I did not have to wait long from being helped to having a seat on the throne to hearing the footsteps of whomever was insistent to see me just outside the heavy wooden door across from me. I was not technically supposed to be sitting upon the throne without being crowned, but I was the closest thing the kingdom had to a monarch at the moment and I wanted to receive any guests in the most impressive manner I could. The layers of a plan to re-legitimize my status as heir had just begun to form and coalesce and while still very foggy in their infancy, the first step seemed clear: I needed to give the servants of the castle every reason to feel inclined to treat me as the reigning monarch. If I could get the common people on my side, it would be much harder for the Church to stake their claim without a fight, faintly official document or not. They obviously had chosen to not play fair so I would not feel guilty for stooping to their level if need be.

The door opened and a woman entered who at first glance stopped my blood cold. She was obviously very young, but her narrow, piercing eyes, viciously sharp features, and jet black hair made me believe for a split second that one of my aunts had returned. Relief was short-lived as goosebumps rose from my wrists to the back of my neck, if she looked just like my aunts and was just a bit older than me…

“Brother.” She spat the words like forming them in her mouth and left a bitter taste.

The world suddenly did not feel real. Surely this had to be some kind of dream, it seemed too far fetched to have my sister standing in front of me. I knew barely anything about her besides the minimum amount of information from my nursemaid from before she had left as a child. No one had heard or seen of her since as far as I could tell and part of me had come to accept that perhaps I would never meet her. There was a small spark of joy in my heart at the idea of having a familial connection, though it was short lived when I quickly recalled that everyone from that side of the family thus far had been anything but kind to me.

“I wasn’t expecting you,” I managed to murmur out.

It was really difficult for me to do much more than stare at her in confusion and wonder. Everything from her stance to the way she carried her emotions on her face was regal, she embodied the attitude and temperance of a monarch. She was exuding exactly what I wanted to be and seemed to be doing so effortlessly.

“I would imagine not,” she said with a smirk, “you did not have the warning of a marching army.”

“An army?” I furrowed my forehead into a frown.

“Yes, to take back my claim to the throne.” She rolled her eyes and stepped further into the room. “Really, need we play this game? We both know why I’m here.”

Once she had cleared the door, her companions were able to step into my view as well. The female of the two stood a good head and a half taller than my sister, who was not a short lady in her own right. There was something undeniably exotic about the woman, her skin was a rich tan with a hint of something metallic, almost like she had dusted her entire body in some sort of cosmetic powder. The subtle glint to her bronzed skin was a stark contrast to her ashen hair, a feature that was peculiar in itself, I had never seen such a shade on someone as young as her. Her features were also peculiar, refined while her nose was a bit rounded and her ears sat on her head in slightly the wrong place, just a bit higher up than I felt they should be, though that seemed critical when taking her appearance as a whole. Perhaps I was just looking for something to be wrong since my gut instinct was that there was something mysterious and slightly off about her. Though I felt that there was definitely something strange about the woman, I couldn’t deny that I instantly felt a bit charmed by her presence, she was very pleasant to look at.

Upon first inspection of the other companion, my eyes wandered over to the male of the two, saw nothing interesting, then made their way back to my sister, but a feeling like being punched squarely in the gut snapped my eyes back to his face. There was something eerily wrong with the man, despite the fact that I could see nothing outwardly concerning. He seemed like any other commoner, his features round and plain with slightly scruffy, dusky blonde hair and deeply pigmented skin, but my heart raced any time I got anywhere close to meeting his gaze. My fight or flight response was on the cusp of activating any time I even tried to look at his eyes, keeping me avoidant of them to the point where I couldn’t get a close enough look to even know what color they were. No one, not even my viperous aunts, had ever evoked such a visceral reaction from me. I was overwhelmed by the idea that he was a predator or someone who could become one in a fraction of a second and there would be nothing I, or anyone else in the room, could do about it if he decided we were prey.

“I don’t think he does,” the man said with a twinge of amusement to his voice. I was incredibly surprised to find his voice even and pleasant, though it still caused a shiver to run through my body.

