Val tried her best to let them in on the important details. Though Life’s Hymn never made its way into the conversation, she revealed the central threadlines of the headache that merely kept snowballing. It started with Xiandra Clementine, then a chance encounter with Rowan and his bond-brother Lowell, and somehow cascaded into crossing paths with Archon Jin. Her explanation was interrupted by many exclamations—most of which were from Caro—and a few stood out to Val half an hour later.

“The Jin Clan has two heirs?”

“You met one of them?”

“Kenneth has friends?!”

“A Jin themselves came to visit you? And it was an Archon? Girl your luck is something else, I gotta tell you.”

“She has a relation restriction, does she?” A shake of the head from the Support. “Classic of her.”

With all that said and done, Val scratched at her chin and heaved a sigh. “There’s more, but that covers most of what’s bothering me.”

“You met, challenged, and was threatened by an Archon in one day…” Caro blew out a breath. “Impressive work, V.”

Another exhale left Val. “How seriously should I treat her... suggestion?”

“As serious as you would if Magister Thorne himself said it,” Kylee supplied. “Her word holds power in the aetherial and political spheres as an Archon and the Dynast Dowager. Two vastly heavy titles.”

Caro’s nose scrunched up. “Okay but like, she’s the wife of the previous leader who is now, for all intents and purposes, dead. How much pull does she actually carry in her clan?”

“About as much as the dynast himself.”

The magma mage cursed under her breath. “Saintsdamnit.”

It hardly helped Val’s case, yet witnessing someone express even a sliver of frustration at her troubles was refreshing in a way she couldn’t describe.

“Allow me to pull up—yes. Here it is.” Kylee propped her phone up on the mattress, and the screen displayed the core players of the Jin Clan.

“So, from what I can tell I’m looking at a very beautiful family. My eyes thank you, but my brain is confused.”

“I—” A short chuckle cut Kylee off at Caro’s comment, and she let loose a wry smile before continuing. “Right. This here is the simplest family tree, barring any elder, advisor, and branch family.”

It made sense why Kylee turned her phone into landscape mode rather than portrait like Val envisioned her doing. Most family trees expanded downwards, from parents to children and so forth. For the immediate Jin members, the tree spread out horizontally as well to account for the second wives of Rowan’s father and grandfather. Small, circular pictures portrayed each member in their youth, though the two first wives’ pictures were sepia, along with the late and older Dynast.

“Like his father, the current dynast married twice,” Kylee went on to say. “The first time to an Auricean woman who died giving birth—”

“Zihao,” Val surmised, earning a nod.

“—and the second to a lady approved by the clan’s court.”

Rowan.

“Sources say that the second wife is merely a puppet head for the Dynast Dowager. Others believe the two bonded over both being wedded after the death of a previous partner. Regardless, Archon Jin controls what many consider the more traditional side, the same side that claims Zihao unfit for his seat due to his heritage. Most call them purists for convenience’s sake.”

Val couldn't hide a wince from her face.

Ciazel earned the moniker Alloy Forge for good reason. Culture, magic, and architecture formed to make a medley of sorts, where diversity was both a strength and an attribute of the surroundings. That didn’t translate, however, into perfect harmony across the board.

As someone visibly of mixed backgrounds, half-Kidraan and half-Auricean, Caro was at the forefront of such dissonance. Val could only ever wonder what it was like, as while she might be equal parts Desni and from the Eastern Islands, she took after her mother. Brown hair, viridian-green eyes, tan skin—no one would guess she shared another heritage.

Caro, on the flipside, often drew glances from her eyes to her hair. It was no surprise she picked up on the underlying sentiment in half a second, narrowing her eyes. “Is it what I think it is?”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Kylee’s gaze cut away as she managed a small bob of the head. “Just one of the many old traditions of the Twenty that needs to go. Either way, I can say without doubt that Zihao is a prodigy. I fought him once. My spells didn’t so much as scratch him. I hardly doubt the same applies as of now, but the point still stands. He’s clever and resourceful. It’s due to this that he won over most of the elders and nearly all of the youths. At least, whoever isn’t a purist.”

This does not bode well for me… In a nutshell, Val was stuck between the person who hoped to use her as a stepping stone toward his rightful place and another who decided her usefulness was to sweep “dust” off the step toward her grandson’s throne. Stuck between a rock and a spell, more like. To convince either for even the furthest seat away from the stage at the auction seemed not just a dream.

