There’s one thing about her he seems to have forgotten. She is not a child anymore. She grew up. She rules a kingdom, has rebuilt it from the ashes. Her temper, her petulant child attitude, would never have seen her through such. So she changed, adapted as the Chamber required of her. He adapted as he needed to survive, tying his life to the Chamber but also to Eight. Straia may have owed the magician a debt, but her life was her own, and nothing she agreed to do for him would hurt the Chamber. Straia would give her life for the Chamber in a very different way than Warship had.
Raven Straia hops on her shoulder as he speaks of party tricks, taking off into the air and switching from raven to horse just as her feet hit the ground. “Yes, party trick,” she says, because it is endlessly more than that. She can light a kingdom on fire with the wings of her ravens, or send icicles through their hearts with their beaks. She is so much more than the child he knew all to well, the child he seems to remember more than the mare she has become.
Not that he’s entirely wrong. She doesn’t tolerate anything less than the best in the Chamber. Not from her subjects, and not from herself.
He speaks now in explanation, and she falls silent, ears pricked forward and listening. Shock never crosses her feature, nor anger. They remain impassive as he speaks, but of course, she is not surprised. She’s known for some time he made a deal with the devil, though she didn’t know all the details of the deal. At least now she has the whole picture.
“Yes, I rather guessed most of that when Eight summoned both of us in the middle of the night.” It made some sense to summon her, but Warship? Only because there was something Eight needed, and Warship would have to do it. “But I also need a General who’s around. We have a growing army that needs training, and you cannot do it from the Amazons. Prove to me you can serve the Chamber as loyally as you have in the past, and the position is yours again.”
It is that simple. He can earn the position again, if he can juggle Eight and the Chamber. If not, she would find someone who was present. Because she never again wanted to be in the field unable to tell a recruit that their General could train them. Because she didn’t know where her General was at that particular moment. Thankfully, Erebor is a good substitute for his father, but still. She wanted them all to know the Chamber was strong, the Chamber was capable. She wanted everything for the Chamber. Everything was for the Chamber. Surely, he understood that just as well as she.
straia
the raven queen of the chamber
Use of mild power playing is allowed; no injuries without permission