LUXMAEASTRA

"Hello Adva, what have I said about slamming my door?"

Her daughter winced and sat down anyway.

"Sorry Mama. I just - they drive me insane! Can't you send them away? Somewhere far away? Oh! To Dusk, to Uncle Damien -"

"You'd miss them darling."

Natalia set her pen down and looked at her.

"Is this about Ivan?"

"Yes! He asked Aleksander and Azriel for *permission* before asking to court me! And Alaric and Adrian insist on chaperoning! And Xavier and Xaden keep glaring at Ivan as if he hasn't come to our home every summer! Make it stop!"

Natalia sighed and stood, cupping her cheek.

"They're worried for you -"

"Make them stop being that."

//adi apparently looks like Nat!//

Natalia exhaled through her nose, the kind of sigh that carried both patience and long practice at diplomacy. An art that many mothers had to practice and excel in, especially when they had many children like she.

“Adva…”

She kept her hand on her daughter’s cheek a moment longer before stepping back, smoothing the edge of her sleeve as if that could organise the situation into something reasonable.

“I cannot make Xavier and Xaden trust Ivan. Nor can I undo Alaric and Adrian’s insistence on watching every breath you take. And Aleksander and Azriel…” a faint, knowing look flickered across her face, “well, they were always going to treat your happiness like a matter of state security.”

Adva opened her mouth, but Natalia raised a finger gently. “What I can do,” she continued, “is set the tone in this house.” She walked to the window, looking out as if she could see the entire web of her family tangled across the estate grounds.

“You are not a prize to be guarded, nor a mistake waiting to happen. If Ivan wishes to court you, he will do it as a man standing on equal ground, not as someone begging permission from half the realm.” Her gaze softened slightly when she turned back. “But you must also understand something you are not going to like hearing…They are not trying to stop him because they think you are incapable of choosing. They are trying to stop him because you matter to them in ways that make them irrational.”

Hanson set his glass down and leaned across the table. Eyes looking past Petrah.

"Are you truly sorry for what he did to my blood cousin?"

Petrah rose an eyebrow sensing some sort of trap.

"Of course I am, Sev was my friend Hanson."

Hanson pointed behind her to the lower lawn where some courtiers were playing croquet.

"Then what's her name? The female in purple?"

Petrah sighed through her nose and followed his finger.

"Briella, and don't point, it's rude. Your not her type."

He rose, draining his wine as he flashed a sharp smile.

"I will be by the end of the week."

Petrah rolled her eyes and leaned foward, not bothering to stand.

"You will let me see her whenever I wish. Or I don't vouch for you."

Hanson huffed and crossed his arms watching Briella Petrah guessed.

"Are you two even friends?"

She took the opportunity to stand and stretch. She flashed her cousin a coy smile.

"We will by the end of the week."

------

Briella paused under the wisteria archway. Far from the usual paths of the courtiers. She turned to Hanson who still kept that respectable distance even if they were walking alone.

"Is your clan as opressive as mine?"

He shook his head.

"No but it's not as pretty."

She shrugged leaning against the wall tresses.

"I don't want something pretty. I want out, I'll let you court me if you get me out."

He stepped toward her, caging her in. She didn't move, raising her chin as he stared down at her.

"That's it Briella? You don't ask anything else from me?"

He leaned toward her, his voice dropping.

"You're not even going to demand I play nice with your clan? That I be gentle with you when you're in my -"

"Hanson!"

She stiffened and he jerked his chin toward the sound. Briella cursed under her breath.

"Dante, my older brother."

Hanson hummed and stepped backward. He winked at her, sliding his hands into his pockets.

"I knew this was too easy."

"The fuck you doing? Get away from my sister."

Dante shoved Hanson away and reached for her elbow. He glared at Hanson and began to drag Briella away.

"Don't speak to him Bri, he's horrid."

"But -"

"And yet she still wants me Dante. Maybe your baby sister isn't as sweet as you -"

Dante let her go, rounding on Hanson who didn't bother ducking as he swung. Briella eyes widened as Hanson stumbled backward, touching the blooming bruise on his jaw.

He spat blood and stepped toward Dante shaking his hands.

"She'll be mine Dante. Even if I have to cut you all down to get to her."

Dante sneered and spat at his feet.

"I welcome the challenge, happy to help bury your line Hanson. You can join your weakling brothers in the pit -"

"Dante can we go? Please? I'm scared."

Dante sneered at Hanson and turned away dragging her back. Briella kept her eyes on Hanson, on the way he slowly unclenched his hands and only began to turn away as they rounded the corner.

------

Briella sat in her rooms, growing incessened. They weren't listening to her, like they never did. She stood, looking to the door.

She could hear her siblings arguing with Petrah. She'd become a dear friend during all this. Had it only been a week? How had she gotten this close to Hanson?

She looked to the window and back to the growing argument. She couldn't stay here, not anymore. She reached for her window and grabbed her cloak.

------

Hanson leaned back in the tavern, his head ached. He couldn't seem to calm down, sure the dig from Dante hurt. But surely, surely it was something he should be used to by now yes?

"Hanson?"

He jerked his chin from the wall, watching Briella slid in next to him and lower her hood. His eyes scanned her, the coiled energy in him relaxing.

Oh, oh he missed her.

Huh. Odd.

"Are you alright?"

He shrugged and looked to the doors and back to her.

"You slipped out alone?"

She rolled her eyes and fingered one of the ceramic coasters.

"Don't become my brother Hanson. It's not a very attractive trait on someone who I wish to court me. Will you be honest me?"

"Have I not?"

She set the coaster down, swiping his drink to sip at it.

"My family thinks you're manipulating me. Are you?"

He drummed his fingers on the table.

"No. I wasn't. I only just realized I missed you though. So I don't know what you're looking to learn from this conversation."

She sipped at his beer and he didn't like how much he enjoyed watching her do that.

"Were you serious of courting me?"

"Yes."

"Would you really take me away from Rhedros if I mated you?"

He swallowed, thrown. Of course, there was a hope they were. But he didn't know, he thought her pretty, beautiful even. But could she be -

"Hanson?"

"You think we're mates?"

She huffed and crossed her arms leaning back against her chair.

"I remember your eyes on me during the Moon Festival several years ago. The heaviness of your gaze hasn't changed."

He leaned toward her, fascinated now. He couldn't stop his smile.

"You remember that ball? It was masks and -"

"Hanson I have an idea of how we can be together but you need to do exactly as I say. Take my Opaline Rite -"

"Briella I -"

She leaned foward, manicured nails digging into the sticky wood.

"You don't believe in destiny but I do. You're mine, and I want you. I want out and you're going to help me."Hanson leaned back, trying to contorl his spiraling thoughts. Why was he having trouble breathing? Why was he terrified?

He met her eyes, a challenge in them.

"I don't want any children of Rhedros mark. I'll cull them Briella. I will never let you go back to your family, they will never agree to this. And I don't want to have to cut them down if they keep you from me."

She shrugged and sipped again at his drink.

"If I could be born in a different clan I would be. My siblings, though I love them are.....domineering. They want me to be a certain away. Do you know what my Signature is Hanson?"

"I don't think you should tell me without -"

"Dream walking. They want to keep me in our Clan to keep that power and I will not let them. So if those are your only terms -"

"What if I want to keep your in my bed, bred and compliant? What if I want you all to myself?"

Briella rolled her eyes.

"Isn't that every Vanir male's want? As long as I also get to know what's happening in the clan and you let me tell you my thoughts I don't care."

Hanson blinked at her, his heart beginning to pound. Was it that easy? Fates how had no other male taken advantage of her trust yet? How -

She snapped her fingers in front of his eyes.

"Yes or no Hanson? I need to leave before they find me gone."

He leaned forward, kissing her, dragging her into his lap.

"Yes."

She melted, and for a moment he could see a different path. One where they walked away, where he wasn't walking the rage and anguished path his father had made for him.

He pressed his face into her neck, breathing hard.

"Yes."

Briella stayed in his lap for a moment longer than she meant to. Not because she was startled. Because she was listening. Not to him – his breath still uneven against her neck, the heat of him grounding and suffocating all at once, but to everything beyond the tavern. The thread of sound through stone, the scrape of chairs upstairs, the distant pulse of the city like it was thinking too loudly.

