Nuala is patient.

The simple fact that the Deepmoor repels each attack as though it were of no particular consequence hasn't yet ended the war; Nuala calls it a child's wounded pride and she is patient, sitting at her spinning wheel while she listens to reports and makes the decisions about day to day governance that are coming easier ( Read more... )

Deep within the Deepmoor's autumn castle, Nuala sleeps and dreams; separated from her brother by battlefields and duties, even her dreams aren't untouched by the clash of steel and fire in their blood, and her slumber is restlessly disturbed. In the morning she will have so much to do, and in the meantime she shares in Nuada's aches and somewhere ( Read more... )

( the freedom of the rich and powerful, and the freedom of the artist and the monk who renounces possessions. )

Much as she might prefer it at the moment, not all of her hours are spent with Amunet and Zari. (She teaches them her own native tongue, refreshing her own more-than-rusty Arabic in the process; they have no real need for English and she has no particular desire to teach it.) No, there are still duties she must attend to and promises she has to ( Read more... )

The arrival of Ankhenaten and his family throws Nuala into brief disarray. A watch is set at her request, and when that's done she leaves long enough to handpick a pair of suitable maids to attend the chambers. From there, one of the healers is informed she's to consider any requirements of the naga guests her highest priority, while the rest of ( Read more... )

( To Arlen Arkenstone. )

It's pure luck that the call goes through when Nuala is performing her weekly (or so) check that she hasn't missed anything terribly important on her pinpoint; she nearly drops the damn thing for being startled. "Hello?" in a cautious voice ( Read more... )

After the sudden ordeal in the nexus, it's Ankhenaten who takes the princess back to her castle - where they have been undisturbed, so it's still anyone's guess as to precisely what happened to her brother that has her now seeping blood from an arrow-wound. There are magi and healers and fussing maids (not to mention Lonán, who takes up station ( Read more... )

As Doul's arrival is anticipated but Nuala's own tardiness is not, when he does come to Dún Fómhar he is first of all given the Lady's apologies and assurances she'll join him very soon - before he's shown to a receiving room to wait.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned Lady of the Deepmoor extracts herself from her unanticipated guest, pleading a ( Read more... )

Some days after Arlen's letter arrives (and is read, and is abandoned on her desk when an emergency pulls her away, and is eventually remembered late in the evening when she's refilling her inkwell herself), a response arrives to the Crumrins' home sent by fairy-messenger, and sealed with wax. The thin paper still smells faintly of the incense ( Read more... )