<strong>OOC:</strong>Hey Grizzly! Glad to see you're here.<br/><br/><br/>“So it’s true,” Jhessail breathed. Letting her hands fall to her sides, she turned away so Aysia could not see the bitterness upon her face. “How could she deceive us? How could she sit calmly before us and lie to her own granddaughters! I don’t understand – no, that isn’t quite right. I<em>do</em>understand. Even if I wish I didn’t.”<br/><br/>Jhessail sighed deeply. She felt her anger drain away, replaced by weariness and a sensation like she was going to be ill. “Perhaps it’s as you say, that she wanted all possibilities considered. Or perhaps there is a spy at court and she believed deception was necessary to protect my father, and to protect us. I suppose the reason doesn’t matter. She acted in accordance with her duty as ruler. She acted as the crown demanded. Even though it meant deceiving and manipulating her own family. It was a clever ruse. I might even have admired it, were I not its object.”<br/><br/>Jhessail knew well the uses of deception. Misinformation, misdirection – weapons of politics and of war. But she had never considered that she might one day have to use these weapons against her own relatives. Would she do it, if it were necessary?<em>Could</em>she? She did not know. Despite long years spent in training, there was still much for her to learn about being queen.<br/><br/><em>Heavy is the burden of the solitary tree upon the hill…</em><br/><br/>“In any case, I suppose<em>how</em>we learnt it does not matter now. We know where my father is, and as there is nothing more to learn here, our next move should be to find him. In a way, it makes sense. Grandmother mentioned he had a lover in Waterdeep. My father has rarely gone without female company; it is perhaps the most predictable thing about him.”<br/><br/>Out of the corner of her eye, Jhessail saw her mother returning from her search. Oh moon and luminous night, this wasn’t good. She imagined her mother would take this news even less well than she had.<br/><br/>Jhessail turned to greet Morwenna as she approached. “Mother, we have news to share,” she said with a glance at her cousin. “Aysia overheard the queen speaking about father. It seems she’s known all along where he is, but decided not to share it with us for reasons of her own. It appears he is in Waterdeep. We know little else, only that he is searching for someone who has wronged him.”<br/>