Then she exhaled slowly and tipped her head back just enough to look at him. “Good,” she said simply. One hand came up, not to touch him gently, but to brace against his chest as if testing whether he was real or just another idea she’d gotten too close to believing.

“You said yes,” she continued, voice quieter now. “So you don’t get to change it when it stops being easy.” Her eyes flicked to his mouth, then back up. A temptation, but she needed him to listen. “And you don’t get to call it possession later, like it was always the same thing as love. I’m not asking to be kept, Hanson. I’m asking to leave something that will kill me slowly if I stay.”

A beat. Her fingers tightened slightly in his shirt. There was no fear, no affection. Anchoring. This was her making her terms known, for him to know that they were in this together. She was not escaping one cage for another.

“You want me in your bed, bred and compliant?” she echoed, almost amused now, though it didn’t reach her eyes. “You can want it. But if you ever try to turn me into it without my consent, I will leave you so hollow you won’t even remember why you reached for me in the first place.”

That was not a threat delivered loudly. It was delivered like a fact she had already seen happen in a dozen futures. Her gaze sharpened again, that strange brightness in her expression returning, the one that didn’t quite belong in a normal court girl under wisteria arches.

“I will do the Opaline Rite,” she said. “And I will leave Rhedros. With you.” Then, softer, almost dangerously so: “But you are not saving me, Hanson.”

A faint pause, just enough for the words to settle between them. “I’m choosing you because you’re the only door I can see that isn’t already chained shut.” Her hand slid from his chest, and she leaned back slightly in his lap, studying him like a decision being finalised rather than a boy she’d just kissed.

Delan's footsteps echoed on the marble as he made the slow descent to the lower levels. To the cell that had all 3 of them.

He sighed as he shut the door seeing them unchained enough to have Estrella watch them be healed.

"This doesn't feel like a gift for me cousin."

Estrella shot him a tight smile.

"We need standards."

Delan rolled his eyes but didn't comment, Sarai had been changing the Asteri through force for centuries now. He was growing less certain she was just "a phase".

He watched Baxian, Ruhn and Hunt on the ground.

"They won't bend to your mother, ro Rigelus -"

"I thought you understand Estrella how bad they were. How they will do nothing but destory you."

Orion was pleading with her, leaning close even as his arm looked to be dislocating.

"Your parents were there in the wars Shahar and I went through. They - the entire thing is rotten, I know you think they aren't but -"

"She won't be moved by sob stories Malakhim. She knows mine well, ripped from my siblings who are still probably under the yolk of the fae in the old lands. I've felt the ache of their absence for 15,000 years."

Delan leaned down to twist his fingers into Hunt's wings smiling as he tasted his pain and his rage.

"You are powerless here. You are nothing but rats who have forgotten your places...I'm so excited to remind you."

Estrella didn’t so much as flinch at Delan’s tone, though her eyes tracked his hand as it twisted into Hunt’s wing. The flicker of pain that rolled off the Malakhim made something cold settle behind her ribs. It was not pity. No, it was calculation.

“Enough.” The word didn’t rise. It cut cleanly through the cell. Her gaze shifted to Delan first, steady and unyielding. “We need them functional. Not theatrical.” Estrella paused as she surveyed the scene, her head tilting to the side slightly. “Mother doesn’t reward broken toys, and neither will Rigelus. If you want to ‘remind them of their place,’ do it with restraint. Not indulgence.”

Her attention moved then to Orion, to the pleading in his posture, the desperate insistence in his voice. “I understand more than you think,” she said quietly, and for a moment, there was something almost hollow in it. “But understanding doesn’t change outcomes.”

Her eyes drifted over Baxian, Ruhn, and Hunt. All the time she was measuring, assessing, already separating pain from usefulness. “These wars didn’t end because people were right,” Estrella continued. “They ended because someone survived them.”

She stepped forward just enough that Delan would feel the correction in her presence rather than her volume. “Release the wing. If he blacks out, he becomes useless to us.”

Eris checked his cufflinks, citrine gemstones inlaid in gold. They shimmered in Hewn City's torchlight.

He was half listening to Lucien about Elain, about a tug toward her but how that couldn't possible, and how Rhysand -

Eris stopped walking, his first thought was that the girl didn't look in Night clothes. That good and ruby would have made her glow.

His second was in all his years of life and poltics he hadn't felt himself miss a step. Not in a long, long time.

"Eris. Eris what are you -"

It was the heat pressing into his wrist, burning and burning that tore his attention to Lucien. The atmosphere in Hewn came back like a slow rising wave. Clinking glasses, low music, the stares. His heart was racing, his breathing fast.

"She wasn't made for you."

Lucien eyes went wide and they looked back to Elain who still watched them, or she watched the room. Eris couldn't tell - it was fucking thrilling.

"Eris don't, Rhysand -"

Eris shoved Lucien back and began to walk, through the crowd and toward her. Elain eyes held his the entire time, he could feel her emotions the closer he got. Curiosity, wariness, exhaustion - shadows moved from the edges of the room. Eris looked to Azriel and sneered.

"Move."

"No. You're awfully close to a dias you should be kneeling for Eris."

Eris hands clenched but he reigned his rage in. Autumn and Night had been circling like wolves for centuries now. But - but Annie -

Well Aleksander -

Eris cut his eyes to Elian who had taken one step down toward them. Maybe his imagine was playing tricks but the entire court had gone silent.

"Eris is there something you need?"

Oh that's why.

Eris didn't look to Azriel, didn't bother softening his tongue as his voice rose. His eyes stayed on Elain.

"She's not my brother's mate, she's mine."

Rhysand leaned forward Feyre stiffened in the throne.

"You seem to have hit your head. We saw the bond snap in Hybern. You weren't -"

"Did you?"

Eris dragged his eyes finally to Feyre.

"Or did you see the Cauldron snap to an approximation? Let's test it, Rhysand you can see if I'm lying or she is. Elain what am I feeling?"

Rhysand and Azriel looked to her. Elain tilted her head, Cassian put a hand on Nesta's arm as she stepped toward them.

"Fear I won't come with you, elation that you have a mate...hunger at thinking of seeing me in autumn colors."

She flushed at the last one, Eris felt himself smiling his eyes looked to Rhysand who spoke low to Feyre whose nails dug into the stone.

"I don't care if she was right Rhys. It's Eris. We can't -"

"You can't make me stay Feyre."

Elain turned to their sister, and then to Nesta, her chin raising.

"Neither of you can. I want to leave for Autumn. He is my mate, by your own laws keeping me from him constitutes grounds for war right Azriel?"

Azriel stiffened, Eris was grinning now. He climbed the steps holding his out to her.

"You're magnificent and cunning - you'll do fine in Autumn."

He should be probably worried about his father, of a million ways she could be used. But Elain reached for him as Feyre and Nesta reached for their magic and blades - clearly not caring of war.

But the world was already blurring and Eris steadied her as they shifted to Autumn.

Lucien was already waiting, flashing Elain a soft smile.

"Glad that whole thing is cleared up...uh good luck. And welcome home."

The world tilted in that strange, breath-held way it always did when truth snapped into place. Not the Cauldron’s version of truth. Not what had been seen. What was.

Elain stood very still as the court erupted around her, the sound rushing in and out like tidewater against stone she no longer belonged to. She felt it all, too sharply to be mistaken: the fear in Rhysand, the protective fury in Feyre, the restrained violence in Nesta, the cold calculation in Azriel.

And beneath it all… the thread. Not a chain. A pull. Her gaze never left him. Eris Vanserra looked like fire pretending to be controlled. Like something carved too carefully to ever be safe, and yet impossible not to reach for anyway.

When he said it, she’s mine – Elain didn’t flinch. There was a comfort in those words, something that felt more real than anything she had been through before. Because something in her had already known.

“Fear,” she said softly, and her voice cut through the silence like a bell rung in a sealed room. “And relief. Like you’ve been holding your breath for years and didn’t realise it until now.” A pause. Her eyes flicked, briefly, to the court behind him, to the weapons, the power, the loyalty ready to break the world open if she asked it to.

