Blood Shaper

Kay considered the pair for a moment. “I do think it would be too tyrannical of me to force you to stop trying to convince Murunel of your point of view by demanding that you leave Avalon, and I agree that allowing you to remain here indefinitely without any form of recompense would be a bit much…” He frowned as he considered the situation. After a moments thought, he turned his head slightly to stare at Azred. “I think the deciding factor in this case is you. Do you have a limit? Is there a point where you will accept Murunel’s decision to remain and give up, or will you continue to badger her forever? Because if you’re continuing until she returns with you permanently and does what you think she should without being willing to accept any other outcomes, then I will lean on my powers and get rid of you, for the sake of my friend.”

Azred’s deepening sneer as Kay spoke turned into a grimace under the power of his wife’s disproving stare. “I agreed to a time limit that Murunel came up with. I have until then to try and convince her that I’m right, if I fail in that time then I have to stop.”

“Permanently?”

“I’m not agreeing to forever silence myself, I have a right to keep and express my opinions about my family.” He firmed his posture, giving Kay a defiant glare. After a few seconds his grandstanding deflated. “But if I fail to convince her, if!, then I won’t make any campaigns of it like I’m doing now.”

“That is an acceptable compromise, but I will add one addendum.” Kay raised a finger, not flinching under Azred’s sudden glare or the two women’s questioning looks. “No bothering Murunel while she’s working. Her job is important and I don’t need her arguing with you when she’s supposed to be working.”

The red dragon in his humanoid form scoffed at the idea of Murunel’s duties as one of Kay’s Ministers, obviously thinking that whatever duties she would have as her mother’s heir were much more important, but he didn’t argue.

“As for payment or service to offset the costs of you staying here, I do have a thought.”

“How can we assist the Kingdom of Avalon?” Vivien asked.

“Your atonement for attacking us will be decided later, but the cost of staying with us will be assisting us with our current problem. Namely the vampyr incursions coming out of former Nelam.” The tense air in the room stemming from the arguing dragons took an entirely different air. “While the specifics haven’t been set in stone, and don’t spread any of this around, but we’re going to have to take direct action in the future to stem the tide. We’re not going to be able to sit back and let any vampyr that come close bash themselves on our defenses while we wait out the problem, so we’ll be dealing with it ourselves. I’ll have the two of you help us with the fighting, both defensively while we make plans and then on the offense when we push to the east.”

The married pair shared a glance and a silent conversation that might or might not have involved mental magic. “We aren’t opposed,” Vivien said after a few seconds, “I would like to ask, why not make that the price for our atonement and require something else to stay? There’s a certain poetry in having us fight against real vampyr after coming after you when you aren’t one.”

Kay favored them with a sly grin. “Because when it comes to that, I have you over a barrel and I don’t plan on letting you get off that easily.” His grin grew as Vivien glanced away, “You were willing to come all this way to get in a giant fight to help your cousin and deal with what you thought was a dangerous vampyr. Well now I’m asking you to still help your cousin and to fight against much weaker vampyr while traveling a shorter distance. Should perform any exemplary deeds or make yourselves incredibly useful, I might give you a little bit of slack when it comes to paying Avalon back, but I’m not going to let you off for free.”

“I told you not to underestimate him,” Murunel pointed out. “He’s young, but he’s not stupid and he’s been getting training from some of the best schemers around. “

“We agree.” Vivien said, ignoring the scolding. “We’ll help you deal with the vampyr.”

“Good. The details will have to be sorted out with my military leaders, I don’t know where you’ll be of best use at the moment. You can keep doing what you have been, as long as you don’t cause any problems but I’m sure Murunel’s impressed you of that, and I’ll send word once we know what we’ll be using you for.”

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They took it as the dismissal it was and left the office after a minor amount of departing pleasantries. Murunel stayed behind as her relatives left the room. When the door swung behind them she hurried around the desk again, sweeping Kay up into another hug. “It really is great to see you.”

Laughing quietly, Kay hugged her back. “I didn’t think you were lying the first time.”

“I know, but I missed you. You and Eleniah are the first friends I made during and after that whole debacle with that fucking ball, and I missed you both.” She leaned back so she could look at him, with a cheeky grin on her face. “Speaking of, you and Eleniah huh? You two just made me a lot of money in some of the betting pools.”

