Illusions

"Thank you," Serenica finally said as she stirred her tea. "This is valuable to me."

"Frankly, I do really hope it is." The queen mother sighed and shifted herself so that for a moment Serenica saw in her a different woman, a woman of the people, not even a kept housewife.

"My husband is so restless that any change in anything would be a good thing," the woman who was, perhaps, in some reality, the wife of a king said, again with a heavy sigh.

"Is he -"

A knock on the door interrupted them. The queen mother became mousy and small again, and all it had taken for the change had been a single unexpected noise.

Serenica was sorry to see her independence go.

It was Myorka.

"There is something I want to discuss with a woman," the bookkeeper said. "Someone other than you, Serenica. No offense, but you don't have much experience with men. Or motherhood, for that matter."

"None taken." Serenica lifted her hands up. "Is the Dreamer around?"