The painted ship reached Gin’s shores two days earlier than expected—Andreas wondered if that was Miya’s way of letting her children understand her, in some way. He wanted to show them—albeit from a distance—what their mother’s home was like. Toru paid for the trip in full, barring transportation, but Andreas chose to go to Gin instead. Especially in the areas around the ports, Kasper and Emelie wouldn’t get as much odd looks.

His decision was helped by the fact that, except for Toru, Kuro didn’t say anything regarding Miya’s death. They received no acknowledgement from anyone but her brother.

Emelie looked at Andreas, bringing him out of his thoughts. She seemed to get more excited as the ship came closer. “I can see the petals from here,” she noted happily. “Uncle Toru’s paying, right?”

“Let’s not spend everything he gave us,” Andreas said. “We’ll only be using half of it.”

“But is ‘half’ enough?” Emelie asked, frowning. She counted off each thing as she continued. “I want something from the festival stalls, Kasper wants something from the festival stalls, Aunt Amanda wants a late birthday gift, we should get something for you as a late birthday gift, Grandmother wants something so she feels like a good grandmother, and you want something for Mother. I don’t think we’ll be able to get all that with ‘half’ of whatever Uncle Toru gave us.”

“Half is more than enough,” Andreas maintained patiently. “Bear in mind that your uncle is the head of one of Kuro’s more notable families—a third would be enough.”

As they were talking, the ship came in to the shore and the other passengers—mostly merchants—went to leave.

Emelie still didn’t look convinced, but Andreas didn’t carry on the conversation. Instead, he looked around to figure out where Kasper was hiding. He got ready to call out his name when the boy emerged from below deck, holding each of their small bags.

“Let’s head out,” Andreas said. “If it doesn’t take long, we can go up to this side of the river—it’s only forest, but you’ll be able to see the black kingdom.”

“Silver’s close enough,” Kasper murmured. He handed out each bag, and Andreas led them off the ship. “I’d rather be staring at mountains than forests anyway.”

The first matter of business was making sure they could stay somewhere at night. Their trip wouldn’t be long—Andreas was told he could only miss one meeting, but he didn’t expect any negative consequences if he couldn’t go to two—but he wanted it to be as carefree as possible for the kids. Toru had loaned Andreas enough money for the trio to buy every thing in every festival stall with plenty left over; the generosity was something Toru usually offered as apologies for Miya no longer being there.

When their lodging was confirmed, Andreas let his children lead—Emelie immediately took the opportunity to be amazed at everything. They found a little garden and stayed there for a while, admiring the unfamiliar scenery. They all spoke, with some varying degree of fluency, in the shared language between Gin and Sólstaður.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

“Kasper, could you draw this for me?” Emelie asked her brother, gesturing to the area around them.

Kasper cast her a wry glance. “Could you stop talking for a second so I could focus?”

Her eyes widened and she promptly stayed silent, allowing Kasper to work in relative peace. Andreas enjoyed the sight, appreciating the warmer air. Spring hadn’t been there for very long, but it was a notable improvement from Sólstaður’s weather that rendered spring and summer mostly nonexistent.

No one seemed to question them—Sólstaðuric merchants and their families were likely a common sight, since Kuro never interfered with their trade. He imagined other families in similar situations—those with blood from both Sólstaður and Kuro—shared his reasoning that Gin wouldn’t force them out again as Kuro might. In terms of culture and traditions, the sister kingdoms were very similar, so they weren’t giving up much in terms of experiences.

They arrived around noon, so they went back to find somewhere to eat dinner a few hours later. Andreas noticed that a few others seemed to have some Sólstaðuric blood in them—lighter hair, sitting or standing taller than the rest. Most of the surrounding conversation was in the two nation’s shared language as a sign of respect towards the other, but there were a few in Gin’s ancient tongue and a conversation or two that only those from Sólstaður would understand.

When Andreas paid mind to the conversation around them—when Kasper and Emelie didn’t have any topics that needed his attention—he noticed the same general line of conversation in a majority of them. Kuro toying at the border; those from Gin lamented the bloodshed, some desiring final closure and others showing no faith in their queen.

Despite himself, Andreas was a bit curious. He knew the thought was a bit self-righteous, but there were people in Sólstaður who still wanted to fight Kuro—and he knew that Kuro was no more ready for war than Gin. Sólstaður was too far away to face any negative effects, so Kasper and Emelie could stay there. It’d stop the chiefs from complaining, at least.

Andreas gestured for his children to stay put, then went over to where one group was talking.

“May I ask a few questions?” Andreas asked the group.

“Go ahead, stranger,” one said. The other two didn’t seem to mind either.

“I overheard you saying that Kuro attacked the border,” Andreas said.

“We caught word of the second one today,” the first person replied, nodding. “Supposedly, the queen is working through it. The border defense is the one fortified place in the kingdom, though, so there shouldn’t be any trouble here.”

Andreas nodded. “Could I ask why you don’t really seem to trust your queen?”

The second person was the one who responded. “She’s young—you should know that much. The woman’s been under a lot of pressure; coronated when she was sixteen, married right when she was eighteen, had twins one year later, now one of them’s missing or dead. But Queen Kyoumi isn’t…much of a queen; between all that, it’s her husband’s family that’s been handling things, even when her father was on the throne. Not everyone wants to listen to her.”

“Of course, fighting Kuro off with our military is suicide anyway,” the third added in a mutter. “The First Queen’s War made a lot of people lose their will to fight; the most military we have is the one dying at Hiroki’s fort. She could try to make people join, but I don’t think she’d be willing to send her son off in the process—unless she wants to keep him nice and safe, which will get people mad.”

The other two didn’t seem pleased at the third’s comment, but confirmation was all Andreas wanted. He nodded his thanks and went back to Kasper and Emelie.

“I’d like to stop by the capital while we’re here,” Andreas said.

“What happened to ‘we need to be back in a month so Elias doesn’t come out of retirement just to kick us out?’” Kasper asked dully.

“I’m hoping to solve my own problems by helping with others,” Andreas replied. “They’ve never been bothered by getting into other’s politics before, so I doubt they’ll start now.”

Neither child gave any further protest, and the detour became a permanent part of their trip.