King Kieven
Kieven waited in the hallway holding his breath in hopes that for just this one time his wife and daughter might have worked out their differences without violence. When he heard Ahriana shout his shoulders slumped and his forehead wrinkled. With a groan he strode into the bedroom.
Ahriana stood up tall and looked down on Nira. The Queen straightened her shoulders trying to stand as tall as daughter did. It worked poorly; she was neither as tall as Ahriana, nor as broad shouldered and well-muscled. She laughed in Nira's face, twirling a dagger around casually with her free hand making it sing as she flipped it around her knuckles..
"You were built to rule and throw parties; you were made to bring me to life. You were put here by the magic and power to do nothing but play a role in the background. Do you honestly believe that anything will come of this? I was built to go to war; I was made to control the magic like no other and to wield the sword faster than any creature in this world. I am bonded to the King of the Greatlings, who are you?"
Nira took a step back cringing under Ahriana's words.
"I was put here to defy Demunik and you stand there before me thinking you can stand against me now? You think you can honestly hold ground against me anymore? You are an insane bitter old woman, and the time where I feared you and bowed is over!" Ahriana stepped back from her mother glaring, she kept her dagger raised at chest level.
"You little ungrateful treacherous tart." Nira whispered, venom dripping from her words.
Ahriana screamed her dagger whistling past Nira's head and cutting a braid from her scalp. It fell to the ground softly, not making a single sound, and yet its falling altered the entire course of the world with its soft breathless sigh as it landed on the floor.
Nira gasped, reaching up to her head and finding the tuft of hair that now remained. Her face mottled with rage and her eyes darted to where Kieven stood, hiding in the shadow of the ajar door.
"The prophecy may be why you are here little girl but you are not that person yet. You are but a Princess who doesn't know her place. You think you can stand up to the Dark King? Then you and your precious man walk straight to the door of the Castle of Nightfall and knock on it."
Nira had lost all sense of control, Ahriana noticed that spittle flew from her mouth as she spoke, and had a strange cadence to her words. Before Ahriana could speak she felt the air in the room grow thicker as someone nearby drew in a great amount of power.
The bedroom door banged open and King Kieven stormed in, throwing out two large spheres of green magic. They blossomed and sealed Nira and Ahriana away from each other. Ahriana stomped off and went to the other side of her room, picking up the chair and making faces at her now broken curtain.
Nira stood up straight and waved her own green haze away. She smoothed her skirt and simply nodded to her husband, as if she had not just acted possessed before he entered. Ahriana rolled her eyes; she had long since known that her mother had no real love for her father. If their race didn't bond, and it wasn't so absolute, Ahriana would have sworn her mother had married simply for the crown and the power that came with it. They were in fact a bonded match, as was every other Elderald Ahriana had ever met. They had been madly in love two hundred years ago, now there was none. The dismissal of Kieven's magic showed how little respect she held for the King.
Ahriana wondered, as she watched her parents stare at each other uncomfortable for a moment, was this what being bonded was like? An intense love that just cooled over the years, eventually turning to a burning distaste that would linger at the back of your throat. If that was indeed the case, it seemed that possibly her lot in life was not nearly as bad as she had come to believe over the last decade.
King Kieven's green eyes glared across the room at his unremorseful daughter. He pinched the bridge of his nose with his finger. Kieven had the look of a noble warrior a bit past his prime. His black hair was closely cropped to his head and his white robe was hanging haphazardly off his shoulders, and he had still yet to completely lace his left boot.
"Nira, Ahriana, this is unacceptable. The entire house is talking about you two screeching like ravens fighting over a shiny bottle," Ahriana could hear the anger in his deep baritone voice.
He was weary of it all; had been for many years now. He wasn't sure what to do, he felt his daughter was doing just fine and there was nothing to worry about. Fairsh was a good man, even if all Nira managed to see was a simple warrior. Once, what seemed like very long ago, Kieven himself had been nothing more than a simple warrior. True he had been royalty, but he had not been heir to the throne. That honor had belonged to his older brother. Kieven had been much like his daughter, wild, independent and a late bloomer. He trained without real care for his skill, and he attended parties until the wee hours of the morning stumbling back to his room drunk. He had been called all sorts of names, and disregarded by everyone. Until Demunik had slowly killed each of his parents, and then siblings. When he had been crowned on the battlefield, Nira had still been scowling over their betrothal. Their wedding had been in a tent north of the gate to Imerald. There had been no parties or grand ball. Kieven had been covered in gore and hastily kissed her cheek before sprinting back to the front lines. It would be two years before they even consummate their marriage. Kieven had not minded, and had always adored his wife, blindly. Even now when his stomach had lost its muscle lines, and his face had then gained a few he saw her the same as the day they bonded. Nira still saw a warrior too immersed in battle to realize he was outmatched in every room he entered.
There was a soft squeak outside the door; it sounded an awful lot like a muffled cry of pain. Ahriana smirked, she knew exactly who that belonged too, and the most likely stubbed toe that brought about the tiny noise.
Kynzi knew they had heard her; she had never been good at hiding or eavesdropping. She always managed to drop something, or injure herself. She was talking to herself trying to work up the nerve to poke her head around the corner and ask if everything was okay, since more than likely she had been heard, and therefore needed to address her presence.
Meekah looked at Ahriana and then stared at Nira for a moment longer; his eyes bore into her until she turned her back on him. Meekah huffed then slinked his way out the door and spoke to Kynzi. He knew with King Kieven in the room nothing would happen now.
