Fall

Piper

Piper recoiled from Reine in a flurry of rumpled sheets and gasps.

“What,” Piper whispered, “what did you say?”

Reine looked disapprovingly at her now unmade bed. After the battle with the East and West, I decided to investigate your lineage.

Wh—

It was not easy, Reine continued. Hiding thoughts is not something that comes naturally to me. It is a skill—an art—not a habit. I went to the royal records at night and had a librarian research and show me all King Asher’s known files on Lucy Mink. This was easier. Lucy is well traveled, and has stayed many times in Elbe. Reine paused, waiting for any commentary.

Piper gaped like a fish.

Lucy Mink’s many stops included pubs, jails, hotels, and a single trip to the embassy. A mixed trail, Reine hissed. But hardly surprising for a child trader.

Biting her lip, Piper urged her fera to finish her story.

At the embassy, I convinced Micah to ask around about Lucy. It turns out that single visit to the embassy was two years ago, and where I presume she acquired your alea. Reine’s eyes glittered darkly. Lucy then returned to Biscay.

Piper instinctively reached for her alea, which lay on the nightstand. She remembered Lucy’s trip. For three months she had been left with Mia and an elderly neighbor, Mrs. Anderson. Blythe, the youngest of Lucy’s trio before Piper left, had not yet entered the scene. Lucy had said that the trip was for business, and the girls would have found it boring. She had given them glass, not vitrum, baubles as return gifts. A tiny bear and porcupine, Piper recalled.

How would this help me with finding my parents? Piper asked, sitting cross-legged upon her bed.

Reine spread out her claws, and examined them one by one. Her pride was as warm as a summer midday sun, and she basked in her triumph. Now that she had told her secret, all guilt seemed forgotten. If Lucy has traveled to Elbe before, then she has surely gone to other places as well. Tamerlane, Chesa, Seine. With our newfound power and status, we can force Lucy to tell your heritage.

And we couldn’t before? Piper said.

Piper, be honest with yourself, Reine growled. Lucy’s “parents” for you were merely strangers with coins. Spare change to throw at a homeless child and her Guardian.

Taking a deep breath, Piper twisted both sides of her cube weapon and watched it melt and shimmer into the ever-present mace. She slowly turned it, watching the moonlight run over its spiked top. You understand we can’t expect King Asher to send out a warrant for a Western citizen, even if we are heroes. We’ll have to leave Elbe, and go back to Biscay for our questions.

Reine’s thoughts solidified into a decision, like sand under a lightning strike. Then we will go, and find your answers.

Kane

It had been four weeks since the Battle of the Valley, as whispers were starting to name it. Four weeks of recovery, reinstatement of duties, and new adventures for Kane.

Four weeks of exchanging letters with the East and West, and establishing a thin cease-fire for the territories.

Four weeks of hope. Of peace.

Flint went before Kane into the throne room. He had always insisted this since Charlotte Harper’s surprise attack no long ago. The second heir to the Northern crown had nearly succeeded in the assassination attempt to them before the Battle of the Valley.

I refuse to take any chances. Flint’s antlers were lowered slightly as he scouted the room. He nodded, and let Kane come up beside him.

“Still playing overprotective, are we?” King Asher was already seated atop his throne. His albino tiger, Levi, sat beside him on the dais.

Kane bowed, and Flint lowered his head once more. “Your Majesty.”

“Rise.” King Asher tapped his foot. “To what may I owe the honor of this visit, Prince Kane?”

A warm, tingling sensation that grew in his stomach and ended at the tips of his fingers ran through Kane each time he heard his title. Although it was his birthright, it still felt strange to only hear it now, after thirteen years without it.

“Flint and I would like to give you the reports,” Kane brought out the noted papers from the satchel on Flint’s back, “for this year’s vitrum crop.”

King Asher then did something surprising. Instead of having Levi fetch the documents for him, as was his wont, he stepped down from his throne and took them himself from Kane.

He rifled through the charts before handing them to Levi. “Hm. A slight increase in production. That is good.”

“Cooper wanted me to relay his request to quarter off…” Kane glanced at a number the Inventor had written in pen on his arm, “field thirty-seven for a growth test.”

