The Marquess’ face scrunched in contemptuous disgust. “I do not know what you’ve been told about me young lady, but I have no interest in children.”

I blinked at his words, comprehension slow to come. “What are you talking about?”

“You asked him to become your Marquess,” Juniper said, looking equally disgusted. I rolled my eyes as understanding dawned, and La’Resha barked a laugh.

“The Lady would like you to willingly take up your role as Marquess again—but as her subordinate,” La’Resha said.

“I am already her slave,” Marquess Benedict Sharma responded, brandishing his crescent slave mark. “Can I even say no?”

I sank into the room's only couch, plush with velvet, the soft material molding to my shape. “True, but I don’t want you to act like a slave. When I reinstate you as City Lord of Sealrite, you must act as if you're free, as if you're striking a deal with House Alistar. You must use your connections to safeguard Sealrite in my absence and begin preparing House Sharma to merge with House Alistar. You need to desire my success from the deepest recesses of your heart and soul.”

Juniper snorted. “You are mad, girl. That is a wish my father cannot grant.”

“Oh, don’t be so sure of that, dear Juniper,” I said, ignoring the insult in her use of ‘girl.’ “Only a fool clings to hatred when enemies can become allies. True strength lies in knowing when to bend, for it takes wisdom to see that yesterday’s foe may be tomorrow’s greatest friend.” I opened my arms in a gesture that might have been friendly if not for the cold red of my eyes. “Today, that opportunity is me." Juniper looked doubtful, but Benedict leaned forward, encouraging me to continue with a swift nod. “For one, I will grant you and your daughter freedom. After you’ve rendered service, your freedom will come with no conditions. All you’ll need to do is act as you always have but as my follower.”

“As your… follower?” Benedict asked slowly, testing the word. I watched him closely as the gears turned in his mind and the pieces fell into place for him. “No, not just a follower, is it?” he asked. “You mean to become Queen?”

“In a manner of speaking,” I replied with a small smile.

Aargorn stepped toward Benedict, eyes narrowed and frowning deeply. “She will become Archduchess of Lysoria, sovereign unto herself. She is the beacon of light for all of Lysoria. Under her and our King, even Pandoria will think twice about baring their fangs at us.”

Benedict raised an eyebrow while Juniper scoffed, but I maintained my soft smile. “Aargorn, Daneara, I’d like a few minutes with our future Marquess. Please excuse yourselves for now.” The two field marshals obeyed, albeit reluctantly, and exited the way they’d come. Daneara cast a single, almost forlorn look behind her before she followed Aargorn out the door.

“I may not look it,” Benedict said with a sigh, leaning back into his chair. “But I am quite old. Collin and I danced against each other for over a century, and I spent just as long building this city that you have so adeptly destroyed in your wake. In my time I have met many different kinds of people. You, Lady Lilliana, do not strike me as someone who will stop at Archduchess.”

Juniper grunted. “And I doubt she plans on being anyone’s beacon of light.”

I shifted, crossing my legs and leaning against the armrest. “Tell me, Marquess Sharma, what do you know about spatial magic and interworld summonings?”

The abrupt change of topic seemed to catch Benedict off guard, and his eyebrows shot up, but he recovered quickly. “Hmmm, spatial magic? That’s not something I can say I have done much research on, but there are some under King Arthur who are fascinated by it. I have also heard tale of a specialist in the Lysorian courts, though I, again, do not have much information regarding that. There are some texts in my home library in Feluria that describe rituals to summon beings from other worlds, but I’ve never seen one performed and I do not store those types of grimoires in Sealrite."

“Why do you care about that?” Juniper interjected, leaning against the wall, arms crossed, her expression ever-irritated.

“I seek passage to one of those other worlds,” I said simply. “Your primary mission will be conducting research and gathering those who can aid you. After that, you’ll focus on developing Sealrite and merging the houses. In return, as I mentioned, you’ll be granted unconditional freedom.” I sat forward, crossing my legs. “And I will bestow a power upon you far beyond what the Church of Light provided. It will make you incomparable to who you are now.” I shrugged. "If you desire it, of course. That will be up to you."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Juniper opened her mouth in likely protest but La’Resha spoke up first. “I am an example of that power. Before Lady Lilliana, I was nothing but a street rat thrown into the hell pit of slavery. Now,” she said in a low growl. “Now I can tear your mind apart from the inside and render you a mindless fool.”

There was a long silence after that as Benedict stared hard at me, no indication of his previous carefree attitude. Several long minutes passed before he broke the silence with a heavy sigh. “And I am to assume that you will keep your word?” I nodded. “No heart oath?”

