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"You said you wouldn't date me if I couldn't kill at least three burned ones on my own!"

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Sky

"Where do you think they're keeping it?" Bloom asks, looking up at me in worry.

I glance around hesitantly at the specialists, not exactly the most subtle place to meet up and talk rule breaking. I watch with sadness as Bloom's eyes flicker around in paranoia, she's scared. She has every right to be after the Burned One incident.

"There's only so many places they can keep a creature like that," I murmur, frowning when Bloom's eyes fill with more worry, "I can break out the specialist maps."

I pause, tilting my head slightly, "You know this would be easier if we told Miss Dowling."

"No, no." Bloom shakes her head, "Dowling took an oath to the Queen, I've heard it mentioned around thanks to the meetings."

She looks up at me pleadingly, "I'm the broken changeling, Sky. In a contest for loyalty the crown wins every time and if Octavia gets wind that I'm not even trying to help-" She breaks off, swallowing back tears, "You know how protective she is of Stella, protective of the crown."

"I know, I know." I soothe, bringing her into an awkward hug.

It's different, being out with Bloom publicly and still trying to be her friend.

"Thank you, Sky." She murmurs in my ear and I tense at the feeling.

"Of course." I try not to sound as awkward as I feel, she's upset enough as it is.

She pulls back, tensing as she does, "So if you have your first year celtic ruins stuff, I would be super grateful."

Bloom awkwardly smiles and I frown slightly, confusion no doubt filling my gaze. Celtic ruins-

"Hi Mr Silva," Bloom nods to the person, Silva, behind me and I straighten up slightly in understanding. "Bye Sky."

"Bye Bloom."

I pause, lifting my head up to look at the Sky and take a steadying breathe. Fuck. Why must Silva be all knowing at certain points? Genuinely, when I actually need his help with Burned One drama he's not there but when I even think about girl drama he just.

Poof.

Appears.

"Sky," He says warningly as I turn to face him, I immediately make a face at his expression.

"Don't," I interrupt, annoyance flaring when he raises his brows in amusement, "I'm already lecturing myself."

"And I suspect you'll ignore your own lectures as well." He gives me an expectant look, the one that says 'I raise you, don't even try disagreeing with me'. I sigh.

"No lecture then," he murmurs and glances over at Irene who pauses her glaring at a leaving Riven and Octavia to smile at her mate.

"She sent you over?" I ask, smiling when Silva's face lights up at the mention of his mate.

"She did," he nods, grinning as he gives me the look of 'She's my mate, I can't disagree with her'. I laugh slightly and he chuckles with me, "She worries for you Sky."

"I know," Guilt has me looking down at the floor to avoid his gaze, "I don't mean to make her worry."

"Eh," He waves me off as we both glance at Irene who's taken to instructing a group of first years, with a demonstration against a fourth year it appears, "She would worry either way, you're just giving her the specific topics for her to worry about."

I look at him curiously, there's an impending speech. Maybe a lecture, I can't tell yet.

"There's comfort in Bloom, I can see that," he nods at me, looking towards the red-heads' retreating figure, "She ticks all the 'I need saving boxes' that you like to fill."

"Saul-"

"Don't interrupt me when I'm giving you old man wisdom Sky," He jokes but his eyes are serious, "You don't care for her, Sky, we can all see it. You want to, I know, but you only see her for the problems you can fix. Like you did with Stella."

"This sounds like a lecture." I state, ignoring his words.

"Well, I did promise your father that I would look after you and he would-"

"Would have said the same. I know." I interrupt, tired of hearing the same reason for why Silva raised me.

"Not quite," He jokes and I perk up in interest, I know all of his war stories but I know little of his personality, "he would use a lot more profanity and would have most likely made you run drills at the crack of dawn every morning for a week because you skipped training for a girl."

I choke on a laugh.

"He probably would have given you some compliments for scoring a redhead though."

"He sounds like a mix between Irene and Riven." I comment offhandedly.

I grin as Silva opens his mouth to disagree but then pauses and makes a dramatic thinking face before nodding in agreement. We break into chuckles and I see Irene look over at us with a smile.

She grins when she catches my eye, waving off her first years to go train and pull off the poor fourth year she clearly pummelled from the mat. I wave over at her, Silva catching my motions and quickly doing the same.

"Sky," Irene greets with an amused lilt that suggests she knew exactly what we were talking about.

I sigh, "Mãe."

She pauses and turns to Silva expectantly, "mon guierre?"

Silva sighs and looks at me apologetically, "He clearly takes after you."

"Saul," She gasps, punching him on the shoulder and grins in delight when he winces.

"What!" he demands, rubbing at the injured arm, "You're the one meddling int he poor boys love life."

