Sorry this chapter took so long. Health issues and writer's block conspired to delay this chapter. BUT it is finally finished. There is strong language and innuendo abound, so be warned.

- S.

Irei and I ensconce ourselves in his office, sipping steaming mugs of Y'xala as we work. As the minutes creep languidly into hours, he adds some liquor to our drinks. Not enough to impair us, just enough to warm us up and keep us moving.

There's a loud thud, then a bang, then footsteps. Tyro knocks on the door, poking his head in before waiting for our reply. "Sorry, she wouldn't listen to me!" he says ominously. "Whatever you've done, you've unleashed the kraken. Good fucking luck."

"If I die, you're out of a job!" Irei calls after him, unconcerned, as Taís Nara tears into the room. On a good day, Irei's sister is intense. Her dark eyes sparkle with interest and something a little sharper, maybe even a little cruel. That black hair hangs like a storm cloud around her regal face as eyes the deepest brown before black blaze beneath strong brows. I can almost taste the sulfurous bite of brimstone as her eyes rake over me, assessing me.

When Irei looks me up and down, the desire clearly written on his face heats my blood. All I feel from Taís is revulsion, strong and pungent as the liar's wine I drank the night before.

"Tell me it isn't true!" she fumes, marching over to Irei and glaring. There are daggers in her eyes, and I find myself cowed, even as he looms over her, a full foot taller. What the Grand Councilor lacks in height, she makes up for in pure venom.

And right here, right now, she's as poisonous as an asp.

"For the love of all that is dead and holy, tell me you didn't take Somitu's son to the Kaldanza and screw him in the fucking penthouse! Tell me you aren't that stupid and reckless and ruled by your prick!"

"I'm not ruled by my prick. I merely take its preferences under advisement when making important decisions."

"Oh, aren't you droll?" she laughs humorlessly. "Do you think this is funny, brother? Do you think that this is a joke?"

"Shira is the farthest thing from a joke for me, Taís," he replies evenly. "But I do find it funny that you thought you could barge in here and tell me how to live my life beneath my own damn roof. That I find fucking hilarious."

"Well, you won't be laughing when the Grand Council finds out about the lies we've told on his behalf, the forged papers! You'll lose your position and maybe your life, and I will lose my council seat and my reputation."

"Calm down. They won't find out."

"Don't you dare tell me to calm down!" she seethes. "You can't know that for sure. People are already wondering who the pretty stranger you made such a scene over is. They're saying you beat a Friassi actor half to death for flirting with him!"

"I threatened to have his travel permits revoked," Irei snorts, waving his hand dismissively. "Pay no mind to idle talk."

"Idle talk and idle hands spell disaster for us! You've just given them a reason to look at him closer, and when they do, they'll also look at you. At me. At Azmun and my sons. We will lose everything, Irei, just so you can get your dick wet with some Shikkan slut!"

Irei's eyes darken, unafraid of her storm, braving her lightning with his own. "Amshira is not some Shikkan slut," he says, low voice. "He is my guest, my responsibility, and my lover. He is a choice I made, and you don't have to like that or approve, but you damn well better let me make it. I'm not a baby toddling after you anymore, Taís. I'm a grown man who makes his own decisions and takes his own risks. Truthfully, I would risk much more than your ire and my ambassadorship for Shira's sake."

Her eyes widen in shock, pupils dilating until they practically swallow her dusky irises whole. She wasn't expecting a fight, I realize. She really did think she could waltz in here, all brimstone and bluster, and bend us to her will.

Irei softens slightly. "Come, sister, sit down and drink a cup of Y'xala with me. I don't want to fight with you."

"No," she replies with a glare, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "You want to fuck foreign royalty! Who's next? Is the Granjon if Yi'il beneath your bed? Are the Mirrenovese elders hiding in your closet?"

"If they are," I say calmly, meeting her gaze with steel in my own, "they sure got an earful. When I came, I screamed louder than you're screaming right now, Grand Councilor."

She just looks at me, stunned and enraged, as Irei laughs. Her lips tighten into a hard line as she glares, her onyx eyes as sharp as daggers, and just as deadly. But I've had enough of Taís Nara's insults and insinuations, her threats and demands. I've had enough of people telling me what to do and who to be, who to want, and the thing is, I never really wanted the throne. I would've taken it and done my duty, but it wasn't my dream. It was my mother's.

