Being and Excerpt from the journal of Rebakah Cooper,
Provost's Guardswoman, The Lower City. Corus.

Writ after watch.

Well, I went out with both my Dogs tonight. First Goodwin, then Tunstall. Each Watch had its high points. I'll start with my Goodwin Watch.

We were in the Nightmarket, and had brushed away a crowd of chatterboxes who had decided to pounce on Gemma Knoll's stall. They still weren't too happy with her family from the whole Shadow Snake thing but, we managed to disperse some of the malcontents. Early on in the evening it ain't so bad in the Nightmarket. It's usually when I go into the Nightmarket with Tunstall when things get messy.

One of Goodwin's birdies had come up to her, to tell her about some missing children that had disappeared last week. I was only half listening, children go missing in the Lower City all the time, but this just sounded like regular slavers. I found it odd that most of the missing children were little boys, but there's them as like boys for servants. I had wandered over to the butchers stall and there was our Tyran dignitary to the Rogue, chatting with some river-dodger.

The butcher was a man I knew from when I was little, and Pounce jumped up onto his counter, meowing for scraps. The butcher told me to "come around, lass, and collect this cat" giving me a space behind the counter, so I could hear what the Tyran and the River dodger were talking about.

"I still don't understand why I have to deliver this message to the Rogue. Do it yourself," said the Tyran, a greasy whine creeping into his voice.

"Look, it ain't like I have choice. I was told t' give it t' you. When you return t' Tyra, you're t' tell his majesty that the Gallan Rogue won't fight 'til his mot returns. If she dinna come back, he isn't gonna fight this blasted Rogue war." The Dodger says, whispering in a slimy, Tyran way, which reminds me far too much of rivermuck.

I pick up Pounce and give him a mock scowl. Pounce looks abashed and I put him down. He runs over to Goodwin, who's looking at me. I pretend to stretch my left hand and her eyes dart to the two Tyrans. She gives a nod to let me know she's keeping her ears open.

"Well, his majesty will want to know what the mot looks like. Maybe even put a writ out for her death?" Says the dignitary with a flippant look over his shoulder. He couldn't have seen anyone coming with that fast a glance, he's just checking cuz he oughta.

"I dinna know that much about her. I was gonna approach her, but she plum disappeared. I'm told she's a beauty. Used to be a dancer and that she's got eyes like molt'n gold. It ain't much." The man notices me standing there and shuts up, disappearing in the crowd. Molten Gold eyes. Now I know of a woman, fresh come from Galla, with eyes of gold. And she's been bugging my man from day one. Not like I was gonna admit that in a report, but still.

I walk over to Goodwin, who holds up her baton, and I tap it with mine. We continue onto our watch, and later meet up with Tunstall and Ersken. Rather than splitting up after dinner, we go on a foursome walk, down into the docks. We were in the Barrel's Bottom when a fight broke out.

Being as it's so violent, someone oughta just burn down the Barrel's Bottom. It's been called the Barrel of Blood by the younger city folk, and the name has stuck with it. I dinna know why we go in there. We're only looking for a beating. We got one. I think it was Ersken who tripped over some mumper's feet, and he got right offended and threw Ersken into another fellow's ale. Well, rather than get mad at the mumper who threw Ersken, the other fellow gets mad at Ersken. We were forced to defend our own.

Goodwin and Tunstall were tidy in the slew of fighters, Ersken and I turned tail and tried to get out of there, and maybe call up more Dogs. I got my face smashed into a door frame, and it broke my nose. Ersken got the stuffing knocked out of him. I dinna know how Tunstall and Goodwin had managed to walk out of that mess with a few bruises a piece, but Ersken and I were sore hurting. Goodwin came out the door, clapping her hands together to get the dirt off. Tunstall was right behind her.

There was a shout of "Come back here, you mangy bitch!" and Tunstall pushed Goodwin to the ground, taking the missile aimed at Goodwin in his own shoulder. Well, if the Barrel of Blood was bad, it just got worse. Goodwin hauled herself in again, with Ersken hot on her heels. I couldn't fight being as me and Tunstall were technically the invalids. I wrapped Tunstall's shoulder, knife and all with both his and my handkerchiefs, then peeked in the door. Folk had cleared a circle. Fighting Dogs with their bare hands is a mark of honor; turning a blade on a Dog got you arrested. They didn't want anything to do with the scummer no more and had let Goodwin have him. Ersken hobbled him, while Goodwin administered a sharp lecture with her baton. The man had more bruises than Ersken and tailed our way to the Kennel.

