"I need a nap."
"Naps are for the weak," I snap at Ascian. We stayed up all night dealing with the committee, securing the castle, and putting the crown back on his head. The committee members are currently locked up in the dungeons along with whatever wives tried rescuing them. They weren't counting on a woman with magic to be watching their every move.
The castle was an easier obstacle. That man we met in the hallway during our little coup, Raoul, was their Captain of the Guard. He and Ascian were old friends, hence his hesitation in the halls. He got the guards to stand down, along with turning off the wailing alarm.
I heavily suggested that they get that thing fixed. A.S.A.P.
The rest of the night was filled with getting the word out that Ascian had returned and reclaimed his throne. Rina helped on her way up to the castle. She sent word through anyone who had ears that would listen. Within a few hours, the city was wide awake and making its way to the gates.
Despite my anxiety about time management, I let him go and present himself to them. I thought the alarm was loud, but that crowd's cheer could be heard for miles and miles on end. Apparently, no one liked the committee.
After he waved his hand and the people set out in celebration, we went back in and started looking at their numbers.
The committee, at least, had doubled their force while Ascian was away, and their original numbers are large as is. They've been in seclusion for far longer than Thralia has, and our own population got crazy when we did cut ourselves off from the world. It's no surprise that they have so many people with nothing better to do than train for a threat that never came. Until now.
Whereas the armies everywhere else would have numbers anywhere between fifty thousand to a hundred thousand, Andraste has eighty-thousand foot-soldiers, but that's not all they have. Andraste takes pride in their bows and arrows. I've seen the damage Ascian can do with his single bow and the strength he can use to throw a man's body back some ten-plus yards. Now imagine a whole additional army that could do just that. A whole army that has accuracy beyond my own skill and eyes.
Forty-thousand. Forty-thousand men and women who can knock the heavier arrows and fire them to the edge of even my eyesight. From what I know about the kingdoms of Ker, all have similar strengths as far as navy or military, but the Andrastrian archers lined on the walls of the battlefield...it's making me giddy.
It took all night though to figure out a way to gather the massive numbers into at least reasonable sections. Since my mother and I won't be joining the fight tonight, we'll have to keep ourselves busy and mist as many as we can onto ships today. Svenja has ships scattered in the waters, so it should be easy enough to mist those closer to the continent to get filled as much as possible.
We have a full day ahead of us, and I'm excited and packed with way too much energy for someone who spent the last twenty-something hours opening a barrier that has never been opened, traveling through a whole ass city on foot, raiding a castle, and pulling an all-nighter. I'm pretty sure I'll be pulling another one tonight, but I'm not dreading it.
Yet.
I want to go home. I want to see family and tell them all about the shit I've been through. Not to mention show off the archers. I mean who wouldn't want to?
We have a few things left to take care of before I can mist us back to the ship that should be waiting on the shoreline, and I keep glancing at the sun knowing that my sisters will all have misted to Cadorelin already, the eight other kingdoms with them. They'll be wondering where the fuck am I.
If only they knew.
"You need a shower," Ascian says as we walk through the many, many halls of the palace. I haven't been paying attention to the layout of the castle, so I have no idea where we are and trust that he does.
"You really know how to make a woman feel pretty, don't you?"
"He hasn't had much experience," Rina tells me. She has yet to leave her half-brother's side, not that I'm complaining. She beats him up just as much as I do, and we've bonded rather nicely through it.
"Trust me, I know."
Her eyes go wide and her mouth drops open. "How-"
"We are not talking about this," Ascian tries ordering.
I pretend to obey, staying quiet for all of three seconds before turning back to her. "We shared a naked bed."
"We were sharing body heat, not a bed."
"Without clothes," I point out.
"They were soaked from the storm."
"He's a cuddler," I whisper to her. He makes a frustrated cry and starts walking faster, muttering those curse words again. Rina and I smile and laugh. She starts asking questions about the Blight and more details on how we met. I promised her answers, so I give as many of them as we can before Ascian finally stops walking and opens a pair of double doors.
It's a bed chamber. A rather large and fancy one.

