Up close, Aunt Ssyii was more… mortal. More of a person, even than when she’d coiled at the table with us. I still stiffened when she pulled me closer with one of her lower arms, the other two holding the book. Ssiina jumped a little as well, clearly not used to familial contact from the Jii’Hssen.

Kyrae stayed next to me until, at a gesture, she took a position seated on one immense loop of polished emerald scales. Together, we squinted down at the book, cast in shadow by the dimming light, until Aunt Ssyii’s spell drifted closer, illuminating the neat writing on the pages.

It was in lamian, of course. Seeing Uru Farlight’s name in lamian was odd—twice borrowed characters from human imperial used for merfolk, and a transliteration for the merfolk adventurer’s family name. Or what I presumed to be a family name—I didn’t know much.

Aunt Ssyii started reading, her cadence more formal than exciting. But we were also all adults—if not quite in name—and none of us were here to hear a fable.

Too bad the content nearly amounted to that. Ancient ruins high in the Sekalln, above the source of the Greatriver. I wondered idly how close we’d gotten to them last year. Unfortunately, Uru didn’t seem to know either. Her transcribed words echoed surety and determination, but she didn’t know where they were for sure.

Only that it was her goal to go there. Quickly enough, the topic changed, and a discourse about the Elven pantheon was opened before hurried slithering met my ears. A servant—Kyen specifically—raced up and through the door we’d left, and even I could tell he was worried—frantic, almost.

He pulled up into a fidgeting coil a few meters away, features slackening in a way I couldn’t place. Aunt Ssyii finished Uru’s reply to a question about the God of Decay whose name I couldn’t remember, then placed a strip of silk into the tome and closed it.

“Yes?” she said, an echoing hiss to her voice that I realized came from the serpents that made up her hair.

Kyen’s eyes darted to us, past me, and then back to the Jii’Hssen. “Hssen Zaiia demands she speak with your magnificence. The matter is of the utmost urgency.”

“And what makes her presume I may be disturbed?”

“She insists it is a matter of security within the Palace. That your magnificence is in ‘imminent danger.’”

I glanced up at Jii’Hssen Ssyii just in time to see her lips draw into a thin, severe expression. “Is she willing to invoke her right to ‘protect’ me?”

“She is on her way here as we speak, with a contingent of royal taaniir, including the utaan.”

“Do you know if Lyantii is at fault?”

Kyen shook his head. “I do not. I hope not.”

The Jii’Hssen huffed and rose, sliding Kyrae gently off her until my sister stood next to the table. At her resting height, the Jii’Hssen was half again as tall as I was, and I scooted back reflexively. Utaan here? I felt with my shadows, but the atmosphere of the Emerald Palace constrained them. I could barely feel into the halls beyond this terrace, and so far I felt nothing.

“Ah,” she clicked her tongue, and addressed my sisters and me. “My apologies if I startled you.” She inclined her head toward the increasingly anxious Kyen. “It appears as though we will have guests—” Jii’Hssen Ssyii froze, then whipped her head toward an overgrown trellis along the interior wall, four hands forming a sigil so quickly I couldn’t follow it.

“Who dares!” Her voice bore a quality that pushed against me, and I flattened almost to the ground, holding Kyrae’s hand as she took a knee beside me.

Dyni slithered out from behind the trellis. “My apologies, Ssyrin Jii’Hssen. The approaching taaniir have split to cover all entrances.”

“But didn’t we beat Deziiya and Geliss here?” I realized I’d spoken my thoughts only after the last word left my mouth.

Jii’Hssen Ssyii hissed again. “They have seen Phaeliisthia fly you here before. Likely, this was all planned in advance.”

I swallowed nervously. “That means that Hssen… Zaiia? doesn’t know everything. Right?”

“She knows enough.” Jii’Hssen Ssyii hissed.

“Ssyrin Jii’Hssen,” Kyen said, voice pitched with worry, “I implore you—”

“Yes, I understand. Dyni?”

The stealthy bodyguard bowed low. “Yes, Your Magnificence?”

“Take these three and hide them in the garden. I will handle Hssen Zaiia and get her to stop this foolishness.”

What? The thought of hiding bothered me. What have we even been training for? What’s the point if we’re just going to be dragged around all the time? “No,” I said, my voice harsher than I imagined. “I’m done running—we’re done running.” My shadows pushed forward as if bolstered, and I now felt the slithering forms of a dozen or more people converging on the terrace—only a few rooms away.

“What?” Jii’Hssen Ssyii snapped. No one outside the Temple could question her orders, and even then only the Jii’Ssyri or the Ea’Ssyri would consider doing so.

I clenched my fists, feeling Kyrae’s hand clench back. Next to us, Ssiina gave a shaky nod. “I said no, Your Magnificence. You said everything’s done except the formal announcement. You’re formal—so announce it! What could this hssen possibly do to you? You’re the Jii’Hssen!”

An immediate chill washed over me, fed by power radiating from the Jii’Hssen. My shadows that had crept forward recoiled, rushing to hide under any available cover.

