Prince Derek finally decided to take drastic action. He took the copy of the bill announcing Kent’s Yuletide tournament and left it where Isaac could see it, hoping the young knight would at least be willing to take the opportunity to see his lost love. He hesitated to order Isaac to go, but if the knight wouldn’t go on his own …
Prince Edward, meanwhile, had no such easy solution for his daughter’s melancholy. His concern remains slight, for the most part, until the servants themselves began to report worries to him — trays returning to the kitchen untouched, her bed going unslept in, clothes unworn. One maid resigned in tears, blaming herself for her inability to stir her mistress’ apathy.
Waking up from another restless sleep one morning, Isaac bathed with lethargic movements, not even bothering to care about his listless, haunted appearance. It wasn’t until his eyes fell on the note resting pointedly on the table that some life returned to him, and he crumpled it up in his hand and pondered over it. After a quick conversation with Derek, he was saddling up Buttons and he was on the move.
Prince Edward, meanwhile, became even more frustrated when his daughter refused to speak even to him. He had barely any time to devote to the matter as it was; even after so many years the Yuletide tournament preparations went far from smoothly, and this year was worse than most. Many knights and lords had heard the story of the lost daughter returning home, and announced their intention of attending the tournament in hopes of seeing her.
On top of that, he had received some troubling information regarding her original disappearance, suggesting that Lord Argent had been behind it from the beginning, and was once again intending to threaten the tiny princedom. In frustration, he sent out a second announcement, declaring that whomever could lift the princess’ melancholy would marry her and inherit the princedom besides.