Three hours later
Aefia's stared down at her tray. It was teaming, and it looked amazing. The scent too was nearly filling her stomach.
"How is it?" Helio looked down at her, standing behind her.
She glared at him. "I haven't even taken a bite yet."
He simply smiled in return.
"Then take a bite," Helio coaxed softly, resting his chin on his palm as he leaned down slightly over her shoulder. "I had the camp chef prepare the stew with extra spices just the way you like it. If you stare at it any longer, it's going to cool off, and then you will have another reason to complain about camp service."
Aefia grumbled something unintelligible under her breath, but her stomach betrayed her with a loud, unmistakable rumble. A faint flush crept up her neck, though she maintained her rigid, unbothered posture.
She picked up the wooden spoon, dipped it into the thick, steaming broth, and blew on it lightly before taking a bite. The rich, savory flavor hit her tongue instantly, spreading a comforting warmth all the way down to her chest. Her eyes widened just a fraction, the sharp tension in her shoulders finally melting into genuine relief.
"...It's acceptable," she muttered, immediately taking a second, larger bite.
"High praise coming from the woman who just leveled a royal estate," Helio chuckled, stepping around her chair to pour a cup of fresh, warm tea. He placed the mug beside her tray, his fingers lingering briefly near her hand.
"The medics checked you over while you were asleep, by the way. No fractured bones, just severe exhaustion and minor bruising. Though... I took the liberty of healing those raw marks on your wrists myself."
Aefia paused, glancing down at her hands. The deep, angry red chafing from Kazimir's anti-magic cuffs had vanished completely, leaving her skin smooth and unmarred.
"I didn't ask you to do that," she said quietly, her tone softening despite her best efforts to sound cold.
"You didn't have to," Helio replied softly, his green eyes meeting hers with unwavering warmth. "You have fought enough for one day, Aefia. Let us handle the rest for a while."
She stared at him for a long moment, the quiet hum of the camp outside—the distant clinking of armor, the crackle of patrol fires, and the murmurs of his soldiers—filling the silence between them. Slowly, a small, genuine smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
"Fine," she sighed, taking a sip of the tea. "But you are still hunting down Kazimir's fence and getting my ring back."
"Already dispatched a squad to track the buyer," Helio smirked, crossing his arms with an easy, confident grace. "I am not letting some black-market thug keep my fiancée's ring. Besides... I would hate for Kazimir to think he got the last laugh."
"Ugh! Stop with that already!" She slammed her spoon down and shut her eyes in embarrassment. "Seriously... What has gotten into you?! Did Felix do something to your brain or what?!"
"Your brother isn't just mischievous in ways, you know? Maybe he did teach me a few things."
"Oh you both are so done." She glared at him with a smirk.
"Hey hey! The leader of the house was away for two months alright? And you are still away." He flicked a stray lock of hair away from her face.
"So where is he right now?" She said while going back to her food.
"I kept him somewhere safe. Besides... It is time that he starts to take care of himself." He swung his arm around her shoulder, leaning his head on his palm against his elbow on his knee.
"Helio, he is still a minor," she looked at down at him. "He needs someone to keep an eye on him."
"But weren't you fifteen too when you came to this world?" He asked.
"That was different."
"You suffered more than he ever faced."
Aefia squinted an eye at him. "How is that supposed to—"
"Anyways! Quickly finish your meal. And then we will talk about the third phase of the plan."
Aefia let out a long, suffering sigh, but the sharp glare she directed at him lacked its usual deadly edge. Instead, she took another overly dramatic bite of her stew, chewing deliberately while keeping her garnet eyes fixed on his face.
"You are infuriatingly good at changing the subject when you know I am right," she said after swallowing, using the wooden spoon to point vaguely in his direction. "Felix might be clever, but he is reckless. If he gets himself captured by the remnants of Kazimir's faction because you were busy letting him 'take care of himself,' I am holding you personally responsible. He is my one and only brother."
"Noted," Helio replied with an easy, unbothered grin, not flinching an inch under her pointer spoon. "I will make sure to add 'babysitting the future Duke' to my official list of royal duties I guess. Though I assure you, I left him under the watchful eyes of my most trusted division. He is probably bored out of his mind complaining about camp rations right now."
