Sorry for the freaksly slow update people! Life...you know how it is....

Basil rolled his eyes as Randilyn disappeared though the doorway behind Randall.

Lynn was rooting around in a white paper bag.

“Fortune cookies!” she chirped happily, tossing each of us a tan cookie wrapped in a small plastic bag. The room was soon filled with the crackle of plastic as everyone unwrapped their cookies. And soon after,

the room was filled with the sound of Basil choking.

“You ok?” Tatiana asked in alarm, looking up from her cookie.

Basil half-rose from his seat and continued to cough, his face turning slightly pink. Sam jumped up, and, to our astonishment, vaulted the table and smacked Basil on the back. Basil gasped and spit out a half of the cookie in his hand.

“Uuuugggg,” he said, collapsing in his chair, tears streaming down his face.

"Take the fortune out before eating the cookie, Basil. Trust me, it'll go over better if you do," Sam said, sitting in the chair that was recently deserted by Randilyn. “Choking on a fortune is not the way to go, let me tell you.”

Basil grimaced and took the now slightly soggy strip of paper out from inside the half of the cookie.

“This better be one damn good fortune,” he muttered, unfolding it. He read it, then cleared his throat. "’Do not test the depth of water with both feet’."

"Well really," Lynn said, rolling her eyes.

“Well what does yours say?” Basil retorted.

Lynn cracked her cookie open, shook out her fortune, read it to herself, then frowned. “’Do not presume that you know all about anyone,’” she read out loud. She looked up at us. “Is there something anyone wants to tell me?” No one said anything. Then Sam spoke up.

“Well I... uh,” he started. “I....”

Everyone turned at looked at him, different expressions on their faces. Lynn was looking expectant, Tatiana was looking surprised, and Basil was looking a little scared, as if he didn’t want to know.

“Yes?” Lynn asked cajolingly.

“Uh... what?” Sam asked, the look of steely determination on his face melting into panic.

“You were going to say something about yourself that none of us knows,” I reminded him.

“Oh right. I... I...” Sam muddled, his eyes darting around the room, as if looking for an escape. From all the way across the table, I could tell that he was having a hard time breathing. Sam shot a terrified look to his left and blurted out, ”I actually hate singing.”

Everyone sat back, looking surprised. That was certainly not what we were expecting.

“Well... uh,” Tatiana finally said, apparently at a loss of what to say. “You always seemed to like to sing.”

“Oh sure,” Sam said, nodding. “If it was for school or something. But I’m talking about singing as a whole. It just doesn't do it for me anymore.”

I glanced over at my friends. Lynn had a blank look on her face... which meant she was thinking hard. Tatiana was slumped back in her seat, her arms crossed, and a frown on her face. I could tell they

didn’t believe Sam anymore than I did. Sam seemed to be about to say something, but changed his mind. Which raised the question: What was he originally going to tell us?

I looked over at Basil to see if he knew what Sam’s problem was, because he sure looked like he did. He was smiling a little, as if he knew something we didn’t. I had seen a similar look on Shyamalan’s face

many times.

Tatiana snapped out of her daze and looked at me. I shrugged. She shrugged back.

Suddenly, Basil slammed his hand down on the table, making the girls and I jump. His face had gone pale, making the dark color of his eyes stand out. For a brief second, he looked like he did when I first met him: a quiet, passive eighteen year old boy.

I remembered something my old friend Sydney Carleton once told me. “People do crazy things when they’re scared, Fi,” he said. “The most common thing is to get more aggressive. Unfortunately, the situation does not always call for such a reaction. The other way to tell if someone is scared is to see if they look younger than they really are. Fear strips everything away from us... our reasoning, our common sense, and our age.”

As I looked into Basil’s face, I couldn’t help but notice that he had seemed to reduce to at least three years younger.

“Are you ok?” Lynn asked him. He looked up at her, his breathing shallow. Sam glanced over at him, and frowned slightly. He shifted in his seat uncomfortably and tossed his hair back out of his eyes. Basil gave a hiccuping gasp.

“I need... I’ll be... before I forget... pie... right back....” he muttered. Without giving us a chance to say anything, he jumped up from his chair and dashed from the room.

The girls and I exchanged startled glances as the tall oak doors slammed closed behind Basil.

“What was that all about?” Tatiana asked slowly. I shook my head.

“I have no idea,” I said. Then I looked over at Sam, who’s head was now in his hands. “Sam? Ideas?”

“Nope,” Sam said, jumping up from his seat and, without word or warning, bolted from the room.

The girls and I looked at each other in silence.

“And I repeat myself,” Tatiana said, breaking the silence. “What is going on here?”

