I pull away, suprised.

"I'm sorry, I wa—"

"It's okay, it was just surprising."

I give him a reassuring smile and squeeze his hands.

I spend the rest of the ride memorizing the Map. When we arrive at the Palace, I slip my mask on.

"We have an advantage tonight, but that doesn't mean it will be simple."

"The worthwhile things usually aren't."

He helps me out of the Carriage and offers me his arm.

The Ballroom is decked in golden and blue adornments, and packed full of Masked couples. While I've seen most of Court, their extravagant masks shielded their most of their identity's.

We mingle about for a bit, mostly so I can find the vantage points listed on the Map. The music picks up.

Pierre brings me to the Dance floor. The Men & Women take their positions respectfully. I'm able to move about with minimal damage to my partners footing. I found myself focusing more on not injuring Peirre's and other dancers feet, rather than enjoying dancing. I loved to dance around in the fields back in Lupiac between chores.

After the third dance, I'm parched and excuse myself to grab a drink. Pierre stems off to speak with an acquaintance of him.

A group of women nearby gossip on.

"Those Musketeers are so ruggishly handsome." One says.

"And dreamy." one pips up.

"And trouble. They always seem to be caught up in some kind of trouble. They can be brutes." Other points out.

"I could handle a bit of trouble." Another chirps in.

"Speaking of Musketeers, did you hear? The king allowed a Female into their ranks."

They all shake their heads "How improper."

"What a ghastly notion. Has she no shame? What father would allow such a conduct?"

I rolls my eyes and take a sip of my drink, turning to find Pierre. Instead I come face to face with Athos.

"Daria." He takes in my evening wear with momentary intrigue.

"How'd you know it was me?"

He chuckles "I would know those eyes anywhere. Also, I was there when the dress & mask were delivered. You look..." he takes me in once again "great." He abruptly adds.

That was a bit of a let down but I'll keep that to myself.

"How goes guarding the King."

"Bout the same as it ever does, as you would know. How's your evening been with he Viscount?" We both glance over to Pierre who is deep in conversation with a man.

"It's been nice. Lots of successful non foot stomping while dancing, thanks to a certain someone."

"I'm glad I could help lessen the injury's at tonight's Ball."

One of the other Musketeers calls Athos over.

"I have to go. Stay out of trouble."

"I always do."

He gives me a disbelieving look and leaves.

Pierre comes back a few minutes later. He looks a bit stressed.

"Everything alright?"

He gets close to whisper in my Ear.

"The Cardinal has Arrived. His wing should be mostly emptied except a few men on guard. If you can manage past them, his office is on the map. That's your best option of finding something."

I nod and excuse myself.

I cruise through the herd of people and down the hall the hall Pierre's map show. A few people mill about in it, having their private conversations.

I pretend to be looking for someone, and dip around the corner when they have all gone back to their chattering.

I make my was down the other halls burned into my brain and I walk. I'm able to sneak past the few guards and Courtier's as I go. Finally, I see the final hall I need to go down. I press against the wall and peer around the corner. I almost laugh. One of them is leaned against the wall asleep, and the other is swinging around a small knife in his hand. The music from the Ballroom can still be heard so luckily most noise I make shouldn't reach the guards ears. I try to conjure up a distraction. A hand comes over my mouth, and an arm around my lower back, pinning me back to the wall. My eyes widen from the sudden movement, but calm when I meet Athos's eyes. His very Angry eyes.

"You better have a reasonable explanation for being here, Daria." He whispers.

"Mhmhsgh" I mumble. He removes his hand from my mouth.

"Explain now."

And so I do. I tell him everything. I summarize it a bit, and keep my voice low. He just stands there, hand still on my lower back, listening with no readable reaction. When I'm finished, I wait for him to say something. And for a moment he doesn't.

Until...

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" His voices raises.

"Shush!"

"What made you think any of this was a good idea? Letting a Courts man drag you into something like this?"

"Firstly, I never claimed anything I've done a good idea. Secondly, I agreed to help. Rather he was helping me. I appreciate all your "inquiries" but these are not idle hands. Whoever is at the Cardinals hands, will not stop. Am I supposed to go on and just hope they dont attempt to kill me or someone else again?"

He doesn't say anything in response. I don't think he knew what to say.

"I didn't tell you because i didn't want you, or Porthos or even Aramis to get caught up in my choices."

"You're one of us Daria, your choices matter to all of us. It's quite literally in our motto."

"That may be, but the choice has already been made. What kind of Solider would I be if i didn't go through with my promises?"

Once again he says nothing, it use to infuriate me when he'd do that at first, but I grew to learn that if he wasn't fighting you back verbally, he wasn't gonna go against you physically.

He removes his arm from around me and peeks around the corner.

"Let's go then." He grabs a small dagger from his belt and chuck it across the other side of the hallway we stand it. It hits and knocks over a latern. The latern goes out on its way down but the noise echoing through the halls is enough to alert the men. They begin to run down the hall they are in and towards the noise down our hall. Athos and I press against the wall when they run near. When they are fully turned away, we hit the corner and book it down the hall as quiet as we can manage.

The door is locked, much as I suspected but this I knew I could handle. I grabbed two pins from my hair and was quickly able to pick the lock.

"Do I want to know, how you know how to do that?" He asks from beside me.

"My Father would always forget the keys when we went into town, I had to get inside the house somehow."

When we are in the office, we split up. I slip off my mask.

"I can't believe we are doing this." He mutters

"Why are you doing this?" I ask as I passed behind him.

"This could ruin the rest of the Musketeers if you're caught."

"No it wouldn't. The rest of you are men. They'd blame it on my fragile woman mind and only bring it up as an example to put down more women. So why are you really doing this."

I'm rifling through The Cardinals desk drawers when I find an opened envelope with familiar handwriting. Freddy's handwriting. We wrote dozens and dozens of letters when he first came to Paris, it's ingrained in my mind.

"Athos, I found something." I hold up the envelope.

He joins me at the desk. I remove the paper, and unfold it. It was wasn't addressed to the Cardinal but was written the day of my poisoning. Athos leans in a bit and reads it over my shoulder.

I did as you asked. Last I heard
she was being cared for at a nearby
hospice. I doubt she'll awaken, but
either way we are done. I expect
my promotion in the coming days.

P.S. That Woman you sent didn't
pay me the full amount. I expect
that to be corrected for my continued
silence.

Not so sincerely,
Frederick Cordon

"This is something, right?" I ask Athos.

"In a way. But I'm reality it just confirms our suspicions. It doesn't really implicate the Cardinal on the page."

I hear a voices from outside.

"Good evening, your Greatness." One guard says.

We don't hear a response but do hear keys jingling. We look at eachother in panic, but I find a closet. I fix everything I touched on his desk and grab Athos's arm and pull him into the closet. It's very cramped and dark. Our body's are flush against eachother. We quiet our breathing as the Office door opens.