Kieven watched him go thoughtfully then turned back to assess his family standing as far from each other as possible. It was a common sight in his life, one he had seen more times than he could count in the last two decades. Even now he could not understand how they arrived at this place so broken.
The King was calm and patient. Nothing rattled him; and he was slow to anger and quick to defend. He glanced at Ahriana sitting calmly in the chair her mother had thrown earlier. She was re-securing her daggers with so much single minded concentration that Kieven nearly snickered. They could hate each other as much as they wanted, but Ahriana and Nira were quite a bit alike.
"Nira, is it really worth all this fighting? What does it hurt? He is a good man, and Ahriana a proper lady. Nothing will happen. She needs to work with Fairsh as it already is, the time is well spent. She is a warrior; you know that, you have always known that. Why are you fighting against it so hard? With Kynzi leaving she needs him for council at the very least." He was speaking with a soothing tone that was more than wasted on his wife.
Nothing soothed her temper; nothing sated the bitterness that filled her soul.
Nira smoothed back her hair, tucking a few stray hairs back into the intricately braided bun, now missing one braid, before turning on him, her eyes darkening from chocolate to a deep sable.
"She is not a warrior and you know it. She has little power and talent. It should have shown itself by now. No man is coming to bond to her, the prophecy is a farce; it is not even speaking of her. It is time she acted as a lady, not some idiotic character in a lie everyone believes, most of all you." Nira smiled when she finished knowing that her words would wound Ahriana.
Her goal was to bring Ahriana into line.
" If being proper means acting like her, I will abdicate."
Kieven's once well-muscled body went rigid, his jaw tightened as he controlled his anger and prevented ill spoken words from passing his lips. His body still showed that he more than knew how to handle any weapon you laid in his hands, even if he was a bit rusty. His hand gave a twitch, as the insult to Ahriana's honor rang true and his fatherly instincts to cut Nira down where she stood vibrated through his frame.
Ahriana watched closely.Nira stared into Kieven's space staring into his handsome face waiting. Many women still stared at him stunned and drawn in by his beauty. Ahriana had not been created by accident, her beauty came from her parents, it had been arranged for many thousands of years, or so the prophecy said.
Nira was not affected by Kieven's good looks, or his outrage at her insults of their daughter. After two hundred years she could read the emotions that were not on his face, and could tell you exactly what was in his mind even when he didn't speak a word.
Ahriana shook her head ever so slightly. She sighed and gritted her teeth at Nira. She couldn't understand her lack of love for him, or for her. What had they ever done? She knew part of it was because her father always defended her and in Nira's mind that was a choice over her.
Ahriana heeded her fathers advice thought carefully.
From the corner of her eye she saw a flash of white, dipping in and out of the trees surrounding her garden. Fairsh's bonded Greatling, Tesba, was letting her know they were near. She watched Tesba's moonlit white fur dance in and out of the trees just below her window. She wondered if they were loud enough to be heard where she knew Fairsh was standing. They must be, or he wouldn't be standing there, she sighed, of course he had heard every word. Ahriana saw the glint of his silver blonde hair just behind the tree where Tesba had dashed. She could almost feel his molten silver eyes staring at her, giving her strength. But what would she say to him later? How would she explain the things her mother had screamed? How would she explain herself? Nira stared at her, still waiting for a response. Ahriana sighed,
"Well in that case mother I have no need to play a part in your silly little lie either now do I? The only people who love me for exactly who I am seem to be Father, Meekah, Fairsh, and Kynzi. If you only want a doll that mocks your every move and becomes your little copy, then I suppose you should have another child. Especially since the prophecy is wrong, there is no reason you cannot have a million little princesses running around."
Ahriana paused watching Fairsh move from behind the tree and stare up at her.
"I would not care; you stopped caring for me as a person a long time ago. The question here really is what kind of mother does not love her child?" Ahriana spoke without screaming, without ever looking away from the window, knowing her words would land on a cold nonexistent heart.
In the reflection of her window Ahriana saw Nira's hand fly up to her throat as the meaning of her words struck. Kieven cut his eyes at her, he seemed to think Ahriana had been a bit harsh, but she didn't hear him deny her words either.
She finally turned and looked at her mother; Nira stared back with decades old hatred in her eyes, and then spun in a flourish of silk and jewels storming from the room. Kieven sighed deeply and walked over to where Ahriana stood.
"That was a bit much."
There was no anger in his voice though, nothing that said Ahriana was wrong in her accusations. The formal cadence dropped from his voice and his whole form seemed to relax.
"What did we ever do father? Tell me and I will ask forgiveness."
"I don't know what we did my dear. I have not a guess in the world that would get close I'm sure. You know what Meekah says about assuming."
Ahriana laughed, it was the first thing Meekah ever really said to her. He walked in the room and smiled then said in his deepening voice.
"My mamma says you shouldn't assume things, it makes a fool out of you and me, my daddy says that too but his way isn't as nice."
They all laughed at the memory, those were happy times. She was young, and her mother had been too preoccupied to bother her much.
"Your mother is right about Fairsh though dear, that man does love you. I am right to think you love him?"
Ahriana looked up at her father stunned; her eyes searched his face to see if there was any doubt in his. Then her own grew wide. He chuckled at her and shook his head.
"He will tell you his feelings soon I am sure, we will probably be throwing a wedding before spring is through, and that should improve your mother's spirits." He kissed the top of her head and left the room.