The Queen's Mage

Chapter 144: Breakfast Dessert

Serali reached the breakfast room only a few minutes after the Queen.

Had she not known where Allandra had disappeared, she would never have guessed she’d spent the night elsewhere.

Allandra already sat at the table, a cup of tea before her as she finished reviewing a briefing packet. Across from her, Hagen buttered a slice of bread with the contentment of someone who considered breakfast one of civilization’s finest achievements.

The moment Serali entered, Allandra handed the packet back to the waiting servant.

Composed.

Immaculate.

Entirely respectable.

Only the faintest curve at the corner of her mouth suggested she remembered the morning any differently.

Serali wondered whether Sun Fae were simply born with that degree of composure.

The breakfast room had settled into something Serali still found faintly miraculous.

Routine.

Not every morning. Council, inspections, diplomacy, and the simple unpredictability of five separate lives saw to that. But enough mornings that the servants no longer blinked when an extra place was laid at breakfast. Enough that Serali no longer questioned the invitation.

Some breakfasts.

Outside the windows, winter had continued its slow retreat. The gardens remained bare, but the mornings carried less bite than they had a fortnight ago. Somewhere below, gardeners had already begun clearing away the last storm-fallen branches in anticipation of First Sun.

The smell of fresh bread reached her before she reached the table.

”Serali!”

Everly waved enthusiastically from her chair.

”You came.”

”I was reminded attendance was expected.”

Everly looked to Allandra. ”You told her it was one of some breakfasts?”

”I did.”

”Good.”

Everly turned back to Serali. ”Sometimes people forget.”

”Fortunately,” Serali said, ”your mother remembered.”

Allandra smiled into her tea. ”It is one of my official responsibilities.”

Hagen looked up. ”Breakfast Liaison?”

”Apparently.”

Everly nodded very seriously. ”Mama is in charge of reminding people.”

”An important office,” Daravan observed.

”Very important,” Everly agreed.

She looked back at Serali. ”I keep inviting you.”

”So you do.”

Everly spread her hands with the confidence of someone presenting an irrefutable legal argument.

”Which means this is one of the some breakfasts.”

”It is,” Allandra agreed.

For just a heartbeat, Serali met Allandra’s eyes across the table.

The memory of warm bathwater, whispered promises, and waking together returned so vividly that she almost forgot where she was.

She lowered her gaze to her tea.

Safer.

Hagen noticed.

Of course he noticed.

His grin appeared immediately.

”I wasn’t aware breakfast invitations now came with official classifications.”

”They do,” Everly informed him.

”Oh?”

”There are normal breakfasts.”

”Mm.”

”And some breakfasts.”

”I see.”

”And some breakfasts get breakfast dessert.”

Daravan, halfway through pouring tea, paused. ”A dangerous precedent.”

”It isn’t precedent,” Everly said.

”No?”

”It’s a tradition.”

Hagen nodded solemnly. ”She’s got you there.”

Serali lowered her eyes to hide a smile.

Allandra sighed with the long-suffering expression of someone who already knew she had lost. ”What constitutes breakfast dessert?”

”Honey buns.”

”They are dessert.”

”They contain honey,” Everly countered.

”Correct,” Allandra agreed.

”Honey is breakfast.”

Allandra blinked. ”...”

Hagen folded his hands. ”I find the argument compelling.”

”You would,” Allandra muttered.

”I support all legislation involving pastries.”

Daravan inclined his head. ”Your Highness has established a repeat occurrence. The court may struggle to argue against consistency.”

Allandra looked at him in disbelief. ”You too?”

”I merely observe patterns.”

Everly beamed. ”Mama?”

Allandra looked around the table.

Her daughter had somehow enlisted the Captain of the Guard and the Crown Prince in support of pastries before breakfast had properly begun.

She looked to Serali.

Entirely unhelpfully, Serali had become fascinated by her tea. There was the unmistakable twitch of restrained laughter at the corner of her mouth.