Aefia snorted, dipping her spoon back into the bowl. "Good. Let him suffer a little discipline."
She made quick work of the rest of the meal, the warm food working wonders to restore the calories that had been scraped raw during her escape. As soon as the tray was cleared, Helio reached over to set the empty bowl aside, his expression shifting as the easy banter subtly gave way to the sharp focus.
He pulled a folded parchment from inside his pants' pockets, spreading it out across the wooden surface of the table between them. It was a detailed map of the capital, the outer estate boundaries marked in fresh black ink, with red wax markers pinpointing the garrisons currently surrounding the city gates.
Aefia leaned forward, resting her chin on her hand as her eyes scanned the layout. The exhaustion was still heavy behind her temples, but the familiar thrill of strategy brought a cool, calculating light back into her gaze.
"The second phase went better than expected," Helio began, tapping his index finger near the eastern pass. "The moment the south wing of the palace collapsed and the crimson surge hit the sky, the border regiments moved in to lock down the trade routes. Kazimir's loyalists are trapped inside the perimeter. They can't call for reinforcements from the southern duchies, and they certainly can't flee."
"And the ministers?" Aefia asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Terrified," Helio smirked. "Three of the high lords have already sent secret envoys to my command tent within the last hour, offering full cooperation in exchange for immunity. They are terrified of you, Aefia. For whatever massacre you had created a month ago at your 'execution'. Though I am honestly surprised you pulled out such a trick from your head."
Aefia traced a finger over the central palace court on the map, a cold, dark smile touching her lips. "They should be terrified. They stood by and watched Kazimir turn the dungeon into his personal slaughterhouse while they counted their taxes. Immunity isn't on the table."
"I figured you would say that," Helio chuckled softly, though his eyes remained serious as he met her gaze. "So... Phase Three. Are we marching the vanguard straight through the main gates tomorrow morning, or do you have another absurdly dangerous shortcut planned?"
Aefia tilted her head, her fingers tapping a slow, rhythmic beat against the edge of the table. "Marching through the front gates is too polite for men who tried to bleed me to death, don't you think?"
Helio let out a low laugh, shaking his head with affectionate resignation. "I knew it. God help the Mides Kingdom."
She leaned back against the backrest of the chair, folding her arms as she turned her head towards the tent flaps. "Summon the ministers you have brought with you."
"Hm? Alright...?" He slowly pushed his chair back, standing up. "But what are you planning to do?"
Aefia looked back at the map. "I want to destroy and claim the Mides Kingdom under the Empire. So I might as well plan for a war at best. But if it doesn't happen, then I will just have to bring the army to break in and silence the palace while I meet Kazimir himself."
He tilted his head in curiousity. "Why are you going to meet with that bastard again?"
"... I want to kill him with my own hands. I want a payback for all the trouble he had been causing me so far."
***
The ministers stood huddled around the heavy oak war table in the center of the tent, their voices a low, rhythmic hum against the canvas. Farther back, bathed in the soft glow of a single brass lamp, sat Aefia and Helio.
"The eastern pass remains our primary tactical vulnerability," Lord Vane murmured, adjusting his velvet mantle while tracing a swollen knuckle along the parchment map. "If we commit three legions to the main gates, King Kazimir's remnants could easily slip through the ravine. A standard pincer formation is far too predictable, yet... leaving the pass open feels like handing them an escape route on a silver platter."
Count Malakor scoffed quietly, leaning over the table with his arms folded. "Predictability is not our enemy, Lord Vane; inertia is. If we hesitate outside the threshold waiting for the southern duchies to declare their allegiance, we invite starvation upon our own vanguard. A swift, aggressive breakthrough at the front gates forces their hand. Discard the pass—let them run into the wilderness."
"And let Kazimir regroup in the provinces?" another lord chimed in, his brow furrowed. "Absurd. We cut the head off the snake in the court, or we do not strike at all."
A few paces away, the sharp clack of a black wooden piece echoed softly.
Aefia didn't look toward the war table, though her garnet eyes were sharp and unblinking as she leaned her chin against her knuckles. She slid her rook down the central file, placing it directly in the firing line of Helio's white queen. It was a move so wildly unconventional it bordered on reckless.
