Chapter 49: Transition

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“I want to offer you your place in House Octavian, and your old title,” Lynn said. “Come back Ren. Now that things are stable, I’d be happy to spend time with you.”

I shook my head, “I love you Lynn, but no. Amy works for House Myrddhin now. Both the women I love are there. I’m hoping to convince Fiona to let me work for House Myrddhin as an official seer. There’s good money in the professional use of gifts. You were the love of my life for sixteen years. And I’ll never stop loving you. But I am prioritizing my romantic loves over everything else, going forward. I will be here for you Lynn. I will always be ready if you need me. But some distance between us is healthy, for both of us. And this will let you put the blame for the death of our folks on my head. Make me the scapegoat. I won’t be here. It will make running House Octavian easier for you.”

“I mean it will. But the cost to your reputation will be enormous.”

“I’ve abdicated to bring my own father to justice. And then I killed him in front of all of House Octavian. You don’t rehabilitate that image. If I wasn’t before, I am the She-Wolf of Ys now. I deserve the title.”

“Is there anything I can do for you? Anything at all?” Lynn asked.

“You can fire Mildred.” I said.

Lynn raised an eyebrow, “Why would you want that?” She paused. “Mildred bullies Amy.”

I nodded, “Mildred bullies Amy.”

Lynn nodded too, “I’ll see to it myself. So, your mother can’t overrule me.”

“Thank you, Lynn. I should go though.”

“Ren, I’ll miss you so much.”

“I’ll miss you too. But you are marrying Leon. And that is going to be a logistical nightmare. You’ll have to arrange a minister if you want to live at the Castle by the Sea with him. I don’t want to add to those complications. And I suspect that having two girlfriends will be time and energy consuming enough.”

“I feel like I’m losing you all over again. We just reconciled.”

“I’ll be close by, Lynn. We are both in the Delmar Duchy. It’s barely an hour by carriage from Castle Octavian to Myrddhin House. But we need space, twenty miles ought to do it. We need to figure out who we’ve become here. And we can’t do that together.”

“I’ll miss you, Ren,” Lynn said with a smile.

“I’ll miss you too, Lynn,” I said.

I noticed Lynn was crying, but her smile spread. I stood up and leaned forward to brush the tear from her cheek.

“I’m still here Lynn. I’ll always be here.”

We embraced over the desk. I found I was crying too. It was a good cry.

“So,” I asked as we stepped back, “Did we get the good ending, do you think?”



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