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49: Marry Me

“...but I cannot marry you.”

Mydea took a moment to drink from her cup, before setting it down on the table between them. They had become acquainted whilst he masqueraded as his retainer, but they could barely be called friends and were far from allies. They owed each other nothing.

Yet, that thought prove...

48: Will You…

“Let nothing delay your return home,” Mydea read aloud from her father’s notebook. “Steelwing returned to us riderless this morning. We are scouring the paths to Aigis in search. Only one man can be behind it.”

Troia gasped audibly. “Lord Aspyrtus… is he…”

“Still your tongue!” Mydea said. To speak the word would...

47: And Murder

Aspyr could admit that his prisoner—pale like moonlit snow—was beautiful to behold. Not as eye-catching as the Empress perhaps, but she did not have the benefit of generations of selective breeding and the bloodline of Allure. It made him all the more wary, watching her stare back at them proudly, defiantly.

There were few thi...

46: Of Intrigue…

It was, in Alcy’s opinion, a great inconvenience that Her solar was located high up in the Starlight Tower, while Her own bedchamber was in another palace entirely. Its platinum-tinted round windows and Aelisium’s orientation did give Her a breathtaking view of the city bathed in sunset.

She settled into the armless camelback ...

45: Handbook...

In the looking glass Mydea found not her own visage, but that of her sister’s. “Chalsi, please tell me this wasn’t made possible by another favor from a friend,” she chided, hands on her hips.

Chalsi rolled her deep green eyes. “If you must know, this call was permitted by the hystors. We’ve just got word about Aspyr. ...

44: The Ladies (2)

The Imperial Court of Her Highness was bedecked in even greater splendor for the occasion, and the normally spacious hall was filled to the brim as every man, woman and child who could finagle entrance attended. The stoneborn, of course, came out in droves, but they were not alone.

The hawkish-looking Principal Mayor of Aelisum was surroun...

43: The Ladies... (Part 1)

Prince Jaeson's public arrival in the Imperial City set the guests of the Seraglio into a frenzy. Even the likes of the shy Lady Lanna was exerting considerable effort to stand out and leave a lasting impression.

Far too late, all of it.

Rather than worry over such a senseless thing, Mydea visited Lady Lara of the House Emin...

42: Ball (Part 5)

The night was a flurry of drinks, dances, and dresses to Mydea. Before long the midnight bells tolled and some of the stoneborn retired to their rooms—Prince Pelias most notable among them—thinning out the crowd. No one had yet managed to guess how she appeared to float above the floor, and some of the theories forwarded had become truly rid...

01: Call to Adventure

Chapter 1: Call to Adventure

Hammer.

With a thought, Syrus’ skill activated, and the blows came down on his hundredth sword one after the other, a rhythmic beat for death and deeds to come. It was a song of his trials.

Hold, he ordered, and the sword ceased moving each time the hammer fell a...

41: Ball (Part 4)

There was another stir in the crowd, smaller than Mydea’s entrance had caused, but still noticeable. Atop the grand staircase and beneath the brightly lit chandeliers was a woman dressed in a slither of flickering fabric that left so much unsaid. The woman lifted her hand, and shadowy tendrils caused the lights shining on her to dim—and it w...

40: Ball (Part 3)

The carriage carried only herself towards the Mirage—a two-storied palace painted in a vibrant blue hue, its silhouette gleaming from the light of the full moon. Were this a normal banquet, a woman of Mydea’s standing might have brought along their lady’s maid, but it would be an obvious clue during a masquerade. Those more discerning migh...

39: Ball (Part 2)

The afternoon of the Empress’ masquerade found the Seraglio, normally vibrant with the chatter of ladies, suddenly silent of schemes. Even the lordlings courting the skyborn were sequestered away in their own rooms with an army of servants, armored themselves in silken weave and velvet gloves and all that which sparkled in the light. Charms an...

38: Ball (Part 1)

Barely a day had passed before an imperial messenger—a black Everbloom cattle dog with a perfumed piece of parchment attached to his neck—delivered Mydea’s official invitation to the Empress’ masquerade ball. None of the tea parlor’s staff impeded the messenger’s coming and going, and it strode out into the city’s streets without f...

33: Queue... (Part 4)

The Starlight Tower and the Imperial Court it jutted out from was no sprawling palace, and could be considered one of the smaller palaces in terms of size, though its spire dwarfed all others in height. While the Empress ruled from this place, she did not reside in it.

Raised during the Decade of the Dozen Consorts, the Starlight Tower was...

32: Queue... (Part 3)

When the hystor had been seen to, Tomas set down his cup of tea. “Disappointment is etched into your face. No luck?”

“More than I feared, but less than I hoped for,” Mydea said. “I know what language it’s in, but I’m afraid my father may be the only living person alive who can read it.”

“You could always ask him,”...

