The group had taken turns getting cleaned off in the bathing area that was attached to the room. A few hours had passed, and they had all dozed off.

  Full bellies, safety, and the end of a long march would do that to a person.

  A gentle shake woke Trillia up. As she lazily blinked the sleep out of her eyes, she saw her mother standing before her with a finger to her lips. Trillia smiled wide and stood, giving her mom a hug. She felt the slight tug and accepted the mental connection.

  "Let the others rest for now. You've had a long trip. It's quite late, and the Queen wants to meet with the generals and has asked if you'd feel comfortable showing up without your group."

  Trillia pulled away with a nod. "I assume they will be safe here?"

  Amara offered a nod.

  Trillia stood and moved to leave the room with her mother. Ialu and Dire silently plodded over and left the room with them.

  Once they were out of earshot, Amara spoke. "I see you've added another companion to your pack. A few of my skills are issuing rather worrisome alarms."

  Trillia glanced at Dire, who was walking between Ialu and Amara. Ialu, in turn, was between Dire and Trillia. "Dire had been hit by the primordial warping effects. Some of it has vanished, and he is now firmly a member of my pack."

  Amara glanced down at the great beast walking next to her. "I didn't know there was a way to reverse the effects. During the war, whenever we tried to mentally connect to a creature who had come under the primordial's control, it would do rather severe damage to our own minds and bodies. So long as he is loyal to you, I care not for his origins."

  Trillia smiled and felt a little relief. She didn't think her mother would just outright kill the creature, but she was under no delusion that if it came to a fight. Trillia and her pack would be made quick work of.

  "May I ask why the Queen doesn't want to have my entire group with us?"

  "Alliyah has been dealing with nobility and merchants for fourteen hours straight. Were it not for the fact that you have so much vital information, I doubt she would have invited you. I think she wants to see old friends without the weight of reputation on her shoulders."

  Fourteen hours of talking. Trillia shuddered at the thought. "I could never lead a city. Especially not one this size."

  Amara laughed softly at that. "I agree. The society that Tormash is trying to create on the Shattered Plains would drive me to murder half of our people. I had enough of a headache just dealing with a few inter-tribal issues. I suppose the vigor and idealism of youth is a boon to Tormash in that regard. I think it also helps that he has chosen a suitable mate who is socially adept. Varga and I are terrible at that sort of thing."

  "You didn't want to lead?"

  Amara scoffed and laughed harder at that. "By all the gods, no. Varga and I wanted to retire somewhere in the mountains and let the entire realm burn if it came to it. But my people had been through enough. The remnants of the tribes that fled the orc homelands were a broken and shattered people. They needed someone strong to lead them. The sneaky little witch convinced Varga and I to take over the Shattered Plains."

  Trillia couldn't help but grin at that. The more she heard about Queen Alliyah, the more she realized the woman had to be a master of manipulation.

  Amara shook her head and waggled a finger at Trillia. "No. I already know what you're thinking. Oh, the great Queen must be so good with her words. I'm sure that's true to some extent. But not when she is dealing with friends and other warriors. She all but called me an old coward and said if I wanted to die on a mountaintop somewhere with my boy toy, I was free to do so. But what would my people think."

  Amara snorted and shook her head. Despite her apparent annoyance, she still wore a big smile. "Turns out living with a tribe wasn't all that bad. I didn't like leadership, but I did love the peace of mind that having a tribe of good people brought to me when Tormash and Ralrouk were born. I'm not sure if I would have had the patience for dealing with the little shits without some help."

  "Were they troublemakers as kids?" Trillia asked, despite knowing the answer.

  "As kids? They are troublemakers now!" Amara laughed again as they turned down another hall. "Ralrouk is thinking about starting an order of holy warriors that have berserking classes. Tormash has thrown caution to the wind and is using his own legendary stubbornness to bull rush through cultural issues and war."

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  Amara reached over and tussled her hair a bit. "The divine Aetherian Mage is the most normal of my children. I couldn't be more proud of all of you."

  Trillia had never really doubted that her parents would be proud of their children. But hearing it still made her heart soar. "I'm a bit nervous."

  "As you should be. Alliyah is my oldest and dearest friend. We have pulled each other out of the deepest darknesses that mortals can face. But she is still a terrifying opponent. You are my daughter, so she is going to be gentle. But you are still an outsider who serves a god that is different from hers. She will treat you as a foreign dignitary and with a great deal of caution. Don't take it to heart."

  Trillia took a deep breath and steeled herself. "I won't."

  Amara glanced over with a grin. "Good luck, kiddo. You're going to quickly realize why the rest of us fell in line behind her."

