7 Marianne

I sat at the throne, the count married to Helga staring nearly with open mouth. Helga's father stood next to me, his visage of full armor and his gaze hard yet prideful. "Your divorce is finalized," I stated. The count blinked, straightening up and failing to hide the smirk on his face.

"Thank you, your grace," he gave a deep bow before standing and staring hard at the marquess. "My wife and I are ever grateful."

"I wasn't finished," I hummed. "You are to have no wife for a year's time and if there is no consistency you will lose title." Shock registered and the marquess grinned widely. Having met with him first over Helga, there were many things that had been discussed and observed. Things I didn't even know were evident had light shed on them and it had angered me more now that I stared at the ugly perpetrator of a man.

"I'm sorry, your grace, I don't understand," the count laughed nervously, his hands clasping together in front of his body.

"Marquess Holland will be visiting from time to time. We came to a realization earlier about your estate and how your money was conducted," I informed him. "Upon the sudden disappearance of Marchioness Helga, we noticed that your finances fell out of order and not just in your household. I find that strange, don't you?"

Fear, shock, anger; it all crossed the Count's face as he bowed his head, "It was- it had become a difficult time, your grace."

"Because your wife went missing," the Marquess questioned. "My daughter wouldn't have left without-"

"Holland," I snapped. His mouth shut quickly, tension building as his eyes didn't tear away from the man in front of us. "You have a year, Count Farkas, and I expect your new interest to be enough to get you through it." I waved my hand, the count bowing before quickly leaving. I could hear the frustration and fear as he walked through the doors. The flood of his emotions raced through the wood as he grazed it, my heart rate rising slightly as I took it in.

"Your grace, may I speak," Holland asked.

"I'm not stopping you," I nodded.

"That beast ruined my daughter, why are you so-"

"What he did he will pay for in time," I interrupted, turning my gaze to the man. His jaw was clenched, the eyes storming behind the calm face. "I need your daughter's accounts to justify any action."

"I spoke with her earlier, your grace, and she wouldn't even look me in the eye," Holland quickly became distressed. I understood why as I struggled with accepting Helga's current behavior myself. From her father, she had been a quick witted young woman capable of wielding a blade as well as he could and her family's money with just as much dangerous accuracy. A woman filled with righteous pride had left her home for a man she believed loved her and they slowly stopped hearing from her as time went on. It was suspicious and worrisome but began to make sense with her current behavior. I wanted the count's punishment just as much as the Marquess did.

It was a few more moments before the marquess excused himself from the throne room, leaving me in the seat. I sighed and stretched my legs out a bit, sinking into the cushion. A familiar hardness traveled down to my chest from my shoulders and the smell of oak and pine filled my nose.

"Am I in the wrong," I asked.

"Water has always been fickle," the feminine voice replied. Hands with pale skin textured by bark held themselves in my field of vision. I didn't have to move to know who stood behind me. "He would have been chosen by the sea when he was younger if he met an untimely fate. It only makes sense why his daughter was chosen."

"I find it painful," I said after a while. The woman walked around me, her hands leaving my chest. She was beautiful if not horrifying. Patches of dark bark traveled down her bare arms and neck, growing into one large blemish that was hidden by the dress made of leaves and a thin emerald veil. She turned the amber gaze to me, the bark lighting into embers in the cracks.

"What part, child," she asked.

"Water is deceptively strong. If she was more likely to be chosen than why did it let her go through with this farce of a marriage," I sighed. The embers under the bark skin died down as she laughed.

"You ask the wrong being," she hummed. "Yet I do understand why one would let something happen. It isn't my place to answer, however, as it wasn't my mind that made the decision." I rubbed my temple and put my head back, staring up at the ceiling and the visible wooden beams. The forest the palace was built in was as ancient as the woman and while I had died early on, the kings that slowly built it came and went. The very structure was built from the wood of the trees it replaced and the life of the place flowed just as smoothly through the stone walls as ever.

