The door to my bedchamber slammed open and I snapped my eyes open, anger already at a peak as I sat up ready to scream at whomever was so disrespectful as to just barge into my room unannounced. Before I could claw off the eye mask and see who it was I already had my guesses that it was one of the snide servants who loved to cast smirking glances at me thinking they were superior simply because they were demons. I could never understand just why Evonia had so easily given up everything to them and doubly did not understand why Toria had further cemented the submission of the Ysers to the Draks.

“WHERE ARE THEY?!”

The yelling was incredibly loud and painful, almost loud enough to make the speaker unrecognizable, but I knew that the only one of them who would dare raise their voice to that level around me had to be Rafe.

“What are you even talking about?” I asked with indignancy, finally getting the mask pulled up and off.

He looked like a violent crack of thunder personified, his face screwed up into an accusatory look. “DON’T EVEN ACT LIKE YOU ARE CLUELESS, THERE IS NO WAY YOUR NIECE WOULD GO ANYWHERE WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE!”

Toria was gone? That didn’t make sense, we had spoken just earlier in the day and she mentioned absolutely nothing. While she did not tell me everything, every monarch needed their secrets, she would normally tell me something as major as leaving, especially since we were currently in exile and it was unknown if it was safe to make any movements at the moment.

“Have you checked everywhere?” I suggested. “Her and that trainer have been taking their sessions in random places some days”

“DON’T YOU THINK THAT WAS THE FIRST THING I CHECKED?!” His voice crackled with magical intent which I assumed was meant to be some sort of threat, though I don’t know what he would accomplish by turning me to dust if he thought I actually knew anything. “THEY ARE NOWHERE TO BE FOUND AND THE BAGS THAT WERE BROUGHT WITH THEM ARE GONE AS WELL!”

“They? Who is also missing?”

“MY DAUGHTER, WHO ELSE?!”

Of course the crossbred harlot would be mixed up in all of this, when it was all said and done whatever had happened to Toria would likely trace all the way back to the consort’s doing. Even though I had been working hard training her and trying to get to where I could trust her I certainly still did not and found no reason to, all of her attempts to act like she just wanted to be helpful came off as patronizing at best. I knew she did not respect my power or what value I added to the House, it was obvious in the way she looked at and spoke to me.

“I’m sure they’ll be back,” I assured. “Where would they even go? You’ve said yourself many times that only you and a select, hand-picked few know where the stones are to cross realms and both of them stick out like sore thumbs here. Besides, you act like Toria has given you any reason to think anything malicious is going on, she defers to you at every turn.”

His chest still heaved with deep, angry breathing, but his demonic visage seemed to change slightly to something a bit more thoughtful as he considered my words. “You truly do not know anything?” Thankfully he had regained his sense of decency and lowered his volume to something below ear-splitting.

“If I did I would tell you, having secrets when you’re a refuge is not a good idea,” I assured.

“Hmmph…” he murmured. “I suppose they probably do not have ill intent, it just seems like a strange coincidence.”

“With what?”

He gave me a long look like he considered saying nothing at all. “I suppose of all people in the castle besides my trusted advisors I can trust you after all these years.”

I had to tighten my hand into a fist to ground me and keep the chuckle at bay from the idea that there was any trust between me and any demon. I suppose I was a better actress all these years than I had given myself credit for.

“That fae tainted girl is leaking fae stench everywhere, I’m having to keep people trained on her night and day now to keep her magically sealed. It seems that she must have been able to control it before and now suddenly can’t and can’t remember how she ever did before. Even more strange, she was found not in her normal bedchamber at all, but somehow a tiny, frail human girl had moved or had someone move a full set of furniture including a bed down to one of the rooms in the dungeon.”

My lips curled into a deep frown, Alice had long become way more trouble than she was likely worth. It was a pity, she really did have a depth of magical potential in her that none of the others did, if only she had been controllable we likely could have used her as some sort of super soldier against the Church.

“Magic?” I suggested. It would be pretty unheard of for someone to come into their powers so young and with such fine control, but I would not have put it outside the realm of possibilities with the wild aura she possessed. “I did not really know over much about fae magic and specialties, but what I did know led me to believe that almost anything they desired could be manifested at a young age.

“As I said she has no control right now,” he said, waving away my suggestion with his hand. “To make it more strange, none of my servants or anyone else under my command is owning up to it, even under duress, and she herself does not seem to be able to recall how the things got in the basement. It seems like the most we can get out of her is that she remembers being told to go in the dungeon and not to leave, but nothing about who it was, not even what they looked like or if they were demon or human.”

“Perhaps the fae are starting to already play tricks.” I hated to make the suggestion as I didn’t want to think that they were ever going to catch up to us, but it was the only explanation that made any sense in the moment.

“Then they are truly at work, to add onto to the strange events of the day, there is a man that no one knows that walked out of one of the dungeon rooms. Even he does not seem to know who he is, though he is definitely a human.”

“A human just spawned in your dungeon?” I asked with a disbelieving laugh. “Surely you are just making things up now.”

