Epilogue 1
The Niceties Of Normality
Seated at the round table in the grand council room of Sorlia’s castle, Eli bounced Nova on her knee, making her daughter coo happily.
Despite this, however, her attention remained fixed on a scene on the opposite side of the bright, round room.
“My da and Mr. Howard still at it?” Tam’s voice sounded in Eli’s ear.
She nodded without taking her sights off Mr. Howard, who was clutching his hair and saying something to the house witch, who had his arms folded and a grin on his face.
Tam sighed. “That will probably go on for a while yet. Ready to head home?”
Eli rose from her seat, her gaze at last pulling free of the two older men taunting each other like mischievous youths.
“Almost. Would you be able to take Nova for a while? The coven sent over the book on the red thread theory.”
Tam accepted his daughter into his arms easily, his eyebrows rising. “Really? They’re finally cooperating?”
Eli huffed. “In their defense, their entire council was overhauled. The new curator of the records barely knows which end to open a book.”
Tam lowered his face and shot her a look that said, Was that not a bit harsh?
Eli emitted a faint grumble in response.
With a knowing chuckle, Tam shifted Nova in his arms as she wriggled with dissatisfaction over being still. “Well, the school is almost built, so hopefully things will start to be more organized going forward.”
Eli’s mouth twisted. She wasn’t at all convinced.
Any new establishment— especially one that had not existed before—was going to take a while to function reliably.
She expected this would be especially difficult since witches had not been given an annexed land or temples to command, but instead three representative witches to participate on the king’s council, as well as schools with expansive grounds for their students to live with their families should their abilities need to be trained in a safe supportive environment.
In other words, a community. The matter of what positions witches held in society was still being discussed, but that would take time.
Tam, assuming his father’s role as diplomat, was the negotiator between the three witches, and the rest of the king’s council.
The schools would be run at the discretion of witches, save for the subjects of history, law, the representation of ancient beasts, humans and witches, and the Daxarian government—which was itself going through an overhaul of power distribution.
That said, if the students or staff broke any core rules of Daxaria pertaining to harming individuals, treason, and so on, they would still be held to the law.
There were talks of merging the mage school with the witch school like Troivack was doing, but that was not accepted by the remaining coven members.
“I’ll wait for you,” Tam informed Eli, breaking through her thoughts.
Blinking herself back to the present, she straightened her shoulders. “No, no. Please head home. Remember, Harris has been alone with their own sons, Luca, and Penelope all day.”
Tam blanched at the reminder.
Thus far, the extended stay of the duke and his family had gone relatively well, save for a few incidents. Three out of five had involved fire.
“Right. I’ll get home, but try not to take too long,” Tam added before dropping a kiss onto her head. “There’s only so much common sense I can implement without you.”
Eli gave a dry smile, another nod, and proceeded out of the council room, inclining her head subtly to a few of the other noblemen and councilors she passed.
As she walked down the corridor in the direction of the king’s office, her eyes drifted thoughtfully to the black-and-white-tiled floors. It felt as though she hadn’t had a chance to catch her breath in the two months since their marriage, thanks to the glut of work she had taken on.
Upon reaching the pale wood of the ornate double doors leading to the king’s office, Eli informed the guards of her intention to speak with Eric.
They knocked and announced her presence, and she was instantly waved through the door.
She was surprised to find Eric alone behind his desk, with his assistant Morgan Linsey nowhere to be found.
“Ah. Eli, I didn’t mean to make you stay late,” Eric called while rising from his seat. He reached to his side and picked up a hickory-colored leather book with aged, uneven page edges. “You could’ve picked this up tomorrow.”
“I’ve been waiting for this book for months,” she said by way of explanation.
Eric tilted his head. “That you have. While you’re here, how are the curriculum discussions going with the witches?”
Eli grimaced. She had been the one tasked with sorting out that detail with the coven members turned teachers. “The debate about the portrayal of the first witch and ancient beasts in history is ongoing.”
