Change is rarely easy when it comes and with the slaying of the Consort-King the wheels of change began to grind once more in the Blessed Realms.

“Please tell me again that it’s a good thing that we’ve been summoned to the Royal Castle,” Ren said, trying not to fidget in the richly appointed chair in the Queen’s study.

“I will never lie to you,” Teo said, placing his hand on Ren’s and giving a comforting squeeze.

“You know, I’m stronger now than I’ve ever been, but I don’t think I’ve ever been this scared before,” Ren said. “It doesn’t seem like those two things should be true at the same time.”

“And yet they often are,” Teo said. “As we get older and wiser, I think the principal lesson we learn is that we are smaller than we ever imagined. And part of something much larger than we can ever hope to handle on our own.”

“This definitely qualifies as ‘larger than I can handle’,” Ren said, looking around the oversized study.

In addition to the quartet of comfortable chairs arranged before an dark wood desk which was polished to a shine so rich is practically illuminated the room on its own, there were the towering bookshelves which adorned every inch of the curving walls and gave the room an aroma of concentrated knowledge, which would have lent authority to anyone who took the empty seat behind desk.

“I will say that this is a more imposing sort of venue than the last place I saw the Queen,” Teo said. “From that experience though I believe we have less to fear than we have on similar occasions when your father called you to account for something.”

Ren tensed at the mention of the Duke, but managed not to curse, which was progress of a sort.

“Even after his death, he is still causing trouble for me,” Ren said. “I think he would be proud of that, if he remembered that I was his son at all.”

“He has no hold on you any longer,” Teo said, moving his hand from Ren’s hand to his shoulder.

“But he’s still a problem from Gallagrin though,” Dae said, hobbling into the room at a respectable speed on her crutches.

“Lady Akorli!” Teo said and stood so quickly that it appeared he’d never been sitting at all.

“Master Si’Nostrum,” Dae said, nodding her head in place of a bow. “You can sit down, we’ve got some time before the formal meeting starts.”

“Formal meeting?” Ren asked.

“There’s a few other guests coming,” Dae said and smiled as she dropped into one of the chairs on the same side of the desk as Teo and Ren.

“It sounds like you know what the purpose of this meeting is?” Teo asked. “Could you perhaps fill us in?”

“The Queen has a few questions for you,” Dae said. “I do too.”

“And what would you and the Queen like to know?” Ren asked, clutching tighter to the arm of his seat.

“You have a Pact Spirit now,” Dae said. “How’s that working out for you?”

“Well,” Ren said. “We seem to be agreeably matched.”

“You’re lucky,” Dae said. “Some folks fight with their spirits for a long time. How does it like you feeding Teo?”

“It finds the notion intriguing,” Ren said. “It’s never been bonded to someone who was bonded to a vampire before.”

Dae let out a chuckle.

“They’re strange little beasts, but predictable as hell sometimes,” she said. “Give them a unique experience and that’s all they’ll ask for from you.”

“I understand there might be some concern over my bonding,” Ren said, not yet releasing his grip on the chair’s arm.

“There’ve been worse bondings,” Dae said. “That’s not why the Queen asked you here though, that was just something I was curious about.”

“Why?” Ren asked.

“I was curious if when I fought your father there was a contest for his Pact spirit,” Dae said. “If you’d laid a claim on the Tel Pact Spirit, it would have weakened him significantly.”

“No, I was given a different spirit,” Ren said. “Not one of my family’s ancestral ones.”

“That’s good to know,” Dae said. “I’m glad that was a fair fight.”

She thought for a moment and then added. “How do you feel about the outcome?”

“Do you mean, am I glad that he’s dead?” Ren asked.

“That and how do you feel about the fact that the person who killed him is in the room with you now?” Dae asked.

“Those are two separate questions with at least three answers,” Ren said.

“Leave me out of it for the moment then,” Dae said.

“Then the answer is simple,” Ren said. “I don’t know yet.”

He paused and Dae waited for him to continue.

“I could say that I am glad, and I certainly feel enough joy to make that true,” Ren said. “My father was a horrible man. I’ve known that since I was too young to put the thought in words. I dreamed of him leaving, or dying, thousands of times, but now that he’s gone it’s like I’ve been left with a lot of things undone. It’s a relief, but it’s also a burden too. It’s hard to describe because I never saw myself in this position as anything more than a day dream.”

“That’s a fair answer,” Dae said. “I think anything else might have worried me.”

“For the other part of your question, there are two answers I can make,” Ren said. “I could settle on one of them though if I knew more about why Teo and I were called here.”

“You were called here because we have an offer to make to you Rendolan Greis Telli,” Alari said. She was carried into the room by her attendant river sprites and while her body had healed remarkably well in the days since her injury, the Queen of Gallagrin was still far from whole.

“An offer your Majesty?” Ren asked. “I do not deserve your kindness, not after the woes my family inflicted upon your noble house.”

“Our offer is neither a kindness nor a punishment,” Alari said as the river sprites carefully laid her into the regal chair behind the grand desk. “I am in need of a trustworthy overseer for a grand endeavor and my Knight has recommended you.”

“You want to give me a job?” Ren asked, his hand slowly unlocking from the arm of his chair.

“More than a job,” Alari said. “This is a role of authority which will report directly to my Knight.”

“I am honored your Majesty,” Ren said.

“You should ask what the job is,” Dae said.

“Yes, we put this forth as an offer and not a royal command Rendolan Greis Telli,” Alari said. “What we will ask of you will be no easy task.”

“What would you have of me, my Queen?” Ren asked.

“She wants you to clean up the Dawn March,” Dae said.

“I’m sorry Lady Akorli, I believe I misheard you,” Teo said.

“No,” Dae said. “You didn’t.”

“How am I to undertake this task?” Ren asked.

“You will start with one small piece of it,” Alari said. “We will appoint you as the Commander of the Dawn March division located in Nath.”

“There’s no commander there now?” Ren asked.

“Strangely, no,” Dae said. “Somehow when the Dawn March returned from its fool’s errand to comfort Prince Lorenzo’s family with an army, Commander Ketel wasn’t among their numbers.”

“He fled his post?” Teo asked.

“It’s not advisable to be under the patronage of a traitor to the crown,” Alari said.

“About that Your Majesty,” Ren said. “My own familial connections…”

“Are of no concern,” Alari interrupted him sharply. “The evil of the former Duke of Tel will be buried with his remains. We will not hold anyone liable for the sins of their father. Our own ledger would run far too red if such inheritance were to burden the generations to come.”

“Then my brother will be the next Duke of Tel?” Ren asked, neither hopeful nor protesting.

“On the condition that a trial of his noble peers cleared him of any involvement in his father’s plottings, that might have come to pass. Word has reached us that your brother has quit his home and fled though. We do not look well upon this.”

“You know where he’s going, don’t you?” Dae asked.

“Inchesso,” Ren said. “He seeks the aid of my father’s allies there.”

“Nothing good will come of that,” Teo said.

“We expect you are correct,” Alari said. “If we could invite any assassins he might find to aid his cause to make another attempt on our life that would make for a diverting pastime. Since he likely is aware of that however, we believe he will focus his attention elsewhere.”

“He’s going to try to kill Ren isn’t he?” Teo asked.

“And he will fail,” Alari said. “We would offer you a position as Lord Greis bodyguard, but it is not an offer when you are unable to refuse it. So instead allow us to offer to make you one of our Personal Guardsman. You will report to my Knight as well, and will be on special assignment to Nath for so long as it takes my new Commander to return the Dawn March to the organization it was meant to be.”

“I am to be Lord Greis then?” Ren asked. “Is it true then that you will grind the Tel family to nothing? I received reports that your oath against my father was rather all encompassing.”

“That was our original intent, but my Knight has given us another interpretation of our vow which we will hold to,” Alari said. “Your father will be stricken from the Tel family record. His remains will be ground up with offal and buried in an unhallowed grave along with all of the belongings which he carried. His personal riches will be distributed to the poor of the Tel Duchy, and as he no longer has a family, the Tel fortune will be untouched.”

“You’ll need to be Lord Greis for another reason though,” Dae said.

“Yes,” Alari said. “You will act in my place, to accuse the nobility and stand against them when they commit the crimes which no one else can bring them to account for. As such you can be loyal to no one house.”

“Who will rule Tel in my brother’s absence?” Ren asked.

“The second heir of Tel is your sister,” Alari said. “She is the one who gifted you with your Pact Spirit is she not?”

“Yes, she is.” Ren said, shrinking back into his chair.

“We will bring her to court,” Alari said. “It has been too many years since we have seen her, and we would see Tel ruled by a Duchess who is up to the challenge.”

“She may not wish to come to court,” Ren said, thinking of his sister’s unique circumstances.

“Then I might pay her a visit in Elinspire,” Dae said. Ren had no illusions as to the nature of that visit. Despite the aid she’d rendered to him, Ren’s sister could still be a threat in the Queen’s eyes and the Queen’s Knight existed to investigate and eliminate the people and things which might threaten Queen and Country.

“We will strive to renew her acquaintance under more favorable terms however,” Alari said. “We will likely need her aid against the troubles which are brewing.”

“Troubles Your Majesty?” Teo asked.

“Yes,” Alari said. “There is war on the horizon.”

“Who is left to wage war on Gallagrin?” Ren asked.

“Paxmer,” Alari said.

“Would they dare?” Teo asked.

“She sent them back their stud prince,” Dae said.

“No, we sent them back a piece of their prince,” Alari said. “The head, torso and limbs we gave to Prince Lorenzo’s family in payment of the debt owed to them.”

“The Inchesso can do terrible things with dead bodies,” Teo said.

