She stutters for a second, then stares at me for another before shaking whatever thoughts just ran through her mind away. "Just hold these so I can put them on you."
I take the crown, collar, and earrings from her, staying as still as I possibly can so as not to drop them. She does the earrings first, then the armlets which take a careful balancing act of holding the crown and collar in one hand and then the other so she can do the other one. Then she takes the crown and we walk over to a chair that she motions for me to take in front of a larger mirror. I watch in the reflection as she carefully places it perfectly centered on my head. The weight of it is definitely heavier than the elemental one, but it's not uncomfortable. It doesn't seem like it's mine either.
I try not to think about it too much as she takes the front pieces of my hair and braids them back to cover the ends of the crown. She adds more silver leaf pins within the braids themselves and finishes off with an enthusiastic clap of her hands.
"I will never get tired of this."
She smiles widely at me, and despite the weight of the crown and my doubts, I give her a genuine one in return. I like the way I look. I like the way the dress hugs my figure but doesn't show the scars left from the torture. I like how my skin glows and my eyes glisten, and the way my hair looks shiny and refreshed even after a cycle's time of travel and killing demons. But most of all, I like the way I feel. I don't know if it was the dream or waking up or this whole process of getting ready to meet so many royals, but I feel good. I feel like...myself. Whoever that is now.
"You ready?" Kat asks, taking the livery collar from my hands,
She sets it on top of the draping chain holding my sleeves, easily covering it and allowing the crest to fall to the center of my chest. The finishing touch completes the look, and I suddenly feel like a true Queen. "I'm ready. Let's go meet more welcoming royals."
"Right, well...you're actually not meeting them for another few hours."
I turn around and face her. "What?"
"You have the debrief with everyone else first, remember? We wouldn't have had time to dress you later," she defends.
I did forget about the debrief. Everyone was too tired to do it last night, so we agreed to get more sleep and do it this morning before talking to the royals who are going to want to hear some reassurance. She's right though. We don't know how long this debrief is going to take. Better we got ready now than later.
I let out a long sigh and stretch my arms. "Fine. Let's go."
I head for the tent flaps when I remember something else and once again spin around to her. "Oh, I almost forgot. While we're in there, do you mind grabbing Thomas and getting the things out?"
"What things? Oh - wait! I know what you're talking about. Yeah, we'll lay them out for you."
"Thanks."
"Hey, it's your gift, I'm just making them look pretty." We share a laugh as we walk outside.
The Ginerva are all here, still dressed in their fighting leathers. Their skin is at least clean of whatever demon blood they hunted last night. They weren't during training. I'm guessing they ended up just falling into their beds like the rest of us.
"I don't know about you," Mak says as Kat leads us to a smaller tent not too far away. "But I think we have the fucking hottest Queen in all of Ker."
"Fuck yeah!" Serephina cheers, earning a few confused glances from the Sentinels. Glances that turn into slow stares I pointedly ignore.
I laugh at their claims and their ridiculousness, but I do give them a slow twirl to showcase the entirety of the look Kat put together. It ends up causing all five of them to wolf whistle.
"Oh, for Saint's sake," Kat mumbles.
They don't stop, they just keep whistling and whistling and yelling out profusely obscene things in between. It has my face turning bright red in embarrassment. I try to lose them by catching up with Kat, but then more whistles and calls come from ahead and I look up to find Tanith, Kathika, and Tsillah standing at the entrance of the tent joining in, their fists in the air and feet hopping off of the ground. I'm both happy to see them and wish that they would disappear and stop embarrassing me. Only they would do things like this and not give a shit about who's watching and judging. They'll throw themselves off of a cliff before they give a damn about someone else's disapproving opinion.
I end up running the last bit to the other three, relieved when their vulgar noises stop. Loud laughter comes from within the tent, a soft echo following the Ginerva as they catch up to me just outside its entrance.
"We are at your service, Mea Regina," Tanith greets with a dramatic bow.
