Chapter 4: The Thorn Princess and Her Memories

Sometime later, the battle drew to a close. There were no more enemy soldiers left around Ada. Once I’d made extra sure of that, I hurriedly stretched out my golem’s hand toward her.

“This way, Miss Ada! Let’s find you a hiding place!”

Although she had just offered us a helping hand, she was still the one responsible for Lord Azure’s death. In the distance, I could see Lord Enister mounted upon his giant goat. That meant the area had to be full of Enister soldiers. Given their close relations to the House of Azure, it seemed unlikely that they would let Ada walk free. In a worst-case scenario, they might not even wait for her to give her side of the story.

Ada nearly jumped out of her skin when I called out to her. She then cast a glance over her shoulder. I followed her gaze to where the Thorn Princess stood.

As she strolled over to Ada at a leisurely gait, the silver-haired Thorn Princess said, “Why don’t we let her give us a lift? She can lead us to sanctuary, I’m sure.”

With a meek nod, Ada climbed onto my golem’s palm alongside the Thorn Princess. Once I’d lifted them off the ground and cupped its gigantic hands to keep them hidden, I went on the move. Along the way, I ran into a few Évrard knights hanging close to our base, so I left them a message for Reggie and Alan before heading toward the back of the campsite.

Now that we’d driven the enemy elsewhere, people were less likely to wander over there. I chose that as the spot to set Ada and the Thorn Princess down. I, too, hopped back down to the earth and dismantled my golem.

Perhaps Ada had been meant to participate in the night raid, seeing as she was wearing a black Llewynian cloak over a dark outfit. Her face had gone so stiff that I hesitated to say anything, but there was something I just had to tell her.

“Um, Miss Ada?” I began.

Her shoulders gave a little start. Apparently, the strain in her face was from apprehension.

Now that I knew she wasn’t angry, I said the rest of my piece. “Thanks for saving me back in Trisphede.”

I’d wanted to thank her ever since it happened. She was the whole reason I’d made it out of there before Lord Credias could have his way with me.

A single tear rolled down Ada’s cheek.

“Hey, what happened?! Did I say something wrong? Or did you get hurt?” I rushed over to Ada in a panic, patting down her arms and shoulders for injuries.

Ada stared at the ground.

“Oh, I’m sorry! I should have asked before touching you!”

Her tone laced with exasperation, the Thorn Princess said, “I thought I told you to be more forthright, Ada. You’re hardly a child. Enough with all the sulking, temper tantrums, and crying you do just to test the limits of people’s patience.”

“I-I know!” Ada replied, flustered at the motherly scolding. She then glanced over at me, hung her head once more, and opened her mouth to speak. “I’m... glad to see you safe.”

Once she’d managed to spit out those first couple words, the rest came tumbling out like a dam had burst. “For the longest time, I averted my eyes, avoided doing anything for myself... and convinced myself that everything was your fault. I blamed you for my becoming a spellcaster.”

From there, Ada went on to explain the truth—that from day one, Llewyne had scoped out her father to partake in the cover-up of their clandestine mining of contract stones. Ada herself had merely been blackmail material toward that end.

Pursing her lips as though she was doing her best to hold herself together, Ada went on, “The original plan was for the queen’s vassals to keep me locked up. The Thorn Princess told me that if things had gone that way, I would have died.”

From the sound of it, Ada had met the Thorn Princess back at Sestina Castle. When the silver-haired girl had told her of the future meant to unfold, Ada had initially doubted the veracity of what she was saying. She had gone on to confirm it for herself, however.

“Lord Patriciél admitted to me that that was his original plan. After you got away, however, securing the contract stones became more vital to his plan. Ultimately, becoming a spellcaster saved my life.”

“Oh, the contract stones...”

As Ada’s confession filled in the puzzle piece I’d been missing for so long, I thought to myself, Now I get it. That’s why defective spellcasters never showed up in the RPG.

In the game version, Lord Patriciél and friends had seized Ada as a hostage, only to let her waste away and die. To no surprise, her father refused to cooperate in that scenario, thus denying Llewyne their mountain of contract stones.

The mining site had to be somewhere that wouldn’t allow them to operate behind closed doors. Since Llewyne’s invasion needed to be kept secret, Lord Patriciél would have wanted to avoid any suspicious behavior; thus, they had simply abandoned their hopes of harvesting the stones.

Still, how did the Thorn Princess know so much about that “what-if” scenario?

A wry smile playing at her lips, Ada carried on with her monologue. “After the viscount died... for a while, I didn’t know what to do with myself. Back when he was around, I’d always gone along with whatever he said—whether that involved murdering people on the battlefield or even burning Lord Azure to death. I knew there was no place left for me in Farzia. But the Thorn Princess had a different take on the matter.”

Her eyes flicked to the silver-haired girl standing beside her. “Now that I’m a spellcaster, she said I ought to be able to live however I please. So long as I remain vigilant, I can take down any bandits or brigands who assail me on my solo travels. I have the power to remove anyone in my path. ‘With all that in mind,’ she asked me, ‘what is it that you most desire?’”

