~Serana⚜

I was sat on one of the many roofs of the castle looking out over Algrie while three men in gold armor had their spears pointed at me in the ready, incase I tried to pull another stunt like I did back in the dinning room. They were still reasonably pissed at me for getting their friend sent to the infirmary with multiple gashes across her face and torso along with over half her flight feathers missing or destroyed on one wing.

The only reason they let me up here was because Nani had asked the queen not to let me go stir crazy on account of my guards not liking me. Now I owed her majesty a favor for letting me get fresh air. It's the only reason she'd agree to such a mundane and fruitless request.

The rustle of wind through my feathers and the telltale beating sound of wings followed by the soft smack of feet on marble lets me know someone has landed on the roof not too far behind me drawing my attention away from the beautiful gleam of the golden city before me. I don't turn around but I do chance a look at one of the guards who has turned his attention to the new arrival.

"Fyko." He acknowledges with a slight bow of his head and flit of the wings. Fyko? I've heard that name before.

Chancing losing my head I twist my torso halfway around to catch sight of the newcomer. I'm met with bright green eyes set in a chiseled face with a semi-short scruff of dark hair covering his jaw and blending into his hair. He had wings the same dark brown as his hair but dappled randomly with large pepper gray patches. It was the man I had seen in the dinning room, the same one who had been speaking with the queen before she caught me. He must be a trusted spy to be sent around on so many errands. I mentally curs not taking my eyes off him as he approaches, undeterred by the guards now seeming wary of him and ready to strike either of us if given the proper provocation.

"Serana." He greets inclining his head slightly in a show of polite friendliness. Not wanting to somehow offend him I mimic the action earning a faint smile from the seemingly over friendly man.

"If you'll excuse us." He raises his voice to address the guards. "But her majesty has requested that I have a word in private with her."

One of the guards hesitates but his eyes betray him when they glance down at a gold medallion about the size of a small fist hanging from the mans neck on a thick golden chain. The guard lowers his spear afterwards and I glance at the medallion myself to see what was emblazoned on it.

Two dragon heads looking to be in a swirl connected together to form the royal seal. A symbol of authority that granted right and access with no questions asked.

The guards bowed and lightly took off to rest on a rooftop well out of earshot but still in plain sight of us.

"What does her majesty want with a lowly peasant such as myself?" I ask barely holding back a sneer of contempt.

"Easy." The mans voice deepens and goes flat in warning.

"Sorry." I sigh turning back around to rest my chin on my arms sitting atop my knees. "Long week." I breath out in way of explanation.

He gives a hearty laugh as he comes up beside me and takes a seat, bumping my wing with his own in the process. "Aye, that it has been." He agrees with a broad smile.

I stared at him for a long moment before a smile twitched its way onto my lips. Chuckling along with him I turn my gaze back to the city before me but my attention remains on the charming man.

"Any ways, to answer your question, the queen does not want anything. She doesn't even know I am here." He says with a much more serious tone that demands attention.

Lifting my head I look back to him with a frown now pulling at my features, replacing the smile that had been forming only a moment before.

"I fear the queen is in grave danger if she stays here." Fyko confides with a look of earnest concern marring his handsome face and lighting a glimmer in his eyes. "Something is happening, and the guards can not be trusted. Tomorrow will be the start of something very important. I have managed to convince the queen to come with me to the lower levels of the city where she will not be recognized or looked for immediately. She does not know the true reason I am taking her. She can not." He explains in hurried sentences spoken below what little of his breath remains.

"Why are you telling me this?" My voice shook with fear and I had to swallow the lump. Why was I afraid? I wanted the queen dead and if what he was saying is to be believed she would be by the end of the day tomorrow. "There is nothing I've longed for more than to see the queens head on the end of a spear." I spit forcing anger into my voice to hide the fear.

"She will only agree to go with me if I can find someone who can help in a fight that doesn't report back to Avar or Katal. You fit that description and you have a good reason to want the queen alive." He tells me pointing a finger at me as if that would help make his point clear.

"Why would I want the queen alive? She is responsible for the death of my vavi." I hiss not having to force the anger this time when I spoke.

