House Marjorie

 Vivian Marjorie took a deep breath and summoned the courage to knock on the door. A short silence followed before permission to enter was given by an elderly but deep booming voice from inside.

 "Vivian , my favorite niece , to what do I owe the pleasure of you visiting me in my home office barely two hours after my arrival , " Henrik Marjorie , a tall man with a wide frame , started as he put down his quill pen . He was casually seated before a small table laden with paperwork and a small stand holding five candles to provide enough light for reading . An hour glass quietly stood to his left trickling down sand. He reached out and grabbed it , turning it upside down to restart its timer.

 " A niece does not need a reason to visit her uncle , or am I no longer as beloved as I used to be ? " Vivian smiled and took a seat opposite Henrik. Taking a closer look , she could see old age catching up to him. His once lush black beard was developing streaks of grey just like the hair at the front of his scalp and his posture had become slightly drooped .

"You are here to talk about the refugee incident with the church , " he suggested with a subtle grin.

 " You're almost correct , but since I see you weren't planning on beating around the bush , neither will I. The prince Lan will come looking for you with questions ," Vivian returned his grin with one of her own .

 " I'm afraid he already has . Before coming here I had to answer a summon from him to appear before the crown . I definitely expected the king to be there alongside his trusted seers , but the prince somehow pulled strings and turned it into a private discussion between us . To tell you the truth , I could almost swear that it's a different man inside that scrawny prince of ours ," Henrik continued .

" I guess I was not fast enough to honor my word to Hazel . She sent me to warn you ," Vivian admitted.

 " The only reason Hazel could have known of this is if the prince wanted her to so she could try to warn me. But going over spilt water will not help anyone , we need to talk about our current standing on the matter ," Henrik started stroking his beard.

 " You mean where our loyalties should now lie . Uncle , are you sure that I am the right person to discuss such an important matter with ? There must be a reason as to why you want my involvement . I think it's because you want to keep me around and a little bit closer ," Vivian kept up her grin.

 " You are not an enemy if that's what you are implying. But nonetheless , Hazel did tell me that you were the one who convinced her to marry the prince. The way she talked about your conversation with her , it sounded to me that you somehow suspected this great change in the current Lan Montreal ," Henrik continued being direct . 

 " I'll tell you what you just told me , going over spilt water won't help anyone . Instead of that , I want you to direct your focus on this new question . Is it the prince's intention for us to be having this conversation at this very time ? " Vivian crossed her legs and slouched back into the chair .

 Before Henrik answered her question , he couldn't help but marvel at the workings of her mind . Ever since he met her as a small child adopted by his younger brother , Vivian had always demonstrated a high level of intellect totally uncommon amongst her peers. He initially thought that her survival instincts were acting up but as the years went by her behavior persisted . He started putting her through special education and when she excelled at it too , he decided to take her on as a mentor . She proved herself to be capable and with time he started giving her roles and responsibilities . She had earned his respect and therefor any matter she decided was worth looking into naturally carried weight in his eyes .

 " You think he is trying to stomp the grass and watch which cobras raise their heads . I'll admit it's a bit far fetched considering the fact that everything he has been doing can be backed by factual evidence. It would also be careless for him as a prince of high social standing to just go around calling everyone's bluff ," Henrik pondered .

 " I think the prince is okay with taking risks , as long as he has probable cause . Look at how he solved the smuggling issue in the Southern Province ? This is something that his father had tried for years but failed . Every noble worth their salt knows that right now the crown has a limited number of informants and tends to know very little of what is going on around them . To do what he did , Lan had to have known significantly more , and the only way to do that was by trying to arrest the high priestess . That move , on top of deterring the church officials from intervening with the relocation , also shed a lot of light onto the inner workings of the operation. He was able to see who the priestess approached and who reacted and in what way they reacted . He stomped the grass and watched which cobras raised their heads ," Vivian explained , her eyes locked to her uncle's watching his every reaction .

 " I think you may have a point , the prince is very shrewd indeed . And now I understand why you came to see me so urgently . You wanted me to start thinking of what we should do should our paths cross with the prince's , " Henrik now sat upright , his mind starting to fire up.

 " And they will sooner rather than later , considering how our business operates down there at those mines . It's like you said , we need to work on where our loyalties lie, " Vivian sat upright as well .

" So here's my decision . One week , after that we shall see which is the winning team and join their side ," Henrik finished . The prince had always been just but an afterthought to him but now things were changing . He could feel the pressure and decided to keep a closer watch on him going forward.