Chapter 13:
The Heir And The Daughter
The rest of their outing passed in a flurry of color and sound.
Clara bought the rose hairpin she’d admired. Though Grace insisted on paying for it with her stipend, brushing aside Clara’s protests with a sweet, “What are friends for?” Elen found a pair of black training gloves lined with subtle mana-thread, crafted more for style than combat, but she examined the stitching with a soldier’s eye. Grace pretended to hesitate before purchasing a frost-glass hand mirror inlaid with tiny pink stones. It caught the light when she tilted it just so.
“I like how it reflects things… clearly,” she had said, not looking at anyone in particular.
Their last stop was a sweet stall in the open square, where a kind-eyed vendor gave Clara two extra lemon drops just for smiling. The girls ate their way through candied almonds and sugar-frosted pears, their laughter trailing behind them.
Elyne watched them closely the whole time. Not hovering. Just… present. One hand on her satchel, the other brushing her cloak aside whenever a street performer stepped too near. Behind them were four rough-looking guards, scaring other pedestrians away. Always watching. Always in reach.
Grace didn’t mind.
Let them watch. Let them think they were keeping her safe.
She didn’t need safety. She needed space. And in a strange, roundabout way, that’s exactly what the armored presence bought her…
Space between herself and the crowd, the noise, the unwanted hands of lesser folk. Their stares slid away the moment they saw the House crest. The moment they saw her.
Ashford. It meant something here. Meant power. Meant blood older than most of these buildings. Meant she didn’t need to smile unless she wanted to.
And today, she wanted to.
Because the streets of Valewick gleamed like mirrors under the frost light, and in those mirrors, Grace saw opportunity. Reflected in every passing noble, every market stall draped in silks, every child with too-wide eyes trailing behind their parents. The world here pulsed differently. Brighter. Fuller.
She played her perfect role.
Holding Clara’s hand when she pretended to be nervous around the silver dagger vendor. Laughing softly at Elen’s dry remarks about overpriced perfume. Wrinkling her nose at the street roast stand like any proper noble child would. Not too proud. Not too cold. Just enough.
A duchess-in-miniature.
Let Elyne think this was bonding. Let Clara think it was friendship. Let Elen think she was hard to read.
Grace knew exactly what she was doing.
Every gesture, every word, every tilt of her head filed neatly into the story she was building. Every heartbeat a brick in her cathedral.
The world saw a sweet little girl wrapped in fur and ribbons, smiling over a sugar cube.
She preferred it that way.
--::--
They returned to the estate just before dusk.
The sky over Ashford was streaked with orange and violet as the carriages rolled into the courtyard, wheels crunching over gravel. The guards dismounted without a word, forming a loose protective wall as the girls stepped down, the shadows of the great hall looming ahead.
Clara yawned. Elen stretched. Elyne murmured something about hot baths and light dinners.
And Grace stilled.
She felt it before she saw it. The shift in the air. The weight of it.
Someone was watching.
Her eyes flicked upward to the second-floor balcony above the entry hall. A silhouette stood framed by the archway—a tall figure in a tailored coat, arms folded, gaze unreadable. A man. No… not quite a stranger.
Ronan. Her brother. The last one. The one who had survived.
He didn’t wave. Didn’t move. Neither did she.
Only their eyes met.
Hers, glittering blue with a hint of curiosity. His, dark and shadowed by something else—guilt? Fear? Uncertainty?
She wasn’t sure yet.
But she would be.
Elyne’s voice broke the moment. “Come now, girls. The staff will bring your purchases to your rooms. You’re all due for rest.”
Clara sighed happily and wandered inside. Elen followed without a word.
Grace lingered.
For a moment, she stood at the edge of the courtyard, her small figure framed by the gathering dusk, curls catching the last light like strands of burnished gold. She didn’t look up immediately. But when she did, it was deliberate.
Her eyes found him. Ronan didn’t flinch.
He didn’t know what he’d expected—a child clinging to Elyne’s skirts, perhaps, or a wide-eyed girl too young to understand the weight her name carried.
