The Estate, After Lunch, (Morning Fandom Time)

[glacial_queen]

When Mallory had been asked by Queen Ilyse and Prince Audric to come tutor their young daughter, he had been honored and delighted. Several months later, the shiny had been rubbed off both the honor and delight, but he had become fond of enough Karla to continue to teach her for years, up until the tragic accident that had claimed her parents' lives and gotten her shipped off to live with the local Hourglass coven her aunt Kay had been a part of. When Hobart had announced Karla's 'death,' Mallory had spent a week mourning the spoiled, yes, but also sweet, imaginative, and precocious child he had taught.

In the years she'd been gone, time and nostalgia had blunted the worst of her childhood antics, helping him forget that classes were just as often characterized by biting, kicking, crying, and arguing as they were learning, studying, and behaving (Darkness bless behaving.) All that had come rushing back to him over the past four days, dealing with her much-younger self--and her much-younger friends. Even being the Steward to the headstrong and still impetuous Queen and her entire Court was easier than this.

Mallory couldn't help but reflect on these facts as he pulled Karla down the hall by her ear. He'd caught her in his office a few moments earlier "playing" some kind of game that had involved a jam sandwich and a great deal of ink all over his desk, his chair, and the floor. Coincidentally enough, those were the same places he could see much of his paperwork, also under the ink. Any last ideals he'd had about respecting the Queenly dignity she was due as an adult when flying out the window (possibly with more of his papers) as he'd grabbed her ear and began dragging Karla towards her room, a bath, and the tender mercies of anyone who was not him.

What neither of them had been expecting, however, was for the filthy, shrieking child was to suddenly return to being an equally-filthy-but-less-inclined-to-shriek adult halfway towards their destination. It was Mallory who ended up yelping when the ear he was pinching shot up two feet in the air.

"Karla!" he said, half-surprised and half-thrilled. "You're back!" Before she could respond, however, he was grasping her shoulders with a hissed, "Don't you move or I will throttle you," and running off to find Julian, Morton, and anyone else he could find. Their Queen was an adult again. They were going to get this bloody coronation over with before something else could happen, come Hell or high water.

[NFB, open for folks what are here, SP is gonna be a thing, pls to be waiting for OCD]

Comments

Re: The Coronation

[sharp_as_knives]

"I imagine that to you, even I am a child," Hannibal answered good-naturedly. He did count correctly, but if estrangement and death weren't enough to keep from being mentioned, he wasn't going to be nosy enough to find out what would.

Well, at least not yet. Besides, there were several other interesting things in that statement.

"Mephis died, but he lives with you?"

Re: The Coronation

[hells-highlord.livejournal.com]

Oh, a psychiatrist would have a field day with the answer to what would. And the consequences of that, as well.

"My youngest son is older than most of your world's civilizations," Saetan agreed, tipping his head. "But, no. Your age may make you a child compared to my own, but your demeanor most certainly does not. There are but three long-lived races in this world; the rest are short-lived. I'm quite used to taking a male as he is, and the number attached to him."

Before answering Hannibal's next question, he used a tongue of witchfire to warm the contents of his glass and took a sip. Being this close, Hannibal might be able to detect the scent of strong red wine--and blood.

"With the Blood, the body's death does not mean the end of existence. If we have a sufficient reserve of psychic energy remaining at the point of our physical passing, the body can reanimate. They become demon-dead. Their minds are still active, still the person they used to be, but now their body's are powered by will and Craft, rather than by natural means. Hell is the Realm of the deamon-dead, as Terreille and Kaeleer are the Realms of the living."

So...yeah. When Saetan introduced himself as the High Lord of Hell, he wasn't being ceremonial.

Re: The Coronation

[sharp_as_knives]

"Can they not leave? Or is it a matter of preference?" Hannibal asked. "And forgive me, what is that you're drinking?"