But Irei Nara? He's not my dream, either. He's my reality, and I'm not letting him go just because his uptight older sister calls me names and stomps around. I have never wanted anything or anyone the way I want him, and she's not the only one whose words can bruise, whose sharp eyes can draw blood. I learned from the best, after all. O'otani could cut someone with a glance and kill them with a smile.

She gutted me despite the ocean between us, after all. Compared to that pain, and the fear I felt for her when I learned she was alive inside that viper's nest, Taís Nara is nothing. I don't fear her. She's just the wind whistling in the trees, stirring the air around me with electricity while I stand apart, harsh and unaffected.

"I might be a prince, Taís, but you're the one who's entitled enough to walk into a room, all glares and bluster, and expect everyone to rearrange their lives to suit your fancy. It's juvenile."

"Don't you fucking dare-" she starts, pointing a finger at me like it's a talon. "Don't-"

"No," I say forcefully. I swear for a moment, the candles stutter. "I knew a woman who could come into a room like a whirlwind and break everything inside, whose anger could make walls and foundations give way. She had an iron will, and I didn't let her tell me what to do, so I'm certainly not going to let you!" My hands curl into fists at my sides, my fingernails digging painfully into my palms.

"I survived a massacre and crossed the fucking Karithian channel to get here, Grand Councilor. I survived losing everything and I still fought, but the legacy I fought for? I never wanted it half as much as I want him. So, do you really think I'm going to bend for you? Bow to you? Kiss your ring like a good little boy?"

"I have something else for you to kiss, good little boy," Irei breathes into my ear, a smirk on his lips and admiration in his eyes. I shove him, rolling my eyes, but a delicious shiver of pleasure races down my spine as I imagine what we'll do in this room when we're alone once again.

"Want," she practically spits at me, voice low and lethal. I make damn well sure I don't flinch, or step back, stepping forward and raising my eyebrows instead, daring her. "That's all you Amarins think of when you wash up on the Kamai shore, isn't it? You take shelter here, and then you just take. Well, I won't let you take him, too!"

"Taisha," Irei sighs, softening slightly, "no one is taking me away from you."

"You will get him killed!" she tells me, ignoring her brother entirely. "If you want to be on the arm of a rich and powerful man, Amshira, then go to Belkau House. Snare the next duke or king or chancellor that walks through the door, shards, snare all three at once for all I care! But leave my brother out of it. He's a good man."

"I know he is," I say, softening ever so slightly as I look over at him. "Why do you think I'm fighting this hard? He's the best man I know, Taís. I will do whatever it takes to keep my past hidden, to make sure it's dead and buried in Shikkah where it can never hurt him. But I can't give him up. As long as he's willing to take the risk, I'm staying."

"I could make you go," she threatens, lips twisting up in a haughty smile. "I could go to the Grand Council and tell them exactly who you are. I can put you back on a boat to Shikkah to hang, that is, if an assassin's blade doesn't catch you first."

"You could," I readily admit. "You would lose your seat on the Grand Council, though, and Irei his ambassadorship, and the trust of everyone you've been lying to for months. You'd draw the attention of each and every enemy of mine. And it wouldn't go well for your husband and sons."

Her eyes flash with the opalescent gleam of a predator in the darkness. "Don't you dare bring my family into this!"

"Why not?" I throw back, fighting, tasting blood. "You brought my family into it the very first time we met, and every time after that! Why should I extend to you a grace that you denied me?"

"Oh, when has anyone ever denied you, Amshira? Truly denied you?" she asks, her eyes as hard and cold as diamonds. "You speak of extending grace, but what has your existence been if not one long gift of grace? The prince with golden hair and striking dark eyes, more beautiful than a woman, raised in unimaginable wealth and privilege for the simple accident of being born. You were born under a bright star, Amshira, but that star fell, and as it came close to crashing into earth, your beloved mother reached out in desperation and sought our grace. Against my better judgement, it was granted, and you should remember that the only reason you're alive right now is our own good humor, which at least on my end, you're quickly exhausting. You cannot expect the rest of the world to oblige you as your upbringing has."