The bed is big enough for five people, the windows flanking it as tall as five more men stacked on each other's shoulders. It's decorated in white and gold, two colors that are so beautiful but so easily ruined. I suddenly feel all of the dirt and travel-worn muck coating my body.
"The shower is that way," Ascian says, pointing to a doorway at the left of the bed.
"Shower?"
"To clean yourself."
"You mean a tub?"
"There is a...tub as well if you prefer that." I squint at him, wondering what on earth he's saying. It's a funny word, "shower." I've never heard it before, but they seem to use it a lot here. Maybe it's a sink or something else that's fancy.
"Saints, Ascian, you really are an idiot, aren't you?"
"Is that a serious question?" I ask his sister. She smiles knowingly at me before turning him around and pushing him back into the hallway.
"Leave us. I'll tend to her while you tend to your own foul stench."
"I don't smell-" she slams the door on his face before he can finish, locking the door with a click.
"We're going to be good friends, you and I," I tell her.
"Come on," she grins, walking towards the bathing room. "I'll show you where the shower is."
Curious, I follow her past the bed and nearly trip when I enter the second room.
It's just as big as the first, only the "tub" which is normally a metal bowl, is actually a small pond. It's formed entirely by crystallized rock that casts the water in a teal blue, with the sun reflecting off of its coloring from the whole wall of windows at one end of the chamber. Steam rises from its surface, warming the room but not overheating it.
The sound of rushing water draws my attention away from the pond, and I turn to find Rina twisting several nobs attached to the wall, and a fucking waterfall spouting out from the damn ceiling.
"There," she says, stepping out of the slightly lowered stone floor. "You can use any of the shampoos, conditioners, soaps, and oils on the shelves there. The towels are in that basket, and there are fresh clothes back in the closet in the bedroom. It's the other door with the gold handle."
She's saying something else, but I'm trying to figure out how those nobs made water sprinkle out of the ceiling like rain. It's literally fucking raining inside. And what's shampoo and conditioner? Soap and oils, I understand, there's just so many bottles there.
Where is the water coming from?
"You've never seen a shower, have you?" I hear awe and teasing in her voice, but I ignore it.
"What gave it away? The gaping or the part where I thought your brother was pulling my leg?"
"The gaping."
I reach towards the water, feeling it fall on my hand as rain would, only the water feels just as hot as the pond looks. "How does it work?"
I turn and twist my hand through the waterfall, not sending a lick of magic within it.
"There's a whole system of pipes that run throughout the castle, each leading to a faucet, bath, shower, or anywhere where the water is needed. The nobs control the temperature of the water. Left for cold, right for hot, and the center controlling how much water comes out of them."
"How do you get the hot water?"
"Heaters warm gallons of water at a time and pump them through the same systems, just in different pipes so it doesn't cool until they merge into one just before it reaches you."
"Pipes..."
"Tubes," she explains. "Metal ones. They're built in between the walls so you can't see them."
"Showers...pipes...I've been living under a fucking rock my whole life."
Her laugh echoes against the walls, and she walks over to the shelves with the shampoo and conditioner and other stuff and pulls a few of them. "Here, you can use these. These two on the left are for your hair. The clear one you use to scrub your scalp and the roots of your hair, and the opaque one you use for the ends of your hair. I assume you know what soap is?"
I give her a bland look, knowing full and well that she'll hold this against me like she does most things with her brother.
She smiles and heads for the bedroom. "I'll let you situate yourself then and come to grab you in an hour. Try not to slip and fall!"
The front door unlocks and closes shut, and then I'm left alone with the indoor pond and waterfall. I glance back up at the falling water again. "Why would I slip and fall?"
Two minutes later after shucking off my clothes and weapons and stepping onto the lower flooring, I get my answer.
"Son of a bitch!" My foot slipped on the slick floor and I went flailing to the ground, hitting it rather hard. Water runs over every inch of my body and blinds me as I try to stand up again. I slip a few more times before I'm able to walk out of the pouring water and wipe it out of my eyes.
I can already feel bruises blooming on my elbows and knees. I am so not telling Rohana about this part.