Goodwin kept looking over her shoulder at me and Tunstall, making sure Tunstall was still alive and walking. "Ye've got a death wish, don't you, Mattes?" She grumbled, whacking the knee's of the scummer who threw the knife. He looked a right mess, and every time he looked at Goodwin, he winced.

"No more a death wish than any other Dog on the Evening Watch." He groaned some as his shoulder jostled a bit. I tightened the handkerchief, making sure the knife didn't go nowhere. There wasn't a lot of blood, being as the knife hadn't been pulled out. It was just stuck there, all the blood stuck with it.

"Since when were you so chivalrous," Goodwin looked over her shoulder again, "taking a dagger meant for me?"

"Dinna know. People keep telling me you're supposed to be chivalrous 'round women. But I told the bugger that you wouldn't like that." He joked as we approached the Kennel. Only Tunstall could bait Goodwin while he had a knife in his shoulder. Ersken, Tunstall, and I went to the healer; Goodwin hauled our Rat to the Cages.

Tunstall went first, being as a dagger in the shoulder is a nasty wound, and the bookie needs to put the dagger into evidence. Tunstall was healed lickety split. I let Ersken go next, cuz he got trashed the most, what with being thrown across the room. It would have been an impressive toss, being as it broke the table, along with spilling the other mans ale, if the object being tossed didn't happen to be my partner and friend.

When the healer looked at me, I knew I was in for it. She had to move the bones of my nose back into place before she could heal it. Her hands were cool, lightly touching my nose, fingering where the bones were. Then with a sharp tug, stars exploded in front of my eyes, and I gave a yelp of pain. After that, her magic covered all of my nose and it was healed, though still red and it would bruise for sure for the blow I had taken.

Tunstall had his shoulder in a sling for the evening, so he sent Ersken to the supply room to fetch sommat. When he came back, Ersken was carrying bruisebalm. Now why in the name of the Mother Goddess would some addlepate put bruisebalm in the supply room, rather than in the healers room? Ugh. I rubbed the balm gingerly into my nose, and the bruise went down, so that it was just a yellow splotch on my face.

I headed home, sore and grumpy. Especially since, I was heading back to my room at a later hour than I usually do. No one was downstairs, and I knew most folk would be in bed. But I stopped by Rosto's door anyway, knocking only once. He opened it immediately. Since he was still dressed, I imagine he'd been writing in his own Journal.

"You're late," he told me, his dark eyes looking me over, flitting like dragonflies over every bruise that's visible, especially the yellowing one on my nose.

"I got into a spot of trouble at the Barrel's Bottom." I explained, leaning gingerly against the doorframe, hoping to avoid pressing any of my more nasty bruises.

"Someone should burn that place down. It's too dangerous, even for the Rogue." He reached a finger towards my nose. "You broke it, didn't you?" I nodded. "Tell Guardswoman Cooper she's ruining Beka's good looks." That made me laugh.

"It ain't that bad. How was court?" I asked, hoping to take the attention off of me. Rosto's face goes dark, and he's scowling. "What happened?"

"Nothing horribly big," he tried to evade my questions, but I laid a hand to his cheek. He looked me in the eyes, "Kashana wants the title of Queen of the Rogue."

"Isn't she supposed to challenge Aniki for that?" I asked. He nodded. "So what's she dangling over your head, so as you're this solemn?"

"You. She saw us this morning." He said it so quietly, almost like he didn't want to say it too loud for fear someone would hear. I swore. Vehemently. In Scanran. That made Rosto chuckle, though the laugh didn't reach his black eyes. I thought about what that Tyran fellow had said, about the Gallan Rogue's favorite dancer-mot. With the bright gold eyes.

"Rosto, would you say Kashana has unique eyes?" I asked, trying to play the scenario out.

