everything else she’s touched.” She took a breath and let it out. “And that is actually a part of my offer. Not the passion of youth, but passion nonetheless.”

Before he could react, Cloudy’s ears perked up and her eyes darted to the book, then back to Rosewater. “That’s the reason you sent the original Principes. The full diary. It was… I thought, but…”

What? Collar glanced at the book with its fresh pages and neat binding. “You said something about it being a Rosethorn journal.”

“Not a Rosethorn journal. The Rosethorn’s journal. The founder of Merrie’s personal journal. Rosewater has the original.” Cloudy tipped her head towards Rosewater.

“Yes. It was passed down by my aunt Rosefire Rosethorn, who kept it preserved as best she could.” Rosewater raised the book and glanced at Cloudy, her eyes earnest. “You know what it meant? That this was my gift?”

Slowly, Cloudy nodded and glanced at Collar. “It’s… it has meaning, Collar. She’s offering herself as a partner for you, in a formal courtship. It’s a gift to show her intent to follow the Rosethorn way as practiced by the common pony.”

“She’s already done that,” Collar said with a snort, glancing between Cloudy and Rosewater. “What… you’re not thinking seriously about it, are you, Cloudy?”

“Collar, listen to her, please,” Cloudy said, her voice earnest. “I don’t know what she has in mind, but shouldn’t we at least listen to her about what she has to offer?”

Coming from anypony else…

Collar leveled a stare at Rosewater, looking for any sign of smugness, any sign this was a ploy and not as forthright and honest as Cloudy seemed to believe.

If he was honest with himself, if it had come from anypony but Cloudy, he’d have dismissed the notion out of hoof and not bothered looking back, and sent Rosewater on her way with little more than a promise to treat fairly for the herdgild cost.

But the love of his life was asking him to consider it—to consider taking up more of her traditions, to accept her moral code of love and open his heart to the possibility of more than one love in his life.

Rosemary shifting beside her mother, a fact he was still struggling with, reminded him that in a way, he already had, albeit through a proxy kind of romance. This, what Rosewater seemed to be ready to offer…

“I’m offering exactly what Cloudy said, with one small change. You said, once, that you wouldn’t marry without romance, and love.” Rosewater took a step forward and settled in front of her chair. “I’m offering a chance for all of us, all four of us, to court each other after the Merrier fashion and find our way forward together, Collar.”

Cloudy stepped forward, but not between Collar and Rosewater, but advancing to sit closer to the other mare. “I would accept, for my part. You have been intriguing me from the day you showed just how far you could reach with a fragrance, and every time I think I’ve learned all I need to know to judge, you show a new facet. I offer my open heart to this endeavor.”

Cloudy, we haven’t… Collar closed his eyes and rubbed at his muzzle. She was making her choice, just as he would have to make his. If they aligned… But what if we don’t? What if she falls in love with Rosewater, and I don’t?

Stars, listen to me, I’m already… “No decisions will be made today.”

“Of course not,” Cloudy said with a snort. “I’m offering to be open and honest. Nothing more. It’s a far more formal kind of courtship in Merrie. I was starting down that path with Rosemary when Roseate intervened.”

“Good.” Collar relaxed minutely. “Is that the offer? The deal? Courtship for Rosemary’s freedom?”

Rosewater’s ears dipped slightly. “Not entirely. If… if the courtship fails, I may need to seek asylum in Damme. I won’t let Roseate win if I can help it. If I can—”

“We will not be taking over Merrie by force, young mare,” Lace said softly.

“I understand.” Rosewater lowered her gaze to the floor, her breathing even, her ears twitching. “Would you support my claim, in the event…”

“Collar, please,” Cloudy whispered, turning to him, her ears flattening to her skull. “At least consider the offer. What harm can a secret courtship do?”

Secret until it isn’t. Collar swallowed and considered both her and Rosewater, his mind churning over the possibility. If he… if he accepted Rosewater’s offer.

“I don’t even know you,” he said softly. “I don’t love you. I will only marry for love.”

Rosewater nodded solemnly. “As will I. Otherwise we might not be in this predicament. I’ll not have a child without an assurance that they will have a father there.” Her throat bobbed sharply as she said it, and her voice cracked over the word ‘father,’ and little wonder why. “You… you can be there. You can be safe from her.”

“Is that why?” Collar asked softly. “Me?”

“Not… only why,” Rosewater said, her eyes shifting away from his, then back. “I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a reason.”

Collar closed his eyes, his thoughts still swirling and uncertain. More and more over the past few weeks, he’d uncovered bits and pieces of a history that spoke to pain and suffering in Rosewater’s past that he only had the tiniest window to.

