Moonlit tulips.

[Delia Ellatar]

OOC: Dears, I would sincerely appreciate it if you reserved this thread for a certain King of Aesir. In other words, this time, I'll have to call this invite only.

BIC: The shrill chirping of crickets pierced the slightly chill air as the Grand Magus Delia Ellatar stepped carefully along the cobbled paths that wound between rows of trees and plots of flowers within the gardens of Aesir. No onlooker would've recognized the usually regal woman, however. She clutched a worn, brown woolen robe about her shoulders, which, upon closer examination had no resemblance to the Queen's. In fact, if one were to glance slightly higher, one would see a face that was plain and framed by clean but slightly unkempt tendrils of brown hair. Most Queens would not dream of dressing in such a fashion, but Delia had no qualms about it. She had been born into an average family and was not ashamed to say that she had the fortitude to rise from the rank of commoner to the status of Queen.

Her sure footsteps guided her through paths that she'd walked many times before, so many times, in fact, that she the routine of it all drew a sigh. Nonetheless, she wove her way through the walkways, most of which connected back into one another. That was, except one route, disguised by disuse and also by Delia's illusion magic, that led the Grand Magus to her favorite place to find seclusion and refuge from the routine and pomp of royal living.

She found her place upon a bench hewn out of what was once polished marble, but was now worn and eroded by the forces of time. There, the illusion melted away and beneath it, the image of a truly lovely woman emerged. The plain cloak faded from sight and in its stead was a robe of layers of sheer lavender fabric. Beneath that, a simple silk dress hung from a body that seemed to radiate with health, vibrance, and beauty. In reality, Delia was not quite so lovely a woman, though was still by all standards quite pretty. With the aid of her her illusion magic, however, she became an image of ethereal beauty that was the subject of both lust and envy of those that could never dream to touch or possess it.

Her lips curved into the slightest of smirks as she reached her hand down to pull a flower from the ground. Her fingers clasped about the stem of a tulip, which she swiftly clipped with a quick movement of her long and consequently sharp fingernails. The gesture was both graceful and violent, which was in reality was quite an accurate way of describing the manner of the Queen of Aesir.

She knew that Cain knew to find her here if he wasn't too distracted by royal obligations. It was certainly late at night for him to be preoccupied, so she hoped and wished that he would come and find her and that they could spend a little time together. In the meantime, she preoccupied herself with shredding the tulip in her hands to pieces from the stem up, illuminated only by the moonlight that filtered through the boughs of the trees surrounding her.

[Cain Ellatar]

"You know, my dear, how much painstaking effort our gardeners put into making the flowers of our gardens an image of perfection and beauty?" Came a voice from behind Delia, soft and friendly in stark contrast to the general cold and diplomatic demeanor, “One reflected by both our city as a whole and it's rulers in particular." he finished, wrapping his arms around her from behind, gathering her into his embrace.

Things had been, to say the least, very hectic as of late. They had been taking in refugees left and right from the city of Avaren since the day Cain had arrived himself to break free as many prisoners as he could; and it was his duty as Grand magus to see to it that they were properly settled and provided for, as he couldn't simply turn them away if they had done the city no wrong.

As it was, he had most unfortunately let his queen fall into some neglect, embroiled as he was in the sticky mess that was politics, with no easy way to make him the time he needed to be with her.

When he had sought her out, asking repeatedly around the academy to find anyone who knew where her whereabouts were, there was absolutely no one who knew where she was, as all claimed they had last seen her in her room, with only a single caretaker having been in or out of her room in any recent time. When pressed for a description of the caretaker, they identified her as the one most people knew little about, who came and went at random, assumed to be Delia's personal attendant; yet Cain knew his own staff in and out and realized the only logical truth.

So it was that he found himself winding his way through the twisting paths of the Aesir gardens, knowing there was one place the both of them held dear that he knew he might be able to find her. Passing through her illusions, as one of the few who could, he had at last come upon his queen.

He had doffed the magical suit black and gold armor that he wore almost everywhere else, one of his symbols of power in Aesir, abandoning even his sword and replacing his garments instead with a simple black robe, for he needed no such shows of might when alone with his one and only true love.

"I apologize for my continued absences as of late, for all is not well in the kingdom." he said, seating himself beside her, "Avaren, once again, is causing great problems for the people of both our nations."

[Delia Ellatar]

Delia's face melted into a slow, sentimental smile when she heard Cain's voice from behind her. His embrace provided her with much-appreciated warmth, and her fingers let go of the last remnants of what had once been a beautiful - and whole - flower.

"And now this flower shall become mulch with which the others shall be nourished," she responded, smirking in a self-satisfied fashion. "For the rest to thrive, one must be sacrified. The flower died nobly."

The way in which Delia viewed the world and mortality seemed very skewed and morbid, and served as an example of how little she really cared about the lives of others. All people, save Cain, were simply not worth her mental or emotional energy. She enforced the policies that made the most people happy only because it kept them quiet, not because she actually cared about how they felt.

