Morning came quietly.
Elyndra lay still for a moment, carefully checking on herself.
Her limbs felt like her own again.
Her breath came without effort.
She swung her feet off the bed and left to take a warm bath.
She washed and dressed slowly, moving with more care than usual, and then stood before the bronze mirror in the early morning light.
She looked at herself for a long moment.
Then she reached up and slipped her outer robe off one shoulder.
The scars ran across her upper back and shoulder, pale against her skin, some older and faded, some newer.
She knew every one of them.
She had earned them at different times for different reasons and she had never once let herself look at them as anything other than what they were.
The door suddenly swung open without a knock.
Elyndra’s hands moved fast as she pulled the robe back into place at once.
By that time Queen Desdemona had already taken two steps into the room, the robe was settled, the sash half-tied, and Elyndra had dropped into a bow.
”Your Majesty.”
The queen looked around the chamber slowly.
Her eyes moved across the desk, the side table, the bed, the window.
Then she looked at Elyndra.
”Rise.”
Elyndra obeyed quietly.
Queen Desdemona studied her for a long moment.
“I heard you were unwell last night.”
”Yes, Your Majesty, but I am recovering quickly,” Elyndra replied calmly.
“Thank you for your concern.”
The queen stepped closer, her eyes moved over her once carefully.
”Then perhaps you should rest today,” she said.
“You may sit out the next trial.”
Elyndra lowered her gaze slightly.
“I appreciate Your Majesty’s kindness, but I am well enough to attend.”
”You insist?”
”Yes, Your Majesty.”
Silence stretched briefly between them.
Then the queen nodded once.
“As you wish.”
Not long after the queen departed.
Elyndra stood in the empty chamber for a moment.
Then she finished getting ready.
—
She arrived at the hall before most of the others.
She found her place in the line, arranged her expression, and waited.
The door opened and Lythia walked in.
She stopped when she saw Elyndra.
Her surprise lasted only a moment before it turned into something harder.
Her eyes moved across the room angrily and found Moriah near the wall.
Elyndra followed the gaze.
Moriah was already looking at her.
Her expression was harder to read.
Surprise, yes, but layered over something else.
It lasted only a moment.
Before she then smiled and waved brightly.
Elyndra held her gaze longer than necessary.
She smiled back.
Then looked forward and the test began.
By the time it was over she was tired in a way that went past her bones.
The meal after the test was taken together in the side hall as usual. The source of this chapter is g.com.
Elyndra sat at the table and looked at the food in front of her, She picked up her spoon once and set it down.
She couldn’t eat any of it.
She kept her face pleasant and stayed until it was appropriate to leave.
She was walking back to her courtyard through the covered corridor when she heard them.
Two princesses behind her, voices low but not quite low enough.
”…
stayed the entire night, they said.
The physicians were in and out but he never left…”
”What do you think happened between them…”
”She’s only been here a few days and already…”
Elyndra kept walking.
Her steps didn’t change.
Her expression didn’t change.
She turned the corner into her courtyard and went inside her chamber.
—
Lyel Tatton was standing in the centre of her room.
He turned and bowed his head slightly when she entered.
She stopped in the doorway.
Looked at him.
Closed the door behind her quietly then stepped inside fully.
”You should not be here in daylight.” she said her voice low.
”My apologies, my lady.
It could not wait for evening.”
”Why are you here, Lyel?”
His eyes were steady on hers.
“The poisoning,” he said.
“I know who ordered it.”
Elyndra said nothing.
She waited until Lyel mentioned the name.
Her eyes grew wide, her heart skipped a beat.
She looked away immediately her voice cold.
”Leave,” she said.
“I will handle the rest.” she said.
Lyel held her gaze a moment longer, then reached into his robes again and brought out a letter; small, folded, sealed with a mark she would have recognized in the dark.
He placed it in her hand.
”From Ashvin.
From your brother, my lady.”
She looked down at it.
Something softened in her face, a slight easing around the eyes and the smallest release of tension at the corners of her mouth.
”Thank you,” she said quietly.
“Now go.”
She watched as Lyel crossed to the window, and then he was gone, as quietly as he had been there.
She unfolded the letter as she walked to the bed.
—
She was still reading when the Crown Prince walked in.
She sat in the bed, the letter open in both hands, the late evening light falling across the page and across her face.
She was smiling.
Warm and almost girlish.
Zyran stopped just inside the doorway.
He told himself he had simply been about to announce his presence.
That he was merely waiting for the right moment to speak.
He stood there for a moment, and then another, and did not know exactly why he was still standing there.
He only knew that the expression on her face was one he had not seen before, one he had not known existed and some part of him was reluctant to be the reason it disappeared.
She is beautiful, he thought.
”Your Highness shouldn’t walk in unannounced,” she said.
She had not looked up.
Her eyes were still on the last lines of the letter.
He said nothing.
He waited.
She folded the letter with care and looked up.
He was standing near the door, and his expression returned to something more neutral.
She rose and bowed.
”Your Highness.”
”Rise.”
She did.
She moved to the small table near the wall where the candle holders sat unlit, and took up the taper from its holder, and began moving from candle to candle slowly.
”You managed the test today,” he said.
He moved further into the room, stopping at the center.
“I did not expect to see you in the hall.”
”I was well enough to attend.” She touched the taper to the second candle and watched it catch.
”You were barely conscious hours ago.”
”And now I am conscious and standing, Your Highness.
The improvement speaks for itself.”
He studied her carefully.
“The test wasn’t simple.”
”I am aware.” She moved to the third candle.
“I took it one step at a time. That is generally how things are managed.”
A pause.
”You were reading a letter,” he said.
”When I came in.”
”I was.”
”You receive them often I see.”
She glanced at him briefly over her shoulder.
Not sharply, merely nothing.
”Yes,” she said, and returned to the candles.
”From your brother?,”
”yes.” A small pause.
Not hesitation.
“I’m all he has.”
He watched her move to the fourth candle.
The light was growing warmer as the candles caught, brightening the room a little, casting it’s golden light against the walls.
She turned from the candles then, taper still in hand, and looked at him directly.
Her expression was calm but attentive.
”Is there something Your Highness needed?”
”I wanted to see how you were.”
”I have told you.
I am well.”
”You told me.
I wanted to see for myself.”
She studied him for a moment.
Then she moved to the candle holder on the writing table and lit the last one.
“Then Your Highness has seen. I am standing, I am well, and I am…”
”Zyran.”
She stopped and turned to look at him.
“I’m sorry?”
”Zyran Azra.” He said it evenly.
“When we’re alone. You can call me that.”