Chapter 12
NARYA
“This way, Your Grace.”
Hasàek gestured to the chamber.
Your Grace.
The words struck me like a whip across the face. My muscles locked, and my nails immediately bit my palms as I waited for pain I knew wasn’t coming. Because I was safe.
Gravyn was finally gone.
If only my body would believe it.
Hasàek watched me curiously as I forced myself into the chamber.
I slowly relaxed my hands. The room was beautiful in a way that didn’t feel real.
Warm light from the chandelier and sconces spilled over high arched windows and dark stone walls.
Red velvet drapes framed the glass and pooled across the dark wooden floor.
A grand bed dominated the room on a raised dais, its carved headboard rising like a dragon taking flight against the tall windows.
Even the silk coverlet caught the light—a deep crimson fading into black.
Bookshelves and armchairs stood by a roaring hearth, the flames flickering over constellations painted across the curved ceiling. The Bloodstone dragon moved among them; the stars made way for it as it walked.
It was a beautiful room. One meant for a queen, not for me.
“Your belongings have been placed away for you,” Hasàek said from behind. “Everything else has been provided by His Majesty’s generosity. I trust you will have everything you need.”
From what I could see, I had everything I needed and more.
Kaydra would’ve lost her mind over the wardrobes I could see overflowing with beautiful gowns and cloaks.
Rueren’s hands would’ve been all over the towers of pastries and candied fruit stacked on the dining table.
The chamber was larger than our whole house had been.
Taller too, the ceiling painted like the archives of Selenith itself come to life.
“Although I hope you will find this room quite comfortable,” Hasàek said, “please do let me know if it is not to your liking. I can have another chamber prepared at a moment’s notice.”
I could only shake my head at first, completely undone by the extravagance.
“It’s beautiful,” I finally managed. Far too beautiful to be mine.
“Indeed.” Hasàek gave a quick, tight bow. “Then I shall leave you to settle in.”
“Thank yo—”
The door was already closing before I could finish.
I was finally alone. For all but a moment.
I groaned softly when the door knocked. I just wanted to eat, bathe, and sleep for as long as the gods would allow. Why couldn’t I be left alone for one night?
I turned, unclenching my hands again to keep from wrapping them around myself, and faced the door.
“Come in.”
The door opened and the two women from before entered. They both stopped in front of me and gave a low curtsy. While Thràena kept her gaze lowered, èllia's eyes never moved from my face. Her expression was carefully guarded. On the surface, anyway.
I’d spent years studying people—their faces, their breaths, their flinches and tremors in their hands—because reading them had once been my only way to survive.
I’d learned to predict the actions of those around me in an effort to identify any possible threats.
And the threat èllia was giving was nothing short of hostile.
The slight lifting of her shoulders as they tensed. The way her throat worked, as if she were struggling to swallow. Kaydra’s throat used to jerk like that when she was anxious. èllia did the same, as if my very presence dragged bile up her throat.
She wasn’t the first person to look at me that way, and she wouldn’t be the last.
“I don’t suppose either of you are hungry?
” I moved to the table piled with rich delicacies.
“There’s so much food here, I don’t want to waste it all.
And don’t these muffins smell divine?” I lifted one of the larger ones and brought it to my nose.
“My sister bakes muffins but she never put slices of fruit on them, like this, or drizzled them in icing. This one smells like… Honey lemon.”
I held a muffin out to them, my focus primarily on éllia.
“Would you like one?” I asked.
Both girls remained side-by-side. Thràena glanced at èllia from the corner of her green eyes before looking back at me. A smile slowly lit her face.
“I do love honey lemon,” she said in a soft, melodic voice. “Thank you, Your Grace.”
She took the muffin and bowed with another smile. I smiled back before picking up two more. I bit into one while holding the other out to éllia. She did not move. The muscles in her jaw twitched, her chest rose unevenly as her breathing hitched and tears sprang into her eyes.
“éllia, right?” She nodded slowly as if she’d been dazed. “They’re really delicious. Take some with you, if you’d like. There’s plenty to share.”
As if released from her stupor, èllia suddenly jumped back. “I cannot…” Her head shook rapidly, the tears finally falling. “I cannot do this! How can he make me do this?”
Thràena stepped towards her. “éllia—“
“I cannot!”
èllia fled the chamber in floods of tears, her cries echoing down the corridor.
I wasn’t sure what I expected, but it hadn’t been that.