"Oblige me?" I reply with an incredulous laugh. "You know everything, don't you, Grand Councilor? Every moment of my life, every thought in my head, every shade of my soul. You've read me like a book, one that's not particularly thick or complex, and you're content that you have understood all that I am and have been and will be. And to that, I say how dare you? How dare you condescend to me with all the righteousness and bitterness of holy fire when you understand nothing of god and even less of me! Would you have me on my knees like a penitent, clutching prayer beads and repeatedly praising your beneficence? Because if I'm going to be kneeling, Taís, I'd rather it be with your brother's cock in my mouth and his bitterness on my tongue instead of your sanctimonious bullshit!"

She just blinks for a moment, absolutely taken aback. Irei is silent too, leaving the only sound my ragged breathing. The silence between us grows, stretches, and is finally broken by Irei's soft laughter.

"Well, I certainly have no objections."

"You have no sense is what you have," Taís growls, but she looks uncertain. Good, I think, flashing her a slightly feral smile. She should be.

I step forward, gratified greatly when she takes a small, involuntary step back.

"Listen to me carefully, Grand Councilor, because I have better things to do than repeat myself. I will not try to convince you that my feelings for your brother are sincere. I will not open my heart to you to prove them when you have refused to show me even the most basic courtesy. To do so would be pointless. Asinine, even. I don't give a damn it you believe me. I don't give a damn if you like me. But you will not control me, or manipulate me, or order me about! And above all else, you will not threaten me!"

"They say you should fear people who have nothing left to lose because they'll fight without concern for their own safety. I say you should fear people who have only one thing left to lose, and for me, that's Irei. My country is not my own; a crown will never grace my brow. My entire family is dead and the person I love the most in the world planned their murder. My mother is sailing east chasing the dream of an army like an avenging angel, a dream that will never come true. I cannot even use my own name without risking my damned life!"

"But my pain pales in comparison to yours, doesn't it? Your own anger whispers that to you, and your own brokenness makes it true. How dare I abuse your hospitality! How arrogant I am, how young, how blind! It's not love, it's infatuation, and it is transient. Breathe in deep, exhale, yes, I'll be gone soon. Then things can go back to how they were before."

"Except they never will. They can't. None of us can go back. So we struggle forward, fighting against the currents pulling us under the cold waves, and as I move forward there is no one else I want by my side. This isn't about you, Taís. It isn't even about Irei. It's about me. I'm so fucking tired of being told who I need to be, what I need to act like, who I can or cannot love. Because, despite my privilege, I have been denied. I have been denied autonomy and crushed under the weight of obligations, under the lies they needed me to tell to convince them that I was exactly who I was supposed to be. I won't let you make me into a lie again just because it's easier for you to stomach than the truth! You may be a Grand Councilor, but I won't let you rule me! I won't let anyone rule me," I repeat, softer, a promise to myself. Grand Councilors or Ambassadors, queens or mothers, ghosts or gods, it makes no difference. Never again.

I take a steadying breath, the fire in my veins cooling now that I've said my piece. I keep my chin lifted ever so slightly, letting her know I meant what I said. No games, no parlor tricks. I marvel at my directness. I've never felt farther away from myself and my Shikkan upbringing, but I've also never felt more at home in my own skin.

O'otani would be proud, I think before I can stop myself. I flinch inwardly, wondering how many years it will take before my mind stops reaching for her, before the sting of her betrayal fades to a softer, more bearable ache. Then again, I'm not sure it ever will. I'm not even sure I want it to. The pain is excruciating, but it's mine. It's all I have left of her beyond my memories, which are growing hazier already.

I suddenly remember something Irei said to me at Imiko's many months before. I asked him if the pain would ever get better, if their ghosts would ever stop haunting me, and he just looked at me with this sad smile and said 'when the ghosts stop haunting you, you'll miss them, because what else will you have to remember them by?'

"My dear one," Irei murmurs soothingly, running his palm up and down my arm, "the goddess herself could not rule you, and I will never deny you. Never, Amshira. Alright?"

He looks at me expectantly, but I'm still glaring daggers at his sister, who looks a little shellshocked herself.

"Shira," Irei says, his hands kneading languidly into my skin, "relax. Breathe, h'yonmi. Or I might have to find another way to relax you..." his eyes sparkle with mischief. "Wouldn't that be nice, hmm?"

