Jez #2's plan would work like a charm, as the guard sighed and dragged the high-maintenance girl back to the waiting room to, er, wait. No problems here, whatsoever.
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A small plate at just below eye level could be slid aside, only from outside the room, letting
Jez #3 peer inside. For a prison cell, it was quite luxurious -- carpet, a bed, a small desk in one corner. Bars on the windows and all, but far from cruel and unusual punishment. For a princess' room, it was perhaps
less fitting -- the carpet was more threadbare, the bed plain, bars on the windows. Still, could be worse.
And it was, indeed, the princess' room, as Katarina sat in one corner, shifted fully to gold, a long length of iron chain wrapped around her wrist and connecting to a mount at the top of the spire.
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Jez #1 was led into the
elegantly laid out throne room, where Prince Alex sat, splayed over his throne with a look of boredom.
"Congratulations!" he said, turning the exclamation into a flat, perfunctory statement. "Rarely have we seen such a true display of the Symkarian spirit; truly an example for all of us....for all of us..." he said, trailing off for a moment as he peered at Jez, trying to place her. "...for all of us to...observe...
It took him a moment. Jez wasn't the one he was looking for in the pictures Nika had given him, after all. But his eyes widened as he put the pieces together.