At that, Ada lifted her head. The trepidation that plagued her expression had finally disappeared. “I don’t want to die. Still, I have no experience living a commoner’s life. My only options would be to starve to death here or go live as a spellcaster in another country. When I said as much, the Thorn Princess claimed she had a plan to let me live as a normal woman, not a spellcaster of Farzia—so long as I followed along and did as she said.”

With that trademark wise smile on her face, the Thorn Princess took over the explanation from there. “I came to make you a proposal. If you can promise Ada a safe and secure livelihood, I promise to join Farzia’s ranks and fight alongside you. Ada, meanwhile, is to stay out of the war. How does that sound? I believe the assistance she just provided you ought to factor into the negotiations as well.”

“Oh, that’s clever.”

If I were the one in charge, I would have closed the deal then and there. If we would be getting a new spellcaster out of the bargain, there was a good chance the rest of the generals would agree, even if it meant letting Ada walk free.

“That does sound like our best option.”

It seemed Reggie had arrived at just the right moment. Judging by the way he had trotted up on his horse and given his immediate approval, he must have overheard a good bit of our conversation. Alan and his royal guard trailed along after him.

“As tempting as the idea of a third spellcaster is, it’s probably for the best that Lady Ada doesn’t join our army. Too much internal strife could end up holding our soldiers back. How does that sound to you, Alan?”

“It makes sense enough to me, so I have no objections. This is the best plan we have. How do we go about this, then? Hide her away in some other territory?”

He probably thought it was best to get her out of here ASAP.

Reggie replied, “Yes. Évrard or Delphion. Either one should be willing to work with us on this, I think. Personally, I would suggest Delphion. There will be a handful of people there who know you as an enemy spellcaster, but half of the province’s own populace sided with Llewyne for a time. I would expect them to be more open-minded, considering their circumstances.”

“I doubt Emmeline will take issue with it, either,” Alan agreed with a nod.

That was enough to convince Ada. “Thank you very much. I shall defer to your judgment.”

Now that he had her consent, Reggie handed out his orders.

Before long, Emmeline and a dozen Delphion cavalrymen had snuck onto the scene. Lord Enister would need to be informed of the arrangement eventually, but they were probably waiting to tell him until it was already a done deal. Besides, if the Azuran knights caught sight of Ada, they weren’t going to take it lying down. Thus, the plan was to send her away posthaste.

“Lady Ada,” said Reggie. “Though you’ve caused us a good deal of trouble, I am no less grateful for your help. Thank you for rescuing Kiara.”

Ada’s eyes fluttered in surprise, after which a bashful look overtook her features. “I’m honored to hear it, Your Highness.”

I had no way of knowing just how many different emotions were packed into that succinct reply of hers. Either way, the reinvigorated look on her face left a lasting impression on me.

Just as she was hurrying to leave, Ada caught sight of Felix passing by. No doubt she had plenty left to say to him. She asked the rider to bring her horse to a stop, then went to go strike up a conversation.

Of course, the two were destined to go their separate ways. Ada was to disappear into a far-off wood, and Felix was to return to Reggie’s side.

The reason I was so curious about the contents of their discussion was because Emmeline and Gina had mentioned that Ada might be in love with Felix. It wasn’t something I could just ask about, though, so I held my tongue.

Luckily for me, Reggie brought it up himself. “You could have looked a little sadder to say goodbye, Felix. You spent quite a bit of time with her, didn’t you?”

Felix seemed a bit discomfited by the teasing. “Well, she was quite the handful. I did get an apology, at least.”

Oh. Sounds like Ada said sorry for the time she nearly killed him, and Felix accepted her apology.

I was a little sad to hear that they’d ended things on such an inconclusive note. Still, so long as the both of them stayed alive, they might have the chance to one day meet again. The thought made me gladder than ever that the pair of them had lived to see today.

“Thanks, Thorn Princess. I didn’t have the chance to bring it up until now, but you helped me out in Trisphede, too. By the way... Reggie, do you have the you-know-what with you?”

Reggie knew exactly what I was referring to. “Yes. I’ve been keeping them on my person.”

From the inner pocket of his jacket, Reggie pulled out a cameo engraved with a crest and tied with an old, red ribbon, along with a dingy silver ring that bore no gemstone.

As he held them out for the Thorn Princess, he said, “Shall I call you Efia from now on?”

After staring long and hard at the cameo and ring, the Thorn Princess let out a sigh. “No. That name doesn’t truly belong to me anymore. Stick with ‘Thorn Princess,’ if you would. I’d appreciate it if I could have that cameo. As for the ring... you ought to hold on to that,” she said, gazing up at Reggie.

That comment sealed it; the ring definitely had belonged to Reggie’s mother. Since it was all that was left of her, the Thorn Princess must have deemed it proper that her son be the one to keep it.

Alan, who had been watching over this exchange, said to Reggie, “This spellcaster will be joining our troops, correct? We ought to let her rest somewhere with Kiara, then. Once we’ve taken care of the essentials, you can slip out early. Let’s focus on wrapping up what we need to.”

We were right on the heels of a battle. Reggie had other things to do. Alan was advising him to handle the most important postwar directives before calling it quits for the day.

“Thanks, Alan. Can I leave these two ladies to you, Wentworth?”

