“So, he’s really sure that he’s okay? He’s not still hurting as bad as before?” Syrion asks, clearly just as concerned as I am. The three of us sit at a little dark wood, circular table that Faelix had someone make and bring into the main room of his living quarters for us to have our meals at, instead of sitting on the bed or on the floor like we had for the first few days of his recovery.

“Supposedly, the lashes are more closed now, so at least he won’t risk infection as easily. But they still need the salve, so I made sure he let me at least cover them with some gauze and medical tape so it was less restricting than the bandages were.” I shrug, sighing as I look down at the comfortably bundled up Aryones napping in my arms.

I hear Nalik sigh, knowing he was shaking his head as well, “I can’t believe he’s going back to training now, it’s barely been three weeks and the salve and his body hasn’t gotten close to finishing its healing process. He’s going to just make it take longer by going back now.” It made me wonder for just a moment if he could hear my thoughts, having thought and even voiced those same things when Faelix told me he was going to get back to training with his men.

“It’s not exactly an option for him. He could end up looking weak for not getting back into their usual conduct. Honestly, his father likely sees him as weak for even taking a break at all. His men thankfully won’t because many actually know the pain of being at the end of a switch.” Syrion explains, much like the explanation that Faelix gave me this morning. I give a solemn nod in agreement with Syrion, not looking up from Aryones’s precious little face.

“His father’s opinion is nothing more than utter bullshit.” Nalik grumbles, causing a little laugh to bubble out of me as I try my best not to disturb my little napping bundle.

“That’s certainly something we can all agree with.” Syrion chuckles softly.

Staring out the window sent a pang of longing through me, catching sight of Nalik as he and the guard he’s grown very mutually attached to walk over to the still snow covers hedges. It hadn’t occurred to me just how much it would hurt to likely never get to show my little Aryones the beauties of the palace gardens. And that sad thought quickly lead to the anxieties that came from wondering what we were going to do as he grows. How would we explain to him that he can’t leave this room or any other room we manage to sneak him to? What if he gets too curious and sneaks away from us when he gets older? What are we going to do now if he cries too loud and someone not meant to be in these hall tells Faelix’s father that they heard something odd? It’s not as if Faelix can be here every moment of every day to protect from every threat to us either.

Aryones is already in severe danger for simply existing outside of Faelix’s father’s control. Me and Faelix are in danger for housing him and even our friends and trusted people are in danger for not saying a word about us housing him. And all of us will more than likely face a painful death if or when we’re ever caught.

I hated the urge to run that came through me as these thoughts grew worse and worse, and the longer I’m left alone, the louder the voice telling me to run gets. It wasn’t something I was entirely unused to, but the little voice to run had never gotten this loud before. Nor had it ever got so insistent. But I couldn’t just run. Where would I even go? How would I plan to take care of Aryones? What would Faelix think of me running? I can’t do that to him. not when he’s doing his best to keep us happy and comfortable and protected.

I sigh and tell myself to talk to Faelix about these raging anxieties when he gets back from a meeting with his father. I hope he hasn’t gotten into any more trouble, I don’t like the idea of him getting any more hurt. It makes my stomach churn at the worry that comes with knowing how his father is.

﴾﴿﴾﴿﴾﴿Faelix﴾﴿﴾﴿﴾﴿

“Excuse me?” I stare down at my father, ignoring smug reptilian bastard and his own father sitting in front of me at my father’s desk. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing now, there was no way my father was going to try doing this to me. It has to be some terrible joke.

“Do you really need to make me repeat myself?” My father dares to ask in an annoyed tone, as if my utter disbelief was unjustified in this moment.

“I think you do need to repeat yourself, father.” My voice was dripping with absolute distain at just the idea of what they were suggesting.

“Oh, come now, Faelix. It’s not as if this should be completely unexpected, it’s been in the works since a few months after your lovely sister rejected me in such a harsh manner. Harsher than necessary might I add.” The reptilian bastard chimed in, only managing to turn my distain and disbelief into pure fury.

“If any of you think for one second that I will go along with this, I will make you wish you were still dealing with Lyrith. I am not going to even entertain this utter bullshit.” I huff, turning away from the three of them and moving to the door.

“You will do this or your little pet will learn what it is to face the pain of a lashing!” My father yelled, his chair screeching against the wood flooring as he stood too fast, and as I turned to stare him down, freezing him in his spot where he was about to move with my glare locked on him.

My glare seemed to be enough to keep him in place and the silence in the room was long before I spoke, the tension so thick that the sharpest axe couldn’t even chop though it. “Would you like to repeat that, father?” It was clear that my venom laced words put all three at the desk on edge, even the smug bastard Jurion himself was so tensed up that I was sure he’d get a cramp in his shoulders, that annoying ass smirk he always has on his face thankfully falling the moment I finished my question.

“I do not take orders from the likes of you.” My father huffs, sitting back down, likely to hide how rigid his entire body had become. “You will do as I say, I don’t care how you feel about this matter-”

“No.” I cut him off without a second thought, stepping out of the room and slamming the down shut behind me.

The entire situation did nothing but send white hot rage through my whole body. The fucking audacity my father had to think he could ambush me the same way he had my sister with a marriage to that fucking bastard was absolutely ridiculous. And then to threaten Ivorix in front of them? He has truly lost his mind and grown far to comfortable to think he could just force me into doing anything he wants me to do. Perhaps that’s my own fault, I had seen my siblings stand up to him with little hesitation, even when it resulted in punishment, but he doesn’t attempt to force them the same way he does me. Even Lyrith doesn’t get the worst of his insults and demands the way that I do. Though, I hadn’t stood up to him until recently. Not until I had more than one reason to, and now I have four of them.

