Hello everyone,

Sorry for long absence, rest assured the fic isn't dead.

Truth be told next part was supposed to appear last week, but something popped out. Instead here you have 37 pages long chapter as compensation.

Fair WARNING! the first part, basically from the very first line has some hot sexual scenes described...

(I wanted to make a tag from where it's safe to read, but then nothing much remains in this paragraph, hence I merely leave this warning here).

Lillend.

The leisure hot trail of kisses marking her neck slowly roused exhausted woman from her deep slumber. A little groggily she noted that the relentless man was still spooning her, his hot desire pressing on her soft body. He was currently brushing aside her long raven tresses to get better access to the already marked with numerous hickeys nape.

She scrunched her dainty brows and murmured some incoherent half-hearted objection, but it was immediately swallowed by fervent kiss, which was getting more and more passionate by each passing second. Despite the fact she thought she was totally spent by the whole night of his 'activities', to her slight shock, she found out that the man's heat was slowly influencing her own body.

A muted groan of protest escaped her captured lips, but before she could voice her reluctance again, the man hugging her from behind only tilted her head more and deepened the already feverish kiss. His actions once again distracted her, which was even more so, when his skilled hand trailed down her taunt flat stomach, reaching her heated core.

It didn't take long for his capable long fingers to drag her to equally feverish state.

Between one kiss and another, the woman opened her misted by desire obsidian almond-shaped eyes and gazed at him. She caressed his strong chiselled jaw, her thumb tracing his slightly swelled with their shared passion lips. Before she could say something, incited by her tender actions, the man swooped down for another deep kiss.

She was slowly getting dizzy with the lack of the air, when her pelvis was strongly tilted and her lover entered her from behind, spearing her in one quick thrust.

She hissed at the sudden intrusion, though thanks to his long preparations, most probably even while she was still half-asleep, she was more than ready to accept him.

She languidly stretched like some lazy kitten, fully enjoying his strong arms encircling her, his big frame engulfing her much smaller one, his hot desire filling her to the brim. She felt immensely safe within his embrace as he nearly covered her entire body.

He was here, with her…

Only this mattered.

Before she could form another thought he started moving causing her thoughts to scatter anew.

With each thrust she felt as if she was going to split apart, even though she well knew it was impossible. The quicker their bodies moved, the more labouring their mingled breaths became, the higher peak he was showing her yet again.

As they were reaching desired culmination, she tossed her head backwards, lying it on his shoulder…

And in this most intimate moment a man and woman can possibly share, she heard his muffled, filled with bottomless longing gasp: "Jirah..!"

As if bucket of cold water was splashed over her head. Even though she wanted to angrily extract herself from his embrace, it only caused his arms to tighten more around her and the long awaited climax, which now was the most loathsome and unwanted thing that could happen, against her will swallowed her yet again.

Jirah….. again that cursed name!

He showed her the highest happiness, only to carelessly toss her aside as it was clearly not her with whom he was reaching it.

…again….

Eric was gazing melancholically at the portrait representing the happiest moment of his life, the prepared beforehand glass of wine resting on his bent knee, long forgotten.

As much as it shames him, even though Lena wasn't his biological daughter, it was in this very moment of her birth that he learnt what it meant to be a real father.

It was ironic that a father of three, only thanks to the most precious woman that suddenly appeared in his life together with the tiny life she hid below her heart, taught him that being 'royal father' is different from being 'dad'.

His first wife was forced on him. Neither she, nor he had any say in this union, though they were lucky enough to become friends, who with time could understand and support each other, even if they didn't share a real passion of a married couple.

They tried to find the little comfort in each other's arms, but it soon turned out that they simply didn't desire each other. It takes more than physical closeness of forced duty to form true union between lovers.

Try as he might, even though she gave birth to his three children, in the end even dying because of it, the biggest feeling he had for her was immense guilt.

Guilt that because of her social status and family background she was dragged into loveless marriage none of them wanted. Guilt that he was too weak back then to save her from this fate of political marriage.

And even this guilt of his was a mere label for somewhat wane feelings he had for her. Only after meeting his true love did he truly regret that he couldn't have given true consolation to his first wife.

Then there were their young children, the fruits of their forced by the politics union…

In the past, most of the issues of rearing them, or more precisely Sigfrid, as the queen died during labour with twins, was tossed at his wife, as frankly, he had virtually no idea how to handle it, and secondly it was obvious his wife didn't love him, but that couldn't be said about their son and 'child' that was to come.

He threw himself into politics, into strengthening his position, so never again would anyone be able to force him to do anything against his will. She focused on their son, giving him all her love, which she couldn't give her husband.

And it was alright.

Till the moment it turned out she was with twins and not with one child and was dying during complicated childbirth.

And he wasn't even by her side…

When the news that the queen got into slightly earlier labour reached Eric, he rushed back only to find her body covered with white muslin, two crying squirming bundles rolling in the cradle, glared at by devastated Sigfrid.

Once he saw the deep hatred his eldest child had for the two red troublesome ugly naked 'monkeys', he was at loss of words.

While she was 'only' his wife, the queen was a whole world to Sigfrid.

A world that, in a way, was snatched away by his own siblings.

Back then Eric truly worried that Sigfrid might pour all his pain on the innocent kids, but the moment he was trying to say something, his son looked at him blankly and said hollowly: "Mommy said to protect them in her place…"

The Aran king who was crouching next to the stiff son and the elaborate wooden cradle his wife ordered to prepare, obviously too small for two children, gazed at him blankly.

"Why do I have to? It's their fault. They stole her…"

Sometimes children ask the most difficult questions, the adults haven't found yet answers for.

It took good while for internally panicking Eric to find his tongue. In slightly hoarse voice he stumbled "They are the last parts of her in this world…" his wandering gaze briefly zeroed on the cradle and he quickly added "Look, you have little sister… In the future she might look exactly like your mother…"

Something flashed in thus empty eyes of Sigfrid "Really..?"

It was first time in his life that Eric prayed so feverishly for something "Mhmm! Now neither of them has even any hair, and they are still red, but give them some time to grow and you'll see…"

Years later, when the twins became quite energetic toddlers, it was their older brother who took care of them in place of their wayward, always busy father. It could be said that Eric's prayers were answered and indeed the girl very quickly turned out to resemble the late queen, barely any traces of himself in her.

As it turned out, while Sigfrid was spitting image of him, the twins mirrored the late queen.

Eric considered himself quite lucky as it turned out that even though they were fraternal twins, thankfully the boy also resembled the queen.