"They're like molted gold. They're as unique as yours," he said, his face getting pleasantly confused as he's trying to figure out what's the point of my question. "Though, I'll admit that yours are prettier." That made me smile.

"It's just, she's lived in Galla. And this afternoon, I hear tell that the Gallan Rogue is missing his golden eyed beauty." I know Rosto is the Rogue, and technically, I shouldn't be sharing gossip I garnered as a Dog, with the Rogue. But this concerns our private life, so I told it to him anyway. Rosto's black eyes went hard, and I could tell he was angry. His eyes narrowed as he thought. I wonder what's going on in that mind. Rosto is frightfully clever and he's probably got a lot more figured out than I do.

"I wonder," he mused, running his fingers over the scar that earned him the title, King of the Rogue. "This isn't from your pigeons?" I shook my head. There's a plan working in Rosto's mind, and I wish I could get in his head, to watch parts of it unfold. But, being as it's hard enough to be Beka, and Guardswoman Cooper, I don't reckon I want to be in Rosto's head, too.

Instead of letting him keep thinking in the doorway, I pulled his head towards me and pressed my mouth into his. He tensed up a bit, not expecting my kiss, then sighed warmly. In a practiced gesture, his hand found my waist, and pulled me tight into him. We kissed for several minutes, just standing there outside his door, when I pulled away.

"I've just had a healing, and I still got to write up a report. I'll see you for breakfast?" I asked. I knew he'd be there, but I asked anyway. He nodded, and droped one more kiss on my mouth and I scampered up the stairs. I heard his door click shut. Just me and Pounce tonight.

August 7, 247.

Today was court. Goodwin had to report on the scummer that put a dagger in Tunstall last night. I almost felt sorry for the lad: he had Goodwin glaring at him, and the magistrate was going on and on about how the Dogs is the face of the law, and how it's a hanging offense for someone to deliberately turn a blade on a Dog, and the miter looked right miserable. He will be hanged. The Magistrate passed judgment on that quickly.

After Court, I was relatively free for the evening. I was in my room feeding pigeon's when I hear Aniki's knock on my door. I tell her to come in, and she's standing there with Laddybuck, who's gotten to be quite the big kitten now, but still loves being held by any mot as comes his way.

"I know you had Court today," Aniki says, strolling casually over to my clothes press. I'm rather stumped as to what she's expecting to find in there, but I let it play out. Aniki's as interesting and complex in her thoughts as Rosto is. "You have any plans for this evening?"

"Not much. Ersken and I were going to go for a walk, but his mum's roped him into a dinner with a craftsman's daughter, she pounced on him right after we walked out of Court. He couldn't just say 'no' to his ma." Aniki laughed as I threw the last of the corn meal out the window so it was in the yard, and the pigeon's flew after it. I closed the shutters.

"I was wondering, if maybe you'd join us here at the Dove tonight," she said casually, but I figured she had a plan twirling in her mind. She opens the clothes press, "you could wear this here skirt, and I've got a blouse that would look much better on you than on me."

"Aniki, you know as well as I, that a Dog in the Court of the Rogue, especially this Dog, will not go over well with all those Rushers." I know both of us are looking at my baton, and my Dog uniform hanging in the clothes press. I'm painfully remembering the nasty words I said to Aniki in Port Caynn. "What're you not saying, Aniki?"

"I'm just saying, our Court will be interesting tonight, and maybe Beka would like to come." Aniki walks up to me, gives me an innocent kiss on the cheek, and then walks out of my room. I dinna like it when she does that, the false sweet thing. It's like a scorpion pretending it's a kitten. It's very obvious. I look at the dress in my clothes press. I'm looking through some of the dresses I have. The blue one I wore to my Lord Provosts is clean, and pressed. Pounce gives my leg a nudge and I decide to take the dress out and put it on. It fits me perfectly, and I decide to put a touch of face paint on, just to hide the leftovers of last-nights nasty bruise. A touch of rouge, and my hair pulled out of its bun, and I could pass for a right common mot.