Coward.

”...One honey bun.”

Everly threw both arms into the air. ”I won!”

”You negotiated,” Hagen corrected.

”I negotiated.”

”A subtle distinction.”

A servant, hiding a smile almost as successfully as Serali, disappeared toward the kitchens.

Breakfast settled into easy conversation after that.

Everly took another triumphant bite of her toast. ”You have to come to First Sun.”

Allandra smiled. ”How do we ask?”

Everly’s shoulders slumped just a fraction. ”...Would you like to come to First Sun with us?”

”I would,” Serali said without hesitation.

Everly brightened immediately. ”Good.”

She paused. ”...That was harder.”

”It was,” Allandra agreed.

”But it lets people choose.”

Everly rested her chin in her hands. ”It doesn’t feel very princessy.”

Hagen looked up from his tea. ”I disagree.”

”You do?”

”I think inviting people to celebrate with you instead of ordering them to attend is an excellent quality in a princess.”

Everly considered this. ”...Really?”

”Really.”

Daravan inclined his head. ”It also generally results in better attendance.”

”...Because they wanted to come?”

”Exactly,” Allandra said.

”Oh.”

Everly frowned thoughtfully. ”I still like commands.”

”I’m aware.”

”They’re faster.”

”They are.”

”I can practice.”

”I know you can.”

Allandra reached across the table and squeezed Everly’s hand.

Serali watched the exchange quietly.

She had spent one hundred and twenty-seven years watching mistakes corrected with humiliation, fear, or pain.

Here, they were corrected with patience.

It still felt like discovering a law of nature had been written incorrectly all along.

Everly looked back at Serali. ”I hope you’ll come.”

”I hope so too.”

”There are sweets.”

”I had gathered that.”

Everly nodded. ”They’re important.”

”I don’t doubt it.”

Serali smiled.

”...What actually happens at First Sun?”

Allandra set down her teacup.

”It is, first and foremost, a religious celebration. We gather before dawn to give thanks for surviving another winter and to welcome the sun into spring.”

”We stay awake together until sunrise,” Hagen added.

”Everyone carries lanterns,” Allandra continued. ”At midnight, I light the Eastern Flame to call back the sun.”

”The first ceremonial fire of the year,” Hagen said. ”From there, the flame is carried throughout the city so every district may light its own.”

Serali imagined lanterns glowing against the last darkness before dawn. ”It sounds beautiful.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

”It is,” Allandra said softly.

Everly, having patiently tolerated the serious explanation, decided enough solemnity had occurred. ”And then there are sweets.”

Hagen nodded gravely. ”An essential theological component.”

”They’re celebration sweets,” Everly corrected.

”An important distinction.”

Serali smiled. ”I think I understand.”

Allandra’s eyes met hers.

”I suspect,” she said, ”you understand enough for now.”

Everly informed everyone that Marielle had promised the First Sun lanterns this year would be ”even better,” though no one seemed entirely certain whether that was reassuring.

Hagen suggested they should prepare a bucket of water.

Daravan quietly asked whether Marielle had been informed of the existence of safety regulations.

”No,” Allandra admitted.

”That explains much.”

Everly frowned. ”Marielle likes rules.”

”She does,” Allandra agreed. ”Engineering rules.”

”...Ah.”

Everly suddenly remembered something.

”Oh,” she said suddenly. ”Master Ilovian made me a promise.”

Hagen looked up.

”Should we be concerned?”

”No.”

”...That is not the reassuring answer you think it is.”

”He said that if I did well on my spelling this week...”

She paused dramatically.

”...he would teach me about cave spiders.”

Serali blinked. ”Cave spiders?”

Everly nodded enthusiastically. ”The ones that don’t need eyes.”

Hagen looked toward Allandra.

”That seems an unusually specific reward.”

”It is tied to the lesson,” Allandra said. ”Master Ilovian believes children learn best when they’re interested.”

”I am interested.”

”So I have noticed.”

