<em>"What is she thinking?"</em><br/><br/>Connal only frowned at Fionn's question, eyeing Dawn as she departed for the night.  "I could hazard a guess, Fionn... that she is not very pleased with us this evening.  She is willful.  I hope she uses it to her advantage."  The guard captain clasped his hands and cracked his knuckles, his brow furrowed in serious thought.  She was leaving; he and the rest of her guards should have been with her.  That was what his mind told him.  She was safe within the sithern, however... No one would risk the wrath of the Goddess.  They had become irrelevant.<br/><br/>Connal watched the princess closely until she passed from sight with her handmaiden, and then turned to nod at Fionn.  "Certainly.  Let us be on with it," he said tersely, and headed towards the doors where the princess had left moments before.<br/><br/>Irrelevant... That was not entirely true, of course.  They had other duties now, to Dawn, and to the Seelie.  The first princess to produce an heir, it had been said, would rule the sidhe uncontested.  Connal had no doubt that the Unseelie would be copulating like animals even had there not been a practical reason, so he and the other guards would have much to do.  Undoubtedly that was why the princess wanted him and Fionn.  Perhaps Roarke had fallen too far from her favor; Connal couldn't help but smile a little at the thought.