"Your highness, I apologize but I do not agree with your decision." The very temperamental King Aaron of Alka spoke up immediately after the queen had returned from seeing off the water wielders.
"King of Alka, you would allow me to take a seat before you forward your complain, will you not?." She asked, exhaustion in her voice.
He only grunted in response as he watched her elegantly take Keevah's helping hands as she ascended the stairs, Eric right behind her.
After she took her seat, a maid rushed to arrange the part of her cloth that laid on the floor.
When she was done, Aveedah looked at an almost exploding Aaron and she smiled a bit before she said, humour in her voice
"Forward your complaint, Royal of Alka."
Velaine sighed, a small smile, not the predetermined smile he always wore, a smile he gives when he something manages to earn his admiration.
She is still managing to find humour in the situation.
Be it confidence or an inability to grasp the full situation, it was still worth admiration.
"Your highness, I do not agree with your decision to let them go Scot-free. Those lowly water wielders threatened the Queen of Vedarah, the ruler of head kingdom of the fire wielders In our kingdom, our palace and we let them go?" He had managed to start calmly but by the time he paused, he was shouting.
The anger he felt projected in his voice and in the fire that brewed in his orbs.
"Your highness, I understand you are merciful and you want peace to reign so I will not ask you to do anything but I implore you, give me the permission and I will present to you every single head of every single water wielder that had been here before sunrise." He was now bowing deeply to show his desperation and before he could finish his statement, the other kings joined in.
She had seen their look of disapproval earlier, some had even gone further to give her signals not to accept his request but being the person she is, she had done what she knew and they knew was right.
Her father had once said.
"If I had not witnessed you wield fire myself, I would have sworn you are not a fire wielder."
Fire wielders are known for their hot temper, their lack of patience and unforgiving nature, they would choose to kill a bowing enemy than lift him up and sign a treaty.
An enemy is an enemy they say.
She looked at Keevah and asked quietly.
"The late prime minister's family?"
"They were escorted to another chamber to await your command." He replied.
"My kings, I understand your concern but what will killing them benefit me? " She started, her eyes moving from one king to another.
"It will be a wasteful display of power. I will kill them and feed my ego, their children will ascend the throne and sort my death which will lead to the war that would have still happened even if I did not kill their parents."
"And we are forgetting something, the water wielding kings are just protecting their land just the way you are protecting ours. Yvonne may have murdered the prime minister, she may have held his daughter hostage but she did not aim at any of our royals but we killed their king and they have every right to be angry, we violated a term of the treaty so it is only right if the treaty is called off." She explained.
The kings did not argue back but the expression on their faces showed their disagreement.
"In my defense, killing Solomon was not a thoughtless act, though I would not say I was protecting you like some may assume." Velaine stated.
The kings all looked towards him as if they had just noticed his presence, one could not stop himself and he asked.
"You are a king of where ?" His tone a little condescending.
"Ridah, the whole of the southern region except from the north dwellers coveted for your food producing city." He replied arrogantly.
"Ridah, why have I never heard of it?" Aaron asked.
"What do you mean the northern dwellers coveted it, it is our land." Another chipped in.
"And what gift do you wield?"
"He had commanded the water wielder's knife, he must be a water wielder." Another stated.
And once again, for an alarming number of times, etiquettes were lost and murmurings erupted again.
Velaine only chuckled a bit before he stood up from where he sat.
"The south is for the earth wielders and I am not a water wielder though I do not think that is what is important now. You are on the brink of war and I assure you the water wielders are already making their move. You are blindly confident because of a victory you achieved two hundred and seventy three years ago, how hilarious. You are a kingdom that do not even know the existence of another kingdom opposite theirs, right next to their food producing city, you are stuck in the past and have refused to grow with the world. You may have just known of this war but the water wielders, they have been preparing for it. Who likes to be ruled by their enemy, to have their enemy crown their king, take decisions for them and bow at their feet?"
"You have been way too arrogant to maintain relationships because you think they are insignificant, have you considered what will happen if the water wielders form an alliance with the air wielders, will you still stand tall and confident or will you crumble?" He asked raising an eyebrow at them.
It was a pin drop silence with only the sound of their breaths. Each of them searching for something to counter his claim with but all they found was the little whispers, ignorant whispers their egos planted in their mind.
"And who are you to speak to us this way?"
"He is someone who knows Kebarah killed my father and an alliance we should clinch." Aveedah interjected sending them all in a frenzy.
*********
"Keane, how could we let Solomon's murderer go Scot free, he is a nobody and killing him would cost nothing so why did you trade Yvonne's life with his?"
Keane was quiet for a bit before he replied absentmindedly.
"He had controlled the knife without raising a finger."
"He had owned the knife and commanded it to kill it's master, I was afraid we would make an enemy out of that which we should tame."
Kebarah who had been quiet all along whispered loud enough for them to hear but the blank expression on his face told another tale. He was lost in his own thoughts.
"Tame him?"
"We are way past that."