I had been woken from a very much wanted and needed, deep slumber by a knock on the chamber door. The first few raps I had decided to ignore, it was most likely because I was sleeping through breakfast and it was just a servant sent to check to see if I was needing to be awoken. I felt in such dire need of actual rest that I did not care if I went a bit hungry or even if I missed the first bit of time allotted for training, as queen I could bend, break, or make up my own rules whenever I saw fit. Typically I was inclined to follow the regiments and advice of the experts, but it was a choice on my part and it could be revoked whenever I saw fit. Ana probably could use a break anyway, I knew that she was powerful and skilled enough to likely not be physically exhausted, but I was certain she had to be emotionally and mentally exhausted after every stunt Feros had pulled. After several rounds of knocks whomever it was was being quite bold and not getting the hint and leaving me be and when Mistra began to stir I gave up to go answer. It hadn’t been long since Mistra had crawled into bed next to me, she had spent all night studying and needed all the rest she could get.

“Feros,” I said with a low growl, “you’re already not one of my favorite people and now you’re waking me up in the morning too? Haven’t you done enough recently to think it’s best to stay well clear of me unless you have something important to talk to me about?”

The fiend nodded with an irritating smile that told me he knew something that I did not. “I would never dream of interrupting your beauty sleep if it were not important, and I assure you that while you might be irritated about being woken up early now, you would be much more upset if I did not tell you what I’ve discovered right away.”

With an irritated huff through my nose, I looked him over, he did seem a tad more fidgety than normal though it could have been his needing to break in his new body. He hadn’t been keeping any one body long enough these days to get used to them, even though they always looked the same to me. I was mildly curious about where exactly these bodies were coming from, but I had a sneaking suspicion I would regret finding out. Everything about Feros turned out to be more complex and disturbing than what you would expect on first glance.

“Please, may I come in? Time is of the essence.”

“I would rather not wake Mistra, she just fell asleep,” I explained.

“Ah I am sorry, but I feel it would be best if we talk where it’s least likely we’re overheard and besides, I’m sure she’ll want to know all this first hand as well,” he pressed.

Giving in, I opened the door more and beckoned him inside, then took a quick glance down each end of the hallway. No one appeared to be around and by the very low level of light coming through the windows it was likely very early in the morning and no one was likely to have been awake to skulk around a corner.

“This is perhaps some of the most exciting news you will receive in a while,” he said. He began to pace in front of the bed, looking to me with a huge smile.

Closing the door, I turned to him and inclined my head to indicate for him to continue.

“I’m aware that you’ve had a bit of trouble with some spies regarding the Church so I’d thought I’d be helpful and do some digging to try to find some new contacts.”

“You did what?” asked a very groggy Mistra. She said up straight in bed, her ashen hair a halo of fuzz around her face, she hadn’t slept long, but she had slept hard. “How did you know that even happened? Mari and I have been the only ones involved and I know she would never trust you enough to tell you anything about it. The only person I have told is Toria and I definitely know she would not trust you with that kind of information either.”

“Are you implying that I’m not trustworthy?” he said in fake shock, holding a hand to his chest.

“You know damn well no one trusts you, stop trying to avoid answering my question: how did you know?”

“I have my ways,” he said slyly. “Let’s just say that some of these walls can tell tales. That’s a discussion for another day, however, today we need to discuss what exactly I have uncovered thanks to my selfless act.”

“You’re hoping that I end up forgetting this, but I definitely will not,” Mistra muttered. She bundled the blanket around her and stood up, sleepily shuffling over to the chair in front of her desk to take a seat where she could better scowl at the fiend.

“Out with whatever it is that was so important you had to tell me right now,” I demanded.

“Well, skipping a bit of juicy gossip to get to the best part, you should know that your little brother has legally had his rights to kingship… postponed, for lack of a better term.”

“Postponed” This was an intriguing bit of information. “How is that possible? I am assuming he was officially named heir apparent, as soon as I killed our father he should have ascended the throne. He should have been sitting on the throne for a couple months by now.”

“Ah, but a sort of deal had been struck before your father’s untimely passing.” The fiend grinned from ear to ear like he had just told the joke of a lifetime. “Apparently he did not anticipate his own impending death and made a deal that essentially gave the Great Church control of the kingdom if he were to die with some conditions. It really was a messy deal that I assume your father would get what we wanted from the bargain and then he would contest to get annulled, unless he really hated your little brother.”

