Thinking Out Loud: Fadeless.

Originall posted here...

Mordign Sevrisil was not one to take anything lying down - it was said he even made love standing up, though of course that rumour was never spoken within his hearing, though his wife had made a few choice comments about the fact that it was not entirely untrue. Not that he had visited her bed since the birth of their second child, a fact that Jae'lean Fyras r'Sevrisil made no attempt to deny pleased her greatly. The Duke had plenty of mistresses, both at court and in the country, and the Duchess cared very little for his games. Theirs was the coldest of arranged marriages, made purely for political reasons.

Kae stared at the Dol'Carn hall once again, she was bored. All this talk about taxation and agriculture played havoc with her brain, she could not understand how it managed to bind so many minds and so many afternoons. Koryan had asked her to wait for him, he had to sit with his father for this session, and she - foolishly - had opted to sit in the less comfortable section of the spectator's benches. She was alternating between kicking herself for having come at all and fighting to stay awake when Sevrisil stood and the chamber, previously rife with chatter, fell silent.

"The last time this council met I called for Swords," he said into the silence, "that call went...unfulfilled. However, changes are upon us..."

Kae leaned forward out of curiosity, her blood stirring in her body; something was about to happen. On his throne, Lantor nodded and made a gesture at Voine, who rose to his feet.

"Duke Sevrisil speaks truly. A single tenday ago emissaries were sent across the border into Kardysha to convey the First Princess' desire to meet with Caine Shadowhand," the Ryn'Carn spoke, his strong voice echoing throughout the chamber, "they were returned to us with tradition human flair: their heads in a sack."

A murmur stirred throughout the chamber, a murmur that steadily rose to a garbled, collective roar of rage and promises for vengeance.

"If we had gone to war when I suggested it those men and women would still be alive!" Sevrisil shouted over the top the noise, "if we had not listened to the First Prince, if we had disallowed his - "

"Sevrisil, this is not about your vendetta with Teforne," Vendris cut in, his voice a knife through the racket.

"We will answer this violence with steel of our own!" a voice in the benches rose, "we must!"

"The humans have never desired peace!"

"We call for War!"

The shout trilled into silence and all eyes fell on the King. Lantor pressed a hand against his forehead, rubbing his temples. He had fought so hard to maintain the ragged peace Queen Moran had brokered for Feranath, but now...

"They have left us with no choice, scouts tell us that Kardyshan forces are massing at the borders," Voine said softly, "we must counter."

Lantor nodded.

"So be it. We are at War."