Lynn shook her head.

“I have no idea. Panic attack?”

“Both of them? If so, then about what?” I asked. My fortune cookie crumbled in my fist. “Oops.” I picked up the small fortune paper from the crumbs and unfolded it. I read it, narrowed my eyes, and read it again.

“Well what does it say?” Tatiana asked expectantly.

“’Things are not always what they seem,’” I said slowly.

Tatiana blinked.

“That’s sure right,” she said.

“Now what do we do?” Lynn asked. “The food’s all gone, and so is Sam.”

“Wait for him, I guess,” I said. I got up and walked to one of the tall bookshelves. “In the mean time, I’ve been dying to check out these books.”

I could feel Tatiana and Lynn exchange exasperated glances behind my back. So what if I have a short attention span and like books? If Randall had walked back into the room at this moment, we would lose Lynn. And a shiny object usually does it for Tatiana.

Tatiana reached across in front of Lynn and picked up one of my cookie crumbs as I climbed one of the ladders to reach a particularly interesting-looking book. I reached it and wrapped my hand around the

spine. It was heavier than I thought, and it took some wrenching to get it just halfway out.

“Problem?” Tatiana asked, her mouth full of cookie.

“No,” I grunted as I pulled the book another inch out of the bookshelf. “Not... yet... oh no!”

The book slipped out of the bookshelf and out of my hand. It fell down with a flutter of pages and landed heavily on an armchair.

“Oh dear,” I said, climbing down the ladder as fast as I could. “I hope I didn’t ruin it.”

“You didn’t,” Lynn said. She and Tatiana had come over after it landed. She flipped it open. “Hm. No pictures. Here.” She handed it back to me.

“’The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire’? That sounds like a fascinating book,” Tatiana said slightly distastefully, craning her neck so she could see the title. I turned the book over and looked at the words stamped in gold on a red background.

“Yeah, so what’s the problem?” I asked, waving it around. “I aced this subject in high school.”

As I stopped waving the book around, something fluttered on the floor from in between the pages.

“What’s this?” Tatiana asked stooping down and picking it up. It was a picture. Tatiana looked at it, and her eyes grew wide. “Look at this!” she said, moving so Lynn and I could look over her shoulders.

“Woah!” Lynn said, as the three of us stared at the photo.

The picture was of four people, teenagers by the look of them. There were two girls and two boys. Both girls had long yellow hair. One had light blue eyes and the other’s eyes were purple-gray. One of the

boys had black hair and black eyes, and the other....

“Oh my God!” Tatiana gasped. “That’s Maximilian Ryouna!”

“What?” I cried, snatching the photo out of her hand to look at it more closely. I thought there was something familiar about the second boy. He had reminded me of Basil, and now that I could place him, there was a definite resemblance between him and his son.

“Holy biscuit!” Lynn yelled, making me jump. “And that looks like Cecilia Ryouna!” She pointed to the girl with the purple-gray eyes, who was standing next to her husband. Or future husband, by the look of

their ages.

“But who are these two?” Tatiana asked, pointing to the other girl and the boy who was standing next to Maximilian.

“I don’t know,” I said, frowning at the boy. “But the boy looks familiar.”

“I know,” Tatiana said, narrowing her eyes at the picture. “So does that girl.”

“I agree with Fiona, the boy does looks familiar... but... he also reminds me of someone,” Lynn said thoughtfully. “But I don’t know who.”

I looked closer at the four people in the photograph. On the left was the blue eyed girl. Standing next to her was Cecilia, her arms folded and her back slightly to Maximilian, who was to the right of her. The black haired boy was standing on the right end of the little group, his left hand causally on Maximilian’s right shoulder.

All of them were smiling and dressed in fancy clothes. The boys were wearing red and black robes, styled like the ones Randall wore wearing and the girls were donned in pastel colored dresses. They looked in their mid-teens, but the fancy clothes made them look older.

“They look like pretty close friends,” Tatiana said, gesturing to the picture.

“Well we can ask Basil when he comes back,” I said, giving the picture back to Tatiana and opening up the red history book again. “But I wonder why it was in this... what?”

Bewildered, I pulled out yet another picture from between the pages.

“Another one?” Lynn frowned. “Whoever put these in here needs to be introduced to the wonderful world of photo albums.”

“Check this out,” I said, ignoring Lynn. “It’s another picture of Mr. Ryouna... or Lord Maximilian... or whatever. In any case, Basil’s father. And that other guy.”

