Feith lounged on the chaise, reading before the fire in the cabin's main sitting room when Reyna returned. Her mother glanced up with an inquisitive look upon her arrival, but before she could question her daughter further, Reyna gave her a look of utter fury.

"Your soul-bound is an infuriating prick," Reyna snapped as she bounded up the stairs to her sleeping quarters on the second floor, much louder than she knew she needed to, and she slammed the door to her room harder than she should have.

Collapsing onto her bed, she stared at the ceiling as she let the anger wash over her. Every time she had the same argument with her father, every time ended in the same result. She knew she should stop, but she couldn't. She wouldn't. For every time he insisted she remain behind, be the Princess he believed she should be, she would make it her life's vendetta to prove him wrong.

She heard her mother make her way up the stairs, and the door to her room opened before Reyna could object. Quietly, Feith let herself in and took a seat on the bench at the dresser. "You know he only does this because he cares."

"Maybe he cares too much," Reyna countered without a glance in her mother's direction.

"He cares enough Rey, and that's why this is hard for him. He just doesn't want to see anything happening to you by taking the Trial."

"This isn't about the Trial," she informed the Queen, finally glancing in her direction. "He's already to let me start training with Thessan."

That certainly seemed to catch Feith off-guard. "So then, if he told you you could, what is all this about?" she asked with a wave of her hands towards Reyna's moping form lounging on the bed.

"This," Reyna informed her with a mocking wave that mirrored the one received, "is about everything else."

Resting her hands on her belly, the Queen of the North leaned back against the dresser, as if settling in to hear the story.

Reyna rolled over onto her stomach to face her mother, but the last thing she wanted to do at that moment was retell her everything she and her father argued about. To have her, too, remind her of the threats that awaited her outside of the Northern Kingdom.

"It doesn't matter," she finally murmured, matching her gaze.

It did matter, but Reyna was tired.

So tired of the constant battles over and over again, regardless of most of them being of her own design. That would soon change, she reminded herself. She was going to take the Trial. That, if nothing else, would show her father she was worth something more than being a coddled Princess.

"Where is your father, anyway?"

Reyna shrugged. "He's probably looking for Thessan, to warn him to take it easy on me when I start training with him in the morning."

Feith gave her a perked brow match by an incredulous look. "How did you ever convince him?"

"I didn't," she informed her with a smirk. "I'm just always bound to get my way at the end of the day."

Feith rolled her eyes as that as she stood and crossed the room to sit on the edge of her daughter's bed. "Well, whatever it was that created the rift this time, sleep on it, and try to smooth it out with him in the morning."

"After you've spent the night attempting to wear him down, you mean?"

"You have no idea how much wearing down I've had to do over the years."

At that, her mother leaned over and gave her a gentle kiss on her brow and removed herself from Reyna's room, leaving her daughter behind to sulk until sleep overtook her.

The next morning, Reyna was up before anyone else in the cabin. She slept, but poorly, as she mulled over the events of the night before and the possibilities of the day to come. She refused to allow any of it to mute her spirits- she would begin her training for the Trial, regardless of whether or not her father was ready for it.

She just hoped her father told him Thessan the news before she did, she mused, taking a bite of her breakfast toast as she sat at the kitchen's small table.

Sounds of footsteps walking down the stairs had her looking up, and she saw her mother dressed in her traveling gear.

"Where are you going?" Reyna asked, catching her mother by surprised.

"I have a few items I need to tend to before we depart." Feith fixed her gloves as she walked into the kitchen.

"You're leaving today?" No one had told her.

Feith nodded. "Your father said something about not wanting us to interfere with your training, I believe."

Even though the queen gave her a reassuring smile, Reyna felt a slight tinge of guilt. She quickly recovered when the sounds of movements upon the ceiling above her hinted at her father reading himself for the day.

"Talk to him," Feith reminded her with her own glance up the staircase before she slipped out of the cabin.

"Easier said than done," Reyna muttered as she took another bite of her toast.

Rikard trudged down the stairs moments later, walking to the kitchen in search of the coffee brewing on the stove top. Reyna sat up straighter as she watched her father's approach. Maybe there was a possibility he hadn't noticed her- perhaps there was a chance she could sneak out of the kitchen without him noticing.

It wasn't that she didn't want to speak to her father, but in her gut she felt she owed him an apology, or an explanation, and neither sat well.

She hated apologizing.

Before she could consider sneaking out of her chair, however, her father cast her a glance out of the corner of his eye, the only acknowledgement he would give her before he had his first cup of coffee.

She met her father's gaze, watching him from above the rim of her own mug as she drank her coffee, but sat silently in her seat. If her mother was going to be insistent on Reyna issuing an apology, she would wait until her father initiated the conversation.

That conversation initiation took her father until he was through two-thirds of his coffee. Reyna was gripping her mug tight, refraining from saying anything in her own stubbornness. Rikard cleared his throat before he finally lifted his icy gaze to meet hers. "Thessan will be training you for the Trial, starting as early as this morning, if you so choose. He's not happy about it, especially after that little stunt you pulled yesterday."

Reyna couldn't help the small smile that threatened to at her lips. Nothing pleased her more than knowing Thessan still felt the sting to his pride as much as the bruising on his ass.

It was another long moment before her father spoke again. "Your mother and I spoke last night." He cleared his throat, and something told Reyna 'spoke' was not the word he wanted to use. "And after you've taken the Trial, I'm sure I can find something for you to do, just tell me what you want, and it's yours."

She sat in a stunned silence as her father returned to drinking his coffee. Was it truly that easy? That suddenly everything she ever wanted was happening for her because she finally found the strength to prove herself? This must have been why her mother left how she did- whatever her mother had said to him after their brief conversation last night... leave it to the queen to melt the resolve of the Northern King.

Reyna swallowed, her voice hoarse as she let you a quiet "Thank you." There were more words she could have said, but none would have been right.

He nodded slowly. "You do what you feel is best, whatever will make your life mean something, and we will support you and do everything we can to help you achieve it." He let out a slow breath. "I'll always support your decision, Rey. Just please know that all I want it for you to be safe."

She nodded slowly, feeling her eyes burning as she cleared her throat. "Let me focus on the Trial first, and we can talk about what's happens next afterwards."

She stood from her chair, gathering her dishes in her hands to place them in the sink to wash later. She needed to get going- she wanted to begin her training, and if she remained with her father longer, he would break through any resolve she built up.

Her father remained seated at the table, and she looked at him for a moment. He was a trained warrior, a seasoned leader, but also a devoted father and husband. Though they butt heads often, there was never a moment she doubted her father's love towards her.

It was then, she realized, she might not be reminding him how she felt as often as she should.

She walked over to where he sat, and she leaned down to place a gentle kiss on his temple. "I love you, Dau," she whispered, but straightened herself up before he could register what happened. Or react to it.

Striding across the kitchen, grabbed the belt of knives she had hanging on the back of her chair. Strapping them around her waist as she removed herself from the cabin, Reyna needed to get as far away from her father as possible before she became a crying puddle of emotional female in front of the King of the Northern Kingdom.

Her mother had been right, she realized as she wiped at her eyes while trudging towards the training ring where recruits were already gathering for the morning's session.

Her mother was right, just as she usually was...