(shorter kinda chapter, I don't sleep, sleep is for the weak, schedule, what is a schedule, here you go. Next on the list is a Chasing Fire updates, gotta write some Maven&Cal&Mare and Cameron &Kilorn. 4 ongoing novels were a bad idea but my writing life is in ruins since 2018.)

mien
-air or bearing especially as expressive of attitude or personality
-demeanor
-appearance, aspect
Like its synonyms bearing and demeanor, mien means the outward manifestation of personality or attitude. Appearance is the most general, but it often implies characteristic posture, as in "a woman of regal bearing."

Breakfast in this house is like a flea circus. Adayne undoubtedly is fast asleep in some snoring, wasted state of mind, but she will provide the tune of silly strings later to fit the others.
The birds and dogs scream all day and night. The screaming gets louder the closer they get to their feeding time. In the morning they are the most penetrative.
As for the silver inhabitants. They prance around in their plain clothes and green harnesses and badges, and they drag all kinds of those screaming animals they deem exotic behind them. None of them sadly makes a backflip to entertain me while I eat.
Only dull Hector shows up, following me around for a while. To make sure I don't prod. Too late for that, but why would I ever tell him?
One of the brown and grey mutts lies in the foyer, directly by the door, watching the guards and growling at me. I force myself not to kick it, hand rubbing over my face. I need a shave, I can feel the stubbles, and I don't like it.
The mutt turns the head on his paws to watch me leave. I'm very sure one of the Vipers is watching.
The palace is safer for me to walk without being watched- what spy would try to follow a mind reader for too long? The Merandus mansion would be more accomodating. But all I have is the dull screeching of animals mixed with the smell of my dying father in law, rutting along in the hallway with his cane.
The things you endure to be powerful.

I throw stones at squirrels in the tree on the day Elara comes around and sits next to me. Everyone has been so foul the whole day that there have been screams and blood, and I prefer to let my brother take the chip of getting in the middle of it.
The wind streams over our heads in driveling waves.
I stop throwing stones for a moment, bored of it anyway.
"It's a pity it didn't work the way it was planned the first time."
She makes a low, disgusted sound, mouth tuning into a sharp curve.
No Queenstrial, no crown, nothing. The disappointment even in retelling edged in everyone's faces. There was no competition, no showing off. It was only one singer girl named Coriane Jacos snatching everything for herself. They accused her of using her ability first, but even the hardest opponents could agree on something else winning over Tiberias to be defying any tradition family and the court have held.
"They said it was love," I say, uncaring for what exactly that even means. I guess love is about a reaction in your body and brain that releases feelings that act like drugs for codependence. That influences your thoughts to the point that your thoughts circle around it in some form of addiction. It's like drinking, smoking, it is like the pills my mother takes when she thinks no one is watching her. "I am glad you're Queen. Even if people ask too much sometimes."
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Mala Fides
Fanfiction'ᴡᴇ ꜱʜᴀʀᴇ ᴀ ꜱᴇɴᴛɪᴍᴇɴᴛ. ɪ ᴄᴀɴ ʙᴇ ʙᴏᴜɢʜᴛ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ ᴀɴᴅ ʀᴇᴠᴇʀᴇɴᴄᴇ.' Only one month has passed in Daliah Viper's life trying to reintegrate at court and follow the uneasy trails her eyes have caught. One month filled with blood, tribulations, and l...
