love it [children/any]

[Covet]

Mother was Queen too. The realization hits Thorunn like a ton of bricks, mostly because she never considered the possibility that both her parents were great. She'd spent much of her time following Covet around, which isn't to say that she did not love her mother. She did. Librette was a strange foreign creature to her sometimes, and sometimes she was a rock and a shield. Val doesn't feel fear the way Thorunn does. When it storms Val stands in awe of the crashing thunder. Thorunn remembers only the warmth of her mother during these times, the way Librette could be as distant as her father at times, but when it counted she would place the gentlest of touches on the eldest twin's head. She sees Mother differently then. She is no longer just Mother, she is father's equal. She is a rock, too, if she only let herself be.

She's snapped from her thoughts when her father speaks again.

"Yes, Librette was queen here. And we both fought in the Alliance," he pauses, trying to remember when he met Librette. He can't recall. "My first memory of your mother is her coming to the Tundra. She tried to enter without permission, and I tried to stop her. Tried, being the operative word." His cloudy eyes are elsewhere, and for once that vacant look is replaced with something close to admiration. Was Covet daydreaming of his younger self, or her younger self? Age causes a great amount of self reflection, it seems.

"She beat you?" Thorunn sounds incredulous, but less so than she would have only moments before. After all, Mother had been a Queen. She'd been a general. She fought in the Alliance - whatever that was. But she beat Father, with his scars that painted his skin like cobwebs. That was worth something.