I had no idea where my niece could have gone, their room had truly been emptied of everything they had brought with them except for the consort’s book. I had taken the book into my own possession, Rafe had said that the two of them may have been able to ascertain where the stone was from somewhere within the text and I wanted to know exactly where they might have gone. It was not an easy task to move the book from where it had been left to my own desk, but I insisted despite the protests of the lazy servant. It simply felt wrong to work in any other area than the one that I had specifically set up to be where I could concentrate and focus best, trying to work anywhere else just left me feeling uncomfortable and wishing I had made a different decision. Besides, I wanted to be near my scrying bowl in case there was any surprise contact made by any of my agents. I didn’t think at this point that I would be able to trust anything any of them would tell me about. Those damned twins had made very certain that any information I got from now on would have to be scrutinized heavily and weighed for any trace of treachery. I found myself wishing just a tad that Evonia had just picked one of them and named them heir, despite their obvious lack of worthiness for the position. At the time I had very much agreed that neither of them was worthy to sit the throne, but it could have been possible that given a chance to rise to the position they would have found a way to make themselves worthy. If not, a simple dagger to the throat would have made for a short reign and Toria would have still been waiting in the wings. Hindsight was often a bitter view, one decision that seemed like there was only one obvious choice had started a cascade effect worse than either of us could have predicted and only now could I see the alternate paths, far too late to do anything.

After two very long days and sleepless nights I hadn't gathered anything particularly useful from the book. In fact, I had no idea how anyone was supposed to get anything from their damn tome, it was the most ridiculous example of political jargon and long winded pompous prose that I had ever seen. It sincerely felt that whoever had written it thought they were doing the world a favor with their flowery, extravagant language. To my further annoyance I was having to work through magic to decipher the text as I could not understand a shred of demonic, in fact the writing of their language was so chaotic and jarring that it hurt my eyes to look at for any real length of time. Looking back on things, it seemed very dangerous to me that I had never bothered to learn any of the language, written or spoken, they could have been making all sorts of deals and plotting right in front of me and I would have been none the wiser. I suppose it was a dangerous thing to have learned, what with the Church more than eager to get their grubby hands on anyone who might be able to help them decipher demonic communications, but I would have liked to see them have to try to capture me, anyone they would have sent would have met a very sticky end. Luckily I realized that I could translate text by manipulating what I did to create glamours to get a basic translation, though I could only accomplish this feat effectively on demonic soil. Trying to translate anything demonic back in the human realm always ended up with it turning into a mash of words that almost, but definitely did not make sense. I was certain that if Rafe ever found out about what I was doing he would have blown up and made a huge spectacle of my ability to read their language, so I had never bothered to ask for assistance to increase its clarity or check it’s accuracy. He certainly would have raged about my ability to double check on anything he was doing, he wouldn’t like me being able to figure out the tricky business he was pulling behind the scenes so easily. Much to my frustration, I never could get access to anything too sensitive to check what he was up to, which further added to my belief that there was a lot the demon king was up to that he intentionally kept away from the Ysers.

I dismissed the glamour from the book with a long, tired sigh and rubbed the bridge of my nose. My eyes were killing me after hours of pouring over the words in the tome and I was still yet to come up with anything truly useful. It really irked me that my only lead was yielding absolutely nothing and I was definitely not going to go to Rafe to ask where in the book I should even be looking. I had gotten permission to move the book through bribery and had paid the servant a handsome sum with what little gold I had thought to bring with me not to tell a soul about it being in my possession. Our agreement was to move the book back by tomorrow, but I hoped that the last two of my gold coins might convince him to give me an extra day or two to keep searching. It would be a risk to keep it any longer, but Rafe was so distracted by everything happening in the castle that I doubted he was giving what I was busy doing any thought at all.

The man who had mysteriously appeared in the dungeon had disappeared, the servants were divided on just how he managed such a feat. Many of the servants were set on the idea that he was some kind of powerful mage that had snuck in, completed an important mission, then simply used his powers to transport himself away, while a small group whispered about how somehow he had known about some sort of secret tunnel system in the dungeon. I really couldn’t see the first group being correct, but the second certainly could not be either. The castle Yser was a direct replica of this one and it contained no secret passageways. Both scenarios were likely just idle imaginings of servants with way too much personal time and not enough work to do, but I had generally found that even in the most ridiculous of rumors there was usually some nugget of truth, even if very tiny. It did not matter much to me either way, my main concern was about where Toria had disappeared to, it was not like her at all to go anywhere without informing me first. I supposed that she was in no way required to tell me anything, but both of us seemed to have an unspoken agreement and it did not settle right with me that she had decided in this instance to ignore it. There had to be a good explanation for it, though I could not figure out exactly what it was, nor had she acted strange in the lead up to the day she left. Either it had been a last minute decision to leave or she had intentionally watched her movements around me to ensure I would not know. I was inclined to believe the first, I had a gut feeling that the bastard consort would end up being firmly behind their leaving, she had to be, perhaps she had even helped the twins infiltrate my contact network as a way to distract me and keep me in the dark with being able to track their movements. Her timing with manipulating me into becoming my apprentice seemed too perfectly timed not to be the case.

