A few minutes passed in silence after Luke left before Tobias, apprehensive about upsetting Rhiane when she was already clearly emotional, knocked on her door. The princess elect wiped away a few tears that had appeared on her cheeks without her knowing and took a deep breath. Whether they had been tears of sadness or anger she did not know- probably both. Thinking about her mother and brother drove her into a deep despair that felt like a bottomless pit, yet at the same time she felt furious, bitter resentment towards the world full of people that had lived full lives with their family when she was robbed of precious memories. When they had been alive, Violet Black and Edwin Black had understood her best. That fate had coincidentally stolen the relatives in which she confided the most, sought the most, cherished the most felt exceedingly cruel.

"Rhiane?" Tobias called through the door. "Do you need me to get anything for you?" Technically he was her bodyguard, not her servant, but he was more than willing to fetch her a few items if it would ease her burden. He had mixed feelings about the praise of her words. While he was quietly proud that she appreciated various aspects of her personality, he knew she had spoken from a place of pain, that she had been spurred by disappointment due to Luke's inability to comprehend her state of mind. She wasn't ready yet to abandon her infatuation with his cousin.

"Can you get Sebastian for me?" she asked as she walked to her dresser and picked up her brush. Her brother-in-law would balk slightly at helping her get dressed, but given the alternatives she knew he would agree to help fasten and adjust her dress. She pulled on her underwear and fastened her bra into place as she heard her protector's footsteps recede down the hall. Rhiane was reluctant to leave home. When she had at first departed for the capital it had been an act of desperation to provide for what few people she had left in her life, but now she was not without options. As she stared at her own reflection she wondered if being Luke's bride was what was best for them both. He would not admit he liked her, he did not trust her, he hated their tour together, and she was fighting a war on all sides to defend herself. The former farmer was tired. If he could not be her sanctuary, and she his, if they couldn't be at least genuine friends, then it seemed folly to continue while wishing for an impossible outcome.

"You needed me?" Sebastian inquired. She quickly crossed the room and let him inside, her hair half-brushed, and her funeral dress laid out on the bed. To say it was a ominous sight to the foreigner was a vast understatement.

"Help me get into this thing," she replied with a rough gesture towards the black garment before squaring her shoulders resolutely, "and then I want you to take a message to Luke. Don't worry," Rhiane reassured as he looked at her with increasing concern, "it's nothing that will get you into trouble." Picking up a stray piece of paper and a pen she leaned over her desk, quickly jotting down a series of names off the top of her head. "I wouldn't ask you to do it if it wasn't important."


Five minutes before Luke's deadline Sebastian approached the heir to the throne's tent and was let in by a begrudging Nolan. "Sorry to interrupt," the blonde man apologized quickly, his voice low, mellow, and calm, a sharp contrast to the fiery dispositions of the family he had joined through his romantic ties with Gerard. "Rhiane wanted me to give you a list of names for the only people she wants to follow the two of you to the cemetery." He held out the folded sheet but waited for Luke to decide whether or not he would take it. She's asked that there be no video, still pictures only." It was a deviation from the plan. Listed were the reporters that had been the most considerate in their interviews of coverage; those that had been more critical, possessed a sharper tongue, questioned her sincerity, or had simply been rude were omitted. Because she was going to be so vulnerable during her mourning, Rhiane had thought letting anyone see her was a gift, and only wanted to reward those that would be empathetic. Requesting photographers but no video similarly kept the audience to a level of respectful observation.

"I doubt she's told you this, but she's doing this for you," Sebastian hesitantly stated. "She knows if she doesn't go then there would be damaging rumors and speculation. Since I've known her she's not visited them, not once. I know she's... difficult, but that's even trying to face this, face them, is more than I've seen her do for anyone else." And it was. Thought she was not consciously aware, Rhiane was once again martyring her emotional well-being on the altar of sacrifice to try to aid Luke's image through association. Had the stakes been less she would have not entertained the suggestion for a moment before darkly refusing. Children of neighbors had been paid to clean around the stones and keep the area tidy since the sultry brunette could not bear to gaze upon the physical reminder of the dead that haunted her dreams nightly.