Elemental Thief Part I : Child of Calamity

Siblings

Mireya stood on the stone patio overlooking the harbour, with the rest of her party, Ambassador Chaven, and most of the gathered Clairvalan Court. She counted nine right now, though she knew that one of them was on the ship they were all watching, leaving only a couple who had yet to arrive for the upcoming council meetings.

She smelled wariness on some, and had seen them cooly meet with Lady Valencia, though over the last few days of them being in the capital, she had noticed them warm up to her, noble by noble, moment by moment.

Three of them had shown themselves to be Morningside allies, four if you counted the Duchess, who was always clearly on Valencia's side, though cooly aloof at times.

It was an odd, complicated court dance that seemed to soothe and calm the humans, though Mireya knew her own court was just as nuanced. Valencia was working hard behind the scenes to win the support of those who wanted war, the wrong kind of war.

The remaining five smelled of fear, desperation, and calculation. Just as the palace had been losing its smell of treachery, these Courtiers had shown up, and the dangerous, violent smell that returned.

Though it had weakened in the last few days.

The palace these people had returned to wasn't the one that they thought they were walking into.

There were other nobles in attendance, some of them scattered amongst the group, though Byzan had explained to her that a few who had been with Lord Riven, the sneering man who smelled the strongest of treason, had been seemingly cut adrift. They were trying to distance themselves from the storm to come.

Chaven stepped up beside her, offering her a thoughtful smile. "Still sensing it?"

"It's smell, really. Though there's a bit more. It was going away, but I still have an undercurrent, and there's a lot of tension, with everyone knowing what... who's on that ship." Mireya glanced down to the port, where the Sea Sprite was pulling into an area for private vessels, even as the smaller Calamity was docking within the Royal piers, still flying the Clairvalan flags and colours.

From here, she could hear the Lady Darya calling out orders, and she could see her brother and his oddly mismatched team of City and Royals standing off to one side, with Anzael and Tayver standing nearby.

Mireya watched as the Captain and her sailors stepped back as more of the Clairvalan Royal Guard boarded and moved to take control of the prisoners.

Byzan and her own Guard were down in the city, she could see them scattered in ones and twos throughout the forefront of the crowd, and their mere presence was enough to cow the humans backwards, giving an oddly orderly scene down on the docks as Lord Corvin and the other man, the one named Kethan, were brought up on deck, then down to the waiting prisoner's carriage, under heavy guard.

Both of them were in heavy chains, though looked none the worse for wear.

It was only the Rulin, and the couple Vayan's, taking flight that signalled something had changed to the humans up in the court, and one of the Peers had a looking glass out, explaining the prisoners were on their way towards the prison. With the Rulin and Vayan guard returning out of sight of the courtiers, everyone began to relax and murmur about what was to come.

She turned around and saw Princess Akina standing off to the side, watching the crowd on the patio more than attempting to watch what was happening in the harbour. The woman was tense, frightened, and unsure of the entire world around her, but she had a calm mask that made her look unaffected, untroubled, and confident.

Mireya offered her a nod, which drew a smile of relief and an inclined head.

Mireya had a moment to glance to her uncle. When there was a flash of wings overhead, she saw Byzan land with her brother, as the others turned and wheeled to whatever positions Byzan had assigned to them.

Moments later, General Anzael and Commander Tayver landed. The humans fell silent, two groups watching the newcomers, before Byzan nodded towards where Mireya was standing with Chaven. The humans shifted to give a little room, as if wanting distance from the winged visitors, who were now a good portion of the people in this gathering.

Mireya grinned to her brother, reaching up to cup his cheek when he took off his helmet. "Little brother."

"Sister." He pretended to scowl, but ended up smiling thoughtfully at her, taking her hand and kissing the back of it, before accepting the hug from his uncle. "How's the life of parties and dances?"

"Well. I hear you are a pirate hunter now. A proper sailor." She grinned, accepting Anzael's greeting, before the Vayan party shifted slightly apart from them, bringing Chaven up to date with what had happened.

Mireya looked to Byzan, who offered her a nod, before shifting into the background, more interested in watching the humans, learning the things they didn't realise Rulin ears could pick up, than socialising for now.

"It's fascinating, the ships. I mean, I had been on the Sprite before, but I am almost sorry to have missed the other one in full action. It's the closest thing the humans have to flying," Davanos offered, moving to stand beside her, his voice lowering. "You've been talking to the Queen?"

"Princess Akina is acting under her mother's authority. She is essentially the Regent, in everything but title." Mireya nodded to where the woman was speaking with a great deal of patience to a rather agitated looking Lord Riven, though the Duchess Tisaso was standing beside her, answering most of the questions.

"There are a few salvageable humans." He muttered, shaking his head, giving her a blunt look in response to her admonishing glare. "This is why you're the ambassador."

"No. I'm the ambassador, because I'm older, and I act the way I do because I'm the ambassador, not the other way around." She murmured softly, before reaching out and taking his hand, giving it a squeeze. "Were they that horrible to deal with?"

"No. One of the salvageable ones is the Captain Darya, and another, Sir Reynald. If they both didn't think I was ready to kill them from the get-go, we would have gotten off just fine." Davanos grinned to her, holding up his hands, as if to plead innocence. "Father wanted it made very clear what Rulin's intentions were. He wanted to add a bit of emphasis to your bargaining skills."

"Lady Darya is the younger sister of Lady Valencia." Mireya nodded to where the woman was talking heatedly with two Lords, who were supposed to be her allies. "Darya has made more effort to foster this new understanding in Clairval than most of these people combined. And Sir Reynald is the head of the Royal Guard here. He appears to be quite integral to the Crown Princess." She paused, then nodded towards said Princess. "Why don't you go be a proper Prince, and rescue a princess from a monster."

"I kind of prefer princesses who do their own rescuing, to be honest." Davanos grumbled, before flashing her a charming grin and starting off in that direction.

Mireya laughed softly, pulling herself from the retaining wall that looked over the city to join the rest of the party, trying to ignore the sense of threat that seemed to seep up from everywhere.