Chapter Text
Queen Khessa’s court was intimidatingly bright, her throne framed by piercing golden rays that tugged at Rayla’s own arcanum, nudging it to reflect and twist the sun’s power. Even the queen’s clothes seemed to be made of threads and sheets of gold, but Rayla wasn’t blinded by the splendour. Narrowing her eyes she quickly counted the guards who were lining the walls, and took notice of all the exits. Not that she expected outright hostility from the sunfire elves, but as an assassin you didn’t grow old by being inattentive.
In the end, however, it was mainly the two captured humans who should be worried about their safety here. Rayla and the Golden Knight escorted them towards the throne and made them stop half a dozen steps in front of it. Rayla glanced at the sunfire warrior beside her, but before any greetings could be offered, Queen Khessa spoke.
“Look what my sister dragged in,” she scoffed.
She was lounging in her throne, twirling a sceptre in her hand, her brows furrowed at the sight of the two humans. Exhausted, unarmed, and with their hands tied behind their backs, they didn’t look like much. Janai wordlessly pushed the female prisoner to her knees.
Rayla put a hand on the prince’s shoulder. “Better kneel down,” she quietly suggested. “They say the queen is very … strict.”
He nodded, immediately slumping down, evidently tired from the hurried march to Lux Aurea.
“Thanks,” he murmured over his shoulder.
For what?
She was the one who had brought him here. Not that she had really wanted to, but on Lux Aurean soil there had been no disobeying the Golden Knight who had unceremoniously recruited Rayla in the wilderness. And what would have been the alternative anyway?
Queen Khessa let her gaze wander over the two prisoners, and Janai, and Rayla. “Who is this?”
“These two –” the Golden Knight began.
“I wasn’t talking about them.”
Rayla cleared her throat and opened her mouth. “I –”
“And I wasn’t talking to you.”
She clenched her teeth, openly staring at the queen before forcing herself to lower her gaze. From what she had heard, monarchs didn’t like being challenged like that, and Khessa seemed to be one of the worst offenders.
“Her name is Rayla,” the Golden Knight explained. “I met her close to the border. She helped me track down and capture these intruders.”
“Your Majesty!” the prince exclaimed.
Rayla nudged him with her foot. “It’s ‘Your Radiance’,” she murmured.
He turned his head, giving her a grateful nod. “Your Radiance, we are not intruders!”
Queen Khessa ignored him. “And what were you doing in the lands of Lux Aurea, Rayla Moonshadow?”
Rayla protectively crossed her arms, trying to appear calmer than she felt. “Guarding the border, Your Radiance.”
Someone had to. It seemed necessary, ever since Avizandum and the King of Katolis had killed each other years ago. The lava river protecting Xadia had become ever more narrow following the death of the magma guardian, and Lux Aurea was constantly busy fighting in the south and east instead of having an eye on the humans.
“So you say,” the monarch replied dismissively. Rayla sullenly worked her jaw, keeping her expression neutral, but she didn’t answer while Queen Khessa now looked at the prisoners. She addressed the woman first. “Who are you?”
“She is deaf, Your Radiance,” Prince Callum interjected, bowing his head. “But she can read lips, and talk using her hands.”
“Free her hands, here in the court? I think not.” The queen tapped her sceptre in her open palm. “You will answer for her then. What’s her name?”
He took a deep breath. “Amaya. She is my aunt.”
“And you are?”
Suddenly Rayla could feel her heart hammering in her chest. Queen Khessa’s disdain for humans was well-known. How would she react when she found out who exactly had stumbled into her court? For a moment she thought about telling him not to reveal his identity, but it was too late, and the Golden Knight already knew anyway. The human met the queen’s gaze.
“Prince Callum, Your Radiance. A dark mage has seized power in Katolis. And so we came … seeking your help.”
Khessa raised her eyebrows. “A prince? Coming to our lands uninvited, demanding my help? Bold.”
“We aren’t demanding anything, Your Radiance,” he clarified, his voice shaking just a little. “We … We merely ask. And we think that it would be in your best interest as well.”
“Katolis has been no ally of ours,” the queen observed.
“But … But no enemy either, Your Radiance.” Did he have to use her title every time? The stiffness of the sunfires was already grating on Rayla’s nerves. The prince met Khessa’s gaze. “My brother, he has always been a peace-loving king. The same might not be said about the dark mage who occupies the throne now. He has … no love for elves.”
“Do you?”