Then back to him. “And underneath that…” Her mouth curved faintly, not quite a smile. “Hope. That you’re not wrong.” A ripple went through the room at that. She felt it, like pressure against glass.

She turned then, just slightly, toward Rhysand and Feyre, her expression steady in a way it hadn’t been in Velaris, not once since the bond had been questioned and severed and questioned again. “You don’t get to decide this for me,” Elain said quietly. Not sharp. Not pleading. Final in the way a seed breaking soil is final, it simply happens, regardless of permission.

Her eyes softened, just a fraction, as they moved to Nesta. “I am not being taken,” she added. “I am choosing.” Then she looked back to Eris. Something in her chest eased as she stepped forward, just enough to close the last distance he’d already burned through the room to reach her.

“I don’t know what this makes us yet,” Elain admitted, quieter now, as though the rest of the world had fallen away and only Autumn remained. “But I know what it feels like when something lies.” A beat. “And this doesn’t.”

Her fingers brushed his sleeve. Behind them, she was aware of movement, of shadows coiling at the edges of the room where Azriel stood like a drawn blade and Cassian shifted like a storm held in a single breath. But Elain didn’t look back again. When the world blurred, she didn’t resist it. She only leaned into it as if she had always been meant to fall into something burning.

Sarai reminded herself that she wasn't her problem. That her father had worked her over, that this was just the way of things.

Astasha had never been a kind female, she remembered that as much from Before. She remembered those eyes, blue like one of those sapphire worlds. The way she'd taken and used whoever she wanted - played boys against each other.

How she'd left Selestra in the dirt simply because she was "too much like the wrong half". Still, still she hadn't broken - not shared anything.

Did she even know anything now?

Austrus was off world, what did it matter now? Hel was right by Midgard, Selestra was there, she had an Asteri in her bed most days - how much of that was strategy or want? Sarai tried not to wonder lest she begin to worry again.

She stopped by Astasha's cell, a star chained down. Silver platinum hair dirty and bloody. She was whispering, staring at nothing.

"Who are you speaking to?"

"The spiders, they have me in their web. I can't fly away - they - hello?"

Sarai felt her heart twist and shatter. What had she and Sebastian told the children over and over again? If you're going to make a gamble - know the outcomes for it.

This would be treason.

This would get people killed - hurt. Probably people she deeply loved.

It was suicide and the most stupidest thing she could do.

But this - what did Astasha have left to give?

What Intel could they extract from her? Why hadn't her father simply killed her and freed her? The others coming from Erelia had cooperated or died.

Why had Astasha have to be so stubborn?

She opened the cell door, feeling Zimri turn his attention to her. Feeling her agitation.

*Be ready to leave, I'm about to something very Sebastian*

*Oh no. Astasha?*

Sarai stilled, smiling to herself.

*How did you know?*

*You're triplets, it seems to be a thing you three have a line of how far you'll go....besides I was thinking of judt killing her - it's not good for morale to see her simply suffer in a cage like that.*

Sarai knelt by Astasha, reaching for her mind, just the edges. It was ravaged broken thing. It would take ages put it back together.

"I'm going to help free you from the spiders Lady Astasha?"

"You are? Oh that's nice. Whose Lady Astasha? I'm an owl...do you see other owl?"

Sarai pulled her close, eyes closing as she reached for Selestra and that bond. That silence that had lasted far too long.

The world went dark, voices and shadows twisting before they appeared in a warn study.

Selestra moved, reaching for a blade before it clattered.

"Sarai? Sarai are you - who is that?"

Sarai slowly eased away from Astasha, her hair hid the nails in her head and blood marks on her skin. She looked to Selestra.

"Help me get her to the sofa."

"Sarai what have you -"

"Help. Me."

Selestra quietly cursed but did, they moved Astasha to the sofa, Sarai keeping her there as she tried to move.

"Don't move little owl. It's okay -"

"Sarai what the fuck is happening? Why is -"

"Carnyth line is here right? Austrus?"

Selestra swallowed and nodded.

"Yes. But - but this - they won't give us time to explain -"

"There is nothing to explain - this was a war crime."

Sarai began to heal the superficial wounds. Selestra paced, jagged and fast beside the sofa.

"So why bring her here and not just kill me if you what they did?"

"Because sometimes...."

She leaned back on her heels and looked to her sister.

"Because sometimes you can't hide the rot and you have to let it free - I'm not a sympathizer Selestra. But - there has to be lines. Or we become the monsters like them."

Her sister nodded, twisting a chain around her neck. Asteri gold Sarai observed.

"Yes, fine. How very noble but -"

"You won't believe the day I've had Sel. The amount of drama -"

Hesperus stilled, eyes roving over everything before he finally moved. Sarai got out of the way as he slid to his knees by the sofa.

"Astasha? Astasha! What -"

"Hesperus she -"

"Be quiet Bloodwytch. Astasha it's -"

"Am I free of the spiders Sarai?"

She whispered, sightless eyes looking in the space to the left of Sarai.

"Did you treat with them? Will they let me fly away."

Sarai reached for Astasha hand, squeezing it.

"Yes. Yes I did. You'll be able to fly soon, rest now."

Hesperus inhaled, his voice shaking as he finally looked at the sisters through tears.

"What did you people do to her?"

Sarai did not flinch at the accusation; no, it was expected. After all, did she not appear in this place with her in this state? She rose slowly from where she knelt, blood still staining her hands, her expression carved into something colder than guilt and far sharper than denial. Her gaze met Hesperus’ without wavering.

“We?” she echoed, quiet but edged. Her eyes flicked briefly to Astasha, taking in the tremor in her limbs, the vacant way her mind reached for things that were no longer there. Then back to him. “No,” Sarai said, firmer now. “Don’t you dare make this something shared.”

She stepped forward, placing herself just slightly between him and the rest of the room—not to block him, but to anchor the moment before it spiralled. Why did they always like jumping to conclusions and pointing fingers?

“This wasn’t us. This was my father, and the system that taught him it was acceptable.” Her jaw tightened, something restrained and volatile slipping through the cracks. “You want truth? Then take it whole. She was brought in as leverage. A bargaining piece that didn’t break the way they expected. So they kept going. And going. And going…until there was nothing left to take.”

Sarai exhaled slowly, forcing the anger back under control. “I didn’t do this,” she said. “But I knew it was happening.” That was the part she didn’t soften. Didn’t excuse. Why would she make an excuse for what she was taught and raised on? “I walked past her cell more than once and told myself the same thing everyone else did,” Her lips pressed thin. “That it was necessary. That she was dangerous. That she deserved it.”

Silence stretched for a moment before Sarai’s tone shifted; it became quieter, but heavier. Weighing everything which was being revealed, knowing the harm this could cause. “So no, Hesperus. Don’t ask me what we did,” Her gaze flicked briefly to Selestra, then back. “Ask me why I didn’t stop it sooner.”

There it was. The truth she would carry. Why did she stop it sooner? She was viewed as someone who was meant to embody good morals and do the right thing. Deep down, some part of her felt she had been doing the right things. Her shoulders straightened slightly after that, resolve settling back into place like armour.

The ash wastes made his footing slippery. But he got down to the canyon floor, to the Princess broken at the bottom. Depleted of magic, leg twisted under the rock. Her forces were dead, she watched him come closer, fingers curling around a jagged piece of stone.

Hesperus stopped a few feet from her. He kept seeing Thanatos and Eospherus in his mind's eye, the Valg prince pressing his little sister against the rocks and kissing her as if she was air.

He could feel that twitch of that desire, the Valg princess titled her head watching him, calculating.

When he still didn't speak, she did.

"I will never submit to you General."

Hesperus senses sharpened and he crouched in front of her, fingers ghosting up her arm.

"You're not dressed in armor, why did you kin leave you in your shift?"

Her jaw tightened but she kept her back straight.

"My sister and I wished wanted to run, to see the stars and skies - we were whipped for desertion. My brothers won't kill you for taking me if that's your concern."

Hesperus wondered if that was her angle, endure whatever he wanted from her to earn protection. He slid his hand into his pocket, feeling the cold of the flute.

He bypassed that for a map. He handed it to her, pointing to the southern cosmos.

