present

The fervent clicks of boot heels tapped down the hall as Verity’s governess, Kleio Gerathy, stormed down the hall, pushing her charge towards the counterweight elevator that would take them directly to the top floor in the quickest amount of time. It would also allow Kleio the privacy to berate the Imperatrix for her tardiness and appearance.

“Of all days, Verity! Of all the days I needed you to show a little maturity and responsibility, today has been the most important yet, and what happened? You show up late, windblown and grime covered. I expressly forbid you from leaving the palace today, and you blatantly disobeyed me! Your lady’s maids have been combing the palace for you- I thought I was going to have to send out a search party! I can only imagine the reaction from you parents if you had failed to show up, and I would have had to explain you were missing-”

“But, I did show up!” Verity argued. “I’m here. I’m safe. So, I was a little late? No one died. The realms didn’t collapse.”

The car came to a stop at the top floor, and Kleio placed her hands on the doors to keep Verity from opening it and running off.

“Vera,” she sighed. “You’re not a child anymore. In a handful of years, you’ll be a legal adult- you’ll be old enough to take the throne if, Sister’s Mercy,” Kleio held her hand upwards towards the Infinite, “that something should happen to your parents.” She let her shoulders relax, and took her hands from bars on the door to place on the shoulders of her charge. “Your parents love you, Verity, and they worry about you every day. I love you more than you’ll ever know, like my own child. But, the love of your people is not unconditional. If they do not trust you are fit to lead, they will revolt against you.” Kleio could see the guilt growing in Verity’s widening eyes. “I do not want to see twelve generations of Starling rule come to an end with you.”

“They won’t trust me anyway, Kleio.” Verity said very quietly. “Some of them think my Paragon blood makes me an accident waiting to happen. Other are just waiting to see which of us Blends go bad, just like the Deserters when they banished our parents out of the Infinite.”

“Why then be someone who lives up to the expectations they have for you?”

Verity’s eyes narrowed, and her voice took on an edge as if fighting the urge to be insulted. “Why not just be true to myself, and curse the critics?” She managed to get her hands on the barred doors, and force them open as she pushed between them and Kleio. But, she paused before making more than a few steps away from the elevator. “Sometimes I wish I could just enjoy being Verity, instead of ‘Avadiel’s and Rowans kid’. Unfortunately, now that I have a Sentinel, that’s never going to happen.”

“Be careful what you wish for, my glory,” Using the endearment she had used since Verity was small, Kleio brushed some of the windblown hair out of Verity’s eyes,. “The Sister’s just might grant it.”