Chapter 10
A few thousand kilometers to the north
"Pass me the mirror," a voice rang out in the silence of the great icy throne room.
Two frost giants emerged from behind the transparent pillars of eternal ice on which the weight of the high vaulted roof rested. They carefully carried a man-sized mirror to the center of the room and slowly set it down. They then bowed and disappeared as quickly as they had come into one of the countless corridors that led to the center of the palace.
Everyone who worked and lived here knew that the empress did not want anyone within earshot when she was talking to her confidants. The curious palace servants, or rather former servants, could testify to this, provided they were still in a position to do so.
Empress Bellshine stood up from her massive throne and walked down the icy steps that made her look down even on the giants. The meter-long train of her silver robe of woven moonlight glided down the steps behind her like a lazy waterfall.
She looked at her beautiful self for a moment in the ornate, silver-framed mirror before slowly touching her reflection with her finger. Starting from her index finger, the suddenly liquid-looking surface moved in waves towards the frame. Initially distorted by the wave-like movement, after a while another being could be seen more and more clearly on the opposite side instead of her reflection.
She took her finger off the mirror and took a step back; after all, it was highly impolite to point a finger at someone.
"Maribold." She nodded majestically to her counterpart.
"Bellshine dear friend! Punctual as always. How are you?"
The being on the other side of the mirror grinned at her from its crimson perch, ...was that a mushroom?
"Acceptable." she replied
"I went for a walk today and had a chat with the Northern Lights for once after a long time." Her brow furrowed for a moment and her otherwise composed expression showed her irritation.
"A very talkative bunch, as I've discovered once again."
Her face quickly turned back into an impenetrable mask.
"Apart from that, it's quiet here and everything is going its normal course. It's been a while since the frost giants last revolted and the selkies are actually keeping a low profile. No youngster has emerged from the depths of the primordial sea with the idea of ruling the world for a long time."
Fortunately.
After the last of a series of incidents in recent decades, she had taken their parents aside and kindly but firmly asked them to keep their offspring under better control in future. After all, her continent was not a playground for hormone-driven teenage monsters who wanted to live out their fantasies of omnipotence!
First fathering offspring and then letting them roam the oceans without supervision, she thought indignantly.
Originally, she had expected the offspring of Ancient Beings to be more competent in raising their own offspring, after all, they had a lot of time to learn!
Bellshine focused back on the ongoing conversation.
"What is the news from the west?" she asked back.
"Well," Maribold shrugged her shoulders and smiled mockingly,
"The usual. It'll soon be the thousandth anniversary of the Arendal earthquake and the same old doomsday scenarios are getting a lot of attention from the short-lived. When humans have no problems, they create future ones. You'd think they couldn't get by without problems.... which, come to think of it, would be a wonderful discussion topic for our next tea party with the others!"
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Her smile widened with satisfaction until it reached her pointed ears on either side of her face.
"Where and when is the next one?" Bellshine inquired, unfazed by the facial transformation.
When it came to planning and organizing appointments and events, Maribold was the right person to talk to. No one else among the four had such an overview of their regular meetings. Fortunately, Maribold herself was aware of this and so she explicitly reminded everyone involved of upcoming events in good time before they took place.
Bellshine didn't have a guilty conscience about this. With the many centuries and millennia that they had existed together on this planet, it was easy to get one or two years or even decades wrong. It was more of a testament to Maribold's organizational skills that their meetings did not come to a standstill in the first millennium and continued into the present.
"Just a moment!"
Maribold stretched out her right arm and a thick book entitled "Tea Parties - Volume 3" suddenly appeared in her hand.
As she leafed through it, she chewed on her lower lip, which had shrunk back to its normal size.
"Hmh.... .ah there!"
Triumphantly, she pointed to a line with her left index finger.
"We'll meet .... at your place! And in three months' time."
Ahh.
Bellshine was suddenly wide awake.
She felt an urgent desire to finish her regular round of talks with Maribold quickly in order to prepare for the upcoming meeting. After all, nothing had been planned yet!
"And then—,"
Maribold hadn't lifted her eyes from the book and was looking at the next page,
"then we'll be at Starbound. That will be fun. I can't wait to see where the tea party will take place. If he doesn't have his own estate by then, probably in the forest by the campfire... and we probably will have to bring the food!"
"Tsk." Shaking her head, she closed the book and let it disappear again.
Bellshine wasn't fooled by the supposed indignation that greeted her from the mirror. She knew about Maribold's weakness for the vagabond Ancient Being. Who would take in an unwanted guest for over a thousand years, even if he had spent most of that time sleeping?
No one, she thought with conviction, not even Maribold.
And Starbound seemed to have a similar relationship with the powerful fairy queen of Mirna. After he had been badly injured in the suppression of the dragon uprising, he had finally turned to Maribold and not to her; or to the fourth in the group, even if his identity in that case, she had to admit honestly, had been delicate.
An idea occurred to her.
"I mean," Bellshine said with an impenetrable expression, "if it's better for your planning security, we could skip the visit to Starbound and wait until he has adequate accommodation again. He would certainly understand."
Maribold stared at her.
"Or not," the ice elemental added, trying to control the corners of her mouth.
Maribold continued to stare at her and slowly opened her mouth.
"Sometimes I'm not sure if you really mean what you say, or if you're hiding a well-trained fairy part inside that loves to tease me."
Bellshine tilted her head to the side and looked at her counterpart questioningly.
Silence spread through the room.
"Never mind, we'll discuss that another time!"
The fairy queen clapped her hands loudly and the gigantic mushroom she was sitting on slowly sank into the ground. She stood up and walked towards Bellshine.
"I'm looking forward to seeing you again soon and I'm going to start packing my travel bag for the frost! I can finally dust off my fox hair hat and wear it. And the fire root cuffs! Oh, the anticipation is getting bigger just thinking about it!"
She spun around enthusiastically and her forest green cloak whirled through the air.
A quick smile stole onto Bellshine's face at the sight.
"I'm looking forward to seeing you all again soon, too," she replied honestly.
"And I'm curious to see what we'll be discussing." she continued. She would still have to search for a good topic to bring up.
So little time and so much to do!
She was in a hurry.
"Then I'll see you in a few months as agreed," she continued, bringing the conversation to a close.
"Then I'll see you in a few months as agreed," Maribold nodded to her with a smile and tapped the mirror with her finger. The green forest disappeared, leaving Bellshine's own reflection staring back at her stoically.
She turned around and walked back up the steps to the throne as quickly as she could without losing her regal air, before settling down again. After all, the external image had to be maintained.
The doors to the throne room, which she had closed with a thought at the beginning of the conversation with ice, opened again.
"Krar. Brant."
The two frost giants who had brought the mirror earlier entered the entrance to the hall, their heads bent forward.
"The mirror can now be removed again."
The two walked quickly to the center of the room and carefully carried the valuable object to its designated storage place.
After making sure that no one had remained nearby, she made herself a little more comfortable in her stately seat and looked thoughtfully up at the crystal ceiling. Where should she start? Finding a topic for discussion, planning the catering or the restoration of her palace building?