i am the violence in the pouring rain
i am a hurricaneShe has missed Kushiel’s ridiculousness more than she realized. He always provided some level of relief to her otherwise rather serious life. Oh, it was always talk of war. She honestly was tired of it. It would be easy enough to end this thing now, truthfully. They could invade, and win or lose, it would be done. But that it not what’s expected of the Chamber, and therefore, it is not what she will do. They will scheme and plot and ultimately win, even if it’s not the way one might expect.
In the end, this kingdom will be great. And Straia’s job will be done.
Straia laughs at the nickname that Lu has earned, and then opens her mouth to reply, but her sister is quicker with that bark. All bark and no bite though. “Lying is terribly unbecoming in a lady,” Straia says, without any of that vicious outward hatred that Lu has. But of course, Straia does not hate her sister, no matter how ridiculous her sister’s grudge might be. Straia never could hate Lu. But the Raven Queens defense has always been calm and collected jokes. And so that is what she does now, because she cannot let the world see how a little girl like Lu can rip the Raven Queen’s heart in two.
She had been late in coming to Lu, but the girl had never been forgotten. And the fact that her sister is angry over Straia’s late arrival and not the fact that Straia overthrew their father or sold him like a slave speaks volumes of her sister’s personality. Granted, Straia still did it on purpose, and still hold by that decision. At the time, Rodrik could not use his gifts in the Chamber. And to be perfectly fair, he was always free to go. Straia never claimed that he’d actually stay in the Valley. It’s not her fault that her father didn’t take advantage of the opportunity that she tried to give him. She tried to give him the ability to be himself. It wasn’t so cruel as selling him as the price of a crown.
After all, she had never needed Eight to take the crown from him. He’d failed as a King at that point, and the kingdom would have supported her either way. But no one else can see past the obvious, past the things staring them in the face. There’s always so much more than meets the eye though.
Straia doesn’t even bother to reply to Lu’s first accusation. It’s not worth her breath. The girl was hell bent on being spiteful and angry for the rest of her life. And they all thought Straia was the cruel and spiteful one. It was actually kind of funny. “You mean Warship and my daughter? Large black stallion and a little black and white tobiano girl?” She says in response to Lu’s next statement. It’s not as if Straia doesn’t know. Each of them has a raven, and it was only a matter of seconds before both ravens came screaming their heads off into the Chamber when their charges disappeared.
There’s only one place you disappear off to, and now that Lu has magically reappeared, Straia can guess where Warship and Weaver are. Perhaps she’s wrong – it is possible – and so she waits for a beat to see if Lucrezia disagrees with her before continuing. “If I’m so terrible, Lu, please tell me how I’ve managed to raise a child who’s off saving the world. Still there, it would seem, while you apparently failed if you are back here, stuck talking to me.”
Perhaps it’s not the way to win her sister’s love back, but Straia’s love since accepted that her sister would never love her again. She had tried. Tried to do the right thing, as best she could, by her sister. But for Lu, it would never be enough. So Straia might as well be herself.
“Is there anything else Lu? Otherwise, Kushiel will see you safely to the border, if only because you are my sister.” She turns to Kushiel, making sure he’s amenable to the task. She would not treat her sister like an intruder. Not this time, anyway. But she wasn't entirely sure she'd make that decision in the future.
straia
the raven queen of the chamber
