Blood Shaper

Wrangling enough free time to go have a talk with ornery dragons wasn’t difficult, but it was tedious. There’s always something to do in running a government and after returning home from an important trip to find things going sideways that was more true for Kay than ever. Everyone wanted a meeting with him to update him on progress, get his thoughts on what they should be doing, or just schmooze. The schmoozers were moved as far down on the list of priorities as possible, but the people who needed to make reports or ask for direction had varying levels of importance and meetings needed to be arranged correctly. That was where having competent subordinates made his life easier. Amanda was especially skilled in prioritizing what needed to be dealt with first and after the first few meetings with some of his Ministers and chunks of the representatives from Avalon’s Parliament were over Kay had a stretch of time set out to speak with Murunel and her family.

No one really knew where Murunel was from, all she’d said about it was that she was from “the west”, which wasn’t helpful for figuring out customs, means of address, and what kind of refreshments to lay out for visiting dragons and their spouses. Murunel had never made a point of mentioning anything as being especially desired or despised, so Kay eventually overrode everyone and had a normal spread of drinks and foods laid out. He wasn’t all that concerned with Murunel’s relatives being happy with their reception or not. They’d shown up as part of an invading army and whether their objectives were much more positive than any of the rest of the army’s that was still a big black mark on their record.

The three of them came in as a group, with Murunel in the lead. She gave him a big smile as she walked through the door and looked like she was going to come around and give him a hug before pausing. She turned her head slightly to glare at the man walking behind her, and quite obviously debated if giving Kay a hug was worth dealing with her relative being annoying. She eventually decided it was and walked past the chairs set out for visitors. Kay pushed himself up to return the hug.

“It’s great to see you.”

“You too. Thanks for holding things together while I was gone.”

“I didn’t do too much,” She glared over her shoulder again, “I was too busy keeping hold of this idiot to put too much work in. Amanda and Cindy did a vast majority of the heavy lifting.”

“Well you did a good job too, even if they were carrying the brunt of it.” Kay gave her a look that was meant to convey that keeping an angry dragon from running around taking that anger out on nearby bystanders was an important and valuable job too. He thought she got it based on the small smile and eye roll she gave him back.

“I appreciate you appreciating me.”

“Well of course-“

“You shut up!” Murunel snapped at her cousin. “No one was talking to you yet, so don’t push your way into conversations you aren’t part of.”

A small plume of smoke blew out of both of the man’s nostrils as he snorted in displeasure. “I-“ He stopped mid word to stare down at his wife, who was glaring up at him.

Kay knew from a combination of reports and his fight against the two of them that Murunel’s cousin’s wife, her cousin in law? cousin by marriage?, had mind or mental magic of some kind. He didn’t know the exact details of her abilities but she was obviously capable of willing telepathy at minimum. While she was scolding her husband Kay took the time to look them both over.

Murunel’s cousin was also a dragon, obviously, but he’d come in his humanoid form, which was different enough from Murunel’s in more than one way to be interesting. He was taller than her, and much more muscular, which stood out because mining wasn’t easy work and Murunel was ripped on her own. His muscles weren’t the muscles of someone who did manual labor though, he was built like a warrior. Kay didn’t know how much of a dragon’s transformation into a humanoid shape was controllable, but it said the same thing about the man either way, he was a fighter and saw himself as one.

His skin has a faint reddish tint to it similar to Murunel’s gold coloration and Kay wondered if that came from their scales in their other forms or was a choice. His hair was also red, almost the same shade as his scales and his eyes were a dark, dark red that bordered on black. They glowed faintly from behind and it was a little like looking into a pool of lava with a plug of obsidian floating on it.

Moving over to his wife, who was still holding the staring contest and probably the mental tongue lashing from what little he’d heard about her from Murunel, she was much shorter than her husband. He was just under six feet tall and she was at least a foot shorter than him. She could have been human or elven, she had the graceful stance that elves were known for, but it wasn’t a requirement that all elves were like that nor were they the only people that could. Thankfully, in Kay’s opinion, there was a lot more variance and overlap between the various humanoid species on Torotia. There was no perfect racial box that anyone fit into, and Kay found that actually more comforting than entire species of people all being similar enough to identify on sight.