I should take a break and eat something, I couldn’t remember the last time I had and using my magic constantly to translate had left my stomach feeling empty and ravenous. It worried me just how taxing it was on me, though even just a year ago I could have easily kept up the low level magic usage easily. My body and powers were diminishing and though I could feel that happening for the past few years, the past few months were accelerating the process. It felt like I would be a fool not to settle into the idea that my death was coming sooner rather than later. The knowledge was spurring my desperation to figure out where Toria had gone and be able to contact her. I didn’t want to die alone in the company of demons. I wanted to die in my own bed in the castle Yser, though with that not currently possible, I at the very least wanted Toria there to hold my hand as I drew my last breath.

I made my way to the dining room, doing my best to push away the dark thoughts of my own death. I could feel that my body would hold out a bit longer, perhaps even longer than I thought if I decided to sleep and eat on a regular schedule. A servant was quick to open the door for me and bow as I entered the room. I held in a frustrated sigh as I locked eyes with a very grumpy looking Rafe mulling over his own breakfast, taking large, angry bites out of whatever strange creature had been roasted up for him. He was in his demonic form, it seemed with Toria gone he no longer cared to even try to keep up a more settling human appearance at meal times.

“Rafe” I said with a respectful incline of my head.

He said nothing, but chewed loudly while he watched me take my seat at the table. I nodded to the servant who hurriedly filled my goblet with mead and scurried away through the side door to retrieve a plate for me. There was silence as I waited except for the loud slurping and scraping of Rafe’s large teeth on the bones of his meal as he scraped every trace of flesh from them. Once the servant returned with my plate and set it in front of me, only then did Rafe deem it time to say anything.

“They have been gone for days now,” he grumbled.

“They have,” I replied with a huff, “I have been searching for them.”

“Of course you have found nothing.” He narrowed his huge, black eyes at me. “I am finding it hard to believe you have not found a single shred of evidence about where they have gone when you have always boasted about how extensive and effective your spies are. It leads me to believe that you know something and are covering for them.”

I picked at the strange creature roasted on my plate, I thought it looked something like a chicken, but you never knew what strange animal they thought was fit to eat in this realm. I tried to stick to bread and vegetables when I could, there was something very off putting to me about eating something that I couldn’t even be sure I could place what it would look like alive.

“I know nothing, I would tell you if I did,” I said with exasperation. “I thought we went over this, I am not in a position to be keeping secrets from you right now. If you toss me out right now I know you would be throwing me to the wolves. I need to stay on your good side to stay in your protection. Besides, you have known me for decades, since I was just a little girl, and when have I ever worked against you before?”

He sucked the last of the gristle and skin from a large bone as he stared at me, assessing what I was telling him. “I suppose,” he finally said. “Though I find it hard to believe that Toria and my daughter are able to keep such a low profile, even in the human realm with all of your contacts looking for them.”

“I find it odd too,” I said. I had to very carefully modulate my voice to seem as even and normal as possible, I could not afford to give away that there were no agents looking for them at all. Opening that can of worms might actually get me booted out of the castle and told to fend for myself knowing his volatile temper and penchant for acting without thinking first. “Perhaps they have planned this well in advance, your daughter did insist she become my apprentice, so he was privy to knowing who many of my contacts are, therefore she can more easily avoid them.”

Rafe raised his eyebrows like this was news to him. “My daughter was your apprentice?”

“Oh yes, for a little while now.” Of course he didn’t know, though being a powerful king he really did let his daughter run amok unchecked. “She knows who to avoid and perhaps what paths to take to avoid being seen by them.”

“Then it makes a bit more sense why you cannot find them,” he begrudgingly admitted.

I was about to launch into a mild version of a scold about how he really needs to trust me after all we had seen and done together when he shot straight up in his chair, a mixture of fear, anger, and discomfort washing over his monstrous features. The servants in the room let out gasps of fear and just as I was about to ask what was wrong, what they were sensing hit my magical senses like a stone wall. Overwhelming fae influence was crashing over the room and it was the same feeling that washed through the castle Yser the night we fled. To further cement the feeling was the same, the mead in my goblet began to frost over and my terrified, ragged breaths were puffing white into the air around me.