I shake my head at her as I try not to smile too widely. I don't think it's considered Queenly to encourage such behavior, but I just can't help it. My guard is a rather funny one. It keeps the bland days interesting.
"How was your trip?" I ask her, thankful to have a conversation changer.
"It was mediocre," she answers. "I didn't expect much of the rivaling kingdoms, and I gained nothing except several headaches and wishes for a quick death."
"Well, mine went swimmingly," Kathika chimes happily.
"Really?"
Her grin falls. "No."
Her little trick has my hope bouncing up and down, not knowing whether to rise or fall. It's making me glad that meeting the royals is hours away. I don't think I'd be ready to see them now.
She takes my hand in hers at my side and leans in as if she's about to tell a secret. "Did you know that King Varin of Sylvaine has fourteen mistresses? Fourteen - and some say that there's a fifteenth on the rise."
Kat pulls apart one side of the tent flap, and I lead us in, still leaning towards Kathika's words are she continues.
"How has the Queen not yet cut off his cock and displayed it in a glass case, put a crown on it, and labeled it 'the real King of Sylvaine?' I sure would've." I laugh at her imagery, knowing damn well she would.
She leaves with a smirk, plopping into the lap of her partner who has taken a seat on the couch placed in the corner. It suddenly occurs to me that the tent had gone quiet, void of the laughter I had just heard. I look to the men standing around the large table in the middle of the tent, finding them all staring at me as if I've sprouted wings.
For a moment I think I have, then I remember that it's impossible. At least, I think it's impossible.
"What?"
"I told you we had the hottest Queen in Ker," Mak brags in Thralian. "Look at their stupid faces. They're enamored by her."
I glance around at all of them, not really finding a single one of them who isn't looking like they're in a trance. I can't stop the smile that creeps up on me. It's nice to see the ones who always seem to have something to say become suddenly speechless. And they do look rather stupid just standing there.
"I wouldn't go making fun of them just yet," I tell her. "I don't believe any of you have taken a good look at your King."
I don't look to see if they do, and take in Darius's own regality myself.
He wears a cloud gray suit, gold metalwork of his own tapered upward and toward his shoulders, mimicking individual flicks of flame that aren't so overwhelming it takes away from the simplistic elegance, but intricately placed, keeping it delicate. There's not even an adrupt stop to its pattern with the Vandarian livery collar draped in front. It's as if the artisan of the jacket specifically planned for the collar to fit perfectly over it, making it look continuous and perfect. Even his sleeves carry the flames, though I notice how they cluster slightly closer, forming Kalla's wings.
Thomas worked some magic himself in making Darius look every inch the King he is. But it's not just the clothing that has my own eyes getting stuck in him.
His dark hair is brushed back whereas I've only seen it messy and frayed, abandoned in upkeep due to the chaos. Softly combed back, his eyes pop more, pulling you into a trance of a reef. Without dirt scuffed in his face, his cheekbones stand out, casting him in handsome stark lines and tempting ones to touch. But what gets me the most is the smile. His smile. Not the one that's grand and shows all his teeth or the one in the middle of a laugh, but the one that's soft and quiet and tender. The one that to most eyes would seem like he's holding a secret, but to me, it says a million words. Words like, he's happy. Truly, deeply happy.
"Clare?" I pull my eyes away from him and look at Kat. Her worried expression has my contentment falling and my senses widening.
"What is it?"
"You...you just spoke in Thralian."
"What?"
"You spoke our native tongue," Rohana rephrases slowly. I hyper-focus on her words, making sure that she's not speaking Thralian herself. She isn't, which is weird considering I swore I heard my own voice speaking the common tongue. Not Thralian.
I try to be concerned about it, but it doesn't seem to bother me, oddly enough. "Well...pedicabo me, sunt sapiente."
Dee lets out a single cackle, turning everyone's attention from me to her. "I did not see that coming." She chuckles to herself in the silence.
"Right, well, we should start before Dee loses her mind," Vlad says, slowly turning away from her and back towards the table. Everyone else follows though I do think she's already lost her mind.
