Royal Sentinel

Nulli Para Ora, a published author with Liquid Silver Books, started a new feature on her website and I have been enticed to participate. There, she posts a picture and asks for a short... something. It could be a poem, a few paragraphs, a haiku, whatever the pictures inspires one to write. After speaking with her, I've decided to post the shorts that connect into the After the Reveal World here as well. 

The picture prompt can be found HERE and is a single stick of burning incense. This short would fall any time after Chapter 15 of There's a Fine Line.

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Characters:     King Urúvion Lithsumé of Kedaunnor, unnamed elf
World:            After the Reveal
Word Count:  386
Prompt:          Picture - Stick of burning incense
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Urúvion watched the smoke rise from the thin stick of incense, mesmerized by its swirling, random pattern. As a small piece of ash fell to the table to join so many of its brethren, the King of Kings wondered whether it had really been placed here for the patient’s benefit or his own. The calming scent of Amber Thorn blossoms filled the luxurious chamber and some of the tension eased from his shoulders. He gazed at the wounded elf who lay, pale and still, upon the deep indigo blankets and added another round of prayers to those he had already whispered that day. The Matron of House Ealoren had done well with the healing; the rest was up to the Seldarine.

As the twin suns danced across the cerulean sky, the Arbiter warred with the decision he’d made all those centuries before. Had he been right in suppressing that which was granted by the gods as a blessing? Was he truly such a slave to duty and his people that he would relegate two souls to a lifetime of heartache? Gazing upon the patient’s beautiful face framed by a wealth of soft brown hair, he added those questions to the rest that he put towards the elven gods. If he had been wrong, if he had subjected them both to such loneliness without cause…

More ash fell to the table as one of the suns slipped beneath the blanket of the horizon. The shadows shifted, lengthened; food was brought, ignored, and removed as the elven king sat watch over the most important member of his kingdom.

“My mate,” he whispered with tears rolling down his cheeks. Saying it aloud made his heart ache all the more for the centuries they had been so close and yet so distant.

The questions he’d pondered when he first felt the stirrings of the mating pull still remained. Questions concerning his kingdom and its people. Questions for which he still had no answers. Now, there were even more, besides. Should he reveal the truth, would his mate punish him for his secrets? Would the one creature who held his heart crush that fragile organ beneath his heel and walk away? King Urúvion Lithsumé of Kedaunnor, the Arbiter, the King of Kings had no answers.

And the ash continued to fall…