The Keep, Ebon Askavi, Kaeleer, Just Before Sundown (Kaeleeran Time)

[glacial_witch]

Karla tried not to look nervous as the great doors to the Dark Altar opened in front of her. Inside, Opal witchlights danced in sconces, forming a path for her to follow, rather than illuminating what was within. This was very different than her Birthright Ceremony, where she'd had the company of her parents and several other children, where a

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[endsthegame]

It was only right to come here, considering the circumstances - if he and Ben were to be stuck at Fandom on the wrong weekend, they might as well do something worth doing.

He smiled at Karla as she went, but he hadn't bothered to approach: she had made it clear it wasn't entirely welcome, and this was hardly his time.

"Well," he said, as the doors closed. "This'll be interesting."

[changeable_eyes]

"Interesting?" Jaenelle asked lightly. "You're a fan of waiting, then? Or are you hoping someone will pull out a board for cradle?"

[endsthegame]

"I hope you won't take it as an insult if I decline your offer to playing cradle," Ender said. As he turned to Jaenelle, he had a real smile on his face. "I'm not sure what the protocol is."

[changeable_eyes]

"For most of the boyos, it's a look of terror, followed by a frantic shoving of someone else under the Coach and then a break for the closest door," Jaenelle assured him. "A simple 'no, thank you' will be refreshing."

[endsthegame]

"Then no, thank you," Ender replied. "And-- how have you been? It has been a long time."

He'd written occasionally, but not often enough, really.

[changeable_eyes]

"Well, there's always the chance that someone else won't be paying attention next time I ask," Jaenelle said, laughing a little. "Perhaps Ben would like to play."

And this was why she and Karla were friends. Because for all of her sweetness, Jaenelle had a mischievous side.

"I've been well," she replied. "For once, I've been up to very little. It's almost refreshing. Mostly visiting friends in their homes like I used to when I was little. I just got back from visiting Grandmammy Teele of the Dea al Mon. It's odd, adjusting to the ground again. They live in enormous villages up in the trees."

[endsthegame]

"How are the Dea al Mon faring?" Ender asked. "I've read some about them in some of the books Karla's passed on to me over the years, but... not much."

[changeable_eyes]

"They're very secretive," Jaenelle agreed. "And most outsiders who deal with them don't live to speak about it. The Dea al Mon are the Territory's most dangerous Blood--at least, not counting the Arachnians."

Though it was the Arachnians' webs one had to worry about, not the spiders themselves.

"They are as they always have been. Of all of us, the Dea al Mon are the least changing. They're a short-lived race, but they view time much the way a tree does, if that makes sense. Gabrielle will change that, a bit, when she becomes Queen. At least, she'll have more contact with outsiders."

[endsthegame]

"The face of Kaeleer is going to change quite radically when you and yours finally come to power," Ender observed. "At least, you've seemed to have gathered allies in a lot of previously unchanging places."

[changeable_eyes]

"Not me," Jaenelle said quickly with a shake of her head. "The others, yes, and I'm glad they'll have allies. Dark times are coming and they'll all need friends. Karla especially."

Her eyes went distant for a moment, turned to midnight before blinking back to summer-sky blue.

"But that's not for me. I have no interest in ruling anyone."

[endsthegame]

"There's a difference between having an interest and having a responsibility," Ender said quietly. "A lot of very important people are looking to you."

No pressure, Jaenelle.

[changeable_eyes]

Jaenelle shook her head, her chin taking on a stubborn tilt that she'd doubtlessly learned from one witch in particular. "My friends are all capable, competent Queens in their own right. What need to they have of me to make the Offering and rule from...my father's hall? Force the Queens of Dhemlan to bow to me? Unnecessary."

[endsthegame]

"'Ruling' takes a great deal of forms, and many of them have absolutely nothing to do with bowing or lurking over someone's shoulders," Ender said patiently. "Your Dea al Mon friend won't be a different ruler just because she is different. She met someone who inspired her."

[changeable_eyes]

Wrinkling her nose, Jaenelle reluctantly nodded. "I don't like the idea of being inspirational, either," she admitted. "It sounds so distant. I do everything I can to be close to people, not be further away."

Which was why she wasn't making her Offering.

"But I won't say you're wrong in that. I'll take than kind of distance than the responsibility of being a ruler any day."

[endsthegame]

Ender cast her a look, a tiny smile on his mouth and tired, knowing sympathy in his eyes.

"You won't be able to run away from this forever," he said. "You're too great in all their minds. That's what I mean, Jaenelle-- you've brought them all together, and you've inspired them. Now at least several of them are preparing for war, in whatever form it takes for them. Tradition. Tyranny. There will be consequences. They'll come to you."

[changeable_eyes]

Her sigh was a deep and tired one. "I didn't try to do any of that," she said, knowing that it was a futile argument, even as she made it. "I was a little girl who wanted to make friends and had promised not to wander around Terreille. And then Papa saw a lonely adolescent who missed her friends. Everything else just sort of...happened."

Because, you know, she was dreams made flesh and all.