Maren could not be certain, but she thought she and the Prince were becoming friends. Certainly, it looked different from her friendship with Alec, which was built primarily on a foundation of laughter and mutual liking. But she found that she was beginning to look forward to seeing the Prince in the same way she looked forward to seeing Alec, and that was surprising. And when she looked back on the months she had spent at the palace, she found many times when the Prince had been kind and compassionate.

Not to mention, there had been several occasions when she had been particularly vulnerable, and he had been ... supportive? She wasn't sure what word best described those times—caused by Prince Kieran, primarily—when Prince Donovan had seen just how fragile she could be and had been sympathetic and helpful.

She knew of course in the abstract that friendship looked differently from person to person, but had never experienced a relationship quite like she had with the Prince. Her relationship with Alec looked more like the sort of friendship she had with the other children at the estate, except without her being on the outside of the group. She felt friendly with the Tea Ladies, but without having any real substance to their conversations, it didn't feel like actual friendship.

But the Prince, that was something different altogether. It was hard for her to make sense of a relationship that had changed so much in a relatively short amount of time. They had gone from enemies to something somewhat civil but still adversarial to allies to...friends? It sounded strange to her, but she could not come up with a better word.

She enjoyed his company, she felt she could confide in him, and that she did not have to pretend to be someone else when she was with the Prince. If that wasn't friendship, what was?

"Is anyone at home?" Alec asked her, and it was only then she realized she had completely missed the bulk of the most recent conversation.

"Oh...sorry... I suppose I was somewhere else entirely," she said, blushing slightly.

"Ah well, perhaps next time I come to visit you'll stick around for the whole time?" Alec asked with a grin.

"We'll see," she said, smiling back at him.

Alec rose. "Well, as I have an early morning appointment, I had best be off. Do try not to take my departure too hard," he said with mock sympathy.

"I expect we shall find a way to manage without you," the Prince said.

Alec clapped the Prince on the shoulder and kissed Maren on the cheek and left.

The Prince smiled at her. "Can I interest you in a nightcap?"

Maren smiled back, "Only because I worry that without me, you would drink yourself into oblivion due to your depression at Alec's departure."

"Oh, you have a fine opinion of yourself!" he teased, standing up and heading towards his sitting room.

Maren rose. "Ah, well, you did once prefer my company to dining alone," she said, following him.

"Ah, my lady, you shame me!" he declared, mock wounded.

"Not at all, it is exceedingly flattering that Your Highness would prefer my company to solitude!" she insisted, smiling.

She sat down in her usual place on his couch while he poured the brandy.

"Well, I was correct, your company is indeed preferable to solitude," he said with a wink as he handed her a glass.

She smiled back and sipped her brandy while the Prince sat down in his armchair beside her. They sat in companionable silence for a few moments before Maren said, "Would you like to hear about Karlyn?"

She wasn't quite sure what moved her to suggest it. She knew only that she felt it would be comforting in a way, and she wanted to share her story with someone while she had the chance.

The Prince looked somewhat surprised, but not displeased. "I would be honored," he said.

"Where did I leave off? I think Karlyn had just healed my leg?" She thought that was the case, but wasn't entirely sure.

"That's right."

Maren nodded, "After that, she took me back to her house. It was a small, one-room cabin tucked into the side of one of the mountain peaks. I still don't know how she built it or even if she did or if it were someone else. But it was a solid place, well-built and tidy. She gave me some sort of stew to eat, and then she asked me what I wanted."

Maren laughed wryly, "I told her I wanted to be normal, I wanted my life back. And she said, 'Well, my dear, that isn't an option, what would you like to do instead?' I had no idea how to answer that, so I didn't, and then she asked me, 'Do you want to survive?' That annoyed me of course and I told her that, of course, I did. Then she smiled and said, 'Excellent. Now get some rest, we have a lot of work to do.'"

—

Karlyn set up a pallet for her on the floor, and Maren fell asleep almost immediately. She slept better than she had in days, finally warm and safe.

When she woke up, it must have been late morning. She sat up and looked around the cabin. It was small but very cozy. There was a bed in one corner and a dining table with a few chairs in another. Karlyn was bustling around the fireplace, cooking, judging by the smell of food.

"Oh, good, you're awake!" the older woman said when she saw Maren. "The privy is just outside. There's a towel and basin for you to wash with just there on the table."

When Maren was finished, Karlyn replaced the basin with a plate of eggs and what looked like roasted sweet potatoes.

