The Princess & The Twilight Blade

Audrey

It took another day before we set out on the mission to investigate the 'battleships' I had overheard the Duke talking about. A handful of teams had been sent to different cities along the coast to look for clues, and we were heading to the largest of them all.

"Isn't this team a bit too much?" Lydia asked with a tilt of her head, directing the question to the leader of our squad. Abel just laughed, not a hint of shame in his expression as we rode in the nondescript wood wagon.

"What did you want me to do? The four of you are a package deal!" he said. Lydia and I sat together, with Leah on my girlfriend's other side. Lucia sat conspicuously next to Abel despite the different seats available. Other than us, we also had Anthony, who sat across from Lucia, and a woman with brown hair and blue eyes who sat on my free side. She had grown and changed, just like everyone else, but I was thrilled to see her again.

"Hailey, isn't it great that we get to fight alongside each other so soon?" I turned toward my friend with a smile. My hands moved to clap excitedly, but one arm was locked protectively with Lydia's for some reason. Hailey had returned from a mission just in time to be included in ours. We hadn't had much time to talk beyond an excited hug and greeting due to the preparations, but it would take us a day and a half to reach Halvern, our target city, so we had plenty of time to catch up now.

"Yes, it is," Hailey replied with a small smile. "I'm so glad you've returned to us, Audrey. Now I can fully repay my debt." This made me tilt my head in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"You saved me, Audrey. You allowed me to repent even after my unforgivable decisions." She explained with a soft look, but I shook my head with a smile.

"No. I may have given you the opportunity, but you were the one who worked so hard." I took her hand with my free one, doing my best to ignore the way Lydia eyed the action. Hesitation hit me as a question came to mind, but I forced the words out. "What about your family? The orphanage…?" I trailed off, afraid of the answer.

Seeing my expression, Hailey laughed. "You don't need to worry. It turns out that Duke Rose is a pragmatic man. It seems he's not the type to waste unnecessary resources… especially not after the kingdom fell under his control. My family—Sister Tess and the other orphans are fine."

A breath of relief escaped me. "Thank the goddesses," It truly was a weight lifted from my chest, but I couldn't help but wonder how she would react if she knew my true identity… If she knew I was related to that monster who threatened her. Even as the topic changed and I told her everything that had happened to me and Lydia, the thought burned at the back of my mind.

"That's quite the story!" Hailey giggled as I finished, and I couldn't help but laugh with her. It made everyone else in the wagon smirk as well, all except for one. My arm was suddenly tugged, and I fell sideways, my face against Lydia's chest as she cradled my head protectively. For some reason, a phantom of a cat with its hackles raised appeared behind my girlfriend as she made eye contact with my friend. Contrary to what I'm sure she expected, this only made everyone in the wagon laugh more.

Even Hailey had to stifle the smirk on her face as she tried to keep a respectful facade. "I have no ill intentions, Your Highness. Audrey is my friend and nothing more."

"What? She's not good enough for you, Dame Hailey?" Pick a stance and stay with it! Thankfully, Abel mirrored my thoughts.

"Lydia, be jealous or don't. You can't do both." The situation entirely amused the prince, and he wasn't the only one.

"Nothing is impossible for my lady," Leah smirked.

As the wagon trundled down the dirt roads, the time passed in that peaceful atmosphere until we entered the bounds of Halvern the next day and passed through the city gates with a simple flash of our guild IDs. It didn't take long to find a suitable inn, but an unexpected situation arose when we asked for our rooms.

"I'm so sorry, all of our individual rooms are booked at the moment. But we do have private group rooms." The innkeeper said with professional regret. Abel glanced over his shoulder at our group, then shrugged and faced the counter again.

"Can we get two of those?" Our rooms were on the third floor, and across the hall from one another. It wasn't until we climbed the stairs and saw the rooms that Lydia started to grumble under her breath. We had split according to gender, but the rooms only had two medium-sized beds in the open room. There was plenty of floor space for travelers to lay out bedrolls, but the space wasn't the issue.

