The

  sun was high in the sky, its rays dappling through the trees along

  the gently worn path towards the portal rock. I had long ago lost the

  feeling in my legs and I badly wished that it would have instead been

  my back. Riding a horse for so long while balancing two other riders,

  though small, had taken a harder toll on me than I had expected. The

  matter was not helped by my insistence to ride as long as possible

  each day to ensure our trip was as short as possible. The two girls

  hardly seemed to notice the extended days, their youthful bodies not

  as bothered by the constant jostling.

  "Miss

  Mari?" the young princess asked, turning her head to catch a

  glimpse of my face. "What is your kingdom like?"

  "Much

  like what you are used to, only without men in charge," I

  answered.

  The

  princess shifted to better turn towards me, a look of contemplation

  on her face. "But then who makes the decisions?" she asked.

  "The

  women, of course." I snorted with irritation at such a silly

  question. "Surely even your mother had some power over your

  kingdom, it should not be such a foreign concept."

  She

  furrowed her brow and looked towards Alice as if she would back up

  her confusion, the little girl only shrugged back.

  "Well

  yes, about things like the cooking, raising children, and the

  servants, but what about war and armies?" the princess pressed.

  I

  let out a grumbling sigh, it seemed like the princess could barely go

  a few minutes without some sort of question that could be easily

  answered with just a little thought on her part.

  "The

  queen, my great niece, takes care of everything, including all the

  different tasks I know are wanting to spill out of your mouth,” I

  replied. “Women rule even more effectively then men, no matter what

  you've heard or seen before."

  The

  princess turned her eyes back to the forest we were passing through

  and went quiet, much to my relief. Alice had realized that I would

  give no more answers than I desired and that her constant chatter

  would annoy me. Tiffany either had not picked up the same lessons or

  she, more irritatingly, did not care. Either way, I could not wait to

  deliver the girls and take a long solitude in the comfort of my own

  room.

  "But

  when she's married, she'll let her husband rule, right?" the

  princess again questioned, shattering the brief moment of silence.

  I

  let out a sharp laugh. "Queen Toria will never marry," I

  informed, "she is quite content with her consort and would never

  dream of allowing a man to have any sort of dominion over her or her

  kingdom."

  "Never

  marry?!" Princess Tiffany exclaimed, her face morphed into a

  mask of horror. "But what about children, there needs to be an

  heir!"

  I

  answered with a shrug and a grunt, the girl had accidentally hit on a

  point that worried me as well. We had been lucky that Toria had been

  born and was a good fit for the throne, but beyond her, we knew of no

  others. The twins could have reproduced, but nothing had ever come

  back from the reports to indicate that either of them had children. I

  had a feeling that they were vehemently against conceiving their own

  progeny due to the magic that influenced the outcome. I only hoped

  that Toria would see reason when the topic would inevitably have to

  be broached.

  "Many

  women birth children while not married," I answered, "surely

  even you must know that. Her refusing to marry does not have to

  dictate staying childless."

  "Servants,

  perhaps," she said, face turning pink, "but it is certainly

  not proper for a royal woman to... to..." The princess let out a

  loud huff and took a deep breath in. "...to carry a child whose

  father is not her husband."

  Tiffany

  glanced briefly at Alice with a look that said she didn't think this

  kind of conversation should be happening before someone so young. In

  a low voice, barely above a whisper she said, "That would make

  the future heir a bastard."

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  A

  wry smile curled up onto my lips and a staccato laugh escaped through

  my nose. "My dear, you are currently riding with someone who

  could be called a bastard."

  The

  girl's face paled and her lips parted slightly to start apologizing.

  "I

  carry that title with a bit of pride," I explained, waving away

  her terrified expression. "My mother was a strong woman who

  raised my sister and I to embrace and reinvent what it meant to be a

  woman in this world. She never needed a man at her side to dictate

  the decisions of her life. Frankly, I think the world in general

  would be much better if the whole absurd notion of marriage was

  abolished with. Does a noble horse care to marry? Perhaps the regal

  cat slinking through the tall grass? No, nature's base state is not

  monogamy or silly contracts, it is ever fluid and transforming."

  The

  princess looked at me with wide wonder, she couldn't seem to wrap her

  mind around everything I was explaining. It was no matter, there

  would be plenty of time to undo the years of incorrect training.

  "It

  is of no matter now," I said, "just quiet yourself with the

  knowledge that you are traveling to a place where your happiness and

  fulfillment will be paramount and your worth will not be determined

  by the status of who you marry."

  The

  girl turned back away from me, looking out into the distance where we

  were heading. The portal stone should come into view by the end of

  the day and I had encouraged them to play a little game to see who

  could spot it first. I could tell that she was not playing the game,

  but instead was mulling over the new information I had fed to her.

