The Throne of Eleven: An Epic Fantasy Novelette (LGBTQIA+)

Ajira

The town house had a modest brick front, narrow in stature, with a stoop and middle-class trimmings. A footman led the two Elevens and me past the curved entry stair and into a cramped parlor. The cream walls glowed warm, lit by a fire in the marble hearth. Heavy drapes hung across the windows, and I wondered if light in the day would ever find its way in. I coughed into my hand as smoke tickled my nostrils.

I stopped with the Elevens, just inside the parlor door. Ajira rose from a carved sofa and circled both hands in a noble's greeting to a junior. I glanced at Ajira's earrings—emerald today, though they were as often ruby or amethyst.

I knew he'd been instructed in how to greet me, but still I clenched my teeth. After that preamble, I could only bow deeply in return.

"Dowager Ajira, may I enter your place of living?" I asked. My voice, for the first time in weeks, shocked me in its difference from what it had been—deeper and much fuller before. Ajira's thick, dark brows twitched, and he gave the slightest nod.

"You may." And he gathered his skirts and sat back down.

I took one more step inside and found a high-backed chair relatively facing Ajira. I sank into it before my legs gave their own way. Kata and Dania peered up at me with their large, slate-blue eyes, one on either side of Ajira.

I'd swear the children had grown in the month I'd been away. Kata's neck was longer and arched like Ajira's, and Dania was missing a front tooth and wiggling another with her slender finger. I breathed deep and let my air out slowly. The Elevens were watching.

And so was Ajira. Yes, he would have seen pictures of me in preparation for this meeting, but even I knew it was not the same as the shock of seeing a different person.

I was a different person. What the Elevens had done to me could not have been just on a physical level, or else the experience had changed me in a way I could never reverse. And Ajira...

His black hair was tied back tightly, no-nonsense, secured with pearl bone combs. Below this familiar treasure, the lines of his face were creased so deeply in consternation they were almost scars. His dark eyes pried at me, tried to peel away the layers, and I wished to Heaven that he could.

He cleared his throat and twisted the ring on his third finger. "I am glad you called on us, Serv Aribiti. And I hear you have news of my husband."

He said it with such sincerity, and the girls looked up with expressions so hopeful and mournful, that for a second, I felt displaced. As if I had never been the emperor but only inherited his dreams. As if he, that other man, was still alive somewhere and very well.

I shifted in my chair, hotly aware of the Elevens' non-attentive attention.

"Yes, I have news," I said.

"Of Daddy?" Dania asked.

I closed my eyes. Heavens, but I couldn't do this.

"Hush," Ajira said, "let Serv Aribiti speak."

"Please call me Raen," I said, opening my eyes. It was at least more familiar than my formal title.

Ajira nodded.

"Serv Raen, have you seen Daddy?" Kata asked. The tilt of her head, her careful diction, was the perfect emulation of Ajira.

I breathed through a smile. "Yes, I have." I caught myself before I said, "Sweet One."

"Yes, and he is doing well. He is busy, and he is happy."

Dania bounced up and down, diamond tears forming in her eyes. "But when is he coming home!"

I bit the edge of my tongue and glanced at the Elevens, and then carefully back at Dania. "He told me to tell you he must stay away for a while, probably for a very long while. He is doing something important for the emperor—"

"But Daddy is the emperor!"

I huffed in frustration. "No, he is not, not anymore. He is working on a more important project, for the Remnants of Eleven."

That hushed them. Ajira, of course, knew the truth, the ironic truth of it. For the moment, it was enough to awe my two children, though I did not know how long that would last.

"He must stay away from the capital while he's working," I said. "He sends you his love, though, and a kiss." I kissed the back of my hand in as formal a manner as I could manage and held it out to them. Dania jumped up and Kata rose slowly, but both took my hand and turned it over in acceptance. Relief broke sweat on my brow.

"I would like to come and visit, once a week, to remind you of your father and perhaps make acquaintance with you." I met Ajira's eyes, and he nodded.

"That is acceptable," he said.

"Thank you." I rose. "I must go now, but do not forget—I will be back in a week."

The two girls bobbed their heads and Ajira sat still enough to please a painter. I nodded, turned, and walked out through the Elevens, out through the foyer, out down the steps and up into the waiting carriage.

I took the seat facing back and tapped my feet on the floorboards until the Elevens glided out and took their own seats facing—but not literally, never literally—facing me.

But what would it be worth to actually see them, see their eyes and see if they knew what they'd done to me? What they continued to do.

I kept my muscles carefully rigid and trained my face to blankness.

"Take me back," I said, and looked away from the home.

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Poor Raen. That's really rough. :( Thanks for reading! Please like and comment if you loved it, and follow for more updates!