The Noble Queen-A Shadow Slave Fanfic

Noble nearly collapsed against the gateway. It was good that she didn't need her legs to stand because her knees were shaking.

'That was too close.'

As she took slow, deep breaths, Noble tried to calm herself.

'What just happened?'

Miraculously, she had been questioned about an investigation and remained unscathed.

Being caught by Saint Kai would have landed her in more trouble than she wanted to think about.

Yet, think about it, she did.

If she had admitted to knowing Sunny, the government would have demanded to meet him. The mysterious Saint would have been forced to flee or be discovered, leaving Rain alone, possibly forever.

'Rain might never forgive me for chasing off her guardian. And if she realizes he is telling the truth about being her brother? I doubt she would ever want to speak to me again.'

Not that Noble would be around to know.

'If the government found out, the Great Clans would not be far behind. If they couldn't hunt the author, then they would hunt the only link to the author–me!'

There were very few places in the Dream Realm outside of the Sovereign's reach, and none of them were places that her family could go.

It felt dramatic to believe that one single question could have undone her life so easily, but Noble had to admit that she had brushed too close with disaster.

'Much too close. Thankfully it didn't come to that.'

When the moment of truth came, Noble did the only thing she could–lie.

Or rather, she avoided the truth. Lying outright would have been discovered by the handsome archer who could detect falsehoods.

So, Noble had answered the question which she wished they had asked instead.

Which theory about Nobody do you like the best?

Hearing Teddy blame Nic was amusing. The young woman wasn't wrong. The Librarian would enter a seed unnoticed if given the opportunity. And technically Nic had helped Noble with one of her articles anonymously without taking any credit.

The pieces of the puzzle almost fit.

Yes, the professor liked this theory very much!

In this context, Noble's words had been truthful, if a bit misleading.

But there had been more than just words with her deception. When answering, she had sent the Saint and soldier a sense of calm and goodwill.

Kai couldn't sense emotions like Noble could, and the foreign influence was accepted by both parties without any resistance.

If the Saint had guessed her deception, he didn't show it. And he didn't press the matter. If anything, his eyes clouded over as if he remembered something only to forget it again. The distraction had been enough to put Kai off of her scent.

For that, Noble was grateful.

If either of the men had repeated the question and forced her to answer, things would have ended very differently.

Whileshe was still recovering, an Awakened appeared next to her by the gateway: another citizen of Ravenheart returning from the Waking World. And Noble could already see the question on his lips.

"Quite a day in the Waking World....did you hear about..."

But Noble didn't wait to chat. She hurried down the steps and toward the icy bridge. The professor didn't stop or talk to anyone until she was safely inside her home.

She pressed her face against the doorframe.

'Safe.'

A small part of her had expected soldiers to be waiting for her. That Kai had only let her go to see if she would lead them back to the mysterious author of the groundbreaking report.

In a way she had. From what Noble could feel, Rain was still upstairs, hopefully resting and recovering.

If that were the case, the man who usually lived in her shadow was outside somewhere. But Noble had no intention of talking to him any time soon.

Not until the heat was off… if that ever happened.

Surely things would die down soon. They had to.

She just needed to keep her cool until then.

'Typical me… always finding trouble,' Noble berated herself silently.

Why hadn't she ignored the package yesterday morning and come back inside?

Or once she had opened it, she could have refused the mission that she had never asked for.

She had many chances to put down the mantle of responsibility and walk away.

But deep down even knowing the current danger, Noble knew she would have made the same decision.

'I'm not sorry. It is the Great Clans who should be sorry for holding back information that should be shared. Nothing in it was spoken against them or any of their members. It was just an informational brief!'

When looked at from that perspective, Noble felt a burning in her chest. The clans were very powerful, but they didn't always have humanity's best interests at heart.

This time they were wrong.

That didn't mean that Noble would brazenly tell them so. She would keep her mouth shut on the matter at all costs!

But she also shouldn't feel any shame for letting the world know more about the Tomb of Ariel. Her conscience on that matter was clear. Noble sighed.

'A few days in the Dream Realm will do me good. Here there is no technology, and news is only sent by word of mouth and the bulletin boards by the community wells.'

She craved time with her family where the only wild theories she would hear would be the twins' guesses about what creature the monster meat at the market might have come from.

That was a line of inquiry Noble was more than happy to participate in. 

A patter of feet on the stairs let Noble know that her presence had been noticed. 

Pushing off of the door, she plastered a smile on her face. It was now the weekend and she was home! 

"Hello, Mom! We have been very good today. We took care of Rain just like you said. Any complaints she may or may not have are purely her concussion talking." Brock explained preemptively. 

"I see," Noble eyed him carefully before offering the teen who was almost taller than her a hug. "Where's your brother?" 

"Right here Mom! Did you know that you're home fifty-seven minutes early?" Blaze exclaimed as he bounded down the final step.

"That's an oddly specific amount of time," Noble looked at her youngest, confused by his assertion. "How did you know that?" 

Moving to Ravenheart had warped all of their senses of time. Now instead of marking hours and seconds by the bright numbers on their communicators, they used the sounding of horns through the upper town to mark their daily routines. 

"Simple. Look!" Blaze pointed with a grin. 

Following the boy's finger, Noble looked at the wall and her eyes grew wide. 

She leaned closer for a better look at the strange anomaly that had not been there that morning.

On the wall was a fully functioning clock! 

"Where did this come from?" Noble touched the wood, unwilling to believe her own eyes. 

"It was a gift," Brock answered before his brother could, earning a dirty look from the younger twin. 

Noble frowned. This was the second item that had appeared around her home in two days. The last one had nearly gotten her in deep trouble with the great clans. 

Unaware of his mother's concern, Blaze eagerly hurried to show off their new accessory. He took hold of the large pinecone shape hanging from the bottom.

"If you think that is neat, wait until you see what happens when I do this!"