Cynesige Tolbert had been hoping to sleep in. The day before had left him sore and bruised, and his only wish was to spend the entirety of the day in bed, being fed by the pretty maid girls and softened by his pillows.

Instead, a knock on his door roused him at barely noon, and the man sighed into his pillow. His friends were touched in the head if they thought he was going to wake for them.

"Come in! Renauda, if you're trying to get me to train-"

"The queen requests your presence, Sir Cynesige."

Renauda was not at the door - instead, a dark-haired page was staring at him with a mixture of fright and confusion. Cynesige let out a sheepish grin and sat up, acutely aware of his lack of proper dress and disheveled hair.

"Please, thank her, and tell Queen Melinda I will be ready in ten minutes."

~

Trust awoke with a pounding head and aching body, not to mention a guilty conscience. She hadn't been able to get a wink of sleep last night, for the memory of the melee and how she had knocked her friend Aloïsa down still gnawed at her heart. The victory seemed almost wrong in Trust's opinion - even though she had been praised for good sportsmanship for helping Aloïsa to her feet - and now she wished that she could turn back time and allow Aloïsa to emerge victorious rather than herself.

After all, she thought in worry as she got out of bed and paddled barefoot to her closet to get changed. She had been so nice to me at the feast. I really should've let her win. Argh, Trust, you idiot! It took of her willpower to refrain from banging her head on the closet door. She probably hates you now.

A long, weary sigh escaped Trustin's lips as she flung open the heavy mahogany doors, surveying the rows and rows of clothing hanging in immaculate lines. There was no point worrying about it now. Hopefully, if fate willed it, she would get a chance to apologise to Aloïsa today.

~

Colette grimaced as she got to her feet and walked across her room. Finn had hit her leg harder than she'd originally thought yesterday, and a dark bruise had formed on her right knee. Upon reaching her bed, she opened the small box she'd brought with her and pulled out a piece of paper and quill. She curled up on the bed, and placed the thin book she'd been reading earlier on her lap.

She put the paper on top and began writing a letter to her sister. She paused after the first line, unsure of what to tell her. There wasn't much she could tell. At last she shook her head, blonde hair falling across her face and put down the first thing that came to mind. Vivian was used to her rambling anyway.

The quill in her hand flew across the paper, leaving small splatters of ink on her hand as she wrote. The only sound in the room was of the scratching of the quill on paper and her own breathing. It was calming to Colette, and she forgot about the aches on her ribs and knee as she spun a tale about feasts and fighting for her sister.

~

"Do you understand, Sir Cynesige?" Queen Melinda kept her eyes matching the hazel ones that graced her chosen knight, who bowed low.

"Of course, my queen. When is this happening?"

"Now. Declan!" she called, a wave of her hand summoning the dark-haired page. "Lead Sir Cynesige out to the tower and prepare him. The maidens Mary and Elizabeth will fetch the girls."

Declan groveled and motioned to Cynesige, the blond knight following him out into the blazing sunlight. The tower was ages away, it seemed, but Cynesige didn't mind much.

"You're a page, eh? Must be training for knighthood, then, good sir."

"Yes, sire."

"And I suppose you enjoy the palace?"

"Also yes, sire."

"Any young maidens you have your eye on? I could assist you in your conquests, young Declan."

"No, sire, thank you." He kept walking, eyes forward and fearful.

The man sighed and kept walking. Obviously, the page was too blinded by his beauty to even remember the name of his sweetheart. Understandable.

The pair approached a dark wall, studded with brown and auburn rocks. Declan led his charge around the hilly mound, instead taking a hidden staircase to the top of the dirt tower. There sat an ornate chair and rope.

"The others should be being briefed on their roles. Please, sit."

Cynesige obeyed, and the rope soon tightened across his chest. He took in a deep breath and surveyed the flat land before him. "Could you hurry them a tad, Declan? I'm perfectly fine with being tied down sometimes, but I'd rather it not be in broad daylight. I'm a private man, Declan. Private."

~

A knock sounded on the door, and Colette jumped, her quill sliding across her paper and leaving a long stain of ink. She frowned, trying to wipe some of it away as she answered.

A voice almost too quiet to hear said "You are wanted by King Artheur. The next part of the tournament will start soon."

For a moment, panic shot through Colette, and she hurried to put her letter away. She shoved it haphazardly into her box beside the quill and placed it beside her bed. She looked down at her clothes uncertainly. What if this isn't good enough? she worried, but there was no time to change. She sighed and tried to wipe her hand clean of the sticky ink as she opened the door. A short, blonde young woman stood outside, dressed in the distinctive outfit of a page. Colette stared at him silently and he flushed slightly.

"Please, follow me," she said quietly, and Colette nodded. They walked in silence, turning corners and walking down long corridors until they were outside. Colette smiled as the warm sunlight hit her face, relishing in the slight breeze that brushed her face. The page didn't stop walking, and Colette wondered what was going on. Curiosity burned within her, but she stayed silent until the page stopped.

She raised an eyebrow as she took in her surroundings. A small hill covered in rocks stood in front of her, with one of the knights tied to a chair atop it.

