O
restes. That had been his name. That had been his name, and he had given it to her in a silk-cushioned box, and she had curtsied and gifted him hers, wrapped in mink. Without a care in the world.
What made it worse was that she hadn't even found out on her own. Charon had told her - and if her father's chief advisor hadn't thought her foolish and brash enough before, there was no more doubt about his view of her now.
"Orestes." Her heart had jumped into her throat when the tattooed boy's name had appeared, wrenched out of thin air, from lips that had no business, none at all, knowing it.
She hadn't moved from her paperwork, but her pen had stilled, and fat drops of ink bled carelessly over her signature. "That new Solterran king."
"What?" She hadn't meant to say it so loud. Charon had glanced over the rim of his spectacles at her. She hated when he did that, and he knew it. "I assumed you would've known," he said, his own pen hovering poised in the air, no ink drops in sight, "seeing that you were there."
"I left early." He'd sighed at that, typical typical, before turning back to the bookshelf and pulling out a thick manuscript. A sigil of a crown encircled by a sun was stamped in real gold on the cover, along with a black, heavy-handed 'XXV' printed neatly beneath. "The new king has begun compiling his regime. Announced that he'd hold auditions for positions - a technocrat in our very own Solterra, never thought I'd live to see the day - soon," he'd murmured, pulling out another manuscript, 'IX', and then another, 'XVI'. Grunting, Charon set the stack of heavy volumes down on her desk. Dust blew up in clouds.
Official Solterran court documents they were, from her uncle's time. Her father had ordered a scribe to ship over a crate of them to the White Scarab years ago. "Recorded accounts from some particularly influential Solterran ambassadors. Pliny, Draga, Dreyfus, Sallow. Controversial, a few of them." She'd nodded mutely, sliding the first volume towards her and dutifully flipping open a page. "If you're going for a position, wouldn't hurt to impress his highness, would it?"
Your eyes. They're beautiful.
Chewing on her lip, she thought, darkly: I'm fairly sure I already have.
----
It is stiflingly hot. A bead of sweat slips beneath Aghavni's silk scarf and dips over the curve of her withers. Her exposed neck bakes beneath the Solterran sun, and she is sure that if she presses the spikes holding her hair along the underside of a throat, they would singe through fur and skin and flesh. Like a living coal.
The prince of the sea, of the sun, of them, speaks. All are silent, as they listen and bide and sharpen the tips of their fangs. She, fangless but jaded, stilettos in her hair and daggers in her scarf, watches his golden tattoos play like shadow puppets across his skin. How proudly he wears the sun sigil, high upon his brow.
How secretively she wears hers, burned into the pupil of her eye.
"Who will rise?" he asks them, his voice incandescent. She waits, as Father had taught her. She had never recited letters, or numbers, or whatever silly, demeaning task children did to delight their parents. Instead, she'd recited hymns and battle formations, read diplomacy and undermined sabotage. Her father had numbered her lessons. "Forty five," he'd say, glancing up from his work, and she'd clear her throat, perch on the arm of his chair, and recite: "They must wait for your voice. You must always be the one to tip the scales."
"King Orestes." A lock of her hair falls into her eyes as she curtsies. Her voice is perfectly level, her eyes perfectly emerald. They are strangers. Perfect strangers. "You have been honest with us," haven't you? Her eyes narrow, enough for him to notice. "And so I shall be honest with you. My name is Aghavni. But I have another name: Sol the Fourth, of House Hajakha. Solterran born, Denoctian raised - I have a title, too, but it is long, and I have forgotten it."
She allows herself a breath, and smiles when it does not shake. "There is none other who knows the Old Court more than I, the Old Families, the Old Ways. Solterra has been a monarchy for too long for her to accept foreign kings and soldier queens with any amount of kindness. There will be opposition to you." She pauses, the words "especially from the nobility," clenched beneath her tongue. She pushes it aside. This is not the time.
"As a member of your regime," (Lesson twenty-five: Assume permission.) "I shall help you to ease these tensions, to the best of my ability. Rest assured, it is not just history I know." Her eyes read, for any who dares to wonder: I have been trained for this my whole life.
