Soo Hebin gazed at the Daxarian queen, Katarina Reyes, who stared back with undisguised dislike, while her mother, Duchess Annika Ashowan, wore a mask that was far more difficult to discern.

They were alone save for the three maids accompanying the concubine.

“Your Grace, Your Majesty, I regret to tell you, Tamlin Ashowan perished on his way to Gondol due to an attack of the beast that has been plaguing our shores for the past few months. Your coven leader, Louise Riddel, was a part of the search team along with a handful of Daxarian witches, and they were not able to find any evidence that he was alive. I’m sorry for your loss.”

During the speech, Katarina had stiffened and whereas before some part of her usually shifted, tapped, or twisted, she currently sat completely still. Which was a large marker of concern to those that knew her.

However, the guttural, feral cry that came from Duchess Annika Ashowan was earth shattering in more ways than one and drew everyone’s attention.

Annika clutched her abdomen, as though someone had just ripped her stomach out, and her free hand grasped her mouth, her back hunching as she coiled in on herself.

Katarina stared unblinkingly at the concubine whose head bowed respectfully to her, her face serene.

“Why are you the one telling us this horrific news?”

The concubine didn’t flinch despite the venom in Kat’s words.

“As you are staying in my palace, the duty falls to me to relay this grave information to you.”

“No. It doesn’t. It falls to the emperor.” Kat stood, her presence filling the room as her hot, red aura started to flare out from her. If Soo Hebin had had her eyes open she might be feeling a little bit worried…

“As the advisor you spoke to the previous day told you, Your Majesty, the emperor is unwe—”

The deafening sound of something heavy and wooden smashing into the wall made Soo Hebin throw herself against the back of her chair in panic.

When she finally looked up at the seething Daxarian queen, she instantly started to tremble.

“Go get the emperor. Or I will single handedly reduce your palace to rubble.”

“Guar—”

Kat lowered herself down, her hands gripped the armrests of the chair the concubine sat in. A primal growl cut off the concubine as her eyes glowed. “With the amount of dancing you’ve done with the rules and etiquette, Soo Hebin, I am well within my rights to kill you right here. So do you want even more people getting slaughtered on your behalf?”

Tears were involuntarily welling up in the concubine’s eyes as her sights were consumed with the demon-woman in front of her. She grit her teeth and glared up at Kat.

Lunging to the concubine’s left, Kat made Soo Hebin shriek as she seized the empty chair beside her, and threw it against the same wall as before with an explosion of splintering wood. The amount of effort Kat had exuded was the same as though she were tossing aside a dandelion.

“Get. Out. And pass along the message that if anyone bothers me, they better have their will already prepared.”

Soo Hebin was panting where she sat. The Daxarian queen didn’t move as she bore down on the concubine, forcing the woman to try and sink into the wood of her chair even more like a frightened rodent.

The concubine’s maids were hanging onto each other, quaking in fear.

Once they had all fled the room, and the door had closed, Kat turned her sights to her mother who had her forehead lowered in her hand. The duchess was nearly doubled over, her hand to her forehead, her small body the exact visage of the owner of a broken soul…

Kat rose back up, her aura dwindling down as she stared at her mother expectantly. “She’s gone, you know.”

“Just making sure no guards come in,” Annika Ashowan explained quietly without lifting her gaze.

“After the ruckus I just caused I doubt they’d creep on in,” Kat pointed out with a scoff before stretching her neck. “Gods. Do you think she honestly believes Tam is dead? Or is she trying to do something to us?”

Annika drew up in her seat, then leaned back and crossed her legs calmly, her former distress no where to be seen. “It is difficult to say. I think she wants all of us dead, but it could just be that she is testing us to see if we know anything about his whereabouts.”

Kat nodded at this. “Did Da’s last message say when he was leaving to come?”

Annika tilted her head disappointedly. “He says it’s difficult with the princes right now, and there is a lot of discussion on how wise it is to leave Daxaria undefended.”

Giving a quiet grumble, Kat looked around the chaotic room. “Do you think that vase over there is expensive?”

“Yes. Excellent work, by the way, in pushing to see the emperor,” Annika added with a bow of her head.

Kat managed a tired smile at this. “Does Soo Hebin have any idea that you’ve already been able to see the emperor?”

Annika shook her head. “She’d be a lot more careful if she did. Have you been able to discern if anyone is fit to be a ruler after the emperor?”

“Honestly, his concubine Deoh Rin is smart enough to do it. She has three daughters, though two of them went ‘missing’ so she is more than ready to kill Soo Hebin with her own hands. Her youngest daughter is still a child so she sent her to live with her own parents in Haeson, but she misses her and fears for her safety.”

Frowning, the duchess considered this. “What power does Deoh Run have that could help her hold on to the throne?”

“Not much aside from the fact that she cares a lot, has a lot of energy, is perceptive, and knows what to do with what she sees.”

Annika winced a little. “Wonderful qualities, but not enough to rise to the throne and restore stability.”

Kat sighed.

“You’re absolutely certain your brother is still safe?” Annika asked suddenly, the quiet tension in her voice drawing Kat's gaze to her brown eyes.

Pressing her lips together in understanding, Kat closed her eyes to check. She couldn’t imagine if one of her own sons were lost with a slew of powerful people piling firewood to burn him alive…

Searching for Tam’s thread had always been easy. It was one of the strongest Kat had, and its presence alone gave Kat a great deal of comfort.

