An Affinity For Fire

19. Calio

If and when she was officially crowned, Calio decided, her first decree would be to banish Lady Morla from Aestas.

"We can't afford both celebrations," the woman insisted.

"Morla, please," Calio groaned. "Save this for a council meeting. I'm in the middle of a conversation." Although, in truth, she couldn't even remember what she and Kona had been discussing before the bitter, spiteful woman had interrupted.

Lady Morla was one of her mother's closest advisers, a spindly woman with a permanently sour expression twisting her pale face. She had opposed every decision Calio had made in the Queen's absence, from how much the nameless citizens were taxed to whether meetings should be held before or after lunch. Not that the latter decision made any difference, since she insisted on showing up with complaints at any given opportunity.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, I didn't realise you found crushing debt boring."

Calio rubbed her face with both hands. "I don't need you to remind me what a mess this kingdom is in. Perhaps I should remind you that it's been in a mess since before Romira even left. I suppose, next, you're going to find some way to blame me for the War of the Black River."

"I'm not blaming you for anything," Morla said. A lie. "I just want to know why we keep hosting parties we can't afford."

"I don't know. Write to my mother and ask her, since she's the one ordering me to host them."

Calio still winced every time she had to say the word mother. She had hoped that having Romira away would finally grant her some freedom. Unfortunately, even a thousand miles away, she was still able to breath down her neck, pulling the strings on her every action. If it had been up to Calio, there would have been a single welcome celebration, once all the returning forces were home. But her mother had insisted on one party for every group, to prove the Serassi family's gratitude to the soldiers.

"Oh, I will be writing to her, don't you worry about that," Morla promised.

"Yes, thank you, I am well aware of your eagerness to send her reports of all my failings."

Whatever retort the Lady was planning was cut off by the dining room door swinging open. Dallas strolled in, hair a mess and maroon shirt untucked.

"Ah," she said, smiling for the first time all morning. "It lives. Glad to see you finally managed the trek from your bed to the dining room. How are you feeling this morning?"

Dallas managed to wince and smirk at the same time. "Terrible. Really, really, bad. Never has the urge to crawl under a rock and wait for death been greater."

Kona grinned. "Dzitan rum not agreeing with you?"

Calio shot Dallas a fiery glare. "You opened one of the Dzitan rums?!"

Dallas glowered at Kona. "Thanks. now I have to pay for it."

Morla coughed. "Speaking of paying for things-"

"Enough," Calio cut in. "I swear to the Fates, you will leave this room. I personally don't mind if that is of your own volition, or with Tanari dragging you while you kick and scream."

The woman's cruel, brown eyes glared at her for two heartbeats, before she finally dipped her head.

"Fine. Until later, your Highness."

She made a point of firmly yanking the door closed as she left.

Dallas pulled out a chair and slumped into it. "What's put her in a mood this time?"

Kona answered for her. "Apparently, she's only just realised we're poor."

Strictly speaking, that wasn't the case. Thanks to their ever-growing network of mines, Aestas had more wealth than any of the other kingdoms. The problem was that all that wealth was being used to pay for the war efforts. The other three kingdoms sent a handful of soldiers to the front line every now and then, in the hopes that Aestas wouldn't notice their lack of input to the funding. The Southern Cities, a monarchless collection of nameless citizens ruled by democracy, contributed more than Ortus, Dormis and Ocassus, and they were the furthest from harm. Even the Dzitan Islands off the Ocassan coast offered weapons and soldiers, despite not being in an official allyship with the four mainland kingdoms.

Calio drummed her fingers on the table, staring blankly at a knot in the wood. "Be honest with me," she said, not looking up. "Is there some solution I'm missing?"

"Realistically, no, there isn't really anything you can do," Kona said. "Unless, of course, you were to request a temporary tax increase to make up for the expenses. That would easily cover the costs of the remaining two celebrations."

"No," Calio said. "I am not getting the people of this kingdom to pay for royal indulgence. If anything, we should be lowering the tax, not increasing it. She's just going to have to understand that she is the one forcing me to spend this money, so she can figure out where it comes from when she gets back."

Kona snorted. "Do me the mercy of letting me be absent when you have that conversation with her. I'd prefer not to be incinerated by her inevitable tantr-"

He was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Oh, what now?" Calio pushed her seat back from the table and marched towards the door. She yanked it open to find Tarragon Versenna standing with a large, red apple in his hand. Frowning, she took a step back. "Oh. It's you. We're not having lunch with you for another half hour, what do you want?"

"I just wanted to apologise for my behaviour last night." He held out the apple for her to take.

"What is this?"

"It's an apology gift," he said.

"It's an ... apple."

He looked embarrassed. "I just wanted to give you something, you know, as a sort of gesture, but I have no idea what women like. Clover likes fruit."

"I see," she said, taking it from him. "So did you steal this from my kitchens or my orchard?"

"Oh, no, it's one of the ones I brought from home. It's Ortusian."

"Oh, so it's not even fresh."

Dallas scoffed from across the room. "Cal, stop it, you're torturing the poor boy."

Tarragon's face had turned similar in colour to his gift. Calio resisted the urge to laugh. "Alright, thank you for your gift and I accept your apology. No, leave me be."

The boy gave her an awkward nod of gratitude and shuffled away. She closed the door, returned to her seat and placed the apple on the table. Kona and Dallas glanced at it, baring almost identical expressions of bewilderment.

"Well," Calio said. "That was certainly the most bizarre interaction I've had in a while."

Dallas choked on the laugh he'd barely been holding back. "You know what? I think it was sweet."

"Are you going to eat that, or can I have it?" Kona asked.

"Fates, no, are you mad? He could have poisoned it. That's a good point, actually, we should feed it to one of the pigs and see if it dies."

"I seriously doubt it's poisoned," Dallas said. "You really think that adorably awkward boy is capable of murder?"

Calio shrugged. "Not really. But even so, it's not worth the risk. You never know who wants you dead."