“Your Majesty, Lord Volkov is here to see you,” one of the guards from outside said, peeking his head slightly into the office. Ivan only waved his hand as an indication for the other man to come in. It was the middle of the afternoon, a few hours after the morning’s court session had ended and he finished his meeting with his advisors (without Orlov, he thought bitterly), but Ivan felt so very unproductive. He had sat there while everyone talked at him, only nodding or shaking his head, sometimes yelling at people who got a little too presumptuous. It wasn’t that Ivan didn’t understand the things being said in court-- after so many years of attending, it would be quite stupid for him not to have an idea of how these things worked. But Orlov made it easier for Ivan, always taking a load off of the heavy weights that already pushed Ivan to his knees. 

Aisha juggled her broadsword in her hand while her other hand held her dagger tightly. She stared at her brother, only the light from the torches around the arena illuminating his lean frame. Ivan shrugged off his coat and kicked it to the side, his signature sword appearing out of thin air.“How--” Aisha gawked, staring at her own swords that came from the weapons room. “Magic?” Ivan smirked, spinning his sword with his wrist as he got into position. Aisha made sure to note down to have him teach her that trick before getting into her own starting position. Neither of them moved, circling each other. Aisha’s left foot shifted and then she was off, launching herself high into the air, raising her swords up into a crossing motion. She landed on the blunt side of Ivan’s

Aisha spent the entire next day pouring over other material Ursa had pulled from the library and pacing outside of Ursa’s wing. Earlier that morning, she had stopped in to update the Empress on what she and Ivan had found, but the handmaiden Emery firmly stood her ground, chasing away any and all visitors, no matter how important they were.She was like a guard dog, really, the way she looked like she’d bite someone’s head off if they got even remotely close to the doors of Ursa’s apartment. Aisha had wanted to fight Emery on this, but she also knew how much Ivan had been stressing Ursa’s physical recovery from the chaos that occurred at the New Year’s Celebration, so Aisha slinked away back into the library quietly until lunch time, where she and Emery rehashed their earlier arguments. Inside the most heavily guarded doors, an empress laid in her bed with the covers half off, only covering her freezing toes. The rest of her sweated out a non-existent fever, while Cecily dabbed a col