I walk back beneath the water, feet spread and knees bent, and I marvel at how it feels. A bath is nice and all, but this...this is heaven if I've ever seen it. It relaxes my muscles and calms my thoughts. For a long moment, I just stand there and lift my face to it, embracing the feel of it rushing over me. It feels like rain, only warm and without the foreboding feeling that something bad is about to happen. Like a hug.
It feels like a nice, warm, relaxing hug.
I don't want to, but I set about putting the things in my hair, following Rina's instructions with the first two, then scrub the filth of the Blight off of me before rinsing it all off. I have to go in one more time with everything before all of it actually comes out. Then I lay on the floor like a starfish and enjoy the shower some more.
I don't know how much time passes, but soon my energy returns thanks to the magicless miracle waterfall, and I stand. After another five minutes of twisting the three knobs furiously, I finally get the water to stop running. I hope I didn't break anything. It was beginning to frustrate me, so I just turned them all randomly until it worked.
I dry myself off and dab a little of the oil on my skin, then walk back to the bedroom and open the door with the golden handle.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me."
This isn't a closet, this is another whole ass room. Dresses line one wall, shoes another, shirts, coats, and folded pants adjacent to that, and then one just full of drawers that I obviously open and rifle through. Some have jewelry and things to decorate your whole body and hair with, others with more clothes. The largest ones at the bottom pull out to become full on seating areas.
I go through every piece of clothing, pulling out things that seem the least expensive and resemble clothes from back home the most. Which is very little.
Black leather pants, a navy silk shirt, a leather jacket, and my old boots that I took to the bathroom and scrubbed off so that they look at least semi-compatible with the rest of the outfit.
I brush my hair for about two minutes before saying 'fuck it' and dump some oil in it that smells like grapefruit. I don't know if that's what it's supposed to be used for, but it makes pulling out the tangles ten times easier. Once it's brushed I twist it into a braid down my head and over my shoulder. A few strands escaped, framing my face, but I leave them. I've never been good at braids, but it passes as stylish in the mirror.
I put all my weapons back on me, finishing just as Rina walks back in, showered and redressed herself. She has a far better fashion sense than me with her cotton turtleneck red long sleeve, brown pants, fur stuffed boots, and a thick coat on her arm. A knife hangs from a belt at her hip, along with another's handle peeking out of her boot.
I just reverted to my basic choices. Black and blue with boots.
"Where's your brother?" I ask her, picking up my bag that I earlier threw on the ground, and head for the door.
She follows, her boots clicking on the floor while mine stay silent from trained feet and worn soles. "He's finishing up with the last of the generals and will meet us in the gardens."
"Why the gardens?" I slow my pace and let her lead, now marking the passageways and faces that pass us.
"There's someone we have to speak to before we leave."
"Who?"
"Our uncle. He's the only other living family we have, so he'll be Regent while we're away."
"Can he be trusted?" I don't want to have to come all the back up here to yet again get Ascian's crown back. One time was enough, and I'll be too lazy once this war is over.
Rina answers quickly though, which means she trusts him enough. "He's old and never wanted the crown to begin with. He took more interest in the written word than the Court and it's people. He's only doing this because Ascian asked him. They're like father and son seeing as Ascian's own father would only talk to him to teach him how to one day rule a kingdom, and our uncle has no children of his own."
"And what of the committee?" We turn down a hallway and I lean over the stone ledge to look down. The garden sits at the bottom, three stories down. There's not much to it, but it's still beautiful. A few trees, benches, a pond with large, bright fish swimming beneath lily pads, and a small force of the royal guard standing behind an old man who sits on the bench.
"He looks like the wind could blow him over," I tell her.
She peeks over herself, instantly finding her uncle. "He's got some life in him."
We make it to the stairs and descend them. I suddenly take notice of the lack of guards not trailing us. "Why don't you have a guard with you?"
"I'm a bastard's daughter," she states, unbothered. "The only royal blood I have is that of which Ascian and I share through our mother, and here the Queen holds little power as is. Nothing happens if I die, and no one would bother trying to kill or kidnap me when they know no ransom would be paid."
