Fiona waved this away warmly. Then her expression shifted into something more curious, leaning slightly forward over her bump.
"Tell me something. Since taking the blood during the ritual, have you noticed anything different?" Her eyes held Roxanne's steadily. "Have your powers begun to surface?"
"I am curious about it myself," Roxanne said, turning her porridge spoon slowly. "I have noticed a few changes here and there but whether I can actually manifest anything deliberately, I honestly cannot say."
"Then the king will come to you at dawn," Fiona said with quiet certainty. "He will examine you himself and we will find out together."
Roxanne smiled and said nothing further.
Back in her chambers Roxanne dropped onto the bed and stared at the ceiling.
What if Vangelis suspects something during the examination? If he searches for energy signatures or magical adaptations he may sense what does not belong.
She lay with that thought for a long moment.
Then she rose.
"Your Grace." The night guard straightened at her approach. "What brings you out at this hour?"
"I need a horse," Roxanne said simply.
"It will be ready shortly, Your Grace."
"Thank you."
She waited in the cool night air, the wind moving steadily against her skin, cold and unhurried. When the horse was brought she mounted it and rode out into the dark, following the path until the burnt remains of the fortress appeared ahead of her, its silhouette standing hollow and still against the night sky.
"How did you know I was here?" Cassius asked, stepping out from the shadow of the ruined wall.
"I do not have much time." Roxanne dropped from the horse before it had fully stopped, closing the distance between them in quick strides. "Vangelis is coming to examine me at dawn. Teach me what I can do with what you have given me. Now."
Cassius looked at her for a moment. Then he stepped forward and pressed his hand flat against her chest, directly over her heart.
"It lives here," he said. "You do not reach for it with your hands or your eyes. You feel it first. Then you let your mind follow."
Roxanne closed her eyes.
The night air moved around them, cold and steady. She turned her attention inward, past the noise of the day, past the exhaustion sitting heavy in her bones, searching for whatever it was that had taken up residence inside her since the ritual.
Then she felt it.
Faint at first. A warmth that had no business being in a body as cold as hers, sitting quietly behind her ribs like an ember that had been waiting to be found.
Her brow furrowed with concentration.
"I can feel something," she said quietly without opening her eyes.
"Do not chase it," Cassius said, his voice low and close. "Let it come to you."
"What do you see?" Cassius asked.
Roxanne kept her eyes closed, her brow slightly furrowed.
"People," she said slowly. "A great number of them. Coming to me. And they obey. Whatever I say, they simply do it without question." She paused. "And I see myself in many forms. As though I can become something different depending on what is needed."
Cassius said nothing for a moment. Then he turned and walked to where the horse stood waiting.
"Open your eyes."
She did.
"Look at the horse," he said. "Do not speak to it. Do not touch it. Simply decide what you want it to do and hold that image steady in your mind."
Roxanne looked at the horse. She let the instruction form clearly, not as a wish but as a certainty.
Run. Circle the fort. Come back.
The horse broke loose.
It bolted without warning, hooves striking the ground in a hard rhythm as it swept around the entire perimeter of the ruined fortress, fast and fluid, before curving back and returning to the exact spot it had left. It stilled as though nothing had happened.
Roxanne stared at it.
"Now look at me," Cassius said, his voice carrying the particular calm of someone about to prove a point. "Decide what position you want me in and hold it."
Roxanne looked at him directly.
Then her eyes changed.
The silver bled through slowly at first, then all at once, flooding her irises until they glowed with a cold and steady light in the dark of the ruined fortress, luminous and unblinking, like moonlight given a will of its own.
Raise your left arm.
His arm rose. Smooth and immediate, as though the thought had simply transferred from her mind to his body without resistance.
The silver in her eyes pulsed once.
Then his arm dropped and the glow extinguished.
Roxanne staggered backward, her hand flying to her head. The pain arrived sharp and sudden, pressing behind her eyes like something had been pulled too tight and snapped.
Cassius caught her by the arm before she could fall.
"The horse was simple," he said, steadying her. "Animals carry far less will power than we do. When you command a person you are not just directing a body. You are overriding a mind." He held her gaze. "To do that without breaking yourself you have to build your will power until it is stronger than theirs. That takes training."
Roxanne straightened, pressing her fingers against her temple.
"So I can control people," she said.
It was not quite a question.
Cassius looked at her for a long moment.
"You have unlocked Soul Command," he said. "It works through direct eye contact. The moment your silver eyes lock onto a target and your will commits, the hold begins." He paused. "Congratulations, Roxanne. You are no longer just dangerous. You are something else entirely."
Roxanne lowered her hand from her head.
Her eyes had returned to their usual colour but something in them had not quite settled back to what it was before.
The ruined fortress stood silent around them and somewhere beyond the dark horizon, dawn was already preparing to arrive.