Verinia groaned. "I despise storms."
"Your mother had the same condition. I think, you've inherited the worst of it, however."
She smiled derisively into the dark nothingness of her palms pressed over her eyes. "So not only do I have her face, I have her ailments as well."
"But your personality is much worse than hers," the knight remarked with a blistering sort of ease. "Do you wish me to escort you to your room?"
"I've yet to finish writing the invitations."
Sur Ka'iser took the parchment of names in his hand and read through it. "Empress Lysirea of Ginzai?"
"Apparently." With her belly finally starting to settle, Verinia took up her kohl pen and continued with her task, marking neat, elegant lines in the common tongue of Oalta.
Most people of the high ranks, when creating invitations, would use the expertise of the scribes. While Verinia had used scribes when she was a child, her preference changed as she grew older.
Invitations, notes and letters written by scribes were cold and formal. She found notes with personalised messages of praise or gratitude to draw a more favourable, pleased reaction from the one who received it.
Fortunately for her, the Su ranks were quite predictable. If she showed memory of their feats or praised their insecurities, they would hold her in high esteem, and a woman in high esteem was a woman who saw no closed gates in a country as unforgivingly patriarchal as New Oalta.
"You don't find it strange that Viola Grandpire is inviting the Empress Lysirea as her guest?"
"No." Verinia poured wax onto the closed letter and imprinted it with her House's sigil. "She's a null blood in a court that buries daggers in her back for having slighted the Su'Ailfi, who she claims was her closest friend, and bearing the Sovereign's bastard. She's desperate to redeem herself."
"That is a rather hefty observation." Sur Ka'iser released the parchment and took a sealed invitation in his hands to scrutinise the green wax.
"Not an observation. An estimate." The princess took another parchment and set to work writing another invitation. "It's what I would do in her place."
Of course, Verinia would never find herself in such a disgraceful situation. A woman had to be daft or mad to cast such an unfavourable light on herself like that.
She didn't say any of that out loud, of course, but Sur Ka'iser didn't need her to.
He hadn't been by her side for ten turns of the twin suns for nothing. He knew Verinia, he knew how she thought and how she acted. He knew what she liked and hated. He knew she despised Viola Grandpire and had no sympathetic thoughts for her in her heart.
Sur Ka'iser Tharwenn was quite clear on the fact that his mistress was a venomous individual. He wasn't surprised that Verinia was reacting so calmly to Viola's attempt to set an impression of herself amongst the court.
In fact, if he knew her well, Verinia was allowing this to happen on purpose.
"I need you to assign Kaelbi a personal guard." The First Princess finished sealing a letter and set it aside.
"The Su'Datheram has ordered the same."
Verinia hummed flatly. Of course her father had ordered it. "Name Sur Dalsi to the position. He is capable, isn't he?"
The knight nodded stiffly. "A skilled swordsman. Keenly observant, as well."
"Then he'll guard the Sovereign's son well."
For a moment, he regarded her in complete silence. Verinia could feel within her mind the weight of the question he was forming, which fell over her the way a smith's anvil would fall over a melon.
"You don't truly mind his well-being, do you?" Scrutinising eyes bore into her face. "Why do you want Sur Dalsi to be Kaelbi's protector?"
The Su'Adrit glanced at the large man from the side of her eyes. He was positively larger than most men, and in his armour with his sole attention placed onto her, he felt larger still.
"He's my brother."
Her tongue felt incredibly thick with a heavy filth that sealed her mouth shut. She couldn't bear to say such words again.
Sur Ka'iser frowned, flames dancing in his reddish eyes.
She sighed. He had been by her side for ten turns. He saw her as she grew and kept his discretion of her secrets. If anyone knew Verinia as well as she knew herself, it was her protector, and in turn, she had learned to read his silence.
They were invaluable together. Ka'iser Tharwenn was a man she could never keep something from in good conscience.
"Sur Dalsi is a knight appreciative of the law and his Sovereign. I have it in mind that if Kaelbi should act beyond measure, he will report it to you as is essential of his duty."
"And you expect for me to report it to you."
"Naturally."
Sur Ka'iser's mouth twitched. "You already know something about Kaelbi, don't you?"
"Nonsense. This is only a precaution."
He didn't believe her for even a second. "You won't abuse your authority, will you?"
Verinia tutted with a sly look and folded the invitation in her hands. "Come now, Sur Ka'iser. When have I ever done such a thing?"
The knight gave her a flat look. He was perhaps the worst person to have asked that question to.
She smiled. "I won't do anything to him."
Now, Viola, on the other hand, was a different matter altogether.
She hadn't yet been introduced into the Hall of Wanders, and only concubines who the Sovereign married would be given a palace of their own and granted the title of Consort.
Until one of those two things happened, Viola Grandpire was of lower status than any of the Su'Datheram's women. As a Su rank widow, she may have had her own influence in the court, but a woman without a man was nothing, and she was less than nothing now that her situation with the Sovereign was so ambiguous.
Verinia had full plans of crushing that vile person beneath her foot, but such things required time and meticulous patience. She could not attack without good reason, and there was no part of her that wanted to give in to such an impulse.