Anyone;

[Valdis]

And in the darkened underpass I thought,
"Oh Satan, my chance has come at last!"

Seems they beat us to the punch, Mary says of Hyaline, and Valdis struggles to suppress the smile that wants to surface. Of course they did, she muses, because mother and Kagerus are ever prompt and eager to extend their influence in the name of their kingdom. Immediately when the plague defiled Beqanna, the Caretakers had a plan and executed it with practiced precision. That’s why the East is already a combined and formidable force.

A sense of pride blossoms in her chest when she thinks of her mothers and what they’ve accomplished during their reign. Certainly, it’s something to aspire to. Valdis had observed them growing up, watched them patrol the borders and address foreigners, but she never accompanied them on diplomatic treks across Beqanna. The wonder of it played in her dreams as a child as she envisioned what the other kingdoms looked like. With an eagerness and curiosity that has brewed since she was a girl, it’s an easy decision to make when Mary proposes the idea.

”Yes,” she sharply says, her tone formal to mask her childhood excitement reeling through her mind, ”I’ll go to Ischia with you.” Little does Valdis know that her father’s oldest friend currently reigns over the island. Taking an interest in diplomacy may yet still be a possibility for her. Last she saw her twin – and parents together – she had mocked him for choosing diplomacy because her mind has always been more inclined toward warfare. The opportunity of fighting has escaped her thus far, but she promises herself it’ll happen in due time, just as her diplomacy skills. With a contemplative blink and a brief, sideways glance, Valdis considers the relation with the Pampas. ”So, what will we do, if anything, to improve our relationship with the Pampas?” She wonders if the South will portray a unified front like the East, or if no one will ever be quite so strong as mother and her reign.


VALDIS

But then a strange fear gripped me and I just couldn't ask.

@[Mary]