My mouth kept filling uncomfortably with blood and saliva, both from the split in my lip and my tooth going through the tip of my tongue. I usually did better to steady myself against being beaten, but for some reason I had been convinced that my own sister would not stoop as low as our aunts, though it seemed now that physical violence might just be common among the Yser female line. Not expecting her to hit me quite so hard, I hadn’t prepared properly for the impact and my teeth had chattered together right through my tongue and I had initially thought for certain that I had bitten the tip clean off, but I had since been able to gingerly run it against the back of my teeth and determine that it was still hanging on, though a bit minced. My stomach turned as I had to swallow another mouthful of spit and blood, but I was determined not to show any distress about my wounds. It would be hard to ignore the glaring similarities between my sister and our aunts and as such, I would not be willing to divulge any more weakness than I already had.

“Don’t try to get me to pair up with him like he’s an ally,” my sister said with a tired sigh, “you know me well enough to know that line of negotiation is bound to go nowhere.”

“I am no idiot,” the strange man said with a short, whistling laugh. “I am not going to ask you to set aside your feelings about being ripped from the line of ascension and be buddies with him. However, I do think you are letting your years worth of dreams where you crush him and enact your revenge blind you from the beneficial alternatives you should consider.”

The room went quiet and the tall, exotic woman who had been sticking near my sister since she arrived wrapped her arm around her and pulled her close. It could have possibly been the comforting act of a close friend, but there was something in the sweet way the woman looked to my sister with a bit of distress that told me she at least felt something more than friendship. I had never really encountered a relationship like that before, but it was glaringly obvious that my family seemed to be very different from every other line. I welcomed it during this tense meeting, perhaps some tender affection would quell whatever remained of her anger and we could try to talk more as equals and siblings rather than enemies. Despite her venom and violence I still wished that we could come to some friendly agreement. I would be lying if I said I felt comfortable giving up any of my power, though the idea was a bit easier to swallow than it would have been weeks ago before my aunt arrived.

“Just spit out what you mean, it’s been too far of a journey and I just want to be lounging in my rightful bed with my consort getting much needed rest. You obviously know exactly what you want to try to convince me of, there is no need for you to stand there and try to coax it eventually out of us. I have grown extremely tired of your constant riddles and encouragement to follow the breadcrumbs to the trail you’ve already determined the outcome for.”

“Toria, my dear queen,” the man said with a low chuckle, “you know that I only frame things in such a way as to better your royal skills for the next time when perhaps I am not around to help guide the hands of fate to the best outcome. It is always better to find the solution yourself than to rely on someone to find it for you. Some day you may find that the person you let lead your decisions wants those outcomes to be only for themselves and not take your best interests into consideration at all.”

The exotic woman’s face screwed up into a look of frustration and she glanced up to the man with a knowing look that certainly seemed like it might be a warning. In reply, the man widened his grin and a look of merriment twinkled in his eye. My sister seemed to be unaware of the unspoken argument the two were having as she was preoccupied rubbing her hands together gently where they must have ached from impacting my face and arms. I surmised that she must have known some of the treachery the man was planning, though why she wasn’t warning my sister when she obviously had feelings for her I didn’t understand. I wouldn’t alert my sister to the situation though, the man had made it very clear that the more I kept my mouth shut during this meeting the better off he would ensure my outcome would be.

“Look,” my sister said with a dramatic intake of air. She finally looked up and saw the man’s merry grin and rolled her eyes and grimaced her face like she was stopping from exploding in anger again. “I don’t care what you think is better for the long run. I am queen and what I say happens is what happens. I am tired of you acting like you do not have to follow my commands and I have spent far too long in far too close quarters with you and I am at the very end of my patience with you. I will simply do what I want and cast you out of both my kingdoms and refuse to do any further dealings with you if you do not just cut to the chase.”

“As you wish.” The creature seemed barely able to hold in a laugh, but he bowed and turned towards me, a look of amused glee still on his face. I had a feeling that he had turned to me not out of wanting to address me first, but due to the fact that he might have found himself currently unable to adopt a countenance that would have not made my sister go through on her threats. “My dear Florin,” he began with only the barest hint of a giggle to his voice, “I know that you feel that you have the rightful place on the throne, but do you at least concede that your sister also feels like she does as well?”