“Certainly, Your Highness.”

Opting to follow Alan’s suggestion, Reggie left me and the Thorn Princess in Cain’s hands, then headed back to where everyone else was gathered to take the reins. Felix and the rest of the knights followed after him.

With Cain to accompany us, I invited the Thorn Princess to my tent toward the back, unscathed despite the assault. She sat beside me atop the tent floor. Though I only had water to offer her, I poured her a cup and handed it over.

“My, thank you very much,” she said as she took it in her hands.

Watching her was starting to give me the jitters. I had so many things I wanted to ask her that I didn’t know where to begin. How did you get here? How have you kept the same looks for so long? How did you know what was supposed to happen in the future?

I must have stared at her a little too hard. The Thorn Princess giggled. “You look like you have a lot of questions, Kiara.”

“Err... I do, as a matter of fact.” Honesty was the best policy, I figured.

“Hoho!” came Master Horace’s cackle. “Why don’t you just start firing them off, little disciple?”

Meanwhile, as she finished draining her cup and set it aside, the Thorn Princess cast the doll an unsettled glance. “Pardon me, Kiara.”

“What is it?”

“I have something I’ve wanted to ask you for a while now. Why did you put that old man’s soul in such an uncanny doll? Is this your idea of aesthetic?”

“What?! No, you’ve got the wrong idea!”

While I denied it, Master Horace objected to the “uncanny” descriptor. “What a rude little girl you are! I’ve just started learning to love this new body of mine, so don’t you go complaining about it!”

“I’m no ‘little girl.’ I hit my twenties ages ago.”

“When you’re stuck in a body that tiny, you’re a little girl no matter how old you are.”

“Considering you’re even smaller than I am, you hardly have room to talk. Besides, I never asked to stop aging.”

Master Horace’s tone went from contentious to curious. “What, was it the effects of your magic?”

“More or less. I’m a bit of a special case, you see. I can inherit the abilities of those who have passed on. But seeing as my host’s body is dead, it naturally ceases to age.”

“You inherit... what?” I murmured.

A faint smile played at the Thorn Princess’s lips. “You heard me. Didn’t you ever find it strange that my magic seemed to extend to more than just controlling thorns?”

I had wondered about that. If there were only two types of magic to account for—her thorns, plus seeing the future—then it could have made sense. But what about the time she had disappeared in the blink of an eye? Besides, knowing the future would be one thing, but she seemed to know some very personal details about my life.

“I just assumed you could use several different kinds of magic.”

“Like what, for example?”

When she asked me to lay out my thought process, I listed a couple of different possibilities. “Controlling thorns and teleporting, for starters. Clairvoyance, too. That wouldn’t explain some things, though, so I thought maybe you could see how a person’s past could have gone.”

The Thorn Princess giggled at my speculation. “Yes. I suppose that’s the most logical conclusion.”

At that, she cast some sort of spell. When a faint rustling sound reached my ears, I peeked outside the tent, only to find our shelter beset in thorny vines to keep interlopers away. Cain, who had been waiting for us outside, looked more than a little startled.

“Forgive me, dear,” the Thorn Princess said. “I don’t want anyone else to know what I’m about to tell you yet.”

I apologized to Cain. “It sounds like she wants to have a private, spellcasters-only talk. I’m sorry to ask you this, but can you make sure nobody else gets near my tent?”

“Well, if you insist.”

I thanked Cain for his understanding, then ducked back inside the tent. When I sat back down in my spot next to the Thorn Princess, she resumed her explanation in more hushed tones than before. “There’s something I need to tell you, Kiara. It was my meeting with you that allowed me to change your fate.”

“Uh, when did that happen?”

When did we first meet? Was it when I was a little girl?

“The first time I ever came into contact with you was after you had been slain by Alan.”

“Huh?!”

“I had learned of your relationship with Reggie from a gravely injured knight. Given that knowledge, I had hoped to keep you alive, but I couldn’t save you from a wound that fatal. Instead, I used my magic on you, hoping to glean some insight into the queen and her minions from your memories.”

“Uh... but...?”

My eyes went wide. After all, death at Alan’s hands was part of the story of “the Kiara who never escaped her marriage”—the same story I knew from the RPG.

That vision I’d had of being murdered by Alan played back in my head.

Heedless of my confusion, the Thorn Princess went on, “That was when I learned of the mysterious memories sleeping within you. Memories of another world—one with streets full of gray roads and buildings the likes of which I’d never seen. One with boxes that displayed all manner of sights.”

She was talking about my memories of my past life. Concrete roads and buildings. Televisions. But what kind of magic would let her peek into those memories?

“What’s more, I saw that you had memories of a story that unfolded almost identically to the battles we had fought thus far—and with them, hidden wishes. Hidden regrets. At the time, however, I didn’t have any desires for you in particular. I found it fascinating that you knew of such wondrous things, but that was the extent of it. But after Alan and the queen ultimately took each other out and I began looping over and over again, failing to rescue Reginald each time, I decided to make an ally of you. I thought that if anyone could save Reginald, it would be you.”

I was dumbfounded. I understood the meaning of what she was saying, obviously. But to actually pull that off, you would need an entirely different type of magic than I had accounted for. It would take some kind of spell to read another person’s memories.

