Dusk of the Realm

33

The rising of the suns brought with it a communal lament of silence. All of the Realm, from the insects to the Fae, from the grass to the clouds, to the forces of wind, gravity, and magic alike grieved the pronouncement of Queen Triana's murder.

At least, that was what they did at first.

By high noon, there were riots in Azure's streets.

People were upset, and understandably so. They were not given enough information to satisfy themselves, and with its lack came their need to fill in the blanks themselves. With the heads of the Fae hostages had come fear of an Infernal infiltration of the city itself; however, with the head of the queen came the knowledge that the heart of the city - the castle itself - was compromised.

Which, more broadly speaking, meant that the Fae were losing this war. And they did not even know how it was happening.

With tensions running so high, it was really only a matter of time before they snapped. Most citizens were expecting the initial snap to be in the form of some sort of protest at the castle gates, or in rushing at city guards - which was probably part of the reason why such fortifications had been increased. Not many would have guessed that the first driving factor of such riots would be in the form of a spreading anti-Eternal consciousness amongst the Fae of Azure.

Many of the Eternals had parted from the city a handful of days after the ball that celebrated the princess' return. However, as the royal family remained, so did the majority of their court members, servants, and soldiers. Though it was commonly known that there was an alliance between the Fae and the Eternals of Perpetuum, many Fae had, by now, grown tired of the entire race. They started seeing no differences between Eternals and Infernals. Thus, upon an Eternal servant going to market, one hateful Fae assaulted him, and found support in some of his friends. They beat the man to near-death before a guard broke the conflict up, but such hate was not easy to rectify. It was not long before nearly everyone decided to lay their grievances bare, whether they were against Eternals, or the royal family, or the guards, the enemy, each other. The people went mad, and while the guards attempted to keep peace among them all, it was no use. The citizens of Azure outnumbered them, and soon enough, they overpowered those very men and women who were assigned to protect them.

The crowd eventually made their way to the gates of the castle, though it was not clear what their ultimate goal was. For a while, they contented themselves with shouting and slamming their makeshift weapons against the iron bars, though no one person could be heard over the others.

At one point, the princess herself made an appearance, stepping out the front doors of the castle with an expression of utter dismay as she gazed upon the crowds of angry people just outside the gates. She only made it down the front steps before the first rock was thrown at her. She recoiled with shock, obviously not having expected it, but the stone hit some sort of shield - a shield that was created with such power as to shatter the rock into dust upon impact.

The next rock did not even make it that far.

Even the people of the crowd, in the midst of their emotional fervor, were able to name the next person to emerge from the castle, and were smart enough to turn around and start running at the pure promise of bloodshed in his grey eyes.

After Tarin Wulf's appearance, the violence was but a foolish memory. The court of King Kavras and Queen Pevana were suggested to remain inside of the castle, and were given a squad of Fae warriors and servants to assist them in anything they might have need of outside of it. Fortunately, nobody had been killed in the brief chaos, but some had come close. The curative wing was full to bursting, and that was only the warriors and civilians of higher standing. The Fae who had thrown the rocks had been dragged away by the general himself. Their fates were as yet unknown.