While assassination has occasionally been attempted by outside forces, it is a point of pride to House Varon that never once has any scion of ours lowered himself to turn his hand against another of his own house.

-House Varon: A Legacy of Honour

The next month disappeared beneath a frantic scurry of preparation. Writing, researching, traveling. I closed my shop, turning it over to the illustrators entirely as I devoted my full attention to this plan.

I ordered clothing in the style of the nobility, and some in the southern Teshron style, though both were exorbitantly expensive. My savings dwindled at an alarming rate, but I had only one chance. If I was going to do this thing, I would do it right.

I wrote in a journal I carried everywhere, building up a history of ‘my’ life as Astesh Myen, and was sure to leave it out in the weather a few times to add authentic age to it.

I drew up official documents, some of which I was able to get validated by means of slipping them in with a batch of actual documents of like kind, but most of which were blatant forgeries. At some point, I had to simply hope that no one would travel for weeks merely to verify an obscure certificate of parentage.

I spent weeks in various small towns getting a feel for their mindset and accent.

An excuse had to be formulated for why no one in the towns local to the region I’d chosen for the Myen family’s home would remember Astesh. My backstory grew increasingly elaborate as I realized how many gaps the original plan had contained.

No matter. I could do this.

Astesh’s family had always been on the move, I decided. We never stayed in one place long enough to be known, and there was still some degree of wariness even now generations later. But I was a rebel. I didn’t want to stay unknown, hide in the shadows just because my great grandfather married outside his house.

I’d have spent my free time wandering the lands, exploring and searching for something I knew not what. And then, when my parents died within a year of each other, leaving me the forgotten childstone that Asnon never used for his own children, I decided I wouldn’t hide our family legacy any longer.

However distantly, Astesh Myen was still a Varon. And I would find a way to reunite with my ancestral line.

Or at least, that was the plan.

The month became two, then three. Winter passed into spring, then summer teased at its edges, drying out the ground which spring had left overly damp and mucky. Still I couldn’t call my charade complete. I continued to travel, introducing myself always as Astesh Myen, asking everyone how I could contact my family, testing out my story, working on my affect.

The best part about this was having a built-in answer for anyone who noticed me glowing. Which did happen, embarrassingly frequently at first as I continued to travel into the night without noticing I’d forgotten a lantern and other mistakes of that ilk.

These mistakes grew less frequent as I learned to better conceal my power, but never went away entirely. That fact alone served to fully justify my ruse, as if I’d been doing anything but posing as a lost noble scion the glow would have given me away many times over.

So long as I presented myself as a fact, my power as something which they should respect and my person as inviolate, they never questioned it. Most commoners seemed a bit in awe, and became incredibly helpful.

I still didn’t feel fully prepared. I knew where to find Varon strongholds, how to discern rank within family members. But while a great deal of general information could be found among commoners, the deeper subtleties of noble life escaped me. I knew what to do in casual interaction, if I met someone on the street, I knew the proper addresses and niceties. But the intricacies of how to be a Varon rather than simply interact with them? Impossible to discover.

I searched long and hard, but in the end, my best attempts at preparation for the approach came to nothing. The nobility came to me.

‘Twas a glorious summer afternoon, and I sat beneath a tree in a public garden in downcity Varonhold, a stack of books by my side, testing myself on the various rankings of stoned within houses. Varon’s ranking was simple enough. Tay, Soe, Ebi, Laht, Jek, Moy, Shesh; tay being the lowest and shesh highest. The rank could be discerned by the ordering of colours on their clothing, which colour is emphasized, and in what proportion their distribution. Varon colours being red, yellow, and green.

Tay, the lowest, is mostly green with yellow sections and red trim. Soe has red and yellow equal, and Ebi has more red than yellow. In the next tier, Laht is mainly yellow with green sections and red trim, while Jek is mainly yellow with equal sections of red and green. Moy is red with equal amounts of yellow and green, while Shesh gets them in their official proper proportion, of three parts red, two parts yellow, and one part green, as on the flag.

Did I mention that this was one of the more simple systems? Most houses weren’t nearly this straightforward. And I still mixed up Laht and Moy half the time. Every time I thought I was getting close to enough information, I’d uncover something new to complicate my life.

I would barely rate as tay, from what little I could gather, which meant that my assigned outfit would be entirely different from the clothing I’d commissioned.

Such a stupid, careless mistake. I’d trusted the tailor to know what he was doing, but he’d actually made me something more akin to a guardsman tunic than anything a true scion would deign to wear. Its colours were in the wrong proportions as well, though not really adhering to any particular tier, intimating that its wearer was at least of ebi rank. Which I most emphatically was not.

