‘Tell me what you see unfolding at the Academy on the night of the Alumni Ball. Where are my enemies?’ I breathed into the heavy silence. The pages rustled and flipped as if caught by a wind, yet there was none. They settled and flattened before me. The same black smoke shimmered across the pages before sinking back into the paper. The thing that hit me first was the feeling; the book would never offer words, but the images it showed and the feelings it conveyed to me were enough. The emotions that settled deep within my bones from those pages were clear: shock and confusion.
The images glimmered before me. I was standing in the hall of the Academy, a place I had marched through many times to get to and from classes, but this night the ball raged within the double doors behind me, and there stood Demir. His expression was nothing but anger and disdain for me, and the usual hate that filled my heart when I looked at him was replaced by shock and confusion. I couldn’t understand it, and as if realising I needed more, the pages in theOraclemorphed once again, black smoke pouring out onto the stone floor.
This time, it was Visarous watching me and Demir down the hall, covered in darkness, loathing roiling through every breath of his before he turned and faded away, leaving me there with Demir. I took a step towards Demir, arm outstretched. I wasn’t going to attack; it was curiosity that flooded my mind.
The Alumni Ball was four days away. If that was the worst of what theOraclecould show me, at least I had nothing to fear from Demir’s plans to end me before I could even make it to the ball. I supposed that in the next day or two, he would get my little message and change his course.
‘Show me his death. Show me the Morgadian king in his final moments’. My favourite scene, one I asked theOracleto show time and time again. The black smoke pooled again and I saw the same scene I had seen many times before. This is the one image of the future that seemed to never change, no matter the choices I made or the actions I took. This day was inevitable. Sebastian lay dead at my feet, my sword dripping with blood. In that moment, I felt peace, as if the wind that blew through the clearing and shook the grass also shook free something within me and carried it away. I had never known peace like that; the only time I felt it was when I stepped inside this single image. I had not even found that in the embrace of another.
Many previous queens had sent themselves mad staring at theOracle. It was easy to become consumed by the possibilities in these pages. Living in a fantasy of things that have not happened or being paranoid about every decision and momentthat could change everything. Instead, they watched the possibilities of their lives rather than living in reality. I myself never had much of an affinity for this book; it was convenient at best, but knowing how quickly things could change depending on others, it was not meant to be trusted completely.
Some would sit and stew over their final moments displayed within theOracle’s pages. I, however, did not fear death. After all I had been through and how shattered I was, if it came to me one day, I would greet it with a smile and thank it for the sweet reprieve it would gift me. That same peace I felt when I looked at the Morgadian king’s head at my feet is what I dreamed of washing over me as darkness consumed me and never let me go again. I had never asked theOracleto show me my final moments; I simply did not care so long as I got vengeance first, and theOraclehad always been certain I would.
Running into Cain,who was sitting at a long wooden table in the main chamber of the library, I approached him cautiously. He looked at me, worry in his eyes. He had been waiting to see how I was after last night. I could tell he wanted to ask how I was, but we had an unwritten rule between us. The nights when the panic took hold of me and I needed him would not exist beyond that room and that single night, never to be spoken of again. Instead, he would find some reason to bump into me the next day to check how I was doing.
‘What news do you have for me today?’ I asked.
Cain passed me a note that read,Demir is on his way. He will reach the Academy tomorrow morning.This was not something that required a report first thing; he had been grasping at an excuse to check in. I gritted my teeth in response while pondering his words. It made no sense for Demir to arrive nearly two full days before the ball was to take place, unless he was still planning to attack me.
‘Why is he arriving so early? Has he not been swayed with my message?’
The words on the parchment I held curled and bent into new letters.
No, Blake will cross paths with Demir on route in about three hours. Then he will know and undoubtedly change his mind, knowing we are anticipating him.
The spark of an idea formed in my mind, but Cain knew me well enough that the letters on the parchment shifted again before I could even voice it.
I know what you’re thinking, but you cannot attack his convoy on the way there. I looked into it with Viv. It’s not possible. You will have time to make your move, but remember your true goal is greater than him; it’s his father. Don’t lose focus now. Do not let your emotions sway you from the greater goal. I know the audacity of sending a spy into your walls cannot go unpunished but you proved your point with your mutilation stunt. I know his plan was to get to you on your journey there, but taking his plan and turning it onto him out of spite is the decision of a child, not a ruler.
I couldn’t help but smirk. He knew me better than I knew myself. I was annoyed that he called my thought process childish, but he was right. Demir was a side quest and a distraction. His father was the immediate threat who deserved my blade on a much deeper level.