I finally break my intense eye contact with Taís, sinking back against Irei's hard body and laughing slightly as one of his hands wraps around my waist, anchoring me to him, and the other tangles in my hair. He pulls a little tighter at my locks and the tension humming through his body tells me I'm not the only one remembering how he held it this morning when he fucked me. "You're shameless, you know that?"

"I am not the one who should be ashamed of my behavior," he says gruffly, shooting Taís a dark look. "If you weren't my sister, Taís, I'd call you a vindictive harpy who can't see beyond her own beak-like nose. I'd probably also say that your arrogance, stubbornness, and blindness would make Somitu herself proud." At that, Taís dark eyes flash, half in anger and half in incredulity. "But because I love you so much, I'll only say this: the next time you come into my house and insult my lover is the last time you'll be welcome in it. Don't push me on this, Taisha."

"If I push you, Irei, it'll be off a cliff. But you've already gone and fallen for the Amarin heir, so let's just chalk it up to you breaking your own damned neck out of sheer stubbornness and-"

"And more good humor than you deserve," Irei returns, fixing her with a hard look. She holds his gaze for a moment, then looks away, her face softening. Her expression, on anyone else, would be terrifying. Compared to the earlier fire in her eyes, though, it's downright friendly. "Good humor which, at least on my end, you're quickly exhausting. After all, you cannot expect me to indulge you just because of our family ties, Grand Councilor Nara."

"When did you become such an insufferable little shit?" she asks, shaking her head.

"Probably around the same time you became such a gleefully vindictive shrew."

Her lip twitches upwards ever so slightly, further softening the severity of her expression.

"Careful, Taisha," Irei cautions seriously, "that was dangerously close to a smile. Once more and I might have to downgrade your threat level from rabid wolf to severely peeved badger."

She throws her head back and laughs in earnest. For a moment the sound reminds me of some animal's howl echoing across distant hills, and I almost shudder at its harshness. Tears gather in the corners of her eyes, all of her earlier anxiety and fear seeking expression in a slightly manic mirth.

The next second it's gone, but so is the iciness and arrogance I've come to expect from her. Taís Nara, cold and unmovable as stone, is melting right before my eyes. It's like watching someone explain how a certain magic trick is performed, laying bare the illusion to a curious audience. Her sharp eyes sparkle with amusement, their color no longer the void of space, but a rich, warm brown. Her cheeks are stained a ruddy red and her angular features relax, rounding out in a way that makes her look a full decade younger.

"There now," Irei says, passing her a mug of y'xala he's just poured. "Was that really so hard? You're definitively less rabid. Still mildly deranged, but I think euthanasia would be premature. Feel free to disagree with me, though, Shira."'''

I take a deep breath, exhaling some of the tension from my body. The atmosphere is still fraught, but I no longer feel as if I'm being garroted. I regard her levelly before shaking my head. "No. If we killed her, she'd probably haunt us."

Irei throws his head back and laughs. The warm, rich sound makes my heart beat a little faster. "You call for mercy, then, but only because you don't want to deal with this one passing through walls and doors to harass us."

"No," I repeat, though it wasn't really a question. "I just think there have been too many ghosts already." And for the first time in a long time, I don't wish I was one of them. "Too much death." Your hands, your lips, the hard planes of your stomach pressing against mine. Did you really say that not even the goddess herself could rule me? You fool, don't you know that you already do?

Taís considers me, head tilting left as her eyes narrow and lips purse. I blush. Something about her dark, penetrating gaze makes me half believe she can see my every thought. I'm not embarrassed by her knowing I love him, but by the thought of her experiencing its sheer intensity, its depth and breadth and breathless, insatiable longing.

Don't you know you bring me back to life? When you kissed me, I could finally breathe again.

Unexpectedly, she smiles. There's a lingering bitterness in her dark eyes, but something seems to settle the longer her gaze rests on me. That bitterness slowly softens to a grim nostalgia.

"Very well then. If there are too many ghosts already, I won't conjure any more with my voice." She shrugs. "The old stories all tell us that speaking of demons helps make them real; perhaps it's the same with the sorrows of the past. A slip of the tongue, a turn of the head, a name on the wind and the shadows all solidify into skin and bone once more. Perhaps... perhaps there is peace to be found in silence."

Irei laughs, a short, staccato burst that isn't entirely friendly. "If there is, Taisha, you'll never find it. The only thing you hold worse than your liquor is your tongue. When you're angry or frightened, you find peace only in pressing your own opinions and beliefs on others until they're too worn out to fight you anymore."

