“Is it safe?” I asked and pulled the burrowed hat further down. It was a tight knitted one that could hardly fit down over my hair.

“Yes. It’s safe. No one knows what you look like up here.” Dy took my arm and steadied me. My legs were wobbly, and I was still weak. But I needed to get out of that room now, or else I would never leave.

We walked slowly down the cobblestone streets, between tall buildings. All had metal stairs strapped on the walls, and metal bars over the windows. Most of the metal all around the city seemed to be rusty, but it played into the aesthetic of the city. I liked it.

“What do your parents do?” I asked.

“My mother is a doctor like my aunt. My father works in the mines.”

“Good working people then,” I said a little strained. The wound in my leg was still sore.

“Yes. Would… You like to see my house? It’s not far.”

“I’d love to.” I smiled up at her and clenched my hand around her arm. She patted my hand and smiled back. We walked down the street and rounded a corner. I wasn’t sure if this was considered a rich neighbourhood or a poor one. I had never been outside of the stronghold before now.

“It’s nice here,” I tried.

Dy snorted. “Not really. I’ll show you the better parts of town some day.”

“I do like it here. It’s not quiet. There’s life here.”

“I guess it’s a big contrast to the stronghold?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I always missed people. I mean, I had Quinn but...” I swallowed hard. “Dy, is there any way I can get a message to him? To tell him I’m alive?”

“They don’t think it would be safe right now. We’re working on getting someone set close to him.”

“Who are ‘we’ and ‘they’?”

“I guess I haven’t told you that yet.” She sighed a bit and stopped. “We have our own military. As a country, we’ve taken a stance against the coup, but not publicly. We’re working under their noses as a country. We might be pacifists, but we’re not idiots.”

“But why? Why do that for me?”

She snorted. “It’s not just about you. They’re trying cut us off from different business deals we have with the capital. You just happen to be one piece of the much larger puzzle.”

“Way to make me feel special,” I grinned.

She laughed out loud this time and took my arm in hers again. “That’s what I’m here for, Your Highness. To make you feel special.”

“You do, you know… Make me feel special.”

Her smile widened, but she didn’t reply. We started walking again, but this time my leg felt worse. I was starting to get a little dizzy too.

“Dy… I don’t feel so good,” I mumbled.

She didn’t even hesitate. She picked me up right then and there. “We’ll go to my parent's house. It’s right down this street.”

I balled my fist in her jacket and leaned my cheek against her chest. I could feel her muscles under the jacket tense up, but she didn’t look the least bit bothered by carrying me. She stopped in front of a small brown house and put me down on my own two feet again but pressed me to her side. Making sure I wasn’t falling anywhere. The second she got the door opened, she picked me back up again and carried me inside.

“Mamma?” she yelled out through the house.

A tall woman… A very tall woman came out from what I guessed was the kitchen, wiping her hands in a rag.

“What-”

“This is Al. She felt a little tired, so can we make her some tea?” Dy interrupted and walked through another door into a small living room. She put me on a brown leather sofa. She put a soft woollen blanket over me and sent me a smile. “I’ll go get that tea.”

I nodded dumbly. Her mother was standing in the doorway, staring at me. I plastered on a weak smile, and it looked like she was about to say something, but was again interrupted by her daughter. Dy came back with some tea and sat down in a matching arm chair.

She had called me ‘Al’. Only Quinn did that. I had always imagined that’s what my friends would call me, but I didn’t have any besides my brother. It squeezed in my chest to even think about him.

“Dy, sweetheart, what is the queen doing in my living room?” her mother asked, rather stiffly.

“I’m terribly sorry. I got unwell.” I took a sip of the tea. It was very spicy. I liked it.

“Please, don’t apologise.” Dy’s mother bowed and hesitantly came further into the living room. “I am just… Surprised. To say the least.”

“I was just showing her around. I think we both overestimated her condition,” Dy explained. “So, I brought her here.” She shrugged a shoulder and motioned me to drink more of my tea. I obediently took another sip, only to hide my smile.

“If it is a bother to you, I’ll take my leave-”

“Gods in heaven, no! No no. It would be an honour to have Your Highness stay for dinner.” She bowed again, and it was starting to make me feel uncomfortable. I was a guest in her home. I should be the one bowing.

“Please, just call me Alvina. Or Al. Both are fine, Madam.”

Her cheeks darkened. “Then I insist you call me Makaja. I haven’t even properly introduced myself. I’m Makaja Brandt. I’m Dy’s mother.”

“I bet she had guessed you weren’t just some random woman we had running around the house, Mamma,” Dy said.

I tried to strangle a laugh in my tea, but I accidentally spurted tea over my borrowed trousers instead.

Both Dy and Makaja couldn’t help but laugh too, and it was if the tension vaporised like the tea. Makaja came and sat down next to me on the sofa.

“Too spicy?” she asked with a giggle.

Her daughter took after her. Though Makaja had grey streaks in her dark hair and wrinkles around her eyes, she was just as brutally beautiful as Dy. Her dark eyes had the same shape, the outer corners ending in an up-going point. She had painted dark lines on her eyelids, making them seem even darker.

And she too had tattoos. Half a flower on top of her hand. The rest was probably hidden by the long sleeves of her cardigan.

“No, it’s quite good. I like it.”

“Oh, no. Now you’re going to set her off on her rants about how the quality of tea has dropped,” Dy groaned and rolled her eyes so forcibly, her head rolled with them.

I put my teacup down, but my left hand decided to not really want to cooperate. I put it down too hard, and it broke.

“I’m...” I stared down at the broken shards and then slowly lifted my gaze to Makaja. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s no bother, dear,” she said softly. She cleaned up the leftover tea and the broken cup.

“It’s gonna be hard, isn’t it?” I said and bit down on my lip.

“Yeah, probably. But you’ll learn. You just have to get used to it, is all. And you will.” She patted my hand a little awkwardly, but immediately jerked back when her mum came back into the room.

“I’ve been thinking. There’s no use in you two going back to Naaja’s tonight. Stay here.”

“Mamma-”

“I will hear no objections.”