A Royal Announcement

"Now then, let's start tonight with the more lighthearted news, shall we?" Septimius asked, clapping his hands and drawing all attention in the room to himself and the monarchs.

"Yes that might be for the best, Iona if you will." My Father said giving a small gesture to my Mother

"Are you sure it's wise to make the announcement here?" She asked with a hint of worry in her voice "There are quite a few people here."

"Nonsense, everyone here is a loyal beast man, they'd never betray this family, right?" My father said in a jovial tone although the underlying threat wasn't missed by the nobles in the room. The threat was met with neither denial nor confirmation by the nobles, while the house of Roa had a firm grip on power and both my parents were renowned, borderline legendary warriors each noble was competent in their own ways and would not be so easily intimidated. My Mother chuckled at the threat and asked

"Septimius do you think it's fine?"

"He readjusted his glasses before replying "Yes it shouldn't cause any issues...probably."

"Then in that case let it be known here, I am now carrying my sixth child though it is still early." The room erupted into noise following this revelation. Everyone in the room barring Carina and I rose from their seats and moved to form groups and discuss the news. My older siblings started bombarding both my parents and each other with questions of all manner related to the baby. For my part all I could offer was a weak smile, I noticed my mother's sharp, ever observant eyes focus on me for a little too long before returning to my siblings, she must have noticed my poor state but chose to keep quiet. The nobles in the room had differing reactions, Uncle Hadrian had rushed over and practically lifted my Mother out of her seat in a hug while offering some very enthusiastic congratulations. A large group, mostly of their old war buddies had coalesced around my Father and Septimius and were talking excitedly among themselves. Smaller groups of nobles had formed throughout the room talking and scheming quietly amongst themselves. The only ones to remain unmoved were myself owing to my head feeling as though it were splitting open, Carina as she was too young to really understand what was being talked about, and standing a silent vigil at the back of the room was Knight-captain Kerrigan of the royal guards. This splintered discussion carried on far longer than I would have liked before my Father loudly clapped his hands causing me to wince and moved to continue the meeting.

"Now as I said at the start I do have another item to discuss, while not necessarily bad it is certainly inconvenient. Septimius , if you will."

"Of course my Lord, late last evening the royal palace received a courier carrying news of the utmost importance, in approximately two weeks we shall be visited by emissaries from the kingdom of Barnett. In accordance with their letter we are to provide them every possible accommodation, or so it says." Septimius said.

"Barnett? That little country thinks they can just make demands of Roa?" Hadrian exclaimed at the audacity of what he thought was a mostly irrelevant nation. "We should raze them just for the slight."

"There will be no razing of anyone, Duke Hadrian as that was not all the letter contained." Septimius said while pausing seemingly for dramatic effect. "It also reported that the only child of the Barnett kingdom, one Evangeline Barnett, has awoken as an Avatar in her recent magic assessment ceremony." I wasn't sure what was meant by someone being an Avatar but judging by the discontent murmur rippling across the room I could guess it was a big deal. One of the lower ranked nobles in the room spoke up.

"Are we certain the girl is actually an Avatar and this isn't just some harebrained political ploy?"

"We can't be certain until we are able to investigate the girl ourselves Countess Hilda, but as far as I can tell Barnett has no reason to lie." Replied Septimius, however before the countess had a chance to reply another voice that had spent most of the night silent spoke up.

"Two Avatars alive in the same age, how worrisome." This new voice belonged to Roa's court wizard Silas. Silas was one of the very few beast men who excelled in magic, but not only was he skilled in magic he was capable of casting the extraordinarily rare spatial magic making him an invaluable asset to the country, thought that's not what stood out to me the most about the old cat man, no what stood out the most was the fact that Silas was old, old enough to make an undead look lively, frankly my young brain found the old man slightly disconcerting. The atmosphere in the room became tense, if this girl being an Avatar was a big enough problem to worry such an experienced and skilled mage what kind of problems would she bring. My Father was the first to give voice to the question on everyone's mind.

"Why is that worrisome old man? speak plain."

"While some might interpret two individuals chosen by the gods existing simultaneously as a blessing one must also remember Avatars only appear in times of great turmoil, to my knowledge only once before have two Avatars existed in the same period, when the great volcano Mount Kachi erupted and plunged the world into darkness."

"And you think that another event like that is going to occur?" Asked my Mother

"Most likely yes, though there's not much we can do until it happens." This grim forecast given by one of the wisest men in the kingdom quickly sowed panic among the gathered nobles, and the ill omen and the fear it brought was enough to finally push my headache to the point of unbearable. I couldn't focus on anything but the pain anymore, the world felt like it was spinning and a constant ringing had begun to fill my ears. I didn't notice the concerned looks being sent my way, nor did I notice that I had begun to whimper from the pain. I was only faintly aware of someone scooping me out of my seat and carrying me out of the room.