Oddly, she was starting to feel guilty about feeling tired. It was as if she had spent so much time sleep deprived, her mind had somehow convinced itself she wasn’t allowed to ever be tired again—which was nonsense, of course. Tiredness was part of life and she was going to continue experiencing it from time to time.


    She was going through The Foretellings of Eleuia again. Since most of her previous study of the book had been while sleep deprived, she wondered if maybe she had missed something. Also, the creature Meleng and Feviona had encountered two days ago had left her constantly thinking about the passage on the page the book was currently open to: In 2333, the demons will come for the Will-Breaker.


    Was the fire being one of these demons? There was no way to know. Even the word demons might be a mistranslation. The Ninifin word could also mean simply darkness worshipper. But so many Darkers had come for her recently, surely the passage referred to something different.


    So maybe the fire being was one of these demons. If it was, there would be more, since whether the word meant demon or not, it was in the plural. If the fire being wasn’t one of the demons, then there were still other things to come, so it didn’t really make much difference. She needed to be ready for them somehow.


    As usual, he didn’t respond, just continued to stand silently in the corner of the library, watching her in that disconcerting way of his.


    There had been no sign of Mikranasta to take over for him today, which meant he’d been up all night and now all day as well. He had even been forced to drag Felit?a with him several times in order to relieve himself. In a way, that was a bit of poetic justice, considering she always had to relieve herself in either his or his mother’s presence. However, she did feel bad that he wasn’t getting any rest time today. And while today was more extreme than others, he also seemed to get the brunt of the time with her. Mikranasta seemed to do about eight hours total with her most days, while Hedromornasta did the remaining. It wasn’t exactly balanced, though Mikranasta probably justified it as something to do with Hedromornasta’s training—to teach him to not be so angry all the time, perhaps, though if so, it wasn’t working very well.


    With a sigh, Felit?a pulled the book closer to her and stared at the page again. She hadn’t had much luck finding anything new she could be certain applied to her, but she had found one passage that might possibly, and she flipped to that now.


    Trust not the passage of time. The past can deceive, the future confuse, or the future deceive and the past confuse. Seek the doubled blade of knowledge and power.


    Most of the foretellings were pretty straight-forward in their meaning, such as the one just before the last one: 2337 will be a year with a record harvest. There was little about that one’s meaning to question, other than the location where the harvest would occur. However, a few were less obvious, and even a couple were downright cryptic: The time approaches 10,000. When 10,000 is reached, the decision must be made: hell or hell. Felit?a was actually fairly certain she knew the basic meaning of that one—a decision will need to be made where there are no good choices, only bad ones—but it still gave no mention of ten thousand what.


    She had assumed the final foretelling was just trying to copy the style of the more cryptic ones to hide the fact that maybe none of them were trustworthy. But maybe that was just what she had wanted the last one to mean.


    However, she had realised today that she had been mistranslating it. Previously, she had translated the third sentence as Seek the double blade of knowledge and power. Read that way, it was just a metaphor of a blade with two edges representing other things.


    But the word was doubled, not double.


    That was the problem with reading in a language not your native. Mistakes were so easy to make. She had double-checked with Nin-Akna and made certain that, yes, it was doubled. That changed the meaning somewhat, suggesting instead something that had been copied. Perhaps even an actual blade? A sword?


    There was a rap on the door, and a servant entered and gave a flourishing bow. “Your Highness, Agernon—no last name—is here to see you.”


    Agernon glanced over. “Pheh.”


    He stared at her a moment, then lifted his cane up and laid it on the table in front of him. “Look, Felit?a, I really don’t like you being here. Years ago, when Elderaan brought you to me, I only agreed to test you because you assured me we’d be snubbing our noses at the nobility. Yet here you are now, hobnobbing with them, living with them. I hear you even plan to give a public audience, sitting on the fucking throne.”


    “I know. I just…” She lowered her head and closed her eyes for a moment. “There’s so much going on, so much I need to do. I have to learn to control my abilities. I have to figure out these damn foretellings. I have to track down Darkers before they kill us all. Soon, there are supposed to be demons coming to kill me as well. I need all the help I can get.”


