POV Selene
Twenty-four hours until the hearing. I woke to Ari's small voice cutting through the gray light. "Mama? I'm scared."
I gathered him close, pulling him into bed beside me. "Of what, my love?"
"Tomorrow. The people who want to decide things about me." His voice was tiny against my shoulder. "What if they take me away?"
I could not lie to him. He was too smart, too aware. He had heard whispers, seen worried faces, felt the tension that saturated our quarters.
"I don't know what will happen," I said, the admission costing me. "But I promise I'll fight for you with everything I have. Every breath, every word."
"Will Father fight too?"
"Yes. He loves you very much."
Ari was quiet for a long moment. "If they make me live somewhere else, will you still visit?"
The question broke something inside me. "Every day. Nothing in this world or the next could keep me away from you."
He clung to me then, fingers digging into my nightgown. I held him, memorizing the weight of him, the smell of his hair still carrying lavender soap, the sound of his breathing. Just in case these were the last moments we had like this.
Casimir arrived early with breakfast on a tray, but none of us had appetite. He looked like he had not slept, dark circles under his eyes, jaw tight with tension.
"I've arranged for Anya and Doctor Saren to testify on your behalf," he said, setting down the tray. "They'll speak to your care over the years, your dedication."
"Will it be enough?"
"It has to be." But the defeat in his voice said he knew better.
Anya arrived mid-morning with documents she had been organizing through the night. Six years of medical records meticulously arranged. Every treatment I had sought. Every emergency I had navigated. Every impossible decision I had made.
"I'll testify to all of it," Anya said with fierce determination. "Every clinic you dragged him to when you had no money. Every night you stayed awake watching him breathe. Every treatment you delayed not from negligence but from having to choose between keeping him alive today or keeping him fed tomorrow."
"They'll twist it," I said. "Make it sound like I endangered him through incompetence rather than poverty."
"Then I'll make them hear the truth loudly enough that they can't ignore it." Anya gripped my hands. "You saved that boy's life a dozen times over with nothing but love and determination. I'm not letting them forget it."
Doctor Saren arrived shortly after, adding her testimony to the defense. "The medical interventions Princess Selene initiated, often against initial physician recommendations, ultimately proved correct more often than not. Her instincts about her son's care have been remarkable."
"But the recent crises in the palace—" I began.
"Are evidence of how fragile his condition remains, not of your failures as his mother." Doctor Saren's voice was firm. "I'll make that distinction absolutely clear to the Council."
We spent hours preparing. Anticipating questions Kestrel might pose, organizing evidence, building the defense that would either save us or condemn us. But I knew Kestrel had been preparing for weeks, maybe months. We were outmatched.
Across the palace in chambers I would never enter, Kestrel met with the welfare investigator one final time. I learned this later, but in the moment I felt the weight of conspiracy pressing down.
"Your amended report?" Kestrel would have asked.
The investigator would have slid it across the desk. "Complete. I've documented last night's incident in detail. Added significant concerns about medication management following the contamination issue."
"Excellent." Kestrel would have scanned the document with satisfaction. A litany of failures both real and manufactured, twisted into damning narrative. "The Council will find this persuasive."
"My lord, I must ask... is this the right course? The woman clearly loves the child deeply."
"Love isn't enough to keep a child alive. You said so yourself." Kestrel's voice would have hardened. "That boy is heir to the throne. He deserves better than a struggling mother who can barely keep him breathing."
The investigator would have nodded slowly, though doubt must have lingered.
I spent the evening with Ari and Casimir, our last night as a family. Possibly forever. We ate dinner together though none of us had appetite. Played games neither Casimir nor I could focus on. Read stories I had to restart because my voice broke.
After Ari fell asleep with unusual difficulty, fighting exhaustion because he sensed something wrong, Casimir and I sat by the dying fire. Neither of us spoke for a long time.
Finally, Casimir broke the silence. "If the vote goes against you tomorrow, I'm prepared to take drastic action."
"What kind of action?"
"The kind that might cost me the throne." He looked at me with eyes that burned. "But I won't lose you. I won't lose either of you."
"Casimir, you can't—"
"Watch me." His voice was steel. "If they try to separate you from Ari, I'll invoke ancient Crown privileges that predate the Council. I'll claim him as a ward under my personal protection regardless of their vote. I'll override their decision through royal prerogative."
"That's illegal under the constitutional laws you yourself established—"
"Then I'll change the laws. Or break them. I don't care anymore about legality." He took my hands. "I won't let them destroy our family to prove some legal point."
I wanted to argue. Wanted to tell him he could not sacrifice everything he had built for us. But part of me, the desperate part that had been growing for days, wanted him to do exactly that. Burn the world down to keep us together.
"Promise me something," I said, voice barely audible. "If they take him despite everything... don't let them erase me. Don't let Isolde make him forget who his mother is."
"I promise." He pulled me into his arms. "But it won't come to that. It can't. I won't allow it."
We held each other as the fire burned down to embers, both knowing tomorrow everything would change.
Late that night, after Casimir had returned to his chambers, another note appeared under my door. Same crude handwriting as the previous warnings.
Tomorrow they'll present amended report. Contains falsified medical testimony from Dr. Halden—claims you refused treatments, endangered the prince deliberately. He was paid by Kestrel. Proof is in Halden's chambers, east wing, third floor. Blue ledger on desk. Tonight only—he flees at dawn.
I woke Casimir immediately. We read the note together by candlelight.
"It could be a trap," he said. "Drawing us out of protected quarters."
"Or evidence we desperately need." I stood, already reaching for my cloak. "I'm going."
"Not alone." He pulled on his coat. "We go together or not at all."
We slipped through dark corridors to the east wing, avoiding guard patrols. Doctor Halden's chambers were empty when we arrived, door unlocked and swinging open. Already abandoned in guilty haste.
But inside, on the desk as promised, we found it. A blue leather ledger detailing payments from Kestrel's private accounts. And beside it, copies of falsified medical reports ready for tomorrow's hearing. Each one twisting truth into condemnation.
"This is it," I breathed. "Proof of conspiracy and fraud."
"Proof that will destroy Kestrel's entire case." Casimir gathered the documents. "Tomorrow, we don't just defend. We go on the offensive and expose this corruption."
For the first time in weeks, I felt something that might have been hope.
As we left Halden's chambers with evidence clutched tight, we nearly collided with a figure in the corridor. White and gold silk catching lamplight. Isolde.
She stared at us, at the blue ledger visible in Casimir's hands. For a long moment no one spoke.
Then Isolde whispered, voice breaking. "He lied to me. He said no one would be hurt. He promised it was just about custody arrangements, about providing better care."
Before we could respond, she turned and ran down the corridor, silk rustling like wings. We stood frozen, evidence in our hands and cracks appearing in the conspiracy around us.