"They haven't expanded south yet, we will though if this war truly looks the way it's going."

She looked at the map, her dark hair hiding her face. Hesperus gave into the urge to push it aside, to linger. She watched no emotion in her eyes.

"It shows the western edges too. What if I go that way?"

His grip tightened and he leaned closer.

"I suppose I won't find you then."

He pulled the boulder from her leg. He watched her still sit there, her leg slowly healing. He cursed and crouched again, rolling up his sleeve and cutting into his arm to offer her.

She stared at the running blood and back to him.

"You're really going to let me escape aren't you?"

Hesperus touched her leg, above the pain and tightened his grip.

"Yes and when I find you again you submit to me darling."

Her eyes sparked and she turned to take his blood into her mouth, pulling at his magic more and more till he was getting lightheaded.

She let him go, standing testing the weight on her quickly healing leg. She watched him watch her.

"What is the name of my future captor then?"

Hesperus grinned.

"Hesperus. And what is the name of my future captive?"

She flashed a sharp smile, teeth still stained with his blood. He hated that he enjoyed the image.

"You'll have to find me for me to tell you. I can't spoon food everything for you Hesperus."

She turned and slid through the shadows, the map clutched tight.

Hesperus stayed where she left him, the echo of her presence lingering sharper than the sting in his arm. An echo of a reminder of her, of their encounter. For a long moment, he did not move. It was not long until laughter came from him, low, rough, something almost disbelieving as he pressed his hand over the bleeding cut, watching the last flicker of her shadow dissolve into the canyon walls.

“Bold,” he murmured to the empty air. “Dangerous.” His gaze dropped to the ground where she had been, where she had refused him, measured him, taken from him without flinching. Not afraid. Not broken. Not even grateful.

Good.

He rolled his sleeve back down slowly, deliberately, as if sealing the moment into his skin. Most would call what he’d done foolish, letting a Valg princess walk free, feeding her his power, giving her a map. But most didn’t understand the pull in his bones. The recognition that had nothing to do with logic or war. He straightened, lifting his chin toward the canyon’s edge, toward the direction she had gone.

“You think this is escape?” he called softly, voice carrying just enough to haunt. “No, little shadow. This is a head start.” A faint smile curved his mouth, sharper now, more certain. “I will find you.”

Not a threat. Not quite a promise. Something inevitable. He turned then, finally climbing back up through the ash and ruin, already mapping the world in his mind, not as it was, but as it would be with her somewhere inside it. And when he found her again –

His fingers flexed at his side, remembering the feel of her, the way she had taken without hesitation. “Next time,” he muttered under his breath, voice dark with quiet intent, “you won’t be walking away.”

She looked to the valley below, Sarai and Natalia sparring while Zimri and Sebastian traded tips on killing. She inhaled, her family was here, her siblings were here - she would fall in line.

She couldn't loose them.

------

Sarai felt her father's touch slowly slip away. She was alone in the prisoner's mind now - her magic moving like snakes sliding through the memories and thoughts - the fear.

The codes for the cache just and hers now. The lesson was to get the information and step back. But she could see how he would fight back - how he'd find ways out.

She wanted to impress her father, the other high generals of Mantyx and she twisted her magic. Knotting this person's mind to loop and loop till his heart gave out.

She slid out, sharing the codes with the generals, they were smiling, wishing her father well - at how well she'd done.

He stopped her as they all left, alone now with just the drooling prisoner.

"How did it feel little bird?"

She looked to the soldier twitching, trying to find a coherent thought. Trying and failing to repair the damage. She smiled, tipping her face up to him.

"Exhilarating Papa. You do this everyday?"

He smiled, cupping her face to kiss her temple.

"Everyday, the Mindwhispers are the first line of defense - they can't stand against our assaults. Do you still wish to keep going down this path Sarai?"

She'd be saving her people, her siblings - Zimri. She'd be the sword and shield that cut them down.

She met the prisoner's eyes he was crying now. Realizing what had happened - how he'd never be free again.

"Absolutely Papa."

------

Sebastian was happy to stay a step behind her, to the be the princess's shield, honored of all the honor gaurd Natalia had she'd chosen him to walk with her everyday.

He stood in her rooms now, at rest watching her get ready for bed. His eyes sliding away from hers as she took the last of her court clothes off.

"Look at me Sebastian, you're allowed to look."

He kept his eyes at her face. Even as she prowled closer. Her magic probed him, his mind, his body -

"Did you know why I chose you for my personal guard?"

He flashed a smile, a memory of his mother's before her people had taken her back.

"You like the colors of my eyes?"

She lashes out, a hand curling her uniform. She dragged him down, angeling him so close he could scent her - Jasmine and cedar.

"Because you are mine. Because the court females had looked at you as if you were open to be bedded by them."

Her shadows moved up his body, around his neck and arms.

"Were you open to them Sebastian? Were you theirs when I turned away?"

"No Highness. I have -"

"Don't. Don't do that."

She shook him, her magic tightening around him. He moved slowly, carefully to hold her wrist, feel her pull hammer.

"Natalia I've been yours since you snuck over the Fences to hear my mother sing to the stars. I will be yours in every way possible if I could if we -"

She shoved him away, pulling a robe on and walked out. She crooked her finger ordering him to follow.

He did.

Mantyx was still away, looking over reports. A servant girl asleep under the desk by his feet. Natalia frowned at her.

"Did mother send this one?"

"Your mother seems to think I cannot tend to myself without..help. I should probably get her a cot."

He nudged the girl at his feet with his feet. He huffed and snapped his fingers at Sebastian.

"Get blankets will you Sebastian? I -"

Natalia gripped his wrist to keep from fully leaving the room.

"After I say this Father."

Mantyx finally fully focused on his daughter, one of the younger children of his. He set his reports down and leaned back in his chair.

"Say away."

"Sebastian is mine, he will be who I marry - he will be the only one I take to my bed and have my children with."

Mantyx blinked, slowly smiling as he stood padding over to them.

"Nothing to add Sebastian? I hope you're not a silent witness in this... relationship."

Sebastian slid his hand up to lace his fingers with hers. He didn't look to Mantyx and maybe that's why everything happened the way it did.

"Your Highness, I'd be honored to have whatever she gives me. I love her with my entire being."

Mantyx hummed and waved them away.

"Fine, keep your soldier then Natalia."

------

Selestra's vision blurred, her back hurt. She couldn't hear her siblings talking - yelling before sudden quiet.

"You'll heal fine."

Her eyes rose to see her father wringing the blood from her back. He came back with a fresh medicated rag to wipe on. She barley felt the sting.

"They're dimming her light Papa. They - Mama is dying with them and I -"

"I know. I knew what they'd do - we knew what would happen."

"So why did you let her go?!"

"Because they asked for all of you otherwise and we - your mother refused to pay that price."

He turned her face to him, his face grim.

"They whipped me too, everytime I went to see her - every night I snuck into her rooms. We aren't the ones with the crowns Selestra - they don't want our blood in their pools."

"But Mama chose you anyway?"

She always loved that part of the story. He nodded, smiling now.

"She was pregnant with Illiken some 800 years ago and I - I wasn't anyone then. A bloodhound yes, one of the best seen in centuries but nothing. But she insisted, she couldn't raise my child without me and she - I will take what they give Kertayan, but don't make me do it alone."

Kertayan sighed and stood, going back to the basin.

"Where did Sarai and Sebastian go? I thought - they were here right?"

"To make them pay. I told them not to, that this would cause more problems but they feel they're untouchable now. That because they have Mantyx children in their beds - it will protect them."

Kertayan met her eyes.

"It won't."

------

Natalia grip tightened on Aleksander's shoulders. The war had been over for a few decades now. She thought - she'd thought it was all fine - okay even. Selestra would come back and it would all be okay.

Mantyx didn't look up from his reports.

"Did you have more questions on your assignment Natalia? I'm busy."

"Why? I would be better served -"

"No, *he* would be better served here. Your older children will be staying and learning, take Aleksander to this world - it's already half hours with ice and cold. But there is a small Asteri presence there -"

"It's because he looked at me that day isn't it?"

