Rules of Engagement (ROE) Book Two: Take Nothing For Granted

by SAWild

The Second Installment of the epic story, Rules of Engagement (ROE) Book One: Never Waste Good. Story picks up right where it left off in Book One :) So if you haven't read that first, you're going to want to or be completely lost! WARNING: This book gets pretty deep and intense storyline wise. AU. Not for the simple FLUFF seekers! Though there is that too! ;)

50. The Phoenix Protocol- Chap 10

This is Chapter 10 in the series.- Wild

Moves & Countermoves

"Maria?" I ask groggily through blurry eyes looking at the blonde woman leaning over me with hand pressed to my forehead.

"No." Cassiopeia answers quietly, pulling her hand back as if burned. She's perched on the edge of the bed beside me and I get the distinct impression she hasn't slept at all when I look at her. The room is still dark but I can see the sun starting to rise outside the window.

"I'm sorry." I try to apologize for mistaking her for the woman she looks exactly like but wants to distance herself from.

"You're still burning up with fever." She brushes me off, not wanting to discuss my confusion any further. "I need to see your wound, Julia." She informs me and I don't fight her. I have no energy to do so. My muscles ache and I can barely keep my eyes open. Cassiopeia pulls the blankets down my pajama top up. Gently she removes the bandage and glides her fingertips over the perimeters of my wound. "It's not infected." She states out loud as though she's disappointed. Her hand reaches back up to brush the backs of her fingers down my cheek and neck. "Then why do you have a fever?" She asks out loud more to herself then me I realize when my eyes flash open to look at her and see her pinched brows as she looks over my wounds again. "Were you sick before you were wounded?"

"No, ma'am." I address her again with the proper respect. Returning to our regular routine with the beginning of a new day.

"But you coughed twice when I picked you up in London last week from the airport." Her eyebrow slants at me.

"I had bronchitis a couple weeks ago but I was feeling much better before I flew to London to meet you." I sigh shaking my head that of course she'd have remembered that I coughed twice in her presence. The woman's radar for weakness and memory of such things were astonishing. "I think it was caused by the mission I had in Indonesia last month and then coming back to winter in the mountains in Montana." I look at her knowing that was definitely a weakness of mine. My body didn't tolerate extreme weather changes well. "It wasn't a big deal. Really." I look at her hoping I won't be reprimanded for not revealing I was sick prior to this assignment. "And I'm not coughing now. In fact, haven't coughed at all since I left Russia." I answer her thinking about the timeline.

"Where you jumped in the partially frozen river to escape." Maria speaks from the doorway and startles both Cassiopeia and I. This woman is very good at sneaking up on people and I can't help but smile seeing how unnerved Cassiopeia is yet again that she was able to go undetected in her presence and for a while it sounds like given she knows exactly what we're speaking of that she's contributing to our conversation. Cassiopeia launches herself back off the bed as Maria comes closer to us. She back peddles into the corner I was hiding in last night as Maria takes her seat on the bed beside me. "You probably have pneumonia now." She says quietly, running her fingers down my face in the exact same way Cassiopeia had feeling for fever. "Does it hurt to breathe in?" She asks carefully replacing the bandage Cassiopeia had peeled away.

"Yes, ma'am." I answer her with the proper amount of separation that I know Cassiopeia expects of me. Our eyes catch for a moment before I turn to address Maria again. "But I thought it was just because my ribs are sore from getting shot."

"No more ma'am, Julia." Maria counters with a smile. Her eyes flash towards Cassiopeia and I swallow hard. She's not willing to back down and the same feistiness and determination I saw last night is back again this morning. Maria is prepared to break down any walls we may try to put up to keep our distance. "You may call me Maria if you're more comfortable with that. But please do not address me as ma'am. I am not your General or superior in anyway." Her eyes flash towards Cassiopeia again and smiles softly at her. "That goes for you, too." She pulls down my pajama top and pats my arm gently. "I'm going to go get my stethoscope to listen to your lungs. I'll be right back."

"She's so stubborn." Cassiopeia hisses under her breath when Maria is out of the room. She's not happy that Maria is just as insistent on breaking down our boundaries as we are in putting them up. I force myself to contain a soft chuckle and the urge to say something about the pot calling the kettle black, as I know she doesn't want to be reminded that she's related to Maria and how alike they are. I promised Cassiopeia last night I wouldn't ever bring it up again and I mean to keep my word.

My eyes close of their own accord, too tired to bother trying to keep them open. I snuggle my face into the pillow more deeply where I lay on my good side. "These wounds should be fun to explain to my PE teacher come Tuesday. We start swimming this semester." I speak after a few minutes and smile without opening my eyes thinking about my funny but gruff physical education teacher who already loved to give me a hard time. "Explaining to everyone in the communal shower room how my side was ripped open should be interesting. They already believe I'm the most accident prone person on the planet."

"You'll think of something." Cassiopeia answers me and I can tell by her voice that she's moved to stand before the window, facing away from me and looking outside. Without opening my eyes I can see her in my mind's eye standing there with arms folded over her chest and finger tapping against her upper arm. It's a position I've seen her standing in many times over the years when she's thinking and I know she's thinking by the tone she just used. Listening but also distracted. The energy rolling off her is hard to miss. She stands as still as stone but on the inside I know she's pacing like a caged tiger to be in this room, in this house and situation. She wants to run. I know because I'm also a runner and when things get to be too overwhelming and I feel like I can't breathe, the only thing that helps is running. Where my body runs on autopilot and I can find my focus again. Every single morning we were together in her cabin at camp, she was up just before sunrise with running clothes on and ready to go. Sometimes she would go alone before our regular physical training sessions began. Other times, she's scream at us all to get out of bed and go run with her. We learned at a very young age to shut up and keep up.

"I'll be fine here alone if you want to go run, ma'am." I speak after a moment of silence, knowing that's what is keeping her from her regular routine. She doesn't want to leave me alone. No matter where we were in the world, I knew she always began each day by running. It was like meditation for her; a way to organize her thoughts and feelings and get everything back into perspective before she started the day. She'd taught everyone in her cabin to do the same. She always said it was a good way to condition both the mind and body at once, managing our time more efficiently. "I need to work on finishing my book report today anyway." I offer as a lame excuse even if true. I only have two days to work on it before starting school again on Monday.

"I don't have any clothes." She answers me quietly still staring out the window. My eyes crack open and I look at her, standing in her flannel pajamas that match mine and I'm reminded she arrived with nothing last night having no idea of the turn of events that was coming her way.

Maria enters the room again and this time Cassiopeia stays where she is, still looking out the window while Maria takes a seat on the bed once more. Without saying anything she puts the stethoscope in her ears and lifts my pajama top again.

"Can you take a deep breath for me please, Julia." She asks quietly and listens, moving the cold metal instrument around my skin. I open my eyes long enough to see her scowling. "Definite pneumonia." She looks down at me clearly concerned. "I can hear the crackle in both lower lobes and the right upper. Likely because you've been sleeping so much on the right side to avoid irritating your wounds on the left." She sighs shaking her head and pulls the buds from her ears. "I'm going to have to give you a different antibiotic for this and an expectorant to make you cough up the fluid I hear." Her hand squeezes my forearm gently again, "It's going to be quite painful with your side so raw and healing but necessary, I'm afraid. I'll bring some extra pillows for you to hug while you cough, help to stabilize your side a bit and bring some hot water and menthol for you to breathe in to help loosen the phlegm. I'm sorry this is not going to be pleasant."

"It's okay. Whatever I need to do, I'll do." I answer her with a small smile and then quickly pull it back remembering I'm not supposed to form any kind of bond with this woman. I'm supposed to be keeping my distance. "Thank you, ma'am." I answer her with eyes flashing towards Cassiopeia. Maria's eyebrows narrow considerably at my use of ma'am again. Slowly she folds the stethoscope to grip in one hand and turns slightly to look at Cassiopeia who is still keeping her back to us.

"She must either fear you greatly," Maria speaks softly to her, "Or respect you greatly, Casey, to completely ignore my request." Her eyes flash back to mine thoughtfully. "Perhaps both." I swallow hard feeling her penetrating gaze sweeping over me as her fingers lightly brush my hair away from my feverish skin, so gently it almost aches and burns at the same time feeling her tender touch. She's craving a connection with us that we are so actively trying to deny her. "Or perhaps it's not you at all that she fears," Maria speaks again thoughtfully, "but the one who gives the orders?" She raises her eyebrows knowingly at me and I can see she's remembered what I said last night about the Chain of Command who was really the Master of our Fate, Ulric.

Our silence seems to be answer enough for her to know she's correct.

"You needn't worry about Ulric. I will handle him." She says confidently tucking me back in again as gently as any mother would. It's killing me on the inside to try and not feel anything towards this woman I now know is really my biological mother. I want to know her so badly it literally aches now and I can only imagine that she's feeling the same way, to be so close to her children she's been denied from knowing exist and trying to hold back.

