Fantasy Politics

Rayner fumbled with a stack of papers in front of him. It had been nearly a month since he last saw Lutrine at the party, formally celebrating Xerxes’ defeat and Cerphixen’s freedom. Surely to Lutrine it had been any old party, but Rayner couldn’t help but feel awkward about it. Despite his ambition to serve in the public eye, Rayner was, at heart, shy. Crowds didn’t bother him. His close friends didn’t bother him. But people he was supposed to be friendly to but didn’t even know?

Let alone the Berserker Queen of Zempheriea.

“I’m sorry we aren’t able to send any more aid,” Rayner finished. “But Zempheriea is competing with an entire planet. We have to spend our resources carefully.”

Lutrine sat across from him, chin perched on her knuckles and looking off to the side out a nearby window. But Rayner could tell she was still paying attention.

“Hm, no, that’s fine,” she replied after a moment of contemplation. “It’s better this way. The people of Zempheriea are in an awkward place, victims of a war they never wanted. They need to believe in their leaders again. Reprimands should be on us, not on you.”

Lutrine winced slightly at her words. Reprimands on herself, she meant. It would take a long time to rebuild trust between her and the people, maybe too long. There was no easy solution.

“Librata still stands behind the royal family,” Rayner said, hoping to quell her fears. It was truth, but he chose his words carefully. The royal family: Luna and Selene. The ability for Lutrine and Monroe to take up the royal duties was already a debate amongst the various kingdoms even before their possession at the hands of Sunitha and Xerxes, thanks to rumors of their declining mental health. After the war, however, Luna became extremely popular among the populace. Tales of her bravery and courage became a story of national pride, only furthered by her unyielding humility and kindness. Selene also became subject of much praise, but her worrying health quickly overshadowed any conversation.

But the decision on who was best to lead was ultimately left up to Lutrine and Monroe themselves. And Rayner couldn’t help but feel a pang of empathy for the queen. Despite being known for being quick tempered and often times violent, Rayner’s time doing business with her was only ever met with the upmost professionalism. He had a hard time believing the woman in front of him, contemplating every word he said, could lash out at any moment.

Lutrine turned her head back to face Rayner and stared at him. “Hm…” The corner of her mouth pulled into what Rayner hoped was a smile, though in truth he couldn’t quite tell.

“That’s good to know,” she said, a hint of mocking in her tone.

But most impressive was Queen Lutrine’s complete grasp of politics, and her keen ability to completely cut through his political talk.

But before Rayner could begin to worry that perhaps he overestimated Lutrine’s composure, she changed subject.

“Would you like to stay for dinner?” she asked. “It’s a long ride back to Librata and I’m sure you must be hungry.”

“Ah, that won’t be necessary,” Rayner said, getting up. But he stopped himself and reevalutaed his mixed thoughts. Diana’s teasings about being shy rang in his head.

“Actually, dinner would be delightful. Thank you.”

Lutrine stood and walked over to the guards outside their room and inform them of their new dinner plans. Rayner returned to his seat and sighed. He would have regretted his decision either way.

Lutrine returned and took a pen and notebook from a nearby stand. She began drawing something.

“Rayner, what do you think about Lumentia?”

“I…” Not the typical icebreaker Rayner was used to. “…Good pizza?”

Lutrine smirked at his remark. “It would appear that Lumentia and Ventureni have a good chance of becoming very close allies. If Princesses Kaze and Angel were to consumate their little fling then the Ventureni crown would almost certainly go to Prince Teruchi, assuming of course he is still alive, and doesn’t do anything else to invalidate his claim, though at this point that appears to be a very high bar in Ventureni…”

“Wh-what?” Rayner peered onto the notebook that Lutrine was busy doodling on. She drew each of the eight elemental symbols in a circle, in the order of where their kingdoms sat on a map. The symbols for Storm and Light had a long circle connecting them. “What are you talking about? Are you theorizing future politics?”

“Of course,” Lutrine answered. “I am queen. It is my job to do such things.” She tapped on the Storm symbol again. “At this point it’s too uncertain to say if Prince Teruchi would marry into another royal family. He seems to have a thing for the other princesses but they do not seem to return the favor… more than once. No, his type usually ends up with easy in-kingdom girls who use their tiny waists and bit tits to win them their fame. But it’s still worth watching.”

Rayner winced. This was the type of political talk that required three glasses of alcohol and hours of small talk as a prerequisite, and still it normally wasn’t spoken of so bluntly. Lutrine had no issue theorizing - no, gossiping - about the entirety of the Eight Kingdoms.

“Back to Lumentia,” Lutrine continued. She drew another circle, this time surrounding Light and Balance. “I don’t think I’ve congratulated your aunt on her engagement yet. Please send her my well wishes for me. But two royal family connections to outside kingdoms? Lumentia is really becoming a power player.”

“I think the eight kingdoms have always been close to one another,” Rayner interjected. “So I’m not sure what this speculation is supposed to accomplish.”

“Oh? So you’re not worried about Lumentia’s alliances?”

Rayner furrowed his brow and gripped the sides of his folded arms. It was just between him and Lutrine, and she didn’t seem to have any reason for drawing controversial remarks from him for her own personal gain.

“I suppose… I’d be less worried if it weren’t Lumentia.”

“Oh?”

