“Celeste?” I smiled as we left he dining hall, “after the meeting I’m heading into the village with Antoni. Are you going to come?”

“Nope! Auntie Red and Auntie Peri are going to teach me to ride a horse.”

“I… okay. I trust them. Just be careful.”

“She’ll be fine,” Leon clapped me on the shoulder and I felt my knees buckle due to his unexplainable strength, “if I thought for a moment that my niece would be endangered I wouldn’t allow my wives to take her. Trust in us.”

“I do Leon.”

“Good. Celeste?”

“Yes, Uncle Leon?” Celeste smiled, swinging her arms.

“Be good for your aunties okay?”

“Mhm, I will!” She beamed as Red and Peri came up to us, each holding a hand out to Celeste who eagerly joined them, “I’ll be good Papa!”

“I know,” I nodded, watching her leave with them as I chewed my lip.

“Why do you look so conflicted, little brother?” Leon squeezed my shoulder and I sighed softly.

“Cassandra, that’s my wife, was never loving with Celeste after she turned 2. She hasn’t had any good female role models. She’s had me. I’m an okay father, but I’m… scared that she won’t need me anymore with everyone around. She’s only ever had me, Leon.”

“No one can replace her father, Ez. I promise. Even if we all dote on her, she is the only princess in both Nouvelle and Serce now, after all, we won’t spoil her. She will have the same academic and training we did. She has to learn to run the kingdom someday. The first step is teaching her proper etiquette and horse care. Then academia, weapon training when she’s 8, and magic control. No different than us. You’ll remember in time. Antoni teaches weapon care and academic subjects. Red now teaches recruits and children brawling and how to escape holds or dangerous situations. I teach older children sword and lance control. You will eventually take over archery when you remember how to properly shoot. Morgan and Peri handle life skills. But at the end of the day, you teach Celeste how to be a proper adult. How to be kind, caring, loving, and gentle. You show her what love means. Because as her father, you are her role model. No different than Father is mine.”

“Th… Thank you, Leon,” I nodded, “when did you get so smart?”

“I’ve always been smart,” he snorted and pushed me down a hallway on our left.

“No, you weren’t. You were gullible as a child. I used to easily outsmart you and convince you of things.”

“I am an act before I think kind of man. You are the opposite. That’s all,” he grumbled, “my position requires that I move quickly. That doesn’t always grant me the space to think before I move. That’s why I have Red. She is my brain on the battlefield. Where she commands I go. Most soldiers assume I am the Knight Commander. Which, by title, I am. But if they took 10 seconds to analyze the flow during battle, they’d find that Red commands me. I am her arm. She has a mind for tactics that I don’t. I trust in her judgment without question.”

“That is true love, Leon,” I smiled as he opened the door on my left.

“Oh yes. Always,” he smiled back and we entered a large office, “Father. Are we prepared for council?”

“I am,” Chevalier nodded from the head of the table and gestured to the spots on his right and left, “Ezra, you are the left hand of the kingdom. The diplomat, the brain as you always should have been. You have the proper demeanor to handle discussions as we expand and move forward as well as draft war plans. Do not fret though. I shall teach you. Leon is always the right hand. My general. The best fighter in the land. He can command an army better than I ever did. So this is our council. I intend to add Red when Leon marries her. She will join the right arm as our main source of information. Prince Zarian shall join you, Ezra, as another diplomat and you shall have his guidance as well on proper law and things for the kingdoms.”

“It does make more sense to have the gentle prince and wise prince handle the diplomatic affairs,” Leon laughed, taking his chair.

“Seeing as our sailors are discovering further lands as time goes on, I agree,” Chevalier smiled as I took my spot, “which is why I’d like to propose something to the two of you. I understand that without Zarian this will not be able to come to fruition. But I am considering asking that he surrender Serce to Nouvelle. To combine the land into one kingdom. Instead of two kings, Nouvelle shall stand as the only kingdom and Serce will have a Duke or Duchess. They will still be their own land, but they will be under our control. By combining both, we control half of this continent,” he ran his finger along a map that lay in the center of the table, showing that if Nouvelle were to absorb Serce, it would nearly triple in size, dwarfing Alanin.

“And what of the forest?” I circled Wickersham Forest, “would you absorb that land as well?”

“No. It is necessary for Wickersham to stay neutral. Alanin was always a land that kept to themselves. Until Myran, they rarely bothered us, only the occasional battle breaking out along the border when they fell on difficult times and would try and steal things from Nouvelle rather than ask for assistance.”

