A quick reminder that I will be taking off February 21st and 25th. Next chapter unlock is February 28th. I will be taking off the last full week of every other month from now on. It’s anti-burnout insurance.
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The prince’s forehead bore deep furrows and his eyes held a shadow that spoke volumes. His father was dead but he didn’t have time to mourn, with an army to lead and an enemy threatening.
My heart ached for him. This was a seventeen year old boy, not a veteran with the experience to deal with his mounting troubles. The world was placing entirely too much on his plate. Every time I interacted with him these days, I became more aware of the fact that my overconfident, upbeat and slightly reckless second older brother had grown far older and sadder in a few short months.
Rod took a seat in the chair next to my bed, then glanced around to ensure we were alone. Satisfied, he told Aunt Elianora, “I’m aware that you are a royal knight, My Lady. Please consider our conversation a royal secret.”
Elianora bowed in assent, then asked, “Do you wish for me to cast a privacy spell, Your Highness?”
His eyebrows rose, and he nodded, “Please.”
Using the same [Silent Shadows] spell she used two nights before, my aunt enveloped the inside of the tent in an all-concealing bubble. It required a much heavier expenditure of Darkness mana this time, I noticed. It was daytime, so not only was Darkness mana harder to come by, she had to overcome the abundance of Light mana in the air.
I recalled Benedetta easily casting her search spell in broad daylight when she went to assist the royal knights investigating Trisiagga, the first time she attacked me, and understood just how powerful a mage Mother’s housekeeper must be. Elianora is no lightweight, but casting Dark magic during the day was visibly far more difficult for her.
Rod took my hand. “We’ve got quite a few things to talk about. Are you up to it?”
My entire body still felt like lead, but I suppressed the urge to answer, nah, go away. Let me rest.
“I can talk for a while, Your Highness,” I assured him. “I don’t know how long, though.”
Elianora had already cast the spell, after all.
His mouth quirked sideways a bit. “We’re in private, Ti. It’s Rod.”
I gave him a half-hearted smile and a shrug. I can say ‘Mother’, ‘Uncle Owen’ and ‘Amelia’, as well as ‘Uncle Arken’, ‘Uncles Matthias’ and ‘Aunt Elianora’, yet I can’t seem to call Rod or Ged by name. The old Tiana stopped calling them by nickname to purposefully distance herself from them once she noticed they were attracted to her as men. The original Tiana’s heart kept me doing so, just like I kept viewing them as my older brothers.
“How’s your work going?” I asked, in order to change the subject.
“I need a real military advisor,” he admitted, with a slightly self-deprecating smile. “I’m in way over my head. Sir Barnus is doing well, but he’s only commanded at the company level. Adding all the forces present adds up to three divisions.
Rod was in his current role because Ged needed him to wield the power of royal authority, not because he was some kind of seventeen-year-old military genius. He easily showed his talent as a natural leader, but he possessed only so much practical knowledge of strategy and tactics. Even Ged had Perta at his elbow to steer him in the right direction.
“Was Sir Barnus your advisor in the Tabad?”
He shook his head. “I had a retired Easterner general named Shunkel with me out there. I left him behind to take command when I came here.”
An ‘Easterner’ is a native of the Eastern Continent, where Orestania has a handful of dependencies and trading ports. The continent is mostly monster-strewn wilderness and scattered tribes of non-humans, but the West Coast is home to a thin strip of human civilization.
He pursed his lips in thought for a moment, then said, “Something happened with Mireia, right?”
I looked away, feeling instant guilt. Aunt Elianora grew a scowl, so between the two of us, we pretty much confirmed it for him.
Of course, Elianora already knew about it. She had quickly identified the magic bracelet I made Mireia wear, so I had to explain things. Naturally, Rod recognized it, too. He had seen Melione, Ceria and Chiara wearing identical bracelets in the Tabad. Mireia was wearing the last of the bracelets I commissioned from Allia Destia.
“It happened when she fed you yesterday, right?”
