So like, when was the last time I updated this. *scurries away*

¤ The Sixth Chair

The mild sunlight that eternally shone in Orbis poured through the giant skylight set in the ceiling, providing illumination for the entire length of the King’s throne room. The many courtiers of the King’s court gathered and mingled there now, the inhumanly beautiful fairies with their courtly finery and gorgeous wings made even more radiant under the sun’s rays.

Where is Wing and Brother Salmer, anyway? They had promised to meet her before the Advisor appointment ceremony began, but with fifteen minutes to go, there was still no sight of them.

Snapping open the silken fan that hung from a long cord at her waist as per current court fashions, Aurora peered around the throne room from where she stood, hiding her eyes’ blatant movements behind the gentle waving of her fan as she observed the courtiers gathered.

There were the bored younger sons of noble houses with no hopes of inheriting estates of their own but hoping to win one at the court. Scattered amongst them were young fairy ladies and their chaperoning matrons, out to snarl a desirable marriage to better their families’ standing in court. There were also many fairy lords gathered, there at court to petition the King in hopes of expanding their own lands or perhaps to submit an appeal for more grants from the Royal Treasury…

The list was endless. All these courtiers had in common was a plan to manipulate their ambitious way through the tangle of court politics to get to the top, whether through honourable means or otherwise,. And whilst they bided their time, they would idle at the court to amuse and entertain themselves, all at the Royal treasury’s expense.

Aurora had always felt a faint sense of distaste about these ‘flowers of the court’, thus named for their merely ornamental function in Kranz’s court. Now, robbed of her own immortality and feeling the grind of time as a mortal, Aurora felt a stronger scorn for them.

How is it that these fairies can be so self-seeking and not wish to make better use of their near-eternal time in this world?

A glimpse of bright electric green through the drifting crowd made her head turn, and Aurora found her eyes searching out and falling onto a too-familiar fairy that towered over the small fawning posse gathered around him. Verchiel looked up as if sensing Aurora’s gaze, and they made eye contact.

For a brief moment, Aurora couldn’t shift her gaze away from those hard emerald eyes. A thin smile twisted across Verchiel’s lips, as if he knew of her fear and discomfort.

But Aurora hadn’t turned away from his gaze back in Before, and she wasn’t about to do it now.

Verchiel smiled a tiny bit wider, acknowledging Aurora’s defiance. Then, he dropped his eyes first, the thin knowing smile still on his lips even as he turned to speak to Hedwig, who had appeared at his side.

‘Aurora?’ There was a light touch on her shoulder that accompanied a familiar voice, and she found Wing standing close to her, his brown eyes filled with concern. He followed the line of Aurora’s gaze with some puzzlement. ‘Why were you staring at Lord Verchiel?’

‘Nothing. We were… just exchanging greetings,’ Aurora answered distractedly, seeing Hedwig’s malevolent stare turn on her now, then forced a wide smile as she turned fully to Wing. ‘I thought you’d be late, you turkey Wing.’

‘And I thought I would not be able to find you in this… morass,’ Wing gave her a wry, tense smile as he gestured towards the courtroom around them.

‘If you want to become part of the Orbis court, you will have to be part of this morass too, you know,’ Aurora laughed softly, the tension evident in her tone as well. It was difficult for either of them to feel relaxed at this point in time, but they both thought that they should try.

‘As long as I get to drag you along into this torture, I will do it gladly.’ Wing ducked the swipe of Aurora’s fan. ‘Oh sure, go ahead. Show the morass that we are so completely at each other’s throats for the Advisor chair.’

Aurora did not reply to that; her dark blue eyes flicked away from Wing as she changed the subject opaquely. ‘Where is Brother Salmer?’

‘He was with me but moments ago- Ah, there he is.’

The tall lanky youth showed up just then, in a simple but presentable suit of fine wool. It had taken Aurora at least one day of insistent persuading before he agreed to come to the court, and another day before Salmer surrendered to the need of getting fitted out for a new set of clothes for the occasion.

His three friends nearly had to drag Salmer bodily to the Academy’s tailors, and they would have done so if Salmer did not finally concede that the odds were against him.

‘I do not know why I let you two talk me into this. I thought I’d be lost in this… this… morass– What?’ he exclaimed indignantly at the amused look exchanged between Wing and Aurora.

‘Candidates Aurora of El Nath and Wing, son of Lord Sorra?’ A fairy with cream wings and the plain robes of a runner of the fairy Court approached the two of them hesitantly. She held a simple tray in her hands, on which rested two plain white porcelain masks, the same masks which the candidates had worn in their selection trials. ‘It is time.’

With a nod to Salmer and an encouraging smile from him, Wing and Aurora disappeared from his side, led by the messenger fairy to their appointed places. They would sit a discrete distance to the left of the dais, which itself held the five Advisors’ chairs and the single King’s throne, which were all empty, for now.

There was a gentle ripple that now spread through the ‘morass’, indicating the entrance of the King. The courtiers rearranged themselves into ranks flanking the carpeted walkway down the centre of the room that led up to the dais.

