Children flocked the Nyxis the moment he shut the door to his house. Xanthy stepped back to avoid colliding with small bodies as she watched her friend smile and hug the children as if they were his own.

"Now, we don't want to exclude the High Queen." Nyxis turned to Xanthy after hefting a child no older than three into his arms. "What do we say to Her Highness?"

"Welcome to our house, Your Highness," came quite the chorus of different voices but the same monotone.

"You forgot one thing," Nyxis tapped his chin.

The children bowed as one. "Welcome to our house, Your Highness," they said again.

Xanthy blinked. Oh, they're referring to her? "Y-yeah," she laughed weakly as she waved her hand in the air. "There's no need to do that with me, okay? Don't listen to what your father says."

"Hey," Nyxis shoved his hand in his hair. "Don't make it harder for me!"

Xanthy winked at him. "What? I'm a fun aunt."

She paused, gauging Nyxis's reaction about what she just said. He didn't seem to mind. He just jerked his chin towards the arch leading to a wider room to his left. She didn't even notice it the first time. "Come on," he said gently. "I know you're dying to sit."

She snorted. Well, doctor's orders.

As soon as she was settled on a high-backed, dining chair, she turned to find at least ten small children staring up at her with wonder. Twenty eyes of various eye colors and sizes blinked at her. Mouths parted slightly in awe.

"Are you really the High Queen?" a girl no older than six asked. How was she able to tell their ages anyway? Bright blue eyes met Xanthy's brown ones without much fear. Rather, curiosity painted her expression.

Xanthy smiled and propped her hands on her thigh as she leaned closer to the girl. "What's your name?"

"Daria," the girl averted her gaze to pick at the hem of her pretty dress. Ah, the girl who almost ran into Xanthy the other day.

"That's a very pretty name," Xanthy reached out and pinched the girl's cheek. Oh, damn, her skin was so smooth.

The girl shrugged and stuck her bottom lip out. "Dad came up with it, according to Mom," she said. Judging from the trail curling in and out of her, she's going to manifest as a fire sprite. Now, how in the world could Xanthy also tell? Ah, whatever.

"Really?" Xanthy smiled. "To answer your question," she took a deep breath for emphasis. "Yes, I am, indeed, the High Queen."

A collective gasp rang from the children gathered. One boy with bright red curls and tanned skin ran towards the arched partition separating the dining room and the holding room. "She's the High Queen. Get the book!" the boy shouted to someone beyond the arch.

From the pattering of feet and the excited chatter thundering from the arch, it couldn't be good. Xanthy whirled to Denara who was silently stirring some sort of stew from a cauldron over a weak fire. "How many do you have here?"

"Hmm?" Denara looked up from her dish. The smile that painted her face couldn't have been more amused. "A little over fifty."

Saliva went back Xanthy's throat the wrong way. "Fifty—"

"I'm kidding," Denara chuckled as she sprinkled a pinch of something into the cauldron. Several clutters of utensils later, the sprite's voice dropped a little. "We only saved thirty children for now but it always feels like there's more who need our help."

Xanthy licked her lips as the cold wind had turned chappy. "If you want, I can get the Seelie Court to provide you with support," she offered. "This is something we need more of in the whole island."

Denara brought the ladle close to her lips and took a brief sip. "If that's not too much of a hassle," she said. "I don't want to burden you with our problems, though."

"This is not a burden," Xanthy shook her head as six more children joined their brothers and sisters in front of her. "In another life, this is something I would like to do as well. You've got a good heart, Denara. Let me honor that."

"If you wish, Your Highness," was the sprite's only answer as she moved to a different cauldron after extinguishing the fire with a snap of her fingers. Oh, it's really an advantage being all four sprites at once.

Xanthy turned back to the assembled children in front of her. Daria passed her a bound tome filled with pretty drawings of two colorful birds over a snowy background. Xanthy had never seen snow but from the reports she got from Helinfirth and Falkirta, it must have been so beautiful.

"What's this supposed to be?" Xanthy asked, running her hands over the tome's paint. "This is pretty."

"Read it to us, Your Highness," the boy with the red curls said. "Please?"

Xanthy snorted. Well, what harm could it do? This was a season of good deeds, after all. "Alright, then," she propped the first page open. "Listen up."

This painting featured the same two birds flying through a hazy snowstorm. Two lines of sentences written in the Keiju koset were printed in the page's upper corner. Thank the gods it's something like the ones she was reading for her exercises in the palace.

Two lonely little lovebirds in a storm. Xanthy read. The snow has fallen, where could they go? The children's jaw fell open almost consecutively as they stared at her without blinking. She sighed. Continue reading.

Two lonely little lovebirds broke into song. "If I keep at it, even when weak, I'll make it home." The word sent an uncontrollable twinge in Xanthy's gut. Home... that's something she found this time around but it's not complete. Not yet. Was that too much to ask during Jered Hyngtis?

She cleared her throat free of the growing lump in her throat. Just....see this through. She forced her lips to form the words as she resumed towards the next page and the next. The one after that. Two lonely little lovebirds, lonely they are no more. "It's been a journey, love, but now I'm home."

Xanthy turned to the last page and her eyes misted. The painting now featured the same two birds together in their cozy home made of sticks and leaves. After a long time of hardship, they're finally made it back to each other. She bit her lip. Home...

