Mercy & Fire

40. Starting with a Boom

Rovan

Revelries have always been a time of communal indulgence whether it be in honor of the deceased, a victorious war, the beginning of a new era, or in this case, it was meant to memorialize the queen and celebrate the conquering of Bermillia.

It seemed this time it was a triple celebration in honor of the queen, the victory over Bermillia, and my assuming the role as king. My right eye twitched as I glanced over the itinerary for the night.

I'd sat through so many of the planning meetings in my short time here, and I was still looking at it with no idea of what was scheduled.

First, an opening speech welcoming the foreigners to the memorial ball the mages had all but coerced into attending. Thinking back to the invitation letters they'd sent, it was more of a demonstration of power to avoid anyone rising up against Dhernon. Why else display the crowns of the king and queen of Bermillia if not to warn others they could be next?

A speech in pursuit of alliances and peace is what they'd handed to me, because of course, I could not be trusted to come up with my own speech. Truthfully, it was a wise choice. I had no patience for the frivolities of politics; it was a miracle I'd sat through so many of these asinine party planning meetings at all.

Sudden silence made me tune back into the conversation, and I raised my brows at the people staring at me expectantly.

"Your majesty? What'd you think of the itinerary?" Grand Mage Vonia asked as if she'd repeated herself many times already.

I looked up at the old woman and then back down at the itinerary silently.

Second, the raising of the queen's statue over her grave at the center of the palace garden. Third, time to revel, and fourth, an auction of specially chosen mages in training for hire scheduled in the morning.

My brows furrowed as I stared down at it, wondering why they were willing to ship off their own mages. Considering I would have been placed in one of those schools if the queen had noticed me sooner, I also knew that these kids went through strenuous training as spies and soldiers. They were desensitized to abuse, war, and many other things.

Not to mention the fact that this seemed all too familiar.

The only reason they would send these kids off to these kingdoms would be for intelligence reasons, and I knew where they got the idea.

"Is there an agenda I am missing?" I asked suddenly, my eyes lifting to look at her.

She was the author of this itinerary, no doubt. Historically, she has always had her lips attached to the queen's *ss, and even after her death, it seemed Mage Vonia wanted to continue suckling at the bones of the queen's bottom. If she was planning to do what I assumed she was trying to do, I would be more than happy to lower her grave with the queen tonight.

"I know nothing of what you speak." She said it with a raised brow.

Thus far, none of them had tried to insert themselves in anything I did, which I was relieved for, but it seemed Mage Vonia planned on breaking that pattern.

"Who do you think strategized the invasion of two kingdoms already?" She silently watched me as I read her like a book. "I authored this strategy – strategy, which was classified information to anyone other than the queen and I. How did you get your hands on that, and with whose approval?"

Her lips flattened as she avoided the gaze of the others in the room. "The strategy was freely found in the queen's room. And I thought you would approve of this, so I went ahead and had this prepared."