Big Secret

Both of the women considered themselves avid readers. Even with their time in the Dreamscape and full-time jobs, they still found time to devour books in their spare time. 

But the past weeks–months for Noble–had left them somewhat drained. 

Slogging through pages of mundane daily interactions in hopes of finding a single nugget that might help them was taxing.

But they couldn't slack off. Especially not when they could feel that they were close to a breakthrough. 

Closing another book, Sarai picked up her writing utensil. She dipped it in the ink well next to her on the side table before she scribbled some notes. 

Putting her tome aside, Noble watched the pen move across the page while she took a sip of water. After setting down the cup, she sighed softly. 

Judging by how long ago dinner had been brought to the room, it was at least an hour after dark. Noble's eyes were tired from their repetitive movement across countless pages. She hoped a bit of conversation would renew her mind.

"Find anything good?" She asked cheerily.

Unfortunately whatever Sarai had found did not make her excited. 

The redhead sighed. "Not necessarily good, but it is interesting." 

"Tell me, please," Noble encouraged with open palms. 

It was also good to touch base from time to time. One of their findings could trigger the other to make an even more important discovery.

"It's not much on its own. Just another piece of the puzzle." Putting down her paper, Sarai's hands dropped into her lap. "At the end of that book, I found an answer to your query about King Cron's daughter. You know, the one that crazy man fell in love with?" 

"I remember," Noble could almost recite the story by heart now. 

Sarai nodded. "Well, I just found the final record of her. Princess Mandra died at the palace from a fever. From what I understand, she never married." 

"Oh," Noble wasn't exactly sure how to feel about the news.

Deep down, she had hoped that Mandra had gotten the storybook ending with a white knight riding in to save the day at the last possible moment and sweeping her off of her feet for a lifetime of marital bliss.

 "Before you get too sad, Cron says she was surrounded by her family and lived to an old age...for us at least. I know people here can live much longer." The redhead furrowed her brow. "Poor Cron though..." 

Noble could relate to the ancient king.

No matter a parent's age, outliving a child was incredibly painful. If Noble didn't die in this nightmare or suffer some other gruesome fate, it was possible that she could outlive the rest of her family as well. 

Because the Spell had not been around long enough in the waking world, it was unknown if being Awakened lengthened a person's life to any significant degree. Only time would tell.

"I am sure he was glad he could be there to comfort her in her final moments," Noble said at last. 

Sarai nodded. She set aside the book and picked up the next one. Even after hours, they had barely made it through a quarter of the books. Cron's rule was toward the beginning of the middle era of the kingdoms, so while his speech was easier to read, it was still rather dense. Cron's reign had been longer than most of the other monarchs, causing him to have more information to cover. 

And, perhaps most significantly, Cron felt the need to meticulously document everything that happened in his day, even copying over letters and communications that he felt were worth saving. 

Which was a lot of extra work, but also gave the ladies more than one point of view on important matters. For instance, Sarai had been able to read the speech that Mandra's brother had shared at her funeral. The princess had been very well-loved. 

Alas, it was time to move on. Or back, in Sarai's case, since she had started with the end of Cron's life. 

Noble had offered to switch, of course, since her friend had already had to read history backward in the royal library, but Sarai had gotten used to the process–enjoyed it even. It was like reading a novel from end to beginning.

Because she knew how things finished, Sarai became more and more interested in how they began. 

As she penned another piece of valuable information, Noble suddenly shifted beside her. 

"Incoming," the Queen's eyes swirled.

"You mean you found something?" Sarai looked up from her papers. 

"Who dares disturb my slumber?" A deep voice echoed through the room. 

Noble rolled her eyes. "I didn't find something. I found someone. Come on out, Nickel." 

One of the many hidden passageways opened and a man stepped out of the shadows. 

"You couldn't even play along for a second?" Nic clicked his tongue.

"I suppose I should have," Noble shrugged. "Next time I will. I will also be having a stern talk with General Theo about the security in the palace. You slip in and out far too easily."

"I love that you think tighter security will make the slightest bit of difference when it comes to me," the thief chuckled. 

"Laundry? What are you doing here? Not that I'm complaining!" Sarai's warm smile stopped the man from making a snide remark. 

"Noble called me on that Memory of hers. Said you needed help with reading." Looking around the room, Nickel shook his head. "Seems like you have your work cut out for you." 

"This is nothing compared to what we have been doing, but I am very motivated to get through all of this as soon as possible," Noble admitted. "Thanks for coming." 

Nic brushed aside the gratitude. "What do you need from me?" 

"Sarai and I are systematically going through the books. I would like you to do your thing and find and read the most important ones for anything we might have missed." Noble explained. 

The man crossed his arms. "Do my thing? You think it is that easy?" 

Pausing, the Queen bit her lip. "Isn't it?" 

Nickel sighed. "It is. Pass me something to write on and I'll start picking things out." 

With three working instead of two, work picked up.

"This King of the Mountains sounds like a real jerk," Nickel scowled. "Reminds me of someone else I know." He pretended to flick long, blond hair behind his shoulder. 

"That's not very kind," Noble scrunched her face. 

The thief smirked. "I was unkind to whom? The king or the person you know I was referencing." 

Noble tilted her nose up into the air. "I'll put it this way, you can insult the king all you like. I don't care for him either." 

Any man who put pressure on a father to force his daughter into an unhappy marriage was worse than scum in her book. 

"I take it he doesn't redeem himself then." Nickel mused. "Not surprising. Jerks don't change." 

Noble ignored his implication. "We will know more when we get through all this reading," she deflected.

The other two nodded. There was no arguing with that. They got back to work.

Nickel's unique perspective and persistence filled the ladies with renewed energy, and as the night wore on, they began to finally get a picture of the secret that Emira had been hiding. 

That every king and queen since Cron had been hiding from their subjects. 

And it was big...