"What is going on?"

~

"This doesn't look good."

Trust blinked against the harsh glare of the bright sun, the rays so hot that despite being dressed in a breezy, breathable outfit, sweat had already begun to pool on her forehead. In front of her stood two other knights, whom she recognised as Cynesige Tolbert of Tanad and Colette Bennett of Valden. She knew them by name only, and as the page who had escorted her from her room to this climbing wall started to read the instructions for the next challenge of a the tournament, she could feel her heart thumping furiously in her chest. The sheer height of the wall caused a sense of vertigo to slam into her head with the force of a herd of galloping horses, and the aspect of having to work with two complete strangers did not appeal to her, at all.

Cynesige was also feeling uncomfortable, but in a different way. Two lovely ladies to work with, eh? He was fully prepared to break out all of his charm, and he flashed a smile at the dark-haired girl, who he thought was named something ridiculous like Faith. The other, a rather pretty girl herself, was something French-sounding. Neither of them looked particularly strong, but he figured being rescued wasn't going to take long - if he managed to hold up his end of the challenge.

Colette shifted uncomfortably as she watched the other girl, the one from Miras, being led to the bottom of the hill. The blindfold across her eyes was tied tightly, and she felt a little sorry for her. She herself would hate not being able to see. Finally, the other girl, Trust she thought her name was, was left by the page who had escorted her. The dark haired man stood off to the side, and Colette had to turn her head to see him.

"You may begin." His voice carried in the still air, directed to both Colette and Cynesige.

Trust moved forward cautiously, unaccustomed to being entirely in the dark. Another thing that she was unaccustomed to was having to rely on Colette for help. She moved a few steps forward in what she thought was where the rock wall was located, and groped around blindly in front of her to find a starting rock to grip onto. When her fingers brushed against nothing, Trust gritted her teeth and decided to move forward a little more, refusing to ask for Colette's help. This mindset was quickly changed when her hand clanged roughly against the jagged rock wall, and she let out a pain-filled gasp of surprise.

"Damn it!" She hissed, taking a humongous step backwards and subsequently bumping into Colette, who had been silently standing behind her all this time. Feeling angry at the fact that Colette had not stepped in to help, Trust pivoted around behind her in the vague direction of where she thought her "helper" was standing and spat, "Aren't you supposed to be helping me?!"

Any sympathy Colette felt for Trust dissipated at the angry words, and she stood a little straighter, as if to make up for her silence. She looked at where Trust was standing, trying to judge the distance between her and the wall.

"You're about two or three steps from the wall. Keep your hand out and walk forward, but slowly," she said. Her voice was more unsure than she would have liked it to be, and she cleared her throat. You're going to a great help, Bennett, she thought to herself.

"Keep going," Cynesige called lazily, enjoying the sight of the girl bumping, nose first, into the wall. Perhaps being the liar will be enjoyable, then, after all.

Pain, once more, flared in her nose as Trust jumped backward, growing gradually more and more annoyed at both Cynesige and Colette's instructions. She brought up a hand and rubbed her throbbing nose, meanwhile calling upwards in an icy tone of voice, "That was not funny!"

"Apologies - I thought you would stop. I'll try not to lead you astray again, dear girl." Cynesige grinned down at her, knowing she wouldn't see the slyness that lurked inside it.

A moment of silence passed while Trust considered Cynesige's words that floated down from above, before grudgingly saying, "All right." She remembered Colette's words, and put her hands out in front of her to find her way. This time, her fingers brushed against one rock embedded in the wall that stood out to her, and curled her fingers around it. Her free hand reached upwards and grasped another rock, pulling herself up so that she was dangling a few centimeters off of the ground.

"To your left!" Cynesige yelled again, eyeing the stone that jutted out, a few inches from her right hand. "Further, further. . ."

Colette glared at Cynesige when she heard his words, but she didn't say anything to him. Instead, she looked at Trust, who hadn't yet moved.

"There's a stone a few inches away from your right," she told Trust, who had stopped moving and was listening to the debate between her two teammates with increasing irritation.

"Oh, my apologies! I'm facing the wrong way," Cynesige called down sarcastically. "Your left is my right, you know."

"So left or right?!" Trust yelled, struggling to keep her calm and collected composure. The back-and-forth arguing combined with the heat from the blazing sun was starting to mess with her head. "My left? Your left? Or is it right?" Her mind swirled. "What is it?"

"I told you, your right." Irritation flickered through Colette, but she pushed it down. She would have been confused too. "There's a rock you can grab, and it's a couple inches to your right."

Trust sighed and decided to listen to Colette, moving to her right and fumbled around in the air for a few seconds before finding a good handhold. With a grunt, she moved another few inches upwards, trying to ignore the furious pounding in her heart. I hope I don't fall... She shuddered at the very thought, licked her lips and called out, "What now?"

Colette looked at the area around Trust, her eyes landing on another rock protruding from the hill. "There's another rock you can grab on your left. It's not far from where your hand is now."

