i am the violence in the pouring rain
i am a hurricaneStraia has an inordinate amount of patience. Yes, she plots and plans and dreams. But in reality, she waits for the opportune moment. She’d waited entirely too long for her crown. Her father, being her father, couldn’t ever see when he stopped being the best for his kingdom. But she had needed backing to take it from him, and not the backing of the two members in the kingdom at the time. They mattered, yes, but one of them would never love that Straia had overthrown Rodrik, and if she’d done it without Eight’s aid, she may never have gotten it.
Besides, it worked out better this way. She got to sell her father to the Valley, which he deserved for all the shit he’d done in his life. And in the process she was able to repair the relationship between the Chamber and the Valley. The feud between the two had gone on entirely too long, driven by personal hate. And Straia didn’t see the point in that. They’d be better together, certainly. Of like mind, after all, on the definition of fun.
Straia laughs. “My parties include birds. They are an acquired taste.” One that her son had in fact acquired. Both for the fire raven that stayed with him and for the raven queen. And really, Straia didn’t mind. She’d toyed with the idea of sleeping with him now and again. It could be fun, really, and the child would be some very strange combination of the two of them, probably. Sometimes not unlike Gallows, Straia thinks. Could be worse.
“It does,” she says in regards to the alliance. Really, she’s more ready to agree to an alliance with Gallows (and yes, even Fennick) then Demian. Not that Demian had been a bad king, he’d just been far less enthusiastic about it. “The Gates is trying to rally allies. They seek revenge. And I will let you in on something of a secret. I’ve already spoken to Lagertha. She’s rather sympathetic to our side, shall I say. But she’s posing the question to the sisters.”
Straia very purposefully leaves out the rest of the conversation, the dancing raven in her head blocking out what Straia doesn’t want Gallows to know. Not so much because she doesn’t think Gallows would appreciate their other scheme, but simply because that was a plan that relied on almost no one knowing. It was nothing personal. “But either way, there is likely to be a war. Magnus seems like someone unlikely to give up on revenge. So we just have to decide which side of that fight we want to be on. Do we let them come to us, or do we cut them off?”
straia
the raven queen of the chamber
