Sorceress of the Second Sphere

9. A Journey With Death - Loldirr

"Perhaps your decision was a bit... Rash?"

There was an uneasiness around the hall as Erdudvyl asked her question. Almost as soon as the words left her lips, her focus edged towards the steam floating its way through the grated floor keeping the room warm.

The stare from Loldirr was nowhere near as warm, her green eyes focusing angrily on Erdudvyl. "Rash? Am I to forgive conspirators and treasonous leeches of their transgressions? Allow those who stood to gain profit from the death of my family to walk free with their head held high. From Loldirr Wraithslayer to Loldirr the Forgiver, or perhaps Loldirr the Clueless?"

"Erdudvyl meant no offence, Loldirr, and she does not talk of forgiveness but the harshness of Kirken's sentence," Ethelston responded, sitting and stroking one of the wolfhounds left by his uncle Millendahl. The same wolfhound that almost took his hand were it not for Erdudvyl's intervention.

Loldirr's gaze turned to Ethelston, like two daggers eager to press into the flesh of a traitor. "And I never expected you to take Erdudvyl's side on something so trivial."

"Yet it is not trivial, is it? Kirken will live and die in agony, I want him to suffer, but the oubliette is brutal in its function." Ethelston responded.

"And it's called the oubliette so I can forget he existed. While I forget him, he can remember the day he looked down on me on the day of my execution, as he laughed at me and longed for my death. Today he longs for a different death, one that I won't give to him easily." Loldirr spoke bitterly, almost instantly taking her goblet of wine and holding it like a child with their favourite toy.

"Then execute him, leave him in the dungeon, just don't leave him to suffer in continuous agony for days on end as he gradually loses his mind, slowly dying of starvation and thirst," Erdudvyl begged.

Ethelston sighed in time of Erdudvyl's request, "I concur with Erdudvyl. He caused my family so much pain and agony, and while I want him to suffer, even this feels extreme."

Loldirr's face appeared to scrunch up even more as she dedicated her focus to the steam in the room. "The oubliette, to forget. I am not forgetting. You both are so eager to place me as Isovine's empress, yet I make a decision and you both whine at me. I appreciate your council, but ultimately the decisions rest with me."

Before Erdudvyl could react, Ethelston slowly raised his hand toward her, attempting to calm the situation. While Erdudvyl always had Loldirr's best interest at heart, she had quickly forgotten that Loldirr was now entering her nineteenth winter, and as such, decisions like these would be unfamiliar and testing for one so young.

"What's really bothering you, Loldirr? This doesn't appear to be about Kirken?" Ethelston asked.

There was silence in the room, as the focus descended on the frustrated redhead. The silence almost came as painful as the thought of Kirken being unable to sit, stand or lie down in a cramped hole deep in Ravenscourt's dungeon.

"You're sending me away!" Loldirr mumbled.

Erdudvyl leant forward as Loldirr spoke, "We're not sending you away."

"You're sending me away to marry some man who I've never met, who I have no idea what type of man he is! Any chance I have to find out who this man I must marry is, I am met with silence as the man you're sending me with is as dull as a practice sword."

While Ethelston chuckled at the comment about the Chevalier de Présage, his smile quickly dispersed as Loldirr glared at him.

"Loldirr, I understand your resentment," Erdudvyl responded, attempting to keep the peace, "yet you know that we don't have the forces to take your throne directly, the only way we can do it is with critical alliances."