Chapter Text
1
The rain slowed to a trickled then stopped altogether as the last few rumbles of thunder rolled across the sky. Voices returned to the courtyard below as guests ventured back into the Royal Garden.
“I have had to replace my maid.” An older woman’s voice drifted from the garden. “Irresponsible girl, wandering about at night with that young lad, I could not have news of her actions spreading any wider than her legs already had.”
“My word.” Another woman’s voice says. The soon to be ruler of the continent tuned out the rest of their conversation as she focused on fixing her makeup. It never took long to tend to her appearance in the mornings. She could do it with her eyes closed as she had been taught to maintain her beauty as another source of power by some of her greatest teachers. As powerful as her father was in name and her in physical strength there were those who would only admire her for her beauty and that was not an advantage she would let slip through her fingertips.
“CIRILLA!” The thumping of an angry hand rapt against the door to her chambers. “DO you JEST?” Philippa bypassed her shy attendant with a thrust of her hand and slammed the door behind her. “That was not the speech I prepared!” Philippa still donned a mask over her eyes. Not one to let an advantage slip through her fingers either, Philippa knew that people not only dismissed women, but especially those they thought were infirm or in her case, blind. Though her eyes and sight had been magically restored, idiotic assumptions about her abilities let her slip by unnoticed as the mighty mage with centuries of power seeping through every vein in her body. Those who knew her, knew she had calmed down recently. She had a secure place of power near the top of the political food chain that allowed her more access than she ever had in the past. But those who didn’t only saw her as a raging force of nature. Anyone who crossed her would have had more luck fighting a windstorm than coming out of an altercation with her.
“Because it is the one that I prepared.” Cirilla puckered her lips and set them together, blending the color evenly. “You must have forgotten that I have a very capable brain. You and the Lodge may have helped me before I decided to take this position, but it is I who decided to take it and my words the people shall listen to.”
“Save your fluffy speech for a party. This is a coronation. THIS is your chance to show the people who you are or you will be compared to your father the rest of your life. Or the very least the rest of his. You have to strike fear, you have to—”
“I have to finish getting dressed.” Ciri says bluntly. Philippa grumbles to herself loudly and Ciri snaps her frown to the mirror before her, meeting the mask shielding Philippa’s eyes. Philippa opened the door and pushed Ciri’s attendant out of the way again. The door slammed and Ciri set her head upon her vanity. “Where’s Geralt?” She sighed to herself, letting the cold wood of the vanity cool her skin. A round of laughter sounded from the courtyard and she sat up, seeing the sun start to peak from behind the clearing clouds.