“I have no reason to offer this if I’m going to take it away later,” I responded with a casual flick of my wrist. “There won’t be much point in any of this if I don’t keep my word. After all, I hope for you to continue even after you are freed of the slave mark. Show me loyalty, and I will return it manyfold.”

“Father, you cannot seriously be considering this,” Juniper exclaimed, leaving her spot on the wall to approach him.

Marquess Benedict, for his part, ignored the woman. His focus remained wholly on me when he next spoke. “I will agree to your request and your demands, but I have a condition.” When I didn’t move to interrupt him, he continued, “You have already agreed to not brand my daughter. I want her freed, right now, to do what she pleases. I have not announced any heir or successor yet, so she cannot interfere with my status as patriarch and she will swear a core oath to not tell anyone about what she’s learned since meeting you.”

“I will do no such th—” Juniper began, but her father silenced her with a fierce glare. Her mouth snapped shut, her face contorting as if she’d been force-fed something sour.

“Yes, you will,” Benedict commanded. From his tone, I suspected there was more to their relationship than just father and daughter. She was likely part of the House’s knighthood and bound to obey him as patriarch. “You will do it as soon as Lady Lilliana agrees to these conditions. Then, you will leave and live your life however you want, unbound by our House politics or this loss. He paused, then added. “And you will swear not to end your own life out of a sense of honor or dignity.”

I raised my eyebrow at that but only shrugged. “Those conditions are acceptable. I only need you to do your job. Her presence is irrelevant to me.”

Benedict nodded as if I’d confirmed his suspicions, and perhaps I had. Turning to his daughter, he beckoned Juniper to him and she approached mutely. “Swear it.”

For a second, I weighed the cost of killing her. There would come a time when Juniper would attempt her revenge. That was only a question of when. Even if she swore her heart oath, there was no clause against taking revenge and once her father was completely freed, nothing would stop her.

But the cost of killing her was Marquess Sharma’s cooperation. Slave marks couldn’t compel the Marquess to do what she wanted him to do; it would only prohibit him from acting against her and that just simply wasn’t enough. I needed him proactive in his actions, not reactive and minimalist. I could resurrect him, but there was no telling what he would return as, and I didn’t know the energy cost of sustaining someone that powerful. Already, the sheer amount of House Alistar guards I'd resurrected was draining my energy reserves at an uncomfortable speed. Fortunately, a good number of them had died in the battle against Benedict. Still, enough of them lived through the ordeal that the pull on my energy remained substantial.

I tapped the soft couch, hiding the conflicted grimace tugging at my mouth as my father’s words echoed in my mind.

"To let someone who despises you live is to leave a dagger forever at your back. Mercy is a luxury; survival demands certainty,” he’d told the four remaining princess candidates, pointing to a young girl cowering at his feet. The girl wore only a thin blue dress drenched in stains and streaks of blood. The girl had bawled, tears streaking down her cheeks while she screamed the name of her parents, who lay in a mess of blood and gore by her side. “She is a child now, but one day she will be grown. Perhaps she will be nothing; or perhaps, she will be the dagger used to eventually sever your spine.” He had then handed me the knife, his dark red eyes burning rage and hate into my own. The scar carved vertically through my right eye mirrored his own as I grabbed the warm hilt of the steel drenched in blood. “Show me your will to live Lilith.”

I shook my head, clearing the memory as Juniper began her core oath.

“Fine,” she said through gritted teeth, casting me a stare filled with the same hate my father had glared at his candidates with; the same way he’d looked at just about everyone. Magic swarmed around the girl, coalescing around her magic core. Juniper's mouth hung wide, though no words were spoken as if some being held her jaw ajar. The words flowed from her open mouth, lips unmoving as magic swirled around her in a miniature hurricane. “By the eternal ley lines that create magic, and the mana of nature that tempers the soul, I bind my core to these words. With the essence that flows within me, I vow to never turn my blade upon myself, nor will I utter a single word of what I know concerning Lilliana Silverwater. Should I betray this oath, let my magic be torn from me, cast into the Nothingness where light and shadow meet."

With the ending of her words, the tidal wave of spiraling magic surged into her core with a ferocity that seemed likely to shatter the woman’s magic source. Instead, it flashed a brilliant purple before all sense of that magic vanished, leaving no signs of its manifestation mere seconds ago.

My eyes were left wide at the spectacle, my core thrumming to match the chaotic magic that had winked from existence.

Heart oaths are nothing like that, I thought, my interest in magic sparked to even greater heights than before.