Mina frowns. “That’s a serious problem, Alessia. If it comes down to it, would you let her stop you, or would you fight her, one on one, for all to see?”
Dread pools in my stomach. “That’s the bigger problem. I don’t know.”
Chapter twenty
Aurelio
“…I don’t know.”
I pause before I climb up the first step. I can hear Alessia’s voice from all the way down here, at the foot of the spiral staircase in her room. Lief falls silent on my shoulder.
“What do you mean, you don’t know?”
That’s Mina’s voice, no doubt about it. Alessia must be bathing. The mental image that pops into my head has me thinking about turning around and finding a place to douse myself with cold water, but I stay strong and hold myself still at the bottom of the stairs, listening in.
“I don’t know. If it comes down to a choice between doing what I believe is right and letting Daelia do what she believes is right, I don’t know if it’s my place to make that choice.”
“You’re absolutely right. It’s not your place to make that choice. Only the gods may decide who’s right in that moment; doing battle with your sister would only bring bloodshed, division, and heartache. We’ll need to keep Daelia from joining the missionaries, then.”
I raise a brow. So, they’ve already started scheming without me, huh?
“What are they talking about?” Lief asks.
“Shh. I’ll explain afterward,” I whisper.
I listen in again; Alessia is the next to speak.
“Yes, we definitely will. I’ll need to find something that keeps her occupied long enough to get aid to the farming villages and intelligence from the capital. That will take, what, three months, maximum? It’s only a week’s journey to get there, and sending in spies won’t take long. Our knights that specialize in espionage travel fast and disappear even faster. It’ll take more time to organize our response to the information than to gather the information itself. The trouble is finding something worthy of Daelia’s attention, though.”
“I doubt you could send her in after the monsters. Even though the wendigo attacks have increased, quests to address them have not increased. Daelia is only permitted to serve on Holy Church business and high-profile quests, right?”
“She is, but I have a feeling we’ll need something different. Something even more remarkable than protecting the Guild Masters themselves during travel.”
There are several beats of silence after that. I feel the gears turning in my own head as I try to come up with a viable solution. I’m not sure what I missed in the initial part of this conversation, but I know that Alessia’s already made up her mind about something, so it’s best for me to just go along with it and support her the best I can.
“What do you think, Lief?” I whisper.
“I’m thinking you need a crisis,” Lief says.
“No offense, but a crisis is a terrible idea.”
“Okay, a spectacular event then, one that takes as long to prepare for as a crisis takes to clean up after.”
“An event…one that requires months of preparation…”
I tap my foot on the ground. My eyes turned skyward as I search my mind for a solution. Then, just as suddenly as the sun dives behind a cloud, an idea strikes me.
“Oh my gods, that’s it!” I shout.
I clap a hand over my mouth when I hear my voice echo across the tower. There’s a splash upstairs, then the bathroom door creaks open. I wince when I see Alessia spot me with a mortified expression on her face.
“What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be out with friends!” she cries.
“Sorry. We finished up early,” I lie through gritted teeth.
Currently, Kharu is finishing up preparations for that surprise we discussed earlier. Lief and I left only after we had finished ninety percent of the setup. All that’s left is to distract Alessia with Lief’s ridiculous personality while I get Mina’s help to grab food from the kitchens.
Of course, now I’ve walked straight into a mess of my own making, and the surprise may have to wait a little while.
