The Tributary discussion

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Uldren was late, not that he cared. Damn all the Kells and damn their houses. These dinners were nothing more than the Kells tossing barely hidden insults at each other. They for the most part barely realized he was there, a silver lining. He'd almost skipped the entire dinner, to find a more productive way to spend his evening. He had almost made his down into the city. It had been tempting. Yet he still found himself making his way to the Great Hall. His footfalls echoed through the empty halls, the only sound save for distant sounds of the dinner. The servants tended kept to themselves, making the keep feel almost abandoned.

He paused before the doors that lead into the hall, a sigh escaping his lips. He closed his eyes for a moment his burning eyes disappearing. When they opened again, they no longer held the weariness that had been there long ago. Instead they held an easy confidence, an arrogance. The masked weariness at his core, they masked everything he felt.

His sisters head snapped towards the doors as he emerged from the dark hallway. Her gaze followed him to his seat, the one reserved for the Master of Crows. The chatter of the Kells didn't falter as he slumped into his seat. The ones closest to where he sat shot him disinterested glances, as dismissed a servant offering a plate of food. This place killed whatever appetite he might have once had.

His gaze drifted over the assembled Kells, a small smirk pulling the right corner of his mouth upwards. Until his gaze landed on Swanonal. A frown almost instantly replacing the smirk. He hadn't seen the Kell of Silence in little under a week. He sent a team of crows to follow the Kell, which hadn't turned up much. He'd even asked Jolyon to look into the exact circumstances of her crime, and her punishment. He'd again been met with little results. He had learned a little tid bit that interested him, his mother had personally overseen the torture. Which wasn't all the surprising given what Swanonal claimed she had been tortured for. He'd have to question his mother eventually. She undoubtedly would know more, or at least more than he did.

Swan had known there was a target on the back of her head the moment she left the training room that day. The ever-so-subtle presence of Uldren’s Crow’s didn’t faze her- by the time they realized there wasn’t much she was going to allow them to see, she had managed to get rid of majority of the evidence of her family’s existence by fire. It was a good thing the important people in her life were already dead- a cruel but good thing. There isn’t a person he’d be able to use against her- well.

Except one. The Kell would never admit it- but she had someone she held very dear to her heart. It was a good thing they weren’t near the Keep. A good thing that the small awoken child she claimed to be her own had no records of her visits to the boy. There were few times where Swan would slip out of the palace at the dead of night to visit the small orphanage across the kingdom. She’d go by foot- and when she got there, the window was always open. Inside, awaited a curious boy who loved books- and was unable to speak. A mute. A very rare thing in awoken blood.

Swan found the boy constantly in her thoughts- and she always wondered how he was doing, and if he was safe. The boy was the only one she could really have a conversation with- even if it was with a child, it set Swan’s mind at ease. Yet, Swan wasn’t sure if the safety of the boy was now set in stone. She hated to admit it, but she was nervous. The feeling was foreign, unforgiving.
She hated it.


Swan was deep in her own mind when Uldren entered the dinning hall. The loud voice of the Kell of Devils- who sat directly to her left- boomed with laughter. The man’s laughter yanked Swan from her thoughts, leaving her with the trickling stream of anxiety that began to fill her body. Great. He was staring. Great.

Swan should’ve been used to it by now, throughout her first hundred years of being the Kell, she got nothing but stares from everyone around her. The anxiety and self-consciousness from it would’ve destroyed just about anyone- but not her. So what made this so different?

Uldren closed his eyes, the frown deepening as he leaned back into the high back chair. A headache was already forming as he tried to drown out the chatter of the nobles. Why must they always speak? He brought a hand to his temple, the frown that appeared moments ago deepening. Everything around him was irritating, from the laugh of the Kell seated to his right, to the quiet breathing of the noble across from him. Though most of all what ate at him was the Kell of Silence, and her secrets. 

Everything that she had said, or signed, shot through his already pounding head. Every single damn thing she'd shoved into his head. His father's death. Her torture. He didn't know what he had to do. At the very least he had to verify the Kells story. He had little choice in that, but what would he do if she was right? Who killed his father? Why hadn't the Kell tried to bring her torture to light now?

Every single one of those questions had worn at him for the past week, and still he had so little to show. Uldren was reaching a snapping point. Every little thing just added on to it at this point. Every little thing seemed to push him a little further. Every report from his Crows, every Kell, the very city around him, it all drove him closer to god knows where. 

Maybe it was one of those things that finally broke through his normally indifferent smirk, he didn't know. He didn't really care either. "Damn the lot of you!" He shouted, his palms slamming into the table sending his plate flying off to the side.

(view spoiler)[ Idk what I even did with this 😂 (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[ im slowly coming up with a way to respond with this, but it’ll go through some re-doing seeing as how I am somehow still awake LOL

Also, I understand it somewhat? (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[which part do you need an explanation on? (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[ why his sis is so amused lolol (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[ His sister hates the Kells almost as much as he does and I'm sorta picturing her as someone who loves keeping them on their toes (hide spoiler)]

Swan tilted her head ever so slightly, her eyes still locked onto the straw in front of her lips. When Uldren hit the table, she barely noticed it. Wasn’t bothered by it really. It was bound to happen- him explode like this. Quiet frankly she was surprised he hadn’t done it sooner. Her hand shot out, saving the plate that nearly smashed to pieces. A hum left her as she simply set it back on the table. Her eyes went back to her drink. She focused on pushing the coal into her cheek so she could take a drink of her food-smoothie.

The Kells fell quiet at the Prince’s words. Whispers shot around, and curious glares were thrown between each Kell and their servants. It was utterly silent. Too quiet for Swan’s taste. Quiet frankly, she hated how the Prince could silence these baffling fools in a simple action. If she did, they might’ve lurched at her and attack.

So, the Kell decided to do the one thing that would piss him off even more. She decided to start drinking her smoothie. The straw pushed past her lips, the coal settling into her cheek as she started drinking. The Kell took long, loud gulps. She was quiet famished anyways, having lacked a proper meal in a few days. So this, was a win-win for her. Right?

Soon enough, the gulping turned into that rather annoying sound of her trying to get the last of her meal in the almost-empty cup. It was loud in the quiet hall. This lasted for another minute before she stopped, eyes raising to her fellow Kell.

Uldren stood still for a moment, as if startled by his outburst. He should've reined in his anger, should've left the hall. Yet instead of any simple and sane choice, he had yelled at the Kells of the City. Every single one. These were the very ones his sister needed to keep close. He had just pushed them a little farther away. Nothing a little flattery couldn't fix, but he still should've controlled himself. 

"Excuse me." He said clearing his throat. His gaze flickered over the assembled Kells, the arrogance and self assurance returning to his eyes. He needed to get out of the dinner. Away from the Kells, away from his sister, and away from that damned Kell of Silence. He pushed his chair back as he left the table abruptly. "Don't bother waiting for me." 

His foot falls echoed softly as he made his way to the doors of the vast hall. Every aspect of that dinner had been destined to push him just enough. He had hated them since he had returned to the city. Yet he still attended. He knew why he needed to be there. To show the Kells whom the serve, and why they served. 

He was alone with his thoughts as he made his down the halls of the keep. Silence surrounding him in the chilly night air. A sigh escaped his lips as he stopped, his gaze turning to look down at the courtyard below. His hands grasped the cold marble of the railing that ran along the length of the hall. He paused as he spotted the sparring grounds, he head tilting slightly to the side. He closed his eyes for a moment, the headache from earlier crashing down on him yet again.