"With all due respect, ma'am," Cassiopeia turns slowly and finally speaks to Maria for the first time this morning, "I know him better than you do." She stares intently at Maria with blue eyes locked to identical blue eyes and my own eyes widen considerably with what Cassiopeia has just said and suggested to the woman who has been married to Ulric for most of her life. "This is dangerous. For you and for me but especially for her." She points sharply with the one finger at me she was previously tapping without uncrossing her arms. "You can't handle him. He handled you. He stole a child you gave birth to and raised it as a project for over 30 years without you ever knowing until now. You have no idea what he's capable of. What he could do to her." She's fuming angry.

"He will not kill her, Cassiopeia." Lady Marie suddenly speaks from where she's just entered the room catching us all off guard. A testament to how much our minds are occupied elsewhere that the woman was able to sneak up on three highly trained spies without being noticed. "You needn't worry about that." Marie shakes her head slowly coming into the room. She's still dressed in her pajamas like the rest of us at this ungodly early hour. But instead of the flannels we are dressed in, she's wearing beautiful off white satin pajamas with a matching robe and slippers complete with matching monograms of the Imperial Eagles of the Romanovs delicately stitched into the fabric as I'd expect from such a royal. "Julia is the embodiment of his life's work. She's far too valuable for him to dispose of. There will always be exceptions made where she is concerned." She continues to speak, coming to sit opposite of Maria in the chair beside my bed and near the window Cassiopeia is standing beside.

My ears perk up wildly with this information and I struggle to control my fast breathing and pounding heart. Julia is the embodiment of his life's work. Just what the hell did that mean? I'm about to ask but Cassiopeia speaks first.

"He may not kill her, ma'am." She looks right at Marie, "But that doesn't mean he won't cause irreparable harm to her either if it benefits his agenda." She speaks rather forcefully and I feel the bottom drop out from my stomach again remembering what she told me last night. Remembering that this man had her tortured. "Or harm to those around her if they interfere with his plans." She adds with eyes shifting towards Maria, who looks simultaneously pale and angry once more at what Cassiopeia is suggesting about her husband. "Julia has already suffered enough loss. She doesn't need to suffer anymore." She adds quietly refusing to look at me but with eyes glancing back and forth between the two older women. I'm blown away by what she's just said about my suffering already, hearing yet again she really understands more than I give her credit for and reminding me simultaneously that Ulric is capable of harming Maria if we get too close. "With all due respect, ma'am, we should never have been brought here. This can only end badly." Cassiopeia's eyes focus on Marie's, "It is better for all involved that we move forward as we did before."

Maria looks absolutely crushed at the suggestion of pretending to move forward as if none of this has happened: as if she never found out the baby she thought died was still alive or to learn of a new daughter she never knew existed and to hear that it is too dangerous for them to know each other because of the man she loved in Ulric.

"You let me worry about Ulric." Lady Marie speaks quietly. "He won't do anything to harm anyone because of this."

"Forgive me, ma'am, for differing with that opinion given my recent experiences." Cassiopeia answers immediately. I can't believe she's just challenged Marie, our superior with that statement. It speaks to me as to how concerned she really is about all of this, if she's breaking a protocol she's willing to live and die for in the Chain of Command.

"It is not an opinion. It is fact. I've made it a direct order." Marie counters immediately, clearly unhappy with the rebuttal. She seems to soften staring at Cassiopeia and takes a deep breath. "He will never do that to you again, Casey." She speaks softly with intent eyes. "On my life, you have my word. He will never do that to you again."

"And what about Julia?" Cassiopeia asks quietly. I can tell she's furiously trying to control her emotions about what Marie has just said.

"What do you mean, 'he will never do that to you again?" Maria asks immediately, not waiting for Marie to reply to Cassiopeia's question about me. Her eyes scan rapidly back and forth between Marie and Cassiopeia. "Are you saying that Ulric did that to her?" She asks with voice cracking, "That he's responsible for the torture inflicted upon her body?" Cassiopeia looks away, out the window again hearing Maria's inquiries and realizations about the marks on her body and hugs her chest more tightly with her arms folded over her chest.

"Ulric's methods of insuring loyalty are brutal." Marie answers her quietly and Maria inhales a sob with that confirmation. "I understand the need for this as well, especially with your top people, but I draw the line at inflicting such torture on my own flesh and blood." She states very diplomatically while Maria continues to cry in silent horror staring at Cassiopeia whose back is towards us, refusing to look at any of us.

I know she doesn't want to see Maria crying over what has happened to her but it is such an unspeakable horror, I cannot blame Maria for being unable to pull back her tears at learning this information.

"I've made certain he will never torture her like that ever again." Marie continues, "I had no knowledge it was occurring until after it'd already begun. As soon as I learned what he was doing, I had her released immediately." She tries to explain her involvement in it all. "What he did to you, Casey," She pauses thoughtfully and continues with renewed conviction in her voice, "Is why I'm hoping to change Julia's fate." Her statement catches all our attention and Cassiopeia's eyes flash to meet Marie's. "So that she doesn't end up in the same situation you've arrived at." Cassiopeia's eyes widen slightly before she rapidly regains her composure and looks away. Being reminded of whatever the reason Ulric tortured her for has hit deep. I know she needs to go and get away from here right now. Too many compartments in her life are having their lids ripped off right now for her to keep her composure much longer. Her fingers are now gripping her upper arms so tightly where she has them crossed, her knuckles are turning white. She's struggling. It's the first time I feel her close to losing control and letting loose her emotions. It's scaring me. I've never seen her like this or felt her like this. The waves I feel coming off her have my own heart pounding and blood rushing in my ears.

"Do you have running clothes?" I ask rapidly towards Maria. I know I'm not making any sense in this moment given what's happening and see the confusion in her blurry tear-soaked eyes the moment she looks at me like I've lost my mind. "She's a runner. Every morning at this time, she goes for a run. She doesn't have any clothes. Can she borrow some? Please?" I add and see the veil of confusion slowly lifting when Maria looks over to Cassiopeia and comes to the same conclusion I have in seeing her paling face and tight white knuckles. That she needs some time and space to process all this and too many of her compartments have been ripped open in the last 12 hours. It's something I know she'll understand as one spy to another. "Please?" I ask again quietly, nearly begging. I can't believe I'm doing this or that I feel so protective suddenly over Cassiopeia, wanting to help her keep her composure in all this madness. We may have declared last night that we weren't going to acknowledge each other as sisters but I cannot deny that where she's concerned now, my feelings have changed considerably. Knowing we are family brings out my protective instincts. I cannot change how I feel now even if I plan to respect her as my General first and foremost.

"I'll be right back." Maria answers me quietly and wipes at her eyes. Nodding at me in understanding, she squeezes my hand gently and moves to stand.

Cassiopeia is not objecting which leads me to believe this, is exactly what she needs and cannot bring herself to say. To admit her walls are breaking and she needs time to recompose herself. She's done so much for me. I can at least do this for her and give her an out.

When Maria is gone Cassiopeia speaks at last.

"And what about her?" She asks quietly. "What if he harms Maria for getting in the way of his agenda? She's not going to like what he has planned for Julia." Her eyes glance over to Marie. I feel my mouth go dry once again as they have a silent conversation just staring at each other about me and whatever it is Ulric has planned for my life. I thought there wasn't a plan, which was why I was still classified 'Undecided' unlike the rest of my peers who's future's had been assigned years ago.

"He won't harm her, Casey." Marie counters with conviction. "He truly loves your mother. Always has." She smiles slightly. "He once moved Heaven and Earth for the freedom to marry her. Which is why I find it ironic, he's forbid all of you from doing the same."

"He said love makes you weak." Cassiopeia answers her and looks away again out the window staring into the sunrise. "And he's right. To love or be loved by anyone is dangerous in our world. It is a vulnerability we cannot afford if we are to survive."

"I'm sorry to hear you say that, though I understand where you are coming from and why. At times in my life, I often felt the same way. I did not think I could stand to lose anyone else I loved. But with age comes wisdom," she nods softly swaying her head back and forth slightly as if thinking out loud and my attention is held with rapt fascination.

Maria appears in the doorway again with a stack of clothes for Cassiopeia. She pauses realizing she's walking into the middle of something and stops to listen to whatever it is Marie is telling us. "And I realized that the only reason I survived my family's massacre," She speaks slowly and quietly with great reverence, "and continued to survive through so much heartbreak and loss, was because of the love I had for my family and theirs for me. Those who had passed on and those still living even if we weren't together. I realized that love was the fuel that kept me going all these years, determined to make a change for those who would come after me. I still haven't given up on that idea." Her eyes shift towards me smiling. She doesn't say anything more but I'm enthralled by what she has said. I would never have guessed this formidable woman to have such views on love and family given her station as the Head of a Division, even with her family history. She seems like the kind of woman who doesn't care about such things as emotions. Especially given how she threw us all under the bus last night with her surprise dinner announcements ripping all our hearts out for her gain. Her questions into my relationship with her grandson suddenly make more sense to me now though, knowing she has an agenda to change the world we now reside in.

"Casey," Maria finds her voice quietly from just inside the door gaining Cassiopeia's attention. "These should fit. We are the same size." She adds softly holding up the small stack of black runners' attire and sneakers dangling from two fingers off the other hand.

