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And he is heartily sick of this room and everything in it.

The strange sensation of tickling on his chest is, at first, mild enough to ignore. It takes a few moments before it grows intense enough that he stops his game with his hook to check that some insect is not creeping inside his shirt. When he pulls the fabric aside to find the mirror, on its chain around his neck, is shaking.

He lifts it, surprised, turns it around and looks at it.

He does not see his own face reflected in its silvered surface, but Elric’s.

He blinks. For a moment he thinks he is in a waking dream — his idle mind playing a trick. But Elric smiles at him, so real, and says, “Bastard?”

“Lordling?” Lukas says back. Although he is still sure that this cannot be real? His truest desire come true. “Am I dreaming you?”

Elric’s grin spreads wider. Tears dance in his eyes. “Do you dream of me often, Bastard?”

Lukas touches the mirror almost as if he could touch Elric’s face. “Lordling, I…, every night,” he says, voice a soft growl that he knows would easily send the Lordling to purring if they were together. “Your sweet kush, your red mouth. Is it truly you? Lordling, Lordling, I would give my good hand to touch you.”

An even broader smile then. Elric’s cheeks wet with tears. “Would you? Then what would you touch me with?”

Lukas laughs, “I’d think of something.” He flicks out his tongue, then leans closer to the mirror, as if he would climb inside it. “How are you doing this? Who is doing this?”

“You think I cannot do magic,” Elric says. The tears in his eyes are still spilling onto his cheeks.

“I think you can do many things,” Lukas says, his own voice starting to crack. “But not magic.”

“I have Perl with me, the fae we met in Ceruleum. And your brother Kerik, who has great power.”

Elric tilts the mirror to show Perl, the pale, slender fae and beside him, a young man in a fur cloak, built like Damon and with something of a look of him. Lukas nods to them, unsure what to say, what this can mean. He has seen Perl perform magic before. But only briefly. It seems like a distant dream.

“Please, are you safe?” Elric says. “Are you hurt?”

“Lukas Darekul,” Perl says, leaning forward, “Where are you?”

“I have rooms in the Rose Palace. I am a prisoner but I am not in the dungeons. I have been well treated, I think it amuses Atticul to treat me as a prince, but I will be executed at the ascension. Atticul wishes to lure Damon there⁠—”

When Elric interrupts him to say, “You must be careful. Emperor Atticul is⁠—-

Lukas interrupts him right back, saying. “I know. He is Ur-Durik. He has the demon inside him.”

Elric, Perl and Kerik all look back at Lukas with wide eyes. “How do you know that?”

“A demon rules Attar,” says Lukas coolly. “It was inevitable. The Dareks were always leading to this. Demons have always ruled Attar.”

“And there is more than that,” says Elric. “Ur-Durik is Zai. The whole empire worships the demon who would destroy the world. And that demon is the Emperor of Azuria.”

“Well then,” says Lukas, giving the Lordling a cocky smile. “Death to Emperor Atticul, it is.”

“And there is more you must know,” says Perl, speaking fast and urgent. “There is a fifth bastard son of your father. The last of The Five Fae Princes. We have Tobi and Kerik, that brings us to four, but the fifth is in the Rose Palace. It is the Hare. The veiled acolyte Elric met with in the palace. The man who could translate Lyr’s runes.”

“Atticul has spoken of him. Is he in danger?”

“Undoubtably,” Perl says. “He knows who he is but he will not know that Ur-Durik has risen and has taken possession of Atticul. He was guided by Doroth, but Doroth has not been able to get word to him in safety for some time. He will be in great danger from Atticul. If he could rid himself of you and Jemel at his ascension…”

Lukas thinks. He says, “Atticul thirsts for Damon’s blood. I think that is the reason he has not killed me thus far. He means to use me to lure Damon to him. He says Damon is using the legend of the Five Fae Princes to enact treason and take the throne.”

Perl smiles, as if realising something and agreeing. “Ur-Durik will be using him by making him do things by letting him think it is his own will. He is using Atticul’s loathing for Damon to entice him to destroy as many of the Fae Princes as possible. You must not let him harm you or Jemel. We need you all.”

Lukas shakes his head. “What can I do?”

“Can you find a way to get a message to the Hare? Tell him to leave the Rose Palace and find a safe place to hide until we arrive. We will be there before the Ascension for both of you.”