How odd it was to be having private meetings with queens.

"When are you leaving?"

Kain studied the tea in his hands as Kostantia's voice washed over his ears. Her soft, even voice somehow stole a portion of the tension that might have entered him with her question. He could almost forget the role she'd assumed and imagine he was talking with a friend over breakfast--not a queen regent over paperwork.

In the end, though, it was impossible. Just as it was impossible to ignore the weight of his sword at his hip. Despite how frequently he'd missed its absence, the second the queen mother had summoned him and turned it over, he felt as if the world had been returned to his shoulders.

"Tomorrow morning," he answered. "Today, we'll gather what we need for the trip. Lyre stated he'll have our list compiled tonight...thank you for the supplies."

Kostantia inclined her head, acknowledging her contribution, before she lifted her tea to her lips. Her eyes dug into him.

"All of you will be leaving."

Kain grimaced. "That--"

"I will not have that woman in this country," Kostantia continued, voice firm. "She may have done what needed to be done. She may have the support of gods. But, she still committed regicide--murder--in the capital. Her victim was my son. I will not entertain her."

I don't want her either.

"I will...discuss it with the others," Kain compromised. "I'm not sure...I don't know if Callias would accept that."

Awareness flickered in the narrowing of the regent's eyes. "Will he even continue to accompany you after this? She was his sister."

Kain had no idea.

Not once in the past day had Callias emerged from his rooms. Kain had lingered outside of them, hesitantly knocking, but the only response had been a shuffling, then a slow click of the lock. Pressing further had felt wrong, so he hadn't.

"If he does, I will not bring Mara along if he's against it," he said.

Kostantia's fingers played against the side of her glass as her eyes fell to her drink. There was a heartbeat of silence as she weighed whatever was in her mind, before she slowly sighed and lowered the cup.

"I understand. If you cannot take her, I will simply deport her," she settled on. "I cannot guarantee she would make it to her home port left alone with our knights, but it is the best I can offer."

Guilt--slow and sludge like--clung to his insides as her meaning sunk in. If Mara was left alone with the imperial guard, there was no guarantee that there weren't those amongst them that wouldn't simply execute her, consequences be damned. And she couldn't be allowed to travel alone--she was an Aeolian noble lady. They weren't trained to do anything for themselves.

Still...it didn't make him anymore inclined to claim her as theirs. If anything, he was only further dissuaded. Someone like her had no right to follow their path. It was too dangerous for someone who couldn't handle their own. Even more so when there wasn't a single soul amongst them that wished to help her.

Still, Kostantia had just as much right to dislike her as he did. So, he couldn't blame the queen. "I would expect nothing more."

She grew silent for another moment, once again seeming to fall into thought. Then, she leaned forward and tapped one of the many papers spread before them. The page was as blank as her expression.

"After what has happened here...Zuher will know of you, now, if he didn't already. What do you want to do next, Prince? Do you want to step into the light, or remain in the background?"

Kain swallowed as that sludge in his chest turned into an impossible anchor.

"If it is the first, I can send a letter upon your departure. It likely won't arrive until you've already passed the mountains, giving you the time you need to accomplish your goal, but after...you'll be known. Your grandfather will know of your actions and if he lives, he will likely redouble his search. You'll be brought in, and with the gods watching you, likely educated and crowned."

Instinctively, his hand fell to his sword.

The etching on his hilt felt like flames against his fingers as he traced the serpents. An awareness sunk into his bones. Why was he hesitating? What was the weight of his worth when played against the need of his goals?

Hadn't he just decided to embrace everything? Even beyond the moral complications of a tyrant emperor, he had his own stakes. For the sake of Melitta's memory--for the sake of a future without all of this, one where he could love without assassins--Kain had to step forward.

But, gods how he wanted to run.

Kostantia tapped the paper again, dragging him from his thoughts with a knowing stare.

"If you don't wish for it, I will still send a letter, but this one will condemn you. In this atmosphere, that will likely lead to an upset in the Cieonian court. Your people have always demanded a majority vote within the council before crowning a prince. If you pose too much of a danger--if they think we will turn against them with your rule--there will be those who oppose it. The search will continue, but when or if they find you, there is every chance that you'll instead be asked to sign away your inheritance.

