Note: I'm really sorry it's been so long since I've updated this. I haven't forgotten, just had a couple extra busy weeks. A lot of (good) things have been happening in real life, and I haven't had much time to write. 

Also, just so you know, I think we should be getting close (ish) to the end of this story. Although every time I write a chapter it gets super long and I don't get as far with the story as I thought I would. Speaking of which, this one is pretty chill plot-wise, fyi. And with that, enjoy!

When she'd decided to come and speak directly to the royal family of the Northern Empire, Nya hadn't exactly expected that the first one she'd be speaking to would be six years old. But that afternoon, while Kai, Cole, Zane, and Jay unpacked, rested, and washed up (something they particularly needed to do), Nya, former thread-mage of the Serpent Kingdom, sweetheart of a wheelwright's son, and sixteen-year-old girl, had tea with Skylor, orphaned daughter of some kind of criminal and lady of the court, and Lloyd, her small friend, prince of the Empire.

The other two were already at the table when Nya arrived, as she had taken time to make a quick attempt to bathe.

"Your highness." She bowed to the prince, who giggled.

"You have funny hair." He told her when she straightened up.

"Manners, please." Skylor warned.

"I'm sorry." He did look apologetic.

"I know, it is funny." Nya agreed, sitting down and taking a sip of the tea that Skylor had already poured into the cups. "I have to wear it this way 'cause I'm the thread-mage–do you know what that means?"

He shook his head solemnly.

"It means I can tell people's futures–I think."

"Have you tried?"

"Of course. But . . . I'm not sure if it'll still work."

"Why?"

"Well, it's complicated–" Nya was regretting bringing this up. She didn't really want to explain to either of them how she wasn't sure if people outside of the Serpent Kingdom even had red threads, and if even if they did, what if she couldn't read them now that she'd left? Or now that she'd told people about her and Jay–

"You can try on me later." Skylor said, coming to her rescue.

Nya nodded. "Um, your highness, if you don't mind my asking, are your father and uncle at home?"

"Uncle will be gone for two more days. And father . . ." He shrugged. "He's been busy with his advisors." He pronounced the word slowly. "In the upper palace. So I don't know. Do you know, Sky?"

"I'll speak to him if I can." Skylor said. "But where's your uncle?"

"He's away, training his . . . his s-sam-"

"Samurai. You mean the girl?" Skylor asked, sounding annoyed. Suddenly Nya felt quite lost in the conversation.

"Yes. She came here a lot, after you left."

"Anyway." Skylor turned back to Nya. "I'll try to get an audience for you and your friends as soon as possible. The emperors are very busy, you must understand. They will make time as soon as they can, I'm sure."

Nya nodded. "Thank you."

---

"Who's 'the girl?'" Nya asked Skylor when they had finished the tea, sent Lloyd along to his mother, and were wandering around the palace.

"What?"

"Who the emperor is training. The prince was talking about her earlier."

Skylor wrinkled her nose. "Oh, her. I don't know, she's very secretive. But he's always with her, trains her all the time. Especially recently. Who knows where she came from–I've never seen any parents of hers. She's almost never here for more than a day or so, but she does have a room in . . . let's see, I think the southwest wing."

Suddenly, Skylor's eyes lit up. "Hey, I've got an idea. We can look for it. And maybe we can find something for you to wear in there."

"What?" Nya stared at her in confusion. "Why? And wouldn't that be stealing?"

"Well, no! We'd return it, obviously. It'd just be borrowing. You know, a favor from woman to woman."

"It wouldn't be a favor if you're 'borrowing' it without asking! And besides, I can wear this, it's perfectly fine." She looked down at her usual thread-mage's ensemble, which did look mostly fine–sure, it was a bit dusty from all the travel, but not that bad.

"She wouldn't care." Skylor insisted. "She spends so much time training, I doubt she's ever out of her armor. I bet she even sleeps in it, for goodness sakes. And I've had dinner arranged for us tonight in the great hall. It's where the royal family would traditionally eat, but they don't do that much anymore. You could wear that, of course, but kimono is a little . . . fancy. We mostly use it for, like, really formal dress. This is beautiful, of course . . ." She trailed her fingers over one wide sleeve of Nya's kimono. "Are these supposed to be, like stick figures?"

"They're people, I guess." Nya studied the embroidery on her arm. The figures were simple–two upside down triangles stacked to form a head and body, with lines for arms and legs.