"Wait a damn moment!" Lydia said and turned to look out the open doorway, where we could see Anthony and Abel entering their room across the hall. Her outburst drew her brother's gaze, but the overly innocent expression made his thoughts obvious.

"What's wrong, dear sister?" He drawled, and I saw a vein pop on Lydia's temple.

"Don't 'dear sister' me, you muscle brain! This clearly isn't fair!" She jabbed a finger at him. "You two get a whole room, and you expect the five of us delicate women to squeeze together?"

"I only count four delicate women." Abel snorted.

"Oh, I didn't realize you could even count!" As the siblings started their spat, the rest of us moved to sit on the beds, enjoying the show.

"My ladies can share a bed, and we'll use the other one," Leah said, already dividing us into groups. So reliable. Unfortunately, it didn't calm Lydia down, who had already left the room with a white flame in her hand as she chased her brother into the other bedroom.

"They're both adults… Right?" Lucia seemed awfully uncertain as she mumbled to herself. "I don't think my brothers and I would act like that."

"Families will always show affection in different ways, I suppose," Hailey said wisely. "It was common for the children at the orphanage to fight and make up every day."

"So they're comparable to children?" I said, giggling at her words, which caused her to panic a bit.

"Ah! I didn't mean it like that!" After I calmed down from the fit I had, I wiped a mirthful tear from my eye and raised a suggestion.

"We have the camping gear in my storage as well, so the three of you don't have to be cramped. I don't mind sleeping on the floor." I offered, thinking that Leah could then sleep with Lydia instead.

"Absolutely not." For some reason, that got a response from all three of the attendants and knights, and I shirked back in surprise.

"We wouldn't sleep on a bed while our lady and divine guardian sleeps on the ground," Leah said quickly.

"We're friends before any of that," I grumbled, swinging my legs as I leaned back on the bed.

"Even so, we have the bed space. Even if it's a bit cramped, the quality of sleep will still be better for us all." I couldn't help but agree, then made a counteroffer.

"Then we should rotate every night, so we all get a chance to sleep comfortably." There were no reasons I could think of why that wouldn't work, but Leah always had a retort.

"It would be improper for attendants to share the same bed as their masters."

"You should read more romance novels." Lucia scoffed playfully, earning a glare from the lady-in-waiting that didn't affect the knight at all.

Just then, a disheveled Lydia walked back into the room, and a laugh burst out of me at her state. Her grumpy expression deepened, and she scowled at me, but I couldn't take her seriously, given how she looked. Her blonde hair was crackling with little sparks of blue lightning, causing the strands to rise above her head and wave as if they were alive.

"He's so childish!" She fumed, utterly unaware of the irony in her own actions. Lydia turned to the mirror, desperately trying to comb her hair down with her fingers, but only received small static shocks for her efforts. "How long is this going to last?! At least I returned the favor…"

"What did you do, set his hair on fire?" I asked between giggles. She just gave me a look that said, 'Of course I did, what do you take me for?' And I double over again, imagining the sight. After another minute of letting her suffer, I manifested some water and filtered it through her hair, absorbing Abel's ambient mana. Her hair fell down her back, and Lydia sighed in relief.

As the night wore on, we settled the sleeping situation. It was decided we would rotate every night, much to Leah's dismay. What really made it happen was the sparkle in Lydia's eye at the thought of sharing a bed with Leah.

"We haven't had a sleepover since I was little!" Lydia said, clapping her hands at the idea.

"Like I said, it's improper—" Leah tried to say, but my girlfriend just stepped closer to her and looked up through her eyelashes.

"Can't we? Audrey and Sasha sleep together all the time…"

"Yes, but they are sisters." I could visibly see Leah's defense crumbling at the pleading look her charge was showing.

"Exactly, so there's nothing wrong with us doing it!" Lydia took Leah's hand and held it between hers, her emerald eyes dewy. She's totally playing this up. "You're basically my older sister, right?"

"Nnngh!" A weird noise escaped Leah, but her shoulders finally slumped, and she sighed. "As you wish… my lady."