I stand at the other end of the table between Lance and Rohana who both cast me another worried glance. I ignore them both pointedly and examine the maps laid out in front of me. Some are of Ker, others of Cadorelin and the castle. I have no idea where they were stashed on our trip up here.
People start talking, sharing their findings from last night and what information they gleaned from the people they managed to get to Fernweh. I was paying attention, but my mind wandered as I kept staring at the map of the city.
Darius and I did our own recon while waiting for everyone else to return. I could feel at least a dozen hollow and currently occupied caverns beneath the city. Some were homes to sleeping giants, others to livid and swarming nests. Darius found some hiding out in buildings and in the sewage tunnels, and I tested the cove for any but found none. We marked where each one was on a map now at the center of the table, and I can't help but think that it looks like a drawing with a bunch of red dots just...everywhere. It's overwhelming.
Rohana starts talking about Ashmodai's, a type of demon that can possess the body of a dead human. We found them too, though they were harder to find seeing as they're disguised, but they have a different feel to them that makes it easier to pull them apart from the crowd.
They start talking about the population left in the city, and I know I should listen, but I only do to the part where they say most of it is still in the southern quarter. Everyone else is scattered or has left their homes to escape the city and its new monsters. I don't want to hear about how the city used to be happy and filled with partygoers. Not when all of the fun has clearly ended and been sucked out of every person.
As they keep talking, I hear my mind picking apart the information and laying them out on the blank map in front of me. Some pieces overlap while others leave holes, and I work to fill those holes. I do it until the map is finally complete, though the paper has no additional writing from me. It's all in my head.
"So now that we know all of this, and we've got several ideas of how tonight can go, what do we do?" Alex prompts.
"Nothing." Everyone's head turns in my direction. It's the first time I've spoken in the past two hours or so. It's hard to tell time without being able to look up at the sun or hear the bells ring.
"Nothing?" My brother repeats. He sees where I'm going with this, his brain more trained in the art of planning than I, but he lets me have the stage this time.
I stand up straight from where I had hunched over the table, nothing but my arms keeping me from face planting into the maps. I instantly find my legs stiff and back sore from the held position, as well as the weight I'm not used to with everything stacked on top of me. It's overbearing, but I don't do more than roll my shoulders and spread my feet a bit, not wanting to show just how much I don't believe myself to be able to hold the crown and it's weight. I have to be strong today, so I will be.
"There are more than a dozen types of demons in and around the city that we currently know of, and potentially more hiding out of our reach until the city is already in chaos, we're preoccupied, and they have the window to try and take our legs out from under us before we can unite the kingdoms of Ker to fight. We don't have the numbers nor the current strength to take all of them on and get the royals and the rest of the citizens out. So we focus on one."
Everyone's full attention is on me now, and I spot a few prideful gleams amongst them. So I straighten up all the way and welcome the weight of the crown. We have a war to fight, and I have too many eyes and ears on me to not be prepared to lead them all.
"We go to the ball and enjoy the festivities. We do what he wants and when he releases his beasts, we get the people out. He'll be expecting it, and it's what he wants. He wants us focused on the people so he can carry out his true plan, and we'll let him. If he shows his hand then we have a chance of winning the night. So we do nothing. We play nice and we give him a show, and when he goes to reach for his prized possession, we chop off his hand. He may be alive, but he'll be with one less hand to summon another monster."
"And what happens when those other hiding demons come to take our legs out from under us?" Nisla proposes, not to try and crumble my plan from beneath me, but to cover all the angles.
"Then we keep fighting until they're dead."
"And if that doesn't work?" Rohana counters. "If we can barely handle the ones already here, how do we keep them from destroying the city?"
I know the answer, I just don't want to say it out loud out of fear of what the spoken word can mean. I sit in the silence, staring into her eyes until that bit of fear turns into determination.
