[Elara Twice] I’ll convince her. With her we can bargain with the Dynasty. You brought her here! I know you did! I know leverage when I see it.

[Golgheim Vast] You’re making a futile play to escape. They won’t help you Elara. Those undead will claw their way into the planet’s secrets, and you will force me to do what I need to… to protect Bastion.

[Elara Twice] Bastion this. Bastion that. Think for yourself, Golgheim. He’s not coming back. He left you here and now all you have is us.

[Golgheim Vast] Explain this to me. You think my coffee garden will convince them to help you?

[Elara Twice] I do. And I suspect you know its value.

[Golgheim Vast] ... I refuse. You’ll be putting everyone at risk. When a new player enters such a contentious market, all hell will break lose.

[Elara Twice] She was stolen by a fuckin’ pirate, Golgheim! I will find her, with or without your help. If you plan to kill us all… that’s what you do when you don’t like what people say, right?... If you kill us all, I’ll release the news of the coffee. Maybe it’s not the big boys that come sniffing, but I guarantee people will come.

[Golgheim Vast] … This is how you wish to play it?... Very well. Don’t expect any favors from me when your plan fails. The repercussions are your mess to deal with, Elara. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

[[Problematic_0] – This is your first and only warning.]

– Elara Twice, Conversation with Golgheim

Chapter 40 – Burden of Responsibility

Lacey rose unsteadily, her eyes never leaving Toki's face. The air between them crackled with a thousand unspoken things.

"You..." Lacey's voice was raw, scraped thin by sorrow. "It's you. Toki."

Toki flinched at the sound of her own name, at the weight of recognition in Lacey's gaze. She nodded mutely, throat tight.

Lacey took a halting step forward, then another. Her hands trembled at her sides.

"Is it true?" The question was barely a whisper, taut with desperate hope and dread. "What they're saying about Susie... about my daughter... is it true?"

Toki's heart splintered in her chest. The truth rose up inside her, sharp and jagged, lodging behind her teeth.

What could she say? That Susie was gone, snuffed out like a candle in the wind? That Toki herself had played a role in her demise, however unwittingly?

She opened her mouth, but no words came. Only a strangled sound, half-gasp.

Lacey's face crumpled. Fresh tears spilled down her cheeks as she lurched forward, closing the distance between them in two strides.

Toki braced herself, muscles tensing. For a blow, for a scream of rage and recrimination.

But Lacey's arms went around her, pulling Toki into a fierce, desperate embrace. A mother's embrace, achingly familiar even in its strangeness.

"I fought for my world," Lacey whispered brokenly against Toki's hair. "I gave everything. My crown, my happiness, my very self. And for what? Even here, my last child was taken from me."

Her shoulders heaved with silent sobs, her tears hot against Toki's skin.

"I thought I could protect her. I thought... I thought if we just stayed quiet... but it wasn't enough. I wasn't."

Toki stood frozen, heart breaking anew with every word. Lacey's pain was a living thing, palpable and all-consuming. And beneath it, like an echo from the depths, stirred the old, familiar ache of Toki's own loss. The void where her parents should have been. Where Elara should have been.

Slowly, tentatively, she raised her arms to return Lacey's embrace. Two daughters of broken worlds, clinging to each other amidst the ruins of all they had known.

"Susie... she saved me." Toki's voice was hardly more than a whisper. "I was ready to give up. she stood up for me, even in death. I don’t know if it was spite or empathy, but I owe her dearly."

Lacey drew back slightly, searching Toki's face with red-rimmed eyes. "She did?"

Toki nodded, a small, sad smile tugging at her lips. “She was brave in the face of it. I should have done more, but it happened so quick. She was always that way – standing straight against everything… sometimes even her friends."

A memory surfaced, bright and bittersweet. Susie, standing tall amidst both the rally and the jeers of the crowd, her grin fierce and defiant. The winner and loser of this year’s Forgeworks competition.

“Before the competition, she said... she said that's what queens do. They hold their heads high, no matter what. That if I lose, I should hold my head up high too."

Lacey's breath caught. For a moment, her expression was a battleground of grief and pride, love and loss. Then, slowly, she reached out to brush a strand of hair from Toki's face. A mother's gesture, infinitely tender.

"She was right," Lacey said softly. "Young Susie was the last princess of a fallen kingdom. In her youth, countless tutors would grace our home. Even still, she learned that from you, Toki. Your strength, your courage... it inspired her. Don’t think I wasn’t watching."

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Toki shook her head, tears blurring her vision. "But I failed her. I couldn't... I couldn't save her."

"No." Lacey's voice was fierce, almost angry. "You didn't fail her, Toki. You gave her hope. That's more than I..."

She broke off, swallowing hard.

"Is she... is there a body?" The words seemed to cost Lacey a tremendous effort.

Toki shook her head mutely.

"I have some of her belongings," she said. "But her body... it's gone."

Fresh tears spilled down her cheeks, but her voice was steady.

"Another of my children, laid to rest without a proper sending." The words had the cadence of ritual, of an old, old grief. From the folds of her cloak, she drew out a small, leather-bound book. A diary.

"Her diary. I think... I think she'd want you to read it," Lacey said, holding it out to Toki.

Toki took the diary, feeling the weight of it in her hands. The weight of Susie's life, her hopes and dreams. "Thank you," Toki whispered. It felt inadequate, but it was all she had. Toki's gaze fixed upon Lacey, studying the faded elegance etched in the lines of her face.

“I know this is the worst time, but how are you an [Elite]?" The question hung heavy in the air.

