Private Tales Moon in My Window

[Xaviera]

Royal Palace
Tyria - Evening
Theme​

It had been a Queen Jaliah-heavy day. Between meals and her grandmother's annoying insistence upon sitting in on meetings of her advisory councils based on some arcane tradition that former monarchs were entitled to be consulted, to advise and to warn the reigning monarch of the day. The young Queen was not entirely sure it was legitimate, but Jaliah was less a battle-ax and more a battle-ship when she didn't get what she wanted. She didn't feel like going round by round with her, and so she threw her hands up and let Jaliah have her way.

It won't be forever, she reminded herself. How long to old women live, anyway?

The upshot was that, by the time the evening meal came around, she was full to the back teeth and just wanted to be somewhere quiet. She requested her dinner on a tray and left word for her steward that she was not to be disturbed unless it an urgent need from one of her chief advisers - a designation that did not include her grandmother.

When she accepted the delivery of her meal, she could hear the feast in the main hall, with music and chat creating a pleasant murmur. The sounds of a contented court, she thought and shut the door behind her. Dinner was a well-spiced stew of some extraction. Nothing had changed in the kitchens since her father's death. In fact, not much had changed anywhere in the palace since then. The same advisers that advised him were now advising Xaviera; some had even been around since her grandfather's day. It remained to be seen whether this was helpful or not helpful. But that was a question for another night, for the queen had had a long day and wanted nothing more than to sit out on the broad balcony and enjoy the cool night while she took in her city.

That was the plan, anyway.

But the night was so clear that she couldn't take her eyes off the sky from the moment she carried her bowl of stew onto the balcony and settled onto one of the piles of pillows and rugs that dotted the terrace. It was breathtaking. Astonishing. Half an hour later, her stew bowl finished, set aside and forgotten, and the queen was reclined on the rugs with a pillow propping up her head. Something looked... different. Not wrong, necessarily. Just out of place, slightly changed. She couldn't put her finger on it, but she was deeply curious.

Tyria's queen stood and gathered her tray, carrying it back to the door where she allowed a steward to take it from her. "Could you please send for my court wizard? If he's finished with his dinner," Xaviera said. "It's Azmelqar, isn't it?" She saw the light of recognition in the servant's eyes.

"Right away, Your Majesty," he said.

"And a pot of jasmine tea," Xaviera said. "Please."

The steward bowed deeply. "Right away, my queen."

"Please see him in when he arrives. I'll be on my terrace." She returned to the terrace and sat crosslegged, leaning back and bracing herself up with both hands to once again drink in the night sky, letting it wash over her like a cool ocean wave. The day had been full of detail and minutiae, and for this brief handful of moments, Xavier allowed herself to ponder the mysteries of the universe: the nebulae and stars, the moons and galaxies that reflected in her dark eyes, more unknowable than balance accounts and ledgers and yet infinitely more stimulating.

 

[Azmelqar]

Azmelqar arrived a few minutes later than expected. The art of quickly removing traces of stew from one's mustache was a technique few had mastered. He silently cursed the absence of reflective surfaces near the kitchens even as he followed the steward back to the terrace.

Very rarely had he been called before the preceding monarch, and never had he been called before the current queen. He would be damned if he ever went with food stuck on his person. Azmelqar batted his robes a few times, just to be sure nothing unseemly clung to them, before allowing himself to be led inside.

First impressions weren't the end of the world, but they were important.

He lowered his hood before arriving on the terrace, revealing a length of light brown hair, tied back. The wind was, at least, refreshing. Not far off, the Queen was sitting somewhat casually. Inspecting the stars, it seemed. Or... No, not inspecting. Xaviera appeared a touch more relaxed than that. More admiring.

Funny, no one around these parts had shown much interest before. Not unless they needed their fortunes told.

"Your majesty," the steward announced, bowing in the customary way, "Azmelqar, the court wizard."

Azmelqar mirrored the bow, then stood straight, shoulders back, tall and regal. Just as rehearsed. He cleared his throat, folded his hands before him. "Is there some matter with which I can assist you with, your Majesty?"

Perfect. Nailed it.

 

[Xaviera]

Xaviera didn't immediately look away from her stargazing when the steward entered with the court wizard, but after a moment she stood and approached the pair. "Thank you," she told the steward pleasantly, who again bowed. "When the tea comes, would you be so kind as to lay it on the side table there?" she asked, gesturing towards the one she meant. The steward agreed and backed out of the queen's presence, leaving her alone with her court wizard. "Azmelqar," she said, finally turning her eyes back to the courtier.