Helio paused, his fingers hovering over his ivory knight. He didn't look at the board immediately; instead, his gaze flicked to her face, a faint, knowing smile playing on his lips.
"You are feeding me your high-value pieces again," Helio said softly, his voice a quiet murmur meant only for her. "Either you are extraordinarily exhausted, or you have decided my queen looks better off the board."
"Your queen is predictable," Aefia replied smoothly, her voice dropping into that cool, melodic undertone. "She moves where she pleases because nothing dares to challenge her path. I am merely giving her a reason to step forward."
"Is that so?" Helio chuckled under his breath, twirling his knight before setting it down on a defensive square rather than taking the bait. "And here I thought you were just letting off steam after turning a royal palace into rubble. You know... you have a terrifying way of relaxing."
"I am perfectly relaxed," she muttered, though a faint, stubborn twitch at the corner of her lips betrayed her. "Besides, watching those five pretend to understand the battlefield is far more entertaining than listening to them compliment my restraint."
"They are terrified of you, Aefia," Helio noted softly, his green eyes softening as he looked at her dark hair, still smelling faintly of ash and pine needles. "Can you blame them? The last time they saw you, you were chained in a newspaper photo. Now you are sitting here, casually dismantling my center line while directing an army with your ears."
"Let them be terrified," she purred, her eyes fixed on the board. "Fear makes men cautious. Cautious men make predictable mistakes."
Across the tent, the ministers' debate shifted sharply.
"The subterranean aqueducts remain flooded from the south wing detonation," Lord Vane argued, his tone stiffening. "We cannot risk sending light infantry through three feet of pressurized runoff. It guarantees a bottleneck!"
"Then we utilize the mechanical ballistas on the inner spires to cover an aerial drop!" Malakor countered, tapping a heavy brass weight onto the map. "Force the gates from above!"
"And lose half the division to iron-tension bolts before they touch the courtyard?" Vane barked back. "The gears run on mechanical cranks—they don't need magic to tear our wyverns out of the sky!"
Aefia's hand froze mid-air, her fingers hovering an inch above her black bishop.
Pressurized runoff.
Mechanical cranks at the watchtower base.
The spatial layout of the ruined Mides palace reconstructed itself instantly behind her eyes—the exact fault line where the subterranean steam pipes intersected the heavy stone foundations of the inner spires.
The floodwater in the aqueducts wasn't just sitting there. It was trapped behind the secondary heat vents she had scorched during her escape.
The color drained from her face for a single split second before a cold, blinding spark of absolute clarity ignited in her garnet eyes.
"Helio," she whispered, her voice dropping all its playful edge.
Helio instantly stilled, his green eyes locking onto hers. "What is it?"
Without answering, Aefia stood up so fast her chair scraped sharply against the wooden floorboards.
The sound cut through the ministers' argument like a blade. Lord Vane and Count Malakor snapped their heads toward the back of the tent, freezing in place as the Crown Princess strode out of the shadows. Her dark cloak billowed behind her as she stepped right up to the head of the main war table, slamming both hands flat against the parchment map.
"Your Imperial Highness!" Lord Vane stammered, taking an instinctive step back. "We... we were just weighing the risks of the subterranean routes—"
"You are looking at the water as an obstacle," Aefia said, her voice dropping an octave, carrying a quiet, terrifying weight that made the air in the tent feel instantly cold. She didn't look at Vane; her glowing eyes were locked onto the central watchtower markers. "Count Malakor. The spire ballistas—their gear cranks are anchored into the stone foundation directly above the lower relief valves, correct?"
Count Malakor swallowed hard, nodding rapidly. "Y-Yes, Your Highness. The structural base of the inner towers rests right against the drainage vaults."
"And the water backing up into the aqueducts is boiling steam runoff from the destroyed crystal grid," Aefia continued rapidly, her finger dragging a sharp, deliberate line across the ink. "It isn't a bottleneck. It's a loaded mortar."
Helio stepped up beside her, leaning his hands on the edge of the table as his sharp mind instantly caught the trajectory of her thought. "Do you hate the palace that much?"
"I need to destroy the palace and create obstacles that will slow down the army," Aefia declared, looking up at Helio with a look of pure, cold genius. "I do remember telling you I want Kazimir's head on a silver platter."