Still, Reggie had been the trigger for all this? Why?

“Say, Thorn Princess... Have you met Reggie somewhere before?”

If she truly was Efia, a daughter of the royal family, it would come as no surprise if she was acquainted with Reggie. And yet, he hadn’t seemed to have heard of her before.

For the first time since I’d met her, the Thorn Princess looked ready to cry. “I’m not Efia. I’m the one who was turned into Lord Credias’s test subject—Reginald’s mother.”

For a moment, I forgot to breathe.

She’s Reggie’s mom?! But she has silver hair, and I thought his mom wasn’t a member of the royal family! What’s going on?!

“If you’re Reggie’s mom, does that make you... Queen Linesse? But he told me... you were a brunette...”

“Oh, so he’s spoken to you about me? I’m... glad to hear he hasn’t forgotten about me.” The Thorn Princess chewed her lip. “My magic is the art of possession. I can seize command of any living thing, control them, and read their memories.”

“Possession? Is that how you control your thorns?”

“That’s right. The secret behind my trademark is that thorns are simply the easiest plant to manipulate.”

“Then... Then...” I was so surprised that I was blanking on how to form words. Eventually, I managed to get out what I wanted to ask. “Does that mean you’re possessing Efia’s body?”

The Thorn Princess nodded. “I just barely managed to become a spellcaster. Unfortunately, my body couldn’t hold up under my own magic. As I grew weaker and weaker, Efia offered to let me take over her body in exchange for a shot at revenge.”

That explained why she had Efia’s appearance. The unbelievable story behind it had left me at a loss for words.

“I can wield the magic of anyone I possess. Efia had the power to travel back into the past—though she didn’t have the flexibility to pick and choose how far back she would go.”

“Oh...”

How did the Thorn Princess seem to know everything? How could she know of a past that had never actually come to pass? I finally had the answers to all my questions.

“And so... you went back in time to change fate.”

She smiled, satisfied to see me piecing things together.

Chronologically, things had unfolded like so: when the Thorn Princess (a.k.a. Linesse) was about to die, she had taken possession of Efia’s body. With that, she had gained access to Efia’s magic, in addition to the magic she already possessed.

Later on, while she was living in hiding from Lord Credias, she had heard the bombshell news of Reggie’s death. She had turned back time in hopes of saving him, but she could never quite manage to prevent his death. I had to assume there were a lot of events she couldn’t get directly involved in, considering Lord Credias was a spellcasting mentor to both her and Efia.

Thus, she had chosen to enlist Alan’s help to take down the queen and her vassals. But what was all that about Alan and the queen taking each other out? Either way, her point seemed to be that she had decided to use me to stop that from happening.

“Since I had memories of how the war would go, you thought I might have a chance at pulling something off, and that’s why you brought me into the picture?”

“I hoped that since you had lived in a different world, you might approach things with a fresh perspective.”

She had a point. If it weren’t for my past-life memories, I wouldn’t be where I was today. No doubt I would have assumed it was pointless to run, instead living out the life I was destined for.

“But how did you do it?”

When did I first come into contact with the Thorn Princess? I don’t remember.

“If I wanted to spur you into action, I needed you to recall those memories of your former life. Preferably before you became a spellcaster. After all, by that point, you would have already been stripped of your freedom.” She stared long and hard at me. “And so, I tracked you down while you were still an infant. If you had those memories from a young age, you were bound to grow up closer in personality to your past self. Thus—and I apologize for doing so—I snuck into your home to cast my spell on you. I must say, I had quite the time finding your house.”

The Thorn Princess had used her possession magic on me when I was still only two years old, thus unearthing the memories lying dormant within me. That was why I’d possessed faint memories of my past life for as long as I could remember.

“Efia herself was only able to make short leaps through time, which is why she could never manage to escape Credias’s clutches. Does the nature of magic depend on the soul, I wonder? I, on the other hand, managed to travel back over ten years. Thus, as soon as I’d determined that I was going to change the past, I settled on a starting point. I traveled back to that moment time after time, watched how everything played out, and recorded all the results within that forest.”

After writing everything down—her failures and her near successes, what she planned to try next—she then dove back into the past, saw what progress she had made, and went back to her starting point once more, repeating the process over and over again.

If it were me, I was pretty sure I would have gone insane. Nonetheless, the Thorn Princess continued her process of trial and error without end—all to save her beloved son.

“Although you now remembered your previous life, I had no way of knowing how you would act on that knowledge. I must say, it took me by surprise when you and Reggie wandered into my forest while I was awaiting the results.”

She must have been referring to the time we stopped by the Forest of the Thorn Princess not long after Reggie had first taken me in.

“At first, I didn’t realize who you were. I’d only ever gotten glimpses of you as a scrawny girl with a dark, fatalistic countenance. The version of you that came into my forest had so much hope in your eyes... and what’s more, you’d already managed to meet with Reggie. I just knew you would be sure to save him.”

The Thorn Princess flashed me a smile, and I ducked my head awkwardly. I sure didn’t feel like I’d actually done all that much, and there was no telling if I’d truly managed to save Reggie just yet.

