"I hope she does. I hope you all do, especially Branka and her sisters. They've been fighting for so long that it's all they know aside from each other and their blood-sworn duty. They deserve a rest after all of this. This is never the life I imagined for them when they were sworn into the service of the elementals. I imagined the life I told you. The love, the kids, the grandkids, and growing old with all of it."

"Seems a little hard for immortals."

"It is, but I did it, and despite what became of it, I don't regret any of it."

"What made you choose to do it?" I ask curiously. The questions been nagging at me. "To find someone and make a life with them even though you could outlive all of it?"

She smiles fondly to herself and lifts Fauna's other hand to start scrubbing. "I was like the Ginerva the first few centuries of my life. I stayed away from anything longer than a one-night stand. Friends were questionable, and I tended to keep with the Mater Natura through the years just as my mother did. I learned from her early on that a simple life was never an option for us. The only reason she had me was because she took men to her bed to produce her heir."

"That's a horrible thing to say to your child."

"Maybe, but it's true. The Resolute Protector's bloodline is just as sacred as the elemental's, the only difference is that we took lovers every month until we became pregnant and the babe was born and protected. Without an heir, we'll die off, and the knowledge we've gained over the millennium would die with us."

"So you took lovers to your bed every month for eight centuries?"

She laughs as if that isn't even the least bit absurd. "And never the same one twice." I'm pretty sure my eyes pop out of my head.

"Saint's I...I am so sorry for you." I try to imagine, but all it does is make me uncomfortable.

"It wasn't all bad," she contests, still smiling. "At least I got sex every month. Mind you, it wasn't all mind-blowing as I had thought it'd be."

I cringe further and hold in a gag. "T.M.I. Willa."

She laughs again, and this time I join her. I still can't believe she did that for eight hundred years. I don't think I could last one.

"Anyways, I thought that that was all that was meant for me. A male every month until I got pregnant."

"So what happened?"

"I wanted more," she answers simply. "I wanted what my mother told me I couldn't have - what her mother told her she couldn't have. I didn't want my child to grow up in the same way I did, so I made her a new life. I found a man I came to love, and when I told Queen Lira and King Hart - the elementals at the time - they didn't blink at my request to bind myself to him. They threw an outrageously grand ball when Branka was born, then again when Cleménce came along. Branka was the only one that showed the signs of an immortal. Cleménce took after her father as for her life span, but those girls didn't care one bit. They lived every day of their lives to their fullest. Even when Branka went off to the camps for training, she and Cleménce would write to each other every day. In spite of how it all turned out, I don't regret giving my daughters the life they lived. I regret not being able to give it to them for longer."

"Well, if it makes you feel better, I don't think your efforts were a complete failure." She raises an eyebrow, and I smirk as I finish with Fauna's hair. It's grown so long. "I spotted Branka and the Andrastian King walking in the gardens last night, away from any listening ears. I may have taken it upon myself to ask around about them."

"And?"

I stand up from the stool I sat at and grab a towel, hiding my mischievous grin. "Well it's hard to find any actual rumors with everyone only have gotten here last night, but the few that drift in the wind and off of the King's guard's mouths, says that they're...close."

"How close." I peek at her motherly glare. I can't tell if she's excited about her daughter's renegade or being a typical overprotective parent. I'm assuming it's a mix of both.

"They didn't say. They just said that they were hardly separated after they took back the castle and that they tend to sneak glances here and there, but his guards refuse to allow the thought that they're sharing a bed take root."

"What for?" Nope. Definitely a protective parent.

"Something about her not being fit for the crown."

"My daughter not fit for a crown?" She scoffs angrily, glaring out the small window on the opposite wall.

"I don't think that King Ascian is like his guards," I say quickly. She looks like she's about to go show the guards what 'not fit for a crown' looks like. "He's far kinder, and from what I saw yesterday, he doesn't necessarily like his guard."

"Then that makes two of us." I chuckle at her scowling expression. She may be several, several years older than me, but she sure is a hell of a lot of fun to hang out with.

"Come on. Help me get her out and onto the sofa."

Working in silent tandem, we get Clarice dry and slip the white corset dress on her. The edges of the train are sprayed with blues and greens and lilac to look like flames but colored to her powers. Willa gets her laced-up sandals on while I set about coloring her eyes with charcoal and a dash of white paint.

Then we switch. Willa working color back into her cheeks and lips, and out from under her eyes, and me slipping silver jewelry on her arms, wrists, and fingers. While Willa double-checks the rest of her body I pin her hair away from her face and leave it to fall into her long natural waves. A little coconut oil and it shines like fresh silk.

"Which one?" I ask Willa. She chews her lip as she looks between the two crowns in my hands. One is the elemental crown, cleaned overnight and looking stunning as ever. The other is one Claritia requested was brought up. It's a white starry night crown. Jeweled and fashioned to look like the night sky with starbursts, shooting stars, and the moon phases, the crown sparkles against the daylight twinkling in through the windows. The large crescent at its center sits on its back, decorated with a few black rhinestones to portray night.