"Then we give up the capital. If we can manage to get everyone out before then, then we'll have no other choice but to abandon it. I don't want to," I tell Ozzie when goes to argue. "Saints it's the last thing I want to do, but if we're left with no other choice, then we sacrifice the city and set a boundary around it as best we can before they can gain another one. None of it is ideal. None of it is guaranteed to work, but this is our best chance to live to fight tomorrow. This will only be the first city we'll lose followed by many others. We can't save everything, but we can save enough of it to survive long enough to see this war to the end and rebuild each and every one of them. They may fall now, but they'll rise twice as high when the skies are clear.
"I don't want to only partially win, but if we save everyone we can then I say that's a damn good win for a bunch of inexperienced teenagers and immortal women who have trust issues and problems with authority."
Tanith snorts from where she stands at Rohana's side. "She's not wrong."
"It could work if we play it right," Lance supports, looking down the table to Darius. He looks to Garrison at his right.
"I'm only eight percent of the vote," he answers with a shrug of his shoulder. Darius looks at the rest of his friends then, all of which nod their heads.
He straightens up from where he leaned forward with his hands on the table too and looks at me with a well-pleased smile. "I expected nothing less of you, Queen of Thralia."
Confidence lights a fire in me, and I don't let it dim one bit as we figure out the details in the next hour. We don't get it all figured out when Kat returns saying the royals have been sent word to gather in the next hour. We did get most of it and planned to meet after this next meeting to go over the rest and run through it before having to leave for the actual ball.
I notice the Ginerva all being rather silent as we all stay to stretch a little before leaving the tent. All nine are here, but there's one missing, and they're not liking it. Especially Rohana.
I leave Winston to continue his argument with Benny about which one of them gets stuck with Nilsa tonight, and motion for them to join me.
"She's fine," I tell all of them. It doesn't seem to do much, but there's only so much I can do until she either shows up or doesn't at all. "I know all of your fears about her absence, but Branka isn't one who necessarily rolls over to people. She'll be here. She's too strong and stubborn to do so, and seeing as she's related to all of you, I expect her to make a fashionably late grand dramatic entrance per your protocol. She'll be here. Trust me."
They still don't say a word, but I can feel their spirits lift enough to keep them strong for a few hours. I grab Kathika's hand and lead them all and the boys outside. "Now let's go meet this King Varin and his fourteen mistresses."
She chuckles madly and I let go of her hand so that she can join her sisters again.
"We'll go to Fernweh and change and be back shortly," Rohana informs. I nod and they leave nothing but a thick black fog in their wake.
"Gods I don't want to put on all that fucking armor," Ethan whines highly like a spoiled toddler. He lazily walks out of the tent, his steps dragging. "It chafes, you know."
I laugh at him, wondering just how much he'd complain after wearing a corset and a dress that doesn't have anything in between your legs to stop your thighs from rubbing together. We'll see who's complaining then.
They start to walk off when I get an elbow to the ribs from Kat. She jolts her head in their direction, and I remember another thing I've forgotten for the second time again. Saints spare my memory.
"Wait!" They all stop, and I wait until Darius steps beside me to continue. My brother seems to have disappeared, but I assume it was to change himself. "I don't think you'll be needing your golden armor."
"Clare and I have a surprise for you," Darius tells them. He turns and starts walking before they can question him further, and I follow. I hear them try to pester Kat into telling them what it is, then I hear one of them curse and her jog back up beside me, a wicked grin on her face.
"What did you do?"
"I kicked Amel in the shin," she declares proudly.
"Could've been worse. You could've kicked him a little higher up." Her wicked grin grows, and I join her.
"You two are far too mischievous," Darius tells us. He's a few steps ahead of us, but I can see his own smile from here.
Having kept the voices of the elements in my ears for any signs of trouble, I feel when Mal and Alister's footsteps separate from the others. They instantly crowd me, shoving aside Kat who gives them both dirty looks as she joins the unbothered Darius.
"So are you going to tell us what it is, or are we supposed to guess?" Mal asks.
"I bet it's new swords," Alister guesses before I can answer.
"I think it's something magical."
"Great deduction detective.
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