I nodded. “It’s really dangerous to feed under those conditions. A wounded vampire does not have good control over herself.”
He sighed and nodded. “Once this rebellion is put down, I’ll go to the Duchy of Parna to have her enslavement annulled. I would just do a manumission, but it’s much better to make it so the slavery was never legitimate in the first place. Adding this before she’s even freed from that is unfortunate for her.”
Just to be clear, that wasn’t a weak excuse to keep her as a slave. He had official ownership of her, having seized her under eminent domain, so he could free her anytime he wanted. If he did that, though, he would lock in her social status as an ex-slave, a freedwoman. He needed to officially invalidate the record of her illegal enslavement instead, so she would get her legal status as a commoner back. That required eliminating the original record of her as a slave.
I know it’s hard to understand the difference from a twenty-first century Earth perspective, but around these parts, this is pretty important. Orestania is still very much a class-bound society.
“It is, but she’s okay, Your Highness. In her past life…”
I broke off and glanced at Elianora, then shrugged and continued. “Mireia learned a technique in her previous world that allows her to ignore the bond. I gave her the bracelet, for insurance, but she is able to just walk away and ignore me and the blood bondage any time she wants.”
“Is that true?” a wide-eyed Elianora demanded.
I nodded. “I’m hoping we can learn it from her later. It would help a lot of people if she’s able to teach it to them.”
Although my primary goal is for my Servants to fully reclaim their freedom, many of my father’s victims are still suffering the aftereffects of blood bondage.
“Your Highness, about Mireia…” I began, then bit my lip. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to ask what was in my mind.
He squeezed my hand. “She’s a valuable resource and a helpful girl. And she has nobody else to depend upon.”
I frowned. “Why are you saying that?”
“Because you were wondering why I’m keeping her close. She’s not your rival, Ti.”
With a chuckle, I asked, “Are you afraid that I’m getting jealous?”
“I’ve noticed you casting suspicious glances at her, yes.”
I studied him closely, then shrugged. “I’m not jealous. You’re going to need concubines, so it’s fine if you have a side chick or two.”
Rod let out an inarticulate sound that was sort of a cough or choking noise. “Ti! What…”
“She’s friendly, attractive and she would be a valuable asset to the royal family,” I summarized. “And she has a way of looking slightly guilty whenever our eyes meet. That makes me think something already happened between you two. So I’m telling you, even if it did, it’s fine.”
With a complicated expression, he admitted, “Something happened, but not what you’re thinking. She misunderstood my expectations when I first took ownership of her. Apparently Lady Sasie’s father had made her do such things, so she…”
Stopping and frowning, he shook his head, then said, “I ended up seeing more of her body than was proper, just that one time, and I stopped her immediately. I made it clear she didn’t have to serve me in that fashion. I swear it.”
He looked rattled enough that I started chuckling softly. He shot me an accusatory frown in response.
“Enough,” he declared. “While you’re right about her value, I won’t force concubinage on her.”
Because of the friendly way they interact, I wasn’t convinced there was absolutely nothing between them, but I was willing to let him drop it for now.
He didn’t quite drop it, though. He gave a wry smile and asked, “Most brides-to-be wouldn’t tell their husbands to take concubines before they even had their wedding ceremony, Ti.”
Raising my eyebrows, I noted, “I believe I’ve made it clear that I’m not enthusiastic about becoming your wife, Your Highness. Would you understand it better if I said I don’t have the least interest in sharing your bed?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised in the least,” he stated, clearly, with a tired nod. “I already understand. You want to just continue being something like a little sister.”
“That’s not the only problem, but it’s a bigger problem than you realize. In my mind, you are my elder brother. I don’t think Owen realized I would come to feel that way when he chose to foster me. I think Mother knew about it, but didn’t care. Maybe she expected I wouldn’t care either. Fairies consider incest a minor issue, frankly. I don’t know how many times my sister or my cousins have propositioned me.”
Rod made a slight choking sound again.
“What is the problem?” I demanded.
