The servant room in the [Princess] apartment was lavish. It should be expected, since a lady-in-waiting for such a regal character is often a younger daughter of nobility, in the palace to make connections. I snapped my fingers and sorcered up a privacy ward inside the room.
"Make yourself comfortable, Julia. I think they are skinning Mirina alive, politically speaking."
"I'm fine, thanks to my maker," her lips formed a wry, tired smile. "What should we do now?"
Pointing at the bed, I summoned a shadow-me and sent her to doze off underneath the blankets, "I'm going to sleep, you should go outside and gather information about Lonid. I guess you are six centuries outdated."
Offended, she scoffed, "I spent these last weeks studying recent history and nobility rosters at the Academy, so you know."
I gave her a wry smile and lowered my head, "I'm sorry, Julia. Look, I'm no longer your boss. You do you, I'm sleeping over there."
With a sigh, she caressed the crown of my head, "You are my mistress' mistress. I'm sorry, I'm just distressed by the situation. Will you look after her?"
I leaned into her hand. We both knew that beast-kin usually only allowed family and lovers to touch their ears. I wasn't bound by that mentality but we both needed reassurance.
"Julia, you're truly free. Even Mirina will let you go if you ask her. And I'll do my utmost to keep both of you safe in this den of scorpions. I'm going to do exactly that right now."
Our mutual worries, hers more than mine faded as we spent several minutes sharing our thoughts and fears.
"I watched over you through four lifetimes, Haru. You are worthy of my loyalty."
"Thank you, Julia. May fortune smile on us."
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I left the room, invisible and intangible, shrouded by arguably the highest Stealth score in the whole world. While I walked, my mind wandered. To one that wove her path among Gods and Demons, this petty squabble might seem inferior but I believed my attachment to everyday life and willingness to live my life as that particular individual was what kept me grounded, kept me sane.
Rebirth and childhood were always relief valves to wash away my past life's worries and sorrows in the river of time. That's why I chose to go to the orphanage. A taste of normalcy, of the mundane life among orphans, the social contact and interactions, even the bullying.
I saw what immortality and an eternity of isolation could cause to a sentient being's mind. Kel'Caldor abandoned all of his humanity (even if he wasn't human, to begin with), even the High Elves of Fulgen became bored and petty in their lofty giant trees. The others became like that, not giving a damn about the everyday mortal's life because lingering attachments would eventually turn into pain.
Just like Arista. The mermaid was still scarred by Lakerta's trauma, and her coping mechanism was to deny her origin and affirm herself as an individual with some inherited memories.
Maybe I'd grown, matured. Maybe it was Haru's psychic makeup that grounded me so. It begged the question, was I the same person living several lives or several people sharing their memories through their soul? Which one was more important? Why did I have to use this gimmick of thinking about myself and my previous lives in the third person?
In one thought experiment, I wondered about assuming a past life's form and living as her, throwing my current self away like an undesired garment. Yet, I found myself unable to. On a fundamental level, I liked being Haru, just as I liked being everyone I once was. The new experiences in every new life helped soften and weaken the sorrows of past ones. Lorna's twilight and inevitable passing, for example, didn't drive me mad with grief anymore.
But in the end, my self-image mattered only to me. The others around me, the Gods, my friends that transcended my mortal existences, all of them treated me the same. Nenandil. I missed the fairy already. She once told me to live my life freely, to be whoever I wanted to.
Therefore, I chose to be Haru today, as I was someone else yesterday. Reinvent me, refresh my mind with new sights and experiences. That's why one psychologist once recommended changing cities every five years. I did that, only on a larger scale.
Smiling to myself, I reached my first destination. The room where the Royal family was debriefing Mirina.
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Lonid's Royal family was huge. The King had six wives, and each one of them bore three children at least. Out of twenty-four siblings, the oldest prince was thirty-seven years (~50Ey) old, the youngest princess was but a baby less than a year and two months old. A winter child. Mirina at sixteen years (~21Ey) was around the upper half of the ladder. But the dynasty rules favored males so she would never inherit the crown unless some disaster happened.
Said disaster had no intentions of happening, so they were safer than they could ever imagine.
"What about the guests you brought?" The King asked his daughter.
"A classmate I'm fond of, Haru is a half-dwarf-kitsune. She's studying to be a [Wizard]. Julia is a disenfranchised noble-born lady from Windemere that was down on her luck. She proved to be a very capable administrator and organizer so I took her as my lady-in-waiting. None of them are any threat to Lo… our family," she almost finished with a lie.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
"They're spies!" One of the older siblings accused. Pointing a rude finger at Mirina, he bellowed, "Prove they're not!"
With a smirk, Mirina shot back, "As soon as you prove you're not a traitor, dear brother. Pray tell me, how does one prove such things? How easy it is, to raise a finger and shoot obscenities at the Sun! But Galbarar's light warms the impudent as well as the pious. I can assure you both Haru and Julia stared at the sun and came out unburned. They and I are of one mind. We are of one goal. Lonid's Royal family will prevail."
That told me they had a way to detect lies. Mirina's slip of the tongue was probably what prompted her brother to raise the accusation and he was certainly one of the people with lie-detection abilities in the room. She had worded her answers very carefully.
"The crown of our ancestors, how did you come to possess it?" His Majesty continued the interrogation.
"An Adventurer from Windemere produced it, identified it, then gifted it to me. It is a cautionary tale of not wishing for that which doesn't belong to oneself," she replied. "Archmage Baldric and King Bernard wished for something that didn't belong to them and paid for their greed with their lives. Didn't you read the letter I sent with the crown?"