“Yes, we are rather counting on that,” Alari said. Her smile was small, unkind and entirely heartfelt.

“Your Majesty,” a page said. “Officer Javan Kael of the Dawns March is reporting as ordered.”

“Send him in,” Alari said.

Kael walked into the room with his head held high and proud. Then he saw Dae pouring a set of drinks for everyone and his whole body sagged in resignation.

“Ren, meet your new second in command,” Dae said. “Officer Kael here can help you find every last bit of corruption in the Nath March. If you leave him a piece of it, he’ll even make up some new corruption for you to find, so I suggest limiting him to only his standard wages.”

“Do you hate me Kor?” Kael asked. “The fences alone are going to string me up from the bridges in Nath. All of them!”

“All of the fences or all of the bridges?” Ren asked.

“Both,” Dae said, her smile as wicked as Alari’s though tinged with a dram more kindness. “Unless of course his very powerful commander is pleased with him and agrees to keep him safe.”

Teo took the glass of fine wine which Dae offered him as Kael sank down into the last open seat at the meeting.

The vampire smiled and saluted his new boss, as Dae relaxed into her chair, closed her eyes and enjoyed a well deserved moment of peace.

With the death of the Consort-King there was an unsubtle exodus of the nobles from the royal city of High Crest. Those who’d witnessed the final battle had an understandable desire to place several miles between themselves and both the Queen’s Knight and the Queen herself, neither of whom seemed in a forgiving sort of mood.

For those who had been ready to back Halrek, that was likely a life saving choice. In time, and with the proper shows of loyalty, the Queen might be willing to silently overlook the unvoiced treachery of her nobles. Until that day dawned however, quiet obedience was the only shield that was likely to hold her wrath at bay.

Whether the Queen’s Knight was ever going to offer forgiveness or mercy to those who had supported Halrek was another matter, and one which no one was particularly eager to wager their lives upon.

“This wasn’t how I pictured our reunion,” Alari said as the river sprites who bore her broken body eased her back into a prone position as though she were resting on a bed. They’d carried her to one of the larger guest bedrooms at her request, and after she’d made arrangements for the audience hall to be properly cleaned.

“I…” Day started to say and then choked up. “I didn’t think I’d ever be back here.”

“If you hated me for marrying Paxmer, it seems that you stand proven correct,” Alari said, her voice quiet and bereft of royal privilege.

“Gods no!” Dae said. She had reverted by to her human form and stood to the side of the sprite’s watery bed. Her splinted leg was in slightly less agonizing shape than it should have been, thanks to Kirios’ upgrade in status to a Pact Knight’s spirit, but the broken leg was still far from healed.

“Halrek was a viper all along,” Alari said. “He laid his schemes from before the first moment we met and I saw none of them.”

“It’s my fault,” Dae said, looking down. A part of her truly believed that with the moment of madness passed, Alari was going to come to her senses. Without the rage against Halrek blinding her, Alari would take back Dae’s name, her status and any affection which Alari had ever felt for her. She could see the steps so clearly that lead from her failure years ago to the suffering Alari had endured in almost losing her throne.

“What? Adae, did Telli hit your head harder than it appeared?” Alari asked. “How can you claim any share of this misfortune?”

“Star’s Watch,” Dae said, knowing that Alari would see the whole miserable chain of failure that started with the trust that Dae had been too weak to uphold.

Alari blinked and then frowned, looking away as she spoke.

“I hoped you might have forgiven me for that,” Alari said. “But I understand if you cannot.”

Dae understood each of the words which Alari said individually, but as a group they didn’t make any sort of coherent sense. She tried to form a question to illuminate Alari’s meaning, but the concept was so alien to her mind that she couldn’t capture it at all.

“I was glad when you picked the Nath barracks to join,” Alari said. “It was comforting knowing that if you weren’t here, you at least hadn’t fled impossibly far away.”

“I couldn’t go any farther,” Dae said. “Anywhere else and I couldn’t get back to you if you needed me.”

Dae felt like she’d stepped off the bank of a shallow river and fallen into the center of the ocean. She’d imagined being with Alari again. Across thousands of night’s she’d woven dreams of how and why the moment might occur. She’d envisioned everything from tender words to seething rebukes from the one who meant more to her than anyone else in the world. Across those many imaginings, Dae had sketched a map of all the ways she might meet Alari again, but somehow none of them had proven accurate.

“I can ask no more of you than that,” Alari said, a sad smile gracing her face.

“You can ask anything of me,” Dae said. “Always and forever.”

“Then don’t leave me again!” Alari said, tears rolling down her cheeks and into the watery embrace she floated in.

“I…” Dae choked out again. “I failed…you didn’t need me.”

None of the lovely, clever words that she’d dreamed about came to her. None of the stirring arguments that would, in her brightest hopes, have been enough to win back Alari’s love found their way to Dae’s tongue. Despite years of practicing, without ever admitting to herself that she was doing so, Dae couldn’t find any of the carefully prepared strategies she’d created to convince her love to love her back.

But that didn’t matter, because of course you can’t win back something which you never lost in the first place.

The river sprites moved at Alari’s unspoken command, parting to allow the Queen to step forth in her Royal regalia. Her human form was shattered and broken and would be months or longer in healing, but Alari wasn’t limited by her broken bones and torn muscles.

With arms clad in gossamer, she drew Dae into an inescapable embrace.

“You idiot,” the Queen of Gallagrin said. “I have needed you since we were ten, and you’ve never failed me. Not once.”

Dae felt her knees buckle and give out. She could have blamed that on her broken leg, but her earthly pains were so far distant from where her mind and heart were that they had no say in anything that occurred.

“I lost,” Dae said. “I couldn’t hold them back. You had to fight Paxmer and Gallagrin because of me.”

“Gods Beneath Us!” Alari said. “That’s not what happened at all! How could you think that?”

“You gave me one duty, one command,” Dae said. “All I had to do was hold Paxmer off our borders so that you could fight your battle. You upheld the promise you swore yourself to. You freed Gallagrin from your father’s reign. But I broke my promise. Paxmer burned us. Your people died because of me. Thousands of them. Because I was too weak and naive and unworthy. And you fixed that too. And today the price you paid back then almost killed you.”

All of of the words Dae had ever feared Alari would say felt ready to come pouring out. Every accusation she knew Alari could lay against her struggled in Dae’s mouth to blurt itself forth, each more horrible than the one before it, and it was the best she could do to simply hold them back in silence.

Alari held Dae close and let her finish speaking, allowed the torrent of words to dwindle away, before she spoke.

“You’re right,” Alari said. “I gave you one command, asked for one promise from you, and that was just this; for you to come back to me. And now you have, in the hour of my greatest need. You came back to me, my Adae.”

Dae looked up at Alari but Alari laid a finger on her lips to halt any objections her Knight might make.

“All those years ago, I asked you to come back to me because I knew Paxmer could hit us harder than we could withstand,” Alari said. “I sent you to Star’s Watch in the case the worst came to pass, knowing that you would buy the precious time I needed and I hoped, beyond reason, that you would somehow pull through the terrible task I asked of you. I had no one else I could ask for that, no one else who I could trust, and no one else who I believed in as I did you and I still didn’t want you to go.”

“Why?” Dae asked.

“Why did I have to send you?” Alari asked. “Because to become the Queen, I had to act like one, and that meant putting the good of my subjects ahead of my own desires. Why didn’t I want you to go? Because I knew that if Paxmer moved in force against us you would give everything you had to stop them, and I was jealous. I was jealous of my country for taking away from me the one person I held most dear.”

“But I failed you,” Dae said. “I didn’t stand against Paxmer, I broke.”

“Star’s Watch burned,” Alari said. “Thousands died. But thousands more lived. I mourned those who were lost, but when I saw you afterwards, so shattered and angry, I knew I’d laid a heavier burden on those who survived. I sent you to a battle that could not be won, not with the forces I gave you, and not with the one’s I held in reserve. All the pain inflicted on you might as well have been done by my hand.”

Dae was silent for a moment before speaking again.

“The last time we spoke,” she asked, “did you feel like this then?”

“The last time we spoke I thought you hated me, and that I’d given you every just cause for righteous anger,” Alari said. “You didn’t want to speak and I could find no fault in that desire as I could see no forgiveness for what I had done to you and all the people of Star’s Watch I placed in your care.”

“I wasn’t angry at you,” Dae said. “I was afraid.”

“Of me?” Alari asked. “Sleeping gods why?”

“I was afraid you were going to order me away,” Dae said, a rueful smile breaking across her face.

“But you left,” Alari said. “You went away without a word of how I might convince you to return.”

“Yes,” Dae said. “In hindsight that may not have been the most sensible action I’ve ever taken. It just seemed easier. I knew I didn’t have a place at your side anymore. With the crown and the Paxmer Prince, I knew you didn’t need me any longer, but I couldn’t bear to hear you say it.”

“Adae,” Alari said. “You are a fool. And I am bigger one. I wanted so much to order you to stop, to command you to return with me, but I let you go because I couldn’t bear the thought of you following me out of nothing more than duty. I told myself that if I had broken your trust, then I didn’t deserve your company any longer. Halrek wasn’t my consolation, he was my punishment. The political burden that I was yoked to because I chose the path of the Queen despite the costs that others paid for me to ascend to that position.”

“I will never call you a fool,” Dae said, relaxing at last into Alari’s embrace. “But I see six years behind us where it seems that perhaps there were two somewhat foolish women who possibly should have spoken to one another more than they did.”

“I do not like those years,” Alari said. “I’m more inclined to look towards the years that are still to come.”

“I don’t know if they’ll be good ones,” Dae said. “I did sort of behead your husband. That’s likely to have left a mess that we’ll have to deal with.”

