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Army wheels may move no faster than the horses pulling them, but the wheels of military bureaucracy turn even slower. It was the following day, nearing lunch, before I finally had the precious orders I needed in order to leave the RAL base.
Yes, I could have flashed my badge left and right and bullied my way through as a royal knight, but I had a feeling that if I did so, I would hit roadblocks every step of the way and would have to keep doing it all the way up until I reached Uncle Owen. Considering that I didn’t know his precise location and needed directions, I figured doing things by the book would work faster in the long run.
Why wasn’t he at the Palace? Although the Royal Army had secured the approaches to Atius and occupied all the key buildings and facilities in it a couple weeks after the rebellion began, forcing Parna’s forces southward, Uncle Owen was avoiding the capital city for two excellent reasons.
The first reason was that the Royal Knights were not yet confident that they had cleared the city of all possible traitors that were still hiding, plotting to cause trouble after Parna’s retreat, or found all possible booby traps left behind. The second was that Uncle Owen didn’t want his presence to increase the risk of military strikes on the largest city in the Kingdom. All the key ministers and functionaries who had evacuated to join the king rather than cooperate with the rebels were now running the country from Uncle Owen’s military base.
Thus, my reunion with him took place in his headquarters just outside the village of Langram, near the security cordon on the southern outskirts of the capital region. And I didn’t enter a grand building like the Palace, or enter an amazing space like the King’s Parlor, that would be a grandiose throne room in any other kingdom but was dwarfed by the actual, seldom-used Royal Throne Room of Orestania.
Nope, I entered a tent. A forty-square-pace (that’s about a thousand square feet or a hundred square meters) military command tent, but a tent, nonetheless. He was wearing his Royal Navy uniform because that was the service he had served in as a prince. And rather than sitting for royal audience, he was standing and discussing matters with a knot of other senior uniformed officers.
I was still in my armor, but I had donned the light cloak that Melione bought for me after spending several minutes beating the wrinkles out of it that it had acquired while rolled up tightly in order to stuff into my travel pack. I left the pack itself in the Royal Knights liaison’s tent with a wind spirit to keep an eye on it, but I kept the rest of my gear. With my Royal Knights badge pinned to my cloak, nobody was going to stop me from carrying weapons. I swept the cloak over my shoulders in preparation for my curtsey.
Uncle Owen noticed me about the same time that I pinched my skirt. Before I could begin my curtsey, he called out, “There’s no need for that, Your Highness. I won’t have you kneeling on a dirty canvas floor.”
Privately, I winced at the Your Highness…
I nodded, straightened and approached, as the five men and one woman around the King looked at me in puzzlement.
One of the men asked Uncle Owen in a low voice, “Your Majesty, this is…?”
He nodded, then answered, “My Lady, Gentlemen, this is Her Highness Tiana of Faerie. You may be aware of her as the daughter of the late Duke Pendor. She’s the foster daughter that Sasara and I raised. She is also the second prince’s fiancée.”
Their eyes all grew a bit as their gazes became stares.
He told me, “Sasara told me that the Fairy King has also accoladed you as a fairy knight.”
I nodded. “That is true, Your Majesty. I would have objected, as you had already knighted me, but he sprang it on me by surprise. I can only apologize.”
Uncle Owen waved negation. “It’s better this way. Even though your birth mother had already certified your knighthood for Faerie, I’m told some fairies questioned your legitimacy. They cannot question the authority of their king.”
I thought about the disrespect that fairies like Lâsin had shown and suspected Oberon’s authority was nowhere near as strong as Uncle Owen seemed to think, but I didn’t say anything about it.
“Your Majesty,” the woman in the group hazarded, “I heard that Egon’s daughter was a vampire. How can she be a fairy knight?”
“Tiana is also a Fairborn, My Lady” Owen answered. “In addition to taking after her father, she takes after her birth mother, the Fairy Deharè.”
At hearing the legendary name, some of them straightened slightly. Mother, in her real identity, holds something bordering on divine status in many parts of the Kingdom. Which probably makes sense, given that both of her parents are demigods.
I gave the woman a bow and stated, “I am pleased to make your acquaintance, My Lady…”
“This is Lady Delanie of Taras, Tiana,” Owen stated.
“Formerly of Taras,” Delanie added with an uncomfortable smile.
Owen sighed and nodded. “She’s a valued advisor, but her father is one of the rebel lords. It seems he’s disowned her.”
“Your Majesty,” I said, “I need to report a few matters to you. May I request some of your time when you are finished here?”
He smiled. “Certainly. It’s about time for lunch. I’ll have you join me at my private tent. My Lady, could you lead her there for me?”
Lady Delanie graciously agreed and asked me to follow her.
That man was your King, My Lady? Durandal asked on the way.
That’s right, I confirmed.
A regal-looking man, indeed, he judged. I’m sure he commands respect.
I personally felt the same way, and replied with a sort of agreement sound in my spiritual voice.
He mentioned raising you.
My birth father died before I was born, and my mother is a very busy fairy. She usually left me in the King’s care, so he acted as an unofficial foster father. It was actually the palace ladies who raised me.