Cain was the only true exception to her apathy towards her fellow man. She did not perceive him as simply a convenient person to have married, as one might suspect given her general attitude in regards to others. In reality, she did truly love him. Seeing how simply he'd chosen to dress himself in her presense, Delia reminded herself that the illusion she cloaked over herself at current was simply a waste of energy. Almost imperceptibly, her skin suddenly lost a good deal of its glow, her hair shown just slightly less, and her face became slightly drawn from hidden stress.

"Avaren," the Queen started, shaking her head. "Home of all sorts of barbarians, ruffians, and scum. It disgusts me." Her face showed a fleeting expression of loathing, and she moved herself to sit closer to Cain, resting her head on his shoulder, her long black hair draping itself over his arm. "Those mongrels are keeping you from me dear. My own husband is not a mile away and yet I miss him."

The Queen exhaled a long sigh, and she did not attempt to mask her dislike of the current situation. It was evident that she'd lost a small bit of weight and also was not sleeping well. Overall, she seemed to wilt without her King by her side much like a tulip would without water.

[Cain Ellatar]

Cain let out a miniscule chuckle at her explanation and rationalization for her destruction of the flower; he shook his head slowly with a bemused expression on his face, knowing full well that that single sentence so perfectly portrayed his wife.

"That's much better," he said, as she let her enchantments falter and die out, "You use your magic like noble ladies use their make-up kits, masking up who they truly are. Personally, I much prefer you the way you are than what you seem to think you ought to be to please others." he said turning from his simple amusement over shredded flowers, "Although I'll not deny how truly talented you are with your magic." he added on with a slight shrug.

"You would love nothing more than for me to simple order Avaren reduced to rubble, wouldn't you?" he said softly, already assuming her reply, "I admit, it would save me a lot of trouble, yet, simple as a decree of Avaren's extermination seems to be, it's never that simple," he explained, giving a small sigh before he continued, "It's all about the politics involved." he said simply, making a grimace as he spoke, seeming to be almost disgusted with the word 'politics'.

"You see, we currently have a great number of refugees from Avaren, come to avoid their own government. It seems the royal house has been dethroned, taken over instead by a crazed priest intend on rooting out all sings of 'witchcraft', or whatever he calls it. He's been rounding up innocent and guilty alike and throwing them in prison, rumor tells. he said, shrugging again, "This wouldn't normally be a problem, yet with the current refugees, they would probably still have some attachment to their city, even if not their priest dictator and might cause open conflict if we decreed Avaren's doom."

"You haven't been treating yourself properly," he said abruptly, changing topics at random, an accusing note in his voice, "I think if you actually accompanied me then the both of us combined could take care of all the problems of our city."

[Delia Ellatar]

"Yes, I know," Delia responded with a slight shrug at his comments about her appearance. She knew it wasn't an issue with him, because his affection for her extended beyond his appreciation of her physical beauty. "However, I do have to explain to the public somehow why the King of Avaren would choose a woman of such lowly ancestry over all of the young, beautiful, noble girls that have been throwing themselves at you since you reached puberty."

The Queen chuckled at his next assessment, and couldn't help but smile sheepishly in response. "You would be quite correct in that assumption. If not, I'd at least want them scared to the point of soiling themselves."

Delia was a brilliant woman, and she realized why Cain had not done exactly what they joked about now. Politics were far more complex than simple conquering and forcing other cities to bend to their will, even if the Queen would gladly change this state of affairs if she could. However, Delia could only make small whims into reality. She did not possess the power to change the way the entire world worked.

"Almost makes you feel sorry for the savage scum. You can't honestly blame the lot of them for being born into ignorance." Delia's face was contorted with a mix of disgust and pity. "My sympathies fail with the trouble they cause us."

At his abrupt realization of the change that had come over her, Delia's pale skin flushed slightly pink. Her appetite failed when he wasn't around, but she did not want to tell him that. She didn't want to worry or guilt him, especially because he had so much on his mind. Instead, she elected to make light of what he said.

"We've already established that if I took a more active role I'd have Avaren reduced to rubble." Delia grinned mischievously, jabbing her finger lightly into the King's side. "Would I honestly be of much use?"

[Cain Ellatar]

"I chose you because you are the best that there is," he said simply, with a shrug as though he thought this fact plainly obvious, "If anyone had any sort of problem with my decision, they could take it up with me or you. In either case, they wouldn't be around long enough to question me judgment twice."

"After all," he continued, smirking as he spoke, "I don't see how I could ever live with some rich snob all my life; that cares more about her looks and her seat of power than her king. One or the other of us would probably have not lasted an entire year, and it probably wouldn't have been me loosing my throne.

'My sympathies fail with the trouble they cause us.' She said, and Cain had to nod in agreement. "As do mine. Yet I fail to see what I can do about it. The politics won't let me demolish it, yet to allow them to sit there in their self-proclaimed glory will only worsen the matters. I've proclaimed their city as a new province of Aesir and ordered Muryllis to decimate their army. It seems destined to come to violence. Tell me, what do you think, have I been going about this correctly? If so, would you be at my side should we be forced to take Avaren by force?"