"Is it... Doctor Azmelqar?" she asked. "Maester Azmelqar?" She offered an apologetic half-smile. "I'm afraid I'm not quite as educated as to the ins and outs of..." Xaviera hesitated, then concluded somewhat awkwardly: "...wizards." The Queen of Tyria turned and walked across the terrace to the edge. She placed her hands on the top of the brick wall, her thin frame bent slightly as she cast her gaze over the city and then over the sea beyond before looking up again at the starry skies once more.

"I hope I didn't interrupt your dinner," said Xaviera softly. "It's not urgent. I'm just curious if I'm imagining thing." She beckoned him over and gestured expansively to the stars, her fingers spreading to encapsulate the entire sky. "I feel like something has changed. Out there," she added for clarification, as if that was needed. She turned her angular face back to the stars, opening her eyes as if she could absorb the answers to all her questions if she opened herself enough.

"Speak to me," she implored the stars in a whisper.

 

[Azmelqar]

He shifted weight from one foot to the other. "Ah, Maester has been used, though not in some time..."

Azmelqar, truthfully, did not have a formal title. The wizards up in Elbion had a lovely system of titles and epithets based on skill and stature and educational attainment, but here in Amol-Kalit... Well, it seemed any other job. Nobody referred to Markot the carpenter as Carpenter Markot. To his knowledge, anyway.

"Not at all, Your Majesty," he clarified, hopefully not too quickly, as far as interrupting his dinner had been concerned.

He took a few quiet steps to cross to the point where he had been beckoned to and, following her gaze, observed the firmament. It appeared unchanged from his observations just prior to dinner. A good thing, too - if an abrupt change had taken place in such a short period of time, Azmelqar might have fled screaming into the night.

Well, depending on what had changed.

"If you'll permit my asking, Your Majesty, how frequently do you closely observe the positions of the stars?"

 

[Xaviera]

The Queen suddenly felt like she was in a session with her tutor and she hadn't completed her tasks and the assigned reading. Was that a note of rebuke in her Her tan cheeks darkened slightly and she turned her head away from the stars to look out at the city again. "Not as frequently as perhaps I should," she confessed. "Nor as closely."

The truth was, most nights she was so tired by the end of the day that she didn't even bother to step out onto the terrace. She expected that her advisers would inform her of any relevant changes to the night sky, any kind of astronomical or astrological developments that could potentially have an impact on Tyria and its people. She frowned and shivered a little, then drew her shawl - held loosely behind her back until then - up around her shoulders and folded her arms around her slim frame.

"But something is... different," said Xaviera after a few moments of pause. "I could swear it." She scanned the night sky once more, her fingers flexing around her forearms as she did. "Look," she said, her left hand jabbing out into the darkness, towards the moon looming large in the darkness. "Just there!" Was her mind playing tricks on her? No, she insisted to her inner doubt. There was a streak of light! "Tell me that was just a firefly," she said, her tone somewhat defensive as she turned to Azmelqar, her arm still gesturing broadly towards the moon.

 

[Azmelqar]

"The firmament is rarely, ah, relevant to worldly matters," Azmelqar quickly - perhaps too quickly - corrected, in sensing some defensiveness. "It is of little concern."

The stargazer shuffled closer to the edge of the terrace at her continued insistence of some perceptible change. Perhaps she was not aware of the rotation of the heavens. The constellations occupied different spots than they did several months ago. If that was how long ago it had been since she gave them a good look-over, anyway.

But no, there it was. A streak of light, arcing across the moon.

"Oh," said Azmelqar. "That... Should not be visible."

He rubbed one end of his mustache, fiddling with the ring. Frowning. Deep contemplation.

"How many times has that... Happened?"

 

[Xaviera]

She turned but didn't answer at first. Suddenly she was aware that her hair was unbound, a sight unlikely to be seen by most in the court because she tended to wear it up when in public. One of the first things she had done upon crossing the threshold had been to shake her hair loose and allowing it to cascade down her shoulders and back. It felt delightful at the moment, but now that she had a visitor, she felt undone somehow.

But too late, now.

She cleared her throat and brushed an unruly strand of hair from her face. She remembered he had asked her a question.

"Ah - I couldn't say. I only saw it twice, this evening," she said. "Shooting stars?" she asked idly, placing her hands, folded neatly together, against the balustrade and looked up again. "Do they tend to portend... something?"