Though it took slightly longer for Sigfrid to finally accept a 'male version' of his mother…

And even then, it was more like Sigfrid was a real parent to his own siblings, even though he wasn't that much older than them. This was another regret of Eric, though it was hard for him to spend enough time with his children, as he finally was about to solidify his independence as a ruler.

The Aran king snorted under his nose at the recollection when Zara gave him an earful for this kind of behaviour. A children mistreatment as she called it…

When Zara went into labour, the old hidden demons he wasn't even aware of, raised their ugly heads. The possibility of her dying during childbirth like his late wife did, nearly drove him into madness, to the point that he barged inside the birthing room, all decorum be damned, only to hold her in his arms and to keep her company as even a ruler of a nation as himself couldn't do anything more.

He often wondered how it was possible that his late wife, even though she didn't love him, somehow was able to have such deep feelings for their son and even for the unknown child growing in her womb…

After what he witnessed behind closed doors of birthing chambers, he finally could understand his late queen a little bit more.

From then on, from the bottom of his heart, not only with his empty words, but also with his actions, he tried and tries till this day to amend what he had done wrong by his children in the past.

As any neophyte he might have tad overdone, but now this particular quirk was permanent part of his personality and the same way before Lena's birth he couldn't fully understand what Zara was trying to tell him about neglecting children.

Now he cannot stop himself even though his children are practically adult.

Since his children are slowly getting annoyed with his overprotectiveness, he decided to focus on the next generation he could freely spoil.

At the reminder of Lena's two pipsqueaks, the corner of his mouth quirked involuntarily. Normally he'd have fretted over Lena's safety, his trauma regarding generally women he cared being in labour never truly conquered, but in the brief moments he spent with the glowing beings, he learnt that he shouldn't worry about her, at least not in this particular aspect.

Once he learnt there wouldn't be any problems with the labour itself, it allowed him freely to scheme, so he could hold his grandchildren earlier.

One might wonder why he was so fixated over the grandchildren that didn't share shred of blood with him, but apart from the fact they are Lena's and thus Zara's descendants, leaving aside the fact Freya didn't have anyone in her heart yet, his biological daughter was so… petite…

Even more so than how her mother was.

And while some magical phenomenon allowed to calm down most of his worries regarding Lena's safety during this crucial for all women time, the same couldn't be said about his other daughter.

As for his sons, they were hopeless…

One total womanizer, though lately controlling himself a little bit more than in the past. The other with his nose constantly buried in the various old maps, already unable to sit in place, desiring to travel all around the world, the women being the last thing on his mind…

Truly hopeless.

He always suspected that part of the reason why Sigfrid followed and even surpassed him in his relations with fairer sex might come from the fact that for too long he was forced to be an adult, practically a little parent. Only later on when his siblings became more independent, it was as if the eldest prince decided to let loose and taste freedom in any way possible, the contact with females being the most enjoyable one.

Perhaps that's why apart from scolding Eric did nothing else to discipline Sigfrid, once again his guilty conscience speaking for him (though by lying beside that venomous Eleanor, his foolish son crossed the line of good taste in his humble opinion).

Since his own biological offspring were such hopeless cases, the only one he could safely focus on was Lena.

Besides…. What the heck is this anyway? Showing him the souls of her future children, but without telling who the hell the son-in-law will be, or when on earth they will be born? It's like someone was giving him a candy only to snatch it in the last moment and eat it in front of him!

Eric's mood was swaying in such manner when the door opened and Hugh led small crowd to the alcove, only to unsurely freeze at the threshold.

"Errr…? Your Highness, are we disturbing something?" the Korean cocked his head in confusion.

The Aran king leisurely picked up the glass of wine and drank it slowly, while examining the weird combination of visitors. When he lowered the goblet, he cocked his bushy eyebrow and without standing up from the armchair placed in front of the huge portrait, he replied "It depends what brings you here."

"We are going to explain our exotic capti-khm!-companion why he was met with such reception upon arriving to our country…" Sigfrid shrugged noncommittally, his supposedly carefree smirk firmly in place.

Seeing his trademark attitude Eric scowled slightly thinking, his son is no longer as cute as he was in the past when he was behaving like little adult, almost like mother hen when his siblings were concerned. If anything, he regressed and now behaved like spoiled brat instead.

Naturally if Sigfrid knew that his respectable father was lamenting about the level of his cuteness or rather current lack of thereof, he surely would have puked blood out of anger.

The king glanced at the slightly fidgeting under his penetrating gaze exotic intruder, though Eric had to admit, the guy visibly flinched only once and quickly carefully masked his inner turmoil.

Though why the guy was practically missing one of his sleeves, certainly stupefied the sovereign.

"You sure we can trust him enough?" he asked instead Hyun-min.

The Korean glared resentfully at the equally peeved Jin and shrugged in resignation "Granny correctly pointed out that they already know about Lena and where she is at the moment. There is little point to keep him in the dark."

Eric slowly stood up, his huge frame nearly dwarfing the slim exotic man as he leaned to him "The answer why we treated you like we did is very simple, my 'friend'…" he paused pointedly, his face earnest and announced conspiratorially next to Jin's ear "It's L.O.V.E."

For a moment stunned Jin frantically wondered if he was being confessed to (though how on earth since the guy already had three children?!) or surely his knowledge of this language wasn't enough.

"Father, do you really have to frighten him so?" Freya sighed in resignation.

At her somewhat atypical soft rebuke of his usually feisty daughter the king's serious mask finally cracked, as he smirked a little evilly at the petrified exotic intruder who caused them so much worries with his mere presence.

"What? Isn't it true?" he eyed suspiciously the strangely protective of exotic intruder Freya "We all are overreacting like this because of our deep feelings for your dear sister Lena. It's out of our love and care that we did what we did."

Petrified Jin, hearing the last grumbled sentence, finally managed to breathe again. His heart was too weak to survive another such sneak attack.

The goosebumps still crawled over his skin, even though his mind already confirmed he was pranked yet again by these weirdos.

Seeing various emotions flashing over the face of their newest exotic addition, Hyun-min impatiently brushed with his shoulder the former lieutenant as he passed him and reached the huge portrait.

"Instead of showing all rainbow colours on your already pale face, why don't you focus on the merits of the matter, huh?" try as he might, the Korean couldn't help being irritated by this unwanted intruder, whose mere presence was reminding everyone, that somewhere there, lurked some batshit crazy bastard completely loco about Lena's biological mom.