“Uhm.” The question seemed to take Prince Callum aback. “I … I hadn’t met any until a few days ago. I mean, I –”
“Quiet. When did this … coup take place?”
“About two months ago, Your –”
“Is your brother still alive?”
He inhaled sharply and Rayla saw him set his jaw. When he answered, his voice was low and level.
“I hope so.”
“Hm,” the queen nodded slowly.
Hm, Rayla echoed in her mind. Until reaching Lux Aurea she had been preoccupied with other worries, and only now did she wonder what exactly this coup and the humans’ presence could mean for Xadia. Was there a lot of fighting in Katolis? Who exactly was this dark mage? How could all that affect the situation on this side of the border? Queen Khessa, too, seemed to ponder such questions, and Rayla was glad that she apparently didn’t rush to a decision, even when dealing with pesky humans. Eventually the queen continued, but she addressed Rayla now.
“Rayla was your name?”
The assassin nodded, then caught a warning glance from the Golden Knight. Right. She quickly decided to unfold her arms and bowed her head – hopefully she hadn’t mortally offended the queen.
“Yes, Your Radiance.”
“And where are you from?”
“The Silvergrove.”
“Never heard of it,” the monarch stated. “A tiny, unknown village, I presume?”
What was she getting at? Rayla licked her lips. “Not … Well, just a village, I’d say. A regular village.”
“Of course.” Queen Khessa nodded, then added with a dismissive gesture. “We’ll get the whole story in time. For now find some cells for them.”
Rayla froze. “… ‘them’?” she echoed.
“We can’t blindly trust any vagabond who sneaks around in our territory, can we?” the queen replied. “The Silvergrove, if it really exists, will receive a message, and we will find out whether you are just a ghosted bandit … or not.”
This was ridiculous. “I protect –” the assassin blurted out before Janai interrupted her harshly.
“Be quiet! The queen has spoken.” She jerked her head in the direction of some guards. “Go with them.”
Fuck.
Rayla quietly clenched and unclenched her fists, letting her gaze wander, nervously wondering if she should just make a run for it. She was innocent though, and the Golden Knight at least seemed honest and had treated her relatively fairly.
“If I speak the truth, nothing will happen to me, right?” she demanded.
“Of course. Only justice is served here,” Janai replied curtly.
“Fine.” Rayla glared at the guard who had approached her, twisting away from his outstretched hand. “Don’t touch me, I’m coming.”
The prince and his aunt were escorted from the throne room as well, but soon their ways parted and Rayla was led to another wing of the palace. She was worthy of better quarters because she was an elf, she assumed, or of worse, because she wasn’t royalty.
Better ones, she decided once she had reached her destination. It was a simple room on one of the upper storeys – clean, barely furnished, not exactly what she would have expected from a cell. There was a bed, a chest, a small table with a chair, and even a window with real glass in it. And a second door for some reason. One thing was missing though, she immediately noticed.
“Chamber pot?” she asked. It had been hours.
The guard snorted. “This is Lux Aurea.” He pointed at the second door. “There’s the toilet.”
Toilet. Sure. Whatever was wrong with chamber pots? But Rayla didn’t want to give him a reason to look down on barbaric moonshadow elves, so she simply nodded.
“Thanks,” she said, stepping into the room and dropping her backpack next to the bed. “I’ll manage.”
“I’m sure you will,” the guard smirked and shut the door, leaving Rayla alone in her room.
She heard him turn the key and exhaled slowly, forcing herself to remain calm. Here she was then, in a fucking cell in the middle of the sunfire capital because she had wanted to help, had wanted to protect Xadia. Should have expected something like that – all Lux Aurea cared about was Lux Aurea, always waging war and gathering power, especially since Avizandum’s death. There was even talk about some fanatics trying to reinstate Sol Regem as king of the dragons.
“Ugh.”
Rayla clenched her fists. She would be alright though, this wasn’t over yet, the world wasn’t done with her. She still had a job to do, somewhere, some day.
For now, however, she only opened this … toilet door that the guard had pointed out and shook her head at the excessive luxury that these sunfires afforded themselves. But after all, she was still in the palace. Probably; it was a large structure. From her glass window she looked down on the golden city sprawling below, noticing that fleeing through this window could easily result in her death. High walls, smooth stone – it should only be a last resort.
Frowning, Rayla sat down on her bed. The mattress was ridiculously soft.
“Hopefully doesn’t give me back pain,” she muttered.