“Zarian will agree,” Leon nodded, “to combining the kingdoms. The civilians will as well. They can build more villages between Serce and Nouvelle. Marry easier. The kingdoms should have always joined as one. I never understood why the king or queen of Nouvelle would marry the king or queen of Serce but didn’t bother to put them together. The logic of not doing so until now is baffling.”

“Ancient prophecy, Leon,” Chevalier sighed, “that we couldn’t break. The kingdoms were not to combine until the birth of the morning son. S-o-n not the light form. So we cannot do it until the next Prince is born. Be he Serce or Nouvelle it does not matter. But we can plan now. To ensure that as soon as we have Zarian safe and a new Prince in the family line, the changes will be easy. Celeste will still ascend the throne,” Chevalier nodded at me, “Unless she chooses to pass along her birth rite. As Leon did to you.”

“We’ll have to see as she grows,” I shrugged, leaning back in my seat and closing my eyes, “I’m sorry. I’m still struggling to believe that all of this is real.”

“I can understand that,” Chevalier squeezed my arm and I opened my eyes to look at him, “you returned to us at a rough time. It would be different if we weren’t desperate to find Zarian.”

“He’s been missing for over a decade. Why are we in such a rush to find him now? Not that I don’t want to save him, please don’t misunderstand that.”

“Without him, we have no way to stop Myran. I highly doubt that Myran has interacted with him in any way as everyone knows that Zarian can drain someone's magic and use it for himself.”

“What is Myran even capable of?”

“Destruction,” Leon sighed, “when you build something, say a castle,” he grabbed a few books from a shelf behind him and stacked them on the table, “you build so that it has a strong base. Add materials along the way to ensure that even if rammed it isn’t going to stagger or fall. But,” he pulled the middle book out quickly, causing the top few to fall to the floor, “if you can simply grab from the middle or essentially make it disappear, then everything tumbles. Myran can disintegrate things by touch. Your heart, buildings, anything. But he has to touch it. We are unsure how he even gained magic coming from the Land of Reason.”

“But… Alice was from the Land of Reason and she was able to construct magical barriers correct?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“What… do you mean?” Leon looked at me confused, gathering the books.

“How was a woman from the Land of Reason capable of magic if this shouldn’t be possible? My theory is that she believed she could and the land granted her the ability to do so. I guarantee that’s what happened to Myran. He wanted desperately to be able to do some form of magic and the land granted his wish. As it did when I wished to be somewhere safe and I fell back through a portal with Celeste. We need scholars. People who study the magic in the land. That needs to be instituted when this war is over. We will continue to get visitors from the Land of Reason you can’t pretend that we won’t. Are there people in Nouvelle or Serce who can’t do magic?”

“No. Everyone can it’s not rare here.”

“So it makes sense that people who accept staying here would suddenly gain the ability as well.”

“But Myran didn’t want to stay,” Chevalier sighed, getting to his feet and heading to a window that overlooked the village below us, “he constantly proclaims that he needs to return to the Land of Reason to find his true love once again. That he left her behind.”

“His plan to get back is to kill people? To take over Serce then Nouvelle?”

“Apparently.”

“But… I was able to control the gates right? The portals between lands?”

“Yes.”

“If I regain my ability, discover how I can use it again… can’t I simply send him through one and seal it?”

Chevalier turned quickly as Leon’s head snapped up and they both stared at me as if I had three heads.

“Neither of you had considered that… did you?” I laughed softly.

“W-We uh…” Leon rubbed the nape of his neck before groaning, “No. We didn’t.”

“But opening a portal requires far more power than closing one does, Ezra. I am unsure if you can even garner the power to do so,” Chevalier tapped his knuckles against the glass, a clear anxious tick that he had passed to me as I regularly knocked my knuckles into surfaces when I was anxious.

“How does one increase their power?” I started looking through the council room, trying to find anything I could on magic and its properties but discovering that most books on the shelves were war stratagem.

“The only one who will know is Zarian I believe. He was the leading authority, even at 14, on magical growth.”

“Then we find him. But I can’t do that until my power comes back. I have no… huh?” a strange sound came from my left and I whipped my head to the side, reacting far before Chevalier and Leon did, “Move!” I shouted as the doors blew open, purple sparks scattering across the walls and floor and hitting Leon before he could react.

Where I had expected him to fall due to whatever attack this was, Leon rolled his shoulders and grabbed his sword from its sheath, coming to stand in front of me.