But what he saw was something else.
She was poised. Still. A glint of cold awareness behind those too-blue eyes. Not calculating. Just... watching.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
She tilted her head, just slightly. Then she nodded.
And he exhaled, surprised by the quiet relief that followed.
She looks healthy.
It was a strange thing to think, but it settled the knot in his stomach for a breath or two. He didn’t know her, hadn’t seen her since she was a baby swaddled in layers of red and silver, born on a storm-heavy night. But seeing her now, solid, calm, untouched by grief. He felt something loosen in his chest.
At least someone in this house still carries the name without shaking under it.
She turned and walked inside without fanfare. The guards shifted, falling into their silent formation. The manor doors swallowed her up.
Ronan didn’t move. Not yet.
He stayed there, arms crossed against the stone rail, watching the last carriage wheel roll to a stop, watching the torches catch, one by one, along the high walls of the estate.
So much had changed. And yet the halls still reeked of quiet judgment.
His father was still absent. His stepmother was still a storm wrapped in silk. And now, he was expected to step into a dead man’s title, and smile while being offered like a coin to House Velmire.
But Grace…
She was a question. And for now, he was glad to have one that didn’t come wrapped in duty or war councils.
--::--
A little later in the Ashford estate banquet hall. Grace’s mother had declared a grand celebration for the return of Ronan of Ashford, the sole heir of the duchy.
The chandeliers burned brighter tonight.
Dozens of enchanted crystals suspended above the long, lacquered table shimmered in hues of pale gold and ivory flame, their light caught in the etched silverware and wine glasses tall as her forearm. The hall smelled of cinnamon, roast game, aged wine, and polish; everything sharp and sweet that meant this is power.
And for the first time in her life, Grace was allowed to sit in it.
Her first banquet.
Her first time beneath the chandeliers, seated not at some tucked-away nursery table, but beside the Duchess herself, visible, formal, acknowledged. A child no longer invisible in the periphery. A daughter presented to the nobility.
She sat still as carved ivory.
Her feet didn’t touch the floor. Her plate was filled with jeweled potatoes and a roast slice she hadn’t touched. She traced the rim of her goblet with one finger, watching the reflections twist across its surface.
Liliana hadn’t spoken since the toast. She didn’t need to.
Her mother sat like a painting: regal, precise, lips set in that expression Grace had come to know as triumph, carefully leashed. Ronan sat across from them, flanked by two minor lords too polite to speak and too important to ignore.
He wasn’t smiling.
Not unhappy. But not celebrating, either. His shoulders sat just a little too straight. His wine went untouched. And when the Duchess raised her goblet again and declared his betrothal to Lady Selira of House Velmire—voice ringing out across the hall like a blade against glass—he didn’t flinch.
He bowed. He nodded. He accepted.
But Grace saw the slight tension in his jaw. The way his hand flexed once under the table. The way he looked, just briefly, toward the nearest window.
You didn’t ask for this, did you? she thought, tilting her head slightly. You’re the only piece left on the board. And Mother just made you, her knight.
Across the room, Clara sat proudly with her parents, tucked between her baron father and his elegant, overly formal wife. Her ribbon had been redone. Her dress pressed. And though she tried not to stare, her eyes kept flicking toward Grace, wide with admiration and joy.
She waved once. Grace nodded back. That was enough.
There was no Elen.
Her mother, a knight in the Duchess’s guard, stood at her post near the banquet hall doors, eyes forward, presence silent. Rank had its limits, and knights—no matter how loyal—did not dine with dukes.
Grace’s hand dropped to her lap. Folded once, then again. Her fingers pressed lightly to the hidden fold of her dress where the charm stone sat stitched into the lining. Not for defense. Not tonight.
Just for the quiet comfort of control.
The hall moved on.
Lords raised toasts. Ladies smiled with mouths that didn’t reach their eyes. Musicians struck up a soft, courtly tune no one really heard. Servants drifted like ghosts between tables. And above it all, the chandeliers glowed brighter than ever, like stars forced to dance for mortal delight.
