Tara lounged in the Castle's oversized library. She had heard nothing from the Lyriumians in almost a week and could only assume they had their own problems. So, she begun coming up with ways to deal with her own. Liam sat at her side, a large book resting on his lap. Kek, strangely, was nowhere to be seen.

The pair were going through every book in the library to find any reference of the Frozen Ones, the Silent Core, and the Dark Ruler. As the library was old and only had technomagic lights (recently installed), each book had to be searched individually. And there were a shit ton of books. Why no one thought to put in a catalogue, Tara had no idea. Then again, only the Dark Ruler was supposed to be able to enter the library. Surely the Dark Ruler didn't need a catalogue.

Tara closed the book she was reading. Nothing was in it. The book was returned to the shelf and the next one along picked up. She returned to her chair with a groan. Just as she opened the book, a frustrated cry came from Liam. The book he was reading was tossed to his chair and he stormed off, saying something about needing a pick-me-up. With a small laugh, Tara begun reading once again.

She did not realise how engrossed in the book she was until a steaming cup was placed at her side and a plate of small cakes shoved in her face. Tara looked between the plate, the cup, and Liam kneeling before her. "There are far more subtle ways to go about that, you know."

He shrugged then gestured to the plate of cakes. "I'm not moving until you take one."

Tara took one. The cakes were cute, barely the size of her palm. The one she had picked up was brown - chocolate flavoured, she assumed - and covered with twisting pink icing. A few small silver balls rested on the icing as edible decoration. Liam waited until she took a bite before moving. Yes, it was definitely chocolate.

Without looking at the man at her side, Tara said, "What is it with you and fussing?"

"Fussing?" he asked.

"Over me."

"You're my Queen."

Tara cocked her head. "I'm no Queen."

Liam met her gaze. "You are to me."

She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, not seeing any of the words on the page in front of her.

Liam brushed past her, taking a cake from the plate before placing his book back on the shelf. In one mouthful, he gulped down the cake and brushed his hands on his pants. He took a larger book off the shelf, scanned the title, then said, "Oh, hello. I think we may have something here."

Tara rushed to his side as the tick heavy-looking tome was placed on a table. Liam flipped it open where they saw the Archeron family tree. They were the family who the Guardians of the Silent Core came from. It started from the very first king - Archeron himself.

Tara grinned. "Yes! You found it!"

They began flipping through the tome. If there was any chance of finding who the next ruler would be, it would be right at the end. However, the tome itself was not compete. There were many blank pages for the family line to be continued into the future. They had to find where it currently ended -

There it was. A little over halfway through the tome. Enliatu Archeron. There were two very unexpected things near his name. Tara and Liam exchanged glances at the discovery. Enliatu had been married and had a child.

Tara read the tree aloud, tracing it with a finger. "Enliatu Archeron married Nephthys Kallee. Offspring . . ." Her finger trailed down until it reached a name which made her go wide eyed. "Xix Archeron."

Liam gaped. "We imprisoned the daughter of Enliatu for thousands of years?"

"If Nightblade is the same person, that would be one hell of a coincidence."

"And make things more difficult," Liam murmured. "She escaped over two years ago."

Tara cringed. "We're going to need more coffee."

* * * * * * * *

The last thing Amneris expected to happen was to get a call from Tara.

She was enjoying a nice pasta for lunch with Jay seated across the table from her - he was having some sort of soup - when her phone buzzed. Amneris pressed it. A holographic screen appeared between herself and Jay with the name High Horse Girl on it. She looked at Jay through the screen. He oh-so-helpfully pretended not to notice.

Amneris tapped the screen. "Yah?"

Tara and Liam were sitting at a table, a very large book in front of them. "We got something," Tara said, pushing a few escaped strands from her ponytail back. "Enliatu had a daughter."

Jay choked on his soup.

"Seriously?" Amneris said. "Didn't think he would get funky with anyone. What's the daughter's name?"

"Xix," Liam asked.

"Pretty name," Amneris nodded. "Dusk."

Tara and Liam looked at each other then back to her.

"Xix is the Old Language word for Dusk," she explained. "Very rare name. Shouldn't be that hard to find the right person with the same name."

Tara asked, "Are you planning on helping us?"

Jay made a cut-throat gesture from the other side of the screen.

"Ah," Amneris said. "We've actually got a bit of drama happening over here right now. Can't help at this moment of time."

She was about to hang up when Liam asked, "Do you know what happened to Kek?"

Once again, ever the helpful Advisor, Jay made a cut-throat gesture.

Amneris shrugged. "Can't say that I do."

"Hmm," the man said. "Well, it would be appreciated if you let us know if you hear anything."

"Can do. Bye-bye."

Jay looked at Amneris.

Amneris looked at Jay.

In unison, they groaned.