The color left Derpy’s rabbit ears before the shape did.
Lenora watched the reddish-black fade into a thin outline, then disappear beneath his hair. The small tail followed. Nothing else about him changed. His breathing remained steady, his hands slack beside the body of the doll who had taken his discharge.
Riven had not opened her eyes.
Mk3 knelt beside her while Mk4 kept the nearest guards at a careful distance. Neither had drawn a weapon. After what had happened at the window, their stillness did little to reassure anyone.
Lenora closed her fingers around the earplugs she had removed.
The music was gone. She could still remember its faint rhythm beneath the noise of the pursuit, and the way Derpy had moved to it while they tried to reach him.
Ace lowered her hammer until its head rested against the floor.
“He is still breathing normally,” Mk3 said.
Lenora nodded, although the report was about the only thing she had been watching.
Farther down the corridor, guards were attending to Vaeloria. Orders passed in low voices. Someone had gone for a stretcher. Another servant was trying to clear people away from the broken glass.
Then the minister’s voice reached them from the adjoining passage.
“There has been an incident, but I assure you—”
Vespera appeared beside him and stopped.
Her eyes went first to Ace, then to Lenora, then to Derpy on the floor.
The minister kept speaking for another moment before he realized she was no longer listening.
Vespera crossed the distance at a run.
Mk4 shifted into her path. Ace lifted a hand immediately.
“Let her through.”
Vespera dropped to her knees beside Derpy. Mk3 drew Riven aside just far enough for her to reach him, supporting the unconscious doll’s head while Vespera gathered Derpy against herself.
His arm fell loosely across her lap.
She looked at his face, the marks on his clothing, and the scorched stone beneath him.
Then she looked up at Ace and Lenora.
“What did you do?”
Her fingers lengthened around the fabric of Derpy’s hoodie. Claws pushed from them, held carefully away from his skin. The change ran down her legs, splitting her boots as talons scraped against the floor.
The guards closest to her stepped back.
A low growl rose in her throat. Black flame caught between her teeth before she forced her jaw closed around it.
“You had better have a goddamn good explanation.”
Lenora knelt beside her.
Ace kept her hammer lowered, but her attention moved toward the guards. Several had reached for weapons at the first appearance of flame.
Lenora put her arms around Vespera’s shoulders.
Vespera stiffened so abruptly that the flame guttered.
“I am glad you are all right,” Lenora said against her shoulder. “I mean that. But I need you to listen before someone makes this worse.”
Vespera stared past her at Ace.
“He is unconscious.”
“I know. Riven took an electrical discharge from him. She is unconscious too.”
“Why was he discharging at you?”
Lenora loosened the embrace enough to meet her eyes without letting the contact disappear completely.
“Do you remember Seraphine sending Ace with Lewd and me?”
Vespera’s gaze moved briefly to her sister.
“We came here together,” Lenora continued. “We have been trying to keep him alive. Then he tried to leave, and too many people decided stopping him mattered more than hearing why.”
Ace’s mouth tightened, but she did not dispute it.
Vespera drew a harsh breath through her nose.
The black flame vanished. Her claws remained.
“Start talking,” she said.
It took most of an hour to establish an account everyone could recognize.
They moved clear of the damaged stretch of corridor into a nearby room where Derpy and Riven could lie without people stepping around them. Vespera stayed beside Derpy. Mk3 remained close to Riven, and Mk4 positioned herself where she could watch the door.
The minister withdrew to confer with the escort and the palace staff. He had begun the visit prepared to explain architecture and protocol. Neither had given him much guidance for an unconscious calamity bearer in the arms of a furious dragon.
Lenora gave Vespera the facts she knew. Derpy had come out of the mindscape distressed. He had taken himself to the courtyard, changed again, and tried to leave with his pets. The devices in his ears had prevented the voices from reaching him. Ace had blocked him. The dolls had pursued him. Vaeloria had caught hold of him, and the interception had ended with the queen on the floor and Derpy still trying to escape.
She did not repeat every turn of the pursuit. Vespera needed to know why Riven was lying on the next couch, not the order in which everyone had reached a junction.
“He was going through the window when Riven caught him,” Lenora finished. “The electricity was already loose. She took it into herself.”
Vespera looked at the doll.
“And now you are all waiting for them to wake so you can tell him he should have stayed.”