"Well, don't get me wrong, it's very nice, but how long has it been since you've worn anything new and fun? And besides, we should have it cleaned before your audience with the emperors."

In the end, Nya decided to let her do it. She still didn't feel good about it, but Skylor made good points. And apparently the clothes of this girl, whoever she was, would fit Nya better than Skylor's own.

The southwest wing of the palace was quiet, somber, and still. The candles in the wall sconces weren't lit, and heavy wooden doors lined both sides of the hall.

"Let's see . . . which one is it?" Skylor ran her hand over the doors on the left side of the hall before stopping in front of the seventh one and opening it.

The room was small, with dark, ornate wood paneling on the floors and ceilings. A sliding door was in the wall opposite them. The bed was made perfectly, the wrinkleless white blanket creased to reveal its gold-trimmed underside. It looked as if it had not been used for a long time.

Skylor entered the room with no hesitation, and pushed aside a paper and bamboo dressing screen to reveal a wooden wardrobe in the corner. She undid the gold plated latch and opened the doors, then went back to the doorway for Nya.

"Are you sure about this . . ." Knowing that Skylor definitely was, Nya followed without further complaint.

"Of course!" Skylor was already looking through the wardrobe.

"Fine, but I'm only doing it so this,"–she gestured to her clothes–"Can be cleaned before I see the emperors."

"Mmmhmm." Skylor confirmed as she picked a few things from the wardrobe and held them up to Nya. "I will try to get you that audience soon. Have you thought about what you'll say?"

"No. I mean, yes, but I don't know. What if I'm not enough? They haven't fought back this whole time. How am I supposed to change that?"

"Just tell them how it is for people, there. Tell them what you really want them to know–don't sugarcoat it. And I know it doesn't seem like they've done anything, but I know they've been preparing. They must be. Maybe you'll be just what they need to push them to actually do it."

"Really?"

"Yep. Now try this on." Skylor held up a royal blue dress that looked as if it had never been worn. It had a short, empire waist bodice, a long skirt, and no sleeves at all, just thin little straps.

"Are you sure that's appropriate?" Nya couldn't help but ask.

Skylor nodded. "It's a dress. Why wouldn't it be?"

"It doesn't have sleeves."

"Oh." Skylor looked at the dress again. "It's kind of a common thing around here, especially during warmer weather. If you don't want to, though, I can find something else."

"No, I'll wear it." Nya mainly wanted to get out of there before anyone caught them. She went behind the dressing screen to change, and when she came out, Skylor did up the ties that held the back of the dress shut.

"That color looks good on you." Skylor said.

"Really?" It had been a long time since Nya had worn any color other than red, but she remembered, years ago, she used to wear blue. It had been her favorite color.

"Uh-huh. Now let's go." Skylor shut the wardrobe and they did their best to make sure everything was similar to how they'd found it. Then they set off back down the hall.

After a moment of silence, Nya finally asked Skylor what she had been wondering ever since this samurai girl had first been mentioned.

"So . . . why do you hate the girl so much?"

"I don't know . . . well, I do, I guess. I just–when she came, I was excited, kind of. I thought maybe we could talk. But she's no fun at all, from what I've seen. I never did talk to her. But she's so serious, it's like she was born without a sense of humor. But even so, the emperors love her. It's not like they're not kind to me, because they are–very kind. But it's different. She's a samurai, Emperor Wu's prodigy, and I'm just a lady of the court, and not even that, really. I don't know what they think of me as–a babysitter, an extra forgotten child, 'cause heaven knows one's not enough."

She sighed. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't say that. They are kind people, and very kind to us–to me and Lloyd. Well, mostly to him, naturally. He really isn't forgotten, but sometimes they're too busy to spend time with him, so then he goes to me. And I like having him. He needs me–his dad and uncle are so busy, and his mom is honestly a little crazy with all that science and history stuff she sucks up. But sometimes it's hard to stand it when your only friend is six years old. Sometimes I wish I had another friend. Or . . ."

A soulmate, Nya thought. So that's why she's telling me all this, because she wants me to find hers. Nya did want to, of course. She knew how Skylor felt, at least sort of. She remembered how wonderful it had been for her, suddenly having someone to visit her after all those years.

"So . . . you want . . ." Nya said, hoping maybe it was something else after all.

"To know my soulmate. I mean, if you could. Then at least maybe there'd be something in life that I can pursue on my own. Someone . . ."

