Renee ties her hair up into two buns before climbing through the prince’s window. His rooms are ridiculously big for one person but she’s more focused in listening for the telltale sounds of breathing and footsteps to pay much attention to her surroundings, as extravagant as they are. She slips through room after room, all empty, before reaching his bedroom, a knife in each hand. He’s asleep. Good. Sleeping, he can't struggle too much, making noise that would draw attention she would rather avoid. She has to jump up onto the bed, wincing when it moves at her weight, and walk over to reach him in the middle, where he lies in a tangle of heavy covers. He wakes up when she crouches down beside him, dark eyes snapping open, but it's too late. She already has a knife at his throat. Anger rages across his features and he opens his mouth as if to shout but, smiling sweetly, Renee pushes the knife closer and he clenches his mouth shut. He must see the hard look in her eyes because he doesn't bother beg for his life. Good. He snarls instead and, before he can say anything unpleasant as his last words, Renee kills him.
She cleans her knife on the sheets before standing up to observe him from her position above, looking down without any remorse. He deserved it, she gave it. He looks angry in his death, lips still curling to bare his teeth. She leans over and, with a quick prayer, closes his eyes before turning away and leaving without looking back.
She decides to leave by the same window she came in through to avoid confusion, moving through the dark rooms quickly and quietly, eager to be away from the confining shadows and stuffy wealth. She’s halfway across a room when a door opens. Freezing, she considers her options. She won't kill an innocent unnecessarily so she’s left with fleeing or hiding, her head spinning around to take in the dark room in hopes for a hiding place or convenient exit.
Too late.
Renee locks eyes with the new arrival and wonders if maybe it's an angel, come to reprimand her for taking a life but the more logical part of her brain dismisses the thought as soon as it comes. The other girl is just very objectively gorgeous. She looks like a painting, everything from her blond hair to her pink lips picture perfect, carefully put into place, precise and neat, welding beauty like a sharpened sword. She must, Renee realises, be one of the nobles here on a visit. Renee shoves all of this to the back of her mind to focus on the problem at hand, her brain whirling with explanations for her presence beyond just running, but the girl speaks first.
“Oh, wrong room - do you know where the ambassador's delegation’s rooms are? They're an ugly shade of purple?”
“No, sorry,” Renee smiles as sweetly and innocently as possible but she’s too slow in hiding her knife. The other girl's eyes widen as she spots it before narrowing.
“Oh. Did you kill him?” The blunt question takes Renee by surprise and she finds herself nodding before she can think of lying. “Oooooooh,” the other girl crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow, “Well? Why? No, let me guess - a bitter ex-lover?” She seems more entertained and curious than anything else, grinning conspiring at Renee without a trace of shock or fear, who finds her own smile widening.
“No,” she says, “Nothing so scandalous I'm afraid.” The other girl sighs, as if disappointed.
“Well you're a rebel of some sort then i suppose.” Renee wonders if she should just leave since the girl doesn't seem inclined to call the guards but that would be rude, they're talking.
“Sorry to disappoint.” The girl waves off her apology then stops, pausing to look Renee up and down before lifting her chin with a thoughtful expression.
“Where are you going now?” Renee laughs and shakes her head with a smile and the other girl looks slightly dazed, blinking at her for a second, but she recovers quickly. “Hmm, I assume a safe house anyway? Hopefully with a better decoration scheme than this place?” Renee nods slowly, wondering where this is going and gets a vicious smile. “Can i come?”
Renee is too surprised to even answer for a minute, staring at the girl and wondering if it's some sort of a trick or just a joke. Why one earth would she want to leave? “I can't,” she says finally, “I can't put the others at risk, even if I wanted to. I don't know you.” The girl thinks this over, chewing on her lip.
“You won't be. I'm unarmed and I won't have any way to contact anyone, what could I do?” From the glint in the girl’s eyes, Renee thinks she could do a lot but she doesn't say that, just shakes her head. “As for knowing me, well exactly. If i come you could get to know me. Problem solved.” But too late, thinks Renee.
“Why would you even want to? You would be leaving your family and friends - think of how worried they would be. And -” But the girl is shaking her head.
“No. My parents wouldn't worry. About their image if I left maybe, but not about anything else. And I want to join you. Believe it or not, I agree with the rebels. The king’s a bastard.” Something about the stubborn tilt to her chin tells Renee she’s telling the truth.
“I can't,” repeats Renee softly.
“You can,” insists the girl, “I swear.” She watches Renee hesitate with an intense gaze from perfectly done eyes. “Give me a chance.” That’s what does it. She needs the chance, needs someone to give it to her, Renee can see it in what she’s trying to hide in her eyes. But Renee’s too used to seeing that look in her own eyes reflecting back at her from her mirror, knows too well what that feels like. Knows what being given a second chance feels like.
“Ok.” Two quiet syllables, barely audible, that seem to echo off the walls. The girl brightens, something inside coming alive and god, if she was beautiful before, now she glows. This girl is holy, Renee thinks, in a way that has nothing to do with her God. How could anyone say no to that? “But,” she warns with a glance at the girl’s heels, “We’re going to have to climb out the window.”
She just grins and winks. “How do you think i got out of my room in the first place?”