“In removing his head, you’ve taken a great weight off my shoulders,” Alari said. “And so long as I have my Knight, I will gladly face the storm that is brewing on that front.”

“There is also the small matter that I killed one of your Dukes too,” Dae said. “That will have a more local impact I believe.”

“The only shame there is that you stopped at just one,” Alari said. “The Telli family will need to be dealt with though, and I confess, that’s not a judgment I am overly cheerful to dole out.”

“If I may, my Queen,” Dae said, stepping slightly away from Alari to formally address her. “The Duke’s son Ren is blameless in this matter. It was he who uncovered the plot against you and gave me the evidence which I presented against the now departed conspirators. He spoke also of his sister helping him, not to mention a certain vampire with whom I believe you are acquainted?”

“If there is cause to proclaim amnesty for the family, I will gladly take it,” Alari said. “I believe they likely suffered the most of all from the Duke’s character.”

“There is the matter of Prince Lorenzo’s family as well,” Dae said. “Things may not go well with Inchesso in the days to come, though I can promise that no Inchesso assassins will live to get within twenty feet of you.”

“We are so recently reunited and troubles flock to our bower,” Alari said. “It’s good to know that somethings never change.”

Their clasped hands shifted and each entwined their fingers around the others.

“Always and forever,” Dae said. “For now though, cast off your Pact form and rest in soothing waters. You have much healing to do, and I’m going to make sure that at least for tonight no one bothers you at all.”

The Queen’s command shook the hall, cracking the stones at her feet and quelling all other sounds. Dae had never heard Alari speak with that sort of power. She wasn’t sure anything human could speak that way.

“By what right is a trial held on my domain? And who dares to work violence upon one of mine?” the Queen asked.

Dae turned to look on her oldest and best friend and saw a woman wholly transformed from the one she knew.

Alari floated, wrapped in the translucent arms and bodies of a trio of river sprites. Her arms and legs bent in places they shouldn’t and didn’t seem to move with any purpose or will behind them. The Queen was dressed in no more than her bedding gowns which floated voluminously around her, whipping about in the current of the river sprite’s liquid bodies. Despite her damaged frame and lack of regal attire, the fire that burned behind the Queen’s eyes proclaimed her majesty and authority.

The creature who stood at the door to the hallway was dangerous and powerful. For Dae the question of whether anything remained of the woman she’d known was an unanswered one though. Halrek saw that opening too and launched the only arrow in his quiver that could give him a fighting chance.

“What manner of foul spirit is this, to come calling at the Royal Hall and claim dominion!” he said, rising from the throne to stand at the full height of his power. “It wears the semblance of our lost Queen, but we will allow no trickster wraith to dishonor her memory or abuse her good name!”

“Still your tongue betrayer,” the Queen said. “Your time draws nigh, but as your escape is impossible, you will wait upon your fate with the craven mouse’s heart that beats in your chest. We have more important matters to attend to.”

The Queen began to float down the processional path, her river sprite guardians carrying her more gently that even the smoothest carriage could managed.

“You have chosen an ill moment to appear fiend,” Duke Telli said, joining in on Halrek’s assault on the Queen’s identity as the one chance they had for emerging from the encounter without admitting to their guilt in her death.

“Tel,” the Queen said, fixing him in place with the force of her displeasure. “Your house is forfeit. Your lands, your wealth, all you have and all you are will be ground into dust and mixed with the offal of your domain. Continue to stand against us and and you will lose even that portion of our mercy.”

“I am sworn to this realm,” Telli said. “You hold no sway here, dead one. Turn back to your grave and abandon this false seeming you wear, or we shall turn the assembled might of Gallagrin’s nobility loose upon you.”

Dae blinked at that. From Alari’s state is was clear that she didn’t control the full power of the Gallagrin Pact Spirit. Dae had accused Halrek of putting the pact into a contested state to weaken the Queen enough to kill her, and the proof of her claim was clear to all to see. Halrek and Telli had supporters among the nobles, many supporters, or they wouldn’t have risked such a dangerous play as assassinating the Queen. That meant some portion of the room would be willing to help them strike down the Queen directly if they could be given enough of a cover story to claim that they were acting for the good and safety of the realm.

“A mantle of lies covers this room,” the Queen said. “And we see an arena has already been formed to prove them out. We will let this trial play forward, on one condition.”

She turned to face Dae, and Dae saw a wave of relief wash over the Queen’s face. For just a moment, Alari smiled out at her, real joy beaming from her eyes, before the mask and mantle of royal duty settled on the royal shoulders again.

“Will you continue this struggle? May I still call on you?” Alari asked.

Something hard and sharp seized Dae’s throat and she wasn’t able to make a sound in response so she nodded wordlessly.

“Then rise my champion,” Alari said. “I name you Queen’s Knight Prime, Daelynne Akorli.”

Dae’s breath caught and the sound of her own name echoed in her ears like a hurricane.

For six years she’d been Daelynne Kor, but she’d worn a different name at Star’s Watch. Three syllables to her surname before she’d broken and her name fractured to pieces along with her place in the world.

She’d held onto ‘Kor’ in memory of her lost family. It was the piece of her history that she could never run away from. She would always be a daughter of the house of Kor. Always the last scion of a disgraced and murdered family, her father one of the Butcher King’s many victims. No matter what height she ascended to or what depths claimed her, she would never be free of the shadow of the ancestors who came before her.

The suffix ‘li’ was an honor she’d never dreamed of reclaiming. It was the mark of Gallagrin nobility. The Duke of Tel being Duke Telli, the Queen’s Chief Justice being Duke Genli. For a commoner to appended that syllable to their name was to court a death sentence delivered on the spot by any member of the nobility who caught them in the ruse of pretending to be above their station.

Of all the pieces of her name though, it was the simple ‘A’ prefix that stole Dae’s breath away. The official definition for the ‘A’ prefix was as a signifier reserved for those in direct service to the kingdom’s sovereign. The Queen’s Guard were all directly under her control but they didn’t merit an ‘A’ prefix. That was given to those whom the sovereign placed their greatest trust in, which spoke to the ancient etymology of the prefix.

Before Gallagrin was ruled by a mortal sovereign, before the Sleeping Gods fell into their deathless slumber, those the gods chose to exalt were named with the ‘A’ prefix. Divine exaltation was granted only to a special sort of mortal, chosen for one quality alone, their closeness to the god’s heart, and so they were more commonly known as “The Beloved”.

Struggling to breathe, Dae looked at the Queen and saw Alari’s fierce pride in her. Alari had taken to calling her by various names years before any of special name had ever been made official for Dae, but looking back, Dae saw that that every one of Alari’s nicknames for her had always begun with that ‘A’ and that it had always been heartfelt. Even after the battle of Star’s Watch, even after Dae had cast herself away from Alari in humiliation and pain, the lonely Queen had called to her one last time and wished her ‘Adae’ well on her chosen path.

Six years, and the Queen had never abandoned her champion, her knight.

“Cast off those common arms and don the raiment of the one closest to our heart,” the Queen said and Dae felt Kirios shift as the bonds that stifled him into a commoner’s spirit fell away.

From the cracked and ruined pillar, she rose, light pouring from her eyes, her fingers and then radiating from every inch of her skin.

The armor that Kirios called forth was formed of brilliant white plates rimmed with silver and gold trim. It hung on her like gossamer but promised the sturdiness of unbreakable steel. Along every edge and across every surface, tiny, almost invisible, glyphs and images were etched into the armor. Names Alari had given Dae and reminders of the thousand occasions they had shared. On Dae’s shoulders a long cape settled, bearing the personal symbol of the Queen and on her faceless helm rested a laurel crown with wings of brightest silver-steel.

The Duke didn’t make the mistake of attacking Dae during her transformation again, though the end result wasn’t terribly different.

“So you have a pretty new set of dress ups,” he said. “Stand forth and be cut down you slanderous, cowardly…”

He never finished his taunt. Rather than letting Telli spew his verbal abuse, Dae sliced off his left arm and stabbed him through the chest. No one in the room, not even Telli, saw her move.

“You…” he sputtered as he fell back from her attack but he wasn’t able to finish that sentence either. Before he could get a second word out, Dae smashed his face so hard with her mailed fist that his conjured body lost the ability to create any form of coherent speech.

“You wanted to make this a test of might,” she said and kicked him in the chest, withdrawing her blade as Telli flew backwards into the side of the small arena. “Kind of a mistake on your part.”

Telli stood, his Pact Spirit restoring the monstrous damage Dae inflicted on him.

“You can’t…” he tried to say but Dae crossed the distance between them and laid a steel crushing blow into his solar plexus before he could speak.

“I can,” she said and shattered his face again with a rising knee strike as he was bent over from the hit to his chest. “Admit your sins and plead for mercy and I will ask the Queen to chose your fate. Otherwise you’re all mine.”

There was a surge of light from the Duke’s fallen, pain wracked form, and as the light twisted into sickly shades of red and purple, the former Duke’s answer arose in a wordless, mindless howl.

Where the Duke had fallen dressed in the Regal Arms of House Tel, a creature clad only in a nightmare of steel and flesh rose to take his place.

“You should have asked for mercy,” Dae said, her fear of the Berserker before her drowning in the wave of joy that carried her higher than the highest peak in Gallagrin.

The battle that followed painted the arena in blood, but none of it was Dae’s.

The two combatants were far beyond the ability of anyone else in chamber to follow in terms of the blows exchanged. To the observers there was a moment of calm, followed by the roar of the Berserker that had once been the Duke of Tel, followed by the roar of blows being thrown faster than the eye could perceive, followed by the terrible shriek of the Berserker reaching the limits of its magic and reverting to the vulnerable mortal form of the Duke which Dae destroyed in a shower of gore that left no question as to whether the Duke could recover, regardless of the magical healing provided or any hidden reserves he might have possessed.

