Minul rubbed her hands over her face then leaned back in her chair. She was in the study of her private apartments, her only companion the guards just outside the door and the single glowing bright-candle—a smaller cousin of the bright-torches—sitting on her table.

The hour was getting late and the day had been long. She was finishing up on some reports and other papers filed for her final confirmation. She’d finally made it through the Master of Finances drawn out report on every single copper eye spent, why it had been done, how much it had helped, and how much it was projected to help.

There are some advantages to hiring really sensitive and competent people, Minul thought glancing at the massive folder on her desk, and then there are some disadvantages.

Realistically, there was no reason for Minul to ever need this much information on her finances. She just needed a succinct and broad picture along with access to somewhat more fleshed out reports. She didn’t need the monstrosity before her. No one needed that monstrosity.

However, with Ankiria showing up in such force she was, in turn, forced to dive deeper into every detail. She couldn’t let another thing slip. That was why they’d completely canceled the clinic program. It would have to wait for summer at the earliest. Right now they needed to focus on the most important factors of government and really hone in their approach.

No more failures. No more half-assed attempts at nothing. No more drama.

She hoped.

She still had Leif’s most recent report to go through and she didn’t have high hopes.

Let’s just get this over with, Minul thought. There’s no use putting it off any longer. She cracked open the last folder. It was far smaller than the Master of Finances behemoth, but it was still heavy with the weight of dread expectation.

After a pregnant pause Minul started reading the report. As she worked her way through it, she felt her shoulders start to slump. It hadn’t been more than fourteen days since the first registered event between students of different pins and already they were fighting.

Not just fighting, she thought. That goes beyond fighting. Six students had to have immediate care from the healer’s department… She shook her head, continuing her reading. So far, she’d found no mention of Ranvir so the situation couldn’t be all bad. In total seventeen students have been temporarily suspended and housed in isolation, their pins taken away from them.

Minul pursed her lips. She didn’t know what to think of that. She’d been the one who’d allowed them to continue wearing their pins. Then again, that wouldn’t have stopped the fighting, just slowed it down.

Listening to both Leif and Saif, she’d decided on a middle ground between their two viewpoints. Saif was very clear that he was in retirement. Elusria was his retirement. He felt no need to take any risks. He actively wanted to avoid anything that could be described as interesting. At least in words and advise. His actions didn’t always fully agree with his words, but she knew he would offer the conservative option.

Leif, on the other hand, had been outspoken on his willingness to take risks. He’d done so quite blatantly quite a few times already. Asserting his own family as a faction among the students, starting from his involvement in the riots even if it was to de-escalate. The problem with the former leader of the House of Serpent-Vein was that she couldn’t trust him.

She didn’t worry that Leif might not be trust worthy, she knew he wasn’t. None of his behavior signaled that he was finishing trying to climb the ladder of society. His move from a Lord Councilor to Master of Education hadn’t been a radical shift that allowed him access to a higher echelon of society. He’d already been as high as he could go.

Just below the Queen. Though it had earned him a spot on her very private council. She had a few thoughts about what he might attempt, though she didn’t see any of them going especially well for him.

Assassinating her wouldn’t work, Saif would likely kill them first or if that failed kill him. He might try to marry her but Minul wasn’t currently looking for a partner. Even if she was, she wouldn’t be looking to someone in her own peerage with which she was in good standing. More likely, she would have to look outside of Elusria entirely, maybe to Sadukar, Sankur, or Vargish. Besides Leif was nearly fifty.

So assassination was off the table and so was marriage, which left only an intention to use her as a stepping stone into the societies of Ankiri. Which wouldn’t work out too well for him if she were to guess, though she’d underestimated him before.

Still, it meant that she would have to put his every action under a magnifying lens. She couldn’t put blind faith in someone who didn’t want the best for her country or her. Her spies in the administration department had been told to keep a sharp eye on the students getting thrown into confinement and the teacher who did. They now kept careful logs of each incident which they would report to her independently of Leif.

