Lord Father stood — calm and still — in the dark of the halls.

On either side, he was flanked by servants and sycophants; healers and holy men; advisors and aristocracy. They had only been increasing in number since Lord Father's health began declining. Not that Lord Father gave any indication of weakness besides an occasional coughing fit — something both violent and uncontrollable. He was just as tall and proud as ever, if not more so.

Even if his posture failed to convey his status, Lord Father's other attributes more than made up for it. Lord Father's robes were unmatched in quality across the Hebikoti Clan. They were made of the same silks imported to the Imperial Palace and dyed so richly it caused nature to flush with jealousy. Lord Father's hair was long and sleek, maintained by expensive oils, and fell down his back without frizz or fallout.

Lord Father's hair was also white, paler than snow. The strange coloring had nothing to do with Lord Father's age or illness. Rather, it was the result of Old Magick passed through the generations, bleaching the hair of every son and daughter of the Hebikoti line, so there would be no doubt as to who their sire was.

Nerluce's own long, white hair was messy, tangled, and still in a highly inappropriate top knot. Nerluce fought the urge to pull the ribbon out. To do so would be akin to admitting that he knew the top knot wasn't befitting of his station but had chosen to wear it regardless.

However, it was not the perfection of Lord Father's posture or his robes which cost more than Aunty's entire harvest or his hair without a single strand out of place that made Lord Father such a dominating force. Rather it was something as small and simple as his eyes.

Like the coloring of their hair, the color of their eyes was passed from generation to generation. However, unlike the hair — which was freely given — the Hebikoti red eyes had to be earned, only activating upon the mastery of one's Magick.

Magick was well known for its tendency to alter a person's physical appearance and they were a family forged in fire. The red of the flames found its way into the irises of all those worthy of wielding it. Lord Father's eyes were like rubies. Cold and hard and rare and valuable.

Nerluce dropped his gaze. His own eyes were dark.

Lord Father came forward and his entourage followed him. They spoke in hushed, hurried voices, too quiet and too fast for Nerluce to be able to hear what they were saying. A bitter chill set deep into Nerluce's bones as Lord Father towered above him. "Nerluce," Lord Father said again. "What have you done this time?"

"I—" Nerluce choked on his own words. He couldn't lift his gaze from the ground. "Lord Father—"

"Lie to me, Nerluce, and I'll cut out your tongue."

Nerluce swallowed and thought better of trying to weasel his way out of this. "I left the palace," he said. Admitted.

"And what has Lady Okiachi told you not to do countless times?"

The way Lord Father spoke, if one just heard the tone of his voice, they would not know he was angry. He used the same casualty as one would use when inquiring about the weather or perhaps the tone a teacher used when they asked a student to solve a simple equation. But the calmer and more casual Lord Father was, the more unnerving it was.

"Not to— not to leave the palace," Nerluce said.

"Go change out of those robes. Just because your mother was of the common blood does not mean you ought to dress like it." Lord Father moved past him without touching. "We'll discuss the consequences after the festivities for your sister have concluded."

"Yes, Lord Father." He bowed, like an obedient mongrel before hurrying to do as he was told. Even if Nerluce had the strength to stand up to Lord Father he didn't think he would.

As he passed, Nerluce didn't look to see if Lord Father's entourage bowed as they were supposed to. Looking would risk seeing their expressions. However, there was no way to not hear what they hissed about him as he passed.

"—thankful that idiot boy isn't the heir."

"—more like his sister."

Nerluce didn't let his steps slow or falter. He didn't care if they bowed or not. He didn't care what expressions they made at him. He didn't even care if they hissed cruelties as if he wasn't there. All Nerluce wanted was to get away.

The palace was large, and all things considered, they didn't have very many servants who would be randomly wandering the halls. They had even fewer of them who wouldn't know to stay out of sight when they saw the shining beacon that was white hair in Hebikoti Palace. Thus, Nerluce didn't see a single living soul as he went to his rooms.

They were befitting of his station — perhaps even more than befitting — but he didn't have anything to compare them with. Nerluce's futon had been put away so all the furniture in his bedroom was currently a wardrobe built into the wall and a small desk positioned in front of the shoji windows, their paper panes pulled closed, so it looked like the red and black koi painted on them were swimming in a lake of light.

There was nothing about this room or bathing quarters in the room next to it that Nerluce could complain about. There was nothing about Nerluce's life that he could complain about yet that was all he ever did. His tutors called him unruly and unteachable. His masters said he was lazy and undisciplined.

Nerluce forced those thoughts away as he removed his dirtied robes, dropping them carelessly onto the floor. Some unfortunate servant would sneak into his rooms to remove the clothes and trash he left. Nerluce washed his face and put on his new robes. He pulled the white and crimson fabric over his arms and tied the red sash snuggly around his waist. He untied the top knot and combed the tangles from his hair. When it was smooth, he tried on a smile.

When Nerluce was satisfied, he took a steadying breath and left his rooms. He immediately regretted it upon seeing that Lady Okiachi was there waiting for him.

Lady Okiachi was a tall woman with a muscular build. Nerluce had heard that before she married Lord Father, she had been one of the Border Lords. Though Nerluce had never heard Lady Okiachi speak of that time, he was inclined to believe it. She had a brutality to her that seemed right at home on the border of two near constantly warring nations.

She had long since traded iron armor for the silver circlet that rested between her sharp brows. Her soldiers had been traded for the two maids — twins which Nerluce had no interest in learning to tell apart — who followed her everywhere.

"Lady Okiachi," Nerluce said in a way he hoped sounded pleasant rather than panicked.

"Nerluce," Lady Okiachi said in turn.

Her maids bowed and gave appropriate greetings without any other commentary. Unlike Lord Father's entourage, Lady Okiachi kept a tight grip on the tongues of her's.

