I headed to bed after my brief midnight talk with the royal minister of trade who totally was not a spy. Just thinking about it had me rolling my eyes. I slept like a log and yet I still felt dead tired in the morning. Yesterday had been quite exciting after all. I still hadn't quite wrapped my mind around everything that had transpired. It probably would take some more time. At least my throat felt better. Thank the Maidens for small blessings. After a quick visit to the bath in the morning I asked one of the servants for some breakfast. There were a lot more of them about now that the sun had risen. There were more guards as well. Their armored, black forms felt a little out of place here but they kept out of sight to the best of their abilities. That wasn't saying much though. Once I started looking for them I could always catch a glance at least one or two of them.

I made myself comfortable on a bench in the colonnade surrounding the lush garden while waiting for the servant to return with my breakfast. I didn't have to wait long in the end. The meal the servant brought turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Not that my midnight snack from last night had been anything but delicious, but this was even better. There was a bowl of mashed ashroot of course. You just couldn't make do without it. What got me really excited though were the many side dishes that came with it. There was delicious and soft steamed meat as well as crispy bacon. There was still some steam rising from the former while the latter was positively dripping with fat. A bowl of steamed but still crunchy vegetables completed my morning meal together with some soft bread and a small clay bottle of sour but incredibly refreshing wine.

I was in heaven! I didn't remain alone for long either. Sure, I had been able to catch glimpses of other people out of the corners of my eyes every once in a while but so far none of the other guests in the palace had approached me. Now though Kaele walked up to me, her familiar slinking along, her long tail raised high. She had always liked sleeping in, although she had hardly ever gotten a chance to do so, thus I wasn't all that surprised that I had been up and about before her. I moved over a little on the bench I was sitting at and patted the space I had vacated. That was enough invitation for the two of them. The cat was a little faster than my sister though. She jumped up onto the bench with typical feline grace and headed directly for the bowls with the meat and the bacon. I snatched them away just in time which was the start of a rather exciting game of keep away between me and the cat.

It was a losing battle that prompted Kaele to laugh out loud as she sat down with us. In the end I had to sacrifice the bowl with the steamed meat to save the bacon. I turned towards my sister. “Have you had your morning meal yet?” She shook her head and I waved over another of the discreet but omnipresent servants. “Could you get us another serving?” The servant bowed and disappeared, no questions asked. After that we ate in silence for a while, sharing what remained of my meal. We made the bacon disappear first before the little tree cat could get any ideas. She was working her way through the thinly sliced slabs of still warm, steamed meat at an alarming rate after all. Where did the tiny creature even put all of it? I could only shake my head in astonishment as I nibbled on some vegetables. The familiar just kept astonishing me.

The silence was getting a little heavy as it wore on, despite the entertaining antics of the cat. The arrival of the servant with our second helping didn't change anything either. Finally Kaele, who had been fidgeting for a while, couldn't take it any longer. “So, where do the developments and revelations of yesterday leave us? And where are we going to go from here?” Oh my. With a topic like that she wasn't exactly going for small talk.

I set aside the by now mostly empty bowls and broke a piece of the soft bread that had come with the meal. I handed one half to Kaele while wiping my fingers on the other. I would hit the bath again afterwards but I didn't feel like wasting any of the tasty juices from the bacon. Kaele followed my example as I thought about her questions. The cat took that chance to slink off and explore the greenery a little. She didn't exactly stick to the ground either. Before long I could see her making her way across the branches above us. I put an arm around Kaele's shoulder and pulled her a little closer. “No matter what happened. No matter what we learned. Nothing changes the fact that you are my sister.” I hugged her a little closer and could feel her relax against my shoulder. This is what she must have wanted to hear. It was just so much like her to worry about things like that.

“And I will always think of mother as mother. She might not have given birth to me but she raised me. Without her, without you, I wouldn't be who I am today. Hell, even Agar'zan will always be my brother. Not even the fact that he can be an insufferable anger driven idiot at times changes that.” I just kept talking and she relaxed a little further. Finally she straightened back up and I let go of her, flashing her a wry smile. “As for where we are going to go from here, I'm not quite sure about that myself. I guess we will do things that desperately need doing first and worry about everything else later. We need to rebuild Caer'zoth. We need to find out how these damn humans managed to move an army into our back. And eventually we need to win this war.”

She returned my smile. “It sounds like that should be enough to keep us busy for a while. And incidentally solving these issues should put you ahead in the race for the succession of the throne in the long run as well. That one is not decided by birth order but by accumulated merit after all.” She looked up at me. “I had a little talk with the herald after we retreated for the night. The way she put it, the things you achieved by now, killing a wyvern, ogres and a ghoul king as well as winning an important battle, being chosen by the maidens should put you on even footing with any of your older siblings that have been introduced to the court so far. You might even be well ahead of some of the less ambitious ones.”

I listened with rapt attention as she elaborated a little on this matter. The idea that I might end up queen of our people alone boggled the mind. I could only shake my head. “You know, a moon ago I would have laughed about the suggestion that I might become queen one day. Now I don't feel like laughing anymore. Now the thought scares me.” Then another little detail caught my attention. “How many siblings do I have anyway?”

She shrugged. “You have three older brothers and two sisters that have been introduced to the court so far. None of them are currently around. There probably are plenty more that are younger and still unaware of their true parentage. Your father has several consorts after all, even if only one of them is considered his queen.” A harem? That term caused some of the vague memories of my past life to stir. Somehow that sounded like a recipe for disaster. Kaele must have guessed what was on my mind. Or maybe she just had too much trouble reading my face? “Supposedly it is to keep any one royal consort from monopolizing the ruling sovereign in her own interest.” She shrugged. “It seems to have worked so far if the records of our history are to be trusted.” Well if she said so. I still had some doubts. She elbowed me in the side. “Don't worry about that. You still have plenty of time before you need to worry about political marriages and love.”

I rolled my eyes and rubbed my side. “Yes. Lets focus on the more pressing concerns first. Have you any thoughts on rebuilding our home? I was considering hiring troll crafters again to rebuild what was damaged or destroyed and maybe even improve our defenses a little for the future. I'm just not sure how much coin we can spend on them. We need to hire some mercenaries as well after all to find the way our attackers took to cross the mountains. I was thinking about hiring some more in addition to Quu'za and her people. Preferably here in the capital. What do you think?”

She nodded. “In theory there should be a better selection of mercenaries here in the capital. But maybe not right now. I'm pretty sure that the king has hired most of the larger and more prestigious outfits to strengthen his war host before leaving.”

“Mhm.” I pondered that for a moment. “He will have focused on those companies best suited for the line of battle though. We should still be able to find some that are more suited for scouting and exploration. Some scouts and rangers like Eld'tide should do just fine.”

Before we could elaborate on our plans any further a guard approached us. “The queen has requested your presence at the privy council. You still have some time as the general audience is still in progress but maybe you should consider getting ready, my ladies.” With these words he bowed and left.

I blinked. Right, of course we had to get ready. I looked over at Kaele and flashed her a mischievous smile. “Think you can help me do up my hair with the circlet like … mother … like the queen did yesterday?”