“You said that Mother was disowned when she left Raylmiyr,” Kirchel said at last. “So she’s not legally a member of the royal family anymore?”

“That’s right,” Edward said, nodding.

“Could…I mean, if the king wanted to…he could undo that, couldn’t he? He could un-disown her?”

“Yes, he could.” Edward frowned at Kirchel. “Why? Does it really matter to you if your mother’s legally a princess or not?”

“Well, no, not exactly….” Kirchel began awkwardly. “It’s just...it’s just….”

“It’s just that she would finally be able to marry the Emperor if her mother were a princess,” Erin finished quietly, having realized at once where Kirchel’s questions were leading.

Kirchel turned quickly to look at her, a startled expression on her face. For a few seconds, Erin thought she might try to deny it, but then Kirchel lowered her gaze and nodded silently.

“Marry the Emperor of Silmar?” Edward looked shocked. He stared at Kirchel for a moment. Then he shook his head and smiled weakly. “Anaurian bug got you, too, did it?”

Kirchel nodded again, looking rather miserable.

“I see....” Edward regarded his daughter thoughtfully. There was pity in his eyes. “Well, it might be worth a try. Don’t get your hopes too high, though. It’s not going to be easy to persuade Nievar to accept a granddaughter who's half human. But if you told him that you wanted him to readopt you so that you could marry the Emperor of Silmar…well, you might just stand a chance.”

“Won’t it be dangerous for her to go talk to him?” Erin asked, concerned.

“At the moment, yes. But it won’t be for much longer. Nievar is dying. It will only be another day or two at most before his healer officially declares him unable to fulfill his duties as king any longer. Then the throne will pass to his son, Seiyan. And fortunately, Seiyan is much more reasonable and much less concerned about appearances than his father is. He’s been in contact with us and has been doing what he can to help. He’s the reason I’ve been able to start getting out and coming to Silmar the last couple of weeks. He would be happy to claim Kiari as his sister again, but he doesn’t have the power to undo her disownment. Only Nievar can do that.”

“So I’d have to go talk to him after he’s no longer the king but before he dies?” Kirchel asked, frowning. “When exactly would I have to be in Raylmiyr?”

“I can’t say for sure, but it will have to be soon,” Edward said. “They might have already decided to pass the crown on to Seiyan. I haven’t spoken to him since yesterday. But he told me then that they only expected Nievar to last another week at the longest.”

He paused for a moment, apparently thinking hard.

“Look, the Nirayl government should have sent word to Silmar saying that the king is dying. It would be perfectly legitimate for the Emperor to come to Raylmiyr to pay his last respects. It would be best if the two of you went together. It would seem much less suspicious to the Nirayls than you going alone. And I think you'll have a better chance of convincing Nievar if both of you are there to talk to him. Just tell Seiyan that you’re Kiari’s daughter when you get to the palace, and he’ll be able to help you. I’ll let him know that you’re coming and why beforehand if I get a chance.”

“All right.” Kirchel looked apprehensive but determined. “I’ll talk to Arturyn when we get back to the palace. He’ll have to stay for the last day of Council, but we’ll come as soon as we can after that.”

“Good. You’ll be able to come see your mother while you’re there, too. I know she would love that. Nievar’s magic seems to be binding her more strongly than it did me. She hasn’t been able to get out at all yet.” Edward glanced up at the sky, where a crescent moon was hanging low over the eastern mountains. “And speaking of your mother, I should be starting back soon. She’s been terribly worried about me leaving. It’s going to be a real shock to her when her father dies and she can do what she wants without being afraid of him anymore.”

He stood up. Kirchel stood too, looking rather reluctant to let him leave.

“I know it’s hard to say goodbye so soon,” Edward said, smiling faintly at the look on her face. “But it won’t be long before we can see each other again.”

Kirchel nodded, smiling back at him. Then she reached up and put her arms around his neck. They held onto each other for a long moment before breaking apart again.

“Now, you two take care of each other, all right?” Edward said, looking from Kirchel to Erin and back again. “I’ll see you in a couple of days.”

“Ne len, amani,” Kirchel said. “See you soon.”

He gave them one last smile and then turned to walk back in the direction he had come. A moment later, he had vanished into the darkness.

Erin and Kirchel looked at each other.

“What do you think?” Kirchel asked after a long pause.

“I think my parents are going to cart me off to a psychiatrist when I tell them about all of this.”

Kirchel sighed. “Well, if it helps, let me know. I’ve been thinking lately about getting an appointment with one of them myself....”

----------------------------------------

“That’s…interesting.” Jechrin tapped his fingers on the balcony railing, looking thoughtful. “Very interesting.”

“What do you think your father’s going to do when he finds out?”

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

“Kirchel hasn’t told him yet?”

Erin shook her head. “I kind of got the feeling that she didn’t want to tell him, actually. I mean, he’s not going to be very happy about her trying to make it so that she can marry Arturyn, is he?”

“No,” Jechrin said slowly. “No, he’s not. Where is Kirchel, anyway?”

“At Zeiryn. She said she wanted to visit some friends before we left Katan Jyrat.”

They were sitting on the balcony outside Erin’s bedroom. Erin had just finished telling Jechrin all about their meeting with Edward the night before.

She wasn’t entirely sure that Kirchel would have wanted her to tell him. She had seemed quite leery of telling Teral anything about seeing her father. But Erin trusted Jechrin, even though she’d only known him a few days. And with Kirchel gone and Arturyn perpetually in meetings, Jechrin was the only person she had to talk things over with.

“You’re going with them to Raylmiyr, then?” Jechrin asked.