"Surely Ascian would kill whoever harms you."
She shrugs a shoulder, taking the last step and heading towards another hall and the garden. "Maybe, but I'm not as defenseless as you may think."
"You're used to the weight of the blade at your side, there's callouses on your hands, the handle on the knife in your boot is worn from use, and your eyes haven't stopped checking every corner we walk past." She gapes at me, almost running into a column because she's not looking. "I know you're not defenseless, I was simply wondering why the women here aren't so highly held in a place that seems to treat them so equally in the city."
"I...I never really noticed it, I suppose. I mean, I have, I just-"
"It's your society," I tell her. "What it says goes, and whatever it wants, you want. It's not your fault, it's just the world. Trust me, this isn't the only kingdom that degrades women."
"And does yours?" She asks, stopping under an archway at the edge of the garden.
I look around at the green and the barren trees, remembering what Thralia looked like before I left and it was burned. "I come from a kingdom where King and Queen were one and the same. Where women fought alongside the men in our ranks and were chosen over the men to be in the royal guard. We weren't forced to stay home and care for the house and children and heed our husband's every beck and call. Sometimes it was the men who took the motherly role and the women who made the money.
"The Queen I now serve has a heart of gold and a mind of steel, and the King is just as strong and formidable as her and all the willing to let her lead us while he stands at her back. They're the ones we go to join, and they'll cut off a man's balls before letting them insult or harm another woman or man. Trust me. You're going to love them both."
"I hope so because we're giving them a whole lot of our own." We both turn to find Ascian striding down the hall, Raoul and the Royal Guard on his tail, and servants with luggage behind them. He doesn't seem to like their company, and I refrain from telling him that he can just order them away. It's fun seeing him uncomfortable.
"He's by the koi," Rina informs him, stepping onto the grass.
"Likely picking which one he'll take to his estate," he tells her.
They share a smile, and I keep my mouth shut while judging his outfit. He's not necessarily ready for a ball, but I'm assuming that outfit is being packed and readied for a later time in one of those trunks the servants have. Right now he looks like a privateer, which is odd seeing as he earlier stated that he doesn't have any interest in sailing on a ship. I told him that he wouldn't be, that it'd only be for twenty minutes max, but he still didn't warm up to the thought.
"Uncle Pierre." Ascian greets his uncle, switching to their native language. The old man has a scruffy voice that scratches as he leans on his cane to stand. The wind could definitely blow him over.
I leave the three of them to converse, walking to the water's edge to glance down at the fish he was admiring. They're freaking huge, and beautiful. They seem like peaceful beasts, easily swimming around without a care for one another. Some are orange, others white or yellow or all black. Most have a mix of them though, each patterned differently. I've never come across them before, but I can see why the old man would want to take one home.
"So you are the woman who has returned our dear Auzzie to us," the old man calls, hobbling over next to me.
I give Auzzie a look that tells him I'm going to greatly enjoy the new nickname. He doesn't look happy about it. "I am."
"I know that there are places you must be and more important matters at hand, but I have to ask. How did you do it?"
I look to Ascian again, wary of giving away a secret better kept to the two of us. I know why he asks, but there are things in that forest better kept sealed inside than let out.
Ascian nods, so I turn back to his uncle and expose my palm to the sky between us. Slowly, crystal forms in its center, shaping itself to resemble the fish in the pond and coloring itself like one. Pierre takes a shaky step towards it, the Royal Guard shifting uneasily.
"It's called void manipulation. Creating matter out of nothing, or doing the opposite and..." The crystal koi disappears from my hand before once more returning. I offer him the small figurine, and he takes it in a shaky hand. "The barrier was harder to manipulate, but I managed to hold open a tear long enough for us to get through."
"Is it still there? The tear?"
I shake my head. "No. It sealed once we were through it. As far as I can tell, the barrier is still fully intact and not happy about our escape. I don't think it'll be so easy for me to do it again."
"But you could do it again," he pushes.
"It drained her the last time she did it, Uncle," Ascian tells him. "She was unconscious for hours before she woke, and even after that she