Chapter 41. Honest Allies
After breakfast with Sephora, Prince Fenn seemed to be delighted to discover that she was even more gorgeous than her sister, at least in his opinion. It was those striking eyes.
However, the event with the cured fish that prompted her to gag forced him to remain to ever have reservations regarding her etiquette and suitability for a mate. His mate.
Prince Fenn arrived at the realisation that he ought to make the best of the prospect which had been granted to him via the Raven Queen.
Boldly seeking out Queen Nox, he solemnly took on the responsibility to enlighten her about the entire incident: The music room was where he saw the criminal peacock assault the young servant harpy, and prince or commoner alike, either way, this is a scenario where he immediately interceded and always would have.
Queen Nox, who more or less observed the inquiry and verification, eventually came to the conclusion that he was a dependable and trustworthy political ally, herself... who, conveniently applied, followed and maintained values that were in accordance with the Owl Code of Conduct.
This meant that limits within which she might move were written down, for political moves and decisions that she could take. Such things could be investigated and considered in much more complexity at a later point in time.
Nevertheless, the Eurasians, especially Lord Easton, have such a way with language - that is sweet like honey.
Trustworthy? About as much as you'd place your confidence in a Venus flytrap. The fact that the Eurasian king had personally seen this visitor behaving disturbingly and disrespectfully further solidified this conviction for Queen Nox.
What made it worse in the Queen's deduction was that it had occurred right before they had embarked on a late-night flight through the dark clouds of the Raven Kingdom, throughout which he articulated in depth and detail, his proposition to establish Loris as mated with Sephora.
How could she trust someone who hadn't told her about such a crime under her roof, with either of her daughters?
Irrespective of the fact that he had not yet even viewed the more elusive and problematic princess in person, yet or so Queen Nox believed.
It didn't even matter to Easton what she looked like or even if the pair of them, Loris and Sephora, got on well; what this visiting King had not one of a worry about, was her usefulness as a mate to produce offspring... and potential political functions such a union would and could bring both of their Clans.
While Queen Nox was delighted about the prospect of stronger armies, there was something about this negotiation and how Lord Easton was presenting it that troubled her greatly. It seemed very... off.
While all harpy mates were in political negotiations, or if one was a lower-born social status negotiation. There were certain hints that alerted and alarmed the Raven Queen to perhaps what were the expansionistic idealisations and aims of the Eurasians' already vast empire.
Would the Eurasians attempt to swallow up Raven territory?
It was a foolish thought when the Eurasians had travelled as far as the Peacocks. Their territories didn't border, and it was by no means a quick flight over. A few days at speed. A few weeks or even months at a more leisurely pace.
In the best-case scenario, they may be geopolitical allies... which, in the worst case, would make the Raven Clan culpable in everything and anything Lord Easton had designs on.
Meaning, it would be easy to have the Raven Clan take the fall if any part of whatever he was planning went wrong.
There had been clear suggestions that he likely did have... There was just something, very, very off about the whole proposal. Queen Nox just didn't know what the underlying motives possibly could be.
She didn't like that; she usually could quickly gauge political intentions and maneuvers. However, there was deception lingering in the air after that flight, and it clung to her senses ever since.
Deciding that she would do some investigating herself, to see what could be found on this King. There would be a clan somewhere that would know something.
The Euasian's boarders were vast... and so they had many, many neighbors.
By comparison, at the same time as the negotiating flight. The Tawny prince had to defend one of the young and unmated Raven servants from the Peacock harpy and his... uncontrolled urges.
He promptly sought her out by his own initiative and informed her quite directly. Queen Nox liked directness and hated fluff. Cutting to the chase was her style - it wasted no time.
Between the Tawny's and the Eurasian's, despite the temptation of large borders and assistance by vast troops... despite not yet having placed a formal offer on the negotiating table as Lord and King Easton had. They were far more likely to secure Sephora as a mated match.
That wasn't to say Queen Nox had fully made up her mind on the matter, but there was only so long that her daughters could engage with callers from vetted eligible bachelors before negotiations had to proceed
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Meanwhile, Seraphina was dressed delightfully in a soft, shimmery dress of black beads that shimmered in the sunlight. Wearing her signature breastplate, with sharper features than her younger sisters, as all Raven women wore daily. The rays enveloped the princess as she sat at the tall window of the library. A red leather-bound book with a gold inscription stamped into the cover was clasped tightly in her hands.
