The Queen is standing before her, in resplendent robes of ivory and scarlet. She swirls wine in a goblet as she looks down her nose at her loyal knight and servant. “Ah, Idun, you’ve finally returned.”

Idun snapped to a stiff bow, cape billowing out from the jerkiness of her motion. “Your Highness. I have returned from the mission you bestowed upon me.”     “And?”    “The Emperor of Threeneer gave me this missive.”

    Still bowed low, Idun brings out the missive from Threeneer. The queen strides forward and takes it in one elegant hand. Idun raised her head a fraction, and said, half as a question, “We were wrong; there never was an invasion nor attack planned.”

The queen breaks the seal and reads the letter. Her eyes move silently, betraying nothing. After several long minutes, she speaks.

“And you believed the emperor when he told you so. Why?”    “I spent months travelling through the entire country of Threeneer. I saw no sign of impending war.” She thinks back upon the child free to attend school through their teens, without worry of needing to fight. And of a bowl of fresh fruit for a former enemy. 

“In fact, I saw for myself that is was a nation that has known and expects to know and keep peace, though I realized it late.” Idun pauses.

“Your highness, did you not know that their Emperor couldn’t be killed?”

“No, I knew that old fop was incorporeal.” She folds the note back up, holding it loosely in one hand. 

“You know Idun, you’ve really ruined things for me. Until you walked through the city today, I had thought you were locked up in a Threeneer dungeon, slated to be executed.”

 “What did you expect me to be able to do? And why did you not tell me everything I needed to know?”

The queen sighs in frustration. “Because, cousin,” Idun flinches at the familial reference, “I told you exactly what you needed to know to do your job: and yet you couldn’t even get yourself killed and martyred right. I needed this war, because I needed an excuse to plunder Threeneer's riches. And I needed you to die as the perfect justification. And yet you-- went with your sword and armor and just, what? Talked things through with the Emperor? I never foresaw that you could have failed me so utterly.”

She crumples the letter in her fingers, suddenly violent and cruel.

“You...from the very beginning…”

“The commonfolk love you, you know. More so than they ever have me.” A light breeze stirs, whispering through hair as if in warning. “Even after your useless talent was revealed, even after you were stripped of house and joined the guard. Maybe it’s because they see you as like them. Weak.”       

 Wind whips through Iduns hair and cloak, springing up from nowhere.     “Easily manipulated.”    The queen lets go of the letter, and the air shreds it to pieces and casts each torn fragment into the fireplace. 

“You should’ve realized long before now how little I could afford to keep you around.”

Idun snarls and draws her sword. “You wanted to lead Gelicost to war, to take by force from our neighbors. Threeneer’s big enough to crush us!”     She advances on the queen. “Do you know how many of our own soldiers would’ve died?! You’ve betrayed us!”

Idun runs at the queen. With a wave of her silver-ringed hand, a gust of wind strikes Idun in the chest, knocking her back. She tries to rise, but the queen flicks her wrist and sends her flying with even greater force. Idun crashes through an elegant set of doors, back-first, and slides out onto the same balcony she left Gelicost from, so many months ago. There is blood from her shoulders, seeping warm and cold at the same into her clothing and down her spine. There is blood from her head, running down her forehead and dripping onto the tiled stone beneath her. She shakes her head, splattering drops across the stones. “You’re a traitor to Gelicost,” she gasps, reaching out for the hilt of her sword once more.

The Queen strode out after her, skirts rippling. “No Idun, I am Gelicost. You are to be the traitor; after today I’ll be announcing your defection to Threeneer.”

She looms over Idun, who is struggling to rise, sword in hand. 

“Shame you won’t be around to defend yourself.”

Idun stumbles to her feet and lunges, but gets knocked back once more, this time over the edge. She looses her grip on her sword, and it spirals away from her. Her last glimpse of the Queen of Gelicost is her striding back into the palace.