Vyns groaned.
Koar rolled his eyes.
But there was no judgement here, no jealousy. And that’s why I was coming to love these guys, because they didn’t care about that little tryst. We all wanted the same thing, for Izzy to be ridiculously happy.
And right now, she was.
Hence, so were we.
KOARTHANDRIS
It seemed onlyright to have Izzy’s coronation at Veilblood Academy. This place was all she’d known of the fae realm, her home for the last couple months.
I had to smile. Izzy had been here fortwo monthsand she’d overthrown a false queen, started and ended a war, and learned a little magic in the meantime. Oh, and also permanently affected the lives of five men, of which I was one.
Luckily, the academy had two large forums suitable for an event such as the coronation, and we planned to use both. The coronation would happen twice, so more people could witness it. The first ceremony had finished at Anadendyra Hall, the massive great hall on campus, named for Izzy’s royal family. Now Izzy led a parade through the campus — a long and winding and indirect path — to Cliffside Arena, where she’d be crowned all over again for a different crowd.
The parade in between was for the thousands of people who’d shown up and not been able to fit into either the great hall or the arena. Izzy waved as she walked past,smiling and proud. She looked radiant in a golden dress, modest and stylish, though she’d insisted on no train, which had broken the hearts of the palace tailors. For the parade, she wore no crown. She’d wanted to meet the people as one of them, even though she’d already been crowned once and would be again in a little while.
She even stopped to shake hands or talk to people, probably more than she should have. Luckily, we’d made sure there was lots of time for her to make it to the second venue. She truly wanted to meet all the peoples of the fae realms. It may have been a bit of a slight to those in the two larger venues, most of whom were from what had been the higher classes. She hadn’t talked to anyone there, but here, where so many of “the rabble” had gathered, she lingered and talked and laughed with them.
I hoped she didn’t make any more enemies.
Already, there had been a divide among the elves. Only about a third had fully accepted Izzy. Roughly another third were skeptical, taking a wait-and-see approach, and the last third had already vacated the capital, heading for the wastes where the titans had once dwelled, furious at the changes Izzy wished to make.
No one was really worried. All the other races had united around Izzy, all of them would be “elevated” at least a little if made equal to the elves.
We had other enemies, but none of great concern. The nephilim of Elysial and the pyrkai of Urval were still vying for control of those realms, but, to a certain extent, no one cared. Most of the other races had come to live here in Seial. The seraphim and the repentant sylphim would make new homes in the high mountains. The vast plains would suit the salmaeri and concubi just fine, a step up from their previous home of fire and darkness.
Izzy had plans to talk to both the nephilim and the pyrkai at some point, to see if she could set up trade and diffuse the tensions between us and them, which had lasted for thousands of years. Few thought it possible, but they didn’t know Izzy like I did. If anyone could do it, she could.
I cleared my throat as Izzy spoke to a pixie at length about ways to enhance and simplify the bureaucracy of the realm.
She looked over at me.
I made a pointed look toward Cliffside Arena. We were close, on the last leg, and our time was drawing short.
Izzy sighed, got the name of the pixie and told her to find us “after all this nonsense,” then was back on the path.
“I was learning a lot!” she said to me as we walked side by side.
“There will be time for that later, we wouldn’t want to be late.”
Izzy sighed as the arena loomed closer. “I don’t have many fond memories of this place,” she murmured to me.
Myel had been imprisoned here, then faced a deathmatch. And Izzy had fought for her life on the same arena floor where she was about to be coronated.
I grunted my agreement.
“Still,” I said.
“One must face many unpleasant things once one is queen,” Izzy said a bit stiff. She was quoting her grandmother verbatim. Olinara was a massive resource for royal life, having been the last true queen’s inamora, the highest of the inamorati. But not all of what she had to impart to Izzy were easy things to hear.
“It’ll be over soon,” I said.
“The coronation, yes, but then I’ll be queen in truth and I’ll have so much more on my plate.”
“You wanted this.”