That’s how you became close with the princess of this kingdom?
Exactly, I confirmed, slipping up and nodding my head as I said it. Fortunately, Lady Delanie didn’t notice.
She sat me at a table that was set up inside Uncle Owen’s fairly spacious quarters, then departed to inform the chef of the extra guest for the King’s lunch.
Shortly after she left, I sensed a faint presence behind me and turned to look behind me. Lady Serera was frozen, half-way through the act of reaching out to touch my shoulder.
Her surprised eyes grew, then she withdrew her hand and put it to her mouth.
“Hohohoho,”she laughed softly with twinkling eyes, “It seems I’ve been caught!”
“Fele Serera,” I greeted her. “Ëi onar lâ.”
“Onar lâ,” she answered, still smiling, as she took a chair. “You seem to be alone, though? Where’s my apprentice?”
I switched to Fairy and told her, “I had her stay behind in my mountain. I’ve been having her train in the old facilities there.”
She looked confused for a bit, then a ghost of understanding showed in her face. Responding in the same language, she said, “Ah yes, Mount Ciddan was your old home as I understand it?”
I nodded. “We trained Servants and young Elders there. Training a fairy is about the same as training an Elder.”
She looked a bit vexed. “Your Highness, I sent her with you to be your guard, not your trainee. She should be with you.”
I almost answered, then hesitated, suddenly worried. It had been a decision I made without consulting Dilorè’s mentor, after all. I thought I had better hurry up and explain before she grew offended.
But she saw the look on my face and smiled. Patting my hand, she said, “I’m not angry at you. Your mother already told me you were training her, after all. She told me that she expected my cooperation. I’m not about to argue with either Princess Deharè or her daughter, although Dilorè can still look forward to a lecture from me later.”
So she wasn’t going to complain at me, but she was going to sulk about me barging in on her apprentice’s training… that’s how I read it. I decided for Dilorè’s sake to explain anyway.
“Do you know Áne of the Green Tower, My Lady?”
“The eccentric who shuts herself up in a tower instead of living in the woods like a proper dryad?” Serera replied with the twinkle coming back to her eyes. “We’ve met a few times. Among older fairies, she has quite the reputation.”
“I witnessed Lady Dilorè fall victim to her mental powers in literally no time at all,” I stated. “She didn’t even know she’d been attacked.”
Serera blinked, then her face grew steep. “She couldn’t even resist?”
“Not a bit. I am going up against some very dangerous beings, My Lady,” I stated plainly. “For Dilorè to be by my side, her spiritual strength must grow significantly.”
“She’s barely even an adult…” Serera mused. “She can only have so much strength.”
“If you met her now, you would be surprised,” I assured her. Then my smile grew as I added, “By the time I’m finished with her, you’ll be astonished.”
Her eyebrow rose, then the corners of her mouth turned up slightly. “Your Highness, you’ve been doing some growing as well, haven’t you?”
That puzzled me. I mean, yes, I had woken up a few skills, but in what way did it show?
She responded to my wrinkled brow with a smug smile. “You would never have caught me sneaking up on you before. And although your confidence was not bad, before, it has improved remarkably. You’re positively radiant now.”
My brow wrinkled, because I was completely at a loss for how to respond to that. Catching her sneaking up on me was just a symptom of the improvement in my spiritual strength. Naturally, I could now penetrate stronger stealth than in the past. But I felt like I was mostly acting like the same old Tiana. Were my older personalities affecting my behavior more than I realized?
She nodded to herself, agreeing with her assessment, then stated, “Except for the speed at which you are maturing, it isn’t strange at all. You’re simply becoming much more your mother’s daughter, Your Highness. You’re showing the same poise as her.”
“Mother’s poise?”
In my mind, Mother did indeed have a supremely refined, almost goddess-like image. Poise was almost the perfect word for it. Although I didn’t feel I possessed anything like the same quality.
Then Serera’s smile grew a bit wry. “Come to think of it, I wonder if it isn’t more a case of Deharè showing the same poise as her grandmother?”
I don’t know what would have come out of my mouth next, in response to that curveball. Eurybia is Mother’s maternal grandmother, but I knew fully well that Serera was referring to Mother’s paternal grandmother, Senhion. But I didn’t have a chance to think of a response, because Uncle Owen chose that moment to appear.
Serera and I both immediately stood. She bent down into a Dorian-style bow, and I pinched my skirt and descended into a deep curtsey. There wasn’t enough room in the tent, so I didn’t grow my wings.
Uncle Owen sighed and said, “Tiana, the canvas floor in here is just as dirty.”
I dimpled, although he might not have seen it since my head was still bowed. “I have extremely strong ankles, Your Majesty. I never let my knee contact the ground.”
According to Aunt Elianora, my instructor in such things, the proper deep curtsey maintains the knee precisely one inch above the floor, after all. A Lady would never allow it to touch.
A ‘pfft’ escaped the King’s lips, then he said, “Both of you, please rise.”
We did so while the military orderly who had entered behind Uncle Owen helped seat him. The King gestured to the seats we had just vacated and stated, “Please join me for lunch, Fair Knights.”
