Queen's Light

Ita Vero {Part II}

The Queen folded the small slip of paper and dropped it onto her desk before her with a heavy sigh. She sat back in her chair, the legs creaking as her shoulders hit the chair's high back. It was late, and only candlelight filled the empty crevices of her mind.

My dear friends and members of the Court of the Kingdom of Misfits:

Rhiannon pressed a hand to her face, rubbing at her eyes with the tips of her fingers.

I feel it is my solemn duty to inform all of you of my intent to leave the Kingdom. For good.

She stood, pulling back the curtains before the window and gazing out at the lamp-lit streets of a half-built city. Would that she could go back to a time when those walls were fully fortified, a simpler time when all was new and all was well.

At the time of you receiving this letter, I will have been long gone. I ask that you do not send scouts to find me. They wouldn't be able to, anyway.

When all was unfamiliar, a new landscape to explore. Now...everything was known. There was nothing left to discover. All of it, soaked into them like sponges. At times, she felt...

I will not say where I shall go, only that it is far from here. I feel the kingdom is no longer home to me. I must leave it. For my own sake.

Trapped. Surrounded on all sides by walls, nobles, her council, the other members. Just as she had felt at the beginning.

It was hell.

—Ae

A rustling at the door. Rhiannon did not turn. "That's it? She's gone, just like that."

Turning her head to one side, the Queen nodded. "I feel...perhaps I was too harsh."

Behind her, the Scholar shrugged. "Perhaps. You did the right thing, though."

Rhiannon turned fully, her eyes uncharacteristically boring into her adviser's. "She had to know that what she did was wrong. Punishable by death."

Aylen could not hold the Queen's stare for long. Her eyes cast downward.

"And now..." Rhiannon continued, nearly devoid of emotion. "Now she chooses to resign...to leave us. It is only proof of her guilt."

The Scbolar's brow raised, her hands folded behind her back. Rhiannon saw this, resisting the urge to take her friends' arms and rip them out from behind her.

She did not like it when Aylen retreated and left her alone.

"You know what must be done now, my friend." The Queen spread her hands. "The nobles do as well. If I do not...They already see me as weak. Who knows what power it would give them were I not to take necessary action."

Still, the Scholar remained silent, her eyes probing the Queen's expression.

"Aedre must be banished," Rhiannon said, her voice becoming soft. "She left no other evidence to the contrary...I must sign the edict."

Aylen's mouth twisted and her slim eyes narrowed further, but she nodded.

They stood together in silence, hearing only the chirping of crickets from outside the window and the occasional splutter from a nearby candle. Rhiannon brought her hands to her face and buried herself in her palms, as though she could somehow erase from her mind the memories of a lifetime and beyond. It didn't work—it couldn't—but with all her might she wished it would.

"I...do not imagine Gray will like this." Rhiannon swallowed, thinking of her previous experiences with the Knight's temperament. "If she has her doubts, do not let her take them out on you. Send her to me. I will at least attempt to make her understand." She gestured for Aylen to take the letter from the desk. She did, taking the Queen's hand and giving it a passing gentle squeeze of reassurance before heading out the door.

Rhiannon paid no mind to her friend's hasty goodbye. Her attention was focused towards the rotation of the night guard happening just outside her window, though her mind was a million miles elsewhere.

One less than they had before. Would she continue to lose those closest to her until she was simply left utterly alone once again? They were four, now. When they began, they were eleven. Was she so terrible a leader that she could not even mend their brokenness? Ease their suffering?

With a sigh, she turned to the nearest candle flame and blew it out.