"Wow, that might be the first time I've ever seen Leah lose," I whispered to Lucia, who was watching the exchange from beside me with a warm look on her face.

"The last three years were harder on her than anyone else… I'm sure Leah wants to spoil the two of you; she's just too stubborn to show it." I nodded thoughtfully at that as my chest warmed. Lydia was so excited by the prospect that the rotation started with me, her, and Leah in a bed. Hailey and Lucia had no complaints as we changed and settled beneath the covers.

It was a while before sleep came for us, but it was deep and comfortable once it did.

***

Lydia

After a fun night of girl talk and sleeping beside my two favorite people, I was raring to go in the morning. The sight of burned patches through my brother's hair only made everything that much better as we ate breakfast. He had a scowl on his face as he glared daggers at me, but he was the one who started it, so I felt no remorse.

"What's the plan today?" I asked between mouthfuls of the simple egg and ham dish.

"First, one of my lovely sisters is gonna heal my poor head!" My brother demanded. I didn't avert my gaze as we stared steadily at each other. Before I could hang it over his head, Audrey cleared her throat and bestowed mercy upon him.

"Lean over here, I'll heal you." She said, but I saw the twitch of her lips as she got a better view when he did. It's not like I let my flames actually burn him… just his hair.

"You shouldn't let Lydia taint you so much, Audrey. You're supposed to be the sweet one." Abel said, sensing her amusement.

"I'm sorry. If it makes you feel better, Lydia looked absolutely ridiculous last night as well." Her hands lit up with white magic, and the burned ends of his hair disappeared, and even grew out a little.

"It does, thank you."

"Great, now apologize to each other." I gaped at my girlfriend's betrayal, but it's not like I could ever actually stay mad at her. One smile from her with those sparkling sapphire eyes, and I mumbled an apology to my brother, who did the same. She even made us shake hands like children.

"Audy certainly knows how to handle you," Azure commented, and I rolled my eyes.

"The plan is to split up and head to the docks. We don't have any leads, so we'll just need to find some." Abel began to explain, quickly getting us back on track. "Our best bet will be the shipyards. We'll split into teams and meet back here at sunset." I raised a brow at his vague instructions, but didn't say anything.

After breakfast, we left the inn and split into our groups. Abel and Anthony went to the southern end of the docks, while Lucia and Hailey went north. Audrey, Leah, and I would start in the middle of the densest area. Halvern used to be the main port of trade with Yamada and the other kingdoms along the western coast, so the port area occupied nearly a third of the entire city. Who knows how long we could be investigating before we find anything of value… The silver lining was that we needed to be inconspicuous, so we were all in our casual clothes. It was essentially a date with Audrey and a chaperone, provided we actually got some work done.

"Your thoughts are plastered on your face, my lady," Leah said as the three of us walked through the busy streets. Audrey's hand was in mine, and I was doing my best to stop her from stopping at every stall that caught her interest. I was only somewhat successful.

"Lydia, look at these!" She pulled me over to a stall that had a myriad of colorful jewelry on display. There were earrings, necklaces, and bracelets made of cheap metals, but they were polished and dyed. Despite the materials used, the craftsmanship was intricate and beautiful.

"You can really see the love and care put into these," I mumbled as my fingers brushed over a silver bracelet I imagined would look nice on Audrey's wrist.

"Thank you for the kind words, miss." The burly man sitting behind the stall met my gaze with a smile. He had skin a tone darker than Anthony's, and dark green eyes that were common among the people from the southeast deserts.

"You are the master behind them?" I asked, my eyes being drawn back to the intricate patterns on the metals. "Even a novice like me can tell how impressive such detail is."

"It's my wife's work, I'm just continuing it for her now," he said, his smile turning a little sad. I read between the lines and pursed my lips. "I'm sure she'd be incredibly proud."

