A Delicate Darkness | AZRIEL (ACOTAR)

vi. swan amongst vultures

CHAPTER NOTES (see line comments)

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SWAN AMONGST VULTURES

WORD SPREAD OF AURORIA VANSERRA'S DEBUT BALL.

She'd spent her entire girlhood knowing no one but her family, but the House, and now... now, she's to debut.

The date was set as soon as the plan sprung to the High Lord's mind — her sixteenth birthday, which was a few months from now.

Whilst it was the norm for daughters of noble families in Autumn to debut into society at sixteen (to scout for bachelors and betrothals before their menstrual cycle began typically at seventeen or eighteen), it was abnormal to meet the debutante for the first time at her debut. Debuts were mere formalities — betrothals tended to be made between powerful families, whose children knew one another from their youngling years.

As expected, the Court came alive with preparations, with whispers, with excitement at what might be the largest occasion the court has seen in centuries.

It had been nearly a millennium since Autumn's seen a daughter of the High Lord, the last to bear the mantle of Daughter of Autumn being Beron's sister, long deceased in the War.

Strange of all was how quickly people moved on — how quickly people forgot about Lucien. The funerals of Caius and Oberon Vanserra came and went — an entirely sordid affair where every member of the Family remained tight-lipped about the manner of their deaths. A period of mourning was held for a month, where High Fae and Lesser Fae alike flooded the House to give their condolences and lay flowers at their monuments: two tall obelisks in the Vanserra cemetery. Auroria refused to attend their memorials; it was a pantomime of people either feigning grief or actually wrecked with grief, and Auroria knew not whether she could tolerate either.

She knew Caius and Oberon as she knew them — there was no need to know how others thought of them, people that Auroria had never even laid eyes upon.

One day, she traversed the hidden passageways she used to as a child, and watched behind the trellis as floods of people filled the galleries and laid down bouquets and wept and cried for their dead princes. She thought it terribly inane given that Caius was allergic to flowers and that the only ones Oberon liked were roses.

When the High Lord lifted the state of mourning and changed out of black clothes, preparations for Auroria Vanserra's ball began. It was around the same time that the brothers were asked about Lucien Vanserra, who was not seen during the whole month and could not survive absence without questions being asked as Auroria could. It was also around that time that the High Lord addressed Lucien for the first time since that fateful day.

Not directly, of course, but to bestow Auroria Lucien's abandoned territory.

"It has been without a warden for too long — any longer and it will fall into a state of disrepair. Let us see how your governess' lessons fared," Beron told her. He actually invited her into his study to discuss it, in the presence of his Second and Third: Lord Napier and Lord Marrone. There was a gleam betwixt Lord Napier's blue eyes, so reminiscent of his son, Calix's.

"I thought..." she cleared her throat to hide her hesitation. Auroria tried not to stumble, tried not to quiver ever since she set foot in this study. The study that held memories of bewitching magical items, stolen vision, and broken hands. "I thought that only sons receive territories."

"Virgil will absorb Oberon's territory, and Eris, Caius'. I see no purpose better for the third than to give to you to oversee, Auroria," said the High Lord with a tone of finality that had Auroria's mind reeling back to years ago when Beron spoke many a startling word about his ambitions for her.