Josephine wandered out of the castle just after dawn, pack laden with supplies and swaying back and forth with every easy step. She looked around regretfully as men set up shop amid a pall of disquiet so thick you could cut it with a scalpel. She had only been in the country for around a month, set up in the castle dungeons, toiling day and night with records and tests to try and find the cause of the good kings illness where his court healers had so far bungled. She'd looked in his blood. She'd looked in his bile. She'd searched his stomach and intestines. She'd taken a core of his bones and sorted through his leavings. She poured over every record in the castle, searching for signs in his past or similar systems in his ancestors. All turned up nothing. 

She hadn't yet searched in his brain, but that was only because she was positive the guard wouldn't be quite so understanding once she broke out the drill.

There was a long, drawn out caw from the top of her pack. She frowned slightly, looking around at the scant morning activity around her. "I think you are correct. I did not notice it when I first arrived." She said to the slid blue peacock perched atop her pack, idly preening against the bed of snakes that made ups its tail. Though she'd at least determined that the kings illness wasn't contagious, it was nevertheless apparent that the whole country had been stricken with the disease. She was reminded of a play she had attended in the grand theaters of St. Guiernon during her student days, in which the land and the king were one. His absence was a gaping wound that, left untreated, would surly cause the whole of Naviance to rot. 

So she came upon the appointed place, at the appointed hour. It was a remarkably unsurprising little group she spotted as she arrived. There was one of the kings men, obviously. The quiet one. Jenso, the hero. One of the court healers she had past on her way to and from the kings chambers several times. She didn't care for them, though remembered that this models name began with a S. Then there was...well, she had an idea.

"Healer." She said as she came upon the gathering. "If I'd been informed we could have left the castle together, bonded over our mutual uselessness." She nodded to the men of the group. "Kings Man. Hero. Good morning." She turned to the demon in their midst and, instead of a simple nod, placed one leg behind the other, threw out her arm, bent at the knees, and gave a deep sweeping bow. "And good morning to you, your majesty." 

[@cynder][@bkburke][@jensoman][@Cherrywitch]