"I hope so." He nodded to himself, then regained his bright smile. "Now that I've got your sympathy, how about buying something for your beautiful girlfriend?" His question was directed at both me and Audrey, who had been absorbed in the various accessories. I laughed a bit at his shrewdness and picked up the silver bracelet that had caught my attention earlier. Before I could ask for the price, a woman appeared behind the man, and a loud Smack! Rang out as she hit the stall-keeper across the back of the head with a folded paper fan.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Quit trying to trick people into thinking I'm dead!" She huffed as he held the back of his head with a sheepish grin. She had black hair that was tinged with purple at the tips, and her features were reminiscent of Yuzuki's.

"I never said anything like that! I'm not to blame if they jump to their own conclusions!" He laughed, sending me a wink as I berated myself for falling for it so easily. The woman turned toward us with an apologetic expression.

"Sorry about my husband, he didn't mean any harm. The second I go on break, he starts running his mouth to tease me. If you meant to buy something because of his antics, please don't feel obligated."

"No, it caught my attention before all that," I said, laughing at the couple's display. "How much for this one?"

"And this one too, if you don't mind!" Audrey held up a gold bracelet that had lines of grey running through it.

"Three silvers each." The woman said with a smile. I handed the coins over, and Audrey and I turned to put them on each other's wrists. "I almost feel those cheap things don't belong on such beautiful ladies."

"Nonsense," I replied. "As I told your husband, the craftsmanship is more than worth it."

"They really are beautiful!" Audrey chimed in with a bright smile, which seemed to settle the woman's fears.

"You'll make me blush with such praise!" She held a hand to her cheek and smiled bashfully. A peaceful moment passed before I cleared my throat.

"If I may ask… Are you Yamadian, by chance?" I asked, sensing she wouldn't likely take offense to my prodding.

"I am. I'm sure you're wondering why I'm here, right?" I appreciated how astute she was as her eyes took on a sharpness.

"Indeed," I admitted, scratching my cheek.

"I was a part of a trading company that mainly brought goods by ship from the islands." She explained. "When the blockade happened, I opted to stay here on the mainland with my husband."

"I see…" I said. She probably doesn't know anything then… My thoughts must've shown on my face because she chuckled at me and smiled.

"Sorry, if you're looking for information about Yamada, I don't have any."

"Ah! I didn't mean—" The woman held a hand up and cut me off.

"You don't need to explain. Everyone is curious about my homeland, and you won't be the first or last person to ask about it." Despite her reassurance, I still felt a little guilty about prodding into a stranger's life. I looked around the stall until I found something suitable and picked it up.

"Still, as an apology, let me get these as well." What I held in my hand was a set of earrings inlaid with navy blue glass.

"You're quite the earnest young lady. I'll accept the gesture." The earrings were two silver, and I soon turned to Leah with a smile. To that day, she wore the navy blue and black uniform of the castle staff wherever she went, and I thought the earrings would match her perfectly.

"My lady?" She asked as I reached to put them in for her, only to realize her ears weren't pierced. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen her wear any accessories… Now that I had noticed, I would correct the error.

"Can I put these on you?" I asked. My lady-in-waiting seemed conflicted, but eventually realized there was no point in fighting it.

"I don't mind." I knew she'd honestly tell me if she didn't want them, so I leaned in closer as I gently held her earlobe between my fingers. The needle of the earrings looked long enough to do the job on their own.

"It might hurt a bit…" I whispered, but an idea came to me, and I paused to circulate stella through my hands. I visualized my magic sterilizing and numbing the area, and preventing bleeding, then pushed the needle through in one swift motion, capping the end on the backside. If I didn't focus, the natural healing of my magic might have tried to heal the hole even with the earring in, but it seemed to work as I intended.

"That didn't hurt at all," Leah informed me with a smile, and I quickly repeated the action with her other ear. When I stepped back to admire the accessories, she moved her head to show them off. "How does it look, my ladies?"

"Beautiful, just like you," I said with affection.

"They are simple but eye-catching, and don't look like they'll get in the way during combat," Audrey said, sounding oddly professional about it.

"Of course, that's what you'd be worried about." I scoffed at her, and my girlfriend turned to look at me with a serious expression.

"It's important to consider."