With a skin tone that indicated a naturally pale person who spent a lot of time outdoors in the sun, a lithe and graceful body that showed off her physical fitness, her body shape also pointed toward a life of combat, and medium length brown hair that covered her ears she could be an elf, a human, one of the mildly rarer half-elves, or some other species Kay hadn’t run into before.

Both of them were wearing normal looking clothes that could have come from a shop in Avalon or anywhere else in the world and while it wasn’t obvious, Kay could tell that not having their weapons or armor made both uncomfortable. The argument, lecture, stand off, or what have you continued for long enough that it started to get awkward sitting there in silence while the two of them obviously were talking. Murunel looked used to it and resigned to not being included, but Kay was debating whether or not to clear his throat or get their attention some other way when they finally broke eye contact.

Murunel gave both side of the married pair a look, and while her cousin ignored her and stoically stared off into the middle distance, his wife nodded at her. Turning back to Kay, Murunel took a fortifying breath before beginning introductions. “Kay, err… Your Majesty, this my cousin, Azred, and his wife Vivien. They uh…” She tilted her head back and tried to search for the right words. “They have come to… Um, they have arrived to demonstrate… Urgh.”

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“You can be casual, Murunel.” Kay told her, holding back a smile. “Formality and precise speech is useful sometimes and a hindrance at other times. If your relatives don’t have a problem with it, sticking to normal speech is fine.”

Azred’s brow furrowed but he said nothing. Vivien chose that moment to speak for the first time. “Being informal will be fine, your majesty.” She kept her voice low, but it had undertones to it. Not like she was leaving something unsaid or her emotions were leaking into her speech, but literal tones under her voice. It was something Kay immediately decided was a magical effect, especially since the sounds layered into her speech didn’t seem to be physical. It wasn’t having any effect on him he could notice, so he marked it as an effect of a Class or Skill she had and reminded himself to keep an eye on it, just in case it was doing something to him.

Kay used her speaking up to shift the bugeoning conversation to his topic instead of having Murunel try to explain anything. He’d let her say her side of things in a minute but he wanted to hear this pair’s responses without any biases first. “Good. I would say welcome to Avalon, but you’ve been here some time and your arrival wasn’t the best. Instead, I’ll say good morning, Azred and Vivien.”

Azred grunted in reply.

“Good morning, your majesty.” Vivien said, ignoring her husband, “How can we assist you today?”

Murunel looked interested as well, although the way she was holding herself hinted that she might know what they were meeting about.

“I’m going to skip over your arrival and the immediate consequences, because I don’t think rehashing that will be useful at the moment. We’ll handle all of the aftereffects of that, but now isn’t the time. I called you both here to ask you a question. Why are you here?”

Azred shot him a derisive look and opened his mouth, but Kay beat him to it.

“Why are you still here? As I just said, I am perfectly aware of how you came to be here and why, and I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of how that ended.” He looked back at Azred with a hint of derision of his own mixed with not so small dose of threat. If the dragon wanted to get into another fight with him, he’d let him, and then teach him why picking fights in other people’s houses was a bad idea. “Your punishment-” Kay paused at Murunel’s stricken expression, “Your recompense for participating in an attack on my nation was deferred because of your relationship with Murunel, but you have been here for months after your, surrender shall we say, and you have made no attempts to even bring up the topic in order to leave after handling it. That tells me you want something. What is it? While not a major one, you are still a drain on our resources and a source of consternation for my subordinate and friend at best. Why are you here?”

“Murunel is not your subordinate!” Azred snarled as he jerked forward in his chair, rising partway to standing. “She’s coming home with us!”

Vivien dipped her head, her eyes closing momentarily with pure, unhidden consternation and embarrassment. Murunel turned a look of distilled anger and disbelief.

“You stupid moron! Will you stop trying to-“

“Murunel is an adult,” Kay cut in. “She is free to return to your home any time she likes, whether that’s just for a visit or permanently. She is also free to choose to be my subordinate in addition to being my friend, and may stay in Avalon or leave as she likes.” He turned to look directly in her eyes. “I don’t think it needs to be said, but I’ll support what ever decision you make.”

