Classy, Controlled Chaos - The STEAM Team Adventures

🔥 Liquidation [8/8] 🔥

King Arthur's POV:

Tia wouldn't talk to me for a solid week.

She was visibly upset that she would have to move to Everhallow for what may be the rest of her life, fighting in an army of dragons.

I didn't want her to go, but our kingdom's survival depended on it.

Rumors were going around that Baywharf that their ships were due to attack us soon, declaring the alliance between us as invalid.

Everhallow's king, King Lance, sent their queen over to negotiate a treaty with us as official partner kingdoms.

I gladly accepted, but we would have to trade custody of Tia.

With Northwynd without an alliance, we could be doomed to fall to Baywharf's hands.

I didn't want that to happen, so I decided to accept their offer.

It cost me everything, though.

Tia was my everything.

Was it worth it?

Absolutely not.

However, I already signed that stupid treaty, so now she's going to be shipped off to Everhallow's coasts by the end of this moon cycle.

I hated myself for doing such an impulsive move.

"Sir Nyx?" I asked, sitting on my throne and skimming through one of my painting-related scrolls. "Could you send Sir Blanco to check in on Tia?"

"Absolutely, Your Majesty." The ivory knight nodded, marching from his station beside me and exiting the throne room.

His armor played shifted against each other, reminding me of the scaly queen that was coiled around my throne. "Queen Xera, are you positive that you should keep Tia for the next month?"

She nodded her serpentine head, her forked tongue flickering out of her mouth. "Yesss, Arthur. Ssshe will be in good handsss."

Even before the war, I knew Xera very well.

I trusted her, too.

We were both in the same art classes when we were younger, maybe around six or seven revolutions old.

She wasn't always a cobra.

When I painted my first canvas, she stood beside me, watching my brush stroke and cover the blank space.

Her entire body reminded me about smoke.

Because she was from Everhallow, she smelled like the charred hickory, probably from training the wyverns.

Her hair flowed like a murky stream of water, touching the floor and coiling around her feet.

Wisps of storm-grey highlights formed a subtle gradient near her roots, matching her dull eyes.

Like the phoenix-blacksmith that Tia was friends with, patches of soot stained her porcelain skin, making her appear like a forgotten child's toy.

Queen Xera did not look like that now.

"Your serpentine appearance may frighten Tia, old friend." I mumbled, staring into her narrowed pupils. "As I've said before, she is not very fond of strangers."

She shook her scaly head. "No need to worry, Arthur. I will make sssure to keep her sssafe within our rocky wallsss."

"SSSAY YOUR LAST WORDS, NARWHAL!"