Remesis stood before a tall mirror in a carved frame and looked at her reflection.
A pale face. Dark hair, loose over her shoulders. Amethyst eyes — in which there was only tiredness.
Behind her, in the corner of the room, a copper bathtub filled with hot water already stood. Steam rose to the ceiling, and the air smelled of lavender and dried herbs — the maids had taken care in advance that the water would soothe and relax.
Today had been a long day. Yesterday she had nearly lost consciousness for an unknown reason, and her condition today was no better.
Although Remesis had promised the princess that from now on she would take on less workload, in the end this day had again been extremely eventful.
Meetings with local lords, endless conversations about borders and supplies, a mountain of paperwork... Who else would handle it if not her?
Now she planned to take a relaxing bath before going to sleep.
Remesis sighed tiredly and reached for the ties of her dress.
"Will someone else be assisting me today?" she asked without turning around.
She knew that somewhere in this room was a maid — the very same one sent instead of her personal maid Julia, who had taken the day off today. Remesis had not seen her face, but she heard her quiet breathing and the slight rustle of her skirts.
"Yes, Princess," came a muffled voice.
Remesis nodded, not paying it any mind.
She turned away to the mirror and began unfastening the dress herself — her long fingers habitually sliding over the buttons. The fabric rustled, revealing her pale neck and the line of her shoulders.
"Help with the corset," she said, pulling her hair aside.
The maid approached.
Remesis felt it — a barely perceptible smell... Of something foreign and yet familiar.
But she did not have time to turn around.
Fingers — long, strong, not at all like a woman's — landed on her shoulders, and Remesis shuddered all over.
A strange icy feeling shot through her, making her tremble from head to toe.
She spun around sharply, recoiling, and the next moment her eyes widened in astonishment.
Before her stood a maid — in a gray dress, a white apron, a bonnet covering her hair. But the face... the face under the bonnet bore no resemblance to that of an ordinary maid.
"Livius?!" Remesis breathed out, shock and fear mingling in her voice.
Her brother suddenly stood before her in a woman's dress, which looked absurd on him because his shoulders were broad and his height too tall. The bonnet had slipped sideways, and dark strands escaped from under it. Amethyst eyes — exactly like hers — burned with a feverish, almost mad fire.
"Remesis," he said quietly. "Quiet. Please, don't scream."
Remesis stepped back. Then another step.
"How... how did you get in here?" she muttered desperately. "The guards... the watch..."
"That doesn't matter." he stepped towards her, his hands reaching for her as if for a saving light. "Sister, you must come with me. Now. Immediately."
Remesis looked at him, her heart pounding somewhere in her throat.
"...No," she said.
Her voice sounded firmer than she had expected.
"What?" Livius froze, as if he hadn't heard.
"I said — no," she repeated, and now there was not a shadow of doubt in her voice. "I will not go with you, Livius."
He looked at her as if she had struck him.
"Sister..." his voice trembled. "You don't understand. Father... father has returned. He..." Livius fell silent, his face contorted with pain he could not contain. "He took everything from me. The title. The lands. The power. Everything I had. He cast me out. Said I should never cross his path again."
Remesis was silent for a while.
"And what is that to me?" Remesis said quietly.
Livius stared at her.
"What?"
"I don't care," she repeated, her eyes gleaming. "Neither you, nor the Carter family. I don't care about what happens to any of you."
Livius swayed, as if the ground had disappeared from under his feet.
"Sister, how can you say that?" he said. "I came here only for you! To save you..."
"Save me?" Remesis interrupted. "Did I ask you to? Livius, you have only ever thought of yourself. Always. You wanted to get me back not because you need me, but because you considered me your property. Isn't that so?"
"...That's not true," he muttered, but his voice no longer held its former confidence.
"It is true," she cut him off. "You never asked me what I want. You just decided for me." she shook her head, tears she refused to let fall glistening in her eyes. "I don't want to go back, Livius. I have a different life now. And I choose it."
Livius was silent.
He stood in the middle of the room in an absurd woman's dress, with his bonnet askew, and looked so lost and broken that Remesis's heart clenched for just a second. But she immediately reminded herself — she could not pity him. Pity towards this man would only make things worse for her.
"...I have nothing left," Livius said quietly, his voice sounding hollow, as if from a deep well. "Father took everything. Everything I had left is you. You are the only thing that made me keep breathing all these days. The only thing that drove me forward."
He raised his eyes to her — amethyst, full of despair.
"If you don't come with me... I will have nothing left, Remesis. Nothing at all."
Remesis looked at him, and two feelings fought in her chest. Love for her brother — that very same deep childhood love that cannot be uprooted even after everything that happened. And fear — cold, animal fear of what he had become. Of how far he was willing to go.
"I will not go," she said firmly. "I'm sorry, Livius. But no."
She turned away to the window, unable to look at his face any longer.