  Wearily,

  I returned to my own thoughts, the only refuge I had from the

  drudgery that was this return home. My thoughts were now of my

  mother, the tender, yet fiery woman who gave Evonia her regal sense

  of purpose and my own stalwart independence. It seemed that the older

  I grew, the more often I thought of her, perhaps now that I was an

  elderly woman, I could look back and recognize the impact of her

  rearing in the path of my life.

  My

  mother, Aurora, had been little better than a servant, a handmaid to

  a noble woman who kept her as more of a friend than a slave. Though

  my mother was beloved by the lady of the manor, the duke was a hard,

  cold man who cared only for his wife's abilities to entertain like a

  well-mannered lady and to bear children. When my mother was barely a

  young adult, the duchess began to find trouble conceiving anymore

  children, losing them early or going for long stretches without any

  signs of pregnancy. It was not long until the duke began to look

  elsewhere, the easiest target was Aurora who was still beautiful,

  youthful, and fertile.

  Despite

  the duchess' displeasure and my mother's unyielding refusal, Aurora

  gave birth to her first child, Evonia. After the birth, my mother,

  despite having no power before, used her new leverage to demand

  better accommodations for herself and her child with the unspoken

  agreement that she would willingly submit herself to the task of

  carrying more children. It was the darkest point in her life, being

  used for nothing more like a means of production and the agreement

  did not last much longer beyond my own birth.

  With

  nothing to her name, my mother planned her escape for the middle of

  the night, taking whatever valuables from the home that could fit

  into a bag. Into the night with Evonia on one hip and myself pressed

  to her bosom, she left the manor, never to return. Aurora spent many

  nights wandering the beaten paths towards the towns scattered

  throughout the kingdom she resided in, keeping off the road during

  the day to prevent anyone who may be looking for her from taking her

  and her children back. Eventually she made it to one of those towns,

  sold her goods, and bought safety for us in the home of an elderly

  woman, her silence assured by the modest sum the noble goods had

  brought at the market.

  We

  were raised, partially in isolation in that small town, I could not

  bring it's name to mind and I could not be sure that I had ever

  actually known it. My mother worked in the bakery down the street,

  reporting long before the sun rose in the morning and not returning

  until the afternoon. Evonia was much more impacted by our simple life

  in the near ramshackle house, she had lived with much delight in

  finery with rich food and constant pampering. Though young, she made

  her displeasure known.

  My

  first memories of my sister were her screaming fits towards my mother

  about taking her away from the manor and her threats to tell people

  where she really belonged. Thanks to her constant fuming state, my

  mother and the old woman took turns ensuring that the two of us were

  never outside of hand's reach in case Evonia ever took an opportunity

  to run off and make good on her threats.

  "There!"

  Alice called out, dragging me away from the fading memories in my

  mind. "Is that the rock?"

  Focusing

  my eyes on the road ahead of us, I was relieved to see that it was

  instead the point of transition. There would still be a long ride

  ahead of us after passing the barrier, but there was light at the end

  of the tunnel.

  "It's

  just a rock," Tiffany said with a sniff, "it doesn't look

  like a door or something we can pass through."

  I

  ignored the girl's ignorance and dug my feet sharply into the horse's

  flanks to spur it into a faster trot.

  "It's

  not..." Alice said, voice trailing off. Her eyes were wide,

  pupils dilating as she went into a sort of trance.

  Tiffany

  seemed not to notice, she continued frowning at the rock in front of

  us, but I watched the youngest girls face carefully. The girl's

  reaction to her first dose of pure, unmitigated magic would speak to

  her possible affinities when trained.

  Alice's

  face turned up in a smile, eyes wide and unblinking, her hands

  clasped tightly into the mane of the beast. With a loud gasp, she

  seemed to snap out of her fugue state, looking to me with wonder. Now

  within the sphere of magic surrounding the stone, my own magical aura

  shown brighter, the edges clarified against the haze of wild magic

  emanating from the stone. I would feel her gently press against my

  magical aura with her own, a giddy look coming over her face as our

  aura's touched. Her aura felt young and wild, it contained a

  terrifying strength within it, my own eyes going wide at the girl's

  sheer potential. I had never felt something so powerful residing

  within a human, especially a human from such low birth. Her potential

  excited the hairs down the back of my neck, sending a shiver through

  my body. She alone could hold the potential to turn the tide of any

  war she was a part of.

  "Yep,

  just a stupid rock."

  Princess

  Tiffany's words broke my awed state and I looked to her with a frown.

  If she could feel none of what was happening around her, she was

  truly as magically inept as I suspected. It was a pity that her

  ultimate residence would not be within the walls of the kingdom,

  perhaps the best we could do for her would be to let her chose her

  own, separate fate.

  "It's

  beautiful," Alice whispered, her eyes back on the stone in the

  path.

  At

  least I was bringing back one recruit, her potential perhaps great

  enough to make up for the fact that I was returning nearly

  empty-handed.