Waking up, Spera had to endure not only a sermon from her mother, no even the three siblings, Mesana and Lorain gave their input, making the entire conversation last more than three hours. At the end of it, Spera wasn’t even sure anymore of all the things that she had promised them only to be released sooner. But one thing was now an unbreakable rule in the Praesto Household, Spera had to tell somebody where she wanted to go if she left her room, even if it was only a small walk like for example to the sitting room.

The next few weeks Spera spend her time once again either with her mother in the sitting room, now being able to read some of the books she found out that most of them were novels or rather easy instruction books and started to devour them with each visit, with the three siblings either in her room or on the training field just outside of the castle grounds, or with Mesana who took her sometimes with her to the sentient library. When Mesana had asked her the first time after her surprise visit there to once again step foot into the magic construct, she had been a bit scared. But Mesana reassured her that as long as Tiang had nothing against her she would have no problem with leaving the library unharmed whenever she wanted.

One thing, however, became more clear the longer Spera spend time in the library, Fon,Tiang and Mesana always present, was that Mesana and Fon had quite a loving relationship even if Mesana was too shy to always show it and Fon was very overbearing with his show of affection. But what surprised her was that her normally very loving aunt was ignoring Tiang and giving him the cold shoulder at every occasion. Tiangs amused smile made her relieved but she had never seen her aunt act like that. She knew that people couldn’t always be nice or friendly with each other, she already had too many examples of that in her short new life, however she had classified her aunt as more of a blunt person that would either love or hate the other, this kind of cold treatment didn’t speak for either category.

She had once asked Tiang about it, still pondering his meaning of him having stolen Fon from her, but he just said that she needed a bit of time to accept that Fon wasn’t only hers anymore. Any further question was only answered with a slight smile.

A few weeks later, the day arrived that everyone had dreaded, even if they didn’t speak about it with anyone else. Fon was finally leaving on his mission, likely being away from the castle for at least a year, if nothing unexpected happened. But with the secrecy around the topic, Spera wasn’t so sure if what she would have called unexpected wasn’t already considered normal.

She could feel the atmosphere in the library plumbing when Mesana could finally be convinced to bring her there. She could see that it was akin to torture for her to be in one room with Tiang without her father present. Even if he mostly didn’t interfere he was often used as an excuse as to not have a conversation with the other person.

However, Spera was too worried about her upcoming birthday to really involve herself in the situation, not even noticing that as time went by Mesana and Tinag got more and more depressed, mostly not even giving a noise from them when they were in the library.

But what terrified Spera and made her unable to even notice such change, was her deteriorating body, as time went by and her body got weaker the closer it got to her birthday she couldn’t even be sure that somebody caused it, no evidence having resurfaced until now, two months after she felt the first symptoms.

When she almost fell down the stairs one day, her legs suddenly gave way under her when reaching the top of it having insisted to try and climb the stairs by herself, only Leon's quick reaction of catching her saved her from certain death.

After that everyone was on edge, she could feel eyes on her all the time, even from the shadows. Which didn’t really frightened her since she could still make out Jeanne whenever he appeared in her room’s shadows, not having found a way till now to hide from her superior sight.

One evening after she had an afternoon nap, they started to become regular two weeks after her almost tumble from the stairs, she was woken up by two woman voices that talked next to her bed, their voices obviously whispering as to not wake her. But it could also be that they didn’t want to be overheard.

Opening her eyes so that the other two couldn’t see it, she recognized two of the castle’s maids, that had sometimes come to deliver beverages or documents to her mother when she was in the sitting room, never really getting close as they were always intercepted by Lorain.

“Look at how pale she is … do you think it’s ‘that’?” The young draconian woman with brown scales and hair said, her green reptilian eyes looking at Spera in pity while she was slowly cleaning the room from a fine dust layer.

“I don’t know … I heard that she has a mysterious illness that always acts up on her birthday …” The other maid, who had black hair, dog ears, and a bushy tail said, her yellow eyes focusing on wiping the window.

“Is she contagious ?” The draconian woman asked in worry.

“I don’t think so … at least the people close to her haven’t shown symptoms of having caught the disease …”The Beastwoman answered, her voice very calm.

“So you think it’s more likely that she is like this because of her disease and not because of ‘that’?”The first maid asked, her hands tightly clenching onto a feather duster but her movements stopping.

“Yes, I mean how could the administer ‘that ‘ to her? Even if she holds no value for the king, she is still his heir as of now. Nobody would dare to do ‘that’ to her.”The other maid said, motioning for the draconian to once again start working which she did in a fluster.