The worst thing was, the crazy guy was not only the most powerful sovereign, who ruled over huge empire with absolute political power, but the said lunatic was perfectly aware where THEY were located, while they had virtually no idea how to reach him and send him to the eternal rest, pronto.

This burning lack of knowledge was pushing them all over the edge, already fuelling their worst nightmares.

Finally, Jin manged to shake off another weird behaviour of this crowd. He was about to tell of the weirdly antagonistic member of his own race what he was thinking about his attitude, when his eyes fell on the woman sitting on the throne portrayed on huge canvas.

"Empress Jirah…." He unconsciously muttered, the shock once again freezing him in place.

The gathered people nearly jumped up. They expected they'd have to explain to him in more details, but even though they didn't understand fully what he was mumbling under his nose in this weird language of his, but the name sounded clearly enough, almost like thunderclap.

"What did you just say?" Sigfrid asked deceivingly softly.

"How the hell such youngster as yourself managed to immediately name a woman who died nearly two decades ago?" Eric's grey eyes narrowed dangerously "Especially woman who, as I was told, was dethroned together with her late husband and was forced to fake her own death, huh?"

Under various focused, suspicious gazes, flustered Jin unconsciously backed away by one step only to be reminded by loud clack of the cane, that certain fierce granny was still blocking the exit.

Seeing that there was no way out he swallowed with much difficulty, his gaze once again glued to the vivid portrait as he cleared his throat "I know nothing about her dethronement, but the previous regime was overthrown by the rightful ruler, who was betrayed by his own brother…"

"What is this pack of bullshit?" confused Hyun-min glanced at Nanny "How can they teach them that the previous Emperor was usurper and was dethroned, while his wife, who was his royal consort, not?"

"The winner writes the history…" Maeve shrugged her shoulder as she strolled next to the portrait "Once you gain power, you can use any propaganda you want in order to create your own version of events in the past. I doubt their race has anything close to the Triad, who would watch over the truth…"

Perplexed Sigfrid sat at the armrest of his father's seat and tapped his lower lip thoughtfully "Pray tell us how exactly did your current sovereign leave late lady Jirah out of the coup d'état in official records, eh?"

Confused Jin briefly regretted that he subconsciously spilled aloud deeply ingrated in him answer. Now the only thing left for him was to finish telling it. He bit his lip and quickly started reciting.

"In 261 year of the Ruling Dragon, due to the traitorous schemes, the rightful ruler of the Empire was switched. His fate stolen by his younger brother, only years later he learned about the duplicity of the ruling house. He bid his time, and only when it was reap, did he regain what was lawfully his. He retrieved his throne and the only thing that he lost, was the woman who was supposed to share his life – Empress Jirah, who the same as him was lied to for many years… in the flames of war, she went missing after the summer palace was burned to the ground, by many presumed dead, though His Highness Emperor was searching for her for many years…"

"What a load of bullshit…" Ian snorted humourlessly "If he wanted to create his heroic tale, the usurper should have prepared more believable story. What? Poor guy was swindled out of his throne? Now he rightfully regained it? Oh please…!"

Most of the gathered people were of the same mind, already peeved by the audacity of the guy who was targeting first Zara and now possibly Lena.

Everyone was already convinced about this issue and could only pity Jin as the victim of early indoctrination, except Troy noticed strangely morose Granny sitting in the vacated by Eric at some point armchair "Lady Chun Hei..?" he hesitantly asked "Are you feeling unwell?"

His comment caught attention of the grumbling crowd.

"Granny?" Eric asked "What's wrong?"

"He didn't lie."

"What? Who?" perplexed sovereign cocked his head in confusion.

The nanny sighed heavily and answered "The current emperor did not lie. In the beginning, he was born as the throne successor, and Zara was engaged since cradle to the future ruler of the Empire…"

"The hell?!" Hyun-min's face darkened even more.

"Perhaps you should tell us all, instead of hiding other secrets, huh?" he was officially fed up with people who were supposedly on 'their' side and who stubbornly refused to speak when it was necessary, instead harbouring more and more secrets. Moreover secrets that were crucial in keeping Lena safe…

An anger at his impertinent tone briefly flashed in Granny's obsidian eyes, though soon after resignation hazed them over "Almost fifty years ago, the Empress, meaning the first consort of the 8th Emperor of Huang dynasty, bore twins… two identical brothers…"

The shocked audience could vaguely feel where this was heading to, though that didn't mean they would like it.

"You have to know that in our culture, especially those of high power are allowed to has more than one wife. This is supposed to ensure the prolongation of the royal bloodline, though more often than not it causes instead internal friction and constant struggle for the throne. That's why in recent century or so, this old law was mostly dead and usually the Emperor only had one wife."

"The 8th Emperor though, was quite greedy and after decades of new unwritten customs, he suddenly decided to revive the ancient ones, including the built of harem."

"You could say that most political fractions at first were against it since it could bring back the bloody struggle in the royal family, but even then, the most prosperous and influential noble houses were also blinded by greed and wanted to push their own daughters into the newly-established harem, in order to gain bigger political edge."

"This situation lasted for few years until semblance of peace once again filled the Royal Palace. But this was only on the surface, the bitter fight over the throne still lasted, but this time hidden behind the painted with elaborate make-ups faces of gathered in harem females."

"In the end, one woman managed to finally gain the official position of the Empress and since she was with child, it strengthened her position even more."

"The 8th Emperor was still distracted with his harem, but he was strict with one thing, his heir couldn't show any signs of weakness. It was to prove, that even with revival of old customs, the position of the throne was still stable."

"The Empress struggled through the labour and in the end bore identical male twins. In order to differentiate between them, the firstborn was immediately marked with elaborate ribbon and necklace."

"The joy of the Empress over her success didn't last long as it turned out the supposed heir possessed too strong ability, which was starting to manifest long before his time, thus causing to weaken the babe's body."

"In normal circumstances, the fact the child possessed such high potential would be a joyful one, but since it appeared prematurely, the body of its host was still too fragile and could crumble at any given moment."

"At that time the struggle within the harem renewed as the second consort was also pregnant. The panicked Empress seeing how fond of the said consort the 8th Emperor was, feared, that due to his feelings he'd use the weakness of her firstborn as excuse to open the path to the Consort's Liu sons."

"Because of this, the desperate Empress secretly took off the magical seal and ribbon and put it over the younger twin."

The gathered people were mesmerised with the tale Chun Hei was slowly unveiling despite themselves, the brief silence glaringly ringing in their ears.

