The three Guardians of the Eternal Sun Order hadn’t actually returned to the palace; they were apparently out preaching to the world that the time of the Great Unifier was at hand. The people amassing at the gates were believers in the prophecy, Primordialists, who wanted to catch a glimpse of the apparent fulfillers of that prophecy. The palace guards had been doing their jobs, keeping the mobs off the palace and military base grounds, but the guards were getting jumpy as a handful became dozens… became hundreds. And more were arriving daily. A temporary camp had cropped up just outside the palace gates. The tents followed the edge of the road, with fires behind them. Callida couldn’t understand why anyone would choose to camp outside with the late autumn bringing frost and frigid winds every night. Then again, she wasn’t religious, and Primordialism specifically had never made much sense to her.

But that didn’t change the fact that these believers were there, watching and waiting outside the gates constantly — watching and waiting to catch a glimpse of her family — to catch a glimpse of her. She felt trapped, and her afternoon sessions with Monitor Fastidium were eaten up simply trying to reduce the harrowing pressure she was under, never mind trying to progress beyond it.

“Some of them sent a formal demand to the palace this morning,” Callida winced.

“What sort of demand?” Fastidium asked patiently.

“Demanding that His Majesty ‘allow the miracle to be shared with the world’. Basically, they think we’re being kept prisoner here which is why we haven’t greeted them. It’s looking more and more like I’m going to have to confront these people personally,” she said, eyes watering with distress. “Primordials, I hate this. Some of the guards reported arresting a number of people trying to scale the wall into the military base. Commander Rapax is handling it for me, but it’s necessitated posting extra guards around bare stretches of wall at all hours…. The council is getting cranky about it too. Well, they’ve been cranky, but a couple of them pitched full-blown fits about it today. I understand why, honestly. The councilmen who are complaining are the ones that have homes in town and have to commute from Astu Centralis every day. They’ve been getting harassed and heckled to some extent…. Verum had to stand up for me again. I understand why the council wants to give me up to them. It makes sense in a way, but….” She was tired of crying about this. She was tired of saying slight variations of the exact same thing. She was tired of this ruling her reality.

“You’re still not ready to confront them.”

“I’m trying. Honest. Part of me just wants to get it over with, hear their demands, and send them on their way. The rest of me is scared that nothing will appease them short of me taking on the Mother of Prophecy role they’ve assigned me. I’m not prepared to accept that outcome, and I haven’t figured out how to control these panic attacks at all. I can’t face an entire gauntlet of panic attack triggers safely.”

“How was your most recent open letter to them received?”

“It was rejected outright. I think that might have been the supposed proof that this morning’s letter writers were referencing that me and my family are political prisoners here. I think most people believe I was coerced into writing it, or that it was an outright forgery. Nothing short of a personal appearance is going to appease them. Isn’t it a bit fanatical though?”

“I didn’t follow your logical leap, Callida. Isn’t what fanatical?”

“Just… they’re camping outside of the palace. It’s one step short of a siege. And for what? To catch a glimpse of people they’ve never even met? Protest an assumed human rights violation they have zero proof of?”

“Well, you have to understand that, in their minds, if you are the Mother of Prophecy, you and your family have been construed as the salvation of the world.”

“Is that actually in the prophecy?”

“I don’t know. But I am familiar enough with the religion to at least provide some interpretive insights. To Primordialists, the prophecy means the coming of a worldwide utopia, Callida. Those who are prophesied to fulfill it are the harbingers of that promise. If you are the Mother of Prophecy, your existence is their hope.”

“But I’m not! I’m just a soldier — a person!”

“Callida, I’m not arguing what you are. I’m informing you how others might perceive you,” Fastidium reminded her gently. “Remember what we talked about yesterday? You are allowed to define yourself however you wish, but you cannot control how others will see you.”

“What if they’re right though, and I’m too blind or stupid or uneducated to see what they see?”

“What if they are?”

“I asked first,” Callida deflected.

Fastidium smiled at her. “Let me ask you this then: are you prepared to be their hope?”

“No.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Then what they see doesn’t matter.”

***

Somehow, despite her personal struggles, Callida had found the capacity to plan a gathering for the triplets’ first birthday. The usual crowd was arriving, and Rogue was grateful for the company. Keeping his promise to Callida, he’d basically been on house arrest for the last month, staying within the safety of the estate walls while she struggled to sort out the siege of zealots. He resented all of it. The first snow of the season had fallen two days prior, and instead of introducing his one-year-olds to the fluffy precipitation in the gardens, they’d remained penned up inside.

He wanted to escape. More than once he’d considered asking Callida if she’d be willing to quit her job as the Lion General and move their family to some far-flung location — anywhere that was away from all the chaos — to raise their boys in peace. But he couldn’t ask that of her. A high profile soldier was a huge part of who she was, and he’d accepted that when he married her. And what would that honestly solve?

