Chapter 17

"We've got a month until mid-June, and the Solstice isn't until June Twenty-Second," Kore said, sitting in a large and warded room with the other Crowns. "And suddenly we are expected to entertain and house them for the next month until the Vallie girl can be tried by the Flame?"

"I am still surprised that they think they can force Minthe Vallie into a leadership role so easily," Brona said. "Forcing us to let her shadow us while we work? Not going to happen."

"Do they think we will allow her into meetings?" Ciel rolled his eyes. "Kore, can you tell if she has Blood Magic?"

Kore sighed in displeasure. "No. I've not met another with the gift while mine's been activated. While she can prove her lineage a lot easier than her Magic, she still needs to prove that she can do Blood Magic. And since there isn't an actual definition of how Blood Magic works or examples of it outside the Crowns' knowledge and the books, we can't prove she can't do it without exposing me and all of the previous Greylight Crowns. So we'll have to wait until the Flame awakens and let it judge her."

"The Entitled will think something is up if we don't allow her to shadow us,"

"Let her shadow me," Kore said. "I don't plan to do anything that could expose anyone or shit like that. She can shadow me while you both work to try and find out what she is up to. I can have Ruel keep an eye on her when she's not with me, or perhaps even Tsar."

"That might work well actually."

)()()(

"I'm bored." Minthe Vallie complained as she, Kore, and Ruel sat in the Crown Greylight's office of the High Halls.

Kore ignored her, focusing on the paperwork in front of her. It was mainly stuff the other Crowns had already agreed on, it just needed her to look over them and sign them off. Ruel sat on one of the extravagant coaches of the office, his nose in a history book.

Minthe sighed. "Can't we go and do something?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know, visit the communities?"

"Why don't you read something?" Kore snapped, waving a hand towards the dozens of books on the nearby bookshelves. "There are plenty of books on history here. You might learn a thing or two."

"I know enough history."

"When did the Order get first established?"

"How am I supposed to know that?"

"Seven hundred and three AD, it got remodelled in sixteen seventy-eight when the Redwaters were killed off,"

Minthe smirked. "Until me."

"Yes," Kore gritted her teeth. "Until you. You're useless if you don't know the history of the people you're going to govern, aren't you?"

"I'm more useful than you,"

Kore grinned at that. "Ruel, give us a scenario that would include the Order needing to intervene."

He thought for a moment. "There is a food shortage in the whole country and there is not enough money to keep buying from other countries without going into a small amount of debt. There is an upcoming storm that will either destroy the remaining crops or help them grow, though you don't know which. What do you do?"

"Use Magic to allow the crops to grow?"

Ruel sent her a look that said he couldn't believe she said that. "But what type of Magic? Get a Blackwood to do it and you've killed the crops off completely, but if you chose the wrong Whitestone, you'll create a completely different crop than you wanted. Kore?"

"Give the remaining amounts of food to the non Magical while we focus on getting our crops up to scratch again." Kore didn't look up from her papers. "For the meantime, those that are talented in duplication and nature would help duplicate and nurture the seeds we have planted to help them grow quicker. We get the water-typed Witches to help contain the upcoming storm so it helps our crops instead of destroying them. We keep buying from other countries until we are certain that our crops are alright, even if that means we go into debt."

Minthe rolled her eyes. "You rehearsed this."

Kore dropped the papers she was reading, looking up at the slightly older Witch. "If you are supposedly this Redwater, you're going to quickly learn that Magic does not fix everything with a snap of the wrist. Magic has limits and you need to know them, and people and countries have limits too. You'll be useless to us otherwise."

Minthe sat up from where she was, anger in her green eyes. "Why don't you start acting your age and not tell me what to do? You're not my leader."

"Why don't you stop acting like a child that isn't getting their way?" Kore said calmly. "Until you give up your Magic, you are under the Order's government. You live by our laws on life, death, and Magic, you don't get to say I am not your leader. I am one of three leaders that will determine if you are who you claim."

"Claim? I'm not claiming to be anything. I am a Redwater!"

Kore just hummed before picking up the phone on the desk and dialling a number.

"Send some painkillers and a cup of coffee to the Greylight office," Kore asked. She changed to Japanese as she looked at Ruel. "If I have to deal with her whiny ass, I'm going to have a migraine. Please do something."

Ruel nodded and stood up, brushing down his white shirt and grey waistcoat before leaving with a slight bow.