As I stalked down the halls, I started to wonder why my two eldest brothers had gotten away with not being set up with the bastard that was apparently so desperate for marriage. Isn’t it supposed to be one of them to be set up for such a high-status marriage? I would’ve thought it would be one of them rather than me or Lyrith.

The thought has me heading to my eldest brother’s part of the palace, quickly finding him in his living quarters after pounding on the door and accidently slamming it open so hard it hit the wall with a loud bang. I was so lost in thought that I hadn’t even realized it was cracked open a small bit. I felt bad when I spotted the startled Jalain and Human sitting on the floor hovering over something. What are they doing on the floor? Is that a book? Are they reading something together? Seeing the two momentarily pulling me from my rage and frustration.

“What the fuck was that?” My brother, Pyrion, trudges into the main room from the bathing room in nothing but loose lounge black pants with his short pitch black waves sticking out in every direction around his horns that were much like my own – something we only shared because of our father - without its usual product to tame and slick it back, looking more than a little irritated when he spotted me in his doorway, his eyes narrowing into a harsh glare. “Care to explain why you’re breaking down my door and scaring the shit out of Kaymion and Ulixar?” He demands, looking down at them and semi-subtly shooing them into his bedroom before focusing back on me as he fully steps into the main room of his living quarters. “Well?”

“Sorry, I didn’t realize they were here with you. I hadn’t realized you even let your pets in your living quarters.” I say, not wanting to explain myself until after the two pets in question picked up their book and scurried off into the bedroom, thankfully closing the door behind them.

Pyrion huffs and rolls his eyes at me, “You aren’t the only one in this palace that is considered unusually close to their pets.”

“I’m considered unusually close to my pets?” Not that I should be as surprised by that, I do eat almost all my meals with them and see Ivorix as a lover and Syrion and Nalik as friends rather than pets.

“What do you want, Faelix?” He demands.

I sigh, feeling the frustration and rage that lead me here coming back with near full force. “Father is trying to force me to marry the smug reptilian bastard now.”

“Is that so? And why has that lead you to come bother me?”

“You are the eldest. Why is it that Lyrith and I are being the targets of fathers attempts to appease that bastard?” His unsurprised reaction just added to my frustrations. Did he expect this to happen? Why didn’t he warn us?

He raised an eyebrow at me like the answer to my question should’ve been obvious to me, “Do you seriously not realize why?”

I couldn’t help the irritation in my voice as I spoke again, “Would I be asking you if I did?”

“I suppose not.” He sighs, looking down at something on his desk as he slowly strides over to it. “It’s because you two are your mother, Aryones’s, children. They didn’t exactly make it easy on him to rule the way he wanted to when they were still alive and married to him. The way they always demanded peace over war and treated their people with kindness over an iron fist pissed him off beyond belief, especially when the council were more afraid of pissing off Empress Aryones over pissing off father.” He laughed a little at that, like he was recalling a funny memory about a time when my mother was around. “Your mother was known as merciful, but also quite vicious, they were quite the interesting personification of an oxymoron. They had threatened father many times if he dared touch any of us again when he had slapped Solenar for talking out of turn when you any Lyrith were just babies.” He laughs a little more. “But because they were that way, when they had died, father seemed to have decided you two would suffer simply being their children. Then you were dumb enough to pull that stunt last month, so father is pissed with you.”

“And apparently still pissed with my mother for daring to not let him control the whole fucking universe like the damned tyrant he is.” I scoff, glaring at nothing in particular as I look around his living space. It’s been a long while since I last came to his rooms. It seems a lot homelier than it did before. I wonder if his two apparent favorites are the ones to blame for it feeling more comfortable, not that it’s a bad thing. Ivorix, Syrion and Nalik did the same to my room. I’m glad they did it too.

“Oh, it’s a bit of that yes. But it’s especially because how neither of you respect him in the slightest. Not that he’s deserving of it of course, but you need to be very careful. You very clearly love that one little… pet of yours with the dark skin and he knows that. So for his safety, you need to be careful.”

“I will kill him if he dares to touch any of them.” I say quickly, meeting his gaze.

“That’s not what I mean, Faelix. He won’t do anything to them himself, especially if you’ve already threatened him to his face, he’ll get someone else to hurt them on his behalf. Be careful, for their sakes.” He tells me, his face having gone very serious as he stares me down from his desk. “You don’t have to listen to every single thing that he says, but you need to make sure that you and those three are prepared for anything that may happen because you refuse to let father push you around like he used to with all of us. Especially after you came back from punishing the Drendirians sooner than you were supposed to. That was something not even I would have risked doing without a genuine cause to do so.”

I stand in silence after he said that last thing, not sure if I should say anything about the little Drendirian infant that I found and promised to care for, looking away from him to avoid his narrowed eyes at my continued silence. How would I even go about saying something like that anyway? Would he even understand? Out of my three siblings, he likely would be the only one to understand how I felt in the moment I came across that woman and the baby and the unsaid agreement we made when I showed her that I wouldn’t hurt her or her child that I now see as my own. He was the closest to my mother aside from Lyrith and I when they were still living and they treated him as if he was their own despite not having met him until after he had turned nine years old. They treated our other brother the same way, but he didn’t care for being around them the same way the rest of us did.

“Faelix, what made you come back?” He finally asks after several long moments of silence.