“If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself,” Silver said out of nowhere two days after her appearance. Which was, when Aura thought about it, also entirely out of nowhere.

“What are you on about?” Jordan asked, turning to stare at the girl in total bewilderment.

“This journey. Auretta’s claiming she’s heading for Taleria to help the real queen get back on the throne,” she shrugged. “But Queen Callista had no clue what she was doing. And the other Ethera… one’s apparently a former maidservant of the palace and the other has been missing for he past sixteen years!”

“You can’t be suggesting that I rule the kingdom?” Aura frowned.

Silver laughed, her eyes flashing for a moment. “Oh, no, I can absolutely be doing that.”

“I don’t have royal blood, idiot.”

For the next hour, it seemed to have shut the unwelcome addition up. The young girl went so silent Aura could almost forget she was even there.

“The way I see it, Corentin, you’re the oldest of the elemental incarnations. And since those incarnations are directly made from the powers the queen possessed, you count as royalty. Technically speaking, you could take the throne. Assuming Arcadia never returns, of course…”

Aura blocked out the rest of Silver’s speech, trying to work out what she was on about. Directly made from a person’s magic? Did that mean she’d been lied to again when she asked about her powers?

Her ‘parents’ had told her that it was simply something they’d heard, that Aura was destined to pull this kind of stunt one day. No mention of the other incarnations, or that she wasn’t really human at all…

“Wait, does that mean I have… like, sisters?”

Jordan shrugged, though she looked like she thought it was true. Silver didn’t make a move to reply.