There once was an author who only posted on Royal Road. That author was sad to find their story published on another website behind a paywall. Sadly, several other stories from Royal Road were also reposted on this malicious site. If you are reading this somewhere other than Royal Road or Patreon, it is not posted with the author’s permission.

“Jade?”

After dispatching the guards in the room, several more attackers made their way onto the stage. Violet could see Regina, Alexandra, and Rex a little ways away with their backs to each other. Regina held a Shadow Blade, while Alexandra and Rex each had a metal blade in their hands. Violet summoned a Shadow Blade and was relieved to see the effects of the device had worn off, and her magic was responding as it should.

Upon seeing Violet, a sneer formed on Jade’s face. “YOU! It’s all your fault!” she screamed while running to attack Violet.

Violet was shocked at Jade’s reaction to seeing her and barely got her blade up to deflect Jade’s sword thrust. Swordsmanship was one of the classes she was required to take while attending school. It was a class Regina had forced her to take, and she was now very thankful for that extra push.

Jade was an accomplished swordswoman that kept Violet on her toes. During their exchanges, Jade was running her mouth. “Everything that has happened to me is your fault. My parents, the trainers, heck, even what happened to poor Sky is your fault.”

That last sentence broke her out of her zone enough to allow Jade to bounce her sword off of Violet’s shields. “What did they do to Sky?”

Jade just grinned manically and continued to attack. As they were trading blows, a loud explosion could be heard in the distance coming from several different directions at once. Jade cackled and started to boast, “That would be your warehouses and winter reserves being blown up all around the city.”

The next explosion to go off was much closer. The doors the nobles were still desperately trying to open were incinerated with the force of the blast, killing most of the nobles crowding the doorway. The concussive force of the explosion knocked everyone in the room back, forcing Jade away from her.

Taking a quick look around the stage, both Regina and Rex were bleeding from several cuts but still fighting. Queen Alexandra had several plants around her person acting as shields and whips. Violet didn’t notice any scratches on the queen. The Royals took advantage of the distraction to push back all but one of their attackers.

Jade was quick to close the distance between them once more. It seemed her love of talking had not changed. “Do you know how much suffering you have caused me? My parents became servants after the stunts you pulled! They blamed my innocent parents for you killing people and running away.”

Violet waited for an opening in their exchange and launched a modified Shadow Blade from her opposite hand toward Jade. Unfortunately for Jade, she was too slow to deflect it, and a large wound was opened on her inner thigh. Jade continued to attack even with her leg bleeding profusely. The damage was a death blow, and she knew it. Her attacks became erratic with no thought for defense. Her only goal was to kill Violet.

When Jade collapsed because her leg would no longer hold her weight, she grinned like a mad person and said, “Tennyson will find you!”

Violet quickly ran to check on Louis. The sword wound that Louis had taken was directly through his heart, and there was nothing she could do for him. When she reached David, he was still shallowly breathing. Using her Analyze spell, she determined that he was unconscious due to the blow on his head and that he also had a broken skull. She supplemented her Lesser Healing spell with as much vitality as she could spare trying to save him. Head wounds were one of the hardest things for her to heal.

She woke sometime later in an unfamiliar bed. Sunlight was shining through the curtain and illuminating the room. It looked like she was in one of the guest bedrooms at the palace. Her suspicions were confirmed a few minutes later when a servant came in to check on her. Violet was so drained from the vitality she had sacrificed that she could only mumble a request for water.

The woman was quick to return to her bedside with a glass of water. She was also thankfully quite a talker and started to explain what she knew of what Violet missed.

“You are safe, My Lady. Queens Consort David still lives. He has not woken up yet, but his head wound is no longer visible. The royal healer was able to pick up where you left off and provide some of his vitality as well.”

“Regina?” Violet croaked out.

“Oh, she is just fine, she had a few nice nicks, but they all avoided important areas. Her Royal Majesty Alexandra was able to make it through the encounter unscathed, and His Royal Highness Prince Rex only received minor wounds. Rest now, everyone else is safe.”

The next time Violet awoke, her mother was sitting beside her bed. “How long have I been out?”

“You slept for the entire day and the following night. It is an hour before dawn.”

She was feeling quite a bit better. Her downtime was more extended than usual, but she had never given so much vitality to anyone else she had healed before. “How is David doing?”