It was an impossibility. And for the umpteenth time, Val found herself wondering… Where to go from now? Lost in an ocean of decisions with no foreseeable outcome, she failed to glimpse a lighthouse to show her a path out. The steps she took today might irrevocably carve her fate in stone, and the thought chilled her to the bone.

“Val,” Kylee called, her hands clasped together on her lap. Sometime during the conversation, she fully pulled herself onto the bed to sit cross-legged half a meter away from the Strikers. “In all seriousness, what are you going to do with her request?”

“Ignore it,” Val answered. “I think the two balance each other out quite nicely. I’d be a horrible sister if I didn’t try to shield him for as long as I could from all of this. Not to mention a horrible friend to Rowan and Lowell as well.”

Kylee tucked back a few stray strands behind her ear, even as a hint of a sad smile crossed her face. “You wouldn’t be horrible. Just someone who acts under what they believe is in their means.”

“Seconded,” Caro added.

“As much as that is true…” The Support planted a hand on Val’s knee and gave it a faint squeeze. “Thank you. I can verify that very little in Rowan’s life is what he decides. To have anyone protect his decisions for no other reason than because it’s what he picked… The young heir might not ever know it, but if he did he’d tell you the same thing.”

Val piled her hand on top and returned the gesture. Underneath the icy armour was a kind soul, hardened due to life’s trials and challenges. In many ways, it was like looking in a mirror and gazing at someone who escaped the opposite brand of reality. She wondered which might be deemed worse, to be caged due to a lack of talent or trapped because of an abundance of gifts.

Kylee cleared her throat, snapping Val out of her thoughts. “That being said, you need to be prepared and ready for what she might throw at you, despite the fact that she will probably stay her hand."

"Probably?" Val emphasized.

"Hopefully," Kylee was quick to respond. "She’ll remind you in ways that will leave you speechless and hurting. Nothing will trace back to her. In the twenty-first century, Archon Jin cannot outright kill. I must warn you though that anything else is fair game.”

Of course it was... Val barely had time to process the gravity of Kylee's words. For the second time in as many hours, the door rattled. The wood suffered three tentative knocks forewarning a muffled voice. “Ladies, can I come in? It’s urgent.”

Caro gave them each a concerned glance, then leapt off the bed. “One sec, Jes.”

Jesal shuffled inside decked in flannel PJs, his hair finally free from the day’s gel product. Absent the need to use his magic, his pair of glasses hung on the buttoned neckline of his top. As such, she wasn’t used to having such green eyes take her in. “I just got off a call with Magus Kane. He says if we can, we should head back to Atera. He has pressing news he wants to share. In-person, that is.”

“When?” Caro asked. “We’d have to pack up and travel home, and that might take the better part of the day.”

“Then we’d better hurry.” A soft grimace warped his face and the two metal bulbs on his left eyebrows moved in tandem with his slight discomfort. “We’re expected at headquarters by tomorrow evening.”

“Tomorrow,” Caro parroted. “Are we also expected to fly?”

“Better get sleeping,” was his answer, though a laugh betrayed his serious expression as he stepped out.

Caro shut the door after him and groaned at the ceiling. “Maybe if I just close my eyes, I can pretend this didn’t happen.”

Val huffed through her nose. “Go to bed, Cee.”

“I’ll wake up…” she continued under her breath, eyelids screwed shut. “And get ready like my vacation didn’t end on freakin’ day one.”

“Shut off the lights while you’re at it.” Val threw the blanket over herself, letting the weight settle on her tired muscles once the air seeped away.

“I’ll eat ice cream, buy the cutest outfit for the cheapest price and—” Caro gasped, pausing her mumbled ramblings when a pillow hit her square in the face. She watched in stunned silence as it dropped to the ground with a soft thud, then squinted at the two girls in the room.

“There.” Kylee sighed, rising from Val’s bed with a cat-like stretch. “Peace and quiet.”

Val facepalmed well before a grin found its way on Caro’s face. “Oh, it is so on, Kylee.”

The Support canted her head, at a loss on what could possibly be ongoing. Caro quickly solved that predicament, crouching low in a blur and hurling the torso-sized pillow at her feet. Kylee didn’t have time to blink, let alone dodge the giant bullet to the head.

“You used Aether Reinforcement,” Kylee hissed, astounded.

Caro threw her a shrug. “You gotta do what you gotta do.”

“So you say…”

With a sigh, Val flung a pillow atop her head and tugged the blanket to her chin. Chaos ensued soon after. It did little to stifle the giggles and yelps that followed, and even less against the occasional soft cushion that would smack her. Despite the odds, she succumbed to sleep in minutes.