“Only a Berserker could fight another Berserker like that,” Halrek said. “Stand true sons of Gallagrin! We will not fall to sorcery and deception!”

Dae looked to Alari for permission to act, which the Queen gave with a small nod.

“Two fearsome demons are no match for…” Halrek tried to say but he found it hard to complete his sentence with Dae’s hurled sword buried through his chest and the tall throne behind him.

“You can’t strike me down, I am the heir to Gallagrin!” Halrek said.

“I thought you couldn’t use Pact Magic,” Dae said, noting the Consort-King’s continued life in the face of what should have been a mortal wound. “That’s why you wouldn’t fight me.”

She leapt the distance from the floor of the blood soaked arena to land beside the Consort-King.

“I am blessed by Gallagrin,” Halrek said. “This is proof that I am your King!”

Dae drew her sword from his chest, freeing Halrek to fall onto his throne. With a single swipe she cut through his royal tunic and then reached inside his shirt to draw forth the fragment of an ancient stone tablet.

“And here’s proof that you’re not,” Dae said. “The missing piece of the Gallagrin Pact Spirit’s name.”

She held the tablet fragment aloft and saw recognition flare in the eyes of many of the older nobles. In Halrek’s eyes though there was only absolute terror. The tablet piece had granted him a portion of the Gallagrin Pact Spirit’s power and allowed him to contest Alari’s control of it. Without that, he was bereft any magics to call on or any means to prevent the Queen from reclaiming her full capabilities.

“My Knight,” the Queen said. “You made me a promise once. You spoke to what would happen to anyone who would dare visit harm upon me.”

Dae thought back to her words as young girl when she’d first declared herself Alari’s protector. It was the silly, thoughtless kind of boast of a child who knew no better. The kind of thing an adult would lose the conviction to follow through on in the face of the complexities of life.

Dae looked at the Consort-King. He was royalty in both Gallagrin and Paxmer. He had many allies and was loved by much of the kingdom. He and those who supported him would strike back powerfully for actions taken against him.  

But he had hurt Alari.

Dae’s only regret was that the back of the throne hit the floor before Halrek’s head did.

The Noble Regalia of the House of Tel was backed by exactly the sort of formidable  Pact Spirit which Dae had prayed she wouldn’t have to fight. The Telli were an old family, and one which had kept the same spirit bound to their service for all of the years they’d been in power. From each generation that had borne the spirit, it had absorbed an ever greater understanding of the mortal world and an ever greater sense of its own identity.

In practical terms that meant that so long as the current bearer of the spirit held goals that were amenable to the pact spirit, it could offer its own skill to the Pact Knight’s ability to call forth magics from the pact bond. It was an ability which only ennobled pact bearers were allowed to call on by the terms of the pact binding contracts. The early rulers of Gallagrin had forged that into an unbreakable tradition in order to ensure that none of the commoners they entrusted with pact spirits could rise up to easily overthrow them.

The Duke of Tel had never been an overly serious student of pact magics but neither was he talentless in that area. Combined with the accumulated skill of his Pact Spirit, Dae knew she wouldn’t have had much luck standing against him even if she’d been uninjured and fully rested. Luck wasn’t going to play any role in the battle though if Dae had her way.

“You don’t want to fight me,” she said as the Duke took up his position on the audience floor. The circular area in front of the throne and the curving seats of the nobles was too small to be a proper arena, but it was a venue that neither side would allow the other to leave alive.

That wasn’t a comforting point for the spectators. Everyone present was aware of the likelihood of the fight spilling out into the seats where the various nobles in attendance on the king sat. If that happened it was likely to be entirely in the Duke’s favor, since the nobles would be free to retaliate against an attack launched at them, but would need to consider the political cost of attacking the Duke.

Even if they supported Dae’s arguments (and more than a few of his noble brethren would have been happy to slip a knife into Duke’s Telli’s ribs) there was the problem of his heir who would be certain to retaliate for any injury done to his father.

“You have provoked this battle and made it all but unavoidable,” Telli said, waiting calmly as Dae limped into the open circle. “You should have stayed in the bed that was bought for you. You might have retained both your honor and your life.”

“I know the value of my life, and my honor,” Dae said. “What I don’t know is what you valued so much that you would sell your own country out to this Paxmer scum.”

“It’s a shame that berserker didn’t tear out your tongue,” Telli said. “I stepped in too soon apparently.”

“Feel free to explain that to the soldiers you let be slaughtered by that thing for your little stage show,” Dae said, reaching the edge of the arena and pausing for a breath. “If you happen to meet of them in hell that is.”

“You are broken already, in mind and body,” the Duke said. “This is no proper duel. Yield now and I promise you a quick and painless death.”

“Never,” Dae said softly, an unexpected feeling of quiet joy spreading through her. It didn’t alleviate her pain, but it did give her a new view of it. The Duke was right. She was too injured and too drained to kill him in her present state, but that didn’t matter. She’d lived for so long crippled by the fear of her own failure, and of having broken Alari’s faith, that being able to say that one word seemed like an impossibility.

For six years Dae hadn’t believe there was anything in her that could hold true to the vision Alari had of her. That the broken thing named “Daelynne Kor” who existed in the wreckage of Star’s Watch could never be Alari’s Knight. That in falling before the Dragon Fear, she’d revealed how ultimately selfish and cowardly she was, and that all of her dreams of being able to stand for what she believed in were just the naive hopes of a child who’d lost her father to the end of a madman’s noose.

Here, at what seemed to be the end of her life, she saw both the truth and the lie of what she’d told herself. She was selfish, and naive, and cowardly. Just not about the things she believed she was. And none of that mattered.

All that mattered was that she said “No”. That she didn’t run away this time. The past was gone. She knew she couldn’t take even one step backwards, and she knew that because she’d failed before. Her failures and her victories made her who she was, but it was the choices she made with each passing moment that determined who she was going to be.

Believing in herself was difficult, but in this one case she didn’t have to. All she needed to do here was to believe in Alari. That the girl she’d known was someone who was worth standing up for, that the love Dae felt for her Princess was worth everything that it cost, that even though they’d been separated by distance and time and life and death, the bond they shared was still a sacred one.

“If you won’t yield, then I’m not going to make this pleasant,” Telli said. “I believe I’ll start by tearing that lying tongue out of your throat.”

There was a burst of light where the Duke had stood and a blur that was too fast for any of the unaugmented eyes in the room to follow as Telli flashed forward across the dueling circle to strike Dae down.

His sword met an explosion of light as his opponent called on her pact transformation. The wild magics of the transformation, hurled the Duke back with so much force that he smashed through one of the pillars which stood at the outside of the makeshift arena. The pillar was solid granite, a foot and a half in diameter, and he sailed through it like it was dried kindling.

Stone chips went everywhere, blinding those nearby with dust and debris. The noble’s sitting on the opposite side of the arena, and Halrek who was in the middle of the great arc of seats were able to witnesses Dae’s transformation as dull grey plates of steel slammed over her body and she stood up, unburdened by the aches of her mortal form.

“You haven’t fought many other Pact wielders before, have you?” Dae asked, taunting the fallen Duke as he got back to his feet. “Always let others get their hands dirty, like with the murder of Prince Lorenzo.”

“The Queen had that boy killed,” Telli said. “It’s an open secret. Even the assassin involved confessed that much.”

“An assassin who never actually met his employer?” Dae asked. “Who worked for the same Denarius Consortium which you so kindly invited into Castle Nath and then provided passes to the celebration there?”

Telli flew at Dae again, but this time she didn’t have the sanctity of a transformation to call upon. She managed to dodge the entirety of his first blow since it was telegraphed from a long distance out but his follow up attacks were so rapid and strong that she was only able to parry or deflect slightly more than half of them, and even that required that she fight almost entirely from a defensive position.

For all of the strength of his offense though, the Duke was too used to completely outmatching his opponent to fight with both attack and defense in mind and Dae was able to turn one parried blow into a open that let her sink her blade through the armor at the Duke’s knee. If he hadn’t been transformed himself the blow would have taken the leg off completely. Instead it merely lamed him until he could pull out the sword which Dae left behind in the wound.

“Actions I did at the Queen’s command,” Telli said, yanking the summoned blade out of his leg and throwing it away. As his pact spirit repaired the damage to the conjured knee, Dae resummoned the blade to herself.

“Now who has the lying tongue?” Dae asked. “Everyone here has worked with Alari since the war. Most worked with her in the war too and those that didn’t were fighting against her. When they have a moment to think about it, none of them are going to believe that Alari ordered Lorenzo’s death.”

“She betrayed her father, why not her husband?” Telli asked.

“Alari would never betray someone she was pledged to,” Dae said. “But even if you all don’t know that, you know that if she wanted someone dead, she would handle it herself. With Gallagrin’s power she could annihilate a Page so thoroughly there would be no body to be found, and, after the war, it’s not like she hasn’t proven that she’s willing to get her hands dirty when the need arises. The whole lie of her seeking out foreign help to kill a page is absurd and everyone knows it.”

Telli responded to her words with another barrage of attacks. These were slower and more deliberate than the previous attacks had been. The strength behind them was overwhelming from Dae’s point of view, and that alone closed off a number of defenses that she could mount. She made the best of the maneuvers she knew that could still help though, and since she’d entered into her Pact early and been pitted against older and stronger opponents often, her knowledge on fighting superior foes was far from theoretical.

Knowledge and experience are vital tools, but there are levels of raw strength and power which they can have a difficult time adjusting for. Duke Telli’s Pact Armored form was an example of that level of raw might.

