“Toria, are you sure this is

  exactly what you want to do?” Mistra had stopped packing her bag

  and looked to me meaningfully, concern evident in her eyes. “I know

  this is everything you’ve always wanted it and seems like it has

  been perfectly set on a silver platter for you, but you’ve had no

  real time to think through any of this. Big decisions like this

  should not be made lightly or while impaired, and we have a distinct

  lack of sleep. I would not put it past Feros to have specifically

  waited to spring this one you while you barely had any rest to get

  you to agree to go with him.”

  She wasn’t wrong to be

  concerned. We were planning on leaving in less than a day for

  something that would irreparably change things between the House Yser

  and the Draks. My leaving without warning and taking over my rightful

  kingdom would not go down well with Rafe and I would be lucky if he

  would decide not to declare me an enemy and hold a grudge. I was not

  sure exactly what that would mean for the castle Yser and the land

  connected, though if given the choice between the Yser land and my

  rightful kingdom, I chose the later. Besides, the fae had made the

  Yser castle a moot point for the time being and I could always

  revisit how to recover what was mine there at a later date.

  As for Feros intentionally

  picking a time where I would be less able to think through the

  consequences, I did not doubt at all that it was exactly what he had

  had in mind. Part of dealing with the fiend was always keeping in

  mind that everything was one big drama that had been set up to mainly

  benefit him. Though in this case, the carrot he was dangling was just

  too tempting. I had not worked out yet exactly what benefit it was

  going to get for him, but it would be hard to make it be something I

  would regret going and getting my kingdom back. Perhaps I was being

  too short sighted in being willing to jump at this chance so quickly

  and that was a risk I was willing to take.

  “I have to do this,” I

  replied, “if I decided not to go now I would never forgive myself

  later for not knowing if it would have worked. I know it’s a huge

  risk and I understand if you would rather not take it with me. You

  have your own kingdom to worry about taking. You are welcome to stay

  here, study your tome, and figure out how to work things out for your

  benefit. I know you are going to be putting that dream on hold to

  follow me, that does not feel very fair to you.”

  Ruby lips curling into a soft

  smile, her long braided locks shook from side to side as Mistra shook

  her head. “You are being ridiculous now thinking that I would want

  to stay here during all this. No, I want to be by your side when you

  take back what is rightfully yours. Besides, you know my father would

  spend the entire time you were gone drilling me for information about

  where you were and what you were doing, no amount of convincing lies

  would make him believe I did not know anything. It is best that

  anyone who knows anything about where you are going leaves the castle

  with you.

  “I guess that makes my mind

  up about something,” I said with along, drawn out sigh. “Mari

  probably should not be told what is going on. Safest for her to be

  kept in the dark, even if she is going to absolutely hate me for not

  telling her before we go.”

  “She could come with us.”

  Mistra was making the

  suggestion to be nice, because she knew I was going to worry about

  leaving my aunt behind with an angry demon king, but we both knew the

  alternative would be difficult on all parties.

  “A year or so ago I may have

  considered it, now… no, I do not think Mari should be forced onto

  any more long journeys. I was wrong for insisting she be the one to

  go retrieve the girls and it showed by how worn down she has been

  since those journeys ended,” I admitted.

  I had a lot of guilt about

  sending her out those months ago, I had tried to atone by making sure

  Mari had every excuse to stay and still feel useful since, my

  perception of the strong, healthful aunt that rescued me had taken a

  bit too long to fade.

  “I know she will probably be

  upset now that we are leaving her behind, but my conscience would not

  let me rest if she came with us. The best thing for her right now is

  the comfort and luxury of the life she is used to, not roughing it

  across the land on an adventure.”

  “To be quite honest, she

  would probably spend the whole time worrying about her contact

  network and wanting to get back to where she could keep trying to

  piece it back together anyway,” Mistra agreed. “I think she would

  probably agree to come with us out of a sense of solidarity and duty,

  but in her heart of hearts she would not want to be there and would

  long to be back. She is at the age now where her ideas of duty and

  desires for what is best for her are muddled and she has trouble

  confidently picking the option that is best for her.”

  “Is there even any hope of

  that?” I asked. "Will her network ever be whole and

  functioning again? She has put so much effort into it over the years

  and has been so proud of it. I find it really sad that it has been

  destroyed like this."

  Mistra gave me a sad look,

  stopped trying to find room in her bag for a couple more items, and

  sat down on the edge of our bed. “You know I think the highest of

  you and your family, right?”

  Uh oh, nothing ever pleasant

  started out with that kind of opening. “Of course, you have always

  been sure to give Mari nothing but the upmost respect.” I sat my

  own bag down, half-packed, and took a seat on the bed next to her.

