The Conquest of Mytheyr
Chapter 44

Morgan woke up in a stone room. Heavy curtains were drawn over the lone window, leaving the room in an artificial twilight. Morgan was grateful for that, since she didn’t think she was up to facing the light of day yet. The bed she was in was huge, taking up most of the otherwise empty room. It smelled musty, as if it hadn’t been used in a long time. The door creaked open, and Raven slipped in, closing it behind her.

“Hey.” she said softly to the darkness. “Are you awake? Or at least pretending to be asleep?”

“I think I’m awake.” Morgan answered.

Raven sat gingerly on the edge of the bed, her eyes glinting in the darkness.

“What’s wrong?” Morgan asked. “You seem tired.” Raven chuckled gently.

“I’ve been acting as a mediator for five days. I’ve slept like, four hours in that time. I cannot get enough caffeine in my system. There’s a huge friggin power grab going on here, and every one and their grandmother has been pestering me about you.”

“Well that sounds terrible.” Morgan sighed, pushing herself up. She became dizzy as she sat up, and there was a general weakness in her limbs. “Meanwhile, I’ve selfishly been in a coma.” she joked lightly.

Raven managed a snort and flopped down, throwing her entire weight on the bed.

“Imma sleep now. You deal with these bastards.” she said.

“You know what, I’ll totally do that.” Morgan assured her. “But I need you to fill me in.”

“I was sorta joking.” Raven said.

“I know,” Morgan shrugged, “but I’m fine now. I should get up. Act like a functioning part of society.”

“Nobody in this society is functioning.” Raven scoffed bitterly. “Which somehow reminds me.” She reached up, making a slashing motion with her hand. A small rift opened above her, and a blue gray satchel fell onto her stomach. The rift closed, and she tossed the bag at Morgan. “You have got to learn how to work a sub-space pocket.” Raven scolded her. “This magic satchel shit doesn’t cut it anymore.”

Morgan dug through her satchel, making sure everything was still there, and sighing in relief.

“Defiantly.” she agreed. “Teach me, Sensei… when we get home.”

“I will.” Raven promised. “Sleepy time now…”

“Not yet!” Morgan protested. She wriggled out from under the sheets and sat on top of the bed. “Give me the quick notes version. Go.” Raven groaned in response.

“The king’s immediate heir is his brother. But apparently the brother runs a pretty big and important treetop city. The original plan was that the brother would take over as king, and his son would take over the city. But apparently the son was fighting in the battle so the father decided that the son deserved to be king. Well, that caused a big shitstorm, and that’s what everyone’s been debating about. I’ve seen the kid’s speeches though. I don’t think he’d be half bad.”

“Does he have a name?” Morgan asked, even though she knew Raven was kinda at the point where she was lucky she remembered her own name.

“Oh, sorry. He’s that Asa Grayleaf guy who was practically stalking you at camp, remember?”

“He was stalking me?”

“Well, a little bit.” Raven shrugged.

“Huh. He never told me he was the king’s nephew. Kinda explains a bit, though. He’s inexperienced, but he seems like good material.” Morgan said.

“Yeah. Good luck convincing everyone else that.”