Mantyx looked to her, it had been a millenia ago but he remembered - she knew he did. He smiled, it was proud but not warm.

"You are the center of his universe - sweet as a father to see. But as a king? There can only be one axis in my court and it revolves around me."

He bent back to his work.

"And please don't insult your mother and I by doing something stupid - Kertayan will be forced to hunt you all down and I don't think he could handle that after everything."

After Selestra got Penelaphe on a ship out, after it was broken in transit and she disappeared.

Natalia swallowe and nodded.

"Yes Father."

------

500 years, they'd kept the peace for 500 years and he couldn't believe what he was reading now. He couldn't understand how - how this could possible.

He spun to his father, raising his chin.

"I had no idea sir. I -"

"Just bring them both home and that prisoner - contain this Sebastian."

There was light now that Mama had been found. But only so little, only some. The war had changed all of them.

He turned away to gather his things, half hoping the crystal would go off. Aleksander or Natalia would reach out. But it had been months, their vitals look good but - but - but why hadn't she called for him?

Why hadn't they reached out for they needed -

*"Sebastian."*

"Yes, right, going now."

He moved from the room, wind walking through the gates to Meat Market. He winced at the sudden noise, at the -

"Why are you here Blood Shrike."

He turned, Hesperus. It was always jarring to see him like this - all cold amusement and indifference. Did he remember them playing in the Asteri reflection pools why their mother's talked?

Did he remember how they'd sparred for fun and chased each other with sticks?

Did it matter?

Sebastian jerked his chin to the center tower.

"I'm here for my sisters, they need to come home. Astasha too."

Hesperus watched him for a long moment before speaking. Not the soldier. Not the Blood Shrike. Sebastian. There was a flicker of something old in his gaze—something that did not belong to this place, to this throne, to the shadows that curled so obediently at his feet.

“Your sisters,” he repeated, slow, almost thoughtful. His eyes drifted briefly toward the tower, then back to him. “You come a long way to claim something you’ve already lost.” His head tilted, studying him with quiet precision. “They’re not calling you because they can’t,” he continued, voice low, even. “They’re not calling you because they’ve learned not to.”

A pause.

Then, softer— “This place teaches that quickly.” The shadows shifted, restless, as if echoing the truth of it. Hesperus took a step closer, not threatening but just enough to close the space between past and present. “You’re late, Sebastian.” There it was again, that almost-imperceptible fracture. Gone as quickly as it came.

“I remember the reflection pools,” he said before Sebastian could speak again. “I remember you thinking a stick made you a blade. I remember you losing and insisting you hadn’t.” A faint breath of something like humour ghosted across his expression. “You were terrible at it.”

His gaze sharpened. “And I remember a boy who understood limits.” The air tightened, the quiet reminiscing was fading away. The iron in his veins hardened; he had to stand his ground. “You’re not walking into a court, you know,” Hesperus went on. “You’re walking into something that unmade them slowly, piece by piece, until they chose survival over… whatever it is you think you’re offering now.”

His eyes flicked to the tower again, then back. “They’re not yours anymore,” he said, not unkindly yet without room for argument. “Not in the way that matters here.”

He took another step back, he wasn’t yielding but positioning. “If you still think you can take them,” Hesperus added, voice cooling, “then you’re welcome to try.” The shadows along the tower entrance peeled back at his silent command, revealing the dark beyond.

An invitation.

A warning.

His gaze held Sebastian’s, something unreadable settling deep behind it. “But understand this,” he said quietly, “what you find inside will not be what you came for. And if you hesitate,” his mouth curved, just slightly, “this place will make the choice for you.”

Taliesin had come to the hills to listen to the stars. Lady Nicneven had intrigued him but she was betrothed, and more importantly she didn't seem interested in him.

She stood on the hills, head thrownback eyes closer to the night sky. He would wonder years later if he missed a celestial event gazing only at her.

But he'd been unable to look away. He'd reached for his lute and strummed a few bars to get her attention.

Looking down at him like she was - this - he could write sonnnets of how she eclipsed the very stars.

"Shall I play for your stars Lady Nicneven? I assure they'll enjoy it."

She titled her head, a half smile on her lips.

"Do you swear on Mother Nyx Lord Taliesin that my stars will dance for your music?"

Grinning he dipped his head.

"Yes M'Lady."

------

Hanson tugged Briella through Tolarian, the stone was gray and cracked, the windows had no stained paintings as they would years from now.

Hanson found Taliesin on a ratty couch, cradling Nicneven's head as she slept. He looked up seeing them, his eyes bloodshot.

"Have you come to tell me what side you've chosen in this conflict Cousin? To spit in my face our years of friendship?"

Hanson rolled his eyes, holding his hand out for Briella to sit on an upturned bucket.

"Wow you're morose today. I came to see if it was true - you've both caused quite a stir."

He squatted down looking to Nicneven and then to Taliesin.

"Norosi stands with Tolarian. Briella and I didn't do trials either, and the only reason Rhedros isn't beating our door is because my father will vivisect him."

Hanson stood and turned to the makeshift kitchen.

"But first you both need to eat, and by Mother Nyx Taliesin stop sitting in squalar. I'll give you builders to finish Tolarian citadel - fates, I'll pay you to do it. I can't work in these conditions."

Taliesin looked to Briella in a daze, she sat as if she was in court - back straight, hands clasped in her lap.

"Did he bring you to prove some point?"

Briella hummed a laugh and shook her head.

"I have some Katian training, he thought I should look you both over - since you won and all."

Taliesin stared down at Nicneven, fingers running through her hair.

"And Laira still disapproved, even when my father personally came to speak to her. She insulted him and our clan - saying we were to low for her blood. I've never seen my father so angry -"

"Silarial threanted to cut her mother's tongue out for what she said. According to Silarial she'd have taken the Exarchship a long time ago but it was to be Nicneven's...till now I suppose."

Briella smiled fully at Taleisian look of surprise.

"Sila and I exchange letters. She was one of the few who vouched for my Hanson -"

"Oh thank you my love."

Hanson carefully put the hot cup of tea in his mate's hands. He didn't bother doing that for Taliesin, setting his and Nicneven's cups on the floor on the silver tray.

Taliesin watched Briella slowly sip at the tea and looked to Hanson.

"We don't have things for Tea."

Hanson crossed his arms.

"You think I'm taking my mate somewhere where she can't have tea?"

Briella’s fingers curled instinctively around the warmth, but her attention had already shifted back to Taliesin. She took a slow sip, the warmth of the tea filled her body with a sense of grounding. A soft hum left her, something between amusement and dismissal.

“If Hanson wished to prove a point, Taliesin, you would not be asking the question and you would already feel it.” Her gaze flicked briefly toward her mate, a hint of fondness threading through the otherwise composed line of her expression. “He’s rarely subtle when he’s trying to be right.”

She set the cup delicately back into her lap, posture still straight, still composed. Her eyes moved to Nicneven then, studying her with a quieter intensity. Briella leaned forward just a fraction, enough to show intention without crowding, her gaze lifted to Taliesin.

“You’ve both done something that unsettles people far more than war. You stepped outside what was expected of you—and survived it.” A small pause. “That tends to make enemies faster than any declaration of sides. I think that deserved some hand of kindness…”

Estrella made her way in after Xaden and his brothers had all seen her. The family was tense, according to Adva the boys were worried their father had broken her.

Ella privately thought no one could.

Natalia sat on the window seat sipping at some tea. Sebastian was outside on the balcony arguing with Zimri.

Ella stopped a few feet away watching Natalia watch them. She set her tea down and looked to Ella patting the seat next to her.

"They'll be alright. Sebastian has always been... protective."

She sighed, tugging the shawl tighter around her. She looked older, exhausted, tired.

"Do you need -"

"I want you to reach out to your aunt Helena Estrella. Can you do that for me? Just check on her for me?"

Ella nodded waiting for more information. She was a warm presence in the palace, she had always watched her and her siblings when her parents were too busy.

"Is she - is she worried for you?"

Natalia sighed and rubbed at her eyes.

"It wasn't even that he said it you know? I mean I knew he wasn't fond of my family. I don't blame him, my siblings are exhausting. I - I never thought use me to prove a point. He's never...."