"And if you lift up your left foot, there's a rock right under your torso that you can step on, Trustin." What an idiotic name. Cynesige kept his thoughts to himself, smiling serenely down the hill.

"Okay." Trust followed Colette's instructions first, moving her left arm upwards and seizing hold of the rough stone, before bringing her left foot up to find the rock that Cynesige had told her about. To her surprise and shock, though, she found nothing but thin air and nearly lost her balance.

"Oh, you may have to jump a bit!" he called, a grin on his face hard to hide. Perhaps he wasn't the best at lying, but no one could see it from up here.

"Don't jump, you'll fall," Colette said quickly, glaring up at the figure at the top of the wall.

"She won't be able to reach it otherwise, love."

Irritation flared up in Colette at Cynesige's words, and she resisted the urge to shout at him. He'd no doubt enjoy the attention. "Trust, there isn't a rock you can step on there. There's one on your right side, pretty close to where your knee is now."

Cynesige watched with irritation as the brunette stabilized herself, and called down gently, "Colette, dearest, I don't know why you keep arguing with me on these matters." His words were soft, but his tone was anything but.

As the minutes ticked by, Trust grew increasingly more and more fed up with Cynesige and Colette's behavior. Her arms and legs were aching from staying in such an awkward position for so long, and as her strength started to deteriorate, so did her temper. When there was still no confirmation by either Cynesige and Colette as to which direction she should go for minutes at a time, Trust finally snapped. "You know," she yelled, furious and no doubt growing red in the face, "I'm telling you for the last time, can you please stop? Or... or... or else I'll quit!"

"You still have to rescue me, Trust, and I'm telling you, there's a stone to your left. Don't listen to Colette - she's touched."

"I am not touched!" The words were out of Colette's mouth before she could stop them. Her skin prickled with irritation, annoyed that Cynesige was so easily able to annoy her. "There is no stone to the left, it's on your right," she told Trust. Her voice was louder than she'd expected, amplified by her emotion.

Inhaling deeply, Trustin focused on her breathing to calm herself down. Why did I sign up for this again? She questioned herself sarcastically, before finally deciding to move to her right, purely based on Colette's gender. "Men," she scoffed underneath her breath when her right foot found a rock to stabilize herself on. "This is exactly the reason why I hate them so."

"My dear, there's a stone far up. If you let go with your right hand, take your left foot off the rock it's on, and stretch, you should be able to reach it. Trust me, Trust."

He let out a deep laugh at his mediocre wordplay and waited for the inevitable contradiction from Colette.

"There is no stone to the right." Each word came out slow and measured, as Colette inhaled slowly.

"Left, then. There's a stone, Trust."

"There is no stone."

"There is a stone."

"Alright." Trust decided to take matters into her own hands. "First of all, Cynesige, I do not trust you." Her words were clipped and curt, short and to the point. "Colette, I don't trust you either, but at least you aren't as annoying as him."

"I am not annoying. I'm quite charming, in fact, if you're not a-" His last few words were mumbled, but Trust understood enough, and it didn't endear him to her any more.

"Good to know," Colette said, her tone sharp. "There's a stone on your left a couple inches away from your hand. You can grab that and then there's a rock you can step on with your left foot. It's not that far up from where you are now."

"No, there's not," Cynesige called drily from above, but he may as well have been talking to himself, for all that the knights below him listened.

A spark of realisation ignited in Trust's chest, and she rolled her eyes, feeling her eyelashes brush the rough fabric of her blindfold. "Please be quiet," she snapped back at Cynesige. "I don't need any more of your idiotic comments. Now, Colette," she called down below in the vague direction of where she thought her helper was standing. "Where should I go?"

Colette couldn't help the slight grin that crossed her face at Trust's words. She cleared her throat again and said, "You're pretty close to the top now. There's a stone close to your right hand. Once you grab that, there's another rock on your left side, right above your knee you can step on. After that, I think you can pull yourself onto the top of the hill."

"Oh, please, Trust, you're so far from the top it's-" He was interrupted by a hand appearing over the ridge, then an arm, and finally a Trust, grinning under her blindfold. "I did try."

Feeling the smooth earthen ground of the surface underneath her fingers, Trust yanked herself over the edge and lay on her back gasping for breath for a few seconds. She payed no mind to the voice of Cynesige, at least at first.

"Could you untie me, please? I'll get your blindfold off then." Cynesige's voice was dulled by defeat - he'd had one job, but the women had somehow managed to win. Against him. A strong, handsome man. Inconceivable.

"I don't need your help." Trust finally snapped back into reality and scrambled to her feet, stumbling towards the chair. One pull undid the ropes - poorly tied, to be honest - and he stood leisurely.

Trust brought her hands to the back of her head and undid the blindfold quickly. She dropped it at her feet, refusing to give up eye contact with the insufferable Cynesige. "See? I can do it myself."

Cynesige grinned and knelt to pick up the blindfold, running it through his fingers gently. "You were marvelous with this on, my lady. I'd love to see what you can do with it somewhere off this hill."

The only response was the sound of a resounding slap across his face.