Trillia eventually found herself wandering the halls. Most people gave her a very wide path, not wanting to get in the way of someone who had just been deemed so important by the Queen.

  As she got to halls that were more and more empty, she heard a familiar voice singing.

  Trillia's face lit up with a smile as she followed the voice. She came to a set of doors with four guards standing in front of it. Two were dressed the same as the throne room guards had been. The other two were dressed in black robes that concealed everything about themselves.

  Each, in turn, bowed to her and stepped aside enough to let her through. Trillia snuck into the room to see Cordaos sitting on the floor by the balcony, with his eyes closed, listening to the song.

  Queen Alliyah was plucking away at the strings of a harp as Amelia looked down at a piece of parchment in her hands, singing a song that Trillia had never heard before.

  As the song came to a close, Trillia's smile only deepened. She suddenly wished she had been able to meet Queen Maeve. Alliyah had a sad little smile on her face. "Your voice reminds me of her. Goodness, the two of you would have sold out any show you put on."

  Amelia smiled as she carefully placed the parchment on the table where dozens of other sheets were. "There's so much music here."

  "She used to write to me every few months. The only things in this world that Maeve loved more than music were you and Cordaos. The Church of Mercy took her in when she was young. I guess she learned to play an old piano they had. The first class she ever took was [Minstrel]. I first heard about her from one of my guards. He was asking what to do with some dock workers who had beaten a man nearly to death for trying to rob the Angel of Mercy. That's what everyone had nicknamed her."

  Amelia sat down in a seat and stared at the Queen, hanging on every word. Trillia looked past them to see Cordaos squeezing his eyes shut with tears in them. Alliyah continued. "Angels are what some humans call the Celestial-born immortals that will oftentimes visit our realm. They are usually orderly and kind creatures. What Maeve had taken to doing, now that her voice had power, was go around to all the churches and orphanages and sing songs of courage and hope."

  "When she was done with her morning rounds, she'd go down to the docks and sing various songs that helped with stamina regeneration for the dock workers. Some drunken asshole pulled a knife and threatened her. According to her, she never saw what happened to the man, only that a few dozen pissed-off and angry sailors had pulled her away from the man. They apologized, fed her, and walked her back to the Church. Telling her it wasn't safe at the docks and she shouldn't visit."

  "Being the rebellious little thing that she was. She did her morning rounds and asked a few of the older kids who had taken warrior classes to follow her to the docks the very next day, where she sang until the sun went down."

  Amelia's eyes were lit up like the sun itself. "Really? I always thought I got my stubbornness from Dad."

  Alliyah chuckled at that. "Truth be told, with your heritage? If you didn't come out as stubborn as stone, it would have been the meddling of a deity." Trillia sat next to the door, not wanting to interrupt.

  "In any case, more and more reports were coming in that the Angel of Mercy was going around and just singing for people. This wasn't that long after the wars had ended. So loss was heavy on everyone's minds. They tried to pay her, and she always politely declined and told them to use it to help fix up a church or orphanage. That she was a proud Kadessian citizen who was just doing her part to help."

  "Needless to say, when I heard about that, I sent for her. She stepped into the throne room. There were a dozen other nobles there. The Generals were all out trying to tame the rampant wild lands that were still spawning creatures. I was stuck in Kadessa trying to rebuild a dying empire. This little minotaur, who was only in her early teens, stood before me. Oh, she put on a brave face, but I could see that she was nervous."

  Alliyah closed her eyes with a happy sigh as she leaned back. "I asked her if she'd be willing to write and sing me a song for all the people I had lost. She agreed. She didn't ask for a reward or a position. It was foolish, really. But she knew how heavy the price had been for the peace she enjoyed. I asked her what she wanted, and her response was the same to the Queen of Kadessa as it was to the simple sailor."

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  The Queen wiped a tear from her own eye. "Your Majesty. All I'd ask is that you help the Church of Mercy with food. You see, we don't have much. So some of the young boys have been sneaking out into the wilderness to try and hunt beast parts to sell. I'm worried they are going to get hurt."

  The Queen sniffled and shook her head. "Silly little thing didn't have a care in the world for her own position or self. Well, she finally returned with her song. I asked her to perform it privately for me. I hadn't cried so hard in all my life. I ordered the Captain of the guard at the time to offer every single person in every single orphanage and church the chance to learn how to fight. To learn how to earn some more money for their little rag-tag families. I went down to the docks and spoke with the Captain of the ships myself and asked if they could manage more food, told them that the Church of Mercy was struggling to feed all the war orphans."

