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“Airón,” my sister said quietly. Then she made a sound that was nearly a scream, a hysterical choked sound that ended only when she crossed the space between us. It had seemed immense, an impossibly large gap, but she covered it with only three steps.

She wrapped me in her trembling arms, pressing her face into my neck and panting against my skin, tears wetting my skin. I gripped her so tightly I was sure she wouldn’t be able to breathe. Opening and closing my mouth, I was unable to speak, but I never had to with her before and something said I didn’t need to now.

Her fingers dug into my back, and I felt her nails through the thin fabric the imperials preferred.

“My idiot brother. My brave, stupid brother.” But her words didn’t have any heat, I could feel her body shuddering, as she held in the larger emotion that threatened to choke her.

“Eonaî,” I said. My throat closed over any other words I wanted to say, so instead I held her tight, unable to let her go.

We stayed like that for some time, the distance between us closing with each breath, with my memory of her shifting to fit with the reality of her in front of me. Yes, we had both changed in our time apart, but we were still ourselves.

When her body stopped trembling, she finally pulled back, looking me over, her thumbs underneath my chin, tilting my face this way and that as she examined me.

“Come,” my father said. “We have much to speak about.”

His words drew us back from the small universe that had been just the two of us. He led the way to a group of couches and chairs arranged close together, as they would be in the north. In the Silver City, we usually had a brazier or fire pit in the center. It was too warm in the South for such things, so instead we stared at each other.

Eonaî seemed unwilling to let go of me and dragged me to a couch for us to sit next to each other.

“How is Mother?” I asked. “I worried when we heard no news.”

“She wanted to come, but the council thought it would be foolish to have both of us go into enemy territory,” my sister said. She touched a silver ring on her hand. “She worries about you often. She stares at the ships going south. She would have come, but you know one of the other clans would have used it as an excuse to try for power.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. “I miss her. I hope she will recognize me when we meet again.”

“Is he good?” my sister asked. My eyes snapped open.

The question caught me off guard, her blue eyes piercing me through. I could not lie to her.

“Yes,” I said.

Her shoulders relaxed, although she did not lean back into her cushion. She had trained too long to be an empress to slouch.

“I thought I was leaving you to my fate. I thought it so unfair that you would have to do something worse than what I’d trained to do. The sailors had so many horrible stories about him and I tried to run away so many times. I tried to come here, but finally Mother reminded me that things might go worse for you if I did get here. That he would have someone to threaten, someone to hurt to make you hurt. I could have died from jealousy when Iradîo ran away and no one came to drag her back.” She reached out, putting her hand on top of mine, squeezing until her knuckles were pale. “When we heard news of what was happening in the Imperium, I hoped that, with the emperor’s favor, you had still managed to destroy the Imperium. I couldn’t sleep from guilt that I should have been here helping you. But then Iradîo came with your letters.”

I smiled a bit at my sister’s expression: her brows pulled together, her eyes seeking confirmation from me that Iradîo had told the truth.

“And what did our cousin say?”

“That you and the emperor were in love with each other. That you were playing the complicated game of imperial politics well. That you still had that self-sacrificing tendency I hoped you’d outgrow but now you risk your life for more than the Northern Kingdom.” My sister’s eyes fixed on mine before moving over my face as though the truth would be found there. “Do you promise he is a good man for you? You are not just sacrificing yourself because you think we need you to?”

“I know it is impossible to believe, but he is,” I said. “He loves me. I love him.”

My sister nodded, her eyes already sharpening as she began making plans. In the time apart, I might have changed, but she had as well. I recognized our mother in her expression, in the way that her plots would be beyond the rest of us. She was already thinking about how to use this for a northern advantage, and I wanted to let her at the same time as I knew I needed to stop her.

Iradîo had warned me once that there would come a point where my loyalty to Tallu would find itself at odds with my loyalty to the Northern Kingdom. I wasn’t surprised that the time had already come.

“Is he being true when he asks for peace and promises reparations?” My sister raised her thumb and forefinger to her chin, tapping against the tip of it as she thought.

“He wants peace. But if the Northern Kingdom demands reparations, more money or supplies than the Imperium can part with, then it will push the Imperium into civil war. Right now, Tallu has enough allies and loyalty that they will follow him.” I stopped there, and my sister filled in the blank.

“But if we demand too much, then even his loyal retainers will push to dethrone him.” My sister sighed. Finally, she looked over at my father, who had remained silent, letting his children have their time together, and then letting the heir of the Silvereyes Clan find out the information she needed.

My father was like the northern snow. Silent, deadly, keeping his secrets under a placid surface. In that way, he was an ideal partner for my mother. She needed someone she could rely on, who would not betray her, who would offer his opinions when called to, but would not let his own ego to cause him to question her in front of others. Even among the rest of her talented spouses, there was a reason she had chosen him to play the part of the leader of the Northern Kingdom.

At my sister’s questioning look, my father said, “Most of the clans will simply be pleased with the promise that the Imperium will not return with its warships. However, it is the air mages we must be concerned with.”

Nodding, my sister turned back to me, explaining how the airship had allowed them to finally have communications with the floating islands of Ristorium, how they had worked together with the air mages and the surviving civilians to build an armada of ships.