Fable - Ask The Onyx Court

[Vyx'aria]

Weeks had passed since her coronation, yet idleness was not a vice Vyx’aria indulged. Shay Tirloc, Dhunbor, and Zar’Ahal now bent beneath a single banner, but unity was only the beginning. Beyond them lay other cities, other thrones yet unbroken, and wars that would not plan themselves.

She had summoned the Onyx Court to the council chambers to address matters that required neither pleasantry nor delay.

The hall was vast and deliberately austere, each seat fixed in place awaiting its owner. At its center sat Vyx’aria, sprawled with unbothered dominion upon her seat, as though it were an extension of her own body. She had not bothered with courtly finery. Instead, she wore the remnants of her training attire, a fitted vest, dark trousers, heavy boots, leaving her sinewed, sculpted arms bare. One elbow rested against the throne as her chin leaned into her palm. The other hand drummed idly on the armrest, long nails clicking in a slow, impatient rhythm.

She watched the chamber doors in silence, waiting for the court to assemble, her expression unreadable, her posture relaxed in the way only the truly dangerous could afford.

Her thoughts, briefly and irrelevantly, drifted to the unfinished romance novel left abandoned in her chambers. A trivial indulgence. One she would return to only after her war path was shaped.

Zathria At'Arel Beksesha Suulet’jabar Nimruil Hebemarri

 

[Beksesha Suulet’jabar]

Beksesha Suulet’jabar arrived looking quite refreshed, wearing one of her usual gowns, bedecked with the long-coveted jewelry she had inherited from her mother. She was looking unusually pleased, having just discovered that her heir had conceived a child after the coronation. She bowed formally, then took her assigned seat elegantly, giving Vyx’aria a broad smile - a nearly generational rarity on her infamously dispassionate face.

“Ven’dui, Valsharess. You look quite hale, if I may be so bold.”

 

[Hebemarri]

“yes, I would say so as well~” spoke a deep and echoey voice as Hebemarri sauntered in behind Beksesha. “We of the priesthood are most grateful to be welcomed into the palace.” The larger high priestess bowed her front legs and long neck, showing respect to the queen in a quadrupedal fashion

Hebemarri was dressed in a modest amount of adornments, based in the colors of Zar’ahal. She made her way to a large rug beside the seating provided to Beksesha and sat like a lounging cat. “It has been many years since I have spoken professionally on matters of state, but I hope my two millennium of service will serve this council well.”

 

[Zathria At'Arel]

Zathria arrived to the court chambers promptly at the scheduled time. Already working and reviewing reports for the morning, the Ditronw Rahi’Valsharess was dressed not so differently from how she had been dressed at the coronation: practical armor, weaponry, and magical items kept in pristine condition while she was in the city.

My Valsharess, Zathria said with a part bow toward the queen as she entered and took her seat.

She gave a brief nod toward the other two who had already arrived as her eyes passed over each of them. She had her own suspicious feelings about them, but made no comment, simply waiting for them to declare their intentions with a watchful eye.

She told herself that it wasn't that different from the surface war councils, but in her heart of hearts, she felt that it was. There was an expectation to perform - maybe just from herself - and now the stakes were different. Not necessarily higher, though. How could it get higher than fighting day in and day out to survive? But different.