Once I took a steadying breath and Cain was sure I was not going to do anything immediately reckless, smoke started seeping from his skin. That is where my people got their name—‘Skin Seepers’. It was a rare gift passed down through our bloodline. The smoke billowed around him as his body morphed into that of a silky black bird, and he flew out of the slightly ajar window near the ceiling. Off to track the movements of our enemies and allies alike.
The idea of seeing the son of the man who had killed my sister stirred anger in my veins, and I let it consume me, not wanting to think about every other emotion that had beenunlocked within me. I had hoped the first time I saw him again would be on the battlefield—where I planned to slit his throat—but instead it would be a frivolous affair where the wards would stop me from fulfilling my deepest darkest desires.
Five
Imade my way through the stone halls lined with candles to the council room. It was a large room with high, arched ceilings. It was bright due to the large reinforced windows that took up the entire west wall. The walls behind my chair in the centre of the room were lined with every weapon in existence. I appreciated art, but weapons were what I truly loved collecting. The history contained in a blade was beautiful—the thought in the ore selected for the metal, the craftsmanship and the lives it took. These pieces of metal were steeped in history, bearing witness to both life and loss.
At the center of the room was an enormous round table carved from mahogany. At its center was a topographic, wood-carved map of Maureia and its surrounding realms. The Academy and the mountain on which it sat were at the centre. Maureia had Morgad on its right and Voldina on its left followed by Neretva, Suncela and finally Cazina on Morgads other side, all realms perfectly circling the Academy, splaying outwards to the edges of the continent. Viv, Visarous and Sienna were sitting there waiting for me. Viv was moving models of our armies and Morgad’s soldiers to paint a picture of the most up to dateinformation from the border and the conflict that was currently raging on.
‘No Cain today?’ Sienna asked as I entered, but Viv didn’t look up from the models she was rearranging, not realising I had entered the room.
‘No, he’s monitoring Demir’s movements to see when he runs into our friend who I sent out of here yesterday,’ I said. Viv snapped her attention towards me, shocked I had managed to sneak in without a single one of them being aware, or perhaps she was shocked by the fact that I was still standing and looked like my usual self after what had transpired last night. Sienna, for all her goodness, could not keep her mouth shut when it came to my inner circle.
Looking at the table before me, these people were allies at best. People I trusted to protect my lands, my people and me, to the degree that it related to the first two. I saw these people as friends in some ways, but I would always hold a part of myself back from them. They accepted that. Having known me long enough, they knew what affections lurked within me, as well as my limits and why they were there.
Out of my four advisors, only Viv would die for me, but that was only because she was obligated to. You must swear a blood binding oath when you become Master of War and my right hand. Should I die due to a failure of hers to protect me, the spell would stop her heart instantly. Her family name tarnished and all relatives executed. Her name would forever be stripped from the history books; she would be all but forgotten, as if she had never existed. Should she die protecting me, then all the glory imaginable would be hers, and glory is what tends to motivate those infatuated by battle and blood, like her.
I sat at the head of the table in silence, with Viv to my right, Sienna to my left and Visarous across from me. His gaze bore into me. Meeting it, I held his gaze without shrinking back, waiting for him to fold and look away, and just as expected, he did just that.Nodding to Sienna to begin her report first, I settled into my chair, my hands resting on the dragon heads carved into the armrests that set mine apart from the rest. She coughed, adjusting herself. She was still not comfortable with the formalities required of her role. Being raised among the Wiccans to become the next Elder, she was the one people reported to. Twelve months in, she still saw herself as our friend more than as an advisor in her own right. She had spoken to me about not understanding her place here in the early days. Why I had selected her, given my people’s residual animosity towards the Forest Fae and Wiccans.
Clearing her throat she began, ‘We have been able to heal many of the injured from the latest clash at the border. Twelve succumbed to their injuries. Had we gotten to them sooner, we could have saved them.’ At that, she shot a scathing look at Viv, accusing her of the soldiers’ delay in getting medical attention. I shot Viv a warning look, telling her to back down, knowing exactly what she was going to say. The delay was due to the soldiers being pinned down by enemy forces for too long; that is where they lost time and, in turn, lost our people. If it were up to Viv, she would not lose a single person.
Sienna continued, ‘We are looking at setting up healing stations closer to the border so that we can attend to the wounded. We had kept them further back so that our enemies could not pick off the weak but now they will be housed in the war camp. The Wiccans will be sending over some final year students to assist… and following last night, we will need to put some measures in place for your trip to the Academy.’ Viv’s eyes flared along with Visarous’s. They exchanged a look, and in that moment, I knew Sienna had not told them anything until this very moment.
‘What happened last night? What measures?’ Viv asked, concern written on her face. Worried that she had missed something—a crucial part of her role.
‘The nightmares and the panic are back. We will need to becautious that it doesn’t rear its head at any… inopportune moments,’ I sighed, frustrated with myself.