“Just as I had expected, you changed Reggie’s fate with ease. But after surviving the Battle of Évrard, yet another death awaited him. You spared him from his second potential demise, Kiara. Reggie could very well have died from the contract sand when he was shot by that arrow. It was your quick thinking that kept him alive.”

That attempt on his life had made me desperate to protect Reggie from whatever came his way, too. I knew then that simply defending him from the Llewynians who had crossed the border wasn’t going to be the end of it. The incident had impressed upon me that as the prince, there was no telling when he could be assassinated.

It sounded like the Thorn Princess, who had been gathering information on me and Reggie, had found out about what had transpired later.

“The third instance was in Trisphede. You were meant to suffer terrible burns after your confrontation with Credias, which kept you from showing up to the next battle. Thus, despite his desperate attempts to rescue you, Reggie couldn’t find you anywhere, and just as he was retreating in the face of Credias’s magic... he lost his life.”

The Thorn Princess had experienced that very future once before.

“So you traveled back into the past again? And the next time around, you rescued me in Trisphede.”

I thought back to the thorns that had shielded me from Ada’s flames.

“That’s right. I had to keep you safe. If I let things play out the way they were supposed to, the Farzian army would have lost. Unfortunately, I couldn’t directly protect you from Credias. That meant I couldn’t stop you from getting captured by Salekhard, either. The best I could do was shield you from the fire.”

The thorns had burned away as soon as they’d finished their job of shielding me from Ada’s flames. That had been to keep Lord Credias from catching on to her magic.

“The fourth time was in Eirlain. King Isaac let you get away, but because no one knew how Credias’s magic worked, Reginald was turned to sand and you were killed. Farzia’s defeat was decided even more quickly than it had been when Credias stayed out of the fray.”

I swallowed hard. “That’s why you went back into the past and made sure Reggie had magic of his own.”

“Right. I had no choice but to try everything I possibly could. When Reggie asked me if he could wield magic, I tried to think up a way to make it possible.”

It all made sense now. We needed to have any and every means available to combat Lord Credias’s magic.

Even then, we’d cut it pretty close. If it hadn’t been Reggie’s left arm that Lord Credias had made a grab for, he would have died.

If things hadn’t gone as well as they did, and Reggie had died again, the Thorn Princess surely would have gone back in time once more. The next time around, she wouldn’t have settled for just teaching him to use magic; she probably would have thought up another trick to try, too.

At that, I recalled a mysterious memory of mine. “Come to think of it, I had a strange vision after the Battle of Eirlain. I saw myself killed by Lord Credias, and Reggie turned to sand soon after. Was that one of your memories of a past that could have been?”

“Most likely. If I had to guess, it was caused by the contract stone I gave you to become a spellcaster with,” the Thorn Princess said with a nod. “That was a fragment of a stone I’d found in my attempts to escape Credias’s influence. I had thought that perhaps if I swallowed down a second contract stone, it might diminish his power over me. It didn’t yield the result I had hoped for, unfortunately. But now that we had each ingested mana from the same stone, the pasts I had seen with my magic may have been passed along to you as well.”

So that had been one of the Thorn Princess’s memories, as well as a glimpse of what was supposed to have happened.

“That’s enough of that talk, I’d say. I don’t want Reggie to overhear us.”

“Really? But...”

If there was anyone who needed to know the Thorn Princess’s true identity, it was Reggie. He had suffered so much; he had looked for his absent mother until he was forced to give up, only to later learn that she had never abandoned him at all. I wanted him to know that she was still alive and well.

The Thorn Princess denied me. “No. He can’t know until the war is over, at the very least. It will just make it that much harder for me to act.”

“Is there something you still need to do?”

Was there a reason the Thorn Princess needed to intervene in the coming battles? Was that why she had joined up with us?

Plus, the Thorn Princess had mentioned something about the queen and Alan taking each other out. How could the queen have managed that when she clearly didn’t know how to fight? Not to mention that I couldn’t imagine Alan going down that easily.

As a sense of dread crept over me, the Thorn Princess gave me a wry smile. “Don’t worry. I’ll tell you what I need from you. If you do as I say, everything should be fine. Just keep this between the two of us, alright?”

Her thorns must have vanished along with that entreaty of hers, seeing as Cain called out, “Is your discussion over, Miss Kiara?”

“Oh, yes! We’re done.”

“His Highness is here.”

From the sound of it, Reggie was done with his post-battle cleanup.

“I’ll explain everything myself,” the Thorn Princess declared. Once she’d risen to her feet, she murmured, “Promise to keep my secret, okay?” With that, she left the tent.

I followed after her in a hurry. When I stepped outside, I saw Reggie and the Thorn Princess discussing her formal offer to join the war effort. He mentioned that he had gotten the approval of his generals where Ada was concerned, too.

The Thorn Princess nodded, satisfied. For her part, she never mentioned that she was actually the former queen, Linesse, instead telling him that she was a one-of-a-kind spellcaster who could use two types of magic. What’s more, she fabricated an explanation for her magic, claiming that she could see glimpses of the future.

Once that was done, Reggie asked her about Queen Linesse. “How did my mother... meet her end?”

