Mari leaned forward, resting her forearms on her legs as weariness struck again. “That’s why I’m here. Why my Guild decided to kill me even before I knew I was… that person. Because I thought that kind of reasoning was terrible and I want it to stop. I want to fix things, not let them go to blazes because I’m afraid change might undermine the way things are.”
The princess watched Mari a little longer, then shook her head. “Would that you had been born twenty years earlier. Perhaps you could’ve prevented much suffering here.”
Mari shook her head in turn, closing her eyes for a moment. “No. I don’t think conditions would’ve been right twenty years ago for me to get the support I’ve needed. Besides, it’s not me alone. I wouldn’t be here now if not for Alain. He’s kept me alive and kept me going. Without him, without his skills as a Mage, I’d be lost. Actually, I’d be dead. And I know a lot of people look at us and think we couldn’t possibly really be in love, but we are. He’s my partner in every way.”
“Your partner.” Sien nodded. “A nice thing to have. Can he then take your place if the worst happens? You told me the others would follow only you.”
“I’m afraid that’s true.” Mari sighed, raising both palms in a what-can-I-do gesture. “Don’t ask me why. They listen to Alain because they think he’s telling them what I want. Even though he’s smarter than I am. Probably has a lot more common sense, too.”
“Success depends upon you,” Sien noted. “As it depends upon me for Tiae. I’m all my country has left to rally around, Lady Mari. There should be an elected parliament to exercise some authority. That disappeared long ago and will need to be recreated, but even when the government has been rebuilt my status will stay the same in one very important way. I literally am Tiae, by the laws and beliefs of Tiae.”
“I’ve got enough trouble with being the woman of the prophecy,” Mari said. “I can’t imagine being a country.”
“If I fall, all will be lost. There is no one and nothing else left that all of Tiae could look to. It would be generations, or never, before Tiae was whole and happy again.”
“If the Storm hits as the Mages keep warning, it’ll be a lot longer than that,” Mari said. “Why does it have to be me? I’ll bet you’ve wondered the same thing plenty of times.”
The princess nodded at Mari. “You may be the only other person in the world who understands how I feel. And I may be the only one who fully understands how you feel.” She blinked, smiling sadly. “I remember as a small child playing in the palace in Tiaesun. Tiae was whole and at peace. It seems an impossible memory now, a dream of a place that never really was. I’ve spent so many years hiding, trying to stay alive, trusting in only a few. Even within this town only a trusted few know my true identity, because if it became widely known that the last princess was here, the warlords would flock to capture or kill me. There has been no one I could share the burden with.”
“I’m sorry you never found your own Alain,” Mari said.
Sien lowered her head, the smile changing into something that Mari couldn’t interpret. “I have had three men who intended to marry me. The first was when I was ten years old.”
“What?” Mari asked, thinking she couldn’t have heard right.
“He was much older. He claimed he would protect and love me and help me save Tiae when, with my help, he became ruler of Tiae. Wasn’t that noble of him? But he was killed by rivals, and I changed hands. The second man gained control of me when I was fifteen, holding me prisoner and swearing that I would marry him and do exactly as he demanded so that he could become king someday. Are you seeing a pattern?” Sien paused, her eyes shadowed by memory.
Mari swallowed before she could speak. “What happened to him?”
The princess smiled again. “I had hidden a knife on myself. Only a small knife, but I had learned enough of the ways of violence by then to kill him with it when he attempted to attack me in the bedroom that was my cell. With his keys I was able to escape.” Her expression changed again, becoming wistful. “And then, at seventeen, I met a knight in shining armor. Faris had defied the embargo of the Great Guilds, coming south from Danalee in the Confederation to try to learn the fate of relatives who had been trapped in Inser when the kingdom was broken. He was twenty, and he believed in good things and meant all the best, and I believe to this day that he truly loved me. But he thought that if we wed we should be equals in all things, and I told him that was not possible, that I would always be Tiae and he could not be. He did his best to understand, I think, and perhaps in time he would have been able to accept that. But our small group was ambushed, and he died as valiantly as any hero could have wished, holding off the bandits until I and a few others could escape. It has been almost ten years since he died, and there has been no one since, for I would not again put myself at the mercy of another, and I could not put enough trust in anyone.”
“I… don’t know what to say,” Mari confessed. “Except that I don’t know that I would have survived what you have, let alone come out of it as… as well as you have.”
“I have my demons, Lady Mari,” Sien said, looking at Mari again. “They come in the night, usually, but sometimes in the day, to mock me and frighten me and attempt to warp me into something that would harm Tiae and all who believe in it. Maybe being Tiae is what has kept me sane.”
A soft knock sounded on the door, then the old woman looked in. “The Mage is here asking after Lady Mari.”
“Send him in,” Sien said. “Mage Alain. You are welcome, and I thank you as I thanked Lady Mari for your service to Tiae.”
Alain nodded, moving to stand next to Mari. “One of the first things I learned from Mari was the need to do the right thing.”
“Is there no end to the good that Lady Mari does in this world?” Sien asked with just the right amount of humor in her voice. “I now face the need to live up to her example.”
Mari couldn’t help smiling. “Yeah, that’s me. Absolutely perfect, and a model for princesses everywhere. Do not nod, Alain. Did you find any more of Raul’s people hiding out there?”
“About twenty in various locations,” Alain said. “But none of them lied when they said they had been forced to join the warlord’s army. The commander of the town’s forces let them go. Most of them. Four said they had nothing left and asked to join the town’s defenders.”
Sien finally sat down, looking at Mari and Alain. “You have given us much. What can Tiae give you besides workers and soldiers?”
Mari bit her lip, hesitant to bring up what she really wanted. “Princess, I’m a Mechanic. I have a lot of training in how to fix things and build things. Machines. And the nice thing about machines is that even though they are often temperamental in their own ways, and each can have its quirks, one machine of a certain type is just like every other machine of that type. But I’ve been, more and more, having to work with people, and people are… really complicated. Alain can tell me if someone is lying, but what about people who think they’re being truthful when they tell me something that isn’t right? What about people who know how to twist the truth?”
“You’re talking politics,” Sien said. “I imagine that every ruler of the common folk, no matter how elected or appointed, has greeted the news of the daughter’s appearance with thoughts of how they could use the daughter to their own ends. If you’re claiming that you have no skills to motivate and inspire, I must disagree, but if you are worried about those who will try to manipulate you for their own power and profit, you have every right to be concerned. I’m afraid that I have far too much experience in dealing with that.”