  -=====-

  The palace was way, way too large. It took twenty minutes of walking to get from their room to their destination. Trillia stood on the smooth, heavily enchanted marble floors. Looking up nearly fifty feet at the doors that stood before her.

  Amara stood next to her, happy to admire the doors as well. Heavy stone with metal inlays painted a dozen different scenes and pictures. "Why aren't any of the Beast Generals depicted?"

  "None of the living heroes are. Alliyah thought it was distasteful to build a monument to us. But to all the lives we lost? There are probably dozens of those dotting the kingdom."

  Trillia closed her eyes with a smile. Somehow, that tidbit of knowledge took a lot of her nerves away. "I'm ready."

  Amara put a hand on Trillia's shoulder. Trillia's two pact-bound creatures had come to trust Amara enough to let the mighty orc walk next to Trillia. The doors opened without a sound.

  Trillia saw the throne room of Kadessa, and it took all of her might not to stop and stare. The ceiling was twice as high as the door.

  Huge arches held the roof above them. Instead of a solid ceiling, most of it seemed made of colored glass. Hundreds of scenes and heroes were depicted. Trillia's mana-sight saw the thin lines of enchantment throughout each and every piece. Huge columns ran down into the ground. Instead of the stone that Trillia expected them to be made of, they were instead the same nearly translucent crystalline structure that she had seen in the ravine before. They positively glowed, both literally and in her mana-sight.

  As she stepped forward, a wave of calming mana rolled over her. The room was easily three hundred feet long and half as wide. There were hundreds of benches, tables, and chairs that had all been tucked onto the edges of the room. Trillia glanced at the ground and saw another slab of crystal laid into the marble floor. She was also shocked to see that she couldn't understand the language that had been etched into the crystal. It ran the length of the room up to the steps of the throne.

  Trillia slowly walked forward as her eyes darted all around the room. She saw her uncles milling about near the throne but didn't see the Queen herself.

  "Trillia! Sorry that I couldn't say it during lunch. But I'm happy to see that you've returned and you are well." Cordaos stepped up to her and gave her a gentle hug. It was the first time she could remember seeing him in actual armor. The same crystal-like structure made up what looked like a full plate that should have been made out of stone. She had seen the heavy stone plate of minotaurs before. This was something on an entirely different level.

  As she glanced around, each of her uncles was wearing their best armor. Even her mother had donned not only the dragon scale armor but also wore bracers of the same crystal. "It's good to see you all again. So it's really only going to be just us and the Queen?"

  Brutus shook his head. "No. A dozen spies and assassins are hiding in the ceiling. At least until they trust that you aren't going to try to kill her."

  Trillia seemed taken aback by that. Hurt was etched across her face. Amara gave her shoulder a little squeeze. "Remember what I said. You are a foreign avatar speaking to the leader of a nation. Four million people live in Kadessa alone. Probably a dozen times that number reside in the greater Kadessian empire."

  Trillia nodded in understanding, even if it didn't help the hurt anymore.

  Then it happened.

  A soft hum of energy hit her senses in the Aetherian first.

  Then, her physical senses.

  Trillia and her pact-bound creatures were driven down to a knee. She found herself unable to lift her head. Her mother's hand on her shoulder kept her somewhat calm.

  You are in the presence of the Ambassador of Mortality!

  You are in the presence of the Empress of Humanity!

  You are in the presence of the Mother of Divinity!

  ...

  A dozen other notifications pinged into her mind. Trillia had to wonder what use the spies and assassins could possibly have. The system had all but told Trillia she could do nothing but kneel with her head down, and the Queen had just stepped into the throne room. Trillia hadn't caught a glance or a whisper of sound from the woman.

  "By all that is good in this realm. If you do not leave my throne room, and let me see my friends and niece in peace. I will tear your souls out and enchant a bucket with them."

  The voice felt as though it had reached out and grabbed Trillia's very soul and was embracing it. She could hear Uncle Brutus chuckling off to the side. "Guess she's already decided you're safe."

  The voice spoke softly. "I appreciate they think they are helping. But always having eyes on me is so unnerving. I shouldn't complain. They've caught a dozen attempts on the lives of my staff in the past week alone."

  Stas spoke up next. "Hey, Queenie. You mind subduing your auras?"

  "Oh! Goodness, I'm so sorry. I thought Avatar Fairtrade would be immune since she is my son's avatar."

  The notifications vanished, and Trillia breathed a little easier. Amara offered her a hand up. As Trillia stood, she got to see the Queen for the first time.