“Lumentia holds all the world’s Reviver Stones,” Rayner elaborated. “Should Lumentia for some reason wage war against the other kingdoms, say because of corruption from an outside source, can we really say that they’d not use their most valuable resource?”

“Excellent point,” Lutrine said, pretending that she had not thought the same thing. “But you can’t really entrust the stones to any one group. They’ll always have a risk of having some bias.”

“Then diversify. Let each of the kingdoms have their own share of the Reviver Stones. It’ll probably increase the chance of someone using them for their own self interest, but they’ll only have access to a small portion of them.”

“I’ll certainly bring that up at the next royal meeting,” Lutrine said slyly. “I’m sure that’ll make me extremely popular with Lumentia.”

“But… wouldn’t the other kingdoms want that as well? Certainly if seven kingdoms demanded it, Lumentia would have no choice.”

“If that were to happen, then yes, it would work that way. But it won’t happen.”

“But… why?”

“Because it’s as you said. The eight kingdoms are all friends with one another. If I were to ask Lumentia to give up its most valuable resource, I would be admitting that I do not trust Lumentia.”

Rayner sunk into his seat. Lutrine had effortlessly guided his logic around in a circle that wound up hitting himself. It was the kind of verbal finesse that Rayner one day wanted to have.

“I’m sorry,” Lutrine said. “I do enjoy your opinion. I had overheard your conversation with Queen Talia and wanted to expand upon it.”

She returned to her notebook and drew two dotted lines, one between Zempheriea and Shadowrian, and the other from Zempheriea to Librata.

“Thanks to Kaj and Azurra, Zempheriea also has alliances with other kingdoms, though they are a bit weak compared to Lumentia. Azurra is royalty, but she is a cousin in a rather large family to the eventual heir. Would you say you two are close?”

“Well, I’m not really a good one to ask,” Rayner muttered. “I think she and the twins get along well, yes. She’s the quirky cousin.”

“Hm…” Lutrine tapped her pen to the paper again, suddenly in thought. “Rayner, I feel like I know the answer already, but I’m going to ask regardless. Who is the heir to Librata?”

The room turned cold for Rayner. He should have expected this. He should have, but he didn’t. His hope that the subject wouldn’t come up kept him unprepared to answer.

“There isn’t one. Talia hasn’t named anyone yet.”

“Technically,” Lutrine pressed, “the crown goes to you. Evelor, being the eldest of his siblings, was originally king. But he and his wife passed before you were old enough to take the throne, so Talia, being his next oldest sibling, took it for you. She’s supposed to give you the crown when you come of age, which legally, you are now.”

“Yeah,” Rayner replied curtly. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

“But Queen Talia is very popular, isn’t she? And at this point, she’s been queen longer than Evelor has been king. Besides, bloodline being the main contributor in deciding inheritance is becoming less popular by the generation. And Daniel and Danielle, they’re practically war heroes now, aren’t they? The public adores them.”

“Okay, you’ve made your point. Congratulations, you figured out why we don’t really talk about it at home because you thought about it for two seconds.”

Lutrine kicked the table between them, pushing it inches closer to Rayner and knocking over his neatly stacked papers. Lutrine paused, however, and took a deep breath, and slowly lowered her boot back to the floor before any more of the table’s contents were spilled.

“That was the answer I was expecting,” she said.

“Well what about you then?” Rayner couldn’t let it go, even though continuing the matter with a queen with a hair trigger meant only a disasterous end. “Surely you’re aware that the other kingdoms are waiting for you to come to your senses and pass the throne to someone with a little more self restraint.”

“Yes I am aware,” Lutrine said flatly. “They are correct. Luna would make a better queen than me.”

At once all of Rayner’s rage was caught short. He sat gripping his chair, feeling almost foolish doing so now.

“What?”

“Both her and Selene have excellent public opinion right now, but overall I wouldn’t make that the deciding factor. Sad as it is to say, her health right now is the best of all four of us. Monroe and I simply aren’t mentally healthy, who knows how much more of this we can take, and Selene’s illness would only cause scheming over a potentially untimely death. In a perfect world everyone would be loyal, but everyone sees the potential for power if they think it’s only a few years away. And even so, Luna possesses a trait I will never have.

If a farmer were to come to me asking for more water during the dry seasons, I wouldn’t be able to help him. I would only think that such a proposal would be far too costly for only one family. It would be far more economical for the farmer to move instead of the water. Some people mistakenly believe this is making the hard decisions, but it’s not really a hard decision if you never considered the other side, is it? Luna would empathize with the farmer and somehow come to a decision where everyone is happy. Of course leading only by kindness isn’t very good either, but I think with time and responsibility Luna would also learn how to be economical, and then truly be able to make hard decisions. On the other hand, I don’t think I’ll ever learn her kindness.”

Rayner sat back and tried to whole heartedly listen, but that self depricating honsety was difficult to address. Especially after his own show of trying to ignore his similar issue. His first thoughts were that Lutrine was being too hard on herself. Her logic was sound, but her steadfast position that she could identify but not overcome some weakness seemed almost defeatist. Perhaps what she really meant was that she wanted someone to take this responsibility off her shoulders.

“Then, why are you still queen? Luna’s old enough now.”

“Well,” Lutrine smiled. “I guess I’m also a little selfish.”