Valerie left the palace with Gina by her side, after continuous walking and many turns she finally left the enormous palace halls and entered the area protected by external walls. they walked even more, Valerie's beige gown dragging through the mud, she didn't even care enough to hold it up. as they finally reached the training grounds, Valerie's father was sitting on one of the nearby benches, monitoring the group of military training, they were learning how to manipulate the sunlight during late times of the day, a few others in the further back were training under the shade of the trees, fighting with swords, Valerie gestured for Gina to stay a few feet back. her father was completely alone and had come here without any of his personal guards and she wanted to do the same.

she sat on the bench, her father didn't turn to look before saying "You have been disobeying me"

"Father I really didn't-"

"I talked to Alice, and she told me you hadn't been to these grounds once since I left" Alice was my fourth personal guard, her duty was to aid me through training and help me become a better warrior. though she was doing her job, it made Valerie want to find her and pull her by the hair.

'she would definitely beat me though' Valerie thought to herself

"Well, she's lying. these guards are not reliable"

"Valerie"

"no, I'm being serious. you can not rely on them. you will take their word over mine?"

"as if you are a responsible human being, you withdrew from the training, and the newcomer soldiers that were under your care were completely abandoned by you" But Valerie had forgotten about that, she had forgotten almost everything her father told her after Michael left, he had impacted her memory and her health. so she finally asked the question, the question she wanted to ask really badly. the question that she had stopped herself from asking anybody else in fear of hearing an answer she would hate, or them finding out that there were ulterior motives behind Valerie's concern for her guard, considering Valerie had four other perfectly available and healthy personal guards. but she couldn't hold back anymore, she had to find out.

"Where is Michael, father?" Her father finally gave her a look, Valerie stared into his eyes, the ones that resembled hers so much. Valerie felt like her father was holding back, he put his hands in his lap. his hands have become wrinkly, Valerie noticed a scar on his left hand, it seemed fresh. it wasn't a scar from a sword there wasn't a cut, it was a red patch that, her father noticed she was staring and covered his hand with his right hand.

"Michael is on duty, I sent him to take care of things at the gates. he was sent on missions in the villages in my stead" he didn't break eye contact with her. it had felt like he was sending her a statement through his intense stare, she finally understood the reason behind Michaels's disappearance. valerie visibly exhaled. Michael never intended to leave her, he was forced by her father, it took a massive weight off Valerie's shoulders.

"you couldn't have sent anyone else? Michael has been by my side since I was fifteen I had gotten used to...his company"

"is there a difference between him and Gina?" he gestured behind him toward Gina. his stare was still intense. Valerie knew what her father was trying to say but she didn't want to give in to his suspicions, or fuel whatever he already knew.

"yes, there is. you can't just change the guards scheduled to protect me anytime you want, you cant keep controlling my life like this, Father" Valerie started visibly getting angry at her father, suddenly she was disposing all of her frustrations on her father. he was the reason her lover had taken time away from her without even letting her know, this entire time she had thought Michael had abandoned her and he was only doing her father's duty.

"controlling your life? i simply asked your guard for help and he was more than happy to comply" Her father's face turned red from anger "I'm teaching you customs my father taught me and his father taught him. I want to make a good warrior out of you. but..." he shook his head at Valerie in disappointment "you are too busy chasing entertainment and men" he got up from his seat. she was too afraid of speaking up as if her father was a fragile frozen lake that would crush beneath her feet if she pressed too hard. she had seen her father angry before, but he had never been this angry at her. the anger was always directed towards someone else, Valerie understood then, why she had never dared to rebel before.

"Alice told me you had been at the inns, occasionally sleeping there. it doesn't take a genius to comprehend that you have been sleeping with drunk peasant boys in the villages. how can you be so careless?" he was yelling at Valerie, she saw looks from the soldiers nearby and, she felt like a child being scolded. she wanted to speak up and defend herself but she was afraid, she knew what her father was capable of, she knew one wrong word would send her father to Michael and chop his head off, and one wrong word would ban Valerie from the villages for the rest of her life. he would discharge Alexander and leave her with only three guards.

"you are an embarrassment. Valerie" his voice was getting higher than before, the judgment and sympathetic looks from the soldiers made Valerie want to slice open the core of the earth and jump into it. "look at your cousins, none of them act the way you do." he shook his head again "they were right, they were right all along" he muttered to himself, loud enough for Valerie to hear.

his words invoked anger in Valerie, a new type of anger and hurt. she knew he was agreeing with all the painful words that had been said to her since she was a little kid. words that had been said to her and her mother.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"what are you saying, father?" Valerie finally raised her head, she stared right back at her father, the hatred and pain in her overpowering the fear she had of her father "What do you mean by that? do you agree with their words?"

"In fact I do"

"you always did, didn't you? that's why you never backed me or Mother in front of them. you always let them say whatever they wanted to our face-"

"hold your tongue, Valerie" he was standing over Valerie, wanting to intimidate her with his power "You have the nerve to talk back to me, after all you have done. you have shamed me, the other royals look down on me."