Cassiopeia walks slowly towards her and takes the items cautiously. "Thank you, ma'am." She forces herself to look Maria in the eyes for just a moment before exiting towards the restroom to change in privacy. Last night she was more concerned about not leaving me alone with the unknown it seems, whereas today she is more concerned about us all staring at her scars now knowing where they'd come from.

I feel awful and am really struggling to keep my eyes open, not wanting to miss any of this spellbinding interaction. I decide to close my eyes for just a moment and when I open them again, I realize I've fallen asleep and quite some time has passed. The sun out the window is now considerably higher in the sky and Maria is now seated beside me in the chair, fully dressed for the day and staring out the window. We are alone in the room.

I take a moment to just look at her sitting there in the sunlight. Really look at her knowing now who she is to me. Before, when looking at her, I was instantly drawn to her stunning beauty like a fairytale princess or Hollywood icon. She really looks like Grace Kelly and exactly like Cassiopeia. But in looking at her closely now, I am wondering what if anything I received from her knowing she is my biological mother. Looking at her profile, I definitely have her chin and nose and when she turns to look at me smiling, I realize we also have the same smile. It's the same smile as Cassiopeia's. How I never realized that before, I do not know, but decide it could be the fact that Cassiopeia nearly never smiled around me. Maybe that's why, when I did finally see her smiling for the first time in front of my class three years ago, I was completely freaked out? I try to rationalize. I'm supposed to be a highly trained spy and yet I missed what was standing right in front of me all these years. Cassiopeia's smile was my smile and somewhere in my subconscious I recognized it. Same lips, same cheeks, same teeth. Identical smiles and eerie to realize.

"Are you feeling any better?" Maria asks walking towards me. She sits once more beside me on the edge of the bed and runs her fingers gently down my face. "Your fever seems to have gone down some." She smiles softly, "I gave you another shot of different antibiotics and you didn't even flinch or stir in your sleep."

"I'm feeling a bit better, thank you, ma'am." I answer quietly and watch her posture fall slightly with my insistence at calling her ma'am. "How long was I asleep for?"

"Nearly five hours now." She recovers quickly and smiles again at me. "Casey has been gone the entire time. I'm starting to get worried she's either lost somewhere on this massive estate or she's run away completely." She smiles more widely and then laughs softly as tears start welling in her eyes.

"She won't leave." I answer her, "We've been ordered to stay here." I smile softly at her and my statement is meant to be reassuring but it sounds anything but when spoken out loud. I'm reminding her that the only reason we're here is because we cannot leave. "And I wouldn't worry about her being lost." I add, hoping to get her mind off what I'd just said, "Cassiopeia is one of the best spies in the world, if not thee best." I smile more widely and genuinely mean it. "I would have loathed to admit that not long ago but it is true. She also used to run us for hours endlessly and never tire. The woman is a machine. The most physically fit person I've ever known in my life so I am not surprised to hear she's still gone. Especially given all that's happened." I add more softly, "She's likely just decompressing. I'm sure she will be back soon."

"You know her very well."

"She's taught me to be observant. To read people and situations. She's taught me to think like she does. Or she's trying to at least." I laugh softly rubbing the sleep from my tired dry eyes. "Mostly, I think I just give her a headache."

"You knew she was upset and needed to leave this morning. Before she lost control with Marie. You were protecting her." Maria looks at me thoughtfully. "That was very perceptive of you to know she needed space. I'd say you're doing well in those lessons." She pauses, "She must also be a very good leader to be a General at only 31 years of age in The Council."

"She's been a General for the last nearly three and half years. June 24th, 1995." I remember that day quite clearly. So many things happened on that day. "I'll never forget that day. So many things happened that day that have changed my life." I say in almost a whisper with awe thinking about it.

"Why?" She asks curious and eager to learn more about us.

"She was drowning me in the river," I state matter-of-factly and immediately see her eyes widen. "At camp. We were playing Capture the Flag. I was trying to take her flag in the middle of the river. We fought and she broke my hand when I deflected her strike. But she got the better grip on me after I slipped on a river rock and before I knew it, she was drowning me." I shake my head thinking about how terrifying that was. "I was about to die pressed against the bottom of the river and my instincts to survive kicked in. She had taught me to focus through my pain and my panic, and to think. It was so weird hearing her voice in my head from all those many lessons, telling me how to survive when she was the one killing me. So I let go of her wrists with my hands, and stopped trying to fight her. She eased up thinking she must have killed me or nearly killed me if I went slack like that but as she began pulling my body up towards the surface, my fingers brushed over a stone lying beside me on the river bottom. I grabbed it tightly in my hand and as she hauled me up, I smashed it against the side of her head, taking her down. I'd knocked her out cold. I recovered enough to gasp for breath and lunge for the flag winning the game just as she was coming back to consciousness."

The look of absolute horror in Maria's eyes is unmistakable and I'm reminded once again that this is why we never ever told anyone what really went on during summer camp. The insanity of reality was unbelievable.

"I was the only one in our class to ever take down a God, one of the First Gens," I clarify for her, wondering if she's even hearing me through her shock. "And the only one to ever take down Cassiopeia. I was only 13 years old at the time, just a month before my 14th birthday."

I'm worried about her as she hasn't even blinked through raining tears listening to this horrific tale. "I didn't want to hit her, but I had to or die. She didn't leave me with a choice." I try to explain, "I'd done as she trained me to do. Fight to the death and take down a bigger, stronger opponent to achieve the goal. Cassiopeia was rewarded for being such an exemplary teacher by being given command of not only all the First Gens as Team Leader but over everyone in The Program as our General."

"I see." She finally speaks. "And how many First Gens are there?"

"Originally there were one hundred chosen and trained." I speak quietly. "There are only twenty-four left. We just lost one in October." I add quietly thinking about Draco.

"Twenty-four out of one hundred." She repeats in a near whisper clearly upset to learn such a thing. "And what are their names?"

"Cassiopeia, Ares, Jupiter, Electra, Artemis, Isis, Thor, Hera, Diana, Eros, Odin, Apollo, Andromeda, Atlas, Orion, Horace, Neptune, Athena, Terra, Zeus, Juno, Midas, and the twins Castor and Pollux." I rattle off without taking a breath. "And in no particular order."

"They really were named for the Gods, weren't they?" She seems to marvel out loud more than anything in disbelief. "And what else happened on this day that was so memorable?"

"Mikael kissed me for the first time." I answer and that feels so weird to say now knowing our mothers are sisters, even if only by adoption, it still kind of freaks me while I try to process all this.

"I see." She says quietly.

Instantly feel bad for bringing up his name given what horrible things he said to her last night. I don't want to dwell on him too long and move along.

"And right after that, Cassiopeia came to get me to tell me my mother was dying." I look away towards the window, feeling an odd sense of betrayal in this moment in speaking to this mother about that mother and not sure how I'm supposed to feel about all this. "And she was taking me home."

"I've heard a lot about your mother, Kristin, over the years from Nyah." Maria speaks quietly and when I look back to her she smiles softly making me feel at ease with the genuine warmth I see there. She's not angry or resentful at all towards the mother who gave birth to me and raised me it seems. "Nyah said you talked about her all the time. What a good mother she was to you, and all the funny things she said and did. That she sang like an angel and looked like Julie Andrews." She smiles, "She sounded like a truly wonderful woman. I'm glad to know that you were so loved and cared for, Julia." She adds with new welling tears in her eyes. There is deep pain in those tears as well as true happiness and joy for me. "I would have liked to have known her." She reaches for my hand and holds it gently, "I look forward to knowing you, Julia." She smiles and kisses my hand. "If you'd like to know me, too." My heart is clenching painfully and at war with what Cassiopeia told me last night about keeping my distance if I care about Maria, and desperately wanting to know this woman who was also my mother.

"What I'd like to do and what I should do, are two very different things." I answer her honestly, torn about what I should do. "She says this is dangerous." I add quietly, "And if I've learned anything in the past couple of years, it's that I trust her completely to keep me alive. Cassiopeia knows the Monster better than I do." I speak so quietly it's nearly a whisper realizing I'm speaking about her husband.

Maria is quiet for a moment thinking about what I've said and I know what's coming next by the look on her face. Dread hits me instantly that I reminded her of what he is to us. "Julia, do you know why Ulric had her tortured like that?"

"No, I don't." I answer her honestly in a near whisper, afraid to be having this conversation. "She is his top General. His Right Hand." I say quietly in awe, still trying to figure out myself in disbelief. "I can't imagine why he would ever do such a thing…what she could have possibly done wrong that he would do that. I don't know."

"Okay," Maria nods accepting my reply and blinks back tears. "Has he ever done anything like that to you?"

"No." I answer quietly again. "Yes." I answer and see her confusion. "It's complicated. We are put through torture as part of our training. His training program." She nods in understanding having been an agent in the field herself. After what I just told her about our life or death battle of Capture the Flag, I'm not sure she is surprised by anything I'm saying anymore in regards to this program her husband has designed and how utterly brutal it actually is. "But he's never purposefully done anything like that to me as punishment."

"Then what has he done that made you say his bite was worse than his bark?" She's relentless for the truth. "That you refer to him as the Monster?"

"I don't think I'm supposed to tell you this." I answer her feeling guilty already for not being able to give her what she wants: the truth of all this and how insane her husband is to have stolen her children and capable of torturing his own flesh and blood.