Where there wasn’t an opening in Dae’s defenses, he made one. When she tried to fall back to buy time to protect that vulnerable area, he pressed forward faster than she could react. Dae’ experience let her focus on and shield herself from Telli’s primary threats but in parrying his sword blows she had to leave herself open to his less deadly attacks.

So he kicked her across the chamber. Dae knew she couldn’t dodge the attack, so she used the split second opening provided by the Duke drawing his leg up for the kick to slid her sword into the eye slit in the Duke’s helmet. He’d adopted a look that allowed people to see his face, or the Pact Armored reflection it. Stabbing him there did little to actually kill him, but it was an annoyance that he was forced to deal with if he wanted to see the fight clearly.

Dae’s wasn’t in a better position though. When she hit the ground, her armor shattered on impact and it required a fair portion of her reserves to repair the damage kick did to her.

“That was a nice move,” Dae said as she rose from the ground. “If you’d used that and followed up, you could have put the Berserker down without anyone else being injured. But that wasn’t the point was it. You wanted an alibi for the time when the Queen was going to be attacked, and you wanted something to make it seem like the Inchesso assassins hated you.”

“A Berserker is nothing to trifle with,” Telli said. “Everyone saw what a monster that creature was. Even I was hard pressed by it. Do you think me such a fool I would expose myself to that sort of peril on purpose?”

“Yes,” Dae said. “You’re a poor deluded fool who thinks he has any chance of holding onto power still. And who thinks that bringing along the entirety of the Dawn March as backup when there just so happened to be a Berserker ready to ambush us isn’t a sign that he might have known what was lying in wait on the road he lead us all down.”

“Everyone knows that I am diligent in my preparations,” Telli said. “Of course I suspected trouble, and of course I prepared for it.”

“Really? So you always prepare for trouble do you?” Dae asked. “Then why did you flee towards the capital when you heard word of the Queen’s death at the hands of Inchesso assassins rather than towards the border where you could prepare to catch them if they chose to flee, or where you could prepare our defenses if this is to be a prelude to war as you and your Paxmer master plan to tell your fellows?”

The Duke glared at her, and Dae knew she’d scored a hit. The notion of war with Inchesso hadn’t been broached yet, and with what she’d said, any attempt to suggest it would make the rest of her words seem all the more true. If Telli or Halrek pushed for the war they’d so carefully tried to engineer, the nobles who opposed them would use Dae’s words to burn the pair at the stake.

Dae watched as the understanding of that flowed across the Duke’s face.

The next thing she knew she was lying embedded in one of the pillars. The Duke’s rage led him to draw extra power from his Pact spirit making him unimaginably fast. He’d hit her so rapidly that she hadn’t even seen him move.

Blinking, she looked around and saw him stomping slowly towards her. Savoring the final moments before her tore her limb from limb and crushed the life from her body.

With the power that he’d drawn, nothing could stop him. Nothing could even slow him down. Nothing, except for one specific voice.

“Hold! Stop this contest, upon our command!” Queen Alari Gallagrin said from the great doors into the hall.

With the cooling steam from her fiery flight falling from her shoulders like a cloak, Dae looked over the assembled nobles, the ones not hidden in shadows at least, judging each one in turn with a glance, until her gaze rested upon the Consort-King.

“Where. Is. She.” Dae repeated. She didn’t enhance her voice with Kirios’ power. In the silence that gripped the room, she didn’t need to.

Halrek rose slowly from his throne, the only one willing to address the mad warrior who had disrupted the gathering.

“If you seek the Queen, she is dead,” he said. “Slain by Inchesso assassins last eve.”

“No,” Dae faltered, her weight pressing hard on the sword she used as a cane.

“The blood found in the royal chambers bears horrid testimony to our loss,” Halrek said. “We arrived too late to save her, and even too late to fully avenge her. With my own eyes I saw the assassins flee her room through the wards which their only foreign sorcery allowed them to breach.”

“No,” Dae said, pushing herself back up to her full height. “She wasn’t slain by assassins. You, Halrek of Paxmer, you faithless, honorless, traitor. She died at your hand. And now, you’re going to die at mine.”

Dae took a step forward and buckled halfway to the ground before catching herself. Even splinted and with a makeshift cane, walking on her leg wasn’t easy to manage.

“These are serious charges,” Duke Genli, the Queen’s Chief Justice, said. “And they are delivered in a harsh tongue unbecoming speech to your King. What evidence do you have to support such a claim?”

“He is not my King,” Dae said, and advanced another pace towards the throne. She was still too far away to be any threat but several of the nobles were settling back in their chairs warily. “And my evidence are witnesses who carry documents written by the traitor’s own hand, detailing his every machination against our Queen.”

“Why would the King write such an incriminating missive?” Genli asked.

“He needed to coordinate his plans with his accomplice, the Duke of Tel” Dae said. “They exchanged the messages in code. Probably didn’t consider that someone else might break it. Wasn’t too smart of the Duke to hang on to the messages either but if he’d kept them hidden I suppose they would have made a powerful lever to use on the waste of human flesh sitting on the throne there.”

“I have endured the dislike and mistrust of the people of this, my adopted realm, for many years now,” Halrek said. “But I will not be spoken to in such a slanderous tongue. Produce your witnesses immediately, if you have them. I will not have my name tarnished by the implication of wrongdoing. Not with grief so freshly upon me.”

“I’m not imply anything,” Dae said. “And I’m not going to tell you anything while your assassins are still on the loose.”

“First you say it was his hands that killed the Queen and now you speak of his assassins,” Genli said. “Which is it to be?”

“Both,” Dae said. “The traitor’s plans run deep, and broad, and the murder of the Queen was only the first step. He holds the reins of the assassins you saw. They’re a death sworn guild who will spend their lives carelessly for enough coin, which makes them the perfect tools for a conspiracy like this.”

“This is an insanity of lies,” Halrek said. “Against every question she posits greater and more convoluted schemes.”

“You had six years to prepare for this,” Dae said. “Perhaps we should send you home in six separate boxes.”

“I sit upon the throne of Gallagrin,” Halrek said. “You cannot threaten me.”

“I’m not threatening,” Dae said.

“No, you’re not,” Halrek said. “Who are you to stand before this assemblage? By what right do you accuse me? If you will provide no support for your claims, you must at least provide your name and rank so that we may know who it is we are to try.”

Dae paused her slow and painful progress towards the throne.

“I am Daelynne Kor of the Dawn March,” she said. “By the right and mandate of my position as watchguard for this realm, I accuse you, Halrek of Paxmer, and name you murderer.”

Halrek smiled broadly at that declaration.

“So I see,” his voice held a malicious satisfaction. “You are the one who sent the Inchesso Vampire to the Queen. The same Inchesso Vampire that was seen sprinting from her chambers and flying from the castle, shortly before she collapsed.”

“He should have stayed with her,” Dae said, bristling that there’d been a chance to save Alari and it had gone awry.

“Yes, I suppose you would want a foreign vampire at the Queen’s side when she took ill,” Halrek said. “That’s exactly the sort of thing someone in league with the assassins would be looking for.”

“Don’t try to place your sin on me,” Dae said.

“Except of course it is your sin exactly, is it not?” Halrek said. “The assassins were supposed to make a clean getaway from the murder. That’s what assassins do. But they were caught and identified. We know they hail from Inchesso and we know Prince Lorenzo’s family is furious at his loss. They had agents within the country to lookout for their son, clearly, and who better than a member of our own Dawn March to corrupt to their needs. I hear the March was once a noble organization, but the years have not been kind and many in it succumb to the temptation of gold. This one surely has a fortune stashed away for her role in the assassination but once it looked like the scheme might unravel and all her ill gotten wealthy flow away from her, she flew here with a wild tale to cast the blame off herself.”

Dae felt a sick drop in her stomach. It would be no effort at all for Halrek to make a sack of gold appear in her apartment before she could get back there. Kael might even volunteer one of his if it meant he wouldn’t have to work with her anymore.

“We don’t even need to look far for motivation,” Halrek said. “I loved my wife. I gave up my country for her. Everyone saw that. This one though? The Queen spoke of her, the woman who was her childhood friend. The woman who shut her out, who refused to see or speak with her after the Queen took the throne.”

Dae felt her knees sag for reasons that had nothing to do with the pain of her broken leg.

“There was anger, even hatred, which drove them apart after so long and close an acquaintance,” Halrek said. “For that distance to finally be closed at this hour, one too late for any proper reconciliation? It is clear that it was not charity or duty which moved Officer Kor to appear before us tonight. It was fear. Fear of discovery and fear of just retribution.”

Dae sagged even further where she stood, Halrek’s every word a thorn pumping venom into her heart. Through long dry veins the venom flowed, burning as it crossed over happy memories that lay buried in the reaches of her heart that Dae didn’t dare to look at anymore.

It was too late for those memories, but they rose to the surface anyways. Alari, mischief in her eyes leading Dae on an adventure. Alari, trembling with anger at her father’s cruelty. Alari laughing in the sun as it kissed her hair and framed her in a glowing halo.

They had spoken so many times, shared so many secrets and planned so long for their future together, but there were still words Dae hadn’t spoken. Not in the right way and not at the right time. With that time passed, Dae knew it didn’t matter what she said, but still, the words were there.

“I don’t fear you,” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper. “I fear no discovery and no retribution.”

Exhaling, she pushed herself up once more.

“There is nothing for me in this world anymore,” she said. “I have lost my dearest friend. I have lost the one person in this whole sad plane who ever saw me for who I am. I have lost the woman I love, and will love until breath leaves my body, until my bones rot away, until my spirit turns to dust.”

