Post by Emma on Jul 6, 2013 17:09:43 GMT -5
‘Doctor’. ‘Your Grace’. ‘Your Holiness’. And now, ‘Lady Regent’.
I did in fact think I’d made a wise decision in assuming the reign of Du Weldenvarden. The forest was immeasurably ancient, and the elves lasted longer than some religion. Granted, it was a bit of a twist to my plans. I had been intending to take the throne of Carvala, not Ellesméra. The entire reason I’d helped Azuan for so long was for that very purpose. And he’d upheld his end of the bargain- he hadn’t married or had any legal children. He had spread the teachings of Nyx throughout his kingdom and had financed the Hand. Everything had been perfect- until his idiot brother had spawned three very troublesome children that had been assigned as heirs to the throne. Turin had been quiet and not liable to stir up trouble. That boy had been fine. Leilani, the hippie teenager, had gone and made humans join the Riders. I had completely underestimated just how sympathetic the Order was to mortals, and had just barely been able to twist Azuan’s arm into letting me off the hook. Then Nayeli had gotten a taste for real power, and gone and murdered both her siblings. I was well aware that she had killed Azuan. I’d been able to see the effects of the poison for months. Why not them too? If she hadn’t upset my plans so, I would have applauded her ruthlessness.
But she had, and the first thing she’d done was tear the Cathedral apart with the help of the Riders. Now the practice of the Voyage was tainted with blood magic forever. Thankfully, I’d slipped out before the intrusion, and had gone underground for several months. I’d wanted to go to Anastasio, but his was the first house that was torn apart. So I’d stayed with one of my few friends, dyed my hair, and waited for things to settle down. When news reached me that Dellanir was possibly dead, I hadn’t been able to resist. And she was easier to manipulate than Azuan. While that man had been motivated by greed and anger, Dellanir’s entire psyche revolved around the health of her son. As long as he was doing fine, she would do anything I asked of her. She wasn’t like Azuan, who had been inclined to take more that his fair share in every bargain we’d made together. I was glad he was dead. It was just a pity I hadn’t been there to see it. Nayeli had ruined my plans for Broddring, but at the same time, she had opened a new window in Du Weldenvarden. And all I had to do was keep the young king alive. His illness was a simple enough fix with the aid of blood magic, and he had an entire army ready to die for him when given the word. I barely had to do anything at all.
And I had always wanted a son. They seemed so much more predictable than daughters. I stood now gazing at Evandar as he was prepared for the dinner tonight. He sat on an ornate chair while a servant threaded her fingers through his snow-white hair, applying creams to soften and style it. The boy himself was staring into the mirror grimly, his eyes dark and conflicted. I couldn’t blame him. He hadn’t been able to go to Ilirea like all the other children due to his illness. His entire life had been spent in one room. The sickness had robbed him of a precious childhood that could never be returned to him. Though he was still young enough to go to Ilirea, the Riders no longer operated there. I had visited Ilirea myself, and had been greatly pleased at the chaos I’d seen. But now Evandar would spend the rest of his life ruling, and he had accepted his station with no small amount of resentment. He wasn’t particularly fond of me, either, but that would change with time. As the servant finished with Evandar’s hair, she took out a stick of kohl, turned her face towards him, and started applying it around his eyes. I came up beside him too and placed one hand on his cheek, smiling. Evandar met my gaze and said nothing for a long moment.
Then he picked up the creams and oils the servant had been using and flung them against the wall, smashing their containers to pieces. The servant leaped backwards, accidentally drawing a long black line across the king’s cheek. She cried out in horror.
“Shh. Do not worry, Nerida.” I took a handkerchief from a pocket in my dress, dipped it into the washbasin, and started gently wiping the kohl from Evandar’s face. “It is only kohl. Try again, ma cherie.”
The servant looked at me nervously, then stepped forward and continued tracing around Evandar’s eyes. I wiped off the last of the kohl and looked at him kindly.
“Why did you throw your things, Evandar? Are you upset about meeting the Count of Nädindel?”
He didn’t speak. He hadn’t spoken a word to me since I’d met him. Not even a thank you for curing him of his illness. Already, his pale cheeks had some colour, and he could even run. I sighed and stepped backwards as Nerida finished lining the king’s eyes. With a reverent bow to Evandar, and a nervous one to me, she hurried out of the room. Sighing, I turned to Evandar and gently took his hand. He rose carefully from his seat and followed me disinterestedly as I led him to the full-length mirror in his room. I stood in front of it, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. He looked very handsome in a deep sapphire doublet and breeches of darkest blue. He had polished white shoes, and a huge diamond ring dominated his right hand. I wanted to stroke his hair, but didn’t dare ruin the careful styling. I didn’t look bad either- my now-golden hair was pulled back into a regal updo. I wore a full-sleeved, full-length dress that didn’t show an inch of skin apart from my face and neck. It was coloured deep amethyst, as were my eyes, to match the gem tones of tonight’s dinner. I smiled at Evandar again. He gazed moodily into the mirror, then turned around and stormed to the end of the room.
“I have some errands to run, mon cher. Lord Sarethi will be up shortly to give you a tour of the city. I will be back before the dinner begins.”