"Should I ask him?" She asks me with narrowing eyebrow and my heart instantly drops and speeds up at the thought.

"No." I shake my head. "That'd be worse. For us all, I think."

"Then you tell me." She insists. "I know you're both trying to keep your distance from me. She made that clear this morning she wants to pretend we never met. To have nothing more to do with me, but Julia," She reaches for my chin forcing me softly to look at her, "I need to understand completely what he's done that makes you both so terrified of my knowing you exist or interacting with you." A tear slips down her cheek and she ignores it completely holding my gaze intently with her own. "I thought I understood last night the levels of his deception. I couldn't imagine them possibly being any worse than taking my children. Making me believe that one had died at birth. But Casey was right when she said that I had no idea who he really was and what he is capable of, if he had her tortured like that. His own child. That is not the man I know. That is not the man I've loved for well over 30 years. And I need to know the man I'm married to, Julia."

"We don't want you to get hurt." I answer her honestly feeling my own tears welling now. Not wanting to lie to her but also not wanting her to be harmed by the monster she is married to. "I can't, I'm sorry."

"You can, Julia. Marie gave you permission to speak freely with me. Casey may hate me for not realizing what Ulric had done sooner and not want a relationship with me now because of it, but I need to understand why this happened and what he's done!"

"She doesn't hate you!" I blurt out with a new surge of tears feeling the need to defend Cassiopeia's actions as a sister should though I know I'm not supposed to think or feel this way, I can't help it. "Don't you see? She is pushing you away because she does care about you! Cassiopeia is trying to protect you, Maria." I cry and inhale a sob realizing I'm saying too much.

"I don't need her to protect me. I need her to talk to me!" Maria fires back with new tears in her eyes and agitation in her voice. "I may have been fooled about what my husband is capable of but I am fooled no longer. I am highly trained and capable of protecting myself. I made the mistake of trusting the wrong person," She inhales a quiet sob and calms herself, "But I won't be making that mistake of trusting him again." Her hands grip the sides of my face, palming my cheeks with both hands. "Julia, please. Tell me."

"We were on a mission in Rio," I begin quietly feeling compelled to tell her staring into those big blue eyes. They're the same eyes and face I'm used to seeing with Cassiopeia. Eyes that when they look at me like this and give me instruction I'm meant to follow without hesitation. "I was fourteen almost fifteen. We spent the summer field training in the slums eradicating Human Traffickers as a team."

She inhales deeply shaking her head with new tears coursing down her cheeks in disbelief of how young I was when this all began. "Go on." She commands quietly when I pause seeing her upset.

"Nyah is our Team Leader. We were pinned down and split into teams to make our exit from the slum. We took shelter in a small stable with a horse but our presence made the horse anxious. He made noise and our location was discovered. I should have killed the horse before he gave away our location but the boy who owned the animal was sitting in a window looking down at me. I know they used that horse to make a living pulling their cart and I just couldn't bring myself to shoot it. We moved quickly into the home of the boy and made our way to the roof to try and escape. I was leading our group, including Mikael." Her eyes narrow in confusion.

"What was Mikael doing there?" She asks both angry and alarmed.

"He insists on coming with us from time to time on missions."

"Why?"

"He wants to learn what we do and how we do it."

"But he's not field trained?" She asks in confusion.

"No, he's not." I shake my head.

"That's incredibly dangerous. How can this be allowed?"

"We can't exactly stop him. He is Ulric's heir and can do as he pleases. Even over Cassiopeia. Some day he will be her Commander." I swallow hard with that thought now seeing how vicious he was this evening towards her.

"My god," She gasps shaking her head. "No wonder he speaks to her as he does, if he sees her as being beneath him as the heir." Pieces seem to click into place for her given last night's dinner interaction.

"Nyah and I try the best we can to train him properly so he doesn't get us killed." I sigh, "And he's getting better. Much better. He saved my life last year when I was bludgeoned by a security guard and suffered a skull fracture." Her eyes widen to hear such a thing. "So he is getting better."

"What happened in Brazil?" She asks getting me back on track.

"We escaped onto the roof." I try to focus again, "I knew we needed to split up as we were being pursued so as we were running from roof top to roof top I told my team to drop down one at a time through the gaps and make their way back to our rendezvous point with Nyah. Mikael was trying to argue with me about staying together and another one of my team just threw him off the room when he wouldn't jump. He broke his arm."

"That's how he broke his arm that summer!" Her eyes light up putting the pieces together. "He pouted for weeks that he wasn't able to play polo with a cast on."

"He's lucky that's all that happened to him." I add quietly thinking about what happened to me. "I kept running trying to lead them away from my team and was shot in the back." I reach around and grip the shoulder indicating which side I was shot on.

"I saw that scar when you first arrived." She adds, taking a deep breath shaking her head again and nodding for me to continue.

"I was able to get off the roof and make it back to our exit point with the rest of the team. A large sewage drain leading out of the slum." I cringe at the memory and smell. "But the pursuers followed and it was a mess." I shake my head thinking about the first time I ever killed anyone. "Cassiopeia completely lost it on me and rightfully so when we returned. She kept saying I had no idea what I'd done by not listening to her." I feel tears welling in my eyes and try to blink them back. "I was so mean to her in those days. So angry with her."

"Why?" She asks quietly, reaching out to hold my hand.

"Because I hated her for taking me away from my mother. All those summers she showed up at my house to take me away was time I could have had with my mom and I was angry with her for it. Not realizing in my stupid youth that she wasn't to blame at all." I scoff, "She was just doing as she was told." I shake my head and wipe my tears refusing to let them fall. "But I learned very quickly. She had been ordered to return Mikael to Sweden and upon her return a few days later she ordered me into the car. I had no idea where we were going but soon found out. We ended up at the shipping yards. I was forced to shoot the horse I had refused to shoot in the slum. And when she ordered me to do it, I refused, again. I didn't see the point after the fact. But they drug in a man with a black hood on his head and said that if I didn't shoot the horse, they'd shoot the man. So I shot the horse. And they still shot the man." I cry quietly, "It was the boy's father from the slum. Cassiopeia seemed angry with them before they informed her that Ulric's orders were to kill the men should I refuse her order to kill the horse the first time." I speak in almost a whisper feeling as though this is taboo to be telling the monster's wife. "I'd been handcuffed to the dead horse and without any word or explanation she turned and left me there. Locked me inside the shipping container with the dead."

I wipe my stinging cheeks refusing to look at Maria, "I was loaded onto a ship and sent across the ocean on Ulric's orders." I can hear her gasp of breath as she inhales in horror. "Two weeks later, Cassiopeia came to retrieve me on the docks in Miami. I was nearly starved to death by then and had raging infection in my shoulder wound but I'd learned my lesson." My eyes finally glance up to meet hers. "Cassiopeia made me understand. That if I disobeyed her orders she has no control over what happens to me. I got it then," I wipe at the new surge of quiet tears and see her eyes filling with more. "That she was trying to keep me alive. She wasn't the monster. She was just the messenger."

"I don't even know what to say." She shakes her head wiping at her own tears trying to absorb all I've revealed to her.

"You don't have to say anything. There is nothing to say." I shake my head softly, "This is just the way it is."

"Mama!" A singsong voice calls out from somewhere beyond the bedroom. "Where are you?"

"Anni," Maria sits up immediately tense and quickly wipes her eyes. Both of our hearts start to pound at explaining all of this to Annika. "Stay here." She nods at me, squeezing my hand gently and then quickly stands, intent on intercepting her daughter from finding us as the voice calling out moves closer.

I watch her walk away and close the door behind her. Only muffled voices can be heard through the walls. My heart that was pounding only moments before begins to settle when I hear those muffles moving away.

When several minutes pass and Maria doesn't return, I flip the covers back on my bed and rest my feet upon the cold hardwood floor. My backpack is in the chair on the far side of the room and I figure now is as good of time as any to keep working on my book report. I'm exhausted and should be sleeping but I'm too nervous knowing Annika is in the house and Cassiopeia has yet to return.

The door slowly opens and I freeze holding my breath with hand on my backpack in anticipation of who is coming through the door. To my great relief, its only Cassiopeia who is looking at me through narrowed brows again as she quietly closes the door.

"You're not supposed to be out of bed." She glowers at me, drenched in sweat and already stripping off her clothes as she walks towards the bathroom. Her emotions seem to be contained and compartmentalized for the time being and she's back to her perfectly controlled General self. The run has helped it seems.

"I just needed to get my backpack, ma'am." I answer her quietly, lifting the heavy pack and wincing slightly through grit teeth as I scamper across the cold floor back towards the bed. I lob the pack into the middle and settle back in beneath the warm covers. My teeth are already chattering just from that brief exposure to the cold room. "It's freezing in here." I mutter pulling the blankets up to my chin, marveling at how quickly the temperature dropped once the logs burned out.

"As soon as the sun sets we can add another log." Cassiopeia pauses briefly by the door, staring at the last glowing embers in the fireplace with a far off look about her and I see her shiver for the first time. She's wearing only a sports bra and pants; less bothered it seems about exposing scars now that we're alone again.

