“I come from a different world, a world called Ordite. I, along with a hundred other girls around the age of four, was taken in by the King of Aedronir to be raised and trained as prospective Queens of Conquest. The last one standing would become his heir.” My jaw clenched, and I took another breath to stop my teeth from grinding. “Only I remained by the tenth year. Soon after, my territory was attacked by the Valuriyan Empire, which forced me to the frontlines, where I stayed for around three decades.” I shook my head. “When I finished dealing with the main invasion on our western front, Duke Elliot Stone requested my presence in the capital to handle a revolt.” My jaw locked again, and it took time to loosen it enough to speak. “When I arrived, I realized it was his revolt.” I paused, eventually pushing on, a snarl in my voice. “Then they hanged me. Well, they tried to.” I looked at my three closest paragons, allowing them to glimpse the bottomless pit of rage boiling deep inside me. “Kyros and Elliot will both die, even if it’s the last thing I do in this life."

There were some details left out, but those were my burdens to carry. Not theirs.

I provided them with a brief overview of what I’d experienced since arriving in Graedon, leaving out my meetings with the Progenitors, Lilliana, and the main system. I wasn’t ready to make sense of those things yet, so keeping them to myself seemed best.

There was a long, drawn-out silence when I finished. I leaned back into the comfort of my chair, allowing my Paragons to digest the new information. Nida had stood halfway through and was now pacing, her brows furrowed in a mix of rage and curiosity. Nasq had gone pale near the beginning and had only gotten whiter as I spoke. Eventually, he folded his hands together and dropped his head onto them.

Ethan stared at me, unwavering. There was a question in his eyes that I didn’t want to answer, not if I didn't have to. But when he straightened his hulking frame and asked it, I found myself speaking anyway.

“Why not start anew in this world? Why cling to the past? You’ve already carved a place for yourself here.”

It was a fair question—one I didn’t have a clear answer for. “I must return. They are my people. Aedronir is my land and my home. It is mine.”

“Who is Kyros?” Nida asked, stopping her pacing to look at me.

I hesitated, unsure how much to reveal. I hadn’t meant to mention him at all. “He’s... similar to a brother, I suppose.”

Nida turned fully to stare, eyes wide. “You have a brother?” she exclaimed. I couldn't believe that was the part of the story the woman had chosen to fixate on.

“In a way. We were raised in the same manner, by the same person, though I didn’t meet him until I was a teenager.” Though I’d finished, none of the three paragons moved or spoke, frozen like sculptures. I sighed and relented. “In Ordite, countries that follow the Word of Ashwash are required to forcefully recruit boys and girls around the age of four, training them to become Kings and Queens of Conquest. Until they ascend, they’re known as prince or princess candidates. Kyros was a prince candidate while I was a princess candidate. Most nations trained their Conquerors as tools of war. My father, the King of Aedronir, trained his as rulers. It was unorthodox but not unheard of. My father wasn’t exactly a creative man.” I smiled, but it didn’t reach the cold of my eyes. “He was a strict man, with harsh expectations, at least for the princess candidates. I don’t think he succeeded in creating the greatest King or Queen as he'd intended. Kyros and I came out as tools of war more than rulers, though Kyros even more so. When I ascended the throne, I believed him dead. Funny how he showed up with Duke Stone upon my return.”

“So your brother betrayed you?” Nasq asked, aghast. I remembered then that Nasq had a brother in the slave arena with him. Perhaps the mage was thinking of that man.

The snarl tugged back my lips once more. “Yes, and more. I should have made sure he was dead. Gone to see the corpse with my own eyes. He’s a threat to everyone, with no purpose beyond fueling his blood-attributed core with more death. How Duke Stone managed to control him, I don’t know.”

“More?” Ethan asked tentatively. Tendrils of Authority leaked from me as I growled, and Ethan, quick to take the hint, changed the subject. “If he was trained like you… how strong is he?” Ethan pressed instead.

“The last time I fought him, he was only slightly weaker than I was. I believe he’d just reached his third platinum core ring.”

They all gawked, Ethan’s stoic expression shattering as his jaw literally dropped. “That was weaker than you?”

“Ah, I sometimes forget how weak this world is. Yes, he was weaker. I had reached the second ring of my diamond core and was progressing toward a higher realm.” I allowed a small smile as their reactions sank in.

“Is that normal over there?” Nida asked, settling down on the floor beside me.

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I shook my head. “No. Even in Ordite, my rank was prodigiously high. Most people are between bronze and silver. Official knights are third-ring gold to first-ring platinum. Diamond users are almost unheard of outside the hundred strongest on the continent.”

“Wow,” Nasq muttered, running a hand through his growing stubble. “What about magic?”

