"Lysandra," the Second Aether Princess shrieked. "What are you doing?"

"Proved a point that I must pay for," the Grandmaster answered, green dress swishing as she yanked Eiothne Acelia along. "Let's go."

"What point?" Eiothne demanded, futilely trying to retrieve her hand from Lysandra's iron grip. "Just because you're you doesn't also mean you can just drag the monarch of another country around like a ragged doll!"

Lysandra cackled. "Don't bother going into diplomacy, Io, darling." she glanced back with a wicked grin. "It doesn't suit you."

The Princess gives her a look of pure hatred. "Don't call me that."

They stop in front of the palace library with flourish— Lysandra with her cat-like grin and Eiothne with her signature youthful exuberance of little patience. A member of the Monarch Guard stationed in the Echomai Palace — the capital of Gaia — year round, bows when he sees her. 

"Lady Liyostoni." Armour clinks as he sinks to his knees.

Lysandra smiles— A familiar, diplomatic, kind ruler smile with her luscious brown locks framing her face and curved jade green eyes. "Rise," she said, voice low and authoritative. 

Eiothne snorts when the guard is out of hearing range and rips her wrist out of Lysandra's grasp violently, showing her true nature as a seasoned warrior. Blonde braid fanning behind her as she slams open the heavy library door with both hands, grey 'battle-dress' fanning out behind her. Sinking down into a chair with a very male, military poise, she glances at Lysandra with the grey eyes filled with youthful boredom that reminds Lysandra of Elias. Of a time where Lysandra and her brother did not have to worry about the things, they must now. 

"Don't you ever get tired?" Grey eyes continue to bore into the green of the Grandmaster's dress.

"Of what?" Lysandra asked back, thumbing through pages of a book she knew well. Very, very well.

"Of the acting. Of the lies. You came to Gaia to prevent a war — you have. You made a fallen country into a prosperous empire. The lies you used to create what you have today can be shed, could have shed a long time ago. You don't have to be dead. You don't have to pretend to be Liyostoni Paladizagaea. Why do you?" Eiothne asked, alight with a fervour that only warriors have.

Lysandra didn't hold a war to have Gaia. Aether is ruled by a nation of seasoned warriors. 

Alas, only the heroes are remembered. Never are the kings who come after them— The kings that bring the wealth and prosperity the heroes who only knew war could never have. And that was why Haruto sent her instead of Elias or Izana six years ago. Because what Clarines needed — the golden idols that Elias and Izana presented was not what Gaia needed. What Gaia needed had been a gentle, firm hand full of gold and wreathed in shadows. A hand who would be able to guide from the dark and rule without military power. Lysandra had won without war— she bought out the lands of every last lord in the land with the combined fortune of her personal trove and Ciairos' fortune then returned the lands back to those who could be changed.

Izana and Elias would've never tried to change them. The sense of morals, the upholding of law and justice, the makings of a hero. Things that would only succeed in destroying Gaia further. 

"Sa," Lysandra sighs in her reply, "if only I was like you when I was eighteen... Maybe I wouldn't have to pretend being six-feet under, now."

Eiothne scoffs. "You took over a nation when you were twenty-four. Enligeca told me I would've wrecked Gaia if I even tried."

Lysandra laughs. "That's evident, seeing the state of my greenhouse." 

The Aether Princess groans. Lysandra rolls her eyes. "Anyway," she begins, slender fingers tapping a rhythm on the cherry wood table, "have you brought the guest list as I asked?"

"I have," the blonde answered, pulling out a crinkled parchment from the pocket of the trousers she wore beneath her dress, "why would you want it?"

Lysandra gives her a dazzling smile. "Remember what I said about politics and diplomacy?" 

♛♛♛

"Tell me, Lysandra. Do you think you have escaped by running to a country that does not exist and hiding beneath a crown?" The former Count Ouchi sneered at her, the eerie smirk he had when she first saw him is gone.

His impatience had always been his weakness, even when she first stood against him as a teenager, he had held the upper hand in the encounter and threw it away. That had been the only reason Lysandra won against him. That would be the reason she would win, now. 

He doesn't know. 

"What? Too afraid to speak, princess?" he jeered.

He doesn't know. Doesn't know the position of power she holds. Doesn't know that Izana and her brother is already set to come. Doesn't know that Lysandra never intended to keep her death a secret. 

She rose, he looks confused before returning to smug again.

"We are done," she said to the guard. He nods in reply. 

As she is escorted out, Ouchi taunts her footsteps. "Now, think of what Izana would say. Having mourned over you for all those years. What would they think? Now, I'm open to negotiations any time, Lysandra. Or should I say... Liyostoni-ojo?"

