Chapter 40
I t was sleeting when I arrived on the doorstep of Wrenley’s family estate Warwick Hall with my luggage in tow. A butler opened the door, but Wrenley was immediately there, sending him away so xe could see me in xerself.
“Welcome home, Lady Isadore,” Wrenley greeted me with a crooked smile and opened the door wider.
"Thank you so much for letting me stay with you," I told xer for the tenth time since she'd agreed to take me in.
“We have a whole wing of guestrooms.” Xe waved me off and readjusted the suspenders of xer wide-leg trousers. “No one would even know you were here if I didn’t tell them.”
“Well, thank you all the same,” I said, and xe rolled xer eyes.
Xe sent the butler to my room with my luggage and she told him to air out the room.
"I don't think that's necessary," I tried to decline, but Wrenly took my hand and tugged me in the other direction.
"Enough fussing about everyone else. Bri's waiting in the parlor, and we all need to talk about what's happening with each other."
“Briar’s here?” I asked, letting xer lead me through the house.
“She heard what was going on with you, and there was no way she could stay away,” Wrenley explained.
Before Wrenley’s mother Eva married and began having children, she – like most other muses – retired from musing. Pregnancy, infancy, and children required so much energy and magik they didn't have enough left for conductions. But – again, like most other muses – Eva still needed a creative outlet, so she had turned to design and art.
This was very evident as I walked through Wrenley's house. It was dramatically styled with pastel colors and whimsical art pieces. The corridor walls were papered with elegant designs of flowers and rabbits.
The sitting parlor had walls of powder blue marked with white moldings. The chairs and sofas were plush but elegant, and bouquets of pale roses, in vases here and there, perfumed the room.
Briar was sitting on one of the sofas, her knees folded beneath her and her empire-waisted dress flowing around her. A book was open on her lap, and she toyed absently with her honey-colored hair as she read it.
“Have you found anything yet?” Wrenley asked, and xe flopped on the chaise across from her.
"Not yet," Briar replied sadly, smiling up at me. "Izzy! How are you?"
“My entire life has been turned upside down, and I am heartbroken,” I told her honestly.
“Oh, love, I’m sorry you’re going through this.” She patted the spot next to her. “Come sit with me.”
When I complied, she set aside the book, and I noticed the embossed R on the front. It was the Regula, the book of laws and procedures regarding magik all across Wespen.
"Mostly, I just feel so guilty and sad and confused," I said. Briar put her arm around me, and I rested my head on her shoulder.
“It’s a sad and confusing situation, but we’ll sort it all out,” she insisted optimistically.
“You keep saying that, but we haven’t found anything to help me with Asmond,” Wrenley grumbled.
“Have you heard anything from him?” I asked.
Things had been so intense with me lately, I hadn’t had much time to check in with xer and see if xe’d made any progress with xer romance with Asmond, the King of Lamida.
"His advisors want him to meet a few 'more appropriate' spousal options." Wrenley smirked to mask xer hurt. "Asmond insists that he has the final say on who he marries, and he'll just keep saying no to all of them until eventually they let him marry me so we can hurry up and make some heirs."
“That sounds like a plan,” Briar said, so full of cheer and optimism.
“Izzy and I are in the midst of a perfectly indulgent pity party, and Bri’s still at a summer picnic,” Wrenley teased.
"Just because life is often cruel and sour does not mean we need to be. That's what Papa always said," Briar declared, unabashed. "The storm will rage, but we dance on anyway is what Dada says. So I try to be kind and keep moving onward."
“That’s not a bad way to live,” Wrenley allowed. “But have you tried smithing your enemies?”
"What enemy would you even be smiting?" Briar asked. "Royal bureaucracy? Classism? Both seem kind of strange when you hope to be a monarch of Lamida after only spending three weeks there.”
"Oh, wow, Bri, kick me while I'm down." Xe pretended to be wounded, but xe actually looked impressed.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” Briar’s cheeks reddened with shame. “I didn’t mean to be harsh.”
"No, I know I shouldn't be wallowing and that Asmond and I still have so much to figure out." Wrenley sighed. "I wish we could just say 'the heart what the heart wants' and be free to marry as we wish."
“Monarchies and magickal tribunals never care anything about love,” I said sullenly.
“Usually, Tribunals won’t involve themselves with matters of love at all,” Briar said. “They even have a whole doctrine about it.”
I straightened up when I remembered the words that Adora made me read over and over again as a child. Every time I misbehaved, Adora would set me at a desk with a copy of the Regula, and she would make me copy whole pages in my perfect calligraphy. Mostly, she chose sections that focused on obedience and service, but other times, she'd have me run straight through. And suddenly, a passage sprung into my mind.
“ The Doctrine of the Heart’s True Course ,” I said.
“That’s night. It says we can’t do love spells to make someone either fall in love or out of love with anyone else,” Briar said.
Wrenley sat up. “No, that’s not exactly what it says. That’s the interpretation, maybe even the intent, but those are not the actual words?”
Briar looked between Wrenley and me, her blue eyes narrowing in confusion. “What are you two thinking?”
Wrenly grabbed the Regula and hurriedly flipped through it, searching for the right passage. Then xe sat on the sofa, squishing between me and Briar.
"What do you think?" Xe pointed to a section labeled The Doctrine of the Heart’s True Course . “Does any of this pertain to your situation, Izzy?”
I let out a shaky, hopeful breath. “I hope so.”