Bygones (Summer Challenge, Strawberry Banana)
‘Verse: ☼ The Sun, Radiant ☼
Challenges/Toppings/Extras: Summer Challenge ‘14: Special Brownie #30 (I am older now, I have more than what I wanted) & Akutaq #19 (everything’s bigger in ___), Strawberry Banana #17 (unwanted attention)
Rating: PG-13
Title: Bygones
Summary: Oh how times have changed.
Notes: Plot again! Whee!
Ruhana lay awake on the fourth night after the assassination attempt, listening to Vasyasa’s soft snores to her right and the breeze ruffling the curtains to her left. Her thoughts whirred ‘round and ‘round her head, darting off on tangents but coming back to the same theme - how her world had changed.
She remembered all the times she had tried to emulate her elder sister, even when she herself was an adult and Jalenashi beginning to sour. In her youth, her sister was a legendary figure, already a shrewd strategist by the time Ruhana, five years the younger, was struggling to learn her letters. If she had not been High Princess, surely she would have been made a general. But that keen eye for maneuvers both in the court and on the battlefield was now the very thing that kept Jalenashi uncaught as an enemy of the state.
As for her, little second princess Ruhana never expected to become Queen. Even as she and Jalenashi duked out their claims to the throne, she rarely truly expected to win. But her hand was forced by a more primal instinct that power-greed: Jalenashi had made it very clear that any threat to her was to be eliminated.
She’d never wanted this. But she would deal with what the gods gave her. It was all anyone could do.
A rapping came at the door, and Ruhana sat up, disregarding her bare breasts in the moonlight. No assassin would knock, and no one else would dare to enter without her explicit word. “Speak,” she ordered, running a hand through her hair before tying it back with a gold cord lying on her nightstand. If someone was interrupting her at night, it was probably news that required her to leave the chambers anyway. Might as well start early. Perhaps Gavin’s condition had changed?
It was the voice of one of her usual chamber-guards. “Apologies, Your Grace. The Fallstari king is awake and we have reports that the First Consort just arrived through the Back Gate.”
That had her leaping out of bed, throwing on a silken dress and sliding on her slippers. Vasyasa was sitting up, blinking in the moonlight, but she just pecked him on the cheek and checked herself in the full-length mirror before she was out the door, feet flying down the hall. The guard stood there sheepishly in her dust for a moment before Vasyasa’s scowl had him quietly shutting the door.
Challenges/Toppings/Extras: Summer Challenge ‘14: Special Brownie #30 (I am older now, I have more than what I wanted) & Akutaq #19 (everything’s bigger in ___), Strawberry Banana #17 (unwanted attention)
Rating: PG-13
Title: Bygones
Summary: Oh how times have changed.
Notes: Plot again! Whee!
Ruhana lay awake on the fourth night after the assassination attempt, listening to Vasyasa’s soft snores to her right and the breeze ruffling the curtains to her left. Her thoughts whirred ‘round and ‘round her head, darting off on tangents but coming back to the same theme - how her world had changed.
She remembered all the times she had tried to emulate her elder sister, even when she herself was an adult and Jalenashi beginning to sour. In her youth, her sister was a legendary figure, already a shrewd strategist by the time Ruhana, five years the younger, was struggling to learn her letters. If she had not been High Princess, surely she would have been made a general. But that keen eye for maneuvers both in the court and on the battlefield was now the very thing that kept Jalenashi uncaught as an enemy of the state.
As for her, little second princess Ruhana never expected to become Queen. Even as she and Jalenashi duked out their claims to the throne, she rarely truly expected to win. But her hand was forced by a more primal instinct that power-greed: Jalenashi had made it very clear that any threat to her was to be eliminated.
She’d never wanted this. But she would deal with what the gods gave her. It was all anyone could do.
A rapping came at the door, and Ruhana sat up, disregarding her bare breasts in the moonlight. No assassin would knock, and no one else would dare to enter without her explicit word. “Speak,” she ordered, running a hand through her hair before tying it back with a gold cord lying on her nightstand. If someone was interrupting her at night, it was probably news that required her to leave the chambers anyway. Might as well start early. Perhaps Gavin’s condition had changed?
It was the voice of one of her usual chamber-guards. “Apologies, Your Grace. The Fallstari king is awake and we have reports that the First Consort just arrived through the Back Gate.”
That had her leaping out of bed, throwing on a silken dress and sliding on her slippers. Vasyasa was sitting up, blinking in the moonlight, but she just pecked him on the cheek and checked herself in the full-length mirror before she was out the door, feet flying down the hall. The guard stood there sheepishly in her dust for a moment before Vasyasa’s scowl had him quietly shutting the door.