"How many of these do you even have?"

Magnus laughed as Mina pulled out another tall stack of paintings. "Oh, just wait, there's more up on that top shelf."

Mina tried standing on her toes to reach it, but he gently touched her waist, moving her aside so he could take it down himself. He chuckled a little when he saw the top piece. "I totally forgot about this one."

It was a picture depicting a nest with eggs and a mother bird diligently watching over them. Mina noticed he liked to paint nature scenes the most, specifically ones including birds. Some of the paintings were done years ago according to him, and she could see the improvement of his skills over time, with the most recent ones boasting a wider variety of colors and strokes and finer, more intricate details.

"You certainly have a lot of time on your hands."

He shrugged, setting aside a huge painting of the castle. "What else am I supposed to do on my own?"

As she was sifting through the piles they had laid out on the floor, a portrait of a woman caught her eye. The lady in the picture had stunning green eyes and her curly dark brown hair reached almost to her waist. She looked like she was maybe in her late thirties, early forties, and she was dressed in a lovely navy blue and gold dress. She was smiling and holding her arms open, as if beckoning the viewer to run to her embrace.

"Who is she?" Mina asked breathlessly, turning the picture around to show Magnus.

"Ah," he murmured, a sad smile crossing his face. "That's my mother."

Staring hard, Mina could see the slightest resemblance, but Magnus definitely took after his father. Magnus and his mother had the same kind, gentle eyes and warm smile though, and Mina wondered if she was the reason Magnus's resemblance to his father ended at his appearance.

"She's beautiful."

"Indeed she is."

Noticing the heaviness of his gaze, Mina touched his arm. "Do you remember much about her?"

He shrugged, taking the portrait from her and settling down on the floor. She followed suit, keeping her eyes fixed on him. "I wish I remembered more, but I was only ten years old when she died. I still remember her holding me, her soft singing voice, her words of advice... I painted this picture a while ago so I could never lose this image of her, even if my mind starts to forget."

"She seems like a wonderful lady."

He nodded. "She was the strongest person I knew, tougher and braver and fiercer than anyone I've ever met." He paused, nudging her with his arm. "I know she would've liked you."

"Me? Why?"

"You're a fighter. You don't let people walk all over you, even those with power." He smiled softly at her. "She was always like that. She didn't fear my father, and she was the only one who could bend his will."

She raised her eyebrows. "Did he love her?"

"No, goodness, no, but she was smart and knew how to push him just enough."

She could tell by his tone that painful memories were resurfacing. "I never heard much about her."

"Yeah, that's because she was never actually the queen. I'm sure you can fill in the blanks."

She stilled, seeing his face twist in anguish. "Your mother wasn't the queen?"

He glanced away, as if worried someone was listening in. "The actual queen died a year or two before I was born."

She had to fight the urge to gape. "Then who was your mother?"

"A peasant woman my father wanted for himself."

Her heart dropped. "Oh."

"Yeah, nasty stuff."

"I'm sorry."

He nodded grimly. "I only found out after she had died. I thought she was just my caretaker the whole time. I can't even imagine the pain she was in, having to see me every day." He sighed, clenching his hands into fists. "And yet, she still somehow managed to love me even after all that. "

"It's not your fault," Mina said, her voice barely above a whisper. "You're not responsible for your father's actions."

"Even so, she had every right to hate me because of what I stood for and reminded her of, but yet she didn't. She loved me and she fought for me and she did everything she could to preserve the goodness in me from the influence of my father."

"It worked," Mina encouraged. "Her struggle wasn't for nothing. Now, you're protecting others the way she protected you."

"Maybe, but I wish I could have done more for her." He ran his hands through his hair, resting his arms on his knees. "She needed someone, and I failed her."

"You were just a child. I know it hurts to hear it, but there really wasn't much you could have done to stop it."

"I know, but maybe I could have made it easier on her somehow."

He looked like he needed a hug or something like that to comfort him as he sat, huddled on the floor next to her, but she felt frozen. Just thinking about the horrors his mother had to endure made her heart ache in her chest. Looking back at the portrait, she could almost see the tears that threatened to seep out from those green eyes and the suppressed scream behind that smile. Was she torn away from her home and her family who loved her? How long was she trapped in this hell with that monster? If she looked upon her son's face and saw her tormentor staring back, how did she find it in herself to still love that child? Magnus was wrong; she was nothing like his mother. She could never be even half as strong as her.