I hide my giggles when Irene steps back with a huff, one hand on her hip the other on her stomach. It's a very pissed off stance.

"Do- do I even want to know?" I murmur, eyes bright with amusement. I totally want to know, I love their gossip.

"As I recall Saul Silva," Oop, full name, big trouble and Irene's eyes narrow, "It was you who was stringing girls along with broken hearts."

"And you Irene- Silv-" he pauses, "It sounds too possessive when I say it, doesn't it?"

Irene and I share a look before nodding at him with matching looks of mock pity.

"Well it was you who was stringing me along for the entirety of our school career, and entire war, 7 years and Sky's 9th birthday party."

"Oh, you know you loved the chase." She snaps and Silva gapes at her in mock horror.

"You said you wouldn't date me if I couldn't kill at least three burned ones on my own!"

"And then you went and killed four with my motivation!" She cries and I hear giggles of amusement from the crowd we seem to have attracted.

"I nearly died!" He cries, waving his arms in frustration.

"Well you're the one with a fragile ego, apparently."

"Says the woman who got so pissed off when I put green hair dye in her shampoo that she burnt the entire east wing to the ground!"

"That was you!" Irene screeches, jabbing a finger at Silva's chest who looks down at her in triumph.

"Of course it was me!" He grins, smiling in glee.

"You told me it was Andreas!"

"You believed me! I wasn't a trustworthy teen!"

"I filled his dorm with chickens, goats and a fucking horse!"

"And my plan worked perfectly!" Silva cries, flinging his arms out triumphantly much to the amusement of every single specialist we have who have now all crowded around to watch the warring couple.

"Right, that's it." Irene snaps and Silva freezes, "Get on the fucking training mat Saul, we're having this out."

"We're in the middle of teaching the students," He stage whispers in an attempt to save his own skin.

"And what a wonderful demonstration of how to graciously lose you will give them." She mocks.

"Sky," I freeze, fuck. "You're refereeing."

Thank Helios.

Octavia

"Seeing your grandparents again," I murmur, tracing a finger over Riven's bare arm, pausing as he tense behind me.

Riven sighs and presses a kiss to the nape of my neck.

"They disowned me after everything that happened, the carnival, the fire, mother and then losing Olivia when we were so close to keeping her." I feel him shake his head, tightening his grip around me as he presses my back further into his front, "They took mum and Liv, didn't tell me what they did with mum's body, only that she was so mangled-"

He breaks off with a choked noise and I decide I don't mind using his pathetic grandparents one bit this upcoming evening. Riv clears his throat and I hear him sniffle slightly then stop.

"-they wouldn't even tell me where Liv was placed. No matter how much I begged."

Dead. The lot of them. They are all going to be dead by this evening. I've decided. By royal decree I shall allow myself and Beatrix, and Riven if he wants to join, to have the time of our lives beating the utter shit out of a bunch of elderly people.

I pause, trailing off slightly. I sound like a psychopath.

Oh, well. There are worse things to sound like. Like being an incompetent headmistress, or a shit grandmother or-

"You're plotting their murder, aren't you?" Riven hums in amusement, chuckling slightly against my neck.

"I-" What's the right answer here? "No, well. Actually, yes. But only if you want me to."

He sighs as though the weight of the world is on his shoulders.

"No, Pix." He whispers, "despite everything, they are still my grandparents and the last blood connection I have to Liv and mum. I'm not ready to say goodbye to that."

I nod, "Okay."

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The minister of health starts his monolgoue to the general school and I just zone the fuck out.

Today's smaller meetings include all of the ministers discussing their own plans for their department and discussing where they want others' support. It's boring as hell and my least favourite meeting day of all, yesterday was much of the same and even with today being the conclusion of their issues it's still uninteresting. At least they're kind enough to get the same shit out of the way during the first day and a half. This evening and tomorrow's meetings are the current topic so they're fresh in our minds as people leave.

Except there's a new addition to the schedule. The school students at Alfea get to listen to the ministers talk about the end results of our planning.

Because that's going to go down well, force all of the student's to listen to you say you're going to do the exact same thing as you did last year and the year before that and the year before that.

I want to stab myself in the head.

I hate these assemblies, it's only made slightly more bearable now that I'm firmly wedged between Sky and Riven in the rows of seating. Stella should have sat next to me with Sky on her left but Beatrix refused to sit next to Sky, so I sat next to Sky and he's guarding Stella on his left and diligently ignoring me on his right. Riven's fingers are tracing patterns into my thighs in a delicious way that makes me want to squirm. Thanks to his dirty mouth during my shadowless evening, I now associate those patterns with the filthy things he'd whispered to me.

