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Alright, I’m not going to pretend that Rod’s reasons were any kind of a surprise. No, they were exactly the reasons I expected them to be. That being said, despite the fact that Sirth was in the back of my mind, advising me to agree with him, I wasn’t about to just take this lying down.
It did help somewhat that I had moral support. While that voice in the back of my head was grudgingly arguing his side of things, she was doing so despite being completely in agreement that I had a right to be angry about how he was going about it.
That’s right. I had a right to be angry. Damn straight.
– Yeah, you do, but you gotta keep yer cool and speak yer mind clearly, Princess.
Sirth’s caution helped me stay calm.
“Your Royal Highness, we need to have a talk,” I told him. “Now.”
Rod hesitated, glancing over his shoulder at the war room staff, who were mostly attending to their duties around the map table, although they were still sneaking occasional glances in our direction.
“I mean it,” I insisted. “We’re not doing this in public, but we’re doing it now.”
With that, I somewhat forcibly slipped my hand into place, linking arms with him and presenting the image of an escorted lady while actually dragging him to the door.
He looked a little surprised. Was it because of the strength I was demonstrating? A fairy, despite her light physique, is a powerful creature, and I wasn’t holding back, pretending normal human strength like I normally do in daily life. Or was it because I was being assertive with him for once?
He didn’t resist, though. He quickly switched over to cooperating, and we headed back to my office.
As we walked, he began, “Ti, I wasn’t…”
“Wait until we’re in private, Your Highness,” I interrupted. And I had to shush him twice more before we got there.
We entered my office, where the maid who had been waiting for requests was quietly dusting a bookcase. I told her, “Wait outside, please.”
She bowed while replying, “Yes, My Lady,” before rushing out the door.
Once it was closed, I didn’t bother sitting down, or inviting him to. I simply let go of him and turned to face him.
“Your Highness, you spent a lot of time yesterday insisting that I should be getting more respect as the master of this castle. So what happened?”
His eyes grew a bit clouded with confusion. “What do you mean, Ti? I don’t follow.”
“Where’s that respect from you? What were you thinking, ordering my maids to hide my armor? I mean, let’s put aside for a moment the fact that you had absolutely no right absconding with my armor, and talk instead about what you did to my maids! They had to do it, because it was Royalty ordering them, but can you imagine how they felt? They’re already terrified of me as a monster, but you made them take an action that a real monster might have punished them for!”
As his brow bunched up, I was thinking, No, that isn’t it. This is the wrong angle.
“Is that what you’re mad about?” he asked, now bewildered.
I shook my head. “No, that’s a secondary problem, but don’t put them in that position again. And start respecting my position as the duchess of this land. You said it yourself, Your Highness. You may be Viceroy of the South, and you may be my future husband, but I am the royal head of this castle and this land. Respect that fact and pay that respect to me.”
His brows bunched up, but I didn’t give him a chance to reply. I got on to the main point.
“The real issue is, you had plenty of opportunities to tell me. I get that you didn’t know yesterday, but what about once you did know? Once Lady Halet briefed you, instead of running to my maids to hide my armor, you should have come straight to me! You don’t want me to go flying off? Then come tell me! ‘Tiana, don’t go!’ That’s all you had to say!”
Rod looked honestly sorry, but he still shook his head. “I was waiting for better information…”
“We can wait together! Those people are my responsibility too!”
He opened his mouth to reply, closed it again, let out an agitated sigh.
I studied him for a few breaths, trying to decode what in the heck he had been thinking in the first place.
A possibility occurred to me. It made sense, so I went with it. “Your Highness, you’ve always had this idea that you need to protect me. I think it’s great, when you have that attitude toward Amelia, but I honestly can’t think of anything outside the realm of politics that you could possibly do to protect me. An awful lot of things out there can kill you while not doing me a bit of harm. I only look like a fragile human girl, Your Highness. It’s an illusion. The real me is a powerful and deadly supernatural creature whom you cannot protect from bodily harm.”
I could see in his eyes that those words had hurt a bit. I didn’t regret the words one bit, but I regretted the pain a little.
I reached out and took his hands. “Your Highness, if it’s palace politics, or trouble with the Privy Council, or slings and barbs in the social world, please protect me. That’s your world, and I have no idea how to navigate it. When things started getting weird at the Academy, and the rumors started flying around, I had no idea where to even begin defending myself. I was completely clueless.”
He responded with a complicated frown. “I completely failed to defend you back then.”
Was that still bothering him? Or worse, was that why he was still overprotective?
I squeezed his hands. “That was because of magic that nobody in this world knew about, Your Highness. With absolutely no defenses operating, it couldn’t be stopped. The point was that you did your best then. I could do absolutely nothing, even if there was no magic behind it, because I don’t have a clue about aristocratic society.”
Then I tightened up slightly and warned, “When it comes to physical threats, no more trying to protect me. And definitely no more preventing me from receiving the information I need. You can’t get in the way of me doing my job!”
“Fine. But if you know about the armor, that means you were planning to wear it and run out there, weren’t you?”
He had switched from contrite to accusatory awfully fast. I almost wasn’t able to shift gears fast enough to keep up with him.
But I did, and raised my chin, refusing to go on the defensive. “I was. But I wasn’t headed out to fight. I needed to go there to get our people released. That was the right uniform for the job.”
I could see him visibly fighting the urge to argue against it. He definitely didn’t want me to go.
– Princess, you can’t.
