Felitïa’s eyes shot open, and she sat up in bed. Lon and Nesh fell from where they were lying on her stomach and scrambled back to their feet.

Felitïa blinked a few times. How long had she been asleep?

Wait, she had slept?

Yes, she had actually slept!

At least, it felt like she had. She was still exhausted as hell, but the tiredness felt farther back, like it was willing to take a break and let her be functional for a little while. That was the main thing that made it clear she’d slept. Her head was...not exactly clear, but clearer than it had been.

She wondered again how long she’d slept. Knowing her luck, it would turn out to have just been a couple hours or so, but even that would be better than she’d expected. The window. She should check what time—

Nin-Akna.

Oh gods. What the hell was she going to do? She needed to explain, make Nin-Akna understand she was acting irrationally, that she hadn’t been thinking straight. Though Nin-Akna was suffering from the same problem. If she took the draught too, maybe she would wake up understanding. Yes, maybe that would…

Felitïa’s eyes fell on her scrip, sitting on the chair where she’d placed it. None of its contents still lay on the floor or her bed. Had she tidied them up? She didn’t remember doing that, but she also didn’t remember falling asleep.

She scrambled across the bed, disturbing Lon and Nesh again, and reached for the scrip. She riffled through it and found the second sleeping draught bottle.

It was still there.

But Nin-Akna had taken it, hadn’t she?

Had it just been a dream? That had to be the explanation, which was a great relief.

It didn’t feel like a dream though. It felt like a memory. Dreams could seem real while experiencing them, but after waking, it was generally clear they were dreams. There were all kinds of things that weren’t quite filled in or consistent. This wasn’t like that at all.

Which didn’t make sense.

Still, if it was a memory, the mess had been cleaned up, and the draught returned. That also didn’t make any sense. It had to have been a dream. Just a very vivid one.

Felitïa shook her head. She could ponder it later.

She hopped out of bed and went to the window, peered behind the curtains. It was light out and the sun was in the southeastern sky. It was morning. She’d slept all night. More than twelve hours possibly. This was incredible!

She should have sought out something like that sleeping draught right from the start. It might have solved a lot of problems.

Oh well. Best thing for her to do now was to get dressed, find Nin-Akna and give her the other bottle. Hopefully, she hadn’t missed breakfast yet, but even if she had, Nin-Akna wasn’t likely to have left the palace without her. She’d probably find her with Anita in that case.

She got ready as quickly as she could. It was nice having some energy during it all.

She hadn’t missed breakfast. When she arrived in the dining room, Lady Siba was already there, as was Danel Belone and Siba’s brother-in-law, Horaz.

Siba smiled as Felitïa took a seat. “You look so much better this morning, your Highness. Doesn’t she look better, Danel?”

Danel peered up from his plate. “Yes, Mother, much better.” He scowled at Felitïa.

“You took the draught, didn’t you? Didn’t I say it works wonders?”

Felitïa smiled. “You did, and yes, I took the draught. I’m feeling a lot better today.”

“You must let my handmaids do your hair and make-up, your Highness. Although you look much better, there are still dark bags under your eyes. Those will take a bit of time to go away, but my handmaids can hide them easily.”

“You’re very kind, my Lady. I might take you up on that for the New Year’s ball in two days.”

“I’m so happy to hear that, your Highness. I was afraid I might have to force you.” Siba laughed.

Felitïa laughed with her.

“You’re certainly in a good mood,” Horaz said.

“Just got a good night’s sleep for once,” Felitïa said. “How’s his Lordship doing, my Lady?”

Siba smiled. “Sleeping peacefully under the effects of a sleeping draught. I don’t expect he’ll join us for breakfast. What of Nin-Akna? Is she sleeping peacefully, too?”

Felitïa sighed. “Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to give her the draught yesterday, but I’ll give it to her today.”

Danel looked up at his mother. “You gave that savage one of Father’s sleeping draughts? They’re for him to help him recover, not to be handed out to everyone.”

Siba slapped his hand. “Be polite, Danel. Yes, I have her Highness two bottles. Your father was there at the time and approved. Her Highness is free to use those two bottles how she wishes.”

“Anita’s been spending too much time with that sa...Ninifin. Something should be done about it.”

“For what reason?” Siba asked.

“To free her of bad influences.” Danel looked directly at Felitïa when he said the last two words. Then he looked back down at his plate. Anger flooded from him.

Felitïa smiled, then immediately tried to hide it. Fortunately, both Siba and Horaz were looking at Danel and not her. Felitïa hadn’t noticed right away she had been sensing the feelings of people in the room as they had just been calm, background emotions. It was perhaps a bit strange that Danel’s intense anger should make her happy, but it was such a relief to have her telepathy back. It was confirmation that it really had been just exhaustion holding them at bay.

