7 Days Left

Minul reluctantly made her way down from her private suite, having donned a more widely accepted outfit. Despite this being her private estate, and it being nearly entirely occupied by members of her own court, she still brought a pair of guards with her.

Which turned out to be a wise decision.

Upon reaching the ground floor, she started heading for the more open planes of the garden not wanting to get swarmed inside mansion, but she hadn’t even made it through the parlor before nobles—both young and old—emerged from nearby rooms. It felt entirely too much like predators emerging from the bushes for her liking.

Fathers and mothers were resting hands on their sons’ and whispering quietly to them. The first one gathered his courage before she even reached the door.

“Your majesty,” he spoke loudly as he approached with a cocky grin on his face. The guard on her right looked to her and she shook her head. The soldier stepped between her and the noble boy.

Minul wanted to reprimand the boy, for he might not even be as old as first-years at the academy. She doubted he was even eighteen yet. Well too young for her. Not that the nobles seemed to think it mattered.

She knew if she actually acknowledge any of them more than sending a guardsman to intercept him it would signal that she was open to approach, just not from him. Instead, she ignored them all and continued onwards. Behind her nobles trailed like a wake of hungry wolves, eagerly eying the crown like dripping steak.

“Your majesty,” One of the guards whispered. “Is that appropriate? Should we do something?”

Minul pursed her lips as she finally emerged onto the gardens. It really was a lovely day, bird song in the air and in the distance she saw a hare run across the field. “This is essentially an extended royal party. Every evening there will be dedicated time for them to approach but if they want something from me, or hope to be called on, then it wouldn’t do to have me waiting would it?”

The guardsman sighed his fingers flexing on his sword’s grip, “I guess not, your Majesty, but I still don’t like it. Did the Lords need to bring so many with them?”

Minul shook her head looking for any of her advisors, at this point she’d even take a conversation with Leif over this hunted feeling. “Need?” she chuckled, “No, of course not, but it’s a show of power. If Star-Stone shows up with three retainers but Sworden only shows up with two, then who holds the most power?” There was nuance but that was the gist.

Minul found Saif standing with a bunch of second-stage tethered some councilors had brought along. From the way they paid rapt attention to him, she assumed they were trying to dig out ways of achieving mastery themselves. It made her wonder when the secret of his advancement got out. She gnawed at her lip for a moment, thinking back to the absolute lack of records on Saif. For all intents and purposes, he hadn’t ever existed. Which suggested the existence of a hidden group of triplet masters that no one, or none of the lesser countries, knew of.

She made her way over to one of the picnic tables, at the same time a servant approached with a pitcher and cups in hand. Minul smiled. She could only assume Svadr had either send them or she’d left a standing order that Minul were to be served when she arrived.

“Thank you,” she muttered as she sat down and the servant poured for her. “Leave the pitcher then bring Saif over here,” she hurriedly added, “Leif as well and add a few extra cups.”

“Immediately, your majesty,” the servant bowed and made his way over to Saif. The triplet master disengaged from the eager men standing around him and made his way over.

“Whew,” he said slouching down opposite her. “Thank you for the save,” he shot a glance at the dispersing tethered, “There’s only so many ways you can say ‘be better’ without sounding rude.”

Minul snorted, “So you’re claiming that you couldn’t help someone become a master?”

Saif gave her a wide-eyed look, “No, of course not,” he spoke emphatically. “We surely do not know how to break into the third-stage. It is completely random.”

Minul rolled her eyes as she saw Leif approaching from their right, “Your majesty,” he muttered with a bow, only sitting down once she signaled her approval.

“I see you’re feeling better,” Saif remarked.

Leif winced, “Somewhat, it’s an uphill battle at times but the break from travel has done me good.”

Minul smiled falsely, “Hildrid and Svenar ran into each other.”

“Oh?” Saif said an eager grin on his face as he leaned in.

Leif on the other hand looked confused, Right, he might not have been that old during their fallout, Thris realized from his expression. He was older than her, in to his forties, but that would’ve made him a teen when during their incident.

The master of education cleared his throat, “Is that an issue?”

Saif turned on him with the wide-eyes of genuine disbelief before whipping around to Minul, “He doesn’t know?” then with a manic gleam in his eyes, “He doesn’t know.”