And there it was, waving away peacefully in the darkness.

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She studied its glow. Did it seem brighter? No? Kat pushed a small bit of power down that thread. Tam had at one point told her not to do that as it made his magic become unstable, but somehow doing it gave her some sense of comfort. It meant that he could feel her supporting him wherever he was. Maybe if his magic got a bit of an extra push, he’d be a little safer…

“He’s still alive,” Kat reassured her mother, who, upon opening her eyes, Kat watched let out a breath of relief.

“I am beyond grateful that you are able to check on him everyday,” Annika Ashowan confessed, her face looking far more aged than usual.

“My dumb baby brother is probably fine,” Kat insisted while looking around the room. In truth, her brother was only a few moments younger than herself, but that didn’t stop her from lording it over him any chance she got. “Now, I’m going to smash a few things. Are you going to keep pretending to weep?”

The duchess peered the room, spotted the dainty teapot at her side, and casually backhanded it off the table to smash on the floor.

“I’ll start my show again. Eventually.”

Kat’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.

Annika shamelessly met her daughter’s look and shrugged. “Soo Hebin’s an utter bitch.”

Laughing, the Daxarian queen delighted in this new side of her mother, then set to work trying to find the most expensive items that the concubine owned to destroy.

The act was more than just a simple one of defiance to Kat. If she were honest with herself, it was a welcome way to workout her many stresses and annoyances that had been building for a long, long time, and it was lovely to know that the act would have the perfect result of angering and insulting the concubine whom Kat already had silently promised to herself, had limited days left of her comfortable palace life.

***

Tam flinched and halted in his tracks.

The group had just started their venture into the woods while following the river, when Tam felt a very familiar jolt run through him.

“Penelope I have to put you down now.” The edge in Tam’s voice stopped any protests from the child as he crouched down and let her slide off. The poor girl was still building muscle and endurance after being malnourished for weeks, and had no other choice but to make the long journey in shoes that did not fit properly.

“Why are your hands shaking?” Penelope wondered, which in turn made Luca, Harris, and Eli in her large cat form turn around.

Tam wished he could answer her question. He could hear the disguised note of fear in her voice, but he couldn’t get anything over the dull roar of power that was filling his being.

Why is Kat sending me power now? Is this some kind of message? Is she just making sure I’m alive? His shaking worsened.

He knew he could simply disappear into his void, but oddly enough, the notion didn’t seem to offer any alleviation to the discomfort he was feeling.

“Tam? What’s happening? I can feel something is wrong,” Eli’s voice sounded beside Tam. She must have shifted back to her human form and set down their things… How long was this shaking supposed to last?

“It’s Godsdamn Kat,” Tam offered in between pants as sweat rolled down his brow. “She pushed a power surge at me. Now my magic doesn’t know what to do with it.”

Eli looked around herself, and spotted a nearby fallen tree branch that would’ve made for terrific kindling. “Try moving something again. Maybe it’ll use it up?”

Tam tried to lift his head to look at Eli, but found he couldn’t. His body felt trapped in tremors.

And so he instead closed his eyes.

He needed an outlet of some sort, so attempting to move a tree branch could help… Only his magic warred inside of him. It wasn’t the answer it wanted…

Ether. My power is ether. Ether is a part of everything, and in nothing… Reaching out with his awareness, much in the same way Tam would while in his void, he found he could sense everything around him in a way he didn’t quite understand.

He could feel the finest droplets of water moving through the trees, he could feel the worms tunneling deep down in the dirt beneath him, he could feel the rush of the air around them, the flowing of flowing of water in the plants through their roots into their leaves…

He was a part of all of these things, too. He could allow himself to get swept into the wind, he could join the droplets of water circulating through the trees…

The strain in his muscles reached a peak, and suddenly, Tam collapsed into his void. Only he didn’t exactly.

He found himself feeling encased in wood.

He was inside a tree, or maybe even the stick.

But if he was a part of it, then why couldn’t he move it? They all were a part of one another, and so they shared the same will.

Tension released in Tam, even though he didn’t have his body in the peculiar void space he found himself in.

He wanted to spin, and jump while encased in this piece of wood that upon further reflection, he did confirm was the very stick Eli had been talking about. It was an instinct and deep knowing…

It was amazing.

The very fact that Tam became conscious of it, meant they had a relationship together, and therefore they could move together as one…

Something deep in Tam’s soul stirred.

He jumped, he spun… He felt free. The trembling stopped. The roaring power stopped, and then Tam started to feel a little tired, and so he tumbled back out of the void.

He found himself sprawled over some ferns and tree roots.

The wind rustled the leaves above him.

Incredibly he felt at complete peace. Sure he was a little tired, but it wasn’t because of the way he’d used the magic. It was because some part of him had let go of a barrier that had stood between himself and, well, the world.

A barrier that had taken a great deal of energy to hold in place, and so with it down, Tam only wanted to sleep.

Closing his eyes, Tam knew he should’ve gone to check on the others, he could tell they were nearby just by extending his senses through the earth…

“How did he make the stick dance?” Penelope’s shrill voice cut through the air, making him smile, but Tam couldn’t rouse himself just yet. Sleep was beckoning him in an all too alluring way.

And so, feeling completely at ease with his present state, regardless of the fact that he was technically lying upside on a sloping rocky hill, Tam fell unconscious.

It’d just be a quick nap. He’d feel more refreshed once waking back up again.

He was sure of it.