Potent: Book 1

Chapter 34: New Horizons

(Hello, readers! And finally, the last part of Book 1. If you've stuck it out and read the whole thing, thank you. Potent is still rough and needs lots of refining, so the beta reads and comments are wholeheartedly welcome! Let me know what you thought, and how you think books 2 and 3 will unfold!)

Ber, Day 25 of Melia, Solar Eclipse, Year 602

It is the eternal question: How can the Divines allow cruelty, illness and death? Would it were not so! But my son, you must remember that we were not born fish, nor trees, nor motes of dust. Of all things, we were destined to be become sentient humans. And how horrible that is! —The Facerum

* * *

The evening of Beynon's twenty-fourth summer celebration dragged on until Alisia was entirely sick of it.

It wasn't merely the exhausting ceremony of it. The noises, the smells, even the visual stimulation exhausted her—and that was not considering the hard pit of dread that had formed in her stomach after the interaction in her bedroom with the emperor.

Beynon's infamous eighteen fools made nuisances of themselves, at least where she was concerned. Partygoers seemed to enjoy their antics, but she was unnerved by them.

Repht took tea quietly with the empress before

Alisia furnished her with an escort of two keep guards to help the girl find her family coach. It was late, nearly dawn, and the young woman looked exhausted and uncomfortable. She kept reaching up to massage her own neck and shoulders, wincing as though in pain. Alisia chose not to address it, hoping she was not being rude by staring.

"Thank you, my Lady Empress," Repht had told her gratefully, giving her a deep curtsy. "It was an honor to meet you, and I hope we shall see each other again before too long."

"I would like that," Alisia had agreed warmly. The girl was a rare find for her class, and she wondered if Hodric actually knew the exemplary quality of wife he had chosen for himself. He must, she thought dismissively.

The two women embraced before Repht disappeared alone into the night.

Alisia wished she could disappear so easily.

She wasn't even sure how she'd gotten through the rest of the evening. With her heart pounding in her chest, she'd presided over the merrymakers and even managed to chat pleasantly with a few people.

When the night was finally over, she recruited a few extra guardsmen to keep watch by her door—and asked that a lock be furnished to secure the doors that separated her quarters from Beynon's. It was done, and she fastened it herself, placing the key in her bedside drawer before retiring for the evening. No one seemed to sense her uneasiness, and if they did, they did not mention it. Keep business was generally handled placidly anyway.

She made sure the servants knew not to disturb her in the morning until she emerged of her own accord. That was foresight she would later bless, for even locked tightly in at both doors, Alisia found sleep evasive. Her mind kept replaying the evening's incidents, and she tried over and over to come up with responses to her situation that might have yielded safer results for her.

At last, when the sun's first rays began to bleed in under the curtains at the entrance to her balcony, a sodden exhaustion found her and she succumbed to it.

The sleep was dreamless, and comfortable, and put all of her problems safely on hold while she dozed.

When her eyes fluttered open at the pealing of ten bells, she was disappointed to find that her troubles were still there, carefully preserved in an encasement of somnolence—that when breached, found her as raw and bleeding as she had been when she'd fallen asleep.