We both know that it's too risky to have smoke rising from this chimney in the light of day with Annika here. This section of the house was supposed to be closed down for renovations. To see smoke rising from this chimney would only cause more suspicion if she were to see it.

I slink down into the covers and continue shivering. "How did you get by them unnoticed?" I know she did, I'm just curious as to how. She's too good of a spy not to know that Annika had arrived in her absence.

"Servant's entrance and staircase beside the kitchen." She replies pulling the band from her long tresses and releasing them to spill in sweat soaked curls down her naked back.

My eyes can't help but be drawn to those raw ribbons of pink around her ribcage and I force myself to look away before she catches me staring. The idea that Ulric did that to her, his own' daughter, is so absolutely terrifying I shudder hard at the thought and am thankful that Cassiopeia just assumes it's because I'm so cold.

"I'll be out in a few minutes." She announces and disappears behind the bathroom door.

Ten minutes later, I'm struggling to finish War & Peace with the pounding in my head when Cassiopeia emerges from the bathroom. She is once again wearing the flannel pajamas that match mine. It's the only clothes she has besides the gorgeous black dress from last night. Given how cold it is in this room right now with the falling temps, it seems appropriate for her to be wearing flannel. She is exhausted. I know she didn't sleep at all last night, coupled with the anxiety she must have felt before arriving here knowing who she was about to meet, and then her very long run today, it's no wonder she's so tired. Whatever adrenaline had carried her through the last 24 hours was waning now considerably.

"Aren't you finished with that yet?" She asks twisting her wet tendrils around over her shoulder and slides under the covers and into the bed next me. My heart is pounding with nerves at having her so close once more and in the light of day now given all that's transpired.

"Almost, General." I answer her quietly trying to shake my nerves and letting her know I was trying to respect the boundary she wants me to maintain with her, even if we are lying side by side in this bed like sisters. "I've reread the same page for the last ten minutes though, so I'm not getting very far."

"Why?" She fluffs up the pillows behind her head making herself more comfortable.

"I'm finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate given the pounding in my head. Staring at the tiny words on the page is giving me a headache." I rub my eyes seeing the words swim before me on the page.

Her hand reaches out and clamps down on my forehead and then brushes down the side of my cheek.

"You still have a fever." She announces with annoyance and scolds me. "You need to stay in bed, Julia."

"I have been. I just needed to get my book, ma'am. I'm behind and must get this finished." I answer quietly trying to explain myself and know that it's futile. Looking at her right now, lying beside me and knowing that she's my sister in the light of day, I cannot concentrate on anything else. My mind is still blown that I never knew or realized this before. I know I promised her I'd never speak of it again after last night, but I'm finding it difficult to focus on anything else having her this close to me, sharing a bed and body heat under these covers while she checks me for fever.

"If only I could just tell my teacher I was too busy stealing the original Russian copy from the Hermitage Museum to get my report done on time." I try to settle back in again and concentrate on the task at hand. "And for a Romanov no less… I should get extra credit for that." I smile softly trying to make light of this crazy situation.

When another five minutes goes by with me rubbing my eyes, coughing and remaining on the same page Cassiopeia has lost her patience.

"Give me the book." She demands with hand held out waiting for me to relinquish it. Cassiopeia has never been one for patience with me and I can only imagine how annoyed she truly must be for such a failure in something so basic.

"I'm nearly finished." I quietly protest even as I hand over the large book.

"You're too sick to read and I can't stand lying here watching you rubbing your eyes while you attempt to reread the same page over and over." She pounds her fist lightly into the pillow behind her head in agitation, fluffing it up to prop her up even more and looks at the book in her hand. "How much do you have left?"

"Just the Epilogues."

" Just the Epilogues?" She repeats incredulously flipping towards the back of the book. "Do you have any idea how long Tolstoy's Epilogues are in this book, Julia Taylor?" She flips through the pages rapidly, clearly disappointed in me for having so much left to read and report on given my deadline.

"Long, ma'am." I answer her quietly coughing again, knowing she already has an idea given her response.

"I'd say that's putting it mildly." She flips to the first page of the First Epilogue and shimmies her shoulders down into the pillow getting comfortable. My breath catches and my eyebrows narrow wondering if she's about to do, what I think she's about to do.

"Are you going to read it to me?" I ask in awed disbelief.

"Seeing as how I'm trapped in this room with you for the foreseeable future, and I can't stand to watch you rub your eyes or read the same page for the hundredth time. Yes, I'm going to read to you. Get your notebook and pencil ready and pay attention. I'm not reading it over again. So if you miss something, it's your own fault."

"Yes, ma'am." I scramble in bewilderment to retrieve my notebook lying between us. She looks at me with narrowed eyes while I squirm around in the bed covers trying to get comfortable again and settle in.

"Are you ready?" She asks with a hint of annoyance that I've made her wait.

"Yes, ma'am." I offer her a small smile and then quickly look away knowing it makes her uncomfortable. We will both ignore that what she's doing for me right now is nothing short of pure kindness. She can try to pass it off as something she's doing for her own benefit, being trapped in this room with me, and before last night I would have believed that. But I know better now. I helped her escape this room earlier when she needed to get away and run, have the time and space to compartmentalize all that has happened. I helped her because she needed it. Now she's returning the favor.

"Seven years had passed. The storm-tossed sea of European history had subsided within its shores and seemed to have become calm. But the mysterious forces that move humanity…" Cassiopeia begins reading and instantly I am entranced by the cadence of her voice.

This is one of the most surreal moments of my life. Everything about the last week since sitting down in Marie's office for the first time in England until this moment has been like stepping Through the Looking Glass.

I do the best I can to pay attention to what is being read for the next two hours, rather than who is lying beside me doing the reading.

"What is the question?" Cassiopeia asks once she's finished reading and takes the paper of questions to be answered in my report from me, seeing as I'm falling asleep and trying not to cough myself to death.
"In the end, the narrator puts forth what idea to summarize the entire experience of this novel?" She reads out loud.

"The extent of our own free will." I answer her snuggling my hand beneath my face on the pillow, struggling to keep my eyes open. "And though we may have a sense of freedom, ultimately we are a part of something bigger than ourselves that keeps us moving forward. What is fated and our destiny, versus our own free will. He's speaking of God as the ultimate Puppet Master of our lives."

"Yes." She says quietly and closes the book setting it aside with the paper.

"Do you believe that?" I dare asking her knowing I'm venturing into that dangerous territory again of overstepping by asking her personal questions. "Do you think God is the one pulling the strings of our lives? The ultimate Puppet Master?"

"No." Cassiopeia answers immediately, "Not anymore." She adds quietly and turns over on her side, facing away from me. I feel like there is more to this story, hearing her add 'not anymore' suggesting that she used to. Yet, I know I can't push her. I can't help but wonder if her change of heart has something to do with recently being tortured at the hands of her own father. It'd certainly make me question things. I know I questioned God a great deal when my mother became ill and then after she died.

"There is only one Puppet Master who controls our fate." She speaks suddenly after several moments of silence, startling me from my own pondering thoughts. "Ulric is the only one you should be concerned with."

"Given the events of the last 24 hours," I add cautiously, "I'd say Lady Marie is also a Puppet Master controlling our fates, ma'am…" I swallow hard that I'm challenging what she's said, "And she seems to have more control than he does."

"Seems is the appropriate word, Julia." She counters me, "Their battle for power is ongoing. She has control and then he does, and then she does, and then he does. Back and forth. Moves and Countermoves. But ultimately, we belong to him."

"Lady Marie keeps saying she wants to change my fate…" I broach this forbidden subject again, determined to get answers. "And this morning, said that I am the epitome of his life's work." I repeat quietly finding my mouth going dry thinking about all that could mean. "What does that mean, Cassiopeia?" Using her first name instead of ma'am or General is risky but I'm hoping she will speak to me person to person instead of pupil to mentor.

When she doesn't answer me I keep speaking out of nervousness and fear that she knows and won't tell me this part of my life either.

"I want to know what is so terrible that's planned for me, that she's hoping to change my fate."

"Julia, I'm forbidden from speaking to you about this." She answers with an edge in her tone again. She's annoyed I keep pressing the issue. A moment passes and her tone softens as she adds, "Everything I'm teaching you… is preparing you to fight and survive what is to come."

"What does that mean?" I ask nervously, feeling my heart starting to pound.

"The safest place to be is right next to the one pulling the strings." Cassiopeia speaks quietly. The tone she's using is one I've never heard so I take note, whatever she's telling me is profound and I'd better pay attention. I feel as though she's divulging the secrets to life; well, the secrets to our kind of life at least. "Be the very best at everything you do. The very best, Julia. Stand out from your peers. Rise. Give them more reasons to keep you than to get rid of you. Make their every success, dependent on yours. Become indispensible."

"How is that going to change my fate?"

"Because when you're indispensible…they'll make exceptions for you. And those exceptions are power."

"You keep saying they always make exceptions for me. That I've always been the exception." I ponder what she's telling me, trying to connect that past, present and what that could mean for my future.

"They do." She answers quietly and shifts to get more comfortable in the bed. "And those exceptions make you more powerful than you realize."