“I’m sure that’s not it,” I said dryly, “being a boy was all that was required to have him loved and adored. I find it very hard to believe that he just signed away that usurper’s power so carelessly, he was always preoccupied with the idea of his male heir and continuing the male bloodline.” Anger boiled up from the very depths of my stomach and I felt the urge to kill the already dead man. While I had been a bit preoccupied with the threat of the Church and lost aunts looming, my deep, seething anger had never lifted or lessened. I still wanted my revenge and my kingdom would be mine or I would die clawing it back into my possession.

“Perhaps something else was at play that even I do not know quite yet, but I am very certain that he signed the agreement. I believe he got the young princess he so desperately wanted to retrieve from you in the agreement. In fact that seems to have been the major benefit he was getting out of the agreement, I suppose it is possible that he was thinking with one head rather than another.”

I rolled my eyes and let out an audible sound of disgust. I knew the creature did not exactly exude tact, but the insinuation was particularly disgusting and he knew how I felt about that situation having existed in the first place. My father had been absolutely vile in his attempt to manipulate his way into taking a child bride. Marrying young was sometimes done by royals and even nobles, that part I couldn’t deny, the precedent had been set long ago, but there was something that turned my stomach at the idea of my father marrying someone barely out of young childhood whom was on top of it young enough to have easily been his great grandchild.

“I don’t say this often,” Mistra said with a scoff, “but that attempt at a joke was beneath even you.”

“Well it tickled me,” he said, smile never dropping. “My point is, the Church immediately sent out someone to take the reins so to speak and establish control over the kingdom before your brother could complete coronation. You see, no one knew outside of your father about the agreement, further proof in my opinion that he had ever intention of going back on the deal and if coronation were to happen, then it would have been much harder for them to swoop in and take back control.”

“So the Church is at the helm and not my brother? That’s what you wanted to tell me with such urgency? You must like seeing me in a bad mood, that makes everything worse for me. Taking on my rightful kingdom’s army is a lot less daunting than the Church and their resources.”

“I haven’t told you everything yet, there’s much more drama that’s unfolded. You see, the Church has caught wind of our little fae problem and they’re not comfortable at all with the idea of fae essentially being in their backyard. The Church has spent quite a lot of effort convincing their followers that everything to do with magic, old gods, myths, and exotic creatures is all just made up nonsense meant to distract the pious from their duty to worship their gods as the only in existence. Every time in the history of your human realm that fae or something similar pop up en masse, word tends to get around and new religions and folklore get created. They want to do as much damage control as quickly as possible to avoid much of that happening. It’s a dream scenario for me really, I am absolutely delighted at the idea of them trying to figure out how to deal with them, none of them, not even the highest of their hierarchy will be able to hold a candle to their power. One whiff of someone meddling in fae affairs and they’re going to get a very rude awakening and it’s been so very long since the Church has had any direct contact with fae that I’m sure the dangers have been long forgotten. It’s going to be beautiful chaos.”

“They’re going to be way too busy to worry about us then,” Mistra said, her voice had a hint of excitement in it. “That gives us a lot more time.”

“Why would they care about us at all then?” The understanding of why this was such important news dawned on me. “This is absolutely wonderful news, why are you treating it like we need to sneak around and be private with it? We should tell everyone and have a feast to celebrete that one of our greatest worries is abated for now.”

“Well, let me remind you the part about how your brother had been puppeted once more.” Feros was building to something big, his rate of pacing was increasing and small giggles of delight were escaping him from time to time. “He has still not been crowned, the people are now aware that he cannot be until the Church gives the okay, and the handlers who were sent to manage him have been called away to deal with the fae threat. Therefore, your little brother is currently sitting in a castle that he technically does not control, exposed and vulnerable. It may be pertinent for you to remember that your place in the line of succession was not revoked.”

“If he dies, I am next in line,” I whispered in shock. It all sounded too good to be true, the events were lining up to be too fortuitous.

“What about the agreement?” Mistra asked. “Wouldn’t that mean that Toria would just be the one who had to be cleared by the Church to rule? I can’t see any scenario where they would allow that.”