“Thank you. I’m not a damn hatchling, Azred! I don’t care what you think I should do or what traditions say! I’m an adult and I’ll make my own decisions. This is my new home and I’m staying here. I like it here, and I like my job.”

“You aren’t just any adult who can make decisions without affecting anyone else!” Azred shouted, the volume shaking the room slightly as he practically roared his words. “You have responsibilities, duties! You are too important to be the subordinate of some little-“

“Some little what, Azred?” Vivien spoke up with menace in her tone. “Some little human? Is that what you were going to say? Are we going to have to have another talk about-“

‘No, no, no!” The angry dragon was vanished as he waved his hands in front of his face in denial and there was only a husband who’d said the wrong thing in front of his wife. “I was going to say ‘some little king with a brand new, petty kingdom!’ It wasn’t about his species!”

“It better not have been.” She shot back. “I apologize for my husband, your majesty. I love him dearly, but he can be… bullheaded on occasion. Having Murunel keep with her family traditions is one of the things he’s quite stubborn about.”

“Is this about her mother?” Kay asked.

All three shot him looks of surprise. Azred’s was angry surprise, the kind where someone has found out something they don’t like, Murunel’s was the pleased surprise of somone remembering something she thought they’d have forgotten, and Vivien’s was just surprise without any additions.

“She told you about that?”

“Nothing in detail, just that her mother has an important position and the tradition is that Murunel will inherit it as her daughter. I don’t know anything about what the position is or where your home is, which I think is the biggest secret you’re trying to hide, but she spoke about her distaste for the position and the duties that come with it.”

Vivien ignored the family drama as her husband shot his younger cousin a hurt look and she glared back at him defiantly. “Enough to understand the basic then. Yes, that is what it is about for my husband. I personally believe that forcing someone into doing anything is a bad idea and it’s a terrible one when what you’re forcing them to take a position of authority and responsibility. There’s not many better ways to make sure they’ll do a terrible job than making them.”

Her completely ignoring the mention about where Murunel’s original home was proved Kay’s point, but he didn’t interrupt.

“Azred wants to make Murunel come back with him to take up the position tradition demands of her as her mother’s apprentice and heir, Murunel does not want to leave, and I’m not going to leave my husband here in a foreign country that’s already annoyed at him, so I’m stuck.”

“Stuck?” Her husband asked, sounding indignant.

“Yes. I want to leave and am held here by my love for you, I would call that stuck.”

He looked away grumpily, crossing his arms.

Vivien sighed gently before turning forward to face Kay again. “Your majesty, I can absolutely promise you that Azred will not even attempt to use force to force Murunel into returning with him. However, as pointless as I believe it is, I don’t think he’s committing any wrongs by trying to convince her.”

Kay pointed an arched brow at Azred.

“I would never try to force her into anything!” He insisted.

“Why did I hear about you trying to physically restrain her when she left to come back here after we freed her then?”

“That was actually something else.” Murunel informed him, “We already talked about it and Azred apologized, but it turns out that I interpreted it badly in the moment and assigned him some motives he didn’t actually have.” She shot her cousin another glare. “Of course, trying to literally drag me off to make sure I go to talk to my parents because they asked him to fetch me isn’t much better, but he did apologize and promised not to do it again.”

“Alright.” Kay put the blood hidden throughout the specially prepared meeting room as decorative objects and inside disguised tubing back into its original position and let go of it all. He’d grabbed a large mass as soon as Azred had jerked to his feet and snapped at him the first time and had held it ready in case the situation escalated.

Vivien seemed to be the only person to notice the faint movements as everything was put back in place and she watched Kay with a little more caution. “I won’t force Azred to stop trying to convince Murunel of his position, and he’s not likely to give up soon. You have the ability to make him stop by demanding that we leave, but Murunel’s descriptions of you make me think that is an unlikely outcome, at least as a first resort. That being the case, I’d like to negotiate both our payment for our poorly thought out actions in the past and for permission to remain for the foreseeable future.”