"Thank you," Maren said and began eating as Karlyn sat down beside her.

"It's no trouble," Karlyn said, "You can help tomorrow. I knew you needed to sleep today."

"When you're finished, we'll get started," Karlyn added.

"Get started with what?" Maren asked.

"Why, learning to use the Light, of course," Karlyn said.

"But I don't want to use it! I want it to go away!" Maren insisted.

"And as I told you last night, that's not an option. But since you want to survive, you have to learn to control the Light and you can't control anything you're afraid of and the only way for you to stop being afraid of the Light is to learn to use it," Karlyn explained.

Maren frowned.

"Shouldn't I just pretend not to have it?" Maren asked.

"Perhaps, it depends on what you choose to do with your life—"

"I can't do anything with my life! It's ruined! I'll never get married or —" Maren interrupted, beginning to panic.

"Breathe, girl!"

Maren closed her mouth.

"If you're breathing, then you're still living, and if you're still living, then your life isn't over," Karlyn said.

"But —"

"And," Karlyn said, speaking over Maren's objections, "if your life isn't over, then you need to learn how to use the Light."

Maren wanted to object, but she could see the logic in what Karlyn was saying.

After breakfast, Karlyn took Maren outside and had her look for five sticks of similar size and set them down in a line. Karlyn told Maren to sit down in front of the sticks and to set the center stick and only the center stick on fire.

"How do I do that?" Maren asked, utterly confused.

"Find the Light inside yourself and direct it into the stick," Karlyn explained.

"That's all?" Maren asked skeptically.

"That's all," Karlyn said. "I have to do some work in the garden, I'll come to check on you in a bit."

Maren stared at the sticks. She felt like throwing them. She didn't want to learn how to use the Light! She wanted to make it go away! That's what she wanted to learn!

She poked the center stick. She half hoped it would explode in flames, but all it did was roll a bit under her touch.

She felt so conflicted. She knew Karlyn was trying to help her, but she also felt like she didn't deserve help. She wanted to try to do the task that had been asked of her, but she was afraid to look inside herself. What would she find in the place where the Light was?

In her mind, she pictured the Light as some sort of rot within her. She wanted to cut it out. Light was evil and if it lived inside of her, then she was evil too.

But Karlyn didn't seem evil, and she had lived with the Light far even longer than Maren had been alive. What did that mean?

Reluctantly, tentatively, Maren closed her eyes and tried to look at the place within herself where she thought the Light was. It was somewhere deep within her core, a brightness...was it pulsing in time to her heart?

Maren snapped out of it and leapt off the ground. That was too strange. She wanted nothing to do with the Light, it was far too dangerous.

She kicked the sticks, scattering them, and decided she should run away again. She could not, would not, have anything to do with the Light. She would go back down the mountains and turn herself into the nearest Tracker, then everyone would be safe from her.

Maren had left Mirabel hobbled in a patch of grass nearby, she'd go and get Mirabel and probably could be back down the mountain and in the Tracker prison within three days. Yes, that was for the best and she'd be gone —

"Going somewhere?" Karlyn asked.

Maren took a deep breath and adopted her haughtiest noble mannerisms. "I have decided to leave," she announced.

"Oh? Well, I'm sorry to hear it, but do as you like," Karlyn said.

That was not what Maren had expected.

"I shall go down the mountains and surrender to the Trackers," Maren continued.

"Really? Well, I wish you the best," Karlyn said. She sounded as if she didn't care one way or the other.

Maren had anticipated protests or dramatic insistence that she stay with Karlyn, not dismissal with well-wishes.

She stomped her foot, "The Light is evil, and I want no part in it!" Maren knew she likely sounded very childish, but she didn't really care.

"I understand," Karlyn said. The woman was still very calm and kind, and it incensed Maren.

"What can you possibly understand?" Maren yelled, stomping her foot again. Tears were stinging around her eyes.

"I understand that you're very scared," Karlyn explained, very gently.

"I know you feel very much alone and that you're hurting a great deal," she continued.

Tears flowed down Maren's face, but she made no effort to wipe them away.

"I also know that you won't always feel this way, and that, if you let me, I can help you."

"How do you know? How do you know you can help?" Maren demanded through her tears.

"Because, dear, I was thirteen once, too," she said.

Then, Karlyn came to Maren and wrapped her in an embrace while she wept.

