Grief struck him out of nowhere at times when he least expected it. When he would wake up. When he went to bed. When eating or laughing with the company he kept close to himself. His mind would shift towards the thoughts of the one he lost and grew to love.

During the early morning of today when the sun hadn’t yet managed to appear yet—he thought of her whilst he lay in bed. He felt the star-shaped necklace he had given to her that ran across his neck. It belonged to her but of course, she met a cruel end leaving him to wear it instead.

Sometimes he entertained the possibility of seeing her again. He had come back to life through strange circumstances. Somehow he doubted that she would receive the same opportunity. And even if she did come back, where would he even begin to find her? And if she returned without her memories much like him, she wouldn’t regard him as anything other than a random person off the streets.

There in that darkness of the bedroom Rinas had graciously allowed him to stay in, he stared up at the dark ceiling finding it all frustrating. It angered him and frustrated him with how useless he had been during that moment. He had indeed felt a hostile presence as they all enjoyed being out in public where presumably everything would remain peaceful during the holiday celebrations. I was a fool. I should’ve taken the queen more seriously and not assumed she wouldn’t be capable of striking us at such an opportune time. I also felt that danger and yet what did I do? I ignored it.

It was a moment he couldn’t keep out of his mind all day. It would always work its way in at random forcing him to witness the horror. Seeing the repeating memory of the queen crushing Della and dozens of others only made him want to commit to this plan of his even more. For now however, all he could do was lay there and feel frustrated about it all.

What made matters worse was that neither he nor many others were the only victims, especially when considering Della’s relatives. He felt bad for himself but felt in many ways worse about how her parents, sisters, and brothers must feel. He knew he should in some way possibly try to get in contact with her father or mother at the very least. But he felt ashamed knowing he had put her in danger. The thought of seeing their faces terrified him and the reaction of her father would no doubt be one that might just break him. Instead of confronting them, he instead resigned himself away to not even consider taking such an action merely to avoid incurring her father’s wrath.

Since that day, the queen had spun a narrative to justify her actions towards her subjects. Many of the citizens within Liall—if the news he had word of were to be believed—did not view her actions that day favorably. That was one positive he figured. At least the people here were for the most part willing to not outright support such an egregious action. But some were supportive of it. They supported anything her majesty would do even if it was without a doubt, evil.

The more complicated nature of the circumstances he had been dealt with recently took its toll on his body and his mind by his estimation. I miss those much more simpler days when I first came to Liall. It started off a little rough with her father kicking him out of their inn, but he much preferred that roughness since it had strangely enough allowed for great things to then blossom soon after. Someone remarkable and kind immediately came to help him and it made him sad to know those days were done away with.

What it showed was that even in these dark days when their world was in ruin, there was still good to be found. She had proven that to him and so had many of the people within Liall. It was hard though to keep this perspective. He didn’t want to abandon it. But the harm done to him made it difficult nonetheless to remain hopeful.

Kiran knew at the very least, that however terrible things ended for the one he came to love, he would never forget her or the wonderful memories he shared with her. In fact, he wanted nothing more than to honor her and provide her justice that she and all the other victims from that day deserved.

The queen had to face justice. There was no other option for a tyrant such as her. And who would he be to not be the one willing to carry out that justice? Was he to turn his back and merely let things be? No, he wasn’t for doing that. He had made that very clear to the coalition and its leadership. He was to carry out some form of justice so that the harms done would be rectified in some way.

The sun began to shine into his bedchamber signaling for him to get up and not ponder such thoughts any longer.

He decided to wander through the hall and reach a room near the front of Rinas’s residence. When he made it there, he heard laughter as Regina and Reginald sat near a lit fireplace. They weren’t dressed in their usual formal outfits likely due to it just being the early morning. Soon enough Reginald would resume his duties as a butler and Regina as a maid as he imagined. I still find it odd that they would be expected to carry out such duties.

They laughed as it appeared Lar rested in Regina’s lap. She ran a hand across Lar’s fur. She and her brother Reginald laughed over some topic he wasn’t privy to.

“Surely you aren’t talking about me behind my back?”

Regina made a shocked sound twisting her head around spotting him standing there with his arms crossed.

“Uh, uh, no. Of course not!” The face she made almost made him want to burst out laughing. He held it in however finding it adorable.

Were they speaking behind my back? To continue this charade he accidentally wandered into, he intensified his glance towards them only for Reginald to appear ready to break.

“We weren’t speaking ill of you if that’s your concern,” Reginald muttered whilst he sat cross-legged near the lit fireplace.

“Do they speak truthfully Lar? Or are they in fact up to no good sullying my good name with you potentially complicit in it?”

Lar looked at him skeptically with those big cat eyes of hers. “You should know better than to toy with children.”

“Wait, he’s not serious, is he?” She looked about ready to stand up and kick him in the knee. “That tone you choose to use made me a little concerned. I might even go on to suggest that tone of yours is scarier than Father’s whenever he’s upset at us.”

Kiran chose to sit by them feeling the warmth of the fire. It felt nice at this time of day and considering how truly cold it felt outside. Snow covered practically everything out there making it hard to want to stay outside for too long or even bother going anywhere, especially since it was getting colder day by day.

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Lar sat her head down onto her crossed furry cat arms whilst Regina continued to pet her. “I was telling them a little about our days of wandering in the wasteland.”

“Were you now?”

Reginald’s eyes lit up. She’s strangely not as hostile as she normally is. Perhaps it’s because I agreed to help give her some sword fighting lessons. “Were you two really able to survive out there just by yourselves?”

