Page 13 of Ocean of Silver

“Hello,” Moli said sweetly as I swung the door open. She frowned once she realized I was leaning too heavily against the frame. “Are you sure this is a good idea to keep doing this? You don’t look well, Sie.”

I gestured for her to enter and quickly shut the door. A healer technically shouldn’t be visiting my chambers, and we both could get in a lot of trouble for this. The stakes were much worse for Moli.

She eyed me hesitantly before taking a seat by the fire. The flames gave way to a beautiful glow of her rich dark skin. Her coily black hair was tied up in a bun that I was surprised it managed to stay on the top of her head. The girl had a lot of hair.

“I don’t like this, Sie,” she said as she eyed me suspiciously. “This could kill you before anyone else even gets the chance. I know you believe that someone will try to do something similar to you as they did to Lunder, but what if we are wrong… I just… I don’t like it.”

I huffed as I slumped into the seat next to her. The hours of pacing were taxing on my body. “I know,” I said as I grabbed the poison from her bag and swallowed it in one gulp before she could protest. Her coral eyes narrowed at my throat as I choked the contents down. It took every effort not to throw up the putrid liquid.

I didn’t care if doing this would kill me. I didn’t particularly like the nasty side effects of the poison or the thick taste of it as I forced it down, but I would rather die from my own actions than from Synder. I wouldn’t let him beat me. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of winning.

Silence followed, and then, “In another week, you will be at the max dose,” Moli said as she grabbed the empty vile and shoved it back into her bag. “Then your body should start adjusting.Hopefully. If all goes well, the sweats and body shakes should leave within the following week or two.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

“If it doesn’t, Tennebris will be burying another King.”

I grabbed her hands in mine, startling her. “Thank you, Mols. I know what you risk by helping me.”

My vision blurred as the strongest effects of the poison started to take hold. All I saw was coral pink as I attempted to focus on her large eyes. She pried her hands away briskly, then strode toward the door. “Just don’t die. Our Kingdom needs a ruler like you, Sie.” Then she was gone. Every morning was the same. Moli brought my poison, slowly upping the dose, then disappeared before the healer’s quarters realized she was missing.

I normally soaked in an ice bath to try to compensate for some of the side effects as heat flared throughout every inch of my body, but I didn’t have time today. Synder called an emergency Council meeting, and there was no way in hell I was going to miss it.

All the seats were filled by the time I arrived. The room hushed and halted its murmurings the moment I entered. I had to shoulder the door open, and it took every effort to hold myself upright.

Synder looked up and studied me, noting every movement I took as I immediately slumped into the only empty seat left, not able to stand much longer. “You don’t look well, my Prince.”

“I’m fine,” I grunted, not meaning to sound so wounded. His mouth curved into a cruel smirk as he noted my flinch, the beads of sweat that rolled behind my neck, and the way my hands shook slightly. I held them together, placing them on my lap under the table. He noted it, and fucking smiled. “I just got back from training. I didn’t get a chance to bathe yet,” I lied, but I needed an excuse as to why sweat was pouring out of me. Winter was fast approaching. In another couple of weeks, the constant darkness would be here. The servants were cleaning most of the fireplaces and torches in preparation, and I couldn’t even blame my perspiration on the fires—not that the constant flames were even a good excuse for how I looked.

“I’m glad to hear it. One part of this meeting was called to actually discuss your well-being.”

I held my breath, waiting for him to continue, my gaze never breaking his stare. The males of the High Council looked between the two of us. The stirring of heads was dizzying. My heart was pounding too fast. I could feel each thump and tick it made against my chest. My skin grew clammy as my body heated more and more. Shit. I needed ice.

“It’s regarding you taking a bride,” Synder said.

“No,” I snarled too fast to be casual.

Synder bucked. “Surely you don’t plan to spit on tradition and not take up a wife when you are crowned.”

“Let me remind you that I did have a wife. I am not going against tradition. I took one that you and the men in this room unwisely chose, so I’m not eager to take up another, especially by your hands.” I loosened my jaw, not realizing how tightly I was clenching it. I hated talking ill of Scotlind, but I had to keep up the ruse in order to be believable. I had to convince them that I didn’t care for her. I had to act like it wasn’t eating away at me that she was gone, worse than any poison. She was in the heart of enemy territory, sent there because of me. Weakness was what caused this downward spiral that was my life. I wouldn’t show Synder any more of it. I wouldn’t let myself have any more weaknesses.

“Ah yes, and she, unfortunately, cheated on you. My sincerest apologies, Sie. We can assure you that this next one will not disappoint you, though. She will be faithful.”

Right. Scotlindcheatedon me. That was the story that was told to the High Council and to all of Tennebris because they didn’t want the truth to come out that she was from Lux and wasn’t really a nix. Not when Tennebris was using her rank zero status to their advantage. Only a handful of people actually knew the truth. Not even the entire Council realized where Scotlind really was right now.

Instead, the entire Kingdom believed that Scottie was rotting away in the dungeons somewhere below the castle for her indiscretions. Synder was using her as a ploy to sabotage the current ranking system, manipulating the Tennebrisians into compliance about the changes being made, and it was fucking working.

Ever since the incident, the Council passed laws that eliminated the basic Advenian rights for rank zeroes.They are too closely related to the mortals to be trusted. It is human nature to have greed and to always want more, and that is what Scotlind Rumor proved. She wasn’t satisfied with what we blessed her with. She wasn’t satisfied with her Trials. She wanted more and more, and no amount of power would placate the cravings of mortal avarice. Rank zeroes won’t stop until our society is in ruins, so we must take action and stop them before it’s too late,he announced to the general public a week ago. And now, rank zeroes lost their right to participate in the Trials at the end of their education. If they got a zero during the ranking evaluation, that was it. They’d automatically become servants.

He was milking every aspect of Scotlind being a known nix to his advantage. Spilling lies about how she manipulated the Council in the first place by sleeping her way into power. The amount of fabrications he twisted about her felt like a punch in the gut. He painted a bad picture for rank zeroes, and the Tennebrisians were starting to believe it. Gossip stirred that they were more closely related to humans than Advenians.

And it still wasn’t enough. Synder was currently working on a law that would pull every rank zero out of school—they wouldn’t even get an education—they’d all just become servants. If you couldn’t prove you had powers, you’d be banned from school and forced to work—atsixfucking years old. He planned to make it mandatory to go up against compulsion in order to start school. All children would be compelled to cut their forearms. Anyone that made the cut, that was forced to obey, forfeited their right to an education.

He wanted to make them illiterate, to solidify their future even more. Rank zeroes would have a harder time fighting against the new laws if none of them could read them. It was sickening. I tried to not think about what Scottie and Peter would make of the situation. I was just relieved that the laws didn’t pass… yet.

I knew that Scotlind would be appalled if she knew what was happening. I also knew that Peter would be heartbroken. Thinking of his little sister, Lilia, working at such a young age, of never attending school or laughing with her friends, would break my friend. She deserved better than that. I knew that. I knew zeroes deserved to be educated. They deserved a life. Synder’s visions were wrong. He only wanted to cast Advenians to the bottom of the food chain to secure his power. And I could do nothing to fucking stop it, at least, not yet. Not until I became King.

It was why I had been slowly consuming the poison every day. I would not let Synder win. I knew that was his plan, to get me off the throne. I was the real threat, not King Lunder. If he got rid of me, he would remain King. Peter was nowhere to be found, and the next King’s Tournament was a decade away, and a lot could happen in a decade.

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