Farryn fell in and out of sleep, her fever worsening in waves. Iris came knocking, begging to check on her, and Farryn barricaded the door shut, resting her head on the cool wood. No one was allowed in. She wouldn't let anyone enter.

She'd made the mistake before. As she fell in and out of restless sleep, she remembered. Rin, sneaking into her room even though her mother had forbidden her, pressing sweets and sugar cubes into Farryn's palm. She would stand at the door when her mother was around and wave through the little window. You shouldn't have let her in, her mind taunted her every time she came up for air, drenched in sweat, in a different spot from where she was when she had dozed off.

Once she'd woken on the bed, blankets piled on top of her, Iris standing above her. She was talking to someone else in the room. "It's not Sireglow..." Farryn fell unconscious again before she could fully process it. Sireglow had taken her cousin and her mother. It had taken her father. It had taken everyone she'd ever loved.

Sireglow had come creeping into Jurel from the east. It had come into their home with her father, when he'd returned from one of his trips. He'd died before the family knew what was happening, before the sickness had spread across the kingdom and doctors had closed up, locking patients in their practices and then burning the buildings to the ground.

Another time she woke up, Claud was by the door, Luli standing behind him. "Farryn? Can we come in?" She wanted to scream for Luli to stay away, but sleep stole her before she could even open her mouth.

Sireglow had spread so fast. The Queen had ordered that anyone with the illness sacrifice themselves for the greater good. There was no cure, no medicine. One could only hope to wait it out; wait for the mysterious poison to leech out of your bloodstream, for the blood dripping from your lips to run red again, instead of gold. But by then, everyone around you would be infected. There was no survival rate. You were meant to die.

So selfish her mind whispered to her. It was right. Farryn should have died, should have joined the Parade of Death marching to the pyres they'd built in Isev. But she hadn't. She'd let her mother smuggle her to Serval's. They weren't burning people alive there yet. Her mother had been so sure they could wait it out.

When Farryn was fully conscious and aware again, it felt like years had passed. The dress she was wearing pooled around her shoulders, and her head swam when she tried to sit up. "Hello?" she called out, frightened by the silence. No answer. She tried to bite back the panic, but found she was too weak.

Everyone is dead. she muttered to herself, staring at the ceiling. How would she get out of here? So selfish. Should she just rid the world of herself? She'd done so much damage. She'd brought-

"You're awake." Iris appeared in the doorway, and Farryn stared at her with muted shock. "Sit up. I'll get you some food." "Stay aw-" "Now stop telling me that. You've scared all of us." Iris pressed a cold hand to Farryn's forehead. "Your fever has broken. You'll be fine. I'll get you something to eat."

Farryn wanted to tell her to stop as she approached the door again, worried that once she vanished she'd never come back. But she did, holding a tray of hearty soup, with Luli in tow.

Luli stared up at her with big eyes. Farryn stared back down at her. She was alive too.

"You'll have to eat up. You've been down almost a week and I could hardly get anything into you." Iris put down the tray on Farryn's lap, helped her sit up. "It's just a cold," she said as Farryn stared into the bowl. "You'll be fine in a few days."

She didn't know what to say. Sorry? Thank you? Please leave me be? It was just a cold. It wasn't Sireglow. She wouldn't have to die; at least, not yet.

She took a spoonful of soup as Iris left the room. Luli was still staring up at Farryn, but Farryn found she could not meet her eyes.

It took a while for Farryn to get back on her feet, but once she did she didn't waste a second. She dragged herself to the bathroom and washed the smell of sick off herself, and scrubbed her hair. She hung around the nursery, but Iris insisted she go back to bed and rest, so she returned to her room and pulled out Liviana's file.

Liviana, Last name Unknown

Approximated Age- 15-16 years of age

Heritage and Origin- Jurel-Kirmin. Orphaned during the Sireglow outbreak.

Employment Record- Employed in Sorso Manor at age 10-11, dismissed.