"Years passed and the harmony brought mostly by the youngest generation of the royal family prevailed once again. The male twins loved each other dearly and always formed united front even though only one was destined to become the future emperor. The sickly twin managed to survive the most dangerous stage and his powers had stabilised. He still wasn't as healthy and prone to sports as his brother, but what he lacked in this aspect, his abilities and powers returned to him tenfold."

"The Empress managed to keep her position through all these years, but with the time and constant struggles with harem, she became bitter. She hated her spouse, who knew no limit and didn't care how his selfishness affected the country. After all, with the Emperor as the example, also other young nobles started to implement old laws, marginalising the influence of women and forcing out the possibility of creating harems."

"The Empress saw the chaos and concluded that this old law might as well cause the doom of this nation in the end as some nobles were more and more unbridled with their behaviour."

"That's why she constantly taught her sons, that no matter how tempting the polygamy seems, in the end it brings only unnecessary complications, pain and possible bloodshed."

"That's also why she managed to convince her husband to betroth the heir to the throne, who was barely four, to the newborn baby girl of her closest female friend, so at least the position of the future empress would be secured."

"Naturally 8th Emperor wasn't aware of the teachings his wife introduced to her sons secretly, not to mention that he had no time to pay much attention to it. In the end, both boys treated the little baby girl as their precious companion, often sitting by her cradle and telling the infant many stories of their supposed adventures."

"They didn't know what being husband and wife really meant, they also had no idea what in reality the harem indicated. They only knew, that their mother constantly cried because of it, so in their little hearts they swore to never let it happen to the tiny girl soundly sleeping in the cradle."

"As the years were passing by, the bond between the three children was deepening and growing stronger. At first they treated little Jirah like their blood related sister, but it didn't take long for the sickly twin to develop other feelings for her. Only out of love for his brother, who still seemed to not understand what it really meant to have fiancé and mostly saw her in sisterly light, did the sickly twin hide his feelings."

"After ten more years, when twins were 19 years old, and the little Jirah turned into 15 year old lovely lady, the reality of being betrothed finally hit home both young lads. It was at Jirah's 15th birthday when the official ceremony took place with planned wedding year later."

"Even though both young men came to love the same girl, they still managed to keep deep bond between them and apart from slight jealousy the sickly twin sometimes suffered, their ultimate goal was to make the girl they loved happy, hence why they killed the slight occasional animosity between them in a bud."

"At her 16th birthday Jirah wed the successor to the throne and even though their relationship was profound, it was obvious the girl didn't love her husband as a man yet, while be it he or his brother, they long saw her as a woman."

"Four harmonious years passed by and the young couple was still as close as ever, with the constant presence of the sickly twin silently accompanying them. The husband would jokingly ask with slight exasperation just when does his wife intend to fall madly in love with him, while she'd answer in mock seriousness that she'll consider, while bursting out laughing and running to hide behind broad back of her taciturn brother-in-law."

"In this year the old 8th Emperor fell ill due to the venereal disease he was infected with by his political opponents from Empress family. They were fed up with his escalating lascivious behaviour and tempted him with exotic blond beauty from faraway nation, who was already infected."

"The forewarned Empress had no intention to get close to the unaware of his state Emperor. Through years of fights with him, no feelings remained in her hear for him. She even mocked in her mind the eager women in harem who were still fighting for his favour, completely unaware that the supposed Son of the Dragon was spreading death among them."

"In her bitter heart, the Empress thought, that it would be the best to end this ridiculous polygamy craze with the death of Emperor and his harem that started it all, which would seem almost as the wrath of heavens meting out the justified punishment."

"Nobody knows how the bedridden Emperor learnt of it, nevertheless at his last breath he cursed sitting in armchair by his side calm Empress, accusing her of not only heartlessly orchestrating his own demise together with innocent women in harem, but also unveiling the secret of switching twins."

"In his fury he was barely able to breath as he wheezed that if he had known the successor was switched he'd have long ago deposed her and chose Consort Liu and her son."

Chun Hei stared at the smiling face of Zara on the oil painting and after brief pause in shocked silence she continued this seemingly weird fairy-tale "Neither the merciless Empress, nor the dying Emperor, were aware that the supposedly younger, sickly twin heard it all…"

The old nanny followed with her gaze to the Leones and sighed "This one sentence, coupled with constantly growing feelings he had for Jirah, together with the fact that the darkest part of him was filled with immense jealousy of his brother, it all was as if the dame broke."

"Pandora box…" stunned Hyun-min muttered under his nose.

"The 8th Emperor died, the most of his harem followed him soon after, the new ruler ascended the throne…"

"W-wait! Which one of twins ascended?" Ian asked warily.

Chun Hei smirked at his suspiciousness "Jirah's husband naturally. Even though part of sickly twin's heart was slowly being swallowed by darkness, he still struggled as he loved his brother and thought he was making Jirah happy. He still wished that the woman he loved would be happy." Suddenly the corner of Granny's mouth quirked as she mused after brief pause "I have to say the old Empress was quite persuasive in her teachings of her sons…"

The old nanny's mocking expression suddenly darkened "It wasn't Empress Dowager, or his brother who caused the last strand of his sanity to snap…" Chun Hei closed her eyes briefly in pain "It was careless remark of Jirah, which send that child over the edge…."

"The hell..?!" Hyun-min hissed through clenched teeth.

"You have to know that, unlike Leone, even though we mix our blood, there are more and less conservative in this regard noble houses. And even with mixing blood, it isn't too easy to bear children, though by no means is the situation as dire as with your tribe…" the ancient nanny nodded at the Triad.

"It was fifth year of Jirah's marriage, when she encountered her brother-in-law playing soulfully on the flute within the remnant of the old harem garden."

"Despite being married for 5 years, there still was no signs of child and even though her husband didn't worry about it, completely content with having her by his side, still the young woman worried. She worried more and more, especially since her husband had no intention to follow his father's footsteps and swore that he won't have any other wife in his life."

"This statement of his caused extreme pressure on his young wife when almost every echelon constantly inquired how the issue of prolonging the royal bloodline is going."

"In the past Jirah wasn't constantly pestered with this issue and neither she nor her husband thought they had to worry over it. The sudden death of the 8th Emperor put extreme stain on the new Emperor and his wife in this particular regard, especially as everyone thought thanks to the Empress Dowager's political fraction, that the late 8th Emperor angered the heavens with his lustful behaviour. Since the option of the second wife was closed, all these expectations of finally stabilizing the royal bloodline fell upon sheltered Jirah."

