FFXIV Write 2021
Prompt #4 - The Queen of Draic
<Late Stormblood Patch 4.5 Spoilers>
Baleful - ‘menacing; threatening harm’
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(Used some in game cutscene text for this one just cause it writes the scene so well and sets up my idea so perectly)
Silence swallowed the room with the weight of Emperor Varis’s words. The Garlean Empire was created from the beginning by Ascians, and in truth, Katsum could not say she was surprised with the chaos the Garleans had always created, the pain and suffering they had caused based on her childhood memories alone. She felt the hand holding hers under the table tighten slightly as Aymeric felt her body tense through her fingers. Hien had been gracious enough to let her dear husband sit beside her, and she was glad that he had for there were a few times that Varis had targeted Aymeric’s and Ishgard’s sorrows specifically and it had only been his quick catch of her hand that kept the seeker from launching herself over the table. She took a long breath and squeezed his hand gently in response.
“Your ‘prize’ is a lie. It would be foolish to even wonder if you would have the upper hand in such an agreement. We would all die before peace is even a thought.” She answered, a bit to her tone as she scowled at him. Again she felt Aymeric’s fingers squeeze her a bit, and she felt his heartbeat quicken with worry.
The Emperor stood then, and spoke with a strange kind of fervor, “I come not to conquer but to liberate—to free man from the prison of divergence. Imagine a world united, and one perfect race beneath a single standard! We would be masters of our own fate! We would be far too strong for the servants of Darkness and Light to dare trifle with!” He held out his hands and grinned smugly, insanely, “I bid you join me! Not as a subject of Garlemald, but of a new nation! And together we shall win true freedom for ourselves and generations yet unborn!”
Silence returned for a moment, just for a moment, and then Lyse jumped to her feet, slamming her hands down on the table, “You want to trigger another half-dozen calamities!? You can’t be serious!”
“Have you forgotten how many died!?” Raubahn hissed, “There will be no one left!”
As he and Nanamo stood to their feet, so did Merlwyb, “Did you truly imagine we would aid you in your bloodletting?”
“It is unthinkable!” Katsum wasn’t sure she’d ever heard Kan-E-Senna raise her voice, but as she stood next to the other leader that had been there that day at Carteneau, it only made sense why. Alisaie looked to Lord Hien and Aymeric, and she and Hien stood to their feet. Katsum stayed seated as Aymeric let go of her hand to stand too, watching her out of the corner of his eye as she stayed still and stared angrily at Varis.
“And what of the other worlds? The ones we “rejoin”?” Alisaie finally broke her silence to shout, “Every calamity means you obliterate a star and every soul that dwells upon it!”
Varis frowned and grimaced in annoyance, “We are all but tiny specks in an indifferent universe. We cannot hope to oppose them until we have been made whole once more.”
“Odd, the same could be said about the many small countries and cities you forced under your rule in your…‘liberation’,” Katsum said softly, a clear edge to her voice.
He did not answer her.
Instead, Nanamo spoke then instead to fill the silence, “Are these truly the words of Garlemald’s ruler?” She did not give him the time to answer as she narrowed her gaze and continued, “The flaws which you so abhor are what make us who we are. Every nation─even yours, Emperor Varis─is made whole through the combination of these imperfections, the strengths of one compensating for the weaknesses of another. While it is true that man succumbs all too often to anger and avarice, he may yet overcome his baser instincts through the forming of bonds with others, fostering community and cooperation. That the protector of an empire should not only reject these fundamental truths but seek to change them at so dear a cost to life is indefensible,” She leaned forward and very nearly whispered, “Such a man is not fit to govern.”
The power in such words could shut out even Katsum herself she believed, and so Varis of course had naught to say to retort. He drew back to stand straight as a deep frown crossed his face, his eyes narrowed with the slightest hint of Katsum thought might be defeat. Then his gaze met her, “And you, Warrior of Light? Would you refuse me as well?”
Katsum was quiet, looking down to the table and closing her eyes as everyone else’s attention turned to her. Long had she carried this secret, keeping it safe from the knowledge of their enemy, but now, after these many long years, she was ready to bear her fangs.
“Tell me, Lord Varis, do you remember an island kingdom that your armies laid siege to some years ago? It was a small island that floated on the stormy seas of Sirensong, just to the east of Ul’dah’s shores. Do you know it?”
He tsked, “I remember some report of it, of mass destruction and nothing to gain from it. A waste of resources.”
Katsum’s fingers tightened into a fist, “A waste of resources…” She hissed this under her breath where only she and Aymeric heard before she continued, “Really? I thought you knew all of our histories and the flaws we sew into our nations.”
He growled, “Get to your point, girl.”
Katsum moved to slowly stand to her feet, feeling the eyes of the others as she stood tall and narrowed her sapphire gaze threateningly, “You call me ‘Warrior of Light’, ‘Defender of Eorzea’, ‘Liberator of Doma and Ala Mhigo’, and ‘Knightess of Ishgard’. All of these titles and more I now carry, but there is another title I have borne for far longer than any other. Do you know what it is?”
It seemed it took him a moment before his eyes widened, “You can’t be…”
“I am the Queen of Draic.”
Suddenly, the Draic necklace around her neck began glowing brightly, the eye of Raihogg burning into the red jewel. To the amazement of all, a deep rumble echoed behind her as she felt the dragon summoning his form, his wings spread out in his ghostly shade behind the other alliance members and hovered his head over Katsum’s like a shield, his glowing blue and golden eyes burning into Varis. The red dragon hissed lowly, making the emperor take a step back and his guards take a single step forward, but neither Katsum nor her dragon made a move to attack. The miqo’te stood tall as the confidence she had never known flowed into her veins. Still, she reached out her hand to the Elezen man beside her, wrapping her shaking fingers in his as he took her hand to ground herself and to keep her from going too far. He gently squeezed her fingers and it gave her the assurance that she needed.
“That ‘momentary’ island was my home and its people, my family. You reduced it to rubble for nothing and killed my people without remorse. Even now, you have no thought of sympathy,” She spat these words before she retracted and spoke sickeningly sweet, “Yet that is the past, right? A chapter for the history books, written and forgotten. Yet now you ask me as us to join this cause of yours, this movement of death and chaos and insanity. The same cause you forced upon my people,” Katsum’s eyes darkened angrily then, slightly baring her feline fangs as she hissed with her Dravanian companion, “If you truly believed we would join you in such madness, then you are far more a fool than you are a TYRANT!!”
Not so long ago, she would have denied this title and its weight, but at this moment, after so many years, finally the queen had come to rule.