Total pages in book: 208
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
“You sleep by my daughter’s side. You and your daughter break bread with she and hers. It is most unexpected, but it is also indisputable. You are my son. I believe it is time to call me Ophelia.”
He dipped his head again.
She motioned to a davenport with a woven dome above it.
He moved there, even if he did not wish to sit in that contraption, as she walked to a hanging chair of the same shape.
She climbed into it.
He waited until she was settled before he sat at the edge of the cushion.
When she did not say anything, he did.
“You asked to speak with me without your daughter present, and I am here, but I must share, I’m not comfortable with her not.”
Something moved over her face, a face that seemed to have aged years in the days they’d been there.
It was not hard to read it was relief.
What was hard was to realize she had shown that emotion so openly.
Ophelia was not one to share her thoughts in any way, unless it was intended.
“Also unexpected,” she said quietly, “is how well you two suit.”
Cassius did not respond.
She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin before she hit him with a verbal brick.
“I am dying, my son.”
He had the unusual instinct to burst from his seat.
He did not.
“Ophelia—”
She waved her hand and spoke over him.
“There is nothing to do but plan for that eventuality.”
“I think you should speak to your daughter. She was approached by a Go’Doan priest at Catrame Palace. She has—”
Ophelia nodded. “Elena discussed this medicine with one of our healers. And that healer, Joan, discussed it with me. I cannot say in this moment my trust in the Go’Doan is at its highest. But if Joan feels it is safe, I will take it. She’s studying it now. But even if it is safe, it will not but perhaps prolong the inevitable.”
“I find I have nothing to say,” he replied. “Except this saddens me, for my princess, for your Sisterhood, for my daughter, who I would wish to know you better, and for myself, for you have my respect.”
“Thank you, Cassius,” she murmured. “And I did not ask you here to make you speak. I asked you here to request you listen. For I have made a decision and it’s important that the Prince Regent of Airen, as well as the future husband of my daughter, is understanding of it, and supportive.”
Cassius nodded.
“I will be naming Elena my successor.”
Every inch of Cassius’s body froze.
“It will be up to you,” she went on, “and she, how you will rule different lands side by side.”
“What you suggest is an impossibility,” he said in a tone heavy with incredulity.
“What I have decided is an imperative.”
“She will rule by my side,” Cassius shared. “I will need her engaged. I will need her counsel. What we wish to achieve in Airen I cannot possibly foster without Elena’s aid.”
“You are a good man,” she said softly, studying him contemplatively. “It is most odd, do you not think, how a strong and stalwart tree can grow from the seed of a gnarled and diseased one.”
Cassius had no reply, but even if he had nothing to say, that didn’t mean he had no feeling at hearing her words.
He did.
And it was a rare sense of pride, that this great queen would think this of him.
“What you do not understand is that she is quite like you in many ways,” Ophelia carried on. “Especially her skill in selecting those she trusts. You need her to rule by your side, and she will be able to do that. She will not need you to rule by hers, but she’ll need assistance. And she will find that in Hera and Jasmine, specifically Hera. As well as my lieutenants, primarily Melisse. The balance will be hard fought, but from what I know of my daughter, and what I see of you, in the end, it will be won.”
“I see I will not be able to change your mind,” Cass admitted. “And I mean no offense, but as difficult as this will be for my princess and I, I also see no alternative.”
Ophelia gave a single nod, but said, “Serena will need a role, and as to that, I have not decided. Her last communication to me shared she allies with a Firenz Trusted to spy for that country, which caused such deep surprise in me, I cannot express it. So all I can do is hope that such change in all the realms has brought change in my eldest daughter and that I have time to read what that is and make the right decision for her future.”
He could not imagine any change in Serena, but if Chu was affecting that, he was more of a miracle worker than Cassius thought.