A part of him wanted to know what drove her, what made her do everything she’d done. Some of the answer was sitting beside her, biting her lip and keeping quiet as much as she could. How much she knew of the reasons Rosewater was the way she was…

“I can accept getting to know you better,” Collar said at last. “I can accept working towards a deal whereby you are recognized as the heir of Merrie, regardless of marital or motherhood status. I can even accept Cloudy courting you, if she so chooses.”

It hurt to see the hope in her eyes, the tensing of her shoulders as she waited for the final blow to sunder it.

“I…”

There was so much in the political calculus that he needed to consider, that he needed to take into account before he could…

“If you choose,” Lace said, interrupting his thoughts, “to pursue a relationship with Rosewater, Cloudy, and Rosemary in the Merrie fashion, I would not object. I would advise you to consider the pros and cons later, Collar. Deciding against it now, when you’ve barely had a chance to let the ramifications of one revelation settle in, may close off paths you’ve yet to consider.”

“I would like to go on the first date,” Cloudy said, raising her head high to look him in the eye and half-arching her wings. “I want to know more about Rosewater and who she is. Decide after that, love. We can decide together.”

“I accept, then,” Rosewater said, relaxing minutely and glancing at Rosemary, then at Cloudy. “We can discuss when and what later, and…” She smiled, the relief evident in the brightness of it, and the undiluted excitement briefly making her ears quiver upright. “Thank you. All of you. For accepting me here, and as Rosemary’s mother.”

“Will you stop your raiding?” Collar asked suddenly.

“I will. I will not take part in mother’s raids. But neither will I be able to lend aid as I did. Once I return to Merrie, I’m going to make the negotiation formalized, and I would ask that you see to recognizing that you would rather deal with me instead.”

“On that note,” Lace said with a nod, “and seeing that your proposal has been provisionally accepted… we have some questions about the events that led up to last night’s incident before we can discuss the conditions for Rosemary’s imprisonment.”

Ever since Lace had voiced her blessing, Rosewater’s stomach had felt like it’d fallen out, and her heart kept trying to crawl into her throat. Here, she had hope.

It was almost enough to crack the hold she had on herself, a hold she couldn’t let slip just yet.

“What… questions did you have, my lady?”

“One, actually.” Lace pulled a letter free of its hiding place under the journal. “It came with a bottle of dammerale-scented perfume. The initials at the bottom were meant to make it seem as though it were you sending the letter.”

That much was clear, and a hint of the perfume that had been sent with the still clung to the paper, though it took her drawing on her heritage, and making Collar and Lace stiffen as she did so, to get the truest essence possible from it.

“If you’d inhaled it,” Rosewater said after a moment, “it would have dulled your senses and your thoughts. It’s the opposite of an enticement.”

Rosemary nodded beside her. “Enticements are supposed to quicken the mind and excite certain thoughts. We use enticements in Merrie every day. Shop owners especially love to use them to excite their customers about their products. It’s not even required to be scent-based. Teasing, flirting, playful thoughts… all enticements.”

Collar glanced at Cloudy, who nodded minutely.

“It’s just a broad term for that kind of social or magical engagement meant to attract attention.”

“And this,” Rosewater said, raising the paper, “was not written by me. Nor would I ever send you a gift of perfume that would dull your senses when you think about me.” That earned her a flick of the ears.

“I’ll believe that. We thought along similar lines, but it’s good to have the confirmation that it wasn’t you. It means Roseate intended no fair dealing.” Collar glanced at Cloudy when she snorted and smiled wryly. “Which we already knew. We just needed your confirmation before we brought this to the Treaty Office. Any dealings with prisoners of war, herdgild or not, needs to be held to a certain level of honesty.”

“She’ll claim it was me. Or a sting to catch me engaged in double-dealing,” Rosewater said simply. “You’ll need more.”

“I have no doubt she’ll provide more.” Collar’s smile bordered on bitter, but a glance at Cloudy settled him down again. “I… hope you understand that this is very awkward.”

“I can take a hint,” Prim Lace said with a cough and a smile. “I will leave the three of you to discuss this, and you do have my blessing, whatever you decide, Collar.” She stood and bent to whisper in his ear as she passed, unheard by Rosewater, though she saw his brows raise. She kissed his cheek and continued to Rosewater. “I never saw it. But I am glad that Carnation was never alone.”

“You were not meant to,” Rosewater said, swallowing thickly and standing straighter. “I would talk with you privately about my daughter’s status later, if it pleases you?”

“I would hear more about Carnation from her…” Lace left the statement open to answer, her brow raised and the calm expression belying the sharp curiosity and judgment pending the particular answer she got.

“We weren’t bonded. She was my aunt, but I saw her, treated her, like we were bonded mates to a third.” In another age, more primitive and primal, there would have been little question about their status. They would have been mated and bonded. In the current age… “We were, most days, like very close sisters.”

