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Nua turned with a bright smile. “Good morning!” He smoothed down his tunic. “Are you feeling prepared?”
“I mean… not really.” I chuckled, releasing Lonan’s hand when he squeezed mine. He wandered over to his throne, the one I’d had specially made for him from black metal. “But I can’t imagine we’ll get that many Folk coming in, right?”
Nua’s bright smile faltered for a split second as Brahm looked between us, clutching the roll of parchment tighter. I finally focused on it, realising it looked… kind of thick.
“Well.” Nua cleared his throat and tried to keep the smile on his face. “There is a… I suppose you could call it a somewhat large queue outside the palace…”
“How large?” I asked hoarsely.
Nua and Brahm exchanged a look. Then my brother hurried forward and squeezed my shoulder, subtly directing me toward my throne. “Don’t worry about that, Ash. We’ll just see as many as we can today.”
“Oh god.” I swallowed, thudding down into my throne too hard and staring up at Nua in horror. “There are a lot of them, aren’t there?”
“We will see as many as we can,” Nua repeated firmly, refusing to meet my eyes as he stepped back. “Though we should probably get started quite soon. Are you ready?”
“I…”
I looked over at Lonan, who was sitting back in his throne quietly, looking completely at ease there. I felt stiff and awkward, like I was a kid waiting for my parents to take my photo at some medieval-themed amusement park.
He gave me a tiny smile.
“I guess,” I finished hoarsely, my fingers twisting in the hem of my shirt, crumpling the material already.
“You will be fine, Ash,” Nua murmured, taking his seat in the wooden throne I’d had constructed for him. Fuck sitting up here all on my own. “You won’t even need to speak much. Just hear their issues. Let them see that you are truly listening to them. The staff are taking meticulous notes for us to go over afterward. No one expects you to make any decisions on the spot.”
“Okay.” I managed to exhale a slow breath at that, relaxing slightly.
Brahm, who’d hurried out of the room still clutching his parchment, returned through the wide doors at the other end. His shoes tapped over the stone floor, loud in the otherwise quiet space, as we waited for him to take his place to the side of the dais.
Once situated, he cleared his throat and unrolled the top of his parchment. The plan had been to take down the names of everyone waiting outside to speak to me beforehand, so they could be formally introduced to me. I hadn’t seen much point in that when they could’ve just told me as they came in, but I hadn’t argued too much. There were probably safety measures around it, or maybe just some old seelie traditions I didn’t know about. I always got nervous about making a fool out of myself by showing my ignorance.
Brahm nodded at one of the guards by the doors. They pulled one open and stuck their head out to call in the first of the seelie Folk who’d come to tell me about their problems.
I tried to keep a bland, polite expression on my face, but I was already regretting this. It was going to be a long morning.
My gut sank when I saw a familiar fae sweep into the room, his nose already turned up as he eyed the guards. His expression grew even more disdainful when he fixed his gaze on Lonan in his dark throne beside me.
Brahm cleared his throat. “Abar, my king. Of the noble Folk.”
I forced myself to smile at the sneering fae as he approached. I recognised him—he was the one who’d spoken to me when we’d first arrived on seelie. He was wearing a finely made tunic in a deep gold with pale thread. His long brown hair was swept back into a complicated knot of braids, threaded through with daisies. His skin had a faint gold-green tinge, and his eyes were honey brown.
“King Ash.” He dipped into a shallow bow. When he straightened, his gaze drifted over to Lonan again.
Sitting up straighter in my throne, I made sure he could feel me watching him. His eyes snapped back to me.
“What can I help you with today?” I asked, my voice flat. I already didn’t like this fae. In some ways, I was kind of glad he was the first one for me to see. I disliked him enough that the sight of him was chasing away my nerves.
Abar cleared his throat, clasping his hands together behind his back, his posture rigid and arrogant. “We believe that our new accommodation is inadequate.”
“We?” I echoed dryly.
“The noble Folk. Those you… evicted from the palace.”
“What’s inadequate about it?”
“For one, there are no staff quarters. And even if there were, you provided no funds for us to even have staff.”
“Why do you need staff?”