"Pounce," I tell him, seating him on the table. "I will not walk like a Dog tonight. I've got to blend in, not stand out. People of the rogue have got to see me, and not notice me. So, you tell me if I'm walking or holdin' myself in a Dog-ish way." I try a few walks across my room, until I get the hang of not walking like a Dog. I'm a right player, and Pounce and I develop a whole new manner of standing and walking and talking for me, when I'm not playing Dog. It's like pretending to be a doxy in Port Caynn, only my dress ain't so dangerously low-cut.

Let's go downstairs, I hear Cookie's making tarts tonight. I want one before that overfed baby of Aniki's gets his paws in one. Pounce jumps off my table, and with his tail high, makes for the door. I grab a dagger and stick it in my sash and close the door behind me. It's odd, eating dinner at the Dove. Cookie was right pleased to see me, calling me 'Miss Beka' or 'the lady Cooper,' which made me laugh some. I was eating by myself, with only Cookie for company when a harsh voice sounds from the stairs.

"Cookie, I don't care how pretty she is, you ain't supposed to let people in until I've come down." The voice is snappy, icy, and hard, and I turn around to face the Rogue/Rosto. He looks taken aback to see me eating at the Dove tonight. I give him a quirked eyebrow, and Rosto gives me one back.

"I dinna let her in, boss. She just came down them stairs. Was I supposed to send her and her Constellation-Cat packing?" Cookie is teasing Rosto, and he puts another plate in front of me, this one heaped with fluffed rice, spicy chicken, and a pepper stuffed with shredded potatoes, with a dollop of sour cream on top. It all looks so good, I can hardly keep from digging in. Cookie's deepest desire, is to put some 'healthy flesh' on me, Aniki, and Kora. He says it ain't natural for mots to be so hard and muscular. We've got to have something soft to hold. Which is why the three of us always get food, even without asking.

"Please, Cookie. Open the door, the Court of the Rogue begins shortly," says Rosto, waving a hand at the man. I know Rosto's just as fond of Cookie as any of us are. He has to act the nasty snob acos he's the Rogue as well. While Cookie sends a mot to open the door, Rosto comes to stand near me. "What are you doin' here love?" he asks with a whisper, his eyes flickering towards the door.

"Aniki invited me," I tell him, picking up a fork. Rosto never eats when he's the Rogue. And he'll only ever have one glass of wine. It's to avoid anyone poisoning his food or drink. I look at the door, and hand Rosto over my fork. "Eat while you can, for I know not a crumb passes through the Rogue's lips. I can always get more from Cookie later." Rosto gives me a swift kiss on the cheek and takes several large bites off my plate, while I watch the door. It would be odd for folk to see him eating my food, from my plate. So he eats fast. He's half finished the rice and my stuffed pepper when he hands back the fork.

"Gods all bless you," he says, when he spots someone walking toward the Dove. He trots over to his throne, and very quickly takes up his spot as Rosto the Piper, Rusher and King of the Court of the Rogue. He's not all Rogue, and he probably won't be, but he does need to look serious. I turn back to the counter where Cookie has already refilled my plate.

I go to eating my dinner, while the Dancing Dove fills with all manner of Rushers, doxies, and the like. Aniki walks down, taking a seat up near Rosto. Kora's there, reading fortunes and souring most of them, being as I know she wanted to talk to Ersken tonight. If it weren't for Cookie and his two mots, I'd be the only person there who was on the right side of the law.

At some point in the evening, a troubadour walks into the Rogue, asking for permission to play his songs for whatever coin people are willing to give. He's got a sweet voice and a guitar. He plays a few well known songs, and says he'll take requests. When no one offers up a song, he goes around serenading the ladies that are there. When he eyes me, I turn quickly back to the counter. Folk can't recognize me. I'm a Dog. I shouldn't be here.

"Lovely eyed lady, allow me to sing you a song?" he says, leaning into me, and I can feel myself stiffen up. He starts to sing a song about a fair maiden who'd fallen in love with the handsome scoundrel, Long Lankin, and she pined for him, her eyes filled with tears of the moon, beneath a beautiful willow tree. If I remember it correctly, Beneath the Lankin's Willow , or something like that. I grab his guitar, stopping the chorus, which I know is bawdy and racy, because it describes what happens when Lankin finds her. The Troubadour looks affronted.