“Well, I have to, really. I can’t just stay here on my own.”

Erin put her arms up on the railing and rested her chin on them, feeling rather gloomy. Kirchel had gone to see Arturyn as soon as they had gotten back to the palace the evening before. Erin wasn’t sure how she dared to face him after their spat the other night, but they had evidently worked it out because Kirchel had told Erin earlier that day that they were leaving for Raylmiyr first thing tomorrow morning. Erin wanted to go with them, but she didn’t like to leave Jechrin. She hadn’t known him for very long, but she already felt like he was one of her best friends.

“I wish you could go with us,” she said wistfully. “I don’t know when we’re going to see each other again. And we can’t even write to each other because you don’t know English, and I only understand Silmarith when I’m with you. I don’t think our postal service goes all the way to Aner, anyway.”

Jechrin smiled. “Don’t worry about that,” he said reassuringly. “There are ways we can keep in touch. And I’m sure we’ll be able to see each other again soon. You’re still staying with Kirchel for the rest of the summer, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know. I hope so, but I still don’t know what my parents are going to think when I tell them about all of this. They might not want me to keep staying with her once they know.”

“Well, if you do get to stay with her, there’s a portal right behind her house, right? You’ll be able to come back to Silmar to visit whenever you like. And when you have to go back home, you can ask Kirchel if she knows of any portals that are near where you live. There’s one right outside of Eloril, so you’d be able to get there easily once you got to a portal in the human world.”

That thought cheered Erin up considerably. “Would you be able to come to the human world, too? I’m not sure how much Kirchel’s going to want to visit Eloril if she ends up breaking things off with your father....”

“You have a good point there,” Jechrin said, frowning slightly. “Well, I could probably get permission to go through to the human world if Kirchel were willing to help.”

“You have to get permission? From who?”

“The gatekeepers. They’re in charge of the portal network,” Jechrin explained. “There’s one stationed at every portal to make sure no one uses them to go somewhere they shouldn’t. Silmariths are automatically allowed to go anywhere in Silmar, but they can’t go anywhere else without getting permission. I’m not exactly sure what the procedure is for getting permission to go to the human world—I’ve never tried. But I think I would need Kirchel or someone to agree to accompany me while I was there.” He grinned. “You know, someone to make sure I don’t get myself into trouble with the natives.”

“That is a good idea, I suppose,” Erin said thoughtfully. “Most humans aren’t used to people coming to visit from other worlds. You could get into a lot of trouble if you weren’t careful. But you could make yourself look human, couldn’t you? I know Kirchel can.”

Jechrin nodded. “Just a little illusionary magic on the ears is enough for most Silmariths to pass for humans. I mean, we don’t really look that different. It would be a lot harder for some other species—like the Tahng, say.”

“We can ask Kirchel about it when she gets back,” Erin said. “She probably already knows what we would have to do to get you permission to come visit us.”

“Good idea.”

They both fell silent. Erin carefully bent and unbent her left knee a few times. The brace that Healer Sil-Gaeryn had put on it was already starting to soften, which made walking and sitting more comfortable. The soreness was mostly gone from her repaired skin, too, and the green lines that had replaced her scars were beginning to fade.

“Are you and Kirchel still coming to the Galinil tonight?” Jechrin asked after a while.

“I think so,” Erin said. “Kirchel said something about it when I talked to her this morning. But she might be worried about having to see your father and tell him that we’re leaving tomorrow.” She frowned, thinking. “Would it help if you told him beforehand, do you think? Then he’d have a little time to get used to the idea before Kirchel talks to him.”

“It might help,” Jechrin said, looking unsure. “But then it might make it worse, too. It’s hard to tell how he’s going to react.”

Erin considered for a moment, watching his troubled face. Then she asked tentatively, “Jechrin, do you…do you like your father?”

He looked startled. “What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s just that…I don’t know…the two of you don’t seem to interact that much when I’ve seen you together. And when you talk about him, it’s kind of…distant. Like you don’t know each other that well. And….” Erin hesitated, not exactly sure how to express what she wanted to say. “Well, when I first saw you, at the Nylad, you looked...hurt. Alone. And Arturyn was really surprised when he found out we were friends. He said you barely even talk to anyone else.”

Jechrin didn’t answer right away. He was staring out over the gardens, his expression guarded and serious. Erin watched him, biting nervously on her lower lip. She wondered if she had gone too far and if Jechrin would be angry with her for prying into his private life.

But when he finally turned back to her, he didn’t look angry at all. Only worried…and rather sad.

“Do I like my father?” he repeated softly. “No…I would have to say I don’t.” He sighed and turned back towards the gardens. “That’s not to say that I don’t respect him or even that I don’t care about him. But he….” Jechrin paused, and Erin guessed he was trying to decide how much to tell her. “Well, let’s just say that there are a lot of things that he and I don’t agree on. And he’s never been especially kind or understanding with people who disagree with him.”

Erin wasn’t sure how to respond to that. She couldn’t help thinking of her own father, who was kind and considerate and was always ready to talk and play with his children. She ached to see the pain in Jechrin’s eyes and to think that he had never been able to have that kind of relationship with his father.

Almost as though he had heard her thoughts, Jechrin turned back towards her. They looked at each other for a long moment, and then he smiled gently.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ve learned by now how to manage with my father.” The smile faded, and his expression grew more serious again. “But it would be better if Kirchel didn’t marry him,” he added quietly. “They’ll never be truly happy together.”

Erin swallowed. “Why have they seemed so taken with each other, then? If they could never be happy together, why are they together at all?”

“I don’t know,” Jechrin said. The look on his face had become even graver. “That’s the part that worries me.”