Thràena and I stared at the door, the silence of the room making me laugh.
“I guess she’s not a fan of honey lemon?”
Thràena dropped her muffin and fell to her knees in front of me.“Please excuse èllia's behaviour!” Thràena spread her arms out as far as they could go. “She did not mean to offend Your Grace!”
Horrified by Thràena’s reaction, I stood frozen as I looked at her, hating the sight of her bowing.
“Please don’t bow like that. I was only joking,” I said.. “Stand up… please.”
I cringed inwardly. Giving orders felt unnatural, but watching her cower felt worse. I wouldn’t have anyone kneeling to me unless it was Gravyn himself, and those who carried out his orders that night.
“Forgive me, my lady!” She kept her forehead pressed to the floor. “I feel responsible for èllia's shame. I should not have encouraged her to come.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said softly. “We all have days like that, right?” I kept my tone light but she still didn’t move.“Please, just get up. Don’t bow to me like this.”
Like Gravyn had people do back home when he passed them in the street.
Still nothing. Gods above, what did this woman expect me to do? Surely not punish her? It wasn’t her fault èllia stormed off crying, and even then it wasn’t like èllia hurt me. Just her own pride. The whole thing was becoming ridiculous, the silence suffocating.
“Get up,” I ordered, forcing as much authority into my voice as I could. “I am ordering you to stand.”
Slowly, Thràena stood and dusted her skirts before clasping her hands in front of her again.
She scarcely blinked, awaiting further instruction.
In her eyes I saw myself whenever Gravyn or Vasten entered a room—the flicker of fear too well-learned.
I didn’t want Thràena to be frightened of me. I needed allies, and fast.
I looked around, the silence pressing on my ribs. “Why don’t we sit over there?”
She followed my gesture to the arched window seat, decorated with pillows and white pelts that spilled to the floor. As if only just realising it wasn’t an order, she followed me and sat beside me, hands folded neatly in her lap.
I caught the crystal attached to the bracelet on her wrist; it glowed a soft amber.
“Are you fated?” I asked, nodding to the bracelet. “Sunstone? Emerias?”
My question seemed to surprise her. She lifted her brows and laughed, covering her mouth as if to hide it. The sound was sweet and light, definitely not something to be embarrassed about. It was so nice to hear her laugh.
It felt like I was with my sisters again.
“I’ll take that as a no,” I said, laughing with her.
“Yes, my lady. I mean—no, not Emer! Emer is my friend.” She turned the crystal slowly, her shoulders finally lowering as pride lit her face.
“My fated one is Lord Kalias. He was a scholar before he came here. Now he’s a member of the king’s court.
He even has his own land and a staff of thirty back at home. ”
“You speak fondly of him.”
Her eyes widened at me. “Of course, my lady. I love him dearly.”
Did she? Or did the gods make her love him through the crystal?
The aelith that guided them together.
I held my thoughts at bay and managed a smile. “So, how do the crystals really work?”
When Thràena stared like I’d grown a second head, I added, “I’ve read about them in the Selenith Archive—even studied them at the academy—but I’ve never actually met someone whose aelith actually worked.”
Blayren had refused to speak of his. After his wife’s death, he stopped wearing it entirely.
Everyone else I’d known was either too young or too afraid of me to answer my questions.
I'd yet to hear a real account of how the aelith felt once it illuminated the crystal.
Did it drive them crazy, like it felt like it was doing to me?
“It was so long ago, my lady, but... I do recall how terrified I was when I stood in front of the Sun Basin. I prayed for red." She smiled shyly. "I suppose we all do that, don’t we? Pray the gods don't give us another kingdom’s colour.”
My crystal hadn’t glowed at all. Not until Daigen.
Why hadn't it glowed when I first touched it?
“Did you feel anything when the crystal glowed?” I asked.
She nodded. “I felt what everyone feels, my lady. The tethering. The magical pull on one’s heartstrings that guides us to our fated one.
The whispering of the gods, that's what my mother called it. She said it was like a thread had lassoed her heart at the Basin, slowly pulling her to my father. It took them years to find each other, even in the same kingdom. I was lucky. Kalias was at the Stargala with me. We were fated that very night.” Her smile slowly faded.
"Not many are so lucky. Some of us wait years, decades, to find our fated one. The king has waited centuries for his.”
My eyes widened in surprise at his age as she turned to me, smiling again.
“We are all so very glad you found each other.”