"You have more jewelry on than anyone else." I teased, gesturing to the threaded bracelet from Sasha on her wrist and the silver pendant around her neck.

"And neither get in my way." She had a point, so I just accepted my loss.

"You're all such good friends." The stall lady said, looking at us warmly. "I hope you'll drop by again." We gave a warm goodbye, then finally continued on our way.

"Abel will never let us hear the end of it if we just spend the whole day messing around," I said with a frown, making Audrey giggle.

"Then let's go find more than they do!" She pulled me forward through the crowds for another ten minutes until we entered the port district. Large warehouses made of treated wood and stone surround us, and crews of sailors moved every which way carrying boxes and other cargo to their destinations. "Should we start here, or go closer to the docks?"

"The shipyards will be on the water, so we should keep going. We can check the warehouses later." At my words, the three of us continued until the ocean was in view, and we saw even larger buildings scattered through the docks. We found a secluded alley near the closest one, and Audrey took my hand and prepared to enter the shadows.

"You should stay behind, Dia," Azure said, and I quickly stopped Audrey before we disappeared. My brows creased in response, and the other two looked at me with quizzical looks. I just held a finger up in response.

"Why?" I asked, confused.

"Audy can look around by herself, but I have something for you to practice that should come in handy." My goddess explained, causing my frown to deepen.

"And you didn't teach me this earlier?"

"It wasn't needed earlier. But now, since you girls are trying to sneak into an open building in broad daylight—" It almost sounded like she was judging us. "It will be useful." I sighed, then let go of Audrey's hand, my heart clenching at the sad look she gave me.

"Azure says I need to do something else. Do you mind going alone for now?" I asked my redhead, and she bit her lip then nodded.

"If Azzy says so, I don't mind." With that, she vanished into the darkness by herself, leaving just me and Leah in the alley. My attendant agreed to keep watch and mute any sounds, and I stepped a little deeper into the alley.

"Alright, so what am I doing?" I asked.

"You've gotten pretty good at manipulating your barriers now, right?" I nodded and formed a glittering square of golden light in the air in front of me. It bent and twisted as I focused and moved my hand, making it form spheres and cubes. It had taken weeks of practice, but I had gotten the hang of maintaining the structure.

"Great! As expected of my Dia!" I snorted at the way she said it, as if she didn't see every moment of my practice firsthand. "Now, there are two things to push it even further. The first is molding the barriers to your body."

My eyes widened at her words. "Won't that be difficult? It took weeks just to get the basic shapes right…"

"Actually, doing it over yourself should be easy. Instead of projecting the stella from your hands and forming the barriers in front of you, just push it from every part of your body, and the barrier will naturally follow your figure."

I was uncertain, but I closed my eyes to focus. The basic concept was something I did with my normal mana—It was how I covered myself in flames. However, working with my stella proved challenging, as it was naturally harder to control, and the large amount of stella threatened to run wild. I gritted my teeth, but when I opened my eyes, there was no golden light over my skin.

"If your whole body is too difficult, start with smaller sections." Her guidance soothed the anxiousness I felt at not being able to do it, and I raised my left arm and stared at my hand. The stella moved smoothly through the limb, but I held it back from escaping my palm, instead directing it out of my very pores. It took a minute, but a thin golden light enveloped my hand and wrist. "Perfect, focus on that feeling, and just expand that slowly down the arm."

I did as she instructed and watched as the light crawled toward my shoulder, shining beneath the sleeves of the day dress I wore. Once I sensed it had reached my shoulder, I held the magic in place and rolled my sleeve up to visually confirm it was working.

"Like this, right?" I double-checked.

"Yep! With some practice, you'll be able to cover yourself head-to-toe!" I smiled at her enthusiasm, but my mind was racing with the possibilities for the technique.

"Could I cover other people with it for protection?" I asked.

"You can, but I wouldn't." She said hesitantly. "Not until you're confident in maintaining it with minimal effort. Doing it over yourself holds no risk, and even Audy would be safe, since she could maintain it with her own stella once it's in place. Anyone else, however… If you lose focus, the barriers could severely injure them depending on how they collapse."

