The marble hallway outside the chambers resounds every single one of Valery's nervous steps. Heavy boot stomps bounce off the walls like she's marching down a long corridor lined with mirrors, each reflecting her image and adding to her already mounting anxiety. She's only here because of an order from the Council, but even so, she feels as if she's on trial. Her heart pounds in her chest, threatening to burst out through her skin at any moment.

She reaches the door and takes a deep breath before knocking. It's opened by the guard who had escorted her this morning. He shakes his head and gestures away from her, "They'll come to you." He shuts the door in her face after that.

Valery loiters for several moments, staring at the closed door unsure what to do next, or how to react when they finally call her. Should she go back to the room? What if they've forgotten about her?

"Would you come sit down?" An exasperated voice calls behind her. Valery turns and levels her elder sister, Lumina with an incredulous look. "What? Is there a problem with sitting and waiting for Mother to figure out what she wants to do with your wild ideas? She spends most of her time doing that on a regular anyway."

Lumina sits cross-legged on the floor, looking up at her younger sister with a smile. Valery crosses her legs too, leaning back against the wall and taking in her big sister's calm.

Lumina has always been this way, calm, collected and the undisputed heir to the Duchy and everything Mother has to give. Although she's older and heir to everything Valery's known, she's smaller, younger-looking, and worse yet, apparently wiser when it comes to matters of state.

"I'm sorry," Valery says, "All the prancing and pacing isn't helping matters is it?"

Lumina shakes her head and a look of understanding washes over her childish face, "But I think you're right to be nervous, this is an idea that'll make anyone nervous."

Valery gives a shrug and slides down to the floor so she sits the same as her sister, "Yeah, but it's the only thing I can think of and I know how to do it too. I just need some help and then we'll be able to fight back, Lumina. Don't you want to fight back?"

Lumina looks down at her hands, turning them over in her lap, "Of course I do. This is my inheritance they're trying to take, not to mention they want Mother dead too and they've already killed...sorry. But you don't understand, if you've spent half the time you do adventuring, with Mother and her horde of boring officials, you'd know this will never pass."

"Even if it's our only choice? Even if it's the only way to save us from them?"

"Yes."

Lumina has that look on again, the one that says she's lost patience with her younger sister. Valery wonders why she bothers. After all, Lumina's only her half-sister, and Mother...well if they all want to die-

Valery shakes the crude thoughts out of her head. It's the frustration and again she reminds herself why there's any to begin with, why their home is the way it is. There's no one to blame so there's no use being angry. Still…

A few minutes pass before the door opens again and two guards step inside. They don't say anything, merely motioning for them to follow. Valery nods and follows their lead, moving through the halls of the palace until they reach another set of doors. They spread ajar, revealing a large audience chamber where Valery can see people sitting on benches along the walls. The guards stop in front of the room, holding up a hand to hold her back— her mother’s hand raised as one of the dark and red-robed priests whisper in her ear.

The Duchess of Hescaria sits atop the stairs, elegant as the gold, silver, and mithril throne behind her. She smiles and waves her hand, motioning for the priest to move aside.

“Valery.”

Valery gulps, “Yes?”

“No.”

The finality of the word takes the floor away from her and she plummets into despair as what she fears come true in that single word. An audible sigh of relief comes from her sister behind her— she wants this; this is what she hoped for.

‘Complacency.’

Fraught, Valery sneers down and up at the two of them and screams, “Cowards! Cowards!”

“Valery!” the Duchess rebukes, her legs uncrossed and the priests surrounding her befuddled.

Valery goes up another step, a distance she shouldn’t cross as per custom but that doesn’t matter anymore, “You’re too much of a coward to fight! Because you’re tired, you’re old, too long-lived so you want to take it lying down!”

“And you’re a brat who hasn’t even seen a century! You don’t understand the forces you’re suggesting we dirty ourselves with.” her mother spits back.

“But you do! So why aren’t you doing this already? They’re going to kill us all one day, you know that. You see it!”

Here her mother pauses, unbridled fury settling as her wide eyes narrow down at Valery and her lips form a line. “Because I already know what’ll happen. As you’ve so rudely said, I’m old…long-lived. I’ve seen this already and I know how it plays out.”

As Valery is about to rebuke her mother’s words, the Duchess gestures and a servant approaches with a cushion in hand. Dread fills up in Valery’s stomach as the Duchess picks the gleaming pink crystal rested on it.

“What…do you think this is, Valery?” She asks, twisting the crystal between her thumb and forefinger.

“Vuius have mercy, Valery!” It’s Lumina scolding her now, she marches up the stairs until she’s right above her, “Don’t tell me you already made an attempt, unsupervised.”

A thick wad of saliva sits like a rock at Valery’s throat, with her mouth beginning to dry up it’s difficult pushing it down. “I-I had to, to check if it was possible. If I could pull it off.”

“And you couldn’t, Vuius spare me! Why did you even go through with it? Did you even think about how the Goddess would see this? You’ve condemned yourself, you have to do penance, quickly!”

Lumina tugging and pulling Valery from another one of her latest embarrassments isn’t what pings aloud in her mind. The Goddess can wait. Hescaria has been waiting on the Goddess to save her since the Empire was formed beyond her borders. Now the Empire is here. And Hescaria will hang if no one fights.

Valery snatches her hand out of Lumina's grip, causing the petite Lumina to stumble. She faces her mother’s death glare, the familiar stirring in her golden eyes tells of a coming, long-winded verbal lashing. She interrupts it.