Siba tutted. “I admit it’s an unusual friendship, but I see no harm in it.”

“You really believe they’re just friends?” Danel muttered.

Siba paused while spreading some jam on her bread. “I’m not sure what you mean by that, but I maintain that I see no harm, and neither does your father. Anita rarely gets the opportunity to interact with young women her age. There are no others in this court. She deserves a chance to have friends.”

“She’s an Eloorin,” Danel sneered.

Siba finished spreading her jam. “Yes, but according to her Highness here, she is also in line for the Ninifin throne. That makes her a noble. It may not be what we’re used to, but we must treat her with diplomatic courtesy.”

“The throne of a realm Arnor doesn’t even recognise as having legitimacy,” Danel said. His anger was reaching the point where it was overshadowing Felitïa’s relief at having her abilities back.

“I confess I know little of these details,” Siba said. “However, your father has made the decision to treat Nin-Akna as a foreign dignitary, and we will do so. That includes you. Like your father, I’m getting tired of your continued disrespect, Danel. And by that, I don’t mean disrespect towards Nin-Akna. I mean disrespect towards your father. Disagreeing with him is one thing, but when he has made a decision, you will honour it regardless of whether you disagree. Am I clear?”

Danel stared at his plate. “Yes, Mother.”

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“You will be Lord of Belone one day, Danel.”

“Not for many years yet, hopefully, Mother.” Despite his words, there was a brief flash of pleasure from Danel. Not surprising, Felitïa supposed.

Siba frowned, and for a moment, her sadness overwhelmed Danel’s anger. “I hope so, too, Danel, but we must be prepared for the worst. You may end up taking over sooner rather than later. When you are Lord, you will need to be able to look at someone like Nin-Akna and see past the tattoos. They may be horrid. They may produce shivers. But you need to look past them to the person beneath. Tattoos do not make for a bad person, do they, Horaz?”

“Hmm?” Horaz quickly finished chewing his food and swallowed. “Oh, yes, yes. I’ve only ever actually met one other woman with tattoos, but I’ve met many men with tattoos. They tended to be rough and a bit uncouth, but generally good people.”

“You’ve met another woman with tattoos?” Siba asked. “One of Nin-Akna’s people, perhaps?”

Horaz shook his head. “No, she was...um...well…” He reached for his wine and took a sip. “It doesn’t really matter. Let’s just leave it with the fact I’ve met another woman with tattoos, and she was a perfectly fine person, too.”

Siba stared at him for a moment, then shrugged. “There you go, Danel.”

The door opened, and Anita and Nin-Akna entered the room. They took seats beside Felitïa, Nin-Akna directly beside her and Anita on the other side of Nin-Akna.

“Good morning, Mother.” Anita bowed her head to Felitïa. “Your Highness. Danel. Uncle.”

“Good morning, Anita,” Siba said.

“We were just talking about you,” Danel said.

“Oh? Good things, I hope.” Anita smiled.

Siba shot a glare at Danel, then smiled back at Anita. “What else would it be, dear? I can’t imagine anything not good that could be said about you.”

Confusion ebbed from Anita. “That’s very kind of you to say, Mother.”

“Unlike some other people,” Danel said, his gaze pausing briefly on Nin-Akna.

Siba slapped his hand again, and Anita sighed. Irritation rose from Nin-Akna.

“Perhaps, my Lady,” Felitïa said to Siba, hoping to drive the conversation somewhere else, “you could tell us about the plans for New Year’s Eve.”

Siba smiled, and relief flooded from her. “Of course, your Highness. I’d be delighted.”

Things went smoothly after that. A few more people arrived for breakfast, which also helped drive the conversation in ways that avoided Danel making more offensive comments towards Nin-Akna. Thankfully, he was the first to leave, and tensions then dropped a lot. Felitïa worried, though, what would happen if Lord Belone died before she and Nin-Akna were finished in the city.

Eventually, Felitïa asked Nin-Akna if she was ready to go, and they both excused themselves. Anita and Nin-Akna clasped hands briefly before Nin-Akna stood up, and affection between them flooded Felitïa’s senses. At least something was going well for Nin-Akna here.

As they made their way through the rooms and halls of the palace, Felitïa took out the sleeping draught and gave it to Nin-Akna. “Lady Belone game me two bottles of this yesterday. I’m sorry I didn’t have a chance to give you one then, but it really does work. I took one last night and slept wonderfully for the first time in...gods know how long.”

Nin-Akna smiled. “Thank you.”