Fear curled at the base of her gut. Had her voice come out shaky at some point? Could the children sense it? If they could, none of them showed it. Apart from the wonder plastered in their shocked expressions, their eyes held nothing but fine adoration.

"Can you do it again?" a girl with blond hair parted in tails on either side of her head said.

"What is being the High Queen like?" another child popped up just as Xanthy was opening her mouth to answer the other child's question.

"Do you get to enjoy two vulkraine meals a day?" came another. Xanthy blinked. That's...specific.

"Does the High Queen get to have a cute pelgar for a pet?"

"Oh, how about a fierce kephras?"

"I want a big dagrine!"

"Now, now," Xanthy spread her arms and slowly brought them down. The children stopped talking all at once. "I can't answer questions if you ask them at the same time. Let's try again, shall we?" She pointed to the girl with parted up-do. "Come here."

She made the child sit on her lap and she leaned closer. The girl drew into herself as she twiddled with her fingers. "What's your question?" Xanthy asked, rocking the girl over with her good leg.

"I asked if you could read the story again," the girl pouted.

Xanthy chuckled. "Well, the magic of first times will be gone if I do that."

"I don't care," the girl sniffed. "You have to do it again."

"How about the next time I visit?" Xanthy smiled and dropped her voice. "That could be our little tradition, don't you think?"

The girl's eyes lit up. "Yes!" she squealed and continued doing so even as Xanthy sent her back to her seat to call up another child. Over the next few minutes, she was just taking up children after children and answering silly queries like what a High Queen has for breakfast.

When the children ran out of questions, one shouted they're going to play some game and the rest followed screaming into the holding room like a flock of graspel. Xanthy collapsed against the dining table and wiped the sweat dotting her brow.

"Oh, damn," she breathed. "How are you able to do this every day?"

Denara trudged to the table and laid a steaming bowl of stew in front of Xanthy. "You get used to it," she said. "It's like having a small village inside your house."

Xanthy ducked her head in thanks as Denara passed her a spoon. She took a tentative sip of the stew. The explosion of salty and sweet flavors made her raise her eyebrows. Huh, this was good. "How are you able to find a place in Nanvera?" she asked.

As far as Xanthy was concerned, houses here were designated for the gallery keepers, some of the Imperial advisers, and the trading companies. It's hard to secure a residential compound here if one was a regular citizen. Besides, judging from the size almost rivaling the foremost wing of the Alkaran Palace, this house didn't come cheap.

"Nyxis recently started a printing business where he publishes his almanacs about brewing and the recipes he invented himself," Denara said to which Xanthy smiled. He finally got his dream of completing his own medical almanac, huh? "And I gave the nearby historical gallery all my gear."

Xanthy raised an eyebrow. Oh, yeah. Denara was from an age long gone. "From the Hundred Years' War?"

Denara nodded. "I don't need it now that the war is over," she picked at the inside of her palms. "The owner of the gallery had never been so quick into agreeing to our terms in having a place in his compound in Nanvera. After all, that exhibit has been one of the most popular he has had since he opened."

Handy. Clever. Their dynamic was truly admirable. Xanthy blew a breath past the growing coil in her gut. "That's nice, really," she said. "I'll continue trying to support you where I can."

"And you will forever have our gratitude for that, Your Highness," Denara said.

"I told you to stop with the Your Highness thing," Xanthy rolled her eyes. "It's not going to be that way for long."

Denara hummed. "If you say so," she jerked her chin towards the direction the children had gone when they ran out. "You're good with kids."

Heat rushed to Xanthy's cheeks. Her, good with children? Never. "You compliment me too much," she shook her head. "I'm merely trying to give them what they expected from the mythical High Queen."

Denara snorted. "Modesty will not get you anywhere."

"I should go," Xanthy finished the last contents of her stew and set the bowl gingerly against the table. "I still have speeches to write, lessons to learn."

"Of course," Denara stood up and inclined her head to one side. "Would you like to give Airese and Eldan the stew?"

Xanthy smiled. "Please," she said. "You're a good cook. Is there anything you can't do?"

Denara shook her head. "When you have lived for a thousand years, you tell me."

That night, as soon as Xanthy finished eating dinner, she headed towards Airese's study. "Does Dad really not know anything about where June could be?" She braced her mother's desk and hung low to level her gaze. "He's the freaking head of the espionage division of the Dwanzeigian court."

Airese set aside the parchment she was reading and folded her hands together. "Now, Eldan wasn't exactly the head but he is the best one among them—"

"That doesn't matter," Xanthy sighed and drew away. She rubbed her arms as she paced in front of her mother's desk. "There might be something going on with June and I really hate not knowing it. Where was he? Why hasn't he come to me at least once during the holiday? Surely Dad knows something?"

"Darling, I'm sure everything's fine with June," Airese had a look of worry plastered in her face. "He seemed spry for a young man. I'm sure he'll come around."

"So everyone keeps telling me," Xanthy narrowed her eyes. "It's almost like everyone is following a script. Nobody is looking me in the eye whenever I ask them about him. Just what is going on?"

"Nothing's going on, love," Airese coughed into her fist. "I swear."

Xanthy crossed her arms. "Do you know something?"

Airese tensed. "Who, me?" she waved her hands in front of Xanthy. "What could a girl like me know?"

Stuff, most likely. Xanthy bit the inside of her cheek. Her mother and her friends certainly knew something. The real question was why none of them were willing to tell her.

Something was definitely going on.