"What do you want, Kain Okeanos?"

Kain closed his eyes.

In his mind's eye, he saw the Airlea. He felt the breeze against his forehead and not his hair, because the ever-present knitted cap was still in place. The ease of a life away from everything else left his shoulders lax. It was so easy to imagine returning there with Iliana after they pulled her from Reotak's grasp. Perhaps the others could be persuaded to join him. They would travel without attachment to kingdoms or gods...

As the world burned at the hands of a tyrant.

He released a slow breath.

"I...want peace. And--as of this moment--it's only a peace that can come with a sword. So, tell him about me, please. And tell him...when I have done what is needed, I will return to Cieon."

┈♔◦𓇣◦☽◦❤◦☾◦𓇣◦♔┈

The day passed in a whirlwind of preparation.

First, the amount of supplies they would need--but, hadn't been able to easily secure before--was astounding. Now free to discuss why she was so familiar with the mountains, as prior, it would have revealed who she was, Rhode compiled a heavy list of what she considered "essentials," she had previously been instructed in by Dalphie. Including, but limited to, a month's worth of rations and heavy, fur-lined coats.

"It's easy to freeze to death if you're not prepared," she explained. "Hypothermia and starvation are the most common ways to die when crossing."

The advice brought them to another dilemma--Dalphie.

The siren, it seemed, had come to Eol with the sole intention of supporting Mara in the assassination of her husband. Assassination--because, the more she shared, the more obvious it became that that's exactly what it was. While the extreme measure she leapt to to prevent Kyril's schemes might have been fueled by passion, the actual decision was nothing if not political in nature.

"He was going to sell Aeolis out to the empire," she promised. Semele stood at her back, a short nod being all it took to steal any doubts from the room. "Like the Letian king once did. And...our people would likely take it as well as theirs did. It would lead to a thousand deaths behind closed doors, if not outright war."

Kain nearly shuddered at the thought. While the Letian civil war had been mainly motivated by their king dying without a clear heir--there had been too many suspicions of murder to simply crown his eldest child--it wouldn't have been near as long or bloody without Reotak's intervention. The empire had infamously backed the youngest prince--a bastard born of a maid, who was far too young for the role he was being placed in--stating he had the strongest claim after the eldest's suspected patricide.

The infighting had lasted nearly a decade, with the amount of dead literally countless. Civilians and nobility had fled the country in droves while villages were burnt down by neighbors and roads riddled with the bloody, relentless tolls of unregulated soldiers.

"I don't understand it," Isidor grumbled. "Supporting the empire is suicide if you want political power. Someone with the ability to sway their people into agreeing to imperial rule would hold too much influence. He would have been placing a bigger target on his back than being the king's nephew ever did. Zuher would have had some way to control him--just as he used Asha's child to control Alekos."

Mara hesitated. "I...asked him, once after he realized that I knew his intentions. He claimed to be working for the people. That a few dead politicians were worth escaping war. Were it not that most people in Aeolis that the empire and would never have agreed...I might have been willing to accept his reasoning myself. No one believes they could win a war against Reotak."

"More importantly..." Kain began. Because, in the end, it was more important than issues that had already come to pass. "Dalphie."

Until that moment, the siren had been lingering towards the doorway, her expression carefully blank. Interest quirked her brow as Kain addressed her, however. She crossed her arms.

"Your Highness?"

He grimaced. "Kain, please."

"If you insist."

"I do." A pause. "How did you know to help Mara? You were living with the sirens before. In order to reach Nokos when you did, you would have had to set off directly after us."

She tilted her head. "I thought you would have guessed."

"Try us anyways," Isidor interjected dully.

She glanced at him, then back to Kain. "The gods have been watching what is going on here for some time. Inna requested that I return to the guild to intercept Mara when she inevitably came to query about a contract." She paused to glance at the woman in question, who was simply staring at her with clear shock. "She hadn't anticipated that Mara would want to do it herself and thought my skills would be useful."