He nodded his head.

“H-how is that even possible?” Reginald said baffled. “I know monsters can sometimes spawn and survive out there still even with all of the fog but humans aren’t known to be able to do that or at least I’ve never been told it’s possible without having at least fog-warding capabilities.”

“What can I say, I’m a special kind of human,” he said not knowing whether that was true. Although in a sense he thought that to be the case. He had died and come back after all. He was certainly not the usual kind of person.

Regina’s brows lowered. “Are you sure you’re not instead a monster? That might explain it.”

“That would be quite problematic if that were the case,” he said with a smile. “No, I don’t think I’m a monster. What do you think Lar?”

“You’re certainly as bit of a human as one can get,” Lar said. “And I would know,” she said with a goofy look of disgust. “I’ve known many humans throughout my life and you’re no doubt one!”

Since they had been talking about his and Lar’s time out in the fog-covered lands, they were eager for more tales of their journey. It wasn’t every day that a person would get a chance to speak to someone about the areas that everyone in Liall would pretty much never wander through. He was in a unique position to talk about it besides the few venturing knights that occasionally went out to kill whatever monsters were out there.

Rinas’s children listened to him speak more of their journey as they were quite curious about it. They both appeared fascinated and horrified by some of the things he talked about. But they were mature enough to handle some of the more intense moments of their journey. He did try to not be too graphic with some of it however since they were just in their teens.

As it grew brighter and brighter inside the large room near the front of Rinas’s mansion due to more morning light spilling in through the tall slender exterior windows, he began to hear footsteps from behind.

“Reginald. Regina.” Their father’s voice demanded their full attention. “I need to speak with them for a moment.”

“Aw,” Regina muttered sadly, “they were just going to tell us about—”

“They can tell you another time. Go on and get up. You have duties to attend to anyhow.”

“Yes father,” Reginald said whilst standing up. The two of Rinas’s children walked away leaving just him and Lar who lay there close to the fireplace. Regina had carefully placed her there as she got up and left.

Lar chose to wander over to him and lay in his lap allowing him to pet her. She began to purr a little bit as he knew exactly how to pet her in a pleasing sort of way.

“I have heard that you succeeded in scouting out those chambers beneath the pillar. A very fine job Kiran if I may say so myself. It does seem however that with this task accomplished, we are nearing the day in which this plan of yours is to be carried out.”

“That’s right,” Kiran said knowing that to be true.

“If you have doubts about doing this, you need only tell me. I would understand if you decided you weren’t up for it. I wouldn’t expect you to throw yourself at her in such a manner. We can always come up with another solution to get a direct confrontation against her.”

“And how long would that take?”

“I don’t know. The queen rarely if ever leaves the safety of her keep. The fact that she appeared outside of it at all to assault you was truly a rare occasion.”

It was because of that, that he felt it necessary to simply directly confront her face to face even if it meant doing so within the safety of her keep. For one who rarely left it, their choices were incredibly limited when time was crucial.

Rinas looked down at Lar who was laying in his lap still with her head atop her arms. “And how exactly are you doing Lar?”

“I’m feeling a bit better every day.”

He appeared pleased to hear that judging by his expression. “Just be sure to keep resting and recovering as long as needed.”

“Oh I most certainly will. My soul demands it.”

They turned their body slightly appearing about ready to leave them to go someplace else. “Before I go, I thought I’d ask you Kiran whether you truly believe you can trust this person you said will aid you.”

“You mean Silvy?”

“Yes, I believe that’s her name.”

“She appeared willing to the last time we spoke,” he said, “but I planned on talking to her again to go through everything. I’ll be as certain as possible about her before going through with this plan. But generally speaking, I believe she is willing to help us fully.”

“If you expect that to be the case, then I’ll trust your intuition. In the meantime, I will prepare the Human Familiar Coalition in its entirety. We must be ready to seize control of the central pillar and prepare ourselves for unrest if and when the queen is dead by your own hands.”

There was a lot on the line whether he succeeded or failed. He really couldn’t afford to fail. Failure in this regard would halt any attempt to seize the pillar since they needed to remove the queen’s connection to it first.

Rinas chose to wander away leaving just him and Lar there by the fireplace.

“Still feeling weak overall?”

“Yeah,” Lar muttered. “It’ll be a while till I’m back to where I was. It’s a good thing I was keeping a large surplus of unused energy, otherwise, I would’ve died when I saved you or possibly both of us would’ve in my attempt to.”

“That would’ve been far from ideal.”

She smiled knowing he truly felt that way. “It’s just a shame because I feel admittedly useless right now. You’re off planning big things and all I can do is lay around here in this place for the most part. I’m supposed to be lending you aid and instead, I can’t.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Kiran stated seriously. “What’s best for me is for you to recuperate and get better. I can do a bit of heavy lifting for a while anyhow. And besides, you did most of the heavy lifting initially when we first met. It’s only fair that the roles are reversed.”

“If you say so. I’ll try not to feel guilty by lazing about and having those children care for me. Their treatment is quite luxurious.”

“Just be careful not to get addicted to it.”

“I’ll try.”

Lar truly did deserve to rest. After everything they had done for him, they could laze about for an entire year or longer and he’d have no problem with it.

As for what he intended next to do, he felt it necessary to go find Silvy and make sure she was still up for this task that she had accepted to carry out with him. It wasn’t just his life on the line after all. Hers was also on the line.