“I did not speak with her, I did not seek her out, or stand beside her,” Dae said, and took another slow step. “I did not do these things and that was because I failed her.”

The glass from the shattered stained glass window crunched under her feet as she took another careful step towards the throne.

“She gave me one duty, to save this country from the ravenous hunger of Paxmer while she delivered it from the evil of her father,” Dae said. “And I failed. I failed Gallagrin, I failed Star’s Watch and I failed her. Instead of me defending her, she saved me and she saved us all by feeding herself to Paxmer.”

“You do the Queen a disservice even as you praise her,” Halrek said. “She gave nothing to Paxmer and gained the throne and the kingdom whole and undamaged in the process.”

“Not undamaged,” Dae said. “To win the throne, she had to let a rat into the palace to gnaw on Gallagrin’s heart. There was no chance that Paxmer could conquer Gallagrin, yet they launched an attack anyways.”

“That was a disaster averted,” Halrek said. “Paxmer could not allow the Butcher King’s power to grow unchecked and the civil war offered us the best opportunity to excise him from his throne.”

“And it was the only chance Paxmer had of gaining control of Gallagrin,” Dae said.

“Paxmer gained nothing,” Halrek said. “No land was usurped. No trade routes were ceded. All that Paxmer saw out of Gallagrin’s war was the loss of one of its sons.”

“Being rid of you is no loss,” Dae said. “Not when you planned for this day from the beginning. You knew you had to get this close to the throne to have a chance to steal it. You watched Alari battled for the rule of Gallagrin and you learned from her. It takes a strike from inside, from someone who can make a claim of authority over the spirit of Gallagrin and who holds one of the rune stones of its name. Without that, no assassin’s could overcome the power the Queen held.”

“The Inchesso have mysterious poisons,” Halrek said. “Who is to say that their magical brews wouldn’t be enough to overwhelm even the protections of the Gallagrin pact spirit?”

“The Inchesso would never waste a poison strong enough to kill a Queen on anyone but each other,” Dae said. “And they would never make it obvious that they’d used a tool like that if they had one. If they did, every kingdom in the Blessed Realms would descend on them. Otherwise there’d be a spate of regicides that would follow the discovery of any elixir that was that powerful.”

“And how come you to claim such knowledge of what the Inchesso are and are not capable of?” Halrek asked.

“Because if there was a poison capable of killing a sovereign of the Blessed Realms, then the Butcher Sathe would have used it on Paxmer long ago,” Dae said.

“That is supposition and nothing more,” Halrek said.

“It’s a truth that everyone here who ever met the Butcher King should recognize,” Dae said. “But none of that matters. Words aren’t going to conclude this debate. This isn’t going to end until one of us lies lifeless on the floor of this chamber.”

“There are ample guards and my noble brethren here who are quite capable of seeing this resolved then,” Halrek said.

“I don’t want to go through them to get to you,” Dae said. “So I offer you a Judicial Challenge. Your life vs. mine.”

“You are a Pact Warrior,” Halrek said. “Even injured as you are, I am not permitted to take up your challenge as I have no Pact spirit to call upon. Unless a Champion will step forward to take my place?”

Halrek turned to the assembled nobles, none of whom seemed overly eager to venture into a mortal duel on their soon-to-be ruler’s behalf.

“Since this slanderous one has named my house in her suit as well, I shall stand as your champion,” the Duke of Tel said, stepping out of the shadows, unharmed and in his full Pact Regalia.

Everything was wrong. That was all Dae knew as she fell back onto her bed after Ren finished speaking.

“My father’s notes were in code, but he’s not as brilliant as he thinks he is and the King apparently had trouble with even the simple cipher my father worked out,” Ren said.

“Nine bleeding hells,” Kael said. “Why did you have to bring this here boy?”

“You were the closest agent of the Queen’s that we knew we could trust,” Teo said.

Dae was barely listening to them. Alari was in trouble. The plan that Ren had described could work. It was a modification of the one Dae and Alari had dreamed up as children. The one that had overthrown a tyrant king.

“Lorenzo was a smokescreen,” she said, numb and unthinking.

“Not quite,” Ren said. “My father’s plan covers more than capturing the throne.”

“What else matters?” Dae asked, her heart freezing with the certainty that she had learned the truth too late. As hard as she’d fought, as careful as she’d been, it hadn’t been enough. Once again, she’d fallen short.

“They’re going to set us on a course for war, my father and the worthless bastard King who’s going to be sitting on the throne,” Ren said. “In the time it takes for sky carriages to carry the official word to Inchesso and Paxmer, Gallagrin will be embroiled in a war with the first and an alliance with the second.”

“This is above my pay grade,” Kael said. “You should take this to the commander.”

“His loyalties seem to lie with the Duke, do they not?” Teo asked.

“You’re not going to the commander,” Dae said, staring ahead. Her voice was a dull monotone but there was an edge to it that suggested argument on that point was not a wise move.

“I still don’t understand how you discovered this plot in the first place?” Kael asked.

“My father foolishly left me alone at our estate in Elinspire,” Ren said. “I was looking for material to blackmail him with.”

“You were going to do what now?” Kael asked.

“Blackmail him,” Ren said. “I make no bones about it. My father only respects those who can help or hurt him. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to do the former, to be the good son who can win his respect and acceptance honorably. Then he beat Teo and cast him out. That’s what ended my desire to help my father. From that point on, I knew the only language he would understand was the promise of a blade at his throat.”

“How sure are you?” Dae asked.

“Of my father’s unwillingness to listen or compromise? Completely,” Ren said.

“No,” Dae said. “Of the translation. Could it have been anything else they were talking about?”

“They refer to Queen Alari by name,” Ren said. “This monstrosity is within  the reach of my father’s greed and his malic, and I’m not mistaken in my decryption of the text.”

“Everything that has happened has been to paint a picture where the Queen and Inchesso were set against each other,” Teo said. “All in preparation to explain both the Queen’s death and the need for war on Inchesso, the weakest of the Blessed Realms.”

“You can’t know that though,” Kael said. “Even if there are some nobles who would go along with that plan, not all of them are bad. It’s not the kind of thing that would really become an issue. Anyone smart enough to pull it off would be smart enough to see they’d never get away with it.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Dae said.

“See, that’s exactly what I’m saying,” Kael gestured towards Dae in agreement.

“No, the nobles who won’t go along with it don’t matter,” Dae said. “The people will be calling for Inchesso blood. Even the nobles who wish to avoid war will be pressured from within and without, or ignored altogether.”

“Doesn’t sounds like there’s much we can do about it then,” Kael said.

“How did you get here?” Dae asked, turning to face Ren and Teo at last.

“We ran,” Ren said. “After I found Teo, he was able to feed and regain his strength.”

“How did that not kill you?” Dae asked. “I saw Teo in Nath, he didn’t look good even then.”

“My Pact Spirit sustains me,” Teo said. “And my blood carries more than just my own lifeforce now.”

“Where did you get a Pact Spirit that was strong enough to withstand that?” Dae asked.

“From my sister,” Ren said. “She came to visit while I was imprisoned at Elinspire.”

“Pact Spirits aren’t children’s toys, where did she get one?” Dae asked.

“My sister isn’t a child, but she is…special,” Ren said.

“Maybe she could do something about your dad then,” Kael said.

“She has her own issues to deal with I am afraid,” Ren said.

“This is happening,” Dae said, addressing no one in the room. “My leg is broken, I’m miles away, and she needs me.”

“Nothing to be done for it then,” Kael said. “It’s almost like Duke planned for this.”

“He did,” Ren said. “He kept his own notes for plan in the same secure vault as the correspondence with the King. It was all buried under a ton of locks and hidden rooms within the archives. If I hadn’t been driven to leap at a wild chance, and only because I also had the time I needed to search for them properly, those papers would have never been found.”

“Why even keep them?” Kael asked.

“Blackmail,” Teo said. “And insurance against the king. If Duke Telli goes down, he plans to take everyone else with him.”

“Then there’s only one thing for it,” Dae said and moved the covers off the bed.

“Given it a rest Kor. You’re in no condition to walk, must less fight,” Kael said.

“Not planning to do my own walking,” Dae said and with a small and careful effort of will, she conjured her Pact armor.

Moving was easier after that. With her natural body help outside the bounds of the world, Dae was able to walk on solid and unbroken Pact armor legs.

Pushing herself past her visitors and the dumbstruck Kael, Dae strode out into the hall, down the stairs and out the door of the Inne before Teo caught up with her.

“You can’t challenge the Duke here,” he said.

“Don’t care about the Duke for now,” Dae said and cast her gaze skyward.

“You can’t carry a message to the Queen in the state you’re in either,” Teo said. “Let me do it. I ran most of the way here with only a few drops of blood in my body. I’m in vastly better shape now.”

“You’re not going to be able to keep up,” Dae said and then added with the whisper of actual warmth and gratitude in her voice, “But thanks. You had a rough time of it, I’m glad you didn’t give up.”

“What are you going to do?” Teo asked.

“Ask a question and hope I get the right answer,” Dae said. “While I’m doing that though, you have a job that you need to do.”

“What’s that?” Teo asked.

“Protect Ren,” Dae said. “If I come back here, there will be a vacancy on the Ducal Throne of Tel shortly thereafter. Make sure your man’s around to claim it.”

“He has an elder brother and sister,” Teo said.

“Yes, and that might even still be true when I’m done,” Dae said.

Teo covered his shock with a frown and then a nod. The Duke was a traitor to the kingdom. His life was already forfeit, the only thing that remained was the task of taking it from him. His treason was such that it threatened to bring down far more than just himself though. Anyone in his family who was privy to the conspiracy could be considered a part of it and would face summary justice as well.

“How are you going to reach the castle before your power runs out?” Teo asked.

