"Lady Matriarch, nothing should stop me from coming to you," Roxanne said, settling into the seat across from her. "You are part of the reason I am where I am today. And there are things I would like us to speak about properly."
Valeria glanced at her maids and waved them out quietly.
"What is it, Your Grace?" she asked.
"Drop the titles tonight," Roxanne said. "Just talk to me."
Valeria looked at her for a moment then nodded slowly.
"I owe you an apology first," she said. "I could not protect you. I watched what happened and I told myself I was powerless but the truth is I chose comfort over courage." She paused, her hands folding in her lap. "And when Fiona arrived and I was so overjoyed that I let everything else fade."
She was quiet for a moment, something older moving behind her eyes.
"It reminded me of the week before my wedding. Just the time Vangelis' dad passed away. I was the happiest I had ever been." A small smile touched her lips briefly before softening into something more painful. "We spent a day together in the wild. Just the two of us." She paused, a faint colour rising in her cheeks. "You understand what I mean."
Roxanne said nothing. She simply listened.
"He told me he was dying," Valeria continued, her voice quieter now. "That he had been cursed. And in the same breath he admitted he had been unfaithful." She exhaled slowly. "I could not even be angry with him properly because he was near death. The woman involved was Phoenix's mother. She carried a curse of her own."
Tears gathered at the edges of her eyes. She caught them quickly before they fell.
"Forgive me," she said. "I should not have said any of that. I have brought the mood down entirely."
"There is no need for apologies," Roxanne said, placing a sweet gently into Valeria's hand. "What matters is that you were there when it counted. Vangelis and Phoenix are strong and standing today because of you. That is not a small thing."
Valeria looked down at the sweet in her palm and something in her face softened completely.
"You are so easy to talk to," she said. "And the way you carry your responsibilities, so naturally, so gracefully." She shook her head with a warm smile. "Any parent would be proud to call you theirs. I pray you are blessed with children of your own. Healthy and strong ones."
Roxanne was quiet for a moment.
"I can have children?" she asked.
"Of course you can," Valeria said. "With another man certainly. And even with Vangelis if it ever came to that." She tilted her head. "Though for that Fiona would need to give her blessing first."
"I would be overjoyed to see you carry Vangelis's child," Valeria said, her eyes bright with the thought. "Imagine it. Grandchildren from two powerful and remarkable women. What a legacy that would be."
Roxanne smiled and let the moment sit before she spoke again.
"There is something I have been hearing since I arrived," she said, her voice shifting into something more curious than formal. "People say you hold the key to the forbidden library. Is there truth in that?"
Valeria's warmth did not disappear but something behind it settled into something heavier.
"Yes," she said quietly. "It is true. I do."
"Why is it forbidden?" Roxanne asked. "And if it holds something dangerous should it not simply be destroyed?"
Valeria was quiet for a moment, turning the sweet in her fingers.
"That library belonged to Phoenix's mother," she said finally. "She was an extraordinary woman. What that library holds are books, spells and information that carry the power to either end the world entirely or remake it from the beginning." She exhaled. "Destroying it would be like destroying the earth itself."
"That explains Phoenix's power," Roxanne said softly, as though thinking aloud. She let a beat pass. "If the library is that significant then surely the key would not simply sit in a royal safe room."
"Since you asked and I trust you completely," Valeria said, rising from her seat, "let me show you something."
She crossed to the far wall and stood before it, her voice dropping into something ancient and deliberate.
"Aperi porta abscondita
Revela quod oculi videre nequeunt.
Librorum custodes, viam mihi aperite
Quod occultum est, manifestetur."
Then she walked into the wall and disappeared.
Roxanne stood still for a moment. She reached out and pressed her hand flat against the surface. The wall received it, pulling it inward like water closing around a stone. She stepped through.
On the other side Valeria waited before another wall, plain and white and unremarkable except for a small mirror set precisely at its centre.
Valeria reached up and pulled her dress down slightly, exposing her chest.
The shape of a key emerged on her skin, glowing faintly as though it had always been just beneath the surface waiting to be called.
The wall responded.
It divided cleanly down the middle and drew back, and what it revealed stole every thought from Roxanne's mind.
Shelves. Row after row after row of them, stretching further than the eye could follow, filled with books so old their spines had darkened to the colour of earth. Cabinets lined every surface, packed with potions and spells and old quills that still held ink. The ceiling climbed to a height that had no business existing behind a palace wall, disappearing into a light that had no visible source.
Roxanne stood at the entrance and said nothing.
"I know," Valeria said softly beside her. "It never gets less extraordinary."
"Since you asked and I trust you completely," Valeria said, rising from her seat, "let me show you something."
She crossed to the far wall and stood before it, her voice dropping into something ancient and deliberate.
"Aperi porta abscondita
Revela quod oculi videre nequeunt.
Librorum custodes, viam mihi aperite
Quod occultum est, manifestetur."
Then she walked into the wall and disappeared.
Roxanne stood still for a moment. She reached out and pressed her hand flat against the surface. The wall received it, pulling it inward like water closing around a stone. She stepped through.
On the other side Valeria waited before another wall, plain and white and unremarkable except for a small mirror set precisely at its centre.
Valeria reached up and pulled her dress down slightly, exposing her chest.
The shape of a key emerged on her skin, glowing faintly as though it had always been just beneath the surface waiting to be called.
The wall responded.
It divided cleanly down the middle and drew back, and what it revealed stole every thought from Roxanne's mind.
Shelves. Row after row after row of them, stretching further than the eye could follow, filled with books so old their spines had darkened to the colour of earth. Cabinets lined every surface, packed with potions and spells and old quills that still held ink. The ceiling climbed to a height that had no business existing behind a palace wall, disappearing into a light that had no visible source.
Roxanne stood at the entrance and said nothing.
"I know," Valeria said softly beside her. "It never gets less extraordinary."