Hagen leaned forward. ”And how is the spelling going?”

Everly looked faintly offended. ”Very well.”

”Oh?”

”I can spell spider.”

”Can you?”

”S-p-i-d-e-r.”

She pronounced every letter carefully before looking around the table with unmistakable satisfaction.

”It is a big word.”

”It is,” Allandra agreed with complete seriousness.

”And cave?” Hagen asked.

Everly frowned.

”...I don’t need cave yet.”

Hagen pressed his lips together. ”A sensible curriculum.”

Daravan took a measured sip of tea.

”Does Master Ilovian know your spelling assessment is complete?”

”He gave me more words.”

”And?”

”I am learning them.”

A tiny pause.

”But I already know spider.”

”Which is fortunate,” Serali said gravely, ”given the direction your education appears to be taking.”

Everly beamed. ”They can feel tiny little vibrations.”

She wiggled her fingers enthusiastically.

”And not all spiders make webs.”

”I...” Hagen frowned. ”I don’t know enough about spiders to dispute that.”

”I do not know enough about spiders to want to,” Serali admitted.

”They help eat pests,” Allandra said.

“Exactly!” Everly looked triumphant. “Button would agree.”

Then her expression fell. “If I could find him.”

Serali looked up. “You’ve been looking?”

“Every time I go into the gardens.”

”You’ve been checking for months,” Hagen observed.

Everly nodded. ”He might come back.”

Across the room, Lessa paused while refilling the teapot.

Her shoulders dipped almost imperceptibly before she continued pouring.

No one mentioned that Button had spent the winter outdoors.

”I hope he isn’t lonely.”

Serali smiled gently. ”I hope he isn’t either.”

Everly looked thoughtfully between Serali and the window. ”I found you.”

”You did.”

”And then I found Button.”

”I remember.”

”You were both scary.”

Hagen raised an eyebrow.

Serali glanced at him, then back at Everly. “Were we?”

Everly nodded matter-of-factly. ”Some people thought so.”

She looked at Serali. ”But you were nice.”

Then she looked toward the gardens again. ”And Button was nice.”

Serali couldn’t argue with that.

Everly frowned in concentration. ”I helped you.”

”You certainly did.”

”I made Mama promise.”

”You did.”

”I told her to say sorry.”

”You did.”

”And then I told her to invite you to breakfast.”

A tiny smile tugged at Allandra’s mouth. ”You were very persuasive.”

Everly beamed. ”Now you’re friends.”

”I believe we are,” Allandra said.

Everly nodded, thoroughly satisfied with her own diplomacy.

”So maybe Button just needs someone to help him too.”

Silence settled around the table.

No one seemed quite willing to be the first to disturb it.

Allandra reached across and rested a hand over Everly’s. “I think Button was very lucky that someone cared enough to remember him.”

”I do remember him.”

”I know.”

Lessa looked down at the teapot in her hands.

Very quietly, almost to herself, she said, ”I hope he found somewhere warm.”

Everly looked toward the gardens beyond the windows. ”...Me too.”

She was quiet for another moment.

Then she brightened. ”When Button comes back, I’ll tell him Mama and Serali are friends now.”

Serali laughed softly.

”I think he’d be very pleased to hear that.”

The honey buns arrived warm.

Everly pulled hers apart at once, releasing a curl of steam and the scent of butter and honey. She ate it with determined concentration, then looked across the table.

Daravan had taken only one bite of his.

Everly looked at the bun.

Then at Daravan.

Her expression became mournful.

Daravan held her gaze for several seconds.

Then his hand moved toward the plate.

Allandra looked at him.

He stopped.

“I have done nothing,” he said.

“You were about to.”

“I was considering the diplomatic implications.”

“She has already eaten one.”

“A compelling counterargument.”

Everly continued looking mournfully at the bun.

Daravan took another bite himself.

Her expression shifted from sorrow to betrayal.

Serali lowered her cup to hide a smile.