Lacey's eyes grew distant, a sheen of unshed tears glistening. "It seems you are wrapped in your grandmother’s schemes after all… I had told her before, Toki, I am not from this world. My world, Ispartika, fell to the solar krakens." Her voice wavered, a tremor of grief. "Cities crumbled in mere nights on my world. We united, we fought..."

She drew a shuddering breath. "I grew up a warrior queen. I fought for our planet. I became an [Elite]. It was out of necessity. For our survival." A mirthless smile twisted her lips. "But in the end, we still lost."

Toki leaned forward, brow furrowed. Susie’s fantasy world was real? "But you had power? An [Elite] sh—"

"Violence alone is not enough." Lacey's words cut sharp. "The galaxy is...complex. A lone planet against an empire?" She shook her head. "We thought the beasts simple-minded. But they outmaneuvered us at every turn. Played the game better than we ever could. They have context and support from above. From outside the cage."

"Did you have no options? Syslaws, treaties?" Desperation tinged Toki's words.

"Contracts, lawyers...all meaningless without the power to enforce them." Lacey's eyes hardened to flint. "Ispartika had no leverage left to wield. For that, I fear that the royals were responsible. We had a hand in letting them in."

A sudden realization dawned. "Then how did you escape?"

Pain contorted Lacey's features. "My greatest shame. The Spearbreaker's contract. It granted our royal family passage through the world hub. But..." A single tear traced down her cheek. "It meant abandoning our people to their fate. Qador… my king, was never the same after we left."

Toki's heart clenched. What unimaginable anguish, to flee as your world burned. Unbidden, her thoughts turned to Susie and the cruelty she'd endured from her broken father. Toki held her tongue, unwilling to deepen Lacey's wounds.

Silence stretched between them, heavy with shared sorrow and grim understanding. The specter of annihilation loomed, an all-too-familiar nightmare for the fallen queen. And now, that same shadow darkened Aris' horizon, an insatiable beast hungering to consume yet another world. Unease crept through Toki's veins, chilling her blood. The parallels were too stark to ignore. Aris now stood on the same precipice, facing an inscrutable foe.

"I failed her, Toki. I failed my daughter."

Toki's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"The dragons." Lacey's voice trembled. "I suspected they were just another breed of kraken, but I let Susie's enthusiasm sway me. I was too permissive, too eager to see her smile again, to hope, after so much sorrow."

A wave of empathy surged through Toki. She reached out, grasping Lacey's hand in a gesture of comfort. The former queen's fingers felt fragile, like delicate bird bones.

"If you could go back, back to Ispartika," Toki ventured softly, "what would you do differently?"

Lacey's gaze turned distant, as if peering into the mists of time. "Alliances. Securing economic ties to weather the storm. Fortifying our warfronts. We made many mistakes." Her jaw clenched. "And I would have gutted every last one of those abominations."

Toki shivered at the venom in Lacey's tone. The queen's warrior spirit still burned beneath the surface, even tempered by loss and regret.

"Lacey, I killed that dragon. But now Aris may as well face the same future," Toki murmured. "The fate of this world rests on my shoulders, but I don't know if I have the strength to carry it. Everyone here is either deceiving me, using me, or trying to kill me. What do I do?"

Lacey's arms enfolded Toki in a fierce embrace. "Oh, child. I would never wish such a burden on anyone, not even my bitterest foe."

Toki pulled back, searching Lacey's face. "Is there truly no hope, then? Is Aris doomed to suffer Ispartika's fate?"

Lacey struggled inside, her eyes flickering with an inner battle. "I... I put up my spear a long time ago, Toki," she began, her voice wavering. "When we fled Ispartika, when we lost everything... I left that life behind."

Toki frowned, her gaze drawn to Lacey's trembling hands. The scars of countless battles etched her skin, a testament to the warrior she once was. The warrior she still could be. "I’m an [Elite], Lacey, and this is my world. My everything," her voice soft but firm. "That's not something I can just walk away from. It's in my blood, my soul. Even when it drags me down. Even when I have no reason to fight for it. How can I walk away?"

Lacey's shoulders sagged, the weight of her past pressing down upon her.

"If Aris falls," Toki continued, her eyes blazing with determination, "I won't rest until every last one of those beasts is nothing but cosmic dust. I need your help. I know I have no right to ask you this, but I need your strength, your experience. I need someone strong that I know doesn’t have hidden plans. Together, we can avenge Ispartika and save Aris."

For a long moment, Lacey was silent, her gaze distant. Then, slowly, a smile curled her lips. It was a smile Toki had never seen before - fierce, feral, and filled with the promise of retribution.

Lacey said, her voice ringing with newfound strength. "If it comes to that, if Aris falls... I will stand with you. I will take up my spear once more, and together, we will hunt those abominations to the ends of the galaxy. Tell your council that I agree to their arrangement."

For the first time, Toki saw a flicker of the queen Lacey had once been. A warrior. A leader. An [Elite]. Lacey nodded and turned away. “I need to prepare.”

Prepare for what? What arrangement!? Toki nodded with mixed feelings, "Lacey? Lacey! I’ll meet you back here then... you’ll have to clue me into this arrangement." Toki called out to her back.

Lacey waved her off.

As she walked away, Toki could see the weight on her shoulders slipping off. Each step added confidence. Added poise. Her bearing changed and Toki finally realized that she had just recruited a queen. Toki took one final look at Lacey and the tents behind her and turned towards the secret entrance. I wonder why they are camping here. She put it to the back of her mind and started onwards to face Golgheim.