Anatoly could not tell you what the stronghold had been like before Raum, before "Madame Fia", before so many others. He could not tell you that once the walls stood unblemished and gleaming, that once the halls were rich with adornments and its denizens dripping in finery. He could not tell you that once it was a place teeming with life, with laughter, with love. He could not tell you much about the Day Court’s heart at all.
Truthfully, the Mors had been his first and only home, and of Solterra he had only had cause to roam the wilds: the desert, the oasis, and on rare occasion the canyon. What use had a simple man such as he for capitols and crowds of stuck up pigeons? Well, times had changed.
Mama had taken him to courts more impressive than this one, taught him the dances, draped him in just enough gold and soft yarn tassels to gentle his edges until he belonged. This one, where the commoners scurry past, head down and cowed, where the soldiers march through, arrogant and smirking, where the King rules the roost and those who do not fear him flock to his calls like so many blood drenched sheep? This one is easy to fit in.
Proud enough to keep the commoners from making eye contact, charming enough that the soldiers take him to be an ally and allow him passage without looking too closely. The balance he must keep isn’t a delicate one at all, and so he weaves through the many halls, memorizing architecture and turnoffs and glancing just long enough at passing rooms through the corner of his eye to ascertain the ones of note. Nothing to see here, he knows where he is going, just stretching his legs after the evening meal.
Maybe, if he’s lucky, he’ll catch sight of the King himself, or else the man’s prized basilisk where it is less likely to consume passersby. It would be good to know the face of the King he has set himself against, the scale of the creature he may one day be unlucky enough to face. Descriptions just aren’t enough for this sort of thing. Imagine the tragedy if he were to accidentally strike down Raum’s double? The King would surely take the death of an otherwise innocent man as one warning too close to home.
No, that simply wouldn’t do. Best to keep these things discrete until the knife digs in.
@Avdotya I'm so excited for this thread!
Truthfully, the Mors had been his first and only home, and of Solterra he had only had cause to roam the wilds: the desert, the oasis, and on rare occasion the canyon. What use had a simple man such as he for capitols and crowds of stuck up pigeons? Well, times had changed.
Mama had taken him to courts more impressive than this one, taught him the dances, draped him in just enough gold and soft yarn tassels to gentle his edges until he belonged. This one, where the commoners scurry past, head down and cowed, where the soldiers march through, arrogant and smirking, where the King rules the roost and those who do not fear him flock to his calls like so many blood drenched sheep? This one is easy to fit in.
Proud enough to keep the commoners from making eye contact, charming enough that the soldiers take him to be an ally and allow him passage without looking too closely. The balance he must keep isn’t a delicate one at all, and so he weaves through the many halls, memorizing architecture and turnoffs and glancing just long enough at passing rooms through the corner of his eye to ascertain the ones of note. Nothing to see here, he knows where he is going, just stretching his legs after the evening meal.
Maybe, if he’s lucky, he’ll catch sight of the King himself, or else the man’s prized basilisk where it is less likely to consume passersby. It would be good to know the face of the King he has set himself against, the scale of the creature he may one day be unlucky enough to face. Descriptions just aren’t enough for this sort of thing. Imagine the tragedy if he were to accidentally strike down Raum’s double? The King would surely take the death of an otherwise innocent man as one warning too close to home.
No, that simply wouldn’t do. Best to keep these things discrete until the knife digs in.
@Avdotya I'm so excited for this thread!