“Now, now,” a small figure came into the room, “there is no need for that your Princeliness.”

“Jothen,” Leon hissed.

“Hello,” Jothen giggled.

Jothen came no higher than my chest, their hair and eyes the same vibrant indigo clashing against the forest green of their clothes, a singular jumpsuit made of some kind of leather. They were carrying a small staff in their hand, twirling it in circles and a wicked smile graced their face, looking far more intimidating due to the blood-red tone of their lips.

“How did you get into the castle?”

“I put everyone outside to sleep. Don’t worry. No one is injured. We heard a… rumor that the long-lost prince returned and Father decided it was best I came to discover if the rumors were true. The stupid cat and dressmaker hid him away before I could introduce myself. Confused me for Father.”

“Myran… is your father?” I whispered and Jothen immediately looked into my eyes, causing me to shrink back a bit.

“Oh. Well now. You are a beautiful specimen, aren’t you? Far more regal than your brother. Far more fitting to be king. But I can sense that in you, Ezra Nouvelle. The cowardice. Why are you afraid? I won’t hurt you. I came to make a deal.”

“W-What is it?”

“I want to make a deal. We shall release Prince Zarian to King Chevalier. In return, you shall come to Alanin and marry into the Alaninian line. You will be my spouse. Unite Nouvelle and Alanin. Destroy Serce. If you wish to have Prince Zarian returned with no more fighting, you will trade yourself for him.”

“Why not marry Zari? If you want to combine lands.”

“Because he is unable to open portals between the Land of Reason and Alanin. But you can. It will make Father so happy! To reunite him with Mother!”

“I…”

The sound of a bow snapping filled the room and Jothen let out a screech, gripping at their chest as the tip of an arrow came through, blood spurting and covering the maps, table, and myself. They fell slowly to their knees and when I looked past them, I found Antoni, another arrow in position as he aimed directly at Jothen.

“How?” Jothen sputtered, blood coming from their mouth.

“Your magic does not work on me, Jothen. I am of the fae. Remember? We taught you. Now, would you like me to end this here? Or would you like to scuttle back to your father?”

“I can’t die here.”

“I figured as such,” Antoni shrugged and lowered his bow, a small whisper in a strange language falling from his lips, his normal sunflower yellow eyes now black as midnight, and as soon as he blinked, Jothen disappeared, “Are any of you hurt?”

“No,” Leon shook his head, “I cannot be injured by dark magic. Ez?”

“I… I’m fine,” I continued to stare at Antoni before a sudden thought blared through my mind and I broke into a dead sprint, tearing through the castle and out of the back gates to the horse stable, “Celeste! Red! Peri!”

I found the three of them lying in the grass just outside of the horse stable, all of the horses running, clearly confused, and I squatted down, running my fingers through Celeste’s hair.

“Hang on,” Antoni suddenly appeared next to me and softly pressed his lips to Celeste’s forehead, “awaken.”

Celeste slowly opened her eyes, confusion clear on her face and I helped her to sit up, holding her tightly, “Papa? I was asleep!”

“I know baby. But you shouldn’t have been. Are you hurt?”

“Nope. I’m fine,” she shrugged.

“Good. Good, I was so worried.”

“Fuck,” Red groaned, “what happened?”

“Jothen,” Antoni woke up Peri just after muttering Jothen’s name, “they want Ezra. I will not allow that to happen.”

“Antoni?” I called softly and he looked over at me, “What did you do?”

“I sent him away, my liege,” Antoni smiled.

“How?”

“Ah. You uh… don’t remember that’s correct. May I take you somewhere?”

“I…” Looking down at Celeste, I felt relief to find that she was okay, simply confused and I nodded slowly, “Very well. Peri?”

“Yes,” Peri smiled, fussing over Red who was trying to smack her hands away.

“Can I trust the two of you to watch over Celeste so I can speak with Antoni?”

“Of course. She can stay with me whenever she wishes!”

“Thank you,” kissing Celeste on the forehead, I watched as she ran over to Peri before getting to my feet and holding a hand out to Antoni to pull him up. He froze for a moment before taking my hand and as soon as he touched me golden sparks shot from our connected hands, making me jump while he simply smiled, “What in the world?”

“I shall explain, Your Highness. Please. Follow me,” Antoni started off toward a grove of trees, something that surprised me as I assumed we’d be heading into the castle.

Of the fae…

What did Antoni mean?

Fae…

Fairy.

Antoni is a fairy?