And after what we did a few hours ago.

I'm bored and fucking starving and this bastard had the audacity to walk into this assembly next to me like waffles topped with chocolate coated strawberries served with freshly brewed coffee.

I'm gonna break.

My attention snaps back to the main stage as a woman in her late twenties walks past a seething Professor Harvey and a sniggering specialist teacher - Tomen - towards the podium. Miss Dowling appears to have stepped back on the stage and I only just notice that all of the ministers have filed out and are on their way back to the dinning room to have lunch and then go over the burned one topic.

I wonder if I can make an excuse that as a princess I have to chaperon them?

I could get Riven, Stella and Sky out of here as well then.

But I'd have to leave Beatrix. I shudder at the thought. She'd kill me. Brutally and with the vicious intent of a lover if I abandoned her in this boring assembly. I watch the woman, wishing I had access to my sentient shadows even as I become more adapted to life without them at such a rapid pace.

Her heels are far too tall to be a teacher. She's attractive; curvy and seductive, blond hair with a slash of red lipstick finishing off the Monroe look. Andreas took Bea and I to see her in the cinema once, apparently it was a classic. She caresses Silva's arm as she passes and I see him go stock still like a deer in headlights as his attention quickly darts to his mate in a clear look of 'I know I just fucked up but please don't kill em'. Not that it matters since Irene looks like she's about to kill miss monroe over there.. Stella and I share a look and Beatrix gives the two of us a disgusted expression from her seat next to Stel.

I'm not entirely sure how she got a seat with the second years but I don't particularly care. The row of first years at the front begin shifting in their seats

The fingers on my thigh don't falter.

"Thank you for that glowing introduction, Farrah. Good morning, Students. As your headmistress has just informed you, my name is Ms. Alyssa Whitlock. I expect I will enjoy meeting you all individually throughout this first week and teaching you all history."

Stella and I share another look before her phone comes out and she's typing away. Beatrix angles her body so the teacher at the end of the row can't see what she's doing. Stella is no doubting utilising the large number of contacts I've learnt she has developed. I sometimes forget that my sister can play politics as well.

She sorted out all those rumours for me, regarding my power. Managed to fix first person accounts from various people around our realm to sell the story of my sabbatical. I should really encourage her to become a tech whiz social influencer, and I mean in the sense of destroying someone socially with the click of a button.

It could be very beneficial to us.

The assembly finishes and there's practically a stampede of kids trying to get out of the boring atmosphere. Though I see a few stay behind to introduce themselves to the new teacher. Stella sidles up to me, murmuring about how she's worked under mother before.

So she's a spy then. Here to report back to the Queen.

Wonderful.

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"So you want me to move my troops away from critical aid points to do reconnaissance for a threat we don't even believe is a threat?" The defence minister shrieks, his voice warbling with gruff rage in his old age.

"A threat we need to know more about." General Lýkos defends, "We cannot dismiss them until we know why they resurfaced-"

"You are expecting a second war, then?" Minister Villarreal, the cold hearted bitch, states.

Murmurs break along the table and I sigh in annoyance from my place by the Queen. Irene and Silva have their gazes fixed on Riven's grandmother, Silva subtly as he reads through the reports in front of him. Irene on the other hand lounges in her chair like a throne as she stares down the matriarch of the Villarreal family.

"I expect a reason for their return-"

"A reason?" Beatrix interrupts Lýkos, "What reasons might you be expecting?"

She stares expectantly at the general as the other ministers clamour their support at her question. Yes, general, what are you expecting the reason to be?

"Changeling rumours have been circulating," The General Attorney, Brandon's uncle states suddenly and the noise quietens down, "She was left sixteen years ago, right around the time when the burned ones disappeared"

He gestures around the room in speculation, "And now she is back and so are they."

Noise explodes along the table, wild speculation, demands for her name and accusations are quickly fired off among the ministers. Silva has gone tense, sharing a knowing glance with Dowling opposite him. Irene's gaze has drifted from the bitch grandmother to the General Attorney whose nephew is staring at him in shock from his place against the column in the forest room.

I watch in interest as Brandon's pleading eyes turn to my sister, whose gone tense at my side. Why must she have chosen such a troublesome boyfriend.

I tell her as much,

"Could you have picked a less troublesome family to court with." I mutter under my breath.

"Brandon is not his family," She states defensively, "We are not our mother."

I sigh, must she really play that card. Sky and Riven shift behind us, stepping closer so they are only a step away as the

"True," I sigh, feeling apprehensive about my next words, "But why does his uncle know something he worked out?"

Silence. The arguing around us drifts from our conversation.

"You think he's feeding him information?" Stella questions, glancing over at me in slight betrayal, "It's just gossip Tavi, nothing more than rumours overheard in hallways."

