Throne of Calamities

1

NOTE: All the characters are alive and kickin' in these one-shots.

--- (Iconic dashes)

Lorcan, unsurprisingly, had an awful day. 

Although he couldn't deny that his definition of 'awful' usually starts with the most minuscule inconveniences. It was credible that trying to have a civilised conversation with mortal beings,  whose only purposes seemed to be to cower at his mere presence, can hurl a 500 years old Fae male's temper into oblivion. It wasn't as if he wanted to talk to them, anyway, but the inevitable need for information left him with little choices. Naturally, it didn't take long for him to develop a foul mood by the time dusk fell, when the sky altered into shades of blue and grey, paling as it collided with the border between itself and the yellow hue accompanying the sun down below the horizon. Lorcan wasted no time to even appreciate the view before him and made his way back to the castle of Orynth, where the rest of the cadre was staying with Aelin's court. 

Aelin. That arrogant brat better not be up to her usual mischiefs and getting herself along with others into an unnecessary amount of trouble. Her recklessness was enough to leave behind a path of destruction in her wake, with or without her power, and Lorcan did not intend to stick around just to watch as either Aedion or Rowan pull out their ridiculously long lectures and rant on and on for hours.

Through countless gates and doors, Lorcan soon found himself in front of the castle solar. By then, the sun had been swallowed whole by a dark blanket, as if the world was no more than a  mere coat-hanger and whatever god or goddess had thrown a cloak over it. The door was closed, but he could easily recognise the faint light that seeped past the minute cracks. Quietly turning the handle, Lorcan eyes widened beyond belief as he took in the scene before him.

Aelin was sprawled onto the carpet, her head rested against the side of an alabaster-coloured wolf while her hair ran in golden streaks down the predator's ivory fur. Another wolf shifted slightly, this one black as night, as Aelin repositioned her legs that were swung over its large body. The queen's left arm was placed around a mountain lion by her side, absentmindedly stroking its tawny beige shoulder while holding a scarlet-cover book to her face with her other hand. Aelin seemed to be reading whatever was on the pages aloud, her voice occasionally interrupted by the clicking of beaks from the white-tailed hawk perched on her right shoulder. Even the osprey was there, who was known to have an uncanny tendency to disappear half of the time, yet here it was, nestled within the colossal piles of books and looking as content as an osprey could ever get.

Lorcan was glad for the amount of shadows the room provided, considering that the only source of light came from the flames engulfing the book that Aelin held - each page showing no sign of being scorched or even singed, only set alight as a makeshift lamp. Though he knew that his presence couldn't possibly be concealed now that he was this close to a group of experienced Fae warriors - no matter how much of their attention is set towards the story currently being told - he just hoped the dim brightness of the room could at least hide his baffled expression as he slowly made sense of the situation.

"The evil monster crept past the threshold," Aelin raised her voice slightly, as if addressing it to someone further away from her than the rest. If Lorcan didn't know better, he'd think she was speaking specifically to him. "It was searching for its prey, an innocent yet magnificent queen who wanted nothing more than to enjoy a book in the company of her friends."

Her speech was followed by a noise from the white wolf supporting her head, a sound that might have been a wheeze of someone trying to refrain from laughing. 

"But this certain monster was very cruel," she continued. "It was going to torture said innocent queen with a horrifying disquisition about her lack of 'queenliness', how she, out of all people, need to understand the boundaries of royalty.