In Line

How much could I trust? How much should I have distrusted? They were wild tales with the possibility of Sky being an adversary and a foreign King becoming an ally. Or was it all a trick to have my hand turn against my family? How does one begin to answer questions that could in themselves hold falsehoods? I needed evidence to prove the makings of my questions were real. I needed to know two things.

Could Teco be my father?

Who was Sky's father?

If even one of the stories Teco told were true, it meant they all had a chance of holding weight.

I needed a way to know for sure without any shadow of a doubt who was in relation to whom. If there was one thing Teco told me that I believed it was the poor quality of our kingdom's ability to investigate. Nearly two weeks had passed, and still, we seemed no closer to finding who poisoned the King. To ask that an investigation be held to find bloodlines lost by time would have been too big a risk and too much of a challenge. I needed someone smart but capable of keeping silent.

Santo came to mind.

I didn't want to use him in such a way that might endanger his life, but he was the only person I knew who could help without raising alarms.

I'd just returned from my ride back to the castle. In the late hours of the night, I retired to my quarters and searched for enough peace of mind to sink to sleep. When I entered my room, I was once again greeted by the sight of a body in my bed.

"Lady Yale?" I questioned aloud.

She did not speak. My mind was so confused I believed what she offered me once might have brought release again. I left the lights off and went to join her in my sheets.

"My brother has been searching for you," I said.

I spoke, and still, she said nothing as I crawled beside her.

"I'm glad that you haven't left us," I added.

Still no answer, not a single word, but there was something. A cold sensation. I pulled the sheets from her body, and there she laid in a pool of her blood. Her throat was slit, and her hands were cut to ribbons, most likely from herself attempting to block a blade.

"Guards!!!" I exclaimed.

I screamed again and again, and before my third, my room was entered.

My life was not the only one threatened that night. There were attempts on all of our lives. Earlier that day, Louis was nearly killed by a group of arrows shot through a window into the castle. A masked assassin attacked Sky in the castle gardens. I might have known these things first hand if not for my ride to and from the embassy, but I might have also been killed.

Our father was no longer the only royal in the castle to survive near death. But there was something amiss. Sky said she fought her attacker, but they managed to get away. Sky never lost a battle. Louis was almost shot by three arrows while walking the castle grounds but was saved by his attacker confusing a house guest for a royal. I was meant to die in my sleep, but Lady Yale was in my bed rather than myself. Sky was attacked head-on, and her attacker not only got away but could not be described. If there were anyone a stealth approach was fitting to use against, it would have been my sister. I had no reason to doubt my Sky's claims, none other than those planted by a foreign king. I needed answers to questions before I could begin to speculate, but I had enough. I needed a resolution.

I couldn't sleep in my room until Lady Yale's body and blood were moved, so I decided I would have a long night. While my brother slept in a guarded safe room for protection, my sister seemed unphased by her attacker getting away. She was out somewhere in the castle. She was probably speaking with the guards or in the training ring, keeping her mind off of everything. Sky was always most calm in a battle. I took the opportunity to do a short investigation.

I entered my sister's quarters. With the gift that Santo gave me, I could look around without turning on the room's lights, which would have given me away. It was a strange gift, the way it made things glow in all sorts of different colors. Nothing was the same color unless it was made of the same material. Teco gave me a vial of the poison that was in our birthday cake; I wondered if I could use my light to match it with its source inside Sky's room.

I shined the light on the vile, and it glowed bright green. From then on, I knew what to look for, but if my sister were indeed the one behind our danger, she would never leave something incriminating in plain view. Where to begin invading one's privacy? I checked under her bed, in her cabinets, her armory, but found nothing out of the ordinary. There were no signs of anything that glowed bright green the same way my sample of poison did. I began to feel shame for allowing another King to get into my head and control over my thoughts. Ready to leave, I put away my light, sliding it into my pocket, but only when the room was dark could I see what I'd been missing. There was another source of light beaming through a stone wall onto my face. It was a thin line of light, one that I might have missed if not for my eyes being in the dark for so long. I couldn't find a way to open the wall, but I knew it was there. That seemed to be the end of my investigation, but could I let everything go? I'd have to see.