“I am waiting to hear him,” Lenora said.
Ace leaned against the wall, arms folded.
“I blocked the route. I thought I could stop him before it became a fight.”
Vespera’s eyes returned to her.
“You know him well enough to believe that?”
Ace did not answer immediately.
“No,” she said at last. “Apparently I did not.”
Amy arrived before the account was finished. Lyn followed, already speaking to a guard about who had authorized which part of the pursuit. Lieam came in behind them and stopped at the sight of the two unconscious figures.
Lewd remained apart from the others. Her arms were folded tightly, and every time someone looked toward her she seemed to brace for a question she did not want to answer.
By the time Vaeloria entered, Vespera’s breathing had steadied. Her feet were still taloned, the remains of her boots pushed aside beneath the couch. One hand rested against Derpy’s shoulder.
The queen had recovered her posture before recovering all of her color. She walked without assistance, though Amy’s gaze followed her closely enough to suggest she would intervene if that changed.
Vaeloria surveyed the room.
“Move Derpy to my personal chambers.”
Lenora rose. “No.”
Lewd spoke at the same time, the word sharper. Vespera’s answer came as a low warning from beside the couch.
The guards stopped before reaching him.
Vaeloria looked at the three women in turn.
“I did not ask for a vote.”
“I want to be here when he wakes,” Lenora said. “I want him to have someone he can speak to before another decision is made for him.”
“So do I,” Lewd said. “That is all I am asking.”
Vespera drew Derpy closer against the cushions, keeping her arm between him and the approaching guards.
“You are not moving him away from me.”
Vaeloria’s fingers snapped.
The guards spread around the couch.
Ace straightened immediately. Mk4 turned toward the nearest drawn blade. Mk3 stayed beside Riven, one hand lifting from the couch as she measured the new arrangement.
The queen raised her staff toward Vespera.
“You are an uninvited guest in my palace, dragon girl. Do not mistake being allowed inside the gate for authority over what happens here.”
“She is my eldest sister,” Ace said. “And she has a contract with Derpy.”
Vaeloria glanced at her, recalculating.
Vespera’s claws withdrew slowly. Her feet returned to their ordinary shape, leaving her barefoot on the cold floor. The effort was deliberate enough that Lenora watched her hands instead of the queen’s staff.
The minister returned with the escort at precisely the wrong moment.
His gaze traveled around the armed circle, then settled on Vespera with the desperate composure of someone hoping to retrieve an earlier, simpler conversation.
“Miss, we should continue your visit elsewhere.” He reached toward her elbow. “There is no need to remain in the middle of—”
Vespera looked at his hand.
He stopped short of touching her.
“She can stay,” Vaeloria said.
The minister went still.
Lenora did not relax. The queen’s tone had not changed enough for that.
Vaeloria lowered the staff slightly.
“With a collar. I will not have another uncontrolled threat moving through these rooms.”
Amy threw up her hands.
“Oh, that should help.”
Lyn stared at their mother, then at Derpy, then at Riven.
“This is insane,” she said, loud enough that a servant in the doorway recoiled. “We have just dragged someone through the palace because he wanted to leave, and your answer is another restraint?”
“Lyn.”
“No. Look at them.”
She gestured toward the couches, then walked out before Vaeloria could reply.
Amy followed, cursing under her breath and then more audibly when the first attempt did not seem sufficient. Lieam stayed where she was, her hands held stiffly at her sides.
Vespera looked at the collar a guard brought forward.
She could have refused it. Everyone around the couch seemed to be preparing for exactly that response. Lenora saw her measure the distance to Derpy, the number of weapons around him, and the ease with which a fight here would reach someone who could not protect himself.
Vespera stood.
“If you hurt him,” she told Vaeloria, “I will burn this kingdom to the ground.”
The queen’s expression did not soften.
“I will keep that in mind.”
Vespera took the collar from the guard.
Ace moved a step toward her. “Sister—”
Vespera shook her head once.
She closed it around her own neck.
The click carried clearly through the room.
Vaeloria turned toward the guards before anyone could mistake the concession for the end of the confrontation.
“Take Mk3 and Mk4 to containment. Riven as well. Keep them there until I establish what happened and why Derpy attempted to leave.”
Mk3 looked down at Riven.