Sorso Manor. Even though the newspaper was long gone, ruined by water and sweat, Farryn knew that was what it had said. The newspaper article she'd found 4 years after her mother's death, with a list of Lazarus workhouses' latest hires. The first implication that Liviana was still alive and still out there.

She turned away from the page with the basic hiring information and to the next, with bi-monthly reports on her work. It seemed Liviana had been employed little over a year, as a "General House Maid". Works diligently and silently was the first note. As Farryn read on, fighting sleep, the notes seemed to grow worse. Absent from duties. Injured. More absences, more descriptions of injuries. And then, in the very back of the folder, a detailed entry,

Liviana did not report for duty on the morning of Hilix 27th. She was expected to report for duty in the kitchens at 5:00 am sharp, but she did not appear at all that morning.

Lord Nevan Trison was meant to join his mother and father for a brief breakfast at 8:00 am that morning before going to meet up with an acquaintance in town. Lord Nevan never woke and was found dead in his chambers by Claud Ijrna

Claud? Farryn stared at the paper, blinking incredulously. Claud had found the body, and he hadn't bothered to mention it to her. She felt anger course through her, remembering when he'd come with Luli. She'd kill him.

Claud found the body of Lord Nevan Trison in his bed, with a kitchen knife stabbed through his heart. Between the knife and the body was a piece of paper that Claud proclaimed to be a love letter. The love letter was collected, but not a lot of the text was discernable as it was mostly soaked in blood. Liviana was confirmed to have been seen fleeing the estate hours earlier by a watch guard who had let her out at about three in the morning. The Guard stated that she told him she had been sent to fetch emergency supplies in the town. Liviana has since disappeared without a trace.

Farryn dug her nails into her palm in a bid to steady her spinning head. All the evidence pointed to Liviana. She'd been in a relationship with Nevan and killed him. But Farryn couldn't imagine her darling little sister killing a man. She remembered the day a snake had slithered into their house. Their father hadn't been around, and their mother was so scared she'd locked herself in her room and refused to come out. One of the servants had a cutlass, ready to kill the snake, but Liviana had sobbed so loudly and clung to his leg to stop him from killing the poor creature. She would never be able to murder a man. Unless something drastic had pushed her to it.

Farryn considered it. What would push Liviana to kill? Nevan and Cordelia would already have been engaged when Liviana met him. What would have moved Nevan to want to cut Liviana off? Was that even the case?

She shook her head, shoved the folder under the mattress. She would think about all that later. She'd been lying around in bed, useless, for days now. If she didn't get up and get to work, she'd risk being fired.

Even though she still felt weak, Farryn tidied herself up and then hurried to the nursery. Iris was sitting quietly with Luisa in her arms, rocking back and forth. Farryn was just about to enter the room and join her when she realized there was someone else in the room.

"Please." the voice was delicate, velvety smooth. Familiar. "I'll give you all the money you could need." "Having crib-robber attached to my name will not be enough," Iris said. Whoever she was speaking with was just out of view, on the other side of the door. Farryn stepped out of the doorway and pressed herself against the wall to eavesdrop.

"I just can't do it. She's already threatened to do something to me so many times." the woman's voice hitched, as though she was holding back tears. "What will she do to it? I want you to take it far, far away from here, Iris. Please." Suddenly, Farryn realized where she recognized the voice from. That night in the library. Lady Cordelia. What was she begging Iris for? "I won't do it. It will ruin my career." "Please. I don't know what to-" her voice hitched again, and Cordelia suddenly appeared, drawing closer to Iris. "Please. All my money. I'll sell my dresses if I have to. I'll send you as far away as possible, no on will ever know it isn't yours-"

Suddenly, everything clicked. The whispered conversation in the library. The dresses Cordelia wore; long, elegant, with huge skirts. The way she'd clung to her father the day that Farryn had glimpsed her through the window.

The book. Baby names for the expecting mother.

Cordelia was pregnant.