Sirth suddenly chimed in again, declaring it as an absolute. She wasn’t asking or pleading; she was declaring it as a fact. And suddenly, my vessel expanded on its own, and Fan Li was chiming in.
– It is a fact. That is the most dangerous place in this world for you and the babies. It is the location of the evil god who wants you and them dead , and it is just too suspicious that your people were lured there. If they are bait, it’s absolutely the last place you should go.
How’d you do that? I shot back, very unsettled. How could she become aware in order to expand the vessel, before it was big enough for her consciousness?
– This small one possesses a sleep-guardian technique.
She stated it as if it explained everything. Well, it did, apparently, but only to someone of her intellect.
“Ti?” Rod asked, confused as to why I was just staring at him.
I answered with a sharp shake of the head, looking away. “I’m trying to figure something out. Give me a moment.”
I had already half-accepted that I couldn’t go while arguing with Sirth, but that didn’t mean I could believe in the alternative she’d proposed. But Fan Li backed her up.
– It’s a good plan. The [Blood Effigy] blood magic is almost as effective as the paper effigy technique back home. It might be able to manage.
Could your paper effigies have done it?
– It’s a meaningless question, Your Highness. Huajie is a different spiritual environment, and Qi is not mana. Comparing that world’s techniques to techniques of this world would be a fool’s mission.
I sighed, then told him, “Fine. *I* won’t go. But you’re not going to interfere with what I will be doing.”
His eyes narrowed slightly. “What is that?”
“Some fairly strenuous blood magic,” I admitted. “I’ll do everything I can do without leaving the castle. I may have to stay in my suite and rest in my bath, though. I’m heading there now.”
With that, I went to the door. Rod didn’t look completely satisfied as he followed me. He looked like he wanted to say something, but as soon as I opened it, we were in the presence of the footman (not Hedrit; it must have been his break) and the maid.
I told the footman, “If Miss Mireia, Miss Gyges or Colonel Morgas come by or send messengers, send them to my suite. Take a message from anyone else.”
“Yes, My Lady!” he answered crisply. I continued on to my suite, with the maid falling in behind us.
In a low voice, Rod protested, “When you say strenuous… you shouldn’t be straining your body, even if you’re staying here.”‘
“Mentally strenuous, Your Highness. But you can send your girlfriend in to make sure I’m behaving myself. I’m fine with that.”
It’s only a short distance from the office to my suite. The only rooms between are Mother’s Ducal Apartments. We were almost there by the time he replied.
“Just call her Mir, Ti. Calling her my girlfriend feels a little bit weird.”
“It’s only fair to give her that recognition, Your Highness,” I said with a smile as I opened the door. I turned to bid him goodbye, but he shook his head.
“I’m coming in. I want to see what you’re going to do.”
“Another part of respect is trust, Your Highness,” I warned.
But he tipped up his chin. “I need to see it, Ti. I won’t be able to concentrate on my work if I’m too anxious about you.”
Letting out a heavy sigh, I went into the suite and told the maid following us, “Tea, please. And send someone to inform Genette where I am.”
“Yes, My Lady.”
I took a seat in the sitting room. My kimono was a good reason to go to the tatami platform instead, but I didn’t think about that before sinking into the chair. Well, I didn’t want to sit in seiza anyway, and any other position wouldn’t be dignified for me, so I stuck with it.
Rod took a seat as well, with his eye steadily on me. I gave another sigh.
“Your Highness, please trust me. I won’t endanger the babies.”
His lip twisted, but he shook his head. “It’s not about trust, Ti. I just need to see what it is you’re going to do.”
“Fine,” I declared, giving up. “Just promise me you won’t panic with what you’re about to see.”
Then I turned to the ancient scholar in my head.
I can run it, but I need you to put it together.
– This humble scholar is certain that if Your Highness simply expanded her own mind fully into the vessel, Your Highness could manage this yourself.
I can handle everything except the initial setup. I need this done right, Senior.
– This small one thinks the ‘Senior’ title isn’t appropriate when addressing one who is, in the end, yourself.
Ah, whatever. Please, Miss Scholar!
– Your Highness intends to remain here and ‘drive’ by remote control. I recommend against it. Let us handle getting there and assessing the situation. You should only rest here, take care of matters that come to you, and wait until we need you.
You can’t stay active long enough, though? I can’t keep the vessel expanded this far for more than a couple hours!
– That’s why you’re going to have Sirth do it.
And with that, Fan Li operated the [Blood Effigy] spell, and my blood core spilled out a large flow of blood, at least three times as much as I had used the previous day.
This much?!
– We need a strong spiritual channel this time.
Fan Li’s patient words were the end of her involvement. The mass of condensed blood, invisible to Rod and the maids but very visible to me, streamed across the room to a spot near the balcony windows, then pooled up into the shape of a human being.
My original thought had been to send a clone of myself while I took a nap in my bath, but Fan Li wanted me available to deal with matters here at Narses, so she had chosen another. The mass became visible to mortal eyes as a woman in a leather armor corset over a half-sleeved blouse and leather knee breeches paired with rugged boots. Her hair was tightly coiled braids formed into a bun and her hips were graced with twin cutlasses. The only clue that she wasn’t entirely human were the feathers growing from her temples.
Breaking into a grin, she swept her arm across her waist and gave a deep, very un-Dorian-like bow, bending one knee while she kicked the other foot out behind herself in a classic buccaneer-like manner.
“Pleased to meetcher, Royal Highness! Captain Sirth, atcher service!”
