Much to my surprise after the sham that was the ceremony where Alice had been declared officially a saint, Aela had walked away with the girl, leaving me to my own devices. I assumed it was all a part of the plan, Aela didn’t make such mistakes, leaving me bewildered about just what exactly that plan was. Surely they recognized that I was an expert in disguising myself and therefore could attempt to blend in and simply walk out the front door under the guise of being a young woman hurrying to fetch something from outside. Sure, I was fairly tired and it might draw on the last of my dwindled stores, but it would be worth it to get free of their clutches. As much as I liked to claim the contrary in bitter tones, they were not all fools plagued by idiocy, if I was being given so much leeway they had a reason to feel confident that I would not succeed, still, given the opportunity to try I was not going to throw it away just in case.

I stood up and looked around calmly, assessing if anyone was particularly watching me. Most everyone was excitedly rising and finding their friends, chattering aimlessly about how amazing it was to be a witness to such an event, how they couldn’t wait to write to their families back home about what they had witnessed and felt, and other such inane drivel. The arch cleric and Aela were occupied having taken Alice somewhere else for an additional ritual ceremony and no eyes strayed over to me save for passing glances that did not linger. Now was as good a time as any. With confidence I rose from my seat at the pew, rubbed my stomach like I was very hungry, and made my way down the aisle back towards the door. I had seen earlier that one of the hallways adjacent to this chapel room was busier than others, I was willing to bet that there was either an outside door or a kitchen near and either would do for my purposes. Into the hallway, several women were lingering around the door still talking, looking like they were milking the time off from their duties as long as they could. They gave me a slight smile and nods as I emerged, but did nothing to acknowledge that they knew who I was or that I shouldn’t be going anywhere unescorted.

I walked opposite the busy hallway through a large sitting room outside the chapel and found a small side room that looked to be some sort of private area for prayers or when someone needed a quiet moment with their own thoughts. I stepped into the shadowed area and quickly pulled to mind a generic image of what most of the women here looked like, someone plain with commoner features wearing bright white and looking freshly starched. When I stepped back out into the sitting room, I tugged down my new outfit and prepared to walk around and find the exit I needed while pretending to have a clue about where I was going. The key would be to walk with purpose, no one stopped anyone who looked like they were on a mission.

No one took much notice of me as I held my head high and walked through the sitting area, past the chapel door, and down into the connecting passageway. Clattering sounds wafted in from the distance, telling me that I was correct about my assumption which heartened me that I might just pull off getting out undetected. Where there was a kitchen, usually there was a back door, it was simply convenient to have access to the outdoors to toss old cooking fats or butcher a chicken without having to dirty the whole kitchen in feathers. I just needed to stroll in, look determined, go out the back door and then vanish. I would have to grin and bear roughing it for a while with no coin to my name and the idea pained me a bit, but I could manage, I was crafty and still in a firm grip of my wits, I would find a comfortable place to hide and regroup before too long. The exhaustion still clung to the forefront of my mind and my limbs felt heavier than they should, but I would have to push through and collapse later.

“Good morning sister,” an elderly woman greeted as I pushed open the door to what I thought was probably the kitchen.

I nodded my acknowledgement and gave her as sincere a smile as I could manage. “Good morning.”

“Wonderful ceremony, was it not?” her eyes were glittering and wistful, like she had just experienced a marvelous and divine experience.

I supposed in her mind she just had, the poor ignorant soul had no idea what they had just unleashed upon themselves. All the more reason for me to make a hasty retreat. I’d already almost fallen prey to the fae twice, I would like to endeavor not to try to press my fate a third time.

“Very,” I said, voice as even as I could muster. “Now I’m out to fetch more flowers for our new saint, the arch cleric would like to wreath her in them in celebration.

The woman’s face brightened and she put down the knife she had been slicing potatoes with and clasped her hands together in front of her. “That sounds so lovely, we are so lucky to be blessed by the goddess. Our piety and devotion is being rewarded. I almost thought that after all these years our hard work and prayers would go unanswered, but here is our proof, the gods are always watching and waiting for the right moment to display their glory.”

“Quite,” I said with what was probably a pained smile. It was very hard for me to pretend along with the inane nonsense these people believed. Did their gods exist? Maybe, I could not know, but I did know that if they did and were all powerful I did not think they cared much for silly human mortals and their whiny pleas.

“You best hurry along then, the faster you are done the faster we get to the great feast this evening,” she said happily, returning to her work.

Not wanting to waste another moment, I marched for the back door, pulled it open and stepped out into the bright morning sun. There were several younger girls running across a large set of gardens, weaving between a handful of women bent over preening roses, sunflowers, and other colorful blooms. My heart ached as I thought back to the garden I had left behind at the castle Yser, the blooms I had carefully tended with Evonia. It was the one thing we didn’t always leave to the servants and that we shared in common. There was something irresistibly lovely about watching a tiny, insignificant looking seed become a beautiful blossom. Perhaps in another life I was meant to use my magic for nature or maybe I was just an old woman who felt sentimental about such things now that she was towards the end of her life.