When morning came, I sent a summons for Santo. I hadn't slept at all the night before, and my battle with Non was still present in the bruising of my body. I did not look my best. I waited for Santo in a particular room. Louis had his bedroom or perhaps The Splint, Sky had the training ring and armory, but where I felt most safe was the castle Frame room. A room of walls holding portraits of every generation of Fae's royalty. I'd yet to have my portrait painted, so there was a space on the wall under King Father and Queen Mother between the paintings of Louis and Sky. I didn't want to be King. I didn't want to be a royal, and I loved that room because until my portrait was on the wall, it was as if I was never royalty at all. It was like seeing my choice. Standing outside of what my family all wanted, and no one could tell me who I was until I allowed it.

As King, I could never be with someone as brilliant as Santo because he was not of royal blood. As King, I could never hold the company of such a marvel as Jin and her fantastic family. As King, I could never be close to a member of another Kingdoms royal guard like Non. But as King, I could have led my people into a future where they wouldn't fear minds like Santo. As King, I could have made diversity a norm for people like Jin. As King, I could have kept us out of a war with my allies in the other Kingdoms. I had years to consider my choice, but lately, the question was on my mind more frequently than I liked.

Santo arrived in time to keep me from spiraling into my thoughts.

"I'm rarely summoned to a castle, you know," he remarked as he entered the room.

"I hope I didn't break you from your work," I said.

"Quite the opposite. I haven't been able to get work done since the night we were last together," he corrected.

"I suppose it has been a few days."

"I knew what to expect. A prince can't keep all of his coins in one bank," he said.

"But you are quite the bank to invest in," I flattered.

We shared a laugh and a comfortable glance.

"I'm assuming you didn't send simply for a second date?" He questioned.

"I might have, but your assumption is right, I need to know something that is long unknown."

"And what is it that you want to know?"

"Is there a way to test bloodlines?" I questioned.

"There are a few, why?"

"I need you to teach me how to go about running these tests without being noticed."

"This isn't my ground of expertise, but if you need to test blood for blood, you will need just that," he said.

"Blood?" I questioned.

"From the two subjects being tested against one another," Santo answered.

"How do I take a person's blood without their knowing?"

"Who might I ask, are you testing?"

Of course, the inventor was wise enough to ask the right questions, but I couldn't supply answers.

"It's safer if you don't know," I said.

"Does it have something to do with last night?" He questioned further.

"How do you know about last night?"

"News travels fast when in relation to the throne," he said.

"It has nothing to do with last night," I said, but I don't think he believed me.

"Once you have the blood, bring it back to my workshop, and I'm sure I can take it from there," he said.

"It's not safe for you to be so closely involved," I debated.

"I was involved from the moment you sent for me. It would take a while to teach you how to run the test on your own anyway, and from the look of your lack of sleep, I'd say you want results quickly, am I right?"

"What did I do to deserve you?" I questioned with a held hand.

"You were open-minded," he said.

Gathering blood samples from Sky, Queen Mother, and King father was going to be a challenge. I thought of a few ways to go about the ordeal.

Sky seemed to be the simplest of the three to gather a sample from. I thought I might offer to spar with my sister and collect a sample by wounding her. Unfortunately, there was the risk of her breaking me in the process. So I decided on a simpler plan to wait until after one of her usual training sessions in the ring to collect her blood from the sand.

King Father seemed to have recovered significantly after being poisoned. But he was still unable to leave his bed or even speak. With his chambers guarded heavily round the clock, I needed a stealthily approach to collect his blood sample. Or so I thought. Due to his condition, King Father developed a nasty cough that often expelled blood. I planned to check on him and be the one to take his blood rags from the room.

All that was left was Queen mother. How to collect her sample was taking more thought than the rest. She would not merely bleed in a training ring, and she was not sickly and creating samples easy to procure. She was heavily guarded and very cognitive.

But there was a fourth sample I needed. A fourth sample I wanted. Teco, was he truly my father? It was too late to collect a sample of his blood even if I came up with a plan. I kept my thoughts on the more pressing situation at hand. My suspicions towards my sister were growing too quickly not to proceed. I had to know one truth, just one solitary piece of information to tell me to worry or be at ease.