He froze, as if hearing that phrase fall from someone else's lips solidified everything that he had suspected and thought that he knew. In that moment multiple things clicked into place-- and he dropped his head, thick hair obscuring his face.

"Kouen was right," he murmured, no longer referring to That Man by the name he had forced into believing was his. "He was right all along-- and I think that's why he was fired."

His heart fell like a frozen rock into his stomach as he thought of that man once again, and he found himself praying to whatever gods were listening that his brother and king was all right.