"I am not sure myself," Gando said, glad that she was ready to return to the castle. He took his sack of gold without debate and stowed it away quickly. Such trifles were far from his concern at the moment. "Let's be off and make haste." He then hurried along towards the castle. He wished he could tell her more about what was wrong, but he had no idea. Gando had been a magician for a very long time, and he had learned one important lesson. Trust your intuition. This could have been nothing at all and likely wasn't. Daishoga was perfectly capable of taking care of himself after all.<br/><br/>Gando hurried along in silence for the better part of their journey to the castle. It was annoyingly long on the way back, but that was likely because he was concerned. By the time they got to the castle gates though it was more than obvious that nothing was wrong. He bit down on his lip more than a little perturbed. Perhaps he was just getting paranoid in his old age even if there really was no getting old for him anymore.<br/><br/>He laughed softly and looked at Sage.<br/><br/>"I must apologize. I believe I've been a bit of a fool," Gando said. "There's nothing wrong. Just an old man's paranoia. But I believe we've spent enough time away. It won't be long before it's late and I'm sure Lord Daishoga shall be expecting you. Off you go. The guards shouldn't bother you." He squeezed her shoulder comfortingly and then made his way off through the castle courtyard. There were more guards than usual roaming about, but that was mostly because of their Reltican guests.<br/><br/><br/>Daishoga sat down in his study mentally exhausted. It had been a long day full of political deliberations, and nothing had come of it. Not a thing. Of course the Relticans had their own ideas as to what should happen. They wanted a peace treaty to be drawn with both sides gaining control of half of Vaandom, but Daishoga wasn't a fool. Reltica really wanted to gain access to the mines in the northern half of the kingdom while giving the empire the poorer half. Daishoga wouldn't agree to a deal like that. Even the nobles, who never agreed with Daishoga, agreed that it was a bad deal.<br/><br/>So after full day that had achieved nothing, they had gone to the Red Dragon Inn situated in the center of ShindCom with maximum level security. Tomorrow was going to be  a busy day. There was going to be a feast as in honor of the Reltican visitors. Daishoga hoped they could get a peace treaty done by that time otherwise the feast would be for nothing.<br/><br/>Throughout the day his thoughts had turned to Sage again and again. He thought of how they had left off that morning. His heart and mind were a confluence of confused emotions and feelings. It should have been impossible for such a torrent to occur so soon, but there it was. He couldn't call it love. No, but there was passion. She had awoken things within him that he had never experienced before. Perhaps if he allowed himself to bask further in those experiences, they would begin to make more sense to him. Whatever the case was, he wondered where she was.<br/><br/>He knew she was safe with Gando. Gando was basically the only person Daishoga had allowed himself to trust after his mother died. But the sun was slowly sinking and night was beginning to fall. Daishoga got to his feet and walked over to the window. Perhaps it was by some divine luck that he chose that moment because he saw them arrive. Well, he would be seeing her soon enough. He wondered what exciting adventure she had had with Gando. He wondered how she would act around him when she returned. Would she be the blank shell she'd have him believe her to be or the burning passionate woman with a fire in her eyes that would dare to smack an emperor in the face? A smirk crossed his lips. He was surprised by how excited he was.