A Trickle of Soulfyre

Chapter 12 - Agreement

When Nash and Anesse arrived at Dragonfly River, the nixie queen was already there, her wet, black hair gleaming in the day's last remaining light. Nash looked over the rippling surface streaming out behind her, at the glittering flutters of the winged creatures that gave the water its name as they flitted through the air.

The nixie queen fixed her intense, bark-brown stare on Nash, summoning his gaze away from the river and to her. Her eyes reminded him so much of Lyrani's that he couldn't look away. Unlike Lyrani's, however, they were cool, unreadable.

"Queen Harameia." Anesse presented the royal water spirit with a curtsey on the muddy ground.

Following her lead, Nash bowed.

"King Nash." Queen Harameia's voice was like tinkling bells, a sound that had no doubt driven many men and women to watery deaths. "Advisor Lach." She drew their agreement out of the water beside her with slender, brown fingers tipped with long nails.

Even though the parchment was soaked from being submerged for the week since Nash and Anesse had presented it to the queen, even though it dripped as she held it out, the writing was intact when the advisor unrolled the scroll.

There had been no unapproved amendments scribbled over Nash's words, no smudging of the promises he had made during their last meeting. Despite that, he didn't think the tightness in Queen Harameia's mouth bode well for him.

The queen stared up at Nash. "The council is not happy to accept these terms, therefore I cannot agree to them."

"Did we not draft this treaty together?" asked Nash, a flash of agitation in his voice.

Yes, he had done awful things. Yes, he would do whatever he could to make up for them, but did every clan he tried to make reparations with have to take advantage of the goodwill underlying his every offer?

"We did." Queen Harameia fixed her unearthly eyes on Nash.

They took his breath away even though he willed them not to.

They made him long for someone on the other side of the realm, and when Queen Harameia's mouth curved, Nash wondered if she knew what he was thinking, if that was exactly what she had intended when she chose this form out of all the others that a shapeshifter could take.

"However, upon closer reflection, the council realised that not all impacts on the nixies were considered when this agreement was drafted. A group of us was imprisoned on land and left to dry to death over a year ago. That famous incident is only one instance of Elvenland's crimes against us." Queen Harameia looked between Nash and Anesse, splitting her reproach in two. "One of our palaces was destroyed by Beisht Kione, killing hundreds of nixies. I would be among them were I unfortunate enough to have been there at the time."

"I had nothing to do with that," said Nash with a certainty he didn't feel.

He wasn't sure whether he had summoned the Beisht Kione to attack the nixies. He didn't remember doing it, but that didn't mean anything. There was a lot about those days that he suppressed, a lot of memories he turned away from whenever they arose.

A lot about his possession and his actions during the time was a blank until he met a certain beautiful assassin in a dress of night and stardust. That memory of Lyrani brought an unbidden smile to Nash's face that disappeared the moment Queen Harameia spoke.

"There is nobody else who would've wanted to harm us." Her eyes never left him, so sure was she in her assertion.

Nash ground his teeth before loosening his jaw enough to speak. "In a realm so vast, you can't make that assumption."