She trailed off, trying hard to focus on Ella. Her eyes narrowed, alight again.

"Are you alright? Caelum and you aren't being dragged into this circus are you?"

Ella bit her lip to keep from laughing.

"We're okay Auntie. I -"

"Sebastian told me about Gaius and his ridiculous rules for those boys. You tell Caelum and his brothers, they always have a place with me alright?"

Ella nodded, unable to hide her hands clenching in her lap as she thought of his brothers.

Natalia reached over to take one, her hand was callused and hot.

"He didn't mean it darling -"

"She was scared! She -"

"I murdered Sebastian."

Ella went rigid, a cold creeping into her bones.

"What? I'll get my mother she -"

Natalia's grip on her tightened harder. She met her eyes, steady and sane.

"It was war and I - I wasn't taking care of myself mentally and he spooked me and I lashed out. I - I - your mother and aunt saved him. I tried to run away and Selestra dragged me back."

She looked out the window, sighing.

"I thought they'd kill me, they should have - if they had I wouldn't - they hugged me. Your mother sat with me for days putting her work off till she was convinced I wasn't a flight risk. I -"

She swallowed and looked back to Estrella squeezing her hand.

"Gaius raised them like weapons, especially Caelier. That was how Kaden trained him, as a weapon as everything in life is a battlefield. It's an old way of Vanir thinking, it was how your grandpa Kertayan was raised too. Caelier was born with that iron steel for it."

Her nails dug in when Ella opened her mouth to argue or defend or lash out she wasn't sure.

"I'm not saying your boy isn't born that way Estrella. Listen to what I'm saying love. The Vanir are superstitious their violence is born out of their own arrogance as much as they feel it's born into their children. That children are born for a capacity for violence and death that must be trained and not forced. It was what Caelier was born with according to Gaius anyway. Caelum was born to be a scholar an iron will that was flexible, Caldris had that iron steel too but it was too sharp, too jagged in him."

She cupped her face, brushing aside her hair.

"I was told as a child I was volatile, I was a feral, wild thing. That I needed to be tamed, broken in. Those camps did the beginning work but Dawn finished it. I thought my magic was something to protect Sebastian from. I thought the moment I hurt him, because I would they'd kill me as they should. Selestra forced me back and held me as I screamed and then broke into her arms, your mother sat with me as I hurled every horrible thing I could think at her. I wanted them to leave me alone and they didn't."

She leaned closer, grasping her chin.

"Caelier is doing the work alone, Caldris is doing the work alone, your Caelum was growing. He came earlier to show me some notes he'd made on the history of the architecture here in Jotanheim. He's finding his footing, your sisters are strong just like you, just like your parents raised you all to be. Don't hold that rage in, you'll be like all those stuck up males you always made remarks about to Xaden about. Do not let them, do not let the cycle repeat darling alright?"

------

Ella couldn't the words even as she wanted to. As deeply as she wanted to hold onto her grudge, onto what she knew was right - she wanted her sister in her life more.

She turned down onto the hallway that lead to Helena and Pelias wing. Helena was humming, playing the piano while Aelin and Aedion played on the carpet nearby. They both jumped up and ran to Estrella who beamed at them.

Her younger "cousins" always brightened her day and their magic was coming in nicely, though her Papa always said it could be more refined.

Helena made her way to her, pulling her into a tight hug.

"How are your travels Min Pia Asterin? Your mother says you went all the way to the fae lands? Are they as beautiful as my boys say? They send me paintings of them you know, come I'll show. Aedion stay here with Aelin?"

Aedion nodded seriously as much as a 10 year old could.

"Yes Mama."

Ella felt her shoulders relaxed, Helena was so warm. A steady warmth and her nickname of my little star always brightened her day.

Helena shut the door to her private rooms and held her hands.

"What is it? You looked like you wanted to speak of something private."

Ella hesitated before deciding to just share it.

"I - Auntie Natalia was sick she wanted me to check on you and I -"

Helena sighed and turned to her paints. She went to the sideboard and poured herself some wine, a smaller glass for Estrella despite her being of age for years now.

"That girl feels too much. She always has. What happened?"

Ella told her, half surprised no one had come to tell her anything. Helena stared into her glass the entire time Ella recounted the entire ordeal from her great uncles Samael and Decanus making contact with her grandfathers to Sebastian lashing out and claiming Dacre had never once protected Natalia and -

"And she went catatonic over it? She used to do that before the Camps. Too much emotion directed at her had her shutting down. I used to sit with her, Delphine would place blocks in her lap while her parents argued about what to do."

Helena threw her drink back and looked to Ella. She was beginning to get deja by with that look.

"She just needed someone to sit with her but Dacre wouldn't listen to me about it. He was convinced that something was wrong, she would always escape to the wilderness so he thought that would help."

Helena turned away, moving to the windows.

"I told him that would be bad idea but no one listened to my opinions back then. Or now apparently, did Dacre finally just sit with her?"

"I - yes I think so. What - why didn't they listen to you Granme?"

Helena turned to her, her face softening and she shook her head.

"It's bygones, it doesn't matter. Thank you for telling me Pia ere."

Little one.

Estrella did not answer Helena right away. She stood there for a moment, the weight of everything Natalia had said pressing against her ribs like armor that had suddenly become too tight. Her fingers curled slightly around the stem of the glass, untouched.

“She doesn’t just feel too much,” Ella said quietly at last. “She carries too much.”

Her violet gaze lifted, steady but shadowed now—not with uncertainty, but with understanding she had not possessed an hour ago.

“I thought…” She exhaled softly, shaking her head. “I thought this was something simpler. That someone was wrong and someone else was right. That I could… choose a side and hold it.”

A faint, humorless smile touched her lips.

“That’s what generals do, isn’t it?”

But there was no pride in it. She stepped closer to Helena, lowering her voice though they were alone.

“Aunt Natalia asked me to check on you, but I think…” Her eyes softened. “I think she was asking me to listen before I decided what to become angry about.”

Her grip tightened slightly on the glass before she finally set it aside.

“I was angry,” she admitted. “At Uncle Sebastian. At Gaius. At all of it. At what was done to Caelum and his brothers.” Her jaw flexed briefly at that. “At the idea that anyone could treat people like… tools.”

A flicker of something fiercer passed through her – protective, dangerous.

“But she’s right. About one thing.”

Estrella straightened, shoulders squaring – not as a soldier now, but as something more deliberate. A future queen choosing the shape of her reign.

“If I let that anger decide everything, then I’m no different from them. From the males who call it strength to break something until it fits their idea of the world.”

Her gaze met Helena’s fully.

“I won’t repeat that cycle. Not in my command. Not in my family.”

There was steel in her now—but it was tempered, not jagged. A softer note followed, quieter, more vulnerable.

“I don’t know how to help them yet,” she admitted. “Caelier… Caldris… even Caelum, though he hides it better.” A small breath. “I don’t know how to reach them without making it worse.”

Her eyes flicked briefly toward the door—toward where Aelin and Aedion laughed faintly in the distance. Then back to Helena.

“But I think… maybe it starts the same way it did for Aunt Natalia.”

A pause.

“Someone stays.”

Not commands. Not force. Not expectations. Just… presence. Estrella’s expression softened into something warmer, though the resolve never left it.

“I’ll reach out to them. All of them. Not as a commander.” A small, wry breath. “They have enough of those.”

Her lips curved slightly.

“But as someone who isn’t going anywhere.”

Then, more gently:

“And I’ll check on you too, Granme. Not because she asked me to.”

She stepped forward, closing the distance, and took Helena’s hand in both of hers - steady, grounding.

Sebastian played with the cap of Orion's medication staring at across him.

"Where's your mark?"

Orion bristled.

"Bryce is busy. I didn't realized you cared about my work that much Sebastian."

Sebastian's smile was tight and sardonic.

"I want Einar's family to fall - I want them to kneel before Gaius. Why do you think I'm bothering with the girl at all?"

Orion eyed the medication, his face blank.

"Fascinating, now give me the medication."

Sebastian set the cap on the bottle and handed it over, writing the dosage in his file.

Orion was nearly to the door and almost out of this room when Sebastian spoke again.

"You know I've gotten to know your girl well."

