So you wanna play with magic? ALL KINGDOM

[Kreios]

kreios don't you tame your demons, but always keep them on a leash Camrynn is quick to answer and I am grateful for that. I shift my weight to the opposite side as I turn e head to look at her, meeting her gaze equally. She tells us that she had agreed to compete for the crown for the Amazons, and that is enough of an answer for me. Her follow-up is much too dramatic for my tastes – kill her? Really? After having just told us that we need to fight evil? What is murder if not evil? I shake my head sharply to clear away the sour thought of slaughter. She continues to talk, mentioning a new king in the Tundra and that the brothers there have allowed the Amazonian choice to join their ranks. I don’t understand what that has to do with the decisions that we are being asked to make, but I suppose that perhaps those that have been trained in diplomacy and politics might have a better grasp of it. It would be easy to be swept away in the logic that Camrynn gives us, but all of it means little knowing that she had come here in order to aid the Amazons. She might have switched sides – and I do not believe the gods would have chosen her if she were not loyal to us – but that does not change the fact that the Amazons appear to be reacting rather well to having been betrayed by our new queen. That, I decide, is what will make my decision easy “If the Amazons are still willing to offer us an alliance even after Camrynn betrayed them, I think that they are an ally we should keep.” It’s too easy to know that my choice is the opposite of what Camrynn wants, despite all her talk of letting us choose. There were too many rhetorical questions, too much evidence given against the Amazons without solid basis for it to not have been an attempt to sway the kingdom’s choice against the Sisterhood. I do not doubt that the black queen has our best interests at heart, but it is possible, I know, for magicians to be wrong. “Perhaps the Deserts will be a calming influence on the Jungle. Let them know that we will not stand for injustice, but keep them – a powerful kingdom – on our side.” That is an awful lot to say, with a heavy amount of meaning behind it. I do not know what the rest of those around me will vote, but I am sure that I have made the right decision.

[Yael]

Oh boy, things were getting a little heated. Zilpah throws a glance to her Ima and decides to take her cues from her and Kreios, despite having a higher rank. She does not like squabbles, and finds that there is confusion amongst the ranks, which she also doesn’t like. Add to it the magic of seeing Scorch’s words coming from a hologram and Zilpah’s lips twist into her thinking frown.

Hmm… this would take a bit of thought.
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Yael listens quietly until some clarification is needed. She had done her duty (potentially overstepping it at some point) at the meeting, stepping in where experience had been called for, but trying to let the new Queens do most of the talking. That’s how she had intended this meeting to be, to try and allow herself to fade into the background and let the rest of the kingdom turn to Camrynn and Pevensie.

Alas, it cannot always be so; she is still the Ambassador, due to Lucrezia’s disappearance. And so she interjects.

“I t’ink… eef vhat I am xearing is correct, eet ees Scorch ve xaf a problem vit, not ze Amazons, yes? She… schemes, but ees not evil, not een ze vay t’at murder ees evil….” Not in the way that Elite was evil, she means. That warranted war and broken treaties. Does this? “So ze kestyon truly ees vether ze Amazons are more t’an t’ere Keen. Is ze relationship ve xaf had for so long vit t’em vert dealing vit xer? Or ees eet bigger t’an xer? I t’ink eef Rhy xad spoken during ze meeting, ze outcome vould xaf been different, ve vould xaf valked avay vit a better feeling.” She pauses, and Zilpah finally speaks up.
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“Wait a minute. I was trying to see how Scorch’s offer is different from the alliance we have with them now. And I don’t really think it is. They’re asking for unconditional support, like a family is supposed to, but that’s it, right? I think she’s just still a little confused about Camrynn’s part in it. And…” she pauses, crinkling her nose a bit. “What if what’s best for us isn’t what’s best for them? That’s the only part I’m concerned about. So… I think we should stick with the alliance and say no to sister-kingdoms.”

She bobs her head up and down emphatically, and finishes it with, “They are important, but they shouldn’t come before what’s best for us, you know? And would they make a decision that was better for us than for them? I don’t think so.”

