She certainly did not expect to have wine splash down upon her lap and sully her surcoat this very evening, but that is just what happened exactly when the Princess fumbled the glass by accident and out came the rather chilled liquids onto Irina, seeping through the minute gaps in her chainmail and coercing her to shiver with an abrupt jolt. "Ah!" She yelped almost darting upwards from her seat. Damn was that wine cold and the random altercation had caught the knight off her guard as she was distracted and bewildered by the ponderings of what the King meant by [i]speak more of this in private.[/i] [b]"Oh my!"[/b] The King perked with astonishment to his tone of voice, his eyes widening as he beheld the rambunctious spectacle, that of Irina's brief panic and of his daughter Crystal soon rushing to the knight's aid and drying off her lap in several frantic pats of the napkin. How amusing it was indeed to Irina how flustered the young girl was making herself, shakily and frantically apologizing to the woman and inquiring why her glass was in that particular position for oncoming disaster. [b]"Dear heavens, Crystal! Sir Irina, I do hope you are not offended in the least by this. My daughter had no meaning to stain your evening attire."[/b] His Majesty hastily apologized as well for his daughter's figurative hiccup, but really what was so offending by it? An accident was an accident.

"No offense taken at all, Your Majesty." Irina humbly replied to the King's and Crystals exchange of sorrys, her hand resting gently upon the frazzled and quick moving hand of the Princess, carefully clasping it in hers and setting the soft touching hand of Crystal upon the girl's lap instead as Irina looked to her with a small nod of gratitude, however...her hand was still resting upon Crystal's. "Thank you, M'lady, but I believe that's quite enough to dry my lap." Her smile though was a bit sly at that mention of her lap, and her hand slowly moved away from Crystal's and back to her with a bit of a snicker. The King however paid no mind to it. More or less he was still worried so over his guest's wellbeing. [b]"I do apologize again for what has happened, Sir Irina. Here, I shall tell my servants to fetch you another cup of wine."[/b] Irina responded graciously though with a curt shake of her head, "There is no need, Your Majesty. I believe I've had my fill of wine for this evening." She said in quite a joking manner, her eyes moving towards the Princess and her reddened cheeks. "I do thank you however for the generous offer, and again I thank you graciously, Your Majesty, for this wonderful meal, but it is late. I must retire soon to the chamber you offered to rest, and so I bid you and your beautiful daughter goodnight." And with that, Irina stood from her chair, a bow of respect to the royal family, and she was off to her bedchamber.

[b]"Ah, goodnight then, good Sir Irina. We shall speak early tomorrow morning."[/b] The King returned with his own farewell, of course not forgetting to mention he still had matters to discuss with the brave knight, matters that....may or may not include his daughter as well. 

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Later that night, Irina could not sleep for the life of her. Try as the knight may, she tossed and turned ever so restlessly, despite how comforting the bed had felt to her. Puzzled was she by what words the King wished to speak of her come early rise of the sun, and a bit apprehensive as well was Irina as to what those words might be. For one, despite the King's core values differing from those of other kings, the ones who so spurned the lady knight, Irina had high doubts Crystal's father would accept her into his Kingdom and call her a knight of his own royal guard, but she never knew. Tomorrow could either be what she so fearfully assumed or perhaps the opposite. Either way, her mind was wrought with too many nagging assumptions and ponderings to keep her from having a good night's rest. "Damn...." She muttered under her breath, rising from the bed and ambling sleepily over to the window, carefully peeling back the wood shutters and letting forth the cool night breeze to grace her pale skin, along with the creamy pale glow of a full moon and all the stars of the midnight blue sky. Such a beautiful night it was as the skies were alight with thousands of dazzling bright stars, and from this view in the tower of the grand castle, Irina could see everything, far across her eye could reach to the eastern valleys of cool green grass.

It brought a calming sense to the knight to gaze upon the natural splendor of Alegasia, to take in the untouched, unmarred beauty of the lands vast she traveled.