🐉 🐉 🐉
THE day of the meeting, the castle’s courtyard was turned into what looked like the headquarters of a military encampment out in the fields.
A cloth wall of pure white with a blue line marked the boundaries of the camp, obscuring the surrounding buildings. This cloth wall was a magic item imbued with the ability to repel arrows and spells, but it was used only for appearances right now. An impressive cast of nobles in fancy, colorful clothing sat outside that line, though Lushera only knew their titles.
In front of them, further into the encampment, sat the king of Setrayu, even his chair resplendent despite being for outdoor use. He looked to be in his late forties. He had dark brown, nearly black, heavily textured hair, styled short and neat, flowing, resplendent clothing, and a cape with a vivid motif that resembled rushing water.
Lushera’s first impression was that he seemed…interesting. He somewhat lacked the majesty she imagined a king to have. But he wore a crown, carried a royal scepter in hand, and sat with a dignity suited to the role. This would all be habit to him, drilled in as training from the moment he was born as the next in the line for the throne, and polished through fifteen years of experience in that chair.
Lushera sat on the opposite side of this “meeting room” set up in the courtyard, meaning she could meet the King’s gaze as much as she wanted. But she wasn’t the main act today.
The sky was cloudy, not that they had planned that.
A light flashed in the clouds.
“What is that…?” asked one noble, as the crowd looked up.
The clouds burned, a hole opening so high in the heavens that no human could reach it. Flames consumed those clouds, tearing through them, then a shooting star plummeted from the hole.
Quivering cries of fear rose.
The fire rushed towards the ground, where the onlookers assumed it would explode. But it didn’t. It gently split in the air, around the height of the palace’s roofs, and formed in a humanoid figure.
The cries turned to gasps of awe.
Her hair was the color of raging fire, her dress like flickering flames, her elegant, unblemished skin without a single imperfection, as you would expect from something created.
She was tall, if you were using human women as a comparison, and her body had the artistic curves of a masterwork statue. Her features had a wild dignity, entirely unspoiled by the mundane world, sublimely beautiful and noble. Her expression and aura were both so different from when she doted on Lushera that she nearly screamed “Who are you?” inside her head as she looked up at the woman from the ground.
The woman descended to the center of the meeting area, wreathed in fire. She held her hand over the ground, and it warped, rising into a throne that looked sculpted from cooled lava. It was made from a spell that manipulated earth.
“Human king,” she said. “Xxx one thing I wish to make clear from xxxx. My language does not conceal xxxx, xxx hides even less when used by someone xxxx not used to using it.”
There hadn’t been much time to practice, but Lushera got Kaphal to speak only in Draconic with her so she could practice listening to it. Her mind had a hard time keeping up with processing it, since there was just so much information, but she could guess at the words she didn’t know if she focused on reading the nuance. She understood it to a certain degree.
She knew that she had more experience negotiating with people than Kaphal did and she came to this meeting prepared to step in if she needed to.
“I see. How wonderful xxxx speak without concealing a xx thing,” said the King with a gentle smile in response to Kaphal’s first barrage. Then, in a resounding voice, he said, “I am Lazlo Calisto Riett Setrayu, King of Setrayu. I am overjoyed to see this day arrive.”
“I am Kaphal. I am daughter of Shurei, leader and xx of the Flight of Mount Bermarl, and Corya, she who knows xxxx. I am she who lives on Mount Kugus.”
Lazlo stood and walked to the center point between the two thrones. Kaphal remained seated.