"But why do they make exceptions for me now. When I haven't earned them as you say I need to?"

"Because you are the epitome of his life's work."

"But what does that mean?" I ask growing frustrated that we've come back to my original question about that statement and I feel no closer to the answer.

"It means you need to do as I say, Julia." Her tone is back to that of the woman I know. "And be exceptional in everything you do. Listen to me. Learn from me. That's all you need to worry about right now. Let me worry about the rest."

"Lady Marie said I'm not your responsibility anymore." I remind her of what Marie told her that night in her home in England. That Cassiopeia had trained me well and I was no longer any of her concern.

"You'll always be my responsibility. I am your General." She answers without missing a beat. "And you're not just the epitome of his life's work, you're the epitome of mine. If you fail, it means I've failed to teach you properly."

I'm reminded once more, that as her protégé my success and failures reflect back directly upon her as my mentor. As if I weren't already feeling immense pressure to do well, this conversation is only adding to that pressure to always perform above and beyond my peers.

"I see." I reply quietly before coughing deeply, rolling over to face away from her thinking about all that she's said but feeling my eyes growing more tired fighting off this fever. "Thank you for helping me to finish the book, General." I add realizing I have yet to thank her for that. "I'll finish the report tomorrow."

"Make sure you get an A on it."

"Yes, ma'am." I smile with my eyes closed. This kind of response would have annoyed me before, her demanding excellence of me. But now I see it for what it really is. She can't accept thanks or praise for something she doesn't want to admit she's helped me with. I feel her roll over so that she's now looking at my back and within minutes, I hear her breath even out and realize she's fallen asleep.

Carefully, I roll over to look at her without waking her. I study her sleeping face up close. It's the first time in my life I've ever seen this woman sleeping. She looks so peaceful, calm, serene even and much less frightening and formidable with her hand tucked up beneath her cheek. I do the same, tucking my own hand beneath my cheek as I look at her and smile coming to another realization. For the first time, Cassiopeia is comfortable enough to fall asleep in my presence. And not just a light sleep, she is sound asleep. Sleeping deeply and unafraid, a rarity amongst spies. It's another reminder of just how much she actually trusts me. An incredible honor that I know few hold with her. It wouldn't mean much to anyone outside our jaded world. But the significance isn't lost on me.

And you're not just the epitome of his life's work; you're the epitome of mine. If you fail, it means I've failed to teach you properly…

Her words run through my mind looking at Cassiopeia as I drift off to sleep. I hope I don't disappoint her.

When I come to sometime later, my senses pick up several things before I manage to get my eyes open. I'm warm, almost hot now beneath these blankets and my nose picks up the fresh scent of newly burning pine just before I hear the tell tale crackling and pops coming from the direction of the fireplace. Someone has put new logs on our dying fire; though it's not who I was expecting when I finally open my eyes to see Cassiopeia is still sound asleep beside me.

My head turns instantly and gaze lands on Maria sitting in the chair at the end of our bed. A book is closed in her hands as though she intended to read it while waiting for us to awaken. But I know just by looking at her now, she hasn't even opened it. She's been lost in thought looking at the pair of us and watching us sleep. Maria smiles warmly at me and glances towards Cassiopeia. My mentor must have been incredibly exhausted to sleep this long and not awaken upon Maria entering the room or adding logs to the fire. Then again, Maria is quite the stealthy spy and the thought makes me smile that Cassiopeia may have finally met her match in her mother. Our mother. The thought is still jarring.

My stomach growls and I realize it's been quite a long time since I actually ate something. Not since yesterday at lunch time and looking out the window now, seeing how dark it is, I'd guess it's seven or eight o'clock in the evening already. Cassiopeia and I have slept the afternoon away completely. Maria stands quietly and beckons me forth with her finger to follow her out of the room. She's heard my stomach growling in hunger and I can tell she means to remedy that.

Using a stealthy maneuver of my own, I slide out from beneath the sheets and out of bed without waking Cassiopeia, to my surprise. I hesitate with eyes locked onto her for just a moment to make sure she's really still sleeping and then tiptoe away on silent feet towards the door Maria has already exited. Without a word, we close it behind us and make our way in silence down the hallway.

"I can't believe she didn't wake up through all of that." I finally speak in a quiet whisper as we hit the top of the stairs. "Cassiopeia has the most honed in senses of anyone I've ever met and the hearing of a bat." I smile softly at Maria, "Which says a great deal about your own skills that you were able to slip back into the room so quietly she didn't notice your presence, ma'am."

Her brief smile to my comment disappears immediately upon hearing the ma'am I've included at the end. Her eyebrows narrow instead. "Julia, no more ma'am."

"I'm sorry, ma'am." I say again and she stops walking abruptly and so do I. "I'm sorry. Please don't take offense. I'm not trying to purposefully disobey your wishes its just…" I try to figure out a way to explain this. "Cassiopeia is my General and her wish is my command. I don't want you to get hurt and," I find myself fidgeting nervously under those same piercing blue eyes glaring at me now in the older version of Cassiopeia's face in Maria, "Cassiopeia's right in her reasons for wanting us to maintain this boundary with you. Whenever our time with Lady Marie is over, we must report back to him and his orders were to stay away from you." I add quietly and swallow the lump in my throat.

"Julia, I've been a spy for a very long time and a very good one. I just didn't think I needed to be a spy where my husband was concerned. I've learned that lesson. You let me worry about him." She speaks with a very serious look on her face and in her tone. It sounds a great deal like Cassiopeia when she's delivering an order to me. "Is that understood?"

"Yes, ma'am." I answer on pure instinct hearing that voice coming from that face so similar and gulp with wide-eyes realizing I've just said it again. "I'm sorry. It's just…Your face and that voice saying, is that understood? My instinct is to respond immediately with 'yes, ma'am.' Anytime she says that." I try to explain as we continue walking towards the kitchen.

"And does she say that often?" Maria asks curiously, trying to learn more about Cassiopeia and our mysterious relationship knowing she won't be getting much information out of her eldest daughter.

"Not as much as she used to." I admit. "I listen much better the first time these days." When we walk into the kitchen the delicious aroma of fresh, home-cooked Chicken Noodle Soup invades me senses and I can't help but smile. The smell is unmistakable. Sitting on the massive range is a giant copper pot simmering on low heat just waiting for us. My stomach growls again and Maria smiles with a soft laugh. The first I've seen from her since yesterday morning before her life imploded.

"You must be very hungry." She smiles reaching for a bowl and the soup ladle.

"I am." I don't bother denying it. Taking a seat at the little kitchen table, I notice that the house is unusually silent. The staff are no where in sight. She must have given them all the day off. "It smells incredible." I smile watching her dish up a bowl for me and also one for herself. "Thank you."

"It is my recipe but I cannot take the credit. Anni made it this morning and brought it over with her." Her smile falls slightly as she walks towards the table and sets the bowl in front of me. Taking the seat at the end for herself. "She assumed her father was upstairs sleeping given his reasoning for cancelling her birthday dinner last night was he had the flu." It still weird's me out to hear Maria speaking about Ulric. Especially to hear his doting daughter, Annika, had loved him so much she had made him this soup.

"Did you tell her about us?" I ask cautiously dabbing with my spoon nervously at the chunk of celery in my bowl. "About Cassiopeia and I?"

"No." She shakes her head softly. "Not yet. I need time to process all of this before I try to explain to her something I still don't understand myself."

I nod feeling badly for my part in ruining her life unknowingly. "I don't understand any of this either." I shake my head softly, "And I really don't like not knowing what it means exactly that I'm the epitome of his life's work." I repeat what Marie said and the thing I'm now constantly pondering.

"And Casey won't tell you?" She asks cautiously in between bites of soup.

"I asked but she is forbidden from speaking about it." I sigh quietly.

"Of course she is." Maria inhales in a measured breath trying to stifle her anger. "And she's not willing to do anything to help you?"

"No." I answer and see her brows knit in anger immediately and I realize she's mistaken what I've said. "I mean no, she can't tell me. But yes, she is helping. Cassiopeia said everything she's ever taught me over the years is to help prepare me for what is to come and as long as I keep listening to her, learning from her, she will handle the rest. I trust her to keep me alive. If I don't trust anything else in this crazy world of ours, I trust that." I know I shouldn't be divulging this kind of information but I doubt very much that Maria would use it against us in anyway given what little I know of this woman. The vibes I get from her are fiercely protective of us and I know she just wants to know more about the children she has who've been stripped away.

"She certainly seems protective of you. Last night during dinner and again with your wounds and insisting upon sharing a room." She pauses reflectively and then looks me in the eye, "And this morning, arguing with Marie over your safety in all of this." It was a bold and brave thing for Cassiopeia to do and we both know what significance that was for her to stand up to her superior in such an outspoken way.

"As she told me this afternoon, I'm also the epitome of her life's work. If anything happens to me, she has failed and if there is one thing I know with absolute certainty about Cassiopeia, it's that she can't stand to fail. I am her responsibility. My failures reflect poorly on her as my teacher, mentor and General."

"I see." She stirs her soup thoughtfully. "So she is your General, and nothing more?"

"That is the way Cassiopeia wishes it to be and I will respect that boundary."