Properly, one could insert the ranking of a person after their title and before their name, if feeling particularly formal. So, if Fylen had been at the highest power level, which I doubted given his defeat, but hypothetically his title would have become Eirn-shesh Fylen Sarosa. Or, once he took on the leadership role, Reirn-shesh Fylen Sarosa.

“Astesh Myen?”

I started and nearly dropped my book. So absorbed had I been in its pages, I had somehow neglected to notice the approach of a very formally-dressed Varon delegation. The man in the lead wore yellow with red and green accents, making him at least …

My mind failed to make the connection. Halfway up the power ranking, at least.

Way too powerful. Way too important.

Hastily, I stood, then remembered that the proper obeisance for someone of this rank and this family was to kneel, so I did that. Very quickly. Probably clumsily.

Then I remembered that he’d said my name, so I nodded quickly, keeping my eyes downcast. “Yes, I am Astesh Myen.” My voice trembled a bit, and I glanced at the stack of books, desperately hoping that none of them would give me away. But it was too late to second guess my preparations. If this failed, I was exactly as doomed as I would have been had I been discovered in any other way. I would be no worse off, I just had to remember my role.

“I understand you’ve been looking for us.”

“Yes, Eirn, I have.”

“And yet you haven’t approached any of us?”

“I … I was afraid, Eirn. I wanted to be better prepared. I feel ignorant and backwards and wish to become worthy of the house of my ancestor.” Strange, how truthful it felt to say.

“Stand up. Let me see you.”

I stood and steadied myself against the tree trunk. I didn’t dare look up at the Eirn and his entourage.

“And what makes you believe you belong to our house?”

I shakily removed my glove and held out my light-veined hand for his inspection. “I discovered a childstone my parents had been keeping for who knows how many generations. When I looked back into our history, I found a great deal of deception and concealment, but I believe that our family is descended from Asnon Varon. It is the only thing that makes sense to me. I believe he ran away and was eventually married, his children taking commoner names to hide their connection. I don’t know why.”

“If he had a childstone, that means he married another noble,” the eirn said. “So I wonder how your family name ended up as Myen? Traditionally, the highest ranked surname is the one which is adopted by the children.”

Oh lost god, already a question I hadn’t considered! I shrugged helplessly. “It was a long time ago, Eirn. If there was a reason to my ancestors’ decisions, it was not shared with me.”

“Hm.”

He didn’t speak for a long moment, and I didn’t dare glance up to see his expression.

“Eirn? What is to be done with me?” I asked, my voice faint.

“For now? Nothing has been decided. First, you have been summoned to an audience with the Reirn.”

“Oh. Very well. Lead on.”

What followed was perhaps the most stressful journey of my life. I sat in a carriage opposite the highest ranked noble I’d ever seen, much less spoken to. Apart from a faint gleam around his eyes, he did not glow. I did, lighting up the interior like a torchbug stuck with its light on.

I wanted to ask how he could control the power and keep it from just flowing everywhere, but I had read nothing in etiquette books about how much talking with an escort on the way to an audience with the Reirn should be done by a long lost heir distantly descended from an ancient forbidden love affair.

The situation wasn’t covered sufficiently in any manual I’d read. Very inadequate. I should correct the oversight at the first opportunity.

The eirn didn’t speak, but looked past me into the middle distance. I didn’t speak, but staring calmly was not within my capacity at the moment. I could stare, I could fret, but I could not think passively about anything but the upcoming meeting.

Or what if it weren’t a meeting at all. What if they’d told me that to gain my cooperation, and this was where I disappeared? Where Astesh Myen’s existence ceased, and my own former life vanished along with it.

I didn’t know what was worse. Imagining that I’d soon be thrown into a dungeon and subjected to who-knew-what, or that I’d soon be face to face with the most powerful man in house Varon, with the authority to do anything he wished with me up to and including said dungeon-throwing, and whom I had exactly one opportunity to impress.

I could not scratch out faulty lines and start over. I would have no recourse if the Reirn decided against me.

It was a relief when we entered the front gate of House Varon’s western bastion, winter home to the Reirn. Once the weather grew too hot, he would move to his summer stronghold farther north.

Why did I know that, and not things like what to actually say in an audience?

Reirn Ushan Varon had never married, though he was nearing his sixtieth year. If I hadn’t known his birthday, I wouldn’t have guessed. He looked more like a well-built man of forty, though with hair perhaps a bit thin and beginning to grey in places, by no means did he appear old.

He dismissed my escort with a wave of his hand, and I dropped to my knees in proper respect.

“I am told you claim lineage with Asnon?”

Wow, way to dispense with the pleasantries. I nodded wordlessly, unable to speak.

“And you found a childstone? Speak.”

“I believe so,” I replied, my voice faint. “I found something. It was bright and warm, and then somehow went inside me and now I glow. I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful. My parents told me nothing of this lineage. It was my own research that led me to believe it likely.”

