"You should have listened to him and taken the medicine," Edwin stated. In the world of dreams they were sitting on the wooden steps of the front porch. The pair of siblings sat comfortably with their shoulders pressed against each other though Edwin was half a foot taller. A winding gravel driveway meandered from the right side of the house and to a worn road in the distance. To their left was a flower garden that had been tended to by their mother while she lived, thriving under her green thumb, with one bloom or another always in season. Though they were poor and nothing in their life was luxurious there was still beauty. Rhiane found tranquility in knowing that the flowers would die by be reborn the same time next year and that the no matter what crops were in the fields, no matter how battered the land was by storms, there would be a reliable path leading them to the safety of town. The female farmer inhaled the fresh air of the countryside that was nothing but a conjured illusion of her subconscious.

"You know how I feel about it," Rhiane retorted as she leaned her head on her brother's shoulder affectionately. This was how she always remembered him. A pillar of strength that could endure anything without flinching. Only when the disease ravaged him had he seemed compromised, but the illness had not robbed him of his dignity even then. Rationally she knew that no one as as perfect as she made him to be in these projections but it was her place of respite. Here should be supported instead of supportive.

"I know how I feel about it because I am you," Edwin sighed. "Before you hated them because of what happened to all of us, because there weren't enough supplies and so they demanded payment for treatment, because you blame them for letting us die." With a tender smile he turned and took Rhiane's hands in his own. She tried to jerk away but found herself unable. As she was controlling both sides of the conversation, both halves of the dream, she could both attempt an escape and prevent it simultaneously. "But now you have a chance to live without those worries. You can just focus on being healthy instead of forcing yourself to walk each row of soy checking for signs of blight."

"I can't trust him," she grumbled, referring to none other than Luke. Edwin-self laughed and patted her hands with amusement.

"What's his angle? How does he possibly benefit in helping to alleviate your pain?" The male farmer stood and put his hands on his hips as he surveyed the plowed and seeded soil that stretched out of sight in front of them. Verdant buds had just begun to emerge from the ground in perfectly symmetrical lines. This had been a classic pose of the real counterpart of her psyche's remembrance. When he knew he had won an argument he would always proudly look away, as if disinterested, as he savored not only the victory but the frustration of the conquered as the realization dawned on them.

"I don't like him," she protested of her fiance. Even with his back to her Rhiane could sense his quiet yet firm disbelief. In the glimpses of compassion she had faltered and, while she was not even moderately infatuated, she did not hate him quite as fervently as she did before.

The scene was dispelled, vanishing instantly, as a handle gently shook her awake. Her abrupt departure from the mirage startled her and she jerked slightly under Luke's touch before relaxing. A hand absently rubbed at her eyes as she sluggishly started to process what the crown prince had said. Because she didn't remember falling asleep she was disoriented at the sight of the minimalist bedroom with the hypnotizing view. Slumber had been a godsend. It would take a few minutes to get her bearings but she was refreshed and her ankle's throbbing had subsided. The tremors of her good leg, which had been overtaxed bearing all her weight for twenty minutes consecutively, had disappeared entirely.

"Call me Rhiane," she insisted as she pushed herself upright, "Lowly peasant such as myself doesn't deserve to be called Ms. anything by someone such as yourself," she chided half-heartedly. It was more important he take on the habit of utilizing her first name so that their charade was not discovered for the ruse it was. No fiance called his dearest by such polite honorifics. "Did you get your work done? Is it time for my interview?" Rhiane continued, not getting the gist of his decision that they were going somewhere that was not on their formal agenda.