    She looked him in the eyes. “Because I need resources, Agernon. I’m broke. The money from selling Elderaan’s shop dried up ages ago. Anita’s funding me at the moment. She’s paying for Captain Gen to stay here, for—”


    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    She shrugged. “I don’t know yet, but I’ve already been from one side of this continent to the other and dragged halfway across the world. I’m probably going to need it eventually. Anita’s only asking that I stay with her while I’m in the city. My presence helps solidify her position. Having royalty—even disgraced royalty—supporting her gives her a political edge when dealing with other local nobility and other provinces. It’s the least I can do for her when she’s doing so much for me. I’m sorry.”


    There was awkward silence again. Felit?a wished she could sense his feelings—not that she couldn’t tell what they were. It was obvious he was upset and angry. Rather, she wanted to know the intensity of those feelings. Just how angry was he at her? She hated to think she was letting him down in any way.


    Felit?a’s heart skipped a beat.


    “Perhaps, but when someone is talking… Is shit the right word? I’m sorry. I’m still mastering your language. When someone is talking shit about me behind my back, it tends to annoy me.”


    Felit?a slammed her hand down on the table as she stood up. “Enough!”


    Felit?a held up her now somewhat sore hand. “Agernon, please. Mikranasta, that was inexcusable. Do not ever treat my friends like that, no matter what they’re saying about you. Talk to them, or ask me to talk to them, but don’t ever do anything like that again.”


    Felit?a picked up the necklace and tied it around her neck. “Thank you, Agernon.”


    Felit?a sighed. “Where have you been? Poor Hedromornasta here has…” She stopped. Hedromornasta wasn’t there. He must have slipped out when Mikranasta arrived—and Felit?a had failed to notice that as well, failed to even notice the switch-over of control of the shield.


    “Perhaps, but we also need to work on my telepathy. That is specifically what you’re supposed to be helping me with.”


    “I confess I also wished to wait until you were tired at the end of the day. I wanted to see how you deal with tiredness.”


    “You’ve seen that already.”


    The Room sprang up instantly at Felit?a’s call, bare and empty apart from the black walls and the broken grey ones. For now, she kept the sensations of the rest of her mind out.


    A moment later, Mikranasta’s magical presence appeared. Not bad. There are some definite improvements.


    I’m glad you noticed. She wasn’t actually, though she was reasonably certain was successfully hiding that feeling from Mikranasta. She had spent hours yesterday restructuring the Room’s black walls to make them stronger, but still appear the same strength to anyone trying to invade her mind. It was good that she’d succeeded in making them stronger, but disappointing that Mikranasta had noticed so quickly.


    I see you’re also hiding casual thoughts from me. Good. I’m now going to attempt to distract you. I am going to send you an itching sensation. Let it through. It is not dangerous, merely annoying, but it will become steadily more so. I want you to keep your defences ready for any other threats. I won’t do anything that is actually dangerous, but I will occasionally do other things, and I want you to block those. The moment a stray thought gets through to me, or you fail to block anything I do apart from the itch, you’ve failed, and we’ll start again. Understood?


    I understand. Elderaan used to do a similar exercise with me.


    I’m glad he did at least one thing right.


    Gradually, the itch got worse.


    Felit?a focused on basic concentration exercises, not allowing the itch to bother her. Could she get away with using the prayer beads to help her? No, Mikranasta probably wouldn’t approve. Besides, it would be more satisfying to succeed on her own merits.


    Felit?a gasped, and the black walls of the Room shook apart. She put them right back together. They were only down for a split second, but it was too late. She’d failed. The itch was gone.


    She opened her eyes as Mikranasta walked back round the table to her stool. When she sat, she stared back at Felit?a with her thin eyes, saying nothing.


    Of course, almost all the distractions after that were magical. They ranged from the incredibly pungent stink of a skunk to a feather tickling her toes, a sneeze that just wouldn’t come, a high-pitched whine in her ear, and more.


    Mikranasta made one other attempt at a non-magical distraction. Felit?a kept her eyes open the entire time, watching both the real library and the Room in her head. When Mikranasta threw a small stone at her, she caught it and didn’t lose concentration. So at least she had that to be proud of.


    Felit?a nodded. She was exhausted and didn’t need much convincing to get some rest.


    Felit?a gathered up her notes and The Foretellings of Eleuia, and headed for the door. It occurred to her that she hadn’t had any dinner, and only just now noticed how hungry she was. She would have to grab something before settling down. She turned to Hedromornasta. “Fancy a bite to eat?”