The eyes of Lady Chun Hei hazed over as she was overcome with emotions "She was dazedly walking through the gardens until she wandered in to the neglected remnants of harem only to encounter her brother-in-law, who seemed just like her, plagued by some morose thoughts."

"Seeing her unusual sadness and worry, the sickly twin changed the tune of his song and managed to paint smile on her trembling lips. When the song ended they sat under the shadow of the plum tree and talked as they often did it in the past about nothing and everything."

"In the end he delicately asked why she was so distraught that day and she recklessly told him the truth."

"She didn't notice the flash of pain in his eyes as he asked in deceivingly calm voice that she surely has to love her husband very deeply if she worries over such trivial matter as delayed appearance of the heir."

"None of them expected that his supposedly teasing remark was met with her startled silence. When the confused man asked why she isn't teasing him back, perplexed Jirah suddenly asked him 'When do you know you love someone?'".

"Oh dear~" Maeve sighed in sudden realization.

"It was as if the thunderclap hit the man." Granny's voice lowered even more "Five years of happy marriage and she still doesn't know what word 'love' means? Impossible!"

"When he asked her that in more straightforward fashion, Jirah gazed blankly at the gardens and answered that she really doesn't know. She loves her husband, but in the end, the feelings are no different from what she feels towards her brother-in-law…"

"The worst answer ever..!" Ronit noted in stunned silence.

"The speechless man completely didn't hear her describing her fillings for both of them as familial love instead that of love between man and woman. He foolishly asked her then, why did she even marry his brother?"

The ancient woman grabbed her cane with more strength before she continued "Jirah answered with three questions: "Wasn't it always supposed to happen? Weren't they betrothed since her birth? Wasn't it already decided?""

"If possible, this conviction of hers that they married just as it was planned, just like it was orchestrated, caused the young man to tremble even more. So he asked her: "Then if it were me instead of my brother, would you have still married me?""

Chun Hei gazed at the happy family portrait and murmured in deafening silence "And that foolish child, stupidly honestly answered after brief hesitation "I suppose so..?""

"From that moment on, the darkness young man's heart broke its chains and roared loudly as it escaped to its freedom. Since Jirah didn't love her husband, like a woman is supposed to love her man, since she didn't really choose his brother but rather followed the destined path, then what right does his brother have to make her happy? After over five years of marriage, she still doesn't love him. How much longer does his twin need in order to teach her what love means? Another five years? Ten? Thirty? Or perhaps whole lifetime? From the very beginning it was HIM who was supposed to inherit the throne, HIM who was destined to marry her and HIM who was robbed of it all…"

"I suppose, from that exact moment onward, the true heir allowed his fury and desire to lead him. One stupidly honest remark and it managed to send rational man over the edge…"

"So you mean… this dude really was wronged?" flabbergasted Ian waved chaotically his hand.

Chun Hei glared at him and snapped "True, his fate, throne and his fiancé were stolen, but it wasn't his brother who did that! Neither his brother the Emperor was involved in this, nor was he or Jirah aware what the Empress Dowager had done in the past! He had no right to betray those who loved him in the name of mad obsession!"

The ancient nanny trembled with barely repressed fury "What did his twin do to him? He wasn't even a bad ruler to begin with! And Jirah? She told him she had the same feelings for both of them. If his brother wasn't able to awaken truly romantic feelings in her during the 5 years on marriage, than on what basis did he think he could do so?! Was this reason enough to plunge the empire into chaos and destruction?!"

Shocked by her outburst Ian quickly hid behind equally stunned and terrified Troy "I was just summarising! No need to yell at me!"

If possible, the most shocked of them all was Jin, who only knew the current Emperor by his ruthless nature and his temporary lapses into madness. It was as if he was hearing tale of completely different person. After all, in the beginning the 'sickly twin' didn't betray his brother despite fact he was for over a year aware of their real identities.

Only after careless, honestly shared worries of the Empress Jirah it seems he decided to make his move.

Eric was barely containing his own emotions as he finally growled through his clenched teeth "What exactly are you insinuating? That all this happened because of love he had for Zara? Ridiculous! It was him who in the end send poison and curse which killed her! The fucker murdered her in the end!"

Sigfrid came to heavily panting father and patted his shoulder comfortingly "No need to raise your pressure, as Lena says. Apparently it's not healthy…"

"W-wha? What 'pressure'?" the comment and mention of Lena successfully diverted the Aran king's attention.

"Blood pressure…" Hyun-min muttered distractedly "Why did the guy so supposedly madly in love, in the end killed the object of his affection? Where the heck is the logic in this? Even Earl Ayue kidnapped Brenna and kept her in golden cage, but still kept her alive…"

Chun Hei eyed him in frustration "I never said he was logical man, even more so after he let his power loose. In the end, he intended to force his brother to abdicate by revealing the truth of the past when they were switched, and frankly his brother was so furious with his mother who was so focused on power that she practically tossed aside the supposedly 'weaker' twin, that the Emperor even agreed to this."

All comments pressing on the lips of gathered people froze.

"What do you mean? The Emperor agreed to it? He was ready to resign from the power he gained?" Freya frowned in consternation as she knew well enough how hard it was for people with power to give it back.

The nanny nodded gravelly "Once he learnt, the Emperor was ashamed by this injustice and was indeed furious on his twin behalf. He also though that this was the chance to free Jirah from the constant pestering of the nobles, who were eagerly awaiting the heir. It was only when his brother announced they should clear EVERYTHING up, including position of Jirah's husband that's when the brothers turned on each other."

"The hell…. Beauty being the downfall to the countries, huh..? Some goddamn Helen of Troy?" the Korean muttered while pinching the bridge of his nose.

"You all well know that emotions heavily influence powers of our race, just like in Leone Tribe. In this heated moment, the hidden, thus forced into dormant state power of the 'sickly' twin exploded into its all terrifying glory. In the clash between brothers, the Emperor had no chance as his twin surpassed him tenfold in the matter of powers. In the heat of battle the deadly strike landed and the Emperor died, simply because his crazed twin didn't think the difference between them would be so big, thus he didn't hold back."

Chun Hei bit her lower lip and reluctantly admitted "I do think it was an accident as they shared deeper bond as identical twins, nevertheless, from this moment onwards, once the sickly twin crossed this certain line, there was no stopping him…"

"When Jirah learned about the clash and tragic fate of her husband, she decided to flee as she didn't recognize her calm brother-in-law anymore. Moreover she was already with child and feared, that driven by his anger, the 'usurper' might kill the last traces of his brother. In reality, she was more driven by guilt that it all was caused by her careless remark, thus the survival of her husband's child became her life mission."