“He woke long enough for them to get some soup down his throat yesterday and was sleeping again last I heard.” Her mother looked down like she did when she wanted to ask a question but didn’t know how to word it.

“What is it?”

“I know you’ve been unconscious, but nobody will tell me what happened. All I know is several nobles are dead, prince Louis is dead, and explosions destroyed several warehouses around the city.”

“I’m sorry, mom, but I don't know all of the details either. The assassins weren’t from Astresh. Mom, Jade was there. Why is the Chromatic Dominion targeting the royal family?”

“Oh my, that poor girl. Life couldn’t have been easy for her these last few years. The nobles would have needed a scapegoat to blame for losing the ancient site. I guess that Jade’s parents were an easy target and suffered the consequences for our actions.”

“Jade said something about something bad happening to Sky. Do you have any idea what could have happened?”

“It is hard to say. Sky and his family could claim not to know anything and get out of the situation unscathed. I don't know. He definitely can’t be blamed for us running away, but the nobles aren’t always fair.”

“Why would they be in trouble for us running away? Nobody should have gotten hurt when I kicked them out of the ancient ruins.”

“Violet, nobles in the Chromatic Dominion are always out to cover their rears. Noble Tennyson had to either take the blame or point to someone else. Depending on how bad things turned out, he probably had mud on his face as well.”

“Are they attacking Kasmaya because of us?”

“That is very unlikely. Even if Sky told them about you having magic, our family is just too insignificant to devote so many resources. The attacks were targeted to create havoc and destroy the rulers of this country.”

“I would have expected more assassins to attack during the witan. There couldn’t have been more than six in a room with hundreds of people. Maybe those were the only people able to slip through the defenses after I warned them about the assassins coming?”

“I wouldn't ask anyone that question. You have Illusion and Healing magic and couldn’t possibly have known about the assassins.” Her mother scolded.

After a long stretch of silence had gone on between them, Violet quietly said, “Mom, I killed Jade.”

Her mother wrapped her in a hug while telling her things like “you didn’t have a choice” and “it’s not your fault” for quite a while after that.

After a hearty breakfast found its way into her stomach, Violet was ready to get out of bed and find answers to the questions her mother was unable to answer. Unfortunately for her, the royal healer had ordered that she stay in bed to recover her strength. She needed to wait for him to release her at some point.

Regina popped her head in the room that evening after Violet’s mother had left. She was sporting bandages on both of her arms and had a scabbed-over wound near her temple. “Hi Vi, mind if I come in?”

“Save me! Every time I try to leave my room, the guard at the door keeps telling me I have to stay in bed.”

Regina laughed at her theatrics. “Why do you think it took me so long to come to see you? The royal healer is running himself ragged trying to see to everyone’s wounds and is a firm believer that bed rest heals all.”

She closed the distance between them and wrapped Violet in a bear hug. “Dad is going to make it, thanks to you.” She sniffled.

Violet hugged her back just as tightly. “I couldn’t save Louis, but I gave everything I could for your dad. I’m so sorry.”

That was all that was needed for them both to start sobbing. The amount of death in that room and having people trying to kill her was just too much. Regina had that, plus losing her brother to deal with.

Sometime later, the royal healer, Samuel, came to visit her. The two of them had mostly stopped crying when he came around, and they were sitting on her bed talking. “I’m in bed!” Violet said dramatically when she saw him.

That caused him to crack a smile. The poor man looked like he needed to take his own advice and rest. “How are you feeling, Violet?” He said while he came around to her to check her vitals with an Analyze. Samuel was a Healing purist. Regina said there was only one other ancient healer in the Queendom, and they had a second aspect.

“I’m feeling much better, thank you.”

“No more using your vitality for healing for at least another day after tomorrow. Tomorrow you may go about your normal routine once again.”

Making his way over to Regina, he checked her wounds and warned her not to wander off too far.

After the healer left, Violet raised an eyebrow at Regina.

“You might have been on bed arrest, but I’m still on house arrest. The guards are tracking down every agent left from the attacks. We were able to kill all of the assassins that attacked the witan, but there were more involved with the explosions.”

There once was an author who only posted on Royal Road. That author was sad to find their story published on another website behind a paywall. Sadly, several other stories from Royal Road were also reposted on this malicious site. If you are reading this somewhere other than Royal Road or Patreon, it is not posted with the author’s permission.