"Yes," Eclipse said, and the humor drained out of her voice entirely now, replaced by something heavier, something she’d clearly been carrying since well before she’d walked through the door that morning.
"That’s what worries me too, honestly. Apparently there are thousands of households from across the human empire trying to get every possible detail about your awakening, and every single one of them has suddenly decided they want a friendly alliance with us, out of nowhere, urgent and immediate, as if they’ve all been waiting for exactly this excuse. They don’t even bother hiding what they actually want, Alex, not even a little, which I suppose I should be grateful for, since at least it means I don’t have to waste time untangling their real intentions from their polite words. I’ve spent the better part of the week rejecting one delegation after another. Honestly, I’m exhausted just from saying no so many different ways to so many different people. But the first wave’s finally over, at least for now, so there’s that small mercy."
"But there’s something worse," Zara said, breaking her own silence, her voice quieter and more measured than her usual easy tone, the shift in her drawing both Alex’s and Eclipse’s attention immediately.
"I think I know what you mean," Eclipse said, looking at her with something that passed between them, some shared understanding neither of them had explained to Alex yet, the kind of look that told him they’d already discussed this once before, probably in the corridor on the way to breakfast.
"And what’s that?" Alex asked, sitting forward slightly, curiosity sharpening into full attention, the last of the meal’s easy warmth cooling into something more serious.
"We’ve had envoys from other races trying to enter our territory," Zara said, setting her cup down carefully.
"The King strictly prohibited any entry from people of other races into the kingdom the moment the announcement went out. There’s a kill-on-sight order now for anyone who tries and doesn’t comply with the border guards. Anyone already living here, or with family already settled here, isn’t affected by that order, obviously, they’re free of it entirely. But new arrivals are being turned away without exception, no matter who sends them or what excuse they carry."
"Of course some people tried to fight it politically," Eclipse cut in, her tone sharpening with old, familiar irritation.
"Specifically the Bloodworth household, predictably enough. They kept arguing this was going to worsen relations between humans and the other races in the Union, that it made us look hostile and closed off to the wider continent. But that’s all they could really do, argue about it in whatever rooms they could get themselves invited into. No one can actually override a direct order from the King of Winterfang, not even them, no matter how loudly they complain about it in front of an audience."
’Bloodworths,’ Alex thought, turning the name over carefully in the quiet part of his mind that never quite stopped working, even mid-conversation.
’What’s the actual story there? I know the relationship between father and that step-mother of mine got complicated the moment he legally married my mother, but I’ve never gotten the full shape of it, not from mother, not from Eclipse, not even from the maids who seem to gossip about literally everything else that happens in this palace. I should ask Zara about it properly later, when it’s just the two of us and there’s no reason to keep the conversation short.’
"I heard the King left to meet the Emperor after the announcement," Zara said, turning to Eclipse.
"Did you get any news on how that actually went, or is it still too soon to know anything concrete?"
"Father?" Eclipse shook her head, some of the earlier heaviness settling back into her shoulders.
"Not really. We’ll know once they’ve settled something between them, one way or another. Mom will fill us in the moment it happens, she always does, but honestly, it’s going to be hard for me to keep up with all of it properly. I’m still fairly new to this whole political side of things, give me a battlefield any day over a negotiating table full of people smiling at each other while meaning none of it."
’Kill-on-sight,’ Alex thought, turning the phrase over slowly.
’That’s not a small thing to hand down. From what I have observed till now, father doesn’t move like that unless he thinks the alternative is worse. I wonder what he actually saw in that announcement to make him lock the borders this hard, this fast.’
"Did anyone actually try to force their way through?" he asked.
"Or is it all just angry letters and delegations turned away at the gate so far?"
"A handful tried," Zara said, her mouth flattening into something grim. "Nothing that got far. The border guards aren’t gentle about it, and word travels fast once the first one gets turned back in pieces instead of politely. After that, most people decided arguing in a palace hallway was safer than testing the guards directly."
"Charming," Alex said dryly.
"It’s effective," Eclipse said, with the flat practicality of someone who’d grown up watching diplomacy fail in exactly this fashion more than once.
"Nobody respects a soft border. They only respect one that’s already proven it isn’t bluffing."
"So you’re free now?" Alex asked, and there was a small, hopeful edge to his voice that he didn’t quite manage to smooth out no matter how he tried.
"After finishing up the work at the household, I mean. You said the first wave was over."
"Well," Eclipse said, and hesitated, just slightly, the pause stretching a beat longer than it should have, long enough that Alex felt something in his chest brace itself before she’d even said another word.
"About that..."
She didn’t finish it right away.
Her fingers drummed once against the edge of the table, a small, restless sound, and Zara’s eyes flicked toward Alex, some quiet warning passing across her face that he couldn’t quite read.
’Whatever’s coming next,’ Alex thought, watching his sister search for the right words, ’I don’t think I’m going to like it.’