The old nanny traced with her gnarled forefinger the elaborate ornament on her cane as she continued in hushed tone "She caused big fire and burned summer palace to the ground, she cut her hair, disguised herself as man and headed to harbour embarking on first ship possible."

"Is this some family trait we weren't aware of?" Sigfrid muttered morosely at his recollection with 'male' Ley, who soundly kicked him in his family jewels. His somewhat comment was supposed to lighten the mood, but unfortunately failed to do so.

Granny ignored him and continued "The rest you know, we encountered pirates, were kidnapped together with the ship only to head to this continent to be sold as slaves, though that didn't happen as we encountered voyaging Foreigner…"

She paused and added thoughtfully "In the end I don't think the Usurper really wanted to kill Jirah. I think…" she frowned deeply "After he found her, found that she was not only with a child, to his knowledge, of unknown man, but also in loving relationship finally knowing what 'romantic love' means… This all might have caused him to lose the rest of his cool and equilibrium, plunging him further into abyss of madness."

"After all, what neither he nor his twin managed to do through their whole lives, here she learnt by your side in mere months…" she gazed at Eric with complicated look.

"If not for Usurpers snapping, if not for the accidental death of his twin, Jirah would have never become Zara, not to mention she'd have never ended up visiting this land…"

"Fate is a curious creature that never knows when to resign from its stubbornness." The nanny sighed heavily.

"So in the end, we have some emotionally unstable lunatic, who is obsessed with his former love, which he intends to pour onto his own biological niece, simply because she resemble her late mother?" infuriated growl escaped Hyun-min "How strong is this bastard, anyway?"

"Stand down, pup…" Chun Hei admonished him "This isn't place to bare your fangs, not to mention they are quite puny to begin with. Just what do you expect to do, hmm? You don't have much in your arsenal…"

"It wouldn't be so if you didn't avoid my questions about possibility of gaining those weird powers!"

"Enough! As for his powers… he has enough of it that he can freely fuel the gate on his own and at the same time not to die out of exhaustion, quite on the on contrary, he still can lead leisure life, appearing as if he has slightly above average reservoir of power." The ancient nanny reluctantly admitted.

"Wait a moment! Are you telling this frigging portal that we cannot find within Aran is being fuelled by a single person? The same gate you weren't able to destroy on your own in the past?" Eric snapped into sudden realization, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully "So, he is stronger than you..?"

Chun Hei glared at him resentfully "I'm not young anymore! What do you expect? He is barely nearing fifty, while I….!" she quickly snapped her mouth shut and turned to the window to pout.

"Now, that was interesting, don't you think~?" Maeve's grin was widening dangerously "I'm highly interested in hearing the last part of this sentence~"

Her two companions glared at her in warning. Seeing how Aidan and Ronit stared at her intensively, the white beauty merely shrugged and looked at her long polished nails nonchalantly.

"The main reason I didn't destroy the gate two decades ago is that apart from its sheer size and strength, it's directly connected to HIM. If I had poked around with it, he'd be the first person to feel it, even before his spies sent here to observe could tell. Truth be told, I always wondered why he didn't kill you, Foreigner, as you are clearly black stain in his 'love tale', but I guess he was too traumatized by Zara's death to care later on…"

"'Traumatized'?!" Eric growled ominously "I'll show him how to bloody traumatize someone!"

"This is intriguing and all…" Freya waved her dainty palm dismissively "But it doesn't explain how our fellow over there recognized at first sight Lena's mom." She pointed her polished forefinger at startled, somehow forgotten Jin, who during this whole talk seemed to drift away with his thoughts.

"Come to think of it…" Hyun-min narrowed his eyes dangerously "This is indeed very interesting…"

Seeing attention focused once again on himself, Jin glanced again at the portrait of happily beaming woman, who leaned in the shoulders of her companion, while holding sleeping bundle.

"The Emperor… he… It's…" he cleared his throat and decided to finish it quickly "The Emperor is an intelligent man, who strongly holds reins of power and while he abolished polygamy, and still does not have Empress, once every year, usually near first moon of autumn, h-he goes on search…"

After brief uncomfortable pause he continued "During this search he is looking for Lady Jirah who run away from him and he then pick up one woman, who from then on is given name 'Jirah'. She is treated like an Empress, nothing goes amiss, her all wishes are being fulfilled until… until one way or another, because of bad mood of the Emperor over what that woman does or say, they die at his hands." Jin pointed at the portrait "All these women past these years shared the similar facial features, mirroring more or less the one up there. I didn't know 'Jirah' was indeed a name. Back at home it's treated more like title and it's the moment the Emperor says 'No, you're not Jirah' or something else, that's when the woman dies."

Stunned people gaped at him as he shrugged helplessly "This cycle repeats itself over and over again through all years I can remember. There was never and Empress by his side, there are no children of his, but there always sooner or later appear woman who is called 'Jirah'."

"This is just sick!" Ian shuddered in revulsion "If he is purposely searching for the woman who looks similar to Lena's mom, then how the heck will this wacko react upon seeing her spitting image in Ley, huh?"

"Judging how these exotic assassins changed tactic once seeing face of Lena up close, I suppose, the said murderous lunatic already knows how she looks like…" Freya commented offhandedly.

"But how? How does a man sitting on some golden throne gazillion kilometres away from here know her face?" Hyun-min grumbled while pacing nervously.

Aidan looped an arm over his tense shoulders and noted half-jockingly in effort to lighten the mood "Sorry to remind you, but there is this thing called magic here…" small rainbow sparkles started to jump from one finger to another of his outreached palm.

"I swear to God, give me only one tiny machinegun! Am I asking for too much?! I'll even resign from bazooka! See? I didn't mention atomic bomb at all, I know to have restraint…" the Korean muttered heatedly under his nose, further confusing his companions…

Lucien gazed blankly at the hectically working people down in the royal gardens. No matter how much he didn't want to admit, this weird, reckless project of Ley, to open up the most of the gardens to public, was met with immense approval.

At first, citizens of Sevia didn't know what to think of their eccentric young sovereign and most of her decisions, but thanks to Jegger's and propaganda they were constantly spreading, they managed somehow to explain the reason for her actions.

Once people learnt about the project of public education which wasn't discriminating based on wealth or origins, they reacted quite enthusiastically.

The common people that is, since the nobles obviously feared this project like fire, as it was slowly stripping them from their advantage over the common folk.

Since even a farmer's son, in the future, would be able to write his name, read and calculate a little bit, then how else the noble heir was supposed to make a mark, to step out from the crowd?