"Leave. I'm giving you one last chance before you are discovered. Before the guards..."
"No."
Livius's voice suddenly changed.
It became lower and colder. Almost alien.
Remesis froze and slowly turned around.
The young man stood in the same place, but something in him had changed. The lost look had vanished. The despair had vanished. In his eyes burned an even, frightening fire — the fire of a man who had made a decision. Who had come too far to turn back.
"If you will not come with me," Livius said slowly, almost gently, "then we will die here together."
And a knife glinted in his hand.
A long, narrow blade that he had hidden in the folds of his dress. The candlelight reflected off the sharpened steel, and this glint was like the smile of death.
"Livius, what are you doing?" Remesis backed against the wall, her voice trembling. "Stop. You're not yourself!"
"I am myself," he replied calmly. "I have never been more myself than I am now. I have lost everything, sister. Everything I had. And if I cannot take you with me into life — I will take you with me into death."
He stepped forward.
Remesis pressed her back against the cold wall. Her heart pounded so loudly she heard its beating in her ears.
"Livius, don't do this..." she whispered.
"It's too late to beg," her brother replied, his hand with the knife slowly rising.
He raised the blade.
There was neither doubt nor pity in his eyes.
"See you soon, sister," he said and began to lower his hand.
But the blade did not reach its target.
The next moment, the door burst open with a crash, and a shadow rushed into the room.
Someone's hand — strong, iron — intercepted Livius's wrist an inch from Remesis's neck. The fingers tightened with such force that Livius cried out in pain, and the knife fell to the stone floor with a clatter.
"I thought as much," came an icy voice. "That you wouldn't know how to lose gracefully."
Livius looked up and froze.
Before him stood the Lord of the North.
Asil Nara Ashelot, mistress of these lands and Remesis's wife, the woman who had once taken his sister.
There was cold, calculated fury in the woman's golden eyes. She held Livius's wrist as if it belonged to her, and one movement could break the bones.
"You dared to raise your hand against my wife," Asil said, her voice even, but with so much threat in it that even Remesis involuntarily shuddered. "In my house. With a knife."
She jerked Livius forward, forcing him to his knees, and loomed over him like a cliff over an abyss.
"Wife," Asil said, not taking her eyes off the defeated enemy, "tell me just one thing. How do you want him to die?"
Remesis flinched.
She was still standing by the wall, pale, her eyes wide with horror. Tears glistened on her cheeks — those very same tears she had held back for so long.
"...What?" she muttered.
"How do you want him to die?" Asil repeated calmly, as if asking what to serve for dinner tonight. "Quickly or slowly? By the sword or by poison? I can make him feel nothing. Or I can make him beg for death." she tilted her head, cold fire flickering in her eyes. "Choose, my love."
Livius, on his knees, raised his head and looked at his sister.
There was no plea for mercy in his gaze. Only bitterness. Only the realization that he had lost, finally and irrevocably.
Remesis looked at him for a long ten seconds.
Fragments of memories flashed through her mind. First and foremost, their childhood.
And then — his mad face that night when he suddenly attacked her. His obsession. And now — the knife raised over her.
"I..." she began, and her voice broke.
She did not know what to say.
Part of her — that which still clung to a fragile childhood affection — wanted to shout: "Spare him!"
But another part — that which had already seen his true face — whispered: "He deserved it."
She opened her mouth to answer...
But the answer did not come.
The words stuck in her throat, because neither option was right.
Asil waited quite a long time. Her hand did not tremble; her face did not show impatience. She was truly giving her the right to choose.
Livius also waited. He looked up at her, and there was neither hope nor fear in his eyes anymore. Only emptiness.
Remesis closed her eyes.
"I... I just don't want to see him anymore. Ever," she said finally, her voice quiet but firm.
She opened her eyes and looked at Asil.
The princess nodded slowly.
"Well, alright," she said and slowly smiled, "I understand you."
"....."
"In that case, I will deal with this myself," Asil said. "It would be much simpler to just cut this piece of trash in half with a sword... But I don't want to stain my wife's room with blood. So I have another solution."
She momentarily released Livius's wrist, but not to give him freedom. She roughly grabbed him by the hair — as one grabs a guilty puppy — and dragged him to the window.
"What are you doing?" Livius rasped, trying to break free. "Let me go!"
But Asil completely ignored all his words, as if Livius's cries meant nothing to her.
Asil calmly flung open the heavy window shutters.
Cold night air rushed into the room, extinguishing the candles. Darkness and cold merged into one, and in this gloom, Remesis saw the silhouette of her brother — helpless, humiliated, frozen on the windowsill.
"Remesis..." Livius whispered, turning to her for the last time.
But Remesis did not answer.
She simply watched what was happening with a stony face.
Asil did not wait a single second more.
She opened her fingers and threw Livius Carter out the window.