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For Cassia could never set foot in Tenebra again.
“Lio.” Kassandra brought Lio back from the brink of his thoughts. “You may now state your intent.”
“I, Deukalion, Firstgift Komnenos, intend to give the Gift of immortality to your sister Cassia and to avow her before all those we love, Hesperine and human. Most importantly, I intend to keep her safe and happy for all time.”
Above all, safe from the Old Master who had tried to take her from Lio.
Solia listened, her face composed. He could not discern if his words made a good impression on her or not.
And he should have been able to tell. After she had taken off her armor before the Empress, her aura had been unshielded by spells for a brief time. So why had she once again become opaque to him?
His gaze flicked to the scarf draped over her shoulders. Her lips curved in a victor’s smile.
He gave her a slight bow. She had indeed won this round.
The golden silk from the Empress must offer Solia some of the magical protection that her armor had once granted. Spells that blocked thelemancy and Hesperine empathy were among the rarest, most powerful enchantments that only someone with the Empress’s resources could provide.
The Blood Union would be of no use to him in his efforts to win Solia’s blessing, and neither would his mind magic.
“We must, as a formality, agree on the number of tasks.” Kassandra looked at Solia expectantly. “Five for an ambassador.”
It took a strong mortal to look Kassandra in the eye and disagree with her. “For my sister, it should be no less than eight for a princess.”
“Cassia is no more a princess than I,” Kassandra replied, “and she came a long way for her ambassador’s medallion, as I did for the title of elder firstblood. The greatest honor you can do her is to agree to five tasks.”
“She is my sister, and I am the future Queen of Tenebra. That makes her a princess in my eyes, no matter what side of the border with Orthros she stands on.”
Lio made a calculated gamble. “Solia, I have a proposal for you.”
She glared at him. “You ask a great deal. Not just a lifetime with my sister, but eternity. For a request of this magnitude, I intend to set you tasks accordingly.”
This was a round he had already won. He had overcome much more difficult ordeals than this for his Grace. “She is well worth any challenge. Assign me five tasks to begin. By the time I complete the fifth labor, if you hold the throne, I will perform three more. But if you are not yet crowned Queen by then, you must accept only five.”
He could see in her eyes that he had awoken her thirst for competition. “I will take this bargain.”
“Is that amenable to you, Ritual mother?” Lio asked.
Kassandra lounged back in her chair, looking pleased. “Very much so.”
Lio was not sure whether to be encouraged or apprehensive that this fit with her preferred vision of the future.
“Very well,” Kassandra said. “Matriarch Solia, first of her dynasty, proposes five labors for the privilege of Gifting and avowing her sister Cassia, to be increased to eight should she be crowned queen by the time the fifth labor is complete. Deukalion, my Ritual son, will you undertake this challenge?”
“I will.”
“Solia,” Kassandra continued, “will you pledge to grant your blessing upon their Union, should he complete the tasks set before him?”
“You have my word.”
Thank the Goddess for that. Despite the distance between them, of this Lio had no doubt—Solia was a woman of her word. She had just promised him her blessing. It was not an impossibility.
As long as he didn’t fail.
Kassandra refilled their coffee cups, breaking the tension. “The first labor is a test of the man’s strength, and it falls to him to offer a suitable service to his bride’s matriarch. Lio, you will now propose a task for Solia’s approval. If Solia is dissatisfied with your suggestion, you forfeit your choice, and she will assign you a labor herself.”
Thankfully, his mother and Kassandra had warned him about this the night before, and he’d had many hours to ponder it as he had lain awake, holding his sleeping Grace.
“Matriarch Solia,” Lio said, “I offer you my greatest strengths: my intellect and my magic. I propose that for the first labor, I help Cassia learn her magic. I will assist her in researching her affinities and give her practical instruction in spell casting. As her power awakens, I will guide her through any challenges based on my own experiences with my dual affinity.”