The feeling of a gentle touch on her face brought her back to the moment. Magnus had wiped a tear from her cheek that she hadn't even realized was there.

"Aw, Mina."

She turned away, not wanting him to see her cry, but she couldn't stop more tears from flowing. Her heart had shattered to pieces at the past pain of someone she had never even met. Her fingers twisted and pulled the strands of her hair.

"What was her name?" she finally asked.

"Thena. Thena Mason. A lot of what I know of her came from the older castle servants like Jia and Dyian, but there's still so much I'll never know."

"I'm sorry."

He touched her hand and took it into his, putting a gentle stop to her nervous tendency. She sighed, furiously rubbing away the last of her tears as her grief turned to anger.

"He's horrible. How could anyone do half the things he's done and still sleep at night?"

He frowned as she pulled her hand from his. "I don't know. I don't think anyone knows but him."

"Did he..." she hesitated, thinking and rephrasing her question. "How did your mother die?"

Magnus's eyes widened a little. "Sickness. Crystal Clasis is what Crio called it. Her bones became so fragile that she could barely even move. I brought her tea and soup everyday infused with Quix which was supposed to help ease the pain, but I just watched her get worse every day until..."

"Oh..."

He bit his lip. "My father wasn't involved if that's what you're wondering. At least, not directly. Maybe he could have gotten her better care or better medicine, but...she was always a thorn in his side so he just let it happen."

"That's essentially the same thing as killing her himself."

"Yeah."

She frowned, fighting to keep from bursting with her seething hatred. That monster needed to die and she needed to kill him. She was making slow steps toward that, but she was impatient. She glanced back at Magnus, and she felt her heart quicken. Was he the key to that? Would killing the king's heir cripple him or would it have no effect on someone so heartless?

"You're still in line for the throne, right?"

He let out a dry chuckle. "I guess it's just me by default."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm his only living son. The queen allegedly had trouble conceiving in the first place and when she finally did, she died in childbirth and her child didn't last long after. Instead of remarrying, my father decided to just get with a bunch of women to try to have a son. I mean, he was already doing it anyway, but..." He tilted his head. "I must have a lot of half sisters running around since my father wanted nothing to do with them."

"Oh...that's true." She nearly threw up in her mouth.

He saw her discomfort so he tried to change the subject. "What was your mother like, if I may ask?"

Her eyebrows raised. "Oh...she wasn't really in my life."

"Ah, I'm sorry."

"My father never really spoke of her," she said with a shrug. "I think she left not long after I was born."

"Mina, I'm sorry I asked. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"No, it's fine. I never knew her so there's nothing to mourn."

He frowned. "That's not necessarily true. And your tone suggests otherwise."

She shook her head in disbelief. "She didn't want me. As the story goes, I reached for my mother's hand after being born, and she pulled away." She looked down at her own hands. "So all I had was my father."

"And what was he like?" Magnus asked gently.

Mina felt stupid for wanting to cry all over again. "He was...well, he was great. We didn't have much, but we had each other."

"Is he...is he still alive?"
She paused. "I think so. I don't know, actually." She felt her heart drop a little. "It's been so long since I've seen him."

"Is he still back at home? In Calama, right?"

She nodded, surprised he remembered her hometown. For a moment, she hesitated, wondering if she should be telling him all this. She had specifically kept her father out of the picture when it came to the rebels because the last thing she wanted was for him to be used as leverage against her. But with Magnus it was different. She couldn't see any way he'd manage to use that information against her.

"He should be," she answered, her mind drifting to their old carpentry shop. "I don't think he intended on leaving any time soon, but...maybe with both me and my brother gone, he could make other plans."

"I remember you mentioned you had a brother." Magnus wondered if he should hold her hand again since she had resumed pulling at her hair. 

She shrugged. "I never knew him either. All I know is that he left soon after my mother."

"I see."

Mina looked up, still fighting tears. "It seems that all the people I want to love keep leaving me, and I leave the one person who ever loved me." She thought of Kirian too. He had left her as well, in a worse way than all the others.

Magnus frowned, caving and pulling her hand to his again. "Not everyone." She looked back at him, realizing her hand was trembling in his. "As long as I'm here, you'll never be alone again."

Mina wanted to fight it. She wanted to push him away and tell him that he shouldn't waste his time and energy caring about someone like her. But she had already opened her heart and invited him in, and his presence and his words were like a soothing salve on the aching wounds of her past. Meeting him the first time all those years ago had turned her life upside down, but could this second time turn it right side up again?