  She turned to face me, an

  unsure half-smile on her face as she assessed how to best word what

  she wanted to say next. It did not surprise me that she was being so

  careful with her words, it was part of what really set her apart from

  the rest of her family. The Drak men would say the first things that

  came to their minds, slight exception for one of the brothers who

  seemed to have picked up a bit more tact from somewhere, but even

  then, they were prone to spitting out replies with no forethought

  about what the long term effects would be. Perhaps it had been all

  the times she had seen such actions come around to bite the rest of

  them that had really driven home the benefits of careful

  consideration before blurting out on impulse. Her tact was a large

  part of the reason that even if Mistra was not my consort, I would

  still support her rise to the throne over any of them. She was

  calculating and sharp, she could plan for the future and hold her

  tongue when it was best to. The Draks would be most likely to truly

  find glory under her leadership.

  “When my grandmother died,

  my human grandmother, that is, I noticed something about her that I’m

  beginning to realize now might be a common trait between people

  arriving at the… culmination of their lives.” While she spoke,

  she began to entwine her fingers in my dark hair, playing with and

  curling the ends around her fingers. She knew it instantly relaxed

  me, which was likely why she started to do it. “If I remember

  correctly, your grandmother went quickly?”

  “Mhmm,” I murmured, trying

  very hard not to let my heavy eyelids convince me that I should lean

  against her for a short nap. There was too much to be done to let

  myself rest just yet. "Just a few days really. She seemed fine

  and then she was bed bound."

  “Well mine went very slow.

  There wasn’t really any single day that I could pinpoint where I

  knew for certain her end was approaching, it just became a part of my

  working knowledge that I was watching her slowly fizzle out like a

  candle running out of wax.” Her eyes became hazy and she gently

  prodded me into turning away from her on the bed so that she could

  part my hair and begin to braid. “For maybe a few months before the

  end she became increasingly concerned about the value she was adding

  to the family, that she spent her time being productive in ways that

  everyone could see. For my grandmother it was her weaving, she was

  consumed with the idea that she needed to get through the massive

  room full of wool and thread that she had acquired over her lifetime.

  She pressed upon all of us that she needed to spend all her time

  getting through it at a feverish pace and became rather nasty if we

  interrupted her for any reason, even if that reason was to remind her

  that she hadn’t eaten at all that day or that she was squinting in

  pain as she worked because she hadn’t slept in days. At one point,

  probably when she realized that it was unlikely that she was going to

  finish it all before the end, I was recruited to learn and help her

  get through it and I think it gave her some sort of relief to know

  that even if it wasn’t complete by the time she was gone there

  would be someone to finish it for her. I realize now that she was

  struggling to find her own sense of what her legacy was and what she

  was leaving behind for other people.”

  Mistra leaned away from me on

  the bed to reach for a small bit of fabric from the depths of the bag

  she had been packing, then used it to tie off the end of the first

  braid. Her masterful fingers had tightly braided from almost the very

  beginning of my forehead all the way back into a long, sleek braid

  that hung to my waist. I never could figure out how she was able to

  do it and get it to stay, my hair was so smooth and fine that any

  time I tried to do anything with it, even just tie it back was an act

  of frustration. It never wanted to do anything for me but lay pin

  straight and fight any attempt to do anything interesting. The only

  time I had ever seen myself with a real hair style or curls were when

  Mistra took the time to do it for me. Perhaps she had just much more

  practice than I, her hair was always done up for the day in some

  immaculate hairstyle that looked like it had to have been held in

  place with dozens of pins and hope, yet at the end of the night she

  would often just release a single pin, maybe two, and it would all

  come tumbling down.

  “You think that is what is

  happening now with Mari,” I said. “She is trying to leave behind

  something that she feels is an appropriate legacy.”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Something like that,” she

  said gently, moving her hands to work on the other braid. “I am

  very certain that at some point she spent a lot of time and effort

  into establishing the contact network from nothing, but I have

  personally been through many of the documents and letters she has

  kept over time. While some of it is very interesting and important,

  very little of it seems very useful. I think a lot of what Mari used

  to do was track Evonia’s children for her and marginally keep

  abreast of Church workings.” Her fingers slowed and she breathed in

  deeply, hesitating with what she wanted to say.

  “Just say it.”

  “I think at some point in

  the past year or so your aunt has realized that she had actually done

  very little in regards to setting you up for your reign. Even with

  her contacts she is still getting information after things have

  already happened most times. No one she had in her employ was very

  high up or notable, not really the kind of people who get access to

  information beyond what could be gathered by tracking gossip. I

  think-” She paused again. “I think that Mari may have always been

  doing things to appear busy and very important, perhaps she wanted to

  somehow stand out in Evonia’s shadow. It had to have been hard for

  her to be so close in age to her sister and watch her become a queen

  while she did not.”

