APRIL SYLKRANA, the only daughter of the High Queen, has to make things right. When a series of assassinations breaks out in the Imperial City, April takes matters into her hands and investigates, distracting her from a plot against her and the crow...
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2408, Iclis 17, Daleth
Her letters remain unanswered. So much so April thought there was no one at the other end. Was the Imperial Palace that indisposed?
The corridors blurred in her periphery in a familiar haze, her footsteps firm and filled with purpose. Her jaw hurt from clenching it too hard. A faint lash of pain throbbed on her back, somewhere in the wing region. She paid it no mind and continued walking.
Several Advisers passed her by on her way to the meeting hall. Her agenda for this current meeting was thick at the end of her lips. If she couldn't get the High Queen's approval first, perhaps, using the Falkirtan Court would guarantee her mother's consideration, at the least.
The hall's door crept closer as April rounded the bend. Unlike last time, there wasn't anyone gossiping about her on the consequent corridor. In fact, it was quiet. From the way the Advisers' footsteps shuffled against the floor, the way they yanked the doors open, and the way they filed inside, there wasn't anything off.
Which was a signal that something was wrong, in itself.
April shook her head. Maybe it was just the pre-meeting jitters getting in the way. She's all paranoid and suspicious of everything. Perhaps it was just how Advisers normally go to work without any prior motives in mind. Perhaps, today would go well as she hoped.
She ducked inside the hall after Adviser Pernice, the latter's mousse brown hair was for once let loose. It swayed behind the Adviser's head and down her back, almost rivaling April's. Even so, April could see where the Adviser's locks were braided almost every day based on the wavy creases it left.
When April got to her seat, all the other Advisers had dropped into theirs. In silence, like all the other mornings they beat Elami to the table, they waited. After a while, the doors to the other end of the room—the one leading to the Potentate's office—snapped open and Elami strode through, a passive frown on her flat face.
The rest of the council stood up in reverence, ducking their heads as Elami strode past them on her way to her seat. April stayed seated, given her position as the High Queen's heir, and instead studied Elami's gait. Apart from the self-assured stance the Potentate had only perfected over the years, she had nothing going for her. According to rumors, Elami was once a product of the Caizu's patriarch's hidden affair and had only come to power because no other Caizu was of age when the patriarch keeled over. Elami didn't seem to subscribe to this version of events of her rising to prominence but she did nothing to correct it either. So...it might be true.
And that made her more dangerous.
Because unlike April who had secured her place by being the direct child of her mother, Elami's ascension to office proved to be studded with thorns every step of the way. Seeing as how Elami had stayed in power throughout the years proved the woman was determined in keeping it that way. And determined sprites were the most prepared to do anything to get what they want, no matter how cutthroat their methods were.