Markus came in. "Ruel said you needed me?"

"I need a distraction from her," Kore said. "I'm this close to just killing her off just so I don't have to deal with her infernal chattering about this shit and that. Blood allotments should be arriving at the manor today. I know you are starting to run out"

"Thank you," he said. "How is being Crown?"

"Tiring, moreso than I thought," she sighed. "I didn't realise there was so much paperwork. It's literally hell sometimes."

"Better to have details than vagueness,"

"True."

"I'll head to the manor to check on the others,"

Minthe had watched the exchange, not understanding a word but saw what was there.

"Who's he?" Minthe asked, watching as Markus retreated away from the office.

"Lord Alastair," Kore stated. "A Vampire. He and his friends are here as a way for our two groups to coexist. If Arcanes and Witches can coexist, then Arcanes and humans can. They're all nobles so you'll address them as such or face consequences."

Minthe looked at Kore. "You're on a first-name basis with them."

"I've attended school with them since late February," she said, taking out her ringing phone. "Greylight speaking."

"It's, uh, Silas," he said, shrieking suddenly as a yelp of a hissing cry came on the other end. "Tsar's started to act crazy. Can you come and, like, sort him out?"

Kore furrowed her eyebrows, turning away from Minthe as she spoke. "Crazy, how?"

"He sounds in pain and keeps scratching at your bedroom door,"

Kore changed languages. "Open the door for him and tell me what he does. He wouldn't go crazy for no reason."

Another crash sounded.

"He ran straight in and went for the water jug on the side table,"

"There shouldn't be a water jug there," Kore said, standing. "I'm on my way. Keep an eye on Tsar."

"Of course,"

She ended the call, forcing a pleasant smile onto her lips. "Something came up, Miss Vallie. I'm needed somewhere else and I would rather you not follow me since this is a private matter."

"I'm allowed to follow you if it's a private matter, remember?"

"But not if it's personal and outside my acting as Crown or Heir," Kore asked a couple of guards to come in. "Take Miss Vallie to her quarters and do not let her wander alone."

)()()(

The Greylight Manor was of three floors and had charcoal grey windows and doors to compliment the grey stone. Each floor got slightly smaller as it rose. Shrubs, brush and trees lined the front and sides. The front porch had its wood match the windows, along with the pillars lined with greenery.

Kore stormed up the stairs with Ruel right behind her. She undid the golden buttons of her tailcoat as she shook it off as she got closer. Ruel seemed to know that she couldn't stand to wear it at the moment so he took it off of her hands, hanging it up somewhere where a servant could pick it up.

The flooring was a warm wood with long pillars holding up archways that lead off of the main area. Many pieces of furniture were wood, stone, or an assortment of metals. The grand staircase ascended downwards to the middle of the blocked-off entrance area. The doors were open so they could be seen.

She went up the large set of stairs that took up a portion of the front area, almost running up them as she got to the top floor where her rooms and the rooms of her guests were.

Wylan and Annaliese stood outside her bedroom doors where one door was set ajar and Silas was peeking his head in every few seconds.

"What happened?" Kore asked, getting into her room.

The focus of her bedroom was the large bed with its huge four-post bed frame and dark black and navy bedding. A set of black bedside tables sat on either side, along with a matching set of drawers on the side walls. The floor was dark stained wood while the walls had dark blue panels with intricate designs of lightning and birds sketched in.

Tsar stood near one of the side tables, a broken jug shattered to pieces as he hissed at it and his fur was on its end.

"Baby, what's wrong?" she asked, crouching down to meet Tsar who suddenly jumped into her arms and stopped his hissing. Her phone rang again.

It was Blackwood. "Did you get a jug of water sent to your bedroom?"

"I did," Kore said. "Tsar destroyed it before anything. Why? What are you thinking?"

"I had one of the Poison Mages look at mine and they said it was poisoned, something that would be odourless, tasteless but effective," she said. "Good thing that Familiar of yours knew something was up."

"Is Ciel alright? And the Heirs?"

"They're all okay. None of us ordered water so we were a little suspicious," Brona said. "I have a Poison Mage on standby in my staff. Be careful of what you ingest in the coming days. Apparently, our staff aren't as loyal as we thought."

"Ask Ciel to have one of his trusted Telepaths check through his staff in the next couple of days," Kore said. "And have one stationed at the kitchens at HIgh Halls. We don't need any chances there but I doubt someone is targeting anyone else but us. Trying to separate us to make us seem weak."

