“You’re not going to ask me why I want to know?”
“Oh, I have plenty of suspicions. I expect the nature of your questions will reveal all. I need not ask you for such a thing.”
Fair enough. No matter how much Vir wanted to beat around the bush, he was eventually going to ask the hard questions. Questions that could land him in hot water if he wasn’t careful.
“Mina comes across as a generous, kindhearted princess. Is that true?”
“Oh boy,” San said, chuckling wryly. “We’re starting from there, are we? Alright, if we’re doing this, I’m going to need a drink.”
He flagged down a waiter, who brought over a mug of beer.
“Anything for you?”
Vir shook his head. “I don’t drink.”
“A beer for my friend here, on me!” San said.
“It’ll look suspicious if you don’t order anything,” he muttered after the waiter had left. “At least look like you’re enjoying the drink, even if you don’t drink any of it.”
Vir nodded. He hadn’t noticed any strong prana signatures nearby, but then, spies didn’t have to be mejai. Prana Vision didn’t give him omniscience.
“I know you didn’t come here for a history lesson, but to understand Mina, we must travel back in time first. To one fateful day. The day she was kidnapped. My little sister had once been an ordinary child. Spoiled rotten, yes, but innocent and somewhat pure—she always had a devious side to her.”
San gazed into the distance, reminiscing on some precious memory.
“Then a royal retainer betrayed us. Royal ransoms could set a person up for life, and the temptation was too great for them. They took Mina to some… let’s say unsavory men who had a gripe with the kingdom. Who felt as though Hiranya had not treated them well.”
“Isn’t that everyone?” Vir asked. “Look around. Your capital’s not exactly a paragon of wealth and prosperity. Do you have any idea what it’s like in the Warrens? At least your sister sneaks out of the castle. She’s seen the slums and the sewers.”
San’s expression hardened. “Oho? You know about that quirk of hers, do you? Impressive. But yes, I do know. I am not the sort of spoiled child you think I am. I fully understand the sorry state of this kingdom, and that my father is partly to blame. But you do not understand the full picture, either. You do not know how the safety of our citizens hangs by a thread with the Altani on one end and the Kin’jal on the other, waging a never-ending game of tug of war.”
The prince cleared his throat. “I digress. Mina was kidnapped, and… subjected to sights no child should ever see. She watched as her captors killed innocents in front of her eyes. By the time our forces took down her captors, it was too late. When she returned to us, she had changed. She’d grown introverted and reclusive. She kept her thoughts to herself, and she never smiled.”
It was a sad story, but Vir understood why the prince narrated this tale. A knot formed in his stomach as he guessed where this was going.
“Over time, she became outgoing again. She even smiled and laughed, and while my mother was only too happy to see her dear daughter healthy again, I knew better. Are you aware? That there are different smiles? Smiles for greeting aristocracy. Smiles reserved for loved ones, and smiles of genuine happiness? Mina’s smile was different. Corrupted. Sadistic.”
“A fake persona?” Vir guessed.
“Exactly. A farce. Which isn’t alarming in and of itself. As royalty, we are used to wearing different faces. But she mastered the art at an early age. She… she was not normal. I began to question what it was she hid under that mask.”
“I take it you didn’t like what you found?”
“Indeed,” the prince replied. “It was small things, at first. I’d find dead rodents in her wake. Some birds. I wasn’t happy, but I kept quiet about it. Perhaps it was a phase. Maybe she needed an outlet for her trauma. Only, as she grew older, it got worse. The bodies became more and more mangled, as if the mere act of killing them wasn’t sufficient. She had to break them in grotesque ways as well. And then…”
Vir gulped. He’d nearly forgotten about the din of the tavern and its raucous crowd. Right now, his entire world was just him and Sanobar. “And then?”
“Then one day, I caught her in the middle of the act. How wrong I had been the entire time. Mina didn’t enjoy killing those poor animals. She enjoyed breaking them. She wanted to hear those screams. To prolong their agony until their dying breath. My sister would be heartbroken when they passed—not out of concern for the animals, but because her brief joy had ended.”
Vir’s palms started to sweat. “That’s…”
“You wanted the truth about my sister? This is who she is. But these days, instead of rodents, it’s human slaves. She keeps a stock of them, torturing them for her own sick pleasures. Gods help anyone who crosses her. Commoner or Sawai, it matters not. She has slaughtered children using the most grotesque methods, all just to enjoy the looks of agony on their parents’ faces.”
“You sound like you’re talking about a demon rather than your own kin.”
“Do I?” San said blankly. “I suppose that is true. She is no sister of mine. She’s a monster in human skin. My sister died that day, years ago, when she was kidnapped. I swear on my name. Everything I have told you is the truth—the unembellished truth.”
Vir recalled Riyan’s words. Of how Mina had killed his wife and child. Had she done the same to their bodies?
He purged the dark thought from his mind. No wonder the man wanted Mina dead. That said…
“How can I trust you?” Vir asked. “Mina poses a threat to your ascension, doesn’t she? It makes sense that you’d spin tales to paint her in a negative light.”
“You are right, of course. An imminent threat, actually. She plans to move against us very soon, and when Mina does anything, she does it to perfection. My brother and I live in fear of knives in our backs every day. It is not a fate I would bestow upon my worst enemy. Even with our countermeasures, I doubt I have long to live.” A heavy silence fell between them. This is why Riyan sent me here. Any later, and it’d have been too late for the princes.
“But you do not know me. I would abdicate my right to succession in an instant if I thought Mina would be a better ruler. This I swear to you. It is our future I fear for. The future of this household, and of this country. A future with Mina in it is not one I wish to be a part of. Her rule would spell the end of Hiranya as we know it.”
“Why are you telling me all of this?” Vir asked. Thus far, he hadn’t let one word slip about his plans to assassinate her.
“Help me. Help me eliminate my sister.”
Vir’s eyes went wide at the prince’s bold declaration. Conflicting emotions raged within Vir. On the one hand, he felt he could trust Sanobar. The prince came across as a straight shooter. Yes, it may have been a front, but Vir had some experience at the art of subterfuge himself. Either San was a master actor, or he was telling the truth. Though it wasn’t just Sanobar. Riyan was many things, but on this, Vir felt he could trust the man. Mina had wronged him. Riyan himself said nearly the same thing as Sanobar.
“What’s her Balar Rank?”
“As best we know? Around fifty. But my sister excels in deception. I would not be surprised if that figure is doctored. She could be lower, or she could be slightly more. I’ve never seen her use anything stronger than C Grade orbs.”
“And her affinities?” Vir already knew Mina possessed Lesser Water and Lightning prana from when he’d first crossed paths with her urchin identity, but it didn’t hurt to confirm.