Her eyes rose again, just once, to meet Ronan’s.
He was looking at her.
With a kind of strange, warm recognition. The way a man might look at a long-forgotten portrait of someone he’d known only as a child, now suddenly grown. He nodded—just once.
Grace blinked.
Then offered the smallest smile she could manage without being noticed.
And just like that, the moment passed. The music picked up again. The air filled with chatter and soft laughter; glasses refilled with practiced grace by servants moving like clockwork through candlelit gold.
That was when the real game began.
One by one, the nobles rose from their seats, not all at once, not enough to be obvious, but enough to shift the weight of the room. Like wolves scenting a new path through the snow.
They came to Ronan first.
House Belmere, draped in navy and silver, with their son at their side; tall, blond, quiet, the kind that got betrothed to daughters too timid to object. They bowed low and spoke of loyalty, of alliances long held. The mother kissed the air beside Ronan’s cheek. The father left a folded letter on the edge of his plate. His name was never spoken, but the weight behind it lingered like spice on the tongue.
Then came House Trassel; gold rings on every finger, laughter too loud, the patriarch's paunch wrapped in brocade embroidered with his own crest. He clapped Ronan on the back and called him young Lord Ashford, as if they were cousins instead of political scavengers. His daughter stood just behind him, eyes downcast, hands perfectly folded. She never spoke. She didn’t need to.
Others followed. House Renfield. House Alnash. Even a quiet representative from the Stormvale border territories, careful, measured, avoiding the Duchess’s gaze.
All of them had one thing in common: sons or daughters of the right age.
None of them acknowledged that the match had already been declared.
But the message was clear.
Should something change... our blood is available.
Across the table, Grace said nothing. She chewed once. Swallowed. Let the performance wash over her like bathwater gone cold.
Then it was her turn.
They came to her slowly. Hesitantly. Like approaching a shrine for the first time, not out of reverence, but caution. No one wanted to seem too eager. But no one dared ignore her either.
Because tonight, Grace of Ashford had been presented.
And her mother was watching.
Liliana stood beside her now, not seated, not lounging, but poised with the kind of quiet power that made even the most confident nobles tread carefully. One hand rested lightly on Grace’s shoulder, the other draped in crimson silk that shimmered like still blood in the lanternlight.
“Lady Grace,” said the first noblewoman, bowing just low enough to pass. “What an honor to finally meet the jewel of the duchy.”
Her smile was wide. Her gown tighter than etiquette allowed. Her daughter lurked behind her, eyes darting everywhere except forward.
Grace gave the tiniest curtsy, chin dipped just so. “You are too kind, my lady,” she said, her voice calm and high and unshakably proper. “The duchy has long spoken of your grace.”
Liliana said nothing. But her eyes flicked toward the woman’s wrist, where the house sigil sat half-hidden beneath an emerald bracelet. The woman noticed. Adjusted her sleeve.
House Varlen, Grace recalled. Minor nobility from the hills. Traders. Opportunists.
More followed.
A baroness who offered gifts. A countess who requested a portrait sitting. A viscount whose son had once studied letters in Ashford’s libraries and now hoped to return “in service.”
They bent their heads. Kissed the air near her cheek. They smiled at her like she was a puzzle they’d just found a missing piece to.
Grace returned every word with soft elegance. She bowed. She blinked. She murmured pleasantries that sounded rehearsed because they were.
This is what they think I am, she thought, her hand resting lightly on the edge of her plate. A girl with a crown-shaped shadow behind her. A doll worth courting. A child with ears and a mother made of knives.
Let them think it.
Liliana hadn’t moved her hand. Still resting on her shoulder. Still steady.
Not possessive. Declarative.
This one is mine.
Grace smiled again, just a little wider. Just enough for the baron’s wife to exhale, as if she’d passed some unspoken test.
And in her mind, Grace filed every name. Every face. Every reaction.
She wasn’t the heir.
But she was the other piece on the board.
And they had finally seen her.