Naturally, when this question was brought up by already panicking old nobles, Ley typically to herself replied nonchalantly that the nobles would have to try harder and become even more outstanding that they already 'were'.

When the confused representatives inquired further, the frustrated queen made a public decree about noblesse oblige, in which he roughly sketched her expectations from the noble caste.

If possible, this caused even more panic between noble houses, though given the overall reception of these rules by the society as all, it was hard for them to get out of it. Not if they didn't want to anger their Child of the Prophecy and not if they didn't want to get on commoners bad side.

It was enough that during the recent rebellion the common citizens gained some kind of awareness of solidarity. Now that the war ended, it was hard to turn them back into the blindly following orders 'sheep'.

This was also the main argument of Ley, why the differences between the social states cannot remain as they were in the past (not to mention she already gave her hand in shrinking the corrupted noble circles, all that after Eleanor's bloody purges).

All in all, currently nobles could do a little to oppose Ley and her eccentric ideas, especially as she was strongly supported by common people and most of the nobles who took part in rebellion against Eleanor.

The ones who made most troubles were the nobles who remained neutral most of the time and decided to choose a side only during the final battle, after seeing how crazy Eleanor became.

To be honest, even Lucien himself was stunned by Ley's braver plans, and try as he might, he only could see obstacles she'd have to overcome, instead of real gains they were supposed to bring in the future.

He never thought to educate to commoners in first place. It simply didn't occur to him even as mere possibility. And now, he was in front of a country, where very slowly this idea was being introduced.

At times like these, it finally hit him that Ley and him hade indeed different backgrounds.

Some things simply didn't occur to him as he was of noble origin, while they were obvious to her, since thanks to her 'modern mind-set', whatever she meant by it, she though more from the commoners perspective.

She didn't feel threatened by the fact that in some distant future, almost everyone within her country would be able to read and write. Instead, she agonized over fact it would take her years to get to this point.

Ley treated is a matter of course, as inventible future that she was impatiently waiting for.

Deep down, the Tamir King felt somehow insecure with all these progressive ideas of hers. He constantly worried, that the effects she expect may turn out to be a little different than she planned. After all, not all ideas that worked in the other world she grew up in, might necessary work here.

She seemed too nonchalant, too carefree in her decisions, and the fact she didn't care about her opposition, brought him even more headache.

Even he, the king of a nation, has to take many factors into consideration before making decision. He cannot endanger status quo of some fractions as Tamir is far from being truly stabilized, while Ley seems to recklessly dance on the edge of the blade of public opinion.

Sometimes he strongly suspected that she was doing it on purpose, in order to see how far she will be able to pusher subjects until they'll tell her to pack her things.

It seemed to elude her that they were too blinded by the phrase 'Child of the Prophecy' to really care at the moment. Maybe years later they will somehow calm down, but given that this particular prophecy was circling for few generations, she had fat chance in hell in succeeding in forcing them to chase her away.

What frustrated Lucien even more, was that he couldn't do a thing to convince her to slow down as the first question she was throwing at him nowadays would be 'when are you leaving?' or 'isn't your friend Dein overworked in your absence?' or 'it's sure nice to escape from your responsibilities and have short vacations, don't you thing?'.

If he was getting a golden coin each time she verbally abuses him in such fashion, then he'd have been able to buy a decent horse in last three days.

The only consolation was, that the Leone had similar problem of running out of time and ideas, treated in the same fashion as Lucien was.

Truth be told, at first the Tamirian came here mostly driven by the ridiculous rumours of her impeding marriage, but who would have thought that at the moment he was constantly worrying if she at some point won't cross the line and bring wrath of Kabuls.

To make things worse, instead of slowing her down, even his respectable Grandfather seemed to be infected with her feverish enthusiasm.

One could think that who like who, but a Wiseman would know restraint…

…Apparently not.

As the things were, thanks to her unique status as Prophesised Child, Ley seemed to have more leeway than her fellow sovereigns (perhaps with exception of equally eccentric Aran), while handling even the most unheard of ideas of hers.

Even so, he still couldn't shake feeling that she wanted to change too much, too fast.

And goddammit it was Cid's and her friends' responsibility to slow her down when necessary! And what they did?! They merely smiled and basically told him to mind his own business, preferably leaving Sevia sometime soon.

How on earth was he supposed to leave, when apart from fear for Ley's political position, he also had this silver-haired bastard to worry over?

Never in his wildest dreams would he have thought that this martyr of sorts would suddenly grow balls and start challenging them.

And the saddest part was, neither Shine, nor him could really refute the guy as they had no official position by Ley's side, allowing them to stay.

At least no position either of them really desired…

Lucien humourlessly noted that the middle of his room, if it wasn't made out of stone, surely would have his pacing path imprinted by now.

He had to leave. He knew it clearly, and still…

…still he wanted to shake Ley awake, though he had virtually no idea how to do it.

Lena stared intensively over the steeple of her fingers at the two stubborn men sitting in front of her.

"Leave."

""No."" almost unison.

"Get out!"

"No."

"Shoo!"

"Out of question, until you…" before Shine could finish loud bang interrupted him.

Lena ignored pulsing pain in her poor slammed palm and instead glowered "The moment you'll finish this sentence I'll open portal and toss your sorry asses God knows where."

Seeing she wasn't joking the two men exchanged glances and decided in face of this open threat to keep silent.

She leaned in the armchair and massaged the bridge of her nose tiredly "How many times did we go through this talk already?"

"Five."

"Six."

"Six?" Lucien looked at sure of himself Shine and shrugged "Then six it is."

"So I tried to politely show you door five-to-six times already and you still dare to ignore me?"

"It's for your safety so…"

"Cut the crap 'uncle', it's mainly for your own emotional reassurance than anything else! And stop bulshitting it's for my safety, while you simply want to make sure I don't get hitched anytime soon."

The men arched brows in annoyingly similar manner. If it only was their only worry recently!

Was it contagious? She wondered briefly.

"So you openly admit you are now perceptive enough to see our main problem?" Shine tried to distract her a little.

"My personal life is of no interest to either of you, but it so happens that the last thing I'm thinking about is marriage. I don't have time, nor strength to once again go through the idiotic countrywide 'fiancé' search. Besides, even though I'd really like to meet again your mother, mostly to tattle on your unheard of behaviour, I simply cannot allow myself to leave Kabul in this crucial time." She once again torpedoed constant invitation to visit the Patriarch, and more precisely, his wife.

