Chapter 441: Factions At Play
The Elf Queen sat alone on a chair made out of splendid and intricate mixtures of gold, silver and light grey wood. The chair itself was made solely of the grey wood, harvested and brought in long ago by her ancestors from somewhere outside the locked gate. As for the gold and silver, they were worked into the wood, allowing it to blend in a seamless fashion as though they too had grown from the branches that interwove to make the seat. When she was younger, she would look up at her mother during the occasions where she sat in this chair and think about how regal and powerful her mother looked.
But for her, sitting here as the queen provided her with nothing more than a massive weight that caused her endless grief and hardship. The night had fallen, one that was brought on by the massive tree moving it’s branches to block out the sun so that each day would have it’s cycles. When they had first arrived here, or so she was told, there was no night and only day. While something like that could be survived for a little while, after a time it would affect even the most stout hearted of her people. Living in constant daylight or constant night was something that few people could actually do and it would have a profound impact on those that tried.
So in the end, fearing for the well-being of their people, her mother had joined with the elders to communicate this need to the mother tree itself, causing this result. While they would have preferred a gradual shift into darkness, the mother tree didn’t have the intelligence to understand what the difference was. That’s not to say that the mother tree lacked intelligence, just that it some concepts were beyond her understanding.
But since they ended up with a night and a day, the crisis was averted and the people got back to some semblance of normalcy.
All this happened before the queen was even born.
Looking out of the windows of the throne room, the queen was delighted by the liveliness and vigor of her people as the city sprung to life from the darkness. Some days she wished that she could walk through town as a normal person just to experience what joys such a simple thing could provide.
But sadly that life wasn’t for her.
Her chief minister was currently speaking and she was doing her best to listen despite wanting to tune out his monotone voice. The man was good at his job but bad at public speaking, boring even the patient queen to tears.
"With the corrosion of the west gate, we have closed off all foot traffic wanting to come in and out from there. While this doesn’t seem to have an effect on the corrosion, it’s helping to keep the people from looking into it... Well at least for now. They are not stupid though as this is only a stop-gag measure,: the minister finished up and stepped back, taking his place in the line of officials.
"After everything that has said, none of you have told me what I wish to hear. Why is that, with this gathering of my smartest and brightest ministers, I have yet to hear a single utterance of what we can do to actually fix the problem and not just hide it?" The queen asked, her cold voice the only indication of her state of mind as her face was covered by an intricate venetian mask of pure white and sparkling gold. As was tradition in the court, the ruler would hide her face so that the ministers and those in attendance could only speak with honesty and not attempt to change their opinions in an effort to appease the queen. Without the ability to see her face, it made it incredibly hard to understand her current thoughts.
Since those gathered didn’t have an explanation, they kept silence in fear of angering the queen. Just as she was about to raise her voice, the doors at the far end of the hall opened to reveal six ladies in long, white dresses wearing masks of their own; white background with a silver tree whose roots started just above the mouth and who’s branches stopped just slightly over the tip of their hairlines. While each of them lacked armor, around their waists were strapped two swords that hung down to their knees, held in place on each hip buy a silver length of cord.
Behind them walked another woman in almost the same dress, except where the ones in front wore silver, the one following behind was decked out in gold.
As their bare legs walked forward with the white dress swaying in between, the came to stop just in front of the queen’s dais. The six in silver bowed while the one dressed in gold crossed her right arm over her chest in salute.
Seeing this, the queen chose not to speak but instead sat back on her throne and waited without speaking.
One minute.
Two minutes.
Three minutes.
"Rise. What news have you brought of the words of the mother tree?" The elf queen asked but only after the full three minutes had passed.
"It is hard to understand the motives of the mother but are you not being presumptuous to question her actions by asking for the reasons behind them?" The woman in gold responded with a tone distain in her otherwise pleasant voice.
"Those that have taken up residence in my court had to walk through her barrier. While most of them were badly effect, the one human wasn’t disturbed at all by facing the great mother’s will. So tell me why you think she would allow such a threat to go by uninhibited like that?" The queen snapped back, clearly annoyed.
"The mother did not wish to reveal her secrets to me this time. Perhaps I might go and try to talk to the one who passed without pause. Perhaps he understands just why it didn’t effect him," the woman in gold suggested.
"You don’t need to worry about doing that," the elf queen shot back.
"I have already set aside time with which to contact this strange human and learn more about him. Perhaps he will be a great help in figuring out the way out of this place?" The queen suggested with a smirk no one could see.
Her smirk was matched with a frown from the woman in gold, however she refused to back down.
"While the queen’s charms are many, the dealings with the mother tree are our exclusive concern your majesty."
’Slut!’ She thought to herself.
"This particular person has already assaulted my daughter and is therefore considered a threat. Something of this nature is the concern of the attendants until they deem the threat gone. Perhaps then you will be safe enough to speak with him?"
’Bitch!’ The queen thought to herself while trying to repress the urge to lash out at her. They had never gotten along, even as children. But once the had ascended to their personal positions, things had just gone from neutral to bad to worse in a few years time.
Seeing them stand off like this face to face was enough to make the ministers wish they were anywhere but here.
After a tense moment, the woman in gold spoke.
"Then I shall yield to the queen this endeavor and hope that you bring quick results. If you require my assistance in the future, please do not hesitate to ask," she said before saluting the queen once again and turning around to take her leave.
The elf queen was speechless as she failed to grasp what game this woman was playing. It was not in her nature to just give up so easily. Feeling as though she was missing something, the elf queen was more annoyed than ever and felt like taking it out on these foolish ministers, but knew that such a thing would not end up well.
"Even if I could just hide all the bodies..."
Taking a deep breath, the elf queen tried relaxing her mind.
"You are all dismissed," the queen finally relented and dismissed them despite wanting to blame them for being incompetent.
As the ministers fled for their lives, the queen once more turned in the direction of the city and watched as it was still coming to life.
’Why do I not want that young man to meet her?’ She asked herself, shaking her head to allow more thoughts to go through it.
With the threat looming over all of them, the Elf Queen decided to not waste time and summoning her assistants to herself, she made her way towards the area that currently housed her guests.
’He will tell me what I want to know or he won’t see another sunrise,’ the queen promised herself as her attendants struggled to keep up the pace she was moving with.
