Queen's Light

Nathan

I know the rp went a little differently for everybody, but this is assuming Rhiannon actually saw the letter and the boy (looking at you, Aedre) and sent him ahead to her room.

— — —

"Rhiannon, come on!"

Kendrick was waving to her. Glancing over her shoulder, she jogged to him, stifling a giggle. "Kendrick, what are you doing? We're supposed to be doing our chores. If we get caught—"

Kendrick laughed. "We won't get caught. Put that broom away." He took it out of her hands and rested it against the wall. His voice quieted and he leaned in conspiratorially. "I found something. Come on."

He took off down the hall. Rhiannon glanced in the opposite direction, then followed him. The thrill of breaking rules was one temptation that neither of them ever seemed able to resist.

He came up to a statue, one like a hundred others that dotted that same hall.

"Kendrick," Rhiannon whispered. "Come on, we can't be seen doing this—"

"Shh." He grinned. "Watch." He took the statue by its arm, then pressed it down, like a lever. The wall clicked as some sort of latch seemed to release. He grabbed the statue by its middle, pulling. It came forward out of the wall, revealing a dark, stony passageway beyond.

Rhiannon stared, all notion of her previous misgivings having disappeared. "What is this?" She gaped, openmouthed, into the narrow tunnel.

Kendrick giggled. "Bet you don't know where it leads."

She shoved him. "Of course I wouldn't. I actually spend my time doing what I'm supposed to do."

He scoffed at her. "Fine. Then I guess you don't want to go in there with me."

Rhiannon paused, her lips pursing. Try as she might to be the perfect elder sibling, she never seemed able to uphold it. "All right," she said, "but if we get caught, it's your fault this time."

Kendrick grinned, then led the way into the mysterious passageway.

She made her way to her chambers, toying with the slightly rumpled letter in her hands.

Her nephew. Her brother's son.

She recognized the name, of course. Nathan, meaning "he gives". Kendrick had been known to occasionally make the remark that his first son would have that name, as he would have given the child to, as he put it, "the poor sod who ended up marrying me".

Idrid must have heard him say so at some point. Rhiannon felt some sort of odd peace that after years of seeing her face in a dream, she finally knew the woman's name. Terrible, of course, that she would never get the chance to meet her, but...at least she could meet her son.

Rhiannon's nephew.

It still just didn't seem real. She didn't know whether Nathan's sudden appearance meant good things for the court or was just another tragedy waiting to befall them. She prayed for the former.

She stopped just before her quarters, the scrawling designs engraved into the rosewood of her door seeming to swirl with her reeling mind. With a deep breath, she pushed the door open, entering her room.

Her chambers had been described as extravagant before, but it was her hope that they would always seem warm and inviting, to herself if to no one else. The front room, her parlor, housed the main fireplace, surrounded by a settee and two chairs, underneath which was a thick black rug. The mantel above the fireplace was usually the home of a vase of assorted flowers, destined to change day after day, along with a copy of a landscape painting that had been gifted to her by a local painter on the day of her coronation. To the right of the parlor, through two separate arches, was her office, the desk filled with a constant array of organized chaos. Bookshelves lined the walls of her office, a myriad of aged and ageless books resting within. Another painting, her official portrait, hung behind her desk. Its only purpose in being there and not on display anywhere else in the castle was due to her own embarrassment in having had a portrait done in the first place, despite the fact that it was far from being her idea. From the parlor, through a set of double doors, was her bedroom, its floors made of tiled marble and covered mostly by a plush carpet. High arched windows framed her bed, which was high enough to require a bit of effort to get into and was covered by a canopy of gauze. Her powder room was just off of her bedroom, to the left, and consisted of a bathroom, wardrobe, and dressing area.