"So, I ask you for the role of Emissary." She tastes the salt of her sweat upon her tongue. I will prove my worth. To Father, to Solis, to you. Her eyes flick gingerly towards the throne. She allows herself to imagine her mother upon it, supple limbs askew, showered in faceted emeralds. Draped like a goddess in the lap of a god.
But when she looks upon the face of her mother, a faceless being stares back. Little dove, little dove. You have forgotten my face. Crying, the bloodless wraith crumbles into ash.
the rain fell; and, falling,
it was rain, but, having fallen,
it was blood.
it was rain, but, having fallen,
it was blood.
Which position are you applying for, and why would your character be well-suited toward it? Aghavni is applying for Emissary - I believe she suits this position extremely well, seeing that she has an extensive amount of knowledge about Solterra, and has spent half her life in a foreign court. Diplomacy is a strength of hers (if asked, she would tell you that negotiating contracts with underground crime organizations prepares you extraordinarily well for this sort of work) and she would actively try to arrange alliances with the other regimes, promote Solterra's new values under Orestes, and happily send invitations all over Novus for Solterran events.
What is your current activity level, and can you commit to a reasonable amount of activity? How many IC posts could you make approximately each month? I can reasonably make at the very least 1-2 posts for Aghavni per week! I plan to prioritize her posts if she gets a regime position. My schedule will be much freer this (academic) year, since contact hours for my classes are so much less than I'm used to.
Would you be willing to contribute plot ideas, lore, and court events? If so, do you have any existing ideas? Definitely - I have lots of Solterran lore expansion ideas, especially in creating adopts or recurring NPCs drawn from their lore! As for event ideas, Aghavni [true to her Scarab roots lol] loves organizing parties and festivals and such, and I have a lot of ideas in that department as well, like a battle academy, festivals honoring Solterra's holidays, and maybe even a murder mystery plot with mini prompts and "suspect" descriptions released in multiple rounds?? (Something I've been toying around with for a while!!)
How would you like to see Solterra "rebuilt" post-Raum? What kind of events would you like seen, and multi-Court relationships? I'd love to see Solterra flourish in any way, honestly - but most of all in hosting large-scale events because I don't think Solterra has ever really had one in the past? And there's so much potential for it! I'd love to see Solterra's military might and "warrior culture" really bloom too, it's always been something I've loved about the court. I think there's a lot of potential for secret societies and ancient orders to be created, each with their own alliances, which can stir up some good ol' tension when sought ;D
Is there anything else you would like to add? Super excited for this opportunity and for the future of Solterra, I LOVE Orestes!!
What is your current activity level, and can you commit to a reasonable amount of activity? How many IC posts could you make approximately each month? I can reasonably make at the very least 1-2 posts for Aghavni per week! I plan to prioritize her posts if she gets a regime position. My schedule will be much freer this (academic) year, since contact hours for my classes are so much less than I'm used to.
Would you be willing to contribute plot ideas, lore, and court events? If so, do you have any existing ideas? Definitely - I have lots of Solterran lore expansion ideas, especially in creating adopts or recurring NPCs drawn from their lore! As for event ideas, Aghavni [true to her Scarab roots lol] loves organizing parties and festivals and such, and I have a lot of ideas in that department as well, like a battle academy, festivals honoring Solterra's holidays, and maybe even a murder mystery plot with mini prompts and "suspect" descriptions released in multiple rounds?? (Something I've been toying around with for a while!!)
How would you like to see Solterra "rebuilt" post-Raum? What kind of events would you like seen, and multi-Court relationships? I'd love to see Solterra flourish in any way, honestly - but most of all in hosting large-scale events because I don't think Solterra has ever really had one in the past? And there's so much potential for it! I'd love to see Solterra's military might and "warrior culture" really bloom too, it's always been something I've loved about the court. I think there's a lot of potential for secret societies and ancient orders to be created, each with their own alliances, which can stir up some good ol' tension when sought ;D
Is there anything else you would like to add? Super excited for this opportunity and for the future of Solterra, I LOVE Orestes!!