Jii’Hssen’s Ssyii’s lips curled back into a sneer, jaw opening a bit to show her twin sets of fangs, extended and each as long as one of my fingers. Her hiss was low and rumbling—dangerous. Serpentine locks moved as one to face me, mouths open and hissing. I wavered under her gaze, but Ssiina joined Kyrae, and my sisters supported me.

Then, just as soon as it had come, the crushing sense of power evaporated. Jii’Hssen Ssyii clacked her jaw shut and shook her head, hair falling limp. “My apologies. The blessing—I dislike being so boldly contradicted.” She took a deep breath and rose with a forced smile, her eyes only now returning to an un-dilated look. “Are you certain? All three of you?”

“I am,” I replied easily.

“…Yes. Me too,” Kyrae said after a moment’s pause, but her voice was full of conviction.

“I do not hold the same weight, for I am already known.” Ssiina said softly, gaining volume. “But I stand with my sisters. She wrapped her lower body protectively around our fronts.

“Prepare,” Jii’Hssen Ssyii said simply, gesturing to arms, one each to Kyen and Dyni. The pair of servants rushed off toward where I could now hear approaching lamias.

“And, if I may?” Kyrae asked, continuing on at the Jii’Hssen’s nod. “If they’re already planning this far ahead, what’s to say they’re not expecting us to hide away. The garden is our only choice, right? What if they’re waiting, and they use this to undermine your competence.”

Now, we could all hear the approaching taaniir. I wondered if the sigil array over this room only worked one way to keep it silent, or the Jii’Hssen had done something with her four hands that I’d missed.

Kyrae’s comment earned a smile from the Jii’Hssen as she coiled back down at the table, sliding the book into her robes and inviting us to join her. “Quickly now. We must look the part of a family enjoying a temperate evening. As for your question, Kyrae…

“I assumed they would. However, I was—and am—willing to take on that burden so as not to drag you three in too deep too quickly. Although, with your acumen and Ssiina’s experience, you may be able to guide your sisters safely. That said, Dyni is better than almost any of the taaniir here, and I doubt they’d have found you.”

“Then it would be a bad look for them?” Kyrae asked.

“Indeed.”

My sister hummed to herself, taking a seat once Ssiina and I had coiled up at the table. “I still think I’m right.”

Aunt Ssyii laughed. “You may well be, dear. You sire was ever adamant that I cared too little for my own wellbeing.” Her hair shifted to face the wall. All the doors except one were hidden, but I counted four with my shadows. “Let’s discuss something more lighthearted. How about that trip to the glacier your sire mentioned to me?”

I tilted my head to one side, unsure for a moment why my aunt was asking that. Then it fell into place as Ssiina started describing the mountains, moments before the doors to the terrace burst open.

***

Hssen Zaiia led the taaniir, including her personal guards, up to the terrace with the utmost haste, ensuring each entrance and exit would be secured. Such unexpected and low-class “guests” were surely a risk to the weak-hearted Jii’Hssen.

An easy narrative to weave. And should those guests flee? A weakness of her security, and a failed assassination attempt brought about by incompetence. Should she hide them? Her integrity would be compromised—unfit for duty like her much-diminished sister.

The nature of the guests, however, their true nature, disgusted the hssen.

Adoption? The word brought venom into Hssen Zaiia’s fangs. Hssen were not just made, they were born. A blessing required to rule. Truthfully, she still did not know whether her half-sister Tyaniis would truly adopt an ea of all things. Had her fire died out that much? Did her pitiable former partner, and her death, truly break her?

Tonight, she would find out. Phaeliisthia had returned with Ssiina and two others—her students presumably—today, and that meant her son and daughter’s inquiries had borne fruit. As such, the plan would commence.

Poor Tyaniis. You worked so hard to put your sister on the throne, and now a whim of baffling kindness will undo the Jii’Hssen.

Hssen Zaiia reached the main door first, ahead of her taaniir. With haste, she threw it open, sliding onto the terrace. “Ssyrin Jii’Hssen!” she shouted. “Is everything alright? When we heard you’d been compromised, we feared…”

Hssen Zaiia trailed off, her well-prepared speech dying on her lips. Coiled in front of her and sat around a table, chatting idly, were the Jii’Hssen, Ssiina, a ke’lania of suspicious build, and an ea girl. That girl in question had just finished asking something, and the Jii’Hssen was answering with a smile when Zaiia’s outburst drew their attention.

Around Zaiia, the taaniir circled up, pausing with confusion. Why would Ssyii… No matter, there’s always a way to twist this to my favor. With a cough to gather another moment to think, Zaiia started again.

***

With a curse, Tyaniis slithered off the ship and onto the busy early evening streets of Ess’Sylantziis. Talk of a dragon landing near the Grand Temple had reached her when they stopped to drop off goods in the south of the city—gifts from Ussent Andriel Sunstrike.

As quickly as she could, she’d ordered the ship moving again, promising to return on the morrow. Something’s gone wrong, she thought as she barreled down the streets, shoving aside anyone who dared not to move out of her way.

I can only hope I’m not too late.