)()()(

Very rarely were there days where Kore couldn't sleep, and that night was one.

She, Ruel and the Arcanes were attuned to Japanese time, and that meant Japanese day was English night and vice versa. But there was something about the night that always kept her awake longer than she should have been.

Kore sat in a secluded drawing room, one she nor her mother used so dust had collected in areas and most of the furniture was covered to keep dust off of them. This room had a huge window facing the slowly setting moon, letting the room become lit by just moonlight as Kore sat before the window.

She was on the floor, a pillow below her as she just watched the moon and sky.

"Unable to sleep?" Markus's voice said just after the door creaked open.

"Bad day."

"I suppose a near poisoning would count as a bad day," he sounded smug but Kore didn't turn around. "I brought tea. I somehow knew you'd be unable to sleep."

That made her turn around to look at him. "Tea?"

"Just the way Richard makes it to your liking," he calmly came over, taking his time as he placed down the tray on the floor and put down a pillow for him to sit on. He sat cross-legged on the floor next to her, passing her a cup and saucer. "Too much sugar to fathom and milk."

"I like a good milky English tea," she smiled, lips curling softly as she sipped at the perfection of a drink before the smile faltered off. "Thank you."

There was a slight splatter of rain outside, landing on the window.

Markus watched as she drank the tea in small sips, savouring the taste each time before listening to the light rain outside. Very rarely did she look this calm and just relaxed, Markus wanted to savour moments like this where there was no need for anger or jealousy or pity.

He unleashed a part of his Magic, letting it morph into the desired shape as the muzzle of a huge dog gently knocked into Kore's shoulder to get her attention.

Kore turned around, gasping before almost tackling the poor dog into a hug.

The black Newfoundland dog just let her do as she wished as he got all sorts of pets and rubs from her. Her hands almost disappeared into his fur as she gave him a belly rub and told him how adorable he was.

Markus hid a smile as he watched her cuddle his Familiar.

"Who's this guy?" Kore asked, her hands in the dog's fluffy neck as she made kissy noises and set some soft kisses against his forehead.

"This is a form of my Familiar, he can take on whatever form he wants but he usually stays in my shadow," Markus said.

"Does he have a name?"

"No, I've never thought to name him. He disliked all the names I gave him."

"Picky bastard, aren't ya?" she grinned, rubbing his ears and watching him sag into her grip. "All gorgeous and regal, aren't you? How about Duke? Do you like that, buddy? Duke, like a nobleman."

The dog just stuck his tongue out, licking her face one, trice, thrice before barking once and going onto his back for more belly rubs.

"I think he approves," Markus said. "Duke it is. Do you play?"

He gestured to the grand piano in the corner.

"No. Mum never thought it be a skill I'd need,"

"May I play?"

"Go ahead."

He sat down, opening the case that kept the keys hidden from dust and prying hands, before pressing a few keys in practice. He began easily, starting off with Fur Elise by Beethoven as he knew it was a favourite of hers from Ruel.

The way his hands glided across the keys, never faltering or stopping as he played. It was a slower version of the song, getting in tune with the atmosphere as the rain fell.

As Duke settled near her, Kore leaned into the warmth of the dog, giving him loving pets as she yawned but never once made noise as she listened to the music Markus played. When she finished her tea, she set aside the cups. Tsar appeared, leaping into her lap after blowing his tongue at Duke in mischief. He settled in her lap quickly, his tail swishing with every other note as he also listened and yawned.

Markus finished up the song, letting the music fade into the background.

He stood up from the bench, shaking his head at the beautiful sight.

Using Duke as a pillow and Tsar as a cuddly toy, Kore had fallen asleep to the lures of Fur Elise.

He liked that she trusted him enough to fall asleep in his presence, something very rare she did.

Dislodging Tsar gently, Markus hooked his arm under her knees and another behind her back. If she slept on the floor, she would have a bad neck and thus be grumpy all day tomorrow. It was the only logical thing, Markus told himself as he carried her like a delicate princess to her room, that he should bring her to bed where she would get the most rest. Not because he actually cared about her or her well-being.

Pawns were pawns but she was turning out to be a player on his side.

As he tucked her into bed, Duke and Tsar quickly joined her there, curling around her protectively.

Traitorous animal, Markus thought as he gave Duke one final scratch on the head as his Familiar refused to go back to his shadow.

Look after her then, he told him, protect and serve as you do to me.