Fault lines tremble underneath my glass house...
-- Sleeping at Last, Earth

Truth be told, Death had almost forgotten about Prince Hailanyu amidst the chaos of current events. When she remembered about him it was shortly before he arrived at Risingau Palace. His meeting with Kilan promised to be entertaining, if nothing else, and she needed some entertainment after the past months. Really, how many reality warpers could there be at one time? Kiroshnoy was bad enough, but now they seemed to be a dime a dozen on every inhabited planet. She just hoped Kiroshnoy wouldn't start raising the dead. That was the last thing anyone needed right now.

She left some of her more sensible Reapers in charge of reburying a resurrected graveyard -- it was a long and extremely painful story -- and made her way to the palace.

Hailanyu had never visited Risingau Palace. Many of the courtiers were still getting used to it themselves. Death didn't realise these two facts were of any importance. Until she arrived to find a baffled servant leading an equally baffled Hailanyu out of the larder.

"I apologise, your Highness," the servant said, bowing so low his hat almost fell off. "This palace is--" He stopped himself before he said something unsuitable for such important company. "It can be a maze. Why, only the other day a group of guards got lost on their way to the barracks. They marched all the way to the Shizuishan[1] before they realised they weren't in the palace grounds any more."

Hailanyu's eyes widened.

"We won't take such a long detour, will we?" he asked, looking around as if he expected to see the hallways stretching on for miles.

Death shook her head as she watched. Apparently someone had sent the least competent servant to guide the prince. He didn't even realise he was leading Hailanyu to the palace wing set aside for diplomats. This was not quite the sort of entertainment she had in mind.

She fell back and let them walk on ahead. As soon as she was sure they weren't going to look round, she assumed the form of another servant and made herself visible.

"There you are!" she exclaimed. Both the servant and the prince almost jumped out of their skins. She hid her smile behind a put-upon expression as she continued, "The butler's looking everywhere for you. I'll take his Highness--" She bowed to Hailanyu, as a real servant would have "--to the xinramei[2] myself."

The other servant bowed to the prince and made himself scarce. Death suppressed the most absurd urge to giggle as she lead Hailanyu away from the diplomats' wing. Playing guide to a lost prince was not what she expected to do today. It was just as well none of her Reapers were around to see this.

~~~~

Risingau Palace was much smaller than Zasordoth Palace. Someone looking out a window could see almost everything that happened on that side of the building. Kilan had seen Hailanyu's carriage arrive more than ten minutes ago. He had expected his cousin would be shown into the sitting room shortly afterwards. A servant had already poured out a cup of tea for the prince. It sat on the table beside the chair set aside for him, slowly growing cold. It was probably not fit for human consumption by now.

Kilan ordered the servant to remove it after seven minutes.

"Don't pour a fresh cup yet," he said, trying not to let his annoyance show in his voice.

What on earth was taking so long? His mind conjured up increasingly absurd scenarios, ranging from Hailanyu having second thoughts and trying to get out of the meeting to conspirators attempting to assassinate the prince. Worst of all, no one saw fit to tell him what was happening. Apparently all the guards and servants needed to be reminded of protocol.

Finally someone knocked on the door. It was the rapid, attention-grabbing knock of a herald, not the heavy, ominous knock of a guard.

"Announcing Prince Hailanyu Amendath-Caranilnav tar Zenda," the herald waiting outside shouted at the top of his lungs. He sounded as if he thought Kilan was at the other end of the palace instead of less than six feet away on the other side of a thin door.

Thank goodness he didn't use his full surname, Kilan thought as he ordered the guards to open the door. The Caranilnav family was not noted for surnames that were short or easy to pronounce.

Carannish doors in royal palaces were usually made of two separate parts that folded back when opened. Many of the doors in this palace had been badly damaged by rot, damp, and neglect over the years. Some had been salvageable. Most of them were beyond repair, and they had been replaced. The replacements were all in one piece and did not fold back. According to the High Council -- not the most reliable people, it must be said -- this was because of changes in fashion and door-making techniques. Kilan had grown up in Zjurkyu, where folding doors were a rarity reserved for the houses of people trying to look sophisticated, so he had no objections to the new doors.

Unfortunately, the servants and guards were used to the other kind. There was a grumbling and scuffling noise outside as the guards tried to pull the doors apart.

"Damn these fu--" The speaker stopped herself just in time, clearly remembering that swearing in the presence of royalty was frowned upon.

Kilan's patience ran out. If the staff were too incompetent to even open a door by themselves...

He got up and opened the door himself. The guards fell back with startled yelps and muttered swearwords. When they found themselves face to face with the emperor they paled and bowed. The herald gaped openly, looking as if he might faint dead away at the thought of a royal opening a door instead of letting the servants do it. Prince Hailanyu watched the entire fiasco with a badly-hidden grin. Several feet behind him another servant tried her best to appear inconspicuous.

Ironically that was what made Kilan look twice at her. When you were royalty, and especially when you were the emperor, everyone and their brother wanted you to notice them. Someone who actively tried to avoid being noticed was a rarity, not to mention downright suspicious.

There was nothing remarkable about her appearance. Physically she wouldn't stand out in a crowd of other servants. Her uniform was neat and tidy and complied exactly with the housekeeper's strict requirements. An ordinary observer would never have given her a second glance. But Kilan saw -- or perhaps sensed -- something else. A shadow that hung over her, leaching the colour from her surroundings, making everything around her look eerie and unreal. He'd seen it before often enough to know it hung around Death's servants like a cloak.

Why was a Reaper in his palace? Why was a Reaper pretending to be a servant?

He looked again, and revised that question. Why was Death herself pretending to be a servant?

He couldn't demand answers now. Not when Hailanyu was waiting to hear why he'd been summoned. Not when the servants, the guards and the herald were all within earshot. But if Death thought he wouldn't have a few questions for her the next time they were alone, she was seriously mistaken.

