[Pictured: Mira, Thain, Kepi, Ameria]
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Shifting Winds Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, tag for all related stories to this arc, general story tag ~
recommended listening: x x
And Then There Was Three; its hard to shake the feeling, these phonies make my blood run cold
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Mira didn’t want to murder somebody in the throne room. Truly, she didn’t. It wouldn’t reflect well on the kingdom in the eyes of other clans, and it would be impossible to get the blood out of the tapestries.
Nonetheless. A certain fellow advisor of hers was testing her limits, and really, it was only a matter of time before she snapped.
Mira was born into a noble Maren family, to a very well respected king and queen. From the start, she was afforded the best education, covering a wide range of topics, even those not related to her people, and when she wasn’t taking her lessons, she was observing her father in his kingly duties. When she made the decision to leave her parents’ kingdom under the sea, she spent quite a while traveling around Sornieth, educating herself further in every way she could. Then, after she had found a home in Roava, she had served as the king’s primary advisor, and, if she said so herself, had done a very fine job of counseling him.
So, when Thain, the healer, the new queen’s friend, came in with his sneers and scoffs at her guidance and input, with his constant arguments and his know-it all-attitude, Mira couldn’t help but find herself just a tad bit homicidal.
Despite such urges, she liked to think of herself as level-headed, within reason. Sure, she was strong enough to put most dragons in their place with a little bit of force, but she had been taught that it was always best to at least attempt to talk things out first.
Which she had been trying to do. For the past two months. Every time Thain disagreed with what she had to say, she tried to explain to him the sense in her ideas, all the while gritting her teeth that she had to explain herself at all. Things began to escalate, though, more and more as the weeks went on, until not a day could go by without at least one venomous exchange of words between the two.
Things with Rasmus had been different. He was no puppet, and she no puppetmaster, but he had understood that when it came to running a kingdom, she had the knowledge that he needed. Of course, there had been times when he had disagreed with what she had to say, had gone against her advice, and that was fine; she was there to advise, to offer guidance, not to argue him into submission.
At first, she had thought that being Kepi’s advisor would be much the same - she knew the new queen, considered her almost family, and had thought that the respect she felt towards her went both ways.
And perhaps it did, but one wouldn’t quite know it by the way that Kepi often kept quiet as Mira and Thain argued and sniped at each other, the once tranquil throne room feeling more and more like a battleground.
(There were times, few and far between, when the queen would finally intervene, snapping at Thain to stop, to let Mira speak her piece. Those were small victories, tainted by the glares between Kepi and Thain that would follow, causing Mira to wonder, not for the first time, just who was in charge.
Mira rarely had moments alone with Kepi, and when she did, those thoughts were always on the tip of her tongue, questions of if there was something the new queen needed to tell her, if there was anything she needed to know about the mysterious iceborn healer. Something always stopped her from voicing such questions, though; someone interrupting, or the need to discuss important matters regarding the kingdom. Months later, perhaps, she would wonder what might’ve happened had she not been so damn hesitant.)
Things came to a head just over three months after Rasmus had fallen into his coma, two months since Kepi’s coronation. They had been gathered at the small, round table that often sat in the middle of the throne room, parchment spread out as they went over any issues that needed attending to; Thain and Mira sat across from each other, on either side of Kepi, while Ameria, the queen’s assistant and occasional advisor, sat across from her.
Thain had shown up only a few minutes prior, and while Mira attempted to focus on what she was reading, she could just tell that Thain was gearing up to say something, something that she knew she wouldn’t like. His brow was furrowed, his lip twitching as though he wanted to smirk, but knew that he shouldn’t; both things she had come to recognize as meaning something vile was about to spill from his mouth.
She could not of predicted just what he was going to say, though, and had she been able to, she very well might of punched him in his face before he could even say a word, consequences be damned.
“I’ve just come from checking on your brother, Kepi,” He began with no preamble, leaning forward. The queen, busy with reading the parchment in her hand, looked up, raising an eyebrow slightly.
“And how is he doing today? Any changes?”
While Ravi, the king’s son, was his father’s primary healer, Thain often checked in to see how he might be able to help.
“I’m afraid not, no, though he remains stable.” The queen “hmmed” in response, her attention already returning to other matters.
“I have been thinking, though,” The healer continued after a brief pause, and Mira braced herself for whatever Thain had been thinking about. “And I believe that perhaps I should take over his care.”
Mira froze, Thain’s words taking a few long moments to properly register in her mind, and even then, she was sure she must have misheard him; she was even more sure that she must have also misheard Kepi’s response.
“That sounds fine to me, so long as it won’t interfere with your duties here.”
The conversation continued, but it was a quiet buzz in Mira’s ears, a dull roar overtaking her thoughts until she finally interrupted with a very quiet:
“What?”
All eyes turned to her, but her own gaze was locked onto Thain, as he narrowed his eyes at her, sensing a challenge.
“Is something the matter, Mira?” He prodded, feigning innocent curiosity.
“You…you can’t just…what about Ravi?”