"Well, I can try . . ." Nya desperately wanted to help her, but didn't want to get her hopes up. "I just don't know if my powers will work anymore. I left the kingdom. I fell in love. Those are like, exactly the things I'm not supposed to do. See, my whole thing is like, living alone in my house forever, the same house all the former mages lived in, withdrawing from society, being forsworn from love . . ."

"Oof." Skylor said. "But . . . you can try, right?"

Nya nodded. "Of course."

When they got to the great hall, the boys had already arrived, and stood around talking, waiting for them.

"Wow." Jay stared at Nya. "Where'd that come from?"

"See? He likes it." Skylor said before Nya could answer. Kai, surprisingly, didn't tell Jay off for the compliment.

They sat down at the single table across the room from them, which was already covered with several dishes of food. It was laid with three places on either side, and a red runner down the center. Jay was quick to sit beside Nya, and Cole sat on the other side of Jay, so Kai had to sit between Zane and Skylor on the other side of the table, although he didn't seem too unhappy about it. They were all in good spirits after being provided with new clothes and real beds, Nya assumed.

Although the steaming food looked amazing, Skylor picked up the teapot first, which Nya knew was proper. She poured it first in Nya's cup, then in Jay's, Cole's, Zane's, and her own. Finally she poured Kai's, and although she hadn't spilt a drop while filling the rest, she managed to pour hot tea on the back of his hand.

"Ow!" He wiped his hand on his pants. "What was that for?"

"Oh, I'm sorry." Her voice sounded genuine, but she looked away from him as she placed the teapot on the table, and Nya could still see that in her eyes, she was laughing. This girl was sure a troublemaker.

Skylor served the food next, in the same order. Nya noticed her perfect etiquette, except of course for the fact that she always served Kai last, when everyone knew a host should serve themselves last. But she figured her brother had been pretty annoying to Skylor, what with all his mistrusting interrogations.

The food was just as good as it had looked, and Nya forgot all about Skylor's strange serving tendencies and even her worries. After they ate, they sat around the stone fireplace that took up nearly half of one of the short walls of the room. Skylor took a few logs from the pile of wood on one side of the hearth, and stoked the fire, sitting back on her heels to adjust the logs and coals with the poker.

"So, people really care a lot about your powers, don't they?" She asked Nya.

"Yes."

"If you don't mind my asking, how does it work?"

"Well," She tried to think of the most underwhelming way to explain it. "I've always been able to see the red threads, but it took me years to learn to control them. In the Serpent Kingdom, most people only care about who their thread is tied to–not the story it tells."

"Why not? Don't they want you to tell their futures?"

Nya shrugged. "It's not really like that. It takes days, maybe weeks of work and meditation for me to really follow someone's thread. A lot of time spent with them. Otherwise it all just flashes by when I try to see who the thread's connected to."

"Have you ever done that? Like, figured out someone's whole future?"

Nya shook her head. "Not really. Mei Tao–my mentor–she did it a couple times, and told me about it. I practiced on her thread, but only going back, not forward. And my clients usually don't want to do it after they realize what a process it is either. But mostly . . . I don't want to, I guess. It scares me. I would hate to find out something horrible."

"So, is it like, a rite of passage for people to come to you and find out their soulmate?" Skylor asked.

"I guess."

"So all of you have done it, then?" She looked to the boys.

"No," Kai and Zane said.

"Yes," Jay said at the same time.

"Sort of." Cole said, also at the same time.

"Okay? Well, why haven't you? Especially you, she's your sister!" She said to Kai.

He suddenly looked uncomfortable (Nya wasn't sure why) and shrugged.

"Um, I don't know . . . I guess . . . I never, you know, really thought about romance back when I was younger. And we've both been busier as we've gotten older, of course."

Nya hadn't known that he thought about romance now, if that was even what he was implying. Maybe she was just tired. It was getting late.

She stood up and gave a small bow in Skylor's direction. "I think I should get some sleep, if you don't mind."

"Of course. Do you remember where your room is?"

"I think so."

"I'll walk you there." Jay said boldly. Nya held her breath, but Kai didn't say anything. In fact, he even seemed to be smiling a bit, although not at her. He was acting very odd recently.

"Alright." Skylor said.

"Good night," Nya said to them all.

"Good night!" Everyone answered.

Note (again): Sorry if that was kinda boring, but if you know me, you know I kind of have to have a Skylor-dedicated chapter at least once every book (at least every book that I manage to slip her into).