With stately, solemn movements, the Advisors filed into the throne room, wings tightly furled. There were only four of these fairies that climbed the dais to take their places at their plain, low-backed chairs.

Aurora’s memory rattled off their names to her as they passed: Finnen, an ancient looking fairy with a pure white beard that curled to an end in the middle of his chest, was the oldest Advisor, although not the one with the longest term. He had only gained his chair about twenty years before by special decree of the King, after a very long climb to recognition, and Aurora remembered him as being a rather astute, if bitter, individual.

He was followed by Tiernan, a dark blonde haired fairy that carried himself with much more aplomb than the average fairy. He had served the King as Advisor for the longest, which was a wonder considering how he was the spokesperson and overt supporter of the more conservative sentiments towards fairy-mortal relations.

Needless to say, he was always playing devil’s advocate to any radical policies Kranz had mind to make in that regard, and was always on Verchiel’s side.

And there was Keir, a handsome dark-skinned fairy man with manners as smooth as the brown velvet his skin resembled. He would be the latest addition to the Advisors after Aurora’s forced exile, and Aurora thoroughly approved of her substitute.

While Keir was always hard to read, Aurora had always trusted him in the past, insofar as fairy courtiers could trust each other. He was wise and cautious, and a formidable power in the court with influential friends on almost every side in the warring politics of Kranz’s court.

It was fortunate that Keir was not at all interested in taking any sides; he was one of the rare courtiers who had decided on and managed to maintain almost complete neutrality and for this, he was widely respected and seldom trifled with.

Finally, entering last as according to his right as Heir, almost as if a deliberate contrast to the dark-skinned Keir, the tall, pale Verchiel appeared to take his place, his beautiful angled face as blank and enigmatic as always.

However, he did not attract the most attention this time; the last Advisor chair that remained significantly empty drew the most eyes instead.

Now the king emerged from a tapestry-covered doorway next to the throne dais, striding up the steps to his throne with natural authority. It was only after Kranz had taken his seat then did the Advisors and the rest of the courtiers who could find seats take theirs.

It was a while before the appointment ceremony actually began. There were several routine court matters to attend to, and the King heard a few petitions before gesturing to the master of ceremonies to announce the ceremony’s start.

There would be little pomp or grandeur for this ceremony. It was all part of the tradition for an Advisor’s appointment: it was an indication that they were no more important than the people they would assist Kranz in ruling, but merely had an additional duty to do their best to aid their equals.

Aurora barely heard Kranz as he stood to speak the traditional words that began the ceremony. Her eyes only gazed through the too-small eyeslits in her porcelain mask and out at the glittering mass of fairy courtiers gathered, a flash of bright silk here, a flick of an open fan there. In her mind, there was a tumble of thoughts too tangled to give mind to, yet too massive to ignore, whirling all around.

Here was a world so familiar yet so strange, so comforting in the familiarity and yet, precisely because of what she knew of it, so threatening.

A smatter of polite applause now interrupted her musing; Kranz had finished giving his speech and returned to his throne, giving way for the master of ceremonies to announce his decision.

All eyes were on Wing and her now: vaguely curious ones that merely wondered if who would take the seat as a matter of passing interest, jealous ones that wished they were the ones in those places instead, critical ones that, even now, were evaluating the two candidates’ worth and what they could do for them in their own schemes…

Was it worth it, all my efforts trying to make a return to this world? Will it be worth it, this plan of mine? Does Wing know what he is getting himself into? Do I myself even know? The apprehension made Aurora shake a little in her seat.

A warm hand caught hers and held it fast. With a pleasant start, Aurora found that it was Wing’s hand, clasping her own in a comforting grip. Giving a quivering smile behind her own mask, she squeezed his hand back in thanks.

Fans stilled at the pregnant pause before the master of ceremonies drew breath to speak. Wing sensed Aurora physically tense up at where she sat next to him, her hand twining tighter around his as they both waited to see who would triumph over the other.

‘Wing, son of Sorra, rise and accept your King’s blessing for your appointment as Advisor of Orbis Court.’

Relief, accompanied by another smatter of polite applause, ran along the length of the court, slight smiles breaking out amongst the more conservative fairies like the gradual thaw of frost on spring’s approach: Had they not already known that Kranz would never truly appoint a mere mortal to the Courts? The King would not dare to break tradition that much.

‘Oh heavens,’ Wing breathed out at last in half-disbelief as he stood up slowly, not even aware that he had been holding his breath. He turned to Aurora, beaming until his cheeks hurt behind his mask. She got to her feet as well, and reached out to hug him, a smile evident in her eyes through her mask’s eyeslits.

‘Congratulations, turkey Wing!’ she whispered into his ear, voice muffled through the thick porcelain of her mask. ‘You deserve this.’

‘I am sorry,’ he whispered back, genuinely sorry, but did not know how to go on.

‘Psht.’ Aurora did not let him. ‘If you want to know, I’m actually a little relieved. You get to have the entire morass to yourself now.’ Her tone was light, even cheerful. She gave his shoulders a light push. ‘Now go, quick.’

Reluctantly letting go of Aurora, Wing turned and walked as fast as court etiquette allowed him to the King’s dais, and knelt on the ground before the steps of the dais.