"I do not-" she begins to before Irei cuts her off with a snort.

"Oh yes, you do," he insists. "And to hear you speak of demons as if you aren't one of them, as if your callousness and prejudice hasn't crowned you their exalted queen, blind and deaf and dumb... well, there's always humor in hypocrisy, I suppose."

"You're fucking the Amarin heir and I'm the blind one? I'm the hypocrite? What happened to 'nothing but papers and a place to stay for a few weeks, Tais'? What happened to 'no unnecessary risks?'

"I fell in love," Irei replies simply. "That's what happened. I opened my eyes and ears and saw who he really was and I fell in love."

"Well, I suppose there's humor and hypocrisy in that, too. Neither of us are walking out of here unscathed, brother. Maybe we're just different kinds of fools."

"Maybe," he allows, the small smile ghosting across his lips softening the hard edge in his eyes.

"Definitely," she amends, offering a similarly cynical smile. "Let's build our pyres side by side when the time comes."

"I thought demons were supposed to be immune to flames."

"And I thought you were too smart to fall for Somitu's twenty-three-year-old son. We were both wrong." She pauses for a moment, not so much trying to find the right words as to gather the strength to speak them. They tremble at the border of her dark lips like a water droplet right before it overcomes surface tension and falls.

"And I was wrong about him," she says, nodding in my direction while looking almost disappointed. I think she'd be happier if I was truly as useless and vapid as she believed me to be. "Wrong to think that his eyes are the only Kamai thing about him. For all that he has Amsol's face, there's something else there too. Something... salvageable." She sighs. "Between the two of you, you're probably the bigger fool."

Irei smirks. "As long as we can agree that I'm less of a fool than Esato."

Taís quirks an eyebrow doubtfully. "I'm not entirely convinced. While you were off galivanting with our very young, very forbidden prince, he's gotten himself engaged to a Grand Counselor's daughter who's richer than we'll ever be. Though perhaps that makes Tipari the biggest fool of all, for agreeing to the misalliance. Given her father's money and power, I'm not entirely convinced the decision was free of coercion."

Irei snorts. "As if anyone could coerce Tipari Kaldaxi. We overlook it because she's charming and looks like a guileless sixteen-year-old, but she's every bit as mad as he is. She'd have to be to pick that man as her mate."

Taís chuckles. "Do you remember her ascetic phase?"

He grins back at her. "How could I ever forget? She was so impressed with the scholar-monks visiting from Kostayssau that she cut off all of her hair, burned her possessions in the yard, and retreated to the woods for quiet contemplation. Then, of course, got bored and came home."

"Oh, remember her first heartbreak?"

"You mean her first instance of grand larceny," Irei amends.

Taís nods. "She was so convinced Lenora Kalivat was her soulmate, and then Lenora started dating the eldest Onaím boy. So Tipari stole his boat, burned it, and left the ashes on his doorstep beside a note that said something like 'you are utterly undeserving of both her affection and your boat. Seeing as I cannot strip you of the former, I've made do with the latter."

"Then there was that time a delegation from Raclen visited and she went on a very loud, very public hunger strike to protest their conduct in the recent border wars."

Taís chuckles. "She learned just enough Racleni to waltz up to the head of the delegation and say 'the venn diagram of men who spend all of their time and energy on conquest and men with small, unusually flacid members is merely a circle.' When they demanded a public apology, she learned a little more Racleni and told them 'I am only sorry that you aren't better men."

"I'm still surprised that didn't get her killed. Queen Misery's advisors are almost as ruthless as she is."

"I'm just glad she finally said yes," Taís mutters. "Fifteen years of watching those two chase each other all over Kama, making war when they really wanted to make love, was more than enough for me. He's the Minister of Finance and she's the daughter of a Grand Counselor and the Tovaranthi clan matriarch, but five minutes in each other's presence and they regress to school children. Only less tolerable, and far less innocent."

"You and Azmun weren't exactly calm and dignified, Taisha," Irei teases. "I'd never met a true monster until I saw you fall in love. You were so used to being rational and in control, and then suddenly you were the victim of your own passions. You resented the hell out of him for that. You said he was nothing to you and we'd all just nod like we didn't know that you were in his bed more often than your own."