“Lovely, isn’t it?”

The arch cleric appeared next to me, looking out over the gardens. I froze, giving a short nod, perhaps she had not caught on that I was anyone but one of the other women, I certainly looked like any one of them.

“Perfect day for a stroll to soak up the glorious sun and feel the power and warmth heal your soul. Was that your plan, Mari?”

I knew it was unlikely for this plan to have worked, they would be watching me too closely, but I had held onto a sliver of hope that I would have been just cunning enough to escape.

“We are not a bad group,” she said as she gently placed an arm over my shoulder, “though I’m sure some of us have a bit more rough of an approach than others.”

“You speak of my nieces,” I said dryly. It was taking a great deal of self-restraint not to buck her arm from my shoulder. So far she had not immediately called for me to be dragged back inside and punished so I would hear her out for now.

“Yes I do, they are quite useful from time to time, but it is not how all of us operate. Some things require a more delicate touch. Come, will you walk with me through the garden?”

“I suppose,” I agreed and relaxed my magic, returning myself to my normal glamour. There was no point in hiding how I was, there probably had been no point in the first place.

She led me towards the back of the garden, past all the peonies and daffodils until we arrived at a large field of roses. There was no one tending this part of the garden, supposedly the work had already been done and moved on. The arch cleric bent over and plucked a single pale, pink rose and brought it to her nose to inhale the scent deeply.

“I have heard you like gardening,” she said like she was just trying to make idle conversation.

“That is true, I see my niece remembers something of me that is not venom and vile accusations.”

The woman let out a husky, airy laugh. “She is not your biggest supporter, that is true, but she does bring a lot of useful information with her knowledge of you, some of which I do not think she even realizes may redeem you.”

“Redeem me?” I asked with a lilting laugh. “Is this what this whole thing is about? You think I’m in need of some sort of redemption? I should have known.”

“Are you not?”

“No, I have no regrets. Life is too short for regrets.”

“Even for letting your nieces get away into our hands and become the biggest thorns in your side?”

She had a point. I did not think I generally had regrets, but I did regret that. I would not go back and convince Evonia to let them be heirs to prevent it, but I might have strongly considered finding them somewhere else to go be angry. Maybe somewhere in the demon realm where they could have been gently guided into seeing the correct path over time. They could have come back to the castle later and rejoined us, used their magical abilities to help us and eventually Toria. It was a nice thought, but not something I wanted to dwell on, it did not happen so it was a moot point.

“Is that your big point, that I have at least one regret, what does that have to do with my so-called redemption?” I asked, wanting to change the subject.

“Aela was right, you are a cut to the chase kind of person, you are quite alike in that regard, must be a family trait.” She sniffed the rose once more, then set it gently onto the top of the rose bush, then folded her arms across her chest and began to study my face. “You were not the one who took an oath to the demons.”

It was half a statement that she knew about the oath and half a desire for confirmation that I had not. There was no surprise that the twins had sung like canaries about the demonic oath, it was one of the reasons I had put my foot down with Toria and forbid Evonia from telling her anything about it until it was certain she would accept it.

“No, I did not take that oath. I had no reason to, I would not be the heir.”

She nodded as she had expected my answer. “I figured, but one cannot be too careful in these interesting times. There are lots of moving parts, more than either of us can comprehend just yet, I feel a change in the wind.”

“Perhaps a bit of a chill, like winter may come a touch early this year? That the fae may be on the move?” I asked wryly.

The arch cleric let out a soft chuckle. “Surely you do not believe in such old fairy tales.”

Both of my eyebrows shot up. I had expected her to at least know the terrible danger she had helped to unless upon this place and had some sort of plan to back up the reckless move. Surely Aela would have explained the fae and their dealings.

“You must be trying to manipulate me somehow by playing ignorant,” I ventured, “surely Aela would have told you everything.”

Her lips creased into a frown. “What are you talking about?”

“We have much to discuss then, for this temple is in very grave danger.” I could see my way out now, the light at the end of the tunnel. Aela, in her attempt to be the top of the hierarchy was keeping secrets and perhaps she didn’t expect me to spill them for her. “I will tell you all, for a price.”

“You could just be tricking me,” she said, “I have been warned that you are quite adept at subterfuge.”

“So are my nieces, they have inherited more things than just the desire to skip the small talk and they obviously are passing themselves off as good little Church members while leaving out potentially catastrophic information.”

“If what you say is true and you do have vital information, what are your terms?”

I had her attention now, perhaps deep down she had always known that Aela was not showing all her cards. It would make sense, it was not in her nature to be an open and honest person, though she was skilled at duping those around her into believing she was an open book. An open book with an iron fist.

