It had been far, far too long

  since I had been able to page through the tome and honestly, it sort

  of seemed like it was a fool’s errand to even pursue my ambitions

  at this point, everything had begun to fall apart at the seams and

  last thing I probably needed was to stir things up with my father.

  Still, I felt compelled to comb through the lines and try to search

  out the source for my eventual rise to power. Perhaps I was just

  exhausted and frustrated and desired to get lost in anything other

  than what I had been for the past few days.

  Mari was still an anxiety

  riddled mess and demanded my full attention and compliance as her

  apprentice from the moment she woke up until she could no longer keep

  her eyes open. Even meals had been infrequent and asking for any

  personal or training time was out of the question. I was sure that if

  I made a fuss about it or even whispered displeasure about the

  situation to Toria that she would nip it in the bud or at least

  assure that we approached the situation in a more level-headed

  manner, but I ultimately decided that it was more beneficial in the

  long run to let Mari feel in control and in charge of the situation.

  Perhaps she would end up deciding that I was worth trusting in the

  end. Besides, Toria seemed wrapped up completely in her own

  situation, the details of which I didn’t have the foggiest idea of.

  We both had been like ships in a foggy night, passing each other with

  longing looks, but no time to actually connect.

  “Haven’t seen you at that

  book since we arrived.” Toria had snuck in the room while I had

  been lost in my thoughts. “I had thought that perhaps you had given

  up on the idea for now. I suppose that would make sense given

  everything that's happening, last thing we need is anyone catching

  wind of your ambitions.”

  “No, not given up,” I

  responded, “more just put it aside to wait for a better time.

  Though I do think perhaps it might be in my benefit that everyone is

  so distracted by everything else.”

  Turning to face Toria I gave

  her a warm smile and she sat on the edge of the bed and gave me a

  tired smile in return as she wriggled her feet out of her shoes. The

  skin around her ankles and up to her knees were covered in fading red

  lines where it looked like she had had rope or some other binding

  tightly fastened around her legs. Her eyes followed where I was

  looking and she let out a light laugh.

  “Training is interesting

  these days,” she explained with a light laugh. “Ana seems to have

  become acclimated with the idea that a bit of risk will help me

  progress faster when time is of the essence or maybe Feros has made

  her need an outlet for her anger and I’m simply in the path of it.”

  “It seems very strange to me

  that he has descended on her like this,” I commented, “it is not

  the first time they have been in contact with each other since the

  incident and he has typically left her well alone. Anyone could

  easily see that what she's not interested in any sort of

  reconciliation.”

  Toria’s lips curled up into

  a tired smirk and she rolled her eyes. “You know how he is,

  everything has a mysterious ulterior motive, plus he seems to have a

  decent amount of intelligence, but sometimes lacks long term wisdom.”

  “That’s a fair assessment,

  I assume you know something about why he is acting this way all of a

  sudden?”

  “Yes, he was trying to

  distract from something he didn’t want me or really anyone else to

  know,” she explained. "He probably could have found a better

  situation to use, though this one likely seemed most convenient."

  “Oh?” This had to be

  something quite big, no one with any sense of self preservation would

  ever poke Ana the way he had been.

  “Alice is…” She paused

  and scrunched up her nose briefly in thought. “I guess the best way

  I can describe it is she’s unsealed at the moment. She can’t

  contain her magic and it’s just spilling out of her constantly,

  which as you can assume is not exactly what we want happening right

  now when we want her to lay low. Feros has a theory that it's a sort

  of fae trap to be able to track the girl down and recover her.”

  “My father would lose his

  mind if he found out,” I confirmed with a shake of my head. “He

  has gone to great lengths to keep any hint of fae presence far away

  from the kingdom.”

  “Exactly why Feros is acting

  like a love struck fool.”

  “It’s working, my father

  finds this whole thing terrifically entertaining, I don’t think he

  has any idea that it’s a distraction technique. He’s too wrapped

  up in what’s going to happen next like it’s just some sort of

  play. I suppose with Laric gone he’s been missing some of the drama

  that went along with his presence, the castle does seem much more

  quiet and organized with him away.”

  “Any word from him?” Toria

  asked.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “None, which is exactly what

  I demanded from him. I will contact him when it becomes necessary,

  but no contact until then, I can’t afford anyone thinking I have

  any special reason to be connected to him.”

  Toria let out a long sigh and

  dramatically plopped back onto the bed and wriggled her way up to the

  pillows. She peeled off her tight fitting training outfit and

  snuggled up in the blankets, resting her head on the pillows and

  closing her eyes.

  “This has all become such a

  mess,” she murmured.

  “It really has,” I agreed,

  “more so than you even think. When we’re both feeling up to

  sitting down and working on serious matters we need to put our heads

  together and come up with some solutions.”

  Her eyes opened again and she

  looked at me seriously. “What now?”