"I see. I wouldn't want that…" I mumbled, shivering slightly as I imagined it. I practiced expanding and shrinking the barrier on various parts of my body for a few more minutes until a thought crossed my mind. "Azure?"

"Yes?"

"You know this would've actually been incredibly useful when we were investigating the mines, right?"

"..." Her silence told me everything I needed to know. "You two had it under control, so as your goddess, I determined it wasn't worth the time."

"But you should've mentioned it after, yes?"

"..."

"Azure."

"I forgot, alright?!" She cried out in her defense, and I sighed. "Sis already lectured me!"

"And that's why you brought it up now… At least one of you is responsible." I already knew that, but being reminded of it made me want to laugh.

"You're going to hurt my feelings…" My goddess whimpered, not improving my image of her the least bit. Despite my exasperation, I was glad she was my goddess. The alternative was Audrey and Azure being paired up, and that was a recipe for disaster.

"Relax, I love you, even if you are an airhead of divine proportion." I soothed, marveling a bit about how nonchalant I've grown talking to literally goddesses.

"Ah, Dia! I love you too!" After her peppy attitude returned, she cleared her throat and explained the other technique. "This one is the true technique you'll need to learn, but it will be much harder than just wrapping yourself in the barrier."

"It's good I have the best teacher, right?" Was I still trying to butter her up? Sure. But I wasn't lying either.

"Light magic operates on manipulating light, as you know. Weaving it into physical barriers or using it to transport objects on its waves." She paused, and I nodded. "What you'll learn next is bending it to suit your needs—mainly camouflage."

"How does that work?" I asked, confused.

"It has to do with the way most eyes function. Essentially, your eyes take in light, and your mind interprets it into what you see." It sounded like she was simplifying it quite a bit, but I managed to guess at what she was getting at.

"So, if I use my barriers to bend the ambient light and mana around myself, could I stop others from perceiving me?"

"Exactly, but it's easier said than done, and will be incredibly taxing at first. That's the final goal, but let's focus on the body barrier first. Once you have that down, we'll work on the camouflage."

I could only imagine how difficult it would truly be, so I pushed it from my mind for now and practiced more with my barriers. Even after Audrey returned, saying there was nothing of interest in the shipyard, I was still struggling to cover my whole body. I just have to keep at it!

***

Audrey

The shipyard was pretty interesting. There were lots of people working on a half-constructed ship made mostly of wood, and lots of tools I'd never seen before. Unfortunately, nothing stood out as unusual, and listening in on the workers' conversations revealed no connection to the Duke that I noticed. After investigating for twenty minutes, I decided to return to the others so we could move on to the next building. When I emerged from Leah's shadow, she didn't even flinch and turned to face me.

"Anything?" I just shook my head.

"How about you?" I could sense her wind magic permeating the area nearly half a mile in each direction.

"Nothing of import." She said, then glanced over her shoulder at Lydia, who was further down the alley for some reason now. "My lady has been practicing this whole time."

I tilted my head curiously and moved closer. Just like with Leah, I could sense my girlfriend's magic appearing and disappearing around her body. I didn't want to distract her, so I didn't say anything until I was right beside her. Lydia's eyes were closed, and her lips pursed with effort as a thin golden barrier moved across her skin. It wasn't until I sensed a lull in her stella circulation that I tapped her shoulder, causing her to jump adorably.

"Geez, don't do that!" She pouted, and I smiled.

"What are you practicing?" I asked.

"Azure's teaching me to wrap barriers around myself." She took a deep breath, and I sensed her magic dissipate entirely. "Did you find anything?"

"Nope, we should move to the next one," I said with a shake of my head. The three of us stepped back onto the main road of the ports until we found the next shipyard and a suitable place to hide. However, before I moved into the darkness again, Lydia grabbed my hand.

"Wait. Give me your hand."

"Alright?" I was confused, but did as I was told. She held my hand with both of hers, her fingers feeling around my palm and between my fingers. "That tickles a little…" I said, trying to suppress the tingling sensation her touch usually sent through me.