Leaning in to his ear, I hiss at him, "You dinna wait for my answer. I don't want to be serenaded. And not with that ballad. Now, I know five ways to kill you, even though I'm in this dress. Do not look at me, or call attention to me again tonight if you wish to live. You want a song to sing, play the Water Song, and leave me be to enjoy my meal." He looks into my eyes, and when he sees them hard as ice, he flinches. I let go of his guitar, and he walks back to the center of the room.

"The lady has requested the Water Song," he says loudly, still rather nervous from my harsh words. He starts to sing and the groups' attention wanders from me. Thank the gods. I can feel Rosto watching me from his throne, and I know he's itching to find out what I said to the troubadour to make him go away like that.

At the point where I would've switched Senior Partners, had I been on Watch, Ersken slips in through the front door. He looked like he'd been stuffed into a tunic too small, and leggings too tight. Bold Brian poked a bit of fun at him, but otherwise left him alone. Being as Ersken's one of the few people who could recognize me in a dress, he came over to sit down. I let him sit and bang his head against the counter.

"Ale, please. I've had nothing but barley water for the past three hours." He grumbles, when Cookie leans over him to see if he's alright. When Cookie places a tankard of the Rose Red's ale on the counter, Ersken exhales like it's the gods' own nectar.

"How was dinner with your family?" I ask, ruffling his hair, and helping him sit up like a normal person. Ersken shudders. "That bad, huh?" Ersken stares at his ale. "You know, there's this cove I know, who's got a boarding house. He might be willing to rent you a room, cheap."

"After tonight, I'm seriously considering it." Ersken says, taking a sip of the ale. He takes another sip, and his shoulders are no longer tense. "My mother wants me to marry."

"You're not yet 18! Ain't that a bit young?" I ask, urging Cookie to bring over something hearty. If I know Ersken's parents (which I do) he didn't have a bite of normal food at that dinner. "Here lad, eat up." Ersken looks mercifully at me and digs in. Between forkfuls he manages to tell me how his mother thinks it's high time for her only son to marry, being as she's already married off Ersken's sisters. What does the woman want? She's already got grandchildren.

"Do you think I could move in here? I mean, I'm here half the time anyway, acos of Kora, but if I move away for good, I'd like to be close to my friends. Especially you, Beka." He looks right ready to collapse.

"You'd have to ask Rosto, but I'm sure he'd let you a room." He's back to his ale now, and I look around the room for Kora. She noticed Ersken the moment he came in, and has been watching carefully for the past half-hour. I motion for her to come forward. She scuttles over quickly and takes Ersken upstairs.

I listen to the hustle and bustle of the Dove, the loud and boisterous shouting, and the blatant disregard for the King's Law, and it makes my hands itchy. I want to storm upstairs, get my sap, and start breaking in fingers. The bell above the door rings and more people walk in, and I can tell the Dove is about to get noisier: there's several coves who are already roaring drunk. I look back towards the door as the bell rings again: a mot with vivid gold eyes is standing there, and everyone in the Dove goes quiet. It seems everyone knows that she's one worth watching, especially with the Rogue in a sour mood. I turn quickly back to my cup of barley water. I can hear Kashana's shoes click on the floor and she wanders around.

People don't want to incur the Rogue's anger, I think, as I notice she doesn't really sit down with anyone, and no one calls out to her. She takes a seat next to me at the bar, leaning with her back to Cookie. She glances at me and then does a double take until she's staring at me. "You are the last person I want to sit next to." She hisses at me. The entire bar is still watching her.

"Well then, sit elsewhere, I was here first." I tell her quietly. She plants herself far too close to my food. One look from me, and she winces, but stays exactly where she is. She glares at me with those disconcerting gold eyes, and I get a small taste of what my eyes do to folk.

"You are a DOG, you don't belong here." She says it plain and loud and I can hear a few of the doxies titter in a corner. "Unless of course, there's a reason you're here." She hisses at me and I can see her eyes glance at Rosto.

"Yeah, I live here. And I'm hungry." I say simply, turning in my chair to look at her. People gasp when they realize that the mot in the corner is Guardswoman Rebakah Cooper. "Now bug off, you Gallan trixie, and leave me alone."

"What makes you think I'm Gallan? I was born in Scanra." She seethes and purrs all in one breath and I can't stand it.