“But … you know there are ways to persuade somebody to do this … and it isn’t even so hard to do …”The maid said after having calmed down a bit.

“So you also noticed huh? She will get what she deserved. I will not help her. Even if I don’t like such mixed blood in our royal bloodline an innocent child shouldn’t suffer for that ...” The Beastwoman said, anger in her voice. Spera had once heard that Beats People were very protective of their young … seems like it also applied to children of other races.

“Wow … I would almost think that you are loyal to our king …”

“ … I wouldn’t say loyal. But like I say I have a bottom line and children are definitely under it. You really have to be low to take out revenge on an innocent child …”The Beastwoman clarified but Spera could see a light blush on her cheeks.

“Hey have you heard … The king seems to be showing feelings …”The draconian suddenly changed the topic, catching Spera and the other woman off guard.

“No! You can’t be serious!” The Beastwoman exclaimed in surprise.

“Shhh! Speak quieter. You don’t know who is listening.” The draconian quickly moved to the other maid and covered her mouth, only after the other nodded did she let go of her.

“Nobody is, you can trust me on that … Now back to our King, what do you mean by breaking character?” The Beastwoman said, but still trying to talk quieter.

“Well, I heard that when the commander reported the almost fall of the princess to his Majesty he destroyed his entire study. The butlers that had to clean it up even had to swear to never reveal whatever they found in the study on a death curse that the witch invented …”

The draconian said with fear in her voice.

“The Witch? Why would he use her for something like that? I heard that she is very hard to handle and even her two brothers avoid standing in her debts.”

“Apparently she volunteered. I never saw the Commander and the Shadow so surprised.”

“You were there ?” The Beastwoman asked surprise.

“Yes, Madam Lorain rotated our shift on that day which put me near the study. When Sir Jeanne informed me that the KIng and the deathly trio wanted some refreshments, I got to overhear the entire conversation.”

“ Wow … Maybe I have to overthink my feelings once again …” The Beastwoman muttered, still loud enough for Spera to hear but she did have to try hard to catch these few words.

“What do you mean ?” The Draconian said, not having any trouble hearing her colleague.

“Better question … Do you know why so little people can actually say that they are loyal to our Preastolatio crown ?”The Beastwoman countered, her ears and tail standing proudly as she took up a body posture of a wise mortal.

“Because we are a pawn in the dangerous game of the draconian royalties ?” The draconian asked naively which caused the Beastwoman to pat her on the head like she would to a little child. Given the soft eyes, she had while looking at the cute maid she did see her as such.

“No … Well, maybe a little bit. But the most important reason is that our King is portrayed as a cold, ruthless warrior that judges everyone on his own morals, not on rules and regulations that are in place. He is too unpredictable and most people fear for their life every time his red reptilian eyes lay on them. But if what you are saying is true. And with the existence of the little princess, his majesty is finally able to show his feelings and maybe even settle down a bit, I think most people would follow him. At least on Praestolatio … You know all that he has done for us and all the plans he has but hadn’t had the time to realize…”

“Yes, I’ve seen the plans. Even if it was only on accident and Sir Jeanne would have almost killed me for it. I hope he can follow thru with them.”

They talked, slowly walking out of the room, still engrossed in the conversation, not noticing that Spera's eyes had opened and she now lay in bed with tears in her eyes.

“So, I didn’t only bring daddy misfortune. I can be the reason for people to follow him.”

But Spera knew it wasn't as easy as that. This one time her father had an unexpected show of emotion only because she almost died in the accident, she didn’t want to do that ever again. It was scary.

With new enthusiasm Spera started thinking about ways to make her father’s image more positive, however, everyone that knew her would have said that she just did it to block out the reality of her birthday being only weeks away.

One evening only a few days before her birthday, Spera's body was so weak that she had stayed in bed for the whole day. She didn’t even have the strength to open her eyelids, just laying conscious in bed, but others thought she was sleeping. Her mother had spent most of the day by her bedside, crying softly while hugging her to her chest. The uncertainty of her survival was looming over the family.

When Emerthelil had fallen asleep, her father had quietly entered the room. Not being able to see, she could still feel his presence standing next to her bed, and the sorrow that he emitted while looking at her.

After a few seconds of just staring at her, he sat down on the bed, caressing her face with his callous hand and kissing both Spera and Emerthelil on the forehead, his lips lingering on Speras a few seconds longer as if he had to fight his need to cuddle on the bed with his family, that seemed just so fragile at the moment.