"As for you…" she turned to Lucien, who was smirking at the misery of his companion, who not only was called 'uncle' again, but also whose behaviour was described as 'unheard of' "You just regained your country from internal war of all things. Do I really need to remind you where your place currently is? Or perhaps you wait for next Earl to pop out with handy rebellion, huh?"

It was Shine's time to darkly smirk.

All in all, they were both in it together.

Finally Lena slowly stood up from her chair, strolled to the fireplace and started nudging with the poker the red logs. "All your scheming to force this throne on me and now what are you doing? With your way prolonged presence here, you are basically undermining my already doubtful independence as a ruler. And for what exactly, huh?"

Well… it was difficult for either man to articulate aloud that they were extremely worried by her recent reckless plans of 'modernization' and almost open challenge tossed their way my Michael of all people (lest they accidentally make her aware of the change in his attitude if she already isn't).

Completely unaware of their darkened at the recollection expressions behind her back, Lena continued to rouse the flames "This is the last time I'm politely asking you to return home. You have three days to pack and leave Sevia. And before you tell me…" she cut off already opening mouths without even glancing back at them "That you could stay incognito, I'm telling you upfront: out of question!"

She glanced over her shoulder and glowered at both of them "Instead of wasting our time why don't you try to narrow down location of Dimitri? I'm being told he most probably has somehow met with the part of Jegger Tribe that was too afraid to become my subjects. Moreover something is brewing in Northlands…"

Shine scrunched his face at the mention of his most hated tribe, but strangely otherwise refrained from voicing his displeasure. It was somehow encouraging. First Cid, now him… Perhaps in few years they will be able to eat with Daniel at the same table? What a sight it would be!

Ley stifled small evil chuckle, though her dark eyes were dancing with barely contained almost sadistic amusement over the fruit of her imagination. Lately she more and more found hard to retain usual poker mask. Sure, thanks to certain former courtesan and her teachings, she had better grasp of acting out desired impressions, but strangely, her emotions weren't as stifled as in the past.

She didn't know when it started, but currently she didn't have many problems with showing hints of her emotions.

And if Sharris and Sean didn't point it out to her, perhaps she still wouldn't know it.

Seeing the change in her mood, both men reluctantly relaxed a little bit and although they were curious what exactly was so funny, at the same time they learnt long time ago, I was better not to ask.

"Northlands?" Lucien finally broke the staring contest.

Little relived they once again started using their brains, Lena nodded "According to my intelligence, the escaped group of Jeggers headed straight to the Northlands. No deviation from route, practically straight line."

"Didn't their king die recently?" Shine frowned as he tried to recall the little he remembered.

"Yup. And so it happens that there was left lovely young widow with tiny prince. Just for a proper regent to oversee over, don't you think?"

"Regent? Who ended up as their lord regent?" Lucien cocked his head, though try as he might he couldn't remember.

"Taranis." Lena frowned deeply "But I cannot put a face to this name no matter how much I try." She cocked her head curiously "I wonder why is that so? Why even though I remember getting impression he was surprisingly quite young man compared to what I though lord regent should look like, I cannot remember his face?" suddenly she furrowed her brows dangerously.

"What's so strange about it?" the Tamirian shrugged "You had many things on your head lately, it's normal for your mind to filter the most important things, while ignoring the rest."

"Maybe usually, but not with me." now Lena felt like kicking herself "I have photographic memory…" she growled under her breath "It shouldn't have happened at all!"

"Photo-what?" puzzled Shine glanced at her thunderous expression.

"Otherwise known as eidetic memory…" Lena stood up and started pacing angrily in front of them.

"Still not helping." The Leone followed after her with his worried gaze.

"I almost instantly remember whatever I saw, in detail. As if it was burned in my memory, hence why I freaked out when thanks to Eleanor's drugs I seemed to lose part of my memory…" the exotic woman muttered absentmindedly.

Lucien's pupils shrank, almost disappearing in his ice-blue irises "Y-you mean that… your mind records every single thing?" he sweat dropped as there were few things he'd prefer for her to NOT remember.

"Don't be ridiculous!" she suddenly glared at him "I would've gone mad if it was true!"

"But you said…"

"I have to focus first and want to remember something clearly. That way I was able to recite all names of the captured prisoners that ended up with me on gladiator arena…" she resumed her pacing until she swore colourfully "That guy is definitely suspicious! He had to have some weird magical thingy with him. Because of the possible assassination I paid special attention to the foreign guests. And yet, while I can remember his name clearly, somehow, his features are getting blurry the moment I try to remember."

She whirled on her heel, put her hands on the tabletop and leaned over, to where both of them sat "Think carefully. Can any of you tell me if the guy was blond or brunet? C'mon! I'm not asking about his nose or eyes, merely hair…"

At her question both men came to stunned realization. Try as they might, they couldn't tell.

They quickly glanced at each other and read the same answer in their widened eyes. Such trivial thing as hair colour shouldn't be hard to pinpoint.

Getting into details of someone's features or eyes was more tricky, but hair? Usually it's first thing you notice.

"Shit!" Shine hissed through his clenched teeth "You are saying these cursed Jeggers escaped straight to Northlands?"

"Furthermore, with no deviation from their route?" Lucien followed up.

"And even before arrival of the exotic intruders, someone clearly gave you a gift after silencing an assassin?"

"If escaped Jeggers colluded with Dimitri…" the Leone mused aloud.

"…and they run directly to Northlands…" Lucien continued.

"And we cannot tell Taranis' basic features and colouring…"

"Fishy." Three voices overlapped each other.

Suddenly Lucien stood up decisively "If they indeed are working together, it means Dimitri didn't run far away from Tamir…"

"Someone who is giving shelter to the most devoted to Yuriel Jeggers, cannot be simple and NOT suspicious." Shine also stood up.

"I think I have to go check something at home."

"It would be good idea to ask my Father for opinion."

Both men glanced at each other and shook their heads in resignation. Apparently they had similar conclusion.

They were so focused on new target, possibly colluding with the traitor of Tamir, harbouring escaped remnants of rebelling Jeggers, practically under their noses, that they didn't notice cunning flash in obsidian eyes and secretive smirk of triumph of woman keeping them company.

In certain kingdom, certain regent gazed at his golden signet, which briefly flashed with green light. His lips slowly curved in enchanting smile as he twirled it around his finger.

"Hmm? Finally started thinking about me, my dear? I'm honoured…"

A pity he didn't know it wasn't exactly the woman he wanted to think of him, but rather two certain suborn men, who suddenly decided to turn their attention and focus at his very person…