The briefest of chuckles echoed across the nearly dark chamber hosting the emperor and emperor to be. "Now, now, think about it. If you vanish, who will they come looking to first? Me, of course. And I'm bad with torture. I bruise like a peach." 

A small, dark woman toyed with the hilt of her small swords, listening but trying not to at the royals behind her. Her stomach was churning with fear, but her face betrayed very little unless you knew where to look. 

Ishawari knew where to look. A near decade of working together could get you to learn things about a person you never thought possible. 

Jin flicked her dark eyes to the door once more, steadying her breathing. "We're doing the right thing. To leave him here, in this nest of vipers, just a child?" She sighed very softly. "If only he were older." She exhaled again, now the other hand going to play on the second blade on her hip. 

Jin knew what they were doing was akin to suicide. If they were caught, they were as good as dead. And the young Prince would be truly alone. Maybe, if they were caught, she could blame it all on herself and spare Ishawari somehow. After all, it would be an easier story to believe. One small, dark, daughter of a foreigner, finally betrayed the empire and seduced her comrade in arms, in a crazy plot to sneak the Prince out of his very home? Craziness.

Though maybe the hardest bit of that lie would be the seduction. Jin was slim and wiry enough to pass as a man with the correct clothing. In fact, that was how they would be traveling.

But no, she couldn't think of being caught. Those thoughts would just invite trouble. 

Gently, without turning, she spoke to the two royals. "We're running short on time..."