Damned if I Do: Chapter 14 (Patreon)

Chapter 14: A Diplomatic Mission

The Royal Palace had beautiful gardens, complete with hedgerows spotted with hundreds of blooming flowers, and shade-dappled paths for courting nobles to wander and get lost in.

Jaina, Princess Calia, and I, for our part, were sequestered in an elegantly painted gazebo near a short row of fountains depicting doves. The servants had prepared a luncheon—because calling it lunch wouldn’t do anything justice—for the three of us, replete with delicate finger foods and fragrant tea in even more delicate china cups.

Though, I thought as I slipped the blend, they probably didn’t call it fine China here.

The servants, of course, didn’t stick around for long. It would be impolite to remain within hearing range considering…

“I’m honestly surprised you could make it as a mage, considering your upbringing.” Calia swirled her teacup daintily.

I smiled, setting my own cup down. “Those without your distinctive lineage have to make do with our own ability.” I shrugged. “It’s not something I’d expect a princess to understand.”

Her answering smile was a savage thing. “And those less fortunate often mistake their incompetence for ill fortune.”

“I suppose you think you’ve received a great deal of both,” I said.

She shrugged languidly with one shoulder. “I have no need to exaggerate my experiences to soothe my ego.”

“No, that’s what the crown is for.” I tapped my temple.

She scoffed; we’d briefly touched on democracy before Calia and I really got into it. “As if the common laborer can be expected to understand the affairs of state. It’s little wonder you arrived at Dalaran close to death.”

I sipped my tea again. Dalaran tea was sharp and direct, while I’d always preferred more subtly fragrant blends like this one. “Do you think you deserve this tea?” I asked.

Calia raised an eyebrow. “Are you a physician as well, then, to ask after my health?”

I shook my head, setting the cup down with a sharp click. “Do you deserve this tea? What did you do to earn it? Did you cultivate the plants, harvest the leaves, boil the water?” Calia frowned at my words. “Of course you didn’t, because you are a princess and they are your servants, it’s simply the way of things. But why are you the one who gets to drink the tea?”

She sniffed. “You said it yourself, I deserve it because I am the Princess.” Despite her words, I could tell my barb had pricked her. Calia held the same self-doubts that I’d seen in Arthas.

“You’ve done nothing to deserve any of it,” Skitter whispered in my ear, ghostly hands gripping at my shoulders. “You were born with a silver spoon between your teeth and you’re upset it’s not made of gold.”

I blinked once to dispel the phantom, a jolt of cold running down my spine. That wasn’t what I wanted to say, that wasn’t who I wanted to be. Calia wasn’t a bully or some cold-eyed tyrant, no matter my initial impression. She was just another girl.

I took a deep breath, savoring the scent of my tea. It helped ground me as I pulled gently on the Light.

I know who I am, and I let that truth burn through me.

And it did actually burn, which was concerning, since I hadn’t used the Void at all since the banquet.

No matter; I knew who I was. I let it settle at the center of my being, the knowledge that I was not that girl. I was someone new.

Someone who could lift up, instead of always pulling down.

“It’s true,” I said, instead of the poisonous words Skitter tried to force down my throat. “You are a princess,” I acknowledged. Calia blinked at the frank admission, but that was key. You couldn’t convince anyone by beating them, by berating them, by grinding them down.

Well, you could, but only if you controlled the city and had a Thinker 7 telling you what buttons to push.

Miss you most, Lisa.

“Maybe a better question is, does Maria deserve it less?”

Calia blinked, “Maria?” She glanced over towards the edge of the patio where one of her maids was waiting with the tea service. She’d been nothing but a perfect server, but even the quickest glance showed how much she cared about her lady.

And also how protective she was of Princess Calia, which was a whole different issue that I didn’t feel comfortable prying into.

When she heard her name, the woman took a step forward, wordlessly asking if her assistance was needed, but Calia waved her off. “Why did you bring up Maria?”

Because Calia clearly cared for her in turn. But then, saying that would ruin the point I was trying to make. “Does she deserve to be over there, instead of over here, just because she isn’t a Menethil?”

Calia frowned as I flipped the discussion around. Instead of challenging her own value, it was a much different question to ask if she thought someone else was worth so much less than her.

“If you were born Maria, you’d probably never question it either,” I said. “It’s your lot in life, to serve. But here you stand on the other side of this divide, can you really say that the whims of fate are why she deserves to stand there, instead of sitting here?”

Calia didn’t immediately reply. Of course, she could simply say ‘yes’. I’m sure many nobility would have answered that way without a second thought.

It seemed that Calia, like Arthas, was cut from a different cloth.

Jaine saved her from answering when she finished her own cup and set it down loudly on the saucer. “I’m not sure if I should be happy or utterly appalled that we’ve switched to philosophy.” She’d long given up at keeping the peace between us. Instead, she was sitting back and enjoying the meal. “Honestly, Calia, you shouldn’t let Taylor talk you in circles. I swear in another life she was a sophist.”

I shrugged. “Education standards were…well, not really that much higher.” Certainly not in Brockton Bay. “But there were more opportunities to excel regardless of your background.” I’d taken to my last year of school with the same single-minded determination I’d applied to everything in Chicago. It was hard to say I was better for it, but I would never say I was worse.

