Her Royal Majesty Queen Safaa of Vaan stormed into her court in a flurry of skirts and feathers. Her regal wings were stretched out to their full breadth behind her, creating a semi halo of glowing, ethereal feathers around her unusually dark-haired head. The three little scarlet markings at the tips of her wings distinguished her as an Aeriel monarch. Her feet never quite touched the bright, misty floors of the palace, wisps of cloud floating serenely under them, as she propelled herself forward partly through flight and partly through sheer, unadulterated wrath. "Shwaan!" she bellowed, her voice reverberating throughout her irradiant domain, only to be greeted by the agitated quacking of firebirds rudely awakened from their afternoon slumber. Safaa was going to kill her brother, just as soon as she managed to find him.
"My Lady," Jaheen murmured from the ornate gateway of the entrance hall, her pale silvery form barely visible against the light flooding in through the doorway. Vaan was always bright and sunlit. Had to be, in order to sustain her particular inhabitants; but on days like these Safaa truly believed that there was such a thing as too much of a good thing. Closing her unusually dark, silver-flecked eyes, she found herself momentarily wishing for the comforting gloom of earthly nights.
"Where is my brother, Jaheen?" she asked her lifelong attendant and childhood caretaker, doing her best to make her voice sound steely and firm. "I need to speak with him."
"He's in the throne room m'lady," Jaheen answered with a slight bow of her head, wisps of silvery hair falling across her pale shoulders. "Though I think you'd find him...ah...otherwise occupied at the moment." She said it with her usual circumspection, years of dealing with Safaa's incomprehensibly human sensibilities having given her the unique gift of sensing an oncoming tantrum a mile off.
"Well,I'll find something for him to occupy himself with," Safaa snarled, stalkingoff in the direction of the throne room, pointedly ignoring Jaheen's knowing –if highly unbecoming – smirk.
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A Flight of Broken Wings: Aeriel Trilogy #1
FantasySix hundred years ago, humanity rose up in revolt against the Aeriels. They were driven from earth - and back to their homeworld - after a bloody and glorious war. Eight years ago, Ruban's home was destroyed and his family murdered by an Aeriel. Whe...