“Jeanne …” He father's voice sounded in the quiet room and Spera could feel the other man materializing in his favorite corner once again.

“Yes, master ?” He said and Spera just knew that he was bowing to Mesanth.

“How far along is the plan ?” Mesanth said, exhaustion clear in his voice.

“Master, we need at least another three months to be ready …”

“I will give you two … I am really at the end of my patience.”

“Master please think it thru. If we make a mistake all our plans will be useless .. think about the end goal …” Jeanne said frantically.

“I know, I know …” Mesanth said in defeat.

“Why do you think I don’t just eliminate them all! Even if I don’t want to admit it, we need them … but their interference has to end ...We have to make them understand that even if I don’t retaliate doesn’t mean that I am too weak for it !” He said viciously.

Jeanne could feel the bloodlust in Mesanth at that moment, because of which he almost acted against him, bloodlust wasn’t good for the master's condition. But just as he wanted to act, Mesanth let his head fall into his hands and his shoulders started to quiver.

“Master …”

“Jeanne… I just want to be with my wife and child. Is that so wrong ?” He asked and lifted his head, anguish in his eyes. Jeanne knew that even he didn’t know all the troubles his Master had so he couldn’t even advice him.

“Master …” but before he could even utter something, Mesanth interrupted him once again.

“Don’t you dare say that it will be better in the future! You can see your wife and children whenever you want! I have to plan such meetings for weeks, sometimes even months in advance.” Mesanth almost shouted but in the last moment remembered that Emerthelil and Spera slept beside him.

“This servant understands … I will try to hasten the process. You will just have to concentrate on your child … the last two anniversaries of her birthday had such an outcome. Forgive me for saying this, but I think we will have to prepare for a repetition. And with her current weak body, it will be even more dangerous than before …”

“Did you find the cause of her condition ?”

“No sire. We tested her on all common poisons but couldn't find a match. It shames me to say but there is nothing we can do for the princess.”He said with a bow, sadness expressed in his normally emotionless eyes.

Disregarding his friend, adviser, and servant, Mesanth grunted out an “I know.” before climbing into bed and gently holding Spera in his arms.

Jeanne took that as his cue and disappeared into the shadows, knowing that he only understood a fraction of his Master's anguish.

Mesanth slowly adjusted his body to lay more comfortable, and hen whispered into Spera's ear, “Forgive me for being such a bad daddy … I can’t even protect you from such pain”, a teardrop escaping from his eyes while he curled around his precious little girl and silently weeps into her hair.

Unknown to him, Spera had heard the exchange and couldn’t stop herself from tearing up. Mustering all the strength in her body that she could find she turned her head away from her father so that he couldn’t see her tears.

But she was shocked when she finally opened her eyes slightly, she could see her mother looking at her and her father her hands pressed over her mouth to muffle the snops that came from her crying.

On her birthday, both of her parents didn’t leave her side.

Spera and Emerthelil wondering how Mesanth could have made that happen, but too happy about his presence for them to ask him.

And unlike the two birthdays before, a few minutes before midnight the seizure started. But this time it was as if her body was burned from the inside out, making Spera that hadn’t uttered a word for the last few days scream in pain.

Her parents immediately woke up, in tears, Emerthelil tried to heal her daughter but nothing they did helped their little angel that withered from the pain between them.

Suddenly her lips started to turn purple, which was a sign that she couldn’t breathe and her gasps for air confirmed their suspicion.

Knowing that they couldn’t do anything Mesanth tightly hugged Emerthelil to his chest, her anguish palpable as she, again and again, reached for their little girl.

Jeanne that had appeared only seconds before immediately summoned his daughter who was shocked at Spera's appearance. The siblings hadn’t been on duty for the duration of Spera's bedrest.

Using wind Magic, she tried to push air into her lungs but her body wouldn’t allow her to.

Just as everyone had given up hope, the clock strikes 12 and it was visible that her body took a turn for the better.

Her little chest expanding as she hungrily took a deep breath with her eyes opened wide.

Everyone thought that this would be the end of it, that she finally would open her eyes and grace them with a little smile. But to their horror, Spera's body fell to the bed once more, her eyes closed and wouldn’t open again.

Seeing her unresponsive daughter just lying there, Emerthelil couldn’t hold it anymore and broke down, screaming her pain while Mesanth could only hold onto his wife, silent tears flowing from his eyes.