After, Karlyn sat with Maren and coached her through tapping into the Light and channeling it through her finger, and setting the stick on fire. It took a very long time. At first, Maren did nothing with the Light, and then she did far too much, setting all the sticks on fire. But on her second day of trying, she finally burned only the stick in the center.

There would be more exercises and a lot more tears, as Maren, with Karlyn's help, got to know the new person she had become. It took a long time and was very, very painful, but with practice, she not only learned to wield the Light but to make peace with the parts of her that did.

—

"She sounds very special," Donovan said when Lady Maren had finished her story.

Lady Maren smiled sadly, "She really was. I miss her a great deal."

He wanted to ask what had happened to her, but felt certain that Lady Maren would tell him when she was ready.

"How long did you stay with her?" he asked instead.

"About three months," she said.

"And then you went home?"

She nodded, "My father found me after two weeks. Having no other ideas about where I might have gone, he followed the stream up the mountains. He was waiting by the stream one morning when I went to get water.

"He wanted me to go home with him, of course, but as you might imagine, I wanted to stay with Karlyn. She worked out a compromise with him, though. Until I turned eighteen, I would come and spend the summers with her in the mountains to learn about the Light, but I'd spend the rest of the year at home.  When I turned eighteen, I could choose where I wanted to go.

"Neither my father nor I were pleased with the arrangement, but Karlyn was very convincing. And she was right, I had to learn if I were to have any prayer of some kind of life in society.  She was also right that thirteen was far too young an age to commit to a lifetime in the wilderness. So for five years, I lived in both worlds."

"And then?" he asked, unable to resist.

He wanted to know what happened when she turned eighteen.

She smiled, "And then I was forced to come to the palace and live with a nosy prince."

Donovan laughed, "Perhaps another time then."

"Perhaps," Lady Maren agreed.

—

Despite everything, Donovan was happier than he had been in ages. Yes, Kieran was up to something sinister. Yes, Kieran had tried to kill him at least twice. And yes, he would have to consider some sort of future arrangement for Lady Maren. But for the time being, Donovan reveled in having found such a lovely friend in her.

Six months ago, when she had arrived, if anyone had told him he'd be friends with her, he would have thought that person was mad. And yet there he was.

It was a relief for him to have someone with whom he could discuss anything. Alec was like a brother to him, and there were few topics Donovan could not share with him. But he wanted to shelter Alec from as much of Kieran's scheming as possible, and Lady Maren already knew everything, so he could discuss it freely with her.  Which he was glad of as he found her to be particularly insightful.

As the weeks passed, they began to eat dinner together more often than not, and retiring to his sitting room for after-dinner brandy became their habit.

Quite a lot of that time was spent speculating what Kieran might be plotting. They thought it likely it had something to do with becoming king himself, but beyond that, they had only wild guesses. They weren't sure how he would do it or what he might do once he was king.

"I would think he'd want some way to consolidate control over the military," Donovan suggested.

"Hmmm."  That was Lady Maren's way of saying she took your point, but also disagreed with it.

"I just wonder," she said, "and perhaps I am reading into this too much, but do you think he's obsessed with gaining more power? Or do you think at some point he'll say, 'No, that's quite all right, I've had enough.'"

Donovan thought for a moment and then said, "I'm not sure, but it does seem like the sort of thing he'll never have enough of."

"That was more or less what I was thinking. I mean, why should he even bother with me? He can have anyone else he suspects arrested on the spot. But, he seems rather determined to catch me. Perhaps he feels the need to collect any power that crosses his path, no matter the consequences," she explained.

"I'm not saying I disagree, but then what? Surely, he won't be content with just collecting power for power's sake," Donovan said.

"But if he were powerful enough, he wouldn't need to consolidate control over the military or make alliances among the nobility or anything. With enough power, and granted he would need a lot of power, but with enough, he could simply take over and no one would stop him," she said.

"I see," Donovan replied, which was his way of saying that he took your point but also disagreed with it.

"You are thinking like a statesman, how you would go about consolidating political power. But I would suggest that Kieran thinks he's above that. You don't need to concern yourself with political power when you can strangle someone in ten seconds with a wave of your hand," she argued.

Eventually, Donovan agreed she might be right, although he was reluctant to believe that even the brother who likely tried to kill him could be that conniving and calloused. But Lady Maren did sometimes see Kieran more clearly than he did.

And not only that, she understood magical powers.

Donovan had never really discussed what it was like to have powers with anyone else. He was never close enough to Kieran, and it never seemed proper to discuss it with his uncle or father. And there was no one else. His grandfather died before Donovan turned thirteen.