The light danced off of the beads in a splendid fashion, casting the light like around the room and onto the shelves and books like diamond dust against the deepest shadows of the room. Despite how she felt. If someone laid eyes on her, she might look like a beacon of hope.
"Our Queen," Layla had begun respectfully with a curtsy.
Caught up in her reading so much, Seraphina had not even noticed her enter, "Layla, please, I am not a Queen and certainly not this early," She smiled, "Is... there any news?"
This servant too shook her head, "Not that I have heard. As soon as there is any word of your sister's whereabouts or of her being back in the castle from Maven, I'll make sure to tell you myself."
As Layla looked at the princess, she caught her breath at her sight. Even to Ravens, Seraphina was... extraordinary in beauty. The light of the sun through the window, shimmering on the princess's fresh, waxy wings, only accentuated her complexion.
The servant thought to herself that it was moments like this... when the Princess was dressed like this, that people could understand why she had been nicknamed the Dark Diamond or the Black Diamond of this Clan.
I'm glad to see her friend and handmaid, Seraphina, beam warmly. Welcoming her into the library, where she had found herself and had asked to be brought her breakfast and to have it here. It was an odd request from the princess, but Layla still complied.
The empty plates, lying with crumbs and residue from the Eurasian flatbread breakfast dips.
All three of the dishes that the princess had tried had been good. While the dips had been the most exotic to her mind, the surprising dark horse had been the Tawny rye bread, with butter and meats. She had even found that the cured river fish meat on the bread had been savoury, even if the scent alluded to the contrary.
Seraphina had even read a little about it before breakfast had been brought.
No one else had been in the library, and the food from the Tawny's Kingdom had been so surprisingly good for being so simple and rustic.
This spurred the princess on, prompting her to do some more research on Owl customs... Tawny's in particular.
The older princess, with her iris the colour of onyx, rationed this as her only real reason to read up on Tawny culture. Not that she had already grown so fond of this prince already, certainly not! In her heart, she did wish that her mother might allow her to be mated to him... knowing how her mother operated, she kept those hopes sealed away. While the giddiness she felt was fun, she knew that it may well not last.
Layla, her faithful and friendly maid, and servant informed her that she had a Caller vetted by her mother, "You have obligatory attendance to an afternoon tea with Prince Fenn, Tawny's second born Prince. The chef is already hard at work on the options that you'll get to try, both of you! I think he is going to create some wonderful courses yet again." That still surprised her. Partly because it was so prompt; her mother was so protective of them with males from their own Clan, yet this second son who arrived only yesterday was now vetted?
What has he done to earn such a gracious blessing? Sephora wondered.
Thinking back to last night's dinner, she categorically listed the prospecting mates. The most unlikely of the lot was the peacock... for all the reasons by Raven's standards, it would not be him that she would be mated to.
It could never be him.
She wouldn't want to be, more so that she knew fine well, her mother would never permit such a match. Neither for her or Sephora.
That left the 3 owls.
With the odd reactions she witnessed her mother had to Lord Easton, Seraphina considered that it may be Loris or Lucas from the Eurasians that her Sephora could end up mated to - that was if Sephora ever returned to the castle.
From what she had gathered from the Eurasian brothers, they were very immature and, truly, she had no interest or attraction to either. She didn't know much about them, only that their lands were vast and an army great in numbers. It was a territory a very long way away from the Raven Kingdom to the distant East.
In her heart, she hoped that it might end up being the Tawny Prince... that it might well be Fenn.
He was kind and intelligent. With a maturity that surpassed all of the other vying suitors who had arrived so far.
"I'm here to escort you to the room for the afternoon tea. Chef is still making the food, so that will not come immediately. Are you ready?" Asked a smiling Layla.
At her handmaid's words, her heart swelled until it exploded with joy. The shackles keep the hope that her mother might allow her to be mated to Prince Fenn shattered, and few open. Filling her body with that giddiness from earlier and an overwhelming joy. She jumped high into the air of the library, fluttering her great black wings, knocking over some books and papers with her tailwind, in delight with that red book now held in crossed arms over her chest. She twirled once before landing back on her feet. Remembering that Layla was still present.
Seraphina blushed a little bit as Layla smirked knowingly at the Princess, "Soo...? You do like that one?"
Layla led the way.