"You found reason to dislike your servitude, and you left."

The voice is Havelock's, though it issues with thoughtful softness from Puck's mouth. He shakes his head and glances at Havelock, as if he'd like to laugh again or smile or snicker rudely.

Instead, he pauses.

"If I understand aright," he says, "the king shall be dreadfully busy just at present. But now that Hellebore shan't return ..."

A slight, faint shrug.

"It were one thing to track an erring servant and arrant knave ... but the murderer of a knight of the court is something else entire. I cannot say what he will do, should he come to suspect the two are the same."

And if he's honest-- though saints protect him from it-- there is part of him that wishes Oberon should come for him. Call it an ounce of vanity and a pound of affection.

Or is it the other way around?