After the fall

XVI

Velaris's POV

Another day, another migraine.

As I sat in yet another room full of the all women council Yelena had made. I found increasingly more tedious to keep the Hybern aristocrats alive. Not only were the nobility all cranky, old, high fae men. They were entitled pricks.

Alia sat at my right. She was in charge of the treasury and third in command of the now Hybern Republic. She and I were what I would call friends but not anywhere near telling each other our darkest secrets. We were close enough though that if something happened to either of us, there would be hell to pay.

To my left was Thorin, he was one of the others on Yelena's cabinet chosen by the people. He was a kind enough male whom of which I enjoyed company. But he enjoyed that kind of company from other males. But that had nothing to do with how I felt about him. Honestly, our views on the republic couldn't be farther apart. We could get into arguments that made entire battles look like children's quarrels. He was of decent build, not fat but not entirely muscled. He could lift you but I would pick him to do Illyrian training. His skin was almost the color of dark coffee. His eyes were a gorgeous shade of emerald green, and his hair was darker than the night court seal.

Not darker than Azriel's shadows though...
Stay on task you whore.

Prim snorted at that. Primrose was the second for my armies, my blood-sworn. Each member of the cabinet got one, and we swore a blood oath to the queen. Or as the people called her, the sovereigñe (pronounced sov-er-EN-yay).

Primrose was of athletic build, much taller than me although that isn't hard to accomplish. She could make eye contact with Azriel and look down at Tamlin much to my amusement. Her long silver hair and sharp, Hibernian features were very appealing to the eye. But her eyes are what scared most, they were the same as my mother's. An almost glowing silver, but it makes sense considering her gift is metal and stone. She can manipulate it into anything she needs. I've seen her take little pellets shot out from her armor into the heads of many, killing hundreds in one blow. But even her magic is no use for mine since we got the cure.

My powers never came back the way they were, but the ones that came back, were astoundingly stronger. Instead of the lightning and all the elements. I was left with water. And anything made of it could be under my command. Including human flesh.

I was pulled out of my assessment when one of the fatter men jumped out of his seat.

"Sovereigñe, you can't think for a second Prynthian will listen to anything you have to say about peace unless it's your dying breaths. Not only do they hate us, your a weak little wh-"

He was cut off by his mouth clamping down on itself. Done by mua.

"Lord Himagin, I grow tired of your insignificant existence. If you finish that sentence you will be doing me a service by signing your death warrant for me." I spoke with a very bored deflection. I am my mothers daughter after all.

After a moment of shock and silence I let him go and he simply stared at me with a look of loathing in his eyes. The entire cabinet looked at me with pride, except the only woman I answer to.

"Yes, mui sovereiñe?" (My sovereign)

"At my six, now." She then left the room. And I had to follow like a fucking dog. When we got to her office, she sighed "Velaris, how the fuck am I supposed to get their respect with you putting the fear the the cauldron into them every other minute?" Silence "Answer me damn it!"

"Well I'm sorry for defending you the only way I know! Yelena, we are trying to build a new nation with old members. For the sole reason of keeping Hybern conservatives happy. But they elected you. NOT, cranky old high fae. So if you want me to stand there while you take there shit, you picked the wrong general, you picked the wrong emissary, you picked the wrong second." Yelenas pitch black hair twirled to me, her copper eyes matching my hair. Then narrow on my own ice blue eyes bordered in navy.