Where Fjerda's Crown Princess is rising from her throne. 

"Kielo!"

Kielo Grimjer, the younger of Fjerda's twin princesses, the one who's been sidelined from public view for the last five years stands there confidently, holding the hand of a woman, and she calls out nice and loud for their audience, "Did you miss me, sister?"

She stares, caught off guard for a critical moment - then she yanks her gaze away, that's Sturmhund's business not hers even if that other woman sure looked a lot like Nina Zenik, who's one of Ravka's grisha - missing, taken by witch-hunters, another one Val failed to save - 

Kaz has vanished, is the next thing she notices. 

She takes off - as stealthily as she can - 

She doesn't get very far before she gets the sense that it's been too long, things are too quiet, she's lost the trail. ...Fuck.

If Kaz has Kuwei - 

Ketterdam. They'll go to Ketterdam.

Val slinks back to Sturmhund's side - they can't afford for anyone to be unaccounted for when alarms start going off - and tries to evaluate the new (more chaotic) situation. (And possibly warn Sturmhund that they need to either bail or look exceptionally innocent. Ideally bail, though, if they can get out fast enough, but Val does not want to risk being overheard giving that warning.)

This is definitely more exciting than she understood Fjerdan parties to get.

Though with the princesses leaving, maybe it's time they retire for the night - ?

(She isn't saying they need to bail. But they really need to bail. Hopefully everyone else just thinks they're being horny.)

The fun does seem to be moving on, true. Maybe they can find somewhere warmer than an Ice Court...

There was that one inn, and Sturmhund's own ship does have luxuriously soft and warm beds -

Well then, shall they see if they can't beat the rush a little?

Let's. 

- Unfortunately, they don't even make it through the line to the single bridge crossing the inner moat before an alarm sounds and the guards stop letting people through. 

Well. That's unfortunate.

What're all the other innocent guests doing? Because that's what they are too. Poor unfortunate souls trapped by an unforeseen and unrelated emergency.

They seem to mostly be gossiping! Some of the gossip might be risky to participate in, depending on how thorough Fjerdan surveillance is, but there's a couple of conversations about the returned princess and her companion, that seem light enough that they shouldn't get scrutinized too much. (The conversations about 'why the shut down?' seem riskier, mostly.)

(There's also a good number complaining about the shut down, often to the guards' faces, but that's probably far too risky to engage in.)

Sturmhund will definitely gossip about the returned princess! It's kind of like a fairy tale, don't you think, her returning dramatically on Hringkalla and all.

Very much so! 

There's a few Fjerdan nobles in their same vague gossip blob, one of whom brings up some idle speculation about where the princess went - "Knowing her? Running with the wolves, dear," his wife says with a laugh hidden behind her bejeweled fan. 

"Who was that girl with her, though - ? She didn't look entirely Fjerdan," another, younger woman wonders. "And that name..."

"Perhaps a port girl," the first woman says, dismissively. "Some of them are mixed, you know, even up north. And they grow them wild up there." That sets off some tittering. 

"It's romantic though, you know?"

Well, depends on how you mean 'romantic' - it's certainly like an adventure tale, or an old epic poem - 

Exactly! It's history happening in front of them.

"I imagine the salons will be quite interesting for the next year," one woman says. (The men seem to be drifting away from this particular gossip circle; the women open up more as their husbands or assorted chaperones slink off.)

"At least!" says another with a laugh. "I can already imagine the stories people might spin - perhaps the princess and our new Hero of Fjerda will grace us with their presence."

One younger woman sighs longingly. "That'd be wonderful. Crown Princess Irina's devotion to her country is an inspiration, of course, but her duties do keep her so busy... It'll be nice to have another princess around, one with a bit more time for the social aspects of court."

"Kielo was always a charming child," one older woman says approvingly. "Had everyone but her parents wrapped around her little finger."

"I've never gotten a chance to meet her," the young woman says. "Do you think they'll have a ball just for her - ? A salon, at least!"

"She never did get a proper introduction to court," the old woman points out. "Surely they'll do something."

"It's absolutely worthy of celebration. And maybe Princess Irina will find she has more time for society with Kielo back as well."

They can only hope.

(In the distance, the guards seem to be starting to let people off White Island, though much more slowly and with thorough checks at the gates - where there's now at least one druskelle and wolf.)

She'll start heading that way when this conversation starts lagging. (Not too eager, not too slow.)

Seems they aren"t being totally set free, instead shuffled off the island and into the Embassy Sector so they can be held somewhere away from the royal family - foreigners are being prioritized for removal from White Island, which none of the Fjerdan nobles seem particularly surprised by. There's far more guards than earlier, with multiple checkpoints with no blind spots between them as they're crossing over, and there's druskelle and enormous white wolves just about everywhere. (One of the identity checks apparently includes 'get sniffed.')

They're all the same people they started out as. And haven't done anything wrong.

Still not leaving the Embassy Sector in a hurry, though, and the gossip there is more speculative - more closely watched - less illuminating. (Some of the Fjerdans appear to be being allowed to leave entirely, but foreign groups are going to have to cool their heels for a while yet.)

They'll probably be let go before it gets too insanely late, after they've been thoroughly searched and checked multiple times and haven't done anything unusually suspicious the entire time, and there's even (mandatory, watched) carriages to take them back to the city (with yet more checkpoints along the route). 

...Though the harbor is also locked down until further notice, and Sturmhund and her crew are escorted straight to their ship, no stops permitted on the way.