“I just want to leave, to live the rest of what days I have left in peace,” I said with a pained sigh that surprised even me. “I don’t have long left, I can feel as much and I don’t want to play this game of cat and mouse with the Church anymore. I just want to find a place where an old woman can rest, maybe see my Toria again before I pass.”

It looked as though my honest answer surprised her and her face softened. She reached out to place a hand gently on my arm and let out a sigh of her own.

“I think I have forgotten that your appearance is just a glamour, you are just an old woman seeking peace in her last days. I am sorry that I have let Aela run her normal routine on you, I see now that perhaps she is holding onto old wounds and taking out her frustration on someone who is just weary and wanting rest.”

“You do remember who I am, correct?” I was a bit amused at her turn of heart. Surely she hated me, as someone so high up in the hierarchy of the Church she must have cursed my name more than once.

“I do, but I also know your history and I do not think you had much of a choice in life. You were but a child when you were practically sold off to the demons.”

“Sold off,” I said with a deep laugh. “That is one way to look at it I suppose. That sounds like it came directly from Aela’s mouth.”

“Perhaps it did,” she admitted with her lips in a hard line, “but is it wrong?”

I wanted to deny right away, but there was some fine thread of truth in the idea. Thinking back to that night when the man came to take us away, back to the baron my mother feared most, and instead gave the option for us to return with him to the demon realm, what choice did she have? She would never return to the baron, she would have rather died, so handing over her children to the hands of the demons was the only other option she saw that she could stomach. Was it the right choice? That was the wrong question to ask, it was the only choice.

“Yes, it is the wrong way to think about it. My mother did not sell us, she was given two choices, one of which was unthinkable for her, so she did what she must. I would have done the same. Also, I think that my sister and I were afforded better lives for it. We became royalty, not just bastard children in a home where my mother was nothing more than a pleasure servant.”

“Might still have been better than turning to demons.” She gave a shiver like the idea deeply frightened her. “I can’t imagine the horrors you’ve seen.”

“I would like to know what horrors you think there are to be seen there. What do you think it’s like there?”

“Torture, humans chained and made slaves, people killed as sport, all sorts of vile things, is no place to raise a child.”

For the first time in a long time I let out a real, hearty laugh. She had to be trying to fool me in some way, there was no way she could think these things. Sure the Church kept up the appearance, but if they could travel realms and knew of the stones, then they had seen for themselves.

“Come now, you have to know that I would not believe you actually believe that,” I said, still laughing. “I imagined you would come up with some inventive lies, but really, you can do better than that one.”

Her face blanched and she shook her head sadly. “You have been truly turned from the light if you find the evil the demons commit any sort of amusing.”

It was then that I was struck with the idea that perhaps the Church had been leaning on the lies about demons for so long that they were afraid to travel and see for themselves. I supposed I would be if I sincerely thought I might end up a slave, tortured for eternity. Aela really was playing both sides, she was not the good, pious cleric she had painted herself to be. She was keeping real secrets, secrets that if exposed might do some serious damage to her.

“I think we have quite a bit to discuss, some of it very much on a short timeline,” I said.

I would ignore the bit about the demon realm for now, but in time I planned on making it my new mission to pull the wool from their eyes. For now, the coming march of the Winter fae was much, much more important to prepare for. If Aela had let the ceremony happen then I was sure she had some kind of plan and I had a sneaking suspicion about what exactly that plan was.

“Where is Aela and the girl now?” I asked.

“She took her to prepare her for the feast tonight in Saint Alice’s quarters.”

I nodded and swallowed the desire to laugh at how she was set on giving the girl that title. “We should go see them, then we will talk.”

“You are the last person I would think would suggest to see Aela, but as you wish,” she said and motioned for me to follow.

Instead of going back to the temple, she led me past the gardens to a small cottage at the base of the start of the hills that rolled into the wild countryside. I had no idea where in the kingdom we were, but it did not look like a part of it I had been to before. I had heard of the hills of the north, so perhaps that was where we were. I would worry later once I saw for myself if I was correct about the plan that I felt was hatching.

“She is blessed by the goddess herself so she deserves her own fine accommodations where she can start her day in peace and meditate on the whispers of the divine she is blessed with,” the woman commented as she approached and politely knocked on the door.

After several moments no one appeared at the door and there had been no sounds of movement from within. With a frown, the arch cleric knocked again and waited. After there was again no answer, she pushed open the door and stepped inside.

The inside of the cottage revealed no trace that anyone had ever been here. I was right, she had taken the girl and fled before the fae would arrive. There had been no plan for dealing with the fae beyond leaving her temple to fall. I was starting to get a true sense of Aela and I had been very misguided on the idea that she had thrown her care and attention into her faith. Perhaps she had no faith at all in what she beat into others as fact.

“But where would they have gone?”

“This is as I thought,” I said, “we have much to talk about. Put on tea and let us sit, we do not have much time, though I think there is not much to do to prepare.”