Ari is already watching. Colsar lifts him easily, the boy coming against him with the quiet familiarity of someone who has already decided where he belongs. There is something in Colsar's face when he looks at him, proud and almost disbelieving at the same time, and Saurin watches this with anexpression I do not miss, something softening in her that she does not try to hide.
"They have grown," I murmur.
"They always will," Saurin replies, though her eyes linger on Colsar a moment longer before she turns back to her work.
I lower into the chair and adjust Kiss without thinking, the rhythm of it already familiar. She finds what she needs quickly and I exhale, letting the quiet of the moment hold.
Colsar sits beside me.
For a while we say nothing. It is enough to be here.
Breakfast has been laid on the table, and Saurin moves around us with the particular efficiency of someone who has registered the shift in the room and chosen to say nothing about it, though I catch the look she exchanges with Cambra when she thinks neither of us is paying attention.
I reach for the small circlets beside me, lifting them and turning them in my hands. I tilt one toward Ari, then the other toward Kiss, testing the size with quiet curiosity.
"Look," I say, shifting slightly toward Colsar.
He looks over.
"It fits them now."
Something proud and unguarded moves through his expression. "It does."
Ari reaches for it immediately, his small fingers closing around the edge with surprising determination, and Kiss lets out a softsound of protest as though she objects to the idea of being left out of whatever he has claimed.
I laugh softly. Saurin makes a small sound from across the room that is unmistakably pleased, though when I look at her she has already turned back to what she was doing.
For a moment it feels simple. Then Arabar enters. He waits, as he always does, until Colsar looks up, and only then does he step forward. "It is time, Majesty."
Colsar nods once. He rises, passing Ari back to Saurin with care that feels instinctive now rather than learned. His hand brushes mine briefly as he steps away, not drawing attention to itself, but enough that I feel it.
“Wyn and the others?” he says quietly.
“Yes.”
His eyes hold mine for a moment longer. “Then you know what to say.”
“I do.”
A pause, brief but certain. “Good,” he says.
Something in my chest warms at that.
"I will return," he says.
I meet his eyes. "Bring them home."
"I will."
Then he is gone. The room moves differently in his absence. Saurin looks at me from across it, and there is something in her expression now that was not there before we left last night,something that takes in the change between us and holds it quietly.
I remain where I am until Kiss finishes, until both children are content, until the quiet has returned fully. Only then do I stand.
The table is already occupied when I enter. Wyn sits with her usual composure, one leg crossed over the other as she rolls the dice between her fingers, the motion unhurried, almost absent. Trophi stands behind her, his attention moving across the room without fixing on anything. Kentan sits opposite, entirely at ease, letting the dice fall once against the wood.
Enovar arrives a moment after I do, taking the last seat. A twinge of doubt moves through me. I have never led a strategy meeting before.
Aunt Petunis’s words ring in my head. “Sit straight. They must never see you falter. You must always give the illusion of confidence. Indecision is for the common. You are a queen.”Something like gratitude moves through me. If nothing else, she prepared me for this.