It allowed her to avoid relying solely on Leif’s information, gaining her a second view. She hadn’t known just how far Leif had underplayed the dislike for nobles amongst Kurri’s Eye and to a lesser degree Varumgándr. It was worrisome, especially since multiple nobles went to the school.

Minul was just about the shut the folder when Inaaya burst through the door. She staggered into Minul’s study, throwing herself against the desk, toppling the Queen’s—thankfully—sealed ink pot and quill and threw multiple papers onto the floor.

“Minul,” Inaaya’s voice oozed complaint. She placed a dainty hand on the Queen’s shoulder, leaning on it heavily. “You haven’t seen that… witch! Have you?”

Minul frowned at the princess assessing her lightly disheveled clothes, the artfully tangled hair. The young woman swayed strongly, even while resting her rear on the Queen’s desk and supporting herself against Minul’s shoulder. She pushed off the hand on the shoulder causing the girl to ‘stumble’ forwards coming to a staggering halt in the middle of the room.

“What are you doing here, Inaaya?”

“I just wanted to see the Queen,” she once more swayed noticeably pulling her pointer finger in a roundabout route to Minul’s face. “That’ssss you!” The slurring in her words suddenly increasing. “And I wanted to talk about the…” she looked theatrically from side to side, “the witch.”

Minul grit her teeth, and rubbed her fingers over her forehead. “No Inaaya, you’re not. Why are you here? And why are you pretending to be drunk?”

Inaaya straightened suddenly then began swaying a moment later. “I’m not pretending to be drunk. I can drink and have… drinked before.”

“Get out Inaaya, I don’t know why you’re here, but I don’t want to play in your childish games. I have a country to run.”

“This isn’t childish!” Inaaya exclaimed her wrath ‘sobering’ her up for a moment, before her swaying continued the slurring along with it, “I’m not being childish, you’re the one who won’t even talk with me.”

Minul got to her feet, pushing her chair back as she straightened her desk, righting the quills and the ink pot. Taking in slow deep breaths, she bend over picking up the papers and folders the princess had thrown to the floor in her ‘drunken’ stupor.

Inaaya slapped her on the ass, “You need to loosen up a bit,” she gave the Queen a gratuitous smile afterwards, winking a yellow eye at her.

Minul straightened, her blood pumping through her strongly enough that she could feel it in the slight pinch of cloth under her arms, the dull throbbing repeating in her fingers.

“Do not touch me, Princess,” Minul said stepping into Inaaya’s personal space. “This isn’t your father’s palace. You cannot do as you please here. I’m the Queen, not some cheap whore you can take to your bed. Now, if you’re done pretending to be drunk and groping me, leave.”

“I’m not pretending,” Inaaya whined.

Minul sneered at the younger girl. “I know drunks when I see them. You don’t smell of wine. You don’t sway like a drunk does. Goddess, you don’t even slur like a drunk does. Have you ever actually been around really drunk people? Or have you just heard about them?”

Minul grabbed her by the bicep and started escorting the infuriating princess out of her study.

“You fucking bitch!” Inaaya cursed.

Minul stopped pulling the bratty princess to look her in the eye. “You think this is some game don’t you? You think if you can get me assassinated then you can take over Elusria as a dukedom of Ankiria, don’t you? Do you honestly think your father will let you run a duchy? The fact that you think this is a game is enough warning.

“You think if the ankirians down at the academy come back with enough bad news and you get me killed you can get your dad to give you Elusria?” Minul smiled condescendingly at Inaaya, then leaned in to her ear. “It’s not gonna happen. It’s never gonna happen.”

“Your enemies came running to me before I even arrived in the capital, you fucking bitch.” Inaaya bared her teeth at the Queen. “And you know what? They just keep coming, more every day.”

Minul didn’t give her a reaction as she gestured for the guards to lead Inaaya away. At least she was clever enough to not attack the guards.