Mk4 moved closer to the couch.
Lenora faced the queen. “They returned because Mk1 called for help. Riven is unconscious because she stopped the discharge.”
“And before that, they went somewhere none of you could locate while the War Council and War Office ceased to function.”
“That does not make this necessary.”
“It makes it my decision.”
Pink ice petals formed around Vaeloria’s hand. Their delicate edges turned toward the guards, catching the light as she waited for them to act.
There was no Council representative left to challenge her. No War Office official to insist on a different jurisdiction. Her husband was gone. The bodies of authority that had crowded every decision earlier were absent, and the empty space belonged to her.
Derpy had helped create that space.
Now he lay unconscious while she used it.
Ace looked toward the doorway through which Amy and Lyn had left. Lieam watched her mother without speaking.
The guards approached Riven.
Mk3 remained beside her long enough to help support her head when they lifted her. Mk4 followed the movement with rigid attention, giving ground only when standing still would have forced a collision over Riven’s body.
Lenora could see how little separated obedience from another fight.
Vespera’s hand went to the new collar. She lowered it before the guards could interpret the movement as resistance.
Vaeloria watched until the dolls were being escorted out.
“Derpy will still be moved,” she said. “You may remain close enough to know when he wakes. You will not decide where he is kept.”
Then she left, the last pink petals fading behind her.
Lewd had not moved from the wall.
The room seemed larger after the guards took Riven and the others, though the absence made it harder to breathe. Vespera returned to Derpy’s side. Ace stayed near the door, watching the route the dolls had taken.
Lenora approached Lewd carefully.
“Can we talk for a moment?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly. Lewd heard it herself and folded her arms more tightly.
“I do not want to explain anything else. I want to talk to Derpy.”
“I am not asking you to explain the fight again.”
“I know.” Her voice became smaller. “I still do not want to.”
She looked toward Vespera, then Ace, and away before either could read too much from her face. Caring had become something everyone could see. She did not know how to stand in a room with that exposed and wait for someone to decide what it said about her.
Vespera turned from the couch.
“You do not have to speak to us now.”
Lewd’s eyes lifted slightly.
Vespera touched the edge of the collar, then let her hand fall into her lap.
“When you are ready, we will still be here.”
Lewd did not answer.
But when the attendants arrived to move Derpy, she left the wall and stayed close beside them.
At the inn, Vambasta discovered that accepting Queen’s duties had sounded considerably easier while holding Seraphine off the floor.
Now Seraphine was standing in front of her with a fan in one hand and instructions ready for everyone in reach.
Vemi checked what she was carrying for the second time. Hina stayed near her mother, watching the preparations with an attention that made Vambasta wonder which parts she was being taught to admire.
Seraphine opened the fan.
“I expect my instructions followed precisely.”
Vambasta pressed her fists together until her knuckles cracked.
“You wanted protection. You are getting it.”
“I also wanted to know that you understood who was giving the orders.”
Vemi looked up. “We understand.”
Seraphine’s gaze rested on her, then returned to Vambasta.
“Until my dragon Queen returns from visiting her family in the Dragon Valley, you serve in her place. Both of you will remember that this arrangement was made openly.”
Vambasta snorted.
“How hard can a little protection be?”
“That depends on whether you mistake your opinion for an instruction.”
Vemi touched Vambasta’s arm before she could answer.
“Sis, do not overdo it.”
“I have not done anything yet.”
“That is what I am trying to preserve.”
Hina glanced between them. Seraphine seemed satisfied by the exchange, which irritated Vambasta more than a reprimand would have.
The fan closed.
“Orcial Vash.”
A figure stepped from the deeper shadow near the wall.
“Yes, my lady.”
“Open the passage.”
Light gathered in front of him. The portal formed with clean edges, cold illumination spreading across the floorboards and the legs of the nearest table.
Vemi looked through it, unable to see enough to know what would be waiting on the other side.
Seraphine did not hesitate.
She crossed first, Hina close beside her. Vambasta followed with her shoulders squared. Vemi took one last look at the quiet inn and stepped through after them.
Orcial Vash closed the passage behind the party.
In the palace, Vespera walked barefoot beside the attendants carrying Derpy, a collar fastened around her throat.
Seraphine was on the move again, and Vespera's patience with another queen was already wearing thin.