Jax tried to shove down the feeling of embarrassment that welled up at Celinny’s reaction to his matter-of-fact declaration of inability to climb the walls of the palace - until he reminded himself that everyone knew climbing the walls of the palace was impossible. If Celinny really had scaled those walls it was completely mind-blowing; he made a mental note to ask her later to teach him that particular skill. His mind was beginning to comprehend how useful it would be, even if it was a thief’s skill. For now, he listened to her makeshift plan… makeshift, he realized with chagrin, because she had assumed he had the apparently elementary skill of an impossible feat.

He reminded himself there was no reason to be embarrassed. It was a feeling he was unused to.

Considering her idea to pretend he was her sick brother, he took the dark cloth she handed him and started tying it at the back of his head to cover his face from the bridge of his straight nose down, tousling his hair while he was at it to look a little less like himself. The Captain of the Queen’s Guard always looked impeccable, and everyone knew it. Looking like a sick mess was a good idea.

He paused almost imperceptibly as she quickly and casually reached behind her back. Jax had spent decades of training becoming hyper-aware of such movements but, context of the moment considered, he was mostly certain there was nothing threatening about it. Indeed, she did pull out a small dagger, but nothing about her body language suggested mal-intent, and he appreciated that she held it out hilt-first.

His eyes stayed on the dagger for a moment as she explained why she was offering it, and then he stared at it for a bit longer, thinking. He was a deadly weapon with his bare hands of course, but the idea of taking a blade with him to help him become a fugitive, even as a last resort… he didn’t think he could do it. Finally he shook his head, looking back up at her. “I understand why you have it, and I understand the offer, but I can’t take it. If we get apprehended, I will do my best without any weapons, but I will not draw the blood of the good people here doing their job. I will either be killed or brought back to prison.

“Now about me being your sick brother, if anyone inquires, it will beg the question of why a girl from the palace cleaning staff brought her sick brother into the palace, and why they are leaving in the late evening. You must answer that you brought me in to see your favorite palace nurse - Nurse Merina - whom you trust over the medical help to be found in town. We are leaving when we are because you had to bring me in after hours, not being part of the palace staff, and Nurse Merina was kind enough to see us late. You must do all the talking, I’ll just moan and cough. 

“As for the stables, there are several. We will want the servants’ stables, and not because it makes more sense for servants to use the servant’s stables - in fact, horses are a good idea, but getting them does present a problem. Palace protocol dictates that anyone removing their horse from a palace stable must report to the groom of that stable, who will ask one of the stable hands to fetch it while he himself reports to the guards at the gate we tell him we will be leaving through. I fear we will need some… quietly violent stratagem to get any horses out of the stables. Besides, most of the palace staff lives in the palace, and few servants have need of a horse, so the groom and stable hands will know who every horse there belongs to. We won’t want the servant’s stables because it will be any easier to get a horse, but it will have fewer armed guards close by, it is closest to the north gates, and frankly I’d rather not steal a royal horse. The horses of the Queen’s Guard are kept with the horses of the Palace Guard in the Stables of the Guard, but that is too heavily guarded - luckily, it is by the east gates at the front of the palace. Unfortunately, that means I won’t be escaping on my own horse, but that may be for the best anyway. Everyone will recognize my horse.” Jax paused in his explanations to give a brief sigh that he would have to leave his horse, a beautiful white stallion named Nirodha. 

He continued, suggesting his thoughts on the best course of action to get out of the palace grounds. Without simply climbing the walls, of course. He decided it really was embarrassing, then decided to ignore it. “We can’t just walk out of the dungeon without alerting the guard you passed at the bottom of the stairs, so I’m hoping you can put him to sleep like you did this young man,” he said, gesturing back at the boy now wearing the uniform of the Captain of the Queen’s Guard. “Then I’m hoping we can get out to the stables without attracting further notice. Once the stables is in view, I should be able to sneak in the back while you approach the groom. There shouldn’t be more than two stable hands inside; I will take care of them quietly while you take care of the groom quietly. If you need to, just keep him distracted long enough for me to sneak up behind him and dispatch of him myself.

“That gets us to the north gate with horses, but it will be closed and guarded… the mechanism to open it is just inside the gate itself, but the palace guard is not going to simply let us saunter through without the ok from the stable’s groom. If only there were some way to hit the opening mechanism as we approached the gate, then we could surprise the guards and rush through… any ideas there? Keep in mind, we have to do all of this as quickly as possible, starting now - we’ll be leaving a trail of unconscious bodies and untrue stories behind us, all of it likely to raise an alarm as soon as any of it is found.”

Jax really hoped Celinny had a miraculous idea for opening that mechanism. His plan to that point was risky but plausible, but that north gate would put a quick stop to escaping...