"That's a lie!" The King roared, his calm finally overridden by his conceited hubris. "Locksley murdered Bernard and his family because he coveted Lonid's glory!"
"Then why did he aid Lonid after the Demon Lord's devastation? He was the one that killed the demon and ended the invasion! The man that sent supplies and helped with the reconstruction. He even tutored the young Bernard II!" Mirina pointed out. "Father, Lonid, and Windemere are sister nations. Don't lend your ear to those greedy warmongers. Windemere is by no measure weak! Look at the facts."
"It's crumbling apart!" Another [Prince] proclaimed.
"Answer me, dear brother," Mirina rebutted. "Tell me one other nation that could endure two decades without a Ruler without descending into chaos. Go ahead, I'm waiting."
"The dwarves created their own nation! It is only a matter of time before the rest of Windemere falls apart," He reasoned back.
"They will rejoin Windemere peacefully not before long," She stated calmly. "We need to wait. I can assure you that anyone that attempts to harm Windemere will suffer. I do not wish that for Lonid."
"The Tabard is gone," the one that accused me of being a spy retorted, "without it, they can't even crown a new King. Windemere is vulnerable and ripe for the taking."
But he was right. I was a spy and I was actively spying on them at that very moment. With my two beady green eyes.
Mirina snorted. "From whom did you hear that, beloved brother? Do you believe that's true? Are you perchance allied with the self-proclaimed Lord Torgo?"
"Windemere is at its weakest! A dying beast, ripe for the taking!" He avoided the question and spouted propaganda.
"Fool!" Under pressure, the [Princess] lost her composure momentarily. "A wounded beast is the most dangerous one. Approach it without care and the worst will come to pass!"
"Daughter," the King spoke warmly as a father should, "you seem to know something we don't. What gives you so much certainty that Windemere won't fall?"
She froze. Her forehead glistened.
"No, don't!" She jumped and shouted. "Ah!"
Her back against the wall, the [Princess]'s chest rose and fell as her eyes searched the room under the puzzled looks of her family.
"Father, I shan't lie!" she broke the silence after a while, "I made an oath under Galbarar's name. To a secret guardian of Windemere, I pledged my body and soul in exchange for protection for our family. That's how I am so sure Windemere won't fall. Anyone who dares attack will perish under that immortal gaze. It's not the secret [Assassins], not the lamias, or the Kin. It's a legendary entity whose power I can't fathom."
The King seemed wise. While the two rowdy princes laughed, he rubbed his bearded chin as his gaze carefully studied Mirina. "Who's this guardian?"
Determined, she replied without breaking eye contact with the sovereign of her nation, "I can only tell you of the form it assumed before it claimed my life, father. I believe it will be enough."
"You look alive enough," one of the [Queens] pointed out.
"It has power over life and death, dear mother," Mirina humbly answered. "This guardian killed me and brought me back on a whim. I have not a scar on my body to prove it. Not even the old ones from my childhood."
The whole family was about to devolve into a rowdy crowd when the King raised his hand and flared his {Royal Aura}. I could sense the guards outside the room flinching. But as everyone inside was a Royal, we were unaffected. But everyone received a notification, and that was enough.
> You are in the presence of a Royal Aura. It has no effect on Royalty.
No System-enforced effect. It was the social equivalent of a minotaur cracking his knuckles before beating every tooth out of your mouth.
"Describe that guardian to us then, Mirina," with cold words, he eschewed the word "daughter".
"A long serpentine neck. Head of an alligator but with forward-facing eyes and three sharp horns. Front limbs ending in clawed hands, rear limbs ending in paws. Two leathery wings and a powerful tail. It could spit fire from its mouth at any time, father. I can guarantee you it is mightier than Locksley ever was at his peak."
"A Dragon?" The King asked. I wouldn't call the emotion on his voice fear. Controlled caution was more accurate. It also told me the King was another with the lie-detection ability.
"Looked like one," Mirina answered. "My {Appraise} was blocked. It did show me a lot of titles, of which I dare not speak. If I break my oath, I'll draw their wrath."
"Bernie," The King called one of the princes. "Let your contacts in Sadian know we are entering a deal with the dwarven nation of Vugh Tarim. We are giving the dwarves our support in exchange for them blocking Windemere from helping the Eleons and elves as we reclaim our old territories. We won't go further south and infringe on dwarven territory, so Sadian can claim the rest of Windemere. Do it now. Tell them the half-dwarf guest Mirina brought with her is the dwarven [Princess]."
Damn. Now I know who Mirina took after.
Color faded from Mirina's face, "Father!"
With a wicked grin, the King soothed his daughter, "Calm down, Mirina. I once heard that Axejaw, the dwarf [King], had a bastard granddaughter that was half-kitsune. She died but we can use the girl you brought as a stand-in. No harm will come to your guests but we can use a few believable lies to bait Sadian into attacking first. Then we'll see if this guardian is real or not."
He left unsaid that if it wasn't, Mirina would be in trouble and Lonid would rush south to invade Windemere like a band of marauding ogres. One dragon appearance, coming up!
She was about to have a nervous breakdown.
Mirina rolled her eyes and let her shoulders slouch. "I understand father. If you are using my guests like that, I have one demand."
"Say it," he replied.
"Postpone all talks of my wedding until after Sadian's attack. If Sadian fails to breach Windemere's walls, you'll cancel the engagement. Better yet, send My fiancée with Duke Holcot's forces as "observers" to help Sadian. I can assure you he'll not come back."
Callous, smart, self-serving. That was my girl. Did she just tell me to make her fiancée a war casualty? Awesome.
"Granted," the king smiled.