MasukTimothee's POVI found Kaelen in the archive long after the rest of the palace had gone quiet for the evening, surrounded by the same stack of records he'd been working through since Vaelith's delegation departed, though tonight he wasn't cross-referencing dates or prophecy fragments. He was reading something older, something personal, a small leather journal I didn't recognize."You're here late," I said, settling into the chair across from him."Couldn't sleep." He closed the journal carefully, though not before I caught a glimpse of familiar handwriting on the open page. "It's my mother's. I found it going through her things again, properly this time, instead of just searching for anything relevant to the letter.""What does it say?"He was quiet for a moment, turning the journal over in his hands the way Corin had turned our father's letter over before finally opening it. "She wrote about Corin's mother," he said finally. "Not just the delivery. Actual friendship, or something clo
CHAPTER ONE Mercy's POVRosalind's reply arrived within the week, faster than I expected given the distance a rider had to cover to reach the Hollow Fields and back, and Corin read it aloud to the three of us gathered in his study with the particular care he brought to anything connected to the settlement that had raised him."The elders will come," he read, "on one condition. That this wedding acknowledge, publicly, the agreement made between this crown and the western territories, so that our presence isn't read as simple goodwill, but as a partnership this kingdom intends to keep honoring.""That's fair," Timothee said. "More than fair, honestly. We should have thought to include something like that ourselves.""Rosalind doesn't miss opportunities to hold us accountable," Corin said, though there was clear fondness underneath the words. "I'd expect nothing less from her."I took the letter from him, reading the rest of it myself. Rosalind had added a personal note at the bottom, sh
CHAPTER Corin's POVWord of the engagement spread through the palace faster than any formal announcement could have managed on its own, which I supposed was fitting, given how little of what mattered in this family had ever stayed contained to official channels.I found Timothee at breakfast the next morning looking like a man who'd barely slept, though not from any trouble, just the particular sleeplessness of someone whose life had shifted overnight into something he was still catching up to feeling real."You look terrible," I said, settling across from him. "In the good way.""Thank you, I think." He pushed a plate toward me that he clearly hadn't touched. "I don't think I've stopped smiling since last night, which is apparently exhausting in its own way.""Get used to it. I intend to make the next several months as celebratory as possible, given how little celebration this kingdom's had reason for lately.""I was afraid you'd say that.""You should be afraid. I've already spoken
CHAPTER Mercy's POVI found Timothee alone on the palace's eastern terrace that evening, watching the last light fade over grounds that had seen more history in the past three months than most kingdoms accumulate in a generation.The delegation had departed that afternoon, Lady Ysolde's final farewell warmer than her formal arrival had been days earlier, a promise of continued correspondence carried in the careful way she'd shaken each of our hands. The palace felt quieter now that they'd gone, the particular stillness that settles after a week of unusual activity, and I'd gone looking for Timothee mostly just wanting to sit somewhere peaceful with someone I trusted completely."Quite a week," I said, settling beside him."Quite a few months," he said. "I keep waiting for things to slow down enough that I can actually process everything instead of just reacting to whatever comes next.""Maybe that's not how this works. Maybe you just learn to carry the processing alongside everything e
Timothee's POVWe spent the rest of that week in careful, detailed conversation with Lady Ysolde and the small delegation she'd brought, comparing historical records, cross-referencing dates and details neither kingdom's archives had fully understood in isolation.The work fell into a rhythm none of us had expected, long mornings in the archive followed by afternoons spent testing theories against each other, occasionally interrupted by genuine excitement when some overlooked detail finally clicked into place against a matching fragment from the other kingdom's records. It felt less like diplomacy and more like collaborative discovery, the careful formality of Lady Ysolde's initial arrival slowly giving way to something closer to genuine partnership.Enid worked alongside Vaelith's own chief archivist for hours at a stretch, the two of them bent over documents from both kingdoms, occasionally calling out discoveries that made the rest of us stop whatever we were doing to come listen.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED Mercy's POVWe reconvened the following morning in a smaller chamber, just the five of us, Timothee, Corin, Kaelen, Lady Ysolde, and myself, the formality of the previous day's audience replaced with something more careful and exploratory.I'd barely slept, my mind turning over everything Lady Ysolde had hinted at the day before, the weight of the crown's mark on my palm feeling suddenly heavier than it had in weeks, as though it too understood something significant was about to be discussed. Timothee had noticed my restlessness before dawn and hadn't pushed me to explain it, simply sat with me in the quiet until the sky began to lighten."Tell us what you know," Corin said, "and we'll decide what kind of relationship makes sense once we understand what's actually on the table."Lady Ysolde considered that for a long moment before nodding. "Vaelith's archives contain accounts of three prior instances of this prophecy manifesting across neighboring kingdoms, not jus







