Is this what happens when people have kids? I wonder.
Then, horrified at the thought, I shake my head to clear it. Now isn’t the time to daydream about Aurelio holding our baby in his arms, teaching our daughters how to swing a sword, and reading our kids to bed every night. As adorable as that sounds, I have a whole country to run, and starting a family is a future formality I’ll attend to when the time is right. It’s not like I should be looking forward to holding hands on a family walk, tiny giggles across the dinner table, and afternoon naps together…right?
I feel my face burn hotter than fire and know that I’m doomed.
“I’m hopeless,” I sigh.
“Now, I wouldn’t say that about the woman who saved our village,” Ophelia says.
I nearly jump out of my skin. “Ophelia!”
She chuckles quietly to herself. “I’m surprised you didn’t see me. You’ve been out here for quite some time now.”
If my face was on fire before, now it’s molten lava. Ophelia’s been sitting on the bottom step of the front porch this whole time, and I didn’t even notice. That says a lot about how absorbed I was in watching Aurelio, and what it says is downright embarrassing.
“Sorry. My brain must still be foggy,” I lie.
Ophelia smiles knowingly. “You don’t have to lie to me, Queen Alessia. You’re a picture of health. You’ve certainly regained your color.”
I suddenly wish to blink out of existence, but resist the urge to find a way via magic, even though there must be a way to at least turn invisible.
“Where is my sister?” I ask.
Ophelia points to our left. “She can’t get those girls to leave her alone.”
I follow her outstretched hand, a smile playing on my lips as I see Daelia surrounded by a mob of girls, all of them of various ages, but equally obsessed with her. They’ve each taken a part of her armor to examine it, and now a group of them are taking turns trying to braid her hair. I’m not sure if it’s going according to plan, as I can see the frizz even from this distance, but Daelia doesn’t seem to mind. She’s patiently answering question after question, her sword unsheathed on her lap, which seems to be the hot topic of the moment.
“They keep calling her their new best friend,” Ophelia chuckles.
“That sounds about right. Daelia has a way with people, a very different way than I do,” I admit. “I swear it’s just the way the Holy Church trains people. They’re all so easy to talk to. You’d think you’ve known them all your life.”
“I look forward to receiving your missionaries with open arms, then,” Ophelia says. “Their company will be worth just as much as their aid.”
“Please, send word to the other villages if you can. We want to help everyone, not just your village,” I insist.
“Of course. I’ll find a way to spread the word.”
Just then, Aurelio spots me, and his face lights up even more than it already has. He waves to me like a crazy person, both arms flailing.
“Hey, Alessia! How are you feeling?”
“Much better, thank you!” I laugh.
“Awesome! I’ll make sure I give you another book when you finish that one!”
My face reddens to what must be an impossible hue as he turns back to address the attention-hungry boys. Ophelia wears an amused smile as she turns back to our conversation.
“You are one lucky woman. That man is something else,” she chuckles.
“You know what? I’m starting to think the same thing,” I whisper to myself, letting those butterflies flutter freely for the first time since I started feeling them.
***
We only stay in the village of Lihra for three days, collecting for the villagers several weeks’ worth of food, water, and supplies, before we leave for Celestia once again with haste. I see no need to linger when there is work to be done, missionaries to be sent, and political plans to make.
Halfway through our journey home, we’ve had an uneventful ride back with no monster attacks, but the extra time to think isn’t sitting well with me. Even as comfortable as I am with Aticus now, I can’t seem to wrap my head around Krasta’s situation. I don’t know the best way to make lasting change with a whole civil war going on in their capital. It would be an outright dissolution of the alliance and a declaration of war if I attacked, even if the purpose was to separate the warring factions. As in favor of war as I am at the moment, I know it’s a knee-jerk reaction that could get even more people hurt, our intentions confused, and solutions disregarded.
I have to go about this quietly if I ever hope to bring lasting positive change to Krasta. It will have to start with months of missionary work, bolstered labor forces, and religious revitalization to win total trust and make our intentions clear. After that, I’ll be walking on very thin ice to maintain such trust while infiltrating the nobility of an entire country. We’ll need information to dismantle this conflict before it can become an armed conflict.
