Eirik didn't sleep much these days. There was always too much on his mind. His thoughts spun in a chess game of a thousand pieces, an empire to hold together, a tyrant to please, a daughter to protect. As practiced as he was, the cogs were wearing down and he found himself losing more and more often.

To be fair he'd always known it was a losing game.

However, try as he might he never could stop himself from playing it. The stakes were too high and whatever anyone may think of him, he'd made a promise to protect people when he’d taken the throne. If he gave in there would be no buffer between Lyra and Valhym.

Still Eirik wasn't blind—well not to his failures anyway. He wasn't a hero or even a particularly good ruler. He was flawed and weak and had failed to stop Lyra's ambitions at every front. Despite this, he continued to try to make the world better. Maybe nine times out of ten he failed, but that one success meant someone walked away and to Eirik, that was what it meant to be king. To continue to fight for that one success regardless of the odds, the pain it put him through, or his own fallibility.

So Eirik didn't sleep. Instead he tallied the numbers in an eternal question of whether he could push his pathetic self farther towards balancing the helplessly skewed scales. A losing battle, the damningly long losing battle.

A veteran to unseen intruders, Eirik felt more than heard when someone entered the room. The tallying numbers told him the odds were low, but still when he whispered, "Why are you here?" he expected to hear his wife's preening chuckle.

Instead the voice was hesitant. "We need to talk."

It was Kiana. Fiona's Duskar friend, the one who always seemed to know too much. The numbers spilled into a neat pile. He was right, she was another trap. His bruised heart felt the pang of betrayal for his daughter, but he sat up and straightened as commanding as possible, turning to the voice.

"Why don't you start with why exactly the queen told you to lie to my daughter?"

There was a pause and Eirik couldn't help but flinch a bit, unnerved by being unable to see what the intruder was doing. He couldn't stop his useless eyes from flitting back and forth out of habit. Finally Kiana answered, her voice more confident now.

"I was told to keep the princess content in her place, to prevent any attempts at rebellion or escape."

"And let me guess, now your job is too difficult and the queen wants me to help."

He grit his teeth. Was it not enough that Lyra had torn her daughter away from a peaceful life? Must she really continue to stab Fiona in the back?

"Well I couldn't very well leave her to you, could I?" Eirik could imagine Lyra’s voice so clearly. A failure of a father, continuously unable to protect his daughter.

"No, that's not why I'm here. The queen..." The hesitation returned and Eirik's eyebrows furrowed, something wasn’t right. Kiana took a deep breath and Eirik, now even more on edge, heard her step closer. "The queen did not order me to come. I wanted to talk to you on my own."

"Why are you here?" he asked again.

"I-I have to make sure it'll work. That..." she trailed off and he heard soft padded steps and froze when she sat beside him. "I have to make sure you would help Fiona."

The king didn't even think about it, he just moved, crashing into the smaller girl, her position betrayed by the soft blankets. His hands found her throat and he panted, "How dare you?"

Her fingers slipped between his and her neck, attempting to hold him off.

"I want to help. Please, just listen." Her voice was still carefully low and quiet. That made Eirik pause and he loosened his grip, although did not remove his hands from around her neck.

When she didn't even attempt to escape, he hissed quietly, "Talk quickly."

He felt her nod under his fingers. "I know you probably don't believe me, but I'm on your side. Fiona plans to escape the palace tomorrow and that includes bringing you with her. I don't think it's even occurred to her that you might say no but I know better. I came to see if you would take a chance with me and try to free your daughter."

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It made no sense. Lyra would never plant a spy if there was even the chance of them betraying her. Surely this was a trick. Without thinking his fingers tightened and Kiana wheezed.

What was worse is that she was right. If Fiona came to him, claiming she had a way to escape, Eirik would refuse to leave. Either because it would risk her chances or because he knew Lyra would find them.

The fact that Fiona didn't think him capable of such, brought tears to his sightless eyes. He didn't notice the fingers disappear from his until the familiar touch of dagger point pressed into his ribs.

Slowly, he peeled his hands off Kiana's neck and she took some shuddering breaths. Was she going to kill him? Perhaps this wasn't a trick and the girl had simply gone mad. Eirik waited.