"You didn't attend your lessons today," Lady Okiachi said. "Did you get lost again? Twelve years ought to be more than enough to memorize the layout of one palace, but perhaps your tainted blood makes it difficult."

"No, I—" Nerluce gulped down air like a drowning man, curling in on himself as though he might be able to make his body match how small he felt. "I just... forgot." It was just as much of a lie as the time he said that he got lost going to his lessons and Lady Okiachi likely knew as much. Nerluce wondered how she would twist these words to taught him next time.

"How convenient," Lady Okiachi said. Nerluce winced slightly. "Juncoam never had such convenient slips of the mind. In fact, I'm relatively certain that my daughter was never even late to one of her lessons."

Of course, Coam had attended every single one of those awful lessons. Of course, Coam would waste the last warm day of the year on duties that would still be there tomorrow. Of course, Coam would be satisfied with servants fetching her day-old apples from the market.

But Nerluce wasn't Coam.

They walked the remainder of the way to the terrace with Lady Okiachi giving a long winded lecture about how much of an embarrassment Nerluce was compared to his sister. Not that Lady Okiachi ever referred to Coam as Nerluce's sister. She would never risk having someone mistake Nerluce as her son.

She hadn't even begun to tire by the time they got there, but Nerluce was saved from the rest of her tirade.

"Leave him be, Achi," Lady Fanjie said.

Lady Fanjie was almost a decade younger than Lady Okiachi, but she didn't look it. Wrinkles, thin as spider webs, had begun to work their way into Lady Fanjie's features. Her dark brown hair had a couple of thin streaks of gray and her skin told of a girl who had spent much of her youth outdoors, sun kissed and well loved.

Lady Okiachi's lips practically disappeared at Lady Fanjie's familiar overly address, but for all her love of reprimanding Nerluce, she didn't say a word to Lady Fanjie.

Power within Hebikoti Palace was balanced on the edge of a knife. Of Lord Father's three wives, Lady Fanjie was the only one that he ever loved, giving her much more sway in the palace than was typical of the Second Wife. Lady Okiachi preformed all of the duties of the First Wife — with such excellence it bordered on inhuman — she never was able to grasp Lord Father's favor.

"Children should be allowed to be children," Lady Fanjie continued. "I got into twice as much mischief as Nerluce did when I was his age."

"Yes, but you were the daughter of a merchant," Lady Okiachi said, seeming to revel in this statement. "It doesn't matter what the daughters of merchants do. It does matter what the sons of lords do." She elongated the word as if it had more weight than the other words. Perhaps it did. "Juncoam never got into any mischief."

"Or perhaps Coam just preformed her mischief in secret," Lady Fanjie said.

Lady Okiachi huffed. Nerluce was inclined to agree with her. He'd tried getting into mischief in secret but there were just too many eyes and too many mouths. It was impossible so why bother? It would just be more wasted effort.

"Regardless," Lady Fanjie said, her eyes sparkling in the late day sun as she set her gaze on Nerluce. "Was you outing pleasant, Luce?"

Before Nerluce could answer, Lady Okiachi — unable to keep her vitriol to herself — snapped, "Of course his outing was pleasant! I would have a pleasant outing too if I was shirking my responsibilities!"

Nerluce highly doubted Lady Okiachi would actually find something like that appealing. She was arrogant but it was a well-earned arrogance. It would most likely drive Lady Okiachi insane if she took even a single day off from whatever nonsense she locked herself in her rooms to do, running through more paper and jars of ink than anyone had a right to.

Lady Fanjie laughed, likely reaching the same conclusion Nerluce had.

"Do you know when my... when Lady Mother will arriving, Lady Fanjie?" Nerluce asked, gently turning the conversation away from the day's events.

Lady Fanjie smiled once more but it was the kind of smile that made her hard for Nerluce to like. It never reached her eyes. Those, dark and glittering, were just filled with pity. "Ah, Luce... your father thought it best that Song shouldn't be here. She wasn't feeling all that well today."

Was there ever a day that Mother was feeling well? "I understand," Nerluce said.

Lady Okiachi sniffed. "For the best. We don't need that mad woman losing even more face for the Hebikoti Clan. We've lost more than enough for one day."

A part of Nerluce appreciated Lady Okiachi's border lord brutality in discussing matters like his mother. No one but her said that the Third Wife of Lord Hebikoti was insane. No one at all said that it was the pressures of being a Lady of the Hebikoti Clan and the jealousy of the other Ladies in Court that drove her into that madness. No one dared say how the weapon they wielded against her was her past in the oldest profession.

Heirs were hard to come by across the continent of Ecekasuri and Lord Father couldn't just ignore the rumors of a white-haired child being born at a brothel he'd been known to visit. So, Mother was rewarded with her station, with her insanity.

It was then that Lord Father entered the terrace. They all bowed, and in a chorus of voices greeted him. What little conversation there had been tapered off completely. Nerluce didn't mind. He turned his attention to the red gates instead. They would open soon. Lord Father wouldn't be here if they weren't. He wasn't the type to wait long for anything or anyone.

Just as the sun touched the horizon — made red by the late hour — horns cracked open the air. There was a call among the servants as the gates were pulled open. The second horn came as Coam rode in atop a great white stallion that was nothing short of a monster, her armor catching the last of the day's sun and sending it to bite at Nerluce's eyes. She was followed by a procession of a hundred of the clan's highest-ranking soldiers. Nearly five thousand more were at the base of the mountain, celebrating with the townsfolk.

Nerluce forced himself to give the smile he'd practiced in his chambers to Coam, perfect and proud upon her stallion as the third horn blared.

The heir of the Hebikoti Clan had finally come home.