Seyran

Chapter 8: Royal Family

The end of the year was fast coming close and bringing with it the change of seasons. These days the air was growing colder so the inhabitants of the capital were already preparing their coats for the oncoming snow. Compare to the previous years, this time, winter was really settling earlier. One couldn't quite say if it was natural or if the mood of that mythological beast, protector of their country, was changing again. One couldn't really know.

In the middle of the capital, laid the vast imperial manor. It was the highest building in the Dai capital, and also the well-guarded one.

Sitting inside one heated room of this palace, a woman, dressed in somber red, was slowly sipping her tea. The court had ended not long ago, and she was taking her usual break. It was Xian Shanlin, the royal advisor and one of the late queen's younger sisters. An anaconda, her contracted beast, was lazily sleeping in one corner of the room.

Her mood wasn't particularly good for earlier, those senile four elders still resolutely refused to revise their decision about crowning her dead sister's daughter. After all these years and all she had done, one really couldn't understand their ways of thinking. She softly blew on her heated cup, those annoying sentences coming to her mind once again.

"Do hold your tongue royal advisor, for it's not your place to question our choices!"

"For all those centuries, the queen had been the child of the precedent queen; who are you to propose your flesh and blood when you failed to be queen!"

Anger rose again and she flung the cup in her hand on the ground; the sound of broken ceramic had the head of servants coming.

Angrily, she spat.

"Get me another tea. This one is too cold."

The woman who came bowed; not daring enough to say that this tea had just been prepared so couldn't be called cold. She simply commanded those behind her. Two men entered one wipe off the broken elements while the other brought another set of tea.

The anaconda leisurely lifted its head to see what the commotion was all about, before setting it down again and coiling around itself.

Shanlin lifted her new cup of tea, forcing herself to be calm, thinking about her eldest child. What were those people unsatisfied with Su Qiun for? She was at the bottleneck of late medium, almost broking through at early adept, had a good head on her shoulders and had the love of the people. What did that Seyran have that they were so insistent about her being queen? They really couldn't decipher between good or bad!

"Where is Su Qiun?" she asked the servant kneeling by her side to fill her cup again.

"Answering, the first princess is dividing foods at the orphanage."

"Good, good."

No matter what, it was better to still have the support of the population. Then Shanlin frowned a little.

"Where is Bai Ming?"

"Answering, the fourth princess still hasn't returned since morning. Right general already went looking for her per your wishes."

That child, how can she be so impatient? Where was the need to rush things?

Shanlin set her cup on the small table, the servants quickly disposed of it. Frowning, she reflected on yesterday's decisions. Had they really been sensible? The night before, she had confided the truth about the crown princess to her younger daughter, Xian Bai Ming in the presence of her elder one Xian Su Qiun. That child had been really quiet, diligently listening while others were talking. It made her mother's heart proud that in sixth years of absence her child had really matured.