Delightful blue skies had never seemed more dull and grey to Verinia's eyes than they did as she stood by the entrance of the grand hall with her protector.
From time to time, her eyes would flicker toward the gaping entrance of the inner palace gate as if a monster was about to come barrelling through it at any given moment.
She wasn't so dramatic as to compare her current situation to a monster chase. Monsters had disappeared when magic did, anyway, so it was completely impossible for something like that to happen.
But didn't it feel so similar?
That tight knot in her belly from apprehension and dread. The fear that made her back stay ramrod straight at all given moments.
It was the fear of the unknown. Verinia never liked the unknown. If something was a mystery to her, it wouldn't stay that way for long. She had a neurotic need to control everything in her environment, even if no one else knew that she was doing it.
She knew, and that was enough.
But how in the Hells was she supposed to control something she didn't know?
The heat of the day was torment as the sandstones baked yet again beneath the light of the twin suns, bouncing the stifling heat back up into the air for all mortals to suffer and bake in it as well.
Summer had barely started and everyone was already suffocating to death.
Not for the first time and not for the last, Verinia was glad for her daily bathing ritual. She knew the day was hot, and she could see it on everyone else's faces and the sweat that beaded her brow, but she remained perfectly calm and unaffected.
Her skin glittered like diamonds from the tiny ices that had formed in her pores. The slow blood circulation in her veins made it difficult to differentiate natural temperatures.
Unfortunately, though the shell of her being remained unaffected, her mental state was jumbled and chaotic. She had been told by her father to kept the identity of the newcomers a secret.
Curiously, she hadn't been planning to say anything, but the moment she heard her father say the words, the strongest desire to be a loudmouth suddenly erupted within her soul.
Of course, she didn't dare to actually do it. She knew her place, after all, and discretion was everything.
So Verinia would let someone else do all the talking.
With their mighty rays, the twin suns glared down upon the world and she glared back at them with all her might.
No, she was certainly not feeling bright and delightful. Chirping birds fluttered all over the courtyard and mocked her with their playfulness.
Their little bird bodies sat perched on the arrogant branches of the broad scaramere trees that provided the entrance courtyard with shade.
"Look, a miserable young shrew!" They tittered to each other, no doubt amused by her misfortune on such a wonderful day.
Verinia turned away from the skies with her lips curled downward and blinking hard to recover her sight from the bright dots that blinded her.
"Are you well, Su'Adrit?" Sur Ka'iser questioned dutifully. He did not move from his post behind her, but she knew that he could sense her discomfort.
The knight had been by her side since her ascension and over time had become a comforting presence, although a mostly brooding one.
"No." She frowned. "I want to crawl into a pit and die in it."
Sur Ka'iser gasped behind her. "But if you die, who will expose the secrets of our illustrious court to the gossipers of Zanza?"
Verinia shot him a look from the corners of her eyes. "You're not obligated to reply to my every word, Ka'iser. Since your ears work so well, you do it."
Sur Ka'iser widened his eyes in horror. How could he be tasked to deliver gossip? "Your Sovereign Highness, don't be cruel."
By grace, he didn't know half of the things his mistress knew, and what would he look like if he went around divulging that Su'na Kolva was pursuing a palace maid and that his young daughter was in an amorous entanglement with her own protector even though she was betrothed?
No, no, no. He certainly couldn't do that.
He would get someone else to do it instead.
The heavy impact of thick bolts and impenetrable wood announced the arrival of an accursed moment which Verinia had been dreading since the day before. The moment in which she would meet, for the very first time, her father's bastard.
She had been scowling for so long, her cheeks almost stiffened into an perpetual glower. It was most awkward for her to force the corners of her mouth upward into an elegant smile.
Sur Ka'iser took one look at her and nearly cramped up from holding back his laughter.
Sigh, poor mistress. She didn't even know that the closer the carriage drew, the uglier her expression became.
It was a vehicle from the sovereign troop. Only when she saw it did Verinia realise that her father had sent for the newcomers some time ago and had only just informed her.
Her smile nearly vanished into oblivion. If not for the sheer willpower she had cultivated throughout her time as Lady of Light Tower, she would have long returned to scowling.
Viola Grandpire lowered from the vehicle first with the assistance of a footman, followed by a tall, broad male, who was no doubt her son.
Upon first sight, the two of them looked at her with complete wonder, no doubt admiring the glimmering of her skin.
The difference between herself and the illegitimate child was damning.
His dark hair didn't reflect gold against the light of day as the hair of the true sovereigns did. He was like all the other children in the harem. Except so much worse.
"Greetings to our Sovereign Serenity." The mother-son duo pressed their fists together and bowed to her, looking comically in sync.
To her own horror, Verinia realised that the son happened to be around the same age as the Second Prince. This meant that this child, was even older than her! He was her senior!
Hiccup, hiccup. She wanted to cry and throw herself on the ground in her grief. It was just disaster after disaster to her mental health these days!
Verinia sighed in her mind and nodded her head. "Su'ni Grandpire, Master Grandpire, what an event to have you with us. Please follow me inside."
Colby smiled, seeming very pleased with her bland greeting.
The First Princess wondered if he was an idiot.
The mother, on the other hand, had a frown and a rigid posture that exposed her suspicion of everything around her. Maybe she didn't know why they'd been sent for either.
Verinia thought it was funny how Viola kept looking at her during the introduction to the palace staff. It was obvious that the older woman was in shock of how much Verinia was the spitting image of her mother.
Heh… Maybe she'd think Ravena was coming back to haunt her for being a scandalous tart.
Stealing husbands? Humph! Respect yourself!
"Thank you for your hospitality, Su'Adrit." Su'ni Grandpire bowed her head once her and her son's personal staff had been delegated to them.
Verinia despised the very sight of her acting like an innocent flower of a woman, so it was very painful for her to smile amicably and waved away her propriety.
Her chest was burning with rage!
"Nonsense. The Su'Datheram will be expecting you for the evening meal." She motioned to the servants and then instructed them to take the new arrival's things to their rooms. "Feel free to rest yourselves until then."
The princess left them, then, in the capable hands of the servants to attend and spy on them, of course. The faster they started their servile tasks, the quicker they would have something to report and then she would know all their darkest secrets.