But Lady Maren understood.

They had had a fascinating exchange not long ago, which began when she asked him what the Darkness looked like—or if it looked like anything at all.

"You don't know?" he had asked at first. And then, remembering, "Of course, you weren't at Court for mine or Kieran's thirteenth birthdays."

"I was not, and I can't say I would have attended your displays even if I had been. It sounds awful," she said.

Donovan laughed wryly, "Well, most people around here found it, 'so terribly fascinating.' Mine at least."

Lady Maren did not hide her rolling eyes. "Yes, well, most people don't know what it's like to wake up one morning with powers you don't understand and can barely control," she said.

Donovan nodded, "I think we have that in common. I'll admit I came into my powers under the best possible circumstances, public display aside, and it was still rather unpleasant."

"I have no doubt," she said.

"Would you like to see?" he asked.

"Well, I'll admit to being curious, but you don't have to put yourself on display on my account," she replied.

"I don't mind," he said, holding out his hand. He flicked his fingers and a dark, almost black, shadow erupted from his hand like smoke. He twirled the tendril of Darkness around his fingers, and she watched, fascinated, as it coiled around his hand.

"Hold out your hand," he told her, and she did. He let the strand of Darkness fall into her hand. She held it for a moment before it dissipated.

"It's cold!" she said, surprised.

Donovan nodded. "It doesn't feel cold to me, it just feels...normal, but I'm told that's how it feels to others."

"Show me yours?" he asked.

He could see the idea scared her. "Won't someone be able to tell?"

"I don't think so," the Prince answered. "At the Selection, I could tell there was power, but it felt the same as if Kieran or anyone else had used the Darkness. I just knew it had to be Light because it was coming from you."

"All right," she said dubiously. "But if I get arrested for this, you will have to break me out."

"You have my word."

She held out her hand and Donovan watched as an orb of light—no, Light, grew within it. It started very small and then grew to the size of his two fists put together. The Light shimmered and swirled within the orb. He felt a tug in his bones he knew was telling him about her magic.

"It's...beautiful," Donovan breathed.

"I've always thought so," she said, watching the Light shimmer and swirl within her hand.

"Can I touch it? Will it burn me?" he asked.

"Not as long as you behave," she said with a wink.

He smiled and reached out his hand. The orb of Light offered no resistance, but it felt as though his hand was suddenly bathed in the brightest sunlight.

"I probably shouldn't be surprised, but it's very warm," he said.

She laughed, "Not to me...it just feels, like you said, normal."

After a few moments, she allowed the orb to fade and disappear.

"Do you...what do you think would happen if we touched them together?" he asked.

She looked thoughtful. "I don't know... I never asked Karlyn about that. She might not have even known. I mean...when was the last time both a Light Wielder and a Darkness Wielder have been in the same room?"

He shook his head. "I don't know... I mean, there are the old stories of hoards of Light Wielders burning cities and Darkness Wielders stopping them—"

"I'm not convinced any of those are true," she said.

"No, me either," he said.

And then, feeling a bit nervous, he asked, "Do you want to try?"

She thought about it for a moment before nodding. "Why not?"

They discussed how they might do it for a few minutes—they didn't want to be too close to the impact in case it exploded or something. Ultimately, it was decided that Lady Maren would put an orb of Light hovering in the center of the room, and he would push the Darkness into it while they both stood against the wall.

"Probably we should keep things on the smaller scale, in case something explosive does happen," Lady Maren suggested.

He thought that was a good idea.

He watched, still fascinated, while Lady Maren formed a sphere of Light about the size of an apple and left it floating in midair. Then she came to join him against the wall.

"Is it difficult to hold it there?" he asked.

"Not really, but it isn't doing much. If I was trying to hold an illusion, I have to focus more," she said.

He nodded, that seemed similar to how his powers worked.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Ready."

He built a swirl of Darkness roughly the size of an apple in his hand. The Darkness didn't like to stay in a neat orb like the Light did, but he thought he had about the same amount of it as Lady Maren had used.

He willed it to fly out of his hand to the orb of Light. It was only a few seconds before it hit.

Then both forces disappeared.

"Oh," Lady Maren said. "That was a bit anticlimactic."

He thought so, too. "It's like they canceled each other out."

"Well, at least we didn't blow anything up," she said.

"And now we know. I'm glad we tried that," he said.

"Me too."

They smiled at each other, and Donovan suspected she knew, as he did, that they had shared something quite special.