“They made an error in the wording of the official document. It would be a trivial matter to prove that the agreement would not hold water if the current heir dies before taking the throne. Toria would have every legal right to ascend and it would look very poorly for the Church to pursue forcing the document to hold, they thrive on the idea that the kingdoms see them as fair and balanced, only acting for the concept of goodness.”

“Too good to be true. I can’t believe this is all this simple.” There had to be some sort of catch, there always was with Feros. He was good at knowing what exactly to dangle in front of you to get the outcome he wanted, like dangling a carrot before a mule to get it going in the right direction with the cart.

“It won’t be so straightforward, that’s true,” he admitted, “but I don’t believe it will be that hard either. I think it’s worth a shot for you to go and try, we can leave in secret and probably be there well before the Church has even begun to figure out how to approach the fae problem.”

“In secret… again, why are we working in secrecy? Rafe will be thrilled to know the Church is distracted, it has been all he’s worried for months and months now. He would probably send me back in a golden carriage to secure the kingdom, my gains are also his benefit.”

Feros stopped mid pace and cast Mistra a serious glance, then let out a deep, rumbling laugh. “Mistra, have you not fully impressed upon your queen how untrustworthy your father is? I would think by now you would have sat her down and really explained how he operates by now.”

Mistra gave the creature a withering look and stood up, still clutching the blanket to her. “Do not try that with me.” Her voice dripped with malice. “I know how you like to drive wedges between people to help distract from things you don’t want people to find out or think on too long.”

“I meant no harm.” He put his hands up in front of him and bowed his head slightly in deference. “Let me rephrase to just say we need to consider what Rafe may stand to gain from double crossing Toria at this juncture. Rafe has actually done a much better job adhering to the terms of the Yser agreement much better than I would ever had guessed, he does seem to have some respect for the Yser house.”

“Of course he does, my father was the one who established it. He is obviously going to want to see it attain glory when he’s the one who set the path to their glory into motion.”

“I agree,” Feros said with a nod, then looked to me, “but he also knows that Toria is a woman with ambition, more ambition that Evonia ever had. Evonia was content to live in the lap of luxury as things were, she saw no need for expansion or flexing of her power to saber rattle with the big kingdoms. You, you are different, an outlier that I don’t think Rafe anticipated, he probably thought that one of her direct offspring would ascend the throne, someone she would more directly influence and make to be a replica of her.”

“He has never been anything but respectful of me,” I challenged.

“Has he?” Feros questioned with a twinkle in his eye. “He has never yelled, stomped his feet, and made thinly veiled threats?”

It was like a switch flipped in my mind, he had acted that way, but he always had and I had just accepted it as just how it was. I would never, ever let anyone else, monarch or not speak to me like that, so why did I let Rafe have a pass? He held the cards, that’s why, he had leverage over me that I had never fully processed before and now that I had and I despised it.

“You’re starting trouble,” Mistra growled, “we’re not in a position right now to fix the issue, you know that our long term plans involve solving this particular problem.”

“I’m not trying to start trouble, Toria knows that acting out against your father right now would be suicide. I merely am suggesting that we keep him out of this particular matter and perhaps forge our own path so that Rafe isn’t tempted to step in and claim the kingdom for himself.”

“You’re sure he doesn’t know?” I asked, mind whirling as I tried to process this new perspective. Everything was happening all at once and still being sleep starved was not helping. I wanted to be double and triple sure that I was making the right choice, but it felt like I also needed to make that choice quickly. I didn't know how long this window of opporunity would stay open and I would be absolutely devastated if I hesitated and missed using it.

“Not a clue, if we leave it will take him a good long while to work out what’s going on, if he does at all before we complete our mission. We can have you on the throne and ready to command in case Rafe does take rather poorly to you doing this without him. Which he probably will, I won't lie, but I think it's an outcome you will be glad you ran for yourself and not risk being double crossed.”

I looked to Mistra, who looked back to me with a worried expression, but gave me a nod to indicate that she was behind me with whatever I decided. It was very, very telling that she was not speaking up anymore about the things Feros was saying and insinuating about her father. She obviously was very much of the idea that he was not the most effective soveriegn, but she still defaulted to defending him out of familial love.

“Okay,” I said slowly and carefully, weighing my words to make sure this was exactly the path I wanted to go, “let’s go usurp the usurper.”