“Like this,” Dae said and called on Kirios for another transformation.

This was a deeper and more profound change that her usual Pact Armor. Kirios’ power was still bound by her will and her station, but Dae gave the magics much freer reign in assembling her new form than they ever normally enjoyed.

The layer of plate armoring that covered her shrank away, revealing a long, featureless body covered in a down of quicksilver grey feathers. From Dae’s back, three pairs of wings unfurled. Where her helmet had been, there were only two long feathers of fire streaming on either side of an almost featureless quicksilver face. In place of eyes, molten coals burned and rivers of a hot, red, lava-like substance coursed down from loops below the fire feathers to streams that flowed to the end of Dae’s fingers and toes.

One moment, she stood beside Teo and the next a fiery trail blazed up into the air and across the sky.

Out racing the wind was something Dae had only dreamed of doing before, but she had dreamed of it for a long time. Ever since the day she was first called to be away from Alari, she’d planned for how she could return to her princess.

When Alari became Queen, those plans had been tucked away. Alari didn’t need her anymore, Dae believed. Between the new Consort-King and the mantle of Gallagrin’s power, Alari should never have needed anyone else, ever again, and most especially not a foolish failure who dared to dream that she was brave enough to always stand as Alari’s shield.

Dae thought back to the death of that dream. To the last day she was ever called by the name Alari gave her. To the day that she failed Star’s Watch, and her kingdom.

Dragon Fear was a supernatural power. No one contested that. It overwhelms mortal reason and forces the Mindful Races to flee from the dragon’s presence.

Except for Dae it hadn’t.

She’d been so focused on her battle against the enemy general, that she  hadn’t felt the first wave of the dragon’s power wash over the area. She hadn’t ordered the retreat when there was time to save the people of Star’s Watch.

Only when the dragon was upon them, had its influence broken through the battle haze she’d descended into. A strange calm had descended over the battlefield in that moment, when the dragon and Dae locked eyes.

For three breaths, neither side had moved. It was a memory that Dae had picked over thousands of times and in her heart she knew; if her spirit had been true, she could have held the dragon there. All it took was one person to stand against it.

For all their vast might and perilous mystical potential, dragons were creatures of caution. Being among the Undying, they bore the curse that a deep enough wound would be one they would need to suffer from for all eternity. Mortals fled from them because of the power dragons possessed. A mortal who refused to flee was either deeply broken or possessed of a power which was best studied from a distance before engaging with. In either case, unless circumstances compelled them otherwise, a dragon would generally yield the field to a mortal who refused to be swayed by fear.

Dae knew she could have saved Star’s Watch that way. All she’d needed to do was stand her ground.

For three breaths she had, and then the dragon had taken a step forward and its massive bulk had rumbled the landed. Dae took one step back, just one step, but that was all it took. Whatever strength she’d summoned to meet the dragon’s power evaporated and she knew nothing more until she woke up in the medical tent of the fallback camp.

The civil war was won by then and the Paxmer forces withdrawn. There were no more battles for her to fight. No possibility of making up for her failure and the lives it cost.

Alari visited her once, but Dae could barely look at her. She’d heard the stories of what Alari had been through, of the sacrifices she’d made. She’d asked Dae for one thing, to hold off Paxmer so that her kingdom wouldn’t face devastation from without. With Dae’s failure, Alari had been forced to turn to a union with a lesser prince of Paxmer who was looking to rise above his allotted station in life.

Bound by the mantle of Gallagrin to the country, and bound by politics to a wedding of convenience, Alari had no need for Dae anymore.

At their last meeting, Dae was curt and short with the woman she was no longer worthy of supporting, because however much Dae knew that to be true, she couldn’t bear to hear Alari say those words aloud.

She exiled herself before Alari could reclaim the honors Dae had received from her. It was cleaner like that, and easier for them both, Dae had told herself.

With no correspondence and no contact, Alari would never need to say the difficult words which Dae already knew were true, and Dae would never need to hear them, except as echoes of recrimination that played over and over in her mind, endlessly.

Flying toward High Crest and the royal castle, felt eerily similar to facing the dragon. Every sensible part of her told her to flee, but the built up self-hatred of six years of failure prodded her onwards. She knew her courage might break at any moment, as it did against the dragon, but still she flew towards her Queen, a song of joy stirring in her heart to finally be running in the right direction.

In the castle, Halrek was just sitting down to address the assembled nobles and give them the terrible news when a creature of fire and gleaming steel burst through the great stained glass window which stood opposite the thrones at the far end of the Royal Advisory Chamber.

Dae rose from ground, multi-hued fragments of glass running off her as she stood.

With the power for her flying form more than exhausted, the flames around her died away and she stood before the king and the nobles, balancing on a her sword as a crutch and asked the one question she cared about.

“Where is she.”

Alari woke up on her deathbed. Her mind was still clouded, she still struggled to keep the room in focus, to listen to her husband’s words, but she was clear on a few details nonetheless. She could feel the poison in her veins at last. She didn’t know how long it had been accumulating there, building up its strength until it finally overwhelmed her, but she was certain it wasn’t newly inflicted on her. Not all of it. That lead to the other detail.

She’d been betrayed.

It had to be someone she would never suspect. Someone who had no reason to act against her. Someone she wouldn’t guard against.

“This is a wonderful room your father designed,” Halrek said. “I do miss spending time here, it’s so quiet. So very…isolated.”

Alari tried to raise her head. To fight out of the bed and its cruel grip on her fading body.

“Is there anything that you need?” Halrek asked. “An antidote perhaps?”

He wiggled the little bottle he’d taken from her table, a broad smile on his face. Alari closed her eyes and tried to remember the last time she’d seen him so animated.

“Don’t fade on me just yet,” Halrek said. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this day to come. Six years of putting up with the worst this country has to offer. Six years of playing the role of the exotic foreign prince. Six years of you.”

He walked around the bed and kneeled down beside her, swinging the bottle back and forth in front of her lips.

“I had no idea this would feel so good,” he whispered, mad joy flickering behind his eyes. “Tomorrow, I’ll have to go back into hiding. I’ll have to play the grieving King. But for today, for this one precious moment, I can be free. So let’s cherish it shall we? No more secrets. No more pretending. What would you like to know o’ my dying princess?”

Alari tried to glare at him. She tried to do significantly more violent things to him as well, but Gallagrin’s power was contested. She knew the feeling of the spirit’s power being held in abeyance by competing claims on its ownership. It was the same feeling she’d fought through when she usurped her father’s throne.

“Why?” she managed to gasp out between labored breaths.

“Why not.” Halrek answered. “That should be the whole of my answer don’t you think? It’s all that you deserve certainly, but it’s so very unsatisfying. It would be a form of revenge to leave you to die in ignorance and confusion, but we’ve been together long enough that I think I know you. I think it will hurt you much worse if you understand everything before the end. You won’t be here for what follows tomorrow, but maybe sending you to the afterlife with the knowledge of what awaits your kingdom with make your stay in hell even less pleasant.”

“Why?” Alari asked again, fresh stabs of pain radiating up her rib cage.

“When we met during the war, didn’t you think it odd that I just happened to appear at your darkest hour? And that as the third prince in line for the Paxmer throne I would have the influence to stop the war that had begun?”

“But you did stop the war,” Alari said. “You helped us.”

“No, I saved you,” Halrek said. “If not for me, your forces would have crumbled under Paxmer’s assault.”

“How can you do this then?” Alari asked.

“We’re getting ahead of ourselves,” Halrek said. “Think back to the war. What would have happened if I didn’t swoop in to save you?”

“My father could have won,” Alari said.

“Exactly,” Halrek said. “Maybe you could have beaten him, maybe not, but Paxmer couldn’t take that chance.”

“Why attack us at all?” Alari felt her breath growing weak.

“Because you were weak,” Halrek said. “But not weak enough to conquer. Whichever side won your war, was going to take control of High Crest. We couldn’t stop that and we couldn’t unseat a ruling monarch with that sort of power at their disposal. Not directly at any rate.”

“Then you should have left us…alone.” The poison surging through her veins left Alari feeling like she was melting from the inside out.

“But there was such a ripe fruit to be plucked,” Halrek said. “How could we turn that down?”

“What fruit?” Alari asked, her vision of the rooming swimming and lurching about as though she was on a ship at sea.

“Why you of course my princess,” Halrek said. “A poor, valiant hearted girl, fighting to undo the sins of her father. You were a storybook come to life and just about as easy to read.”

“I thought you didn’t want to see your people die?” Alari asked.

“I don’t,” Halrek said. “This is a far better method of conquest.”

“But you’re already have the throne,” Alari asked. “What more do you want?”

“I have nothing,” Halrek said. “Consort-King? It’s an insult. My place is not to sit below anyone from this wretched mound of goat crap, but to rule above them.”

“Years…” Alari said. “You’ve spent years working…with me…to put our kingdom back together.”

“I spent years working to prepare my kingdom for my rule,” Halrek said. “This was never about you. It was never about your war, or your people. I have always been a loyal and faithful son of Paxmer.”

“I never asked you to abandon them,” Alari said.

“You didn’t ask for your crown either,” Halrek said. “You took it.”

He stood up and began to pace around the room.

“You seized the throne with your own bloody hands,” Halrek said. ”I was there. I saw everything. And that was your mistake.”

“Wasn’t a mistake,” Alari said, fading back into her mattress to gather her strength.

“I’m glad you think so,” Halrek said. “Because that’s what showed me how a throne could be taken.”

He placed the small bottle he was carrying back on Alari’s desk and turned to face her.

