Chapter Text
Sellen shifted the shard of glintstone between her fingers. A pale beam of light from the nearby window refracted off its angled edges, sending motes of crystal blue light scattering across the walls of the study.
She hummed once in careful consideration before setting it down on the desk and picking up a quill to scribble some notes.
To say the mood at Raya Lucaria had been tense of late was a little bit of an understatement. Radagon's departure from the academy - and its ruler's bed - had upended the status quo more than a smidgen. The man had certainly cut a controversial figure in his tenure, and as much as Sellen disliked him and his prattling dogma, there was certainly a vacuum left with his absence. So far all that had filled it was rumour.
Queen Rennala herself had been scarcely seen, an aspect that only added to the swirling speculations that scholars whispered to each other in hushed tones throughout the halls of the academy. Sellen was, so far, staying out of it. With the expulsion of masters Azur and Lusat she had been forced to quell the more controversial sides of her research in order to keep her station - unfortunately that being the bulk of it she had somewhat stymied. Still, the resources at Raya Lucaria were unequalled throughout the Lands Between and if she were to go the way of her mentor it would be more than likely that her work would stagnate even more. So, a simple fish she would remain, swimming about under the water and being careful not to ripple the surface. For the time being, at least. There was still that power vacuum, after all, and it needed someone headstrong to fill it. She smiled to herself at the thought - a simple fish could still upset the tide; when the time was right, of course. She had her own aspirations for the direction of the academy, visions of a haven of scholarly thought unfettered by the golden shackles of the Erdtree and the pitiful Carian royals.
A tentative rapping at the door interrupted her musing. Sellen huffed, laying down her notebook.
"Come in." She replied curtly.
The door hurriedly creaked open and one of the juvenile scholars slipped inside.
"Ma'am?" They chirped nervously.
Sellen was glad her stone crown hid her distaste at being addressed as such.
"Yes? I assume it's important."
"Yes ma'am, I'm- I'm to fetch you for Lady Rennala…" The whelp stood awkwardly, half of them still idling in the doorway.
Sellen pursed her lips. Chances were it was nothing good. She and Rennala had a storied history in the academy - the Carian queen being the main opponent to her study of the primeval current. Many a time they had battled it out in the debate parlour to crowds of scholars. Rennala considered her reckless and blinded by her work while Sellen made it clear she considered her rival a sanctimonious coward too afraid to take necessary risks. In short, it was unlikely she was being summoned for a spot of afternoon tea.
"Very well then." She set down her notes on the desks, dusting off her robes before turning back to the youngster expectantly. A moment passed in stillness.
"Well?" She gestured to the doorframe the scholar was still loitering in.
"Oh, yes! Please follow me ma'am…" They jumped into action, giving Sellen a slightly hurried bow before beginning to lead her down the corridors of Raya Lucaria.
Sellen's mind leapt about as they trotted towards the office of the academy's head. If this meeting was to formalise her expulsion she had already prepped mental notes of which tomes to secret away on her route to the exit, it was only a matter of causing enough distraction to grab them if she was accompanied by an escort. She was not a fighter by choice but if the worst came to it she was prepared with several offensive spells to buy herself enough time to be able to continue her studies. She would get herself through this.
The juvenile scholar stopped outside the enormous wooden door that marked Rennala's private office, hesitating a moment before rapping a few times and slipping it open just wide enough for them to stick their head into the crack.
"Your… your highness?" They mumbled hesitantly into the room, barely audible even to herself standing next to them.
Sellen rolled her eyes.
"Excuse me." She pushed past the apprentice, striding confidently into the office as they squeaked in alarm behind her.
Rennala looked up from her ledger, a tiny pair of half-moon reading glasses perched at the end of her nose.
"Sellen. Please, come in." She droned, her unimpressed expression belying the sarcasm in her words.
The queen closed the book with a dull thunk, delicately removing the glasses and folding them to lie on the desk. Sellen was long convinced she didn't need them to read and only wore them to seem alluring - a cheap trick to make her appear more wise and to compliment the refined angles of her loathsomely beautiful face.
"Happily." Sellen fired back at her, already standing firm on the tiles in front of her desk.