She didn’t know Scorch, but she thinks that if given the choice between doing something that was best for Sawflesh and Zale, or compromising to help someone else, that her loved ones would win out. That’s the way it always was.
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Yael listens to her daughter mull things out and cannot help but smile at the way she grasps the truth of the matter. It isn’t that big of a deal, but it is clear that she is growing up (perhaps a few years too late, but who’s counting?).

“Yes, I vote for an alliance too.”

[Camrynn]

so you wanna play with magic?

So few of them answer, and she keeps her face carefully neutral. She does not like the way their interest ebbs, the way things seem to be slipping away, the way the thriving activity is starting to grind to a terrible, slow, and inevitable crawl.

But that's a question for a later time. Right now, the question that faces them is what to do with the Amazons. And despite sincere appearances to the contrary, Camrynn is actually neutral on the subject. She has no doubt that Scorch hates her, through and through, terribly and truly. And Camrynn has no doubt that she deserves it; that is one of the beauties of the black queen's mind, she can know that and be entirely untroubled by it, because it means nothing to her, and it means nothing to her kingdom. Scorch is apparently willing to put aside any bad blood between the two of them in favor of the alliance.

Kreios speaks his peace, and she nods to him. His words are wise, if a little misguided – technically, she'd betrayed the Amazons so as to avoid the Amazons betraying the Deserts – but if Kreios has no problem with them trying to rig a crown competition, Camrynn can't fault him for that logic. Someone in the world has to be truly forgiving.

Yael and Zilpah are next, and Camrynn makes note of the girl. She's inherited her mother's reasoning skills, and Camrynn wonders if she'd be a potential ambassador once Yael decides to move on. Not that Camrynn is eager for that to happen; she's come to quite like the golden magician, and she doesn't relish the day that Yael decides the Deserts can do without her. Nodding to the pair of them, she accepts their decision as well.

And when silence falls, she regards the lot of them.

"It looks like alliance it is." she says, her voice neutral, glancing to Pevensie to give the other mare a chance to correct, to interrupt, to decline. "Thank you all for your counsels, they are appreciated." She pauses for a moment. "And that will always be true. At any time, if you have anything to say, any suggestions to make, we are always happy to listen."

"Additionally, all the efforts that you all have made should not go unrewarded. Kreios, for your devotion to the kingdom in the Field and in steals, you will have the rank of Sergeant. Zilpah, for your actions in the field and in the kingdom's borders, you will have the rank of Counselor."

She looks around at the assembled horses. "You will make your own destiny here in the Deserts. Be active within the kingdom, steal, challenge, recruit, and you will be rewarded." She looks at each of them in turn. "Oh, and keep on the lookout for kingdom activities. I think we'll do some exercises soon."

And with that, she looks to Pevensie, letting her co-queen add anything that she may want to include, and letting her be the one to end the meeting, if she wants it to end here.

CAMRYNN

co-queen of the deserts, magical, mother of badassery

[Zilpah]

Zilpah thinks its odd that no one else speaks up - their kingdom is made of more than her family and the Queens! They should have a part in all this, because one day it might come to them to march into battle side by side with another kingdom - and don’t they want to fight (or not fight) for a good cause?

She smiles and then her eyes go wide when she hears the promotion. Oh my goodness! She raises her black-tipped head a little higher, smile growing even wider. Part of her wants to turn back and see if Ima is watching, but she knows the golden mare already is. “Thank you, Camrynn! As part of my new rank, I’d like to go and tell the Amazons what we have decided, if that’s ok? Pharaon and Prague and Texas invited to me to come visit a couple of years ago, so this might be the perfect opportunity.” She doesn’t know that two of the three haven’t been seen in a year, and that the third isn’t really an Amazon. ‘Cause boys can’t be Amazons.

Ambassador would be a stretch for our little Zilpah.
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Yael chimes in briefly at the end of Zilpah’s request. “Yes, on t’at note, anyvone eenterested in being a deeplomat should come vit me after ze meeting ees over. Ve xaf veesits to make.”

New to deliver. Changes to see. Things like that. The work never ends.