Orion turned, it took all 200 years of training to not lunge for Sebastian's throat.

Shahar had gotten her out of Vanaheim 5 years ago and to the Jotnar - to their blood there.

Sebastian shouldn't know shit of her. Orion refused to focus on the blurry image of the broken body in his mind's eye. To catalog where the bone ornamentation of his children had come from.

"How?"

"She's bonded to the dragon mate my eldest has bonded to."

He finally looked to Orion, Orion held the doorknob tightly, let him see the weakness. All Orion could see was his mother's broken body as Sebastian stood over her.

The spear made from thousands of people like her who had just been starving 200 years ago.

"And your point is?"

Sebastian played with his quill, watching him for a long moment.

"I'll remove the binding on you, pay whatever price the Pentarch demands - you get to be with your little girl. Isn't that nice of me?"

It was more than nice, it was generous. Sebastian didn't do generous shit for the people he had handed over as slaves.

"What do you want Sebastian?"

Sebastian leaned back in his chair setting his quill down. His office chair swayed as he moved side to side.

"Keep your daughter in line. Shahar isn't doing shit and Violet poisoned one of my younger sons during a challenge."

Orion couldn't help the smirk then, challenges meant Domandiel - Jotanheim notorious riding academy open to outsiders with Jotnar blood.

"She was surviving with the weapons she has. That's brilliant."

Sebastian's fingers dug into the wood of his desk, bits of it smoking.

"Your mate said the same damn thing to mine."

Orion shrugged and crossed his arms.

"Shahar was always a brilliant strategist."

"She left you here to rot -"

"She took our girl and ran because you made an example of me."

Sebastian shrugged and stood.

"Yes or no Orion?"

Orion titled his head, his smile was feral.

"Your son loves my girl doesn't he? You wouldn't use me as leverage like this again if not."

Sebastian didn't speak just kept staring. Orion gave a nod.

"I'll reign Violet in on one condition."

Sebastian rolled his eyes.

"I can't get your other soldiers out, I -"

"I want the bone that belonged to my mother."

Sebastian blinked at him and exhaled.

"Fine. Sarai mentioned you'd probably ask for it."

He turned away and Orion focused on the woodgrain of the door. Not the casual insult that was - to show his back. For someone like Sebastian to rub it in his face that he couldn't harm him. That the bindings held his full magic in check.

"Here."

Orion took the small box from Sebastian who clasped his hands behind his back watching him.

"Sarai insisted I put it in a box."

"We're you going to simply hand it to me?"

"Yes."

Orion slowly exhaled and opened the box, his mother's wrist bone. From the side that had probably clipped Sarai's side.

His fingers slid over it, feeling it give to him. He twisted the magic to shift into a choker necklace.

"Thank you."

------

The door had barely clicked shut behind Orion before the temperature in the room shifted.

“You handled that delicately.”

Sarai’s voice came before her form did, as though the shadows themselves had decided to speak. She stepped from the dim edge of the room, eyes settling on Sebastian with an intensity that did not need to rise to anger to be felt.

Her gaze flicked once to the empty doorway, then to the box no longer in Orion’s hands.

“You gave it to him.”

Not a question.

A measured inhale followed, her expression tightening—not with disapproval, but with calculation.

“Good.”

She moved closer, fingers brushing lightly along the edge of the desk where his had scorched the wood.

“You were going to hand it to him without the box,” she added, almost idly. “You always forget the weight of presentation.”

A pause. Then, quieter:

“He will accept your terms. Not because he trusts you—he doesn’t—but because you offered him something you should never have taken in the first place.”

There was no accusation in her tone. Only truth.

Sarai circled slightly, slow and deliberate, like a queen inspecting a battlefield after the first move had been played.

“Orion is predictable in that way. Love makes even the most dangerous creatures… manageable.”

A faint tilt of her head. A beat.

“I told you he would ask for the bone,” she continued, tone returning to composed neutrality. “Sentiment is leverage. You should use it more carefully.”

Finally, she stopped beside him, close enough to be unmistakably present—family, equal, and something far more dangerous than either.

“Still,” she said, softer now, though no less commanding, “this moves things forward.”

Her eyes flicked once more toward the door.

“Just be certain, Sebastian… that when they kneel, it is to the right throne.”

She walked into the court that had wished to host her. The king was young, 13. He titled his head, eyeing her.

Ezran leaned forward.

"Welcome to Angad Lady Sarai. How many we help you?"

She bowed her head.

"I'd love a tour of your lands if that would be allowed?"

The young King's eyes finally sparkled and he jumped down from his throne.

"I'll show you myself!"

"Your Highness we -"

"Whatever it is can wait, we can't let our honored guest be said right Opeli?"

The female councilwoman frowned but didn't respond. Ezran held his hand out to Sarai who took it. He tugged her from the throne room and down the hall.

He sighed, his shoulders sagging as he beamed up at her.

"Thank you for asking for that and not money or an army. Those get boring to deny, and this is at least a fun use of my time. Oh! Do you like animals Lady Sarai?"

She smiled, aware perhaps that the only way this child would hold this throne was power. That yes, maybe the adults cared for him but as Zimri would say - power was power.

"I love animals Your Grace. Please show me all of them."

------

Al-Mas was close to Agbad, a lush land. Their queen was Ezran's age she but she held herself with a mature grace. She was polite, fair - but a warrior where Ezran was a mage. They would compliment each other in time.

Anya allowed her brother to give Sarai the tour, older to her by a decade at least. Aegon's eyes were dark, guarded but he spoke to her with fairness.

This was the side of things Zimri seemed to be missing.

The Valg weren't monsters, but they didn't do things the way Fae or Asteri did. They did not fear death, they just lived in scarcity.

------

Sarai stood in the courtyard of Al-Mas seeing the rider with Ezran's response approaching. She assumed Aegon stood with her to monitor her. The rider jumped off, blond hair windswept as she curtsied and offered the letter to Sarai.

Sesri, she vaguely remembered her name. A childhood friend, older than Ezran. Their father's had gone to head and killed each other. Sesri seemed to have been forgiven. Sarai thanked her softly, stepping away to read it.

But her ears focused on Aegon and Sesri, the quiet way they spoke. Aegon leaning forward, Sesri's fingers touching his.

Sarai stared at the letter, her smile slipping. If Ezran and Anya went to war...whatever was here would die. Was that why they didn't go farther?

Was this why the Valg who left only kept their Blood Vows to bodyguard? And those they knew for years?

Was this why they broke rules and did things to save those they could?

How many blossoming love stories were cut off because of violence?

------

Zimri took her coat, leaning back in his armchair to watch her get ready for the night. The lust was there in the way he watched her. But when she turned the hunger was deeper, wilder. she slipped into his lap, cupping his face. Her nails just this side of painful.

"I will never leave you, I will always come back to you heart."

Zimri exhaled, tension leaving him. He kissed her fingers and eyed her. Some of that light returning to his eyes.

"So how was your adventure into the heart of Helhiem? What was the reason you went to the deeper kingdoms and the ones wider out? The outbound kingdoms would know how to treat you as they should."

As his queen. As the queen.

As a goddess that she was.

He hoped these backwater kingdoms had, it wouldn't be much trouble to wipe them out if they hadn't.

He kissed her properly, nails digging into the back of her neck.

"You're mine."

The possessiveness, she couldn't help but smile into the kiss as she pressed her body closer to his. It was always like this when she came home after being away, but they both had agreed it had been better for her to go alone. To earn the respect and trust of these kingdoms, let them acknowledge her without a male presence behind her.

She ran her fingers down the side of his neck, her fingers feeling his pulse under them. Sarai pulled back, her nose brushing against his nose as she mused.

He jaw clenched.

"You are not her keeper Manon -"

"You watch her with an intensity that is not of your station Octavian. You are not worthy of her."

He felt the sting of the blade still, the rage at the idea that he should yeild. Let the higher Vanir play their games.

He should submit, let them win like they had for centuries. He looked back to the training yard, to where Ulla and Talia had sparred. Talia was speaking with her mother and aunt, Ulla watching a nest of starlings in a tree nearby. The breeze tugging her hair from the knot on top of her head.