“Hmm.” Reirn Ushan leaned back in his throne, a faint nimbus of green light flickering around him for a moment before it vanished. He continued to watch me silently.

“Truly, I didn’t intend to use the stone. I didn’t even know it was possible to become stoned as an adult. But once it happened, I began to research my family to find out how and why.” I was talking too much, too fast. I took a breath to try and calm myself and closed my mouth before I caused a major upset.

“This stone you found, it was this past winter?”

I stiffened. The timing of my story was one thing I hadn’t finalized. It would be bad to admit that I’d just happened to gain mine when the Sarosa heir died, especially if no one knew what had happened to his. But what if there were a way to tell how long a stone had been in someone? If the glow got stronger with time, or something? Then lying would be an even worse idea.

“Speak,” Reirn Ushan said with cold firmness.

“Yes, winter,” I blurted out. Then hastily added, “My parents died of a sickness, and I was searching through their belongings.”

Reirn Ushan leaned forward. “And how was the stone preserved? How had it been kept for so long without evaporating?”

Oh lost god why? If there were more information available, I could have prepared for these sorts of things! How was I supposed to know stones could evaporate?

I shrugged helplessly. “It was in a box. A fancy box, a bit out of place for simple people like us. The stone was warm so I kept it to use as a heating stone, and I sold the box to finance their burial. I don’t know where it is now.”

Stupid, dangerous, excessive, why? But I had to keep going. There was no way back. All in, lie or die. Or whatever was done to renegade stoned. I still had never found a solid answer to that.

“I wish you knew who Asnon had married,” Reirn Ushan said. “Which family could have crafted something so stable? And why have they not used it since?”

“I wish I had an answer,” I managed helplessly. Well, I’m dead. This was too much. No amount of research could possibly be sufficient. I couldn’t do this.

“Did you discover anything of the other family you believe Asnon might have married?”

“I think Teshron. After all, my name is Astesh. A bit unconventional, from what I’ve read.”

“Very unconventional. Completely bizarre. Some might say foolishly inappropriate.”

I had to suppress a wince. I’d come up with the name based on commoner naming conventions, and later research into nobility showed they had very different ideas of what a proper name was. But by then I’d already started introducing myself, and it was too late to change it.

“I assume you are an only child?”

“Yes.” True, for once.

“Your grandparents are dead as well?”

“Yes.”

“What were their names?”

Aaaah, why did he keep asking things I hadn’t gotten to yet? I had already been trying to reconstruct an entire lifetime from nothing, let alone fit in a complete family tree! It was on my list, but his men interrupted at a very inconvenient time!

Calm pulsed through me.

I shook my head. “I don’t remember.”

“Hmm.”

I waited in silence for him to continue.

“You have arrived at a very unfortunate time.”

“I know.”

His eyebrows went up. “You know?”

Oh bad bad bad, why did I admit that? “I’ve seen Sarosa patrols around, more than is normal. Something has obviously happened to upset the house.”

“And where exactly have you been that you’ve seen these Sarosa patrols?”

Aaaaaaaah, of course, I was supposed to be from the south! The Sarosa had no presence in Teshron territories. I shrugged again, unable to speak.

“Were you visiting the town of Woodedge, by any chance?”

Oh, bad bad bad. I opened my mouth, but couldn’t speak.

“Come here.”

I froze.

“Come.” He held out a hand, and I hesitantly approached the throne. “Give me your hand.”

I did, and he held it between both of his. Warmth, then heat, then a brilliant green light emanated from his hands. It didn’t hurt, but it felt very odd. I didn’t know how I should react, so I only stared at his hands sandwiching mine.

The room brightened. Green washed over everything, then … pink? A bright fuchsia light warred with the green, clashing into a muddy brilliance at the edges.

Then Reirn Ushan released me and the glows immediately vanished.

“Pink is the secondary colour of House Teshron,” Reirn Ushan said. “It is not widely known among commoners, but our house colours originated from the types of power we can manifest. Not every Varon is going to be red, yellow, or green, but the majority of them are.”

I frowned uncertainly.

“Pink is also the primary colour of House Raysh, and the tertiary colour of House Metako. Unfortunately for you, it so happens that the Sarosa Heirna-in-waiting is of House Metako.”

Oh. No.

“While it is possible that a childstone from over a hundred and fifty years ago somehow survived untouched for generations, it is far more likely that it was obtained from a more recent source.”

No no no no…

I felt on the verge of panic, the urge to say something building in the tense silence. I waited for the power to calm me, return me to sense before I did something else stupid, but it lay quiet and cool. As though whatever Reirn Ushan had done wore it out and it needed rest.