“I see.” Lace’s eyes said she saw more than what Rosewater had revealed, but she kept it to herself, and only said, “I hope to see more of the mare that Carnation raised, and to hear more about my friend from her closest.”

Friend. Rosewater swallowed and closed her eyes. More that Carnation had hidden from her. “Would… you be able to tell me about her? And your friendship?”

Lace searched her eyes for another moment, then nodded, raising her muzzle to touch her lips to Rosewater’s cheek and whispered quietly, “If you need it, I would consider asylum under my word, with only a probationary period only for both you and Rosemary.”

“I-I…” Rosewater’s tail flicked side-to-side. Why didn’t you offer it to Carnation? “I will consider the offer, my lady. It is… generous.”

“The offer has no time limit,” Lace said as she put a hoof to the door.

Rosewater closed her eyes, tears trickling down her cheeks briefly. “Why not Carnation?”

Lace stiffened. “I did offer it to her. I did, and she declined it. Now that I have met you, I have an inkling why.” She laid her horn against the door. “I would have welcomed her as a daughter, Rosewater. I hope…” She left before she could say anything else, but Rosewater wanted to know what she would have said.

What were you keeping from me, Carnation? More than a few possibilities whispered through her mind. Secret dealings with Lace, with Damme. What did you set up? What did you leave for me to find?

Today, she had thought she’d know what she would face. More and more, she was realizing that what was in store for her by making this move was far different. Carnation hadn’t only prepared things for Rosemary.

Stars… Tears trickled down her cheeks as she stared at the door as it closed, her vision blurring.

It took Rosewater several minutes to compose herself, giving Collar time to reflect on what he actually knew about his mother’s dealing with Carnation, which wasn’t much. She’d played that fact very close to her breast for most of his life.

There was one clue, however, that made him certain that it was shared with another pony. Rosemary didn’t seem shocked or surprised at all, and only rested against Rosewater while she stared at the door, then down at the floor, her shoulders tight, her back tensing as she fought off the feelings he could see twitching her ears and her tail.

The silence in the room gave him a chance to think about what was coming, and what he had agreed to at least consider. Letting Cloudy not only be alone with Rosewater, something he’d already gambled her freedom on once, was a risk… wasn’t it?

A glance at Cloudy said it wasn’t. She looked as though she wanted to go to the mare and lean against her other side, even before she knew much more than Collar himself did.

It’s their way to be more open with their feelings for one another.

“Have…” Collar whispered, then reconsidered his words, his ear ticking as Rosewater took a breath.

“I’ve been fascinated by her for a few weeks,” Cloudy murmured back. “What she says is one thing. What she does says something else entirely. It’s important to pay attention more to actions than words. Words make rumors and gossip. Actions can be hidden behind words.”

She’s saved me twice from her own mother. Collar swallowed and glanced at Cloudy. “When will you go?”

“I don’t know.” Cloudy nodded to Rosewater as she straightened. “I want to talk to her alone, Collar. Before she leaves today.”

“In the meantime,” he said softly, then more loudly, “Lady Rosewater, Rosemary. If you please, I would like to discuss the terms and conditions of Rosemary’s confinement.”

Rosewater stiffened, then nodded and leaned lightly against Rosemary. “We’ll talk later, Rosemary, but he’s right. Business is important right now.”

“I… I agree, mother.” Rosemary took a deep breath. “Collar has been more than fair. I never expected to be housed in a suite, nor to have ponies that are kind to me and talk to me. He has also been kind enough to let Cloudy talk to me whenever she wants, even knowing that I love her, and she loves me.”

Rosewater’s brows ratcheted up as she fixed Collar with a look. “You surprise me, but perhaps…” her expression softened. “What would it cost to keep that state of affairs? In either bits or favors.”

He wanted to tell her to leave off the notion of romance, but Cloudy’s presence and her thoughtful look, and her admission that Rosewater intrigued her as a potential partner…

“That’s not something I’m prepared to take away for so long as you deal with us honestly and forthrightly, even if both must be in private negotiations.” Collar lifted his chin at her. “As for our public negotiations, I would ask that you make an effort to appear as nonthreatening as possible, and make every concession to appearing contrite for your known crimes, even if we can’t arrest you for them at this time.”

“That is incredibly fair,” Rosewater replied, nodding. “I accept and will take your word for it.” Her ear ticked faintly before she dipped her head.

“But you won’t arrest her, will you?” Rosemary asked, placing herself between Collar and Rosewater.

“That’s not for me to say,” Collar said after a moment. It wasn’t something he could do now, with her on a treaty-bonded mission, but it was something that would ease some tensions on the home-front while simultaneously building tensions in Merrie.