Calia scoffed. “You expect me to believe that everyone in your home lived like kings?”

“You have a sharp intellect.” I smiled. “That was the goal, but of course, we fell short in many ways. We’re only human, after all.”

And we’d had bigger problems, but then Azeroth had its own share of extinction level events in recent memory.

Call it a wash.

“Anyway,” I waved a hand, “it’s a question for you to answer on your own. I hardly expect you to share it with me.”

Calia’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Then why ask it in the first place?”

“Because I wanted you to think about it,” I said.

Jaina sighed. “See? Practically a philosopher.”

I chuckled. “How could I keep up with you in Dalaran if I didn’t like studying?” I just liked…applied studies more. Fortunately, everything about magic was applied.

Calia scoffed. “You expect me to believe that you are the peer of Lady Proudmoore?”

Looks like we were back to snipping. I just smiled. For some reason it felt almost…nostalgic.

“She’s taken all the same classes as I,” Jaina said. At least I could count on her to be impartial. “Well, except for the Arcane, but then, I haven’t yet managed to apply for Archmage Kel’Thuzad’s private classes either.” She shot me a sharp look.

“I’ll let you know when he posts a sign-up sheet.” I shrugged. “And of course, I’m not as good at Magic as Jaina; I haven’t even been studying for a full year.” I gave my friend a hard look of my own. “I wish someone else had thought of that when she signed me up for all of her advanced classes.”

Jaina coughed. “At least you like studying.”

“It feels like all I do, these days.” I gave Calia a much put upon look. “Do you know after the banquet I went and studied formations in the library? You have a beautiful library, by the way.”

Calia blinked, before shaking her head. “And a bookworm as well.” But there was no heat to it, the corner of her lips quirking up into a slight smirk. “I suppose that stands to reason, given the conversation at hand.”

I huffed. “I’m sure you just went back to your obscenely soft bed, while I was wearing out my eyes by magelight.” I shook my head. “Honestly, I’m half tempted to rediscover electricity just to have real indoor lighting.”

Magelights were fine and all, but it took a billion of them to properly light up a room.

Jaina rolled her eyes and Calia looked at me with thinly veiled amusement. I didn’t expect her to care about made up words. I also didn’t really know how to make electricity. Apparently you could make a charge with a magnet and a coil of wire, but it’s not like I had any idea of what to do with a charged wire…

Better to spend my time focusing on magic.

“So,” I finished off the dregs of my own tea. “Shall we acquire some pastries and continue snipping at each other?”

Jaina let out a bark of laughter, even as Calia made a big show of thinking it over. “That sounds agreeable enough,” the princess said. “I certainly cannot allow you to think you’ve won something just because you’ve posed a single philosophical inquiry.”

I laughed. “Oh, I have more where that came from.” The internet generated annoying thought experiments almost as quickly as it generated pornography, or cat pictures. “Say you have a trolley—”

“What is a trolley?” Calia asked.

“Oh, I know this one!” Jaina smiled. “It’s a sort of gnomish style transport on rails, that runs on steam power.”

“Really, do they have those now?” Calia looked at Jaina in askance. “Why would they be put on rails, instead of wheels.”

“It makes for more efficient transportation,” I said.

She frowned. “But then they could only run along a single route, and at that point it would certainly be more economical in the long run to set up a series of teleportation gates or the like.”

“Not necessarily.” Jaina curled a strand of hair around her finger. “Depending on the number of mages and the availability of mana reactive materials, it can be very expensive to maintain a teleportation network.”

I opened my mouth before closing it again when it became clear that I’d lost the interest of the class. Once Jaina got started about anything related to magecraft, there was only one person who could draw her out of it.

Fortunately, Arthas chose just that moment to appear.

“There you are.” The Prince looked relaxed as he strode into the gazebo. He’d forsaken his armor for more normal clothes, though still in the cut befitting of a prince. He came to a stop between Jaina and Calia, putting a hand on each of their shoulders. “It’s good to see you again, Calia.”

She gave a huff, but placed a hand over Arthas’ all the same. “You as well, brother. You were gone for too long.”

He nodded. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here for you.”

I turned my head to the side, taking in the garden as the siblings had their moment.

“I’m glad to see you getting along so well with Taylor,” he said a moment later. “I knew the two of you would enjoy each other’s company.”

Jaina doubled over coughing.

Arthas turned to her in surprise. “Jaina, are you alright?”

Meanwhile, Calia and I made eye contact. Her lips curved into a wicked smirk. I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t stop from smiling all the same.

It seemed we were going to continue in the tradition of little sisters everywhere.

“Oh yes,” I said. “I said we’d be bosom friends, after all.”

“I could not imagine someone dearer to my heart.” Calia reached out across the table, taking my hand in one of hers. “It is like we’ve known each other our entire lives.”

“And only now have met,” I finished. “I couldn’t imagine a life without Calia going forward. She is simple…indescribable.”

Calia’s shoulders shook with a repressed laugh. “The feeling,” she squeezed my hand so hard her nails left divots in my skin, “is entirely mutual.”

Arthas looked between the two of us. Unfortunately, as a Paladin, he had little experience with deception, and apparently even less with women, because he smiled. “In that case, Calia, would you care to join our delegation for the rest of the unity tour?”

Both of our eyes widened in surprise and dismay.