Kay rolled his eyes and playfully pushed her away from him. “The gossip’s gotten around that quickly?”

“I’m absolutely sure it has, but I haven’t been in on the loop, I’ve been dealing with grouchy pants the smoke breather. But I can smell her on you.”

He pulled up his shirt to sniff it, “These are new clothes.”

“Not your clothes, your skin.” She tapped her nose, “I can smell a lot better than any humans without a Class for it. You two have always smelled faintly of each other because you’re together so much, but now its different.” She waggled her eyebrows at him.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.”He waved his hands down his body. “You could have had all this but you didn’t want to be my Queen.”

Murunel barked out a laugh. “Still don’t, thank you. I could get that kind of treatment if I left to go back with Azred, and you can see how that’s going.” Her jovial expression darkened a little, “How is Eleniah taking the idea?”

“It’s come up, here and there, and we’ve talked about it a little.” He shrugged, “We haven’t set anything in stone or made any permanent decisions, we’re working on really getting to know one another deeply and seeing if we fit. She knows its a potential end point, though. We’re talking about it.”

“Good.” She stepped in to give him another hug. “I’m happy for you two.”

“I’m happy too. Once I have a handle on the more immediate problems we’ll do a dinner with the three of us.”

“That sounds great! I’ll make sure I’m free.”

“If its necessary I’ll make sure you’re free. I am king around here after all.”

After Murunel left Kay grabbed some of the paperwork that he’d been working on before the meeting had started and got back into it. There was a shift change among his guards and a pair stepped in and swept through the office before stepping back outside to watch the door. Shortly after they were gone Kay felt a pair of tiny feet land on his head. �

“After some of the arguments he’s gotten into with Murunel, I half expected her cousin to erupt on you and start something.”

“Can you not sit on my head?” Kay pulled a globule of blood from the lining hidden beneath his clothing and formed it into a doll-sized chair atop the desk. “I’m not sure how much of it is an act,” He said as he felt Isla climb down his shoulder and along his arm, “But Vivien seems to be the thinker keeping her hot-headed husband under control. He can’t be too much of an impulsive idiot though, he never would have survived long enough to make it to tier five.”

Avalon’s pixie spymaster appeared sitting in the chair Kay had made. “My observations plus what data I’ve been able to scrounge up about him say he’s much more emotional when it comes to family than he is in a fight. So the circumstances seem to be driving a lot of his anger and frustration.”

“Murunel refusing to do what he personally sees as the right decision isn’t helping either.” Kay signed the bottom of a page and put it in his out pile. “I wonder why he didn’t go off to try and kill Glowl. Locking Murunel in that evil ball was a million times worse than her working for me. If I found out any of my family were or had been in a situation like that I’d be out for revenge.”

Isla smirked up at him. “He did, once he found out. Of course Murunel shouted him down, with Vivien’s help, because she thought that any attacks on Nelam originating from our territory would spark more troubles.”

“Good thinking on her part.”

“It was. They managed to keep him from running off, and then the news came in that Glowl had fallen at some point during all the fighting. The noble family that had been keeping the ball locked away also vanished into the chaos at some point, so without any legitimate targets to take his anger out on he was forced to leave it be.”

“You figured out who they were?” Kay cocked an eyebrow at her.

“You need to practice that a bit more,” She replied, “It works against anyone awed by your position or the power you’ve managed to accumulate, but it has less of an effect on anyone with enough status or power to hold their own. And of course I did. You just said it, didn’t you? If someone did that to your family you’d be out for revenge. What kind of spymaster would I be if I couldn’t find my lord’s targets for him?”

“Ha.” Kay chuckled and shook his head. “I don’t know, but you are an excellent one.”

“Why thank you.” She stood and curtsied, an illusionary dress appearing around her and vanishing as she sat.

“Anything to report?”

“Nothing new. A few irons in the fire that might get hot enough to do something about soon, but otherwise we’re as we have been.”

“Good. That gives me some room to maneuver.”

“Anything specific planned?”

“Yes. I’m going to handle anything pressing, and then I’m headed to the border. I want to see these vampyr myself.”

“Ah. Well, more than a few people will be happy to hear that. Our Shatterplate and Crusade ‘hostages’ threw themselves into it as soon as we found out about all this and they’ve been impatiently waiting your return. I believe they have some things to say to you.”

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