"And you?" Valerie got up from her seat, her perfectly groomed nails dug into her palms "You don't think you have shamed us as well?"

his expression became puzzled, to Valerie it looked like he was debating in his head, trying to figure out if Valerie had any knowledge about the situation.

"What are you talking about?" he glanced around, trying to find prying eyes but everyone had gone back to their own business already.

"the fire father" Valerie felt the air around them shift immediately. suddenly, her father was no longer the big bad wolf scolding her. he became the sheep. "you used sorcery forbidden by the Wise counsel thinking no one will ever find out, risking your entire family's lives. putting us all in danger, and yet" she chuckled bitterly, scanning her father's cowardly features, his face imploded with worry, sweat dripping from his forehead and onto his knitted brows.

he shook his head, "How did you-" he ran his hand through his hair "How did you find out Valerie?"

"that's none of your concern. do you have a plan to get us out of this mess you created?" by the look on his face she concluded that he didn't. he dropped onto the bench, his face in his hands.

'he looks pitiful' Valerie thought to herself.

"Sebastian knows" he lifted his head, his eyes and nose had turned red.

"how...nobody...nobody was supposed to find out" he looked down at his feet, Valerie pictured him in a cell, his back hunched over like just then, his family giving up on him, his real family being exiled.

"Valerie I promise, it went out of hand" he was grabbing onto his hair "I never meant to kill the villagers... only the army"

"There is a reason the fire from Agir is outlawed, you knew what you were doing, Father."

"I hear their screams at night Valerie... we tried to stop it but it didn't stop, the fire had gotten out of control" he wasn't listening to her anymore, only justifying himself. he was in a loop inside of his head.

"We?" she glared, he wasn't alone in his little project, he also had witnesses. the chance of him surviving this was reduced by the minute, Valerie thought. after a moment of silence, he replied "You know I can't control fire"

"so you had someone from the Agir kingdom help you out? father, are you insane? they will hold that over your head" Valerie couldn't believe the naivety of her father. The Agir kingdom had formed an alliance with Roun and Byaban in the past, they fought under one flag, it had lasted for five years until the Roun and Byaban had made peace with their opposing kingdoms, Tari and Daristan. this had all been before the Wise Council. the Agir kingdom was cunning, and it was obvious they were still holding grudges over having one of their primary sorcery outlawed by the council while the Aav Kingdom had a slap on the rest. Valerie had wondered if they were aware of the entire deal and whatever was happening. would they also give her father a punishment for entering their kingdom and stealing their fires.

"He was a truthful man, he won't tell a soul."

"a truthful man doesn't burn civilians"

"Valerie stop-"

"Why do you think he will keep the secret from his own people?"

"He is a hybrid, his mother was Rounian, and his father Agrian. I paid him a fair amount of money to help me out and not say a word"

"he did it for the money? Father, is all of this not strange to you?"

"There are those who will betray their Kingdom for a good dinner" he subtly glanced at her but she knew what it meant. "if you give a man some money, he will let you kill his family. and if you give him enough, he will do it for you"

"Are you not afraid of the possibility of being turned in, Father"

"nol, he's already on his way to the southeast, he said the desert of the Byaban will take good care of him"

"did the soldiers not find it strange?" she was trying to gather as much information as she possibly could from him but he was being quiet and secretive, the only time she needed him to speak.

"We did it overnight, so that no one suspects a thing, and it all happened very...very quick" his eyes seemed devoid of life. Valerie thought back to the night when she saw smoke coming far away from in between the m mountains. back then she had thought her father was the one in danger.

"What's your plan? how are you gonna stop the wise from finding out about it?" she was yelling at him, how contradictory it was that seconds ago it was her father yelling at her.

he didn't answer. the birds chirped, and the chatter from the soldiers got louder as they passed them, taking their morning break. Gina shifted from her position, standing closer to the both of them. it seemed like the world stopped for a few minutes until her father finally wiped his eyes "You have to help me"

"What?"

"Please help me, Valerie" he got on his knees "Please help me make this right" his eyes were full of tears, his voice filled with desperation. a sight Valerie never expected from her father. his body shook with every sob. "I can suffer with the mental torture...but I can't have you guys pay for this" Valerie had a hard time believing her father had felt any guilt towards the victims, he was never an empathetic individual. he had watched his father kill people in front of his eyes without even blinking. Valerie remembered the time the royals had caught servants gossiping about the king. he commanded them to be burned at the stake. the king made the royals along with the servants watch as a lesson to teach them never to badmouth those higher than them. Valerie remembered hiding behind her tiny hands as the terrifying man set the wood beneath their feet on fire and them both screaming in agony, she looked away, afraid of the look of burned bodies, as she turned, she saw her cousin's face, filled with fascination. that was the day Valerie knew she was different from the folk of the palace. the smoke of burned bodies filled the Palaced entrance and soon reached the balcony in which all of the royals were standing. so she ran as fast as she could to the enclosed courtyard in the middle of the palace, which was already filled with the aroma that was carried by the air. She couldn't get herself to forget the smell for four days. she also remembered her father saying 'they deserved it'. Valerie wished she was cruel as her father that day, but instead, she cried for as long as the memory resurfaced.

"you should have made better decisions Father, ones that don t require burning people"