Lysandra stops and turned with a cold smile on her face. "Do you think you can use my own blood against me? My throne?" she said, eyes sharper than the cliff's edge, darker than a thousand caverns. "It was never a leverage, Ouchi. Gaia is not yours to threaten. It is not a jewel you can stain. It is my birthright."

With that, she turns and strides towards the stairs briskly. "Get information out of him," she ordered as she faced the prison guards waiting for her in front of the staircase. "I don't care what you do, as long as you do it."

"Hai!" They salute in unison.

♛♛♛

The warmth of the fire and the tea is a welcomed distraction.

"Well, that was quite the outburst." A familiar voice drawled from the window.

Aleksandr Rotavel. The Minister of Trade and Economics. Izana's aides since his childhood. Lysandra's own comrade. Or someone who should be.

"Rotavel," she greeted in a clipped tone. 

"Lysandra," the blonde of his hair shimmers as he slides into her window, nimble as a monkey. Before closing it behind him.

"Shouldn't you be in Aether?" She peers at him through narrow eyes. Aleksandr Rotavel had always unnerved. A genius who made his own talents latent at a young age so he could become an aide instead of the heir to his father's business empire and eyes that made her... 

"Haruto-sama received word that a certain exiled lord was found within Gaian borders and sent me to assist you."

"How kind of her," she said dryly. 

"So, what will you do? When they know?"

"My life is his," she replied decisively, "it had been his all along. What he needs to worry about is how to extinguish the hate of Eradikegal."

Rotavel's eyes flickered with the flames. "You believe that someone took Ouchi in?"

"No, I believe they hired him. He knew nothing of Gaia's current condition. He thought I'd be willing to negotiate with him so Izana would not know of my... Being alive." 

"He must have thought you were afraid they would execute you for treason," Rotavel said, fancying himself a cookie.

"He thought that I was afraid I would still be killed regardless of taking up a post under an official name." Lysandra sinks back into her chair, burning eyes closed in an attempt to find relief.

"Izana wouldn't kill you," he said incisively, "besides, the entire continent would be onto him, considering all the precautions we took. I mean, Gaia technically is ruled by him as well. You, the Grandmaster and keeper of the archives including the succession registry declared Gaia to fly the flags of Clarines."

She sighs. "That's the problem, Rotavel. Eradikegal thinks that because we were the last faction to have the parchment that determines who takes the throne to the largest country they think we'll try to take all of the others, too, because we're all connected and they tried to do it."

"Well, they are capitalistic and ambitious. World dominance is certainly on the agenda when the other countries technically all stemmed from you." Rotavel laughs.

"Of course you'd find this funny. You're the exact same as Ciairos."

"Speaking of him, where is he?"

"Hamunet."

"Aren't they the country trying to get a democracy voted in?" Rotavel asked.

"Communism," Lysandra corrects.

"Oh," he said, sounding like he doesn't actually care, "great. What're we going to do about your identity crisis?"

"Hoping that grandmother will be too drunk to mention me and Haruka to be trying too hard to get back to Haruto-sama's good graces to care as well as entertaining the idea to run off to another country in ruins and conveniently take it over as well."

"Another one?" He raises an eyebrow.

"It took me six years and I was considerably less rich than I am now. Maybe I can do it faster, this time."

"I present to you, the one who was adamant against world domination." 

"Please don't joke about this. The peace treaty has been lost for centuries and Eradikegal's only fought with money in the last few decades. But if they manage to somehow kill Izana and Elias, Gaia will belong to them by default. Haruto and Haiyana will be too busy trying to find a new king for Clarines to care while the Aether and Hamunet don't have nearly the resources nor the military power to stand against Eradikegal. After they take over those two, Clarines and Tanbarun will be next. I thought I managed to stop it at its root when I helped install Karcalus, the first prince, on the Wezstanza throne and formed another treaty with him, but it seems someone else is stirring the flames within court."

"I wonder who it is you're doing this for, Lysandra," Rotavel says slowly, "Gaia or Clarines?"

Her eyes snap open. 

"You came as a champion of Clarines. Yet here you stand, the protector of Gaia. You will only be able to protect one when the storm comes. The one you choose to stand with will most certainly be able to brave the storm, while the other will fall into ashes and cinder with the same conviction."

"Rotavel—" she begins.

"It will be time to choose eventually," he cuts her off. "For now," he opens the windows again, "I will inform the King Mother that all is well."

♛♛♛

please tell me if this made sense lol okay

up above is an image of eiothne

Swegful hi, do you understand who liyostoni is now?

sophie xx