Too soon, breakfast ended.

Everly hopped down from her chair and wrapped her arms around Allandra. “Mama, don’t work too much.”

“I’ll try.”

Then she turned to Serali with the complete certainty of someone who expected tomorrow to resemble today. ”I’ll invite you again.”

”I look forward to hearing your next legal argument.”

”I’ll think of one.”

”I have no doubt.”

She hurried away toward her lessons.

Silence settled for only a heartbeat after the door closed.

Hagen rose, collecting the last of his tea. ”I suppose we should go govern a kingdom.”

”It does occasionally require us,” Allandra said.

Daravan pushed back his chair as well. ”I’ll escort you to council.”

Serali stood. Without thinking, she fell into step beside Allandra as they left the breakfast room, Hagen strolling on the queen’s other side while Daravan took his customary place a pace behind.

It felt so natural that she did not notice it. Outside, the palace had already begun to wake in earnest. Servants crossed the corridors carrying bundles of ribbons and lantern frames for the coming festival. Sunlight spilled through tall windows, lingering a little longer than it had only weeks before. Winter was ending. For the first time in longer than Serali could remember, she found herself wondering, not whether tomorrow would be safe, but what Everly’s next breakfast negotiation would be.

Chapter 145: The Letter

By the time the Lyehiran letter arrived, Serali had almost begun to trust her chair.

That was how danger worked, apparently.

Not by announcing itself with horns and blood.

By waiting until a person grew used to the shape of comfort.

Breakfast still lingered in the back of her mind as the council convened.

Honey on Everly’s fingers.

Hagen solemnly defending pastries as a matter of constitutional importance.

Daravan confronting the diplomatic crisis of Everly staring mournfully at his honey bun, and retreating the moment Allandra looked at him.

Allandra smiling into her tea while pretending she was not, in fact, the kingdom’s officially appointed Breakfast Liaison.

It had been...

Normal.

Serali distrusted normal almost as much as she distrusted safe.

Now, Serali sat in council with her sleeves properly fastened, her hair pinned, her expression arranged into something Mara called “respectable” and Serali called “evidence of coercive grooming standards.” She had not looked like a woman who had spent the night discovering that tenderness could exist without expectation. She had not looked like someone whose body still remembered the warmth of the bath or the quiet certainty of hands that asked nothing in return.

She looked like the Royal Mage.

Mostly.

Her chair at the council table was no longer angled like an apology.

Weeks ago, someone, Daravan, probably, had shifted it an inch closer.

Then another.

Then another.

So gradually she had never noticed the movement itself.

Only the destination.

The morning’s session had been dull enough to be dangerous in its own way. Harrek was giving a report on harbor disturbances and whether the latest wave of anti-Night Fae broadsheets counted as organized agitation or merely ’literary cowardice with bad spelling,’ a phrase Marielle had suggested and Verya had refused to let him enter into formal record.

The palace had confiscated enough copies over the past month that Harrek had begun referring to them by edition number.

“It does not matter whether the spelling is bad,” Verya said.

“It matters to me,” Marielle replied.

Yvander, who had been pinching the bridge of his nose since the discussion turned to pamphlets, said, “Can we tax them?”

Harrek blinked. “The pamphlets?”

“The people printing them.”

Verya looked mildly interested. “On what grounds?”

“Waste of paper.”

Marielle pointed at him. “There. Useful governance.”

“The tax office cannot punish sedition as inefficient stationery,” Verya said.

“Why not?” Yvander asked.

Serali leaned back in her chair. “In Lyehira, that sentence would have gotten someone arrested.”

The room paused.

Not with horror. Not anymore. They had all begun, disturbingly, to understand when she was joking.

Mostly.

Marielle leaned toward her. “For the sedition or the stationery?”

“Yes.”

Harrek’s nervous smile appeared. “Please do not give anyone ideas.”

Hagen, seated farther down the table, lifted his cup. “Too late. Yvander is already inventing an ink levy.”