  Alliyah opened her eyes finally with a smile. "They all asked if that was the same church that the little angel was from. When I said yes, every sailor in the port offered to pull a few extra shifts fishing in fishing boats for free."

  Amelia and Trillia both had tears in their own eyes at this point. "Sometimes, I think the gods saw fit to give us all a beacon of hope in the form of a minotaur girl who had lost everything. I made sure the orphanages and churches of Kadessa were well taken care of. It became an unspoken law of the land that anyone who hurt them wound up on my bad side."

  "I asked Maeve to take on a position as a court musician. The deal she struck was that she'd be in the throne room for important meetings or big parties. But otherwise, she'd be allowed to continue going around the city and playing music."

  "It was a few decades after this that she had seen that idiot one day." Alliyah smiled as she motioned to Cordaos, who couldn't bring himself to look at the two or even open his eyes.

  "She was instantly smitten. It was the first time in our relationship I remembered questioning her intelligence." Alliyah grinned as she poked fun at Cordaos.

  "But I didn't think he was in any state to fall in love. Truth be told...none of us were. We all drank and fought like infernals for years after the war. We were slaves who had no idea how to cope. Kain did his best. Traded in favors and used as much of his power as he was allowed to give us peaceful dreams and let us see our friends. But reality crushed us every morning when we woke up."

  "Anyway, at one point, she asked me to introduce her. I told her the reality of us. Despite being hailed as heroes, most of us were broken wrecks, barely hanging on. She smiled and kissed the top of my head. Told me that hope could never die as long as one person had it."

  Alliyah leaned back, staring up at the ceiling. "Some days, her bright and positive outlook infuriated me. Not that I'd ever tell her or show her. Most days...most days I was just happy to bask in her delight. She came up with an utterly idiotic idea. Maeve knew how much we all cared about Kain and how seriously we took his missions. So, being the fearless little thing that she was, she approached Kain himself one day when he was in the throne room. It was unheard of for anyone to approach him unless he beckoned them."

  Cordaos sniffled but finally spoke up. "She used to do it all the time at God's Watch. He'd visit often, and she would always smile and treat him like any other person. I think it was why he favored her so much." He hadn't turned to look at them. The hurt was all too real for him right now.

  Alliyah nodded and continued. "She approached the second axle of our universe. Someone who could cripple dragons if he let out any of his true power and aura. Tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention, not that it was needed. Kain already knew she was there, and knew what she was going to ask ahead of time. Still, he humored her and turned around."

  "Forgive me, Lord Darktone. I was wondering if you'd help me with something. It's to help one of your generals."

  "Kain came up with some manuscript or something about golems. Wrapped it up in a box that could only be opened on the completion of a geas so that it seemed legit."

  Amelia grinned. "That's when you gave Dad the mission to escort her up to Kincairne?"

  Alliyah nodded. "Yup. I was sad to see her go, but when I got word that the two of them had grown close...my heart soared. That's shortly before the nobles started making a fuss about the Generals being loud, angry, and somewhat destructive. But that's a shitty unhappy story I can share another time."

  Alliyah stood and grabbed a bottle of wine, walking over to the balcony and kissing Cord on the side of his head. Even sitting down, he was the same height as her. "You know she'd hate to see you like this, big guy. Be proud of the amazing daughter you've raised, and take heart in knowing that you'll see her again soon."

  Cordaos did his best to smile, glancing at Amelia and Trillia. "Were it not for trying to help them. I'd have already gone to her side. Some days, I just don't have the strength to fight."

  Alliyah glanced at the two of them and gave a small hand motion.

  Amelia stood and took some of the music. "I'm gonna go sing this one to everyone else. I love you both. I'll talk to you later."

  As she went to leave, she grabbed Trillia's hand, and the two left the room. Alliyah had sat on the opposite end of the balcony, and the two had started talking about old times.

  Once they were outside the throne room, Amelia bowed to the guards and was smiling ear to ear. "Dad finds it really hard to talk about Mom. I can see why."

  Trillia nodded as she followed her friend to find the rest of their group. "I wish I could have met her."

  Amelia squeezed her hand, and her smile didn't falter. "One day you will. When the gods can interact with us freely, I have no doubt that Lord Darktone will let us go and visit them in the hereafter. Until then. I'm going to be the hope everyone needs, just like she was."

  Trillia smiled.