Rogue rolled out his neck and did his best to dispel his malcontent for Callida’s sake and for the sake of the event itself. It had been quite the year, and surviving it all was worth celebrating. He walked into the front parlor, already crowded with his family and the evening’s first guests.

“... was asked to send you his regrets, General,” Rapax was saying. “Reading between the lines, I think he was anxious about exposing his girls to the crowds. They’re getting more aggressive as they grow impatient. The harassment is–”

“I get the picture,” Callida cut him off.

“General, is there a reason you haven’t sent them packing? You can’t ignore this for–”

“I’m working on it, Rapax.”

Rogue could tell that Rapax was restraining more questions, but he read things well and dropped the subject, turning instead to his parum amico to fulfill his nobilis duties by wishing Probus a happy birthday. Probus was distracted chomping on a little toy soldier, but grinned with his big, round cheeks and bright brown eyes all the same when Rapax knelt down to interact with him. Rapax gave a playful growl, and Probus excitedly sped off in the opposite direction, expecting correctly to be chased and suddenly losing interest in his toy.

In another corner of the room, Manasik was sitting on Arum’s lap, listening to his nobilis read him a book. Arum was struggling to find the right balance between how many of the words to bother reading verbatim and how much to simply describe the illustrations on the page. Manasik vocally let him know when he got the balance wrong. Eventually, Manasik lost interest in the book and turned around to curiously explore the buttons on Arum’s uniform, pinch at Arum’s nose, and then endearingly cuddle against his chest before finding some other part of Arum to poke and prod. Arum had become much more relaxed around the boys since his initial “I don’t know anything about babies” reaction.

“Knock, knock!” Commander Baca announced his presence and immediately located Tiaki who had joined the chase game between Probus and Rapax. Baca grinned and added himself as another chaser, dropping to his hands and knees to target his own amico with a low growl and tickling fingers. Tiaki shrieked from the thrill of it all and scampered away on chubby legs. Tiaki especially loved to be chased.

“Hey, guys, thanks for coming,” Callida was saying somewhere behind him, and Rogue turned as Moro, Adjutus, and Gravis walked in together, finding seats on one of the couches. Almost immediately, Probus dove headlong into Gravis’s lap with an excited cry of happy terror as Rapax huffed like a monster on his heels. The group got a good chuckle out of that, and Gravis enjoyed becoming the safe zone in the boys’ game. Both Probus and Tiaki would run about the room, only to dive into Gravis where the palace’s bodyguard trainer would tell off their monsters and send them skulking away only to appear again as soon as the boys left Gravis’s lap.

The parlor was now quite full in the best possible way. This was the same group of soldiers Rogue had traveled to the Sphinx Tribe with. They’d been fairly confined then too, protecting the young queen in secret throughout her pregnancy. And since then, these were the men he’d learned he could trust to look out for his own wife and family even when he couldn’t. These were his friends, and sometimes, it felt more like they were family.

“Ahem.” Rogue turned to find Callida giving him a meaningful look. “Were we going to ask them?”

“Ask them…? Oh! Moro and Adjutus?”

Callida nodded, and collected Tajam from a cushion on the floor; Rogue did the same, picking up Ddalu. The commanders looked up as Callida sat between them and turned to Moro. “Would you like to hold him?”

“Sure! Who’s this?”

“Tajam.”

The commander accepted the baby, watching him lift and then loll his head as he sat on Moro’s knee. “Hey buddy!” Moro said to the yawning two-month-old. “Tired of me already, huh?” Tajam finished his yawn and then arched his back in a small stretch before relaxing again, his tiny chin finding support from one of Moro’s fingers as his head drooped sleepily forward.

“Adjutus,” Rogue nudged the onlooking commander and made a gesture to offer Ddalu to him. “Don’t want you to feel left out.”

Adjutus nodded and accepted the snoozing bundle; Ddalu’s head rested comfortably in the crook of Adjutus’s arm. “He’s so… tiny!”

“Ddalu is actually a really big baby for his age,” Rogue chuckled.

“Ddalu, huh? That’s an interesting name. Does he sleep a lot?”

“Yeah. He likes his sleep.”

“Who doesn’t?” Adjutus snorted and then settled deeper into the couch. “Maybe I’ll nap with him. He’s like a warm water bag. I’m going to get sleepy holding him.”

“Well, before you take a nap, Moro, Adjutus, would you like to claim these two?” Rogue asked.

“You mean….”

“... like claim them as our amicos?” Adjutus finished the question Moro started.

“That’s what we’re asking, yes,” Callida nodded. “Would you like to be their nobilises? There’s no pressure, but you two were the ones who accepted my labor fluids on your uniforms, so we figured we’d give you first dibs.”

Moro grinned mischievously. “Which one was born first?”

“Tajam,” Rogue answered.

“Ha! You hear that, Adjutus? I got the older twin.”

“Oh, yeah? Well, I got the bigger one.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Moro protested. “Mine’s actually awake!”

“Well, mine is more cuddly.”

The friendly ribbing continued, and Callida grinned up at Rogue. Yeah. Just like family.