“Don’t tempt me,” Yvander said.

Allandra sat at the head of the table, watching the exchange with the faintest trace of amusement at the corner of her mouth. She looked every inch the queen, except Serali knew now how to read the difference between queenly stillness and actual peace.

This was not peace.

But it was not pain either.

That felt new enough to frighten her.

Daravan remained unconvinced.

Daravan remained unconvinced by many things, including happiness, plumbing, and the possibility that either Allandra or Serali could be trusted to glance at one another responsibly. He stood now in his usual place, listening to Harrek’s report with the expression of a man who expected the city to catch fire but had already arranged buckets, witnesses, and a dull official explanation.

Serali was beginning to find that comforting.

Horrifying, but comforting.

Harrek shuffled his notes.

”In any case, Majesty, the harbor watch believes the broadsheets originated near Salt Row. We have not yet identified the printer, but the presswork is distinctive.”

”Distinctively bad?” Marielle asked.

Verya looked at her.

Marielle lifted both hands.

”I am only clarifying.”

Harrek gave the long-suffering sigh of a man accustomed to presenting serious matters to people who insisted on making them entertaining.

”This is the fourth series we’ve confiscated since the Royal Mage’s appointment.”

The room quieted a fraction.

”The first questioned the Crown’s judgment. The second questioned Her Majesty’s judgment. The third mostly accused the Royal Mage of being a Lyehiran spy.”

He turned another page. ”These are different.”

Allandra’s attention sharpened. ”How?”

”They’re no longer trying to convince people to distrust the Crown.”

He looked around the table. ”They’re trying to convince people to expect violence.”

A brief silence followed.

Harrek continued.

”We’ve managed it so far. We believe we can continue increasing patrols without making it seem as though the Crown is suppressing ordinary speech.”

“Can we?” Hagen asked mildly.

Harrek’s smile strained. “We can attempt to.”

“An honest answer. How rare.”

Allandra’s gaze moved to Hagen.

He smiled back at her, warm as amber and twice as polished.

Serali looked down at the north wall diagram in front of her and pretended she had not noticed the familiar line of tension forming between the twins. It was easier to pretend now that she had things to do with her hands. Marielle had given her three annotations to review. Verya had given her a docket amendment. Yvander had asked, without visible suffering, whether a particular ward adjustment would cost anything.

There were many skills required of a Royal Mage. Magical analysis. Defensive consultation. Knowing when to let siblings glare at each other without adding commentary.

She was still working on the third.

Verya opened her docket. ”We should distinguish between the continuing public agitation surrounding the Royal Mage’s appointment and the broader unrest involving the border.”

Merrow cleared his throat.

Serali’s hand moved automatically toward the cup beside her.

Marielle noticed.

“Careful,” she murmured. “That cup has tea in it.”

“I know.”

“You were reaching as if to throw.”

“I was not.”

“You were.”

“Only a little.”

Marielle nodded. “Acceptable restraint.”

Across the table, Allandra’s mouth almost moved.

Almost.

Serali looked away before the bond could do anything embarrassing.

Merrow, oblivious or immune to the fact that several women at the table had just silently considered him as a target, said, “The distinction is difficult. The two matters are increasingly intertwined. Rumor continues to outpace fact. The public still does not know the full nature of the Royal Mage’s origin and perhaps—”

“No,” Allandra said.

One word.

Mild.

Final.

Merrow’s mouth shut.

Verya, without looking at him, said, “The council has already determined that private history sealed under oath remains sealed unless the Royal Mage consents to disclosure.”

Merrow’s face pinkened. “I did not suggest breaching the oath.”

“You were approaching the suggestion,” Verya said. “I saved time.”

Yvander muttered, “And grain.”

Hagen looked amused.

Serali looked at Verya and wondered, not for the first time, whether affection could be built entirely from terror and usefulness.

Then the chamber doors opened.

Not dramatically. That would have been kinder.

