Alastar took the punch from Assi, grunting as it made him take a step back. But he wouldn’t be worthy to be king of Hesiodos if he let a punch like that stop him. He grinned, grabbing her arm to keep her in his reach, and driving his knee up towards her stomach. Of course, she wouldn’t have been chosen as one of his guards if she wasn’t formidable in her own right.

  Assi dove to the side, avoiding the hit and twisting her arm out of his grasp, taking advantage of the weak point at his thumb. Her elbow drove up towards his face, just barely missing as he dodged to the side. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a pair of nobles strolling through the covered walkways that stretched from one side of the garden to the other, but didn’t pause. If the Cresenvasht nobles wanted to see how they sparred, he didn’t mind. It looked like one of them was the prince.

  The woman at his side caught Alastar’s attention, and he froze. Long enough for Assi to land another hit. He grunted, grabbing her wrist as the hit connected and spinning to send her flying towards some flowering bushes. He trusted her to land well enough that she wouldn’t break anything, and something more important than a spar had just come up.

  She was small, much smaller than he had expected, and there was a wariness to her that he didn’t like. But she also had the healthy glow of someone who had recently undergone magical healing. She had been hurt, Wulfram had said as much, even though there was no physical trace of it that he could see. But even as small as she was, she was the spitting image of their mother.

  “Daniella.” A few quick strides brought him to her, and he dropped down to one knee so he could look her in the eye. He didn’t miss the tension singing in her muscles, or the slight flinch when he got close. “Daniella, it really is you.”

  “I go by Dani.” Her forehead wrinkled, and he thought he saw the barest glimpse of recognition in her eyes. “Wulfram says ya think I might be yer lost princess or some nonsense like that.”

  “Seeing you, I am certain of it. But if you insist on more proof than that, we can perform a simple ritual, it would only require a drop of blood.” Alastar spoke softly, well aware of Cresenvasht’s opinion of blood magic. She had been raised in these lands, it was likely that she would hold similar views. But he could understand the desire to be certain, especially when the claims were so grand.

  “A drop of blood? What is it, some kind of blood magic? Ain’t that illegal?”

  “Most blood magic is, but with matters of proving ancestry, even Cresenvasht allows it to a small extent.” Wulfram said, setting a hand on one of Dani’s shoulders.

  “I still ain’t thrilled with the idea of being stabbed.” She paused, staring at Alastar. He waited patiently, like he would with a feral animal, waiting for it to come to him. There was recognition there, he was sure of it now. Some part of her, no matter how small, knew who he was. Knew that they shared blood. She had to know! They had been so little the last time they had seen each other, but they had shared the womb, had been nearly inseparable for the first short years of their lives. Finally, she spoke again. “But I guess I can deal with it.”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Alastar smiled, sending a prayer of thanks to Asartis, the goddess of the heavens. Proof would surely go a long way towards putting Daniella- or Dani as she preferred, at ease. And it would quiet any grumblings from the other clans. “Thank you. Drust, your assistance please.”

  The broad man stood up, crossing the short distance to stand by Alastar’s side. He bowed slightly to Wulfram, then slightly deeper to Dani and Alastar. “The ritual can be done very quickly, if you both would but extend a hand?”

  Dani looked at the other man with the same wariness she had shown Alastar, but held out one of her slender hands. She looked like a lady, but he could see callouses on her hand, much like he had seen with those who often climbed the mountain. Whatever she had been through in this land, she had not been some pampered court flower. Wulfram had said she had been a thief. What trials she must have gone through, when she should have had the privileges and safety of a princess. Alastar swallowed down anger, not allowing it to enter his body. She was skittish enough, even if she held herself with confidence. He held out his own hand, calloused from years of fighting.

  Drust pulled a small shell from one of his pouches, one of many that had found their way inland from the sea, and a slender dagger from it’s sheath at his side. Alastar noticed how Wulfram moved just a little bit closer to Dani as she flinched again, barely visible but there nonetheless.

  “It will only be a little pin prick, just enough to activate the reagents and see if there is a match.” Alastar spoke softly, as he would to a child.

  Drust pricked his finger first, letting a drop of gold-tinted blood well up from the tiny cut, and drip into the seashell. Dani held herself still as he repeated the treatment to her, and Alastar felt admiration stir in him when she didn’t flinch again, even though her hand shook. “What happens now?”

  “Now we add a few more reagents, such as lilac petals to symbolize family, and citrine powder to activate the flame of the royal family, and see if the blood reacts to each other. Do you see how the drops are separate right now?”

  Dani looked down at the shell, taking the handkerchief that Wulfram offered her to wrap around her finger until the bleeding stopped. The drops were poised perfectly on two sides of the shell, neither sliding down the slope to the center as they should. Alastar watched her as Drust sprinkled the required reagents into the shell between the two droplets of blood.

  He had assumed that she would be happy at the idea of being a princess of Hesiodos, but she couldn’t quite hide the fear, not from him, and apparently, not from Wulfram. The smaller man held her close, watching the spell as it started to take shape. The droplets of blood glowed golden, and began to roll around the inside of the shell, faster and faster, forming a golden ring that slowly shrank towards the center of the shell.

  It was a simple spell, one Alastar had seen many times when he had been called to mediate arguments of bloodline among the clans. But even he turned his gaze to the spell, watching as the glow flared briefly, and then faded, revealing one tiny pool of blood.

  Joy and relief flooded over him, and he looked at Dani, grinning. They had said he was foolish in this quest to find her, but he had succeeded. He had found her. “It is so good to see you again, sister.”