Aurora cast her gaze across Valiant. While she was not at the highest point in the castle, she towered above the cityscape on a raised walkway. The walkway connected two of the tallest towers and was one of the few additions Zephyra made to the castle during her reign. Aurora could understand why she had done it. The narrow strip gave the sense of flying and reminded the young Empress of her time in the Mystic Spires with the Fates.

"I thought I might find you here," a friendly voice called.

Aurora was pulled from her thoughts as a figure in a black cloak appeared beside her. "Am I that predictable?" she chuckled softly.

Zan pushed back his hood to reveal his stunning silver eyes. "I could see your far off look in court this morning, Your Majesty. I felt you slipping away before you ever called a recess."

Aurora looked out again at the world before her. Her expression was pained. "So many of them are hurting, Zan. I feel the weight of them on my shoulders."

"You bear the burden heroically, if I may say…" the Guardian started.

"I did not come here for compliments or comfort," the Empress sighed.

"I know," Zan sympathized.

"Did I do the right thing?" Aurora asked abruptly. Her eyes turned toward him, begging for an honest answer.

"What do you mean?"

"I lied. Lied about my age, my marriage, my accomplishments and my family. I cannot help but think that if I had been honest, I might have avoided this whole mess." The woman's blue-flecked eyes were laden with guilt.

"Maybe." The Guardian's answer surprised her. She had expected him to justify her actions as he usually did. He continued, "Or perhaps we would have fallen into war and chaos right then and there."

Aurora gave a bitter laugh. "So I just delayed the inevitable." She crossed her arms to ward off an imaginary cold.

"When I became a Guardian, Hanna showed me the history of our planet. I saw the peace before the magical split and the many wars that have happened since. It is selfishness that causes wars, not the desire to be a good ruler or to protect two defenseless babies." The man's silver eyes flashed as he made his point.

"Still, if I had just…"

Zan came behind her back and placed a hand on each of her shoulders. The uncontrollable shivering that had taken hold of the Empress stopped. The Guardian's low voice spoke softly in her ear. "We cannot change the past, Your Majesty. Choices were made and consequences given. It is only the present we can alter with the future in mind. Do not lose sight of that." From a hidden place in his cloak, Zan produced a shawl and draped it over the woman's back.

"Thank you," Aurora whispered. "I will not lose sight of what is important again."

"Of course you will," the Guardian chuckled. "We are only human."

"Well, one of us is. How old are you exactly?" The Empress's voice was playful. The dark cloud had passed.

"Old enough to know better than to answer." Zan winked. "But I will say I should have been buried many times over at this point."

"I am very grateful that you have been spared. Hanna was very wise to choose you." Aurora pulled the shawl around her shoulders. "Have you heard from her lately?"

"Her visits are more and more sporadic. Last time she only stayed a moment, and I could almost swear she had been crying."

"I have done my fair share of that too lately," Aurora admitted.

There was a commotion below. Even from their height, the pair could see guards arguing with someone at the main gate. "I will see to it, right away," Zan said before she could ask. He turned on his heels and ran at an alarming speed, his feet barely touching the ground.

'Still very agile after all these years,' Aurora noted. She made her way off the walkway where Nurlan joined her. "You let the Guardian pass you. I said I did not want to be disturbed," she scolded her personal guard gently.

"Chief Zan was afraid you might jump," Nurlan responded evenly. "I was a little nervous myself."

"The thought crossed my mind," she sighed. "But rest assured that I would never do that to you, General Nurlan." She touched his arm gently as they descended the steep stairs.

By the time they got to the bottom, the disturbance had reached the entry hall. Zan was escorting a frantic female dressed in a plain brown dress with a matching cloth wrapped around her head.

"Lady Anna, what are you doing here?" Aurora ran to her lady-in-waiting. "Get her water!" She ordered a servant. They moved to a sitting room and sat Anna on a comfortable couch. The lovely lady removed her headdress as she struggled to catch her breath.

"Do not over exert yourself," Zan patted her hand. "You were not supposed to return to the palace for many months yet."

After the twins' birthday party, Anna discovered that she was pregnant. Her morning sickness and fatigue had been extreme, and so for her health and safety, she and her children had been sent to stay with her parents.

"An assassination attempt!" Anna blurted.

"Someone tried to assassinate you?" Aurora's words caught in her throat.

Anna quickly shook her head. "Not me," she breathed.

"Then who?" Zan prodded.

"I do not know," the Lady sobbed.

"Tell us the whole story," Aurora tried to bring the emotional woman back from the brink. Anna was normally so calm. The pregnancy was truly affecting her.

"Where is my wife?!" Ezer boomed from outside the room. "Step aside!" he yelled at the guards.

"Let Councilman Ezer in," Aurora commanded.

Ezer burst into the room, running to his wife's side. He wiped his thumbs along her cheeks to clear her tears and then enveloped her in his embrace. "Are you alright? What are you doing here? You should be resting and taking care of yourself." He chided her softly. His gentle hands tucked her hair behind her ears. The sweet scene pricked at Aurora's heart, but she quickly pushed her emotions aside.

The Guardian cleared his throat. "Anna was telling us about an assassination attempt. Not on her!" Zan quickly followed his statement before Ezer exploded. "Please Lady Anna, tell us what happened."

Anna calmed herself. "I was feeling better today," she began. "And I thought a short walk might do me some good. Father offered to send me with an escort, but I declined. I opted to dress simply and cover my face so that no one might confuse me for you, Your Majesty."

Aurora nodded. "I see." The dark-haired lady-in-waiting had been a stand-in for the Empress on many occasions.

Anna continued, "I strolled much farther than I intended, and found myself in a more questionable part of the city. I stopped to buy some nuts to snack on. That is when the men behind me started to talk of a plot to kill someone." The woman started to hyperventilate once again and it took every amount of coaxing to have her move forward.

"They must have suspected I was listening, but when they called out to me, I pretended I could not hear. I froze and hunched my back. 'Useless beggar woman' one of them spat at me, but they left me alone and went back to their schemes."

"And?" Ezer smiled at her encouragingly.

"That is when I heard there would be an assassination attempt. I rushed here with all my might to warn you. The guards at the front gate would not listen at first because I was not dressed properly, but they finally let me in. I only hope we can stop it." Anna's eyes welled with tears.

"But you said you did not know who they would murder. Do you at least have a clue who it may be?" Aurora wrung her hands. She could not fight the sense of doom she felt.

"They said she could be identified by her necklace," Anna offered. "At first I thought it was you, Your Majesty, but what they described was not yours."

"What did they say?" Panic was already rising in the Empress.

Anna hesitated, making sure to find the exact words. "They said to look for the girl with the silver fairy necklace…"

"Oh no! Mairwen!" Aurora called in a guard from outside. "Get Anna a carriage and a royal escort home."

"What about the detail she came with?" the guard inquired.

"I came by myself," Anna said, confused by his words.

Zan and Aurora stood and exchanged a glance. Together they ran for the door. "Get Anna home!" She called to Ezer. "The rest of you, follow me. We need to find the princess!"

They filed into the hall. "They used Anna as bait to get into the palace," Zan whispered into Aurora's ear.

"I know," she responded. "We have to get to Mairwen before it is too late."