“I miss you,” I whisper, emotion lacing my voice. Not for the first time, I wonder what she would think of the male I’ve become. Deep down, I worry she’d be ashamed of the flirty, irreverent, unfeeling person I pretend to be. I have so many memories of her teaching me what leadership meant, urging me to be a better ruler than my father. Even at eight years old, she insisted that it was my responsibility to uphold the values that the Velmaran Crown should stand for. I was born to live in the light, she would always say. Now I slink through the shadows, trying to secretly undermine my father while pretending to the Velmaran people that I don’t care about them. I feel a sudden need to explain to the room what I’m doing, like somehow whispering my plans to go to Thayaria will serve as atonement to her memory. “I’m going to Thayaria to try and find something to stop father. You always told me it was beautiful there, always said I would visit someday. I can’t wait to see it for myself and see your prediction come true.” My eyes sting, and I have to pull myself away from the only room that has ever felt like home. “Goodbye, mama.”

With my final goodbye, I turn from the room and lock the door behind me again, then create an intricate and invisible knot of magical light to seal it from any unwanted visitors. I let my hand linger on the door for another beat, then pull myself away and toward whatever fate awaits me in Thayaria.

A large crowd has gathered in the throne room, and I internally roll my eyes. Of course he would make a spectacle of this. My father sits on his gold throne, embellished with gems and carvings of various Velmaran landscapes. As I approach, his eyes bore into me. When I stand by his side on the platform, he hisses, low enough for only me to hear even as he keeps a smile plastered on his face. “You’re late.”

“Am I?” I feign. “Guess I forgot what time we were meeting.”