Eric nodded somberly, his gaze falling to the book in his hands in a distracted manner as he moved around his desk and handed the tome to Eli.
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” she said with a bow.
“We’re alone. Just call me Eric,” the king ordered with a casual wave as he turned toward the two comfortable armchairs facing each other beneath the tall glass windows.
Eli’s boots shifted in the direction of the door, until another topic appeared in her mind. “Your M— Eric, have you heard any word from the Lobahlan government about Hamil and Bes?”
The king sank into the comfortable embrace of his faded emerald-green armchair with a quiet groan. “Aside from receiving verification of their return, and answering a few of the questions they sent us, I haven’t.”
Eli didn’t mask her disappointment. Despite the less-than-amicable terms things had ended on, she wished the two Lobahlans a good life.
“I hear you and Tam will be leaving for Likon’s wedding in the next fortnight,” Eric brought up lightly.
Eli made her way over to the other armchair and eased herself down; she sensed their conversation would carry on a mite longer than she had expected.
“Yes. Though I confess, I’d hoped to have a bit more of a rest before we set off again,” she lamented.
Eric grinned. “Harris is really enjoying having you in the family, I take it?”
“He’s enjoying it far too much.” Eli didn’t hide her weariness. “I just want to rest at home at the end of a long day.” She reached up with her left hand and rubbed soothing circles into her left temple.
“Mm-hm, and look into red string theories apparently,” Eric added with a pointed look at the book in Eli’s hands.
Her gaze fell down to the textured surface of the text.
“Tam mentioned seeing us connected by a red thread when he was in his void, but only when I’m in beast form.
Which makes sense with me being his familiar, but the theories I know of suggest that we all have multiple red threads to those with whom we share destinies and fates.
So why wouldn’t there be other threads he can see? ”
Eric pondered this. “Perhaps it has to do with the soul. A familiar is tied to a witch’s soul and so, in his void, he can only see what is tied directly to him.”
Eli shrugged. “It’s possible, but I’d like to find other answers. Even Kat says that when she turns her sights inward, she sees her connections with people as red threads. So, why does Tam only see the one?”
“Why is it… you only remember to refer to my wife informally?” Eric asked with a wry note.
Eli graced the king with a flat look. “Because your wife constantly acts informally, whereas you tend to at least act like a king for most of the day.” She paused. “And because she would take it upon herself to be even more annoying if I didn’t.”
At this, the king grinned. “Fair enough.”
“A soul bond…” Eli muttered to herself, her mind already becoming distracted.
She thought about the way familiars could share images and emotions with their witches.
How they always came when their witches called them.
It did suggest a connection of the soul.
So why was the queen connected to so many people?
Did it have something to do with the sharing and receiving of power?
“I can tell you are going to spend a lot of time on this,” Eric noted with a brief chuckle.
Eli closed her eyes with a sigh. “My apologies. You know I don’t like loose ends. Have you considered how Daxaria is going to plan for its long-term growth with the decline of witches?”
Eric balked. “Leave it to you to ask the hard questions out of nowhere.”
She did not feel any form of guilt as she stared expectantly at him.
Seeing this, Eric shook his head with another laugh.
“I’d like to explore the idea of magical items. Similar to the ones you claim the Lobahlans mentioned.
But without any help from their government, I’m afraid we’re at a loss.
Kasim Jelani has also said that pressing Lobahl for answers and revealing that we know about the items will result in Bes and Hamil facing a far more severe punishment. ”
Eli eased back farther in her seat. It was a bit of a conundrum.
“So… how’s married life?”
Eli arched an eyebrow. “You’re just trying to get out of a serious conversation.”
“Of course I am. I’ve been in meetings since daybreak. This is my downtime, and I haven’t gotten to speak one-on-one with you in months.”
Eli rolled her eyes but decided not to press the matter. “Married life is fine. It is nice to not have the wedding hanging over our heads. We can just get through work and go to bed.”
Eric grinned as he fiddled with his own wedding band. “Your opinion on Tam hasn’t changed since you saw him drunk at the reception?”