"You belong to the Gallan Rogue." I say it simply and it causes an outbreak of hushed whispers. I can see Rosto's eyebrow twitch and Aniki's eyes narrow.

"I belong to Rosto," she says sweetly and looks at him. Rosto doesn't move. She leans and whispers in my ear, "Just like you do."

"You wanna say that aloud?" I growl at her. She gives me a wicked grin and stands to face the folk of the Dove and stalks over to Rosto's throne.

"Rosto, my love, I'm afraid I'm going to have to up our arrangement date. Clear the seat next to you and hand the Title of Queen to me, your lady love, or I will spill your darkest secrets to the Dove." Her threat makes Rosto quirk an eyebrow and he glares at her.

"You belong to the Gallan." Rosto says quietly, "I'll not have my Rogue Queen someone else's bed toy." Aniki leans forward and looks at me. There's a look that asks me, 'how much does she know?' and my eyes answer her. Once she has her answers, she looks at Kashana, who appears to have realized that Rosto is denying her claim to the throne.

"At least I'm a rogue, not like your bed-friend, who is on the King's side of the Law." Kashana hisses it and people in the Rogue turn their eyes immediately to me. My response should be one of confusion and misunderstanding. So I contort my face, to wonder if she's mad, which really isn't that hard. "Your 'mots,' the kitten, the blue eyed one, and the singer. They are all the same mot, aren't they? The lovely cur, Beka Cooper."

Everyone is looking at me, wondering how I'm going to respond. I'm saved from having to say anything by a voice from the stairs. "If you want to be Queen of the Rogue, there is no need for you to make up vicious rumors about Beka or Rosto." Kora says, stepping down into the actual tavern.

"He loves her." Kashana spits, whirring around to look at Kora on the stairs.

"Why on earth would he?" says Kora, walking past Kashana like she isn't there. Kora takes a seat on the arm of Rosto's chair. "He has us." Kora shares a glance with Aniki, who stands up and plunks herself in Rosto's lap.

"If you wish to be Rosto's Queen, you don't challenge him. You challenge me." Aniki says, her blue eyes flash in the firelight, and light shimmers through her blond hair. A thought strikes me right there: Aniki's got a fair singing voice, she's blond haired, blue-eyed, and she's a cat-like grace to the way she walks and moves: Rosto could easily talk about me, and misconstrue it as him talking about his Queen. Aniki. Most folk don't know about her and Phelan, and as Queen she could have her pick of men.

"Why on earth would I challenge you?" Kashana sneers, "I don't even know you."

"Precisely. For if you did, you would know that Rosto and I practically share the Crown. He is King of the Rogue, and I am Queen. Not Queen over a handful of annoying doxies. Queen." Aniki gets up and stalks over to where Kashana is standing. It appears as though I've been forgotten. "You want to be his Queen, you had better be willing to wrestle the position from me."

"The Dog has already replaced you in his heart." Kashana says with a sneer.

"Do you really think I would not notice if my king had taken a Dog to his bed? I would be able to smell her, the mangy thing." Aniki spins and kicks Kashana's feet out from under her. Kashana gives a muffled squeal as she falls, and stares Kashana in the face. "These eyes are all he sees when he wakes in the morning. They will be the last thing you see tonight." Aniki kicks Kashana soundly, then whips her broadsword out. Before I can say anything, she's plunged the sword into Kashana's ribcage, like she was an oversized pincushion.

For a second, no one says anything and then someone whimpers: one of the doxies in the corner. Aniki glares up at them. "Next mot that tries to make a move on my man, when he clearly doesn't want it, will find themselves tied to a very large boulder in the middle of the Olorun, with more than a knife in her lungs." Aniki pulls her sword out and the blood starts to seep from Kashana's body onto the floor.

Kashana looks to me and then looks to Rosto, who is sitting stoically on his throne, as though one of his past loves was not speedily dying on the floor in front of him. She coughs and blood coats her lips. I look at Rosto, and I can see he's gone: the Rogue is in his eyes, and there is no light in him. Only darkness, and only shadows. He keeps his dark, unforgiving gaze on Kashana and she coughs, stretching a hand toward him, finding it harder to breathe as blood pours out from her wounds, and into her lungs.

