The Heirs

Chapter 12- All Was Still

there is a two-fold Silence-
sea and shore-
body and soul.
one dwells in lonely places,
newly with grass o'ergrown;
some solemn graces,
aome human memories and tearful lore,
render him terrorless:
his name's 'No More'
-

A year and a half passed since the execution of Lord Zephian.

The assassination attempts stopped, and despite the deceased Lord's claims that there were many who were opposed to the current rule, the people were happier than ever- though, perhaps that was more because the Harvests of the year had been bountiful, and less because the High King hadn't been murdered. Both the Harvests had been celebrated with festivals and fairs and Balls, for the nobles and commoners alike, and for a time, the Narnians had lit up with a kind of joy and ebullience that had been lacking in the land for quite a while.
The mysterious wildfire which had taken down almost an entire village remained a solitary event, with no other bizarre disasters befalling the land. There had been more investigations launched regarding the wildfire, but much to Lady Vanai's frustration, nothing came of it and the case was ruled as an unfortunate accident.

The search for Temissa, General Orieus's youngest daughter, was called off six months after her disappearance. There was no trace of her, nothing to suggest she'd been taken and nothing to suggest she was alive. Despite Selene's determination to find her, even she knew that at one point, one has to hang up the sword and concede defeat. Everyone who knew her, still kept an eye out, just in case- but the hope which had initially burned brightly in them had faded. It hurt Selene to do it, but she had approached one of Temissa's brothers, Soren, to find out if anything had changed in the stars. To her surprise, he'd been clueless about Temissa's dire readings and claimed several times that she had never mentioned such to him, or any of the other stargazers- and that, from what he had seen recently, the stars spelled nothing but good fortune for them.
It had confused Selene, and for some time, she had thought that Temissa had been wrong, or had been playing with her fear. It was only much later that she would realise that Temissa hadn't been wrong- she'd been the only one who had seen the truth. With the knowledge the stars had bestowed on her, she'd become the seer her father had hoped for- yet it was the same knowledge that proved to be her undoing.
But the Princess wouldn't realise that until it was too late.
She'd become too busy, after the search had been called off, with sending off the Lords who'd chosen exile (four of them had done so, while the other two had preferred prison over being penniless) to islands on the Eastern Ocean. This was an arduous task, for each Lord had to be sent to a different location and she had to ensure that they wouldn't manage to escape on the journey there. To her surprise, the Pirate Prince had been a great help to her, and their bond had been cemented the moment he'd called his mother a withdrawn loon. Selene could empathise with that. She'd been dodging her mother's letters and replying back with one-line answers for a decade now- honestly, if it wasn't for Jem and his detailed letters, Sanya would never have any idea what her children were up to. The only time she'd written a long letter to her mother was about six years ago, when Jem had grown- she still shuddered to think about it- a moustache and a beard, and had refused to shave it off. She'd demanded her mother knock some sense into his head, so that he would shave the damn thing off.

(He did, eventually, shave it off, but that was because it was itchy and difficult to maintain.)

Selene was also preoccupied with her first monogamous relationship. Her entire life, she'd thought that the first time she would practice monogamy would be when she would marry- not that she had any particular inclination towards becoming a wife- but that stupid Khian and his crinkly smile and muscles had entranced her enough that she had been more than happy to commit to a singular partner.
It was, of course, only sex, and a complete secret, even from her siblings.