“No.”

“Have any guesses.”

“... no.”

“I imprinted myself on your brain when you were a baby and turned you into a copy of me.”

“I don’t really care whether you believe me. Do you have any questions.”

“Why are we actually talking.”

“You’ve come to the attention of a rival of mine and I prefer that you go unharmed by that attention.”

“A man with a colorful eye?”

“Yes.”

“Capabilities, preexisting titles, goals...”

“Alexander the Wolf Prince. Keeper of nineteen secrets, member of the Triumvirate of the Western Vesper Empire. Capable of shapeshifting into several dire wolves at once, fond of his magical armor, general of a legion of men, unnaturally charismatic and competent. Unlikely to want to kill you; moderately likely to attempt to inconvenience you or persuade you into an alliance.”

“Oh?”

“He likes to toy with his food.”

“I see.”

“Goodbye.”

She waves a hand, and the island underneath him shatters; he falls into darkness, and he lands back in his marble catacomb and resumes dreaming ordinary dreams.

Jade wakes up, gradually takes over from Kamin - they can make do without the dramatics, if they’re willing to make a more gradual transition - and rolls out of bed. It’s a rare dawn where he can, in fact, take over immediately, and he takes a moment to appreciate it; he ordinarily has to wait for his... traveling companion... to disentangle from Kamin, each morning, before making the switch.

It’s unfortunate, that his headmate had chosen someone so clingy. 

Not that he was entirely bad. Completely unprincipled, but not unwilling to be harnessed to interesting ends. Complementary to his own skillset, and to Kamin’s. And a more pleasant party member than many of the others he’d make the acquaintance of, even given the many complications he came with.

The drow wasn’t even bad looking. Especially when he was asleep. Although Jade would absolutely never express that sentiment aloud, or even share it with Kamin.

He goes downstairs and acquires breakfast; if Jace or Morgan are already down he’ll sit somewhere vaguely near them, otherwise he finds an abandoned little corner.

Jace is up and already occupying an otherwise-abandoned little corner.

He sits in her vague vicinity and eats.

She does not acknowledge him in any way.

It’s mutual. 

She stays at her table after she's done eating, looking occasionally to see if there's anyone coming downstairs.

Zeke eventually wanders down, acquires his own breakfast, notices their corner, and sits somewhere between them.

"Morning, new best friend!  What's on the docket for today?  I sure do love having no control over what I do with my life, how about you; didja sleep well?"

“I dunno that fate works the way you think it works. I slept, like, fine, I only got like four hours but I don’t super need more than that with Kamin.”