At the reminder of how everyone had joined forces—herself included—to see Tam inebriated, Eli’s lips twitched. “Well, I now know we’re more similar than I realized.”
The king’s smile widened. “You also get stuck in trees when sloshed?”
“Not too often, but—”
“You hoard pillows and blankets and make a fort, then bar anyone from entering?”
Eli couldn’t stop a chortle. “The intention behind him building the fort was—”
“You also lock the Troivackian king in a closet on occasion?”
The last of Eli’s composure crumbled as she burst out in full-blown laughter at the memory.
Tam truly had been an absolutely marvelous form of entertainment that night.
“I confess he is a lot better at leapfrog than I ever will be,” she contributed, her cheeks aching.
Eric had crumbled into hysterics at the mention of the stern Troivackian king getting locked in in the linen closet. At the reminder of Tam playing the child’s game with the Ryu brothers, he found himself leaning forward in his armchair and covering his eyes as he continued to laugh heartily.
When the two eventually calmed down, the king leaned back in his seat, a smile still lighting his face. “Gods… I would’ve aimed to get Tam absolutely skunked at every family gathering if I had known.”
Eli gave another giggle while wiping an errant tear of humor from her face.
“I’m glad you’re happy.”
Eric’s words made Eli blush as she met his sincere gaze.
She dropped her hand to her lap. “Me too. I never thought I’d be the marrying type, but… here we are.”
Still smiling, the king’s sights drifted over to the window as he took in a deep breath. “I’ll let you get out of here. I’m sure you want to go make sure your keep is still standing. Hopefully the Harris family has left your library renovation alone.”
At this suggestion, all joviality faded from Eli’s face. “They’d better have left it alone. After paying all the fines to ensure Tam didn’t go to prison after the castle incident, it was either the library or a honeymoon, and I don’t want to see it be reduced to rubble.”
Eric nodded knowingly. “Don’t worry. Between your own and Tam’s work ethics, I’ve no doubt you two will be comfortable again soon.”
“He’s not locked up and still has his titles. We are plenty comfortable,” Eli assured him seriously.
Eric held up his hands in surrender while coming to his feet. He wouldn’t try to placate a wound that did not exist.
As the pair approached the office door, the king turned to Eli just before reaching for the handle. “I’ll see you at the family dinner?”
“Of course. It’s the last one we’ll have before Harris leaves and we depart for Troivack.”
The king opened the door, allowing a swath of sunshine to pour in. “Wonderful. Charlie has some new books he wants to show Penelope, and Antony wants to practice his swordsmanship with Luca.”
Eli bobbed her head.
“Sorry I didn’t offer you tea,” Eric added as Eli stepped back into the corridor.
She looked over her shoulder, a rueful smile lifting the corners of her mouth when she took in the king’s teasing expression. “I’m grateful you didn’t.”
“I’ll brew a good cup for you one day!” Eric announced with a jesting tone.
Shaking her head, Eli shifted the book in her hands under her arm. “Please, Your Majesty, I’d hate to hurt your feelings now that we’re family.”
With a final laugh and a wave, the two parted, and Eli continued to make her way to the castle’s front entrance to ask for a carriage to take her home, only to find Tam and Nova still there waiting for her. He stood near the grand front doors, which were sixty feet from the foot of the stairs.
Despite the distance, Eli cast a questioning look at her husband.
Tam crossed the vast space between them and kissed her forehead. “I’m not going to leave my wife to ride alone when I just had to wait an hour.”
“You’re scared to go back and deal with the chaos alone, aren’t you?” Eli guessed.
Her husband cleared his throat and feigned an innocent look while grasping her hand in his own. “Come on. Nova’s getting fussy.”
Their daughter was actually asleep against his shoulder and drooling quite happily.
Smiling, Eli didn’t bother saying anything more on the matter.
She was actually quite glad to have him with her on the journey home, as she knew they could then discuss her new book on the way without interruption.
This idea alone was enough to make her mood match the beautiful evening they stepped out to find.