Willa chooses that one, saying that there's no need to state the obvious of Fauna's abilities. The rulers saw her power last night. They know who she is and what she can do, and if they need a reminder then they can look to Víđarr and Kalla.

Once the crown is on and pinned in carefully, Willa puts her hand around one of Fauna's wrists and wakes her up.

Fauna's eyes flutter open.

I wish I woke up looking like this. Pretty and pristine and perfect. Instead, I wake up like a fucking gremlin. Hair sticking out on all ends, limbs crooked in odd but comfortable positions, and a groan roaring in my throat because I don't want to have to get up and do responsible crap. Not to mention the drool that slips down my cheek.

"How long was I asleep?" She goes to rub her eyes and I let out a strangled cry before catching her hands. "Kat!"

"You are not messing up my masterpiece." She pouts, but she doesn't rub her eyes when I let her go. "Now come on. You have people to impress and others to crush."

Willa snorts at my statement. I give her a passing glare and head back for the foyer. Darius should be dressed by now too. Men are ten times easier to get ready.

"You're not coming with us?" Fauna asks, following me on steady legs. I inspect her body, wondering what the hell Willa put in her bath to make her look like she's glowing and give her five times the energy she had walking in here.
I need a magic bath. Or three.

"Someone's gotta make sure no one burned down something in the castle, but I'll pop in sometime in an hour or so," I assure her.

We get into the first sitting room when her hand catches mine. I turn to face her, Willa continuing past us and into the foyer.

"We should talk." I take one look at her eyes and know that it's about Lance and whatever it is that's happened to him. Based on the way her eyes gloss over, I don't think now's the appropriate time for it. Even if will bother me for the rest of the day. I don't want to have to redraw the black and white lines on her eyes because her tears washed them away.

I squeeze her hands and force my cheeks to lift a little. "We will. Later."

"Kat-"

"If Lance wants space then he should have it, and if you tell me what you're about to he won't get it because I'll care too much to leave him alone, and then I'll get hurt when he pushes me away. So later. We'll talk later when you're not about to go discuss war and I have more than one drink in my hand."

She huffs a small laugh. "I think we'll both need a few drinks later tonight."

"I'll make sure they're waiting for us."

She nods, a sad smile slowly falling. There's so much to say and not the time to say it, so I wrap my arms around her instead and hope that it's enough for now.

Her arms squeeze me back, and before tears can fall from my eyes I pull back and straighten out her crown and hair and jewelry and then her dress. "There. You look like a Goddess."

"I always do when it's your handy work."

"Ugh, you've grown soft and sentimental. I don't like it." Another laugh widens her smile. A victory. "Come on. Let's see if Thomas's own work can hold up to mine."

I take her hand and lead her into the foyer where Darius and Willa talk quietly, Thomas standing behind them. They turn when we walk in, and I let Fauna's hand go when hers and Darius's eyes lock.

The three of us imposing on the private moment quickly walk out of the room and into the hall, closing the door behind us. "How'd you know to pick the sun crown?" I ask Thomas, having noticed the band on Darius's head.

He shrugs a shoulder as we turn towards the stairs. "Lucky guess."

I squint at him, not at all believing his claim but letting it drop.

He did, in fact, do a good job of making Darius look just as good as Fauna. His black suit hugged his form in a perfect way that shows off his body rather nicely. He did cut his hair, though, which I'm thankful for. Darius looks good with slightly long hair, but the shorter cut does him justice entirely more, and it looks better with the golden sun-rayed crown on top of it.

"Where'd you find the overcoat?"

"It was his father's," Thomas says plainly.

"I don't remember Neven ever wearing it."

"Because he never did. He had it made but never wore it. I think he meant to give it to Darius for his coronation - or, at least, his coming into power celebration. Didn't you notice the designs on it?"

I did. Grey base with orange, red, and yellow small full-bloomed flowers stitched into the border. "Neven always knew what was to become of his son," I sigh.

"It seems that way to me, but I think destiny knew the truth before anything was ever set into motion."

"What do you mean?"

He points down the hall, and I follow it to the Vandarian crest welded onto a thick piece of metal hanging on the wall. It's a crowned bird showing its wingspan behind a shield with a rose and a sword sitting in an 'X' across its center. I look at it longer, realizing the bird looks a lot like Kalla.

"Gods and their Saints. That's not creepy at all."

"I hate foreshadowing," Thomas mumbles, eyeing the thing with a unamused expression.

I nod my agreement as we pass the Vandarian crest I've seen throughout my whole life. Months into this madness and I've only now just noticed how deep this game of the Gods goes. I hope this means they're in our favor. I'd hate to be them if we all end up dying and they have to deal with us in the afterlife.