flicker: a fragmentary passage

(spoilers/previews/short stories for ignite, subject to change )

In the days, soon becoming weeks, that follow the tragic passing of Dirham's long-reigning patriarch (the cause still a source of mystery), tensions become nigh unbearable for the eldest daughter in mourning.

Meanwhile, the duties imposed on the youngest threaten to crush him under their sheer magnitude - all in preparation for the coronation of the young prince, a sovereign in the making.

(There is always more than one side to a story; left untold, multiple interpretations can breed briars of misunderstandings that could have been averted with a mere conversation of civility.)

In which both an assassination and international incident is avoided at once, and a the sputtering ashes of a nearly broken bond are rekindled.