With the hard-fought battle finally won, the Hovaleans entered again the gates of LeBaron Manor. This time, however, they moved much more quietly, their earlier mirth and good cheer drowned beneath somber contemplation. This time, they carried corpses in their midst: fallen friends, neighbors, and rivals in business who were now naught but stark reminders that their new power was quite finite.

They laid the bodies of the fallen out in the courtyard and gathered together around them. Among them was the corpse of the wounded man who'd survived to warn them of Lord LeBaron's coming siege in the first place: the only one of them present who'd not abandoned humble Hovale for a chance at the luxuries Mara had promised.

"Ah, hell," said Torbin, running a hand over his bald patch. "This is just morbid. So much for heavenly favor, huh?"

"I dunno'f I'd say all that," Ars commented. "Could be all of us lyin' dead in the dust. 'Sides, I figure they're in a better place."

"Pff. Sure. And soon, they'll just be in the ground."

The gathered crowd parted as Mara made her way to the center of the circle. She came to a stop beside Ars and Torbin and looked down upon the collected corpses. "We've counted twenty," Ars told her. "The young Master didn't pull any punches. Ts'hard t' figure how he managed t'get so strong."

Mara then turned her gaze on the captive Bram, whom the hook-scarred man had bound up in chains. A cold fury washed over her countenance, but soon gave way to a rare display as she allowed a hint of melancholy to darken her violet eyes. Her attention returned to her fallen supplicants, and she heaved a prolonged sigh.

"I said my power wouldn't fail," she said to the survivors. "I never imagined that any among LeBaron's forces, let alone the young Master, would bring to bear power to match it. I'm sorry."

Crouching low, she scooped up a handful of dirt, then sprinkled it over the body of the one who'd warned them of LeBaron's coming. "Whomever he lost in the sacking of Hovale, he is reunited with them now. It is time to bury the fallen. You will take your time with this. No Wonders will be worked. Inter them beneath this courtyard with care."

While the Hovaleans moved to carry out the order, Mara approached the one who kept Bram in tow. "Deliver the young Master and his betrothed to the barracks," she ordered. "I will speak to them there."

It was an encounter that would have to wait for a time, for the Ikoras felt compelled to first have words with her most persistent companion. The aged hag Hethys had eschewed time spent looking over corpses to rifle again through the master bedroom of the manor house for trinkets and clothes. She had made quite a mess of the place by the time Mara came to find her there, but remained dedicated to her search as her young associate entered.

"Mara met her match today: a wily, wicked boy," she sang. "Live, she did, if barely so, so why the lacking joy?"

Scoffing, Mara crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame. "You have been dishonest with me, hag," she spat.

Hethys turned to face her at last, her features painted with feigned offense. "You wound me, maralekkkt," she hissed airily. Mara responded by rushing forward and putting her fist through the wall at Hethys' back.

"How did he reach an Heir?!" she shouted. "You told me that Auberalea is closed to the world! You told me that there is no reaching them! Was it all a lie?"

"Not a lie," answered Hethys, unfazed. "Just the truth you needed to hear. The land of the one called Ancestor is closed to the likes of you, but perhaps the prospective successors to the Throne have seen something worthy in the lords of these lesser lands."

“But we are blood,” Mara coldly retorted. “Even if I am not close kin to them, am I not of Ancestor’s line? You’ve said so yourself. If they will see Bram, then surely, I can secure an audience.”

“And what if you could? What would you say?”

Mara’s tongue failed her as she considered the pointed question. It was not that she hadn’t pondered the matter at length before, but her thoughts had been little more than the idle imaginings of a girl bent on seizing an auspicious destiny from the jaws of her cruel fate. The discovery that even heaven’s blessed favored highborn men had her questioning those hopes. Seeing her hesitation, Hethys pushed the issue after first pushing Mara away from her.

“Let your fantasies be hereby shattered,” she snapped. “I’d wager this matter with LeBaron has been nothing but a bit of amusement for a bored Prince. A life-or-death matter to you is naught but a game to those happy few who sit around the seat of power.”

Mara averted her gaze, but Hethys reached out and gripped her cheeks to enforce continued eye contact. “You’ve nothing to offer the Crown, and they’ve nothing to gain from you. Auberalea is a land of ceaseless plenty. Those within want for nothing. I am quite certain they won’t want you.”

The young woman smacked Hethys’ bony fingers away from her and turned her back on the hag. She was loath to admit that such pitiful sentiment had anything to do with her longing to set foot in Auberalea, but the rage that gripped her heart and twisted her countenance betrayed her.

It took her several moments to calm herself anew. Once she had, her shoulders relaxed, her fingers flexed, and her features reclaimed the cold conviction she most commonly displayed. She had not failed to consider a darker path to the prize she so desired. With Hethys’ assertions playing through her mind, she decided to focus on exploring that option instead.

"There is some wisdom in your words," she said without deigning to face Hethys again. “But I have proven time and again that those who want for nothing can be made to know desire. One need only steal something precious.”

She trudged toward the exit to the room to address her questions to the vile lad who'd come to stand at their center, but Hethys called out to slow her down before she could reach the threshold.

"What are you going to do, Mara?" she asked. "Will you tear and shout at the lad until he spills the details of his pledge to the child of the Crown? Will you directly rend his mind to find the answers you desire?"

Mara shook her head. "You misunderstand me. His pledge is of no consequence. What matters to me is that he is connected to the Throne."

Hethys quirked a brow. "What significance is there to you in that?"

"You have said that I do not have the means to reach Auberalea, and maybe that is true. But they have sent a lifeline out into these impoverished lands. The young Master drew his power through a bond, and a bond must go both ways."

"What would you do with this bond?"

"Use it to reach the unreachable."

Mara returned then to her planned course and left Hethys alone in the late Lord's bedchamber. As she departed, a wicked grin snaked across the aged hag's face. "The young lady never fails to impress."