Lynn tilted her head so she could see the picture better. It was a black and white photo, instead of a colored one, and this time, the girls weren't in it. Maximilian Ryouna and ‘that other guy’ seemed to be in the same room and were wearing the same clothes as the other picture. Obviously, the two pictures were taken one after the other. Maximilian was standing with his arms folded and a smile on his face, and the other boy was standing to his right, his arm wrapped around Maximilian's waist.

“Maybe they’re related,” Tatiana volunteered.

“Maybe.” I took the picture from Tatiana and slipped both photos back into the book. Stepping around the chair, I started to climb the ladder to put the book back. I was half way up when something occurred to me.

“Hey girls,” I said after I put the book back on the bookshelf and got back down to the floor. “Why would someone put two innocent looking pictures in that book?”

“Good hiding place?” said Lynn.

“Good,” I said. “That’s what I was thinking. And the fact that Tatiana called the book boring just confirms that idea. I mean, what better place to hid something then in a place where no one will look?”

“No one but us,” Tatiana said cheerfully. Then her smile turned into a frown. “But why? I mean, why would someone hide a perfectly innocent looking picture in a book?”

“Who knows?” Lynn shrugged. “Maybe it’s not as innocent as it seems.”

“I mean, I would think Basil would want all the pictures of his parents that he can get.”

“Maybe he doesn't like that picture.”

“Which, if you are right, is why we aren't going to mention it,” I said. Tatiana and Lynn turned to me in surprise. “Well think about it,” I continued. “If he did hide the pictures, he must have a reason. If he

doesn't want anyone else to see it, well, then what he doesn't know won’t hurt him. And if he wants to forget about the pictures, then we don’t want to remind him. Plus, I don’t think it’s any of our business.”

Tatiana and Lynn looked at each other, then Tatiana shrugged.

“I guess you’re right.”

“I am.”

“But I go back to my statement,” Lynn said, as we made our way back to the dining room table. “Maybe it’s not as innocent as it seems.”

“Seems pretty innocent to me,” Tatiana said, sinking into her deserted chair. “I mean, how horrible can two pictures of friends be?”

I was about to say ‘nothing, and Lynn, you’re blowing things out of proportion,’ when the parlor doors swung open.

“There you are!” Tatiana cried as Sam came in, followed by Basil, who was looking paler than usual.

“What happened?” Tatiana asked as they sat down.

“You two okay?” I frowned, taking in Basil’s face.

“It was nothing, and yes, we’re okay,” Sam said.

Basil didn’t say anything. His pale face was blotched with an unusual red and he looked like he had just ran through a forest, or at least just outside; his hair was windblown and tangled.

I exchanged glances with the girls; by the looks on their faces, they had noticed Basil’s rumpled appearance to.

Lynn cleared her throat.

“So tell me more about this Robin person,” she said, leaning on her elbows towards Basil.

Tatiana and I hissed. Talking about someone that made Basil uncomfortable when he looked uncomfortable already was not a good way to go. Lynn ignored us and continued to stare at Basil expectantly.

Basil looked up at her with slightly glassy eyes. His eyes widened, and the out-of-it look disappeared. He seemed to think for a second, then frowned.

“Okay, um... well... he taught me everything I know about being a lord,” Basil said, looking slightly at a loss. “But because he did that, he thinks he can do whatever he wants where I’m concerned, and that he can boss me around....”

Basil stopped short, as if he had said too much, and looked a little frightened.

“So in other words, he manipulates you,” Sam stated flatly.

Basil swallowed and nodded. His coloring had returned back to normal, but he still looked like he had gone though the mill.

“After about a year of that, I put my foot down with a firm hand. You heard me on the phone anyway. He wants me to come to England for... oh I don’t know... I rarely ever do, but they want me to go just the same.”

“Well why don’t you?” I asked.

“You guys,” Basil said, gesturing to us. “I don’t want to get up and leave after meeting you again after three years.”

“Don’t worry about us,” Tatiana said. “We’ve got to go back to school anyway. And we’ll be here when you get back.”

“I know, but I fixed it so that I won’t have to go to England at all, if possible,” Basil said, becoming cheerful again.

“How?” Sam asked.

“By having him come here.”

The Chinese food delivery man quickly slid a thin plastic card into a slot in the hotel door. A small light turned green on the metal lock, and he threw open the heavy door.

As he stormed in, another man looked up from the window seat, seemingly unsurprised at the other’s violent entrance.

The delivery man ignored him for the moment and used the time to tear the stolen delivery hat off his head and throw it against the wall. It bounced off the and onto the bed. His hair fell down to his shoulders, and he shook it so it fell in tangled locks, resulting from being trapped in the hat for an hour.

The man sitting on the window seat regarded him with cool appraisal. The man took a deep breath, finally ready to talk.

“We’ve got a problem.”