I hum in thought, "for now."

"The changeling," Dowling finally interrupts, standing from her seat the garner the ministers' attention, "Is not a threat to the other worlds, whether they have links to the burned ones we do not know-"

"You don't know?" Lord Kástano again, "It's a big coincidence that you seem to not know."

"If we wish to judge and speculate every new addition back in Solaria around this time we will be here for hours." Dowling sighs, clearly exasperated by the ministers squabbling.

"So we are in agreement that something has drawn the burned ones out then, this isn't just natural resurfacing-"

"Natural resurfacing?" Villarreal cuts off the health minister and his face turns indignantly red, "what do you mean by that?"

"I believe what the good minister is implying," The Erakylon secretary of state interrupts, clearly trying to keep the peace, "Is that the burned ones are creatures at heart. Perhaps they have evolved. We saw them as isolated hunters at the start of the war and by the end they had learned to hunt in packs. Perhaps that is happening here. Evolution."

"The reports show chemical differences," I intercede, using the stunned silence to my advantage, "Crystalised char residues, as opposed to the pure rotten wood charr during the war. It will take some time for us to process all the individual samples but the current results suggest they have taken the natural minerals from the caves they hid in."

I have their attention now. The facts speak for themselves but I need to use them to my advantage, I can't have them going after Bloom until we have fully investigated her heritage and the fact that not all of the crystallisation was fully finished. As though they had been woken up sooner than intended.

"Crystallisation takes a long time, evolution is a likely answer," I nod towards the Erakylon secretary, "Perhaps the burned ones went into hibernation as a survival response to the annihilation of their kind. Hidden in the caves where they would have no doubt resented against the walls and over time - because it would have taken at least a decade - they absorbed the minerals and the heat from their bodies allowed crystallisation."

Forensic science is kind of my thing. Anything with gore is my thing to be honest. However, I'm pretty shit at the lab stuff so Beatrix tends to help out.

The ministers stare at me curiously, Irene smiles at me in pride and I can't help the warmth that blossoms in my chest at her pride.

"So what your saying is-?" Villarreal asks with a raised eyebrow, clearly wondering what my little monologue was leading to.

"The changeling had no impact on their evolution," I state with absolute assurance, "I do not know whether the changeling is attracting them but I know they did not cause the change in their chemical composition. The environment they hid in did that."

"Your suggesting that we can track the Burned Ones through the minerals we find on them," Silva leans forward, bracing his elbow on the table as he looks at me with bright eyes filled with understanding, "minerals specific to individual sections of mountain range. We could track which ones come from where, how long they were hidden, when they woke up-"

"-build up a history of their movement," Lýkos takes over, "we could tell the difference between the burned ones, get an accurate number on them."

The general stares at me in appreciation, as if finally seeing the logic behind my madness. I think I see a hint of pride there, admiration as well.

"How are we going to get these samples?" The defence minister questions, though more subdued than last time, "We are facing civil unrest, the Solarian army is needed to keep the peace."

"Alfea has troops," Silva states, looking around the table with such determination that I'm suddenly reminded of his involvement in the war. "We can utilise them, start training the specialists out in the field instead."

"They are children." Villarreal mutters with a pointed glare at her grandson, "What can they do against burned ones?"

"I would remind you minister," Irene drawl as she leans back in her chair, a Queen announcing her sentence, "that Silva and I were leading entire battalions at their age, effectively no less."

"They are not their parents. This generation seems to have brought nothing but war and incompetence to our realm." Regina snarks.

"And how have you served the realm of late, lady Villarreal?" Irene arches an eyebrow, "By lowering the sentences on rapists and pedophiles?"

Fucking go Queen.

"Careful, you are only a teacher at this table Mz. Silva." Villarreal snarls, voice low.

"Careful," My twin interrupts before I can, "one might assume you are making a threat against a trusted member of the council."

I grin in savage delight as Riven's obnoxious bitch of a grandmother purses her lips and turns red in rage before scoffing and turning away. At least she has the good sense to know when she is beaten.

Stella on the other hand might have just made an even bigger enemy for herself, bigger than the Queen.

There's something in her eyes though, something dark that promises retribution and violence in the future. I really hope Stel and Irene don't get in trouble with the law anytime soon.

"The appropriate advocates can discuss plans for the Burned Ones privately," Queen Luna takes over, breaking the uncomfortable silence after Irene's words, "what further business do we have to discuss."

A pause, before Attorney Kástano says, "I believe I was brought here to discuss the sentencing for nymph traffickers."

And the meeting descends into chaos once more.

A/N: What do we think of Tavi and Stella in the meeting