  “Your radically pious aunts

  are up to new tricks. Mari’s spy network has been infiltrated,

  she’s been losing her mind about it for a few days now.”

  “Exactly what we need right

  now,” she groaned, “what else can go wrong at this point?”

  “Oh that's a dangerous

  question to ask the universe. I don’t think it’s quite as bad as

  Mari fears it is though,” I said in a soothing tone. I knew that

  Toria deserved to know everything that was happening, though I didn’t

  think she needed extra worries on her plate when I could shoulder

  some of them for her. “In essence it just means we’re working in

  the dark now about the Church’s movements, but it’s not like the

  Church can get to us right now anyway. We can use this time here to

  figure out how to establish a new network and work out how to get

  around this hiccup. Quite honestly, I think Mari is more upset that

  she didn’t see this coming. You know how she can be when someone

  unexpected happens or she feels like she's not in complete control.”

  “So it’s just that?

  Nothing more terrifying?”

  I shrugged. “Not that I know

  of. “I personally think it was only a matter of time before at

  least some parts of it were discovered anyway. Mari has been running

  largely on intimidation to keep everyone in line and honest, but that

  surely would fall apart without her anyway and I’m surprised it did

  not when Evonia passed. People were generally more afraid of her.”

  “I’m trusting you to deal

  with it then,” Toria sighed sleepily. “I think I already am being

  stretched thin and I trust you know how to best handle the

  situation.”

  I rose from my seat at the

  desk and pulled my dress off over my head, the chilled air of the

  room felt delicious against my skin, I actually couldn’t remember

  the last time I had changed clothes. I had been falling asleep before

  I could bring up the energy to get undressed, waking up to stuff my

  face, then responding to the beckoning call of a panicked Mari. I was

  glad that this evening the frantic schedule seemed to have caught up

  with her and I had been able to slink out earlier than normal after

  she fell asleep in her chair. I slid into bed next to Toria and

  snuffed the candle on the bedside table.

  “What was the incident?”

  Toria asked sleepily. I had thought she had already fallen asleep

  “Pardon?”

  “Between Feros and Ana.”

  “Ah, that,” I said with a

  sigh. “It’s a bit of a tragic story that happened before I was

  even born, I only know bits of it and I don’t think I’ll ever be

  brave enough to ask her to recount any of it for the full story. What

  I do know is that Feros and her were together for quite a while and

  had a child. At some point Feros got into dabbling with fae magic,

  which usually meant having to deal with fae directly and since you’re

  not overly familiar with how they operate usually finding anything

  about their magic requires you find one of them willing to deal with

  you.”

  “I thought that was a

  terrible idea?”

  “Very much so,” I replied,

  “at least in most anyone’s opinion. Especially since none of

  them, not even the most generous would ever give any information away

  for free. There is always a cost for dealing with them and usually

  the cost is more than most sane people would ever be willing to pay.

  On top of that they’re clever, sneaky, and generally bad tempered,

  that’s why pretty much everyone tries to keep fae as far away from

  their kingdoms as possible and do nothing to pique their interest.

  Feros is a special combination of brave and stupid or just really,

  really wanted whatever information he was after, because he agreed to

  their terms. I don’t know what he agreed to, but it ended with the

  death of their son.”

  “He agreed to the death of

  his son in exchange for information?”

  “Feros is a lot of things,

  but I don’t think he’s callous or heartless enough to have agreed

  to whatever it was knowing that would be the outcome. Still, he had

  to know he was playing with the worst kind of fire and chose to

  proceed anyway and Ana has never forgiven him.”

  “I don’t think I blame

  her,” she murmured.

  “I definitely don’t and I

  think it’s very telling that he’s ripping open the wound now when

  it benefits him as a distraction. It’s a very cruel thing to do,

  you would think it should hurt him too and be too painful to use for

  his benefit.”

  “I’m not convinced he

  feels emotions like we do,” Toria said, voice getting progressively

  more distant and disconnected.

  “You’re probably right.”

  I curled up against her and laid my head on her shoulder, finding

  immense comfort in hearing the heartbeat in her chest. “Poor Ana, I

  hope he finds something else to get everyone talking about soon. She

  was just here to do a job, not be tortured like this.”

  “Mhmm” Toria murmured as

  she slipped into sleep.

  I laid awake, listening to her

  breath deeply and mutter incoherently from her dreams. I should have

  focused on relaxing to catch up on my own rest, but every time I

  closed my eyes I found myself wondering when exactly I would be able

  to find time again to follow up on my own dreams. I had a feeling

  that life was just going to continue to get more complicated and

  hectic and perhaps it was wise to snatch opportunity while I could.

  Regretfully, I carefully pulled away from Toria and returned to the

  desk, flipping the book open to where I had last left off and leaning

  in close to be able to read in the dim candlelight. Lofty ambitions

  required sacrifice, I could rest when I was on my throne.