just a small favor

 "You knew my brother, Xio?" ChaCha was elated. Of course, she hadn't seen him since he'd gone to the border, years ago. He never came back.

"We have different lives now," Milo made it sound he'd been someone else and no one knew who he was now, not even himself. "I suspect he's a general." They'd only been friends learning at the academy, back in their scholar days. 

ChaCha and Milo ate the buns together. Both wished for honey, but it was filling.

Suddenly ChaCha didn't feel so frightened. Knowing Milo was a friend of her brother's.

"You wouldn't lie, or would you?" She was serious.

"What would I  have to lie about?" Milo remained even lipped as if he was after all a figment of the imagination. 

"Then..then..why did you come back?" ChaCha didn't understand.

"I never wished it. Just looking for a way out," he shrugged as he asked about what was happening now at the palace. "Did you know those people?"

ChaCha shook her head, no. But she told him there was always some sort of unrest. "Father does want to please the people."

Milo nodded. "It sounds right, but does he know who he's pleasing?"

ChaCha winced thinking so many were so greedy. It was as if they took pleasure in making others suffer. She'd seen how it was within the courtyard of the palace. Someone always making trouble. It was a vicious circle. If the queen might be having a bad day, someone might get whipped to death. One had to be careful about what they said.

"Don't make me go back," ChaCha decided she'd rather be on her own with Milo instead of being sentenced to the palace.