Cas fidgeted uncomfortably with his com device as his father questioned Iris as if she was a terrorist. He wanted to speak up to tell the king that she would have told him already if she had gotten any of her memories back. There was no way for her to go off on a scholarly tangent about the inner workings of the capital when she didn’t even know her own last name. He doubted she remembered much about the city at all. Throughout their previous conversations about the high born district, her face had either been blank or lit up with wonder when he’d described places and things that were commonplace to the aristocracy. That wasn’t the reaction of someone who recalled the place where she was from. It was pointless to assault her with questions to which she couldn’t reply. Threatening her with relocation was worse.

As the overwhelmed amnesiac began to cry, Cas paled. He had already known Atlas would be ruthless in his interrogation, but he hadn’t thought his father would be cold enough to bring tears to her eyes. He hoped the king would show her some mercy now that Iris had named a bar in the area. Granted, it was one that he had told her about when she was still in the hospital, but there was no way Atlas could know that. He was confident that she was a high born, and he had no intention of throwing her under the bus when she was already having a terrible morning because of his father.

“The Full Moon,” Atlas repeated with a glance over his shoulder at his son. Although he was the ruler of Aspiria, he wasn’t familiar with every building and business in his kingdom. The bars and clubs in particular were beyond his scope of attention most of the time, since he had never been one to spend his evenings drinking even in his youth. Unlike the current crown prince, he had spent every waking minute preparing to rule the country and had taken his duties far more seriously.

[color=#b97703]“It’s a bar in the central district,”[/color] Cas explained, relaxing slightly now that the conversation going on through his earpiece had stopped for the moment.

“Is this a place you’ve told her about?” Atlas asked accusatively.

The prince cursed silently. [color=#b97703]“Maybe,”[/color] he shrugged, attempting to answer the question as vaguely as he could. [color=#b97703]“We’ve been talking about a lot of things because I’m trying to help her recover her memories, but that doesn’t mean her mother never went to that bar.”[/color]

“Or she’s twisting your words to make it sound like she has a history here,” the king countered sharply, turning back to Iris. “I’m sorry, but I’m not convinced you’re not an outsider. I’ll call the guards to escort you to a cell for further questioning.”

[color=#b97703]“Wait, wait,”[/color] Cas jumped in quickly, stepping away from the wall to approach his father. [color=#b97703]“Dad, that’s not fair. Taking her somewhere else isn’t going to change the fact that she can’t tell you what you want to hear. She won’t know who she is or where she’s from until her memories come back.”[/color]

“Unless she already knows and is choosing to withhold that information because she’s part of the Scourge,” Atlas narrowed his eyes at the girl. “If she was a high born, someone would have come for her by now. That she is still here is proof to me that she doesn’t belong, and I’m sure the interrogators will confirm my beliefs when they have their turn with her.”

[color=#b97703]“But what if you’re wrong?”[/color] Cas insisted, taking a step closer to Iris in subconscious protectiveness. [color=#b97703]“If she’s just a regular citizen, you’ll scar her for no damn good reason. Then what are you going to do when word gets out that you sent an innocent girl to the soldiers?”[/color]

“Our people will understand that we must take extreme measures when a threat is posed to the crown,” Atlas rebutted. “Even if it’s hard to swallow, they can trust that we’ll take every precaution to keep not only ourselves, but [i]them[/i] safe from the rebels.”

Cas clenched his hands into fists at his sides, his mind working furiously to come up with a way to convince the determined monarch. It sounded like his father was going to send Iris away no matter what he said, but he couldn’t stand the thought of letting her endure the interrogators without a fight. [color=#b97703]“What if there’s a better solution?”[/color] he posed, grasping at a half-formed idea as he held the king’s gaze.

“Such as?” Atlas folded his arms.

[color=#b97703]“Well…”[/color] the prince trailed off until a plan clicked in his head. [color=#b97703]“Call Dr. Emett. Instead of sending her to the soldiers to find out if she has her memories back, we can set up a brain scan. Then we’ll know for sure if she remembers who she is or not.”[/color]

Atlas paused, seeming taken aback by the proposal, and Cas stood up slightly straighter. He was pleased with himself for coming up with a perfect way to prove to his father that Iris was still suffering from amnesia. This way, she wouldn’t have to be interrogated, and the king would know for sure that she wasn’t lying to them.

“Very well,” Atlas nodded. “I’ll get ahold of Emett to make the arrangements.” He turned to Iris once more. “I hope my son is right for your sake. If we find out that you have been deceiving us, I’ll have my men do far more than just question you.”