“Like Reirn-in-waiting Fylen Sarosa, for example,” Reirn Ushan finally said, each word falling against my deception like hammer blows to a glass window.

“It wasn’t me! I swear!” The denial burst out before I could stop it.

“What wasn’t you?”

“I didn’t kill Eirn Fylen. I couldn’t have. He was too powerful.” I put a hand over my mouth to stop my fearful rambling before I gave away anything more.

Not soon enough. Reirn Ushan smiled. “Who said anything about killing? His childstone was stolen, the stone intended for his unborn heir. No one said anything about him being dead.”

Lost god, lost god, lost god! I couldn’t do this. I wasn’t a spy, wasn’t a detective. I was just a scribe! Why had it come to this? How? I was trembling and couldn’t stop. Why abandon me now, stupid calming stone? You cause all this trouble and then leave me when I most need you?

I had to think. I couldn’t think.

It was over. I sighed and closed my eyes, resigned. No point in lying any longer.

“I … I saw it happen. It was another eirn, with yellow fire for power. I was hiding, I didn’t— there was nothing I could do. I didn’t touch Eirn Fylen, I swear. The … childstone, it landed near me in the chaos, and I was cold, so I took it to use as a light. The next morning, it was gone and my blood was glowing. I started researching, and that eventually ended me here.”

The silence felt like an eternity. I could hardly breathe through the tension.

“You witnessed the event personally?” Reirn Ushan said finally.

I nodded helplessly. “Eirn Desten challenged Eirn Fylen 'for the light he bore', and Eirn Fylen said something about Eirn Desten never having lived well, and they fought. Eirn Fylen created a shield of ice, but Eirn Desten melted it and exploded all the power in on Eirn Fylen. Then —” I trailed off as memory burned in my throat, the unthinkable violence as Eirn Desten tore his foe in pieces for the blue stone at his heart. I shuddered, unable to speak, and focused on breathing and not losing control of myself.

“Eirn Desten,” Reirn Ushan said coldly. “Are you absolutely sure of this? Not Desran, Derend, Dastri?”

“I … I can’t be completely sure. I was some distance away. I heard Desten, but I suppose it could have been any of those.”

Reirn Ushan made a sound half sigh, half growl.

“So why are you here?” Reirn Ushan finally demanded.

“You summoned me.”

“Before that, you were already making plans to infiltrate my house. Why?”

“Oh, that. I thought, well, it sounds stupid now. But I was thinking I could try to figure out which Desten was the killer. And I had to do it without him finding out, because a nobody like me from an obscure branch of the family that may not even be close enough to count as Varon anymore, well, if he had no qualms about killing the Sarosa Reirn-in-waiting, he wouldn’t think twice before offing me.”

“Would you know the killer again if you saw him?”

I shook my head. “I never got a clear look at him. His hair was about the same length as yours, tied back like all the guards. I never saw the colours of his robes, or anything distinguishing about him except the yellow fire.”

“A great many Varon have yellow fire,” Reirn Ushan said, then fell silent.

I waited, unsure. He was entertaining my story far more seriously than I’d expected. And he hadn’t ordered me executed yet, so that was good.

“Very well,” Reirn Ushan said. “You have my blessing to act as a scion of House Varon, in search of the killer of Eirn Fylen. My nephew will be your official guide and tutor until you are capable of acting as a proper noble. Until such a time as he is satisfied with your progress, I suggest you remain out of the public eye.

“In regards to this investigation of yours, I will not impair your progress. Neither will I make excuses for you or cover for any mistakes or blunders you make. If you are discovered to be anything but what you’ve told me, if any part of your history is proven false, I will have no choice but to denounce you fully and have you dealt with as befits traitors and liars. If, for instance, it were to come out that you are a Teshron plant spying on my family. However, I will not personally investigate your background at this time, as I have a great many important matters that demand my attention.”

I exhaled slowly. It sounded terrifying, but I couldn’t really expect anything more. I had freedom of action, of a sort, and just had to be sure my backstory held up to casual perusal from the rest of the Varon court.

“Thank you, Reirn. I will do my best to act for the honour of House Varon.”

“Hmm.” Again, that quiet growl in his sigh. “If what you witnessed were not distorted in some way, I fear the honour of House Varon is already irreparably tarnished. But it would do none of us a service to allow such treachery to go undiscovered and unpunished. If you are the agent fate has decreed to act for my house in this case, then so it shall be.”

He rang a small bell. After a moment, the eirn-jek from the garden opened the door and stuck his head in.

“Yes, my Reirn?”

“Desten, come in here a moment. I have a special task for you. Tay Astesh here is in need of a guide and tutor to adapt to life as our newest member of House Varon. I leave the task of this preparation to you.”

And then Reirn Ushan waved a hand in dismissal, and I had no choice but to follow Desten Varon from the room.