“You… weren’t able to use language like that, before.”
I sighed. “Never mind that. The bigger problem is, I don’t have the least interest in men, romantically.”
That’s generally true throughout all my lives. I’ve always been heterosexual only as a male. Sirth bore children due to cultural pressures, but she and her male partner had, frankly, acted as each other’s ‘beards’, their heterosexual covers for their homosexual private lives.
Rod showed not a single sign of being shocked. Neither did Elianora.
Worrying that they didn’t understand, I made it clear. “When it comes to matters of the bedroom, I only like girls.”
I was feeling a weird sense of relief which came from saying it, like a massive pressure that had been inside me suddenly vanishing. I don’t know what I expected, but that hadn’t been it.
But Rod just… nodded?
“I suspected it,” he said. “There are men you admire, but always for their fighting prowess. You look at them differently than other women do.”
I was left blinking and unable to find a response.
After a long pause, I managed to reply, “You knew?”
He nodded. “I was going to wait to broach the subject of concubines, but I planned to continue our relationship as before. It would be beneficial to you, protecting you from the noble responsibility of marriage. And beneficial to me, because I can’t think of anyone else I would want to give the power that came with being my wife.”
“…you knew.”
He again gave that sad smile, then continued.
“If it weren’t for all the political considerations, I might talk to Ged about granting your wish, but the way things are now…”
I had a moment of hope in those words. If he was at least considering it…
“How are things now?” I demanded. “What would stop you?”
“Well, we can lay aside the fact that a divorce would make it difficult to arrange a marriage for you, since you don’t care about that, but we have to consider the implications of recent events.”
In the Ostish faith, once the betrothal is official, the marriage is virtually complete. The temple must grant a divorce before one can marry someone else. And neither spinsters nor divorced women are acceptable in this still-overly-patriarchal society.
What events was he talking about? Uncle Owen died, Astaroth attacked, Ged became king…
I wasn’t sure which event would stop him.
“What implications?”
Rod looked reluctant to actually say it.
“Lady Serera showed up here carrying items from both my father and your mother. It is impossible to imagine that your mother is just wandering around somewhere. If she could, she would be here. If she’s…”
He broke off, probably in response to my growing frown.
“If she’s what?” I demanded.
His voice grew gentle and more reluctant. “If she’s dead, the daughter who would have inherited her duchy is dead as well.”
Half of me threatened to laugh in his face at the idea of Mother dying, as the other half recalled the weird state of her familiars, Carson and Benedetta, who couldn’t confirm that she was alive. An awful feeling grew in the pit of my stomach.
After he allowed me to absorb the idea, he continued, “The privy council already ruled that you can’t inherit. We can bend it far enough to make you acting duchess as guardian, but you’ll need to govern in the name of an heir. Your future child would be an acceptable choice, as long as you became pregnant quickly.”
I shook my head. “They also ruled that if my child is a vampire, the child can’t inherit.”
“They ruled it in regard to the crown, because I’m currently first in line, but they probably would extend it to the dukedom, yes.”
“Any child I have will be a vampire, Your Highness.”
Elianora disagreed. “A half-vampire should have a mortal child, My Lady.”
“That’s for a dhampir, who is half-mortal, half vampire,” I countered immediately. “I’m not a dhampir. I don’t have an ounce of mortal blood. I cannot bear a mortal child.”
Elianor blinked. Had she not considered that problem?
“What if your child turned out to be a half-fairy?” Rod wondered.
I sighed. “I already know for a fact that my child would be an Elder.”
Rod didn’t appear to understand. I sighed again, then repeated, “My child would be a fairy vampire just like me. You can say that, or Elder, or valkyrie, or strega, or whatever, my child will be the same as me. I received that information directly from Heaven.”
Rod and Elianora both stared at me, not comprehending. I sighed and prepared myself to yet again deliver a history of legendary times, plus an explanation about my frequent contact with the gods.
“Then can’t you solve it by marrying your prince and letting him become the duke?” asked a fourth voice from the side.