Taís, a woman made of iron and glass and acerbic bitterness, blushes. "Was that before or after you took Lyu to your bed, brother?" she deflects with a triumphant gleam in her dark eyes.

"I never took Lyu to my bed. I took him in the alcove behind one of the council buildings, and a few times in the back room at Imiko's. And I was very, very drunk the first time I did so."

"And all the times after that?"

Irei sighs. "He's... quite good with his mouth."

"I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit," she mutters.

I nod in agreement. I know that there's nothing between them, but the thought of Irei with someone else makes me want to vomit all over the pretty Seramichen rug at my feet.

"Then don't fucking ask! It's ancient history."
"I was merely illustrating how alarmingly consistent you are in choosing totally unsuitable lovers."

"Amshira suits me quite well."

"Amshira will ruin you, you fool."

"I would be lucky to be ruined so sweetly, then," Irei replies, speaking to her but looking at me. The warmth in his eyes makes me shiver even as I burn. Does he know what it does to me when he's so forthright with his affection? When he acts like his love isn't a feeling, but an immutable truth he's never even considered tempering or concealing?

Does he realize how totally and completely he's ruined me?

I am well versed in the politics of love. Growing up, I saw hearts moved around like pieces on a chessboard. I watched affection be born, live, and die only as it was needed, not a private sentiment, but a public commodity. A ceremony, even.

And I could handle that. I could stomach the pretense of a selfish, grasping love. The iciness of a strategic union. But nothing in my life has prepared me to defend myself against the ardent affections of an honest man. Something close to fear settles in my stomach as I realize how far, and how quickly, we've fallen into each other. And how much that falling feels like rising instead.

And then there's another sort of rising, a stirring in my blood I can't quite tamp down even if his sister is two feet to my left. I blush crimson, desperately wishing it would draw the blood away from certain other parts of my anatomy. But all I can see are his damned eyes, goddess, his eyes and his hands and the slight twitch at the corner of his lips betraying the beginning of a smile.

You are the most out of control I have ever been, I think. You are my greatest weakness and my saving grace all at once.

Taís watches me with all the intensity and scrutiny of a bird of prey, seeing, I'm sure, a great deal more than I'd like her to. Between the two of them, they must know every single secret I have. Perhaps even some I'm not yet aware of. I can't decide if that bothers me.

Something is bothering her. I can see that even without her hawk eyes aiding my assessment. Her brow is furrowed, her lips drawn tight as her eyes dart about quickly, seeking an answer or an escape, I'm not sure which. The sharp jut of her chin, the slight inclination of her head defies her apparent anxiety, almost daring the world to call her bluff. It is a bluff, though, I realize. A pretense. Because lurking in those dark, darting eyes is something achingly familiar: fear. Taís Nara is terrified.

She watches me in silence, raking taloned fingers through her dark hair, grimacing slightly as her hand snags on a tangle. Her curls are like brambles, thick and wild. When she finally speaks, her voice is softer than I expect, almost sad.

"The line between love and madness is thinner than you might think," she tells us, a solemn and unblinking oracle. "So too the line between damnation and salvation. And sometimes there is no line at all between burning with passion and burning alive." She sighs. "I can only pray that I'll find you and not your ashes when all is said and done. I can only pray that your demons are enough to keep you from burning, brother, because I don't know how to fight this fire for you."

"Perhaps it's not a fire that needs to be fought," Irei suggests, a gentleness in his eyes. "Perhaps it need only be surrendered to." He smiles. "Put your grim prophecies aside, Taisha, and consider that this might not actually be the end of the world."

She meets his gaze head on. "If I can predict the future, it's only because it's so reminiscent of the past." A ragged breath, a pause, then she continues, softer than before. "Look me in the eyes and tell me honestly that what I'm seeing here is something, anything other than history repeating itself. Because when I look at you, all I can see is them."

"A slip of the tongue, a turn of the head, a name on the wind and the shadows all solidify into skin and bone once more," he says, repeating her own words back to her. "Just like you said."

"Promise me," she whispers, the force of her demand imperious despite her quavering lip. "Promise me this isn't the end of anything but your celibacy and good decisions."

"I'll swear to it on anything you choose," he assures her.