Octavian looked back to Manon.

He could be misreading the signs, the way she looked at him. The way her jabs had softened just a touch. The way her eyes lingered on his skin when he and Fenrys fought in the late afternoons under one of the older warriors. Maybe he was wrong, maybe she'd reject him or laugh in his face.

Or maybe she'd say yes.

He wouldn't know if he didn't try.

"Ulla!"

The bleeding on his neck had stopped now but it was still there, visible in the sunlight as he leaned over the edge of the balcony. She snapped her head to him, eyes catching on the blood, meeting his eyes in wary confusion.

"Why are you bleeding? Did a thorn -"

"May I duel Her Highness Manon for the right to court you?"

Ulla went rigid, going pale. Talia spun to her twin, racing to catch her as she swayed. Talia glared at him, at Manon who had now stopped next to him.

"This is ridiculous. You could just ask Ulla if she wants to -"

"I would have. I was planning to by the Midsummer Revel, Manon refused to let me. Saying I'm unworthy of such a question."

"I didn't speak a lie."

Manon said calmly, wiping her knife down with a cloth. She didn't look away from the sisters.

Ulla squeezed her eyes shut, turning away to lean into her sister's shoulder. Talia eyes narrowed dangerously, lighting flickering on her finger tips.

"That isn't her call to make."

Octavian looked to Manon.

"Indeed. But since you inacted the old rights, so will I. I -"

"No."

Ulla's voice carried, she stared up at them both. She shoved away from Talia taking off from the training yard. Talia glared up at them.

"This will just hurt her!"

She ran after her sister. Manon watched them run, turning to Octavian, tossing her braid over her shoulder.

"I look forward to seeing you on the sands of The Trial Pits Sir Octavian."

//For Halla, Sarai? Natalia??//

A sense of unease filled her as the scene with her daughters drew her attention, a mother's desire to protect filled her as she could sense how upset Ulla was getting at what was unfolding.

Natalia had never been the type of mother to hover or fret, but that didn't mean she didn't care or that she was not worried when things happened.

Her eyes widened a little when Ulla ran off from the training yard, her foot moved forward until she felt a hand upon her arm. Sarai looked to her with a friend's warmth, a mother's understanding.

"Your daughters will not need a mother at this stage. I know you want to swoop in and solve all their issues, but we also need to let them grow." She looked towards where Halla had been perched, the space now empty.

She knew her eldest; she knew she was close to her cousins and would not allow the pair to leave her behind. She also knew that the bond the three had was enough, that they needed their friends at this stage.

-----------

Halla hated how Manon and that seemed to think they had control of this situation, that Ulla didn't need a say in any of this. Such an idea was stupid, and no one had a choice. If she had her way, she would have told Ulla to fuck them all and find someone else, find someone worthy of her who did not upset or hurt her.

She also knew that it was not a line for her to cross; it wasn't her place to tell Ulla what to do. She'd be as bad as them if she did. Right now, she needed her sister and friend as back-up, as support.

She finally caught up with the pair, falling into place just behind them.

"Penelope?"

She didn't turn, staring out on the water. The cold this far from the palace and city was making his bones ache. He looked down at her, huddling on the rocky shore.

"What are you doing? Trying to slowly freeze to death?"

She slowly met his eyes, dark brown eyes almost molten amber.

"They circle."

"Who?"

She dragged the shawl tighter around herself.

"All of them. Whisper he won't return, that he will have another on his arm. That -"

"He will return."

Kaden crouched next to her. Not seeing the Mate of the Prince Odysseus. No, he saw his sister, she'd been loyal to the end. He saw the girl Penelope had been so many years ago. Her running with Sotoria and Enva in his family's halls. Dancing with Eliana on Winter Fall nights.

He gripped her chin, trying to keep her focused on him. But she was more than all those memories wasn't she? She was still a Draugr through her mother. She still hailed from a people long thought extinct. She still held dark magic even his father didn't truly understand yet.

Would she do what the draught had centuries before? Raising armies of their enemy's dead to conquer the lands? Would she twist the Fae again to worship them as gods of death and ruin?

"He will return Penelope. I will make it so. He will not have another."

She dropped her gaze, bare feet pushing into pebbles.

"They won't leave me alone Kaden. They whisper horrible things and I can't - if he does not come back I'll - "

"He will."

Elianna had waited 200 years for him, Penelope would wait just as long. Kaden stood, holding his hand out to her.

"Let's go inside, I'll make sure they don't trouble you."

That old spark in her eyes came back. The one that made it almost painful to breathe. Sotoria had looked like that before saying something mischievous.

"As long as you don't kill them, let him get that satisfaction."

He laughed, it sounded foreign and broken. When was the last time he laughed? Truly?

He nodded as she stood, surprising himself by kissing her cheek.

"I'll keep that in mind."

------

Odysseus eyes began to sparkle with lightning sparks. He forced himself to cross his arms.

"Kaden protected her when I couldn't be there. Take up the past with a Seer Cameron. I will not have my son censored because you can't let go of trauma."

Cameron clenched his hands, decorum dictated he kept his mouth shut. But this was his fucking manor, his daughter was in Sebastian's bed.

"I can say what I wish of your son Odysseus. I am not disparaging, merely pointing out the fact -"

"That Kaden is a monster? Yes. Who better to teach my son how to survive than someone who broke so many? I will hear no slander of him. If you're so distrubed perhaps my son doesn't need spend his summers here."

Odysseus turned and walked away, letting Cameron stew. He smiled as he Sarai sketching a new dress. He sat next to her, leaning back to look over the gardens. Selewyne was in the grass digging through the still rain soaked soil for snails. Some of the younger court children crowding around her in curiosity.

"Papa?"

"Hmm?"

"Why doesn't Uncle Cameron like Uncle Kaden?"

He turned to Sarai trying to think how to distill a thousand long nightmare into sentence. Sarai must have seen something on his face because she frowned and looked to where he'd come.

"It's the war isn't it?"

"Yes darling. Like most answers of why from the past."

Sebastian strolled into the gardens, making a beeline for Selewyne. He dropped to his knees, waving a piece of lettuce in front of her face.

She huffed and waved him away.

"I'm not giving them unnatural food Bash. I got a small mound of real food for -"

"This is real food! I stole it from one of the dishes in the kitchens. Give to the snails! You can make -"

"She still digging in the dirt like a commoner?"

Selewyne stiffened, turning back to look at the children her age. At 17 she was interested in the wild things still. In the -

She shook her head at Sebastian but he was already standing and walking to where the boys were.

Odysseus sighed and crossed his ankles looking to a passing servant.

"You'll want to get the med bay ready."

She frowned at him.

"Highness?"

"Ow!"

They both looked to the courtyard. Sebastian's fist was bloody. But his lightning was burning the ground now. He barred his teeth, shoving the boy he'd broken his nose away with his boot.

"Any of you degenerates have something to say about my sister?"

Odysseus watching, smiling to himself as the servant hurried off. His father had let him and Samkiel make their own way once they were old enough to be in court.

He agreed with the premise, he wasn't going to micromanage his children, unless someone physically harmed them...they could find their own way.

War was always the answer. War and power. Her gaze had risen to watch the scene unfold, watch as her brother stepped up to defend their sister’s honour. A blessing that the courtier’s son should consider, that it was only their brother who was acting. This was the price of what the war was, how lofty some got when they believed themselves better than even the own high royals.

Yet their family had never flaunted their status; they never treated anyone as under them, like many others did. Selewyne worked with the soil and the plants; she did not fear getting dirty because she knew the weight of everything she was learning. She saw the cheer and delight in the faces of the children who were around her, marvelling at what she was doing.

If Sebastian hadn’t stepped in, the next option would have been worse, and the boy would not be walking away with a broken nose. Losing a part of his own body would have been worse. She blinked as she tore her attention away, looking towards her father.

“I think he got off too easy,” she finally spoke as she closed her sketch book. “and I think the excuse of it being because war is lazy, hating someone because of that. War is a terrible place, but allowing the weakness of it to consume you that you judge others because of connections…I think Uncle Cameron needs to look inside himself and reflect on why he feels that way. His actions were probably just as damning as Uncle Kaden’s.”