“Well Cooper can relay that me here. Life-forsaken fool thinks he can stay in his hovel all day, tinkering with glass,” the Northern king growled.

It is hard to forget they grew up together. King Asher, Atlas, Cooper, Thea, Donovan… Even Milla has a history with this generation, Flint noted.

And we are just starting our own histories, Kane said. If we live to kingship or not, we have already made our mark on the world.

Flint huffed. I would consider that an achievement.

Kane was in agreement.

King Asher snapped his finger in front of Kane. “Are you even listening to me?”

It was nearly impossible to recover from his obvious silence. “No, my king.” Kane bowed sheepishly. “Forgive me.”

“In the olden days,” King Asher stalked back to his dais, “rulers could give severe punishment to their subjects. Even for inattention.” He turned on his heel once he reached his throne. “Imagine your fera being plucked and boiled alive, for missing taxes!”

I cannot be plucked. Flint flared his nostrils, and clicked his hooves nervously.

“Now however, things are much different. We have this.” King Asher tossed a coin in the air, making it arc it in a wide semicircle until Kane caught it with fumbling fingers.

What is it? Flint asked.

Hang on. Kane peered at the coin. It was silver, with small text running around the perimeter that read in Elben:

We are coming. Beware and fear Nora.

When flipped to its tail side, a simple seal of four scattered stars glinted back at him. The constellation Nora.

“I thought my father dealt with Nora before the battle,” Kane said slowly. He allowed Flint to sniff the coin. Nora had nearly gone through with a threat to Flint’s life, if the Trene ambassador Loy had not intervened at the last hour.

“And several of them are in the capital jail. But this proves that there are more.” King Asher looked to the ceiling, and sighed. “There are always more.”

“What should we do?” Kane said. Many had been outraged that he had bonded with Flint before his ceremony, but none had tried to kill him for that. Yet.

“I’ve already sent three units underground to root them out for good. Now that we’ve shown our strength, support for insurgent groups such as Nora have been choked.” The king cleared his throat. “I wanted to show you this to remind you that even though your position is now safe, your life is not. If you ever want more guards, let Poppy know.”

Kane pocketed the Nora coin. “How is Poppy?”

“Better than Nell,” King Asher replied somberly. “Or the other Trene ambassador. In fact, he should be here after lunch to discuss his departure.”

“And the map?” Kane asked.

“Yes, Trene will be added to our maps,” King Asher sighed. “We will fulfill Loy’s wish, in exchange for his service and untimely death.”

Kane bit his tongue. It felt wrong to wrap Loy’s death in such a simple phrase. Of the bubbly, and slightly insane, ambassador risking his life on the battlefield to give Piper the final encouragement to drop her stash of vitrum spheres, wiping out the valley and ending the battle less than an hour afterwards. He had been burned on the ceremonial pyre for fallen soldiers, his red cape salvaged for his mother and co-leader, Nell.

Poppy, the stoic Captain of Guard who had watched over Loy before the battle, had broken into tears at the news. Nell had threatened her own war with Elbe in the letters that followed. And Micah Watershed, Loy’s translator and childhood friend, had sequestered himself inside the Northern embassy, only appearing outside his room for official meetings.

Floyd, Loy’s fera, had proven to be their biggest mystery. The ram had been found amidst the vitrum-induced wreckage with a broken horn and a lost sense of hearing. His horn had started regrowth, but Floyd remained deaf. Besides that, the fera was fine, which should have not been theoretically possible. Humans, once they gave up their soul gems, were attached in every way to their fera. Their minds, wills, and emotions were intertwined. They were soul-bound.

Floyd, however, had been unfazed that Loy was gone. He continued to eat, drink, and play normally in the royal stables. Northern veterinarians and psychologists had been stumped and amazed by this revolutionary breakthrough in fera-human loss. Micah planned to bring the bighorn sheep back with him to Trene.

Kane, Flint said, our king has a question.

“Do you have anything to add to this meeting, Prince Kane?” King Asher said.

Kane was snapped from his stupor. “No, King Asher.”

“Very well. You are dismissed.”