"You" she splutters, looking at Rosto, "have no.." she coughs again and there is a stricken look on her face, "You have no heart." The stricken look turns to one of fear and she spasms and shakes for a moment and she relaxes, falling limp and bleeding onto the floor. She's dead.

"I'm not supposed to." The Rogue says coldly. He stands up and snaps his fingers at his own personal train of Rushers. "Get rid of her" he points to Kashana. I sit there staring at him, how can he be so cold? When he no longer loves me, will it be the same? The men remove the body and one of Cookie's kitchen girls comes out with a mop for the blood. Like she was never there. Like a woman didn't just die on that floor. Aniki doesn't give the area a second glance.

"And me, Your Majesty," I hear myself say it, before I've properly thought it out. Perhaps I shouldn't be talking to the Rogue. It ain't safe, not when he so easily treats the killing of a woman.

"What about you, miss Cooper?" The Rogue says, his eyes flashing black. "You aren't in uniform. This is what the Happy Bag is for."

"To ignore murder." I find myself saying, why am I defending a mot I didn't really even like?

"No. She was a casualty, tragically. She was a Gallan spy who challenged Aniki for the title of Queen. She was a casualty of a fight that she didn't think before she entered. Aniki won." The Rogue said coolly, and I nod.

"May she find peace in the Black God's Realm." I say solemnly and stride over to a window. I can feel everyone watching me. Even the Rogue. Especially the Rogue. I cannot feel Rosto's eyes and it scares me. I open the window and look out into the street. People are still watching me. My dove is there, and it flits to the open window, two pigeon's with it. I pick up the dove and look at the two pigeons. One has a collar of iridescent green feathers around its neck, and it's beady yellow eyes are warm and quiet. It flits inside and lands on Rosto's table, looking at him.

I can hear the pigeon croo sadly as the Rogue shoo's it off the table. 'I really did love you, Rosto. I will wait for you. I was always waiting for you.' Says Kashana's ghost, and the pigeon flies off through the window. I kiss the dove on the head and let it go as well, closing the window.

"Goodnight, all." I say, pushing my way to the stairs, turning to look at everyone just before I go. The Rogue's eyes close, and when he looks back up at me, I can tell Rosto is fighting for control.

I couldn't go back downstairs, and I remember Kora knocking on my door. But I couldn't open it. The heartless look in the Rogue's eyes scared me, and no amount of knocking to "talk about it" was going to change my mind. Especially not from Kora or Aniki. I wanted to hear it from Rosto. I needed to hear it from him. I spent my time writing this when the door opened and in walked a very weary looking Rosto the Piper.

"You're upset," he says, leaning against the wall near my desk, while I'm writing. "You and I both know, her death fixes a lot of problems. No Gallan spy, no Gallan Rat-King in the Rogue war, no half-crazy mot trying to tear us apart. Everything is fixed, back to the way it was."

"She did love you," I tell Rosto, putting my pen down and staring at the map of Corus that is above my desk: there's no pins in the map, but I've added in all my dustspinners, and but plain white pins in for all the places I can claim as sanctuary. There's Mama's grave, a few temples, the Dove, the Kennel, and the Provosts house.

"I imagine in some twisted way, she did. But I couldn't love her." Rosto says, looking at the map as well.

"But you did, once. She was waiting for you to come back to her." I tell him, repeating her ghosts last words. Rosto's eyebrow twitches.

"I know what's bothering you." Rosto is quiet and he sits on my desk. "Beka, I loved the person Kashana was, she was young and smart and vibrant and independent. The mot you saw, wasn't any of those things, and the Kassie I loved was long gone. My Kassie died years ago, when she went to Galla. She wasn't my Kassie after that. I saw her again before I came here. She had changed. My feelings for her didn't. I just realized that she wasn't the same mot and made myself get over it. You're much steadier, and as far as I see it, I'm not planning on giving you up any time soon. You won't end up like her. I swear, you won't."

"Are you saying that the Rosto won't let the Rogue kill me, that Rosto wouldn't just stand by and watch? Because I vaguely remember you saying otherwise in Port Caynn." I turn to look at him, and I can tell that there's a back and forth going on in his mind. Just like there is in mine. This is one of those moments where I wonder, why in the name of the black god, am I still with him. I know he's dangerous.