"You said return," he observed. "You were a part of a guild before you were a siren? I thought you were with Rhode.

The information swirled through Kain's mind, filling in bits and pieces of Rhode's story he hadn't even realized he was missing.

Afterall, how did a simple servant smuggle a queen's body out of the most secure dungeon in the country?

They couldn't--not without skills better suited for another field.

Dalphie studied him, seeming to calculate something, before she smiled. "I started and ran the organization when I was human. So, I suppose you're not wrong."

Mara choked, dragging Kain's attention. Her fingers clasped over her mouth, wide eyes focused on Dalphie. Seeming to feel Kain's eyes, she shook her head. He sighed.

"The time for secrets is long gone, Mara."

"I--just...I hired her...at the Votanna. She said she was a founder, but..."

His breath stilled. The Votanna. As in, the most infamous criminal organization in the entire country--one that would likely have an open contract on Kain until they realized their employer had passed. And, even then, he could see them continuing it on a pride basis.

That was the guild Dalphie was a part of?

The woman gripped a lock of her hair, tugging on it as her eyes skipped to Kain's balcony door. Again, he felt like she was calculating her words, before she slowly opened her mouth.

"The Votanna wasn't always a guild for assassinations and darker deals. It was an information guild meant to protect Reotak's interests in Eol."

Oh.

"To protect Asha," he surmised.

Dalphie nodded.

"Zuher, the master...emperor, that I knew before we came here...was many horrible, cruel things, but...until he allowed Asha to take the fall for Akaikos, he was a good father. As protective as one could imagine and a bit suffocating, but not as bad as you might expect of a madman. He didn't threaten violence towards her as he did everyone else. He didn't play mind games. He...did isolate her, raise her like a bird in a cage--like a lark--but nothing more.

"Most presumed it was because she's his only legitimate child--well, as legitimate as was possible in the circumstance."

Kain furrowed his brow. Asha's mother...

"Because they weren't wed?" he asked.

What little he remembered of Zuher's history--Artemios hadn't known much, but Kain had always insisted on knowing what he could of the man who stole his future--said that he had never been married, only engaged. The woman had died in childbirth. And while there wasn't a single rumor that placed him as heartbroken about the matter, he hadn't accepted a single political arrangement since then.

"Zuher has other children?" Isidor questioned.

Dalphie pursed her lips as her fingers fell from her hair.

"I don't know if he does anymore," she explained slowly. "They were treated as expendable. Children of affairs and dalliances amongst the staff or nobility back when...Well, more importantly, at the youngest they would be the age Asha and I should be. The court is a dangerous place when Zuher holds no interest in you and he never did care for most of them beyond Asha. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that all had passed."

"I see." Kain hesitated. "The protection?"

"Ah. Yes. The Votanna, when we came here, was made up of those who had been raised in service of the crown."

"Raised?"

Her smile turned wry. "Yes, well, it is the best way to ensure absolute obedience, isn't it? Take a child off the streets and teach them to trust you irrevocably, then when they have a child, have them taught the same. To a gutter rat, living the shadows seems like a paradise. Either way, your life is led with a blade in your hands--but, the secret blade of the crown at least goes to sleep with a full stomach."

Which are you? He wondered, but didn't ask. Regardless, she seemed to read the question in his eyes.

"My family has served Zuher and his for as far back as we can be traced," she answered simply. "It is why I was trusted with Asha."

And why she was so loyal when Rhode was framed and discarded.

Kain's mind turned his original question, one that had yet to fall from his lips. "Will you be coming with us?"

Dalphie's gaze sharpened, before flicking to the door behind her shoulder. It was as if she could see through it and into where Rhode had retreated into her own bedroom. "With the exception of the goddess' intervention, I have always gone where Asha...Rhode, leads, as whomever she desires. If she follows you, Your Highness, you find it hard to discard me."

"Kain," he pressed.

She merely slipped into a shallow curtsy. "With that settled, I'd like to go check on her."

Without waiting for anyone's response, she left.

And like that, it was decided.

They would all be going--well, as long as Callias was willing to emerge from his room the next morning and had no trouble with Mara.

Kain half hoped he would.