“What about him?”
““What about him?” He’s already caring for the king, why would you need to take over?” Thain had the gall to roll his eyes and Mira had to grip the table with both hands to prevent herself from lunging at him.
“He’s much too close to the whole situation. If we have any hope of ever finding a way to wake up our queen’s poor brother, it won’t be through him. He’s so…emotional. It’s clouding his judgement, and I simply don’t think that-”
The healer was cut off by hands slapping roughly against the table as Mira stood, towering above them all, the wood nearly splintering beneath her hands. She was an imposing sight, and she knew it.
“That’s enough,” She practically snarled, her eyes swirling whirlpools of rage. “I’ve sat here for two long months and listened to you argue with me at every turn, give horrible advice, and just be an all around terrible presence, but I will not sit by and let you speak that way about Ravi.”
Ravi was family, her mate’s brother, a shining light among them before all of the stress of his father’s sudden illness came crashing down upon him.
(She often looked at Ravi and saw the little brother she left behind at home, sweet and loving and entirely too empathetic.)
Mira could let most arguments between her and Thain lie, had grown increasingly numb towards her advisor related duties, but this was different, this was Ravi, and the odds of her shoving her trident through the healer’s chest in the near future had just increased tenfold.
“Of course he’s emotional, it’s his father, but if you think for one moment that he would allow his emotions to cloud his judgement or get in the way of finding some sort of cure, then you’re an even bigger fool than I previously thought.”
Thain stood as well, a cold fury burning in his eyes, and oh how Mira wished for him to give her a reason, an actual, plausible reason for her to attack him in this moment. If he struck first, nobody would be able to quite blame her for whatever may happen next.
“How dare you, you will regret-”
“Stop,” The queen hissed, standing as well, clearly sensing just how close Mira was to leaping across the table. “Stop it, the both of you. I will not have any more fighting between you two. Thain, sit down.”
As the Nocturne begrudgingly did as she said, Kepi turned her gaze to Mira, softening slightly. Mira was coming to realize just how good of an actor the queen was, knowing that the way that her face turned sympathetic, her tone grew quiet, was all just an act. A good one, but not one that Mira was going to fall for any longer
“Mira, I know that it’s difficult to hear, but I trust Thain in this. If he says that Ravi is no longer fit, then I wish only to relieve Ravi of at least some of his stress, and for Rasmus’ situation to receive the best possible attention.”
Mira couldn’t believe what she was hearing, and she was quick to make that clear.
“If you seriously believe that he will do any better than Ravi, Ravi who is doing everything in his power to bring Rasmus back to us, then perhaps you’re a fool as well.”
(Mira realized in that moment that perhaps not all of the anger that she’d been feeling had been because of Thain.)
Kepi’s face instantly darkened, hardening as she straightened up, any trace of sensitivity gone as she spoke.
“Get out of my throne room. Now.”
Later, maybe Mira would regret her words, falling too quickly from her mouth before she could filter herself, but for now she simply gave a mirthless laugh.
“Gladly,” She spat, knocking her chair to the ground as she turned and stormed out of the room.
All the while, Ameria stayed silent in her seat, the normally talkative Spiral deciding it best to stay out of everything. It’s not that she didn’t agree with Mira in every way, no, she just had a different way of going about things.
Because she, too, had seen the secretive glances that Thain and Kepi occasionally shared, had caught snippets of the verging on threatening way that he sometimes spoke to the queen, and it worried her.
She stayed quiet, bit her tongue more times than not, because she was afraid of Thain, of whatever his intentions were, but she was even more afraid of leaving him alone with Kepi. If she were to leave, or to be kicked out as Mira had been, he would be the only voice left whispering in the queen’s ear.
And Ameria, caring to a fault, refused to let that happen. She wasn’t entirely sure that she trusted the new queen yet, despite all of the good that she’d been doing for the kingdom, but that didn’t mean that she was going to leave her all alone with one of the most loathsome dragons that Ameria had ever met.
And so she would endure Thain’s cold glares, as though he was wishing her away, too, and she would not allow him to bait her into inane arguments, using her charm and quick wit to remain on Kepi’s good side. For the sake of the kingdom, but for the sake of the queen, as well.
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I really liked this when I wrote it last night at 3 in the morning, but now I’m like??? It really got away from me there at the end, but oh well, it serves it’s intended purpose, which is to be a brief interlude between actual “official” parts of the main story.
There may or may not be one or two more things like this before the “actual” story keeps going (in quotation marks because, I mean, this is part of the story, it just doesn’t overly progress things along, other than giving some insight into some things, as well as getting Mira out of the throne room and Ravi away from his father), but we’ll see! I really just want to get to the rest of the story because it’s been sitting in my head for so long.
Mira is channeling all of you guys that fuckin hate Thain too lololol she’d like to hand out tridents to all of you :’D
if anybody has any questions about anybody here, I’m dying to yell about Mira and Ameria in particular, so feel free to ask! :3 fingers crossed that my next update is less than two months from now ;o;