“Wait, before you start shouting I just want to say…you know I’m right.” For the better part of her years, Valery’s spent watching and defying her mother's will. The chaos she is is known throughout the Duchy. It may be attributed to her human half but she doesn't care, it's helped her to understand her mother’s conniving edge.

The very edge she’s stepping onto now. ‘If you’re too scared to do it…I will. I’ll do it for both of us.’

“This is the only way to save ourselves, there aren’t any alliances coming, you can’t marry either of us off because we’re going to outlive our spouses. And the closest friendly elven ruled Kingdom is on a whole other continent.”

The Duchess, the priests, and even Lumina stand in solemn silence. Valery takes a breath— thinking it is one thing but saying it out loud and pronouncing the final nail in Hescaria’s coffin…is another.

“We can either wait…on Vuius who for centuries before I was born…has forsaken us time and time again. You’ve been there for some of those times too. Old, tired and long-lived…mother, do you want to be here for another? Be present for the end of our people? Because you will if you don’t help me do this.”

The Duchess breaths, her nostrils flaring and her eyes and nose tilting, “You-!”

The priest takes a sharp breath, cutting off what would be her mother’s straight line of verbal cursing. “I think…the Princess has some eager thoughts and has forgotten that while our Mother Vuius is forgiving…she requires penance, true penance for the grievous acts. As a Priest of her holiness, I believe you are…blinded by your rage to the repercussions that will follow.”

Valery scoffs, and shakes her head at her feet before stomping off, the Priest, Lumina and her mother all silent.

***

As the bedroom door slides open Valery scoffs and goes on stuffing her pack. There isn’t much in it, very little clothing, two shirts, some of her finer skirts, some trousers, and the dark cloak she’s got on now.

“Look at you, you have to know this is a sin.”

Filling the pockets with gold and valuable jewelry— items meant to adorn her as Princess, items she never cared for— Valery says, “Yeah, that’s why I’m dressed the way I am. I don’t mind being a sinner, Lumina.”

Lumina curses, slamming the door behind her, “I’m not surprised, there’s not much you mind at all is there? You don’t mind dressing like a commoner-!”

“Is that really the most important thing right n-!”

“-you don’t mind the flirtatious gazes the Knights give you, I have to call it out every damn time!”

Valery shoves the pack aside and whips to face Lumina’s scowl, “Is that what this is? You want to grow up and be attractive and old enough to fucking breed!? You want men to look at you the same way?”

Her sister's trembling lip and watery eyes restrain another slough of hurtful words. Though this even angers her— every time she has a chance to scream, every time she ends up being the bad guy.

Valery pulls away from her sister, groaning down at her before sitting on the bed. “I hate this.”

Sniffling the threatening tears away Lumina asks, “Hate me?”

With a worn-out snort, Valery says, “Yes, but no. I love you. I love mom and I…I miss my father. Lumina, I hate…this, you’re my big sister and you’re meant to protect me! You’re not any younger because you’re a full elf and your boobs are refusing to pop out for another ten years.”

Teary-eyed Lumina chuckles at that, “Yeah, I know…I know. I just lash out cuz I'm jealous. And I’m sorry, you’re right, I should protect you. That's why I’m here to stop you from taking this any further. What do you hope to accomplish? You couldn’t even control one, mother said she had to send in a squad to take it down.”

At this Valery gapes, “It took a whole squad? How strong was this squad exactly? Tell me at least D-tier.”

“Valery!” But Lumina has never resisted her pout. With a sigh, she caves in and turns away as she mutters, “It was a D-tier. But that only goes to prove the point! You’re putting yourself at risk here, and you don’t even know what you’re doing!”

“At risk? I ranked a strong B-tier last I checked.”

“It’s not about that.” Lumina sighs, “These demons…the creatures of Reais can only be tamed by the strongest conjurers. Conjuring one brings up a demon of random threat and if you’re not careful, you could bring up an intelligent one.”

“I’ve read about those. I know what to do if I meet one.”

“Are you going to kill it? Because most novice encounters with the intelligent type end with the conjurer’s death.”

“And how do you know so much about this?”

Rolling her eyes at Valery, Lumina says, “We both know I read a lot more than you do.”

Valery laughs but all mirth soon deflates, “It’s either I kill it, show it who's boss or it kills me…or I form a pact with it.”

“An option you can never choose, just like this option right now. You mustn’t do this, Valery. Vuius will punish you, and she may punish us and the next generation.”

Valery shrugs her off, abruptly getting on her feet, “Don’t you see? We won’t have a next-generation if we don’t secure ourselves against those elf-hating bastards over the border! You’re…you’re not safe like I am. I can blend in and bear a little persecution because I’m half-elf, but you…everyone. Including that string of a priest. I don’t want to see any of you die, I’d rather have Vuius kill me than watch you die.”

At this Lumina breathes a sigh then stands, “Alright, I understand, and…it is much better than doing nothing and letting Mother die as the cost of our vassalization. I’ll help you, but…you have to listen to me when it comes to Vuius, I don’t want your soul to be lost.”

Valery brightens up at this, a grin spreads over her face as she recalls the last time they went on an adventure like this. Although, adventure is a bit of a stretch considering they only explored the extent of their homes extensive corridors and nooks.

“Alright, it’s a deal. Let’s save Hescaria.”