“She had the makings of a spellcaster—but sadly, her aptitude was imperfect. Her body failed to hold up under the strain, and she turned to sand.” The Thorn Princess gave a succinct answer, still playing the part of Efia.

His expression darkened, but Reggie thanked her nonetheless. “Thank you. I’m just glad to know what happened to her.”

Though she gazed at Reggie with pity in her eyes, she never did confess that she and Linesse were one and the same.

◇◇◇

There was no follow-up attack the next morning.

I woke up feeling deeply relieved. Not long after that, the Thorn Princess was called away by Reggie. As I nibbled away at my breakfast and soup, I muttered to myself, “Why doesn’t she want to tell him?”

If it was what the Thorn Princess wanted, I had no choice but to keep my mouth shut. Still, when I thought back to how Reggie had tormented himself over his mother, I had to wonder why she was so insistent on keeping it mum.

“She’s got to have a good reason she can’t tell him,” suggested Master Horace, who had been listening to my mumblings.

“What kind of reason, though?”

“Could be a kind of foresight on her part. Maybe she thinks that if she keeps her real name under wraps, it’ll make it easier for him to treat her like any other spellcaster. Or maybe... she just thought he was more likely to buy the story she gave him than ‘I went back into the past.’”

He gave a cackle, then added, “Or maybe it just felt too late to tell him she was his mother. She was forced to give him up when he was still a kid. Bet that’s weighing on her something heavy.”

That would make sense, I thought, nodding my head. The Thorn Princess had worked so hard to save Reggie. She desperately wanted him to live, and no doubt she’d missed him dearly, too. For each time she’d turned back the clock, she’d spent that much longer away from him, so perhaps the idea of revealing her true identity had become too daunting.

“But, y’know... Eeeheehee! I’ve got to hand it to you, you handled yourself pretty well for your first conversation with your boyfriend’s mother!”

“Oh!”

I finally started to panic. I hadn’t thought too hard about the fact that she was Reggie’s mom while we were talking. Since the form she took as the Thorn Princess was another girl named Efia, it had been harder to connect the dots in my mind.

“Did you have to point it out, Master Horace? Now I’m going to freeze up the next time I talk to her.”

Come to think of it, when the Thorn Princess watched my memories, uh... she probably saw a few glimpses of what I’ve gotten up to with Reggie, didn’t she?

The second the reality of the situation dawned on me, I clutched my head in my hands.

“Heeheehee!”

My plight only drew more and more delighted laughter from Master Horace.

◇◇◇

Not an hour later, we received a surprising report: the Llewynian troops had retreated.

Both Alan and Reggie suspected there had to be a catch; however, the Llewynians simply carried on with their solemn procession, leaving Sestina Castle behind to march off toward the royal capital. Eventually, they disappeared into the distance.

We had no choice but to take the castle now. Luckily, that was when the Salekhardian troops finally caught up to us. Wary of Llewyne’s next move, Reggie stationed the Salekhardians along the road that led to the royal capital. In the meantime, the Farzian troops laid siege to Sestina Castle.

We were in for an even bigger surprise there: Lord Patriciél had sent a letter stating his intent to surrender. His one condition was a one-on-one meeting with me.

At the subsequent gathering of the generals, I checked in with the Thorn Princess, who was likewise sitting in on the meeting. “Do you think it’s safe to go along with this?”

“Absolutely. I know exactly what he’s trying to do.”

“Have you seen this future, too?” Reggie asked.

The Thorn Princess nodded, impassive. “Yes. Patriciél was plotting to kill Kiara. He assumed she would be the queen’s greatest obstacle moving forward.”

“But how did he hope to manage that?” Jerome wondered aloud, skepticism in his voice.

“He demanded a dialogue, claiming he wanted to formally cut ties with his daughter. He set up a tent for the two of them, and once he’d invited her inside, he started talking to keep her distracted. In the meantime, his men sprinkled the powder of a contract stone all over the tent.”

“Hm, I see,” Alan muttered. “That would do a number on Kiara in and of itself, and he’d take the opportunity to have the men he’d brought along with him attack her.”

“Exactly. Though he crumbled away into sand afterward, in his last moments, Patriciél sent the tent up in flames with his fire magic. Nobody inside had time to run. If anyone standing guard outside got too close, they would likewise be turned into defective spellcasters, so they had to keep their distance. Both Kiara and His Highness managed to make it out alive, ultimately, but they took quite a bit of damage in the process. That took its toll on Farzia in the following battle.”

Alan and the generals hummed thoughtfully.

“If we refuse, I’m sure Lord Patriciél will find a way to force our hand,” said Reggie.

Lady Évrard made a face. “I can guess what he might have in mind. I wager that if we turn him down and rush the castle, he’ll respond by turning the people of the castle town into defective spellcasters.”

“I agree, Aunt Beatrice. Furthermore, we should proceed under the assumption that he has enough contract stones on hand to pull it off.”

“In that case, we need to decide now which demands we’re willing to entertain, and which we are not,” declared Alan.

Reggie nodded. “How does this sound for an offer? We can allow him a meeting with our spellcaster, but we get to pick the location ourselves.”