"Are you certain? Because you looked like sisters sleeping in the bed upstairs." She smiles softly at me, pushing the boundaries once more. "A great deal like what Lena and I would do or have done in the past as sisters."

My heart sinks into my stomach as it does flip flops inside of me over her observations. I've always wanted a sister. That wish is so close, and yet it is denied.

"Cassiopeia has her reasons." I forge ahead in thinking about our conversation last night and the way she wants it to be. "She made it very clear, that I am nothing more than her responsibility and she is my General."

After several long minutes in silence, she finally speaks again having reigned in her emotions and tears. "I realize that I've been the one asking all the questions of late. Is there anything you'd like to ask me about?" She smiles at me softly, folding her hands in front of her on the table and pushing her now empty bowl away. "Marie gave you permission to speak freely so please, ask anything and I'll answer the best I can."

"I don't know what to ask, honestly." I knit my brows thinking of things I want to know and realizing I haven't thought about asking her. I push my bowl away as well and sit back in my chair carefully in thought. The first question that comes to mind is, "Where is Lady Marie, if I may ask that?"

"She went back with Anni over to my sister, Lena's, to spend the night and associate with everyone else. I asked her quietly to give me some time alone with the both of you," She nods her head up towards the ceiling indicating Cassiopeia still sleeping upstairs, "And Marie obliged. She will be back in the morning after breakfast if there is anything you'd like to ask her. I know there is plenty I want to ask her."

When I start coughing again, she looks concerned and reaches out instantly to feel my forehead. "You don't feel too feverish but I'm going to make you some Spruce Tea. It will help with your chest congestion." Without another word she's taken our bowls to the sink and has started the kettle on the stove. I watch her closely, curious about this woman I now know is my biological mother, a former spy, and married to the Monster. So much I want to ask. So much I want to learn. I literally don't know where to start. She removes a small sachet from a metal tin in the cupboard and to my astonishment, real spruce needles she's taken from another metal tin. She seems to read my mind and turns around smiling at me while tying the sachet. "The essential oils in spruce needles help clear the lungs."

"You're just full of all kinds of wonderful knowledge." I smile back earning a larger one from her. "First the Russian captain and his vodka, the sugar packing and now this. Where do you learn all of this?"

"Those I learned from the KGB, mostly. I was primarily assigned to them. But this," She holds up the tiny sachet filled with spruce needles and smiles, "I learned from my mother, Nora."

"I've heard Mikael speak fondly of her when he was younger." I regret bringing up his name the moment it leaves my lips seeing the look of hurt flash through her eyes. The last thing he said to her flashes through both of our minds. "I'm sorry." I've ruined a happy moment with his name.

"Don't apologize. You've done nothing wrong." She brushes it off immediately. "I'm sure you realize what he called me and what that means?"

"I didn't at the time," I swallow the lump in my throat embarrassed for not knowing immediately then. "I do now. Cassiopeia told me last night when I asked her."

"Tyskerunger," She says quietly under her breath and turns away towards the counter placing the sachet into a teacup. "No one has called me that since I was a child." I can hear the emotion she's trying to hold back in her voice but then shakes her head and chuckles softly to my surprise. "I punched them in the face and they stopped calling me names after that."

"I don't know what got into him. I've never seen him that unhinged before in all my life." I feel tears pricking my eyes. "He's always been mean to her, but never this cruel. And what he said to you…" I shake my head and she turns around to look at me. "I'm so sorry."

"Why are you apologizing for him?" Her eyebrows narrow at me.

"I love him and he hurt you… and I feel responsible. That I didn't do more or say more last night to stop his tirade."

"You are no more responsible for his cruelty than I am of my husband's." She looks intently at me. "Never apologize for his weakness, Julia. His faults are his own. Just as Ulric's are. My fault was letting love blind me to the man I am really married to. Let this be a lesson to you. Never let your love for someone, blind you to the truth about them. Looking back now, there were signs. Red flags on occasion with Ulric that made me question things. Heightening my sixth sense that something was wrong. But I brushed them off repeatedly, believing that it was my own issue given my past. That I was too suspicious having been a spy all my life and I was seeing things that weren't really there. Never under estimate that gut instinct, Julia. Trust it with everything inside of you." She says passionately with her hands balling into fists, clearly upset with herself for not doing so. The teakettle whistles and her fists release. She pours the hot water over the sachet and walks slowly towards me placing it in front of me at the table with a small smile. "This will help you to feel better." She sits down and reaches for the small jar of honey on the table at its center. "And this will make it taste better." She slides it over towards me. "When I was little, I told my mother this tea tasted like drinking a Christmas tree if there were no honey in it." She laughs softly. "She was a good mother. So loving and caring. Very hands on with her children, which was practically unheard of in those days given her status as a Noblewoman. She never liked the idea of nurses and nannies carrying for her children. I loved her very much." Her smile is warm and genuine. "She never treated me any differently than Lena, even though I was not her biological child. She was the only mother I'd ever known."

"She sounds lovely."

"I have no idea what my birth mother's name was. Only that she was 15 years old when she gave birth to me and I was taken by the Nazi's immediately after. I tried to find any records of her when I was younger and working as a spy but there were none. I was told they were destroyed in a fire the year before due to an electrical problem in the building housing them. But I knew better. Someone had destroyed them. Someone didn't want me to find out who my parents were." She stands again heading back towards the counter and retrieves another teacup for herself. "The only one who knew I was looking for my birth parents back then was Ulric. He was the only one I trusted with such secrets of my heart. Given what I know about him now, it would appear he likely had a hand in those records being destroyed. For what reason, I do not know, but it seems he keeps a great many secrets about genetics and true parentage." Maria pours the still boiling water over her own tea sachet. "I would have like to at least known my birth mother's name."

When she steps to the right to retrieve a spoon, my breath catches. Cassiopeia is awake and standing silently in the doorway next to the servant's stairway. I have no idea how long she's been standing there and gulp under her gaze.

"General." I greet her instantly and stand on instinct. My eyes flash to Maria's when she turns at my announcement and sees Cassiopeia for the first time.

"Casey." Maria smiles warmly at her. "I was just making Julia some tea for her cough. We've already eaten but I know you must be famished. Please," She gestures towards the empty seats at the small table, "Join us and let me dish you up some of the soup."

"No thank you, ma'am. That isn't necessary." Cassiopeia staunchly refuses, remaining where she stands.

"Don't be so stubborn. It is necessary. You must eat and I know you haven't for at least the last 24 hours." Maria argues back nodding in my direction, "If you want her to learn from your example, then be a good one. You need to eat, even if you don't like the host. So sit! And eat!" She lectures her effectively as any mother would do and my eyes widen looking between the two. They're having a silent stare off and I decide the best course of action is to look away.

Instead, I focus on my own cup of tea and removing the little sachet of spruce needles. The honey on the table becomes intimately fascinating as the minutes literally tick by with neither of them moving or saying anything.

Finally, Maria turns and reaches into the cupboard for a new bowl. She fills it with the steaming soup and walks it over to the table, setting it down directly across from me at the empty place setting. "Sit." She orders Cassiopeia again and then walks away. Retrieving her own cup of Chamomile tea and resumes her seat once more.

I take a large drink of my tea trying to ignore the showdown happening before me and start coughing like mad when I inhale the fumes. Maria whacks me on the back several times until I can catch my breath.

"Small sips, my dear. Don't drink it." She scolds me too and then smiles. "You Americans." She shakes her head laughing. "Casey, your soup is getting cold." Maria announces again without looking at her. "Please, just sit and eat." Her eyes flash up to meet the fiery identical blue ones looking back at her across the room.

Cassiopeia is a master at hiding how she feels but I'm realizing there is one person in this world who causes those walls around her to tremble and let her emotions shine through, no matter how hard she tries to hide them. Either she's faltering or I'm getting better at reading her. Likely the latter given the last few conversations I've had with Cassiopeia lying in that bed upstairs. Her mother makes her very nervous, anxious and dare I say, even a little scared. I can see and feel it coming in waves off of Cassiopeia and I get the impression that Maria has suddenly felt it too. Her tone changes considerably from that of a challenging tease to understanding and almost sad with the realization of how uneasy Cassiopeia feels in her presence. "Would you feel more comfortable if I left the room?" She offers and Cassiopeia doesn't answer. "I'll go." Maria decides on her own after a moment, removing the decision from Cassiopeia. "You enjoy your dinner."

As soon as Maria stands, Cassiopeia is moving towards us. "You don't have to leave, ma'am. This is your home." She announces and takes her seat at the table. Her eyes flash to mine and I know she's concerned about me seeing her falter in maintaining the façade she's trying to hard to keep. This has always been one of her most important lessons to me after all. Never let your emotions get the best of you and reveal anything about yourself in the presence of others.

Mission Before Self is our motto as an EHW. I know she sees all this as a mission; one that she's struggling greatly with in the presence of our mother, and with me to bare witness to.

I pretend I hadn't noticed her momentarily frozen in fear and continue to sip my tea. It does taste like I'm drinking Christmas tree water and the thought makes me smile at Maria.

"Thank you for the tea, ma'am." I switch back to protocol now that my General is here and I can see both the hurt and understanding flash before Maria's eyes. "And you're right. It does taste like I'm drinking Christmas trees." I add quietly and she smiles again.