That was the heart of the problem and I could see why she felt like she deserved the throne for being the first born, but on the other hand I also did not. Sure, it was perhaps not the fairest rule for the kingdom to disallow the first born daughters to become heirs if a male was born, but that was the way it had been since the very inception of the royal family line. Going against it would be going against hundreds of years of tradition and history.

“I suppose,” I finally said.

“You do not sound very convinced.”

I looked up towards the man without looking directly in his eyes with a confused expression. I thought we had made an agreement that he would help me maximize my outcome in this sticky situation, not make it harder on me.

“It is a long standing tradition in the kingdom,” I said tiredly. I had a feeling I was going to take a step back in negotiations with this line of conversation, but it seemed like the direction he wanted to take it. “Any other generation of siblings and there would never have been a question before of who was in line to take the throne.”

“There was never a Yser married into the family before,” the man said, looking back towards my sister with a wink as if he was signaling her that any angry outbursts to argue against me would be unnecessary as he was in control of her argument now.

My sister gave another roll of her eyes and waved to him with a dismissive gesture, signaling him to continue.

“That is true,” I admitted, “the Yser women seem much more strong headed and sure of themselves than any other women I’ve ever met.”

“You have no idea of the half of it yet,” he said with a comical cluck of his tongue. “Plainly, there has never been such strong, capable female genetics in your family line before. Generally the men of your family married other royal, but compliant women who walked the line set before them with little question. Quite frankly, they were all but bred to be demure and accommodating. Your father probably thought he was probably marrying another such lady and surely your mother was much more soft and submissive than the rest of the family, but she carried within her the genetics for powerful, stubborn, domineering children. Obviously she also was not so rule following either, since you sit before us today as testament to her defiance.”

I winced slightly at his changing of the phrase from “stand here today” to “sit here today.” I knew he was having a laugh to himself about the secret of my situation, but it felt far too obvious and I expected my sister or her companion to have an epiphany and start to demand to know what was going on. Perhaps it was just far too obvious only to me because neither woman seemed to react.

“Can you at least perhaps agree that since your sister is such a capable leader and proven herself to be a formidable monarch that any logic behind passing the throne down only through the male line might be a bit of an outdated idea?”

“I can agree to that.” I didn’t need any time to hesitate or think about it. While I was hesitant to disagree that it was unfair that I had been passed it based solely on my sex due to the long standing tradition, I could easily see how it was a bit stilly to pass over otherwise capable heirs. It was an outdated idea and I could concede that point, though I didn’t particularly want to since it had benefited me.

“You are a very generous and sharp young man,” he said with a wink. “If you are so easily able to follow sound logic, then surely you must also recognize that you have a problem with keeping the throne even if we take your sister out of the equation.”

“The Church,” I grumbled.

“Precisely!” he exclaimed much louder than was necessary. “There is a bit of an issue with a contract that you will not be able to easily see yourself out of without fully submitting yourself to your aunts.”

“Unfortunately you are right.”

“Of course I am.”

He leaned forward and placed a hand on my shoulder. The moment his hand touched me a deep, unsettling shiver rippled through my core and an overwhelming, disgusting smell piercing my nostrils. I felt dizzy and sick as I struggled against the feelings of revulsions washing over me. I had been wary and fighting inklings that he was something to be afraid of, but I was absolutely certain now that I should be terrified. Against every attempt not to do so, I found myself looking up to the creature’s eyes and meeting his cheery, but steely gaze, I felt panicked as I realized that once again someone else was in control of my body and I had no choice but to do what I was being commanded. My vision swam as my eyes focused on his and I saw not a single shred of humanity behind them.

“I have the solution and it will fix everything if you will only trust me.”

As quickly as he had touched me and forced my head up to look at him, he pulled away with a good natured chuckle and a pat on my shoulder. The disgusting smell dissipated, but the remnants of the smell clung to the inside of my nostrils and my stomach still roiled as it lingered.

“It’s a simple solution really,” he continued as if nothing disturbing had just happened. “They have a legal document handing the kingdom over to them until they deem the current heir to be sufficient to rule the land, but they have made a silly mistake here with their wording. If you are no longer the current heir, then they have no leg to stand on and Toria could simply take back the kingdom for you both.”

“You think I can trust her after all this to fairly share the kingdom with me?” It was an absolutely ridiculous idea to try to get me to believe.

The strange man’s lips cracked an even wider, somehow more inhuman smile. “This is where the true negotiation begins, my dear Florin.”