“When my sister sent me on this little errand, it was only ever meant to be a ruse,” Halrek said. “She was Queen and I was the young and, for a time useless, Third Prince. I knew I was nothing more than a pawn, but she gave me such a unique role to play. I would secure the goodwill of Gallagrin and rise nearer to the throne than I ever could at home.”

“You were never true to me?” Alari asked, pain in her voice that went far deeper than even the poison could reach.

“All the times I told you that I loved you and you never wondered at how little I showed that with anything more than words?” Halrek asked.

“Our child…” Alari began to say but cut herself short. She didn’t want the answer to the question she was going to ask. Even knowing Halrek hated her. Even as her fondness for him turned to sickness and hate. She didn’t want to know what on some level she’d always suspected.

“That was an engaging evening,” Halrek said. “Passably fun for its novelty. Ravishing a princess isn’t something one gets to do everyday. I did have to be careful though, didn’t I?”

Halrek paced over to one of the bookshelves in the room and inspected the manuscripts stored there. Alari stayed silent, hoping no more would be said on the subject.

“I know you’ve felt under-appreciated since then,” Halrek said. “You’re a healthy young woman with no one to share your appetites with. Well, you were a healthy young woman. Think about it from my perspective though.”

Alari remained silent, struggling not to hear the words Halrek skewered her heart with.

“As I said, it was a very delicate situation. I couldn’t seem reluctant to get an heir to the kingdom on you. It was one thing to ask your nobles to accept me as a foreign prince. It would have been quite another to ask them to accept a Consort who refused to perform the most basic duty a Consort is expected to perform.”

Halrek selected a book from the shelf and walked over to the bed, depositing it beside Alari as though she’d been reading it before falling asleep.

“Of course the problem was, if you bore the kingdom a child then my problems simply doubled.”

“What problems?” Alari asked, conserving her strength as her stomach clenched and spasmed.

“The number of people between me and the throne,” Halrek said. “Please, just because you’re dying is no excuse for failing to keep up.”

He picked up a dagger from her table and eyed its blade and then Alari’s prone body. She more than half expected him to end his teasing and kill her right there, but instead he used it to cut open an envelope, which he placed within the book.

“Did you know, poisoning someone with a Royal Pact Spirit is a difficult endeavor?” Halrek asked. “Of course you do. It’s why you never worried about poisons as like an Inchesso noblewoman Inchesso would.”

He sat on the bed beside her again.

“Some think that the bearers of a Royal Pact Spirit are immune to poison. I know it didn’t occur to you to use one on your father, or perhaps you tried and failed and never spoke of it,” Halrek said. “The truth is you are still vulnerable to poisons of many types. I just needed to find the right one, and the right dosage. Too much, or too strong, and the spirit will recognize the toxin and expel it or neutralize it. Too little and the regenerative capabilities provided by the spirit will overwhelm the poison’s effects. If you have time though, and the proper subject, you can get the dosage just right.”

“Why didn’t you…kill me…years ago?” Alari asked, losing precious breath to the more precious need to understand the insanity that confronted her.

“Oh but I did,” Halrek said. “Or at least I practiced killing you.”

He looked down at her and pushed an errant lock of hair back from her forehead.

“Like I said, I couldn’t have two people in between me and my claim to the throne now could I?”

Alari scream and reached out a hand to choke the life out of man in front of her. She was weak and slow, but still faster than his eyes could follow and stronger than he expected.

With all of the strength she possessed, she crushed at his throat, seeking to shatter his spine and rip his head off. If she was going to die as the Bloody Handed Queen then she wanted to be painted in the right blood at least.

Gallagrin’s strength was not hers alone to command though. From his pocket, Halrek drew forth one of the Royal Summoning Stones which bore of a piece of Gallagrin’s name. With strength to match her own, he pulled her hand away and threw her back down onto the bed before hopping up and away from her.

“Oh that was perfect,” he said. “I’ve wanted to tell you that for so long now. The rage in your eyes is just what I hoped it would be. Though I must confess, seeing you moping about in misery, thinking that everything was your fault was delightful too. It made things so easy when you no longer sought any comfort in my bed.”

“You’re going to die,” Alari said.

“No, I’m going to be King!” Halrek said. “The real King. What do you think I’ve been doing for these last six years? While you’ve been preening about wasting resources on ‘improving the lives of your subjects’ in a futile effort to get them to love you, I’ve been building alliances.”

He massaged his throat and looked in a mirror to see what damage had been done.

“My sister wanted me to turn you against Inchesso, but when we saw that wasn’t going to happen, her orders were simply to keep you complacent,” Halrek said. “After watching how you destroyed your father though, I saw how much more I could strive for. All I had to do was build enough support that when you fell the nobles would rally behind me as the lesser evil to a return to civil war. Which brings us to today I suppose. We’re still close enough to your war that the wounds are fresh in people’s memory, as our annual gala has ensured they would be. Unlike six years ago though, your nobles see me as a moderating influence on you. I’m the one they can turn to when you wish to strip away too much of their power and prestige. After six years, they know they can work with me, and I know how to manipulate them.”

Halrek walked over to the broad and tightly shuttered windows and unlatched one of them without opening it.

“I should thank you for that I suppose,” he said. “You played your part adequately and with only minor coaching, so bravo for you.”

“You can’t take Gallagrin,” Alari said, feeling a deathly chill beginning to spread inwards from the tips of her fingers and toes.

“I already have,” Halrek said. “It’s just that few people are aware of that yet.”

“Who supports you?” Alari asked, fighting for even a few more moments of consciousness.

“Oh, shall I betray my allies?” Halrek asked. “It’s of no consequence I suppose. Their names will never be pried from your dead lips.”

He pushed the inner shutters securely shut.

“You suspected the Duke of Tel as the one behind the plot against you, did you not?” Halrek asked. “So his disloyalty can come as no surprise. It’s my hand that has slain you, but he delivered the means of your execution to me thanks to his contacts in Inchesso.”

“What does he gain?” Alari asked with the last of her breath.

“I’ll need a Consort-Queen once the official period of mourning is past,” Halrek said. “Telli knows he cannot be King himself. The other nobles would murder him on the spot. He has a daughter though, and giving his family a position in the court? That idea pleases him.”

Halrek listened at the shutters for a second and then turned back to Alari.

“Any other questions?” he asked.

She was silent as the poison crept up into her torso, stealing away life and heat.

“Perhaps you would like to know what will happen when you are gone?” Halrek asked. “We have staged a grand play to dramatize your passing after all.”

Halrek swept to the foot of the bed, out of reach in case Alari was feigning weakness again, and turned to her.

“As you know there has been an incident with an young Inchesso Prince whom you employed. Rumors abound that you have been conducting an illicit affair behind my back, rumors which I will denounce vehemently when you are gone of course.”

“But there is the matter of the Inchesso vampire you were seen holding a secret meeting with. He was not part of our plan, but we work with what we are given and honestly you could not have given us a better scapegoat if you’d tried.”

“In response to your presumed murder of the Inchesso prince, a guild of assassins has been employed to exact revenge on you by the prince’s family. No assassins have felled a sitting monarch of Gallagrin before, but Inchesso assassin’s know terrible secrets, so people will be all too willing to believe that your death is on their hands.”

Alari tried to will herself to her feet, to summon Gallagrin’s power to replace her failing body with one of indestructible Pact Armor, at least long enough to reclaim the summoning stone but she couldn’t manage to move at all.

“Oh don’t struggle, this is the good part,” Halrek said. “After you die, Gallagrin will feel besieged. There will be more attacks on the eastern borders, and in the end, war will be declared. But not a limited war. Not one to adjust the borders by a few miles or more. This will be a war of true conquest. Gallagrin will need to exact vengeance on Inchesso and Paxmer will stand behind it.”

Halrek resumed his pacing, checking first the door that lead to the solitary staircase which lead up to royal bedchamber and then the shutters once more.

“With two nations against it, Inchesso will fall, Gallagrin will have its revenge, but at a ruinously heavy price. With the Gallagrin throne safely secured in my hands, Paxmer will then march in and claim both kingdom’s as its protectorates.”

“With three kingdom’s under Paxmer’s banner, my sister, my eldest brother and I will form a ruling triumvirate and from our house will grow a dynasty which will rule all of the Blessed Realms.”

Halrek opened both the inner and outer shutters and then returned to the side of Alari’s bed and whispered to her.

“What’s supposed to happen next is that I leave and receive word in a few hours that an attack on you has been planned. I’m supposed to gather the royal guards as I race up to this room, bursting through the door just in time to confront the assassins who have already slain you. There will be a fierce battle, I’ll be injured, but despite that injury, the guards and I will kill every one of the assassins who murdered you.”

Leaning in closer, Halrek lowered his voice still further.

“I don’t like that plan though. A few hours gives you too much time.” he said, and hoisted Alari out her bed as though he were going to carry her over a bridal threshold. “Plus I’ve wanted to do this for so very long.”

And with that he took Alari to the window and threw her out.

The Royal Bed Chamber overlooked one of the most lovely scenes in the capital. Below the window the river Mundia ran, falling a thousand feet down into a chasm that served as an unpassable line of defense from attack on the city’s western flank.

Alari fell and in falling felt light at last. Adrenaline surged in her veins and brought her a few sparkling moments of clarity.

She saw the jutting rocks of the wide chasm walls flying by and knew that she was traveling much too fast to survive the impact that awaited her at the bottom. That didn’t stop her from calling out for Gallagrin’s power though.

Even split seconds from death, even destroyed by toxic wounds and poisonous words, Alari still wanted to live.

She entered the mist that roiled at the bottom of the chasm and felt fingers of wind and river spray try to catch her. Her fall slowed, but not enough. When she hit the bottom it was cold and uncaring stone which greeted her and she shattered against it.