A loud creaking cut through their standoff as the juvenile scholar failed to be stealthy in their attempt to shut the large office door. Sellen sighed in annoyance.
"So, your highness," she spat, folding her arms in front of the woman, "to what do I deserve the honour of your summons?"
"Please, take a seat." Rennala gestured to one of the more reasonably sized chairs in the room, carved from the same dark wood as the tall desk she sat at and the bookshelves that adorned the walls. Sellen pointedly stood still, ignoring the suggestion out of principle.
An exasperated sigh echoed out from the queen's lips.
"Very well, stand then." The added 'just see if I care' was left unsaid but was plain in her irritated expression.
"I have a proposal for you. It is a serious one, so I shan't expect you to answer right away."
Now that had her attention. Sellen poised her stance carefully, grateful for the second time that day that her crown utterly hid her expression. Rennala rose from her seat, her heavy robes flowing like water as she slowly paced back and forth.
"As I'm sure you're well aware, a while ago there happened a sudden change to my situation as queen. As such unexpected changes thus tend to lead to, I'm certain you've heard the rumours and speculation around the academy that I am no longer the champion I once was, that I am no longer able to hold power on my own."
Rennala let out a short breath she had been holding.
"It is with this knowledge that I come to you with my proposal. You and I will form a truce; a political alliance between the two of us, formalised through the bonds of matrimony."
Sellen's jaw hit the floor.
What in the Lands was she saying? She wished to marry her? Sellen blinked several times in rapid succession, her mind whizzing ceaselessly as she tried to comprehend what Rennala had just proposed.
She must have been quiet for a few seconds too long as Rennala at last turned to face her, her hands nervously clinging to one another.
"As I said, I do not expect your answer right away. Please, think on what I have offered you - it will be a great opportunity for you to be inducted into the house of Caria, and your position in the academy will be secure."
Godfrey's beard, Sellen knew that much! What she was struggling with was why? She was a scholar of note, yes, but a controversial one - not least to say that she and Rennala had never been close, or even at the least on good terms with one another! Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. If it weren't for the woman's tragically sincere expression of worry then she would be convinced the entire charade was a joke at her expense.
"I'll… consider it." Sellen finally managed to squeak out, already eyeing the door.
Rennala let out a breath, nodding slowly. "That is all I can ask you to do."
Sellen wordlessly spun on her heels, hastening towards the exit as she heard one last exhalation from the Carian queen.
"Thank you."
It was quiet, and she wasn't wholly sure if she had been intended to hear it or not, but it gave her pause as her hand rested on the handle. She hung her head for a brief moment before looking back.
Rennala was watching her, her large pale hands clutching at one another as she stood. Her eyes were painfully wide, glittering in the light along with her rowa-red lips. Sellen's heart involuntarily jolted at the sight.
"I'll… I'll consider it." She repeated, earnestness slipping into her tone without her meaning to. As she left the room, she refused to glance back to see her new fiancée's reaction.
The door to Rennala's office creaked shut behind her, closing with a dull thud of the ancient wood. Sellen pressed her back to it as soon as she was out of sight, the weighty stone of her scholarly crown resting on the door behind her. She let out a long shaky breath. What in all the Lands was happening?
She had to decline - Rennala was surely plotting something against her, somehow this would all lead to her expulsion and imprisonment, she was certain. But, for all the cynicism she pretended her body was made of, she couldn't shake the look in the queen's deep, soulful eyes. She must be desperate to turn to her. That's all this was, the last desperate act of a soon to be deposed monarch. Sellen couldn't let herself fall for it, she had to stick to her plan, stay hidden and strike when she could.
The other part of her mind argued back; what better place to plot the Carian's downfall than the bed of its queen? Her bed… Sellen gulped, pushing herself away from the door as if it had burned her, rapidly pacing the halls back to her study as her cheeks grew unusually hot. Yes, she would accept the proposal and from there she would be poised perfectly to seize control of Raya Lucaria and get rid of the hypocritical royal once and for all. Sellen forced herself to think back on all the times her grants had been rejected, vital research denied all for some uppity sense of morality. The flush in her cheeks changed to a burn of indignant anger as she strode back to safe ground.
Rennala would regret trusting her, she would see to it.