Every few weeks, Samael would intercept her as she left training and educate her on politics, history, and strategy. She’d had numerous questions about the fae, and he’d been a willing vessel for her inquiries. Perhaps some part of him felt an obligation in his bones to help lost fair folk find their place in this world. Occasionally Ash would join them, sweat still clinging to his copper brows from the morning’s practice, and listen while Samael spoke on Raascot or the Sulgrave Mountains. The older had smiled when he’d heard the girl called Ayla, but he hadn’t expressly said why. He’d kept a knowing twinkle in his eye, teaching them of the empires. While kings and queens were titles in Gyrradin’s kingdoms, Imperator had been the term amongst Sulgrave’s fae until they’d dissolved to self-govern under a Comte for each of their seven territories. There had been no Imperator in the mountain kingdom beyond the Straits for a thousand years, though on the other side of the world, the Etal Isles still had a long-beloved Imperatress sitting upon the fae throne.

“You said you’ve never been to Sulgrave, right?” Amaris had asked Samael.

“That’s correct. It’s a challenging pilgrimage, to say the least.”

“How do we know, then? How do we know how their government is run and things like that?”

“I said it’s challenging to visit. I didn’t say it was impossible. Fae do cross the Frozen Straits, though usually only in one direction or the other, as it’s too difficult to make the trek twice. It’s rare, but visitors and ambassadors will come from Sulgrave once every few hundred years.”

“And the Etal Isles?”

He’d shrugged rather nonchalantly and carried on with his lessons. It would take her years to learn all the things she should already know, but she was determined to make up for lost time.

She learned the kingdoms of Raascot and Farehold were the only known regions where human and fae lived together, though most fae who hoped for a quiet life migrated north.

“Why would any fae stay in Farehold?” she’d asked.

“They don’t,” Samael said. “Unless there’s a loved one, familial ties, or ancestral land, most fae migrate to Raascot or Tarkhany. Would you want to stay where you weren’t wanted?”

Amaris knew he hadn’t asked the question pointedly, but it was hard for her not to take the question as a dry commentary on her own existence within the walls of Uaimh Reev. Yes, perhaps sometimes there was a compelling incentive to stay where one wasn’t wanted.