The left door opened just wide enough for a page to slip inside, pale-faced and breathing too quickly. Behind him stood one of the senior palace scribes, and behind the scribe stood a courier still wearing a travel cloak dusted at the hem with salt and road grit.

The page bowed. “Majesty.”

Allandra’s expression changed.

Only slightly.

The room changed more.

Daravan straightened by a fraction. Hagen lowered his cup. Verya’s hand stilled above her docket. Marielle turned from her diagrams, eyes narrowing, attention sharpening from irritation into interest.

Serali looked at the courier.

Then she saw the packet in his hands.

Black wax.

Silver thread.

A seal pressed deep enough that even from across the chamber she knew the shape.

The Night Crown.

The warmth of breakfast vanished as if a door had opened onto winter.

No.

Her body went cold before her mind formed the word.

No.

The settled bond flickered.

Across the table, Allandra’s eyes moved to her.

Only once.

A rationed glance.

Still, Serali felt the question underneath it.

Are you all right?

Only that morning, Allandra’s hand had been warm over hers in bed.

Only that morning, Everly had put a honey bun on Serali’s plate.

Only that morning, Serali had let herself believe that some invitations could be answered without cost.

She did not touch her cuff.

Not yet.

She kept her hands flat on the table.

The senior scribe stepped forward and bowed. “Majesty. A formal diplomatic packet from Lyehira. It arrived through the eastern courier gate under witness and seal.”

The room did not breathe.

Allandra held out one hand. “Give it to Lady Verya.”

The scribe blinked, then obeyed.

Verya accepted the packet without expression. She examined the wax, the thread, the outer marks, and the courier stamp with such care that Serali almost hated her for the delay.

Almost.

Delay was air.

Delay was the last few seconds before a blade fell.

Verya looked to the courier. “Name and office.”

The courier bowed. “Selven Marr, attached to the eastern diplomatic route, my lady. Packet transferred from Lyehiran envoy at the border post under neutral witness.”

“Were you given oral message?”

“No, my lady. Written packet only.”

“Was the seal intact from transfer to delivery?”

“Yes, my lady.”

Verya looked to the scribe. “Logged?”

“Yes, my lady.”

“Witnessed?”

“Yes.”

She turned the packet over.

The black wax caught the light.

Serali stared at it and, for one moment, was not in Avalusia at all.

She was sixteen again, standing in a corridor of black stone while a messenger knelt before her father with a sealed packet. Vulmar had not touched the seal until everyone in the room had understood that touching it was his right. He had always liked making power wait on his fingers.

Now his seal lay on Allandra’s table.

In Allandra’s council.

Near Serali’s hands.

The room tilted slightly.

No.

She pressed both feet into the floor.

Verya broke the seal.

The crack sounded very small.

Serali flinched anyway.

Marielle saw.

Daravan saw.

Allandra saw.

Hagen saw everything.

Verya unfolded the letter. Her eyes moved down the page.

Once.

Then again.

For the first time since Serali had known her, Verya’s face lost its perfect legal neutrality.

Not much.

Enough.

“Lady Verya,” Allandra said.

Verya looked up.

Her gaze moved first to Allandra.

Then to Serali.

A warning.

Serali’s mouth went dry.

Merrow leaned forward. “What is it?”

Verya ignored him. “Majesty, this is a royal demand from King Vulmar Xuiven.”

The name filled the room.

Not spoken loudly. Not dramatically.

It did not need to be.

Serali’s hands curled against the table.

Breathe.

Allandra’s voice was steady. “Subject?”

Verya did not answer at once.

That was worse.

“Subject,” Allandra repeated.

Verya’s eyes returned briefly to the letter. “The Royal Mage.”

Every face turned toward Serali.

Some tried not to.

None succeeded.

Serali looked at the black seal, split now on the table like a dead beetle.

Hagen spoke softly. “How interesting.”

Allandra’s eyes cut to him.

He lifted a hand, almost apologetic.

Almost.