“Nonsense, he had to know I would come back for what’s mine eventually.” My sister made eye contact with me, breaking my half-trance I had fallen into trying to study the terrifying man. “Did you think that I had just given up my claim?”

“Your claim?” My brain still felt fuzzy, but I was slowly focusing back on the matter at hand.

“I was the heir until you were born,” she scoffed, “come now, you are really coming off as an idiot.”

“I think this is a bit of a shock to him, is all. He is a Yser, no Yser is an idiot,” the man said.

My sister huffed out an airy, disgusted sound. “Refrain from calling him one of us, he is an abomination to my family line. No man should bear my name.”

“Our mother decided that was not the case,” I countered. Anger had been sparked within my belly, I refused to believe that my mother’s sacrifice to ensure my birth had been some sort of mistake.

“Our mother,” she repeated in a mocking tone, “was a traitor to this kingdom and my family line. She committed the ultimate betrayal and spat in the face of the power that flowed through her veins. Perhaps it is for the better that she was weak and succumbed early, she was not fit to wield the power she possessed.”

“The demonic pact that will forever taint our veins and has rendered us part of the darkness?” I said bitterly. “It seems to me that you see my birth as something horrific when what I see as horrific is the idea that her destiny was supposed to be forever set before she was even born. Our mother dared to fight back against a predestined outcome that she was supposed to have no say in and she won. In reality, beyond just the bitterness and anger that has clouded your vision about our mother, what does it say about her strength that she was able to fight through what was intended to be complete certainty and win?”

The strange man’s face perked up in interest and a sly smile appeared on his lips. He gave me an appreciative nod, though he said nothing and I could not fathom what exactly I had done for his approval. Nor did I feel comfortable that I had it.

“I wouldn’t expect you to understand,” she spat as she advanced in a threatening march to the throne, “you are the usurper. You have known nothing but your certainty of power and have been coddled all your life, pampered because you were born with the set of genitalia people think means must make you the superior monarch, but I am here to take back what is rightfully mine.”

She stopped at just a few steps from the throne, nostrils flaring and her hands on her hips in an authoritative pose. I could just call the guards and have her tossed to the dungeon and be done with it, but seeing my sibling for the first time tugged on my heart strings. It was obvious that she hated me, but she hated the thought of me, she had never known me to truly hate who I actually was. Maybe if I could show her that I was not the threat she had always labeled me as her so-called usurper, we could come to some sort of peace.

“Instead of threats and anger, I would like to extend hospitality to you and your guests. Surely if we all take time to rest and talk calmly about the situation we can come to some sort of agreement.”

“The only agreement I will accept is you rising from the throne right now and giving it to me,” she hissed.”

I couldn’t help but feel a bit of dark humor about her request, but I was able to keep my face even and stave off the pained smile that wanted to appear on my lips. “I’m afraid I am not going to do that,” I replied. “Just as you feel your place as heir was stolen from you, I would feel the same about your demand for me to abdicate. I have been raised as the heir from the very moment I was born, it is all I have ever known, and this whole kingdom recognizes me as the rightful ascendant. I did not make or choose the rules, I was simply born into them, but I also will not just toss aside my claim simply because you feel it should be yours instead.”

“It seems that the Yser line breeds true,” her male companion mused, “you two are truly not all that different.”

“Silence,” she commanded sharply, though she did not turn her head to look at him. “I gave you more than fair warning, which is much more than you deserve. I will feel nothing as I kill you, just as I felt nothing when I sent our mother away to die or as I burned our father to nothing but ash.”

My heart sank as her hands raised from her hips and the air around her prickled with her magical intent. My instinct was to call for guards, but there would have been nothing they could do to save me and they would have just died needlessly even if they could get to me in time. I was a sitting duck as the heat from the candles on the wall behind me flared and swirled past me to coalesce into a single, growing flame in her hands. It gathered strength, rapidly increasing until the heat it radiated stung my face, then without warning she released it, it’s path destined for the core of my body.