Aureate Fates

34

                                    A TURNING

                                       —THEMA—

It felt like years since they had all sat in these seats. Delphinia's office felt smaller now, like she had grown some inches since the first day.

Reese and Drew sat to her left while Erik and Marisol occupied her right. Delphinia, in green robes, smiled. It was genuine.

"The plague has lessened in Ziralem, and due to our queen's proposal, villages from North to South are seeing an increase in grain shipments," she began, taking her seat. "Well done."

This sounded awfully close to another council meeting.

Reese sent Marisol a look. She smiled smugly at him, though Thema could gather that the queen appeared sickly. Weaker.

"There's more," Erik called out, crossing one relaxed leg over the other. More to why Delphinia had gathered them all here together.

Delphinia chose her words carefully. "There are pockets in Ziralem that are free of plague, and I have arranged for some of those inhabitants to come here, to the palace."

"For how long?" Erik asked. He was the first of them to speak.

"Three days," Delphinia said, definitively. "I'm still not sure about the exact nature of our lake. It could be dangerous if they stayed any longer."

She felt the room tense.

"And Jaak?" Marisol asked, keeping her chin up, bracing for disappointment.

Delphinia nodded, giving Marisol a reassuring look. "He's on my list."

Both Reese and Marisol released a breath.

Drew looked to his lap, eyes unfocused and cold. He wrapped his arms securely around his abdomen. No vision aided her in seeing the source of Drew's distress. She wished for one, but she knew that her gift didn't work that way.

"How many?" Thema spoke.

"Only ten," Delphinia answered, keeping her hands still. "Carefully selected."

"My parents?" Erik asked, voice frozen over.

The slightest crack in Delphinia's grace. "No, Your Majesty," she apologized, softly. "They're in an infected pocket."

Drew hadn't changed his haunted expression. Erik only nodded, not betraying anything.

Still looking at his lap with that ghostly face, Drew asked, quietly, "When do they arrive?"

Delphinia's smile was wide and delighted. The expression looked strange with her milky eyes. "Tomorrow."

Marisol turned to Erik with a gentle look, as if attempting to tell him something he simply couldn't understand.

Thema had no more family left in Ziralem, not after the death of her mother. So, she did not feel jubilant or eager at Delphinia's news.

But she did feel relieved, that the people sitting beside her, the people that protected her, would finally get to see some parts of their family.