Legacy of the Remembered

27. Criticism

Bohjin followed Rime's departure by dealing with everyday management of Ehvera. As much as he wanted to focus on the current conundrum, other issues still needed to be addressed. Being a king was difficult on its own right, but depleting his number of companions made the task even more daunting.

He reminded himself that there were worse places to be right now, worse situations to have to deal with, and while that helped him ground himself in reality, it did not make the exhaustion go away.

Once he was back to focusing on the immediate dangers, he found it hard to focus on the correct path forward. The details of the attack on Worg were vague enough to bypass ignorant interception, but not vague enough for Bohjin to have trouble discerning what went down.

No build up. No warnings. In the middle of the day, no less, and yet no idea who it was.

But the manner was the same. Red magic infecting a group in the town, which was not large in the slightest. The result did not appear to be an angry rampage, like with Janheim. The letter described it as "an opposite effect, though deadly" which Bohjin could only assume the worst out of. "Deadly" was most probably not hyperbolic.

He strode over to his father's study once again. It was a comfort to sit at his desk, to feel as if his parents were still there with him. He needed their advice. All he knew was that they would encourage the open borders that he wanted to implement, but even the gradual path met so much opposition. It was not that he expected this to be easy, not with what happened to his mother, but it was a hope that still hurt to be crushed.

Being here, in this study, surrounded by proof of his father's reign and mother's hand in guiding their nation, all he could think about was the consequences of their actions. His father, welcoming foreign ambassadors in and then getting murdered. And his mother...

Originally, she had not been in favor of the open borders. But after his father died, she changed her mind. It was unexpected to say the least, but she wanted to achieve the goals he strived for, regardless of how she originally felt on the manner. Instead of taking the attack as proof of it being a bad idea, she saw a challenge that threatened them.

And then she met the same fate.

It hurt to remember the details. It hurt to remember that it was not foreign conspiracy that dealt the blow to her life. No, it was them, the Ehverians, who were so angry with the prospect of inviting foreign interest that they sought to remove the Ahlveyr family from power. It was one of only a handful of times such a thing had occurred. Most people thought that, because the name went all the way back to Jule herself, shifting power would be inappropriate. It was not the best point of view to have on who should be governing a nation, but it was one held so strongly that any deviance from it came across as shocking.

What hurt more was the unfortunate fact that Leiren's proposal to wed Bohjin to Rime was the final straw to those people.

He did not hate Rime for it, though at first he had. Bohjin had taken out irrational rage on her in the form of words. She had not reacted to it much, keeping stoic with maturity far beyond him. Now that he looked back, he had a feeling she had only been barely holding herself together. Fortunately, the misplaced blame did not last long. It helped that he had met Rime prior to that event.

He had brought Rime's book from Tsunizar into the study with him. As he had promised, while she was gone he would look into Meirr's odd warning. Though his Tsun was rusty, he could read it well enough, albeit slowly. He knew the words for colors like white and silver, as well as a particular one for light grey that did not have a Luxan equivalent outside of "light grey." This made skimming thankfully not too challenging.