“Didn’t exist.”

Nasq’s eyes bulged. “At all?”

I shrugged. “Not that I knew of. Do you see me using magic?” He stopped talking after that. At least to me. He stood and began to pace, muttering indistinctly under his breath the entire time.

“What will you do when you go back?” Ethan asked, his intensity quickly returning.

“I will take back what is mine. And then I will rule.”

“Do you have to? To rule?” Ethan leaned forward. Despite his newly youthful appearance, there was an old wisdom in his eyes I couldn’t look away from. “You were Queen. You don't have to be Queen again. Why not just be Lilith?”

I smiled, understanding where he was heading. “I am forever the Queen of Aedronir, Ethan. I cannot be anything else. I wish to be nothing else. I will not let a warmongering beast ruin my kingdom.”

Nida and Nasq remained relatively silent while Ethan forged ahead as if he were on some sort of mission. “What about us? Where do the Paragons fit in when you return to Aedronir?”

“You are free to do as you will once I return, though I hope you will choose to remain at my side,” I admitted. “That is assuming we all survive.”

Nida clicked her tongue. “You think we won’t?”

“I do not know how long it has been since I was hanged as Lilith. It could be that time runs equally between the worlds, or that it took decades for my soul to travel. Remember, Kyros is a King of Conquest who decimated other Kings. If Stone took over the reins in Aedronir and somehow influenced Kyros, Aedronir might be much larger than it was. The war I march toward may very well end up being on a global scale, not simply between nations.”

“What if their rule is better?” Ethan grabbed Nasq and forced the still-mumbling mage to sit back down. “Do you intend to take back a country that is being ruled well?”

I laughed at the innocence of the question. “You’ll see when we open a gate to Ordite. The kind of ruler who allows death for peace or is weak does not exist in Ordite. There are no good rulers. There is only Conquest.”

Ethan seemed to realize I hadn’t completely answered his question, but the Berserker appeared satisfied for the time being and relaxed back into the couch.

Nida started to ask another question but I cut her off before she could ask. “No more questions. I have been tolerant enough of the semi-interrogation of my intentions as a reward for successfully completing your first mission. I have already told you more than any of you needed to know. When the time comes that I return home with this world at my back, you will learn more. For now, let us focus on Graedon and the present. Tell me about Lady Ballenci.”

Compared to my tale of betrayal, their story took less than ten minutes to recount. They had apparently come across the girl flailing in the forest alongside the House Alistar knight I’d sent to retrieve her—Doyl or Boyl, or something like that; none of them could remember. Rosa had been severely injured, but Nasq arrived just in time to heal her. I wished I’d known earlier that he could heal missing appendages like an arm—that was useful information. I would need to speak to Rosa at some point for her recollection. Her and... whatever his name was.

They confirmed that the knights bore the Goldenheart insignia before engaging. Each of them had a slightly different version of the fight. Nasq remembered a bloody mess of cockatrice and wyvern gore raining down on him, despite protective spells. Nida, on the other hand, swore to the Gods that she had skewered four of them at once with a single powerfully thrown spear, insisting there couldn’t have been that much gore. Ethan barely remembered anything except the red haze of his berserker rage and the roar of his cockatrice, Rogers, whom he had grown quite attached to.

The one thing they agreed on was the knights' skill level—it matched their own. They would have sustained more injuries if not for receiving a “level up” after killing the first knight. I waved off their explanation of it. I understood enough. They gained more energy, mana, whatever in Ashwash’s name the Desire System granted them for power.

“You made sure to keep one alive, right?” I asked and Nida, who’d taken the lead in retelling their adventure, nodded.

“Yes, my lady. We handed him to Field Marshal Aargorn as soon as we arrived.”

"Good." I glanced out the window; the sun had fully set, and the world's single moon hung high in the sky, surrounded by hundreds of white pinpricks of starlight. Stifling a yawn, I waved the trio off. "Nasq, inform La’Resha that I’ll speak with Lady Ballenci tomorrow morning. Have one of the maids prepare her to be ready by dawn. I’ll speak to her on the way to the Alistar territory.”

“We’re taking her with us?” Nida asked, lifting an eyebrow as she stretched, clearly ready to sleep.

“She is integral to spreading my influence across Lysoria. With the news of her house's current state, I can’t risk anything happening to her outside my protection.” I snapped my fingers, remembering what I’d forgotten. “Oh, and Nasq, have the guards make preparations for that Victor fellow to come with us. I have an inkling he'll be useful."

They all gave me odd looks but said nothing as they quietly filed out of the room. They had a lot to think about—and so did I. But more than that, I was starving. Despite it only being a few hours since my last meal, it felt like weeks since I’d eaten anything substantial.