“I wish, I really do,” Rafe grumbled. “He seemed just as bewildered about who he is and where he came from as we are. Claims his memories start with being tortured by my interrogators, but that makes no sense as I have had no reason to torture any human nor do I have any recollection of ordering anyone to the dungeon. My interrogators confirm that they were torturing him though, just pointlessly shoving glass under his fingernails without orders to do so.”

“The only thing I can think of is perhaps the ritual seal is somehow still usable though appearing destroyed. Perhaps one of the Yser servants survived the invasion and somehow contained enough power to stumble into the chamber and transport over.”

“That was the first thing I considered, but no matter how much power I poured into the symbol I couldn’t even get it to flicker.” His face grew dark and he let out a growl under his breath. “There must be a breach in the castle but no one can find it, not even my most powerful mages. This place appears sealed up tighter than ever since I commanded all breaches be prevented against at all costs, yet obviously we have some glaring weaknesses. I wonder if there is a rat scurrying around the castle sabotaging me, there was no trouble until you lot showed up.”

“‘You lot?’” I repeated with a scoff. “Come now Rafe, you know the Yser, despite even what I would argue would be our best interests, has always stood by you and capitulated to your demands.”

It was absolutely astounding to me that he could try to throw the Yser name into the fire every time he had a bad day. It was astounding, but perhaps not unpredictable if I thought about it, any time Evonia dared to keep some tidbit of information to herself instead of divulging it immediately like some kind of ultra loyal lap dog, he would start throwing accusations around and lament about the traitors in his midst along with thinly veiled death threats. He might have been a powerful man, but he was rather simple and uncreative, if things did not go exactly to his exact plans there was always treachery and espionage afoot from his own ranks or allies. No amount of examples where his accusations were baseless ever swayed him from taking the time to think another answer may be the truth before slinging the same claims the next time. It worried me that Toria would disappear without giving me a single warning, however if there was some sort of treachery at hand in the House Drak it would not be from my niece.

“We shall see,” he said with a sneer, though he was much less angry than when he had come storming into the room. “In the meantime, I want you to try to figure out where Toria and my daughter might have gone.”

“How do you propose I do that when I have not a clue why they have left?”

“You have a whole spy network to ask, surely they have not struck out on their own without some sort of guidance from somewhere. They will be unable to be very stealthy, Toria sticks out here and my daughter is out of place in the human realm, people will talk and there is always someone ready to listen.”

I had been careful not to reveal to Rafe the issues I was having with my network. I both did not think it was necessary for him to know all of my business all of the time and knew he would make a much bigger deal of it than it needed to be. His ranting and raving would only slow down my progress in building it back up, though now of course after decades of seeming largely uninterested in what my spies would uncover he suddenly had taken a keen interest in using it.

“I’ll see what I can do,” I replied, “but I rather think you likely have your own clairvoyants who are infinitely stronger than any of the ilk I employ. They would be able to track down any leads faster than my contacts will, especially if they are still in this realm.”

“I have everyone with any talent scouring the castle. Besides, if my daughter is intending to avoid my eye she knows not to stay in this realm and that my direct contacts in the human realm are weak.”

“Which leads me back to my original argument,” I pressed. “Neither of them know where the stones are so track down who told them and interrogate them.”

“Ah,” he said with a gruff snort, “my daughter is a bright one, she could have figured out at least one location.”

I raised my eyebrow in intrigue. Of course the darling bastard daughter could have figured out a protected and important secret, Rafe had always be far too soft on her and let her get away with things that would land any of her other siblings a long holiday of exile. Far be it from me to think less of her for it, on the contrary, it was one of the few things I admired her for, she played him like a fiddle when it pleased her.

“She requested access to a very important, but mind-numbingly boring text that lays the foundation of my royal line and justification for my monarchy. It is the very worst book ever written to try to even read more than a line or two and I should have thought twice at the reason given to request it. She claimed that she wanted to study it to help prepare a similar tome for your House, but in hindsight, if she had disappeared like this, she may have known that the location of one of the stone is briefly mentioned in the depths of the convoluted text. It would be, in my opinion, the worst way to go about trying to find that bit of information, but it is likely the safest.”

“I see,” I said with an annoyed sigh, “then let me get to my work, out with you.”

“Are you kicking me out of a room in my own castle?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at me in what I perceived to be an attempt at being threatening. What he failed to realize was that at my advanced stage in life I was becoming very much immune to threats on my life, letting my mind wander descending the steps and missing a step was a threat on my life at this point, his intimidation no longer held much water in regards to persuading me.

“Right now it is my room,” I said, returning his gaze with my own unshakable glare. “The sooner you leave me be, the sooner you may receive an answer as to where your daughter is.”

He maintained eye contact with me as he considered pressing further with this idea that I was being defiant, but with a great huff of hot air through his oversized nostrils he turned and strutted from my bedchamber, slamming the door behind him much harder than I felt was necessary. At his core he really was just an over emotional man with a flair for the dramatic, I wondered why I ever found myself frightened of him or if perhaps I was just too old and nonchalant with how my life ended.