“The temptation to succumb into the throes of power always lurks, even for those deemed to be just and benevolent. To consider oneself immune to such temptations is just a fit of folly and arrogance, and often one that could have painful consequences for many.” - Albed Ul Rasaven, philosopher from the Third Elmaiya Empire, circa 239 VA.

“So what do you have in mind for the girl?” asked Lucea to Aideen in the private chamber. “She’s clearly lacking the knowledge and necessary skills to live independently at the moment, and even if she wasn’t, I wouldn’t be so cruel as to throw someone so naive out into the cruel world so unprepared. That girl needs some proper teaching before she could be let out into the world, I feel.”

“I feel the same way,” replied Aideen with a nod to Lucea’s words. Kino’s sheltered and isolated life had led to the girl being unfamiliar with how the world goes, on top of lacking education in general, despite her age. “I think what you want to ask more is who should take care of her, right? You did make a point earlier, that there will be people who only sees that girl as the weapon she could be and little else, and I definitely want her to avoid that trouble, at least until she’s lived enough to make her own decisions.”

“You’re not worried that someone might just force her to do their bidding?” queried Lucea with some interest in her voice.

“I mean, good luck trying to force her into doing anything she doesn’t feel like doing, now that she’s fully awakened her magic,” replied Aideen with a chuckle. “Kino’s learning to control her magic really fast, especially considering her affinity. She molds the void nearly as easily as I mold flesh. That girl’s going to go far as a mage, I can tell.”

“And unlike other Void affinity mages, she wouldn’t face the issue of prematurely dying because of a failure to properly control her powers, since she can’t die anymore,” added Lucea to complete what Aideen was hinting at. “I swear, that girl’s going to give whoever’s in power serious headaches, because most would probably consider her too dangerous to leave alone.”

“Do you think the same way?”

“A little bit, I have to admit. The Empress part of my mind is screaming all over the place about the idea of letting a potential weapon of destruction just walking loose out there, outside anyone’s control,” admitted Lucea openly. “That said, I also recognize that the girl’s her own person. She should make her own decisions, and honestly, I think you would be a better guardian for her until she’s fit to do that than me.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Huh, I had thought I’d need to do some convincing first,” exclaimed Aideen with some surprise. “What made you think that without prompting?”

“Simple enough, really,” said Lucea without preamble. “I trust myself to give that poor girl what she’s due. I like to believe that I know my children well enough and also trust them to do the same,” stated the Empress bluntly. “On the other hand, my children’s children are still far too young to assess properly. No way to tell which of them might take over after my children’s time, or how they’d rule. Therefore I can’t in good conscience state that I trust them to do the poor girl right.”

“You know the girl’s value as a weapon, she’d be a constant temptation to whoever was watching over her. While I trust myself, I won’t be around forever, so you, who likely would be, would make for a more fitting guardian than me or my descendants, even if she’s one of our people, by birth,” added Lucea with a shake of her head. “Above all, I know you only want the best for her and wouldn’t succumb to the temptation to use her as a tool or a weapon. Neither will your dear grandfather the Bone Lord. I doubt he’s lacking weapons anyway.”

“You can say that, yeah,” said Aideen with a bit of a smirk as she recalled how there lay countless skeletons all over Tohrmutgent, where some of the public buildings were even decorated with them all over. Every single one of those skeletons were part of the Bone Lord’s army, as she had learned in her youth, and he could bring them out at will should he ever have need of them.

“Another factor that comes into play is public image,” said Lucea openly. “As I said earlier, secrets were bound to leak out with time. If it comes to the knowledge of other countries that the Elmaiya Empire kept an immortal void mage in secret, that’d cause them to find our motives suspicious, even if we were not doing it for any sinister reasons.”

“On the other hand, nobody would really care if it’s grandpa who’s taking care of the same girl, since he already has enough military power to flood the continent with skeletons if he wanted to, after all,” replied Aideen as she completed the other woman’s sentence. “People might forget about her existence over time, even.”

“Exactly my point. By this point nobody really pays attention if the Bone Lord discovered another way to kill everyone in the continent. He can already do that many times over and everybody understands that as a fact,” said Lucea with a toothy grin on her face. “It should allow the poor girl relative privacy and anonymity, and I trust you more than I trust myself with taking care of people, honestly.”

“Guess it’s settled then,” noted Aideen with a nod of her head. “Just like that? Got nothing more you want or need out of her?”

“None. The poor girl’s suffered enough. Just promise me to let her live a life she could call her own, happily if you can,” said the Empress with a shake of her head. “If anything we owe her for having failed to detect the going-ons in Deyos for so long. It was a failure on our part, so leaving her in the right hands is the least we could do for her in return.”

“Got it. I’ll be taking the girl with me back to Ptolodecca then. Mind if we take a bit of a break in your city first, though?”

“Be my guest, Aideen, as always.”