~~~~

Life in the Nirnian royal family had always been dull for Kiroshnoy. There were rules about where she could sit, who she could talk to, what she could wear, how many times she had to attend the temple, what she was allowed to say in public, how many subjects she had to study, how many languages she had to learn, how many servants she was allowed to have, who she was allowed to marry and when she was to start looking for a husband. All her life she had been surrounded by rules other people made.

Now suddenly she found she could make rules herself. If she wanted to literally turn her room upside down, she could. If she didn't want to go to the temple, she didn't. If she wanted a new dress, one of her old ones changed into what she wanted the new one to be. If she wanted chicken for dinner, she got it. If she was tired of her oldest sister talking nonsense, Losradan lost her voice.

Alas, there was a downside to all this. When she turned her room upside down, she found that she remained standing on the floor -- now the ceiling -- while all her furniture was fixed to the floor -- or rather the ceiling -- high above her head. When she didn't want to go to the temple, the wheels fell off all the carriages. For weeks afterwards the entire palace was loud in its condemnation of the prankster responsible. Kiroshnoy prayed every day they wouldn't realise it was her.

When she wanted a new dress, she got exactly the dress she wanted. Only problem was, it didn't fit. And no seamstress in the palace could alter it. They tried. Every time they tried it went back to the way it was before while they were still working on it. When she wanted chicken for dinner, the entire palace got nothing but chicken for dinner every day for a month. Pork, fish, lamb, pheasant, even carrots and beans, all turned into chicken. She was thoroughly sick of it before a week had passed.

Even then no one suspected Kiroshnoy. Instead they blamed it on a curse. Some not so subtly whispered that Losradan had somehow caused it.

One thing was clear. Kiroshnoy had to learn to control this strange power. And fast, before she caused a disaster worse than endless chicken or ruined carriages.

The disaster came far sooner than she expected. Mere days after the meals returned to normal, she had an argument with her history tutor. It started over something so silly she forgot what it was about within minutes. But it changed her life forever -- and several other people's, too.

"I wish you never existed!" she shouted at the tutor. In that moment she meant every word.

The tutor disappeared. In the middle of a sentence she blinked out of existence. Kiroshnoy was left glaring at nothing. Her anger instantly turned to bewilderment.

Oh no, she thought. What did I do this time?

At first she didn't make the connection between her angry wish and her tutor's disappearance. But hours went by. No one asked how her lesson had gone. No one wondered why the tutor didn't give a report of the day's studies to the king and queen. No one even mentioned the very loud argument, when surely someone must have overheard all the shouting.

There was no doubt about it. This truly was a disaster of the worst possible kind.

~~~~

Hailanyu had no clear image of how he expected this meeting would go. He knew, however, that it was not going at all as he expected. Of all his siblings he was possibly the least likely to be singled out for important missions. His greatest achievement was writing a few short stories and poems that had never even been published. Yet here was Emperor Tinuviel, calmly telling him that he had been recommended for "an urgent journey"!

It was undignified to let his mouth hang open. Somehow amidst his amazement he recovered the presence of mind to close it.

"I-- There-- Forgive me, your Majesty," he said faintly, not even sure what he was saying. "I believe there's been a mistake. You-- That is-- You can't mean me!"

"I can and I do," Tinuviel said without batting an eyelid.

Hailanyu's mouth dropped open again. This shock can't be good for my heart, he thought dizzily. If this was a joke it wasn't a funny one.

"Who recommended me?" he asked, fighting to find something that made sense in this chaos. If it was Gialma's idea of a prank...

"Aunt Nimetath," the emperor said. "She will accompany you."

This conversation got more shocking with every minute. Now he learnt that the Chief Inquisitor -- who he had never spoken to in his life -- had recommended him for an as-yet-undisclosed mission? And she would go with him? Hailanyu tried to surreptitiously pinch his leg. He only just stopped himself wincing. There went any hope it was all just a dream.

"What is this mission?" His voice wavered.

Tinuviel looked at him seriously. He tried not to shudder. There was something not quite right about the emperor's eyes.

"Have you ever considered visiting Malish?"

Now he knew he was dreaming.

~~~~

Many strange and dark things lurked in the shadows of the mortal world. Few people ever suspected they were there. Those unlucky enough to encounter them rarely returned to tell their stories. Some brave or foolhardy people deliberately hunted them. Anyone who knew about them tried to avoid their notice. And some idiots accidentally drew their attention.

When it came to attracting attention, unintentionally erasing someone from existence could hardly be improved upon. Kiroshnoy was lucky that Death did not yet know what she'd done, and unlucky that something else did.

Years ago it had taken up residence in a small cave beneath a tree's roots. Now it slithered out in the dead of night. Its many eyes blinked blearily at the stars. Its many feet carried it away from its home in the palace orchard. It followed the echoes left by the princess altering reality, straight towards the main palace buildings.

Chapter Footnotes:

[1] Shizuishan = A river about five miles from Risingau Palace.

[2] xinramei = Literally means "jade rooms". This is the name for the part of a palace where the royal family live.