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“The events in your life do not make you. The decisions you make when faced with those events…Those make you.”
         ~Maiya Aeirniy


CHAPTER ONE

“You cannot abdicate!”

Maiya’s head whipped around towards her advisor. “I can and I am. Protocol be damned. I cannot protect this world from under the public’s eye. I will not.”

“Do you honestly think that abdication will spare you, girl?” Renkarr demanded, voice turning harsh, skin rapidly flushing with colour at his intensity.

“Of course not!” Maiya leveled a glare at her longtime friend, teacher and confidant.

“Then why, Lady, why?? You have the strongest bond with Aeirne seen in millennia, and you are but sixteen years of age! You know that bonds with the land only grow stronger with time, and you also know that the public will watch you anyway! They adore you!”

Maiya rolled her eyes. She had heard this rant countless times over the past three years, the first time on her thirteenth birthday – her first testing, and also the time at which she had announced her intentions of considering the possibility of abdication. The public had gone into an uproar, causing political unrest and economic instability – it had taken over a month to repair the damage wrought by Maiya’s announcement.

“Stop, Renkarr,” she said. “I have heard all this before.” Maiya made an expansive, regal gesture with her hand, matching her tone which brooked no argument. Her adoption of the customary formal speech indicated, quite clearly, that this topic was closed, the conversation over.

Yet, Renkarr would press on, persistent as he was, bold as he dared to be…confident that his friend and Lady would listen. “Maiya, for some inexplicable reason, you received all the power of your generation.” At her look, he hastened to add, “No, hear me out. You know it. Neither your sisters nor your brother have even a substantial enough bond with the land to be able to reign with any possibility of stability. As far as their power goes, they may as well be commoners!”

At this, Maiya’s gaze darkened, forbidding Renkarr to continue with this train of though much further before she forcefully stopped him. However, she remained silent and Renkarr took the hint.

“The people adore you! The land recognises only you of your generation! You were there at their testings, you saw –”

They had now come full circle, and Renkarr was beginning to repeat himself. If there was one thing Maiya could not stand about her confidant, it was that he had the ability (not to mention tendency) to go full circle multiple times and not realise it.

“Cease this incessant babbling!” she exclaimed, and all of Aeirne heard her. The land froze, and Maiya realised with a touch of shock that she had just inadvertently used the force of the entire land against her friend.

“That is more than enough, Renkarr,” she said, more quietly but no less intense. The rest of the world continued with their lives, shaken but none the worse for the wear. “You have certainly explained this more than was needed over the past three years. You may be my advisor but you do not make my decisions. I have made my decision, and it is final.

“Your services as advisor, though admirable and quite commendable, will no longer be required as of tomorrow, however I pray that your loyalty as a citizen and as an old and trusted friend do not waver.

“I need you simply to trust me,” Maiya said quietly, dropping her formal tone as well as her gaze, but only momentarily. Her head snapped up again and she stared at Renkarr, piercing him straight through to the soul with those wide blue eyes – they were haunted with a hint of something, but damned if he couldn’t put his finger on it. Nevertheless, he had never before seen her like this, and it scared him…

“Do I have your trust?” Maiya spoke again before Renkarr could even tear his eyes from hers, let alone utter a sound.

“Of course you do, my Lady,” sighed Renkarr, defeated. His battle was lost, but somehow he didn’t know if it was a good or bad thing. “You have, and always will.”

“That is good to know. Thank you, Renkarr,” said Maiya, dismissal evident in her voice. She stood, willowy, voluptuous body raising itself to its full, regal stature. It suddenly struck Renkarr how much his student had grown whilst under his tutelage, and not just mentally.

Maiya’s full, long blonde hair tumbled gently over her shoulders, cascading smoothly down her back in a curtain of golden silk. Renkarr shook it off, hastening to stand as well.

Bowing stiffly at the waist, he said, “Until tomorrow, then, milady.” It was barely more than a murmur, but Maiya heard it, and Renkarr held his body ramrod-straight as he exited.

As soon as Maiya knew that there was no one around, she sank back into her seat, stance indicating defeat, shoulders slumping. She allowed the ever-present royal mask to slip.

The entire land of Aeirne seemed to sigh with her, and a light rain began to fall just as the first tear wound its way slowly down her pale cheek.