By the Bone

22. Changes

Min Sussuro sat upon the edge of her bed, pulling her pail blue khaal over herself and clipping her plates across her body with meticulous monotony, much the same as she did every other rise. Working from her feet up she slowly clipped the shining armour to herself and then finally attached her blades at her ankles and hips, her longer blade at her back sitting snuggly against her spine. She stepped from her chambers straight out onto the path leading to the tiles, Estrella not yet visible in the sky dim.

"Do you wake so early every rise?" groaned Ivaan from just outside her doors. 

"I do," she nodded, looking back at him. "Do you wish to join me on the tiles, Ivaan? Your footwork could use some work."

"How you wound me, Min." Ivaan jested. "I will join you," he smiled and fell in step at her side. 

"So, on our discussion from the other day..." Ivaan begun.

"I have thought it through," she said flatly. "I... think it is a good plan. I think it benefits us both as you said."

"You don't sound so thrilled," queried Ivaan with a cocked brow. 

"It's an arrangement as any other, is it not?" She eyed him. 

After Ivaan's sudden suggestion of a potential marriage between the two of them, Min had spent nearly all her moments considering what he had proposed. She had learnt rather a lot about the boy that day that had caught her off guard. No one tended to catch Min off guard. She could tell he had more ego than smarts but he still had a degree of wits about him. Well, perhaps eagerness over wits, she thought. The marriage would be an odd one, marrying beneath her, but it would ensure her freedom from Alta and her parents, and it would keep her solidly within the tower. What it achieved for him was more of a mystery but if she could benefit then that was all that mattered. He could keep his intentions to himself as far as she was concerned. Besides, she'd get access to the healing baths and perhaps the king would grant her a royal Vijetan title. She could be a daughter of metal bone and be free all the while. What did she have to lose?

Oh, the young.

"You understand it's a long game we play?" Said Ivaan, his tone a hint soberer.

"I have only ever known long games, Ivaan." said Min flatly. "Getting to be a player rather than the piece is all I have wanted yet never had the means."

Ivaan nodded, a voracious smile pulling at his lips. How good things were looking for him, he thought. 

"Now?" he suggested, a spring forming in his step and an wicked glint shining in his eye.

"I suppose now is as good a moment as any other."

-

Fai woke with a hoarse throat and dry crusted eyes. He fell happily asleep to the sensation of Ira stroking his hair, her hand against his chest, but he woke with the memory of his dreams still imprinted heavily upon the insides of his eyelids. 

Fai pulled himself from his bed, showered and fed, and finding Ira and Triste nowhere to be seen he decided it was the perfect opportunity to continue his work in Obscura for Veer.
He took a deep breath, lifted his chin and descended the platform, finding Fuerta and a small group of guards already at the bottom at their usual stations. 

"Good rise, my Prince," nodded Fuerta sternly. "Do you have company?"

"Good rise," nodded the prince in return with a tight smile. "I came to request your presence. I want to get the damaged houses rebuilt today and start a survey of fixes. Can you please arrange some support?"

"At your request," nodded Fuerta. 

Fuerta glanced for only a moment at her companions and two men briskly ascended the stairs in search of aid.