“Know what?”

“They are married,” Minul said.

Saif turned to her looking aghast while Leif looked mildly confused. “You can’t just say it like that!” Saif complained. “They had a huge blow out thirty-ish years ago, it nearly became an international incident.”

Leif narrowed his eyes skeptically, “If they were married why are they never seen together?”

“One spends all his time at the academy, and the other is either at the school or in the palace,” Saif explained. “There’s very little overlap if you don’t want there to be.”

“Is it going to be a problem?” Leif asked hesitantly.

Saif rolled his eyes, “Have you met Hildrid? Of course it’s a problem. What are they doing now?”

Minul cleared her throat, at first they’d talked quietly which soon turned into shouting, then they were equally loud but no longer fighting at which point she’d decided to leave. She’d just caught the trail edge of them restarting their shouting.

“They seem to be working on a solution together,” Minul said.

Saif and Leif hissed a breath through their teeth at the same time, causing the ankirian to look distinctly uncomfortable. “That bad?” Leif asked.

Minul shrugged, “I don’t know that there’s much we can do for now. They needed to have that conversation either way, hopefully it will open up a few new options.”

In fact, she was hoping it would inspire Hildrid, who was no longer on the council, to push for Svenar taking a position among them. She doubted very much that Svenar would roll over for Hildrid and she knew he didn’t particularly like Ulf, which added a much needed new voice to the council. She was sure Hildrid would find someone to be her mouthpiece. She might even retire from the school to retake her position. Either way, it would hopefully lead to a more diverse and competent Masters’ Council.

I still have my backup plan, Minul thought, though, it sent a shiver down her spine.

“On that note,” Leif said leaning across the table, “Why is she even here? She’s not part of the council and they’re not in charge the school or the academy anymore,” the unsaid, ‘I am’ didn’t go unnoticed as Minul examined him.

“She’s here because she still has a prominent role in the tethered community and her exclusion would be a blow to our ability to cooperate. Her role as headmistress of the school also makes her one of the few connections between the greater tethered community and the youths that will someday run much of our country.”

Leif pursed his lips, “But Ragnar fills much the same purpose for the boys, if not more strongly as they will return stronger than the ones from the school.”

Minul nodded, “That’s true, but we needed someone to remain back at the capital and hold down the fort, so to speak, and Ragnar’s never been much for politics and political conversations, wouldn’t you agree?” Not entirely true, you didn’t become the Lord General of Elusria if you were completely incompatible with politics.

Leif had carefully schooled his expression, but Minul had heard directly from Pashar just how bad his first interaction with the principal had went. “Maybe it’s for the best he remained.”

“Also,” Saif said dryly, “We wouldn’t want to leave the ankirians alone with the students. It would send a very bad precedent.”

Minul snorted, “That would be a report to take back to the alliance. The Queen needed to have a talk with her councils so she took all her leaders, decision makers, and half the teachers, leaving the kids to manage themselves.”

“But,” Leif asked. “Isn’t that basically what has happened?”

Yes, Minul thought. “No,” she said. “We left behind Ragnar, The Obsidian Crush, or as he’s known back on the front lines, the Blind Hand. Arguably, one of the greatest tacticians in the world. He can manage ten-thousands students for two weeks. He’s probably already turned into an interesting change in tempo for them, turning it into a learning experience.”

Minul had read his report for his plans while they were gone and they were solid ones. A short test of his ideas for the following years, more importantly she trusted him to adjust on the fly and manage multiple situations.

“The Blind Hand,” Leif sighed. “I always felt like it was a silly nickname.”

“It’s a reference to a chess maneuver,” Svenar said slumping down next to Minul and causing the guards to mildly panic as they clearly hadn’t seen him coming. The old man glared at her with narrowed eyes. “You should’ve warned me about Hildrid.”

He had a scratch on his cheek, the three lines had dried some time ago and were no longer bleeding.

“What would you have done if I told you why I was summoning you?” Minul asked, signaling for the guards to calm down and return to their perimeter.

“Gone home.”

“Well, too late now.”

“Chess maneuver?” Leif said.

“One hand catches your attention so strongly you’re blind to the other, but it’s actually the Blind Hand you should look out for,” Saif said with a smile.