Recent content by Xaviera

The Queen gave one last uncertain look down the other way, then hurried to catch up with the large man that was her unlikely rescuer. The question brought her up slightly short, and she had to make a conscious effort to keep plodding forward. "I -- I've lost track of time," she told him. "I...

Xaviera watched in a mixture of revulsion and curiosity as the man yanked the knife from his torso. She sucked air between her teeth and looked away. She was not convinced that the man would be as fine as he seemed to think he would, but at the moment he was her only hope of getting out of this...

Xaviera didn't feel rescued. She doubted she would feel rescued until she had put this island and the pirates behind her. Not until she was back in her rooms in the palace in Tyria. But she would certainly settle for on a boat, sailing away from this horrible place. "Thank you, Blackburn...

"No, no, no, no," the Queen panted, struggling mightily against the two men trying to hold her in place. Then things happened, several of them, all at once: The pirate captain took a staggering step backwards. A crimson stain appeared on the chest of his shirt and rapidly spread. Baalo made...

"Your Majesty," the Captain greeted Xaviera with a mockingly flourishing bow, a sly smirk adorning his face as he straightened. This wasn't the Captain's Quarters, to be sure; this looked like some kind of dungeon. No finery, not even any furniture except a wooden table next to a domed fireplace...

Xaviera had lost track of time in captivity. The woman who didn't know she was no longer Queen of Tyria had kept some semblance of time by the regular visits of the pirate captain that had abducted her after sinking a small flotilla of Tyrian ships. He usually brought her word from the city that...

Xaviera frowned thoughtfully -- not enough for her forehead to wrinkle, just enough that her lips twitched down at the edges -- and nodded gravely. He seemed to be laying it on rather thick: Tyria, and by implication, Xaviera herself was responsible for the security risk of having Annuakat's...

I'll be traveling this week and won't have time to check the board or post.

The Tyrian Queen set the goblet down -- not wishing to appear to be gluttonous where the wine was concerned -- and rested her elbows on the armrests so that her fingers could lace together before her. Her golden bangles slid down from her wrists to her forearms. Her left cheek dimpled as her...

As surreal as it was to be offered pleasantries and wine in her own country, the diplomatic fiction of the property being Amol-Kalit within the walls of the compound were as binding as anything. She was as a guest in the court of the god-emperor. Still, while they were quite alone, it wouldn't...

It was ironic, perhaps, that the god-emperor's greatest ally in the Tyrian court was the reason for the tardiness of the Queen of Tyria. She had spent the hour leading up to her departure from the palace in a heated debate with the Dowager Queen Jaliah, who seemed unwilling or unable to accept...

So engrossed by her conversation with Navithi was the Queen of Tyria that at first, she did not realize she was being addressed by her brother-in-law. She looked distractedly away from the beautiful woman at the mention of her name, squinting across the courtyard. She paused a beat, on the verge...

Avine - the river district. "I know it well," Xaviera replied, a wistful smile crossing her features for a moment. "It is beautiful there, and the water helps to keep the summers from being too stifling. I was considering taking a house along the river for the upcoming season, but my advisers...

The Queen was somewhat embarrassed at the circumstance and felt at once as if she were intruding. She had felt that rather a lot during her stay in Annuakat. She had been named to the Imperial Divan - a sop, she assumed, to shore up Tyrian support for the Empire - but despite this, she felt like...

The Queen of Tyria had taken to visiting the bazaars of Annuakat in the mornings, browsing the wares and occasionally buying things or placing orders for delivery for items that were too large for her to carry. Today she had come across a beautiful rug at a stall in the city that she simply...