"You have been around longer than these walls of man," the woman walked forward, the sound of bare feet on marble drawing my attention forward.

"And you before man became man," I responded. She turned slightly, the brown hair cascading down pulling itself over her shoulders.

"I foresaw man," she nodded, "Therefore I know what you are capable of."

I stayed silent for a while, watching as she walked directly under the wooden beams, "What are you able to tell me of the being attached to her? I need to know."

"You do need to know but how much are you willing to return for such information," she hummed.

"The forests can extend a mile any direction in many directions," I smiled a bit. She was always easy to please and it had only become easier over time.

"She is not simply water. She is ice and anger. She is the hidden pain that is swept away with time," the woman's skin began to glow once more, her head thrusting back with a large smile on her face. "She is the very thing you are not, the very creature that I oppose."

"Yet you dwell in the same domain," the question left my mouth. The woman turned towards me fully, the smile now gentle.

"My sister," she nodded. "We cannot be without one another yet we are as strong as each other when we are alone. Won't you accept her with the same open arms as I?"

"Was it you that drew her away to the river," I asked. The woman nodded and I chuckled softly.

"To be cut in the same place with the same kind of weapon is a cruelty no one should suffer," she sighed. "What you need to know is her pain isn't washed away but with time her strength will grow from it with help. I'm sure your desires are pure in wanting to live her."

"Pure desires aren't far from foolish ones," I muttered.

"But foolish ones are the ones that make dreams reality and reality malleable," she countered. I laughed as she walked forward with an outstretched hand, "A half measure will do, my child. I will grow it along the river on either side of what I already am and will be."

"Your presence is always a delight, Marianne," I nodded.

"I enjoy the company of my many children, dear ruler. You'd be wise to remember that," she leaned forward as I settled my cheek in her hand, her lips grazing my forehead before she disappeared into a small flicker of embers.

-.-.-.-.-

Helga sat across the table, poking at the food set out as I ate. It was a quiet meal and I held back the information that she was a single woman once again. Who knew how she would take it when she was already writing a list of questions for me? The parchment slid across, the neat handwriting filling the page border to border. I had purposely prolonged her questioning just so she could sit on them and decide what was important and what wasn't.

Each question was as if she was a student of a physician; articulated and simple while looking for complexity. I sighed at it and she flinched, her food reaching her mouth as if it would keep her silent. "You don't have to be formal, Marchioness," I said as I leaned back. "It's only you and me here and the questions are on paper. I don't expect it."

She stared and placed her silverware down, raising her hands up to speak somehow. I watched, her hands motioning between us before splaying themselves parallel to the table with space between them.

"Are you saying that there's a structure that needs to be followed," I asked after a moment. It seemed like something she would say to defend herself.

Her quick nod came and I couldn't help but smile softly. We could communicate this way without her being in water. Something about it felt personal.

"Well, I'm not speaking to you as the emperor but as another Spector," her eyes widened a bit at me. Those delicate blues spoke the volumes she couldn't, even as they avoided eye contact. "I'm older than this palace, marchioness. Formalities were lost on me decades ago."

She stared at me and pointed before motioning to the air around her.

"Yes, this palace," I nodded. "I was here when they used the wood to build it's frame. I know every trail in the forests around us and every creek that runs from the river."

She began to count on her fingers, her gaze narrowing in concentration as she counted. I imagined the gaze to be the one she used when she was schooling or cornering those that wished her ill. The gaze she would hold before she married the Count. I glanced back at the paper and chuckled.

"We aren't immortal as we can still die but we do live as long as the beings who claimed us," I answered one of the many questions, her head looking up. "We have much to go over. Shall we go for a walk?"

Her eyes screamed curiosity as she nodded quickly, standing and forgetting the food on her plate. I sighed softly as I stood, watching her fidget in her excitement. Just her standing there, I was able to see the grace her father had praised so highly when he was here.