His proposal was swiftly put into action. We sent a messenger to deliver our answer to Lord Patriciél posthaste. It wasn’t long before we received his reply: I agree to your terms. That said, I request that each party have no more than five witnesses present.

We assumed that the “five witnesses” rule meant he had some other scheme up his sleeve, but seeing as there was a limit on what the count could do, we accepted the condition regardless.

Now that we had ourselves a deal, we had to set up a place to meet. I crafted the pillars of the tent out of stone, then draped a cloth over the top half only, effectively eliminating the walls. Archers were stationed in the distance, carefully positioned so they weren’t standing downwind. These were all steps taken to prevent him from sprinkling the contract powder around, of course.

Cain and Lady Évrard would be sitting in with me. Felix, Reggie, and the Thorn Princess would be waiting outside the tent.

Originally, Jerome was supposed to be the one accompanying me; however, Lady Évrard had made the case for her own attendance, asserting that having a member of the royal family present would serve to lower Lord Patriciél’s guard.

“There’s no need to put yourself in such danger, Lady Évrard.” Once we had gathered under my newly constructed tent, I tried my hand at dissuading her one last time. “Please rethink this. I’ll never make it up to Alan if he loses his mother.”

Lady Évrard gave an amused chuckle. “You’re the one in the most danger here, Kiara. Nonetheless, since he asked for you by name, we can’t very well keep you away. Besides, if something were to happen to you, how would I ever make it up to Reginald?”

“Erm...”

“I’ve never done much for him otherwise.” Lady Évrard hung her head, forlorn. “I wanted to help his mother, but I never managed to reach her. I still regret that I couldn’t do anything to stop what happened to her. That’s all the more reason for me to ensure he doesn’t lose what’s precious to him ever again.”

My gaze flicked over to the Thorn Princess beside me. Her hood was pulled low over her head to keep her hair hidden. I had to wonder what was running through her mind.

Just as my shoulders drooped, Cain gave me a clap on the back. “Just focus on your meeting with Lord Patriciél, Miss Kiara.”

I nodded and turned my gaze forward. It was right then that Lord Patriciél came into view, heading our way from the city of Sestina, which could be seen in the distance.

Looking as stern as ever, Lord Patriciél dismounted his horse and walked over, the five knights he had brought along following behind him. None of the five men were carrying weapons. No doubt they had some other trick up their sleeve, though. We had to be careful.

Upon entering the tent, the first thing he did was greet Lady Évrard. “How do you do, Your Highness? I assume you’re playing the part of Kiara’s guardian for the day. Still, how strange that the leader of your army has declined a seat at the table to negotiate our surrender. I didn’t think him the type to hide behind his own aunt.” Even under the current circumstances, Lord Patriciél couldn’t resist taking a shot at Reggie.

Lady Évrard laughed. “You asked to meet with our spellcaster as part of your terms, not for the negotiations themselves. There’s no need for His Highness to make an appearance.”

Lord Patriciél gave a derisive snort. “I simply couldn’t go without getting in a complaint or two. And I know that once we’ve acknowledged our defeat, I’ll be thrown in a prison cell and deprived of the opportunity to ever see her again.” He then turned his gaze on me. “What an ungrateful wretch you are. I’ll have you know that if I hadn’t taken you in, your stepmother would have killed you.”

From there, he began to recount the hidden circumstances behind his adoption of me—for instance, what would have happened if I’d continued to live in my parents’ home. He complained about how much money he’d had to offer for me, and how greedy my stepmother had been. He explained how, some time afterward, my stepmother’s house had fallen to ruin.

And yet... nothing he said came as a terrible shock to me. All of those things had stopped mattering to me a long time ago.

Once he had finished his narration, he said without so much as a smile, “It’s not too late. The time has come for you to face judgment.”

He had delivered it like it was simply the natural continuation of his monologue, and I was so engrossed in what he was saying that I failed to notice what was happening behind him.

I had no idea which line had been their cue. All I knew was that the figures of all five knights—who had looked miserable from the moment they first showed up—were undergoing a rapid transformation. Hard rocks broke through their armor. Barbs of stone burst from their bodies.

“Defective spellcasters?”

According to the future the Thorn Princess had foretold, only Lord Patriciél had become a spellcaster. Why had he transformed the rest of his knights into defectives this time?

While my head swam with questions, Cain tucked me under his arm and put some distance between us and the tent. Lady Évrard evacuated alongside us, and eventually we all came to a stop.

“Miss Kiara!”

“I know. We’re just lucky he couldn’t sprinkle it everywhere! Now, let’s do this!”

If we were up against defective spellcasters, that was all the more reason I had to fight. I placed both hands to the ground, planning to dig a deep hole right in the middle of the tent.

“Hm?”

My magic didn’t seem to be working. Was it because they were fellow earth spellcasters?

With a little more elbow grease this time, I erected a wall to block the stony barbs winding from their bodies as they rushed toward us. For the finishing touch, I conjured up razor-sharp spikes of my own, impaling them clean through. Perhaps they had lost the ability to feel pain; the defectives silently dissolved into sand, not a single scream escaping their lips.

Meanwhile, Lord Patriciél looked on with an ominous chuckle. “Aha. I can work with this.”