"Do you know how old the queen is?" He asked, his voice calm and his features expressionless.

"No." I answer truthfully fighting the look of confusion wanting to pull at my eyebrows.

"One hundred and twenty-six. She is nine years older than you and she lost both her parents to your vavi." He tells me, he looks me deep in the eyes searching, trying to get me to understand. "If either of you has a right to want the other dead it's her. Because she did not order the death of your vavi. I've spoken with Evyo and he was killed that same night he took the lives of the former queens. She could not have found out until at least two days later. That's the minimum amount of time it takes to reach Algrie from Lockren. She does not hold your vavi's actions on your head. Do not hold someone else's on her's."

I wanted to scream at him, to yell at him for defending a cruel murderer. But I couldn't, what he said made sense and I couldn't call her anymore a murder than my own father. He couldn't have killed them. At least that's what I wanted to believe, that my vavi wasn't a killer.

My fingers absently stroked the cold metal that hung from my neck. No has tried taking the lavaliere from me, not even the queen. It belonged to her and yet she let me keep it, she never demanded or even asked for me to hand over what was rightfully hers.

Closing my eyes I bury my head in my arm and take a deep claiming breath. Breathing in the scents around me. The smell of something sweet yet tangy flooded my nose. It was the same sent that perfumed the queen the night before.

A memory of when I was younger splashes across the forefront of my mind, I was eating something that smelled sweet and tangy and flooded my mouth with flavor. Nani was sitting at the table sewing when I heard the sound of Vavi's voice muttering as he came up toward the house. I squealed and ran for the door with my treat in hand when Nani grabbed me by the wing and roughly pulled me back and shoved me into their room.

I had tried to run back out to Vavi so he could protect me but I was shoved back into the room. "Do not come out until I get you alright." Nani had ordered closing the door tightly and blocking it from the other side.

I remembered crying myself to sleep and waking up in my parents bed with Vavi. Nani wasn't there and I didn't ask where she was, but I faintly remember the next time I saw her she had a bruise covering her side and a few shallow gashes around her neck.

My eyes snapped open and with them the image of the memory left my sight, but it was now burned into my mind once again. I never asked what had happened to Nani, I thought she had fallen or got hit by something. Now the memory seemed abut clearer and I thought was going to be sick so I closed my eyes again and the sweet and tangy scent hit me again, drawing another memory from my childhood.

Nani had taken me into the forest to help her find cotton and levren leaves to make clothes with. We had gone all the way to the other side of the river my village got its water from. I had just started flying and this was my first time across the river, there had been buzzing all around us from the trees and the air smelled sweet with a tangy bite. I was happy and excited, I had ran off chasing something that I couldn't even remember now other than a long graish blue tail covered in fur with tail-feathers forking off the end.

I had been so enamored with chasing it that I didn't hear the roar of a waterfall or notice when it stopped running and started gliding. I had followed that thing right off the edge of a cliff. I remembered falling and screaming for my life, trying desperately to catch myself with my wings and fly back to Nani. But I couldn't, I still didn't know how to really fly.

Before I could hit the trees below I was jerked away and pulled up by my foot. I was lifted higher and brought back around to the river and was dropped lightly onto the ground back where I had been with Nani a few moments before.

My rescuer landed a few feet from me as I scrambled back up and turned to see my nani had been the one to catch me was now heaving with a look of relief that made her whole form sag. I could remember jumping at her and burying myself in her arms. I had felt relieved and cried into her stomach. She picked me up and cradled me to her chest, I remember the feeling as if it were only moments ago. I had felt safe.

My eyes now stung with tears and I feared opening them would only make the matter worse. "Wha-" My voice choked and I had to clear my throat before trying again. "What's that smell?" I asked turning to Fyko.

He looked at me with concern shining in expressive green eyes. He didn't speak but he pulled up a purple cloth filled with something I couldn't see but I could smell its sweet and tangy scent.

"Scones. Made from wood bee honey." He finally answered. Wood bees. That's what the queen smelled like, honey. That's why the smell was familiar. My jaw clenched and I forced the burn in my eyes to recede.