She blinked. Scratched her nose. This was boring and she could feel the tiredness and the bad thoughts creeping up on her. She needed to fight back, but what was she supposed to do in this empty room where she was alone with her own mind and …
Her hand was already in her backpack when she realized what she was doing, and she quickly retracted it. This was not the time. Instead, she checked if Prince Callum’s stuff was still there and then started some stretching exercises to keep herself busy.
She didn’t stay alone for long though. After a while she could hear steps from outside, the door was unlocked, and a single sunfire elf entered. Rayla didn’t know her, but she wore armour similar to Janai’s.
“Moon shines on us all,” the visitor said.
“Sun keep you warm,” Rayla replied warily.
“You are Rayla, the moonshadow elf?”
How many moonshadow elves did they have in Lux Aurea? She decided to remain polite though.
“I am. You?”
“General Miyana of the Six Horns. I am here to collect some information.” The general looked around and then sat down at the table on the only chair, producing paper and ink. “You will cooperate, yes?”
The assassin frowned. “I don’t have any information.”
“Let me be the judge of that. Just answer my questions.”
Rayla chewed on her tongue. She still very much disliked the treatment she was receiving here; she was not used to people meddling in her affairs. But she was also realistic enough to recognize that there was nothing to win by being stubborn – she didn’t have anything to hide after all. She sighed, rolling her eyes.
“Ugh. Ask away.”
“What is your home village called?”
“Silvergrove.”
The sunfire elf scribbled something on her sheet of paper. “And why aren’t you there?”
“Gotta protect the border.”
“On whose orders?”
“No one’s.”
General Miyana frowned, tapping her quill on the small table. “Who do you work with?”
“No one,” Rayla replied. “I’m alone.”
She was always alone.
“Are you sure? No assassins that we need to know about? If we find that you have been lying …”
The threat hung in the air like poisonous gas, making Rayla acutely aware of how vulnerable she was in this palace. The sunfires weren’t her friends and she had to stay on her toes.
“I’m alone,” she repeated, somewhat agitated even though it was the truth.
“Hm.” The general made another note and quietly looked at Rayla for several moments. Sunfire elves weren’t known for their secretiveness, but right now Rayla had no idea what was going on in that woman’s head. “You are quite young,” Miyana observed eventually.
“That’s not a crime. I’m over twenty, people are sent to fight and kill all the time at that age.”
“But no one sent you.”
Rayla noticed that the general had stopped asking questions, prompting her to talk with simple statements instead. Was that some kind of manipulation tactic? Frowning, she only shrugged, but Miyana wasn’t deterred by that.
“What do you know about human troop movements on the other side of the border?”
“Other side of the border?” The assassin shook her head. “I don’t go there. I keep watch in Xadia. And I’ve met sunfire patrols before, no one ever had a problem with me.”
At least no serious ones. Sometimes the sunfires were suspicious, but despite Lux Aurea’s expansionist policies it had no quarrel with the moonshadow settlements to the south at the moment, and Rayla wasn’t active in an area where anyone but humans could be expected to attack.
“I see,” General Miyana nodded, adding a few notes. She rose from her chair. “I think this will do for now. We will send a message to your home village. You claim not to be a Ghost, so I assume we can expect a swift reply?”
They still didn’t quite believe Rayla’s story, did they? “A message from the Queen of Lux Aurea herself? Yeah, they’ll answer.”
At least she hoped so. She hadn’t been back in the Silvergrove in quite some time, and even with trivial matters the council occasionally needed lengthy discussions to come to a conclusion. But surely they didn’t want Rayla to rot in some sunfire dungeon if all they had to do was confirm her identity.
“Good. Look at me, I need your markings for the letter.” Anyone could call herself Rayla after all, but stealing another elf’s markings was a very different matter. Miyana pursed her lips. “Fading,” she observed. “But this will do. Do you have ink?”
“Mh,” Rayla muttered.
There was just no one to apply it.
Thankfully Miyana didn’t pry. She simply nodded, then gathered her things and opened the door, looking back at Rayla one more time.
“Perhaps I will come back to ask some more questions later. But if you speak the truth, and if your village corroborates what you say, you should be released soon. Until then … keep calm. We will have a bath prepared for you.”
Rayla blinked. “Huh? What for?”
The general didn’t answer though and simply turned away, but the assassin could see her wrinkle her nose before she left the room. Rayla scowled after her, then flopped down on the bed and exhaled, rubbing her forehead.
“Ugh.”