I didn’t understand what he meant by that, nor how he could laugh after he’d just watched me murder his men.

“Stay back, Your Highness! You too, milady!” Felix shouted, ushering Reggie and Lady Évrard farther away. The Thorn Princess was the only one left behind.

I considered how best to slay Lord Patriciél. Before I could take action, however, his right arm burst into flame. The fire snaked forward, burning its way through my stone wall.

Cain pushed me out of the way of the blaze, so I wasn’t hurt... but something wasn’t right here. Why did Lord Patriciél look so self-possessed as he wielded his flames?

Either way, this wasn’t looking good. I launched my attack on Lord Patriciél. I attempted to run him through with a stone spike, just like I had against the defective spellcasters—but before it could reach him, it crumbled away to nothing.

The corners of Lord Patriciél’s mouth curved up in a grin. In the next moment, the flames winding from his arm shot toward me once more.

Cain grabbed me and ducked out of the way yet again. As I tried to figure out how this could be happening, I cast another glance over at Lord Patriciél... and that was when the Thorn Princess sprang into action.

“You really are the queen’s lapdog. How ridiculous.”

When the Thorn Princess stepped forward with a laugh, thorny vines sprang up from the ground under Lord Patriciél’s feet.

“So you had a second spellcaster, hm? Too bad! It will take more than that to stop me!”

Lord Patriciél clearly tried to do something. Nevertheless, the vines didn’t give in the slightest, coiling themselves up the length of the count and gradually constricting their grip.

“What is this?”

Lord Patriciél writhed and moaned, shooting flames through the few gaps in the vines in his attempts to burn the thorns away. Each time they withered away, however, a second or third vine burst forth to twine around him, until he had been wrapped up from head to toe. It looked almost as though he’d been sucked into a cocoon of green.

The Thorn Princess took another step toward him, then threw back her hood. Needless to say, the man recognized her face.

“You’re... Efia?” he murmured in disbelief.

It seemed the Thorn Princess, on the other hand, hadn’t expected him to remember her right away. “My, now this is a surprise. You haven’t forgotten me?”

“How? How... haven’t you aged a day?”

No doubt it came as all the more of a shock because he did recognize her. His daughter, Efia, was standing before him looking no different than she had so many years ago.

“Oh, you silly man. This is what happens when you force a young, sweet girl like me to become a spellcaster—or don’t you remember that? But really now, I’m amazed you didn’t stop at sacrificing your own flesh and blood in your quest to reclaim your house’s former glory; why, you even offered up your adoptive daughter, all for your precious Llewynian princess. Not only that, but you toiled to ensure that the viscount of Credias would serve the queen, not the king. What a shame things turned out this way for you!” The Thorn Princess gave a trill of a laugh.

Though she wore Efia’s form, her mind was that of the former queen, Linesse. Throughout her gleeful heckling, she tightened her grip on the count.

“Finally. Not even this was allowed to me back then. And if it hadn’t been for that pesky viscount, it would have been so easy to kill you, too.”

The Thorn Princess let her grievances fly—Efia’s and Linesse’s both. Based on what she was saying, it was indeed the viscount’s presence that had kept her from going near him for so long.

“So it is you, Efia. But how could this be? Your power only allowed you to travel a mere few days into the past—ngh!”

“My, I do love hearing you croak like a frog. You’re hardly worth keeping as a pet, however. It’s high time you were exterminated.”

The Thorn Princess wound her thorns ever more tightly.

“You... little...” Lord Patriciél cast a baleful glare toward the Thorn Princess—and me. “All I wanted was to grant her her second wish. If it weren’t for you and the prince, I...!”

I heard the crunch of the vines constricting.

“Oh, Mari... May your wish... come true.”

Having spent his final moments calling out Marianne’s name, Lord Patriciél breathed his last. His words broke off, and in the next moment, he crumbled away into sand.

From his dusty remains crawled a single gray lizard. With a whoosh, it sprouted long barbs from its body, flinging itself at the Thorn Princess. She maneuvered her thorns to catch it midair and crush it in her hold.

Yet the lizard refused to die.

“Oh my. A small one though it is, this is a monster. Earth is its element, I assume.”

“Huh?”

“It’s too dense for me to kill. Someone come strike it down with a sword.”

At the Thorn Princess’s request, Cain ran the lizard straight through, only for the reptile to dissolve into sand. It really had been a monster, after all.

“Why did he have a monster with him?”

I found it curious, but no one had an answer for me. Now that their work was done, the thorns unraveled themselves and retreated back under the earth.

“To think even his last words were devoted to a queen decades his junior,” the Thorn Princess muttered, gazing out at the small lump of sand that had once been Lord Patriciél. “She must be turning in her grave.”

I figured “she” referred to the original owner of her body. No doubt her own father’s willingness to turn her into a guinea pig had thrown Efia into despair, eventually robbing her of the very will to live.

Though she had just taken her revenge, the Thorn Princess didn’t seem pacified. After crushing the mound of sand underfoot one last time for good measure, she left it behind.

“And that’s the end of the count. Let’s go, Kiara. The two of us have a lot to talk about.”

Beckoning me along as though nothing had just happened, she began walking over to where Reggie and his knights were gathered.