"I don't think this is a good idea, Maura."

"I think you should get out of my way, Rowan Woodbead."

"Think about it--" Rowan moved to the left to block Maura's attempt to sidestep him. She glared at him with intent to murder. "--the king's mages suddenly declaring we should kill our own to initiate war? All the while we've been biding our time, neither attacking nor fully prepared to be attacked. The rest of the country has heard nothing about the impending war except for King Mephis's ill health. Isn't that a bit strange to you?"

"If they employed me to critically think, I would not be a military mage. I would be a war advisor."

"Just because you're not employed to think doesn't mean you don't think, right?"

She looked as if she wanted to tear him a new one and make him eat it. "I'd watch my words if I were you, baby brother. We both know you've never had much of a spine. I don't think you'd like to not have a mouth as well."

"What's more important to you, Maura? Doing what you're told? Or doing what's right?"

Her eyes narrowed. "What does it matter what I want? I'm a military mage. I'm sworn to the country to be the king's right arm. Not everyone is privileged to make whimsical decisions on morality or conscience. You do as you're told or people die."

"You're doing as you're told now and people are going to die."

"Just because we haven't crossed paths in two years it doesn't make you any stronger or wiser. Don't flatter yourself. All the duties you've shirked when you abandoned your military mage post and ran away with your tail between your legs two years ago -- someone has to pick up the pieces."

Rowan gritted his teeth. "Don't patronise me."

"You don't even realise how lucky you are: the youngest child." Maura's nostrils flared. "Bolliver fulfilled all military expectations by becoming a soldier and as a colonel. I fulfilled all magical expectations by becoming a military mage. You had no expectations, no obligations -- you could do anything. And you choose to screw up and drag others down with you. Do you feel any shame?"

"I made a mistake. I was foolish. I paid for it."

"No, we paid for it. I took on all your duties in addition to mine, with people doubting my abilities all the time because you got to where you were from my recommendations. Bolliver withstood months of ridicule and undermining from his peers and seniors. Father was banished to the wastelands for shaming the Woodbead name. You? You got to start anew, no repercussions. Heck, you even got yourself a little baby mage who thinks you're some sort of prodigy!" Maura snickered, but there was no mirth. "I suppose you can now add 'traitor' to your list of credentials. No, wait, you've betrayed your family already. Figures."

"What do you want me to do, Maura? You want me to say I'm sorry? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being a disappointment to Father. I'm sorry I was never as good as you or Bolliver. I'm sorry I was pushed into a career I did not want. I don't want war. I don't want death. If it's preposterous for a Woodbead to say all that, then I will happily renounce my name. Will it change anything? It won't bring back Eiden Slora or my old team. But if it's shame and disgust you want me to feel, I've been feeling plenty of that for the past two years."

"You dare speak Eiden's name?" Maura's green eyes burned with hellfire.

"He was my tutor. He died because of me. I realise that." Rowan swallowed and kept his back straight. "I know what he was to you."

"Oh?" she scoffed.

"He told me. We spent a lot of time together in Ebbsfleet. He was going to propose, wasn't he? He asked me everything I knew about Father so he could ready himself for the 'bloodbath', as he put it."

Maura's lips twitched.

"He was going to propose when we returned from Ebbsfleet. He'd already gotten Bolliver's blessing. And mine. He was a good man. I..." Rowan swallowed, his throat suddenly deathly dry. He'd never said this out loud to anybody. "I wanted to please him. I desperately wanted his approval. I thought laying rune traps along the border would help when Hanna invaded. He told me it wasn't a good idea. I thought it was. I thought wrong."

To his surprise, Maura didn't make a caustic comment.

"The Hannans caught me when I was still spreading the runes. Slora was one of the first to come to my rescue and he traded his life for mine. The Hannans wanted magic. He was more proficient in it, so he was worth more, and because he knew you would never forgive yourself if I'd died because you'd pressured him into taking me on when I wasn't ready."

Her breath hitched.

"I know how desperately you wanted to preserve the Woodbead name. Slora knew, too. He wouldn't let me do anything that was risky. All the tasks he gave me were within my remit. Anything more challenging he would get others to do instead. I only watched the border because we were low in numbers. I knew I wasn't ready. And I regretted my actions -- every day of my life." The familiar pressure of requisite success washed over in waves. "I know you'd rather I died than him that day. I wish the same. But I can't change what's in the past."

"You've tarnished the Woodbead name enough as it is. Are you trying to drag me down with you as well? Just to spit on the family grave?"

"You'll never be happy if you're driven by pride, Maura. It'll kill you. You know you're more than just a name. You're an excellent rune mage in your own right."

Maura took a shuddering breath and ran a hand over her head, tousling the pin-straight black hair, and turned her back. Cold air tumbled in from the end of the corridor that opened out to the courtyard outside.

"I don't blame you for Slora's death, Rowan," she said in a low voice. Rowan blinked. Her shoulders trembled. "I blame myself. I asked him to take you on. You weren't ready. He said the same. But I insisted. It was my pride, again. I said it was important a Woodbead gets an experienced tutor and excels. He was the best burst mage I know. I wouldn't take 'no' for an answer."

She raised a fist and thumped it on the stone wall before whipping around.

"You happy now? It's my fault, okay? My shortcomings caused my loved one to die. My fault that the family name is now in ruins. My fault Father is now rotting away in the wastelands. It's all me but I made it out to be you. I'm a selfish bitch and I should be the one who's dead. Happy now?"

"Why on earth would I be happy if my own sister dies?" Rowan said, bewildered. Maura's face scrunched up. Tears glistened in her eyes but never fell.

"You have no idea. No idea what it's like. That pressure, that expectation -- but you're the third child. You're blissfully safe from all that. But I can't think for myself. I can't make decisions on my own. The Woodbead name must come first. Always." She shook her head and ran another hand through her hair.

"You think you can fix the name if you kill people in the king's name?"

"It's not the killing. It's more than that. If I disobeyed the king, that's generations of Woodbeads' renown and connotations of loyalty to the throne gone. We were the family to establish the Miracle era and have stood staunchly with the family through nine generations. Three hundred years, Rowan. I can't let it die on my hands."

"What use is a country if her people are dead?"

Maura closed her eyes and let out a resigned sigh.

"Listen, Maura. I'm not asking you to rebel against the king. I understand you're in a difficult situation here." Rowan grabbed her elbows. She glared straight back and he let go, as if burnt. "There's more going on than meets the eye. This is more than just Acrise being threatened by Hannans."

"You think I don't know that?" She dropped her voice. "I was the one who extracted the information from that Hannan captive. I am more than aware someone on the Karman side is supplying the enemy with runes. What do you want me to do? My hands are tied."

"Our orders are to kill Acrise citizens. What if there aren't any? What if we couldn't find the citizens to kill? Then we haven't disobeyed the king."

She snorted. "You're going to evacuate the city? The tracks have frozen over. There is no way out of here."

"They can go on foot."

"They'll die in the cold within an hour."

"Not if we prepare them enough."

Her eyes narrowed. "I won't ask."

"Just... leave the dungeons on the south side last when you go on your killstreak, all right?"

Without a word, Maura turned around and marched off, the clacking of her boots echoing along the corridor and she disappeared into the sunset-bathed courtyard.

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