"I just- fuck!" she exclaims, letting that impervious mask drop a little bit lower. Without her commanding presence and harsh mien, she looks tiny, especially standing next to her broad-chested brother. "I'm scared, Irei, alright? I'm fucking terrified. You- you're the only blood I have left. I can't lose you. I just can't. I won't."

"You're right," he reassures her, reaching forward and clasping her hand in his own. She leans into his touch. "You won't. You couldn't lose me even if you tried, darling."

"If you're wrong and this gets you killed," she says shakily, struggling to regain her composure and her sharp edges, "I'm going to write some very unflattering things on your gravestone. Perhaps even draw some provocative pictures."

He grins. "I'd expect nothing less."

"Speaking of blood," she says, taking a steadying breath before forging ahead, bulldozing over her moment of quiet vulnerability, "I'm not tithing for you this year."

He purses his lips and scowls. "And why not? It's your year."

She grins at his annoyance, seeming to draw strength from it. "Because I'm not going to haul my ass all the way to Tayim when the Grand Council is still in session so that you can stay here ensconced in your pretty little manor and fuck Amshira. If you want to play decadent games with your little courtesan, be my guest, but you won't do it on my honor or by my blood. If you want this bit of sin, you'll have to bleed for it yourself."

"Perhaps I should make you bleed right now, you clever little shrew," he throws back, rolling his eyes exaggeratedly.

"Not doing it. Bitch all you like."

"I said shrew, not bitch," he replies with a smirk. "But that's fine. I suppose I'll just have to take Shira with me and fuck him there. I'm sure we could use a change of scenery. Problem, as they say, solved."

Her eyes widen. "You'd take him to Oxorovanxa?"

He shrugs. "Why not? You're being difficult, and if I have to make a trip home, why shouldn't I keep my little courtesan by my side?"

"Ixar metir tal ayadaxa," I mutter darkly. "My survival Kamai is basically just yes, no, thank you, I'm sorry, I'm hungry, I'm tired, and no, I am not a whore. Honestly!" I exclaim, folding my hands in exaggerated pique. "The next time it's said, I'm really going to charge you. And darling, you know you'd pay it," I finish with a grin that is equal parts triumphant and devious. "Now, where are we going and what is an Oxorovanxa?"

Taís doesn't even try to hide her laugh. "Oxorovanxa is our home. Not the town, the estate itself. It's been in the Nara family for fifteen generations. The closest translation would be something like 'he who hunts the hunter.'

"Sounds like a riddle," I muse. "What does it mean?"

"God," she says simply. "It's an old epithet, perhaps the oldest we have for the dead god. Man likes to think of himself as the biggest predator, but we are all hunted by our own mortality. Without the shattered god, that is all we have. A flickering moment. But with a shard of the godhead in our breast, we have some measure of eternity."

"That's... rather poetic."

She shrugs. "To us it's just home. Now I have to go, Az is waiting for me. And I don't have the time or patience to sit here and explain the tithe to a foreigner. They all get so squeamish. Oh, the barbarity!" She exclaims with a wink. "But before I go, Irei, when you're home please pay a visit to your madman and tell him the next time he sends me his 'transcripts' tied to a bird, I'm shooting the damn thing! Oh, and also tell him to stop leaving those damned colored handkerchiefs around before I really give him something to cry about."

"Clever, brutal shrew," Irei intones seriously, earning him a playful, yet still forceful, slap from his sister. "Besides, Atreyas isn't mad. He's... eccentric."

Taís chuffs incredulously. "He won't drink water he hasn't filtered through his own still because he thinks his enemies are trying to poison him. He plays music constantly because they're always listening and he's too paranoid to write a damned word. Instead, he insists on communicating using more colored handkerchiefs than a clown! He's a fucking lunatic, Irei, and you know it."

"To be fair, the Kastarsi Lineari did try to assassinate him at least twice. And whatever his methods or madness, you can't argue with his results."

"But he can, and he will, taking on both sides of the argument and holding a whole conversation with himself!"

"You're just mad he's crazier than you."

"No one is crazier than me," she says airily as she rises. "This has been fun. I'm almost disappointed I won't be staying long enough to see the look of horror on his face..."

"You've provoked that very look from him countless times, doubtless, so you won't be missing much."

She smacks him on the back of the head on the way out. "Oh, and when you're at Oxoro, stay out of my fucking room!"

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Next update is half done, so there will be less of a wait next time :)