❝ Don't you dare look out your window, darling, everything's on fire
The war outside our door keeps raging on
Hold onto this lullaby even when the music's gone, gone ❞
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
┌────── ⋆. · ☆ · .⋆ ──────┐
Dance of the Dawn
└────── ⋆. · ☆ · .⋆ ──────┘
Cori'iana was no more than a few steps out of her room when the drawl of hello, cousin reached her ears. She looked over her shoulder to find her cousin Kodo dressed in all black hiding in the shadows leaning against a tall and gilded pillar. Cori'iana and her cousin had never had the closest of relationships, but they had been occasional playmates growing up. But things changed drastically when their grandmother pitted them against each other in the election to become monarch of Naboo. It had caused a seemingly unbreakable tension between the two of them when the people of Naboo had chosen her over him.
While they were often civil, their relationship could be described as frigid at best. Most of the ice was directed by Kodo, but he took Cori'iana not endorsing him for monarch against Padme Amidala personally. Cori'iana hadn't felt it right to support one candidate over the other. She thought it best to let the people of Naboo decide for themselves without her needing to sway the political fray. And the people had spoken in favor of Padme Amidala. That was more Kodo's doing than her own. Not that he saw it that way.
"Not creepy at all, cousin," Cori'iana said with a slight chuckle in her voice.
Kodo flipped his black cape with embroidered silver edges behind him before he skulked toward his cousin. He stopped in front of her and stood tall, trying to tower over her and intimidate her. But Cori'iana knew that he was no real threat to her. They were family after all. She offered him a smile.
He looked down at her coldly and then it seemed like a switch was flipped as his scowl quickly turned into a smile. He chuckled to himself. "It's probably for the best you're stepping down as queen," he drawled. "Smiling at your enemy isn't very threatening and it won't win you anything." He crinkled his nose, a Sanandrassa trait to be sure.
"I wasn't under the impression that we were enemies," Cori'iana responded to him. "Has there been some recent development I wasn't yet made aware of?"
"Of course not," he said smoothly, with his silky words that could charm most people. "But it's never a bad thing to expect the unexpected, Cori'iana. You never know what could happen."
Scerra cleared her throat and stepped forward. "You'll address her as your majesty, Kodo." Her words were spoken with venom, as would any protector, shielding their queen from any unwanted interaction. Scerra stepped between Kodo and Cori'iana, protecting her queen. "And if that was a threat to my queen, I will personally see to it that you answer for that."
Cori'iana gently pushed Scerra aside. As much as Scerra disliked Cori'iana's grandmother, she despised Kodo even more. And given his behavior, Cori'iana couldn't fault her handmaiden for that. "It's fine, Scerra." Cori'iana attempted to force a giggle to show that she was fine. "He's just being . . . my cousin."