Felitïa paid close attention to what feelings and emotions she could detect from Nin-Akna. There was no hint of any kind of anger or recognition regarding the draught. It seemed last night really had been just a dream.

“Unfortunately, the two bottles were all she could spare at the moment, but she has promised to ask her apothecary today to make extra. She should be able to get us more in a few days. I talked to Angelida yesterday, and she said it’s a very strong mixture, so—”

“Angelida?” Nin-Akna said. “The one who took over your teacher’s shop? You finally went to see her?”

Felitïa smiled and her cheeks warmed. “Yeah. I guess I finally got desperate enough.”

Nin-Akna smiled too. “How’d it go?”

“Well, it was very brief. She saw how out of it I was, and sent me back here, telling me to get some sleep. She was very...direct, which seems to be her way.”

“I think, with you, direct is necessary. No offence.”

Felitïa smiled. “None taken. You’re probably right. Anyway, the draught is very strong, so we should be careful about using it too much. We don’t want to become dependent on it. But I’m hoping if we use it occasionally over the next couple weeks, we’ll start sleeping normally on our own again.”

Nin-Akna frowned. “Are you back to thinking this is all natural and not something that’s been done to us?”

Felitïa sighed and shook her head. “No, not really. Just trying to be optimistic. There’s almost certainly something else going on, but hopefully, if the draught helps us sleep, we’ll be better able to figure out what’s going on. I was becoming incredibly paranoid about everything.”

Nin-Akna shrugged. “Yeah, me too, though honestly, in this place, I think I’d be paranoid even if I were better rested.”

“Oh, I also had a very vivid dream last night, which might have been an effect of the draught, so just to warn you that you might experience something similar when you take yours.”

“What sort of dream?”

Felitïa grimaced. “You...you got very angry at me and said you were going back to Ninifin, and that you’d kill me if I tried to stop you. It was so real that when I first woke up this morning, I thought it had actually happened.”

“I’ll keep it in mind, and try not to kill you if I get angry at you.” Nin-Akna grinned.

They passed through the palace doors into the cold, snow-swept palace grounds. A light, bitter wind whipped up some of the snow from the ground, but otherwise, it was a clear day. The sun shone brightly, and the sky was mostly cloudless.

“Nin-Akna,” Felitïa said, “I want to apologise for...well...for a lot of things. I know I can be—”

“Irritating? Controlling? A pain in the ass?” Nin-Akna looked at her and smiled.

Felitïa smiled back. “Yeah, those things. I want to blame it all on the exhaustion, but I can’t really. Lack of sleep has brought out the worst in me, but the fact is, those things are in me. They’re part of me. I have only myself to blame, and for that, I’m sorry.”

“Thank you,” Nin-Akna said. “I appreciate that. I really do.”

“I know it’s tough for you in the palace.”

“That’s an understatement.”

“I’m glad you’ve found solace in Anita.”

Nin-Akna looked away. “Yeah, she’s great. I like her. A lot.”

“I know.”

Nin-Akna looked at her and rolled her eyes. “Of course you do.”

Felitïa chuckled. “I don’t need my telepathy to notice that. In fact, today is the first day in ages I’ve actually had my telepathy. I’ve been so exhausted, it hasn’t been working.”

Nin-Akna’s eyes narrowed. “At all? I thought you said something about not telling the difference between happy and sad?”

“It was worse than that. I just didn’t want to say anything. I was getting really paranoid.”

“I guess I can understand that. Where to first? Agernon’s or the Hall of Knowledge?”

“Agernon’s,” Felitïa said. “I want to talk to Corvinian. Apologise again now that I’m thinking a little straighter than I was yesterday. Oh, that reminds me. The whole fighting training…”

Nin-Akna rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I’ll stop, but I honestly think he—”

“No, it’s all right.” Felitïa sighed. She didn’t quite see it Nin-Akna’s way here, but she needed to make some concessions. “He probably should learn to defend himself. We’ve seen that the Volgs can find a way to nullify his powers. We can’t rely entirely on those. And he wants to learn. Just take it easy. Don’t go too fast. Try not to—”

“Felitïa, I’m grateful you’ve changed your mind, but don’t ruin it by trying to tell me how to train him. I know what I’m doing far more than you do.”

Felitïa nodded. “You’re right. Sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

“I know. And it’s okay. I just need a little space to breathe, okay?”

Felitïa nodded again. “I understand. And I’ll do better. I promise.”

‘You’ve said that before.”

“I know, and I’m sorry about that, too. I really will try to do better.”

“Okay, fine. Let’s go, okay?”

Irritation was rising in Nin-Akna again. It was time to stop pushing this line of conversation before things got worse.

Felitïa nodded and they continued on their way to Agernon’s.