‘Masked one, why have you come?’

Unlike what he had desperately feared, the customary words of answer came smoothly to his tongue and his fingers did not fumble with the porcelain mask as he took it off. ‘My King, I am Wing, son of Sorra, and I am here at your humble service.’

‘Be humble of service, you must, for you will be our Advisor,’ the King replied now, speaking for all Orbis. ‘To serve us at our times of need, to assist us through our times of trouble, and to help us to more prosperous and peaceful times. You will be our Advisor, and you will stay loyal and steadfast to us and us only, until the occasion or time when you are utterly incapable or disabled.’

‘I will do that, my King, and more, for I am Wing, son of Sorra,’ Wing spoke now, barely able to keep his voice from trembling with breathless excitement as he spoke the final time-honoured words of the appointment ceremony that all Advisors used to declare themselves. ‘And Advisor of Orbis.’

‘And may you serve us as well as your father did, Wing, son of Sorra,’ the King now spoke for himself, and gestured for Wing to rise.

With that, approving applause rang in the room, and the four Advisors now rose to welcome their new colleague into their ranks, all with various degrees of warmth. Tiernan merely gave Wing a distant nod from where he stood, while Verchiel went up to Wing to extend his congratulations personally, if formally.

‘They make them so young nowadays,’ Finnen harrumphed, but shook hands with Wing firmly, the old fairy’s hand soft, wrinkled and paper-dry in Wing’s.

‘And I am now usurped of my privilege as the youngest Advisor!’ Keir actually clasped Wing’s hand in both of his, giving him a genuine smile that made his brown face wrinkle up cheerfully. Then, murmuring encouragement, Keir led the still slightly dazed fairy youth to his chair, and only returned to his own after Wing sat.

But hardly had the fairy court chance to settle down from the ceremony before the master of ceremonies stood forth again. The fairy courtiers murmured in surprise. Was there any more to the ceremony?

‘Aurora of El Nath, rise and accept our King’s blessing for your appointment as mortal Advisor of Orbis Court.’

Aurora froze in her seat with that unexpected announcement, as did Verchiel, Tiernan and Finnen as well as about eight tenths of the fairy courtiers in the throne room.

Mortal Advisor? What manner of blasphemy was this? How can Kranz! How dare the king!

The muted murmurs now sharpened into enraged hisses. Verchiel and Tiernan exchanged a brief look before looking out impassively to the court again, while Keir’s lips simply curled up into a thin smile.

‘Aurora of El Nath, if you will.’ The messenger fairy that had escorted her to her seat was now at Aurora’s elbow, and it was this hushed whisper that nudged Aurora out of her bafflement and out of her chair.

Trembling, she retraced Wing’s path up to the dais. With every step she took, the level of whispering rose a notch, until it was almost a muted roar in her ears, a background for the thrum of her wildly beating heart.

‘Masked one, why have you come?’ The master of ceremonies spoke as loudly and as clearly as before, as if there was nothing special about this particular appointment ceremony.

‘My King, I am Aurora of El Nath, and I am here at your humble service.’ She forbade her own voice to shake.

‘Be humble of service, you must, for you will be our Advisor, mortal though you may be.’ The King’s smooth addition to the traditional reply was not missed, and a new wave of murmuring broke out. ‘To serve us at our times of need, to assist us through our times of trouble, and to help us to more prosperous and peaceful times. You will be our mortal Advisor, and you will stay loyal and steadfast to us and us only, until the occasion or time when you are utterly incapable or disabled.’

‘I will do that, my liege, and many times over, for I am Aurora of El Nath… and Advisor of Orbis.’

And there it was, the sudden twist made truth.

Kranz smiled, and spoke his own words, barely audible above the quiet uproar of disbelief and outrage that only fairy courtiers are capable of rousing.

Several gaggles of court flowers had already departed the room, eager to bring this new gossip to new ears. Out of the five Advisors, only Keir and a very excited Wing came down the dais to meet her, bringing her up the steps to the one that held the Advisors’ chairs.

‘I guess they will have to build you another chair, Aurora,’ Wing chattered breathlessly. ‘Who would have thought?’

However, despite through that uproar, Aurora could have sworn that the King’s words had sounded something like ‘It is good to have you back again, Advisor.’

And that he had winked.

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Oh hum. Sorry it wasn’t as exciting nor remotely interesting as I wished my first chapter in ages could have been. :X Was busy with school, had emo issues, all that jazz. So I’m not expecting a lot of readers anyway. :/

In fact, I just talked to a couple of seniors today, and I realised how much more work I’ll need to put in to keep up a momentum for that dream GPA. :/ (Yes, I r a nub that never knew w-t-f a GPA was until I got into Uni.) And to judge from how I fumbled my finance quiz today, it will be tonnes.
Which means lesser slacking time for teh Silvar slacker, and lesser time to write. T-T

[Random PictureZOMG!: Look what I made! ]

In case you wonder, we’re getting back to Silver the fanfic charrie in the next chapter. Now you just have to wait another two months for that update!

>>;

Oh no, I didn’t forget~
COOKIES FOR TEH READER! *scatters!*