No answer yet again. He just stood in front of the window with his hands clasped behind him. I sighed, but tried to remember how much he’d gone through. I strode up to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek, leaving a lipstick mark behind. He rubbed at it with his sleeve as I turned and headed out of the room, closing the door behind me. We were in the Count’s palace, which happened to be a massive tree in the middle of the city. To get out of here, I would have to weave my way back down to the middle of the trunk, where the walkways were. Adjusting my heavy dress, I began the mundane tasks of walking down flights and flights of stairs. Once I reached my destined floor, I saw a familiar figure. It was Nerida. She was cleaning the building, picking out parasitic insects and using a special spell to remove funguses without hurting the tree. As far as I could tell, she was alone there. I made my way towards her, heels clicking as I walked. She looked up on my approach and immediately stood, curtsying.
“Your Excel-”
I slipped a small stiletto out of the sleeve of my dress and forced it into the servant’s upper arm. She wailed but I used my other hand to snatch at her mouth, muffling her cries. I removed the stiletto and jammed it again and again in various points in her upper torso, stabbing viciously. Once she was weakened considerably, I slammed her down onto the floor.
“You did not even apologize to the king when you drew all over his face!”
“I’m so-”
“You are too skittish to serve him. What if you had done the same thing while holding a pair of scissors? You would have injured him! The king is still fragile.” I jammed my heel into her windpipe, cutting off her breathing. “Do not make this mistake again, Nerida.”
Tears rolled down Nerida’s face, and her skin turned red as she struggled to breathe. After a few moments, she managed to choke out, “... I’ll be good.”
“Bien.”
I removed my foot from her throat and she stood up immediately. Elves had a remarkable ability to tolerate pain, it seemed, because she was able to walk away without too much issue. It was only a shame that I hadn’t experimented on them when I had the Cathedral. I still didn’t have any real equipment in Luthivíra. As Nerida staggered off, I turned to regard myself in one of the mirrors while slipping the stiletto back into my sleeve. Fully dressed, blonde hair, small amounts of makeup... I looked so matronly. The dress didn’t even hug any of my curves, leaving me looking as straight as a pin. Perfect for Evandar’s surrogate mother, and exactly what Du Weldenvarden wanted to see. I would be a knockout at the dinner.
Well, that was enough of that.
I reached behind me and tore the dress in the back, freeing me from its confines. I flung it onto the floor and stepped out of it, kicking the fabric behind a statue. I turned to regard myself in the mirror once again. The blonde hair would have to stay, at least for now. The black-and-white beauty that had been the Prophet needed to be erased from people’s minds while I established myself in Du Weldenvarden as Evandar’s advisor. Besides, it was fun to have different hair for once, even if it held up poorly to my natural ebony locks. My body, however, hadn’t changed in the slightest. Under the dress, I wore a length of black silk bejewelled with amethysts around my breasts. I had cut a matching set of drawers so that they ended at my upper thighs, leaving the rest of me completely bare- except my feet, which were in a pair of heeled purple slippers. I pulled out the pin that had held up my hair, and let it cascade over my shoulders to my mid-back. I looked at the result in the mirror, pouting my red lips. This was much better. Tossing my head, I strode past the drops of blood on the floor and bent down, opening a servants’ passage. I slipped through it bent almost double, and made my way through fifty feet of darkness before reaching the outside.
It was morning- not the best time to do business, but I was on a tight schedule. I was currently standing on one of many wooden walkways that interlinked up the city of Nädindel- the marsh far below was too wet and too full of poisonous animals to build a home on. That was where I intended to go, so I located a ramp and hurried down it in case anyone saw me. I only had to worry about witnesses on the walkway. Nobody went to the swamp if they could avoid it, so I could be free there. The walkways were twenty feet in the air, just higher than floodwaters could rise. Most elves preferred to live up in the canopies; where light actually pierced through- down here, it was so dark that it may as well have been night. Water sloshed around me, and I could feel the ramp sinking slightly into the mud with my weight on it. I stopped and looked around myself. I was standing on a weed-choked lake, surrounded by wizened trees that had never had enough sunlight to grow. Occasionally, grassy land bars stuck up out of the brownish-grey water, but I didn’t trust standing on them. A soupy white mist hung over the water, and I could see the ripple of a strange beast swimming through it. There were sinkholes and bogs everywhere. It was no wonder the elves refused to live here.
I just wondered why they didn’t use their magic to turn this disgusting place into decent forest, like the rest of Du Weldenvarden. The mud squelched underneath me as I placed one foot into it. I stepped backwards, and decided to waste precious magic building up a decent path where I didn’t have to worry about sinking or falling over. I walked along it through looming trees, watching the snakes and spiny snails crawling past. Everything here was poisonous. On top of which, it was even hotter down here than it had been up high, and it smelled simply horrific. I would need a bath after this. Eventually, I came upon a small clearing that was mercifully free of water. It was a small hillock, but nobody was there. I scowled. Could he have gotten lost? I stepped up onto the hillock and looked around, but there was no sign of anyone. Nearby, I heard an alligator slithering into the water. I sighed in irritation. There was nothing for it but to wait. I looked around, and eventually managed to spot some mushrooms well-known for their poison. Moving over to them, I pulled out a small knife nestled between my breasts. I looked at it, stunned. Already, the humidity was rusting the iron. Annoyed, I began to hack at the mushroom stalks. These days, I had to get all my ingredients myself. I just hoped my thief would show up soon, and that nobody else would find me down here.
Words;; 2316
Characters Used;; Malandra Ramakrishna, Lady Regent of Du Weldenvarden
Muse;; EXCELLENTE
Thoughts;; The ending was a little off- I wanted to do something else but it's long enough. Anyway, I am planning to have someone attempt to assassinate Evandar in this thread. And this is what Mally looks like blonde.