Cassiopeia has finally started to eat her soup. Maria and I do our best to ignore her so we don't put it undo stress on her while she settles in and we let her eat in peace.

We share idle chitchat about the paper I'm working on, Tolstoy's War & Peace, and what my plans are going to be after I graduate in the Spring while Cassiopeia eats her dinner in silence just listening to us. When she's nearly finished Maria leaves her seat again and returns from the fridge with a glass of fresh pineapple juice and sets it in front of Cassiopeia. They share a look and a silent conversation before Maria takes her seat again. I don't understand and my curiosity gets the best of me.

"What is that for?" I ask them both, hoping one will answer me. It seems a bit odd to be drinking pineapple juice after Chicken Soup and yet I know after seeing the look pass between them, and the fact Maria had it waiting in the fridge, means that there is more to this than I am seeing.

"It helps with bruising." Maria answers me, shifting her gaze from Cassiopeia towards me and then back again. A brief flash of seeing Cassiopeia's battered back and torso flashes before my mind and I understand now. I remember Jupiter talking about this in that class long ago as well, but like the sugar packing, I wasn't really paying attention. Pineapple contains Bromalein and Bromalein breaks down bruises and speeds recovery time.

To her credit, Maria doesn't dwell on the why Cassiopeia needs the pineapple juice and moves quickly on so as not to make Cassiopeia feel uncomfortable again.

"Casey, I asked Julia if there was anything she'd like to ask me. I'll ask you the same. Though, I get the impression you already know everything there is to know about me. Even more than me, it would seem." She smiles softly at her. "So is there anything you don't know about me, that you'd like to ask?"

"No, ma'am." Cassiopeia answers her quietly, trying to maintain the boundary and averts her eyes to hold mine instead. I can see she's trying to figure out if I've crossed that line she wants me to maintain with Maria and asked her questions when given the same offer.

"Okay then." Maria folds her hands nervously on the table, accepting that Cassiopeia isn't budging on this. "There are so many questions and things I want to ask of the both of you, but I'll leave those questions for another time, perhaps."

Cassiopeia looks instantly relieved to hear that Maria won't be questioning her anymore on things she cannot answer or betray Ulric's command.

"There is something, however, I want to tell the both of you." Maria begins quietly. "First, I want to say that I am so sorry for not knowing any of this was happening to both of you. If I could go back in time and change things, or spare either of you from any of what you've had to endure, I would. I should have done better. I should have figured it out. I'm truly sorry. I know they cannot take away what has happened in the past, but I hope what I'm about to tell you both will help change your futures. Very few people on this planet know what I'm about to share with you."

My heart starts to pound a little and gazing over the table at Cassiopeia and I get the impression hers' is too.

"Marie was correct last night when she said that knowledge is power. I've kept Ulric's most safely guarded secret for the past 35 years. Something, I don't believe he'd even share with you, Casey," Maria looks at her intently, "because it would challenge his authority in your eyes. Maybe I'm wrong about that and you do know. Are you aware that like me, Ulric was also adopted?"

"Yes, ma'am." Cassiopeia replies un-phased, though I am completely stunned. I didn't know this information and I sit forward a little feeling my heart really start racing that more family secrets are spilling out.

"Did he tell you that?"

"No, ma'am."

"So you went looking on your own?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Do you know who his birth parents are? Who and what he really is?"

"I couldn't find anything out about him. His records were destroyed." Cassiopeia admits and once more, I'm stunned. This woman can find anything on anyone.

"Yes, and Ulric is the one that destroyed them. Only the Sentinels and those with the upmost security clearance know who he really is."

"Why?" I ask quietly, afraid of this answer.

"Because he wants everyone to believe he earned his current position when in reality it was given to him."

"By whom?" Cassiopeia looks decidedly uncomfortable hearing this.

"His biological mother." Maria looks at us both. "Lady Marie."

"I'm sorry, what?" I rub my eyes and ask in disbelief. Cassiopeia looks ashen and I think she's stopped breathing staring at Maria. "I thought she was just Mikael's grandmother? That his father was her only son and heir?" I ask confused.

"She is Mikael's grandmother. Her second son, Mikael, or Mika, as we all called him, was married to my sister Lena. Her only legitimate son. Ulric was her first born but he was taken from her at the age of two after Mikael was born and placed with the Hendrix family."

"Why?" Cassiopeia asks instantly, and it's obvious she didn't know anything about any of this before this moment and it unnerves her greatly.

"Because he was a bastard in the eyes of her handlers and an unworthy heir to the Romanov Empire. Mikael was more suitable as the child born in wedlock to an acceptable bloodline via his father, Max."

"Who is Ulric's father? Why was he declared a bastard?"

"In 1927, Marie was fleeing Russia in a boxcar on a train filled with other refugees trying to escape Stalin's purge. Along the way she was brutally gang raped. Ulric is the product of rape. We both were." She adds quietly, thinking of her own creation.

"Oh my God," I gasp in disbelief and horror at what Lady Marie must have endured. First surviving her family's massacre, then to be brutally gang raped, have a child by that and then have that same child ripped away from you years later because someone decided they were unworthy of your bloodline. It was unfathomable.

"He's never forgiven her; for them taking him away as a child and denouncing him as her heir. He's always blamed Marie, even though it was out of her control. And Marie has always felt guilty for what happened. Which is why she's let him get away with so much it seems over the years as a way to try and make it up to him. Ensuring he was placed in positions of power and given great responsibilities within The Council and in the family to make up for not being the declared heir, such as allowing him to raise Mikael as his son and heir after his father died."

Their constant power struggle Cassiopeia was telling me about earlier is finally explained. I'd assumed it was because Ulric was raising his nephew, Mikael, and her only male heir and they differed on how best to do that. This information made everything suddenly make sense. Except one thing...

"If she is his mother and trying to make it up to him all these years as you said, then why did she out him last night? Expose the secrets he was keeping in us, to you?"

"Because I think Ulric finally crossed a line with her that even she couldn't overlook anymore when he had you tortured, Casey." Her eyes glance softly at Cassiopeia and I can see she feels guilty for even bringing it up. "Ultimately, to Marie, you are her grandchild; her flesh and blood and she does not see you in the same distant manner that apparently Ulric does. She said so herself this morning that she understood his methods but he'd crossed the line when it came to torturing her own family. Outing the both of you was her way of taking his power over you away. Another layer of protection for you. He can no longer simply do with you as he wishes now that I know the truth. Not without grave consequence."

"And what happens if she finds out you told us this information?" Cassiopeia asks with obvious concern in her eyes. I can feel her heart beating in fear that this is exactly what she was most afraid of. That if Maria stood in the way of his intentions for us, she would end up getting hurt.

"Nothing. I think she knew I was going to tell you in response to all of this. I think that was part of her plan. Marie is quite clever and very calculated. She knew exactly what she was doing last night. I used to believe that she was the enemy, and Ulric was the one unfairly persecuted constantly by her. Now I'm starting to see it was likely the other way around. I think she's realized she cannot change who he's become, but she won't allow him to destroy another generation of her family with his agenda. She holds family in too high of regard to let him continue on this way with her grandchildren."

"Mikael must know." I ponder out loud given this new information. "That's the only explanation I can come up with now for why he went completely beserk when Lady Marie gave Cassiopeia the book. He was going on and on about keeping it in their family."

"Yes, I agree with you. It makes sense now in hindsight. He lashed out in fear that Marie was making such a formal announcement of acceptance by passing on that heirloom to Casey, claiming her as her grandchild to Ulric." Maria glances from me over to Cassiopeia. "And not just any grandchild, her eldest grandchild meaning, if Ulric had been declared her rightful heir as her oldest and firstborn child, Casey, you would the be Romanov heir as Ulric's firstborn, not Mikael as the child of the second son." Maria's eyes shift to mine, "You said Mikael is always mean to Casey." She reveals what I've told her and Cassiopeia's flash with fire right after to hear her say that and upset I've told her as much. "It's most likely because he feels incredibly threatened by her in several ways: as Ulric's real child; as his Right Hand, and General; and because he knows the truth that Casey is also Marie's grandchild, just the same as he is. And because he knows, that had the Guardians of the bloodline not refused to accept Ulric as Marie's heir, Casey would be the first in line to inherit the Romanov Empire, not Mikael."

"But Ulric is not the heir, nor am I." Cassiopeia insists immediately, "I belong to The Council. Mikael has nothing to worry about."

"But he does." Maria counters with a slight smile. "You may not be the heir, Casey, but Marie has claimed you as her grandchild. Her blood. She will no longer allow Ulric or Mikael in the future to simply do as they please where you are concerned. That is why I'm telling you this information, hoping it will help to change your futures. Ultimately, because you are her bloodline and she is the Head of the Romanov Family, she has the final say in many regards to your wellbeing, Casey. Even over Ulric. That is why she kept reminding him during dinner that she was still his superior."

"But what about Julia?" Cassiopeia counters back with narrowing eyebrows and look of deep concern. "She is not of Romanov blood and Marie has no say over what happens to her."

"No. She doesn't. But I do."