37: Raid... (Part 4)

League upon league of snowy fields and rolling hills disappeared behind them over the next two days. Despite the looming threat the warbands posed, the soilborn remained to tend to the land, watching over hardy vegetables like spinach, collards, and leeks. Aspyr even spotted a kindly looking grandfather singing a song to the crops while children...

36: Raid... (Part 3)

As they camped at Jayderest, their numbers had swelled to over two hundred mounted mages across twenty lances. Nearly a quarter of their host was winged too, which was more than one might expect from a party of their size if not for the fact that they rode beneath the banner of House Kolchis. Raising pegasi was their lifeblood, the very act of w...

35: Raid... (Part 2)

“Nomos has received the sacrifice, Lord Aspyr,” Hystor Theios declared, arms deep in the blood, bone and guts of a firstborn lamb.

Aspyr nodded in acknowledgment, putting pressure on his traveling mount with his thighs as the iron portcullis of Aigis was raised. His pegasus Steelwing followed obediently, spared from any burden to prese...

34: Raid... (Part 1)

The second daybreak after Mydea’s departure found Aspyr in his glasshouse, the winds of winter and a slow, creeping hoarfrost warded off by the warming runes. His valet, Jorgan, was with him as usual, following in companionable silence while Aspyr flitted from row to row.

“This one’s still not holding water very well,” Aspyr noted....

31: Queue... (Part 2)

She could feel scorching gazes on her as they entered the Seraglio proper, but she paid the other girls no mind. After Prince Jaeson arrived, her meetings with Tomas would fade from their memory as the real prize strutted before them.

“Ah, Mister Tomas!” said a short-haired girl in green, purposefully putting her body in front of him. ...

30: Queue... (Part 1)

Even had Mydea not known that the Imperial City now floated within the Everbloom’s domain, the pleasant weather during winter was telling in and of itself. It was said that the magic which kept the region’s perpetual summer was a remnant of the rituals that doomed Old Ilyos in the end, though the House Eminent Morgraine vehemently denied it....

29: Mask... (part 2)

Boxed in by stone cloisters and passages, the garth Lady Lara had allowed Mydea to use was one of the better gardens in the Seraglio, known for its fine marble sculpting of Syla Stormsong and her harp. One could even make out the folds and wrinkles in her sleeveless tunic.

It was around this centerpiece that the tables were arranged in rel...

28: Mask... (Part 1)

Mydea poured a measure of an Edenian literati’s powdered tongue over her father’s notebook, enough to translate a few lines at most. The greatest variations in using translation spells resulted from the spell reagent being of poor quality. Given Aelisium was within the Everbloom’s borders now, it wasn’t difficult to find a merchant selli...

27: Of Our Own (Part 3)

It is better to settle with debtors than death, for one will always collect. Mydea sat with Tomas and Vivyan in one of the balconies of the Seraglio with a splendid view of the gardens below.

“Is there a form you favor?” Tomas asked Vivyan as he set up the six-sided board of Eminent Domain in the table between them. Only two of them wo...

26: Of Our Own (Part 2)

When she stepped back into the crowd, she found herself besides Prince Cleo, dressed as he always was in his strange tunic. Did the man have no other clothes?

“So you befriend your enemy,” Cleo said. “How curious.”

“If we were friends, we would not need the gods to uphold our promises to each other,” Mydea said. “It is ...

25: Of Our Own (Part 1)

The High Temple looked more like a sculpted mountain than stacked stones to Mydea. With a shy, new moon in the sky and Aelisium’s own luminance dimmed in deference to Ygeia’s holy night, there was little light to see where one block ended and the other began. The column of stoneborn snaked down the Street of Sacrifice, and bearing witness we...

24: Archive... (Part 3)

Their ride stopped before the great glass dome of the Archive, and Tomas opened the door for them. The only entrance to that marble edifice was a pair of bronze doors with a dozen languages all saying the same thing—there is one evil: ignorance.

They were assaulted by grassy notes stained with something sharp, something that promised pow...

23: Archive... (Part 2)

Tomas’ carriage was an unassuming thing by the gates of the Seraglio, unmarked and directed by a plain-looking coachman dressed without spectacle. She’d asked it of him, but Mydea found her circumstances changed since she sent him word yesterday. There was no avoiding attention now after being seated with Princess Mirah and her duel with Mir...

22: Archive... (Part 1)

Her plans had not survived a single day of Aelisum, but one adjusted or was annihilated, and Mydea rather enjoyed being alive.

When she returned to her room after tea with Princess Mirah—which really felt more like dinner after one tried a little of everything—the first thing that stood out to her was Troia’s bandaged hand being tend...

21: Stands for Trouble (Part 3)

“He fostered with your father, didn’t he?” Pudgy Sara asked Miryam as she served herself another helping of cake. “What’s Prince Jaeson like? Is he handsome?” Lanna nodded demurely.

“Quite handsome,” Miryam said. “He’s a fan of the histories, and an avid player of eminent domain. Father says he’s a master of over five...