  “You’re saying that the

  network was never very critical and she was mostly keeping up

  appearances to appear more important to the House that she really

  was.”

  “Yes, and now I think the

  idea is coming home to roost that when she does pass things will not

  fall apart without her here. Maybe over the decades she’s come to

  convince herself just how important she is and now that she has time

  to reflect she realizes she’s been mostly playing pretend this

  whole time. She really put a lot of stock in her name as a Yser and

  used it to influence and manipulate people as she saw fit, but people

  did not necessarily give her deference solely due to her own

  reputation, it was her sister that made the name something to fear.”

  It was a hard idea to wrap my

  head around, I had idolized my aunt when I was little, she had been

  my savior and the reason I had any chance of getting my kingdom back.

  I had watched in awe as she could make grown men twice her size

  grovel at her feet and women protect their children from her stern

  gaze. The idea that she had been mostly just putting up a front to

  seem important really conflicted with my lifelong view of her. I

  wasn’t sure I was exactly ready to reform my opinion on her, though

  I knew Mistra was probably pretty accurate in her version of things.

  I had always tasked Mari with

  things that I thought she would do well based on her important work,

  but there was the nagging idea in the back of my mind that each of

  those things had never turned out exactly as promised or expected.

  The most obvious example was her task to go find worthy girls to

  train in magic. Granted she had found Alice and a few other promising

  girls, but she had also been cut short from her duties due to our

  plan being found out and blindsided by one of the twins. If her

  information network really did work like she espoused it did, then

  she would have known or heard something or someone would have played

  defense in throwing the Church off her trail.

  “I think my point is that

  right now Mari wants to be focused on one thing. Not only would it be

  physically hard on her to make this journey, it would be very

  mentally difficult. She will feel much better staying here and

  working on putting the network back together however she is able to,

  even if in the end it will not end up being much use to you.”

  “I understand,” I sighed.

  “It seems that no one in my family had be transparent with me, it

  is always one uncovered secret after another, I feel like I have

  lived most of my life blind. Almost nothing I have ever thought for

  certain was true about my family has turned out to actually be real.

  I am starting to think that I should just start going through all the

  things I think I know and just assume the opposite is true.”

  “It is normal,” Mistra

  said soothingly, her lips brushing the back of my ear, “families

  are always bad about telling each other the truth. We often hide

  things from people we value that we think might make them think less

  of us, even if it’s irrational. Your aunt is a flawed human being

  just like any other, though it cannot be denied that she thinks the

  world of you and has always wanted you to succeed. Even if she

  doesn’t always approve of the people you keep in your bed.”

  I let out a small laugh and

  sat patiently while she retrieved another strip of cloth and

  fashioned off the final braid. Once complete, she tugged on them

  playfully to indicate they were done. I turned and laid my head on

  her shoulder, tucking my chin into her neck. I tried to avoid such

  displays of what I thought was submissive affection, but I could not

  help but feel like I needed a bit of comfort. We sat for a long

  moment, my eyes closed as I enjoyed the sweet smell of her perfume

  and the musky smell of the scented oil she used in her hair.

  “We should finish packing

  and get to dinner before anyone is sent to check on us,” I murmured

  into the skin of her neck. “We already probably seem suspicious

  having taken the day to ourselves. We are generally not the type of

  people who do that.”

  “Maybe not,” she replied,

  gently pulling me away from her embrace so we could both stand. “we

  have both been worked hard lately, it is not so strange for us to

  have needed rest.”

  We finished packing the small

  bags we each were going to take. Feros has specifically instructed us

  to pack light as we would be traveling a bit rough for a good portion

  of the journey. He did not want to leave much of a trail for anyone

  to follow so inns and such were going to be out of the question. I

  did not particularly like the idea of having a comfy bed unavailable

  to me for so long, but it was not like I was finding myself utilizing

  much now as it was. Besides, I would probably be pretty keen on

  pushing forwards as much as we physically could to get there and

  strike with the iron was still hot. I still had not had time to sit

  and think about how exactly I would go about getting my throne back,

  but it was not hard to imagine that it would be fairly easy to torch

  the little usurper and step over his ashes.

  At dinner, Feros was

  suspiciously missing. Perhaps it was only suspicious to Mistra and

  myself because we knew what was going on, in actuality he generally

  showed up to meals only when he needed a show, especially since Ana

  had finally gotten fed up with the possibility of running into him

  and had started asking for food to be delivered directly to her room.

  Still, he seemed to have grown fond of making his presence known,

  wanted or not.

  “I see you look well

  rested,” Mari said, voice obviously snippy. She had been

  aggressively stabbing her food around her plate with her fork since

  we had entered the room, working herself up to say something. “We

  have so much work to do, but I guess a little nap was more important.