"I'm...sorry...." she gasped, still speaking in a desperate whisper, "I swear I don't mean you any harm. I just need to know if you are willing to escape with her."

"You're serious? You expect me to trust the word of someone who has been lying to my daughter for months?"

The pressure of the knifepoint disappeared, but that only made Eirik more nervous. It could be anywhere in the darkness.

"I swear I will not lie to you any more. I need you to trust me even if Fiona never does." Her fingers took his hand and carefully she placed the knife in it. "I just want her to be free and I'm willing to lay down my life for it. I need you to believe that."

She pulled his hand forward until he could feel the knife press against what was probably her chest, but could be a trick pillow for all Eirik knew. Kiana let go of the weapon, leaving it in the king’s hand. In another fit of desperate rage he pressed forward.

Kiana hissed with pain and slowly Eirik reached with his other hand.

He carefully followed the knifepoint and felt her shoulder, his fingers drifting to her clavicle until he pulled his finger away, wet with blood. He grasped her shoulder, lining the knife up steadily.

"Who are you really?"

Kiana gave a quiet and desperate laugh.

"I'm you. I've done terrible things for the queen and I cannot escape for love of Fiona. I didn't ask to be what I am. I'm sure you're wondering why the queen trusted me and how I could possibly betray her. The truth is...I'm an assassin. I killed the Queen of Aziron and my reward was to spy on the princess. I didn't get a choice and now, well, I'm making one the queen didn't think I was capable of which is why I think you'll do the same."

A mix of emotions flitted through Eirik's tired brain. Horror at what this young girl had done and the danger his daughter had been in this whole time, guilt and pain at her accusation that fit so poignantly, and lastly pity.

Eirik may not have seen her face, but Kiana couldn't be much older than his daughter. For someone so young to have done such a dark deed, there was a sadness there that stirred sympathy.

"You don't know the queen like I do. There is no escape. You've only doomed yourself,” he said, shaking his head sadly. She was young and assassin or not, Eirik wasn't sure she deserved Lyra's wrath.

"I'm not an idiot. I know that on our own we don't stand a chance, but Fiona isn't alone. There are people out there looking for her, all I have to do is get her to them."

"What do you mean?" Surely Kiana didn't intend to return Fiona to her uncle? Even Fenrin the Wolf would not be able to stop the empress from reclaiming her daughter. He had failed once already.

"The plan is to get a message out to the Third Apprentice. From everything Fiona has told me, he would grant her asylum—you too I would wager," Kiana took another shuddering breath, "and...and if the Arch Mage requires restitution, I will come too and answer for my sins."

He shouldn't, he really shouldn't, but Eirik believed her. There was something in her voice, something about the way she sat firm under her own knife that was both strangely familiar and hard to place.

Love.

It was not something found often around the High King, but it stirred an old pride. The kernel of pride that made him continue his fight, to live his miserable life day after day.

However, this escape plan, this opened door was close-sighted. It was as innocent as his daughter and as dangerously new as Kiana's loyalty. Eirik lowered the knife.

"Even if my daughter wishes it, I cannot leave Stadrhym. There are too many people whose lives depend on me being here even if they don't know it."

"So then what? She won't leave you and you know what will happen if she stays." Kiana's voice was sharp and harsh, taking Eirik by surprise. "If you don't want her to follow in her parent's footsteps then things need to change. Fiona loves you and so she needs you to come. I need you to come because right now, you are the one the queen is truly trying to protect."

"You expect me to abandon my people?" Eirik sputtered, still taken aback by Kiana's rebuttal.

"Their fate is Fiona's fate. If you want to change the ending then we have to stop playing by the queen's rules. She controls me, who controls Fiona, who controls you, who controls the nation. Don't you see? Right now you are the queen's weakness but one she is desperate to cover. By the Makers, or the Stars, or whatever gods this world answers to, you are the key to everything and you have the choice to make the change."

Eirik opened his mouth and then shut it. He'd said something similar once to Matius, he knew he was the most valuable pawn in Lyra's game. If he left...

The gamble was on his shoulders. Leaving would mean Lyra would either have to pull back and rule her own nation or all of En would crumble into ashes in her wake. It was a heavy burden but one he'd agreed to when he had been given the crown.

"I will take the chance, let's get my daughter out of here."