"Beka, are you saying that you'd just lie down and die, if the Rogue turned a death gaze on you?" Rosto says quietly.

"No. I'd tear him apart in the process. Or I'd let Guardswoman Cooper do it." I lean back into my chair and I can see his eyes flash, still thinking, back and forth.

"You are, undoubtedly, the only one who could. Tear me apart, that is" He says, finally looking me in the eyes, and wincing at the stare I'm giving him. "Ease up on the ice, 't ain't winter yet." He puts his hand over mine on the table. "Beka, I don't like that it had to be handled this way, and I don't like how the Rogue handled it. But the Rogue can handle that—a usurper for his Queen's throne. And I don't think I, as Rosto, could have handled it in any way that was successful. So I let Aniki do it, and I let Kashana die. But when I'm with you, I don't let the Rogue handle anything. I handle it. It makes a difference."

"She called you heartless."

"She was talking to the King of the Rogue. The Rogue is heartless. Not to Rosto, which was the man she fell in love with. We're a right set, aren't we? Different people once the sun goes down." Rosto puts his hand under my chin, and I've half a mind to jerk back, away from his hands, which could choke me as easily as touch me. But I don't, I stay there, looking at him.

"I don't know if I'll ever like how this was handled. I feel like, we could have dealt with her. You and me, not the King Rosto and Queen Aniki of the Rogue. She shouldn't have mixed the two worlds." I lean my cheek into his hand, which is cool and soft. He holds me there for a second, then places a kiss into my cheek.

"Come on, I want to show you something." Rosto says, taking my hand. I stand up and follow him. He walks up the stairs that lead into the attic. I rarely ever go up here. The attic here at the Dove technically belongs to the Rogue. It's a rentable room, with a bed and everything, but there's a lot of boxes that I dare not look into. See, the "room" is registered to a tenant listed as "Patsov." The Rat. As in, the Rat-King, of Corus. These items all belong to the Rogue. Rosto leads me past the boxes and toward a small window. He opens it, slides through onto the landing, and motions for me to follow him. I move slowly, it's a long way to fall.

"This way," he says, tiptoeing onto the roof until he's just next to the chimney. "Sit," he says, plumping down, with his back against the brick. There aren't many tall buildings in the Lower City . Most are a floor, maybe two, at the most three. But the Dove has the attic, which makes it a whole 4 floors high, and it isn't much, but there's a view across the city.

"You can tell where each district is, from up here. Those are the tops of the bridges: that's the dockmarket. That clock tower there, is just down the street from the Kennel. And I take it you know what that big building in the distance is." He points to the castle, which looks like a frumpy old aunt who refuses to dress for company.

"No, I've never seen that one before," I joke with him. "Who lives there again? Roger, Roald, or was it Jonathan?" I ask, teasing him.

"Well, I don't know. But his highness makes my job harder every day, putting up these new rules and laws. Fancy pants, what does he know about the effectiveness of Rules in the Lower City ?" Rosto scoffs, and I laugh. "Look up."

I do and there's a sea of stars. "This is nice, Rosto. I could stay up here, just looking at the city and the sky and the stars."

"You can see everything from up here. And no one can see us. No one bothers to look up." Rosto pulls me next to him, and I lean into his side looking around at the sky, and the city spread out around us.

"Except a Dog," I remind him gently.

"I'm not here with a Dog. I'm here with my lady-love, Beka." Rosto whispers in my ear. It doesn't fix what happened, but it does make it better.

Author's Note: "Lady Wolf hangs her head, very embarrassed" It is my fault that this chapter took so long to come up. There are no excuses for taking this long, but in my defense, i got sidetracked a lot this past few months. I was working on an Eragon-fic and the story that is supposed to follow this one, "Piper's Gold" which is also cowritten with Lioness. If anything, everyone should give Lioness a good hardy round of applause, because it's through her help and encouragement that this one finally got finished.

Thanks everyone for reading.

Affectionately,

Lioness's Heart (aka Lioness) and Adagio to a Wolf (aka Lady Wolf).