A Court of Lichen and Twilight / An ACOTAR Fanfiction

Chapter Three: The Plan of Action

A deep tang of panic coated my tongue at the thought of it: Cain lying as limp and grey as my father after what had happened. It was like looking through a time portal and watching the events of fifty years ago. I never wanted to think about that instant again. Cain, the youngest of us and last piece of our father we had, putting his life on the line...I knew deep down my mother wouldn't have allowed it had she been coherent. Cain was her utter pride and joy; what kept her going so solidly since her mate was gone now.

Despite her High Lady status, my mother lived her life selflessly. She wouldn't have wanted nor dreamed to live if it meant her son had to perish in her place. Cyra could handle taking over the mantle of the leader and had trained to be the elegant, feminine heir her entire life. Caelum and I would persevere as we always did. I may go gray trying not to explode. But Cain dying for her to live wasn't an option. Especially by venturing into a foreign court. It would ruin her.

Everyone starkly and adamantly shot down his valiant act of selflessness almost instantaneously. Even Nila had protested although she had no other alternative plan to offer in order to attain the lichen we needed. We needed to go with a different route that excluded our most vulnerable member.

As next in line, Cyra acted as the new interim High Lady while my mother's comatose condition only plateaued. It was her ultimate call as to how we proceeded, no matter how much I wanted to sort this out now and be done with it. We had ended our discussion yesterday on a sour note as a stress contraction had grabbed her. Xavier escorted her away to rest for the night and to sleep on the situation. It didn't help my anxiety at all.

At first, Cyra hesitated to leave my mother, but when Nila insisted she would remain the same for the time being, she begrudgingly obeyed for the sake of her baby. My eldest sibling agreed to meet us all at dawn in my father's old study to sort this out after she got some rest. In the meantime, Caelum was headed to the library to do some digging himself on possibly how the wards worked and search for a hopeful loophole. We didn't know anything about them really, and that was something my mother would apparently be taking to her grave rather than explain. My task was to find Silas and see what he had found out about the poisoned luncheon.

When everyone was gone from my mother's suite, I yanked Nila into a tight hug before I left and let her wail into my chest. This lichen ordeal was a true gamble that yet she thought might help. She was under so much pressure if this decision resulted in the decline of the High Lady's health. My own face felt hot under my eyes; my throat burned with choking back tears of my own.

I felt so beyond guilty of not coming to lunch to celebrate the finality of the mating bond with my mother over my own selfishness. I thought I was doing myself good to get my head clear. In turn, it could've been the only and last opportunity to see my mother healthy for a long while...if ever. If only I had eaten the soup first. It would've spared me the misery of an eternity under this dome of protection with Silas and further abandoning my birth given powers.

I couldn't think so posionous like this.

She had to be okay.

Nila could fix this.

I would fix this.

I debated on where or even whether my body would allow itself to sleep that night over the impending anxiety of the morning's plans. I twisted my amethyst mating band around my finger while I walked from the carpeted hall and down to the stairwell that I had last traveled up last night with Silas. I had to find him and figure out the kitchen incident, and then I could figure out this arbitrary bond later.

No servants were in the hall, no handmaidens were even lulling about between dressing and bathing or serving my sister's pregnancy cravings at all hours of the evening. My family had retreated to their respective niches tonight to study up on our plan of action. The only person I came across in the sprawling parlor was Vidya, my sister's hand selected midwife, entering from the front landing where she had presumably been let in by the common wards on the door. Only those with familiar souls could touch and open the handles to enter the castle.