𝙲𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝙱𝚕𝚘𝚜𝚜𝚘𝚖(𝙰𝙲𝙾𝚃𝙰𝚁)

𝔠𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔯𝔱𝔶-𝔰𝔢𝔳𝔢𝔫

hey guys. so im on vacation, which is why nothing has been updated. but i had this chapter prewritten for yall

✯¸.'*¨'*✿ ✿*'¨*'.¸✯

The boat was making me feel sick.

I didn't like the way it rocked, even if the sea was calm enough. But I kept it to myself, not eating or drinking for fear of emptying my stomach upon the floor.

"You'd think with our skilled jewelers, they could make a crown a bit more comfortable. This one digs in horribly," Tarquin was joking about the crown on his head.

"How did you keep it out of her hands?" Feyre dared to ask from beside me.

Seated at his left, deep in conversation with Cresseida, Rhys didnt so much as look over at us. He'd barely looked at us all night. Which disappointed me, because Feyre and I looked beautiful. We had dressed so nicely.

"We managed to smuggle out most of our treasure when the territory fell. Nostrus--my predecessor--was my cousin. I served as prince of another city. So I got the order to hide the trove in the dead of night, fast as we could."

"I didnt know the Summer Court valued treasure so much," Feyre said. He huffed a laugh.

"The earliest High Lords did. We do now out of tradition, mostly," Tarquin explained.

"So is it gold and jewels you value, then?" she pushed.

"Among other things."

"Are outsiders allowed to see the collection?" Feyre asked. "My father was a merchant--I spent most of my childhood in his office, helping him with his goods. It would be interesting to compare mortal riches to those made by Fae hands."

"Of course. Tomorrow--after lunch, perhaps?" Tarquin offered. Feyre nodded with a smile. "What was it like? The mortal world?"

"I only saw a very small slice of it. My father was called the Prince of Merchants--but I was too young to be taken on his voyages to other parts of the mortal world. When I was eleven, he lost our fortune on a shipment to Bharat. We spent the next eight years in poverty, in a backwater village near the wall. So I cant speak for the entirety of the mortal world when I say that what I saw there was . . . hard. Brutal. Here, class lines are far more blurred, it seems. There, it's defined by money. Either you have it and you dont share it, or you are left to starve and fight for your survival. My father . . .He regained his wealth once I went to Prythian. And the very people who had been content to let us starve were once again our friends. I would rather face every creature in Prythian than the monsters on the other side of the wall. Without magic, without power, money has become the only thing that matters."

"Would you spare them if war came?"

"My sisters dwell with my father on his estate. For them, I would fight. But for those sycophants and peacocks . . . I would not mind to see their order disrupted."

"There are some in Prythian who would think the same of the courts."

"What--get rid of the High Lords?"

"Perhaps. But mostly eliminate the inherent privileges of High Fae over the lesser faeries. Even the terms imply a level of unfairness. Maybe it is more like the human realm than you realize, not as blurred as it might seem. In some courts, the lowest of High Fae servants has more rights than the wealthiest of lesser faeries."

"Do you agree with them? That it should change?"

"I am a young High Lord," he said. "Barely eighty years old. Perhaps others might call me inexperienced or foolish, but I have seen those cruelties firsthand, and known many good lesser faeries who suffered for merely being born on the wrong side of power. Even within my own residences, the confines of tradition pressure me to enforce the rules of my predecessors: the lesser faeries are neither to be seen nor heard as they work. I would like to one day see a Prythian in which they have a voice, both in my home and in the world beyond it."