[P] noble blood

[Antiope]

if the crown fits, when the sword lifts

Spring is drawing to a close. Already the days are warmer, longer, brighter. The streets are busy in Denocte, equines brushing along like fish in a stream. They pass and nod or smile in her direction. Some greet her, “Welcome back, Queen Antiope,” or “Safe travels?” The streets are full of horses. When did they become so full of horses?

She missed it all, the budding of Denocte like a springtime bloom. But her travels had been necessary. Antiope could not have begun her sovereignship as a stranger to the other courts. She didn’t want her people to become another statistic. She doesn’t want to be another bizarre thing, another secret. No more of that.

She had passed beneath the shadow of a nearly completed structure on her way in from the mountain pass. The Queen smiles now, thinking of it, as she pushes on toward the citadel. Now that she is back in her home there is much to be done and so little time to do it all. If Antiope was not much of a sleeper before, she certainly will not be one now. Her magic will have to get her through the precious short weeks to come.

As the doors to the castle are opened before her, she turns toward one of the pages—a young boy with paper ivory skin and morning blue eyes, not quite blue but not quite green, pale—and speaks. “Aubin, will you please go find Morrighan and have her meet me in the great room?”

The boy bobs his head and hurriedly moves down the steps and into the streets. He is, perhaps, the only child in the entire kingdom who isn’t completely afraid of the Warden. Antiope thinks he is rather awed by the woman’s magic and would like some of his own, someday. She tries to picture him wielding fire like Morrighan, and can only hope that he grows up with less of a temper.

She moves into the great room, where the embers of this morning’s fire pulse in the fireplace on the far wall. The smell of woodsmoke still lingers in the air. “M’Lady,” one of the kitchen maids says as she polishes a table nearby, “It’s wonderful to have you back. Would you like anything? Surely you must have an appetite after your trip.” Antiope smiles, and appraises the girl.

“A meal would be lovely. Whatever the cook has, for two,” and moves to wait at one of the tables for Morrighan to arrive. Hopefully the Warden will bring her appetite with her, and plenty of news of the state of the court while she has been away. She is reminded of what all there is yet to do.

as the song lifts, and the world tilts

∞ | @Morrighan