Clearing my throat again I change the topic away from my odd outburst. "You said why I would want the queen alive." My gaze was turned back toward the city and away from the man sitting beside me.

He sighs and takes a moment before answering. "Because if she dies then so do you. Your life, along with your nani's, is now directly linked to the queens just as mine is."

I find myself snorting humorlessly before I can catch myself. "So that's why you want the queen safe, because if she dies then you die with her." I chuckle coldly. "And here I thought you were just that loyal and devoted to your job." I mock looking at him.

"My life does depend on her yes." He admits. "But I am known for nothing if not my ability to find out everything and judge an honest to Skies good person when I meet one. And for all her faults and grievances the queen is not a bad person. By no means am I saying she's good, but she's only as bad as she has to be. And for the past century, I can only imagine how bad that must be." His voice echoes with force of his conviction. Strong and demanding.

"What will happen tomorrow?" I ask starring him down.

"I'm not sure, but I know something is. And if I tell the queen she will want to stay and face it head on, that I am certain of. We must get her out of the castle by tomorrow morning. We can return by the evening's end. But she can not be here for the day and by tomorrow night we must tire her out and convince her to let one of us stay in her room through the night. That will have to be you." He informs, laying out his plan.

"Me?!" I shout without thought as my face flushes. I could only imagine how red I must look as my cheeks burn with embarrassment and I try to fight down a wave of shyness at the mere thought of staying in the same room as the queen while she slept.

"Quiet!" He hisses, glaring at me. "Yes you, she's fond of the company of women not men." He explains. His words don't make me feel any better and I find my skin heating up further until I'm certain I've caught on fire. "Further more I must be able to patrol the castle and keep an eye out for trouble."

"I don't actually have to sleep with her do I?" I question trying to ignore the shiver that crawls down my spine at the thought of white flesh under my bronze hands.

"Probably not. That pet gryph of hers doesn't like me, but he will probably take shining to you if the queen does." He reasons.

Swallowing the lump in my throat I try desperately to draw moisture back into my mouth. I did not want to deal with that beast after seeing what it did to that guard.

"So how are we going to get outside the castle wall without being spotted." I asked changing the subject before I passed out from the blood rushing between my ears.

"I'm not sure, that's up to the queen to do." He answers.

My eyes went wide and my expression must have shown my dismay because he started laughing. "I can assure you, the queen is plenty competent. She'll find a way to get us through unseen." His voice was filled with mirth as his eyes danced with the light of laughter.

Sighing I take a deep breath and ask another question. "What of my nani, will she be safe?" I fix my eyes on his and watch as they sober up and turn serious once more.

"As long as the queen is alive she should be. But I can not be for certain of her well being." I didn't like his answer but I appreciated his honesty.

"Tomorrow. How will you get the guards to leave me?"

"It may take some convincing, but I'm sure I can get the queen to request your audience before the sun rises tomorrow. So be ready and get plenty of sleep. We have a long day ahead of us in the morning." When he finished speaking he stood up and tossed me the purple bag. "Eat up." He says smirking before leaping of the roof and flying off to some other part of the castle.

My guards came back at once but I ignored them and untied the cloth sitting in my lap. Scones oozing something this and sticky filled the makeshift bag. Picking one up I bit into it and savored the sweet and tangy taste.

Glancing at the nicer of the three guards I grab another scone and hold it up in an offering. The other two tense about to strike me, but the one I offered the scone to pauses and blinks. Lowering his spear he steps forward and takes the scone.

"Thanks." Is the only response I get before he tries to shove the whole thing in his mouth.

Smiling I turn to the other two. "You two gonna help me eat these or what?" They responded much like their friend had by blinking before lowering their spears and accepting a scone. Looked like no one could resist the taste of wood bee honey. In all honesty I couldn't either now that I had another taste.

A fleeting thought of curiosity crossed my mind. If the queen smells like the honey, I wonder if she would taste like it as well? Physically shaking my head I continue to eat the scones with my three prison guards while I mull over the conversation I just had with the overly friendly spy.