“Merriedamme has always been our goal.” His mother, reminding him of their purpose. He needed to think of their two cities as one. It was closer to true than it had been in decades, centuries, with trade between the cities at an all-time high, and while it was as hard to erase the cultural divide as it was to fill in the river, their citizenry was hard at work bridging it.

“I… won’t,” he said at last, closing his eyes. Cloudy relaxed next to him. “I know you’ve been pressured to do things, Rosewater, and I would ask that you not give in to that pressure anymore.”

“I have nothing left in Merrie for Roseate to pressure me over.”

“Mother,” Rosemary chided softly. “You can’t be alone.”

Something in Rosewater’s eyes flickered, and she bowed her head after a moment. “Some of my friends have been asking me the same.” She let out a breath and flattened her ears to her mane. “I still… I need to protect them, still. Even more so if I and Rosemary are out of her reach.”

“Mother, please,” Rosemary hissed.

“Not now,” Rosewater murmured. “I’ll abide, Collar. She has no leverage on me right now.”

Right now. Collar sighed. He would have to accept that… for now. “Very well. So long as you maintain neutrality, we’ll have no reason to suspend negotiations, and no reason to move Rosemary from her current holding place.”

“Then remains the one sticking point,” Collar said, hating that he had to cover it, and having already heard her reasoning through Cloudy. He needed it to be a part of the discussion, however, and he needed it to be clear between them what had happened last night. “By the account Cloudy was able to provide, Roseate was all but captured when you freed her. Why?”

Rosewater flinched, and Rosemary shot a shocked look at her mother before settling down. “Because it may have caused her abdication early. Or it may have drained Merrie’s coffers from the burden placed on her, and sent her citizens to suffer from the burdensome herdgild she would have negotiated on her own behalf.” She shook her head slowly. “Neither was an outcome I would have welcomed, and accepting any less than either on your part would have thrown your own political situation into turmoil.”

“That’s an explanation, not a reason,” Collar replied. “I can’t deny it’s an accurate explanation, but it’s not the why.”

“It is the why. Make no mistake, my lord, my goal is not to marry you for the sake of marrying you, nor to have a foal for the sake of having a foal. Despite anything I would have wanted for my child, my firstborn must, of necessity, be a political pawn in this game.” The words were said with the grave seriousness of a tomb, her bearing steady and her eyes locked on his. “This war ends with our generation, Collar. I’ll not accept any other outcome. I will love any child I have with the same intensity and devotion of any mother, but the choice to have a child is not mine alone.”

She paused to take a breath, her smile coming through again. “But at the same time… I will marry for love, and I will have a pony my child can call father. I tried time and again to form closer bonds with Merriers, but none of them are available anymore to court me, or me them. Roseate made sure of that. You, my lord, I laid my hopes upon because you can stand up to her, have stood up to her.”

“With your help twice,” Collar said after a moment with a sigh.

“Once with my help. Once on your own. Do you think she will try again knowing you can stand up so readily against her?”

“I’m not going to use that spell again,” Collar said with a shake of his head. “Unless it’s the direst of circumstances.”

“If Roseate goes after you, it will be the direst circumstance,” Rosewater said softly, her eyes steady, but a faint tremor in her jaw betraying the tension underneath. “I won’t let her win, Collar, and I won’t let her take anypony else from me.”

“If I can help it, she’s not going to get me or Cloudy,” Collar said. “And she won’t be able to reach Rosemary, either.”

More tension flowed out of her, and the tremor got worse as she relaxed her hold on everything she was holding in. “That, then, my lord, is my reason why. To ensure that when she is captured, I am in a position to inherit instead of any of my sisters.”

“Or when she’s exiled by Princess Celestia’s order,” Collar said, raising the note. “We’ll be filing an official objection with the Treaty Office and, depending on the timetables, we may need to make additional requests. Increasing security measures against your mother’s incursions have cost us time and bits we would have put towards preparing for the Gala and the harvest.”

Rosewater swallowed and nodded. “I-I understand, my lord. Then…”

“We don’t know yet. We’re still getting tallies from Dammehollow about their expected yields and how much we’ll need to front for the city’s granaries and carting costs.” Collar shook his head, smiling a touch wryly at discussing such mundanities from a pony four weeks ago he would have considered one of his worst enemies. “At any rate, that’s neither here nor there except to say that this…” he waved the letter from Roseate again. “Will not be tolerated.”

“Thank you, my lord.”

“Now… since you are acting as Rosemary’s mother in this, albeit covertly as far as the outside world is concerned, there are some questions we must go over to satisfy treaty requirements for the negotiation.” Collar nodded to the walls. “The rest of this meeting will be private, but it will be recorded to word for record keeping.”

Author's Notes:

Second to last chapter in this "book", and we're solidly in the denouement.