"Just bear with it…" She mumbled, and a few seconds later, I felt stella envelope envelop my hand, and a golden barrier appeared from my wrist up.

"Try and replace the flow of her stella with your own," Aurora said in my mind, seemingly knowing what Lydia was trying to do. I closed my eyes and visualized my stella, moving it to our connected hands. I saw Lydia's power shine with golden light against my silver and traced the flow. Her stella slowly disappeared from my body, taking a warmth I hadn't realized was there with it. No, focus… I sent my stella into the barrier, and when I opened my eyes, the magic had changed from gold to silver.

"It worked." Lydia sent a bead of sweat dripping down her face, which made me frown with concern.

"Did that strain you?" I asked, but she shook her head.

"Not at all, I was just nervous." She gave me a placating smile, and I relaxed a little. "How well can you maintain the barrier?" I thought about it, but once I established the connection, my stella flowed naturally to it without much effort on my part. I told Lydia as much, and she nodded. "Good, I'll keep practicing then."

After I pulled my stella from the now-silver barrier and it vanished, I slunk back into the shadows and moved to our next target. The rest of the day passed like this, with me investigating inside the shipyards, Leah using her magic to listen around the area, and Lydia practicing her magic. Eventually, we returned to the inn at the agreed time, only to find the others already there.

"Nothing?" Abel asked with a raised brow.

"Nothing," Leah said with a frown. "Not even a hint."

"It was the same for us," Lucia said. The mood was a bit heavy, but it was also the expected outcome.

"Well, we've still got a week to figure this out, assuming nothing changed on the Duke's side," Abel said, leaning against the wall of our bedroom.

"Sasha said she'd look into it as well, so maybe she'll find something in the castle…" I said, thinking back to my conversations with her and Luke. Apparently, we have a few knights in the castle, and Sasha had arranged to take one of them as her personal knight, now that she was cooperating with us.

I slumped onto a bed and sighed. I hope we figure this out in time.

***

Sasha

After my sisters finally broke me, I quickly received correspondence from Prince Luke. My sister delivered it to me personally so we could discuss it.

"I would feel much better if you had another ally on your side." Audrey had said with that bright smile of hers. She pointed to the list she had handed me, and I read over it with a frown.

"You want me to take on a knight? Is this because you're going on that mission?" I asked. Honestly, the idea sounded like a hassle. It wouldn't change my situation at all, and having Anne was more than enough.

"Yes and no." She said. "It's true that I'm worrying like crazy about you. Anne is excellent, but she can't fight if something happens, so it would ease my heart if you had someone who could protect you if it comes to it."

"I can protect myself." I scoffed. I hadn't spent the last three years sitting around… I had been training to kill my parents, after all.

"Please, Sasha?" my sister pleaded, taking my hands in hers. "The knights on that list are all trustworthy. They'll also serve as a point of contact for you and Luke when I'm not available." Her blue eyes had bored into me until I gave in.

"Fine, since it will ease your mind, sister."

"Yay! Thank you so much!" Her arms wrapped around me, and I smiled wryly to myself. We really are too weak to each other… Once she left, I read the list in earnest until a specific name caught my attention. It was one I'd heard in passing around the castle from the staff.

"Isn't this…" I mused to myself, then made my decision. The next day, I stood in my room with Anne and the knight I had chosen.

"It is an honor to meet you, Your Highness." A boy with dirty blonde hair said as he bowed before me. He looked about my age and had honey colored eyes. "I am the first son of Baron Strauss, my name is Kaleb."

"Thank you, Sir Kaleb. I entrust my safety to you going forward." I said with a smile. Kaleb Strauss… He joined the order at the earliest age possible, just a year ago. He may have started as a trainee, but he has already earned his knighthood and was quite popular among the female staff for his upstanding and earnest attitude despite being a noble. I had heard many rumors about him long before now.

"I'll serve and protect to the best of my ability." His reply was also perfect for a humble knight.

As expected of the sword prodigy.