The Clan of Outcasts [Season 3]

Part 8: "Disappearing Acts"

White Castle (North)

Three Years Ago...

Coronation ceremonies were long and pointless unless you were the one getting something placed on your head, decided Zayra.

She fiddled with the carved ribbing along the wooden scepter in her hand. It was part of the formal accoutrements of a princess, along with the tiara set upon her head. This was nothing compared to the long golden scepter borne by Azelie, nor the grand golden diadem gracing her gleaming red hair--she looked even more queenly than she ever did as the Paragon.

Zayra shifted uncomfortably as her Gift thrummed along her arms, driving her muscles to reach out and lay hold of Azelie, to sap her of all her inexorable beauty. She'd complained in Zayra's hearing before about the way her Gift caused people to perceive her as "perfection incarnate", that everything she did was absolutely the perfect way, and everything fit her perfectly, and no one gave her a hard time--while Zayra would gladly receive such sentiments, as opposed to being shunned for the occasional fits of aggression, or the lapses back into the cold, calculating manipulator she used to be.

The cool hand landed on her shoulder, and she focused on its touch, leaning her head over so that he could raise his fingers and caress her cheek while all eyes focused on the new King and Queen.

Steady and soothing like a gentle river, that was Beren for her. He neither feared her nor judged her for the outbursts, and since the wedding he'd even taken to reminding her of the little things to be grateful for when she felt her patience grow short.

Thanks to Beren's subtle motivations, Zayra had found a moment of clear-headed charitableness to voice the issue that she'd seen plaguing the kingdom.

"It's the Gifted people that are coming forward, now that the Seramis family is back on the throne, and the Abnormals have withdrawn and they're no longer meddling in the affairs of the Realm," she had said to him a week ago, when Beren was still the "sitting King" while everything was still settling and recovering from the massive upheaval that had just happened.
"Yes?" Beren had barely looked up from all of the mounds of policy changes and tax raises the Royal Council had instituted to solidify their power over the people, coupled with the amendments and decrees the Clissander twins had used to take over--an unwholesome mess of power-grabbing and over-complication for anyone to try and decipher, much less an actual king who didn't need all that legislation to effectively wield authority that was rightfully his! "What about these Gifted people? It's a good thing they're practicing their Gifts more openly, right? We'll finally get the integrated society Father always intended."

Zayra wagged her head. "Haven't you been reading the reports from Edri about the state of the garrison, the Peacekeeper forces, and the dungeons? The whole criminal justice system was corrupted when Kaidan and Javira convinced the Council that it was in everybody's best interest to either try to control the Gifted, or get rid of the ones they couldn't control, by trumped-up charges or outright imprisonment." She gestured over to her own desk, piled high with such reports and maps and letters of her own. "Integration is a marvelous sentiment, and I'm all for allowing the Gifted to live and work and thrive on their own terms, but you and I both know that, as much as we'd like everyone to get along, there are those Gifts that are more of a hazard for the standard living communities, not because the Gifted one is a threat to anyone, it's just the nature of the Gift. Some Gifts make people uncomfortable, and others are useful but can get very much out of hand unless you already know how to protect yourself against them."
"Like Jaran's 'leck-trick power?" Beren suggested with a smirk, trying out the new-fangled terminology that Lizeth's studies had developed.

Zayra chuckled at the memory. It had taken patience and careful repetition to introduce the concept of "electricity" to their vocabulary, but at least now they could understand better how Jaran's Gift was about more than just bolts of lightning and flickering glowlamps.

"Yes, that," Zayra had replied. "Or someone like Erlis, who keeps sprouting dragon-scales at odd times, if she's been healing too constantly without proper rest. It's something we've learned to live with, because we understand the Gifts, but there are still so many unGifted who might react badly to someone who could transform into a dragon at a moment's notice."

Finally, Beren had turned away from his desk, and faced his new wife, giving his undivided attention to the situation she presented. "All right," he said. "You've identified an area that definitely needs work if this is going to be a functioning kingdom. Have you come up with any possible solutions?"
Zayra nodded. "One that will actually solve a secondary problem as well." She pulled out a map of The Realm and pointed to the Wilderness, the wide, barren eastern region that covered almost a third of the entire kingdom. "This land has been wasted for so long, used for banishment and isolation--but it's good land. Korsan lived there long enough to know. Instead of shunning it and using it for a dumping ground or treating it like it doesn't exist, though, what if we used that land," she overlaid the map with another she'd drawn, with quadrants parceled out over the whole area, "as a safe place for Gifted people whose neighbors have turned them out, to live and thrive and work on controlling their abilities, or just to conduct themselves the way they like without fear of harming those around them, since they would also be Gifted."