  I knew I might have been making a mistake agreeing to let her learn

  from me, I can't pass down all I know if she is not actually there to

  learn.”

  “You have been working her

  to the bone,” I said gently. "She has spent most of her time

  the past few days working as hard as you have asked of her, but

  eventually everyone needs a break."

  “For good reason and she

  knows that.” Mari put her fork down on her plate and crossed her

  arms at her chest, casting Mistra a withering look. “She is the one

  who so badly wanted to be my apprentice and now when I actually need

  her assistance she chooses a bit of sleep over me. It feels to me

  like her priorities need a bit of an adjustment, if that is even

  possible, perhaps she never really wanted to learn all along and just

  wanted to steal all my secrets instead.”

  “Surely she will work better

  tomorrow if she caught up on a bit of sleep today,” I suggested,

  feeling bad knowing that we would not be here tomorrow. I did not

  want to go down the road of arguing with her about Mistra's

  intentions, nothing positive was going to come out of that path.

  “It’s alright Toria, no

  need to defend me,” Mistra said, placing a hand on mine briefly

  before turning to Mari. “I am truly sorry Mari, I was exhausted but

  I know you need me as well. I hope you can forgive my oversight

  today. You know I have been working as hard as you have asked, even

  you have been falling asleep in your chair at random because you have

  been working yourself so hard as well.”

  Mari made a sniffing noise and

  kept her arms crossed. “I will consider forgiving you once our work

  is complete.”

  Before Mari could complain any

  more the dining room door opened and a smiling Feros entered the

  room. He glanced to me and winked so briefly that I wasn’t sure I

  had seen anything at all.

  “I hope I’m not

  interrupting anything,” he grinned.

  “Your lady friend is not

  here,” Rafe said gruffly. He seemed disappointed that it looked

  like there would be no entertainment with his meal, but relieved the

  bickering happening in front of him had cause to cease.

  “Ah, well, actually I am

  here to see you.”

  I sat up straighter in my

  chair and trained my gaze on the fiend. I would not have been overly

  surprised if he had set this whole thing up as another drama, though

  it would have surprised me that he would be so bold to entangle

  myself in his distraction. Surely he was stupid and arrogant, but not

  quite that stupid. My mind ran over all possibilities of things that

  might make it beneficial to paint me in a bad light to the demon

  king, though I could not really think of any.

  “Oh? This has to be good.”

  Rafe crossed his arms in front of him and nodded to indicate the

  creature could continue.

  “Well, I must confess that I

  have been hiding something from you." Again he glanced to me and

  gave a wink. "The girl, Alice, the reason we are hiding from the

  fae is currently unable to control her power and I’ve been keeping

  her locked in the basement sealed off.”

  My eyes widened, he was stupid

  and a touch suicidal after all. This seemed like the last thing he

  would want to divulge right before he was about to leave. It was like

  kicking a bee hive right before you begin your picnic underneath it.

  The last thing we needed was for Rafe to be on a rampage as we were

  trying to sneak out.

  “You have been doing what?!”

  Rafe bellowed, rising to his feet. “How long?!”

  “Several days now,” he

  answered with the strange smile still plastered on his face, “I was

  trying to hide it, but it has come to my attention that the quicker I

  come clean, the less painful the outcome will be for me. You see, not

  only is she unsealed, but I am pretty certain that she is acting as a

  sort of beacon to draw attention to wherever she is so the fae can

  find her.”

  “THERE IS A BEACON FOR THE

  FAE IN MY CASTLE?!” Rafe was no longer pulling his power for the

  comfort of the humans present. I had to shove my fingers in my ears

  to keep them from feeling like they would burst. “I KNEW I SHOULD

  HAVE CAST YOU OUT OF MY KINGDOM LONG AGO, YOU HAVE ALWAYS HAD TROUBLE

  FOLLOW CLOSELY BEHIND YOU. GUARDS!”

  I was certain every guard in

  the castle had heard him and they all came running, several piling

  into the room mere moments after they can been called. I was

  impressed at the speed of their response and took note for how I

  would like the guards in my new kingdom to behave when summoned.

  “TAKE HIM TO THE DUNGEONS,

  THE ROOM WITH THE RACK, HE IS GOING TO BE SPENDING THE NIGHT THERE AT

  THE VERY LEAST. ONCE HE IS BROKEN, BLEEDING, AND MAYBE REMORSEFUL I

  WILL CONSIDER HEARING HIS CASE FOR LIVING IN THE MORNING.”

  "Ah, yes, that seems

  fair," the fiend said with a tinge of mirth as two guards took

  him by each arm and began to roughly lead him from the room and to

  the dungeon.